Apple Harvest

For those of us in Michigan, the apples are upon us and it is a great crop this year. So here is something I whipped up tonight for desert. (Thanks Gma Judy for the apples)

This was inspired by many posts from Pinterest this one specifically. However after searching and trying again and again I found no clear how to…so I figured I’ll wing it!

APPLE ICE CREAM BOWLS
First you need apples, number to be designated by how many you will be serving. To be honest I can’t remember what kind we were even gifted, their good though if that tells ya. 😉
Cinnamon
1/2 tsp of sugar per apple

Sauce
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup yogurt

Ice cream of your choice

Preheat over to 350
While oven heats core out your apples but make sure you leave some meat and the flesh solid at the bottom. I used a small pumpkin corer to cut the circle then a knife to cut across and finally spooned it out.

Each apple received a two sprinkles of cinnamon. I rotated the apples to try and distribute it evenly.

Next sprinkle your 1/2 tsp of sugar in each apple.

Bake!!! I left ours in for 40 minutes and they still had some body left to them. To make them scoopable they would need to go an additional 10-20 minutes depending on size. I don’t like cooked fruit generally so this amount of time was perfect.

While those apples bake start the sauce.

Combine water and sugar in a medium to large sauce pan. Size is required because with any sugar sauce it can spit and needs constant movement. It’s just safer this way, so please be careful and use caution.

Stir until sugar dissolves.

Allow mixture to come to a rolling boil. At this point it needs to be agitated constantly. This can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes. I normally turn the heat to a medium high, but cannot be distracted or it will burn. Agitate the pan by gently sliding the liquid back and forth. Do not be strong with this!! Little gentle movements.

When the mixture begins to turn the caramel color take a large spoonful of the yogurt and start to gently and slowly mix it in. It will pop and spit so the slower the BETTER! Continue until all yogurt is added. Now the yogurt will at first seem to harden and ruin the concoction, just keep stirring and reduce heat to low.

Stir until the desired consistency is reach and remove from heat.

When apples are finished remove and allow to cool for about ten minutes.

Fill with ice cream and cover top with caramel. If caramel has thicken too much simply heat and stir on low.

Eat! Napkins required. We ate the ice cream out with a spoon then picked up our apples and enjoyed the scents and tastes of a Michigan fall.

Enjoy. Please let me know how your apple ice cream bowls turn out in the comments below.

We Won

Find the post here.

It’s late but I gotta

We won a car!!!!!!!!!

I bought five tickets and one with my husbands name on it was drawn!!!

I will post fully tomorrow, tonight I have to look up neat last minute party ideas for tomorrow cause this house is going to party like it is 1971…COMET Style!!

Outside

TIME TO GO OUTSIDE!!!

One of the most favorite things, in my children’s opinion, that I can ever say. If they had it their way they would wander out as soon as a sliver of dawn seeped through there eastern facing bedroom window at like 5:15 in the morning. I’m not a morning person, and well they are still on the young side to be running around alone outside, even at our house. They have to wait for myself or their dad to be up and have their eyes open. Since dad works a 2nd/3rd shift, that leaves me to morning duty 6 days a week! Ahh!

So typically this happens:
One of three boys come in, they have learned not to all come in, and announces they want to go outside because it is light out, not raining, or if it is raining, not thunder storming, warm enough, not too hot yet, snowing, snowing but not blowing, not snowing. Okay you get it, they want to go outside!
This is followed by me asking for or looking to see what time it is. 5AM on most days is too early for me to be alive enough for outdoor play. I normally try to encourage them to go back to bed. Or something VERY quiet for at least and hour.
Sometimes it will be 8AM! Thank The Lord I slept in! Haha! Okay yes, eat first then play outside. That is followed by the request of the food be in some type of portable form. They want to of course eat it WHILE playing outside. Typically I try and oblige or simply serve whatever it may be on the porch, or slide, or fort, or teepee. Yep you get the picture yet again.

So what? Right? My kids like to go outside. And…?
First off they do not just like it, they LOVE it! It’s not just our home either, it is just about any outside venue, area, home, or park. But why?
My answer, the world outside is amazing, who doesn’t want to run through the mud, climb trees, forage for food when you want a little snack (today it was wintergreen), chase butterflies, look at frogs, watch birds. The list truly is never ending. I know a large number of adults would cringe at the thought of doing most or all of those things, but I have to wonder if that was always the case. Was there not a time when you loved to lay on soft grass and stare at the passing clouds or feel the crunching softness of the snow and you watched the snow fall from the heavens?
I still love it and I still do it often. It makes me happy, connected and centered.

