Rainbow Bubble Fun

I saw this activity on Pinterest a few days ago and could NOT wait to try it!  I had to wait for a sunny day, though, so we could do it outside.  If you want to try it, here is where I found it:

Rainbow Bubbles

                                                                    Whip it!

 It was actually very fast to do, with my mixer on high speed, each color took only about 20 seconds to whip up.  And no need to rinse out the bowl between colors, either.

                                     Taste the rainbow!  Or, wait, no, please don't taste it.  Ick!

It was sunny outside but not very warm, and kind of windy, but we had fun anyway.  And I am definitely going to do it again once it warms up around here.

                                                        Minnie Mouse is ready for her bubble bath.....

 Swirling and mixing the colors was the best part!  Big Sis and Lil Sis had fun with burying their Minnie dolls.

So our first kid activity from Pinterest was not a fail, yay!

On Food Sensitivities

About 5 years ago, I was one of those people who scoffed at the seemingly ridiculous explosion of food sensitivities and allergies.  I worked in a hotel kitchen at the time, in the bakery, and my co-workers and I had to deal with special food requests on a daily basis.  Vegan, dairy free, gluten free, nut free, egg free, kosher, no strawberries, etc.  The hot side had to deal with the savory special requests like vegan, vegetarian, no seafood, no dairy, gluten free, kosher, etc.

Every time we got a rather lengthy or unusual dietary request we tended to make fun of the person, who we believed was simply getting on the gluten free trend for non-health reasons, or that they were just extraordinarily picky.  If we had a concerned parent requesting we make a special batch of cookies that had absolutely no possible contact with anything that had peanuts on it, we would do so, but with the warning to the parent that we legally could not guarantee it would be 100% peanut free.  It was probably 100% safe, but legally we could not say that it was.  Understandably, those parents never liked that.  If we had a customer request a gluten free substitute for our scones, we scrambled to come up with something, searching the interwebs for something we could make with the ingredients we had on hand.  And then we complained the whole time about the extra work.

It was about this time that my mom embarked on a journey to better health inspired by a book she had read about the most common food allergens.  She shared this information with me, and it sounded really interesting at the time.  I was pregnant with my first child, and the thought of testing to see if I was allergic or sensitive to any of those common allergens was a little bit appealing, but I thought I should wait until after the baby was born.  Besides, if I turned out to be allergic to gluten, what the heck was I going to do about my job?  I was a pastry chef!  Talk about a career killer.

Fast-forward 3 years:  my oldest daughter was approaching her third birthday, and had had kind of dry scaly skin on her cheeks for a long time.  Then she came out in small random spots of excema on her tushie and the backs of her thighs.  By this time I was more on the crunchy lifestyle movement and decided to take her to a naturopathic doctor to get her tested for food allergies and sensitivities.  I had since learned that food sensitivities can manifest in skin rashes, and I suspected she was reacting to something.

I will never forget that follow-up appointment to go over the test results: the utter shock, combined with relief, sadness, and overwhelming feelings of "what do we do now?".  She had tested positive for gluten, eggs, peanuts, whey, oatmeal, and soy.  Jeez, you mean all the foods she likes to eat?  Great!  What is she going to eat?

Since then we have made many small changes over the last 2 years, to gradually get her (and the rest of the family) off of those foods, and made the extra jump to a Paleo diet.  The Hubby is not 100%, and neither are the kids, but I do try to.  Since learning of Big Sis's food sensitivities I discovered my own, as well as Lil Sis's.  Yep, I do not work as a pastry chef anymore, but not because of gluten.  That is a story for another post.

The biggest thing that I have learned during this whole experience is this:  don't judge other people by their food choices.  You have no idea why someone chooses to eat certain foods, or chooses not to, and it isn't really any of your business either.  Maybe they would be willing to share why if you ask, but please don't make fun of them, either to their face or behind their backs.

In the last two years, so many more people have been diagnosed with food allergies and sensitivities, it isn't as hard anymore to eat out with fear of being ridiculed or the cooks spitting in your special request dish.  The food industry had to jump on the allergen friendly wagon if they wanted to survive and compete in the business.  This is a great thing!  Well, the dining options I mean, not the health issues.

