The Lovely Pumpkin

Pumpkin epitomizes fall. The taste, the smell, that gorgeous orange colour.

I have pumpkin on the brain lately. Mostly because it's Halloween today and we carved our jack-o-lantern the other night (love doing that!) but also because I've been trying out some new pumpkin recipes. Last week I bought a bunch of canned pumpkin at our local health food store because it was on sale... what to do with 6 cans of pumpkin?? Well actually, there's A LOT you can do with it and it's so good for you; it has TONS of Vitamin A and potassium! I've been hunting down recipes and have found some really yummy ones - pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, mix it with oatmeal (sooo good!) and today for lunch I made Wesley and I a super easy, super healthy 'Autumn Smoothie' which he loved!

Our spook-tacular jack-o-lantern!

Here is the smoothie recipe. Give it a try!

Autumn Smoothie

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup canned pumpkin

1 banana

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

dash of ginger

Blend together and serve.

Dear Diary...

When you have a baby, your house fills up with a lot of 'stuff' very quickly. Swings, and bouncy chairs, and toys, and exersaucers, and highchairs... it's never ending really. I hate clutter, it really stresses me out, so I've been trying to "dejunkify" a bit recently, get rid of some of the stuff we don't need in order to make room for all the baby paraphernalia. I was going through a box this week and came across all my old journals from adolescene. Embarrassing, like seriously embarrassing, to read the voice of my teenage self... and so funny now, at the wise old age of 27, to think back on those moments in my life which, at the time, seemed so earthshattering. But there was an endearing earnestness there too. I was reminded of the longings and desires of my heart at the age... the things I was able to articulate in writing, and even those that were too deep and too personal to express in words. But HE knew them all.  As I was reading it was like I could feel the Lord looking over my shoulder saying, "See... see how I have always been faithful, see how I have always kept my promises, see how perfect my plan has always been..." It was almost like a map of my life over the last 10 years, and being able to see so clearly how God had ordained my steps to bring me right to where I am now. If I could speak to that 17 year old version of myself, I would tell her just to trust, as simple as that... trust... because the Lord works everything out for the good of those who love Him.

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

Oh, how good that future is, and how good it will continue to be!

Fall Small Stylin'

I'll be the first to admit that I take an embarrassing number of pictures of Wesley. I'm sure there are a few people who roll their eyes everytime they see a new album pop up on Facebook... but I mean, look how adorable he is! How could you not capture that??!

I've seen weekly "Small Style" posts on lots of mommy blogs and I thought it would be the perfect excuse to take even more photos and show him off in all his cuteness! Plus I can break out some of those outfits that don't get much use since they are a little too nice for everyday rough-and-tumble play.

We recently had some family photos taken by the wonderfully talented Tracey Allison on a gorgeous fall afternoon. I thought I'd share some of them for my first Small Style post...

Cardigan: H&M

Khakis: babyGap, consigned

Onesie: Old Navy

Hat: H&M

Shoes: Tip Toey Joey

Baby Blues: fearfully and wonderfully made =) 

Yours to Discover

One of the many hats you wear as a mom is 'entertainer'. This really has become a full time job for me lately! Long gone are the days of the sleepy infant content to sit in a bouncy seat or swing; I have a wrecking crew roaming around my house on all fours right now! I'm always trying to come up with ideas to keep my little guy occupied. One of my favourites (and his!) are "Discovery Baskets". This started with me struggling to get dinner ready and having to stop every 30 seconds to pull Wesley out of a cupboard, grab a knife out of his hand (kidding!) etc... so I grabbed a basket and put some unbreakable kitchen items in it that he could play with. I stashed this in a low cupboard so he could open it himself and take the basket out whenever he wanted. It was HUGE hit and I was finally able to get something done. Every week or so I would rotate out the items with some new things in to keep him interested. Today I filled some plastic bottles with water and added a little food colouring and he loves this! Also, macaroni and rice "shakers" (in tupperware) have been big hits.

 

Kitchen Discovery Basket

I've seen this idea lots of places since then - great moms think alike - and it really does make for hours of entertainment! It's so fun to watch him discover the different items inside and see what he does (or tries to do!) with them. Why do kids love the things that aren't actually toys more than all the flashy, expensive stuff we buy them??

I read some great articles here and here and now our kitchen discovery basket has evolved into a few different baskets around the house. We now have a "nature" basket filled with pinecones, some gourds, fake leaves, rocks...

Nature

... and then sort of a "hodge-podge" basket with random items from around the house. I picked up a little set of jingle bells and a hacky sack for this today.



Hodge-podge

I've placed the baskets in accessible spots to him around the house and plan to move them around every few days so it will be a surprise when he crawls upon one! Having a bunch of different baskets that you can rotate out would also keep it fresh. One of the articles mentions a food basket and a noise basket; fun and fun!

Happy discovering!

Keen on KEEN-wah

We've been lovin' quinoa around our house lately! I made a big pot up on Wednesday night (it keeps really well in the refridgerator) and have been incorporating it into dishes all week. It's great to mix in with your oatmeal, or in soup... Brian even put some in the smoothies he made for breakfast yesterday! I must have been pretty convincing with that "this is sooo good for you" speech!

I really wanted to get Wesley on to quinoa because it's such a great grain - tons of protein and vitamins like iron and magnesium. For lunch today he had my own spin on this Quinoa Mexicana Salad recipe I saw on one of my favourite sites Weelicious. I realized after the first few bites that he was finding the quinoa a little dry on it's own so I added some plain whole milk yogurt and then he gobbled it up!

Here's what I used:

a few tbsp of cooked quinoa

1/2 avocado, chopped

ripe mango, chopped
few sprigs of cilantro, finely chipped

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp of plain whole milk yogurt

Mix together and serve!

