Every morning my 3 children & I trot outside to identify a new weed/herb. Pictured above my son is holding a sow thistle (which is edible and great for warts and as a blood purifier) and my other son is holding white clover (edible and great for colds). This science is called foraging. |
Yes! My lawn looks like a prairie. And while I'm sure the homeowners association wants to egg my house, my lawn is not just grass, it's food. "Weeds" have such a bad reputation, but lately they have been the source of our outdoor classroom ventures, meals, and healing. Not only is it a survival skill, but it makes for great cross-curriculum lesson plans. We use the "weeds" to make art. We learn about identifying traits such as stem and leaf structure and color of flowers. We also learn to look for warning signs of poisonous plants. While most weeds/herbs are edible, they are not edible especially in the city because of the use of pesticides & herbicides, etc. So, if you know you have been spraying your lawn with chemicals, don't pick a weed and eat it!! Moreover, don't eat anything from your poisonous well manicured lawn!! With that said--Happy Foraging!! Next frontier--edible insects!!!
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In my house, Summer equals ice pops. At any given moment my 1 year old daughter can be found plastered to the freezer door, arms stretched up above her head screaming, "Pop! Poppppp!" I spend my nights blending fruit creations to pour into molds and freeze lest I run out. Not having homemade ice pops in storage could lead to a crazy meltdown. Sitting my children down with ice pop in hand guarantees me at least 20 minutes of uninterrupted me time (as you know I can never get enough of that)! So yes, there is something like an ice pop operation going on over here, and I don't plan on stopping any time soon.
Pictured above is the Tutti Fruity Pop, Honey Dew Melon Pop, Layered Fruit Pop, Cherry Choco Pop, Watermelon Basil Pop, & Chai Pop. Please share your favorite Ice Pop creations with me!!! Here's a few recipes to get your own Ice Pop Operation going: inspired by Irresistible Ice Pops by Sunil Vijayakar Layered Fruit Pop: 8 oz strawberries 1/3 cup sugar syrup 2 small ripe peaches chopped 4 kiwis peeled & chopped Blend each fruit separately, pour one layer, freeze, pour next layer, freeze, etc. Orange Dream Pop: Coconut milk Orange Juice Vanilla Extract Orange extract or essence maple syrup, honey, or sugar syrup Banana Fudge Pop: Bananas Cocoa Nibs Soaked or carobs cashews or almonds soaked almond milk sugar syrup Honeydew Heaven Pops Honeydew melon chopped sugar syrup or honey 1/2 cup 1 tbsp lemon grass paste 1/2 lemon peeled & cut Blend. Pour in mold. Freeze. A birthday is just an excuse to have a really fun playdate. Birthdays are also great opportunities to emphasize values like togetherness, teamwork, creativity, and gratitude. I also like to show my children that although we are gluten-free, dairy-free etc, we still can have delicious fun with food! Dirt Cup Recipe (Makes 15 dirt cups): 2 8 oz boxes of Kinnikinnick Foods KinniKritters Animal Cookies Gluten Free Chocolate (put in a ziplock bag and crush with a rolling pin) 4 boxes of European gourmet bakery organics chocolate pudding & pie filling mix (prep with egg and sub with almond milk instead of cow's milk) 1 10 oz container of Truwhip whipped topping (does contain a tinsy bite of dairy in the form of sodium caseinate, but it wasn't significant enough to bother our tummies etc) 3 80g packs of Haribo worms (beef gelatine halal) Crush cookies to resemble dirt. After the pudding has chilled in the fridge over night mix it with Truwhip to resemble mud. Now layer. Sprikle a layer of crushed cookies in cup, then "mud" pudding-truwhip mixture, then dirt cookies, then poke the worms in. Tah DAHHHH!!! Watermelon Sharks Tutorial HERE Creature Power Suits (makes 13):
Bug Hunt (party favors)
Is it me or does the dentist sound like a broken record? Brush your teeth, floss, use fluoride. Even the mommy magazine articles I read swear by the same regimen. My children brush their teeth twice a day and floss. I even pulled a muscle in my hand flossing their teeth. However, we do not use fluoride. We avoid it like vampires avoid sunlight.
