Cinnamon Rolls the Lazy--and Natural--Way

We had a mega sleepover at our house last night. And since I knew I wouldn't be doing a lot of sleeping (who does at these events?), I wanted a yummy breakfast (read: I wanted to be "the cool mom") for the kidz that would also be easy for me. I found Immaculate Baking Company's Cinnamon Rolls at my Super Target. And they. were. awesome.

First off, these rolls are huge. They're absolutely loaded with cinnamon, and the icing is a great consistency. I bought 2 packs of 5 for 6 Kidz and they were gone within minutes. I ate what was left of my Kidz' second one and it was amazing. Tender, flaky bread with just the right amount of sweetness.

And the bonus? In making my purchase I was supporting a local company whose founder has a pretty great story.

Mmmmm.....Natural Indulgence

First off, let me be clear: this post is NOT intended to share a "healthy" food/product/habit. It's about indulgence, and what day more deserves indulgence than a birthday? Of course, this being NatureKidz, I will share my pictures and attempts at making an all-natural (albeit full of fat, sugar, and other bad stuff) birthday cake that I made for my youngest Nature Kid, who recently turned eight.

One of the toughest parts about raising Nature Kidz is that typical mainstream food that is marketed to kids is almost without exception full of chemicals. Petrochemicals to be clear. Artificial flavors like Vanillin (which has absolutely no chemical relation to vanilla), and colors (anything beginning with "FD&C") and other additives are petroleum based chemicals, and the truth is that they can make some people sick. Plus, who wants to eat petroleum? Not me!

So, I have spent the past couple of years experimenting with various natural colors. I reviewed the India Tree colors here. This time I ordered Chefmaster natural colors from Baker's Nook online (can't find them anywhere locally that I am aware). The pictures show the results.

The first rule for those who want to try this is that you just can't expect the brilliant colors you find in the "flavor blasted" fish crackers or in ice pops and that sort of thing. But my Nature Kid, an animal lover, designed the cake herself. I merely put in the hard labor.

What we ended up with is a yellow cake in 2 tiers with buttercream frosting (real butter, sugar, and cream--no shortening here!) and gumpaste figures for decoration. The "dog food" in the bowl is actually Whole Foods' 365 brand Cocoa cereal. The gumpaste figures and the floral border/trim are all colored with the natural food colors. The result? Absolutely sinfully delicious. And Nature Kid was completely thrilled. Mission accomplished.

WANTED! (Warning: Images Might Shock)

WANTED: Harris D. Rabbit

Aliases: Harry Rabbit, Hoppy Rabbit, Bun E. Rabbit

Charges: Pillaging the Nature Kidz garden; breaking and entering; nibbling on immature fruits--watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries.

This larcenous hare is wanted in connection with a serious of heinous crimes in Nature Kidz Land. Lovingly tended strawberries have vanished just before peak of ripeness, and a watermelon was progressively devoured over a period of days. This fellow does not respect chicken wire fences; he takes what he wants and leaves. We have to wonder if he is the same with his girlfriends, and if there's a gang off junior Harrises hopping around, fatherless, looking for juicy blueberries.

Should the culprit be caught, kindly deliver him to the Nature Kidz, whose parents will do like British Imperialists and ship them to penal colonies in Australia, or maybe just Georgia.

Homemade Lemonade!

Making Memories: Nature Kidz’ First Lemonade Stand

It has been frightfully hot recently in Nature Kidz Land. Over 100, with heat indexes above 110 some days. We have often promised the Kidz that they could have a lemonade stand . . . someday. Well, last night when I spied a bag of organic lemons at Earth Fare, I decided that day would be today.

Not being one to do things halfway, I decided the lemonade we sold would have to be all natural—none of that powdered junk for us. I had some Trader Joe’s frozen lemonade as a backup, but making homemade lemonade seemed like a fun project for the Kidz.

OK, it was mostly my project, but each Kid plus a sleepver guest Kid tried her hand at squeezing the lemons. And the result was quite good!! It was probably too hot outside for people to even do yard work, but we did have some neighbors and other folks come by to purchase the wares. And the Kidz were rewarded with a trip to the pool and a few extra bucks in their pockets.

