Apple Chips

Slice two Granny Smith apples with a mandoline or other tool that will provide consistent thickness.

Spread out on parchment paper on cookies sheets in a single layer. Set oven to the lowest temperature. 115 degrees F is ideal but mine only goes down to 170, so I do that.



Flip the slices once after an hour or so and replace in the oven. Should be done within 4 to 6 hours depending on thickness.

Ultimately a raw food is any food not cooked above 115 degrees F, this includes dehydrated food. A commercially bought or home built solar dehydrator is best for these types of recipes. I plan to continue experimenting before plunking down $130 bucks for one.



They taste like sweet apple-ly chips... how else can I describe them? My daughter and I devoured them in 5 minutes so now I have to make some more!

Smoothies

I bought a blender recently and have been making smoothies non-stop. This recipe is my favourite.

2 cups frozen strawberries
2 cups of orange juice
2 bananas
1/2 cup of yogurt (if desired)

Blend.

This makes enough for my two kids and I. I usually take my portion out before adding the yogurt, since I am avoiding diary products. The orange juice I have been using is calcium fortified so it make up for the loss in calcium. This is the perfect, most complete breakfast I have ever had!

Essentially you can use whatever fruits you like, and the juice can be milk or another type. Get creative.

Experimenting with Raw Food

Tired of feeling sick and tired? Yeah, me too. I decided recently that I can make a few small changes every day and it will do wonders in helping me feel more energetic and alive. I have been lurking on Raw Food forums, websites and youtube channels collecting data and experiences. I have a few friends within the homeschooling community who participate in the Raw Food Lifestyle and they all look amazing. Women with two, three and seven kids who are attentive to their bodies and the nourishment they need. Now why can't I be like that?

Making the switch to a diet prominent in raw food takes a bit of warming up to. I have been stalling and procrastinating for sometime even though I know the benefits are worth the discomfort. It's only uncomfortable because it's not what I am use to. I crave sweets without realizing it. I am never full and always lethargic. Here's how I have started my journey to healthier eating.

I bought a blender and eat a fruit smoothie every morning (recipe to follow). I plan to change it up and try new ingredients. All in all, this is a great energy boost with lots of good fiber and just the right amount of sweetness. Last year at about this time I was making juice concentrate and canning it. Never again. Even then I knew all the goodness was being stripped and all I was left with was coloured sugar water. I am going to be taking that recipe down off my blog.

I have ready fruits and veggies in the fridge that have been washed and slice. It's easy to grab a handful when I have the nibblies.

The most important thing I have done is swear off bread products and severely limited my diary intake. At some point I may just do away with dairy all together but we shall see. I am truly just listening to my body, recognizing how it feels after eating certain foods. I am not counting calories or fat grams. I am, however, keeping a food journal. I can tell you already I feel amazing! I have energy to spare. I am getting more done in my day. I can think clearly and love that I am not struggling like I used to to get through the day.

I can't say I will go 100 per cent raw, of course it depends how my body responds. I can say that there is enough inspiration out there to keep me motivated.

Community & Homeschool

There is this prevailing belief that homeschooled children do not partake in community. It is believed that my children and I stay home in our humble bubble with no care of the community that exists outside our walls. This is not true. We are highly active in our community participating in both homeschool events and non-homeschool events. I strive to keep a balance and am assisted along the way by other like-minded homeschool mothers.

By in large, we function as a community. Each mom organizes an event, class or what have you and invites others to join in. We plan things we think our kids would enjoy and benefit from a reduced price since we take the time to organize a group, collect payment, book the event, send out email etc. We take turns. I may only plan one or two events a year but as long as people are stepping up to the plate there is never any shortage of stuff to do. For the most part, this works.

Trouble arises when one mom proclaims that her quoted price for an activity includes a handling fee, a small profit for the organizer. Her time is precious (as is mine) and she can not afford to organize her plethora of activities without receiving some remuneration. On the surface this seems reasonable but I object for many reasons.

As a homeschool community we all partake in some planning and organizing. For example: My kids want to do skydiving, I want them to have a discounted rate so I organize a group of 20 or more, get a percentage off for all of us. Another mom organizes something, we partake without the hassle to organize and so on. We all organize something and the kids get an opportunity to do everything. The community thrives because everyone is doing something and no one is burdened with all the planning.

When one person expects to be paid, it drives the cost up for those activities and more. Why should I offer an activity at my house for free for your kids if you are doing your activities for profit. I know I 'could' ask for payment but I won't because it's not what this community is about.

I expressed my concerns to this mother but I doubt much will be done. As a society we all speak in dollars and cents. Suddenly everything that was once benevolent is tainted. My attempts to keep our homeschooling community healthy is all for naught because someone has decided it is not enough to do it for the kids, she must get paid for it too.

I am afraid "community" has gone the way of the dinosaur. Today the idea of doing things for personal reasons outweighs the need to function as a village thus creating an isolating existence where each person is only in it for themselves. I want to be proven wrong but each day my hopes diminish and I am reminded that personal profit is the new god.

ARCHIVED: Freezing Summer Fruits

Busy time of year. Here's a refresher on how I freeze fruits for my family in the summer to enjoy them all year long. The process is the same for all summer berries.

Enjoy!

Archived Post:

We've been busy the last few weeks, picking, canning and freezing strawberries and raspberries. Blueberries will be ready soon.




By August my freezer is always packed with numerous frozen summer berries. We use them in cereals, yogurt, pies and my personal fave, smoothies!

I use the flash freeze method for berries. Using a cookie sheet you pile on the berries in a single layer and place in freezer uncovered. Once frozen, pull out the cookie sheet and place all the berries in a large freezer bag. This method keeps the berries from clumping together allowing me to remove only as much as I need at one time.



Be very gentle with the berries, raspberries especially are highly delicate. Next up, blueberries!

Book: On A Dollar A Day

I recently finished On A Dollar A Day, a book by Kerri Leonard and Christopher Greenslate, two teachers in California who embarked on a journey to live like the majority of people in the world. They decided for a month they would live on a $1 a day food budget per person. Their experiment was eye-opening and led the way to two other food related projects: one to sustain themselves on the monthly allowance for those receiving food stamp benefits in the U.S. and the other to eat healthfully while keeping their budget in check.

At first I thought I picked up a book on frugality, one of my favourite subjects and then I realized it was a book about another of my pet projects, studying the state of our current food system and all it's failures.



This book is packed with great insight and thought provoking conundrums. It asks questions pertaining to the poor, their ability to access good, wholesome food and how this relates to other food issues like obesity. As full time teachers, they struggle with making even simple meals from scratch but only because they are counting every penny.

I remember the days when the food dollars never seemed to stretch as far as they should and I remember the lethargic, hazy feeling that coincides with extended periods of hunger. In this book they talk about their minds not functioning optimally. Their tempers flare and the stress mounts. This is the reality for many in our world.

While moving into the Food Stamp experiment (they calculated the average amount of dollar value given in food stamps for a childless couple and used their own funds for this experiment) they thought going from $1 a day to nearly $4.13 was going to be fair bit better. However the increase in available funds did little to provide wholesome meals and they struggled with this experiment as well.

I don't believe there could be a better couple to have written this book. Alternating chapters, Christopher and Kerri reveal their experience with whit, wisdom and passion. It was an very enjoyable read and reminded me of the many people living in North America who still do not have enough to eat.

Now, I am reading The Moneyless Man, written by Marc Boyle who ventures to live a whole year without using money for ANYTHING. I think he's nuts but I'm only two chapters in so I will let you know once I am finished.