Sunscreen

The weather is getting warmer and the winter layers are coming off. Soon instead of cold, it will be the sun that we will have to protect ourselves against. Like me, my kids are so pale they are almost transparent. I've lost count of the number of blistering sunburns I've had in my life. My daughter has had a few, the most mortifying one occurring when she was just 3 months old and lying under an umbrella. My son has fared a bit better, mostly because by the time he came around, I'd become a freakishly devout sunscreener. In the last little while though, I've wondered what the hell I've been smearing all over everyone.

An email request and the warm weather got me started on some research. As usual, my starting point is the amazing cosmetic safety database of the Environmental Working Group (www.cosmeticsdatabase.com). According to the EWG, your best bet is to avoid sunscreens with oxybenzone (links to cancer, endocrine disruption, and a host of other issues), fragrance (often contains phthalates which are endocrine disruptors), parabens (preservatives linked to cancer), bug repellant (too much absorption of the pesticide), or that come in a spray or powder form (to avoid inhalation). Instead, choose fragrance-free sunscreens in a cream or stick with zinc oxide (at least 7%) or titanium dioxide as their active ingredients.

The EWG recommends California Baby, Badger, and Soleo Organics. They even seem to like Coppertone Babies "Pure and Simple" (though they trash many other Coppertone products). Today I ordered the Soleo Organics online, since their product reviews say it doesn't give people the "ghostly" look of other zinc based sunscreens. My skin can do that all on its own.

Overenthusiasm

I can't deny the fact that I sometimes go overboard on new projects. I've mentioned my black thumb, the photo above is one of my most recent plant kills. But every few years I decide to start a garden. It never works for me, but this time, I'm willing to work for it.

I almost universally hate non-fiction, but I've spent the last week savouring "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver brims with enthusiasm (about things like heirloom seeds and seasonal asparagus), and I couldn't help but catch some. I found myself researching and ordering seeds, buying seed starter kits, and generally getting ready to have a clue what I'm doing.

I'm hoping part of the fun is in the trying. And if not, maybe it will teach me patience.

Not just Coffee

I went shopping over March Break, and it was completely guilt free. I stumbled into a Fair Trade retail store and came out with as many shopping bags as Paris Hilton. Ten Thousand Villages is a Fair Trade Organization run by the Mennonite Central Committee (I guess there is no coincidence that I keep stumbling across Mennonites in this quest, they are a group that works hard for social justice and sustainability - see Fresh from the Farm, Feb 21). They ensure fair wages for artisans and farmers and work with local non-profit groups. So I supported a womens' cooperative in Burkina Faso by buying some Shea Butter soap, street kids in Vietnam with my pretty handbag, and Indian artisans with my funky silk scarf.

It's easy to shop responsibly when the products are this lovely.

Crystal Mystique

One of my failures in this endeavor has been deodorant. I abandoned the natural deodorant after about 3 weeks just like the other 5 times I've tried to quit antiperspirant. I felt slimy and stinky. I run, do yoga, walk alot...and each time I'd have to practically boil my clothes. Okay, maybe not that bad, but still, if you keep sniffing your armpits all day, you're going to be shunned whether you smell or not.
The good news is, I've found a new candidate. It's a crystal - which I have until recently associated mostly with new age music and windchimes. However, after three days of the new regime, I'm liking it. No sticky ickies like the other stuff. It's supposed to last for a year and it was only $4 to begin with. How "natural mineral salts" keep the stink at bay is a great mystery to me. Maybe if I listen to some pan-flute and light some incense the answer will come to me.

Health Food?

Aha! I was right. I love those words.
My husband has been nagging me to break the kids' maple syrup habit. Too much sugar. But you know that our mornings are rarely complete without syrup. Get a load of this, maple syrup may be the new blueberry. As reported in today's Toronto Star, a study (granted, it's just preliminary, but I only hear what I want to hear) suggests that maple syrup has antibacterial, anti-cancer and anti-diabetic properties. They have lignans (the good stuff in flax) and phenolic acids (the good stuff in berries and coffee).
To celebrate the good news, I'm marinating a (hormone free) pork loin in sesame oil, tamari, garlic, and maple syrup. Bring it on!

Road Trip Success

Okay, let it be said avoiding fast food while on a road trip with kids is a massive undertaking. That's why I'm tickled pink that I managed to do it. We used the facilities, but didn't succumb to the timbits and cheeseburgers. I packed a huge bag of healthy snacks on the way, and used my friend's kitchen to restock my supplies on the way home. My air popped popcorn bags were snubbed, but the orange slices were golden. Carrot sticks were actually crunched, almonds were popped. The only complaint I heard about food was from my 2 year old. Apparently he was disappointed in the lack of hummus. There was the issue of the "alligator" crackers I bought in a moment of weakness. They didn't wreck our roadtrip goal though - luckily they got spilled all over the floor of the van.

