Cutting out the Crap

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the food we eat, especially the food we feed our children.  It's easy and convenient to feed your family prepackaged food, which usually include a list of ingredients I can't pronounce.  Living in Germany has given me more time to prepare healthy foods for my family and prompted me to make some of those staple snacks my kids love that we can't get here.  I ran across an amazing website with healthy recipes for kids, superhealthykids.com.  The snack recipes are fantastic and include many of the typical snacks your kids love.

This past week we tried out several recipes and I was shocked at how much the boys loved them.  I wasn't sure if they would like snacks that have flax seed oil and wheat germ in them, but they didn't even notice.

The first recipe I tried out (not on the website) was homemade fruit snacks.  I love this recipe because it has 4 ingredients that are much healthier than store-bought fruit snacks and the boys could not get enough of them.  I ended up making 2 batches last week.

Homemade Fruit Snacks: Inspired by Robin from Thankyourbody.com

Ingredients:
2/3 cup fresh orange juice
 2/3 cup frozen or fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries are all great.)
1 – 2 Tbs honey
5 Tbs gelatin

Directions:
1. Pour juice and berries into a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally until berries become tender and begin to soften.
2. Add honey and stir until completely incorporated.
3. Puree mixture using a blender
4. Let sit, off heat, for 5 – 10 minutes.
5. Slowly whisk in gelatin, one tablespoon at a time. Whisk vigorously until completely incorporated, mixing the gelatin in very gradually to avoid lumps. (If you do get lumps, just run the mixture through your blender again!)
6. Pour into a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 glass dish. Refrigerate until set (30 minutes to an hour). Cut in small squares. (You could also use some fun molds and create awesome shapes).
Note: I like to keep these in my fridge, but they do transport and keep nicely at room temperature.

 We then tried homemade granola bars, which I found on superhealthykids.com.  I was a little worried that Isaac wouldn't eat them because they have wheat germ, flax seed oil, almonds, and cranberries (to name just a few ingredients), but I added the chocolate chips and he (and Zach) loved them!  They stayed good for a week in a ziploc bag and were a tasty mid-morning snack.

We also tried homemade goldfish crackers.  These are definitely an acquired taste, but they turned out great and Isaac loved making them.  He loves anything with cheese.

I'm also looking for ways to take snacks they love and incorporate at least something healthy into them (so it's not all sugar). One morning we made frozen banana pops with yogurt and sprinkles.  I've also been adding flax seed and spinach to their morning smoothie, they don't even notice them!

For dinner I've been trying to cut out the processed foods and home-make ingredients if I can.  I've started making my own tortillas (delicious), whole-wheat rolls, and this past weekend I made my own chicken broth.  Slowly but surely I am cutting out the crap in our food (and feeling like a SuperMom)!




With love,
Janelle

Valentine's Day Fun

Since living in Berlin is the first time I get to be a full-time stay at home mom, I decided I wanted to take advantage of it and really do some fun and educational activities with the kids.  I recently came across an amazing website for Mom's, www.notimeforflashcards.com.  It has great crafts, activities, book recommendations, and loads of other ideas for parents.  Last week I tried their Letter of the Week activities and I have to say it was amazing.  It filled our day with fun crafts and activities, the boys had a blast, and Isaac really learned a lot.  Our days went much smoother having planned activities and I will admit I kind of liked lesson planning at night and getting my materials ready for the next day! ( I loved to play school as a child and now I can put that to use).  The website had lots of great Valentine's Day ideas so I figured I would share some we did with pictures of the boys. 



The first activity we did was making Valentine hearts on coffee filters.  We colored them with markers and then the boys dropped water onto the filters and watched as the colors merged into one. 

We then made a Valentine for Daddy.  Isaac made one for himself also, as he wanted a Simba one and Daddy needed the Mufasa one (We just got The Lion King and Isaac is really into that movie right now)!

We had a fun lunch with heart-shaped cheese and strawberries, pink yogurt, and alphabet soup.

And lastly Isaac and I played musical hearts.  Each heart had a fun activity to do when you landed on it, Isaac's favorite was wiggle like a worm! 

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.  I have to leave you with this last picture, Isaac took it of Gabe and it looks like the cowboy hat has been passed on......

With love,
Janelle

Take 4

This past Tuesday we welcomed the newest member to our family, my sweet little nephew Liam Edward!  I wanted the boys to make a little video for him since we won't be able to see him for a long time.  As you can imagine, with two little ones who rarely sit still or say what you want them to, it took several takes to get it right.....

 

And we finally got one!

Congrats Troy and Jess! We can't wait to love on that little guy.

With love,

Janelle