Here’s my recipe:

2 cups organic lemon juice (probably 8-10 lemons, juiced and strained)

2 cups water and 2 cups organic cane sugar to make sugar syrup

8-10 cups water to taste.

To make sugar syrup: Bring 2 cups of water to low boil; add sugar and stir until dissolved and mixture is clear. Set aside or refrigerate.

Mix lemon juice, sugar syrup, and water in a pitcher, stirring well to combine. Add water or lemon juice to suit your taste. Serve over ice. Options: make lemon-limeade by using 2/3 lemon juice to 1/3 lime juice.

Adventures in Composting

The Lazy Composter: A Cautionary Tale

Last summer I began composting with the best of intentions. Nature Dad built me a nice raised bed for some veggies (here in NC the soil is orange clay and rocky), and I wanted to compost.

Gardening went okay. If you saw my post last summer about my peas, you saw that we had a bumper crop of snap peas that we all loved—not a one of which ever got cooked, as we ate them right off the vine. Nature Dad also spied a large pallet with some framing around the sides behind our local Ace Hardware; we thought would make a good compost bin. So he asked if we could have it, and they okayed it! And so it began…..

Into the compost pile went so much stuff—egg shells, veggie peels, past-its-peak produce, and other acceptable types of organic matter, including some grass clippings. I turned it periodically. After Halloween, I even threw our jack o’ lanterns in there and some snake gourds that we’d bought at Vollmer’s Farm in Bunn, NC—they looked like our last name’s initials and made the perfect spooky accessory on our Halloween-decoroted front porch!

Well, the cold weather came. Then spring sprung. I’d kind of forgotten about my compost pile. Let this be a lesson to all you mainstream suburban folks out there experimenting with organic living: never, ever, neglect your compost! It must be turned periodically. Purchasing a $200 composter is one way to take the work out of this, but I’m wary of just how “green” I can be by using a plastic manufactured barrel (though I am sorely tempted to buy a rain barrel and save on watering costs).

As you can see, before I knew it, My “compost” pile had become a fertile ground for growing things—I had tomato plants springing up, pumpkin vines, and what looked like miles of another vine—one with huge leaves and delicate white flowers that opened in the evenings. I decided to leave it so I could figure out what it was. Then one day I received my answer in the form of several rapidly growing snake gourds! These plants are threatening to take over my garden, but I am keeping them, if only to experiment with training them into letter shapes—my guess is that is exactly what whomever grew the ones we found at Vollmer’s did. So far I’m not having much luck, but it’s great fun. Through my research, I also found out that there’s a Gourd festival in the fall at the NC State Fairgrounds, and I’m planning to go—turns out there’s all sorts of fun you can have with these things!

And maybe next year I’ll have a pumpkin patch and pass out free pumpkins to the neighbors. As long as the HOA doesn’t catch me!

Bento Mania!

Bento Mania Strikes the NK Home

Lunch #1:

"Snowy Ants on a Log" (see below); kiwi and grapes; cloverleaf shaped cheese; popcorn

Lunch #2:

Salad with Carrot, Bell Pepper and Celery with Ranch dip; Unsweetened Applesauce; popcorn; Turkey Rolls with Cheese Stars (and crackers with the popcorn).

Lunch #3

Ham sandwich on whole wheat; kiwi and grapes; salad with ranch dip; popcorn

I got tired of little zip-close baggies. As clever as the snack size ones are, especially for parents of school-aged kids, I was always running out of the right size, and throwing out 6-8 of these per day is pretty shocking when you start to think about the financial and environmental impact.

As one school year ended and another began (a week later--we're in year-round schools here), I pondered my options for making lunchtime greener and, honestly, less boring for my Kidz. Mine are fairly picky, and the littlest one has no problem just not eating. She's not a child who'll eat when she gets hungry enough. She won't. She'll have a meltdown, but she won't eat. I was easily as sick of the lunches coming back to me barely touched as I was of wasting zip-close bags.

I'd heard about Bento Boxes from a few different folks. I did some googling (why does that still sound vaguely dirty to me?) and found Laptop Lunches, a website with everything you'd ever want to know about Bento luches done American style, including recipe ideas and a store. After much hemming and hawing, I finally ordered 3 for the Kidz. The ones I got were the new "2.0" style boxes that came with four inserts (two with lids) and a teeny tiny adorable little container with lid just perfect for dips and sauces. The sets also come with really good quality stainless steel flatware--no more plastic spoons for me (or those mornings when I nearly have a meltdown of my own because I ran out of spoons and forgot to buy more)!

