Getting Coco on board with eating local food

Making healthier, more local choices when it comes to food hasn't been easy.  Husband and I are starting to get the hang of it.  We are eating more veggies, we get better quality meats and we feel better about it.  Coco, however is having a tougher time with this change. Like other five year olds, he loves KD, granola bars, cheese snacks, crackers.... We basically cut out all is favorites (except for some of Mommy's baked goods and fruit). 

I am trying to find new favorites for him.  We decided to include him in the food preparation process which is helping a lot with the transition.  We made some home made mac and cheese (I wish I had found local pasta... oh well) and pan fried fish.   He loved the fact that we were eating HIS meal.  He was so proud of his hard work that he asked for the same meal the next day!

Coco's lunches are equally difficult to plan without processed things...  I made cereal bars to try and satisfy his corn syrup granola bar craving.

 

1 cup packed organic free trade brown sugar

 

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

 

2  free range eggs

 

1 cup granola-type cereal (our own, made with local ingredients including oats, honey, maple syrup...)

 

3/4 cup local whole wheat flour

 

1 teaspoon baking powder

 

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

1/2 cup local dried fruit (we used cranberries and blueberries this time)

 

1. Mix sugar, oil and vanilla together; beat until blended. Mix in eggs. Stir in cereal.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and fruit; stir into cereal mixture. 

 

Bake @350 for 20 minutes.

These need to be completely cooled before taking them out of the dish.

They a nice cereal bar, nothing like a granola bar, but still very filling.

Best of all, I know what's in them :)

 

 

Becoming locavores one item at a time

Since the beginning of 2011, Husband and I are making an effort to eat local foods more.  We've found that there is quite a large selection available to us.

There are plenty of farms offering delicious fruits and vegetables.  My plan is to start preserving and freezing produce when it's in season this summer to supply us during the winter months.  We will be starting off easy, canning veggies, making sauces, freezing berries, making jams and fruit preserves and lets not forget Salsa and Tomato soup.  To add to this, we will be attempting a garden in our back yard.


  This will be our third attempt to a garden and hopefully we will get better results this time.  The first year, we didn't put much in our soil except for some peat moss.  Our soil is almost like clay,  practically nothing was harvested.  The second year, we started to enrich our soil.  Then we decided only to plant roma tomatoes, about 50 plants worth.  Well that was a mistake!  The plants produced hundreds of tomatoes each, however because of insane amounts of rain, they rotted before they could be picked. We were able to eat about 10% of what had grown.  So this time, we have composted material and enriched soil so we are going to plant a variety of food.  Thank goodness we have local farmers as a back up.

Here are other things we are doing to reduce our food miles:
-We buy Speerville grain and flour
-We replaced most of our sugar intake with maple syrup and local honey
-We purchase only free range eggs and grass fed meat from a local farmer
-We eat only local cheese and dairy
-We don't eat prepackaged food much to begin with,  but we are cutting that out too.


We didn't stop buying things just because they aren't completely local, we still get chocolate and such but we are substituting our usual brands and products for things that are made or grown closer to home.  For us it's not about the 100 Mile Challenge, or even a Maritime Challenge, it's about changing our food habits for good.

Marathon Crafter = Dilemma

Minding kids can cost you a lot.  Whether it be your money, your time or your patience, they would take it all if they could.  But I never realized how much kids can waste if you don't pay attention.  Coco is ALWAYS making things, he says he invents them but really he just takes arts and crafts to a whole new level.  He gets home from school, grabs a roll of scotch tape, a pair of scissors and a magic marker and he is unstoppable until bedtime.    About 10 "masterpieces" can be created in one afternoon.  He doesn't really seem to care what he uses to create them; Husband left a gas station receipt next to a  highlighter on the table for about five minutes and returned to find  a fluorescent yellow drooling three-headed monster on it. Books, bills, boxes, nothing is safe...

A trip to the office supply store can cost me over 100$ if I don't pay attention just to support his hobby and the daycare kids with craft stuff.  Enough is enough I say!   This week, I started gathering everything I find around the house that Coco and the daycare kids (aged 3, 2 and 20 months) can use to create their artwork.  The craft corner is filling up and the kids aren't complaining that there are no pre-cut foam shapes either!  I found old paper plates in the kitchen that were used to make paper masks and turtles, empty toilet paper rolls and egg cartons also tickled their imagination.

We got a huge bag of empty envelopes and cardboard sheets from a family member that works at a store where they sell greeting cards.  It seems that the card companies take back the unsold cards but tell the stores to dispose of the cardboard labels and envelopes.  I happily filled up the craft corner quite nicely with the brightly colored envelopes and started a scrap paper box so the kids could have paper to draw on.  

Its hard to comprehend just how big a child's imagination actually is.  An old box, some strings and a few buttons keep most kids busy for hours.  As parents we tend to forget that we don't need to buy them every little craft trinket out there; they'll find things around the house that are way cooler to them than anything we could buy in the store.

