A New Shop for The Liberated Child

I have a new CafePress Shop! Check it out! Click here- The Liberated Child.

Here's a peak at what you'll find...

Welcome Snow!

Candy Cane Playdough

Alex has been playing with for days. 

I hope all our daycare kids enjoyed their playdough, too!

December Edition Owl Creek Gazette

Owl Creek Gazette December Edition

Click the link above or the icon below to open PDF.

The Owl Creek Gazette serves the self-reliant community in print and online with a nod to the independent, out-of-the-box, off-the-grid, voluntaryist and kitchy nature in each of us.

Making Candy Houses

This week we made candy houses!!  Thank you to all my families for being so generous and donating supplies!  

Here the kids are ready to put their houses together. They aren't at all excited, you can tell. lol

 I put a little bit of everything in several plates and put them all on the table. We used the shoe boxes to hold the houses and for carrying them home.

Here are pics of some of the houses. I should have started snapping before they went back into the boxes, but they really are adorable. The kids had so much fun with these!

 

Hand Cookie Ornaments

How cute are these? I hope they make it home in one piece. The kids made these today for their holiday trees. They are sugar cookies in the shape of each child's hand. 

Have sneaky suspicion some may get nibbled on before finding a branch to hang from. 

Yummies I've Been Working On

Last weekend Alex had an early holiday gift-giving with his dad, Paul, since he lives out of state. So, I whipped up some homemade treats to help make their weekend a little more special.

Here is some really, really good fudge syrup, that wasn't supposed to be syrup. I was actually trying my hand (and failing- again) at fudge but it just never quite got there. So I turned my lemons into Hot Fudge Syrup. Fabulous, right? Yay me! 

And this baby here is my favorite pie ever. Besides my mother's no-bake chocolate-oatmeal-peanut butter cookies recipe (which everyone and their mother has) this is the only thing I can bake that turns out well every time. It's Peach Cream pie, y'all. And I know that's not very holiday-y but I figured since it has nutmeg and allspice it's at least a distant cousin to traditional holiday baked goods and is welcome at my house. 

We also made some gingerbread cookies but I wasn't able to photograph them before Alex ate them all. Oh well. They were pretty darling. Luckily I have plans to make another batch next week. :-)

Table Settings

We aren't much for standing on ceremony in my home. We drink out of mason jars, for crying out loud. But there are occasions when I wish I had attended the Ms. Manners Etiquette School, like every year when I went with Paul, Alex's dad, to his annual fancy bankers dinner, and there were like 22 pieces of flatware around my plate (well, it felt like there were that many) and I just wanted to eat a salad- but with which fork? OMG- crisis!! So, when I came upon this table setting tutorial photo I knew I would never again need to feel insecure at a dinner party. 

It feels awfully silly to me sometimes that people even care about things like this, but I found you care an awful lot when it's you sitting in front of a setting like the ones above and having no clue.  For reals, ya'll. Chalk it up to my redneck upbringing, but the best dinners I've had with family and friends have been those where the plates don't match, the glasses are old jelly jars, the food is laid out buffet style, and you rinse off your fork in the kitchen sink when it's time to eat desert.  :-)   Good times.

The Cost of A Sweet Tooth

Update 12/14/12: So, I realize how very hypocritical it is for me to post this anti-sugar bit when following it are several candy activities and sugary treats. Kind of like me and Alex beginning our three week trial as vegans the day after Thanksgiving. :-) Oh well. Enjoy!

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With the holidays come lots of baking and goodies. I'm no exception. I may use organic raw sugars, or honey in my recipes over white sugar, but the reality is this is a time of year when we really feel like we have a free pass to overindulge. 

Now, not to be a goody-goody (OK, maybe I am a little), but the truth is Alex and I rarely eat sugary foods. I'm personally a salt person and happily pass up ice cream and cookies most of the time. It's just not my thing. I eat sea salt, too, which is good for you, unlike table salt and sodium in packaged foods. We use honey often in tea and oatmeal, but since we eat mostly whole foods, it's a rare event for us to eat anything with added sugar in it. I also have low blood pressure, no signs of diabetes, am cancer-free, and Alex and I have never had a cavity.

So during the holidays I don't feel at all guilty about baking my heart out and eating all the yummy things that we love, because it's the exception to our normal diet and not the rule. 

But what if you have a sweet tooth? What if you, or your children, or your family eat a mostly packaged, processed foods diet, and consume sugar not just at the holidays, but every day? 

In our grandparent's and great grandparent's time, Americans consumed about two pounds of sugar every year. That sugar came from mostly natural and good-for-you sources like maple syrup, molasses, sorghum, honey, and sugar cane.

Today, Americans wolf down over one hundred pounds of sugar per annum. And they get that sugar from the rampant consumption of packaged and overly processed foods like cereal, soda, pasta, bread, canned food, juice, seasonings and nearly everything else that comes in a container, box or plastic bag. 

When sugar is hidden in everyday packaged foods, it's easy to not think about how much sugar you are putting into your body. The fact is, sugar is as addictive as cocaine. It gives that commercial 'this is your brain on drugs' a whole new meaning.  

Here is an interesting infographic to really drive this point home. 

Tip: You may want to use your screen's zoom feature to really see the details of the graphic below, or right click and 'save as' to open elsewhere on your computer and zoom there.

There is a book I read a while ago, titled Bringing Up Bebe'. An excellent read for moms and dads, by the way. An American mother raising her baby in France. She notices that new French mothers seem to have no problem shedding pounds after they deliver, and don't seem frazzled or stressed. 

She herself is doing the typical American thing of starving herself and depriving herself of all things yummy and exercising like a nut to take off the baby pounds, to little avail. Plus she's a bit of a basket case. But the French mothers tell her they would never dream of such a militant view toward their body and dieting. They are careful about what they eat during the week, eating healthy foods, but then allowing themselves to eat whatever they want on the weekends. The American mother assumes they mean whatever they want *within reason*, but no. They mean whatever they want, however much of it they want. Junk food, sugar, bread, everything. Then during the week they go back to healthy eating until the next weekend. 

The French mothers say this is how they love themselves. That restricting things all the time would doom anyone to failure (as we Americans know but haven't really learned), and knowing you get to indulge sometimes is the very thing that makes their effort successful.  

Weight issues aside, being healthy is not a number on a scale. Health is measured from the inside, and sugar and sodium wreak havoc on your body's ability to function properly when consumed so frequently your body never gets a chance to heal. So I say give your body a break from the refined sugar melodrama and then you will really be able to enjoy those occasions when you indulge your sweet tooth- guilt free.

Green Smoothie

Several weeks ago my beloved juicer, a prized find from a yard sale, had a fatal run-in with my stove burner and had to be retired. I was so bummed that since then I haven't had the will to make smoothies or juices- and wouldn't you know it, I got sick for the first time in years when I stopped drinking my smoothies for a few weeks! 

This weekend, when Alex and I started our three-week vegan diet experiment, I pulled out the blenders, dusted them off, and got back to work. So I'm back on the wagon as it were, blending my little heart out!

Today's green smoothie recipe:

Almond Milk 

(milk was homemade with raw almonds over the weekend)

Kale

Bananas

Pineapple

Flax Seed*

Raw Sunflower Seeds*

Raw Pumpkin Seeds* 

(*freshly ground)

Love

I've been known to add everything in my cupboard and the fridge to my morning green smoothies- chia seeds, sesame seeds, cinnamon, cayenne, ground cloves, cardamom, carrots, ginger root, celery, peppers, apples, oranges, lemons, cucumbers- really, almost anything. I even used to add tofu but we don't buy soy products anymore so that's no longer on the list of possibilities. But when making a big batch for the daycare kiddos and Alex, too, there just isn't enough room. In fact, with just the ingredients above, I had to use both blenders and divide the recipe to make enough for everybody.

The nutrition we get from one green smoothie is shocking (if you aren't used to drinking them and have never thought to figure it out like mwa). 

The Dinosaur Kale we use has big leaves, and each leaf is about one cup's worth. I used 8 large leaves in today's smoothie, divided among 5 people. That's just over a cup and a half of Kale per person. One cup of Kale has 206% of the DV for Vitamin A,  134% Vitamin C, 9% Calcium, 6% Iron. One cup of Kale also has 2 grams of Protein. Is your jaw hanging open yet or what?

I added about 2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds and 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds. 2 tablespoons is about 30 grams, or just a bit over 1 ounce. Pumpkin and Sunflower seeds both have between 6-7 grams of Protein each, Vitamin A, C, Calcium, and one ounce of Sunflower seeds has 8% iron. 

But wait, there's more! One ounce of pumpkin seeds has a whopping 23% DV of Iron. Divide that by 5 people and that is still quite an iron boost. 

Not to mention that Sunflower seeds are a good source of Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Copper, Manganese and Selenium, and a very good source of Vitamin E at 47% of DV!. Meanwhile Pumpkin seeds are also a good source of Vitamin K, Iron and Copper, and a very good source of Magnesium, Phosphorus and Manganese. 

Now for the Flax seed. I actually added in about a half a cup's worth (maybe a little more), which is about 100 grams. That is a little more than 18 grams of Protein, 22% Calcium, 72% Iron, and an astounding 133% Vitamin E. And don't get me started on the essential Omega 3 Fatty Acids! And that's not all, Flax has amazing amounts of Folates, Niacin, Thiamine, Vitamin K and more.  

And if you STILL aren't totally blown away, like I am, let's not forget the Almond Milk, which has a ton of Calcium, Vitamin A and some Iron to boot, and the fresh Bananas and Pineapples that add even more Vitamin C (131% for Pineapple!), Potassium, and oodles more trace minerals.  

The fact is, most Americans don't get even half this much nutrition in an entire day. But look how easy it is to make sure our kids get their Vitamins! 


Tips for making great healthy smoothies:

• Pre-freeze banana slices rather that using room temperature ones. 
• Freeze some almond milk, yogurt, fruit or leftover fresh juices in ice cube trays to throw into your smoothies to cut down on prep time or to add a boost of flavor. 
• Freshly grind seeds and nuts just before adding them to ensure they are as fresh as possible- many deteriorate fast after they have been ground.
• If you can't decide between Kale or Spinach, and both are excellent, choose Kale! It has the highest levels of micro-nutrients and will give you more vitamins per ounce than anything else. Spinach is a great runner-up, though!
• Blend your liquid (filtered/purified water or milk) and greens first, then add others items.
• If your blender is making sad noises from working too hard, it's probably time to add more liquid or stop it for a few seconds (and unplug it) and dislodge with a spoon or butter knife solids that might be compressed at the bottom. 
• Drink blended smoothies within an hour, and don't make more than you'll be able to use right away as storing them in the fridge reduces the nutrients and taste quality significantly. 
• If you have a super-mega awesome-powerful juicer or blender, try adding fresh wheat grass juice to your smoothie (strain if you blend as you only want the juice from the grass, not the grass itself)!
• Don't be afraid to add things like nut butters for protein, and coconut oil or raw honey, and herbs to boost your immune system like echinacea, dandelion root, ginger root, and even just plain 'old lemons. Most of these you'll barely even taste or notice but boy do they ever pack a nutritional punch!
• Start simple- you don't need to put everything and the kitchen sink in your smoothie on your first day. 
• When you consume flax seed, always grind it up to make the nutrients available to your body, as they are not digested when eaten whole. And make sure you drink plenty of water after a smoothie with flax because they absorb water and expand.
• If you want to pack a smoothie for your school-aged kids, partly freeze it for an hour or two and send in an insulated thermos with a chill pack- you may have to fiddle with freeze/thaw times at home a little to get just the right consistency by their lunch time.
• Experiment to see what you like! There's no wrong way to do it. :-)

Turkey Art

What sweet turkey hands! 

Sorry for the poor picture quality. Alex took the good camera to his dads last weekend and forgot it! So we have to use the old one for now. :-(

The turkey is a funny bird,

It's head goes BOBBLE, BOBBLE

And all he knows is just one word,

And that is GOBBLE, GOBBLE!

Banana Nut Muffins

Alex and I made banana nut bread a few days ago, and had some leftover dough, so I saved it and yesterday we added in some ripe bananas and pecans and made muffins. They were perfect on the crazy cold day we had. Yum! 

Celebrating Halloween

We made fun pumpkins and had a dress up day last week with the daycare kiddos for Halloween. And the weather was perfect for trick or treating!

Below are the kids in their costumes with their goodie bags we made up.

Levi & Taytum

Meadow & Kaydynce

Jayden in the middle in the dino suit!

Alex in his very too small ninja costume. He had a bigger one but insisted this one still fit. lol

Alex trick or treating on Halloween night. The neighbors really go out for this holiday!

He won't be able to do this too much longer. :-( I can't believe he's so big already. I love watching him grow up, but times like this I hear the clock ticking, knowing his childhood is quickly passing, and it makes me a little sad.

This is our neighbor's house around the corner, and the picture didn't show it but on Halloween night they weren't home yet (they drove in just after I took this pic) and all the lights were out, and I have to say it was quite creepy walking past it at night. But I'm easily scared by the possibility of ghosty things, so what do I know? haha