They arrived and I love them. They're a good substantial size but still fit into my Kidz' standard lunch boxes, so I can slip in an ice pack if I want. You can also purchase insulated sleeves, but I'm cheap.

My youngest Kid was so excited about hers she took off to her room to play with it. It took some negotiation but I finally got her to agree to actually use it for her lunches. Once she accepted that it wasn't, in fact, a new home for her Calico Critters, she pulled a stool up to the counter and packed her lunch herself. My picky picky girl even came up with a new food for her Bento: "snow ants on a log" (see lunch #1, above)--celery, peanut butter, and yogurt-covered raisins. Yum.

The Laptop Lunch kits also come with a handy paperback guide to packing healthful and appealing lunches for your Kidz. I was pleased with how colorful and easy these lunch boxes are to use. Hopefully the fun won't wear off too soon and the Kidz will continue to enjoy healthy, whole-food inspired meals!

The Fruits of Our Labors

This summer was my first shot at organic vegetable gardening. Surprisingly, the best performer so far has been the peas. I say surprisingly because I planted them (well, Nature Grandma planted the peas) late in the season (May 1). This is one of those veggies that 1/2 of my family likes and 1/2 hates when frozen, but fresh--we all love them!

I have loved trying our hand at gardening. Nature Kidz get to see what their food looks like before it's wrapped in plastic at the grocery stores, and they get to play with their food. Opening the pea pods is fun and the "packaging" is edible too!

Next year plans are to expand our raised-bed planter to add at least 2-3 more planter boxes. Even as I am still enjoying our current harvest, I look forward to next year's planting season with lots of lessons learned this year!

Something to Read: In Defense of Food

I heard the author, Michael Pollan, on NPR's "This Splendid Table" today. After seeing "Food, Inc." Friday night, I was excited to hear Pollan's interview. Pollan was featured in Food, Inc. and had a very engaging persona. He was no less interesting in the interview (and you can listen to that interview at This Splendid Table's website). He had a great quote, and I paraphrase, but he basically said that up until the 1970's we had a "Ford" economy, meaning that the economy treated workers like Henry Ford approached his workers: "I'm going to pay my workers enough so they can ALL afford my cars." Makes sense, right? Well, Pollan says, nowadays we have a "Wal-Mart mentality"--that is, "I'm going to pay you so little that all you can afford is our food/products." Now, that is in a nutshell why I hate Wal-Mart. Well put, Mr. Pollan.

Olympic Low-Odor Paint

Lowe's now sells a "low odor" zero VOC "green" Olympic paint product, which was used to paint Nature kidz' rooms in these pictures. There is a limited selection of colors, which is kind of a bummer--you have to choose yours from the display at Lowe's. Nature kidz had chosen different shades so when we learned we had to choose from Olympic's offerings, we made new choices. The dark blue is almost exactly the color of painter's tape--though that's not what the color is named, of course.

Nature Kid 2 (the dark blue, above) wanted a dark, intense color, and this paint delivered. We got the primer tinted as well to help get the color on--and let's just say I'm sure it will take many coats of new primer to change this if she decides she wants a lighter color! She absolutely loves it, and I'm getting used to it. The paint itself does what it promises--goes on with very low oder, which dissipates quickly. There is no "new paint" smell in our upstairs, despite there being two newly painted rooms.

Is this the same as conventional paint? No. It's thinner, more runny, and requires more application (coats) to get a good layer on. But to this mom, it's worth it. And more than anything, it's worth seeing the Kidz' happy smiles at their own uniquely designed bedrooms. Each child chose her own theme, paint color, and decor, and it has been really fun making curtains and accessorizing.

Try the paint! It's worth getting used to the differences to have the clear conscience and lack of stink!

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?

Official Food, Inc. Movie Site - Hungry For Change?

