Do you like what I'm wearing?

After almost 250 posts on this blog I am officially very tired of the color orange! I have changed my template to a very nice, but boring white and I am so much happier! I still have some work to do on it. I would like to figure out how to put a picture on it and all but that will have to wait...to many other things going on!

I also received an award today from Val at More than Burnt Toast. Val is a fellow Canadian who lives on the West Coast of Canada in British Columbia. She is probably one of the most supportive bloggers you will ever find. If you have a cause to support through blogging Val is your girl! Her recipes are bright and creative with excellent photography. Thanks again Val! Now the one thing that I have to do is to pass this on to 5 more bloggers that "make my day"! Should be easy right...not a chance. I visit anywhere from 20 to 30 blogs a day! Usually when I am waiting for the girls after school and killing my iPhone battery but this makes it very hard. Here are my 5 but please if your name is not there you still "make my day"! The only rules you guys have is that you need to pass it on to 5 more bloggers.

In no particular order:

Peter of Kalofagas - Greek Food and Beyond. Peter has become a great source of inspiration for my daily meals and boy does that come in handy. I hope to be able to meet up with him when I am in Toronto this summer.

Robin at Caviar to Codfish because I really related to how her blog has evolved. You may remember her as The Clumsy Cook but seeing as she was no longer that she changed her profile.

Jenn - The Leftover Queen for her friendship, inspiration and support! You really do make my day!

Heather of Gild the Voodoolily for just being herself and never trying to please anyone other that herself with what she does. Also she just plain and simple makes me laugh!

And last but not least Pam from Life on A Southern Farm - she has an incredible blog about life on a...did you get that...Southern Farm. It is about her past and her present with nice reflections and pictures that take me away to a much more calm and peaceful life. I like that!

Now onto something completely different. I have received quite a few comments about my girls not liking muffins. Yep I do agree that it is very weird but also a very positive thing for them. I have always been a little worried that they would develop really incredible sweet tooth because of the way that we have raised them. Some insight into this...my children eat a very small amount of prepared and pre-packaged food.

We do not have anything in our house that contains High Fructose Corn Syrup (sweetener of choice for almost all foods), they do not eat store bought treats except on rare occasions when we are out. Now what they do get though is cake, muffins, cookies, pudding, yogurt etc that is all homemade. As long as I can control what goes into their food they can have it. I think that what the food industry has done to our food is just incredible and I am doing everything that I can to keep it out of them! The common theory though is that when you deprive your child of something like sweets when you are not there they will do anything they can to get it. I guess I am proving that this is not the case and I can't tell you how happy I am about this!


I also think that children can be a great help in the kitchen and that this will help reinforce the eating choices that they make growing up. Last night I decided to give my 7 year old some lessons in knife wielding and all I can say is that we got to spend some nice time together and she still has all of her fingers!!! I had her cut of the lettuce for my salad and she had a blast...felt like a big girl and all. Do they ever grow up too fast!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

How I get my kids to eat what I eat

Last night's dinner was pretty boring. T. had a meeting at 5:00 and my oldest daughter has been suffering really horribly from a very long attack of hives so none of us were really in the mood for a huge meal. I decided that I would boil up some pasta as they could have theirs with some butter and Parmesan and T. and I could dip into the Basil Pesto that I had frozen from a month or so ago. I also made a huge fresh salad. The girls had the pasta and then some salad.

Seeing as it was a slow food night I thought I would let you in on my secret for getting my kids to eat what we eat. Really it is no huge secret. I do not in any way, shape or form believe in this new revolution to "hide" healthy food in my children's meals. I believe that children need to learn how to eat properly and make the right food choices. By hiding the food I think you are doing them a huge disservice as they are not being taught anything about how to make the healthy food choices.

My children are given a plate of food. Not a huge plate but a small amount of everything that we are eating for dinner that night. They can then taste everything and eat what they really like. An example of this is maybe we would be having some grilled chicken thighs. Along with this we would have some green beans sauteed with shitake mushrooms, grilled radicchio and oven roasted beets. They will get some of all of this on their plates. They don't like beets but they know that they have to eat a half of a small quarter. They like the beans but not the mushrooms so they will eat the beans but skip the mushrooms. They will each eat some of the radicchio each with their favorite dips (youngest daughter likes balsamic and blue cheese and oldest daughter will eat just blue cheese). They will need to eat the better part of their chicken. When they sit down for a meal they know that this is what is expected of them. After they have eaten they then get to have a "snack" or dessert. Usually I have something homemade for them like cookies or cake. I figure after the healthy stuff they have chosen to eat they can then choose a dessert!

