Preparing for Snowpocalypse – Activities, Snacks / Lunches, and Lessons from Children's Books

After our first winter ever with below zero temperatures and snow, and being cooped up for months in the house with no where to go and nothing to do, I deiced things are going to change this year! I am going to prepare for snowpocalypse, or as most people call it "winter," by creating fun full days based on children's books. I haven't quite completed the thought yet, but I've been pinning and googling ideas for what to do.

The plan is to start buy going to the library, checking out a bunch of books for a couple weeks, and gathering materials to make the day a blast!

I got the idea from an activity that was held at the nature center near our apartment. They had a group of 10-12 toddlers, 3-4 years old, and we learned all about worms. They started off by telling them a little bit about worms, then pulled out actual live worms and let the kids touch them and look through a magnifying glass at them. Then they read a book about worms to the kids. After that, the parents helped the kids paint a paper with rubber worms by dipping the worms in paint, placing the rolled piece of paper in a canister, and shaking it, making worm tracks all over the paper. The kids then enjoyed a treat of gummy worms in pudding and oreo crumbs. It was a lot of fun, and got my mind going of how to continue something like that into our daily lives.

So, my plan is to read a book, talk about the book, create a snack based on the book, and do an activity based on the book. I guess have a 'theme day' based on whatever book we'll read that day.

Here's an example with 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle

We would read the book:

We would then talk about different foods and how they make us feel. And as I'm brainstorming as I type, maybe do some flash cards and play a game – flash a card with a good or bad food on it and ask what they think it is. Maybe do a food pyramid, or plate, or whatever the FDA is doing now to represent healthy eating. If you have ideas, please share them with me / us!

Then, do an activity. Something I found on Pinterest was painting with different fruits and vegetables:

... maybe glue some green pom poms with a red one to look like the caterpillar. Again, if you have ideas, please share them!

And for a snack and/or lunch, make a healthy plate – maybe a sandwich with fruits and veggies, a glass of milk, cheese slices, etc. And because Addi loves grapes, she would love this treat for dessert:

Like I said, I was brainstorming as I was typing, so it'll be way fun to come up with more activities like this! I'm really looking forward to coming up with more!

If you want to follow our ventures through "snowpocalypse," I'll try to be better about posting on the blog. Also, follow my Pinterest board, Snow Day Fun / Lessons From Books, for ideas I've found and plan on trying.

Enjoy!

Flexetarian and Added Sugar Free Month – Overview

So, we did it! We made it through Flexetarian month. It was a lot easier than we thought!
Some notes though for those looking into doing it too –
• It cost about the same, probably more, to go flexetarian. Surprised? I kind of was. The most expensive parts were the Quinoa ($5.50/lb) and bella and baby bella mushrooms ($3/lb). Since I buy my protein regularly for $2-$3/lb, it didn't balance out for us.
• You don't need to get super creative. We tried a bunch of new stuff, and some of the recipes didn't work out... Note to self: If a recipe for 4 people calls for 3 packages of frozen spinach, it probably only needs 1/2 a package of frozen spinach... I made a spinach and cheese tortellini, but there was SO much more tortellini than anything else, it was just disgusting... We love fresh spinach, but eating a spoonful of frozen cooked spinach with a little cheese sauce is a completely different story! So gross!
Another recipe we weren't crazy about was a quinoa and black bean chili. There was way too much quinoa, so it ended up being a flavored quinoa with some chili stuff, and the recipe called for no where near enough spices.

We did enjoy the few recipes we came out with (find them on my Pinterest board "Pinned it. Tried it. Loved it!"), and are using them in our regular menu.
http://www.pinterest.com/amberstocksdale/pinned-it-tried-it-loved-it/

We're now cutting out about half the meat in our diet, so we'll be eating meat 3-4 times a week, rather than just about every meal of the day, 7 days a week. I've slept much better, had more energy, and we've overall felt healthier.

The no added sugar thing... Let me tell you – sugar is definitely an addictive substance!! I crashed 2 weeks in and stopped. I couldn't bare it anymore. BUT, I have noticed a change – my body can tolerate a huge amount of sugar at one time anymore! I think that's a huge change. I had Adam bring me a cake square home from the bakery section of the grocery store, and I couldn't eat even half of it in one sitting, where I used to be able to pound one with no problem. I also couldn't drink an entire can of cranberry Sierra Mist anymore! A couple sips was plenty. I'm good with that little change! I'll work toward more, but for now, that's great.
The sugar free bread was an absolute fail. I wasn't sure if it would work, but the British lady on the blog says that it totally works. Well, let's be real – it doesn't. My bread rose some, but never doubled and was always extremely dense.
For the two weeks I made it without sugar, other than feeling as if I NEEDED sugar constantly, I slept much better, I was able to concentrate easier, and had more energy.
I think I'll try it again, and make an easier goal to attain next time. I have made some changes with the food we eat though: If sugar doesn't belong in it, we're finding a sugar free option – yogurt, pasta sauce, peanut butter, granola, chicken broth/stock, vegetable broth/stock... We've gotten rid of it. I made my own chicken broth this month and it was way more delicious than the canned stuff with sugar! And be sure to check the labels on EVERYTHING!! You'd be surprised how many of these natural peanut butters have sugar in it still! Smucker's Natural peanut butter doesn't though! Peanuts and Salt. Done. And I'm loving it. I wish I could run over to Winco, like in CA, where I could grind my own fresh peanut butter and almond butter, but this will work for now.

If you have any questions about our journey, please feel free to comment/email/personal message me on Facebook, etc. I'd be happy to help you start your journey!!