Summer Scholars Week Two: Magnificent Money

Week two focused on numbers and money. Our activities included counting and practicing writing numbers. I bought some ball jars at Meijer and numbered each jar. Then we used rice, dried beans, nuts and seeds for the counting. They had to fill each jar with the number indicated on the jar. I liked this activity because we got to snack on healthy food along the way.

Our other activity was an in-house grocery store. For a few weeks I collected boxes of of food and labeled them each with a price. Each kid got a certain amount of money to spend in the store and we all took turns being a cashier or a shopper. We already had toy cash register and a shopping cart which complemented our activity well. Other then Lana trying to eat a few coins, the week went pretty smooth. :)

Cashew Pesto Pasta

This is the worlds easiest/healthiest recipe. It comes from Maria. I made some adjustments because that is all I had available at the time. I will add those in because it turned out great. This would be great served warm or cold.

ENJOY!

Ingredients: One 12 oz box of farfalle pasta (bowtie), 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 pint grape toms halved, Salt & Pepper, 2 cups parsley, 1/4 cup cashews, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 garlic clove, juice of 1/2 lemon. I used fresh basil from the garden instead of parsley and chopped up tiny asparagus pieces that I drizzled with olive oil and baked for 10 minutes at 375 instead of the tomatoes.

1. Cook noodles.

2. Preheat oven to 375 and bake toms with 2 TBSP oil S &P on a baking sheet for about 12 mins.

3. Use a food processor to chop the parsley, cashews, parm, garlic, lemon juice, and add the 1/4 cup olive oil at the end.
4. Season with salt & pepper.

5. Mix noodles, pesto, toms and serve with more Parmesan cheese.

Two For One!

My summer mission is too make our pricey organic food go farther.... I am really trying to make one meal into two or three. It makes me feel better about spending money on good quality/organic food. In the past, I have made a whole chicken in my Deep Covered Baker (from Pampered Chef...I love this!) and then use the meat for quesadillas, salads, etc. However, I think it is time to step it up and get more creative.

This week I actually used sauteed onion, finely chopped brussel sprouts, and oven roasted potatoes from the night before and turned them into a breakfast burrito the next day. I just added scrambled eggs and crumbled bacon and wrapped it all in a tortilla. Topped it with cheese and baked it for twenty minutes. I wasn't sure how the brussel sprouts would go over in the burrito but nobody even noticed them. It was a crowd pleaser. My very favorite two for one meal is baked or grilled salmon. Here are the two recipes:

Dinner:
Season fresh wild caught salmon with Celtic sea salt, garlic, and dill. Make a half and half sauce of balsamic vinegar and raw honey. Drizzle fish with olive oil, finely chopped onion, and half of your honey/vinegar mixture. Grill or bake. When fish is almost done, add the rest of the mixture.

Next Day Lunch:
Mash salmon in a bowl. Add mayo, Celtic Sea Salt, garlic and mix. Toast a whole wheat roll from Trader Joes (in the frozen section) and add the salmon salad, lettuce and tomato. The kids also like to use the salmon salad as a dip for crackers.

Please email me or post other two for one ideas.

Banana Snakes

This is our new favorite dessert or after nap snack. This idea came from my super talented cousin Laurie over at SimplyScratch.com. The kids think they look like snakes so that is our name for this tasty treat. Some of our favorite toppings are peanut butter, raisins, sunflower seeds, crushed walnuts, dark chocolate chips and coconut flakes. This is a fun and easy snack for the kids to make themselves. Thank you, Laurie!

Best Tip Ever!

Chef Jackie from Nourish MD told me this wonderful tip about Maple syrup. If you are buying the pricey Michigan Maple Syrup like me and you have very independent kids that want to pour their own syrup...you will appreciate this tip, too! Purchase these squirt bottles from GFS and put your pricey syrup in them. Next time your kids pour syrup on their french toast you won't cringe at how much they wasted and how their healthy meal just turned into a dessert. Thank you, Jackie!

Summer Scholars: Week One/Space Spectacular!

Maybe its the teacher in me...but I am very excited about our summer scholar program! Each week, we will pick a different topic and discuss it every day. We will cap off the week with some sort of project or field trip. This week we did the Solar System. Each kid got assigned two planets and had to paint their planet for our space room and then learn 1-2 facts about that planet. I choose this tiny storage closet to display our project. We also put glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. We call it the space room. The kids love to go in their and talk about their planets. I also used this website called thecoloringcastle.com for free printable worksheets to supplement our activity. The boys also enjoyed looking through a telescope at the stars one night. Originally, we planned to go to a star gazer show at the Cranbrook planetarium but it interfered with our first t-ball game. If you have any great ideas for other topics, PLEASE share!

