EASTER CHEZ LES WISEMAN

Easter this year was pretty simple. As neither Geoff or I celebrate easter as a religious holiday it's really all about C Monster.  On Friday night he planted magic jelly beans in the garden and a lollypop grew overnight for him.

Then Saturday afternoon papa and C monster started colouring his eggs, that they had so carefully emptied all week.

Then in the evening I helped C Monster make his easter train and this morning we filled it up.

Last night the easter bunny also visited and left a trail of eggs behind for C Monster along with a chocolate surprise at the end. (Pictures to come papa took these)

He also received a few easter packages in the mail from my family - thank you guys!

Now as I relax with my day to myself C Monster and papa are of to the skate park.

Esater / Menu planning / Leather Pillow

Easter Morning

When C Monster woke up this morning first thing we did after getting dressed was an egg hunt.  Easter for me not really anymore about religion or an easter bunny but more about the beginning of spring. I am debating next year doing a celebration on the spring equinox instead. That all being said I also believe C Monster should be exposed to "mainstream" culture that "most" kids are exposed to - not for him to feel left out when he is older.

I decided a little egg hunt would be fun.  We had some cloth eggs that we purchased as an easter present for him last year so we hid them around the house each with a picture of the next destination attached.  At the end was a little basket with 2 chocolates and 2 cars.  For me using eggs is OK - the symbolism of eggs for me makes the beginning of life and that's what spring is for nature the beginning.

Here is a video of the eggs hunt - it's a bit long :-)

Once a coat now a pillow

Geoff ruined one of his leather jacket.  I hate wasting perfectly good leather; so I decided to try to make something from it...

Menu Planning - what's this - part 2

As I mentioned in the post yesterday; I was asked: "how do I find time to make everything?" When it comes to meals in the house it seems to just come together; it just happens.  It probably helps that I love cooking and baking.

So how do I find time to make everything? - Well first I am a stay at home mom / homemaker.  Yes I like to call myself a homemaker; I take pride in having supper on the table every night; making sure the house is somewhat clean; planning and designing every little bit of the house; coordinating vacations and family adventures and yes you can forget making cookies and iced tea - to only name a few.

Some tips I can offer you to be able to maximize how much "from scratch" cooking you do:

1. Involve the kids - C Monster at 2 years old knows how to level a spoon full; fill a measuring cup; operate (with supervision the stand mixer)
2. Kitchen appliances are your friend - I love my food processor, blender, stick blender, bread machine and stand mixer
3. Make extras and freeze them.  I often make enough soup to freeze a jar.  When I make pizza dough the recipe is large enough for 2 large pizzas - you can pre-assemble the extra pizza and freeze it for latter.  Same goes for cookies & muffins (take out of the freezer and put them in the oven for a few minutes and you will have the next best thing to fresh.
4. Pre-prep basics.  I pre-chop garlic and ginger in my food processor and freeze it in ice cube trays. 1 tbsp per cup with some water.  Once frozen transfer to ziplock back.  When you need garlic or ginger just grab a cub from the frezzer.
5. When greens such as kale, swiss chard, spinach starts to wilt in your refrigerator; clean then chop up in food processor - again freeze in ice cube trays. You can toss these in pasta sauce; pizza sauce or anything else at the last minute to boots up the nutrition value.
6. Practice your knife skills - once you can chop and cut fast and efficiently you will be amazed at the amount of time you cut off your prep-time.
7. Keep you cuboards organized - it goes faster to cook something if you can find what you need.
8. Use your bread machine for more then basic breads; it can make pizza dough; rolls and even sweet bread like banana breads.
9. Get familiar with recipes; it goes a lot faster to cook something you have alreay done a bunch of time; then to follow a new recipe.
10. I can't say it enough involve the kids.
11. Also don't keep the processed foods in the house - if they are not there you will have to choice to make something from scratch if you want to eat.

Sunday April 4th - C Monster's Food Diary

Pre-Breakfast Easter Surprise

1/2 Kinder Surprise Egg

1/2 Little Scoop Egg

Breakfast

He refused to eat

Apple Juice Water Mix (50/50%)

Breastmilk

Lunch

PCO Berry Granola Bar

Spelt Pasta with Sneaky Veg Sauce

PCO Cheddard Cheese

Apple Juice water Mix (50/50%)

Afternoon Snack 

Breastmilk

Supper (with Grandpa Roy)

Pizza Pizza cheese pizza

Chocolate Milk

Chocolate Ice Cream

Evening Snack

6 Organic Raw Cashews

1/2 Box PCO raisins

Breastmilk

Now to finish answering how do I do it all - I don't something always gives.  My house is never perfectly clean, my dishes are often behind, my laundry piles up, the dust is gathering on my furniture.  I also have help - my wonderful husband loves to bake and often makes bread in the evening.  My mother in law comes by once every 2 weeks giving me a chance to catch up.

Sneaky Veg Sauce

If you have a picky eater like I do you need to get creative. One of C Monster's favorite foods is pasta; white pasta with tomato or meat sauce is not really the healthiest meal so I mix it up for him in a way most kids wont notice.

Ingredients

1/2 jar PCO 

1 small onion

2 small carrots

2 small beets

1 cube frozen chard/kale (see tip number 5 above)

1 cube frozen garlic (see tip number 4 above)

1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Chop up onion (pretty small pieces) and start cooking in pan pre-heated with the olive oil. Use medium heat - make sure you check on them frequently and stir to avoid burning.

While onions are cooking - using your shredder attachment for your food processor shred the carrots and the beets.  Take out shredder attachment and replace with cutting blade and pulse the mixture 3 to 4 time to cut even more finely.

