Family Life – Page 33 – a hippie with a minivan

shopping and processed foods…

The way I shop for groceries has evolved so much over the years… and what I choose has changed greatly….

I cringe when I think of the things I used to buy when I moved into my first apartment… a lot of pre-packaged, chemical laden “convenience” foods… I could cook a few things but I was inexperienced and had limited knowledge…

In the post about HFCS I almost wrote that now we avoid processed foods but changed it because really we avoid most processed foods..

Why I almost slipped though is because we do avoid almost all of what some people consider processed foods to be… and what I used to think was a normal way to eat…

Now, I still buy many foods that have been processed, but I make most of our meals “from scratch”….

I bake our bread (but the flour has been processed)

I make cookies (but I buy butter, and chocolate chips etc…)

I use canned tomatoes and canned coconut milk, I buy ketchup and milks and tamari… I buy peanut butter and cheese and oats…

Many of the foods that make it into my home have been processed in one way or another…

There are also some more processed foods that like to buy… frozen perogies are a quick and inexpensive meal (I should try making them though because they are probably not that hard when I think about it) and a box of Annie’s organic mac and cheese has made a quick lunch for the boys more than once… and the list can go on…

but I am comfortable with the ones we buy because they are mostly have minimal ingredients… or at least are made with ingredients that I can understand and can be found in most peoples pantries…

We do also do buy “junk foods” … not on a regular basis….but chips, and chocolate and Ice cream and other treats can be found in our home… I do choose products that have the least ingredients and make sure they do not have anything that we avoid… artificial colours or flavours or sulfates and other chemicals I would rather not consume…

The more time goes by, the more I have been replacing the processed foods that I buy and I will continue that trend… but I have to say that I am pretty happy with the way we eat now and it can only get better…

It's cold…

It has been cold and we are getting stir crazy….

I don’t feel like packing the kids into the car and going somewhere because there isn’t anywhere to go really and it is too cold for the kids to play outside… At this moment the temp is -22 and with the wind it feels like -32…just another January in Quebec… and not only is it cold right now but the forecast is saying that it is just going to get colder over the next few days…. the forecast for this afternoon and tonight is -30 (before the factoring in the wind chill)…

On mornings like this I am so glad that I don’t have to get all the kids up, dressed and out to bring one to school…

I need to scour the web a bit and figure out some crafts or activities we can all do with things that we already have in the house…

any ideas for us?

a playdough day…

For a while now colin has been wanting me to make a new batch of playdough… Khéna is now at the age where play dough doesn’t look like food as much anymore so this morning I finally decided to do it…

I made two batches… one blue and one green… both with a vanilla scent…

here is the recipe I use…

1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp vanilla extract (I use the cheap clear stuff)
1 cup flour
colouring

Mix in a pan on the stove over medium heat until thick…

The boys watched while I made it and then ran down stairs to get the play dough toys while it cooled…

They sat down at about 9:30… and their imaginations just soared…

Khéna smashed and bashed and pressed and mashed… Colin made toast with butter, pizza and Anakin Skywalker…

Xavier made cookies and cakes and spaghetti and meatballs… I cut a kleenex box and they had an “oven” to cook things in…

Cookies

at noon I asked them to put it away while we ate lunch…

After lunch they went and played in the snow for about an hour and a half and then got inside and soon after got the playdough out again and played for another 2 hours with it…

I have a feeling that we will be playing with playdough quite often in the next few days…

satisfying days…

There are some days that are just satisfying…

This morning we were up at 6 but not sleepy… The boys had breakfast and I surfed the net a bit while I drank my coffee… then I started on the kitchen and the boys cleaned up the floors to make sweeping easier… then headed in their rooms and did their beds… without me asking…

At about 8:30, Xavier decided that they should go play outside so they brought all of their stuff into the kitchen so that I could help Khéna and Colin get dressed… and they headed out into the back yard and played..

and of course that meant that I could finish the kitchen, make my own bed, start a load of laundry and sweep and wash the floors without being interrupted…

They came in at about 10:15 and we sat down and did the magic trick that Annie shared on her blog and they all took a few turns each doing it and figuring out why and how it works and then did a few dissolving experiments… finishing with a baking soda and vinegar “explosion”…

It is now just after 11am and the house is clean, Khéna is napping on me and the older boys are playing downstairs and laughing… Supper tonight was made yesterday so all I have to do is heat it up this evening and I might make a bread to eat with it this afternoon…The day is not near to being finished but I just know that this mood will continue.. it is just one of those days…

and days like this just make the rough days all worth it…

Happy New Year!!!

We had a really nice evening last night… some friends came over and we ate and drank and talked and played and went to bed late…

The boys ate their supper and fell asleep pretty early and we ate late so it was really a quiet “adult” supper…

Khéna woke up though at about 1am and stayed up for a while so we finally all headed to bed at about 1:45am…

The friends that came over is a friend of Simon’s that we have shared the holidays with for years now… before Xavier born even… Last year he met a woman from Cancun, Mexico and they got married and we have been getting to know her better… It is a bit of a shock for her to feel the cold of a Quebec winter…today we are having normal temps at -19 (-28 with the wind) and it is due to get colder as January and February bring the coldest weather…

I look forward to seeing her next time because she will be bringing her ingredients here and teaching me how to make corn tortillas and authentic Mexican cuisine…

I am sure to take pics of that and share!!!

When a new year comes I love to look at what is coming… This is the year that Xavier will be 7, Colin will be 5 and Khéna will be 3… this is the year that my good friend will be becoming a mom for the first and second time… (quite soon actually)…

I have a feeling that Xavier will be reading and admitting it by the time that the year is out… and I think that Colin might follow when he sees his big brother doing it…

Khéna will be talking in full force quite soon and I think that he will follow Colin and be a non-stop talker…

This year will also mark our 10th anniversary… we got married May 8th 1999…

So happy new year everyone! I hope the year brings you what you need and even what you desire…