At any rate, I am looking at these food sensitivities as a blessing, and am grateful every day for my culinary background.  It has made the transition to a new diet so much easier for our family.  I can hardly imagine what it would have been like if we ate TV dinners and never cooked at home.  So thankfully The Hubby and I both love to cook, and I also love to bake, so we have weathered this diet change pretty darn well.  We eat even healthier than ever before, and I can definitely say my kids eat more vegetables now than ever, as well as a variety of other foods that most kids wouldn't touch.

                                 Who says allergen friendly cake isn't good?  Not this kid!

Now, all we have to do is gear up for packing school lunches in the fall and start dealing with all the food allergy issues that will come up in school.  Can't. wait..........not.

Playing Pretend

Several months ago I read an article in a parenting magazine about kids and pretend play.  It described how important pretend play was to developing kids' brains, how it was their way of learning and processing all the information assaulting their brains, etc.  You know, all that good stuff, stuff we as parents love to hear.  The article then went on to give advice to parents on how to be a participant in pretend play with their kids.  The author understandably had a hard time "getting into" the world of pretend with her daughters.  She found it difficult, and I totally understood that.  Acting like a kid as an adult can be a challenge for some.  For myself it isn't that difficult, but I am not super enthusiastic every time I do it.

At any rate, the advice in the article was to set a timer for 20 minutes, then spend those minutes in active pretend play with your kid or kids, really being into it and creative and letting your kid take the lead and just having fun.  The idea was that the kid would be satisfied with your involvement and after about 20 minutes they would keep playing on their own happily.  Then you could go do something else and feel good about playing with your kid, etc. 

Good advice, I think.  Kids are happiest when their parent or caregiver is down on the floor with them actively playing with them, with the adult giving them undivided attention.  Kids will be better behaved, happier and less whiny, and just be all around more pleasant to be around if their parents (or aunties, grampa, whoever) take the time to play with them without distraction.  I know this, and I know it to be true and helpful.  And yet.....it is one of the hardest things in the world for me to do!

Now, after reading this article I resolved to try it, and see how well it would work for us.  I actually only set a timer a few times.  As a stay at home mom, it was easier after a few days to just play until there was a good time to "exit."  Also as a stay at home parent you don't have the option of playing with your kids for 20 minutes then ignoring them for the rest of the day (or do you?...insert evil laugh...).  Certainly, I was going to be playing with them here and there all day, but trying to be focused on them and not always on my way to do something else was the goal in our play times.

What I discovered with my kids, is that the more focused time I spent playing with them, the more they wanted me to play with them!  Not exactly what I had in mind for our result, but I cannot say that I am surprised.  It came down to personality types; introverts and extroverts.

I come from a family of 7 people, all of us introverts.  This means when we need to recharge our "batteries", we like to spend time alone or with one or two favorite people.  It worked out great in our family!  We are all very fun, loud, silly and playful people, and we always have a blast together.  We just all need our "alone time", too.  So I happily married another introvert, and then we had two kids, one who is an extrovert, and one who I suspect is an introvert (as she gets older the more I suspect it to be so).

For an extrovert to recharge their batteries, they need to interact with other people, to talk to them and basically unload every single thought going through their mind onto them.  An extrovert thinks out loud, an introvert does not.  An introvert stews things over for hours, days, weeks.  An introvert needs to talk decisions out, as she thinks about them.  Introverts and extroverts can both be outgoing, fun at parties, loud, bossy, great leaders, and all that.  The main difference is in how they recharge.

So two introverts who need several sessions of "alone time" a day get a spirited extrovert as their first child and BAM!  Steep learning curve for us!  (Alone time, mom and dad?  Why would you ever want to be alone, that sounds TERRIBLE!  Don't worry, I won't ever leave you by yourself!)

So you see, it did not surprise me one bit that our oldest child, given some major playtime attention from mom for extended periods of time simply led her to want more of that.  I really can't blame her; it is just who she is.  It is now simply our job to teach her that some people like to be alone for awhile, and to be patient with waiting for more playtime.  And that her parents are totally not responsible for keeping her entertained (which she did not like one bit, let me tell you!).

