Bunchland

Your Sunday Morning Plan

It’s still warm enough to play outside without freezing your face off, and just cool enough to crave something comforting and toasty. The perfect November Sunday morning consists of pressing fall leaves after enjoying an oatmeal sundae bar, we say!

Eat:

Kids can make their own masterpiece with this fun and interactive breakfast. Oatmeal is high in fibre, magnesium, and iron, and eating it actually lowers cholesterol and stabilizes blood-glucose levels. Most importantly, this whole grain breaky is a blank canvas for fun, and loading it up with fresh toppings provides an opportunity to maximize the health and taste factor.

For 4 servings of oatmeal:

• 1 ½ cup large flake rolled oats
• 3 ½ cup milk or milk substitute
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Combine all ingredients into a large pot, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.  Read more...

The much anticipated sequel to the ABCs of Summer

As you were getting ready for back to school, we asked you to brush up on your ABC’s by telling us what you loved most about fall. There is a ton of fun to be had as the weather gets cooler. Here’s a whole alphabet full of inspiration!

A is for apple picking excursions and baking for amusement and ambrosia. If there’s anything better than biting into a crisp apple straight from the tree, its biting into a piece of homemade pie.

B is for Bluejays! Back-to-School! Breezes! @karengreeners

Back to school is not a bummer when baseball game trips are on the calendar.

C is for chill, costumes, candy apples, coziness. @karengreeners

Most fall chills are easily remedied by candy apples.

D is for dancing in the rain! @Sjgpotter  Read more...

Top Spots in Canada to Stock up on Fall’s Best Tart Treats – Apples!

Late September is a time when apple orchards are pretty much begging to be ransacked by hungry families. Throw in a corn maze, a pumpkin patch and a hayride and you have yourself a dreamy weekend day trip. Because we can’t think of a better way to spend a beautiful weekend day, we’ve gone and found you a few places to get your apple picking on.

ONTARIO

Brooks Farms
Where: 122 Ashworth Rd. Mount Albert, Ontario
The Goods: Ida Red, Macintosh, Golden Delicious, Royal Gala and Honeycrisp.
Other Fun Stuff: As you will tell from their website, this farm is a firecracker of barnyard bumpkins and quirky mascots. Fun is a top priority for Brooks Farms, especially in the fall. Fall festival weekends are on until October 30th, and include train and wagon rides to the pumpkin patch, pig races, farm animals, zip lines, a pirate ship and pumpkin canons.  Read more...

Cookie maven Eden Hertzog shares recipes she enjoys with her family

I haven’t been eating well lately. I only noticed this when I started a daily journal a couple of weeks ago to track my sleep/meals/mood and how they all may correlate. There are days when I feel all proud and smug to write my meals down, and other days when I avoid the journal and want to fib like a little naughty schoolgirl. What I notice is that I eat a lot of bread to fill myself up, or skip meals, or eat sugar late in the day because I obviously haven’t nourished myself well and my body needs sugar to function. Tsk tsk…

For me, a healthy day would be this: fresh fruit, healthy fats, good proteins, yummy grains or starches (like sweet potatoes!), and of course – vegetables. Oh mighty vegetables, why do you haunt me so? And why does Cedar suddenly smush his nose up at you?  Read more...

Krista Rao blogs about crafty adventures with her kids

I LOVE the fall time. The cool crisp air, leaves changing colour, busting out the crockpot, long hikes and wearing slippers around the house. There is however one element of autumn that I really dislike THE SMELL. The smell of wet rotting leaves and wet dog paws tromping through the house sends me over the edge. Our solution: apples spiked with cloves… just like Laura and Mary made to freshen their home in Little House in the Big Woods (which we are currently reading and LOVING).

This activity was super easy, perfect for this apple picking season and was loved by everyone in the house (2.5 yrs to adult). Here is a little tutorial the kids and I put together:

Materials:  Read more...

• apples
• whole cloves
• something to poke tiny holes in the apples (toothpicks would do nicely)

Cookie maven Eden Hertzog shares recipes she enjoys with her family

This funny thing happened last week. It got cold. Cold like a brisk, grey fall day after one of the warmest, brightest summers I can remember. It was like someone lifted the needle off the summer record with a loud scratch. I finally had the kid activity thing down: we strolled to the park, hung at the wading pools, went for long walks, ate corn off the cob, and just relaxed in the great outdoors. That first cold day produced a bit of a panic in me: what do we do now? I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but I’m not exactly one to be at home for hours, attempting to keep my soon-to-be-toddling kid entertained. I like people, and social interaction, and showing Cedar all the lovely wackiness of the world. Plus, I am a happier mom when I am out doing stuff with him.  Read more...

Recipes for pumpkin smoothies, cupcakes, mac ‘n cheese and butter

In September, we couldn’t stop talking about how much we like them apples, posting apple recipes galore. Something about that month just screams “apples” to us, maybe because we still make the connection between crunchy apples and back-to-school time (we were the dorks who actually brought apples to our teachers).

But come October, we’re all about pumpkins, baby. We want to bake them, mash them, eat them and love them (not to mention carve them). Here are three easy ways to get your pumpkin on this October: recipes for mac ‘n cheese, smoothies and cupcakes, all flavoured with the yumminess of pumpkins.

 Read more...