Method... not your average line of cleaning products

All the chemicals around us we really can't avoid made me think of what changes I could make to reduce my family's exposure to harsh substances.  I discovered Method cleaning products a few weeks ago at Shoppers Drug Mart.  LOVE THEM!!!!  So far I have tried the laundry detergent, all purpose cleaner and the dishwasher detergent.    I was surprised that the products seem to clean better than the leading brands I use to purchase AND they weren't that expensive.

The laundry detergent claims to be hypoallergenic. I'll believe it, I washed Bubba's clothes along with the rest of the dirty clothing and it seems fine on his sensitive skin.  My white clothes actually look whiter than they did before. I could never bring myself to use bleach in my wash so my white clothing became dull very quickly but Method just brightened that up!  My washing machine was screaming to be scrubbed with vinegar and baking soda since there was a musty smell in there; one wash with Method got that musty smell right out.

I've never been one to wash the dishes before I put them in the dishwasher...  I find it defeats the purpose of a dishwasher.  With national leading brands of dishwasher detergent, I had to put my dishwasher on super wash, add the hot start and the dishes still didn't come out that clean. Husband empties the dishwasher and throws all the rejects back in the sink, my sink was never empty.  I've done three loads with Method dishwasher detergent on the econo cycle, no bells and whistles, and the dishes are coming out squeeky clean.  Not only am I using a non-toxic, eco friendly product, but I am also saving water and energy as well.  The package of Method dishwasher detergent was only like a dollar more than the brand I used to use.  A buck well spent for sure.

The all-purpose cleaner comes in different scents.   So far, we've tried the pink grapefruit and the cucumber scents.  The cleaning power of these products is amazing,  it's just as good, maybe even better than the chemical lemon stuff everyone keeps buying.  The scent of the pink grapefruit is very pleasant but Husband didn't like the cucumber smell (even though I didn't mind it one bit).  The smell  isn't overpowering and it's safer to use than the average brand.

All you need to do is check out www.methodhome.com to see for yourself.  The company is committed to offering more eco-friendly solutions to clean with; products that are safer for people, pets and the environment.  Everything from what they put in the products to how they package them is better than your average brands.  I still have a lot of their products to try out and I've never been this excited to clean my house!

a CUP-le here, a CUP-le there...

So this week, in an attempt to reduce the amount of garbage the family produces, I've decided to start keeping empty yogurt containers and other little cups.  I wash them, stack them, and put them under the sink in hopes that I will remember they are there once we start our seeds indoors for our third attempt to plant a garden (more on our unfortunate gardening events in another post...).

In only a week, we've managed to gather quite a bit of containers.  I bought some kids sized individual yogurt cups and those serving portions of preserved peaches last week.  They were on sale and I had coupons for them... after all the savings I had gotten them for less than 10 cents a serving.

Everyone loves a bargain, but I am starting to realize that bargain hunting isn't always environmentally friendly.  I'm the type of person that gets giddy at the thought of getting something half price, I'll go the extra mile just to save a buck or two.  But where should the line be between frugality and becoming eco-conscious?

After rummaging through my kitchen garbage (Coco or Husband didn't get into the habit of saving the cups yet), I counted 23 empty individual cups.  That's only 1 weeks worth!  That means that at this rate my little family and daycare kids would consume over 1100 little individual yogurts and preserved peaches a year; this isn't even counting the ones that made it to school or to work!!!! I CAN'T save all these cups, if I did we would be buried in garbage in no time!  If I don't save them that would be 1100 more little cups in the landfill.  Of course, these won't decompose in a few months, not even in a few years.

Now that I realize the amount of waste these produce I REALLY can't buy these in good conscience.  I just hope Coco doesn't go in withdrawal, he lives on this stuff.   Well, he'll have to make due with eating yogurt in reusable containers and waiting until peaches are in season for me to make homemade preserves.  Everyone needs to sacrifice something, that is part of making a difference.

GoGreenMonctonMommy: a beginning...

I got the idea to write this blog on an average weekday, while the radio news was bombarding my head with the notions of climate change, of gas rates going up and of limited resources. What kind of legacy are we leaving for our children?  Something has to change and we all need to play our part.

  As a mom of 2 young children, I want to make a difference so my kids can live on a healthier planet.  My goal is not to go green overnight.  I want to change my habits at my own pace to reduce my carbon footprint and do my part to preserve our resources.

I will take it one step at a time. Right now, I still drink imported coffee,  I like to go for drives, I dry my clothing in a dryer and I buy prepackaged food, in other words: I am just an average person and I have LOTS of things to change.

Here are some my goals:
-buy local products when possible and reduce the amount of imports we buy
-reduce the amount of garbage my family generates
-make better choices when it comes to green products
-consume less electricity and gas
-lead a simpler life
-show my kids that you can make better choices and still have fun

These changes are going to affect my family and my job and I plan to write about both.  I work as a childcare provider and I must go through like 1000 baby wipes a month.  Just slashing that is going to be hard.

As for my family well luckily, Husband is on board 100%.   Coco is a 5 year old little boy, he is easily influenced and hopefully he'll follow his parents.  Bubba is only 3 months old, I don't think he'll really notice any changes we make.