With that being said, I thought I would share our wholistic healthy teeth regimen. I am not a dentist, but I am the mother of 3 beautiful smiles! Be sure to discuss these options with your doctor. 1. Calcium Magnesium Citrate. My children take this fruity liquid every evening around dinner time. Not only does it build healthy bones from the inside out, but it helps them achieve sleep nirvana.
Yes, they chew it up; and therefore I have to replace it like every month. I got smart and bought the rechargeable electric toothbrushes (they plug into the wall) so I don't have to fool with batteries. The toothbrush heads are also replaceable, so you don't have to throw out the entire toothbrush just the chewed up head part.
3. M.I. Paste (the Fluoride-Free kind). My girlfriend who is a dental hygienist hipped me to this. When I asked my dentist about it, he said he'd never heard of it. So he wouldn't prescribe it to me. Then I asked my children's dentist and he was clueless too. Finally, my mother asked her dentist and she said it was a great idea and prescribed it to her. At night we coat the (fluoride-free) dental floss with it before flossing. 4. Oil Pulling. Teach your child to oil pull in the morning before brushing her teeth. My four-year-old does it! 5. Xylitol. Dr. Yum's Baby Teeth Cleaners. Xylitol helps keep a neutral pH level in the mouth and prevents bacteria from sticking to the teeth. This is how it protects the teeth from tooth decay. With the dental benefits of xylitol, the acid attack that would otherwise last for over half an hour is stopped. Most people are not aware of this benefit because such a claim makes xylitol into a drug, crossing a boundary not allowed by the Food and Drug Administration. Plus it's a natural sweetener, so it tastes like sugar!!
It's not personal. Just like I choose not to partake in these forms of technology, they choose only to function within these specific modes. My girlfriends have tried to do an intervention, and my husband and I have been the center of jokes at a few dinner parties. Does it hurt my feelings? No. Am I embarrassed? No Way!! We know exactly what we are doing and why. First, a little background. My great grandmother who is 100 years old abstains from technology. To this day, she will not talk on a phone or ride in a car. I think that may have genetically predisposed me for the low tech life. While we did have a television in my childhood home, the only time we watched television was Saturday Morning Cartoons. Yeah Snorks, Smurfs, and Captain Planet! My sisters and I spent much of our time roaming the swamps and fields.
I'm also a complete failure at sitting still for long periods of time. I just don't have the proper genetics or upbringing for screen time. So what about my "deprived" children?! Well, the American Academy of Pediatrics says that children under age 2 should not have any screen time (i.e. TV, computer, video games), children over age 2 should be limited to 1-2 hours a day. In fact, a child's eyes are not fully developed until age 7. Excessive periods of screen time before age 7 can hinder that development. There is some evidence from recent studies in the United States and Australia that the amount of time school-aged children spend outdoors, in natural light, may have some impact on whether they develop mild myopia. Let's not forget that ages birth to 7 are the formative years, which lay the foundation for all learning/development. At this time you want to nurture the brain as much as possible.
With less screen time, it's easier to cultivate delayed gratification, focus, a Zen mentality, social skills, and most all teaching my children to value people and themselves. So, we may actually be helping our children. So what do we have against the cell phone? Although we could cite health issues, our reasons for nil cell phone use are more social. We experience richer social interaction and deeper relationships without it. We attribute our wonderful marriage and family partly to our lack of cell phone and TV usage. In a society that is obsessed with the next upgrade, it's easy to assume that technology is inherently good. I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm not anti-technology. In fact, I could not imagine living without WI FI. Ironically, I've made much of my living off my computer skills. However, the biggest thing I have learned from all my techy education is technology doesn't manage my life, I manage it.
I just throw him a side-eye because I know that his new healthy glow is a result of him usurping my kombucha. Among my knitting projects was of course a kombucha koozie--hey, I can't have the cold weather putting the Mother to sleep thus ruining my brew! Plus, our kombucha is our family pet--yeah, it's a living breathing organism(s)! The children have stopped asking when we're going to get that cat. Then there's been this traffic of kombucha pilgrims showing up at my door with a glass jar in one hand and a dollar in the other. I can't complain; kombucha has been good to my family.
