Purplelicious

One last time...

2010-05-31T20:20:00.005-06:00

A few posts ago, I wrote about changes that I was going through, and how I wanted to express them in this space, but felt that I couldn't. I was going to continue to blog to a different address.

And then got scared by the change (and well, what if no one wants to read about it?) and told you I changed my mind, I "chickened out" and came back crawling to Purplicious.

With all this back and forth, I did something to the format of my blog that affects when I write new or edit posts. Something unintended and I have no idea what it is. But now when I try write a new post, things are all different and really hard to work with. I'm not a computer genius when it comes to formatting blogs and web pages, therefore, I can't fix it.

So, I took it as a sign: I have to start a new blog after all.

But I had to register a new blog under a whole new profile, as keeping the same profile kept the messed up posting layout for me. (Like I said, I have no idea what I did).

So here it is. You can follow me over at Petals and Sunshine (same name as I had decided before, just a slightly different address. If I already follow your blog and you've noticed the above picture in your followers as "Sunshine Mama", it's me :) Just a new profile.

And don't worry, I'll still post recipes on my new blog. It's just going to have a more creative feel to it, as I am starting to craft a lot more with the kids and making some homemade cleaners and such for our home. It's going to be sort of a Purplelicious Part 2, but a more evolved version of it I suppose.

I hope you continue to follow us on our life journey!

Lots of creative, fun, colorful (and hopefully inspiring) things are waiting for you at my new blog!

Raw caramel sauce: It tastes good, AND it's good for you!

2010-05-28T20:18:00.005-06:00

A couple weeks ago, Sheri, from Green and Crunchy shared a recipe for a raw caramel sauce. I found myself making it today, for the second time in just a couple weeks, because, well... it's that good!

My kids still wont try it though. They have been very picky eaters lately, but that's ok. It's not like I need their help to eat this, haha. I only do half the recipe and then I eat this sauce as a dip with apple slices all week. Either as a snack, or as a late night sweet craving kinda treat, or just on a spoon. Because really, it's that good, so who needs the apple?

You can find the recipe HERE.

I am going to keep offering this to my kids and eventually, they will eat it. I just have to be patient. Because it tastes good, AND it's good for them! Now that's my kind of recipe!

We have a winner!

2010-05-28T15:16:00.004-06:00

I got my two sweeties to do the draw for the giveaway today.

They were very excited to have such an important task and they did a great job!

And the winner is....

T.J.!
I will e-mail you to get your mailing information.

Congratulations T.J. and thanks to everyone who has participated. And a HUGE thank you to Cathy from Tiny Tree Huggers, for making this giveaway possible.

Giveaway reminder :)

2010-05-25T09:29:00.006-06:00

***************Contest now closed*******************

Just a reminder that you still have 3 days (including today), to enter my giveaway.

You can do it HERE.

Good luck!

Note: I will most likely be away from this space for the next couple days, as my husband is home and the sun is finally shining. It's time to enjoy some well deserved family time in the great outdoors. I'll be back soon!

Have a great day!

Spring, Summer, Winter, spring again... Mother nature must have a concussion!

2010-05-23T15:58:00.009-06:00

I swear, I think Mother nature has a concussion or went on vacation! Within 7 days, we went through all 4 seasons (minus the changing leaves), multiple times.

It's been raining and snowing and cold all weekend, so we are just hanging out at home, creating with play dough, baking, reading books (oh and did some spring cleaning too!). I guess once in a while, it's nice to just sit back and relax though.

Considering it was summer weather just 5 days ago, I thought I'd share with you some recent pics... from when the weather was nice, and we were thoroughly enjoying every minute of it!

Last week, I bought some plants for our balcony to bring more nature into our lives. And one evening, as the sun was setting, I went on my balcony and basically had a little photo shoot with my little potted friends.

I just love how these flowers pop in this picture, it might just be one of my favourite flower pictures I've taken in a long time.

A strawberry plant at sunset :)

And these last two were taken exactly 5 days ago, when it was over 30 Celsius outside. We went to a friends place and my kids played with her 7 children (they are such an awesome family!) and had so much fun! They ran through the sprinklers, played in the sand box, ate watermelon, and jumped on the trampoline.

It was such a perfect afternoon! I can't wait to do it again! In the mean time, I choose not to let this grey weather weigh us down, and I am hanging on to the warmth of this cute smile.

Because I know that in just a few more days, it might very well be summer, all over again.

Enjoy the rest of your long weekend and may the sunshine, wherever you are!

Through my son's eyes...

2010-05-21T22:26:00.005-06:00

My smarty pants little boy loves electronics!

Weather it's listening to music using MY iPod or checking the weather on my Blackberry phone (and yes, he figured out how to do that all by himself!), playing games (supervised and occasionally) on the computer, he just loves things with buttons. So I should not have been surprised when I realized he had been snatching my camera when I was not looking to take some pictures. He's becoming pretty obsessed with taking pictures actually. I think it's really great that he's loving it so much (especially since I love it so much as well), so I let him do it. After all, photography IS a form of art, and I strongly believe that art is SUCH a great way for kids to express themselves.

So I thought I'd share some of his pics with you. Of course, I left out the ones of my behind, my elbow and our kitchen floor, LOL. But he did get some good ones. I was impressed actually, considering he's only 4 1/2 years old!

His sister was actually posing for him this way.

Fridge art. Yaya's watercolor painting from last week.

Fridge art. His own watercolor painting from last week as well.

Yaya being caught peeking (or more like completely standing) IN the fridge :)

I think we are going to do this exercise more often. I found it really interesting to see what interests him, what catches his eye, and what life is like from his level.

Have a happy weekend!

My very first giveaway!!!

2010-05-20T21:31:00.011-06:00

****************Contest now closed*******************

The very lovely Cathy from Tiny Tree Huggers generously donated the items for my first blog giveaway! Tiny Tree Huggers is a local store, right in my little town, and boy am I glad she opened it! The store carries everything from cloth diapers, to nursing accessories, along with a huge selection of Melissa and Doug toys. My kids love this store as much as I do. Between all the cool wood toys and the big selection of art supplies, it's hard for us to come out empty handed!

As you can see in the top picture, the giveaway is two "write-a-mat" from Melissa and Doug, along with a set of the Learning Mat Crayons. I thought it was perfect for a giveaway, as we already own a few (and yes, I bought them from Tiny Tree Huggers :) ), and they are the best!

The kids can color, learn to trace letters, numbers, or even learn fun facts about planets or dinosaurs. The ones for this giveaway are the Numbers and Alphabet mats.

It keeps my kids busy weather they are just in the mood to draw, or if they are just feeling impatient while waiting for lunch. It provides a great distraction! And they are actually easy to wipe, just like it promises.

HOW TO ENTER:

#1 Simply leave a comment on here to be entered in the giveaway!

#2 Blog about the giveaway and link back to Purplelicious for an extra entry. But don't forget to come back and leave me a comment to let me know you did so.

Contest entries will be accepted until Thursday, May 27Th at midnight. The winner will be announced the following day.

Now, go on, enter!

Maple-Glazed Trail Mix

2010-05-19T22:52:00.009-06:00

As promissed, here is a recipe that you will be surprised by how easy and simple it is to make, yet so "freaken" good! If you have a sweet tooth, this is for you because it's sew-weet! If you like to hike and go camping, this is for you because, well, hello! Trail mix! Heck, this stuff is so good, the first time I made it, it was dinner that night because I couldnt stop eating it, lol.

It's based off a recipe I found in an older issue of the Alive magazine. I only made a few changes, like subbing the butter for coconut oil to make it healthier and it's perfect, in my opinion.

Maple-Glazed Trail Mix

2 Tbsp coconut oil
1/2 cup pecans, halved
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup Medjool dates, chopped

In a skillet, melt the coconut oil on medium heat. Add pecans, almonds and pumpkin seeds. Cook 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Add maple syrup and cinnamon to skillet and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes. Toss in coconut and stirr well. Remove from heat and stirr in the cranberries and chopped dates. Put in a bowl to cool and store in an airtight container.

If you don't have a sweet tooth, this is probably not for you though. It tastes like dessert, if you ask me. Which is probably why I like it so much :) I am definately going to make sure I have a batch with me next time we go camping. It's perfect energy food for when your physically active, or need a pick-me up snack in the middle of the afternoon.

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do!

Pardon the indecisiveness...

2010-05-19T18:39:00.004-06:00

but oh! how I have missed you, little bloggy.

The vaste emptiness of a new blog is just so intimidating! And you are so familiar and comforting. Somewhere I can come, and just be myself. No pressure. Somewhere I can express myself anyway I want. Which is something I used to love about this blog, and still do. I can go from talking about raw foods and recipes, to crafts, to sharing pictures of our vacations, and birthdays.

Though I have been wanting to talk about other things too, there was nothing stopping me from doing it here. We create our own limits. Maybe I just had spring fever and was in need of a change.

So I hope you can forgive me about being so indicisive and still want to stick around!? :)

I might just "redecorate" the blog, along with parts of our home instead.

I'll be back tonight to share a recipe that's so amazing, it will makeup for all this cahos, I promise :)

Have a good evening!

Spring is here... bring on the change! ~ A new blog

2010-05-16T23:32:00.007-06:00

With spring in the air, I've been feeling the effects of the warmth, the sunshine and flowers blooming.

I've been inspired to do a lot more than just the usual spring cleaning... more like a complete makeover!

A strange spring this has been so far for me. For a long time, I've been longing for a change, both in my life, and on my blog. For myself and my life, I've been longing to go back to my old "hippie" self. You see, back in high school and college, while everyone was trying to figure out who they were, I knew exactly who I was. I was a laid back and open, patient, easy going, art creating kinda girl. And that is probably the time in my life that I was happiest with who I was.

Fast forward 10-ish years, 2 kids and two cross country moves later, I was completely lost. That is why I had started blogging: to find out who I am as a person, since I felt so lost in the mom role.

Enter the present time: over a year of blogging later, lots of book and blog reading, soul searching, being inspired by some people, and a camping trip later and... it's all falling into place.

I've slowly been returning to my "old hippie ways" over the past year, thanks to this blog, and realized that being a mom is THE most important part of me right now! I just have to take care of myself a bit more and be less caught up with all the "small things" in life to spend more time with my children, because they are growing way too fast! I've also been working on being more laid back and calmer with my kids and in life in general (thank you meditation Podcast!). But the camping trip last week and a few very inspiring recent blog finds were the last things to bring a new perspective into my eyes.

We've been lacking nature, creativity, and mommy-children quality time in our lives. Considering we live on a 3rd floor apartment, my kids don't get to play outside all day long like other kids can do. Like I used to do as I child. (they are too little to go outside on their own, so they can't play out while I'm making lunch, etc.)

So I decided we needed, I needed to make some changes, that will bring balance and more happiness to us all.

To go with those fun changes, I felt that a new blog was needed. A place where I can start fresh, with a fun and positive new attitude. No more venting posts (like I've done a few times in the past), no more fretting over the kids not eating a certain foods. But don't worry, I will still share recipes and such :) I just wanted a place where I can really give out a more positive vibe about life and be more creative. I am aware, the limits of this blog are only in my head. But still. I just really needed a positive, creative, happy, inspiring, change.

So stay tuned to see how we will incorporate more nature and fun into our lives (along with more yummy foods, of course!). I really hope you will like my NEW BLOG and will continue to follow us on our journey!

Jasper rocks!

2010-05-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

This weekend was so much fun!

During the drive, the kids were busy at work with their coloring kits. We barely heard them except for the occasional "are we there yet?", lol.

This is the face I got when I asked her to say cheese.

She's actually saying cheese when I took the pic, can you tell?

We saw lots of wildlife on the way to Jasper. And I mean lots.

The kids soon discovered that one of their favourite things to do, is to throw rocks in the water.

Still some snow by the lake. The water was so cold!

Can you see the glaciers up there?

Waterfall on the side of the road. Most of it was sill frozen though.

Patricia Lake, Jasper Ab.

Horseshoe Lake... the photo does not even do justice to the color of the water. It was breathtaking!

To get to Horseshoe lake, we had to hike a little while from the road. It was the first time we went hiking with the kids and they really enjoyed it. Though we never ventured very, very far since we were not exactly equipped (read water, snacks, bear spray, etc.), it was so much fun and we are definitely going to do it again!

Not far from the view above, when I turned around, I notice a cute little patch of juniper bushes and the berries were starting to become ripe. I don't know quite enough about juniper berries other than the essential oil, so I did not pick any. But they sure looked pretty!

Juniper berries

As for the camping itself, it was an absolute blast! It was a great way to spend time as a family, and it really recharged my batteries.

I'm ready for more camping!

(I apologize for the lack of pictures of us and Jasper itself, but my camera died shortly after we got there and I did not bring my charger. But instead of being mad at myself about it, I was busy having fun and enjoying the moment. So I hope you can forgive me ;)

What to do to keep the kids busy on the road

2010-05-07T00:16:00.009-06:00

Well, I'm not sure where the week went, but it sure is flying by!

I just wanted to let you know that I won't be back until Sunday night, so I wont post anything new until Monday, because...

Picture borrowed from Adventure learning eco tours

We are going camping!

No, not in a tent. I just thought the picture was pretty ;)

And considering it's been below freezing temperatures at night here for the past two weeks and we are heading to the mountains, it would be silly to go in a tent. The truth is, we just got a camper! and could not wait to try it out.

I've been packing all evening, trying to figure out what we will need, as the forecast is calling for rain, cold weather, and a bit of snow. Yeah, I know... it's not exactly going to be all outside fun, blowing bubbles, playing ball games and hiking in the mountains, but we are still very excited to go nonetheless. So I've been trying to pick out easy (and small) things to keep the kids busy if the weather gets too bad and we are stuck in the trailer. And then I remembered something from a post I just read this week.

The lovely Mari-Ann from Counting Coconuts just wrote a post about her super inventive activity kits.

Since I had just unpacked a new set of bedsheets, I decided to keep and reuse the plastic zippered bag they came in and make my own 'on the fly' activity kit.

Oh and can I say: Who Hoo! for recycling/reusing plastic!!!

I packed various coloring books that also all contain activities in them, some crayons and markers, two multi-colored pencils (the black ones, because they make fun and funky pictures).

And also two packs of activity cards. a counting one, and the other one is a word/picture recognition game.

To tell you the truth, we have not used those card kits for almost two years! I know, horrible, right?! And if it wasn't for Mari-Ann's awesome post, I'm sure it would have been another 2 years before I would have remembered to dig them out, lol.

Though my activity kit is not as creative as hers, and does not offer as much variety as hers, I still find it's pretty good for a last minute thing. But I can assure you, since this will not be our last time camping, I am going to use her ideas to put together some more activity kits like hers.

Weather your planning a road trip, or are anticipating a wait with your child at the dentist or at the restaurant, go check out her post HERE for some great ideas!

If the weather is nice (which I am keeping my fingers crossed it will), that would make me so happy. But if it's not, at least I'll be prepared :)

I'll be back on Monday and I am wishing you all a great weekend! (and a Happy Mother's day to all the mom's out there!)

Chai Tea Breakfast Quinoa

2010-05-04T22:42:00.002-06:00

Well hello there strangers! You didn't think I talked about getting my spark back and then bailed on you, did you? How is everyone doing this week so far?

We are doing well here, but when we woke up this morning, this is what it looked like outside:

My first thought was Yuck!

And my second thought, was that a green smoothie was just not going to cut it for me for breakfast. When it's winter outside (thought it's supposed to be spring now), I crave something warm and heavier for breakfast. I used to love, love, love oatmeal, and though I still do, I can no longer eat it, as it makes me instantly sick.

So it was the perfect time to whip up this recipe for Creamy Quinoa that I found HERE. I didn't have all the spices, so I used only what I had on hand, and let me tell you. It tastes just like Chai tea!! So I am calling this Chai Tea Breakfast Quinoa. Here is how I made it:

Serves 4

1 1/2 cups GF vanilla rice milk (or any other milk of your choice)
pinch salt
1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 chopped pecans
Maple syrup, to taste

Bring milk, salt and 1 cup water to a boil.

Stir quinoa and cranberries, and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer 15-20 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, stir in sweetener and spices. Serve warm, topped with more "milk" and pecans.

How easy is that? The cool thing about this, is that it contains 6g Fiber per serving. And who says you can't get protein by eating vegan? This has 10g of protein per serving!

Don't like Chai Tea? Omit the ground cloves and switch the cranberries for raisins to make this into a regular cinnamon raisin "oatmeal". Another great thing about this recipe, is you can make extra, keep the leftovers in the fridge and warm up when ready to serve and Voila! So if your in a hurry in the morning before work, you don't have to stand in front of the stove for 20 minutes.

I love how versatile this is. And I'm glad I have leftovers for tomorow, because I definitely LOVE how this tastes!

The spark is back!

2010-05-01T10:25:00.010-06:00

Good morning everyone!

I hope you are all enjoying your beautiful Saturday morning!? One of the things I love about weekends, is that it gives a sense of fresh start, even though it's the end of the week. You know, after being so busy all week, maybe the weekend finally offers you some time to take care of yourself.

That's the case for me right now. I am using this weekend to refocus on myself. On my health to be more precise. For the past couple of months, as you might have noticed, I found it hard to write posts about food, because I have been lacking lots of focus in that department. (It's sugar code for falling off the wagon completely, if you read between the lines ;)

Letting, allowing myself to eat just about whatever I wanted has been like a party in my mouth constantly. But not so much a party in my stomach.... more like a storm!

But after spending a bit less time writing on my blog lately, and reading more about other very inspiring people on the blog sphere, it reminded me why I was on the path that I was when it comes to healthy eating. And after spending a bit less time on the computer than usual, and waayyyy more time playing with my children, that reminded me what's at stake here.

I need to take care of myself for myself, and for my children. So it's time for a permanent change. Stop going back and forth, leave my old sad eating habits (that my body can obviously not handle) behind and stick to the new healthy path I had started following...

My "spark" is back!!!

So am trading goat cheese quessadillas on wheat tortillas (I will still allow myself the occasional goats feta for now as it's fine for me, but not too often)

for raw couscous and other gluten free meals.

And trading yummy vegan goodies I enjoyed baking and eating (even this past week)

for raw coconut carob haystacks.

After the kids went to bed, I dedicated a few evenings this week for searching the Internet to find some gluten free meals that we hopefully all can enjoy. My stomach has been making such a number lately, it's clear that I could handle small quantities of dairy and gluten on occasion, but multiple times a day is just not working for me anymore.

Like I said, I had been reading blogs of some awesome and inspiring people lately and it renewed my spark for healthy eating.

And here is one super easy and yummy recipe I tried that is worth sharing:

Nut butter and cacao smoothie

The lovely Mrs. M from RWM & Me left me the recipe in her comments a little while back and I hope it's OK with her, but I HAD to share! Here is how I made mine:

2 ripe bananas
1 cup GF rice milk (or any milk you like)
1 Tbsp raw cacao powder
about 1 Tbsp nut butter (or more, to taste)
1-2 Tbsp hemp seeds

Blend and enjoy!

It's oh! so good! If I ever can resist drinking every last drop of it, I want to freeze some in Popsicle molds for the kids and I. It's a perfect summer (or even winter) treat! I dare you to resist drinking it all. I don't think it's possible, lol.

Nothing says you can't take the path to health and treat it like a road trip at the same time, right?

Have fun living life and staying healthy and enjoy your weekend!

Stephanie xx

Sometimes all you need is a box!

2010-04-27T14:26:00.007-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I received 2 gigantic boxes. Well, I got the stuff that was in it. But I knew I would have to keep the boxes for my kids. I figured they would play with them for a day or two at the most, but still. A day or two of them being busy playing together without fighting, is so worth it!

Little did I know that they would play with those boxes for over a week straight!

Who says that fun "toys" have to be expensive? Or even cost anything in this case...

They decorated their first box (I forgot to take a picture) with markers, pencils and different crayons. I let them just use whatever they wanted and draw/decorate however they wanted. They loved it! Especially my son, I could tell he found the experience very freeing, as he is not a huge fan of rules compared to other kids.

That first box did not last too long, since my destructive little "bulldozer" did not realize this box was breakable, lol. Good thing we had the second one!