But, this tis not bout me! So I asked the kids.
Big Man(6)-I feel free when I am playing outside. I can be anyone and investigate anything. I get to just be me. I like being outside cause it makes me feel special and like I’m part of the world.
Middle Man(5)-I get to PLAYYYYY! And I get to watch animals and learn from them. I love my frogs in the pond, I like to watch how their legs move when they jump. I like watching the birds too, they eat different types of things depending on their beaks. I also like to visit the faeries in the woods.
Little Man(2)-I like to ride my bike. I can jump on the board (little jump dad built). I like bugs too and trees! I’m gonna climb a tree to the mooooon! (Moon was visible that day).

I understand each and everyone of their reasons. It is a freedom to learn, explore and just be part of the natural process. Yes, I know, bikes and such are extra, but even if they didn’t have those items, there is still so much depth to what they are saying.

Have you ever hugged a tree? There really is something to that. To realize that this ‘thing’ is an amazing producer creating life from well seemingly nothing (photosynthesis). They provide vital oxygen, shade, food, vibrant colors, shelter and without them lets face it our world would be horrible, barren and down right ugly.

My children are healthier kiddos because they play outside. I don’t need scientific data to tell me that, but studies have shown it as well. I know it simply from when we have a string of days with severe storms where it is unsafe to play outside. Now I know, some of you are thinking, ‘well you must not have fun stuff to do inside!’ Oh on the contrary! We have an entire room devoted to indoor fun. All of it is utilized, but not as much as the best resource we have, the great out of doors. When they are outside they are getting exercise, testing their physical abilities, stretching their imaginations, and learning, all the time learning. Most importantly, learning how we all interact and depend on each living thing. That makes them happy, well rounded and peaceful.

Best way to start getting your kids back outside? Join them. It’s fun, I promise!

We have a VEG

About six weeks ago our middle man, who is 5, asked for our attention while we were all traveling home as a family after a camping/hockey weekend. He was very serious, and knowing our kids, both go smiles on our faces, expecting something very clever or entertaining to follow. What did follow, in and of itself, was not surprising, but it was much sooner than anticipated.

MM – It upsets me to eat meat. I don’t want animals to die so that I can eat them.

Me – Okay so what are you telling me?

MM – I don’t want to eat it [meat] anymore.

Me – If you don’t feel comfortable eating meat you don’t have to. It’s your body and you are in charge of your body. Do you want to stop eating it all together?

MM – No meat. I never want to eat it again.

Now the hubby and I talked about what he was okay and not okay with eating. We didn’t know if he wanted to avoid all animal products and become a vegan, or if he was comfortable with some products. He felt that being a ‘general vegetarian’ was what would work best for him. He even explained to me how our chicken at the time (may she rest in peace, she died of natural causes) eggs were not fertilized and would no become a chicken if left for her to sit on them. The roosters had already gone to the coop in the sky the year before.

Hubby went on to talk to him about how he and I would still be hunting and that most of the household would still be consuming meat at meal times. Now regularly for us is maybe four meal with meat, four containing eggs, and the occasional cheese product, so as compared to the average American table, not that much. Now you figure in at least two of the four meats are fish or crustaceans, which he has decided he is okay with eating.

We knew this day was coming. MM has such an understanding and closeness with animals and nature that we knew one day he would not want them to loose their life so that he could eat. The first couple weeks we had to really focus on helping him make meatless choices when we went out or were at another’s home, due to all in one type of dishes. Now, he has it all under control himself.

MM will order from the menu at a restaurant and request that the salad not include the chicken, or will ask when the server takes our drink order if they have veggie patties or meat substitutes available. Most times he is then asked how old he is. It really is funny, he will answer with, “I’m 5, he’s 6 and he’s 2 [while pointing at his bros], and I’m a vegetarian.” He has had the occasional person ask him why he doesn’t want to eat meat and he can very clearly explain to them why. I have had the occasional person, not server, ask me why I don’t make him eat meat…and I have to admit the first time I answered with something like, his body his choice, which is true, but it wasn’t the best answer all around since most people do not understand self-ownership. What I thought about and use now is this, “food is meant to nourish our bodies, enabling them to grow and function at their best, his diet fulfills it’s purpose. By not eating meat he feels like he is allowing even one animal to take a breath for a bit longer, and to me it is worth every single separate meal I have to prepare.”

