Mother's going GREEN Day 83 - Greening my Baby Food

You would think by now I would be a pro at this - now starting my 3rd child on solids... well I think we are getting close to perfecting it.

I remember with my son (our first) - my husband and I would spend one day a month making his food from scratch and then freezing it (in plastic containers and non organic food). We thought he was lucky and getting the best food ever. Our second unfortunately ate everything from a jar (well she hardly ate - did not like much of anything and still doesn't - I am constantly amazed that she survives on what little she does eat - but that is whole other subject). Now our third... they say practise make perfect.

First off we have not purchased any of those fun little plastic dishes to serve their first meals in. One with lids, multiple colours and all those fancy plastic spoons that change colour when the food is too hot. We are using stainless steel teaspoons and little glass containers.

Secondly we are not spending hours preparing her food from scratch and then freezing it. She is basically eating what we eat. If we have carrots - I cook some extra well done - puree it and then serve. Same with peas, potatoes, beets, etc. Fruit like bananas are again pureed and then served. All my kids love apple sauce and we purchase a large container of organic apple sauce and I serve that to her. No need to stock up on those tiny little jars of food (which are not necessarily all recycled by many families out there). I will admit that I do purchase the organic baby cereals - as I do not think I have the time to make those from scratch or even know how - so if you do - please share your thoughts on this.

I am finding my new way of preparing food for my little one to be very simple, easy, fresh organic and 'green' - and she seems to be loving it. Perhaps too because it is my third child I am not being overly concerned about he possibility of allergies and am serving her something different each day (they say you should serve the same food several times to rule out any allergies - since none of my other children have allergies - perhaps I am hoping for the best).

The World Health Organization also suggest that you breastfeed exclusively for 6 months before introducing solids - again as with my first I am not sticking to this. She seems interested and has her first tooth at 4 and half months and is enjoying the food - so I feed her. My philosophy is - if you have teeth you can start on solids - but this is a personal choice.

In closing I would like to say that feeding your baby 'green' is quite simple - I wish I had done so with my other children. But live and learn.

Mother's going GREEN Day 34 - Miscellaneously Green

Was it ever hot today. 32 Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit)!!! But it was a day of many small successes.

No energy wasted on indoor cooling systems: I have never been a fan of air conditioning. Not even in my car (it has always felt very artificial) In my car I prefer to have all the windows down and just let the breeze blow though. The same was true today. My husband wanted to plug in the electric fans to cool our house and I said no lets just open the back and front doors of the decks and let the very slight breeze blow through. It did the trick and kept the house cool.

Reused Water: Because it was so hot, and even though we are trying to live a greener life, I did want my children to enjoy splashing about in the cool water of a 'wadding pool'. We filled the pool a little with water - enough for them to cool down in and have some fun. What we did do with the water once we were done was water all of our garden plants (which we would have done anyway since it was such a hot day). This way the children could amuse themselves for a while as they filled their buckets (and thier watering cans) with water and watered our garden. Picture shows our daughter watering the small tree we planted on earth day.

Reduced waste and recycled: I am not one to feed our pets 'human' food. Although I have heard that it is better for them than 'pet' food. No additives. So today I made the decision that our dog could now eat the left over 'human' food that our kids do not eat. In doing so we throw away less of the food waste and our dog can eat a little treat too. Because I did not have an extra dog bowl for this delicious snack - I thought - mmmmm what can I use..... my green friends at Our Green Year spoke about recycling yoghurt containers, so I went off to our recycling bucket and dug one out. Cut it a little shallower (since we are buying the larger containers and not the individual containers - so we can reduce packaging) and presto I had a little dog bowl.

Organic Food: Food has never tasted better and tonight we enjoyed a 100% organic meal. Chicken with carrots and tomatoes with organic dressing. Even organic ketchup for the kids. Hats off to my husband who is getting into the 'organic food' thing.

No Plastic Bags: Further kudos to him as he also purchased another canvas bag when grocery shopping today after he realized that he would not have enough and to avoid the plastic ones. I believe my earlier post about his plastic pitfalls has put a little fear in him.

So all in all a great "going green" day in this household. Living green is becoming a habit, almost second nature. Which make this mom really happy.

Mother's going GREEN Day 26 - The Health Food Store

I in all my naivety always thought that a 'Health Food Store' was for those who worked out for 3 hours a day 7 days a week. I thought they really existed for the health nuts out there. Today, I decided to check out our local health store and was very pleasantly surprised.

While they did have there protein shakes, loose weight powders and muscle building pills they also had a vast selection of organic stuff.

• Candies
• Vitamins
• Body wash
• Shampoo/Conditioner
• Baby stuff
• Soaps galore
• Cereals
• Snack bars
• Dried Organic Fruit

I was needless to say impressed. This mother going green life just got a little easier. Here was a place I could buy the organic stuff I needed. Not that I did not enjoy surfing the Internet to find things but it is equally as fun to go to a store and browse through the products. What made my visit to the store more pleasant is that they had a corner set aside in the store for kids. I mean a play mat with toys and a chair in case you needed to stop and relax and feed your hungry baby - which is exactly what I had to do. This particular store made it easy for me what with 3 kids and all to browse their wares and at no time did I feel rushed or pressured into buying anything. In fact I was so overwhelmed that I did not buy anything except some organic candy for my kids. I need time to process all they have to offer and I will be back.

Now for the novices out there - this is pretty standard stuff - but I am sure too that there are folks out there that have some misconceptions about the 'health food store' but I say dismiss them and check it out. Hopefully like me you will be pleasantly surprised by their organic selection of goods.

Mother's going GREEN Day 22 - Organic Food

Cooking for the most part just overwhelms me - the thought of it gets me flustered. I guess some people have a fear of public speaking but for me it is cooking - the food thing in general. Hence I married a chef. Throw in the organic food situation and my mind really goes for a loop.

Because I am a mother and my husband works long hours, I needed to learn how to cook and when I thought I finally could cook and prepare meals - they just were not good enough. Now they need to be 'organic' not packaged but fresh and preferably made from scratch. So instead of the frozen pancakes you put in the toaster - I now need to make them and with organic ingredients at that. No more meatballs and shells with tomato sauce quick from a can - they too need to be fresh - made from scratch again with organic ingredients. Very intimidating for me.

However, I can do it. My husband does all of our grocery shopping - so this last week I sent him off saying everything as much as possible needs to be organic - and lo and behold that is what I got for the most part. And now with everything I need it does not seem so daunting. I mean I can make meatballs from organic hamburger, add some organic tomato sauce; boil up some organic shell pasta and hey I have my kids favourite meal - it is fresh, organic and made from scratch.

When going shopping make sure your products are marked certified organic - usually there is a funky little label stating that. Just the words organic on the box or packaging is not good enough. When buying produce look for a number 9 at the beginning of the numbers on the little sticker that is stuck to the fruit and vegetables. This little number 9 means that it is organic.

The idea is to look for local organic first, then local non-organic, thirdly imported organic and as a last resort imported non-organic.

Soon our family will sign up for an organic produce delivery service. They will for a fee provide us with in-season fresh produce. Organic delivery companies usually are able to charge you a little less than the larger grocery stores can.

Here's to healthy organic eating.