I Just Can't Get Enough

A Facebook friend has introduced me to the cutest family ever...

Dicken feat. Milah & Korben: "Everything Counts"

Dicken Schrader and his adorable children Milah and Korben are having a lot of fun together making beautiful and videos of their covers of, already great, Depeche Mode songs. Dicken wins my award for coolest dad. I hope this Columbian family continues to have fun together... They could teach us all a little something about quality time with our kids.

To see more, check out http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2AB6252942132321.

Is it too late to try this with my boys???

Year of the Dragon: Parade in DC January 29th at 2pm

The Chinese New Year Parade celebrating the year of the Dragon will take place on January 29, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. Starting at Sixth and I Street NW, the parade lasts approximately 2½ hours and runs rain or shine.


Route Map


Info About the Chinese Dragon Zodiac Sign

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.