Healthy Life Lessons

It's the Friday before a long-weekend filled with colour and celebration!  Not only is Sunday Canada Day, but this week is Gay Pride Week in Toronto which culminates in a myriad of wonderful events across the city. Unfortunately, it is also supposed to be crazy hot this weekend, which means I am going to be very whiney about doing anything outdoors... In addition, my newest nephew - Stone Cooper Collins - was born last night, so congrats to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law (Adam's sister and husband)!! Isn't he cute?? So you may have lots of leisure time coming up this weekend, or your weekend may be jam-packed with activities.  Either way, who doesn't appreciate a recipe that's crazy quick? The only thing better than how delicious this salad is, is how ridiculously easy it is to make.  It's a perfect, refreshing side dish for a summer meal.  As a bonus, it's crazy low in calories too.  Go ahead, eat the whole recipe! 3 Minute Cucumber D...

I have been wanting to try making this classic Spanish sauce for a while, but while it is typically made using bread to help thicken it up, I wanted to find a healthier option.  I was inspired when I spied a sweet potato sitting on our counter.  I had a hunch that this sweet, creamy vegetable would be a perfect substitute and I was right. This sauce is sweet, smokey and tangy and can be used in a variety of ways.  Use it as a sandwich spread, or on pasta, as a dip for raw vegetables, or as a sauce for fish or chicken.  I stirred some into a skillet of roasted zucchini, chickpeas and Spanish olives, and served it all over rice.  Fabulous! Gluten-Free Romesco Sauce 1 large sweet potato, cut into 8-10 pieces 3 red bell peppers, quartered 2 tomatoes, halved 1 large onion, quartered 3-4 cloves garlic, peeled 1/4 cup almonds 2 tbls sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar) 1 tbls ancho chili powder (or regular chili powder) 1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika (or swe...

Recently I was offered a gift certificate to try out and then review my experiences with donatenaturally.com .  It's the new sister company of Life Choices , which makes a lot of products my kids love.  The company describes itself as follows: Donate Naturally is an online grocery shopping destination that sells organic and natural groceries, including everything from fresh organic produce, dairy and meat, to beauty, personal and household items (Donate Naturally carries Life Choices Hot Dogs & Mac ‘n Cheese by the way). There’s a special diet and child/infant category too, so Donate Naturally really is a one-stop shop for your grocery needs. The best part is, the school or charity of your choice receives 15% of the value of every order you place. All groceries are priced the same, or less, than your local grocery or natural food store and there is no mark up in pricing to accommodate the 15% donation component. Donate Naturally even offers FREE next-day delivery ri...

Donairs are now all the rage among trendy foodies here in Toronto.  Upscale restaurants have transformed this nutritional monstrosity, typically eaten in Halifax at 2am by drunk university students after the bars close, into a high-brow delicacy.  But still an unhealthy one. In case you are not familiar with it, a donair is basically a schwarma made with ground beef and/or lamb and drowned in a sickly sweet, garlicky sauce consisting of sweetened condensed milk, vinegar, sugar and garlic.  Being as twisted as I am, I thought it would be fun to make a vegan version.  And you know what? It's fabulous! Even my schwarma-loving husband approves. "Meat" 2 cups sprouted bean mix, cooked and drained (or 2 cups dried red kidney beans, cooked) 15g dried mushrooms 1 zucchini 2 shallots 3-4 cloves garlic 2 tsp sweet paprika 2 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp crushed red chili flakes, or to taste (optio...

There are some weekends when I'm happy to see Monday.  As a friend of mine once commented: When you're a parent, it becomes TGIM - assuming your children are in daycare and/or school.  But I'm sad to see the week beginning because we really had a good weekend.  Saturday we took the girls to Wild Water Kingdom in Brampton.  Adam used to go as a kid and had fond memories of the place, so when we saw a deal on tickets to use in June through WagJag, we jumped on it. The best thing about this place is that it has stuff to appeal to ALL ages.  There are mega water slides for older kids, a wave pool, and dry and wet playgrounds that are great even for toddlers.  There is mini golf, a drive-in movie theatre, and often special events.  They have this thing called the Lazy River, where you float on an inner tube and drift down a fabricated river.  All four of us loved it, and we went down it several times. The worst thing about it is that it's a total...

Please check out my first piece written for the Huffington Post on same-sex parenting! Have a fantastic weekend.

While time-outs have never been effective with either of my children - instead of calming them down, they make both of them more hysterical - I have learned that they are very effective for me. This morning when Little A had a huge screaming fit that lasted over 30 minutes because she didn't like how I cut her toast, I had an overwhelming urge to dump her plate of eggs and toast over her head.  Instead, I left the room and went back to our rec room to finish my strength training, which had been interrupted when she woke up grumpily at 6am.  Although she screamed louder because I left, I was able to let off some steam and give myself a chance to calm down.  When I finally reemerged, I was able to calm her down by removing the plate and giving her a bowl of cereal instead (which she only took 2 bites of and left the rest).  Because Big A was such a challenging toddler and preschooler, I really thought Adam and I would get an easy second child.  It only seems fai...