easy

Top 5 unprocessed kid’s snack ideas

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20151124_063714 (excuse the bed head, but yummy parfait, eh? )

1. Plain Yogurt parfaits, plain yogurt, frozen fruit (blueberries and raspberries are our favs), if you have homemade granola add it, if not whatever nuts or seeds you have, and a smiley face of honey on the top… a dash of vanilla if you’re fancy.

2. Veggie sticks, (carrots, celery, cucumber, grape tomatoes) with either hummus, or chickpeas (toddlers love them straight out of the organic, bpa-free can).  Or, for an even easier treat, try frozen corn (please please please make sure it’s organic) … little kids LOVE it!

3. Homemade popsicles!  We normally make green smoothies once a week, and I try to double what we drink, and freeze the rest as popsicles.

4. Banana bread, I do my best to do at least 2 breads at a time, quadrupling the recipe is best.  Slice it when cool, and freeze in a freezer bag.

5. This granola bar recipe is another family favourite.  I also make at least a double batch of these gems.  I let them cool, slice them, and freeze them on the cookie sheet.  Once the bars are solidly frozen, I toss them into freezer bags, and have easy, healthy, fantastic treats.

With all the time you just saved making snacks, enjoy a fun show.  My new favourite is UnReal, a lifetime network show, now available on Shomi.

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Day 1 of 100 days with no sugar or processed foods

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Our first day of no sugar or processed food is coming to a close, and it went well!  I really think we’re going to be able to make it 100 days.

What we ate today:

Breakfast was these whole wheat pancakes  reheated from yesterday (with a slight variation, honey instead of sugar).  They were served with warmed frozen organic raspberries and strawberries and chunks of pear.  These are always a huge hit, so we made a triple batch yesterday, and they kids fought over the last one.

Lunch was whole wheat bread with hummus with a side of rainbow carrots and green peppers.  This was a flop, and the kids ate only a few bites… but I’ll chalk that up to having soooo many pancakes for breakfast.

For dinner, I made chicken, bacon, bean, cheese and veggie quesadillas.  I threw these together with things I had around the kitchen.  On the side, I served some avocado.  The kids had a few bites, but weren’t wild about them.

The snacks they got today were popcorn with salt and plain yogurt with leftover raspberry and strawberry sauce from breakfast with a touch of honey.

So far, I have found planning and prepping in advance are making the biggest difference to feeding the crew.

The prep I did: Yesterday, when I had a few minutes, I threw a pack of organic bacon into the oven at 350 (all spread out) for about 20 minutes.  I used some bacon for quesadillas, I’ll use a little tomorrow for macaroni and cheese, and the rest is frozen to use as a topping for pizza this weekend.  First thing this morning, I threw 3 chicken breasts in the slow cooker with a little salt and pepper, and shredded it around 4pm.  Half of that went into quesadillas, half will be a pizza topping, along with some veggies I chopped.

The planning: during the month of december, between all the craziness of the holidays, I put together a 7 day meal rotation that suits my time constraints (three itty bitty kids), our preferences, budget and fits the rules of the 100 day challenge.  The meal plan is posted in my kitchen, and although I love to cook on the fly… these days, if I don’t prep and plan… we don’t have dinner!  So I’m hoping the convenience of sticking to the meal rotation will overcome my desire to be spontaneous.

ooOOey Gooey Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

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There’s something about the cold weather and really good food for me.  We had company coming over.  So we whipped together this fairly easy pie, with leftover boiled sweet potato, and it was deeee-licious!  And I think it could be considered healthy… because it has sweet potatoes and pecans…. right!?  … enjoy anyway.

You’ll need: 1 package of 2 tenderflake pie crusts, 1 1/2 c of pecan halves, 1/2 c light corn syrup, 1 egg white, 2 cups of pureed cooked sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs of uncooked sweet potatoes), 1/2 c brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt, pinch each of nutmeg and ground cloves, 2 eggs, beaten

1.Preheat oven to 400 F.  Prick holes in the bottom of your pie crusts with a fork.  Bake 10 minutes or until very lightly browned and dry; remove from oven.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 F.

2. Combine pecans, corn syrup and egg white in small bowl; mix well.  Set aside.

3. Combine sweet potatoes, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves in large bowl; mix until well blended.  Stir in eggs.

4. Spread sweet potato mixture into baked pie crust.  Spoon pecan mixture evenly over top.  Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until filling is puffed and topping is golden.  Cool completely on wire rack.

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Easy Fall craft #2

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This was a great craft to highlight the changing colours in the leaves.  You need a variety of colours of construction paper, scissors and a glue stick.  Draw a tree on your construction paper, cut out little leaves from a few different colours of construction paper.  To shortcut this, I mainly cut out “pointy circles”, not fancy maple leaves. … and the toddlers did not even notice.  Pour yourself a big cup of coffee, grab the nursing baby.  Hand your kids glue sticks, and let them go to town.

…or let them just eat the non-toxic glue.  …whatever.  (it’s ok, because they’ll be getting organic apples for snack, so it balances out the glue).