Bunchland

Kid-friendly, camp-inspired long weekend eats and treats

Cook up the flavours of summer with your kids and you can have a barbeque-quality feast wherever this weekend takes you. If you’re staying in the city, don’t worry — you don’t even need a barbecue for these recipes. Here are some fun and easy ideas for long weekend grazing:

1. Avocado mango salsa

This creamy and sweet salsa is so versatile it can be used as a topping for grilled fish, burgers, or tacos. Or shovel it into your mouth with corn chips. Summer just ain’t summer without a fresh salsa.  Read more...

• ½ cup diced mango
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 red onion, finely diced
• 1 Tbsp cilantro, finely chopped (you can omit if this makes your kids squirm)
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cookie mogul Eden Hertzog shares recipes she enjoys with her family

When Cedar starting eating solids, we were extremely careful about what he ate. This is probably true for most parents, but haven’t you noticed it’s especially true lately, amongst all us new age, yuppie, hippie, local food-eating, baby-wearing, co-sleeping, teaching-our-kids-to-sign parents?

We started with organic pear puree, then organic butternut squash puree, then organic oatmeal. He loved all of it, and then it became clear that Cedar pretty much wanted everything we were eating too. I think they call that “baby-led weaning” – or wait, isn’t that just “eating”?

In any case, I’m going to say it’s been a bit of a slow decline with food options. He’s become pickier. He used to really love veggies, probably because he didn’t know he was eating them. Now, I swear, if there is spinach in his eggs he will literally catch the tiniest shred of it and look at me, disgusted, before spitting it out. What is up with that?!  Read more...

What the cool parents are reading today:

1. Hey remember when you had to transition your kid from a crib to a big-kid bed? Ulgh, that’s fun right?

2. One woman contrasts the story of her birth, with a drugged up mom who was given a shot of estrogen so she wouldn’t lactate, versus her own crunchier motherhood full of birthing tubs and breastfeeding. (This is another take on the Elisabeth Badinter philosophy)

3. McDonalds is now putting yogurt in their Happy Meals and have slashed fries down to a mini 100 calorie size. Do these changes make you more inclined to take your kids to McDonalds?

4. How do you help your kid reach a healthy body weight without making them self-conscious about it?

5. Speaking of healthy eating habits, sometimes you just got to make your kid eat all their vegetables, no matter how unimpressed they are:  Read more...

Cookie mogul Eden Hertzog shares recipes she enjoys with her family

For the very first time since the history of having Cedar as our very needy roommate (I mean, our very amazingly awesome kid), Bri and I went away. Just the two of us. To Niagara Falls. I can’t explain it exactly, but I really love it there. It is godforsakenly cheesy and supremely overtouristed, but maybe that’s what draws me there: it’s not trying to be something that it’s not.

Anyway, back to the romantic weekend… We went to an outlet mall, we ate a salted pretzel dipped in bright yellow mustard, we looked at Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and we catnapped AND slept-in.

Amidst the Falls, and the Merlot, and watching TV in a king-sized bed in our hotel, I’d say it was a good weekend. Man, it was good to have fun with my husband. I think part of what made it fun was that I offered to let him make all the decisions. I think he liked that.  Read more...

Your Sunday Morning Plan

Vegetable omelets are always a tasty and nutritious brunch choice, but when spring veggies like asparagus are in season, they’re just that much better. And ’round these parts, we’re expected to experience a whole bunch of rain this weekend, might as well take advantage of it.

EAT

Is there anything healthier and tastier than enjoying in-season produce? And how do eggs go so well with so many things! The beauty of omelets is that you can put just about anything in them, but we’re opting for asparagus, mushrooms and spring onions.

You’ll need:  Read more...

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• approx two eggs per person (maybe one egg per small kid)
• two asparagus spears per person
• sliced mushrooms to taste (maybe 1/4 cup each?)
• chopped spring onions to taste (1 Tbsp each?)

What we’re reading today:

1. The kid as parenting guru. It makes sense if you think about taking cues from your kid as to what they need.

2. That Hilary Rosen-Ann Romney thing: It’s a war on stay-at-home-moms and according to Jezebel, has ignited a rich lady shit storm.

3. Back to Bringing Up Bébé. One way that French parents seem to be superior to North Americans: they make their kids learn to love a lot of different foods and don’t ask if they’re full.

4. We’ve been hearing that declining marriage rates are bad for kids, but are they really that big a deal?

5. Amazemom Maya Rudolph impersonates various celebrities singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Her Gwen Stefani is spot on; why did we never see this on SNL?

Yesterday: What toddler remember, how to eat when you’re pregnant and the miracle baby found in the morgue.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. It used to be that we thought babies and toddlers always live in the present; not so! They remember much more than we think they do.

2. There’s been a lot of talk recently about healthy pregnancies and how much an expecting mother should eat, so here are some guidelines as to what you should be eating.

3. The teacher bias against girls in math. Teachers! Come on! What about the female math teachers? Can we all make a pact that we’ll try and spread the “girls can do math and science” notion as often as we can?

4. Did you hear about that stillborn baby who wasn’t so stillborn? Oh. My. Gosh. The baby was born three months premature, was immediately declared stillborn and the mom didn’t even get to hold her since the baby was immediately sent to the morgue. When mother and father went to visit her in the morgue to say their hello-goodbyes, the baby stirred and cried. The baby, Luz Milagros, is getting stronger and the parents are suing the hospital.  Read more...