Of course, the kids promptly proceeded to turn their noses at most of the healthy food they were served for the rest of the weekend.

An aside: We had a great brunch, browse, and wander in Wakefield, Que. It's definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. Chelsea too has lots of little local food treasures if you're lucky enough to have someone tell you where to find them.

March Break Pit Stops

Simplicity at it's finest. Buckets, rocks, sand, water. I had to post this because it's March and this is Canada and we were at the beach. Without coats. Last year we were still shoveling. Ahhh, an early spring - the balm for whatever ails our Northern souls.

Anyway, the kids and I are making the 428 km (I checked) trip to Ottawa tomorrow. Usually this trip involves multiple stops at road stops along the way. Snacks, bathroom breaks, leg stretching. Trouble is, every rest stop has a McDonald's, Wendy's, or Tim Horton's. So, how does one pee (and seriously, what kid can go more than 100km without a pee?) without buying fries, donuts, or ice cream? My goal for tomorrow is to find out.

I have armed myself with a big snack bag with little individual bags of organic home air popped popcorn, 2 pounds of apples, water bottles, and a few granola bars when the call of packaged food gets too strong. Wish me luck, I'll need it.

Making Connections

The blog led me on a rural adventure today. Allow me for a moment to illustrate the power of cyber space, and the smallness of the world:

Helen is my mother in law. She recently reconnected with Judi, a friend from elementary school. Helen forwarded a link to this blog to Judi who happens to have a neighbour who raises organic livestock. Judi invited me and the kids to her place to sample some "clean" breakfast meats, and offered to introduce me to her farmer friend, Scott. Turns out, Scott is a retired teacher, who (wait for it...) used to be my middle school art teacher. Okay, let me make it clear here, we don't all live down the street from each other. I don't live in a small town, nor have I ever. These connections are hundreds of kilometres and several decades apart. Often I think the world is small, and then some days it shrinks even more.

This bizarre series of connections led us to the hills of the Oak Ridges moraine today where we were spoiled with a delicious brunch complete with organic sausage and maple leaf shaped pancakes, a walk in a sugarbush to watch the sap flowing, a (re)introduction to my teacher/farmer, and an exhilarating moment for my son when he got to sit in a tractor. Scott gave me a full explanation of the life cycles of the animals he raises. He showed us around, invited to come back and take a hike with the cows. And I started to understand what people in the "food movement" mean when they say it makes a difference to really know who and where your food comes from.

What a day. Thanks to J for her incredible hospitality, and to Scott for his openness and for the work he does to provide people with good food. And to Helen for reading the blog and setting things in motion.

This one's a keeper

I do the weekday cooking, my husband does the weekends. I am very pleased to say that my husband, the diehard carnivore, is on board with our new semi-meatless regime. He's started soaking and cooking big batches of chickpeas for me to use throughout the week. And here's what he made us for lunch today.
Not sure the proportions, but chickpeas, chopped fresh beets, cucumber, carrot, tomato, walnuts, sprouts (homegrown!), and olive oil with balsamic vinegar.
He's a keeper. The salad is good too.

Another one bites the dust

It's only been a week since we got rid of most of our processed foods. It's been easier than I thought. Especially since one of my exemptions was pancake mix. Like waffles, these bready discs are a mainstay at our weekend breakfast table. We add flax seeds, blueberries, bananas...whatever we're in the mood for. But apparently we also, without thinking about it, have been adding corn flour, soybean oil, sodium aluminum silicate, dextrose, and dried egg white (which apparently contains the same sodium lauryl sulphate as my toothpaste).
So, today we learned how to make pancakes and threw out the mix. Of course, I was so excited about my pancakes, I forgot about Daylight Savings Time. Oops.

For others like me, who forgot it was possible to make pancakes without a mix, here's how:
1 1/2 c Whole wheat flour
1 tbsp sugar (organic cane sugar seemed to work)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 c milk
2 tbsp oil

Mix wet ingredients in one bowl. Mix dry ingredients in another. Combine. Add any extras (blueberries, flax etc). Cook. Eat. I'm giving it a try to freeze a few extras and see if I can sub them in for the waffles. It will be a hard sell, but who knows.

