I Heart...Celery

One of the greatest things about eating seasonally, is that when something comes into season again it tastes brilliant. One of those things for me is celery. Celery is one of those dirt dozen vegies that I refuse to eat it if its not organic. So there is a great flux with its supply. It's also underrated I think for its ability to add flavour to recipes and as a snack (says the biased mum with an allergy child who can eat celery :-)

So we are glutting on celery at the moment. In soups, casseroles, winter salads and as a snack for school. One of my favourite recipes is Chunky Celery Soup by Heidi Swanson. It's great at the moment with the cold weather and really warms me up at lunchtime at work!!

But how cute are these tasty bugs?? We already do celery with cashew nut butter as an after school school snack, but I love the use of apple and carrot here...I forsee an allergy friendly pair coming up soon for Little B.

And I love to take these along as snacks for works (hmmm there's not enough olives in the world - though I normally use black olives).

And finally my favourite winter salad - hmm did I mention I love olives ;-) I use lots of different lettuce or spinach but the arugula makes it especially yummy.

Simple Summer Holidays

As the summer school holidays are drawing to a close it’s been fun to look back and see what we’ve done with ourselves.  Mr B took all of January off work because Little B starts school this year. We then detached ourselves electronically, turned off our mobile phones and placed them in a drawer and let the summer take us where it would. It’s been great family time and we’ve had a whole lot of fun :-)

:: We’ve explored our local surrounds and found new places we didn’t know existed (like waterfalls)

:: Been blackberry picking in our own backyard LOL (we get a bowl like this every 2^nd day) and found wild strawberries

:: We’ve spent a lot of time canoeing, bushwalking and exploring local lakes (yay for the warm weather)

:: Spent time at our local library weekly and enjoyed their school holiday activities like making carrot cars and croaking frogs

:: Read our way through the entire Flat Stanley series; then Babe the Sheep Pig, and re-read Stuart Little

:: Visited family and old friends, discovered new beaches and a new favourite – climbing trees.

The greatest thing I think has been how much time we’ve managed to spend outside and out in nature.  But with school just around the corner, we’ve spent the last couple of days readapting to the “real” world. Not long now and my faithful side kick will take his first big steps out into his new world.

Healthy Home, Healthy Family

I recently read Healthy Home, Healthy Family by Nicole Bijilsma as it gives some great tips on things to look for for when buying/renting a house. Admittedly I was focussed on mold but she also covers electromagnetic fields (EMF's), dust mites, mold, pesticides, building materials and so forth.

Now until I read this book, I didnt know too much about EMF's. I'd seen some interesting posts on Sarah Wilson's blog about her experience with EMF's and autoimmune disease. After reading the book  though, we did change a few things around in the house (namely moving Little B's bed as it was too close to the fridge) and I'm careful to keep the powerpoints of some items off at all times unless we are using them.

Last week, a Council of Europe committee called for a ban on wireless internet modems, mobile and cordless phones in schools due to the potential health risks to children. Interestingly, cordless phones are considered as dangerous as mobile phones to the brains of children. We originally abandoned cordless phones to save $$$ but seeing this, the good old analog phone is a bonus twice over. I also keep our modem off unless we are actually using the computer but it is in our main living area next to the lounge. After reading Healthy Home, Healthy Family, I now refuse to sit on the lounge unless the modem is off, but after reading the above article, I now refuse to have the modem on if Little B is playing in that room.

This might seem a little pedantic, but I figure in this day and age when kids are being diagnosed with multiple behavioural issues, it doesnt hurt to avoid the things that are proven to alter the brain. Especially when I have a child so young. These things didnt exist when I was young and nobody has lived an entire life time in the presence of all these new whizz bang technologies, so I figure better safe than sorry.

Anyways, this is a great book and well worth a read if you are interested in building biology. The bits on dust mites made great reading as well.