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Most Pesticide-Ridden Foods

Check out this list I found this list via Trader Joe's (my favorite store these days). The list, from the environmental working group, details 47 commonly purchased produce items in order of pesticide load. I've also heard of "the dirty dozen" foods, which lists the 12 worst foods in terms of contamination by hormones, pesticides, and the like. It also offers explanations for each item's inclusion on the list, such as this rather disturbing detail about a staple in our house:

"4. Apples. With 36 different chemicals detected in FDA testing, half of which are neurotoxins (meaning they cause brain damage), apples are almost as contaminated as strawberries. Peeling non-organic apples reduces but does not eliminate the danger of ingesting these chemicals. Go organic, especially for children."

The dirty dozen list is topped by meats and dairy items. I already buy organic milk and we never buy any meat except chicken, but of course we consume a lot of cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products like kefir. I have to confess that I'm vigilant about purchasing "natural" foods (no chemicals), but I'm hit or miss about organic because they can be shockingly expensive. These two lists really help me choose which foods must absolutely be organic, and which can be conventional. Here's a summary:

The dirty dozen:
1. Meats
2. Dairy
3. Strawberries (good thing we went to an organic farm last week to pick!)
4. apples
5. tomatoes
6. potatoes (ack! who knew?)
7. spinach and other greens
8. coffee
9. peaches
10. grapes
11. celery
12. bell peppers

The Environmental Working Group lists only produce, but includes 47 items listed by chemical load so you can make your own choices and be aware. The worst offender? Peaches. The "best"? Onions and avocadoes. Check out the websites. It's eye-opening!

Keeping the Home Garden Going Strong

A home vegetable garden, especially organically grown, is a labor of love; the gardener has to keep vigilant with water and food and a careful watch for pests and disease.

I keep a compost pile beside the garden, adding my household wastes like coffee grounds, strawberry tops, eggshells, and fruit peels. I planted marigolds to repel bugs. But what I really need is earthworms and ladybugs.

I need earthworms for my compost pile and my vegetable garden, since it's a large raised-bed garden instead of in the ground where earthworms might naturally be. Also, ladybugs eat aphids and other garden pests.

I found a great online source for both: Gardening Zone. This is a great site with all kinds of helpful information as well as good prices for the things we need! I am a bit of a squeamish type (I close my eyes during all those gross surgery scenes on Grey's Anatomy), so getting worms in the mail grosses me out just a bit, but I figure the alternative is waiting for a good rain and them dashing out and plucking the buggers off the sidewalk.

On the other hand, that sounds like a wonderful--and free--way to entertain the Nature Kidz next time it rains.

How did you spend Mother's Day?

I spent Mother's Day at Vollmer's Farm in Bunn, NC. The farm is an off-the-beaten path location with all the trimmings for a fun family-friendly outing. Complete with "horse" swings made of old tires and an adorable "train" ride in mini cars designed to look like cows, the main attraction is the produce--right now, organic pick-your-own strawberries are in season. Yummy. This farm is the only one in the state of North Carolina with certified organic strawberries. Kidz can eat them right out in the strawberry patch as they pick. We picked 7 pounds in very short order, only nibbling one or two each in the process. For $12 per basket, we get fresh berries and the basket is ours to keep.

This is a lot of strawberries. How do we plan to use up these nutritious (1 cup has 49 calories, more than a full day's vitamin C, and lots of fiber) little gems? Well, Nature Kid the Younger gave me a chocolate melting pot for Mother's Day, so I served some up to be dipped in chocolate (you can use organic chocolate for this task). Some will grace cereal, and the rest will be frozen for smoothies and winter oatmeal in months to come. I might even bake a few loaves of strawberry bread for summer cookouts (it can be frozen and thawed later).

Now is the time to seek out local farms for produce-picking fun. You can find the places closest to where you live at Pick Your Own.org.
What fun.

Creating a Raised-Bed Organic Veggie Garden

Here's a great idea for fun and educational summer activities for your nature kidz. My Kidz and I have planted an organic veggie garden with the help of Nature Dad, who built the frame for us. Because our soil is rocky clay and therefore not so good for growing things (and really, really hard to dig), we decided to go this route--and we also got to choose the soild we'd use, which is a nutritious mix of compost, peat moss, and topsoil. The entire investment was less than $100, much of that taken up by materials for the wooden frame and the fill dirt, which can be used year after year, so future years should be very inexpensive. And well worth the effort if all goes as planned!

