Christmas Shopping

Here I am in my bedroom with my laptop, a bag of (Way Better Sweet Potato) chips, and a (all-natural sparkling apple) soda, doing Black Friday shopping online.

I'm telling ya, halfway to hippie is almost normal...

But here's what I thought as I was browsing stores while baby girl naps and Daddy braves the shopping crowds to take the boys out to lunch....  people are always asking what we buy our kids.  When people find out that we don't eat candy, or sugar for that matter, they immediately wonder what's in our stockings at Christmas, what kind of cakes are at our birthday parties, and what on earth do you eat after Thanksgiving dinner?

Holidays are synonymous with eating, eating indulgently, and eating sweets.

Well, we're really no different.  We like to eat a lot, too.  But I'll share some holiday recipes later.

In the meantime, here are some items that are high on my list for filling stockings, and for putting under the tree this year.

Please note that there may be some affiliate links.  You will not get charged any extra for using these links, nor will any personal information be exchanged.  Rather, I will get a few pennies for anything purchased through a link, which will somehow justify this blog a little to my dear hubby... :)
 
Any kind of blocks!  Classic wood blacks are great, but I do worry about them inflicting a wound when they fall on a child's head.  I may be a bit paranoid.  They're a classic.  But, we also love Mega Bloks First Builders Deluxe Building Bag, bristle blocks  

any trio (this Trio Lights and Sounds Fire Station
 looks particularly cool!), and LEGO DUPLO Bricks & More Deluxe Brick Box 5507
...  just in case you're buying for a kiddo who hasn't reached the appropriate age for legos.  The nice thing about trio and duplo is that they sell generic sets great for open-ended play, but they also seel themed sets for superheroes, or Disney characters, which my kiddos think is extra special. 

Building Sets.  I love this building set at Lakeshore Learning.  And I know my kindergartener will, too.  He's also aching for an Erector Set.  I just don't know that I'm aching for all those little pieces in the house with baby girl running around.  That is the reason we haven't taken on legos yet, either



Imaginary Play.  Tea sets and dolls, kitchens and toy food, construction tools and hard hats... you name it, kids love it.  Pick up some clearance costumes and see what kind of fun they have.  The knight and soldier costumes are particularly well-worn in our home!  

Activity Mats.  These are great for all ages.  You're probably familiar with the ones designed for infants that have danglings goodies for reaching and kicking, but activity mats for preschoolers and early grades are awesome, too.  They have all sorts of scenes, but the roads and city mat (or rug) is probably the most familiar.  Thery do have prehistoric scenes for dinosaur lovers, for example.  We made our own activity mats.  I'll share that with you later, too. 

Tents.  There are easy-peasy pop-up tents of every shape and size for every child's taste.  Our tent stays indoors, and has served as a castle, restaurant, home, cave...

Art and Craft Supplies.  My kids can't get enough pipecleaners and construction paper.  I highly recommend a stocking filled with creative items like paint, or glitter-glue.  Depending on the child's age and interests, fill the stocking with stamps or markers.  Older kids may appreciate finer art supplies like nice brushes and acrylic paints, a set of chalk, watercolors, black pens, charcoal, or anything else that they have been eyeing.  Nice yarn, knitting needles, crocheting needles, sequins, beads, jewelry making supplies, and more will fit nicely into a stocking.  My kids love going to craft stores.  It's a bit dangerous.  

Toobs.  There are these nifty things called "Toobs."  They are a tube of clear plastic with about a dozen small molded plastic figures in a particular theme.  For example, the Safari Ltd. Wild Toob has all sorts of wild animals.  The Safari Ltd. Space Toob has everything outer space.  And, the Safari Ltd Knights and Dragon Toob has knights, horses, and a token dragon.  There are tons of options making them perfect for any child's interests (trains, cars, boats, dinosaurs, animals).  Their size and price makes them a perfect gift for a neighbor child, a great stocking stuffer, or an addition to an activity mat or building blocks.  We love them. 

