Creamy without Cream Lentil Soup (vegan recipe)

It's a rainy and cold December day... I'm totally in the mood for some delicious soup!

What you need:
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup red lentils
8 cups organic vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus more to taste

What you do:
Rinse the lentils well and set aside.

Heat oil in a large stock pot, add onions and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the celery, carrots and the garlic powder. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add the lentils, 4 cups of vegetable stock and the bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 25 minutes.

Add juice from lemon. Cook for another 10 minutes.

Remove the bay leaf. Carefully pour the soup into a blender and blend until smooth.

Transfer the soup back to the pot. Add the remaining 4 cups of vegetable broth and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in salt, white pepper, and cayenne.

Serve with a sprinkle of cayenne. Enjoy!

Experiment with Almond Flour: Almond Flour Banana Bread

Again... we were stuck with too many over-ripe bananas. This time I decided to experiment with almond flour. I haven't baked with almond flour before, so I wouldn't call this recipe perfect. I'm already thinking that I could eliminate the whole wheat flour... Anyway, I'll keep tweaking it and hopefully update my recipe the next time I need to get rid of some bananas.

This was also an experiment with SparkRecipes.com. This is a cool website that I stumbled across which allows you to search, share, and save recipes. This site has many options for searching recipes by dietary needs including gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, low carb, and more. That's not all... my favorite feature is the recipe calculator. Simply add each ingredient of your recipe, then click the "calculate info" button to find out the nutritional content of your recipe.

A later experiment will be to compare my regular banana bread recipe to my almond flour banana bread recipe. But maybe somethings are better left unknown.

See my recipe below, or visit http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1871535.

All Natural Halloween Goodie Bags

Every year, our family assembles 200+ goodie bags for Halloween Trick-or-Treaters. All natural, of course!

This year's bag has:
jelly bracelets
sour worms
lollipop
milk chocolate square
Glee gum

Get here early! They go fast.

Happy Haunting.

Pear and Ginger Muffins

These are deelish and easy! No mixer needed for these muffins. The recipe below is from Nigella Lawson.

You'll need:
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 6 teaspoons packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon honey
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups peeled and diced pears (approx. 1/4 inch dice)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line 12 cup muffin pan with paper cups.

2. Mix flour, sugar, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, baking powder, and ground ginger.

3. In another bowl, whisk together the sour cream, oil, honey, and eggs. Fold into the dry ingredients.

4. Mix in the diced pears. Pour into muffin cups.

5. Sprinkle the top of each with the remaining 6 teaspoons of light brown sugar. Bake for 20 minutes.

Eat while warm!!! Freeze the extra.

DON'T EAT THAT!

I know that reading the label of everything that you place into your grocery cart sounds ridiculous, but if you knew what you were consuming unwillingly, you may think differently.

I read every label of every item that I buy at the grocery store.

• If i look at the ingredients list and it's too long... I put it back.
• If it contains several mumbo-jumbo long words that I do not know... I put it back.
• Most importantly, if I see any food dyes, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, or the preservatives BHA, BHT, or TBHQ... I put it back. 

These few things make reading labels a little easier, because if I see any of these things I don't have to read any further. 

Don't Eat That

Some ingredients are not as easily identifiable. This is why I have the iPhone DON'T EAT THAT app. I thank my good neighbor and friend Christy, for introducing this app to me a couple years ago. This app has made shopping a little less hectic. The DON'T EAT THAT app has access to 1500+ food additives, ingredients and chemicals, including those that are carcinogenic, unhealthy for children, or are commonly known allergens. This information is simply stored onto your iPhone, so no Wi-Fi or 3G access is necessary. Just download, head to the grocery store, and shop. Use the app to search ingredients by different categories like: 'harmful to children', 'banned', 'carcinogens', 'genetically modified', 'allergies', and 'asthma'.


I admit, at first this seems like an overwhelming trip to the grocery store... It took me a few visits to get used to the process. Overtime you will learn what products 'work' for your family and which items are harmful. I do not this it always necessary to buy organic, as long as I am armed with the knowledge of the other ingredients that my family consumes. 


Our quality of life and quality of the food that we put into our bodies is too important to me to ignore.

This bread is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

Saturday morning... GAMES WERE CANCELLED.  I know I shouldn't be happy, but I'm so glad that we didn't have to wake up early to hurry off to muddy fields to watch soccer games.


Since I didn't have to rush around this morning, I decided to bake some delicious crumb top banana bread. No need for a mixer with this recipe.


Ingredients for banana bread

• 3 to 4 slightly over ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter (+ extra for buttered loaf pan)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Ingredients for crumb topping (optional)

• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions for banana bread
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. With a wooden spoon and large mixing bowl, mix melted butter into the smashed bananas. Add sugar, egg, and vanilla. Mix well. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture. Mix in. Add flour and mix. Pour mixture into a buttered loaf pan.


Directions for crumb topping
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture resembles course cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over bread mixture.


Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Slice and Enjoy!

Are our kids over-scheduled?

It's Friday morning... As I'm working at my computer, looking at the rain outside, I cannot help but pray for an overnight downpour that will cancel soccer games tomorrow. It would be really nice to be able to pick the kids up from school and let them relax before we go to dinner with family tonight. Then, not have to worry about being awake early to get to morning soccer games. I'm exhausted, so I know my kids must be exhausted... right?

The school week starts at 6:30am Monday... to school, then soccer practice, and not home till about 7:30/8pm. Don't forget homework, dinner, and showers. Tuesdays... school, cross-country training, hockey practice, not home till about 9:45/10pm. This type of schedule continues throughout the week. In one hand, I'm happy that we can do these activities for our children... On the other hand, I wonder if it's too much.

I tell myself, often, that the kids will appreciate the effort my husband and I put into their interests, maybe when they are older. I know that I am not forcing them to do anything, they chose to participate in these activities themselves. Before they commit to any activity, each boy is asked if they feel that they can handle the load and extra responsibility. School is their #1 responsibility, they know that... but joining a team makes sports #2. The boys understand that they are part of a team that needs them.

I want to research this subject more, but more importantly, I think the best thing - for my family - is to take it season by season. I think I WILL know if schedules get to hectic for my kids, and that's when I'll adjust accordingly. For now, I'm happy that we are creating family time, to go to each others games and support one another. Activities are great for social and emotional development. We will have free time, once in awhile, that will allow everyone to reboot. Till then, stay busy!

A study by the Society for Research in Child Development states that organized activities are good for kids.  According to that study, kids who are engaged in 20 hours or more of scheduled activities a week -- only make up between 2 to 6 percent of the entire population. Those kids love what they are doing and are staying busy because they want to, not because their parents pressure them to, and not because they think it will make their college application look better.

The study finds that kids engaged in organized activities perform better academically than their peers who do not. Busy kids are more likely to get good grades, graduate from high school, go to college, and less likely to use drugs. In short, contrary to popular belief, participation in organized activities is associated with positive outcomes.

Following a long day of classes, kids need to do something completely different. This allows them to absorb information in a new way. Parents might see kids running around on the playground as a waste of time, but something important is happening during those moments: The child is learning and making decisions.