Fostering a Love of Food

I think I've written about Food as Fuel here before. The concept that the quality of your fuel can help maintain the life of your machine, in this case the machine is your body. If not, I know I've had long conversations with some of you on the subject. Doing a basic Google search these days, you'll find multiple sources saying eating well is not only good for you, but it can help fight off cancer, maintain hormone levels, ensure longevity, and any other sort of positive attribute you can think of. In my opinion, all this awesome preventive medicine ingested by eating well starts with a healthy love of food. (I define food as "minimally processed edible matter that comes from plants and animals.") As a parent I strive to instill a love for healthy food in my kids.

 I recently read French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon (available here). I finished the book feeling reinforced in the methods and attitudes already in place regarding mealtime in our house. We eat 4 times a day, within a half hour start-time window depending on if we are/can wait for Pete to join us for dinner. Everyone has to take a bite of new foods, everyone has jobs to help prep and clean up, we eat at the table whenever possible, etc. This mindset had gotten slightly offtrack when we lost complete control of our schedules by adding preschool (and a new baby) to the mix. After reestablishing this mindset, we have decided to experiment with new foods. I checked out a couple children's books from our library

 

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert

 

I Can Eat a Rainbow by Annabel Karmel

Which included several items we couldn't pronounce, had never seen at the grocery or had not presented to Emagene that she could remember.

Naturally, we made a list of these items and stuck it on the fridge. 

We hope to try all of these at least once when they come in season at our local farmers market. 

We also have this look and find farmers market book that helps us remember which items to lookout for according to season. I bought it through a booksale on scholastic.com but now I can't find the link to it anywhere. Its called: At the Farmers Market and doesn't list an author. The illustrator is Staffane McClary.

We started our food journey at the beginning of summer by purchasing some rhubarb and a kohlrabi. We smelled some endive and held a few chocolate peppers (not on the list, and were sadly done for the season). Taking a lesson from Karen's book, I had Emagene help me prep the new veggies. We each held, smelled, and tasted them raw and cooked. We looked for how they changed when heated. And everyone tried a bite! We sliced the kohlrabi, tossed it with oil and salt and then baked it it like potato chips (preferred over raw). We only got through half our cabbage cousin that night and made plans to cook up a batch of roasted roots before the weather turned into full-blown Texas summer sauna. Apparently the kohlrabi goes great with potatoes and beets. Good thing, because there were beets!

The rhubarb was baked in a strawberry rhubarb crumble that everyone (even Pete) ate seconds of. Sometimes I wonder if its harder to get him to try new foods or Emagene. They both put up a meager fight with wrinkled noses as they toy with the first bite on their forks. They eventually eat it. I on the other hand take a lot of deep breathes to avoid snapping at them to "just eat your food!"

I had a bit of rhubarb left over so I tried this rhubarb syrup recipe I found linked at SouleMama.com. The soda was excellent. I must try the gin version soon!

Next we reintroduced the girls to artichokes. Just plain, steamed artichokes, dipped in butter and scrapped across the teeth.

Followed by homemade lemonade.

Anyway, that is what we are doing over here. At this point we have tried purple cauliflower, grapefruit (the Texas pink was a huge hit!), guava (fresh and raw, no thanks - but seeded and blended in a smoothie, yes please!), figs (all we had were dried and they were not hit) and jicama.  I think endive and pomegranates are next. I'll keep you posted. We are having the hardest time finding starfruit out here. I used to eat it all the time in Oregon, and Emagene is really intrigued by a star-shaped food!

What new foods have you tried? 

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Most of my recipes come from iPhone Google searches. When I find one I like, I email myself the link from my phone. If you ever want to know which ones I prefer, shoot me a note in the comments and I'll drop you the link.

This blog was drafted in June of 2014. Sadly, I became a bit behind in my editing when Aoife started walking. Now she is trying to run. *sigh* I may be able to knock out one decent post a week again soon. Here's to hoping!

Thanks for sticking around during my drier writing spells. I appreciate it.