   


Games and Puzzles.  This category if huge, and will depend on the child.  I never really cared for puzzles as a child, so that would have been a terrible gift idea.  Board games were not particularly fun either, as far as I was concerned.  BUT, logic puzzles, or one-person games were downright addicting.  I'm somewhat of a soduku fiend now, for example.  So my point is, regardless of the child, there is probably some sort of game or puzzle that they would enjoy.

Something to Read.  There are soooooooo sooooooo many good books out there!  If you're not sure what to get, search for the most popular on amazon, ask your local librarian, or sit with a cup of coffee in a bookstore one weekend.  While they may not be the highlight of Christmas morning, in my experience, books are often the gifts that will be treasured the longest.  Don't forget to sign the inside cover for your little ones - they love that!

Ok, now back to shopping!  Please, tell me, what are your brilliant gift ideas this year?  What is your favorite way to shop or get a deal?  Help a momma out...

Week #1 - Cooking Once for the Week

As I explained yesterday, I have started cooking once for the week.  This is a generous claim, because I do actually make 3 or 4 meals each week, but it really is a simplified meal plan.  Check out the details of the cook once a week plan, and then try it out!

For my first week of cooking once for the week, I went with a meal I had been craving, anyway: Chili and cornbread.  I figured chili is a decent leftover, and cornbread would be a treat for my kiddos.  Plus, I had scored a good deal on some organic cornmeal!  

I don't have recipes to share with you because I always make chili from what I have on hand and season it to taste.  It never comes out the same.  And, I am still testing out vegan cornbread recipes to try to find my favorite.  But here are the basics, and a basic shopping list...

Main Meal:
Chili
Cornbread
Salad

Snacks:
Sweet Potato Oatmeal Bars

Lunch:
Any Smoothie with spinach like this chocolate one
Rice cakes with nut butter
apple or melon
-or- soup with apple or melon

There's my cooking buddy happily perched on my hip.  See my tip below...








Shopping List:
Ingredients for triple-batch of chili (ground beef, beans, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, chili powder, oregano, garlic, salt, etc)
Ingredients for a triple-batch of cornbread
Ingredients for salad (3 romaine hearts, cucumbers, sunflower seeds, peppers, tomatoes, etc)
Ingredients for a triple-batch of oatmeal bars
Ingredients for smoothies
Ingredients for soup (if you are using my soup lunch plan)
Salad Dressing
Steak
Vegetable
More Onions
Pizza Ingredients (we use gf tortillas, marinara, vegan cheese, peppers, red onion)
Rice Cakes
Nut Butter
Apples
Melon

Tip: Instead of cutting the peppers and onions for the chili, I put them in batches into a food processor and pulsed until finely chopped.  The chili turned out great, and it saved me sooooooo much time!  And, it was much easier to accomplish with a baby in one arm. 

A note about ingredients: I use the best ingredients I can find.  We happen to eat a diet free of gluten, dairy and for the most part, egg.   We also don't eat anything with preservatives, food coloring, MSG, nitrates, or sulfites.  The nice thing about this plan is that you can tailor it to your life.  We happen to get grassfed beef from an Amish farmer.  If you like vegetarian chili, go for it.  If you're on a tight budget, buy what you can afford.  No matter what your journey is, I do highly recommend buying the best quality food you can find/afford.  It really does matter.

Are you inspired?  Have you tried cooking once a week yet?  
Tell me about your journey...

Cooking for the Week

So, if you're like me, and always searching for ways to streamline life, I am sure you've seen the freezer meals, and cooking once a month (OAMC) trend.  I've tried that method, and while I do love having freezer meals, I ran into some complications.  

First, many freezer meal recipes are not very clean-eating friendly.  Anything that requires a canned cream soup, pasta, cheese, or processed food is not an option in our home.  There are clean cream soup recipes out there, but the idea of doing twice the work for meals negated the convenience I was striving for.

The second problem is keeping my crockpot clean.  I found that I can do a crockpot meal only once, maybe twice a week because I store leftovers in the crock portion of my crockpot.  I am not an avid dishwasher.  So logistically speaking, the crockpot was available for use a couple times each week.

The third problem was variety.  By sticking with clean meals, I ended up with a lot of soups and stews.  Maybe some occasional chili.  It got old.  