Here are the directions if you want to make one of your own:

1. Build a wooden frame. We made ours by cutting an 8-foot piece in half, and using two 10-foot pieces. Screw them together with deck screws and install metal l-brackets for extra security. Place where you want to plant. You'll need a spot easily accessed for watering and weeding, and which gets at least 6 hours of sun per day.

2. Line bottom with newspaper to prevent weed growth. Fill with a soil mixture that's equal parts compost, peat moss, and topsoil. Stir to mix before filling (I put a pile of each part on a drop cloth, stirred, then shoveled in).

3. Add plants. I recommend Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. It's an excellent resource and even gives some good ideas for keeping pests out of your veggie garden.

We planted carrots, corn, peas, two kinds of bell peppers, watermelon, and tomatoes. We chose two varieties of tomatoes--one that matures in 60 days, one in 80 days, so hopefully our harvest is spread out a bit. We also planted a blueberry bush a month or so ago and hope to reap that harvest this summer, too!

I also recommend getting your veggie plants locally. If you have a farmer's market you have a great resource. We got ours at the State Farmer's Market in Raleigh, NC.

Haagen Dazs 5 Ice Cream

OK, I had this recently and since it's natural I wanted to mention it here. This stuff is AWESOME. H-D has this new line of ice creams that are pure and simple--just 5 ingredients in each variety--and oh, what varieties! The brown sugar flavor is, I think, my favorite. The ingredients? SKIM MILK, CREAM, BROWN SUGAR (MOLASSES, SUGAR), SUGAR, EGG YOLKS. That's all.

I'm that kid who used to climb up on the counter to reach the brown sugar that my mom stored up high with all the spices and stuff. You know, that kid who would dig a big spoon into the bag and savor a spoonful of brown sugar all on its own. A guilty pleasure. I am also a huge ice cream fan. Put those two together and I pretty much have to avoid the ice cream aisle for life or else I will get to be the same shape as one of the people from Wall-E.

I would give it a full review but could never do as good a job as Greg from Freezerburns.com. Check it out!

Treadmill vs. Hike Outdoors

I knew I needed some exercise today (ok, every day). I thought about getting on the treadmill. I cleaned house a bit, argued with my steam vac for a while (and I lost the argument and ended up hand-cleaning the sofa), and thought some more. But here's the thing: the treadmill faces the wall/window (it folds up to save space and it's too heavy and pointless for me to turn it to face any other way) and my only entertainment is a magazine or two. That's usually enough, but I have read all my magazines for now.

So, Nature Kid 1 and I decided to take our 2 Nature Dogz to William B. Umstead State Park instead. There we had a good 2-mile hike over hilly, occasionally tough-going, dirt, with a canopy of leafy trees overhead and a babbling brook alongside us. The rocks in the water were large and made nice stepping stones, and the water was so enticing that one of our dogz, who's not really a water loving kind of guy, climbed right in and lay down in the cool water.

It may have been in the 90s today but the hiking trail stayed relatively cool, and we even found a shaded picnic table for the lunch Nature Kid 1 assembled (turkey sandwiches, Kashi cereal, and apple, grape juice, and potato chips for us; water for the doggies).

When we got home we bathed the dogs and decided our next outing would be to the Morrisville Aquatic and Fitness Center for an afternoon splash. I love summer!

Constipated Eggs

Yes, it's a gross title. But this year's Easter craft with my Kidz is blown eggs. We did 2 dozen of these and had friends over to decorate them. While Nature Kid 1 was trying to blow to goo (the scientific name for egg innards) out of an egg, and had trouble, she decided the egg was "constipated." Even at 9 years old she's obsessed with potty talk.

This is a fun craft to do. You simply take a needle and poke holes in the top and bottom of the egg (making the bottom hole a bit larger) and blow out the insides. You can shake the egg before puncturing and also use the needle to break up the yolk to make it come out more easily. Once the insides are out you can set them aside for a nice omelet dinner or for your holiday baking. Wash the eggs off and decorate however you like. I bought paints, an egg coloring kit, stickers, little googly eyes, and the like. A quick google yielded me a Martha Stewart link with fancy schmancy ideas that I thought might be a little out of my Kidz' realm of interest.