I decided to make it into a submarine, since they had been talking about the ocean in my son's class at preschool. I cut out the windows for them. Two circles on each side and the front window. We kept the cut out circles and they used them as steering wheels, to steer their submarine of course!

They had so much fun playing this game! They even used their binoculars to spot some sea creatures.

They have such great imaginations!

Our new favourite (mini) Farmers Market

2010-04-23T10:31:00.012-06:00

Months ago, I came across this fabulous looking market and decided to wait and give it to my daughter for her birthday. So when her big day rolled around this past week, I finally got to give it to her.

It's the Cherry Blossom Market from the brand Playskool.

I had heard great things about their Rose Petal Cottage (from the same line of products), though I had never actually seen it with my own eyes.

It does not deceive!

It's easy for a grown up to assemble, the mount for the "tent" is made of metal with hard plastic connectors so it's sturdy (and can be taken apart if you want to), and the tent is double sided so that the metal frame is hiding inside.

Let's not forget that it looks absolutely adorable and can provide hours of pleasure.

It also came with a little cash register and some play money as well. With a theme like a farmers market (or it could also be a little store), it's perfect for my two kids to play together. They each take on a role of either the vendor or the customer and play without fighting.

You might see in the picture above, she also got the fruit cutting kit from Melissa and Doug, which goes perfectly with the market theme. They've been using little canvas lunch bags that we have and pretend they are like my reusable shopping bags so they can bring their produce "back home'.

My kids always are very enthusiastic at the thought of going to the real farmers market and getting some local produce, but now, they can create their own and let their imaginations flow.

This product truly is quality. And the cuteness is undeniable. I really recommend it!

(Pardon the mess :)

Note: I did not get paid by anyone to write this review, nor did I get contacted or asked by the company to do so. I was just honestly impressed with this toy and thought I would share my thoughts about it, for all the other parents out there.

Earth Day 2010

2010-04-22T18:28:00.008-06:00

Source: sacramentoscoop.com

This is just a quick post to point out that today is Earth day. I will be back tomorrow with

regular posting. In the mean time, I want to leave you with this other picture I found online where I added words also found online.

It just really makes sense to me that we all should make earth day, everyday. Because after all, "she" is our home, and we should give her the respect "she" deserves.

Happy earth day and I'll be back tomorow with ... well, I'm not sure yet. LOL.

A Princess birthday party... oh and a frog too!

2010-04-17T10:26:00.011-06:00

Yesterday, we had my daughter's birthday party. She wanted a Princess and the Frog theme.

Long story short, I stressed over every little detail and wanted to make everything extra pretty. I also wanted to take pictures of the food and setup before everyone got here to show you all because I was pretty proud of how it all looked... and I forgot!

By the time I remembered, there was no food left on the table, guests were gone, and I was left with nothing to show you but some leftover cake crumbs on the table, lol.

Thankfully, I remembered to take some pictures of the actual party.

The girls were dressed in pretty dresses and my son wore his pirate costume. He had asked me before the party if he could wear it since the girls would be dressed up... I figured pirates go well with princesses, so why not? He was so happy to wear it! But I forgot to take a picture of him alone. I had some of him with the other kids, but I don't want to put pictures here of my friends kids without asking... You can always see him in his pirate costume HERE :)

My little princess making good use of her Halloween costume :)

Princess and the Frog table cloth on the kids table with our Ikea tea set (you can tell by the upside down cups that I took the picture after the kids played with it :)

My little princess was very excited about her cake!
You can't really see it, but I put a frog in front of the princess on the cake.

I had "cake anxiety" at 5:30 am the day before the party... that's how much I stressed over it!

I'm SO making cupcakes next time, LOL.

In the end, I stressed for nothing about silly details. The party was a success, the kids had fun, the adults had a great time and I was organized enough that I was able to hang out with my friends (the other moms all are close friends of mine) during the party instead of spending the entire time in the kitchen preparing everything, like I did during my daughter's 1st birthday. So to me, that is a success!

A birthday comming up...

2010-04-14T19:46:00.004-06:00

I just wanted to let you know that I'll be absent for the next couple of days.

I have a little girl who's turning 3 next week, and we are having her birthday party this Friday. I've already got a pretty full day tomorrow, aside from getting everything ready, so I wont have time to post anything until the weekend.

My little girl at her brother's 3rd birthday (she was 1 1/2 years old)

Don't worry though, I'll be back during the weekend with all the details!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Going loco for mango-coco

2010-04-14T16:09:00.005-06:00

Another smoothie I've been enjoying lately is this one:

It's made of coconut water (high in electrolytes), mango, a banana, some regular water and/or orange juice, hemp seeds and a few large handfuls of spinach.

Don' let the green color fool you! It's very sweet and fruity!

Mango is one of the first fruits I used for my green smoothies when I started drinking them because they make the smoothie so fruity and sweet. I used to be very addicted to sweets and candy, so this smoothie was a nice transition for me. Of course, if you want it less sweet, omit the orange juice.

But in the last few weeks, I found myself slowly reverting back to my old eating habits.... mostly a whole lot of refined sugar found it's way back into my diet. Weather it was in the form of a french vanilla cappuccino, or hiding in sweets (chocolate and candy) that I'd been consuming in higher quantities than the average person would, it was there alright.

I wanted to go back to having green smoothies for breakfast, and not just as an afternoon snack, but just didn't feel like having them at that time of the day. What's the difference when I have them your probably wondering? Well, I find that having them for breakfast really sets the tone for how I'm going to eat and what kinds of food I will crave during the day.

So thanks to this sweet and fruity smoothie, I've been able to avoid refined sugary treats and start my day on a "green tone". I also find that I'm no longer tired in the afternoons. (Something that happens when I don't eat properly and that had returned).

After just a few days of avoiding "sweets" and drinking this smoothie, I'm starting to find it tastes a bit to sweet.... I'm ready to move on to another less sugary fruit for my breakfast smoothie now.

Hello frozen blueberries!

What's your favourite kind of smoothie? I'd love to know!

How much can they eat?

2010-04-13T09:23:00.005-06:00

Well in the case of my kids, the answer would be LOTS!!!

They are both in a growth spurt right now and they are constantly eating.

The proof is in the breakfast... my son had 3 breakfasts on Sunday morning. 3!!! (And he's only 4 1/2 years old.) As soon as he was done of his last bite on his third breakfast, he was asking for a snack.

Of course, at that point my reaction was "Are you kidding?".

So I went to the kitchen to whip up a fruit plate for their snack. I just love making those, because they are so pretty and fun to make, AND they seem to fill them up pretty good.

This is what I came out with:

Doesn't it look pretty?

I like to add a few nuts to the plate just to make sure their tummy's stay full a tad longer than 3 seconds, though they don't always eat them :( My kids can still be pretty picky, and it's a constant battle to get them to eat healthy. But I am comforted to know that they are eating so many more healthy foods now compared to a little over a year ago. And I know I'm not the only parent out there struggling to get her kids to eat healthy.

These fruit plates (I sometimes make them veggie ones too, but the fruit ones are prettier!) really helped them wanting to have more produce at snack times. And if your kids are picky too, the trick is to not ask them if they want this for snack. Just give it to them!

If I ask my kids if they want some, they will sometimes just say no. Or if I give them a choice, they will pick something else.

But if I just make them a plate like this and bring it to them, they look at it with a sparkle in their eyes and get very excited about their snack.

In case your wondering, they ate almost the entire plate (though I did help a bit ;) except for the starfruit... it was a bit too sour for their taste.

And want to hear something else? They/we already ate almost all the fruit we had bought last Thursday and I had to go back and buy more fruits and veggies by Sunday... I guess buying a bit "too much" produce was a good thing after all!

Groceries and organic bulk order

2010-04-08T21:47:00.007-06:00

The weather has been so nice here for the past few days, that it was really inspiring me to eat even more fruits and veggies than I normally do. I felt like eating like I do in the summer.

Today was also grocery day AND my monthly organic bulk order was in too.

Woo Hoo!!!

So this morning I headed to the grocery store with the kids and loaded up on goodies.
Berries were on sale, which was a nice treat for this time of year, so I grabbed a container of raspberries, one of blueberries and two of blackberries. Also bought more bananas (it's rare that I find some that are already ripe in store!), a bag of oranges, a starfruit, two mangoes, a large container of organic baby spinach and a small one of organic baby greens...

And that does not even include the apples, lemons, grapes, carrots, asparagus, broccoli, cucumber and romaine (forgot I already had greens, oops!) that was already in my fridge...

I hate wasting food, so by buying lots of fresh produce, I'm making sure I/we are going to eat lots of it. I'll admit, I might have gotten carried away, considering all that is just for my two toddlers and I. But Oh well. I'm sure we can manage :)

My monthly organic bulk order was in too. So I went and picked it up.

It's such a money saver to buy this way! When I order an item, I have to order a whole caisse though (for our club anyways). But there are also shares (when someone orders a caisse but does not want it all).

This time we got:

Organic rice milk (gluten free!) for my daughter and I (a caisse lasts us almost 2 months)
Nut-Thins crackers
Organic agave (this cost me $6 less PER BOTTLE than at the health food store!!!)
2 packs of Surf Sweets Gummy worms (organic , gluten-free and refined sugar free)
2 packs of Woolwich goat cheddar cheese

The last two items were shares and I can't wait to try the cheese! Since there are two of us in the house who are lactose intolerant, we do cheese in moderation to not end up with tummy aches. But I have to say, it's really hard to stay away from cheese! Especially for kids, they sure love their cheese! Now that I have this, I will keep it for meals, and not just to snack on. I've had lasagna on the brain for weeks, I guess now I can finally make some :)

If your wondering why we can have goat cheese while we are lactose intolerant, well, it's hard for me to explain properly as I did not do any particularly deep research about this. But I have heard that goat's milk is much lower in lactose than cow's milk and that some people who are lactose intolerant, may still be able to digest goat's milk products. After hearing this, I had bought some goat's feta cheese, and can have it every day or so, in my salads, without any issues. So I'm giving goat's cheddar a shot.... and keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyways, with all the produce we now have in the house, especially the greens, I made a huge salad as an extra side dish at supper tonight. I'm not big on eating salads in the winter, but when it gets warmer, I really enjoy them.

Well, this morning (and for the past few days), it was warm enough that I was wearing flip flops with my jeans and carpi's...

And by supper time, this is what it looked like outside:

Actually, as I am typing right now, the ground is completely covered in snow and if it was still snowing, it would be a blizzard that's how strong the wind has been!

Gotta love Alberta weather, LOL!

Now, instead of salad, this weather is going to make me crave a large pot of homemade soup with a side of hot chocolate. I'll take pictures outside tomorrow morning so you can see how much it actually snowed. You won't believe it!

Have a good night :)

Raspberry chocolate smoothie, Part 2

2010-04-07T11:04:00.004-06:00

As promised, I'm back to share my recipe for my raspberry chocolate smoothie with you.

There is actually no chocolate in it, but it does seem to have a chocolatey taste. And though you can't really tell from the picture, it was more of a deep red, than brown, but I find that if you blend it a bit longer, it turns more to a brown color. Weird, eh? (Yes I said eh, after all, I'm Canadian, LOL)

So, what's in it?

2 ripe bananas, 1 1/2 cups raspberries (I used frozen), 1 cup water, 1-2 Tbsp hemp seeds (optional, but recommended for extra nutrients aka Omega's) and as much organic baby spinach as you can fit in the rest of the blender.

Give it a good whirl and voila! Well, actually, I usually taste it by then, because I find the raspberries can make a smoothie taste a bit bitter sometimes and it also depends on the ripeness of the bananas. If it's not sweet enough, just add a bit of honey or agave... I do sometimes with this smoothie.

OK, now, voila! It's absolutely delish!

When I started learning about nutrition, raw foods and eating a bit healthier, the first thing I did, was start drinking green smoothies. Though at first, I was pretty scared of greens. I used to only add a few spinach leaves to a whole 20oz of smoothie, versus 2 cups now. (I use kale too sometimes when I can find it). I also used to use all orange juice for the liquid. It was my way of feeling confident enough that my smoothie would not taste too "green".

Eventually I learned that you need vitamin C to help with iron absorption, so it just made sense to me to continue using the orange juice-spinach combo. Eventually, I reduced to half orange juice and half water for the liquids and upped the greens.

What makes this smoothie so great, is that for 100g of raspberries, you get 75% of your daily recommended dose of vitamin C! No need for orange juice with your spinach here!

I might just try to add some cocoa or carob powder to it soon, pour them into Popsicle molds and turn this smoothie into "fudgesicles"... wouldn't that be perfect for summer?!

Raspberry "chocolate" smoothie

2010-04-07T08:09:00.005-06:00

Good morning!

Since I'm in a bit of a rush this morning, I am leaving you with a picture of my new smoothie addiction: Raspberry "chocolate" (green) smoothie.

I will come back later today and talk more about it and share the ingredients with you. But for now, I have to go...

Easter weekend in photos

2010-04-05T10:14:00.014-06:00

Awesome Easter eggs!

2010-03-31T08:00:00.002-06:00

Once in a while, I find something on the blog sphere that I just have to share with you.

I came across these eggs and thought they look so cool, how could you not want to try to make these?

Picture borrowed from Char at Crap I've made

You can find the complete tutorial HERE on how to make them. And trust me, it's alot easier than it looks. (Though you probably can't do it with younger kids).

Just wait until you find out what she used to make the swirly pattern on them, you won't believe it! I know I never would have thought of using that on an egg, but the results sure are vibrant!

Finally! A post! And some gluten free beakfasts

2010-03-30T13:27:00.010-06:00

I hope everyone had a good weekend?

I am aware this is Tuesday and not Monday, but I've just been pretty busy lately. And when I wasn't busy, I was not really in the mood for blogging. I just wanted to hangout with my kids, or sleep, lol.

Last week, had to be one of the busiest week I've had in a long while. I worked 4 mornings, Ashton had preschool 2 afternoons and I used that time to run errands with my daughter, we had two play dates during the week, I did my spring cleaning/organizing and hosted a Princess House party... Phew!

Lets just say I fell asleep on the couch Friday night (at 8pm!) and had no motivation for anything by Saturday! Sunday, we had a fun day with friends, had an Easter egg hunt for all the kids, a supper among friends and great conversations. It was so great! Now, my batteries feel all recharged from this insanely busy yet fun week and I am ready to blog again :) Thanks for being so patient with me!

Lately, I've been growing tired of eating the same old breakfast every day. One morning before work last week, I came up with this:

A banana, a handful of raw almonds and two cut up oranges. I know it looks very simple, but it was filling and delicious. I also happen to wake up extremely thirsty that morning and those oranges really hit the spot!

I also started experimenting with gluten free recipes and (pre-made) mixes last week. One recipe I made from scratch, is not worth talking about. But this Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free pancake mix was awesome!

Usually, I'd make pancakes with unbleached "white" flour, and my son could eat 2-3 pancakes in one sitting. Not this time! I followed the recipe on the back, except I subbed applesauce for the oil, used GF rice milk, and added some grated apples to the mix, to turn them into a GF version of my "famous" apple pancakes.

They were delicious, fluffy AND filling! My son could barely finish the one and only pancake on his plate. He even had to rest on the couch in the middle of breakfast and then came back to the table a few minutes later to finish it, LOL. I am very happy about this mix.

I've also tried Bob's Red Mill gluten free chocolate cake mix, and put them into muffin molds to have a bunch of cupcakes stashed into the freezer for when you get a craving for something baked and chocolaty. They were equally delicious and very moist. I'm very impressed so far, at the Bob's Red Mill gluten free mixes so far. I'm sure it's cheaper to do gluten free recipes from scratch, but I'm OK with taking the easy way out for now. Because the results have been quite tasty.

This morning's fruit plate for snack time: green grapes, strawberries and raw almonds. I have to make sure I'm boosting the kids immune with lots of healthy snacks because my daughter woke up with a slight fever and the sniffles this morning. And since they both just recently finished a round of antibiotics after a particularly harsh flu and ear infection, I will do what I have to, to make sure they don't get sick again so soon.

Also, I have been hiding some Echinacea in their juice today :)

Like I said, I'm not taking a chance!

What a busy week!

2010-03-26T14:03:00.004-06:00

Hey everyone,

I hope you all had a great week? Mine was insanely busy! Hence the lack of posts this week.

We are all exhausted right now because we've been waaaaay more busy than normal (though we had lots of fun play dates, we are still tired, none the less).

This is picture was taken last week, because I didn't even have time to take pictures of anything we did this week!

I'm going to end this post and wish you all a great weekend! Our weekend is going to be very quiet and uneventful, so I'm really looking forward to that after this week! Who knows, maybe we'll even be able to make, create or cook something interesting and be able to post about it for next week?!

Enjoy your weekend to the fullest and "see" you all Monday!

Little girl's party ideas

2010-03-20T16:52:00.011-06:00

It just occured to me that today is March 20th.
March.
20th.

That means that in exactly one month, my baby girl is going to turn 3. OMG. Where has time gone?

Anyways, about a month ago (I know, I'm early right?), I started looking for ideas for my daughter's party. She didn't have a party with lots (or a few) of her friends last year, so this year, I want to redeem myself.

I thought I'd share with you some of the pictures I collected for inspiration... I was thinking of a theme along princess and/or tea party. And of course, alot of pink!

I appologize, I don't know where these pictures actually come from. I had found them while searching on google images a while back. If you see a picture that belongs to you, please don't hesitate to contact me and I will gladly add your name and/or a link with the picture.

Wouldn't this last one be a great party favor for her and her sweet little friends?

I'm actually having a little too much fun planning her party right now. I'll have to start visiting my local thrift store regularly until then in hopes of scoring a few items to use for the theme.

Little girls are so much fun!

Fantasyland Hotel theme room

2010-03-20T09:30:00.011-06:00

Yes, that's what we were up to last weekend, but I just got around uploading the pics on my computer. I thought I'd share with you, because it was So. Much. Fun.

If your ever in the Edmonton (Ab) area, it's definitely worth trying once! It's not cheap, but it's fun... one of those things you want to do once kind of "treat".

We didn't get our first choice in theme room, as they were almost all booked for that weekend. Our top choice was the Igloo room. But the Western room did not disappoint.

First, when we got on our floor, this is what it looked like:

That's not the room we stayed in. But it's just to show you that all the doors were made to look like horse stalls. Pretty cool, eh?

The main bed, was this huge coach with a pretend driver in the front. You even have steps on each side of the bed to climb in. Oh might I add, that the bed itself was insanely comfortable... probably the most comfortable hotel mattress I've ever slept on. And the best hotel pillows my head ever layed on. I'm not kidding.

View of the end of our bed.

Oh, and we had a jacuzzi in our living room... glad we brought our bathing suits, because all four of us fit in it, no problem.

Needless to say, the kids had a blast!

Notice what it says at the top of the bunk beds?

County Jail

He's a good little actor, isn't he? LOL

I was sick with a sinus infection/head cold when we went, but it was so worth it! The fact that the hotel is attached to the West Edmonton Mall is pretty cool too. When the kids were asleep, my hubby and I each took turns to go shop in the mall. When it was my turn, I went to Jugo Juice (my new fave "fast food place") and enjoyed a Skinny Peach smoothie (my camera had died, so you'll have to use your imagination, or check out their site to see it ;), I got a few things for myself and then found myself wandering around a book store.

I'll show you what I bought at Chapters in another post, because it's worth a post all on it's own :)

So that's what we were up to last weekend.

Have a great Saturday!

A Big Squishy Hug!

2010-03-19T12:55:00.011-06:00

Doesn't everybody love getting parcels in the mail? Imagine my kids excitement when we received a little surprise box in the mail this morning. They could barely contain themselves! I knew it was for them, but what was fun for me, was that the lovely box came all the way from the UK...

It was as exciting as Christmas to them this morning!

(pardon the jam stain on the kids table, LOL. They could not wait for me to clean it before opening the parcel :)

We received homemade play dough from Squishy. I had to write a post to thank L. aka Squishy mom for sending us this wonderful dough. You see, Squishy mom is one of those online friendship that happened because of blogging. I just love when those things happen! It makes our big, large and sometimes scary world seem much smaller and warmer. She just decided to send us this out of the goodness of her heart, but I HAD to tell you how wonderful her product is! Not because she asked me (because she didn't), but because it is simply AMAZING!

My son immediately decided that those squishy cookies (pictured above) were his, and he wasted no time opening the container and start playing with it.

