Green Options

My kids love to cook… Mama doesn’t always like the mess and I often think, “I can do this so much faster by myself“.  That said, I’m trying to get better about bringing the kids into the kitchen with me.  A recent fun food project we created were Natural Soda (pop) cupcakes.

The resulting treats are very springy in texture, similar to a sponge cake with a light flavor from the soda choice.  We use chicken eggs but go sans dairy and gluten due to Celiac and allergies.

Warning: these are not low in sugar or fat, so bake at your discretion.   Soda Cupcakes:

Milk jugs will NEVER degrade if they end up in a landfill.  So its important to recycle every jug that enters your house,  sometimes we try to get crafty with them first or find a totally new way to repurpose jugs.

Some areas (*gasp*) don’t provide curbside recycling for plastics.  Please check Earth911 for places to recycle items your area doesn’t pick up curbside.  We are blessed and have mixed curbside recycling for nearly all our everyday items.  Please recycle your plastic jugs after use, industrious areas like New Jersey have used milk jugs to make a bridge.  Who knows what other uses will come of plastic recycling.

Here are some crafty ways we can reuse plastic milk jugs and divert them from the landfill.

Children today are dangerously lacking in many vital vitamins and minerals.  Why?  Perhaps because we spend so much time indoors playing video games and watching television.  Or maybe its because we are a microwave nation… rushing to grab a fast meal on the go at the sacrifice of our health.  Maybe its the over abundance and cheap accessibility of processed foods filling nearly every American pantry.

The deficiency of necessary vitamins and minerals coupled with the addition of chemical colorings, preservatives and flavorings directly relate to the increase in disease and behavioral issues. As caring parents, we all want the best for our children and that means getting these vital nutrients back into our children’s body.  Here’s some easy tricks!  Stay with us after the jump for a delicious recipe that is full of nutrition and the kids will eat it!

Meatless Mondays have evolved to include Tofu Tuesdays, Wheat-Free Wednesday (every day is wheat free in our household), Tightwad Thursdays (otherwise known as food on the cheap) and Fun Fridays. Our family enjoys a minimum of two nights a week sans meat and often I sneak in a few more.  Fridays are always fun, because this is when we opt for all kinds of new tricks to get kids to eat their veggies or help prepare dinner.
Today, I’ve made a new iced coffee beverage that is so good, I have to share! I’m also posting our dinner for tonight, using the vegan cream of mushroom soup recipe I posted a while back. Can you say… “Yum-O!”? Sorry… I don’t have a photo to share yet, since it’s not dinnertime.

Really, folks?  Were we questioning the possibility that organically grown foods were more nutritious than traditional grown?  I think not.  We (being fully informed consumers) know that food is food is food.  Raw food is healthiest (as in lots and lots of produce in its natural state).  That’s a no brainer.  We also know that adding a dose of pesticide and herbicide to our produce is a BAD idea.  Sure, it doesn’t alter basic nutrition (same vitamins and minerals, fats and proteins), but it does introduce carcinogens into our bodies (not to mention a whole host of other unpleasantness).

According to CNN’s Jack Cafferty, “Researchers looked at 50,000 studies conducted over 50 years — and found no significant differences in the foods. They focused on a wide range of crops and livestock raised and marketed under organic standards.”

Gardening with your children provides valuable lessons, family togetherness time and plenty of fresh veggies to dress your table.

I’m a big slacker this year.  My big, fat, Eco-Confession?  I didn’t plant a garden this year.  This means we have been relying on farmers markets and u-pick to survive!  Ugh.

But, wait… I have a pretty good excuse.  We moved this Spring.  Our Spring was consumed with painting, cleaning, packing and unpacking.  It was pretty crazy around here.  Then my beloved Mama passed away and I didn’t want to do much of anything for a good two months.  Now, I’m up and running… but my yard is far from it!  Since this is a new to us home, there was already a bunch of yard work to do.  Needless to say, we haven’t gotten around to much of it, which includes clearing the garden beds and replanting.

So, that’s the plan this weekend.  Get those beds cleared and start our transplants inside the house.   Good thing I have plenty of kids.

My daughter just turned nine.  I’ve been arming myself for when the day arrives that I really have to tackle growing up.  *Sigh* Why can’t they stay little forever?

Recently, I noticed that her skin was getting a bit oily (probably not entirely from budding hormones, we’ve been applying sunscreen liberally).  I went on a search for a safe, natural, easy to use face wash for her.  She is only nine after all and I can’t expect her to remember face washing if its time consuming, messy or gets anything into her eyes.

I had a hard time finding anything I would want to put on her precious skin.  I found several face wash recipes online, but most had to be mixed up prior to each use and were messy.

So, I ventured to our local natural health store and browsed their selections, which we also limited.  I did find one container with 50 wipes in it for everyday face cleansing.  It was similar to those nasty, acne pads without all the nasty.  The container was expensive so we moved on.

Confused by all the information regarding natural eating?  You’re not alone!

When you are out at the Farmer’s Market, get to know your farmer.  Ask pointed questions, find out if they have an open door policy (can you tour anytime), are they certified organic or do they go beyond organic (beyond organic is a philosophy that USDA organic isn’t enough).   If you are a meat eater, find local farmers and arrange direct meat purchase (our plan is every 3 months because we have decent storage space).  Some meats we find locally: tuna (which we can ourselves), bison, chicken, beef.  Prices average $3.00-$4.00/lb, so this also encourages us to use less meat.  For our family of 7 + 3 daycare kiddos, we have meat packaged in 1 lb sizes to ensure we don’t get meat crazy. :)  You can probably find local eggs at the farmers market, this usually saves you money and supports small, local farms.

Here are some tips to help you navigate healthier, local eating.

I’ve tried to make bowls using the outside of one as a mold.  I like the idea of using the inside of the bowl better.  The only trick is to grease up the inside of the bowl so that your dried paper bowl will release. My instructions say to use petroleum jelly, however I am looking for an alternative since I don’t want to use petroleum based products.

Here’s how to make a paper mache bowl. 

Sending your food allergic child off to school can be scary beyond belief.  What will happen to little Johnny when we aren’t there to monitor every his food intake?  I feel like we are becoming skilled at dealing with allergies in all kinds of social situations, here’s some tried and true tips from our allergic household to yours.

What we have to avoid: Gluten (wheat, barley, rye, oats and all derivitives), dairy, food additives (colors, flavors, preservatives) and chemicals.

How we do it: