Christmas and some Meals

The kids on Christmas morning is always priceless. This year a fever and a cold hit our son just in time to feel miserable on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but he still enjoyed what he received from Santa...

 A bike for my buddy along with a Lego Pirates game and a ninja Imaginext play set along with a few books and some little stocking goodies...and my big girl- a set of American girl items along with a new doll, clothes a magazine and books, a few new 4H shirt from Grame to both the kids-

Last week we had some awesome butternut squash 'spaghetti' sauce over pasta and on the side my husband whipped up these babies! Grilled Eggplant, Tomato with Goat Cheese- to die for! We are attempting to decrease our meat intake so we've been playing around with different veggie dishes...

 Last night- Indian. I would have loved to make some homemade naan bread but ran out of time- and bread is a long process- next time! Vegetarian Korma - Potato's, Carrots, Red and Green Bell peppers, jalapeno's, ginger, curry powder and some cilantro on top over rice- It wasn't a winner with our daughter but of course she's pretty picky but our son ate a bowl full- two thumbs up- we'd make it again!!

 And a little champagne to end the evening- the taste wasn't all that, but thought we'd try it!

 

The next thing I'd like to try is homemade crackers, granola bars and fruit leather for the kids lunches!

Weekend Review...on Wednesday?

What happened last weekend, work happened last weekend. No, I was around a little bit but not as much as I would have liked to be with my family.

The kids decorated ornaments and home made cards for family that can not be with us this holiday. Darn camera acting up I didn't get a finished shot, but they turned out so great!

Hot Cocoa is always good and we baked another batch of those yummy chocolate chip cookies for school lunches the following week...

A little grocery shopping proved to be more difficult and more expensive as the organic section at the grocery stores are minimal, thank goodness we did get so many wonderful items at our co-op. We did find some organic egg nog for a treat and cereal on sale. We also opted for a non-meat menu this week which is going over well with our son but our daughter is putting up a fight before we've even cooked anything! We'll see how the week goes...

Our menu:

 Grilled Yams with Lemon/Parsley Rice - YUMM

Our son was in a Christmas song program and our daughter was in the Christmas School play, they both did fantastic and we couldn't be more proud! At the end of the play a pie fight broke out and left her with whip cream all in her hair.....

Just a few more days of school for the kids and a few more days until Christmas...

Tree Time

So the first weekend of December was a family trip to the snow...this second weekend we went looking for a tree and decorated the house.

With two trouble dogs in the house, we opted for mini-live potted Christmas tree's- one for each of the kids to decorate how they choose.

 Finished decorating...

 Another table with more home made decor...

 Stockings and a special Christmas stitch work done by my Nana

 A little hot cocoa after hard work decorating!

 The pup was obsessed with making off with Santa!

Then to top off the day a Christmas movie before bedtime!

Changing Habits - What's in our Food...really

My husband and I are on a journey to change our food habits, for ourselves, for our children and hopefully instill lifelong changes in our children that they can carry to their own children some day.

It started with our move out of state and then it went to the idea of starting a garden which moved to wanting to provide for ourselves and be sustainable, live off the land and has now become us researching and digging deeper, getting more information from books, documentaries and finding more and more out about where our current food supply comes from and really how tainted it is for us.

Nothing can be changed over night. Change is slow, but it takes persistence to make change.

At our food co-op we have now opted to purchase all organic. Its a higher cost for less food. To give you an idea how un-popular it is, out of 80 participants, 4 purchased organic last week.  We also purchase organic home made wheat bread and tortilla's from our co-op- but plan to make all of our own very soon...

We watched a documentary on corn the other day and our daughter immediately went to the cupboards looking at all the labels, then to the fridge. I smiled thinking this is it- us making changes, discussing it out loud as a family will flow through to our children- to their children. If every family made changes the whole world one day could change for the better - one family at a time.

For our family, we are choosing to make everything possible home made...to eventually when we purchase land, grown everything we eat to provide for ourselves and truly know where it comes from. We have heard about and seen a documentary about 'plant based' diets and are looking into lessening our meat intake and going to grass-fed, organic, natural meat.

Here is a list of some documentaries we have found incredibly interesting, we don't want to force our opinion on anyone but for families to choose their own way and decide for themselves- knowledge is power.

All pictures courtesy of Amazon, you can find more info at Amazon-