Apple Crumble

we went apple picking today and a perfect thing to make with them is apple crumble.

7 large apples. (i used cortland)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp lemon
2 tsp cinammon
2 tsp vanilla
Mix the above ingredients and let stand for 20 min.
1/2 cups steel cut oats plus 2 tbsp, uncooked
I grinded a 1/4 cup in my coffee grinder (it's actually my flax seed grinder since i don't drink coffee!). and mixed the 2 parts all together
1/4 cup organic butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
Mix these together and then I added the oats
Place apples in dish, cover with oat/butter mixture. Cook at 400F for 35 minutes covered and then uncovered for 20 minutes. Voila!

Enjoy!

I Hate Carpets.....

Aidan had an ashtma attack last night. I heard him wheezing Friday morning and my radar was on. The problem is both his room and Bella`s room are carpeted. On top of that we are doing some reno`s to his room so it is a bit more dusty from his closet being taken apart. Looking back he should have not been sleeping there at all. Well last night at 3 am the wheezing started. I actually had to give him a puff of Ventalin and coupled it with a dose of Spongia and Hepar Sulph (he always does well with this remedy).
The kids were off to their Papa`s for the day and we certainly got a lot done with them gone with the first project being ripping out that carpet! Not sure why people lay carpet on hardwood. Carpets collect dust, dirt and dust mites. Cutting down the number of dust mites in your house is really important for people that have allergies and asthma and these little buggers love to live in carpet! When we lifted the carpet and looked at the underpad we were disgusted and this carpet was only put down about 5 years ago! It was a really easy job and within 2 hours the room was back together and Aidan`s bed was moved in. We are trying to convince him to share a room and I thought he would love the idea but he seems a bit put out. Well until his room is all cleaned up and de-carpeted, these 2 are bunking up.

cutting up the carpet into strip to roll and remove

removing the hundreds of staples that holds the underpad

after a number of sweeps and mops, shiny new floors!

hers

his

All things new....

We moved to our new house on Sept. 1st and as much at it is great being here, I do miss our old house. We had a great house that we made our own and the most amazing next door neighbour that anyone could ask for but all that being said our new neighbourhood is wonderful!
September marks the end of summer and with that comes all things new to our household. Aidan had his first day of 'regular' school, Bella had her first day of preschool ever (that's big change even if it is only 2 mornings per week!), we moved to a new house and the Jewish new year rang in a new year.
We decided to host the festivities, I needed to start collecting memories in the house to start making it our own.
Here are a few shots of all things new.....

1st day of 'school'
sweet wine, eggplant salad, gefilte fish

apples and honey to bring in a sweet year

pomegranate

Vegetarian Delight

I've been a vegetarian since I was 15 yrs. old. My husband, well he's a carnivore. If he cooks dinner he spends an elaborate amount of time cooking the chicken, basting the chicken and then barbequing the chicken. It is a good 2 hour ordeal which he couples with rice and peas. My dinner consists of the rice and peas. The other day I made a delicious vegetarian dinner that had him saying he might have a heart attack from all this 'healthy' food(oh my!). The kids licked their plates clean as well.
Chickpea Salad (I never use recipes just sort of throw everything into a bowl)
1 can of chickpeas (but I boiled for 5 min. to get them to be a little softer)
1 red pepper diced
2 carrots grated
1 tomato diced
1/4 cucumber diced
1 handful of sunflower sprouts
1 tsp of sunflower oil
1/4 fresh lemon
1 tbp of olive oil
pinch of sea salt

I coupled this with a orzo salad with peas and fresh parmesan and candied sweet potato. It was all delicious and animal free!

Fresh Picks

This week's market buys. Fresh, local, organic.

Sprouts have great nutritional properties. Just take the case of broccoli sprouts, it is better than a full-grown broccoli because it contains more of the enzyme "sulforaphane" that helps protect cells and prevents the body's genes from turning into cancer. I bought sunflower sprouts, rich in lecithin and vitamin D, sunflower sprouts have the power to break fatty acids and lead to easy digestion. I used to have a sprouting factory in my kitchen and with moving to this new house in just 2 days (eek!), I plan to get my operation up and going. Stay stuned for more on sprouting......

Sweet Potato Peach Muffins

We made these muffins yesterday for our co-op backyard camp. They were a big hit with the kids. I love healthy options that are super easy to make and kiddies gobble up.
1 cup mashed sweet potato (I baked 2 sweet potatos the night before and simply mashed them the next moring)
1/2 cup mashed peaches (I used fresh peaches as these are in season but I think you can use any watery fruit ie. canned pineapple)
2 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour (I would use any flour ie. spelt, or gluten free alternative)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp. ground flax
2 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375F. Mix sweet potato, peaches, eggs and sugar. Add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground flax and cinnamon. Bake for 16-20 minutes. I put them in mini muffin trays so I reduce the baking time to 10-12 minutes. I usually just watch them until they are golden brown on top.

For the Love of Sucking

My children love to suck. Aidan started sucking his finger when he was 12 months. We were in Florida and thought it was the funniest thing and once he discovered how to do it there was no turning back. (He has since released the middle finger from his nose.)
We talk about it daily and I would have thought that nearing 5 he would diminish this act but there seems to be no end in sight. So, when Bella came along I gave her a soother. Not sure if that was the right thing to do but 2 finger suckers seemed unimaginable. Now she is quite attached to the soother. If she really wants it and I don't give it to her she just begins to suck her finger as her brother does. She does not discriminate the suck. Smart girl.

I began researching sucking in children. I found an interesting article involving tribal cultures and how no finger sucking exists in these cultures. As long as the babies and children can suck at the nipple as freely as they wish, which they usually do until 7 yrs. old, then there is no need to finger suck. Well, being self employed my nipples had to come with me to work (even if it was only 2 half days per week) when my children were 4 months old. Yet, my children were fed on demand, nursed through the night and co-slept in their infancy.

Dr. Spock says " the main reason that young babies suck their thumbs seems to be that they haven't had enough sucking at the breast or bottle to satisfy their sucking needs". I do not agree with this statement for my kids as Aidan nursed for 18 months and I nursed him whenever he wanted during the day and in the night to help get back to sleep. Bella still nurses and she is 2.5 yrs.

There is a lot of information on sucking and its self soothing abilties as well as how emotional children need to suck to reduce anxiety levels. I can see this for Aidan but not as much for Bella. Let us remember that sucking is a natural instinct, a survival technique that babies are born with so they feed and survive. We seem to think that this primal instinct should disappear when our babies are 6 months old. In western culture we think at 6 months these tiny beings have reached a new milestone and that they should lose that need to suck, when in fact they are still very much babies.

Lastly, there is information about intelligence and the need to suck. How the sucking reflex stimulates brain development and thus raises the babies IQ's. I'll go with that theory!
Well for now, they love to suck (and they love each other!) and no matter how much we discuss it they are going to suck until they decide they are done with sucking. The bottom line is it is something I have no control over as I can't cut their fingers off.