a peek inside the fishbowl

Last week’s tip was:

Prepare supper together, there’s a job for everyone.

I know I’ve written about this before, and it’s true. Establishing good eating habits happens at home when the kids are small. Kids watch their parents like hawks. They will learn our good habits, and zero in on our bad ones. This is why I don’t drink juice straight out of the container, for example. If they see me do it it’s sending a message that it’s ok. And it’s really not ok. :)

It’s good to get kids in the kitchen, even if they are just setting the table and washing the lettuce. I just wish we had a bigger kitchen so they could *really* get in there.

Last night we made calzones. The girls helped with the making of the dough. We used this recipe for the dough and made two fillings for the calzones. One was pepperoni and pineapple (GUESS WHO WAS EATING THAT ONE) and the other was a terrific spinach and ricotta. The calzones turned out ok. The dough was a little too thick and crispy. Although they tasted great they weren’t exactly easy to eat. Are most calzones deep fried?

Anyway, here’s the recipe I used for the spinach filling. I’m keeping this recipe in case I ever want to make ravioli with it, because I bet it’s good eaten that way.

8 oz ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
most of an 8 oz bag of fresh spinach
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

• If you’re using this recipe for calzones, make the dough earlier in the day. (Or buy some frozen bread/pizza dough and thaw it out.)
• Steam the spinach for about 3 minutes until wilted. Chop with kitchen scissors and squeeze out as much water as you can.
• Mix together the cheeses, seasonings, egg and the spinach in a big bowl.
• Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll each one into an 8″ circle. Spoon filling onto half of the circle. Fold over and seal the edges. The end product will look like the letter D.

Anyway, my spinach filling was awesome, but the baked dough wasn’t easy to eat. In fact, we had trouble with our knives and forks it was so crispy. (Suggestions are welcome!)

I’m not sure what iIm going to do for KMDM this coming week. In fact, I’m going to skip KMDM in the lead up to back-to-school week because the next KMDM activity is going to be a doozy. I’m asking for your collective support and dare I say, participation.

Mark and I have declared that the first week of school is going to be entirely sugar-free.

Yes indeed it is.

Call me crazy, but September 8 – 15 is sugar-free week here at Casa Fishbowl.

Will you join us? I double-dog dare you.

My definition of sugar-free means (a) no sweet drinks or treats (b) no adding sugar to anything and (c) banning foods with sugar added to it. i.e. Kraft Peanut Butter, ketchup, raisin bread etc. for the week. I will be reading labels religiously and avoiding anything with any sugar in it…  including sugars that end in “-ose” like fructose, glucose, etc. As well as corn syrup.

I sense lots of popcorn and vegetables in my future.

The idea comes from a blog post I read long ago in which the author, a mom, did pretty much the same thing…  but her banishment was even greater and it was for a longer term. Her family ditched all processed foods. The result: a total transformation in her young kids. They were happier. Better behaved. And if I am remembering correctly they may have even slept better. This always stuck with me. What is it about processed food that could make our little people (a.k.a canaries in a coalmine) *behave* differently? What if what we ingest affects us in ways we don’t really understand?

Whenever I’m at the grocery store I remember Michael Pollan’s advice about what kind of food to eat. It boils down to this simple rule: Eat food your grandmother would recognize. I think he’s right. So I’m sticking to it.

Anyway, yes, sugar free! I expect a few days of raging headaches. The kids are hating me a little bit right now*, but that’s the price I’m willing to pay to make my point about how much sugar we eat every day, even when we don’t know we’re eating it.

*and because this is going to be such a big deal I am giving up sugar in my morning coffee. Gah.

So who’s in? Or will I be alone this time around? :)

Hot. Hungry. Tired. (that would be US) vs. Fresh. Colourful. Tasty.

Sarah is happily munching a locally-grown mini-cucumber as I type. I hear crunching, alternating with the tinkling of ice in the bottom of her glass of lemonade.

“THE CUCUMBER IS SO GOOD MUM.”

I know this is true. I myself sliced one in half horizontally, sprinkled it with sea salt, and ate it over the kitchen sink.

Emma used her own allowance to buy a bouquet of colourful carrots. I kid ye not.

Also: LOCAL GARLIC. Dear People. You think you know garlic? You don’t know garlic unless you’ve had it FRESH. The stuff that arrives on that slow boat from China is like comparing fresh pineapple to the stuff in a can. Seriously.

It was a pretty good day. A pretty full day. We went to see the IMAX Hubble documentary (two thumbs up from all of us!) and ended up taking a stroll around the place. There is a lot to see.