Day in Dallas

On a whim, we skipped our weekly library storytime and went to Dallas to see the butterflies. We ended up doing so much more! Discovery Gardens and butterfly house, lagoon to watch the turtles, children's aquarium for shark feeding, and then met up with our unschooling group for fun at the Dallas museum of art, klyde warren park splash pad and food trucks. we had ice cream for dinner and then went back to the museum for third Friday festivities including a children's yoga class. It was one of those days where the kids were thoroughly engaged all day, got along beautifully and made new friends and then were dead asleep before we were back on the interstate headed home! 

Shopping with littles

Some time ago I decided that grocery shopping should not be stressful. I recently stumbled across a quote that solidified this: "cooking is an act of love." And since one can not cook without ingredients, shopping for food is, by association, an act of love.

 This idea probably surfaced when I started shopping alone with Emagene. Now that I have two it takes more determination to guarantee that stress is limited. First off, everyone must eat before we shop. At the very least, the trip starts with a deli purchase and some time at the cafe tables. Momma has more control over her emotions, the children aren't asking for every treat they see on the shelf, and we save money by sticking to our list and not buying everything that looks amazing!

Next, the trip is a learning experience. What am I teaching them? What am I not teaching them is a better question! They are learning how to select produce, how to follow lists, how to interact with others, how to behave in traffic. We chat with strangers over the random shelving choice to separate the cans of green chilies into 2 locations instead of lumping them all together on the same shelf. We price compare, watch the bakers use the awesome tortilla oven, and practice reading.

I try play to a characteristic at each ahop to help keep the chore lite. At one store, momma gets a coffee or a hot chocolate to share, another place we get always cookies, a third shop has amazing grilled cheese sandwiches. So I plan my trip based on time of day and which "treat" is appropriate. I try not to snack the entire time were shopping, or every time. We spend a lot more time weighing apples just because (I buy a number of apples and don't stress the weight, but its fun for emagene to use tools and she feels helpful when she has jobs.) I encourage her to pick the best peppers, or find the bag of lentils (green label with a big "L"), Or other staple products she is familiar with, like tinned olives. Sometimes I let Aoife chew on a tub of yogurt, or I buy overpriced berries and let her experience the food she's surrounded by. The whole time I apologize to everyone, stressing public politeness, and probably seem Canadian to those watching. But the girls have fun. Or at least they seem to. Their eyes are wide open and their senses are alert busily taking everything in. After shopping, we usually head home for lunch, a video or book, and a nap!

 

 It helps that I'm not particularly bothered with what people think of my kids, except for when I would shop with a screaming newborn and my exhausted nerves where fried. When we shop, I only notice my kids and maybe the people we're about to run over or who stop to comment on how well behaved my kids are. I take time to talk to them about what we're buying, what were going to do with it, how it got to the shop. Sometimes i make them smell the berries or knock on the watermelon. i have had more people stop to thank me for teaching my 4-year old how to grocery shop than I have had tell me I was brave for shopping with a newborn, or that I have my hands full (which happens a lot, usually when aoife is asleep in the carrier and Emagene is in one of those car carts that are horrible to steer!) 

Truthfully, when Emagene is in that manually operated amusement ride and Aoife is asleep, I can get my shopping done quick, but it isn't as fun. That's the experience I save for the last store of the day.

And now to keep the love flowing into dinner prep, that's a  completely different journey!

Unschooling with Disney

*this post is in no way sponsored or endorsed by Disney, Prima Princesa, Marvel, or the Olympics. 

Completely by accident we have found ourselves doing unit studies. Its a homeschooling term that other homeschooling families should recognize. Basically we have spent an amount of time/days focused on a theme of study. 

Emagene has been collecting Disney princesses and fairies for a while now and recently began asking about some of the stories with which she was less familiar. We tell her what we remembered while waiting for the DVD to be found at the library. Then we watch the movie or read the book and end up finding other things to do that fit the theme. None of it pre-determined.

For example, she started with Sleeping Beauty. We read the story, watched the Disney film, and stumbled upon a Prima Princesa production at the library. These productions (for there are more than one) are shortened, narrated versions of the orignial ballets put together by the American Ballet Academy and various ballet companies around the world. They break up the show by teaching easy ballet steps to the viewers. So we easily immersed ourselves in the world of Aurora and pointed out the differences and similarities between the two versions of the story. During the midst of this obsession, we visited the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth's education program called Wonderful Wednesdays (link here) and our project happened to feature a photo of a pas de duex (dance for two). Everything swirled into a few weeks of dance, art, doll play and various other ways of storytelling. 