Little Man, 2, has now started to ask for meatless meals at times. When asked why, “It makes me sad to eat.” MM may have started a trend.

I’m so happy to see first hand that my children know they have a choice in how they impact the world. They have a voice and that voice will be heard by their father and by me.

I LOVE comments!

Let me know what you think or any recipes or advice that you are looking for.

Peace Love…Dreams

If you are here from the Hip Homeschool Mom Blog Hop thanks for stopping by. Click Here to be returned to the HOP!

A fishy thing

an

We love fish. We were born and bread in the Great Lakes State, and my family owned a fishing lure business. I was exposed to it at a young age and learned to love it, well maybe not even learned, I just did. I know not everyone likes fish, I’m sorry…I would love to try and persuade you, but maybe another time.

More and more we are learning of the importance of eating clean foods, and when I say we, I mean society. I for some odd reason questioned at a young age why we didn’t just eat real food versus something that is 95% chemicals and dangerous. Any who, in Michigan a great and relatively inexpensive resource is our lakes, and in them a bountiful smorgasbord that we just need to cast out and take for our tables.

So besides the general breading and frying or baked, what can we do with these fish. Here is one of our favorite recipes for mild fish, your white or yellow fleshed fish.

Fish and Quinoa!!!

Depending on the size of the fish and the kind that you will be using will determine how many fillets you will in fact need.

One box Red Quinoa, it gives it the best coloration for plating.

One medium onion finely chopped

Two Tomatoes chopped

2 Ripe Avocados chopped and slightly smashed

Salsa of choice

Corn canned or freshly cut from the cob

Sweet or Jalapenos depending on taste and hot preference

1 Lime halved

1 Mango cut into small chunks, save any juice.

Cook Quinoa to the directions on the package

Saute fillets of fish in juice from half of the lime. Add water if needed to prevent sticking to the pan.

Plate Quinoa with fish directly on top. Add veggies and fruit to taste. Drizzle with lime juice and any mango juice you may have. This is also great served cold for a picnic or on a hot summer’s day. Hope you all enjoy!

Peace Love Dreams

 

 

Dancing

Most children are not getting enough exercise from day to day. With screen time and seditary activities, even during school it’s no wonder. Everyone is familiar with the life-long health issues that too little exercise can cause, but not overly familiar with how to combat it.

One way is to enter a bit more activity into your child’s everyday life. A great way to do that is through dance. I don’t mean a dance class, but if that is in order for you, then by all means, go for it. What I am talking about it simple moving to the music dancing. The goofy let loose cause no one is going to judge you dancing.

Take turns and have each member of your family come up with a move that matches the beat. Everyone has to dance the move for a set period of time, then move on to the next member and new move. You will be sure to see some of the moves starting to surface time and time again as you do this more often.

Another way to involve good movement is to choose a song that everyone or most everyone in your family knows. Then, make hand movements or body movements that go alone with the lyrics. It is a lot of fun, and don’t worry about how you look. If you look goofy then laugh at yourself, laughing is good for your health after all!

One last way I will share with you tonight is to dance while you do your household chores. Crank the music and encourage your children to dance while they brush their teeth, make their beds, or set the table for dinner.

It’s the little extras that can make a huge difference when added all up.

Healthy and Heated

Many people find that their eating habits falter in the winter months. Some of it is caused by eating too much of specialty foods around the holidays. The rest, at least for most people is the natural desire for more heart and warm fares.

There is a simple solution to both. Eat the holiday treats, which given the time of year it is, you already have, at least most of them. Just try to do so in moderation. As for the other, there is a great solution. Soup. Vegetable soup more specifically, but any soup can be better than some of the caseroles and thicker higher fat content dishes.

Soups help you to feel full and can be flavored with many different herbs and spices to satisfy your daily desire. They are also a great food that can be prepared while you are busy around the house doing other things in a crock pot. So how do you make is hearty yet healthy.

First, skip the noodles and add extra vegetables instead. Be careful when using broth bases as some of them can have 3 times the recommended daily amount of sodium. Cabbages can add an extra boost of flavor and nutrition to any soup recipe not to mention a flare of color depending on the variety chosen. Try different spices combinations. If you are unsure, remove a couple of tablespoons into a separate bowl and add a small amount of the new spice and taste before continuing. Make sure that you record your recipes for future use!