My daughter on the other hand, was in awe at this "squishy" cupcake... and so was I!

I mean, how cute is that? Glitter and all.

They had so much fun with it, that it kept them busy until lunch was ready. I rarely get to make lunch without one or both kids coming in the kitchen to bug me, because it's never ready fast enough for them. But not this time! I could have not fed them, and they would not have noticed... OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but you know what I mean.
The packaging is biodegradable, the presentation is smart, and the dough is eco-friendly.

And one thing you can't tell from the pictures.... it smells amazing!!! Like candy. I could not stop sniffing it! I didn't even want to wash my hands after putting it away, because I didn't want this super yummy smell to go away, lol. Yeah, it's that great!

Go check out her blog HERE, and/or her website HERE. I love how she presents her things... she's got more on her site, and you'll love it too, I'm sure!

Thanks Squishy mom! We love it!

This inspired me to spread the blogging love.... so I will put together a little something and have my first blog giveaway! More on that soon!

Have a squishy day!

Vegan Fudgey Brownies

2010-03-16T08:48:00.004-06:00

Hello all,
Since I feel like I had been neglecting my poor blog in the past week (and you), and I still forgot to recharge my batteries for my camera (so I can't yet show you what we were up to this past weekend), I thought I'd share this yummy recipe I tried a couple weeks ago.

I found the recipe on the Vegetarian Times site, and I can say that so far, their recipes are all turning out awesome! It's my official "go to" for veg recipes now. I'm loving everything I whip up from them. You can find this original recipe HERE, but I made a few changes, so I'll post it the way I made it, since I like to bake sugar free and I don't digest regular oil very well. You see... I have no gull bladder. So if I eat baked goods that have oil in them, I get bad indigestion. Though I'm not sure why, it seems that if I replace oil with coconut oil in a recipe, I'm absolutely OK. Feel free to use whatever you prefer or have on hand.

And while were on the subject of baking, I thought I'd give you a little update on my celiac test... it was negative! Thank goodness! While I still have some kind of intolerance, I'm not sure to what exactly. I know I don't do well with oats, which sucks because it's my favourite kind of breakfast, next to green smoothies. But do I react to all gluten? Or just oats and wheat? Can I eat wheat once a week and feel ok, but not daily? Only time will tell.

For those of you who don't have those issues, go ahead and try this recipe... you won't be disappointed! It definitely lives up to it's name, because it is Oh! So! Fudgey!

Fudgey Brownies

3/4 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch cocoa powder
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 small ripe banana
1/3 cup honey (or agave nectar)
1/2 cup plain rice milk
1 Tbsp flaxseed meal
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a 9-inch square baking pan with spray.

Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Melt the chocolate chips with the coconut oil in a double boiler over gentle heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in banana and honey. Combine rice milk, flaxseed meal and vanilla in a measuring cup, then fold into the chocolate mixture. Stir chocolate mixture with dry ingredients, until just combined, then spread in baking pan.

Bake 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out dry from sides, but middle is still soft. Cool in pan, then cut in 16.

Sunshine Award!

2010-03-15T09:47:00.005-06:00

Good morning all!

Sorry for the absence last week, I've just been very busy with, um, well... life I guess. Now my hubby's home and we've been up to some serious fun with the kids this past weekend, but since the batteries on my camera died and I can't upload the pics into my computer yet, you will have to wait a little to know what we were up to ;)

The reason for this post, is because the lovely Debbie from Maple Spice gave me the Sunshine Award last week! Thank you so much Debbie!

Rules:
Forward it on - nominate 12 bloggers
Put logo onto your sidebar or within a post
Link the nominees within your post
Let the nominees know you nominated them by commenting on their blog
Share the love and link the logo to the person from whom you received this award.

I'm going to be a bit of a copy cat, and like Debbie, I'm not going to give this award to the full 12 bloggers... First, because I'm just being lazy since it's alot of work to link up to all those blogs and leave comments (I have a sinus cold, I'm allowed to ;) and because there are a few that really stand out in the sunshine department for me lately. You know, those blogs you read that really make you happy or jittery inside. Those who truly inspire you and get you excited about life (or food, or both).

So here are my nominee's:

Sheri from Green and Crunchy
Hippie Mom from The Raw Journal
Kristen from Kristen's Raw
Kelly from The Spunky Coconut
Lyn from Beautiful Vegan

I am going to get some rest now and go kill this sinus cold and fever with some healthy food. I'll post some pics of our fun weekend when I'm a bit more energetic, but I'll leave you with a clue: it involved a theme room ;)

Have a great day and I'll be back soon!

Chocolaty goodness!

2010-03-08T23:05:00.004-07:00

This weekend, I had time to go check out some posts from other blogs I like to read and found a recipe for coconut and raw cacao pudding from Kelly on The Spunky Coconut. I was so excited I had all the ingredients (except for the coconut sugar which I replaced with raw agave), that I made a batch that night and waited patiently until morning to see how it turned out...

It's chocolaty goodness it a bowl :) Though I had chia seeds on hand, this was my first time using it in something like this, and I can say, it won't be the last. This recipe is completely vegan, dairy free, gluten free (important for me, especially these days) and almost all raw. I'm going to experiment with chia seeds more and I'll let you know for sure if I come up with something delicious. In the meantime, you can check out this recipe HERE.

It's so healthy, you can even have it for breakfast! How can you not like that?!

Like my new look?

2010-03-08T22:18:00.011-07:00

Of course I'm talking about my new layout!... well... sort of.

I've been looking for a long time to change the look of my blog, but could never quite find what I was looking for, since I didn't know what it was that I wanted. Until I stumbled upon this funky and pretty black and white template and I just knew it was going to work! I hope you like it as much as I do!

But I'm also referring to my new haircut. I got quite a bit of hair chopped off today. I was way overdue, it had been almost a year since my last haircut. I decided it was time to start taking care of me, and a new haircut for a new attitude was just what I needed!

This is what I looked like this morning:

Pretty curls, yes. Also, pretty boring, since all I could do with my hair for months now, was putting it all up in a ponytail.... boring! You can't tell in this picture, but my hair was actually a good 6 inches below my shoulders. The cut was just not nice enough to be able to let my hair down anymore. Ever.

So I went for my appointment, and when I came back, I intended to take pictures of my new haircut (which you can't see very well in these pictures). I was not going to post these pics of my haircut on this blog, but I was not planning on what happened during this little "photo shoot".

It was such a cute and candid moment, I just had to share with you :)

I hope you all like the new look of the blog!

More smoothies and fruits please!

2010-03-04T23:20:00.006-07:00

This morning, the coolest thing happened, and I just had to share...

My little boy insisted on having his own green smoothie! Yesterday, he stole a few sips from mine, but this morning, that was not going to be enough. He wanted some in a glass of his own. And then, he came and drank some of mine, lol.

I am now going to make him some every morning, because that's what he requested. That makes for one happy Mama! His little sister still wont even try it, but maybe after a while of seeing the both of us drinking some, she'll want in too.

While my little guy was at preschool this afternoon, I made a quick trip to the store with my little girl for some produce. Though I did a huge grocery a week ago, bought lots of produce and non perishables, we seem to have gone though most of the produce already. That's good though. That means that even the kids are getting back on track like we were last summer.

This is what I came home with today:

Some organic greens, broccoli slaw, bananas, tomato, gluten-free vegan vinaigrette, a mango, asparagus, sweet potato, red and green grapes, lemons, young Thai coconut and blackberries.

When my little guy came home after school, I showed him all the produce I had got. I guess my enthusiasm for produce is catching on quick, because 2 weeks ago, his preferred snack was back to crackers or granola bars. But today, he had fruit for his afternoon snack. And not just one kind, but 3. Because that's what he wanted :)

How can you resist that cute face? You don't. You just give him what he wants, especially if what he wants is healthy food!

Health update...

2010-03-02T08:49:00.007-07:00

Good morning all,

It just occured to me that I've talked about my kids being sick and having ear infections, but never updated you on it. Thanks to all those who left comments by the way. It's always nice to know that people care about you :)

My son's ear infection cleared up by the time my daughter got hers. He's feeling great and he's full of energy. My daughter, on the other hand, gave me quite a scare. Though I'm used to ear infections, since my son has a few every year, I've never seen one this bad. What scared me, was when her ears started leaking fluid. Both ears. I was lucky enough to already have a Dr.'s appointment at the same time this happened, but he couldn't tell if she blew her left eardrum, because there was too much puss in her ear for him to see. She could barely hear at all and she was in so much pain. There was a few sleepless nights for both of us, I can tell you that. And though I'm not a fan of "feeding" my kids all kinds of medications, I was not against the round of antibiotics and prescription ear drops my Dr put her on. There are certain things I'm not willing to mess with, and my kids hearing is one of them. Especially if the infection is that bad.

A couple days after the antibiotics, her hearing started getting better and now that it's been a week, it seems to have returned 100%. We do have to go back next week so he can check her ears again, just to make sure she does not have any damage to her eardrums, but I'm optimistic that she's OK now.

While I was in with our family Dr., I talked with him about me potentially having Celiac or being gluten intolerant. I've done my research online, I know what my symptoms are (and there are quite a few), I've gone 5 days gluten free to see what would happen (and it was an AMAZING revelation!)... I know I'm at least intolerant. I know that much. So he had no problem sending me for the blood test to find out if I have Celiac. I should get my results next week, but he advised me to stay off gluten, or at least wheat even if the test comes back negative, because of my little 5 day test results.

What were the results? Well, first of all, my eczema "calmed down". The redness and itchiness stopped for the first time in months. Also, my stomach settled. The bloating went away, I stopped going to the bathroom multiple times a day (if you know what I mean) and I just felt light. Lean, even. I had also dropped 3 pounds before the 5 days was over.

I knew I had to be eating gluten and wheat before my blood test though. It has to be present in your body if you want true results for the blood test. So for the past 3 weeks, I've been eating wheat again.... Yep! I'm at least intolerant. My digestive tract is not liking this one bit! So I will avoid wheat and/or gluten even if the test comes back negative.

I had also talked about being low in iron not too long ago. You can read about that HERE. Since then, I've been religiously drinking daily green smoothies. And on the occasional day that I'm not in the mood for one, I'll have a huge salad with lots of dark leafy greens. Sometimes, I'll even have both a green smoothie and large salad, just for good measure :) I also make sure I eat beans or lentils at least every couple days, since I'm not eating meat right now (except fish. I discovered my body digests fish perfectly well right now. Meat on the other hand... not so much. So I'm OK with having fish from time to time).

I can say that thanks to all that, my "brain fog" has now lifted. I can think more clearly. I can remember things much better. I'm more awake, and a lot less cranky. I even have some bounce in my step! It's amazing how different I feel right now, it's hard to put in words. All I have left to "fix" now, is my digestive issues. So going wheat and/or gluten free is the next step. But I believe that's going to be one heck of a process, as there is gluten and wheat in almost everything. In things I'm sure I don't even know about. It will be challenging, especially since I love baking and eating what I bake. I guess it's a good thing I love learning about nutrition.

So that's our (long) health update for now. I will let you know for sure what my test results are when I get them. But like I said, no matter what the result actually is, I'll have to make more changes. Good thing I'm open to change!

I hope you all have a great week! ~ I know I am, the sun is out and we've been having an early spring here. The sun makes us so HAPPY!

Color in a bag Tutorial

2010-02-28T07:55:00.016-07:00

Good morning everyone!

I hope your all having a good weekend? I guess I've neglected my blog this week, but I think this post should make up for it... for those of you who have small children anyways ;)

I wish I could take credit for this cool activity idea, but I didn't come up with it. I stumbled upon it on the Family Fun website. If you've never been there, you need to check it out. It's from Disney and they have everything from crafts, games and printables, to birthday parties and cake decorating ideas.

I found this craft HERE, but I thought I'd make it into a tutorial. It's more fun than just sharing a link :)

Color in a Bag

1 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups cold water
Food coloring
Freezer bags (Ziplock style)
Tape

Over medium heat, combine the cornstarch, sugar and water in a saucepan, stirring continuously. (I expected the cornstarch to clump, but it dissolved very easily).

Once the mixture begins to thicken, remove the pan from the heat and stir for another minute or so, until it thickens to a pudding consistency. Let it cool 30 minutes.

Spoon mixture into bowls. Stir a few drops of food coloring into each, then divide the colors between the bags.

(The site says to use 2 gallon-size bags, but since my bags are not labeled that way on the box, I used medium size. Also, I found there was a bit too much in the bags for my kids to be able to mix them easily. Next time, I would probably put the whole thing into 3 bags.)

Seal the bags with tape.

Let your child mix and mash the colors.

My kids loved to discover the new colors that appeared AND they thought it felt really cool!

The fun thing about this, is that you could always put smaller quantities in smaller bags and bring it with you when your kids are going to need to wait patiently somewhere. Like at the restaurant, dentist, doctor, or wherever else they might need to be good and patient for you :)

Will keep for a week.

Note:

Once our week was over (and yes, they played with it ALL week), I put them in the freezer. They have the texture of those gel packs freezer bags, so I thought I'd try it. I have not thawed them yet though, so I'm not sure what happens to the texture after that... I will keep you posted :)

I hope your kids enjoy this as much as mine did!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll have another post for you tomorrow :)

A summery raw recipe in winter!

2010-02-22T10:56:00.006-07:00

Isn't it beautiful?

I made this last week, and ate it all before I remembered to take a picture. But it's that good, that I made it again this weekend and thought I'd share the recipe with you :) I originally found the recipe while watching clips on YouTube from Jennifer Cornbleet. But she's got a few recipes also posted on her site HERE. This one was from her site.

Not Tuna Pate

1/2 cup soaked raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup soaked raw almonds
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Pinch salt (recipe called for 1/4 tsp, but I tried half that, and even that was too much for me)
1 1/2 Tbsp minced celery
1 Tbsp minced onion
1 Tbsp minced parsley

Place the sunflower seeds, almonds, water, lemon juice and salt in a food processor, and process until very fine. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the celery, onion and parsley and pulse briefly, just to mix. Store in a sealed container in the fridge, it will keep for 1 week.

The very first time I made this, was last summer. I only had fresh dill on hand, so that's what I used instead of parsley. It was OK, but not as great as it is with the parsley. Somehow, the understated flavor of parsley works just perfectly in this dish. You can eat it as is, or in a salad, or even make a wrap using large green leaves and put the pate in it. That would be delish!

It's a very summery recipe, and though it's still winter here and everything is covered in snow, I'm starting to get in the summer mood. I'm not sure why, but I just am. Maybe it has something to do with being tired of my kids getting sick?! I'm just ready for taking the kids to the park, wearing flip flops and enjoying watermelon and other summer fruits.

How about you? Sick of winter yet?

Silly moments, silly kids

2010-02-21T22:25:00.008-07:00

I don't know what was in the air, but last Friday was a crazy, crazy day!

I slept through my alarm, my new car (it's less than a year old) wouldn't start, had to walk to work and back in the cold with the kids (they were not impressed!)... let's just say I was frazzled!

But once I got back home at about 11am, put my pj's back on and finally had my morning cup of coffee, things seemed so much better!

I put some music on, and my little girl started dancing to some tunes...

While wearing my slippers, of course. She has a fascination for footwear. Already.

Isn't she cute? That smile and beautiful eyes make me melt every time!

My little "Mr. man" was wearing one of Dad's hats, while making a silly face hiding behind the couch.

And then there was this....

Sitting in her "baby bed", wearing her purse on her head, dancing with her arms and clapping to the beat.

I just love my kids! They fill my heart with so much happiness!

The rest of the weekend was not as cute though, unfortunately. My daughter seems to have caught was my son had last weekend, including the ear infection. Though she was a bit better today, her ears seem to hurt her more. Good thing we happen to have an appointment with our family Dr. tomorrow. I'll be able to have him check her ears, and make sure my son's ear infection is healed as well. Poor kids, they just can't seem to catch a break this cold and flu season.

We are so ready for summer now! Please, please, let this be a short winter and spring come soon! At least, in between germs and fevers, we get some cute and fun moments like these!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Steph xx

The last week in food photos

2010-02-17T22:08:00.001-07:00

After our weekend getaway, (you can read about that HERE) I was left with the urge, the NEED to eat lots of healthy foods. I've even been craving salads for the past week or so! Of course, after all that binging, the return for my taste for sugary treats returned, and to deal with it, I've been baking from scratch, making vegan cookies and such, replacing sugar with honey or agave to make it a tad healthier. Though some white flour pasta have made it's way into our meals from time to time, I decided with the advice of my dear online friends (you know who you are and thank you for your kind words :), that I would cut myself some slack. I am not perfect, and I need to stop trying to strive for perfection when it comes to eating, because it was leading me in one simple direction: Failure! But I am sure as hell not going to stop trying to get us all to eat better.

I read a great post from my friend Hippie Mom over at The raw journal, and she made me realize that my problem was that I was trying to label myself. I had been feeling like I had to decide weather I wanted to be a vegetarian, a vegan, or a raw foodist. For someone just starting on her own health journey (it only started a year ago), I'm still learning about nutrition and still trying to figure myself out in the middle of all that, it's waaayy too much pressure to put on myself to try and live up to a label.

So from now on, I am going to try and focus on the positive aspect of things.

Things like: I've made tremendous changes in the past year. Or, I eat about 75% more veggies daily than I used to! Or, I now drink water, and not just the water that comes in my coffee or tea anymore.

I'm telling you, read her post. It's not very long to read, and it really put things into perspective for me.

Anyways, on to our food now...

I've been using our neglected section plates again. They really make a difference in how much fruits and veggies my kids eat in a single meal. They usually finish the fruits and veggies before they eat whatever else is in there. And in my books, that's a winner!

If your wondering what my little guy is picking up, it's some vegetable samosas. We looove those. They are a once in a while treat, but we really love them.

We had some cauliflower, peas, clementines, hummus and pumpkin seeds. I think my kids love the section plates as much as I do :)

Oh look! Even our snack boxes have sections! (Pictured here are organic crackers, strawberries, raisins and organic dehydrated apples).

Tomato-avocado sandwiches are in my top 2 favourite kinds of sandwiches. I just recently bought some vegan mayo by the brand Spectrum. Amazing! It's only 3g of Fat instead of the 8 or 11g in their regular mayo, and it tastes exactly the same. I love it!

I've also been enjoying plenty of salads, this one, with all kinds of mixed spring greens, spinach, red onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives and some goats feta. Yum! Full of flavours! I know it might look like a lot of cheese in this salad, but what you can't tell from the picture, is that the salad is actually in a large serving bowl, not a regular soup bowl. That salad was all I had for dinner that night and I was SO satisfied. I need to do this more often, it was just so delicious!

And though I didn't take any pics of my green smoothies, I've also been enjoying them daily again.

Oh, in case your wondering, my kids are finally on the mend. My son had a really big ear infection but is slowly getting better. Thanks for your well wishes :)

Home days with sick kids

2010-02-15T13:16:00.004-07:00

These past few days have been pretty uneventful. Or eventful, depending on how you look at it. Both kids are still sick, ugh! They are both sick, but not for the same reason. Weird, eh?

My daughter has had an intermittent fever because she's got her last molar pushing through her gums, poor baby girl! She was fine yesterday... until she woke up at 3 am with a big fever again. She's laying on the couch with a pillow and a blanket right now, watching a movie and patiently waiting for her medicine to start working to be a bit more comfortable. And she's also not eating today. I'll be glad when it's done!

My son, on the other hand, has a cold. It just started with a cough, a runny nose and a slight fever and within a day, the fever was really bad... he's got, yet again, another ear infection. I believe another trip to the Emerg will be in order today because it's hurting him pretty bad. Fun times.

There's been a whole lot of movie watching going on here these past few days (it's been like this since Friday!), and when they feel ok enough to get off the couch or be awake, some drawing, painting and playing with play dough.

I might actually finish reading the China Study in the next couple days! I started this book/brick months ago but I made a huge dent into it this weekend so far.

So we're taking it pretty easy here as you can see. I'm going to take care of my little ones now and do lots of snuggling :)

Have a great week!

Joyeuse St-Valentin!

2010-02-14T11:39:00.006-07:00

(picture found on a google search, sorry I don't know where it actually comes from)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Whishing you a beautiful Saturday!