After a short break to focus on the math skills highlighted in Mickey Mouse clubhouse, next up was Ariel. We've held off on this video until now due to Emagene's sensitivity to 'bad guys'. She read the story with us a few times and seemed prepped for the creepiness of Ursula. After we watched the film we discovered that the cooperative preschool we are apart of was beginning a unit on under the sea. How more perfect then was a requested trip to the Children's Aquarium! We learned about sea turtles and saw week old baby sharks, and freshly laid shark eggs.

After 10 days of being sucked into the world of mermaids, Aquaman and stingrays, Jungle Book appeared in our mailbox, just days before a pre-planned trip to the Dallas Zoo. Naturally, when we discovered the menu page of Jungle Book 2 simulates a Balinese shadow puppet play, we spent a great deal of time cutting shapes and back lighting them against a white sheet. This lead to noticing what happens to the shadows when the shapes are held close to the sheet or closer to the light.

In the middle of all this we spent a lot of time with the Olympics playing in the background and our world map close by. We found counties during the opening ceremony (until she fell asleep after the first 10 counties), watched her discover snowboarding, and notice how figure skating is similar to ballet. Since we took her ice skating over thanksgiving, she remembers how hard staying on your feet is and was in awe of anyone being able to jump or spin. 

And that friends is real unschooling. None of this was planned, other than meeting friends at the zoo or randomly committing ourselves to community activities with no thought of connecting dots, yet it all fell together. If you look close, we've talked about and tried fine arts (dance, music, painting, puppetry), early literature development (reading and storytelling in a number of ways), natural science (playing with light), zoology (reading plaques at the zoo and listening to keeper talks) marine science (again reading plaques and chatting with the keepers -theres a batch of sharks eggs due to hatch out in 2 weeks for those interested), fine motor skill development (cutting the shadow puppets, painting), physical education (dance, walking, running down sidewalks, climbing), world culture (Olympics and shadow puppets), current events (Olympics), and geography. I think most of these subjects are a little advanced for preschool, but only when you put a label on either the subject or the grade level. Otherwise, it was a over a month of just fostering curiosity and following the child's interest. 

The last few weeks

Let me start out by saying hello! I know I've been a tad quieter than usual around here. I would apologize, but I am thoroughly enjoying my less plugged in life! I have been deeply invested in real life, and I managed to photograph some of it for you. So, let's get started with the journey that has been February.

 

I am so completely surrounded by cuteness that it is nearly impossible to get work done. See that needlepoint project? Yeah, that was intended to be a christmas present. How can a momma do any stitches with a cat batting at her hand, or all those rolls begging to be kissed?

 

It hailed pretty good one day and Emagene was so desperate for snow i swear she put on her pants and worked some magic because a week later,

  

It snowed! Just enough to hault the finishing touches on the chicken yard, but not too soon that we couldn't move them into their new home.

Naturally we've kept on dancing.

 

 

Started school, 

 

prepped for v-day,

 

Made ice cream at the libtrary with liquid nitrogen,

 

and visited the Modrn Art Museum in Fort Worth for their education/outreach program.

We've made brownies,

Slept late, 

Played with trains,

Enjoyed warm weather with a sprinkling of allergies,

And sewed a purple dress just because.

It really is amazing all the little things that can squeeze into a month, fill it up with goodness and leave you anticipating the next month of adventures! Around here, that starts with the celebration of a birthday! This time after the closing ceremony of the Olympics instead of during. 

I know we've had a good day when...

At 6 o'clock the house looks like this: 

Or this

Or even like this

Instead of like this:

Especially since I have no idea whats happening on Facebook which pairs nicely with a calm feeling, instead of being crazy exhausted after spending a day cleaning and cooking all by myself while others chose to watch tv or play video games. Today's chores were voluntarily done before the toys came out so we could all play together. Screens were put to minimal use, until now. A rare, but beautiful, occurrence.

One I hope to repeat tomorrow.

Now lets take bets on how much (and who) gets picked up before bedtime...