Cold and Flu Season are No Match for This Soup

I wholeheartedly believe in the connection between what we eat and how we feel. If someone has a cold coming on, I make chicken soup. Got a cough? Have a pear. Have a sore throat? Slice up some fresh ginger and add to hot water. So when cold and flu season is upon us - even before anyone gets sick, I always make loads of carrot soups. Carrots are high in beta carotene which is thought to help build a strong immune system. My son hates raw carrots but loves this soup. My daughter loves carrots in all forms so this is always a welcome item to the dinner table for her. Added bonus: carrot soups freeze beautifully. 

Yesterday I made a batch of carrot ginger soup and added sweet potato - a super food that is also high in beta carotene. Look here for a great list of super foods that fight colds. The news stories about this year's flu season are a little overwhelming. Nothing is fool proof, of course, and even people who eat the healthiest of diets get sick every now and then. Hopefully this easy-to-make soup and the other healthy stuff that comes out of our kitchen will provide us with some extra protection.

Carrot Soup with Ginger and Sweet Potato

1 lb carrots - peeled and cut into chunks
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1/3 bunch of fresh dill
2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
Juice of one lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp cayenne (optional)

Add carrots, sweet potato, ginger, onion and dill to a soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour. Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper and puree with a stick blender.

** For added richness, you can use chicken broth instead of water or you can add a can of great northern beans to add protein and thickness.

Day Planners for Toddlers? Yeah!

My grandfather was a textile wholesaler. As a kid, I used to think he just liked buying felt; he had what seemed like mountains of it in every color possible in his basement. Felt is soft, yet durable. It plays nicely with glue and the vibrant colors that you can find make it perfect for all kinds of crafts. So when it came time for me to design and create the day planner for my son (2.5 yrs old), felt seemed like the perfect fit. 

What?! A day planner for a toddler? It probably sounds crazy, but this craft project is perfect for helping my little guy understand how his week is organized and helps solidify the foundation for understanding time and routine. Check it out: 

See the happy face with the purple rock star hair? That represents my son. His favorite color is purple. He hasn't yet decided whether that's hair or a funny hat. There's velcro on the back of that face and it can attach to each day of the week. My son moves the face to the appropriate place each morning to signify a new day. Yesterday he discovered the Y in Wednesday, "like the Y in Remy, Mama!" Awesome. 

At the bottom are photos of all of his preschool teachers, his grandma and his babysitter - the people he sees regularly during the week. He attaches their photos to the velcro squares below the day rectangles to show that those people are part of that day. People who aren't part of that day are kept in the green area at the bottom. Over time, the repetition will help him understand the rhythm of the week, the names of each day and the flow of one day to the next: he goes to preschool on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; Grandma comes on Wednesday; etc. 

I created a project nearly identical to this for my daughter 4 years ago when she was the same age. She felt empowered when she could name the days of the week. She loved knowing what lie ahead on a given day. In some ways, this project was the precursor to LaLa Lunchbox – the sense of order, organization and time that my daughter learned early on helped make lunch planning really easy in our house. And in our house, of course, we're all about easy lunch planning. Perhaps there's an app for the Toddler Day Planner at some point? 

Here's what you'll need:

1. A 20x30 inch foam board. They come in lots of fun colors.
   
2. Non-toxic glue - the kind that says something like "bonds most anything!"
   
3. Vinyl letters. I used 1/2" for the weekday names and 3" for "Remy's Week"
   
4. Felt! I used a different color for each day intentionally to underscore the distinction between each day. It's also great for color recognition. Each rectangular day measures 3 7/8" x 5". Each rectangle below the weekday measures 3" x 1 1/4" and the green rectangle that houses the photos measures 13" x 2 1/4". The diameter of the smiley face is 3". 
   
5. Cardboard. The smiley face felt is glued to cardboard. I intentionally made it a face and not an abstract shape to strengthen the connection for my son.
   
6. Velcro. I opted for the basic (aka non-industrial strength) kind and attached with glue. 
   
7. Photos of your caregivers, teachers or anyone else who you want to associate the day with (1.5" x 1.5" mounted on cardboard). I could have used an icon, of course. Something to represent preschool. Something to represent a playground or some activity he might do with his babysitter. But life is all about people. It's made fuller by the people who we spend our time with, learn from and laugh with. Relationships matter. Children are nurtured and guided by grownups every day, so I chose the focus of this project to be all about the who - not the what or the where. I also chose not to have photos of our family. We are constants. We are a given. Every day, no matter what. 
   

Here's how to assemble:

1. Cut the felt to the appropriate sizes. 
   
2. Cut the cardboard for the face and the photos. 
   
3. Create the face design and glue to cardboard. 
   
4. Glue the felt rectangles to the foam board. 
   
5. Attach the vinyl lettering. 
   
6. Place the velcro squares on each day and on the rectangles below them.
   
7. Print out the photos and glue to cardboard. 
   
8. Attach the felt at the bottom - it may be bigger or smaller than mine based on the number of photos you have. 
   

Enjoy! 

Spinning tops, Kaleidoscopes and Wummelbox oh my!