Because I'm a teacher:
SCOBY + Starter Tea + (Black/Green Tea+XTea+Sugar Syrup)= Kombucha Not getting light-headed yet? Just look at the pictures! My girlfriend who is an avid kombucha drinker was like, "so you mean to tell me, we are drinking its (the Mother's) waste?!" To which I respond in my Brittany Wilson (from White Chicks) voice, "Don't be a spaz, but, yes." Why am I glorifying this fermented monstrosity?! Well, I haven't read any scientific studies or gathered any empirical evidence, but kombucha is healthy. Rumor has it that kombucha:
My children and I drink Kombucha, but please exercise caution and talk to your healthcare provider especially if you are dealing with liver issues, diabetes, stomach yeast, pregnancy, breastfeeding. I am a breastfeeding mother and I drink it, but I do not give it to my infant. Till next time.... Love, Peace, & Kombucha!
"Yeah, why?"
"I just bit a stone or 2." More crunches. "Those are not stones, they are your son!" He laughed. "My son?" Although I recalled laughing at Hakim earlier as he crunched through the rice, nothing was funny now. "Yes, he put his crystals in the rice. I had to pick all of them out before I washed it. Evidently, I didn't get all of them." Here's a good time to inform you that crystals are an integral part of our lives. Each of my children sleep with a glowing Himalayan salt crystal in his or her room. They have crystals charging in their window sills, sewn in their pillow cases, beaded into their necklaces and for every rite of passage they achieve, they receive a crystal as a totem. I wear them around my waist and we go crystal digging every year. More than pretty jewelry, for us, they are healing gateways. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) himself was fond of agate. I call my 4 year old son into the kitchen. "Son, you put crystals in the rice?" "Yes, Mom I was cleaning them." He smiles. They'll really be clean once they come out the other end of my digestive tract (I can hear Dave Chappelle in his Mtv Cribs Parody yelling, "That's Baller!"). Anywho, it just so happens that leaving crystals submerged in a bowl of dry rice (not cooked) is a way to purify them. After agreeing not to use the rice we set out to cook, my son transforms into a car and rolls away. There are children who sprinkle sugar crystals on cupcakes, and then there are those who sprinkle crystals on rice. I gave birth to the latter. As for the rice...Yes, I finished it and had a second helping. After all, crystal digging is nothing new to me.
properties of herbs (science), serving (pouring technique and order of presentation), and jazz and classical music. I have even gone so far as to do themes inspired by my sons: space tea party, super hero tea party, safari tea party, and tea parties based on books. Tea time is an integrative educational experience, but most of all, it is fun and relaxing.
My obsession with tea time probably has something to do with my obsession with tea. My earliest memories involve my great grandmother shoving cow patty tea at whoever took ill, my grandmother gifting my sisters and me a delicately painted tea set that we shattered to pieces, and carrying a heavy glass pitcher of sun tea to the backyard for my mother.
"If people drank a cup of tea every day, the pharmacists would starve." Chinese proverb
On my gluten-free, dairy-free adventures I discovered the mung bean. I found them at my local Asian Mart. Boiled, baked, steamed, or sprouted, they are delicious savory or as a dessert. The mung bean, native to India, but cultivated in the U.S. since 1830, is a power house. It's high in protein, magnesium, iron, etc. It protects against several chronic, age-related diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity. Pictured above is my mung bean pie, a Vietnamese dish, with the following ingredients: mung beans, coconut milk (brain food), coconut oil (brain food), eggs (brain food), vanilla extract, tapioca flour, rice flour, etc. With Love--from my family table to yours!
Prepping for a meal in my kitchen probably looks a lot different than what you usually see. Typically prepping involves chopping veggies or gathering ingredients. Prepping for me starts with soaking. If you've read my cookbook (The Rites of Passage Meal Treasury), then you know the importance of soaking. I soak everything: nuts, seeds, grains, beans, flour, even meats. Here I have dehydrated apple slices soaking (for muffins), walnuts (for a nutmeat ), amaranth (for porridge & smoothies), lentils (for soup, lentil burgers, and sprouting). Soaking solutions (vinegar, salt, brines, and marinades) and duration vary depending on type of food etc. Soaking may occur on the counter top or in the refrigerator. Click HERE for details on how to soak. Either way it goes my family knows that something good is brewing in the kitchen when they see soaking bowls.
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December 2022
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