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September 10, 2009

Parent Club Review: PC Home Grown (+ Recipe)

Buying 'home grown' (i.e. foods grown locally) is an important thing. Imported foods have food miles on them (food miles = the number of miles that item has travelled from farm to your table -- if an apple is picked in New Zealand and is flown to Canada -- it travels about 7,300 air miles -- this doesn't include time or distance for packing, trucking and waiting in food depots).

Food miles contribute to how fresh your food is, the carbon emissions created from moving that food from the farm to your table and the pesticides that are used to keep it fresh during transport (bet you didn't know I knew all of this huh?)

So when President's Choice asked to send a green bin filled with home grown produce - I was very much on board.

Home Grown watermelon, Home Grown, cauliflower, Home Grown cantaloupe. Yum. I've put together a made-by-me recipe using President's Choice Home Grown (tried and true) to share - from my table to yours....

Spanish Frita

- 2 home grown red peppers (or use 1 red/1 orange)
- 4 home grown tomatoes (cut them big or small)
- splash of olive oil
- salt & pepper

Cut peppers and tomatoes. Splash some olive oil in to a heated pan - invite the peppers to be the 1st guests at your party and leave them to hang out in the hot pan.

Ok - now the peppers are getting lonely - add in those crazy tomatos.

Now the peppers & tomatoes are naked and they don't like that so dress them up with a dash of salt and fresh ground pepper.

On a low heat - leave the party in the pan for 20-30 minutes (allowing the peppers to soften and the tomatoes to stew).

Spanish Frita is considered a salad/side dish in Spain (according to my mother-in-law) - it can be served warm or room temperature. Combine it with rice or pasta for a main dish.

Freezes well.

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September 09, 2009

Parent Club Review: WeMuv™

The What: "With a specially designed WeMuv™ pedometer and virtual travel passport, members accumulate MuvPoints to navigate and explore 2D animated ‘real’ world destinations. Members gain bonus points playing mini-games and trivia throughout their virtual journey. Trivia games provide fun facts on topics of health and nutrition, world geography, culture, earth and social sciences and more."

The Who: Recommended for kids 6 and up

The Review: We were provided 3 WeMuv™ pedometers(for a little friendly family competition) to try out. The pedometers came able to attach to clothing - and also with a wristband.

On the first day out - we clipped on our pedometers and went for a 24K bike ride (really 24K - I was both pained and proud). went to www.wemuv.com to log in our points: 517 points exactly.

The kids enjoyed customizing their avatars, purchasing clothing, food and decor (with their points) and looking at the base camp map (maps are very big to kids).

The cons were that the 6 year old pre-reader was at a disadvantage because of the reading level. Also, we often forgot the pedometers at home (out of sight out of mind).

However, it is very cool to be able to visit a virtual destination. It is also a smart idea to propel kids on-line activities with physical action (you can sit at the computer if you go on a bike ride).

The Cost: Free accounts include a customizable virtual avatar, Base Camp game play and limited social networking.
Purchase of a pedometer includes a 3-month travel passport for $24.95.

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September 08, 2009

Parent Club tips for BACK TO SCHOOL





  • Don't freak your kids out. Don't over talk school. Don't cry in front of them. Don't spill your worries to other parents in earshot of your children. You need to be their rock. Be a rock!
  • Short and sweet. Don't hang around the classroom. Don't try to talk to the teacher. Make drop off short and sweet. The teachers need to take over and earn authority/respect with child. The school will call if your child throws up/wets his pants...(really - I know this).
  • Pack a really good lunch. Your kids will be using more energy - emotional and physical for the start of school. Pack a really good lunch for them - (an assortment of crunchy: fish crackers, soft: applesauce, colourful: dry fruit loops, comforting: sandwich and quenching: water).
  • Let your kids wind down after school. If they want to talk - give them your full attention. If they want to chill out - let them watch tv to de-stress.
  • Ask prodding questions. "How was your day?" doesn't always get to the heart of the day. Try questions like "What were your 3 favourite things?", "Who got in trouble?", "Who got hurt?" (ok - the last two seem strange - but you'd be surprised how kids want to spill the beans about others)

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