We received a Wummelbox in the mail last week. Wummelbox! How fun is that name? My daughter had a grand ol' time saying "wummelbox" over and over to her own little jaunty tune. And when her cousin came over to play this past weekend, they opened up the Wummelbox to check out what was inside. (Psst! Coupon for LaLa Lunchbox readers below)

Three craft projects! Plus a pair of kid friendly scissors and a box of crayons. Wummelbox was off to a good start. So what is a Wummelbox anyway? It's a monthly arts and crafts subscription designed for 3-7 year olds. The Wummelbox team sources their materials from Germany and Europe, according to their website and I've been told that their goal is to use naturally sourced materials as much as possible with as little plastic as possible. In full disclosure, I was sent a Wummelbox to test out and had agreed to review the product only if my kids enjoyed it. 

Back to the box - the first project was a spinning top.  The kids drew on paper cut to fit the top and screamed with delight to see how their designs and colors appeared when the top was in motion. Even my sister got in on the action and created a design of her own. Beyond the fun of designing, the kids loved spinning the top and seeing whose lasted longest, whose was brightest, whose traveled farthest, etc. This was a fun project! 

The next project was creating a kaleidoscope. This was full of promise, complete with sparkly goodness. Left to their own devices, with my daughter and niece reading the instructions and executing by themselves, this didn't go as smoothly as the first project but it was because my daughter had accidentally inserted a part backwards. Once that got straightened out, excitement abounded.

The Wummelbox materials were sturdy, the kids were entertained and proud of their work. Best of all, they are looking forward to creating the third and final project in the Wummelbox this coming weekend: the wind catcher. Based on our own experiences, I'd recommend Wummelbox to anyone whose kids enjoy crafting. It was a lovely way to spend the morning.  

Want a coupon to test out Wummelbox for yourself? Enter this code: lalalunchbox to get 20% off a three month trial until February 15.

Enjoy! 

Silver Dollar Choco Chip Coconut Cookies

I cook a lot. Several meals a day, every day. I bake a lot too, but that's just to feed my sweet tooth. I've been dairy-free for 6 weeks and it seems to be helping my 3 month old baby's reflux, so I'm going to keep at it for a while. The hardest adjustment has been my morning coffee: oat milk doesn't taste nearly as good as cow's milk in there and I just cannot deal with black coffee. I try not to consume too much soy (Here's one post that nicely sums up my issues with soy) and I don't eat nuts so soy milk and almond milk are out. 

Anyway, long story short, besides coffee, the rest has been pretty easy. And it's not hard to make dietary sacrifices when I see such improvement in my little one. I'd even give up cookies and coffee for that. Along the way, I've been testing out dairy free breads and cookies. Some have been epic fails. Some have been delicious. The other day I made these vegan chocolate chip cookies (modified recipe below) and my husband proclaimed them awesome. In fact, he tweeted: "So my wife goes dairy free and the cookies get better. It’s like a magical fairy lives in my kitchen. 

Yay. These cookies were really good and super easy. I made them with my 2 year old, who had a grand old time tasting the dough. I was skeptical, admittedly. They have no leavening ingredients and flax seed meal. It all seemed a tad weird, frankly, but we pushed forward and voila! Yum. I made them small -- silver dollar size -- the original recipe said I'd yield 12 cookies but we made 36. I love small cookies -- it's a win-win for everyone. These fit nicely in the palm of my 2 year old's hand. More cookies, better portion size, great for kids' lunches. Thanks to the coconut oil, these were not only flavorful but also nicely crispy. And because of their small size, the crispiness wasn't odd. I used these dairy free chocolate chips which melted nicely (as you can see above). This is definitely a recipe I'll make again. 

Enjoy!

Silve Dollar Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

• Yield:12 cookies
• Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• ⅓ cup virgin or extra virgin coconut oil
• ¼ cup+ 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup+ 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed meal
• 3 tablespoons warm water
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup+ 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup dairy free chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Combine flax seed with water in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Cream coconut oil with evaporated cane juice and brown sugar until well blended.

4. Add flax seed mixture and vanilla extract. Beat until well blended.

5. Add flour and salt in three stages, scraping the bowl after each new addition.  Mix until smooth.

6. Fold in chocolate chips and spoon 36 tablespoon sized dough balls onto a baking sheet.  Slightly flatten each dough ball by pressing down on them with the back of a spoon.

7. Bake in center rack of oven for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Homemade Crayons. Seriously Easy.

I'm a crafty kind of person. I love hands-on art projects with my kids but admittedly, I don't like things to get *too* messy. A daunting-seeming cleanup will make me shy away from an awesome looking art project in my house. I have three kids and a business - there's really only so much cleaning up I can muster in a given day. 

So when I came upon this make-your-own crayon project on Pinterest, it seemed exactly up my alley! Not only did my kids make their own multi-colored crayons, they made use of those tiny bits of crayon that usually turn up under the couch and then get tossed into the garbage. Economical and creative all in one! 

Want to make your own crayons? Here's how:

1. Gather a large pile of crayons, peel them and put in a pile on a cutting board. The peeling can be tedious but it's worth the effort. 

2. Use a large knife and chop the crayons into small pieces. Preheat the oven to 230 degrees. 

3. Place the crayon pieces into a silicone baking dish (ours had mini squares but the one I saw on Pinterest had mini heart shapes).

4. Bake at 230 degrees for 20 minutes and then set aside to cool for about one hour.  Be sure to place a cookie sheet underneath the pan to catch any melted crayon liquid. Voila!