To hang your eggs, as I like to do, I used the needle to run a satin ribbon with a knot at one end (smaller than the bottom hole but larger than the top) through the egg. These eggs will keep indefinitely so you can save them for future Easters. Unless your Kidz are like one of mine, who decided it was important to see the inside of the egg.

"Green" up your Easter baskets and a book recommendation

First, the book recommendation. The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is an amazing little book that's been around a long time. First published in 1939, it's about a mother bunny with 21 children who manages to become one of the chosen few Easter Bunnies. Check Amazon for reviews. I absolutely love this story and it's inspiring to me as a mom of a mere two bunnies--I mean Kidz. It speaks for the tremendous work and skill that is unique to mothers. My kidz' godparents gave them this book and we treasure it.

My second item for today is a suggestion or two for greening up the Easter basket. My first is for that ubiquitous plastic grass that the Easter bunny seems compelled to insert in the baskets and that we parents seem to still find wrapped around our vacuum cleaner's roller part six months later. Perhaps the Easter Bunny could borrow your shredder and shred paper scraps--if you're a scrapbooker you can leave out some of your paper scraps to be shredded--and later recycled or reused--and tucked into the basket. If not, perhaps you have some construction paper lying around, or even wrapping paper scraps. Shred them (we have a cross-cut shredder, which tends to make confetti instead of "grass" but it can still work) and leave them out for Ms. Bunny. No more clogged vacuum cleaners, or landfills for that matter!

Another suggestion that we made to our Easter bunny: shop for chocolates at a locally owned chocolate shop. We have one near us: Chocolate Smiles in Cary, NC. The down side is that many of their chocolates contain vanillin, which is a synthetic chemical usually made from petroleum. Ewwww. But I was able to find some beautiful selections of chocolate Easter bunnies that my Kidz would surely enjoy if our Easter bunny stops by there. In this economy, it's always good to shop local, and the treats at this shop are handcrafted right in the store. Sadly, the cookie shop in the same strip center has gone out of business.

Have a wonderful Easter, Nature Kidz and Parentz!

Because a friend asked: Natural Goodies!

My pregnant friend mentioned on Facebook that she loves gummy worms. She is also an organic eater. Since I'm a mom and have a sweet tooth of my own, I've done some research on good sources for natural and organic sweets. Since Easter is coming, perhaps you can use some of the following sites to stock your Easter baskets!

First, I always hit my Whole Foods or Earth Fare locally. They usually have a small section of seasonal yummies. When that strikes out, these are good sites:

Natural Candy Store
Awesome selection of natural and organic goodies. We've used quite a few of the products here, including the candy sprinkles for cookies and the Pure Fun organic lollipops. Don't miss the Easter Candy section!

Squirrels Nest
It's too late to order for Easter, but the selection is great and it's Feingold friendly for those following the Feingold plan.

Sadly, this one is going out of business: In an email, Simon Candy Shop cites "Competition from inexpensive imports, rising costs, and the generally bad economy are all contributing factors." In the meantime, you can get some real deals on natural candies, including this adorable barn tin filled with organic lollipops.

Happy Easter!

Another Holiday, Another Batch of Cookies!

I love holidays. Holidays=sugar cookie baking and decorating. And these photos show the pretty pastel colors than can be achieved with the India Tree natural food colors. You won't get brilliant brights, or the deep reds and greens you might want for Christmas, but I was really excited for Easter because I knew I could get some nice colors! As you can see I didn't have great luck getting a pale springlike grass green, but the pink, light blue, pink, and yellow turned out great!

I used the sugar cookie recipe I have posted here on this blog, and made 2 different icings; one is Alton Brown's Royal Icing that I used for thicker icing that can be piped or spread. The other is a smoother, glossy icing (recipe on this blog--check the tags to the right under "recipes" or "cookies). I made it a bit runny this time--next time I'll remember to make it a bit stickier (and that's easy to do by adding powdered sugar).

My elder Nature Kid has a sleepover with 2 friends tonight, so she decorated some cookies for her friends to take along. We had cousins over last night to decorate with us--it's a great, inexpensive, fun way to spend time with family!