Get MOOving to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair

Believe it or not, I had never been to the "Royal" until yesterday! Adam went ever year as a kid and my in-laws have taken Big A at least once.

So we took the girls yesterday afternoon and had a great time!

Although I was initially upset about not bringing snacks when we arrived and they immediately began complaining they were hungry, we were able to keep them fed and satisfied relatively healthfully (they had snacked before we left home and my new strategy is not to allow them to mindlessly graze all day so they are hungrier at meal times).

There are all the usual suspects: poutine, pizza, cotton candy, fudge, ice cream, etc., but the girls were happy to fill up on the abundant free samples of fresh apples and locally produced cheeses and bison sausage. We did buy them apple chips (ingredients: apples) and real fruit smoothies, so overall it wasn't that bad considering the alternatives!

The girls loved the animals (cows, goats, llamas, alpacas, pigs, bunnies, etc.), and the Superdog show. Big A got to try to milk a (fake) cow and Little A jumped her heart out in the bouncy castle.

Very fun, but admittedly not a cheap outing:

Family pass - $50
Parking - $13
Apple chips x 2 - $6
Smoothies x 2 - $8

The Royal runs until November 13th at Exhibition Place in Toronto.

Comments

Japanese 7-Spice Kelp Noodles

I love trying new spices and seasonings, so I am very excited that the President's Choice Black Label line now has a bunch of new spice blends available. My most recent find: Shichimi Togarashi, or Japanese 7-Spice blend. It's a combination of crushed red chili flakes, sea salt, Szechiuan peppercorns, black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, orange zest, wasabi powder and nori seaweed flakes. I make Japanese-inspired dishes all the time, but resort to the same old flavours most of the time: miso, soy, sesame, ginger and garlic. I was so excited to be able to liven things up a bit. This dish is easy and tasty, although be warned that this seasoning packs punch. I used 1 tsp, which ended up being too spicy for me, and I have a high tolerance for heat! I recommend 1/4-1/2 tsp, or, if you don't like heat at all, make your own at home and omit the red chili flakes. You'll get all the flavour without the heat. I served these noodles with a mix of seafood (

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday! We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend. How was yours? Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it. It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children . One of th

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies. Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!! I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance. Not to improve their health or athletic performance. To look their best. He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ste

Healthy Life Lessons

Search This Blog