2010-02-13T08:00:00.002-07:00

Good morning everyone!

I thought I would share with you a picture of these beautiful tulips I bought myself last week, as it made me so happy to look at them. I know I sound bright and cheery this morning, but the truth is, is that it's only 7:30 am, I've been up for over an hour already and was up most of the night with my daughter. She's had a fever for 2 days now and I went to bed too late, watching a movie. While I am in a good mood, I am not fully awake yet this morning... maybe after I've had a good breakfast and my morning cuppa ;)

Last night, I was planning on doing some cooking, baking and some "uncooking" too, so I'd have lots of good healthy foods on hand for the weekend and part of the week coming, and also because we had plans to go to a kids birthday party today (and it's at the pool). But like I said, I stayed up too late watching a movie, so the food prep didn't happen, and since my daughter still has a fever and my son also woke up with a nasty cough, I believe that today's birthday party attendance will have to be replaced with watching cartoons, playing board games and... you guessed it: cooking, baking and "uncooking".

First, I need to test a vegan chocolate cupcake recipe I found a little while ago. I love to turn cookie or muffin recipes into vegan ones, but I've never actually made a vegan cake. And my daughter's birthday is coming, though it's not for another two months, I don't want to leave testing cake recipes to the last minute. And if they turn out good, well... tomorrow is Valentine's day. So the kids and I will have a little treat!

I also NEED to whip up a batch of Jennifer Cornbleet's raw granola. It's super easy AND very yummy!

It's equal parts soaked almonds, soaked sunflower seeds (didn't have the walnuts like in her recipe though) and raisins, and a dash of cinnamon. That's it! Give it a whirl in the food processor, and keep in the fridge up to five days. I like to add oodles of cinnamon to mine, and when I'm ready for a snack, I just add some banana slices and some organic vanilla rice milk (I always have that stuff in the fridge, just love it!). It tastes super sweet and it surprisingly doesn't take much of the granola to fill me up. I ate the last batch mostly as snacks. I tend to get quite hungry around 2:30-3pm and right after the kids go to bed. It's the perfect pick me up. And since it's raw (except for the rice milk), it's practically guilt free!

I hope you all enjoy your day! I'm going to take care of my little ones now :)

Our fun weekend and the ugly truth

2010-02-09T12:00:00.007-07:00

When I say "the ugly truth", I am not referring to the movie. I'll get back to that in a moment...

This weekend, we sort of when on a little getaway, not too far from home. We rented a hotel room for the weekend and had some activities planned.

The room was quite large, and the kids had a blast, jumping from bed to bed. I don't let them do that at home, but what are getaways for, right? My favourite part of the room, was not the beds, since I was not planning on jumping on them, but the fireplace (that you can't see in the picture). I had not had the pleasure to enjoy a fireplace since I moved out of my parents house.

The main reason for the little getaway, was because my hubby was taking our son to a Monster Jam show. The boys had a great time together!

My in-laws and our nephews also went to the show and all the kids got to hang out!

While they all enjoyed their Monster Jam outing, I got to take my daughter for lunch, some shopping at my favourite (but almost never visited) store, Ikea, and then to a movie. It was our very first "girl day" together, and I really enjoyed it. Come to think of it, it was the boys first "guy day" too!

We went to see the Princess and the Frog. What a cute movie! But I am sure the only thing that my daughter got from the movie, is if she runs out of snacks and nags me enough, I will go get her more, LOL.

And here is my son, in front of one of his favourite truck, Grave Digger. They got to check out the trucks before the show and he LOVED IT!

Now... to the ugly truth!

Like I mentioned before in the past few posts, I did a 5 day vegan and wheat free cleanse (if you want to call it that). I didn't get to figure out what was causing my eczema in that short period, because it was not long enough to make it all go away. But during the weekend, I ate anything but healthy foods.

Wanna know what happened? My eczema came back with a vengeance!

When I say I ate anything but healthy foods, I mean anything BUT. Now is time for you to gasp at the ugly truth. In the 4 day period that my hubby was home and had our getaway, I ate:

pizza twice (I'm talking full fat, full cheese AND pepperoni... I'm lactose intolerant too, remember?)
brace yourselves... McDonald's. Yes. You read that right. A McChicken at that. I think that was my last one EVER. It was nasty! My son and I both had massive cramps within 15 minutes and ended up in the bathroom (sorry if it's TMI).
Had fish at dinner Saturday night, followed by some cheesecake for desert, among other things.
Had lots of coffee (with dairy cream in it, because that's all I could find. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)
Eggs and bacon for breakfast the last morning we were at the hotel.
And even had a beef burger from Wendy's on the last day when we went back to the city.
Also had buttery popcorn and Nibs licorice at the theatre.

Now. That being said, I will tell you I am beyond disappointed with myself, you have no idea. So please be gentle with me, if your going to leave comments.

The reason I am so honest here, is because first of all, lying on my own blog, would be like lying to myself... completely pointless. And I also wanted to share what I've learned from all this.

First, when I was eating vegan and wheat free: I felt A-MA-ZING! I felt light and lean. I lost 3 lbs in 4 days only, and never went hungry. Because I figured if I was going to eat vegan AND avoid bread and wheat pasta, I was at least going to make sure to eat when I was hungry. My eczema did not flare at all, even the redness started disappearing, except for when I accidentally ate something with wheat in it... I itched for 2 days. Bottom line, I liked how I felt and other than making sure that I get enough iron, it was not as hard as I thought it would be.

What I learned from going on what you could call "an unplanned free for all and short return to my old eating habits": I had serious, um, bowel issues. Sorry for the info, but it's the truth. From extreme constipation, to diarrhea for a couple days, and lets not forget lots of cramps and bloating. Gained those 3 lost lbs back, surprise! surprise! NOT!! Feel exhausted again and this time, I know it's not due to iron deficiency. I know that much. And my eczema is back with a vengeance! It not only flared up again, but it spread a considerable amount. Fun, fun. I also learned, that when I am in my little routine of being a stay at home mom, just the kids and I when my hubby is at work, it's pretty easy for me to eat healthy, and even vegan and wheat free. But once I am out of my element and surrounded by people, I let myself be influenced, even though no one put pressure on me to do it. Nothing was mentioned to me about what I was eating, it was my fault, and only my fault.

I see vegetarianism and veganism not as a diet, but a lifestyle. It's not something I want to go back and forth doing. I am going to need to learn to stick with what I know my body wants, no matter what the circumstances are. Eat healthy food (and no meat) and if wheat is causing my eczema, stay away from it too. That might mean I will need to order salads if no other veg option are offered when I go somewhere, make some green smoothies to bring to the hotel for the weekend, and/or bring proper snacks with me, so I'm not tempted.

So, there you have it. Our fun weekend, and my ugly truth. But I'm telling you folks, it was debating weather or not I was going to share the ugly truth with you or not. In the end, I decided on doing so, because a lot of you who regularly leave me comments, seem to genuinely appreciate that I share my struggles with you. I guess it's nice to know we are not alone.

If you are vegetarian or vegan, please don't hesitate to let me know if you struggled with it when transitioning and how you dealt with "peer pressure" when going to eat out. I'd love to know that I'm not alone.

Well, that's enough for this post. I am going to wish you all a wonderful evening, and go make some vegan food for supper for the kids and I. Because as of yesterday, I am back on track. No wheat, no meat, green smoothies and lots of fruits and veggies... And it feels GOOD!

I'm Popeye the Sailor man

2010-02-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry for neglecting my poor little bloggy. I had actually wrote a post on the 4th, about what had been going on and telling you that I was going to be away for a few days... and I forgot to post it!

I could barely keep my thoughts together lately. I've been having such a foggy brain! And that's pretty much what my post was about. So I edited it slightly from my original draft and here it is:

Well, it's no secret I had been feeling like crap (for a lack of a better word) lately. I had a little cold two weeks ago that sucked every bit of energy out of me. I had been completely exhausted for the last while, and lets not forget cranky!

I had been blaming it on the winter blues, the whole time.

In the mean time, I decided to get my eating back on track, eliminating all dairy because of my lactose intolerance, eliminating meat just because I usually feel a lot better physically when I don't eat it, and also avoiding wheat for my little allergy experiment.

So what does Popeye have to do with this post your wondering?

Notice what he's holding?

In my books, spinach = great source of iron.

And that's what was wrong with me. I've gone through vegetarian phases before, but never ate mostly vegan AND I had not been drinking my green smoothies daily this time around (which I usually pack full of organic spinach). I also always take a multi-vitamin, but I ran out a couple weeks ago and kept forgetting to buy more.

Figuring out I was low on iron was completely accidental too! But as soon as I took the supplement, within an hour or two, I was awake again and my brain fog had been lifted. I had so much bounce in my step, that while I was doing the dishes and listening to my iPod, I broke into a little dance in the middle of my kitchen! I never do that!

I took the supplements just for a few days, to "replenish my body's supply", and went back to drinking my green smoothies DAILY (until I went away this weekend). I also make sure I eat beans or legumes everyday. The difference in how I feel, within a week, is like night and day. I feel like I am me again. And that's just who I love to be!

So in all this, I guess I learned that even though you can eat very healthy, it's not always easy to eat a balanced diet.

Enjoy your weekend! I will be going away for a few days and will update again when I come back. xx

Note: I am not a Dr and the reading I did on taking iron supplements and/or anemia, it is recommended to go for blood tests before taking some. Because over doing it with iron supplements can damage your liver in the long term. I just wanted to share with you my experience with that.

So, there is my late post ;) I will post again tonight about what we were up to this past weekend, what my 5 day vegan and wheat free experiment taught me and what happened when my old eating habits resurfaced this weekend.

Stay tuned!

Everything is better with chopsticks!

2010-02-01T07:00:00.002-07:00

Happy Monday morning everyone!

I have a bit of food porn for you this morning :)

In my quest to avoid wheat for a week (like I mentioned in my last post), I've been forced to step out of my usual veg comfort zone. I only had meat once since the holidays (and I didn't even enjoy my meal!), still avoiding ALL dairy because of my stomach and now wheat. What's a girl to eat other than just salads? Lasagna? Not happening. Vegetable sandwiches? Um...bread...hello! A whole lot of rice that's for sure! And fruits, veggies and nuts of course. Oh, and yes, I did have some dark chocolate.

What? I didn't say I was going to stay away from chocolate! You didn't seriously expect me to stop eating all things yummy all at once, did you? I didn't think so! lol. But I do have some "non-vegan-full-fat-and-made-of-white-flour" mini-cupcakes in my freezer, and for some reason that eludes me, I have not been tempted by! Normally, those puppies would have been long gone by now.

Sorry, I digress...

So, in stepping out of my food comfort zone, I finally decided to make this recipe I had been wanting to try, from my Vegetarian Times magazine from last July/August. The recipe calls for soba noodles, but I can't find that in my little town. So brown rice pasta it is!

I only recently tried brown rice pasta for the first time (I'll admit, I tried it out of curiosity at first), and I was pleasantly surprised at the great texture it has and tastes great! So much better than whole wheat pasta. Considering I'm a white pasta (or tri-color) kinda gal, it says a lot about how good these are! If you've never had rice pasta, just give it a try, you will be so surprised! I never realised how "heavy" I felt after eating normal pasta because eating these leaves me ready to jump around and carry on with my day, not for a nap. And this left over rice pasta in my cupboard came to the rescue on a night I was craving carbs!

I'd just like to point out the new bowls I bought last week... perfect for this kind of meal. I don't remember when was the last time I ate with chopsticks... I was maybe 18? I think it made eating this that much better. Fun even! The bowls even have a slit so you can rest your chopsticks on top. Ha ha, sorry, I know I can be a dork sometimes. I really enjoy eating out of these bowls waaaayyy too much. But whatever. It makes me happy!

OK, enough of my silly rambling, I'll share the recipe now ;)

Rice Noodle Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing

6 oz brown rice noodles
1/2 cup organic peanut butter (or almond butter would do)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tbsp agave nectar (or maple syrup)
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp fresh lime zest
1/2 cup cilantro, divided
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and sliced
1 small red bell pepper, sliced (1 cup)
1 large carrot, grated

Puree peanut butter, vinegar, agave, ginger, soy sauce, garlic, lime juice, lime zest and 1/4 cup cilantro in a blender or food processor until smooth and creamy, adding 2 to 3 Tbsp warm water to thin, if necessary.

Cook rice noodles according to package, and drain.

Prepare the veggies while the noodles are cooking. Toss together noodles, veggies and peanut sauce mixture. Garnish with remaining cilantro.

Serves 4.

Now, how easy was that? I can honestly say, I made this entire dish in about 15 minutes flat! It's going to be a weekly staple in my kitchen from now on, I can assure you. Now go on and try it, you'll be glad you did.

Chopsticks optional, but strongly recommended!

Getting myself out of a funk

2010-01-30T10:59:00.005-07:00

It's no secret I've been in a funk lately. I mentioned in my last post having serious winter blues. But my close friends in everyday life know it's been a funk that's been going on for a while now. Like a few months. But I can honestly say the last couple weeks have been even worse.

After an episode this week (huge fight with my son at bed time, where MY tantrum was bigger than his), caused by a serious lack of sleep for everyone (both kids waking up between 5 and 5:30 am everyday for the past week) and it didn't help that we've all been sick since Friday last week... Well after the "episode", I decided to snap out of it. I had enough. OK, I might have been feeling the blues, but this fight with my son left me feeling like a bad mom that night.

Nothing like crying and feeling like crap about yourself to put things into perspective I guess.

I'm not the only one that's been in a funk... my kids too... until today that is! You can see my kids were actually munching on healthy food this morning.

And yes, my daughter was actually snacking on some fresh kale leaves. How awesome is that?!!

It all started yesterday, when it was grocery day. You see, I had been slowly resorting to some convenience foods, and the kids have been doing nothing but demand junk food, and not eat healthy stuff when I'd make it. Any parent know how frustrating it can be!

I realized that I needed to start eating really healthy again, in order for them to "kick it up a notch". I want us to go back to the way we've been eating last winter until summer. To do that, I need to make sure we have loads of fresh produce on hand at all times.

Off I went to the grocery store. Bought oodles of fruit. I just heart fruit so much!

And lets not forget about the veggies! It's easy for me to get lots of fruit into me, since I have such a sweet tooth, but I have to make an effort for the veggies. I did buy lots though. I might have gotten a little carried away actually. But since I hate wasting food, I'll just have to make veggies a BIG priority in order to eat all this before it goes bad. In case your new to my blog, it's just me and my two little kids at home while hubby works away. So that's a lot of produce for just me and the kids. I believe salads of all kinds will be served as a side dish for a while! (just so you know, I still had a few fruits and veggies left in the fridge, these are just pics of what I bought yesterday!)

As I was unpacking the groceries (and yes, I bought other stuff, not just produce), I decided to reorganize my kitchen a bit.

This is my main counter. As you can see, it's mostly coffee stuff. I still drink coffee, but a lot less than I was a few weeks ago. I am hoping to reduce to one every 2 days in the next week or so. (Doing it gradually ;)

But I thought, if I want to eat healthy, I have to make sure the space works for me. Not sure why I didn't think about this before, but I thought about it yesterday. So I changed a few things around and voila!

Some dried fruit on the counter to remind me to snack on that when I'm feeling "snackish" or if I get a craving for something sweet, and my food processor in the corner, to make sure I use it more and try some delicious looking raw recipes I saw on YouTube.

My coffee maker is still on the counter, but on the other side of the sink now (it's just a small space). I am planning on making it the spot for the blender sometime soon! Speaking of blender, I have not been very faithful with my supposedly daily green smoothies. So this morning, I whipped up some healthy green goodness.

hemp seeds
orange juice
water
frozen blueberries
banana
kale
spinach
cacao nibs

I didn't take a picture of the finished smoothie, because it was more brown than purple and it didn't look very appetizing. But I can assure you it was delicious!

I also have been avoiding eating wheat (but not all gluten) for the past few days (along with a mostly vegan diet), just to see what would happen. I've been having some digestion issues lately, not to mention the eczema on my back that I've been having for the past few months and just can't get rid of. So far, my rash stopped flaring up through the day, it even seems to be getting better already and I feel happier, I'm not bloated, don't have any digestion issues so far (knock on wood!) and feel like the "brain fog" I've been experiencing is slowly lifting away.

I have heard of people saying they feel better when not eating wheat, but for my persistent eczema to start going away, tells me I might have an allergy or intolerance... I'll have to go to a naturopath and get tested to know for sure. I am going to continue my wheat-free experiment until Friday of next week to see what kind of results I get and I'll keep you posted on it.

Well, that's it for now folks! There you have it. I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself, take charge of my health and just do what needs to be done to feel better, both physically and emotionally. I'll be back tomorow with the coolest and yummiest vegan and wheat-free recipe I've ever had. It was so good, I can hardly wait to share with you!

Have a great day!

An exotic recipe to beat the winter blues!

2010-01-26T09:54:00.008-07:00

Hello all!

Pardon my absence for the past 11 days. Believe it or not, I was not missing. I have no excuse whatsoever for not posting, other than just feeling the winter blues lately. Nothing seemed exciting enough to write about... until I tried this recipe a couple days ago!

I discovered it while watching Guy Fieri on the Food Network a while ago and finally remembered to search for the recipe on their website. And Oh My! Is it ever good! I replaced the chicken stock with water to "veganize" the recipe and it was still so flavourful. It also made tons, so I have lots of leftovers for the week, which is perfect, since those winter blues are not putting me in a cooking mood. The only thing is, that my kids would not touch it. They have been REALLY picky eaters lately, you have no idea! Too bad for them, they don't know what they are missing... more for me! lol.

I slightly changed the recipe, like the quantity of water, as I knew it was too much for the Thai Jasmine rice I had, and changed the kind of oil called for, as well as subbing the chicken stock. You can find the original recipe HERE.

Coconut Cilantro Rice with Peas and Cashews

1/2 cup coconut
1 Tbsp coconut oil
2 cups jasmine rice
2 cups water or veg broth
1 - 15oz can coconut milk
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
1/3 cup roughly chopped cashews (I used raw cashews, but toasted would work too, just make sure they are unsalted)
1 cup frozen peas
1 tsp salt

In a large pot, over medium heat, add the coconut and lightly toast. Remove to a small bowl and set aside.

In the same pot, add the oil and the rice and saute until the rice is just starting to brown, about 6-8 minutes. Add the water (or broth), coconut milk and stir to combine. Reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and cook until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro, cashews and peas. Season with salt and transfer to a serving bowl. Garnish with the toasted coconut and serve!

Serves 6-8

So go on, and give this little recipe a try, it's big on flavor! It's exotic, yet warm... perfect for beating those winter blues!

Hot chocolate for breakfast?

2010-01-15T21:39:00.005-07:00

You bet!

And it can even be nutritious! Don't believe me? Check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZKrLR1QSPI

I am very tempted to try this tomorrow morning. Wouldn't it be the perfect way to start the weekend? I know my kids would not object to this one!

Have a great weekend everyone!

P.S. : If any of you could please tell me how I can actually have the YouTube screen show up on my posts instead of just a link, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks :)

Today I love...

2010-01-11T23:03:00.007-07:00

products from Souris Verte.

Their slogan: The healing herb garden for children.

They are a Canadian company (made in Quebec to be precise) and their ingredient list of each of their product can be found on their website.

I have the eucalyptus massage oil.

(Their decongestant massage oil bottle no longer looks like this according to the picture on their website, as my bottle is older, but the formula remains the same)

My mom gave me this massage oil when I was pregnant with my son, almost 5 years ago, and the bottle is still almost full. A little goes a long way with this product and I can tell you, it's still as potent today, as it was when I first opened the bottle. This particular one, has eucalyptus oil in it, and you rub it on the chest, upper back and under the kids feet. Last week, when both my kids were sick, had a cough and phlegm in their lungs, I'd apply it right after their bath (at bed time) and I swear, when they are sick, they sleep so much better when I use it, because they don't wake up coughing every 5 minutes AND they can actually breathe!

Their echinacea is going to be the next product on my list.

OK, so maybe I should say that I ADORE their product! It's that good! And, it's natural... it doesn't get much better than that!

A vegan meal & the cashew "cheese" experiment

2010-01-09T11:32:00.009-07:00

Happy Monday!