Part of me feels really guilty for saying this, but I really really do not like playing certain types of pretend games with my kids.  Like dolls or ponies.  I really really do not like to.  I tried for awhile but just could not handle it.  So I had to make it my rule that I will play anything else, but not ponies or dolls.  Oh, how Big Sis despises that!  Well, Lil Sis, too.  I am so happy to play Candy Land 3 times in a row, play restaurant, play dance party, school, Legos, etc.  But I just can't do the dollies.  Is that so bad?  I hope not.

Experimenting with active pretend play with my kids also made me think back to my own childhood, to see if I could remember my parents playing dolls with me and......I don't remember them ever doing that.  Now, I had three sisters to play dolls with, so maybe that is why.  Or maybe it never occurred to me to ask my mom to play dolls with me.  I don't know.  The Hubby says his parents never played pretend with him, either.  So, is this another thing that is something today's parents are "supposed" to be doing with their kids because some expert said so?  When the previous generations of parents never did it?  It makes me think of the glut of toys kids have these days and how perhaps that is what is causing our kids to need us to play with them, because there are too many toys, and they don't know what to do; too many choices. 

I also played outside a lot as a kid, and that kept the "I'm boreds" at bay.  Not too long ago, that is just what kids did; mom kicked you outside to go play, and so you made your own fun.  Oh, how I wish I could do that with my kids!  Where we live that wouldn't work too well, besides the fact they are not old enough to roam the neighborhood by themselves.

Perhaps the lesson here is to just be intentional with your kids, to pay attention when they are telling you something, and to purposefully take the time to play with them, but not to feel guilty about not playing with them whenever they want.  They need to learn to entertain themselves, and to respect other people's time and needs.  As with all lessons we teach our kids, it is ongoing and so stinking hard sometimes.  But that is what makes a good parent and a good kid.

When I gave up sugar...and how it changed my taste buds.

Last month I completed a "sugar detox", wherein I did not consume any sugar in the form of sweeteners, sweet tasting fruits or vegetables and the like.  In a detox like this, you usually do not consume any type of refined starches or very starchy vegetables either.  This means no bread, white potatoes, chips, cookies, dried fruit, sweet potatoes, most winter squash, most fruit, juice, soda, alcohol in all forms, candy, most grains, legumes, and pasta.

Now, this wasn't as brutal as it sounds for me, because I already don't eat most of those things.  At our house, we follow a Paleo diet, with some modifications.  We do not eat any legumes, gluten, all grains (except occasional corn products), juice, soda, pasta of any kind, store bought cookies, or any kind of bread.  We also do not eat dairy, but that is for allergy reasons.  So all I had to eliminate was sweeteners, most fruits and all dried fruit and sweetened treats, alcohol, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and winter squash (except spaghetti squash).  Sounds do-able, right?  Riiight??

I completed the 21-Day Sugar Detox, by Diane Sanfillipo.  Now, I had my own reasons for trying a detox, and weight loss was not one of them.  I had felt for many many months (maybe years?) that I had an unhealthy relationship with sugar, even with having a very whole-foods based diet.  When you have a restricted diet, due to health reasons, allergies, or personal choice, you still want to have those treats and special foods that you enjoyed with abandon before.  Recipes for allergen friendly treats are EVERYWHERE.  Having two little kids who liked treats as much as me was as good an excuse as any to make Paleo friendly cookies and muffins, rolls and biscuits, fruit smoothies and other treats on a pretty regular basis.  Snacks of raisins and nuts, dates with nuts, strawberry banana smoothies, trail mix, almond flour chocolate chip cookies, popcorn, or a juicy Fuji apple with almond butter were in constant rotation.  So you might be thinking that those sound like great healthy snacks.  But if you are trying to watch your sugar intake, those snacks are not acceptable.

Sugar is not just sweet things, it is starchy foods like potatoes and grains.  Even thought most of our treats and snacks had no grains, they for sure had sugar(carbohydrates) in them.  The point of a sugar detox is to make you more aware of how much sugar you are actually consuming in lieu of more nutritious foods, and to change your taste buds as well.

