Organically Yummy

Ever have your little one eat a whole carrot and say "Thanks mom!"  Every other Tuesday I get a box of organic veggies and fruit from Full Circle Farm for $30. Delivered to my office.  There's something about receiving these boxes that makes my girls go bananas.  And I can customize my box to our favorites or let Full Circle surprise me.  I also get two new recipes featuring items from my box.  Organic costs more of course, but it really tastes better, ask my little carrot eater, and it's better for your fam.  Give it a peek.

pumpkin eater

So you bought a pumpkin for your kiddies, you carved it using a template, it's on display...now what? Eat the inside. Simmer the pumpkin seeds for 10 minutes with salt then bake them for 20 minutes on 350. Seeds are a fab source of zinc and amino acids. Then take the slimy orange guts which are loaded with the good stuff - potassium, fiber, and vitamin E and make pumpkin bars or 36 of these tasty pumpkin recipes. Of course you can compost the carved pumpkin after Halloween. Your dogs can even eat the pumpkin innards, just be careful, it can act as a laxative. Here's other stuff you can do with your orange ball.

40 ways

There are 40 ways to skin a cat and a few ways to have a pet hamster. Here's one. Janae turned 5 last week and received a pet hamster. I am not a fan of furry small creatures. This one works though because it has 4 wheels, a cute pink piggy nose, and it comes with a name. Jilly. A Zhu Zhu pet. Battery operated at $8 each. All the rage with the kiddies. It even squeaks and of course you can buy scarves, hats and blankets for it, a hamster tunnel, sleeping dome,and other absolutely unnecessary but cute items. To be eco-friendly you could for go the plastic accessories and use shoe boxes for tunnels and sleeping areas for your child's new pet. If your crafty, you could even sew clothes and blankets for it out of left over fabrics or unwearable, ill-fitting play clothes. Peep these at Target, Toy R Us, and any other toy laden dynasty that makes your kiddies run wild.

Flying Fruit - Kid Tips

"Mommie, I'm hungry. I want a snack please." I hear this alot. Like, everyday. More and more, the choices are fruit and veggies. Do you want a banana, peach, cantaloupe or some celery with peanut butter? I ask. I rarely buy fruit roll ups, fish crackers and other easy, processed, cheap options. And with the delicious, nutritional, expensive fruit (sometimes organic), comes the fruit flies. I hate it. Here's how you kill em. Pour 3 parts apple cider vinegar and 1 part dish detergent into a shallow flat dish. Talk about building it and they will come! They love the sweet scent, dive in and die. To mask the scent of the vinegar and to memorialize their quick passing, I usually light a soy candle. Nectarine, anyone?

Nanana boo boo - kid tips

My dear mommie made these for us back in the day. We eat them with syrup and lately my kiddies love jam on theirs. Peek a boo eggs. Think french toast without the cinnamon. You take a piece of 100% whole wheat toast or sprouted grain bread and make a whole in the middle. Belle likes when I use the star cookie cutter for the shape in the middle. Place bread in a hot pan with a little melted butter and crack an egg in the hole. The girls like their eggs cooked through so I flip it after the bread browns and begin to poke it so the yolk cooks. Serve with syrup, jam (I love love Smuckers Simply Fruit) or butter. This is a good one for car rides to school or daycare!

Frightful Swap

The last thing I want is another landfill kiddie Halloween costume. That's why I have made a commitment to always buy a gently worn one or snag a freebie. So you can imagine my excitement when I learned through my Facebook friend Cory of Green Halloween that there's now a National Costume Swap Day to encourage eco-mommies to organize or swap out their kid's costumes. Here's more details. Back to planning mine...

mommy i can't breathe

Janae has had 5 sinus infections and nose bleeds over the past year. Ridiculous. Her symptoms: headaches, stuffy nose and when her nose does drain, it's a fabulous yellow and pea-green color. The band-aid fix was amoxicillin (the stinky pink antibiotic) and when that stopped working, her pediatrician (at my request) put her on a stronger antibiotic. We also tried a sinus rinse for kids, claritin, benadryl, and natural allergy tablets. Nothing worked My poor little girl. So I took her to a Ear Nose and Throat Specialist last week and she prescribed a nose spray with antibiotics to clear her passages and a cream to rub inside her nose to take away the dryness and impending nose bleeds. The verdict - she can breathe! And she likes squirting her nose with spray and most of all sticking her finger up her nose with the ointment.