I have not posted much in the past week, and that's because both my kids were sick. One with a nasty caugh, and the other had a fever (at night only) for a few days before getting the caugh. Lets just say, I have been woke up at night, at least 5 times a night, for the past 5-6 nights. At least I took good care of myself making sure I don't skip the green smoothies, putting in some extra greens and vit-C, so I did not get one symptom my kids had.

If I get sick, who's going to take care of me? lol.

Anyways, the reason for my post is that, since last week, I have been really putting an effort into making more meals that are vegan. It's not that hard actually, but since it's not exactly a habit for me, it does take some planning and I do have to be aware of my food choices, and not just eat mindlessly (everyone else eats dairy in my house).

Everything has been very tasty so far, and I feel so much better! All the pains I was experiencing last week are completely gone and I dropped a couple "holiday" pounds already, because my pants fit normally again. Thank goodness!

A couple nights ago, I was really in the mood for burritos. I had everything I needed to make them. But would it taste as good as I was used to without the cheese?

Then I remembered a recipe for some raw "sour cream" I had written down... somewhere.
Of course I could not find it anywhere, and I looked everywhere. (My healthy recipes are not yet organized.)

But I did remember the ingredients... raw soaked cashews, water and lemon juice. So I ground the cashews in my food processor until somewhat fine. Then added a touch of lemon juice and some water. I had to do that a couple times, since I didn't know the measurements and did not have any idea how much lemon juice I would need. I didn't want it to end up tart. What I ended up with was neither tart, nor was it "sour cream". But it did taste like cheese. Like ricotta cheese to be exact AND had the exact same texture. (I swear, if you were to put that in a traditional lasagna, you would fool anyone!)

Now I know that ricotta is not the typical addition to burritos, but it was close enough for me.

I browned some onions in a pan, then added some re fried beans and some salsa until well mixed and warm. Topped with some chopped green onions, then the "cheese" and lettuce before rolling. And it tasted oh so good!

So go ahead... try something new today. You just might be surprised!

Happy 101 Award

2010-01-07T22:00:00.002-07:00

The beautiful HippieMom of the Raw Journal nominated me for the Happy 101 Award! Thank you!

Here are The Rules:

"List 10 things that make you happy, try to do at least one of them today, and tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day. For those 10 bloggers who get the award, you must link back to my blog!"

OK, so here goes...

10 things that make me happy:

1. Doing outdoor activities with my family.
2. Making delicious foods.
3. Learning and reading about natural nutrition and health.
4. Doing photography.
5. Listening to music.
6. Traveling.
7. Walking on the beach in PEI.
8. Doing yoga. (though I don't do it often, I feel so at peace when I do it!)
9. Shopping for produce at the grocery store or farmers market or getting interesting ingredients at the health food store. (I know, I'm a total food nerd! :)
10. Doing arts and crafts.

Now, the ones I pass this award onto:

1. Mrs. M from RWB & Me

2. Blooming Kids & Mum seeks life (same person)

3. Earth Mother from In the Raw

4. Sheri from Green & Crunchy

5. Lyn from Beautiful Vegan

6. Tess from Radiant Health Inner Wealth

7. Debbie from Maple Spice

8. Meghan Telpner from Making Love in the Kitchen

9. Little bubble and tree

10. Tiffany from Green and Natural Parenting

Sorry I couldn't nominate all of you that I read frequently. But I hope everyone is enjoying their week. Mine is turning out to be interesting... first week back to the "after holiday routine" and both my kids are sick (again!). I'll post again soon, and lots of recipes to come, promise!

Quitting coffee

2010-01-05T17:50:00.001-07:00

Anyone who drinks or used to drink coffee knows it's no easy task to quit. Sure there is the physical addiction to overcome, but there is also an addiction to the whole process of making your coffee and holding your favourite warm cup (or mug, in my case), and the smell that comes from it.

Maybe, to you, drinking coffee means catching up with friends, or spending quiet time in the morning with your spouse before the kids wake up. Or maybe it's just out of necessity for staying awake.

Whatever the case may be, coffee is addictive in many levels.

Though I am sure tea can be as addictive as coffee, since a lot of them have caffeine in them, I would much rather "switch" my addiction from coffee to tea.

Why is that? Because I have no problem drinking tea as is, without adding any sweetener or dairy (or dairy replacement). But don't ask me to drink black coffee... yuck! It's just not how I like it.

I tried to quit coffee cold turkey yesterday. That's right. I thought I would go from drinking 4-5 mugs a day, to nothing at all. Oh, how wrong I was! By 9am I had a very foggy brain, by 10am a headache, by 12pm a migraine and by 1pm, I was ready for bed. I also had extreme chills. Basically, I was experiencing detox. I've heard of people going through detox when they go from SAD to raw, but I didn't think it would be that bad just from quitting coffee alone... well, come to think of it, I have not had junk food in a few days now, or sweets (another addiction of mine). Lets just say, I was not mentally prepared for such an extreme physical reaction.

By late afternoon, I had such a hard time functioning, I decided to make a small cup of java. I have not used regular cups for coffee in so long, always my gigantic mugs. But not this time. I made a small cup, and poured the coffee cream.... down the drain!

That's right! I know my body can't handle the lactose, especially not right now, so I got rid of it to not be tempted. Instead, I used my son's Lactaid milk. (I've never liked the taste of anything else in coffee other than a dairy product :( Well, the coffee tasted OK, but I very quickly realized that I did not want it. So I poured the remaining half a cup down the sink. The half cup I drank was just enough to get rid of the headache for the rest of the day.

And I was just really proud of myself, for not wanting to drink the whole thing. So while quitting cold turkey seemed like a great idea at the time, to go from 4 mugs to 1/2 cup for a week or two before completely stopping, is going to be the way to go for me. I still need to function during the day, take care of my kids, work part-time, take my son to preschool, etc. It's hard to do all that if your suffering from massive migraines. I had just a half a small cup again this morning, and it was enough to keep the migraines at bay all day... and just like last time, I did not really enjoy my cuppa.

I am not going to say no to coffee for ever though. For a while, I am still going to allow myself a cup from my favourite coffee place when I go to the city (which is once or twice a month). But that is it. I suspect that after a while, my taste buds will change and even my favourite occasional coffee will not taste as good as it does at the moment. I am feeling very confident that I will succeed, since I have a clear vision of what I want to allow myself, and what I want to achieve.

And quitting coffee, is just a start.

photo via planet-coffee.net

Desperately needing a change

2010-01-04T15:41:00.005-07:00

Hi everyone, I hope your all doing well?

With the holidays being over and the arrival of the new year, I find myself in need of a change. I don't know about you, but I seemed to use the Christmas holidays (or the whole month of December) as an excuse to literally eat anything and everything in sight.

Not that my diet was anywhere near perfect before, as I've been known to eat a whole bag of licorice in one sitting, on the same day that I'd have a green smoothie for breakfast and a vegan lunch. For someone who's been trying to become a vegetarian, I am certainly not proud of myself right now. I've eaten more meat in the past couple weeks, than I had in the past few months combined. I want to study to be a holistic nutritionist, yet I've eaten at fast food places multiple times recently, and I can tell you that not once, did I order the salad on the menu.

Now, that's where the need for change and this blog comes in. I decided to make some changes... I want to make this blog even more about health, nutrition and my struggles, than ever before. And if I can figure out how to add YouTube video's on here, you will see some too. YouTube is such a great source for raw recipes, if your ever looking for some.

Another reason I say I need a change, is because with all this unhealthy eating I've been doing recently, I recked havoc on my body so bad. My body is speaking to me loud and clear. My skin is breaking out like a kid entering puberty, I've gained weight (and I'm already overweight), and I am getting "gallbladder-like" pains.

The problem with that, is I already had my gallbladder removed 2 years ago, at the mere age of 27. Which means it's not gall bladder pains, but probably heartburn. I know that because in the past week, this strange pain happens right after I drink coffee.

Oh, and have I mentioned that I am very lactose intolerant and I put cream in that coffee?

And last, but not least, I've had eczema on my back for the past 2 months and I know that it's a reaction to something I am eating (allergic reaction), but I have no clue what it might even be. I think all these are a good enough reason for some major change in my eating habits and make sure those changes are permanent, not temporary.

I don't know why I've been doing this to my self, but it ends here, and now. So I am going to use this blog to really inspire myself to make some great changes, and if I can help or inspire anyone else in the process, that's great too!

I would like to mention, I removed my old template and am in the process of revamping the look of this blog (because I like change). But I am having some issues, so please bare with me, as you may find the template changing for a while until I figure out what works. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

So I think this post is long enough for now. The next one will be about the changes I started making today.

What kind of changes did the new year inspire you to make (or want to make)? I'd love to know!

2009 in pictures and my favourite part

2009-12-31T09:27:00.007-07:00

The year is ending and today I found myself reflecting on this past year, like probably many of you have been doing.

At first I thought, It's been boring, nothing happened and I have nothing to talk about... But then I thought about it just a bit more. And "au contraire", it's been a very eventful year!

So here it is, the past year of my life, and the things that happened that brought me where I am today.

First, my kids grew like weeds, as all kids do. Here's the proof:

Ashton in January 2009 and then again this past December.

The difference between those two pictures almost scares me. He grew up WAY too fast.

And here is Arianne in January also and then again in October.

Looking at these pictures made me realize I really need to slow things down and spend more time playing with my kids and enjoy the simple little moments in life even more.

This year, I also discovered green (and purple in this case) smoothies. They changed my life! (and my health). To me, green smoothies are literally the photographic symbol of the fascination I began to have with nutrition.

They are just oh so yummy and give me the best energy boost! Better than any chocolate bar, or caffeine drink, that's for darn sure!

This year we...

...played, snuggled, grew and evolved with our kids LOTS :)

There were a few important firsts.

Like first bike.

And first day of (pre)school).

There were also some silly moments playing in the closets!

But I must say, one of the major things that happened in our house this year is....

My kids became best friends! To me that is the most special thing. I was an only child you see, so I always wanted to have 2 children, so they would not feel alone like I did growing up. Though I am aware a lot of siblings do not get along until they are adults sometimes. On the other hand, my hubby has only one sibling. A sister. They are two years apart and from all the stories I heard of them growing up, they were very close, (though they also had lots of fights as most siblings do).

To see that my children have developed that kind of relationship in just the past year, melts my heart. Don't get me wrong, my son loves to pick on his baby sister. And she loves to get him in trouble and start crying as if she's hurt to make me believe that he hit her. But in the end, they LOVE each other so darn much. They play together all the time, weather it's with his cars and trucks, or with her doll house or tea set. They make crafts together. He's trying to teach her the alphabet and songs now that he's in school. And when we pick him up at school at the end of a class, he always runs to give her a hug and a kiss first. Not me, her. Always.

So I would call this past year, a really good year.

Oh, and I should not forget to mention that our trip to the Canadian Rockies in September definitely rocked my world!

So from my family to yours, I wish you a very Happy New Year and may 2010 bring you lots of health and happiness.

Steph xx

A karate kid and a sleeping beauty

2009-12-29T09:31:00.004-07:00

Good morning all,

Happy Tuesday! I just wanted to share with you these recent pictures.
Yesterday my son asked for my help to put his belt around his head. I asked him why and he said it was to do like karate... I'm not sure where he got that.

And no description needed for this one, but she certainly was a little sleeping beauty.

Have a great day!

Christmas recap

2009-12-28T22:00:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a good Christmas if you celebrated it?

I meant to come by and wish you all a Merry Christmas the day of, but I ended up spending a really nice and laid back day with my family. And in the end, that's more important than turning on the computer, so I figured you'd all forgive me :)

Ours was really quiet this year, since all our family was across country. At first, it really bothered me, but as the Christmas countdown was closing in, and every one's frenzy was hitting an all time high, I found myself really happy and calm knowing I did not have to stress with making appearances here and there, making tons of food for everyone or looking my best at all times.

Instead, we (my hubby, the kids and I) went shopping on Christmas eve to buy the kids a pair of ice skates with gift certificates they got early. Surprisingly, the two stores we went to, were quiet enough. Phew, we avoided the crazy crowds and shopping rush!... only because we did not go to any malls I would say.

That evening, after the kids bath, they were allowed to open 1 present each before bed. I started getting the kids to buy each other presents for special occasions this past year. So that they could really get into the spirit of giving, and not just receiving. Funny thing is, the tree was full (minus Santa's gifts) and they picked what they bought each other.

My daughter had "bought" (ok, mom and dad paid for it, but that's not the point) a cement truck for her brother and he bought his sister a toy playpen for her "babies".

They were so happy!

Of course the next morning, was Christmas. My hubby had set up the video camera so we could film the kids and then send it to our parents so we could share that with them. Now I'm not so sure that would be a good idea. The kids were more interested in opening the presents, and ripping paper and boxes, than they were interested in the gifts themselves. And there was a lot of them. Will all our family away, instead of the kids having presents from us and Santa under the tree and then receiving a few other presents when we go visit family... everyone mailed everything here and the tree was completely jammed packed of presents for the kids.

There was so many, I find it too embarrassing to post a picture of it. It was that bad (I find).
But here is a pic of my son working on his new tool bench like a mechanic.

And here is my daughter wearing her new tutu (she had it on all day) while playing at her new doll house (it's taller than her, in case your wondering).

I am so glad to have Christmas behind us now. Not that it was not great, because it was. But because I wanted something that would be simple and all about spending time together and it seemed like it was all about my kids opening presents and then not being able to appreciate most of them due to the quantity. We might have to figure something out for next year to make sure it doesn't happen like that. I want them to appreciate what they get and not expect so much. But I'm pretty sure I'm not the first mom who thinks that. Anyways.

For boxing day, we took the kids skating for a bit.... And had the best family day since our family golfing day!

I was so caught up in living in the moment and enjoying it, that I completely forgot to take pictures. So instead, all you get is a pic of my daughter's new skates.

Just to show you how small they really are, I put my hand beside them. They are a size 8 (toddler) I believe. Aren't they cute?

My son was not happy with the experience. He completely freaked out, but in his defence, there were still some guys playing hockey at the rink and it was really loud and echo-ey. He gets scared when there are really loud noises like that. But he said he'd try again, which is great. I'll take him to an outdoor rink next time.

As for my little ballerina, she was the opposite. She loved it so much, that she got mad at me when it was time to get off the ice.

"But I want to skate just a wittle more." is what she told me as I led her off the ice.

She did not want a chair either. Just to hold my hands and try to skate. So I am going to look into skating lessons for her for this January. She is still talking about going skating. She mentions it every hour, and I'm sure she'd sleep with her skates if I'd let her.

So that was our quiet Christmas. My hubby is gone back to work for 2 days and then home again for New Years.

The kids and I are just relaxing and enjoying each other's company in the mean time.

Because in the end, that's what Christmas should really be about.

Just in time for Christmas...healthy treats!

2009-12-23T09:29:00.008-07:00

Christmas is in two days... are you ready for it?

I'm ready, but only because I don't have to do any baking this year. Like I mentioned before, it's just going to be my hubby, the kids and I this Christmas since all our family will be across country this holiday season. I will make a nice meal for our Christmas dinner, but I don't have to make breads, 3 kinds of cookies or pies, 2 kinds of salads and 7 main course meals and sides. I feel for you if you do... that would be pretty stressful.

But in case your trying to make/bake all that, I thought I'd share a vegan eggnog recipe from Debbie over at Maple Spice. It's the kind of eggnog you normally find in the dairy section in Canadian stores around Christmas time. The kind I used to be completely addicted to. I'd have no problem polishing a whole liter to myself in a couple of hours. Gross right? I know. I'd get major stomach aches from doing that too... but I found it too addicting for that to stop me. I'll have to talk about my major issues with food someday soon. Maybe it would make a great post for after the holidays when everyone seem to make eating healthy a new years resolution.

Anyways, back to the eggnog. I have not bought ANY this year. Yay me! But when I saw Debbie's recipe, I knew I had to try it.

First I opened the wrong kind of coconut milk (full fat instead and light) so I had to add more rice milk to dilute it a bit, and I did not have any nutmeg or rum extract. And even with all these changes and mess ups, it was still quite good. I'm sure actually adding those two ingredients I was missing would bring this drink to a whole new level! You can find her recipe HERE. Thanks Debbie for sharing this great festive recipe!

And last but not least. This next recipe was my own creation (I came up with it last night actually). I call them Candy Cane Macaroons. They were originally inspired from the twins of pure2raw. You can find their original recipe HERE. But I decided to use Mrs. M's coconut haystack recipe and turned them into a Candy Cane version. And this is what I came up with:

Genius no? Don't they look festive! It's pure food porn I tell you! It's good AND it's healthy. Best of both worlds :)

(Raw) Candy Cane Macaroons

3 cups shredded coconut
3/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 to 3 tsp peppermint extract (not raw)
1/2 cup goji berries (chopped if desired)

In a bowl, put all the ingredients and mix well. (start with less peppermint extract and then work your way up if you want it more minty. I actually ended up using a whole 3 tsp, but it made them pretty strong. So just do a taste test first:)

Use a melon baller and form cute little macaroons. Put in freezer until set and keep in an airtight container. Will keep for a really long time.

Option: Since it's the holidays, here is my present to you. An even more decadent version of this. Try substituting the peppermint extract and goji's for some almond extract and dried cherries! My favourite Christmas (or year round) flavour combo!

I gave one to a friend of mine right after making them who is not into raw or vegan anything and she loved them! And I am sure you will too :)

Have a great day!

Weekly recap of my exciting week

2009-12-20T08:30:00.001-07:00

*** Warning ***

I know this post is long, but I seriously did not know how to make it shorter and really needed to share! So if you choose to keep reading, thank you for your time :)

Before I start talking about what a good week I had, I have to mention quickly that I had been feeling completely run down in the past few months. I'll explain the why in another post very soon. But just keep in mind that I've been really tired, and physically and mentally exhausted lately.

And then my hubby came home on days off. That's always nice, of course. But this time, it was more than that. The first two evenings he was home, he put the kids in bed for me because I had events to attend in the evenings. It was really nice to get a hour "break" here and a two hour break there. To not have to deal with the fighting that can come with bedtime. Because lets face it, bedtime is not always easy.

The third day my hubby was home, he went Christmas shopping in the city. I did not really understand why he wanted to do this, for a few reasons. First, he hates Christmas for the crowds and for the fact that it's just another way the industry has come up with to make more money. But also because he said he was going to the city to get my present.

Um, what present? We were not giving each other presents this year. We talked about maybe getting a wii as a "family present" or just using that money to take the kids to do some activities over the holidays (like bowling, going to the movies, etc) since we don't have any plans this Christmas. (His sister and her family, the only ones that live anywhere near us, are gone on the East Coast to see the rest of their family this holiday).

So like I said, what present? Well, he gave me two reasons.

First, he explained that it's his way of saying thank you for taking care of the kids when he's gone (which is pretty much all the time) and said that he just doesn't tell me enough how much he appreciates what I do. And second, he just bough a new set of golf clubs he technically did not need (since he already has a full golf bag) and even when he spends lots of money on himself, I never ask for anything. I only buy for myself when I absolutely can't put it off anymore and actually need something, versus want.

So what did my sweet better half get for me? How could he possibly find something I want, when I don't even know what I want?

Well, he could not wait until Christmas to give me my present, so I found out early:

Yes, he got me a digital Canon! It's a Rebel xsi, and he got me a 300mm lens too! (The one I got is a little different from the picture, but you get the idea.) Now, I'm sure almost anyone would be very happy with such a present, it's even more special to me.

You see, I used to do photography, years ago when we lived in Prince Edward Island... and before we had kids. I had started my little business, did a few weddings, some family portraits and a few expositions to sell some scenery pictures. I was really getting into it and put together my portfolio. I had my manual camera (you know, the kind with actual film in it), a tripod, a flash, some filters... and he made sure that all my equipment would fit on this new camera. I just appreciate so much how thoughtful he was with this present! Since getting this new camera, I've been just thinking about taking pictures all the time... just like I used to years ago.

Of course, I took a lot of pictures during our last trip to the mountains, back in September. I brought both my manual and my little digital camera. Wanna know the truth? The pictures I took with my manual were not near as good as the one with the digital. Why? I think it's because when you start taking pictures with a digital, you start second guessing yourself if you use a manual again, since you can't see your pictures right away. The problem was that even if my pictures with the digital (the kind that fits in a small purse) were very vibrant and beautiful, the lens that comes on those things was just not as powerful as I'd wish for. You can only zoom in so much with a little digital camera.