You could mash the avocado and mango if you want a smoother consistency or for a younger baby.

Pour some (natural) sugar on me!

I have a major sweet tooth. I would definitely choose sweet over salty anyday! But despite my love for sugar, I know how bad (refined) sugar is for me. In the book The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone, she talks about how sugar is basically like a drug. We get a high or sugar rush from it, only to crash later on and feel hungry again, craving more sweets! I'm proud to say my son's little body hasn't encountered any refined sugar so far, and I plan to keep it this way for as long as possible! (And just as a side note, most of the "-ose" ingredients you see on your food labels are simple sugars too! Dextrose, glucose, sucrose, maltose and the particularly nasty high fructose corn syrup!)

The Kind Diet talks about just how nasty white sugar is for our bodies and one of the more interesting examplesis that white sugar suppresses our immune system. I have a tough enough time keeping my baby healthy with all the snotty, straight-into-the-mouth toys at playgroup without adding anything else to the mix! Basically when you eat refined sugar, your body releases insulin in order to bring your blood sugar back down and then once the sugar has been metabolized, all this excess insulin remains, causing an imbalance in the hormones particularly related to your immune system.

Sometimes you just want something sweet though (and I want my son to be able to enjoy the sweet things in life too!) so lately I've been thinking alot about alternatives to refined white sugar and brown sugar.

Here are some of the options I have discovered/tried so far:

Maple syrup: 100% natural and deee-licious! It's very concentrated so you don't need much and it's great for baking (also awesome over oatmeal!). I have a wonderful recipe for amazing "healthy" cookies using maple syrup which I will post.

Agave nectar: another natural, very sweet syrup made from the agave plant - also great for desserts. I made some chocolate macaroons using this and they turned out great!

Brown rice syrup: this is made from brown rice cooked until it boils down into a liquid. It's thick and looks almost like honey (another natural sweetener!). Apparently this is wonderful in muffins, caked etc.

Stevia: way, way sweeter than sugar so you use very little of it. It's a little tricky when substituting this in recipes to know how much to use, sort of a trial and error thing. It rates a 0 on the glycemic index (GI) - the lower the rating, the healthier a food is considered to be.

Molasses: has lots of vitamins and minerals (iron, calcium etc) and I love the taste in baking, especially around the holidays.

I'm looking forward to playing around with these a bit more and trying to further limit our sugar intake.

Here is the recipe for "healthy" cookies using maple syprup...

Spelt Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup olive oil (I find the flavour a bit strong and use less)

1 cup pure maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup boiling water

1 cup spelt whole flour

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups oatmeal

1/4 cup flaxseeds and/or 1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Beat oil, maple syrup and vanilla with beater for 2 min until foamy.

Add boiling water and stir.

Add flour, salt, baking soda and oatmeal and stir.

Mix in flaxseeds or coconut and chocolate chips.

On slightly greased cookie sheet, flatten out small balls of dough with fork  (the dough will seem softer and runnier than traditional cookie dough).

Bake @ 325 for 18 to 25 min.

Makes three dozen.

Healthy baby, happy mom

"When you have kids of your own, you"ll understand..."

... one of those classic phrases that people use all the time to try and convey to those without children just how much they don't get it! I remember this one being used on me many-a-time when I wanted to do some reckless, adolescent activity that my parents disapproved of. Extremely annoying at that time, yet now, with a child of my own, it somehow all makes sense! The fierce, protective love you have for your child is like nothing you've ever experienced before. You know without a doubt that you really would do anything for them! You want the very best for your children and now that my son Wesley is eating solids, part of this "best" includes making sure the food he eats is as healthy as possible. Of course, everyone wants their children to be healthy, but I read a quote recently that really sums up why good nutrition is so vital for me and my children:

“Today, more than 95% of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise.” – Mike Adams, author, investigative journalist, educator

When you go up and down the aisles of the grocery store there is sooo much on the shelves that our ancestors wouldn't even recognize as food! All of these processed, refined, prepackaged foods made in the name of "convenience". I'm a sucker for an Oreo just as much as the next person, but I really try to eat fresh, homemade food as much as possible so that I can know and control exactly what I'm eating. And when it comes to my son, I'm even more stringent on this. I've been making all of his baby food and have loved experimenting with different recipes to see how much good stuff I can get into him! My husband jokes that he often comes home from work to these fantastic aromas coming from the kitchen only to discover it's dinner for Wesley, not him! So far Wesley has been game to eat pretty much anything and even some things he did not like initially (avocado!) he has grown to love just from finding new ways of serving it. I really want to him to appreciate all different kinds of foods and I think you can influence a child's palate early on by exposing them to a wide variety of flavours. Baby food is more than just sweet potatoes and applesauce! 

Tonight the restaurant is serving Quinoa Banana Mash!

Snow and Stories...

Winter is coming. If you live in Canada it's just a fact of life that come mid-November, it's cold, it's dark by 5:00 pm, and we spend alot of our time hibernating inside. I like winter until precisely January 1 (who doesn't love a white Christmas?) but then I'm ready for green grass and birds chirping again. Unfortunately winter sticks around until what... March? So thinking about the looong winter ahead and the prospect of spending most of my time inside with a very lovable and very active one year old, I decided I needed a project, something to do in my little bit of downtime between diaper changes and choruses of "Old Macdonald Had a Farm". I love to talk about babies (mine in particular, who is the cutest one around!) and cooking and and nutrition and books, so... why not a blog?! My son is growing up so very fast and leaving so many beautiful memories and stories in his messy wake, and this also seemed like a great way to capture some of his early years. I can't promise any of this will be earthshattering, but maybe you will find something that makes you think or encourages you in some way. So... here goes!