I certainly discovered that I was eating more sugar than I thought, and using those sweet foods as fuel instead of say, carrot sticks with guacamole and a side of leftover chicken.  Vegetables, healthy fats, and some protein would fuel my body much better than a couple of cookies.  And it was true!  I had better energy after a healthy meal or snack then one based on potatoes or almond flour.  I wasn't getting "hangry" like before switching to a Paleo diet, but my energy wasn't as good as it could have been, and I didn't go that long between meals.  So fueling my body with healthy fats, protein, and low-carb vegetables was working well.

My tastes also changed dramatically.  About 2 weeks in, I made a salad that was supposed to have a honey mustard dressing.  I just didn't add the honey.  The salad was composed of green apple, Belgian endive and pistachios.  I felt the salad was sweet enough with the apple.  I remember saying to The Hubby that if I had used a red apple and honey in it as the recipe said, it would have been too sweet.  He looked at me like he didn't know who I was!

"You never would have said that before this detox!", he said.
"I know, I know!  But it's true!  My taste buds have totally changed." 

I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought that maybe this could be a lasting change for me, that if my taste buds had changed, and that less sweet things could satisfy my sugar cravings, I was going down a totally awesome path.  To not be a slave to the evening sugar cravings, to not sneak into the pantry for a secret handful of chocolate chips several times a day, no more eating most of a batch of cookies.  The freedom!

After my detox I was looking forward to a chocolate bar that I had saved from Christmas.  I eagerly asked The Hubby to get it for me, since he had hid all the chocolate at my request.  Opening it, it had somehow melted then hardened, thereby ruining it.  I was so bummed!  That evening I was determined to have some kind of previously forbidden treat, so I drove to the store to get a chocolate bar.  Now, in times past, I would have eaten half of that free trade dark chocolate salted almond bar on the way home.  This time, however, I felt absolutely no inclination to eat any of it until I was home.  Weird!  But also good.  At home I thoroughly enjoyed two squares of it, then felt satisfied and that was that.  Amazing! 

But let me share how I am doing now, almost 3 weeks later.  I am more aware of how much sugar I  am eating in the form of sweeteners and treats, and eating less than before my detox.  I have also discovered that corn gives me a splitting headache, the same as eggs do to me(curse you, food allergy gods!).  I also suspect another food is bothering me, so I have eliminated potatoes again, and will test myself to see if they are another headache-maker.  I went through about 4 days of constant headaches, and stopped eating potatoes and no headache since then.  Sigh.  I guess that just leaves more room for different more nutritious carbs.  Like plantains!

I did not lose a single pound during the detox either, which convinced me more than ever to get serious about exercise.  So I convinced The Hubby to do it with me, which is a real stretch for me since I prefer to not exert myself in front of other human beings.  So far having him as an exercise partner has been enough to motivate me to keep at it.  It has been only a couple weeks, but it feels good.  The best part is being able to "treat" myself after working out with some kind of starchy carb, like roasted winter squash with ghee, or sweet potato fries, or a salad of grapefruit and avocado.  I try to "earn" my carbs, as I once read on another blog (Paleo Parents).  After exercise you should eat some carbs to refuel and refresh your body, and if I want to eat some carbs I need to exercise first.  It is my incentive!

Such a long post!  If you made it to the end, thanks for reading, and I hope you gained a little insight, or were inspired to do a little research of your own.

Kid Birthday Parties

I am in the midst of planning a birthday party for Big Sis, and so far so good.  After doing a few of these, I think I've hit on the simplest one yet.  I did have a lot of fun with Lil Sis' last birthday, but I definitely over spent on things (hint: DO NOT go on etsy to "just look for ideas").

I have just partially read a book called The Tightwad Gazette, and the author had a lot to say about kid birthday parties.  She never spent more than 25 dollars or some such amount, including food and gift.  What?!  How is that possible?  Oh, right, no food allergies in her family for starters, and super creative with what she had on hand, and Pinterest and etsy did not exist yet.  Well, darn.

