I Heart Fall Markets

 I know it isn't officially fall yet, but it sure feels like it. This weekend we went to our local market to see what produce the farmers brought this week. The market runs from May to the end of October and there is always an abundance of amazing and well priced organic local produce. The best of both (or all three!) worlds. Above are some super delish radishes...mmm

 Really lovely hungarian sweet peppers, and I don't know what the dark green ones are, but they look good?

 Local strawberries and cherry tomatoes. LOVE the gingham tablecloth.

 Hot peppers, dare you to eat one.

 Yummy squash like things, we actually bought the BIG zucchini to make a massive batch of tomato sauce to freeze for the winter. Along with the zucchini we got five pounds of local organic tomatoes, two organic sweet red peppers and a huge bunch of basil, all for eighteen dollars. I think that is a great deal, especially since you are buying local organic produce straight from the farmer. Awesome.

On our walk home we stopped at the park for a quick go on the swings. Lily was pretty stoked. Can't wait for next week, pretty soon we are going to get our pumpkins for making pies, soups and of course, jack-o-lanterns!

Bug Zappers and Flu fighters

The seasons are changing, summer is nearing it's end and fall is on it's way. We went for a family bike ride the other day and for the first time, I had to wear pants! (I normally wear skirts of shorts, not no pants at all). I have always found that when the seasons change, everyone gets sick, we are all feeling a bit under the weather at our house, so we decided to take action. Starting with the above; The Bug Zapper, warm organic apple cider (we used santa cruz organic apple cider), grated ginger (as much as you can stand), and a juiced lemon. So warm and soothing on a sore throat. This recipe is loosely adapted from a Rebar Modern Food recipe

For dinner we made a spicy tortilla soup, lots of flu fighting spice due to the chipotle and 4 jalepeno peppers and lots of vitamin C thanks to the 2 organic red peppers. The soup also has cilantro, 10 garlic cloves, 2 yellow onions, vegetable broth, corn and homemade corn tortillas. Recipe from The Rebar Modern Food Cook book. If this doesn't kill a bug thats brewing, I don't know what will. Any pro tips on fighting those fall bugs?

Back to School Baking

It was (hubby) Dan's first week back at school, so I decided to make some "healthy" treats he could easily take to school. I made Rebar's banana bread with walnuts and wheatgerm, so good. Dan likes his with a bit of peanut butter on it, yum. (sorry no link to the recipe online, let me know if you want me to post it from my recipe book?)

Then we made homemade granola bars from Smitten Kitchen, ours are made with unsweetened coconut, local hazelnuts, cranberries, and raw cashews. We omit the sugar from the recipe and used honey instead of corn syrup and they ended up being a bit crumbly, but still really tasty and sweet enough. I think these would be really great "treats" to pack in kids lunches.

Lily's Loves, Favourite toys for a 7.5 month old.

Franck Fishers "Bobby" toy, super soft organic cotton, the tail is fun to pull and the knotted arms and legs are fun to chew on. This would make a great "lovey"

A wooden Xylophone, we just started using Lily's with her and she loves it. She actually plays on it with the wooden sticks, and any other toy she can find.

These are really lovely organic cotton and wool soft blocks from a local company called "Dress me Up". I really love their stuff, I thought these blocks would be a bit boring to a baby, but Lily LOVES them

My husband Dan has this really old (26 years!) monkey puppet that he loved when he was small.  I think puppets are such a fun toy for any age, but she is really starting to develop a sense of humor, so she thinks this is hilarious.

The Manhattan baby company "Skwish", we have it in the natural wood and she has loved this toy since she was about 4 months old. It is really tactile and it rattles and you can "skwish" it up, pull on the elastic, bang it on other toys (xylophone!). It's an all around great toy, this is a rotating favourite.

What are your little one's favorite toys?

Labour day weekend.

 It was the last weekend before Dan went back to school, the last hurrah if you will. So I thought I would share with you what we did. We had a really low key weekend, my brother and his fiance came to visit (Yay!) and we just hung out in our lovely neighbourhood. Dan baked this gorgeous and delicious french bread, our theory is that white bread is okay as long as you bake it yourself (right?). This one is from Smitten Kitchen (of course.)

 Sunday morning I baked cinnamon buns, so we could have them straight from the oven when my brother arrived. We baked them with a sifted wheat, sort of like a whole wheat, but that still didn't make up for all of the butter in them....mmm... butter.

 We went for a walk on the "breeze way" as we call it, one of our favourite spots to walk. It was a lovely sunny day and I just can't get enough of walking along the ocean. Dan and my brother Jules were probably talking about some sci-fi book they just read.

We went for a bike ride to the park and on the way we found this awesome free toy on the side of the road! I love our neighbourhood, when someone is done with something, they put it out with a "FREE" sign and the next person gets to enjoy it. Thats is folks, Dan is back to school today, and the summer fun is over. BUT, that just means it is time for some fall and winter fun. Stay tuned!

No more Dummies.

So today is day four of being soother free. Dan and I decided it was time our lovely girl give up her friend, the dummy, soother, binky, whatever you want to call it, it's now in the "trash" as Dan calls it. It was kind of decided on a whim and I almost instantly wanted to take back our decision. She doesn't really use her soother that much, but the few minutes between breastfeeding and sleep, I guess they were pretty important. So far, the first day went ok, she went down for all her naps pretty well, it took about 30 minutes to get her to sleep (over the usual 15). Where we really started to see the error of our ways was at bedtime. I honestly didn't think she needed her soother that much, but I guess I was wrong. Two and a half hours later, Lily finally fell asleep and so did we. It didn't last long, we were up every hour trying to get her "soothed" without her soother. Last night was night three and the improvement was amazing, she is slowly learning to sooth herself. It is so sweet to see her new little sleep habits forming, she comes off the breast, turns onto her side and sings herself to sleep (more like a hum really). I know that a lot of people might suggest the "cry it out method", but that isn't something that works for our family. I don't mean to say it won't for yours, but I did a little research and decided it wasn't best for us. Besides, she is only little for such a short amount of time, I might as well get my cuddles in now. It really makes you think about the little rituals you do to get yourself to sleep. Any tips? xoxo.
p.s. It takes between 3-14 days to change a babies sleep habits, so if you don't see any improvement right away, stick with it, I'm sure it will be worth it in the end... at least I hope so.
p.p.s. Sorry for the lack of posts, I'm TIRED!

August Baking Hall of Fame

 

I had barely opened an oven 16 months ago, but now I bake almost daily. Something happend to me when I was pregnant, I got obsessed with everything baking. I guess I really value being able to give my children treats that are made with whole, organic ingredients that I baked with myself (and with the help of my Kitchen Aid mixer). Before Lily was born, we would spend at least $5.00 a week on a loaf of locally baked organic bread, well no more. I am going to be baking bread for our family once a week (or more), not only will it save us money, but it is so fun! Bread will just be added to the general roster of cookies, cakes, pies, muffins and scones that I bake regularly. Okay, so it seems like the butter content is really adding up, but for me, it's worth it (I'll try and walk/bike it off!). Here are a few of the things I've baked this month (some of which I've already shown) : Pickles & Ice Cream sugar cookies (recipe from Bakeat350), Apple and Cheddar Scones (recipe from SmittenKitchen) Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake (recipe from SmittenKitchen), Salted White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (recipe from SmittenKitchen), Oatmeal Pancakes (recipe from SmittenKitchen) Jalepeno-Cheddar Scones (recipe from SmittenKitchen), Oatmeal Sandwich Bread (recipe from Orangette). I know my friend over at Fint & Dejlig makes a mean Cowboy cookie, what are your favourite recipes? I would love to hear!