Now I won't have those issues anymore. No more second guessing myself, no more missed pictures since I have a stronger lens.

Anyways, enough babbling about the camera. I think you get the idea. I got a new camera, I love my husband for being so thoughtful, I'm happy. :)

As if that wasn't enough to put a huge smile on my face, the very next day, I got to spend it by myself AND in the city to go Christmas shopping. Yes, it's post worthy, because last time I did that, was last year for Christmas shopping too. I never get more than a couple hours break from being a mom. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a mom, and LOVE my kids more than life itself. I think I've been doing a great job taking care of the kids while my husband is away at work all the time, but it seems I've been doing an even better job forgetting about myself since being a mom. I know it's no ones fault, but my own. So I got to finish all our Christmas shopping for the kids, relatives and friends... and even got a few things for my self!

Shocking, I know!

I got a pair of jeans, as I was wearing out the only pair I owned (I know, pathetic, right?) and then got a new pretty shirt to go with the jeans. Trust me, it looks a lot better on me than on the floor, lol. But I really wanted to show it.

I also got a purse because I had seen 4 times and wanted to buy it each times. And I thought, why not? I deserve to buy something purely because I want it.

Of course I wore the new outfit and used my new purse the very next day... and I got compliments on my looks! Wow, it had been such a long time since that had happened! I forgot how sometimes, all you need is to take better care of yourself to gain some confidence. And people notice... not just the outfit.

So how do I feel now? I am no longer the run down and exhausted mom I was a week ago. I now feel rested, calm, at peace. I am happy and people are noticing. My kids are probably noticing too, because we are having a lot more good days. Maybe because I am relaxed enough to deal with what they can "throw" at me during the day. I feel ready to set new goals (and act on them) and feel excited about the little things in life again. There is a lot more smiling and laughing happening in this home right now. I feel like I found a long lost part of myself. I feel like a person again, not just a mom.

Note to self: I need to do this more often than once a year!

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend

A recipe and a little about me

2009-12-17T22:19:00.007-07:00

Hi everyone,
I hope your all having a good week so far? Mine has been quite excellent for once!
I wont go into the details yet, (yes, it's been that good!) as I will keep that post for tomorrow. Because it's bound to be long and it's getting late.

But I thought since I had not blogged much in the past few days, that I'd share a recipe I just made last week. I've been really trying to make an effort to not just eat vegetarian, but even try vegan recipes. Main dishes in particular. I find it easy to make a green smoothie, a vegan salad, or eat vegan snacks like fruits, nuts and veggies (of course!) or bake vegan cookies. But mains... well... I didn't exactly have many of those in my "repertoire". Except for this one:

This is my version (or you might want to call it my interpretation) of Egyptian Koushari.

The first time I had it, was at a friends place. He was actually from Cairo, Egypt and made this dish for us. That day, he happened to make it with just rice and lentils, but he had said that in Egypt, it's typically served with pasta as well as the rice and lentils. But since it's the only way I've ever had it, I don't feel the need to make the pasta too. I like it just like this.

This is such a nice, warm and really filling dish. It makes for a lot of leftovers (if your alone eating it) and freezes really well. It also cost "peanuts" to make, which is great!

I get a very strange (personal) experience when I eat koshari. You see, my father is from Egypt. My parents have been divorced since I was 2 1/2 years old, and I haven't seen (or had contact with) my dad since I was 4 years old. So I don't know him, nor his family. I don't know all that much about "that part of me", except what I learned about Egypt in school, and the little bit that my mom has shared about my father. So when I eat koushari, it's almost like I feel connected to my dad, in a strange way. It also makes me daydream of this exotic land far away from here.

Anyways, back to the koushari. I thought I'd share my version of it:

1 cup of brown lentils (cooked according to package directions)
1 cup short grain (white or brown) rice (cooked according to package directions)
Olive oil
1 cup tomato puree
1 large onion, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, minced

Cook lentils and rice in separate pots, according to package directions.

Chop onions to desired size. Heat olive oil in a pan, add onions and fry until golden brown. Add minced garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Add the tomato puree (or sauce) to the onion/garlic mixture and heat.

To serve, put equal parts rice and lentils in a bowl, and spoon the tomato sauce over top.

I know it may seem like a lot of garlic, but trust me, doing only 1 clove will make the sauce very bland. It really needs 4-5 cloves, in my opinion, and I don't add that much garlic to my recipes usually.

I personally prefer quite a bit of sauce in mine, but that's just how I like it. Then I mix it all up before I enjoy. I kept the last picture for last, because lets face it, it's just not that pretty!

Tip: Too freeze any leftovers, just mix the rice and lentils in a large bowl. Put desired portion size into a container for the freezer and freeze the sauce separately. Then all you have to do is take out a sauce container and a rice and lentil container to have a quick last minute meal!

Enjoy your evening (if your reading this tonight) and I'll be back tomorrow to tell you about my week. You won't believe what happened that made (amd still makes) me SO happy! Stay tuned!

Polymer Ornaments

2009-12-15T08:32:00.002-07:00

I was planning on doing a post about handmade dough ornaments using "pate a sel". A salty dough recipe you make with flour, water and salt. I had even added ground cloves to my dough to make it smell like Christmas. I took pictures of every step for my post, in case I wanted to make a tutorial. I let it dry for almost 2 days, like the directions said. I baked it, like I was told. Then let it dry more, because it was not hard underneath...

And then they bubbled, like they were NOT supposed to do.

My kids were a little sad to put them in the garbage, but what do you do. Sometimes, recipes (edible or not) don't work out.

And then, this morning, I stumbled upon this post from Bloesem Kids...

Remember the Christmas gift tags I shared with you not too long ago? Yes, well, same blog. These ornaments are made from Polymer clay. Absolutely brilliant! Polymer clay comes already made, and with baking directions. It also comes in all sorts of colors, if you wanted to make different ones. It would be pretty much impossible to mess this one up (unlike mine, lol). I am just loving how easy the crafts posted on Bloesem Kids are!

You can find their post for this craft HERE.

I happen to be going to the city tomorrow, so I will make sure to pick up some polymer clay to make these (in a hurry) before Christmas comes. I will also get some okra to make THIS other craft, as I told you I wanted to make. I just can't find okra in my little town. I am thinking Thursday will be a crafting day for the kids and I. And my kids will be excited that our craft project won't end up in the garbage this time ;)

Happy crafting!

Trusting your instincts in the kitchen

2009-12-13T10:49:00.005-07:00

Good morning everyone!

I hope your all enjoying your weekend so far? It's been freezing here (temperatures reaching the -41 celcius), so we've been staying in the comfortable warmth of our home. I mean, who would want to go out in that cold, unless you absolutely had to, right?

So I've been cooking and baking up a storm to keep busy. I've actually been really focusing on making vegan foods. And I must say, so far, everything tasted great! I'll share those tests with you later, but right now, I really had to talk about these little gems I made/invented yesterday.

Yes, I said invented. My very first creation, so to say. I've been baking since I was about 10, but in the past year, I've been learning to trust my instincts when it comes to baking. I used to follow recipes to the letter. And last year, after I started being more and more interested in nutrition, I started adding and subbing a few ingredients here and there to make recipes more nutritious. Like adding flax or replacing eggs with flax (to make recipes vegan), adding shredded coconut for flavor, or replacing some or all the sugar with honey or agave so my son wont go crazy after eating a cookie or muffin.

But that was the extent of the changes I would make to recipes would end there... until yesterday. There was this cookie recipe I had seen on the Vegetarian Times website, that I really wanted to make. But it was calling for prunes and I didn't have any. I could have bought some, but I really wasn't sure what it would taste like and just didn't feel like trying it for some reason. It also called for cold coffee for the liquid.... like I was going to use that! Not that I don't LOVE coffee, because I do. But I was not going to put coffee in a recipes my already crazy kids were possibly going to eat.

Then one thing led to another, and I changed so many ingredients, measurements and technique in the recipe, that it had nothing to do with the original when I was done. And that's how my Green Tea mini cakes were born. (I call them mini cakes, because the texture is "cakey" and fluffy.) I knew they would taste OK, but I certainly was not expecting them to taste amazing. And AMAZING they are!

So this morning, I am going to share with you my fist ever creation.

Green Tea Mini Cakes

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp ground flax
3/4 cup green tea, room temp.
1/2 cup Medjool dates, chopped finely
1/4 cup margarine, melted
1 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup honey
3/4 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup pecans, chopped into small chunks

Preheat oven at 375F.

In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder and soda and salt. Set a side.

In an other bowl, mix ground flax seeds with 2 Tbsp of the green tea while it's warm. Let it sit for a couple minutes, it will thicken a bit. Chop the dates so finely it's almost like a paste. Add the dates to the flax mix and add the rest of the green tea. Mix with a fork and try to "smoosh" the dates as much as you can, to make it "puree like". It's OK if it's not a perfectly uniform mix. Then add margarine and almond extract and mix. Add the honey and mix well.

Next add the flour mixture and mix a little bit, but not until fully incorporated. Fold in the raisins and pecans and mix.

Drop about 1 Tbsp of dough for each "cake" onto a lightly greased baking sheet, about 1 1/2 apart. Bake for 10-14 minutes, until golden brown. Transfer to a rack to cool. It will make a little over 2 dozens.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did! I had to freeze half the batch, because I was unable to stop myself from eating them, that's how good they are! If you try them, let me know what you think, please. I would love some feedback!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Elvis is in the building!

2009-12-11T13:41:00.007-07:00

See the little Elvis face above?

Thank you, thank you very much!

Contest giveaway at CCK

2009-12-11T09:16:00.004-07:00

OK, so this post is for two reasons. First, I want to share with you a cool blog and giveaway that is happening over at Chocolate-Covered Katie. Second, I want to be entered in the contest!!! The prize is pictured above. I've heard of the company Artisana but I've never seen any of their products sold in the health food stores around where I live, so winning ALL this would be awesome. Yes, if you win, you win them all! You can enter the contest HERE. If your going to do it, do it quickly, because it ends tomorrow.

Seriously, you should really check out Katie's blog. She is funny and she shares tons of decadent recipes (all vegan, and some raw). Her blog is not called Chocolate-Covered Katie for nothing, almost everything involves chocolate! Like her brownie batter in a bowl (it's how she calls her chocolate-banana-oatmeal breakfast. Because it actually looks like brownie batter.) And her homemade Larabar is one that doesn't have chocolate, but it's definitely on my "to do" list.

So go on over to her blog and enter that contest. I know I'm drooling at the thought of the cacao bliss and the coconut butter. Because everything is better with chocolate and coconut!

A cute way to keep the cold out!

2009-12-09T18:16:00.004-07:00

These cute draft blockers are an idea I found on the FamilyFun website. You can find the steps and material list HERE. I love that they are easy enough for my kids to help me make them, and would not cost too much either. It gets pretty drafty at our place (darn old windows!), especially now that it's in the -20's, so this is a great project for an afternoon at home.

I just love that striped snake! Don't you?

Supper Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

2009-12-08T17:32:00.007-07:00

In the spirit of the coming holidays, I thought I'd share this cinnamon rolls recipe. Though I have to warn you, they are not vegan, not gluten-free, have oodles of sugar in them and are definitely not low fat.

So why am I posting the recipe?

Because they are that good! I mean, look at them! Does that not look good to you? *Drool* I said they were supper yummy, not super healthy.

I almost never make these, because they are so good, there is no stopping me. And I know what's in them. But I do make them once or twice a year. And I just made them this weekend. (Only so I'd have a picture to post with the recipe... yeah, right! lol) So here goes:

Cinnamon Rolls

4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup margarine
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 beaten eggs
Milk (or milk alternative)
Soft margarine
More brown sugar
Cinnamon

Mix flour, 1/2 cup margarine, baking powder, salt and brown sugar together. Add eggs and enough milk to make a soft dough. Roll into a 1/4 inch think rectangle. Spread with soft or melted margarine and more brown sugar to cover. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 375 F until brown (takes about 20 minutes in my oven).

I know it's pretty vague, and some ingredients don't have measurements, but even before I became comfortable "winging" recipes, I still was able to make this and succeed every time.

Now that I've shared this supper-yummy-and-definitely-not-healthy recipe, I'd like to point out that if I could ever turn this recipe into a vegan one, or even gluten free one, I think that would be awesome. But I have never attempted a gluten-free recipe yet. They scare me. All these different flours, and gums things... I just hate baking something and not knowing before hand that it's going to taste great. And to make it vegan, I don't know if the dough would rise by replacing the eggs with flax and water AND replacing the milk with rice or almond milk would probably change the taste greatly. I'm not sure, but that's what I think.

So I'll ask you this: If you have a cinnamon roll recipe that is vegan (even if it does have white flour in it), can you please share it with me? I promise I will try it, and if I like it, I will feature it here (if it's OK with you) and link back to your blog if you have one. I just really like vegan baking lately. It just makes me feel good to know what goes into it :)

Happy baking!

The importance of eating healthy

2009-12-08T08:56:00.006-07:00

Other than for the obvious reasons, it's especially important to eat healthy in this house. With my son's food sensitivities, if we get off track, it can make a huge difference in his behavior in general, with me and his sister, and ends up affecting my relationship with him, because we end up fighting a lot. I've talked about his sensitivities issues more in past posts. You can read about it HERE and HERE.

Even though I got rid of all the Halloween candy to avoid what happened here, I had not realized that I was headed down the slippery slope of convenience foods meets bad attitude. It was easy to eat healthy this summer. Produce was cheaper and abundant and there was lots of variety. And my normal purchases always included lots and lots of these:

(I do buy veggies too, but fruit is so much prettier to photograph!)

But with the arrival of fall, the start of my son's preschool and when I started going back to work after my summer vacation, convenience foods slowly started making their way back into the house. It's something that happened slowly, that I started doing without realizing. It can really sneak up on you if you are not careful. Not that I started buying Hamburger Helper or frozen chicken nuggets, but it was mostly the kids snack foods that were the issue. Crackers here, granola bars there, new kind of yogurt here.... you get the idea.

And then Sunday happened.

Can you see the mischievous look in his face?

I let them do some Christmas stamping on paper that day.... and when I was giving his sister a bath that night, he got hold of the stamp and used it on the fridge.

And that's just one thing that I could take a picture of... and it was washable. But trust me, he had bad attitude. Attitude that was not like him. Like he was a whole other person.

And then Monday happened.

To make a long story short, I let him have yogurt for a quick breakfast, as I was rushing to get to work on time (I take the kids with me to work :) and he was crazy within minutes of eating "breakfast". He took off on me in the mall when we ran quick errands, grabbed everything in sight in the store, threatened to hit me with his water bottle for no apparent reason...

I was able to get him to have a much needed nap after lunch, got my daughter to nap too and cranked up my iPod and sang out loud. It felt so good! What a release! But somewhere between Cold Play and Black Eyed Peas, it finally hit me like a ton of bricks. The yogurt. It was a different kind from what I used to buy them this summer. He had it for breakfast. Had been crazy since. Had it the day before too, and the day before that. We've been struggling with attitude for the past few weeks, on and off. Duh!!! And I realized it's not just the yogurt. It was a lot of other snack foods. It's my own fault in the end, I'm the parent, and I'm responsible for deciding what they eat. So it's up to me to "clean up my act" (and my fridge).

I actually explained to him last night the issue with the yogurt and the other food he reacts to and he completely understood. I mean completely. This was our conversation:

Me: Ashton, you know how I say your allergic to gold fish crackers
Ashton: yes
Me: Do you know why you can't eat them?
Ashton: Cause they make me crazy!
Me: (Surprised) Um, yes, well, the stuff in those crackers is in other foods as well. Can we get rid of that yogurt you had this morning? Because it makes you crazy too.
Ashton: No it doesn't!
Me: Yes it does. You've been crazy since you had it for breakfast. And remember the big melt down before nap?
Ashton: Oh. Yes. (he goes straight to the fridge and takes them out) OK then!

How smart is he!?! I was in awe.

So today is a new day. No processed snacks for breakfast. No processed snacks at all. Lots of fruits and veggies ALL the time, and there is no looking back. Ever. I just don't have a choice, for all our sakes. It would not be fair to him.

And how is our today so far? Peachy!!! The kids are playing well together, and I got lots of snuggles from my happy and well behaved boy (still very energetic, but hey! He's 4!) this morning with lots of : "mommy, I love you!". Now that's my boy! He's back. And it's up to me to make sure it stays that way.

Here are the kids in our yard on Sunday. This is to show you how much snow we had falling in 24 hours. We could see some grass before the snow fall. And now it's still in the minus 20 celcius!

Walking in a winter wonderland

Have a great day everyone! Going to make the kids a veggie plate for snack now :)

A busy week and a whole lot of pictures!

2009-12-04T20:52:00.016-07:00

TGIF again!

You'll have to excuse the length of this post, but I'm trying to cram a busy few days all into one post. It's been nuts around here this week!

I hope you had a good week? Mine was good, but just a bit (OK, alot actually) busier than usual. Between the usual couple mornings of work, taking my son to preschool and running the normal errands, I also had to drive to the city to exchange our new Christmas tree. My son fell into the tree last year (yes, you read that right) and broke a bunch of branches on the way down. So we needed a new tree this year. We had got a fibre optic one last week and when I set it up I realized that the circular base was not able to hold the tree up AND any heavy ornament was making the branches go all the way to the floor. Anyways, I'm getting away from my point here... Oh yes, I exchanged the tree for a better one. In the city. Took almost a whole day to get just that done. Yuck!

Thursday was C R A Z Y! Work, grocery store, home, take son to playschool (keep in mind his class is only 2 hrs), go to bank, go pay a bill somewhere else, go pick up a Christmas parcel, take Christmas parcel to our storage unit just outside of town, go to health food store, go to other grocery store to finish groceries I was not able to get at other place in morning, go pay for groceries before I'm completely done shopping because otherwise I will be late picking son up from school, go pick up son at school (oh yes, had daughter with me during all that too!), go to other health food store with both kids after, then home to make supper. Phew!!!!

You get the idea! I think I need a drink just thinking back on all the craziness. Well, not really, since I don't drink. But I should! Just kidding.

Thank goodness we had no plans today. We still managed to have a full day. Now, keep in mind, that these pics were all taken today.

My daughter helped me this morning making these vegan fruit & nut bars. You can find the recipe HERE.

They are pretty good, but I might add a touch of maple syrup or agave next time, as they are not sweet at all. And lets face it, I like sweets!

Then I let the kids decorate our new gigantic tree.

It started out pretty well.

They did a pretty good job, but this tree is alot bigger than our last one, so I realized that we don't have enough ornaments and can't find the garlands either.

And the top of the tree is almost naked since the kids couldn't reach! lol. Oh well, at least they had fun!

If your wondering what's on my daughter's cheek, it's a big 'ole smudge of raspberry jam. I was too lazy to wash it off before the picture.

Shortly after decorating the tree, my son came to me with the strangest request: he wanted to do yoga with my DVD! "Sure, go at it!"

He did the whole thing and he loved it! I think this just might become our new mother/son bedtime routine! I was also really surprised at how much he could do. He followed the direction pretty well. I don't know if you can tell, but he's actually doing the same pose as the lady in the TV, lol. (Pardon my mess, those were boxes from the Christmas decorations as well as one of the many loads of laundry that still needs to be folded. Just pretend it's not there, that's what I'm doing tonight ;)

Then I tried this new recipe for lunch. Apple/walnut stuffed acorn squash. I'd share the recipe, but it was not good enough to. I'm just sharing the picture because I thought it looked pretty ;) Speaking of recipe, a few posts ago, I said I was going to try a pumpkin latte recipe and let you know how that turned out... not going to share that either. It was disgusting! I guess that's what happens when you try all kinds of new recipes. Sometimes you love it, sometimes you don't.

And this afternoon I took my son to the salon to get his hair cut. He had not had his haircut at the salon since he was 17 months old... and he just turned 4. Salons and hairdressers used to freak him out. But to my surprise, he did amazing!

Doesn't he look handsome?

Well, going to the salon was not bad, but getting there was. We had something like almost a foot of snow overnight. Literally went from seeing grass last night to waking to a winter wonderland. The salon is only 2 minutes from my place but the road was so bad and slippery.