Ready to Eat

Woohoo! It worked. Homegrown sprouts, easy as pie. (Actually much easier than pie) This is a "Spicy Lentil Mix", it's pretty yummy. I'm going to try a crunchy mix and a broccoli mix next. I'm ordering my sprouts from Mumm's, (www.sprouting.com) a rural Saskatchewan source for organic, non-GMO sprouting seeds and pretty much anything else you'd ever need to grow sprouts. They even sell a little starter kit, but really all you need is:
1 Mason jar
1 square of fine mesh netting (large enough to cover the opening of the jar)
1 elastic band
sprouting seeds

Here's what you do:
1. Wash the jar.
2. At night, put a couple of tsp of sprouting seeds in the jar, cover the opening of the jar with mesh, secure netting with elastic band.
3. Fill with water and soak overnight.
4. In the morning, drain the water, and fill the jar to overflowing for a few seconds to rinse the seeds. Then drain again. Leave the jar on an angle (sit it in a bowl on it's side) to avoid standing water.
5. Repeat this process in the evening and morning for a few days.
6. Eat!

Food Inc. Fallout

Movie night madness again. We watched Food Inc. on Sunday. Then we purged our cupboards. We packed up almost everything that was packaged, prepared, or otherwise processed. Our cupboards look so neat and tidy now, though much less colourful. Now it's mostly nuts, beans, seeds, grains and other varying shades of beige and brown. So very granola of us. It makes me feel a bit extreme, but then I just ask myself, would my great-grandmother even recognize these purged items as food? She managed to feed 11 children every day without Fruit Roll-Ups and Lipton Sidekicks. I only have 2 kids to feed, surely I can do this and stay moderately sane, right?

If you're tempted to think that I've always been a processed food hater, think again. I love it. I can't resist it. But I want my kids to know real food. I want them to like it, and I want them to know how to cook it. How else to do this except rid my kitchen of temptation?

I had two successful days, then I got the stomach flu. Who feels like a well planned week of spinach, sprouts, and lentils when your stomach is a raging animal? So I dragged myself and the kids to the store and bought a supersize box of popsicles instead. Partly to keep them quiet so I could curl up in the fetal position, and partly so I could eat my favourite flu food. There is an exception to every rule. And to be honest, our current exceptions include: ketchup, pasta sauce, pasta, maple syrup, waffles, pancake mix, rice cakes, raisins, bread, mayo, dark chocolate, bbq sauce, and, and for bribery, jellybeans.

Tomorrow we'll get back on track with baked falafel made from actual chickpeas and fresh herbs, and homemade tzatziki. Yum.

A Sprout of Fancy

My next step is pretty exciting for me. I've always been head over heels with the idea of growing food, but the sad truth of the matter is that I have a very dark black thumb. All my houseplants are cacti, since they're the only ones I haven't succeeded in neglecting to death. So the concept of growing food that doesn't require soil, weeding, watering, etc, is very appealing. Starting today, I'm growing my own "crunchy lentil sprout mix". I bought a little organic sprout starter kit with the best of intentions about a year ago. I found it in the cupboard today and thought, I can do this! You just put them in water overnight and then drain them and rinse them every day. Should be ready to eat in 3-4 days. This meets my need for instant gratification in a way that actual gardening simply can't do.
I'll let you know what happens in 3-4 days.

One of those weeks...

"Serenity Now SerenityNow SERENITYNOW".... Remember that one from Mr. Costanza on Seinfeld? I think I might benefit from that chant this week. Both serenity and simplicity are evading me. Mostly it's just your garden variety life/work/parenting balance. But it all began with cracking my head in my kitchen while putting on my boots. Since then, work has been piling up. I blame my lack of productivity on my embarrassingly acquired concussion. All I really want to do is stay late at work and catch up. Or go in early. Or think clearly. But I continue to be foiled. Today, my early start was hampered by a 25 minute stop by the police complete with a $110 illegal left turn fine. Tuesday my workday was rudely interrupted about 30 mins after it started by a call to pick up my daughter from daycare. She had some emergency phantom fever that disappeared exactly 3 minutes after getting home - but she couldn't return for 48 hours. More time off work to fall behind. My son's daycare is closing early on Monday, and staying closed the remainder of the week. Today I got out of my car at work and noticed my son's boots in the backseat. That means I delivered him to daycare without shoes or boots. My hot water tank is on the fritz so my shower was chilly. Shall I go on?

Despite this, today I still managed to feed my kids an organic breakfast (even if it was waffles and maple syrup), and cooked a healthy vegetarian dinner. But then I sent hubby and kids to McDonald's to get industrial ice cream so I could have some serenity. And so it goes.