At any rate, it inspired me to try harder with being thrifty and creative in planning and executing a birthday party.  For starters, I had the birthday girl choose a theme (ballerinas), and choose a color or two.  She chose three, naturally.  We went to the store to get party supplies in those colors, and I will come up with some kind of ballerina art or decoration.  We will supply tutus for dress up, and play classical music for the kids to dance to.  I suppose some kind of ballerina craft would be good as well.

For the food we will be keeping it very simple.  In The Tightwad Gazette, she suggests just a cake be served to cut down on cost, but we are a family of food lovers, so serving food is a must.  The standard chips and dip is easy, especially if you just buy prepared dips.  We will be getting salsa and tortilla chips, and make our own guacamole.  An assortment of fresh veggies with homemade dips and spreads is an easy make ahead menu item, and you can just use the veggies you like.  Because, really, who wants to eat raw broccoli?  Um, nobody!

I have yet to figure out what else we will be serving, but I do know that some suds are in order, and that I will leave to the Hubby, resident beer expert.  I will provide the non-alcoholic drinks.  As in, water.  Ha, ha, okay, maybe some homemade iced tea or cucumber fizzy water.

After the last birthday party for Lil Sis, I realized that even though it was fun to run with the party theme in all aspects of the party, it can cost you a lot more, especially with the food.  Her party had a pink and orange mermaid theme, so we had a lot of orange foods, as well as foods that related to underwater, things from the sea, etc.  It was super fun to do and I really loved coming up with the menu, but it was a lot of work!  With Big Sis having her birthday so soon after Christmas, I am just not mentally ready to tackle something like that.  And I don't know if I ever will again.

Kids don't really remember those things about a party. They remember who was there, and the fun games they played.  They remember getting sung to by a room full of friends and family and how special it made them feel.  They remember blowing out the candles and getting to lick the frosting from their fingers.  They remember ripping open all the gifts and being so excited and exhausted at the end of it all.  That is what I remember, too, from all those childhood birthdays.

It is times like these that I am so glad I never login to Pinterest, and that I purposefully never search online for party ideas.  Just keep it simple, and concentrate on being present during the event and making the guests comfortable and happy, and that the birthday girl is having a good time, and that is totally good enough!

What do you remember from your birthdays as a kid?  Did you have a special birthday tradition?

Balsamic Tuna Salad

I'm sure you just read the title of this post and were not so sure about the flavor combo, but let me tell you something:  We are a dairy free and egg free house (among other things) and so tuna salad took a back burner for awhile.  Until I had the genius idea of adding vinegar to a can of fancy olive oil packed tuna.  Taste explosion!  It amazes me now that my kids will polish off a can of tuna each when I make this for them, and I think it is darn tasty, too.  Now all I have to do is find fancy olive oil packed tuna that isn't 3.29 a can!


Balsamic Tuna Salad

Serves two adults, or one adult and two kids, or two hungry kids.  Good thing it's easy to double!

2 cans (6 ounce size) tuna fish, packed in olive oil.  Trader Joe's carries a couple options and I have found one Italian import option at my local grocery store.
1 Tablespoon Dijon or yellow mustard
About 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, or more/less
salt and pepper to taste

Open cans of tuna and dump into a medium bowl, being sure to scrape out all the olive oil, too.  Break up chunks of fish with the back of a fork.  Add in the vinegar and mustard and combine lightly with the fork.  Taste for seasoning (This is the kids favorite part.  They love sprinkling in the salt and pepper and telling me to add more of this or that), and add salt and pepper to taste, and more vinegar if desired.

                                                    Big Sis helping make lunch

It is delicious in lettuce wraps, or on top of a salad with diced green apple, or scooped up with cucumber slices.  I serve it with all of those as well as black or green olives and carrot sticks, and cherry tomatoes if we have them.  The oldest only eats the tuna, the youngest eats (almost) everything.  This is absolutely something the kids help me make, they are more likely to eat it that way, too.

             I put some fresh chives and capers in mine, and had it with homemade crackers.  Yum!


