BYE BYE TREE - THE CHOPPING DOWN IN IMAGES

Menu planning? / art / and a bit more

Menu Planning - What's that?

I was asked by a reader a few weeks back -  "What does a meal plan look like in the wiseman house??How do you find the time to make everything??"

Lets start by answering the first question.  I will address the second half in tomorrow's post. We don't have a menu plan.  I used to plan all the meals every second Friday; then make sure the groceries were all bought and so on.  I found that I was spending too much time researching what to cook and then things would happen and the planned meals were not mad; then food would be wasted.  So sometime over this last winter I stopped pre-planning my meals.  I like it better this way - some of my best cooking comes from just opening the fridge and getting inspired but what's in there.

To give you an idea of what C Monster eats (he does not always eat what we do - he is 2 and 2 year olds are picky - at least mine is) I decided for the next 3 days I will post a diary of everything that goes in his mouth plus recipes if applicable.  As you will notice as you read C Monster food intact we are not perfect he also eats a lot of crap - well sometimes.

Saturday April 3rd - C Monster's Food Diary

Breakfast: 

Organic Spelt Waffles with Organic Maple Syrup 

Strawberry & Kale Smoothie

Breastmilk

Morning Snack:

12-14 Organic Raw Unsalted Cashews

1 PCO Toddler Berry Granola Bar

Strawberry & Kale Smoothie (left over from breakfast)

Lunch:  

He refused to eat

Glass of Organic Almond Milk

Breastmilk

Afternoon Snack:

Kiju Organic Apple/Grape Juice (%50 juice / %50 water)

Supper:

1/2 Slice of Cheese Pizza from Amato

Glass of Organic Almond Milk

Breastmilk

Evening Snack:

1 Square of Chocolate

1/2 Box PCO Raisins

4-6 Organic Unsalted Raw Pistachios

Homemade Herbal Iced Tea

Breastmilk

 

 Strawberry & Kale Smoothie Recipe

300g frozen strawberries (1 bag)
5 curly kale leafs vines removed
1 banana peeled
3/4 cups yogurt
1 cup apple juice
2 tbsp maple syrup

Place Strawberries in blender and crush using your blender's ice crushing mode. Once all large chunks are gone add Kale and half of the apple juice blends scraping sides occasionally until kale is mostly chopped. Add all remaining ingredient and process until smooth. Makes 3 - 4 smoothies.

I place C Monster in his sippy cup with a few ice cubes; when he done I put it in the fridge - he knows to ask for it when he wants it back.

Organic Spelt Waffles Recipe

1/3 cup Spelt flour

1/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

2 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup milk

1 tbsp melted butter

2 egg whites

1/4  cup plain yogurt

1/2 zuchinni, shredded 

1 1/2 tbsp mixed seeds

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In another bowl beat the egg whites until they are just stiff peaks (it’s better that they are a little soft than over beaten). Mix all wet ingredients (minus eggs) into the dry ingredients until just combined. Preheat the waffle iron.

Add the egg whites to the bowl and fold together quickly.  Brush or spray the hot iron with a little canola oil and then cook the waffles per your iron’s instructions.

Serve with butter, and maple syrup.

Makes 5 waffles.

Art - crocodile

Yesterday C Monster did some painting; I am particularly proud of this one.  He told me it was a crocodile. I see it do you?

Coxwell &  Fairford 

After some residents in our are complained about too much trew trafic the city temporarly blocked off one section of Fairford at Coxwell - to see if it would improve things.  The youth of the neighborhood did not waste time to take over this section of pavement that is now safe for them to play in.

 

Looking Forward To

Seeing Christophe reaction to his easter egg hunt and finally building a box around our vegetable garden tomorrow.

Tulip / Maple / Aunt Tara's

Tulip

Saturday this week was packed full of fun. We started the morning with breakfast at a local diner: The Tulip. When we were getting ready in the morning I asked C Monster what he wanted to eat. I went through a list and he said no to everything; so I asked him "do you want to eat at a restaurant," and he said a very enthusiastic "yeah" - off we went.

Tulip is your typical diner, good food, good prices. The service has always felt a bit rushed to me but I don't blame them as they are crazy busy all the time. They do not have a kids menu, we just share our meal with the C Monster.

After a great brunch C Monster and papa were off to the gym while I got some time to work on my LLL application.

Maple

The hunt for an organic Maple Syrup Farm open to the public in Ontario started almost 3 weeks ago. I only found a few farms:

McCutcheon's Maple Syrup
Robinson Maple Products
Hoover's Maple Syrup

We ended up going to McCutcheon's mostly because they were the closest to our home - a very close 1 hour and 45 minutes drive. I think the drive was worth it.

First of all, if you are looking for a tourist attraction with rides, a pancake house and all that you are in the wrong place - this is a true working farm run by a great family.

When we got there we were greeted by Mr. McCutcheon; he started the farm in the 70's and from my understand it is still to this day family run and operated. His daughter was also in the store - she helped me with my purchase. The store is a loose term as it is a section of the processing building for the syrup that they have a cash and products set up for display. They are open during the season everyday from 1 to 5pm. - I would call ahead just in case especially if you are traveling a few hours like we did.

We ended up purchasing 5 bottles of syrup a total of 8.6 litters (yes we use a lot of syrup in a year); I also picked up a jar of maple butter and a few maple leaf candies.

After our shopping was done we took a look at the processing equipment that were all dormant that day - we chose the first day in weeks were the sap was not running. However while we were there the pump did kick in once and C Monster got to see the sap rushing in. - the little sap there was. Mr. McCutcheon offered us a sample of the sap to taste. It's taste just like water with a little sugar added - it's amazing that someone figured out that you could make such a fantastic syrup from that.

Then off for a walk in the woods - oh no a stop at the heavy machinery. C Monster loves all types of trucks - when Mr. McCutcheon offered to let him climb in, I think it made his day. After 10-15 minutes of ridding the big rigs; we kinda convinced C Monster to go for a walk in the woods.



We only walked for 30 minutes of so; next year I would like to come earlier so we can stay longer and enjoy the outdoors a little more with C Monster. We looked at the sap running in the pips and tried to follow it to determined witch tree it was coming from - I gave up as there were way too many trees. C Monster played with some sticks, looked at moss growing on trees and even tried to eat a piece of a tree.

This is definitely the Farm we will come back to year after year - a great big thank you to the McCutcheon for sharing their great Sugar Maple Farm with us.

Aunt Tara's

On the way home C Monster was begging to get out of the car so we called Aunt Tara and guess what: she was home. It's neat to watch C Monster play with her kids now as they interact with him and vice versa - instead of the ever so popular reaction kids have to babies: he is cute but what do I do with him? C Monster had a double bonus as Grandpapa Roy was also there.

The kids played; I sorted hand-me-downs.

When were ready to leave the kids followed C Monster outside and they had some races from a good 15 minutes or so. Of course C Monster came in last he was against a 5 and 6 1/2 year old (Sorry Tara if I got the ages wrong). However he had a blast and it was so much fun watching them.

Looking Forward To

Seeing Tara and the Kids again in a few weeks.