And it's supposed to be like this all weekend. Actually, the temperature is supposed to drop to the -20 Celsius for the next week. Add the snow on top of that and roads that are not plowed probably until Monday, I figured I might as well get what I needed (movies, and a few forgotten items at the grocery store) so I can hibernate until Monday!

And what happens when your so busy that your poor daughter skipped her naps 3 days in a row?

She falls asleep on the couch at 6pm!

Now it's 11 pm and she's been awake for an hour, so I'm going to call it a night and try to get her back to bed, so I can maby get some shut eye too!

I'll be back this weekend with more posts on crafts and recipes. In the mean time, have a great weekend. I can now officially wear nothing but pj's until Monday morning if I want to. I am not going a-ny-where.

Good night all!

Today I love...

2009-12-01T12:09:00.003-07:00

...this cute holiday gift tag project by Kristen featured on Bloesem Kids.

It's made using Okra (yes, the vegetable), how smart is that?! A project easy enough that even small children can do! I know what I will be doing with the kids this weekend. They will have a blast doing this.

You can see the list of materials and steps for this project HERE. I am thinking of using my Christmas cookie cutters for the shapes (pre-cut them the night before while the kids are asleep, as mine are too young to help with this part) and then let them stamp away. I will post our project after we make it, I can't wait!

I will post more craft ideas soon, as I have been feeling very crafty lately and keep finding some cool ideas online. So I will share them with you :)

Have a great day!

Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-11-30T14:48:00.004-07:00

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you all had a good weekend? We had a busy one here! It might have seemed like I was MIA for a while, but my hubby was home on days off, and his sister, husband and our 2 nephews came for a visit this weekend.

The kids had a great time! They just love getting together and playing the whole time. They live almost 5 hours away, so it's always a nice treat to see them!

Now, everyone is gone, even my hubby and things are returning back to normal around here. It's even a bit too quiet for my liking to tell you the truth. I love having a crowd around! But now that it's just the kids and I at home, I feel like I can focus on getting some stuff done... like baking!

I have not been eating well this past week. It's been really bad. Pizza, chips & dip, hot dogs (yes, I even caved in for meat, and it was hot dogs, not proud of myself), candy, and whatever I could get my hands on. Told you it was horrible! It's pretty amazing what a drug junk food can be!

So I've been back on oatmeal, fresh veggies and green smoothies so far today and it feels so good! But after all that crappy eating of the past few days, by body is craving some sweets.

So yes, I made chocolate chip cookies. But NO, there will be no pizza, chips, dip, candies or hot dogs in sight for a long while. I do not enjoy feeling tired and like crap.

Anyways, I thought I would share this cookie recipe. I used to make them every now and then, but this time, I actually found them a bit too sweet (Imagine that, after all the stuff I ate, they seemed too sweet!). So next time, I will maby halve the sugar in them, or replace the sugar completely for another healthy substitute (like agave nectar). But for now, I will share the recipe as is.

Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp ground flax with 1 1/2 Tbsp water (see tip on bottom for how to make flax egg replacer)
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, or carob chips
2 Tbsp (or more) shredded unsulphured coconut
2 Tbsp (or more) sunflower seeds

Mix all the ingredients. Spoon on a baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 10 to 15 minutes. This batch makes about 18 cookies.

Tip to replace eggs in recipes

For each egg a recipe asks for, mix 1 Tbsp of ground flax with 1 1/2 Tbsp water. You can either let it sit for about 5 minutes, or micro-wave it for a few seconds (about 10). It will have a gooey texture, almost like egg whites. Works really well in cookies and muffins. You may have to test some recipes though, especially if it's a cake or loaf, to see if it will rise properly. It's a great way to "veganize" any recipe, or if your in a pinch and ran out of eggs.

I hope this helps!

I hope you all have a great day, I'm going to make a pumpkin latte now (new recipe, I will let you know how it turns out) and sit down with a good book for a little while (or as long as the kids will allow :)

Stephanie xx

Today I love...

2009-11-24T09:47:00.005-07:00

pepperpaints.com! It's a cool blog full of stuff I love. She is a mom who home schools her kids and her blog is full of recipes and cool stuff to do with the kids, weather your homeschooling yours or not.

Here is just a few examples to make your mouth water, or pique your curiosity even more...

These yummy looking pumpkin bagels caught my eye yesterday. You can find the recipe HERE, along with her maple butter and honey butter to serve with them.

picture via pepperpaints

Lets not forget this super cool pumpkin scented play dough! You can find her recipe HERE.

picture via pepperpaints

And last but not least, since this is the germy season and everyone around seems to be getting sick, more this year than the previous ones, I thought I would point out that she has 2 very cool recipes for some non-toxic, germ-fighting, disinfecting sprays (as she calls them). They are sprays that you can feel safe using in your home and around the kids, but strong enough to kill all the germy/icky stuff that may be lingering in your home. You can find that super cool and natural recipe HERE.

Speaking of germs, I am happy to report that my kids are no longer sick with Scarlet Fever, thank goodness! I am going to head to the health food store today and hopefully I can get what I need to make pepperpaints germ-fighting room spray, so we can make sure we don't get sick again! In the last month, our family had the flu (possibly of the swine variety) followed by a massive double ear infection, and scarlet fever. I'd be silly not to try this spay!

I am also going to make the pumpkin bagels (something I've never made) sometime this week. We have relatives coming over for a visit this weekend and it would be nice to treat them with something like that for breakfast! I will report back on how they turn out, promise!

Have a great day!

Got Tofu?

2009-11-21T15:00:00.001-07:00

How is everyone today?

I hope your doing better than we are. My kids had a massive fever from Wednesday night to Thursday night (yes, both of them) and no symptoms. I thought it was quite strange, but when they woke up Friday morning with a strange rash over most of their bodies, I knew something was up. I had seen this rash before... on me! When I was a teenager. So I took them to the Dr. pronto.

They have scarlet fever! I am not kidding you.

We had plans for Thursday, Friday and today (Saturday) and of course those are the days they have been sick and are still contagious. I think tomorrow they will be able to go in public without making anyone sick. We woke up to a beautiful view of the ground and trees being covered in a thick blanket of white snow. Poor them, they just want to go play in it, but I have to make sure they no longer have a fever before I let them play outside in the white stuff.

Since we haven't been anywhere or done anything interesting, I thought I'd share a couple tofu recipes I was keeping for when I have nothing else to talk about.

To be honest with you, I have never had tofu in anything other than these two recipes I am going to share with you. Ever. And I know tofu (as is any soy product) is quite processed, but it's still less processed than some other things I have been going for in the past (and more recently again too. *gasp*. I've been going a bit off track with healthy eating). So I decided that for now, I'm OK with eating once in a while (until I research more on the pro and cons of tofu, there is so much mixed info out there!) if it's going to help me get back on track.

These recipes are so good, and any meat eaters would never guess there is tofu in there! I remember the first time I had tofu, I thought it would taste funny. Nope. Just the name is funny, but not the taste. Because tofu taste like whatever you put with it, which makes it so versatile.

Chocolate mousse

In the blender, blend 1 cup silken tofu until smooth. Then transfer to a bowl.

Next, melt 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or carob chips) in a double boiler. At the last second, add tsp vanilla extract, or whatever other extract that floats your boat. Then transfer the melted chocolate into the tofu puree and fold with a spatula until well combined. Serve in small bowls. It's very rich, so you don't need much. What was in that half a glass, was almost the whole batch and I ate it in 4 separate times.

You can serve it immediately for more of a pudding consistency, or as a chocolate dip for fresh cut fruits (Yum!) or put in the fridge for more of a mousse consistency. Either way, it's delish!

Now, unless your going to make a double batch of the chocolate mousse, your going to be left with some silken tofu. What to make with it?

A yummy Strawberry Almond Soy Smoothie, of course!

10 medium frozen or fresh strawberries

1 cup soy, rice or nut milk of your choice
1/2 cup silken tofu
2 Tbsp maple syrup or sweetener of your choice
1/4 tsp almond extract
Blend until smooth.

It's a yummy pink berry concoction I'm sure you will enjoy!

Have a great weekend!
Stephanie

Cute moments in a cahotic day

2009-11-18T16:49:00.006-07:00

Today, things have been crazy.
But I don't want to vent, so I'm not going into details.
So I thought I'd just post some cute pics I took of my kids this morning.

They were looking in their find and seek book, taking turns, playing nicely.

And posing for me.

They were having a great time together, without fighting.

Those moments make my heart melt. They definitely put a smile on my face, no matter how crazy my day was. And remind me that my day wasn't that bad after all and that tomorrow is another day.

Natural bath cleaner

2009-11-16T09:36:00.006-07:00

Good morning!
I had such an awesome weekend! We literally lounged in our pj's from Friday night until Sunday morning. I got to read more of my book (I can't believe my kids allowed that to happen), we played games and even went on a nature walk and collected pine cones to use for Christmas decorations and to have on hand for some winter crafts (I will blog about that later).

Even though we had a super lazy laid back weekend, I wasn't that lazy!

Because to me, weekends are also synonymous with cleaning the house. My bathtub was in good need of a scrub. I hate cleaning the bath, it sucks! Who in their right mind would actually enjoy that task? I also hated doing it, because I have to use harsh cleaners to get the job done, I'm allergic to latex, so I can't use the cleaning gloves and almost all cleaners give me rashes. So you can see how extra pleasant it can be for me to do this... not!

Not to mention the fact that I never clean the bath before the kids go in it. I always make sure I'm the first one to have a shower before they have a bath in the clean tub. Why? Because the thought of them bathing with the chemicals was making me sick.

No more!

I heard of a trick and thought I'd try it. Freakin' amazing! Are you ready for it? Here goes:

Natural bath cleaner

Cut a lemon in half, sprinkle some baking soda on it, and scrub away.

Yep, that's it! And it works like a charm and smells so fresh and clean! When you sprinkle the baking soda on the lemon half, it starts bubbling. I knew right away it was going to work. You might have to sprinkle baking soda a few times on the half, depending on how dirty it is, or use more than one half. Whatever the case, but I did it bare hands and I was not itchy one bit! Just rinse well to remove the soda residue and voila!

For the fist time ever, I had a clear conscience when the kids had their bath the very next day. Oh, by the way, you can also use this for the sinks in the bath room and the kitchen or a dirty stove top.

How cool is that?

If you have any homemade cleaner recipes that you love, I'd love to hear about it!

A cool refreshing drink...on a cold fall day?

2009-11-13T22:57:00.007-07:00

I tried a new drink today and I just had to share.

It's called Chia Fresca and you can find the recipe on the blog Kristen's Raw. I wrote down the recipe months ago when she posted it because it seemed interesting, but I did not have chia seeds. I actually had never even tried them before.

But I just bought some chia seeds last week, and I happen to have a bag full of grapefruit that I did not know what to do with. And this is what I made:

Chia Fresca III

It's cool, refreshing and... I know, it's not summer here anymore. I sure wish I would have tried it a few months ago when it was still warm outside. And I can honestly say, that you don't taste the sour of the grapefruit in this drink. Not one bit! Not a fan of chia seeds, or just don't have them? Then just make it without. You'll still be surprised by this juice.

At least now I know what to do with the other 6 grapefruits that are in my fridge!

OK, maby the next recipe I share with you will be something... um... warmer. I promise!

Ignorance is bliss!

2009-11-13T13:55:00.010-07:00

I don't think I ever truly understood the meaning of the expression "ignorance is bliss" until yesterday. I sort of had an eye opening revelation.

Being ignorant is easier, but it's certainly not better. I say easier, because once you have knowledge you did not have previously, you have to make changes you might not have been ready for, or not willing to make yet.

Photo via goveg.com

I have been toying with the idea of becoming vegetarian for almost 2 years now. In the beginning, it was purely for weight loss reasons. I've tried twice, but only managed to make it last for about a month or two at a time.

Photo via goveg.com What I used to think animal farming looks like everywhere.

But through those years, I have researched online trying to find information about becoming vegetarian, as I had no idea how to eat properly. (I am now fully aware, that you can be vegetarian or vegan and still eat primarily processed foods or still eat meat and consume a whole food diet, but that's a story for another day.) Through those online researches, I stumbled upon a lot of articles and video's about animal cruelty.

Stuff that would make anyone puke!

No, I'm not going to post them here. If you are curious, just do any online search about farming and animal cruelty, and you'll have more information that you will know what to do with.

It's how I got myself to stop eating meat the first time... I grossed myself out by watching videos online of cow's being skinned alive, pigs and chickens being mistreated in ways that I never could have imagined another human could think of.

Photo via goveg.com Farmer's removing or grinding pig's teeth with no anaesthesia is common practice. This is just a mild example of what some do to these animals.

Both times, I relied heavily on other animal products to make my meals, accompanied of refined starches and not including enough fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, beans and whole grains. I can tell you I felt like crap eating like that.

One thing I have done, is reducing my meat consumption over the last year. I seem to feel a lot better when I don't eat it, compared to when I do.

Since September, I have read Skinny Bitch and am now in the process of reading The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone. Very eye opening. I am devouring her book right now, I can't get enough of it.

I am not kidding when I say I am only at page 45 of her book and already some things have clicked with me. And I mean, really clicked. All this information I had learned about how the meat AND egg AND dairy industries are not only making a lot of animals suffer, but are also completely horrible to the environment, not to mention what it does to our bodies, finally resurfaced in my conscious. I don't know how I could have conveniently "forgotten" all this knowledge, but I can say that reading this book at the moment, is making me realize that can no longer ignore what I know.

So while ignorance is bliss, I am now choosing (not trying) to do THE change.

For some, it's an overnight thing, while for others, it takes years. Looking back, I now see that it's something that has been changing for a while already now. I have and I'm still making changes. For my health and for the environment mostly, but as well for those cute little animals. Everyone has their own journey in life. Mine has been leading me towards this for a while now. And really, if I want to be a holistic nutritionist, how can I tell people to eat healthy and not do it myself? How could people take me seriously? Not that you have to be vegetarian/vegan to be a holistic nutritionist. But I have to do what feels right for me and right now, this is what feels right. Now, I know I'm ready to finally cut meat out.

I know, because now when I eat out, I make vegetarian choices without even thinking about it. I know because the last few times I ate meat, I not only didn't enjoy eating it, I did not even want to cook it.

I am no longer ignorant, because now, I KNOW.

Note: I would just like to mention, that while I truly believe that this is what I have to do for myself at this moment, I keep my mind open. Nothing is ever final. Everything changes. Change is what makes people grow, as well as knowledge. I also won't judge anyone who still eats meat. Some people can eat meat and still have a very healthy diet. This is just my journey, and I wanted to share it with you.

Going loco for coconut smoothies!

2009-11-11T16:28:00.011-07:00

Well, the weekend is definitely over now. I know, it's Wednesday your telling me. I mean, my husband's days off are done. Whenever he's home, it always feels like a weekend to me.

We had tons of fun! We went to the city a couple times, I got some Christmas shopping done (sorry Val, I'm not telling you what I got you, you will have to wait! haha) and we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's for our son's birthday (sort of a late present).

After a weekend of what felt like indulging in tons of junk foods, I was certainly craving something healthy for lunch today. So I had this:
Well, minus half the avocado. I was to full to eat it all.

The other day, I talked about how I had bought a coconut and I would try it in a smoothie...

Well, I tried it. With some fresh pineapple, banana, orange juice, spinach, hemp and chia seeds (my first time trying chia seeds too!).

It tasted great! The mix of the coconut and chia seeds made this super smoothie, super filling! I had it for a mid-afternoon snack and I was still so full by supper that I was unable to eat my meal. So I'll have to make sure I only put chia seeds in my breakfast smoothies. Mornings are when I tend to be the hungriest, so that would work out perfectly!

That smoothie was so surprisingly good, that I decided to try it again when I was hungry for a mid-morning snack...

Only this time I omitted the chia seeds, used water and orange pieces instead of orange juice.

Bad idea!
I know it looks pretty good, but if you don't have a blender as strong as a lawn mower, then don't put pieces of oranges in your smoothie. I ended up with tons of large pieces of the fibre. Like at every sip. It was sticking to the inside of my throat and almost made me gag. I could not drink it. And I hate wasting a good green smoothie, but I really could not swallow this :(

But before I had a chance to try it, my son surprised me when I heard him say he wanted some in his own glass. I have not been able to get him to drink any since summer ended.

Mmmm, a yummy green mustache! He had a few sips, and then decided he was done with it. Once I tried mine, I understood why.

Other than the orange in the smoothie idea back firing on me (only because I don't have a Vita mix or a Blendtec), I definitely would give coconut meat a go in there! It's delish!

Have a great evening and happy blending!

Comment issues should be resolved

2009-11-09T17:55:00.008-07:00

Good evening!

I hope you all had a great weekend? Mine was awesome! I'm just sneaking a quick post because some of you brought to my attention that you were unable to leave comments on my blog. I guess there was an issue with the privacy codes and it would not allow to go through. So I removed it.

I love receiving comments, knowing what you have to say and what your thoughts are, so I hate the thought that some were unable to post comments. Hopefully it's fixed now.

I will leave you with this picture of my daughter hugging her new bed. Yes, she loves it that much! I promise, I will show pictures of her room (before and afters) when it's all done. I got the bed and the bedding, but I have a few things left to do before I can say it's finished. If you missed it, you can see my inspirations for her room here.

Well, I'm off to do some mom stuff before the kiddo's go to bed, like doing dishes, get them ready for bed, pick up the toy mess and wash the bath tub.
Ah, the glamorous life of a mom!

Enjoy your evening and I'll post again in a couple days (or tomorrow evening, you never know :)

Homemade play dough

2009-11-06T21:27:00.007-07:00

It's Friday night and that means the weekend technically starts now! Woo Hoo!

I thought I'd write a quick post right now, since my hubby just got home from work for his 4 days off (in case your new to this blog, he works away for 14 days at a time). Which means for the next 4 days, I'm going to enjoy some family time and we'll also celebrate our son's 4th birthday together. I always look forward to seeing how happy and surprised the kids are when they wake up in the morning and realize that Daddy's home!

Anyways, I thought I'd post a Quick and Easy Homemade Play dough Recipe. I made again a couple weeks ago, on a rainy day, and the kids were in desperate need of some quiet play time. OK, I was in desperate need of them having some quiet play time.

It's super cheap, easy and quick to make. Gotta love that!

You will need:

2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. (don't use whole wheat, or you will have little "chunks" in your dough.)
1/2 cup salt (this is how I am finishing the container of table salt I no longer use in our food :)
2 packs of unsweetened juice powder such as KoolAid. (yes, it has to be the stuff with no sugar, not because it's edible dough, but because the ones with sugar already added to them have a much bigger quantity of powder in the pouch. I'd like to point out, I never allow my kids to drink juices like that, but it makes for easy and cheap colors in this case :)
3 Tablespoons of oil.
2 cups boiling water.

I usually divide the recipe in half so I can have two batches of dough in different colours.

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add oil and boiling water all at once. Mix well and knead in more flour if it's still sticky. Depending on the colours of juice powder used, sometimes you need more than the recommended amount of flour. Let cool before using.

Store in a resealable bag or container. It will last a few months.

Homemade play dough: $1
Play dough accessories: $20
Hours and hours of peace for Mom: Priceless
.... For everything else, there is...

I'm just kidding. But it did keep them busy for a good hour, I'm sure.
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! I know I will!

My little man's birthday

2009-11-04T19:22:00.011-07:00

I cannot believe my little boy turned 4 today!

This little boy initiated me to the wonderful life of motherhood, of loving more than I ever thought anyone could ever love another human being and of becoming selfless instead of being selfish.

I honestly don't remember what life was like before kids, but it must have been pretty boring! He has kept me on my toes, made me laugh and taught me a lot about myself. He is a very loving, curious, intelligent, energetic, gentle, and affectionate little boy.

I am so lucky to have him in my life.

I love watching him grow and learn....

... and be silly, just because.

Happy Birthday little man, you bring so much happiness to my life!!!

I scream for Raw Banana Ice Cream!

2009-11-03T08:18:00.009-07:00

Good morning!
How are you today?

Things have returned to normal here, the kids have been "down" from their sugar high since yesterday and everyone is happy and calm(er) again.

That makes for one happy Mama!