I do respect their major dislikes. My oldest has never liked tomatoes. Anything with tomatoes she gets a pass on. Generally we can make it relatively easy without and if it is a red sauce or something she just doesn't put it on.

I know this sounds like I am "making" and "forcing" them to eat things they don't like but it has been proven over and over that it generally takes about 10 tastes of something before people can really decide if they like it or not!

I guess what I am saying is that I believe in empowering my children with the ability to make the decision as to what is healthy or not. Yes, I guide them strongly but I also make sure that thy have plenty of sweets (cakes, cookies, muffins, pudding etc.) so they are not deprived anything.

On another note my friend Jenn-The Leftover Queen has just done a really interesting post comparing the cost of Farmer's Market produce and Grocery Store produce. Very cool post. Just as interesting though are the comments that she has gotten! I really believe that feeding my family from the local U-Pick and Farmer's Market saves my family an incredible amount of money each week. I will post more on this later this week.

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Halloween Treats

Can you believe that Halloween is just around the corner! What a great time to be a kid. But I am always trying to find some treats that are a little healthier than the average candy bar (that's not too hard now is it?). We don't let the girls eat a whole lot of candy and Lauren can have nothing with red dye in it. We always end up with enough candy to last them a whole year and I am not exaggerating in the slightest. If I were to look on top of the fridge I am sure in the "candy bag" I would be able to find some Halloween candy from last year. But anyway this year I have made it a goal to be able to have fun and most importantly healthy treats. http://www.familyfun.com/ is a great resource for all kid related things.

Check out some of the recipes that I have found that I am going to try for the Halloween party at school this year!

Family Fun: Apple Bites Recipe

Family Fun: Bat Chips which will go well with the Carrot Finger Food Dip!

Family Fun: Carrot Finger Food

Family Fun: Crunchy Witches Brew

Contact me with any other fun ideas that you may have for a Halloween Party this year!

Have an amazing day!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

Have you heard about Fish Oil?

Yes...I did say Fish Oil!

Any one who spends anytime at all with us know that we are big cheerleaders for the Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil (Omega-3 Fatty Acids) trend. We are not taking about the fish oil that your Mom used to make you take when you were a kid and the rest of the day you you had fish burps!

It is being marketed as the big miracle cure for just about everything. Now I am pretty skeptical about things that are supposed to fix everything so I don't usually jump on the bandwagon for all of these things but I have to tell you we have been taking it for about a year now and really have never felt better. My skin feel better, my hair looks better, my blood pressure is borderline low (this was from borderline high) and I have lost weight! This is just how it has visibly helping me. The benefits of the Omega-3's are well documented and extensive: protection against heart disease and stroke, lowered bad cholesterol (Tony's was 375 now it is normal), lowered triglycerides, increased level of good cholesterol, reduced risk for diabetes, improved joint and bone health, relief from depressive disorders and ADHD, support in treatment of eating disorders, improved skin, improved recovery from burns,a lowered risk for some cancers. Omega-3s are also beneficial for treating asthma, macular degeneration, menstrual pain and any conditions linked with inflammation.

We take Omega-3 pharmaceutical grade Fish Oil daily as do the children (and the dogs but that is another story altogether). My youngest daughter has been able to greatly improved her ability to concentrate which is attributed directly to the Omega -3 Fish Oil!

I know that I have emphasized the fact that it is pharmaceutical grade Omega-3 fish oil but that is a very important factor in this mix. If you walk into your local health food store and buy fish oil you are doing yourself a huge disservice. The pharmaceutical grade removes all of the toxic heavy metals that we would naturally get from eating the fish (mercury, lead etc). Therefore you are left with a purer, healthier product. You also don't get the fish burps all day long (nice by product of the purifying).

To learn more about how this can improve your health and that of your family click here. We buy our vitamins from Dr. Vince. Check out his link at Better Health, Better Energy, Better Life.

To your good health!!!

Judy
http://www.nofearentertaining.com/

High Fructose Corn Syrup?

I just read an article about High Fructose Corn Syrup or HFCS that I think everyone should read. I stopped having anything in my house with HFCS about a year ago because everything that I read kept saying how horrible it was. They have now found that it is linked to Diabetes in children. To think that something that is in so many products can harm a child for life is so sad. If you have any interest the article was on the Fox News Website (www.foxnews.com). I have included a link below.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294882,00.html

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com