Another great recipe brought to you by Your Green Baby!

I’m all about telling my kids what they are eating too, but we have gotten in the habit of asking them to try it first and then tell them. It’s worked so far.

Being Sneaky

by Kim Corrigan-Oliver Your Green Baby

 As many of you know I am not a big fan of the sneaky approach to getting your kids to eat their vegetables; I think it is very important they learn to like them as they are. There are so many ways to get them interested in eating their vegetables and I think the sneaky route back fires in the end – one day they will eventually find you sneaking vegetables into their meals and all trust will go out the window.

But, there is always a but; I have a great recipe for your today. Not only does it have two great vegetables in it, it is also an excellent replacement for a kid favourite – macaroni and cheese. This version is dairy free, vegan and if you use quinoa or rice pasta like we do, it is also gluten free.

I usually make the sauce, mix it well with some quinoa macaroni, sprinkle brown rice bread crumbs on top with some extra nutritional yeast and bake for 20 to 30 minutes; absolutely delicious.

Pasta Sauce

1 small eggplant, cubed

1 small cauliflower, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 tsp turmeric

1 Tbsp fresh thyme

2 ½ cups water

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp olive oil, drizzle on sauce after cooking

Put all ingredients into a pot, except olive oil and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook without a lid, stirring occasionally until most of the water has evaporated and vegetables are tender.

Puree the mixture with a hand blender, pulse for more texture or completely puree into smooth sauce.

Drizzle with olive oil before serving.

Serve over your favourite pasta.

Let me know if it passes the taste bud test of your little ones.

 Organic produce doesn’t have to be costly. Here’s how to spend wisely.

 by Kim Corrigan-Oliver Your Green Baby

Don’t think you can afford organic food on your family’s grocery budget? Think again. With a few simple tips, you can become a savvy organic shopper and your family will reap the benefits.

Choosing to go organic is an easy decision to make when you understand the advantages. First and foremost, by choosing organic you are avoiding pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals used in conventional production methods. These chemicals have been shown to have adverse effects on our health and health of our children, and many of them are known carcinogens.

Second, by choosing organic food you are taking a huge step towards helping our environment. With a reduction in chemicals for production, and care and support for the soil, organic farming is better all round for Mother Earth. And last but not least, organic food just tastes better. If you don’t believe me – try it! Be warned though, you may have a hard time going back.

Organic food is more expensive then conventional food simply because it costs more to produce. Organic food can only be labelled organic if the farm it comes from has followed very stringent guidelines that prohibit the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified seeds, or crop radiation. Following these guidelines, paying for yearly farm inspections to maintain certification, and the manual labour required to control insects and weeds, means higher prices for organic food for the consumer.

While most parents want the healthiest foods for their kids, and agree that organic is the best way to go, it’s hard on the budget to always choose organic fruits and vegetables. Here are a few simple ways to stretch your organic dollars.

Eat seasonally and locally.  As consumers, we are used to buying the produce that we need all year round. When buying organic, we need to alter that thinking. Organic foods are grown and harvested according to seasons. If we buy our organic produce locally and in season, it’s much easier on the wallet. Buying organic food that is not in season or grown elsewhere will be more expensive.

Visit your local farmers’ market. Buying directly from the farmer cuts out the middle man, and you get to talk to the person who is responsible for growing your food. Many small family farms my not be certified organic – this is after all a long, tedious, expensive process – but nevertheless use organic farming methods. It pays to chat with farmers about how they grow their produce; you may just find organic foods at very reasonable prices.

Join a CSA. CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. Some CSAs are certified organic, and even those that are not tend to practise organic farming methods. Again, it pays to talk to the farmer. When you join a CSA, you buy a share of the farmer’s bounty, giving the farmer access to guaranteed funds to help support their farm and crops. This is a mutually beneficial partnership for both farmer and member.

Grown your own. The best way to know for sure how your food is grown and to cut costs is to grow it yourself. Growing your own is very rewarding – avoiding pesticides and other chemicals, and using organic fertilizers and your own compost produces beautiful and delicious vegetables. It is so satisfying to head out to the garden each afternoon to pick food for your dinner. You gain a whole new appreciation for the food on your plate. If you have never grown your own food, start small – a patio tomato plant or some fresh herbs. You will be amazed at how satisfying and cost effective it is.

Use these lists. The U.S.-based Environmental Working Group (EWG) has compiled two lists for consumers – The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen (see below). The Dirty Dozen lists the 12 foods you should buy organically; they use many different chemicals in their production and have high residues. Your organic dollars are best spent on The Dirty Dozen. The Clean Fifteen on the other hand are foods with little chemical exposure in production and low residues. You can save your organic dollars on these foods. With a few simple tips you can stretch your dollars a little further, enjoy organic food and feel good about what you are doing for the environment, your community and your health. Happy eating!

The Dirty Dozen

Peach, Apple, Bell pepper, Celery, Nectarine, Strawberry, Cherries, Kale, Lettuce, Grapes (imported), Carrot, Pear

The Clean Fifteen

Onion, Avocado, Sweet corn, Pineapple, Mango, Asparagus, Sweet peas, Kiwi, Cabbage, Eggplant, Papaya, Watermelon, Broccoli, Tomato, Sweet Potato

Welcome to another provider profile, where we highlight the great childcare workers in Durham Region!

Name: Tamara

Family: Married to Ken for almost 9 years and we have three wonderful children. Connor is 7, Sierra is 5 and Callum is 20 months. We also have two bunnies named Hoppy and Pumpkin.