So, someone told me that their mother cooked once each week.  What???  One large meal (doubled or tripled) to feed the family for the week.  One desert (yes, it's old-school) to feed the family cookies or brownies or whatever all week.  I know, that's crazy talk, right?!?  I mean, who likes leftovers?  But...  cooking once a week.... that is appealing.

My problem has never been meal planning, or shopping.  My problem is actually preparing the meal at mealtime when my children are tired, and so am I.  I know you hear me. My house at dinner time looks something like this...

Superhero capes, giant messes, and flying objects may make life fun, but they do not make a pleasant cooking environment.  That's actually a vacation picture, but that's pretty typical...

So I tried it.  We've been cooking once a week for three weeks now, and I am hooked.  Here's how it works at our house:

First, I should tell you that my husband usually handles breakfasts, and he loves feeding the children apples or bananas with nut butter, or oatmeal.  Sometimes they get gf/df cereal as a treat.  Once a week I make a "slow and special breakfast," like pancakes, waffles, cinnamon rolls, or fruit pizzas.  I try to make enough for breakfast the next day, too.  So this meal plan doesn't change that routine.

We also eat homemade snacks most days.  So, this meal plan includes a large batch of snacks.  Chocolate snack bars...  mmmmmmm.

To ensure adequate variety and nutrition, I also included lunches.  I like to make sure my kids get an orange and green vegetable each day.  If it's not at dinner, then it needs to happen at snack or lunch.

My children love to pick out their own soups and help make them.  So once a week, we try to make a soup lunch.  We actually prep it together on Monday, and I cook it in the crockpot while we're out Tuesday morning, so it's ready when we get home for lunch.  This is flexible, however.  There are weeks when we move this back a day, or skip it, and use a back-up meal, as needed.

My husband loves steak.  When we started eating clean, that was his consolation prize: we can eat steak every week.  So we do.   

We have make-your-own-pizza and movie night each week.  Ours happens to be on Thursdays.  It works out well for our schedule.  The beauty of this plan is moving things around to fit your schedule, so please do. 

Here we go....

Sunday: Cook a large meal.  This will be your main meal for the week.  Plan extra time to prepare, because while cooking time doesn't vary for a triple-batch, it does take three times longer to chop all the veggies.  I also make a triple-batch of snacks.  You'll see those in my meal plan.

Monday: Snacks and Lunch as planned.  Leftovers.

Tuesday: Snacks and Soup Lunch.  Leftovers.

Wednesday: Snacks and Lunch as planned.  Leftovers (if there are any) or Soup from yesterday's lunch (or, in theory a back-up meal, although I haven't had to do that yet).  Freeze or toss any dinner that has not yet been eaten.

Thursday: Snacks and Lunch (soup or planned).  Family Pizza and Movie Night.

Friday: Snacks and Lunch (soup or planned).  Steak with grilled onions and vegetable (usually sweet potato fries).

Saturday: Wing it!  Our plans are always different on Saturday.  We plan accordingly.  If we don't eat-out, then I use a back-up meal.

Sunday: Start all over!

* A note about back-up meals...  we have three basic options in our house: spaghetti, Namaste Say Cheese pasta with vegetables, and freezer meals.  Yes, I still make 12-15 freezer meals 3 or 4 times a year.  I also freeze leftovers if we have any...

Intrigued?  I'll post my weekly meals tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Welcome Back, Me! 

Ok.  I know going MIA for 2 years on a blog is oh, so taboo, but I wasn't actually missing. I was just on vacation at this other site: Sharing the Science of Natural Health.

That's where I get my natural health nerd on and post about the scientific support for natural health.  I also have a bunch of recipes over there you might want to check out.  

In the meantime, I've updated my info, and my page.  I'll be using this forum for all my day-to-day fun and frustration.  Afterall, I've got three littles I spend every day with, a couple businesses, a one-of-a-kind husband, a passion for learning, and an overdeveloped interest in caring for our bodies.  I'm pretty sure we have at least a couple things in common.  I hope to see you around!

Zara

PS - I'm on pinterest and facebook, too.  Let's be friends.  Or at least stalkers... uh, I mean, followers.