Baby Steps

Angelle from Nourish MD hosted an awesome cooking class last week at her home. She said two simple changes you could make to your diet that would make a significant difference in your health are switching your oils and salt.

1. Switch vegetable oil to the following: coconut oil, grape seed oil or cold pressed organic (in a dark glass container) olive oil.

2. Switch table salt to Celtic Sea Salt.

First Annual Movie Night

Vitamin D Facts

Vitamam D experts say you absorb the most vitamin D from the sunshine between the hours of 9 am and 2 pm. Ideally, 9-11 am is the best time for absorbtion. You must expose some bare skin to get the full effect. Sunscreen and clothing block full absorption. Even ten minutes a day will increase your Vitmain D intake.

Happy Father's Day!

(Lana giving her daddy a great big bear hug! Also pictured is sweet Addison Gut :))

The Buzz about Acetaminophen

I recently had a follow-up appointment with my holistic pediatrician. We talked about helicopter parenting. She is writing a book right now about the risks associated with keeping your child in a bubble and not letting them live and experience life. I have to admit, I could easily fall into the helicopter parenting category but am really trying to work on it. In fact, I threw Lana in a grocery cart without a cover the other day and have been letting my boys go to the gym day care here and there...all big steps for me!

The doc did clarify that there is a big difference between helicopter parenting and a parent who does their homework. I really don't want to be the parent that looks the other way because it is more difficult to do the right thing. With that said, read the article below. I am not posting it to scare people. I am posting it because I believe knowledge is power. Maybe this is something worth making adjustments for... My mother-in-law sent me this article and my pediatrician also recently told me to cut back, if not cut out acetaminophen. Unfortunately, I do still administer acetaminophen if Lana's fever is not reduced with Motrin. However, from here on out, I will use Motrin first for a fever reducer. Check it out:

Common med linked to lymphoma

"Acetaminophen is such a common household med that most people think it's perfectly safe. Hopefully you're not one of them.

But if you are, you can't afford to miss this -- because the news about this supposedly safe painkiller keeps getting worse.

According to the latest study, taking just four acetaminophen per week for four years could double your risk of blood cancer (called lymphoma).

Lymphoma is a disease that often has one of three causes: infection, a compromised immune system, or exposure to toxic chemicals.

Which category does acetaminophen fall into? It's a trick question, because the answer is "all of the above."

Acetaminophen overuse can damage the liver, reducing the body's ability to fight infection. It can also cause liver failure, which is a dead giveaway of its toxicity.

It has even been linked to asthma in kids -- yet another indication that it suppresses the immune system.

Add it all up, and you've got the lymphoma trifecta -- a perfect storm of cancer risk factors.

It's stunning that after 60 years on the market we're still learning of new risks linked to this painkiller -- and I'd bet money we'll learn of even more down the road.

But instead of cutting back on this poorly understood drug, Big Pharma has been using it as the "secret ingredient" in just about everything. Last I checked, it was in some 300 pain, cold, and allergy products.

The feds have talked about limiting access, lowering the dose, blah blah blah -- you know by now you can't count on them to protect you.

You've got to protect yourself.

And by that, I don't mean gobbling one a day to help prevent prostate cancer.

Just throw it out -- and use the trashcan, not the toilet. We don't need any more poison in the water supply."

Playing in the rain puddles!

Baked Bird's Nest

This side dish recipe is very simple. The end result looks like a bird's nest, which the kids think is cool. You could plop a few cherry tomatoes in there and call them eggs.. Or the adult version could be laying some grilled filet strips or baked salmon over the top of the nest.


Directions:
1. Cook 1/2 pound - 3/4 lb of spaghetti noodles
2. Add hot noodles to a big mixing bowl. Add a little bit of olive oil to avoid sticking.
3. Add two eggs to hot noodles.
4. Add a handful of shredded Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese.
5. Mix well.
6. Grab a small handful of noodle mixture and mold into a ball and place on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.
7. Continue until noodle mixture is gone. Sprinkle each nest with Celtic sea salt, garlic powder and dried basil.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until nest is a little golden brown and crunchy on top.

Lana's Daily Chore

Kevin found this mini watering can at a garage sale and it has provided hours of entertainment! Little Lana loves watering the garden, flowers, etc. She means business too! Anytime, I divert from the plan, she says "No Mommy, Water Plants NOW!" The last picture is my bossy girl enjoying one of our homemade popsicles after a hard day's work.

Homemade Popsicles in the Vitamix

I found these BPA free popsicle molds at Bed, Bath and Beyond. We threw in some kifer, honey, blueberries, strawberries, banana...and VOILA! The kids really enjoyed them. Whole Foods also has a similar mold with a swirl shape. Its so sad that 90% of the popsicles at the grocery store have toxic chemicals listed in the ingredients. I like the homemade ones because they are a cheaper, healthier alternative.