Daycare type & location: Tamara’s Tots Home Daycare, located in North Oshawa.

How long in business: 5 years in home daycare and 3 years in a centre.

Why did you decide to become a childcare provider?: I missed working with kids and wanted to be home with my own children.

What’s your favourite part of the day?: Circle time. I love seeing the kids dance and sing and express themselves. They are little balls of energy.

What do you find most challenging about your job?: Scheduling. Trying to get everything done and spend quality time with the kids too.

What makes you unique?: I help run a local home daycare provider group (Childcare Providers Unite). This group has allowed me to be a better provider and parent. We meet on a regular basis to learn new things, exchange ideas and plan lots of wonderful field trips to take the kids on.

Favourite memory as a provider: Hearing the kids call each other their best friends. They are so little, but they form such bonds.

If you could change one thing, what would it be?: To have a bigger playroom. It’s always nice to have more room to do more fun activities.

Cleaning out some old magazines, I came across a great set of daycare articles in Today’s Parent that I think is a must-read for parents and providers alike.

• Daycare decisions: Finding the right child care arrangement can be overwhelming. Here’s help sorting through your options. Full story here.
• Child Care. What Canadian Parents Need Now: Listen up, politicians, as Today’s Parent readers tell it like it is. Full story here.
• Report Card: How the provinces — and the country — spend on child care. Full story here.
• Four Ideas That Could Change Child Care: Surprise — it may happen sooner than you think. Full story here.

Don’t forget there are great resources and links on Durham Region Daycare for parents and providers.

Welcome to the first of our monthly provider profiles, where we highlight the great childcare workers in Durham!

Name: Mandi Francis

Daycare type: Caterpillar Kids Home Daycare, Whitby, Ontario

How long in business?: Almost four years

Why did you decide to become a childcare provider?: I’ve actually never done anything but work with children. I’ve worked in daycare centres, elementary schools, swimming pools, and libraries. Becoming a home childcare provider seemed like the ‘next step’ for me after I became a parent myself.

What’s your favourite part of the day?: There are so many aspects of my job that I love!! My favourite part has to be greeting the children each morning when they arrive at daycare. They are so happy to see their friends and excited about the upcoming day.

What do you find most challenging about your job?: Definitely time management!

What makes you unique?: My passion to bring professionalism into home childcare
makes me unique. It’s my strong believe that the same health and safety
standards should be followed in a home childcare setting as they are in centre-based care.
I would really like to see home childcare settings inspected on a regular basis by ministry officials.

If you could change one thing, what would it be?: There aren’t many things that I’d change. Maybe warmer weather so that preparing for outdoor time was easier!?!

Anie, one of the women from my weekly Durham Mom’s Night Out group, is due with her first baby right about now, and is already thinking about daycare for her daughter — and rightly so.

She is only able to take four months off from work.

So that means she needs care for an almost-newborn baby, and really soon. Here are the questions her and her husband are debating:

• Do they start looking for care now, or wait until it’s closer to the time they need it?
• The pros and cons of home, centre and nanny care for such a young baby
• Will a newborn be more expensive to car for? If so, how much?

Any advice for her?

I’ve sent her the links from the resource page for parents on the site, which includes great links on questions to ask potential childcare providers, and how to decide what is right for your family.

Personally, I think she should start looking ASAP, as finding care for a baby so young may prove to be difficult when a year or older is far more common. I’d think a nanny would be the best bet, at least for the first few months until the baby is older. Which raises the question of a live-in or live-out person.

Anie’s going to be checking in her for your tips and suggestions, so please leave a comment below for her.

Thanks for sharing your expertise!

With the holiday season here, I of course want to get Julia, our home daycare provider a gift. She is such an invaluable member of our and Lucy’s life — almost like an extended family member — that she deserves far more than we could ever afford.

She and her three boys are avid campers (seriously, they went winter camping last year. Like in the snow and everything), so last year we got her a $25 gift card to Moutain Equipment Co-op.

Julia isn’t much of a girly-girl, so my inital instinct to treat her to a manicure/pedicure doesn’t go (plus one of her sons actually laughed when I suggested it). I’d really like to get her something just for her, as she devotes so much time to her daycare and her own kids that I think she deserves and needs it.

Suggestions?

Caregivers, what gifts have you received in the past? Any favourites jump out at you?

Parents, what have you given to your daycare providers?

Oh, the excruciating process of interviewing childcare providers. In our search for home, or “family”, care for Lucy, I interviewed more than a dozen providers either in person or on the phone.

(I’ve been writing about Lucy and our family’s wonderful (and sometimes wacky and sad) childcare searches and experiences — with Daycare Debbie, Julia and Shelby — for years. Read it here.)

Although absolutely necessary when looking for the special person (or centre) to be, almost, your surrogate, it doesn’t make it any less stressful.

Just like interviewing for a job, one of the most helpful tips I read about before beginning the search was to be prepared and know exactly the questions to ask a potential provider.

There’s a wealth of information for parents online, often broken down by type of childcare, too. Here are our favourites:

• About Kids Health (from the Hospital for Sick Children): Questions to ask for infant/toddler care, preschool care, and school-age before-/after-school care
• Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services: Childcare choices and questions
• CBC news in-depth on daycare: Questions parents should ask
• BC Health Guide on choosing childcare: Questions, plus how to decide between a home and centre
• The search is on: A lengthy but worthwhile read from the Brantford Expositor

Any favourite sites or resources to share? Leave ‘em below!