If you do wish to use pasta, try a Quinoa pasta, it is much more nutritious and healthy for you then general pasta, including even whole grain. It might however pinch your pocket a bit.

Happy Cooking!

Childhood Obesity Take 1

I know this topic is sensitive for some, and in later posts, will probably down right offend/PO others. Honestly, I don’t care, period. What I do care about is my children’s health and sharing the tools, tips, and creative ways we have found that work in teaching our children healthy life habits.

For people who have not met my children and I say, we have big kids, they sometimes will respond with comments like, “oh they will grow out of that,” or “the baby fat will come off when they get a little older.”  At first, I was like, uh, what? I am not sure if this would have been a normal response 50+ years ago.  Let me explain, we have TALL children whom I refered to as big. I do take the blame because I was not specific, and big is a subjective term. Yet, I still can’t help but wonder if those people were subject to their insinuation based on the childhood obesity trend in our country. One reason I really feel that this may be true, is because again, same group of people who do not know our children, have never commented that, “well both you and your husband are tall.”  Yet, that’s the response we get from most people who actually see  our kids.  So after our well baby visit, and the little tyke registering in the 99 and 98% for height and weight, he is still an infant, it got me thinking about our ‘big’ kids, what they eat, and what others must eat to cause them to be in the obesity range.

As I have said in other blogs, we believe in moderation. I am not the cookie nazi, and allow baked goods, even chips on occasion, but only on occasion. Two store bought cookies for dessert after lunch, plus chips and processed chicken product for dinner equals a very unhealthy day, at least by our standards. Yet, I will hear parents comment, well a cookie won’t hurt. They are right, A cookie won’t hurt, when there are other healthy choices that accompany it. Maybe that’s why it is called a ‘balanced’ diet. Ha ha, sorry I couldn’t help myself.

Even those that claim that it is okay to allow children to eat the junk, to not worry about their habits until they are older, or claim that they ate and had the same limited amounts of activities and they are ‘healthy’, you are only fooling yourself. You know that the lifestyle you are choosing for your children is not healthy and is harming them. So let’s work on making changes. Learning what you are specifically doing to your child’s health, esteem, future, and lifespan is a great start. So over the next few weeks, I will be posting weekly a new topic on how to combat childhood obesity in your home.

For some general information to get you started I have posted the link to the CDC below.

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/basics.html

The only way to stop an epidemic is to talk about it, bring bright light to it, and then chisel it away one chunk at a time.

 

Dance, dance, dance some more

One of the biggest activities that we do to get exercise in our house is dance! Sometimes it is dance that is incorporated into our learning activities for the day. Other times, I just call everyone into the same room, turn on some music, and we dance. Still other times, we have music playing, or a movie will play a song, and we will all get up and do a spontaneous short dance.

Here is an example of how we incorporate dance into our learning activities. We will watch a video of an ethnic dance a few times, then we all get up and while the cultural music plays, we each do our interpretation of the dance. At times this is part of a more integrated lesson, for example when we are learning about another ethnicity’s foods, or art, we will learn their dance at the same time. We may also learn about a few different styles of dance from the geologic area that we are learning about on a map. It helps to make the idea of the globe more real and less abstract.

Most times when I turn on music and call the boys into dance, it is because I realize we have been a bit short on movement for the day. Maybe it was an extra cold day, or someone has the sniffles and I did not want them outside in the iffy weather for any lengthy time. I use it as an exercise, a fun filled one if I do say so myself. I hope that the way I feel after we get done dancing is the same way that the boys do. I am happier, and of course healthier, and it is even easy to do while I am cooking our dinner.

Then of course when a good song comes on whilst we are doing other things, none of us can help but put down our activity, and get up and shake our thang! The kids shakes theirs a lot these days, so I think that the dance activities are paying off. Our middle one loves to dance and just think past two weeks, he danced his way through the streets of Disney World because in the happiest place on earth there is always music. He loved it, we loved it, and it is something I will never forget.

My hope is that they are not only learning about cultures through dance, but that excessive can be fun, and that self expression is a great thing.

I just love walking into a room and seeing all three of them standing in a group dancing and showing each other their moves. Puts a smile on my face just writing about it, so you can only imagine how happy it makes me to see them having so much clean, simple, free fun.