A couple days ago, I decided to buy a coconut. I can't find young Thai coconuts here unless I drive an hour to get to the city, so I had to settle for a mature coconut.

I collected a little over a cup of coconut water from it, it's delish! Not to mention so good for you! Did you know that coconut water is full of electrolytes? I only learned that recently, I thought it was interesting. I'll have to keep coconut water on hand in summer months, as I tend to get weak easily when I spend any amount of time in the sun. Coconut water would beat the heck out of the sugary and artificially coloured store bought electrolyte drinks!

Anyways, back to my coconut...

Does that not look yummy?

I was not too sure what I was going to do with it, but I figured if I could not think of a use for it, I could always just eat the "meat" straight up, because I love coconut enough to do that. Call me crazy! ;)

I had been thinking of trying to make some raw banana ice cream for a while, and after reading a few ways to do it on blogs, and even on YouTube, I finally decided to try it. I've seen alot of people making it using straight up frozen bananas, but it was not moving along in my food processor. So to help it a little, I added a touch of the coconut water.

I ended up with this...
Wow, this stuff blew my mind!!!

You can eat it right away, because it has the consistency of soft serve, or you can freeze it. No ice cream machine needed if you don't have one!

The taste reminded me of this frozen treat my mom used to buy when I was a kid. They were these sort of Popsicle's from Chiquita (one of the banana growers) and this raw ice cream has the same taste. Needless to say, I feel like a happy kid eating this! Even my kids loved this one! I should give them some for breakfast, if it's going to get them eating healthy again, ha!

The stuff was so good, I got a little carried away making raw ice cream.

So I soaked some raw cashews, blended them with some water, added frozen bananas, some fresh pineapple chunks... and then added some coconut meat.

It made for an interesting texture. I could not tell if I liked it or not. The next day, I decided to give it a try again and to my surprise, it's actually really good. Addicting even!

Now I have about half of that coconut left and some of the water as well... going to make a green smoothie with it, I'll let you all know later how that turned out, so stay tuned!

I know, I'm getting excited about trying recipes with coconut.

I'm a food nerd, what can I say!

Have a great day!

Halloween recap

2009-11-01T20:46:00.008-07:00

My little Pirate and Fairy Princess really enjoyed themselves this year for Halloween.

We had a little party at our playgroup...

Where only one of them actually dressed up. The other one had a tantrum and wanted the dress off as soon as we got to the car. Oh well.

I took them to that little party, because this playgroup is usually so good and they try to feed the kids healthy snacks. But everyone brought something, and they brought oatmeal cookies (covered in icing and candy), meringue cookies (covered in artificial coloring and extra sugar), and there were even oranges (emptied, and filled with green jello and gummy worms.
Yeah, I was not too impressed with the assortment of "food".
Thank goodness, my kids only had a meringue cookie and called it quits. I could see my poor little pirate vibrate after that. (As I've mentioned in a previous post, he reacts strongly to sugar, dyes and artificial coloring, so I cringe every time he eats things like that, because I never know how badly it will affect his behaviour).

Here is a quick snapshot I took, in the middle of the week. Out of the blue, he decided to wear his pirate hat. Apparently, it helps his putt or something, lol.

My Fairy Princess refused to wear the dress to her brother's preschool class Halloween party, so she went as a Fairy I guess. And she had to show off her pearls!

Still at the preschool party. They really enjoyed themselves there. Thank goodness there were some fruits and veggies here! The teacher is very strict about healthy foods and how they come first, so that's always good.

It's my first time having a child go to school, but apparently, some parents bring some treats for all the kids on Halloween, and so my kids got to have a piece of Mars bar at the end of the party and another big piece (more like 3-4 bites) of chocolate they brought home. Result: they buzzed from when they ate it at 3 pm until 7:30 when I put them in bed. Lovely! Not!!

My daughter while I'm at work in the babysitting room. She really loved her fairy wings and the pearls, so she insisted on wearing them again. I'd let her wear them everyday, she's just so cute in it!

Later that day, I let them draw all over the pumpkin, because I was too lazy, I mean busy, to carve it. That's ok though, they had fun doing that, and in a couple days, I'm going to "hack" into it, and try to make some home made pumpkin puree for some recipes, and lets not forget the yummy seeds!!

They just were so cute in their costumes, they almost looked like angels. What you wouldn't know by looking at this picture, is that they were horrible ALL day. And I mean, bad. As in I was pulling my hair out kind of bad. They only settled down when they put their costumes on. Strangely, even after we got home and they had candies and chocolate, they remained calm until bedtime last night.

That gave me a false sense of confidence that I had dodged the sugar rush bullet. They (mostly my Pirate) was crazy from the moment he woke up until an hour before bedtime.
Crazy as in hyperactive and sassy.
Talking back to me.
Hitting and picking on his sister.
Then he finally settled down. For an hour.
Then he started having meltdown after meltdown.
I knew it was time to call it a day, plus it was just about bedtime anyways.

And then it went from bad to worst.
He physically fought me from taking him to his room, kicking and screaming.
Would not stay in his bed.
Screaming some more.
It was horrible. Really horrible.
For both of us, I'm sure.
Then he crashed and fell asleep while crying.
Then he had 2 night terrors (he used to have them every night until a year ago, he almost never have them anymore, so 2 in one night is a big sign.)
And now he's asleep on the couch behind me, and I'm scared to move him back to his bed, for fear of possibly triggering another night terror.

THIS is what used to happen in our house on a daily basis. (not the candy related celebration, but the attitude issues I mean).
And it was and is all related to food, in our case.
(No wonder I started being interested in nutrition!)

There had been some attitude in the past few days, but it really just built up in his little body I think. And then last night's candy (the like 6 things he had, which is alot for someone who almost never has any) was his breaking point. It was still in his system today, he was unable to control himself because he was on a sugar buzz from last night's treats.

I am thinking this candy is going to make a special trip to the garbage bin (outside, so there is no turning back).
It's not worth it.
And most of all, it's not fair, to me, or to my son.
Letting him have it, is like doing this to him on purpose.

I didn't realize that until tonight.

I spoke with my husband (who has been away at work for the last week) and he is supportive of the idea of not letting the kids trick or treating again.
I now have a year to think of a new Halloween tradition for my kids that does not involve getting any amount of candy.
I'm ok with costumes and pumpkins, just not with the candy.
I love my son too much to do that to him again.

I hope you all had a great weekend, weather you celebrated this holiday or not.

If you have any ideas for a fun tradition I could do with my kids next year, don't hesitate in leaving me a comment. I'd love to hear from you!

TGIF!

2009-10-30T20:41:00.011-06:00

I don't know about you, but my week felt cahotic for some reason.

Possibly because we had to jump back into my part-time job and Ashton's preschool classes routine after being sick for over a week.

Could also be due to the Halloween celebration at the kids play group (I sometimes take them there when I'm able to) and the Halloween party at Ashton's preschool class that the parents and younger siblings were invited.

But I'm thinking the cahos I felt could mostly be due to all the kids excitement (aka hyperactivity) and the early Halloween candy they ate then followed by some more hyperactivity.

I enjoy the excitement my kids feel while getting ready for trick or treating, I enjoy walking with them in the crisp fall air, I enjoy seeing their little faces smile from ear to ear. What I do not enjoy is dealing with my kids nagging me every hour because they want another piece of candy or chocolate. I also do not enjoy the hyperactivity and moods that follow eating such things. I am thinking we will only go to a few houses, and then call it a night. I even have the strange urge to make this our last time trick or treating... We'll see.

I decided to post an early Halloween pic of my little Fairy Princess because she decided she does not want to wear her costume anymore. She can be sassy like that. So I'm pretty sure this was the only pic of her in that dress I'm going to get for a while.

But she sure looks beautiful in it!

On a different note,

A few weeks ago, I decided to try and make a raw tart, for the first time.

First, I made the crust with some raw almonds, pecans, dates, orange zest, cinnamon and some ground flax.

There was so much of it, I had to freeze half of it. Oops!

Then I shaped it to form sort of a pie crust. I was quite pleased with it. Turns out I'm pretty good at crust shaping.

Then, I processed some coconut oil, some dates, the juice of an orange and...

ended up with this weird texture. My orange had been in the fridge, so the juice of it was cold, and as soon as the liquid coconut oil touched the orange juice, it hardened :( Oh, and I used the small container attachment of my food processor and the juice was starting to come out of the sides as it was mixing. Laugh all you want, I did!

The orange flavour did make it into the coconut oil though, so that was a plus. I think I need to practice more so my raw deserts can actually look like I picture them in my head. I assumed it would look like orange creamcicle or something. NOT.

But it did taste like it!!!

Oh well, all and all, it was pretty good for a first time I thought. I had no problem eating it, that's for sure. I tried to share with the kids, but they wanted nothing to do with it. So I had it all by myself. (Over the course of a few days, not all the same day!)

I should try a new raw recipe this weekend, just so I have something decadent yet healthy on hand, to help resist the halloween candy temptation... I'm going to need all the help I can get.

Hope you all have a great weekend and have a happy Halloween (if you celebrate it).

Coup de coeur

2009-10-29T21:16:00.005-06:00

I love "blog surfing". There are so many interesting blogs out there!
But once in a while, you stumble upon a blog that you find interesting enough to start following.
And what's even more rare, is when I find a blog that speaks so much to me, that I feel compelled to read every single post on it. Does that ever happen to you?
In french, we call that a "coup de coeur". I guess the translation would be love at first sight.
(If your wondering why the heck I'm using a french expression all of a sudden, it's because french is my first language. I'm from Montreal... there is so much you don't know about me! It will have to wait to another post ;)

Well, it happened to me last night!

I found a blog called Making love in the kitchen, by Meghan Telpner.

She is a nutritionist and holistic lifestyle consultant AND she's Canadian! Woo Hoo!

Haha, sorry, but I think that's cool.

I had talked about last month why I became so passionate about nutrition and how I want to become a holistic nutritionist. (You can read about it HERE.) So when I read Meghan's description and found out that she is doing what I want to do, that definitely made me want to read more.

But you don't have to want to become a nutritionist to like her blog. She has (quirky, fun) videos, recipes (mostly vegan) and she shares the nutrition info in a non boring way. She believes in eating a whole foods, predominantly plant based diet (like I do), and I love all the actually healthy recipes she shares. Now I find it gives me a good point of reference on how to start making wholesome healthy meals for the kids and I.

She just really inspired me on not giving up and now I feel like I don't have to feel pressure, to just take the changes one step at a time. She also renewed my lately-not-so-bright spark for nutrition. I had been in a funk in the last few weeks, but now, I feel ready to take a step forward.

Anyways, I guess I should stop rambling. The point is, if your looking for new healthy recipes, or just like reading about nutrition in a non boring kinda way, go check out her blog!

Now I'm off to read every possible post she wrote until I have to go to bed. And yes, I have other things to do, but I just don't feel like doing them right now. Dishes can wait! ;)

Getting my kids to eat healthy again

2009-10-27T10:44:00.007-06:00

Good morning everyone!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far? Yesterday has been a very interesting day for me, but I'm choosing not to vent about it. I'll just say that a shopping trip with overtired and overactive kids was not a good idea and I ended up with a flat tire while in the city, an hour away from home. Like I said, it was interesting, lol.

Anyways, I mentioned on my last post that my kids had not been eating so well lately and it was driving me crazy! When something does not go your way, do something about it! So I've been going strong again with the section plates (though there is no real meal on them most times, something I've been having issues with getting them to eat, they are filled with fruits and veggies) and at snack time, I've been offering them plenty of fruit plates.

I started giving them fruit plates at snack times this summer, when the fruit selection at the grocery store was big and inexpensive. (I also had been meaning to post about it before now, but it never happened for some reason.)

This is a fruit plate I gave them this morning, with Bartlett pears, blackberries, red grapes and I decided to add some raw cashews and raw almonds to make sure their little tummies would stay full until lunch time. They have been very hungry since they got over that flu. Making up for lost times I guess :)

This one is strawberries, clementines and grapes.

Yummy berries and apples. This one is from this summer when berries were at their peak and the prices were at the lowest. I feel kinda sad looking at this. Makes me miss fresh blueberries.

(I apologize for the pictures being rotated the wrong way, it would not let me change it for some reason)

I like to do fun designs, but sometimes, simplicity is best.

Either way, my kids have been gobbling these up in no time. I feel so much better now that they are eating fruits and veggies again. They are slowly "detoxing" from all the processed carbs they had been eating, they are getting stronger and stronger after their bad flu, and they stopped asking me for junk every time they are hungry.

Thank goodness!

I guess their healthy eating is mostly up to me at this age, isn't it? They can't eat what I don't offer them. It's my job as a parent to offer healthy food. It's their job to decide weather or not to eat it.

They did refuse the fruits and veggies for a few days, but I think they decided that eating healthy was better than going hungry.

Now, if I could just get them to eat soup, or a casserole, I'd be all set! One battle at a time I guess.

I'm baack!

2009-10-24T12:29:00.006-06:00

Sorry I have been MIA for over a week now.
I can't say that I've been too busy to come here and write anything.
Also can't say that I did not have any inspiration, because I did.

No, no excuses of the sort.

So... what did happened?

The kids and I had the flu.
A flu of the H1N1 variety I'm pretty sure (we are still waiting on the lab results to confirm).
Yes, you read that right.
It was one of the nastiest flu's we've ever had.
Sick-as-a-dog.

There has been alot of outbreaks here in Alberta and especially in my little middle-of-nowhere town. By last week, there were 4 confirmed cases at the local elementary school alone.
I also have 2 friends who's daughters (2 and 3 years old) had confirmed cases as well.
Who knows how many confirmed cases there are in town by now...

It has been a looooooong week.
I am glad the strain found here is supposed to be a mild one.
I would hate to see a not so mild strain of that flu.
I was exhausted! There was a few days period, that it took every ounce of energy I had to even just get off the couch to get the kids some water. My husband was away for work (good for him, that means he didn't get it, bad for me, I had no one to help me) and I had to drag myself and the kids to the hospital. Like I said, we are still waiting for the results and it's been a week. The provincial lab is backed up at this point.

I even had to go back to the hospital a second time with my little Buddy, because after a day of seeming better, he was back on the couch, with a very high fever and not drinking more than 8 oz in two days. He was really starting to scare me. Turns out he had got better from the flu, but he now had a double ear infection. Poor little guy.

But we are better now. No more fevers, no more exhaustion (still a bit tired, but it's not too bad), and no more coughing.

My husband happen to come home on days off just as I was starting to feel better. So I left him with the kids for a much needed trip to the grocery store. The kids had not completely lost their appetites during this flu, but they certainly had lost their taste for anything extra healthy (aka fruits and veggies). So frustrating!

So I made sure I got lots of produce. I got a little carried away with the fruit I think. See:
That's just for the kids and I. I know, it seems like alot, doesn't it?

So now, the battle begins. Trying to get them to eat healthy again. I am not kidding. They reverted so far back with their eating it's not even funny.

They are complete refined-carb-a-hoolics now. Organic corn pops, rice crackers and granola bars seems to be the only thing they have been wanting to eat in the past 2 weeks. And in the past month, they have slowly, but surely been refusing the meals I make. I can't tell you I am proud of this, but it's what happened.

My husband eats the standard American diet (with no fruits and almost no veggies), and I'm going vegetarian with an incline towards raw vegan foods... no wonder the kids are all mixed up. I have been struggling with finding a balance, but that's a story for another day...

In the mean time, I need to make sure I offer the kids LOTS of good foods, so they can get strong again and not get sick with this flu a second time.

So when they came and asked me for a snack this morning, I'm sure they had something like crackers in mind, but this is what I gave them instead:

With food this beautiful, hopefully I can win them over again. I've done it once, I'm sure I can do it again.

Little girl's room ideas

2009-10-14T22:32:00.011-06:00

Next week, my hubby will be coming home for days off and we have planned to go out and get our little girl a bigger bed. We changed her crib to a toddler bed when she was 16 months. I know, it's early, but she was ready. She only tried to get out of her bed 2 times at night once we removed the bars. Now, she is 2 1/2 and it seems she is outgrowing her bed. She's almost as tall as her big brother (who is turning 4 in a few weeks). She really needs a bigger bed!

I already know what kind of bed I am getting her. It's going to have to be a captain's bed. She does not have a dresser and I don't want to put one in her room to not take from her play space, so it will be nice to have that extra storage for her clothes.

I could just buy her a bed and call it a day, but why stop there?

Oh, yes, did I mention we live in an apartment and are not allowed to paint the walls?
It has to stay white.
I don't want white. But I don't have a choice.

So I've been looking online for inspiration.
And inspired I am.

Only one (more like a few) problem(s). I do know what I like, but I like different design styles, I am not willing to spend/don't have tons on the room, the walls have to stay white (oh wait, I've said that already), and am not sure how I'm going to put it all together. Other than that, it should be a piece of cake!

So here are my inspirations...
(The first two pics I found through Swish and Swanky.)

via make room for living

via desire to inspire

If you want to see more, I found a huge grouping of pictures of kids rooms called "go to your room" on Flickr. That's where I found this last room (last 2 pics). It's by lerkaj.

I will post more on my decorating my daughter's room as I go along. I hope you enjoyed these pics! They surely make me smile with all the pretty colors!

Vegetable Curry recipe and too much of a good thing

2009-10-14T20:18:00.004-06:00

Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far?

As promised in my last post, I will share the vegetable curry recipe.

Now, this is the last time for a while that I will mention anything curry because it's starting to come out my ears. I've had it 3 times already in the last 4 days and still have 3 single-meal size containers of it in the freezer!

It tasted great, really! But if like me, you cook for a small crowd, maby just do half the recipe, or you'll have vegetable curry coming out the "wazoo" too!

Vegetable Curry

1 can (14oz) light coconut milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Tbsp red curry paste
1 large onion, chopped
4 small Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and halved
4 cups butternut squash, cut into chunks
4 cups cauliflower florets
1 can chickpeas, rinsed
1 red bell pepper, cut into pieces
1 cup frozen peas
3 cups cooked rice
Garnish with chopped cilantro

Whisk coconut milk, flour and curry paste in a 3 1/2-qt or larger slow-cooker. Stir in vegetables, except peas; mix well.

Cover and cook on low 6 to 7 hours until vegetables are tender. Stir in the peas, cover and let sit 5 minutes. Serve over rice; garnish with cilantro.

I did not have any peas, so I added some fresh spinach at the end for a bit of greens, but the peas would have been perfect. I served mine over some Thai jasmine rice, cooked with some coconut milk, instead of all water.

I hope you enjoy!

Now, I'm going to end this post since I just had some of the veg curry for supper. Again. I'm all curried out. But it's good. Really good. I promise!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-10-12T21:37:00.008-06:00

It's Thanksgiving here in Canada and everyone was busy going to family dinners, eating turkey and all the trimmings.

Me... not so much.

My hubby is at work for another 8 days and most of our family live across country, so it was just me and the kids.

I was also not about to cook a turkey or chicken, since I've been mostly veg again for the last month. But I still wanted to make a nice meal for the kids and I.
I had been wanting to try this new recipe my friend Kara gave me, so I ended up making Vegetable curry in the slow cooker. For Thanksgiving. A bit un-traditional, I know :)

Looks good, right? It tasted even better! And so easy to make.

I served it on a bed of Thai jasmine coconut rice. My daughter's favourite kind of rice (and mine too). Mmm. The whole meal cooked slowly for 7 hours in the slow cooker. It was perfection. And you know how much my kids ate of it?

NONE!!

Most surprising of all, was that my daughter refused to eat after two small bites of her favourite rice. My son, on the other hand, did not even eat one bite. I do have to give him credit though, he did try the vegetable curry. A teeny tiny bite, but he tried.

Well, since I was a good girl and ate all my supper, I also got to have some desert, (unlike my kids).

What? I was not about to reward them with desert for not eating any supper at all.

But I had some. And it was soooo good! Since I had already been cooking with coconut milk, I was sort of on a coconut milk kick by then. I remembered a recipe I found online on about.com a while back, for this Thai style creme caramel. It was so easy to make and tasted delicious.

I may have eaten (inhaled) two that night, but I'm not telling.

I will post the recipes this week. But now, I'm going to have a nice hot tea before bed and try to start one of these books I bought a couple weeks ago.

Happy Thanksgiving to you, if you celebrated it this weekend!