This is so easy it almost isn't a recipe, but that is how we cook most of the time at our house; makes life easier!

Teaching Kids Where Meat Comes From...Am I Doing it Right?

Over the last year or so I have been thinking off and on about how to teach my kids about where that pork chop on their plate comes from.  I'm not sure if I am taking the "right" approach, or what, but I do know I want them to know that meat is from animals that used to be alive on a farm somewhere.  I am glad that I have started teaching them this early on, as it makes it a "matter of fact" topic, not a surprise later on that turns them into little vegetarians, the thought of cute farm animals becoming dinner turning them forever from proper nutrition.  (Now, when I say proper nutrition I mean exactly that:  clean meat from quality sources is an essential part of the human diet.  Maybe that doesn't work for you.  That's fine!  To each his own.)

I had my brief stint as a vegetarian, like so many teenage girls do, in high school.  I'm not sure how I really managed it, and I think it wasn't for a very long period of time (I recently asked my mom if she remembered that time:  "yeah, that was annoying", she said.  I agree!  Ha ha ha!).  I still ate chicken, eggs and fish and called myself an "ovo-lacto" vegetarian.  It sounded so cool!  Ridiculous to me now, but hey, that is what peer pressure does to a kid.  I think the thought of animals being treated cruelly and then eating them grossed me out, and I didn't have a good connection of where food (meat) actually came from as a small child.  So I was squeamish about touching raw meat to cook it, and this was an embarrassing quality in a culinary student.

Yep, I was in a culinary arts class for two of my years at high school, and then went on to a year of culinary school.  Guess how long vegetarianism lasted for me in culinary school?  Not very long!  Less than 4 weeks.  The first red meat I ate in over a year was a bacon cheeseburger; all of it made from scratch at the school.  Oh, it was heaven!  Something about that burger and is magical qualities still make me swoon.

Butchery classes in school were very very hard for me, but I was determined to not be too much of a wussy and forced myself to hack up the carcasses along with everyone else, without complaint.  I was there to learn, after all, and it wasn't free.  I recall the number one rule about trying food and tasting food in school was "try it at least twice".  The reason being of course that you needed to know what the food tasted like, in order to become a good cook.  So, you do actually need to at least taste that rabbit fricassee so you understand what rabbit tastes like and how to cook it properly.  Otherwise...what on earth are you doing in culinary school?

I have a couple of very inquisitive kids who ask questions all the time, so teaching them about where meat comes from hasn't been too hard.  My eldest has asked me outright where bacon comes from, so I told her.  She still thinks it is delicious "pig meat".  I will do the same for every meat and fish and fowl that they ask about, and we will probably someday visit a farm, to purchase a whole or half cow or pig, maybe some fresh chicken.  Then they will start to get a better idea.  They are 3 and almost 5 years old now, so we have plenty of time to teach them.

I think it is becoming more clear to many people that most Americans are not mentally connected with the food chain and how we humans are involved in it.  Our role in the food chain is becoming more clear to a lot of people, as evidenced by the many farmers selling pastured meats and poultry at farmer's markets, as well as natural grocery stores and the paleo and WAPF (Weston A. Price Foundation) food movement. If you have ever watched a documentary about the food industry, you know what I am talking about.  (Food Inc., Forks Over Knives, etc.)  I think it is important to be involved in knowing where your food comes from, how it was handled or treated, what was used to feed or nourish it, and how it was processed or slaughtered.  We are what we eat, and if we eat sick, malnourished and mistreated animals, we are not going to be healthy either.  This is at times an overwhelming topic, I know, but if you just take it one thing at a time it is possible to educate yourself, and to take steps to change your purchasing habits.

While teaching your kids about where the meat on their plate comes from seems pretty daunting at times, I have found just taking it one question at a time, and taking advantage of teaching opportunities as they come up to be a good way to go.  If your kids don't ask, or have never asked you about it, being able to bring it up in conversation at appropriate times will still work.  Probably not while you are at the dinner table, if you suspect your kids might get a little upset about eating a cute farm animal.

Do you remember learning about where meat came from as a child?  How connected are you to your food sources?