When onions are getting soft add frozen garlic, chard/kale and beet/carrot mixture - cook until all vegetables are soft.  If mixture is sticking add a bit of water.

Once cooked mix in sauce and make sure it is thoroughly heated; toss with your favorite pasta and enjoy.  I find that veggies stick better to noodle that are in spiral shapes.

Looking Forward To

My garden being planted

Tasty Tuesday - Cranberry Raisin Loaf

Just like everything else at the Wiseman's we make our own bread. I was trying to think how many loaves of bread we actually buy in a year -- I think it might be 5 or 10, if you count packages of hot-dog and hamburger buns.

We make our own bread for more then one reason: cost, taste, it's easy and, well, I enjoy it.

This recipe is for a bread machine; we probably use ours twice a week at minimum.

Ingredients:

● 1 1/4 cups water
● 1 egg
● 1/3 cup skim milk powder
● 1 1/4 tsp salt
● 2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
● 2 tbsp butter
● 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
● 1 cup whole wheat flour
● 2 tsp cardamon, ground
● 1/2 cup cranberries, dried
● 1/2 cup raisins, dried
● 1 1/4 tsb bread machine yeast

Directions:

Add ingredients in order listed to bread machine. Select sweet cycle; dark crust.

Toy Thursday - Easter Presents for baby

We decided that since Christophe will be 13 months at easter we are going to let him try chocolate for the first time on that day. One tiny organic chocolate egg from Kakayo. If you live in Toronto and have not tried Kakayo you must, once you go there no other chocolate will ever compare.

We also want to do an easter egg hunt with him. Instead of using the traditional plastic eggs we ordered these beautiful fabric eggs (Jelly Bean Easter Eggs) from thepolkadottotspot on Etsy. She can make them with or without bells. I figured after easter these are going to be a great addition to his play food collection.

Image by the polkadottotspot.

Tasty Tuesdays - Yorkshire Pudding

Yorkshire Puddings is a great way to pretend to show off your massively talented baking skills, because most people think they are extra hard to make but in reality these are some of the easiest bread product out there to make.

Yield: 12
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
● 4 eggs
● 1 cup all-purpose flour
● 1 cup whole wheat flour
● 2 cups milk

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk until well blended. Whisk in the flour one cup at a time until frothy and well blended. Set aside.
3. Spray muffin pan with oil. Divide batter equally between the 12 muffin cups.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven. Serve immediately.

teflon out - CERAMIC IN

First of all I would like to start with that I think my kitchen is finally "plastic free". I say this in quotations because we still have a few items left...

Our mandolin; we don't use it often enough to make it worth switching. Our food processor; we could not find a viable option were food does not touch plastic; if anyone out there knows of one let us know. Our glass jars have plastic lids and some of our utensils/kitchen gadget have plastic handles but none of those touch food.

Our last switch was our kettle we traded in our electric plastic kettle for a beautiful brushed stainless steel stove top kettle. We got in on a great deal at Winners, it's from Kuhn Rikon and has such a nice heavy weight to it.

Our next step is to banish Teflon from our home. You ask me why are we banning Teflon and teflon like products from our home...

"DuPont studies show that the Teflon offgases toxic particulates at 464°F. At 680°F Teflon pans release at least six toxic gases, including two carcinogens, two global pollutants, and MFA, a chemical lethal to humans at low doses. At temperatures that DuPont scientists claim are reached on stovetop drip pans (1000°F), non-stick coatings break down to a chemical warfare agent known as PFIB, and a chemical analog of the WWII nerve gas phosgene."

"In new tests conducted by a university food safety professor... A Teflon pan reached 721°F in just five minutes..."


So how are we banishing Teflon:

We started by getting rid of all our none stick pans and replacing them with stainless steel high end pans such as Lagostina and Cusinart. Winners is a great place to get these for reasonable prices. The reason why I say high end is that with past experience unless it's a heavy weight stainless steel you wont be happy with the pan after a few weeks. You need to spend the $ to get something that will last and cook well.

However Geoff wanted to keep one non-stick pan for when he cooks those really sticky items. This is when we started to research alternatives to non-stick pans. After a bit of research and a struck of luck when we were spending some gift cards that we received at Christmas we found Earthchef at Zellers. Earthchef is made from stainless steel with a non-stick ceramic coating. So far we love our pan. I have to say I was also impressed at the weight of the pan, it's nice and heavy and compares well to our $200 Lagostina pan.

Eggs still stick a bit to the pan and you need to use a small amount of oil but it's worth the trade off for our health.

Earthchef also makes baking wear. In case you did not know most of the metal baking wear is also coated with Teflon. So we got a cookie sheet and a muffin tray from Earthchef also. We also love these - no problem with sticking yet.

Earthchef is manufactured by BergHOFF in Belgium. There website claims that the product is "six times stronger than the traditional non-stick coatings"; use "recycled packaging"; "the product line offers cookware; induction cook-tops; bake-ware; roasters; cutting boards; cutlery and knife blocks".

The best thing about Earthchef (after the fact that it's safe) is the cost, our 10" pan was around $30 and our cookie sheet was around $15.

Other then these great ceramic cook and bake wear items we are using glass and clay wear to do our baking; we already had tones of these that were given to me by my grandmother years ago.

We still have a few items that we need to find solutions for such as our rice cooker, waffle iron, spring form pans and decorative cake pans. If anyone out there has seen a rice cooker that is plastic and teflon free please let us know.

Quotations 1 & 2 from: Canaries in the Kitchen by EWG the article is worth a full read.