The Next Kid Thing

Like many of you, I’m a bargainista—or at least I try.  I have always said that the driving force for me nowadays to shop for discounts and clip coupons is so that I could use the money I save and put it towards buying “better” meat for my family.  After reading so much about food recalls and watching Food Inc., it’s a fact that, as parents, we have to be cognizant of what’s going on with our food and how we feed our families.  And for me, it’s one of my priorities to overhaul how I shop for groceries all together.

On that end, I recently had the chance to taste a sampler of Bison meat from High Plains Bison.  If you’ve ever had bison, then you know that its taste is distinctively different from beef and has less fat.  (You can see the marbling in the bison ribeyes below.)

Doing some research for this post, according to Bison Basics, grass-fed bison has less calories and more protein than lean beef, turkey and pork.  And according to High Plains Bison, while bison may not be considered health food, it is healthier.  Bison is low in cholesterol, low in sodium, a good source of iron and also contains a healthy dose of Omega 3 fatty acids too.

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Magazines: I know many of you love them as much as I do.  There’s truly nothing like flipping through glossy pages and indulging in feature stories, cool products and advice columns.  In my case, I’m always looking for inspiration, whether it’s for writing, design or to just shop.

On one of my recent trips to Target I found a new magazine called Yum Food & Fun for Kids.  Always, in search of new ideas on how to improve my efforts in the kitchen and at the dinner table, especially where the kid is concerned, I think this new publication fills a void at the newstands.

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NKT fave, Skip Hop has added more fun animals to their cool lineup up of animal-themed backpacks and lunch bags   Frog and zebra designs are the latest animal designs available for Skip Hop’s Zoopacks and Lunchies, joining faves such as the owl, dog and penguin.  Zoopacks, durable and kid-sized, are ideal for back to school and yes, the last few weeks of summer, too!

I personally can’t get enough of Skip Hop gear; we could often be found toting our penguin Lunchie.  What’s so great about Skip Hop’s Zoo Lunchies, is that they’re so easy to just clip onto a stroller, bookbag strap or they can just as easily be slipped onto a kids’ wrist. But above all, I love the playful, but modern designs that Skip Hop is so well known for; and at just $20 for the Zoopacks and $13 for the Lunchies, you really can’t go wrong with Skip Hop gear.

Summertime snacks for our family are often synonymous with fresh, ripe fruit and chilled frozen yogurt or ice cream.  Actually, with all this heat we’ve been enduring this summer, anything cold sounds good right about now!

This post and activity was inspired, in part, by Healthy Child Healthy World’s weekly twitter party, and by a recipe I stumbled accross on one of my favorite kiddie cuisine sites, Weelicious.

Since we’ve been staying with family for the past few weeks, with three kids in the house and a Costco down the street, we’ve been stocking up on all the delicious fresh fruit.  And fruit from Costco…you know what that means.  We had a ton of it!

We had a surplus of strawberries and mangos; meaning, we had more ripened fruit than we knew what to do with!  Cue in Weelicious’ yummy recipes!

With all the extra fruit that was on the cusp of getting too ripe, I enlisted the two bigger kids to help me make some fun homemade popsicles!

I used:

1 set of Tovolo Groovy Pop molds, which yield 6 bigger fruit pops
2 ripe mangos, sliced into thirds and then cubed and pureed
1 cup of ripe strawberries, pureed
1/2 cup of blueberries, pureed
1/2 cup of Mott’s Medley’s juice

I mixed and pureed fruit for each pop, personalizing each flavor for each kid.  Since these fruits had so much of their own fruit juice, I only had to add a few splashes of the juice to help solidify the mixture once frozen.

It was fun to get creative with the kids and let them mix, then help pour each pop.  The making of the pops was a fun outdoor activity, and I’m sure it’d make a great (albeit messy) indoor or rainy day activity too.

The beauty of the Tovolo freezer pop molds is that each container is a good size and actually stays put.  I’ve used other molds in the past that used questionable plastic and the sticks never stayed in place.  Plus, Tovolo has a bunch of great shapes to choose from.

Looking for more healthy summer snacks?  Check out Healthy Child Healthy World’s Twitter Party (tonight at 9-10) and their site for more great ideas!

Last weekend, I had a fun mini-party that I billed an NKT playdate.  It was a super small gathering of some of my friends from back home, some of whom I hadn’t seen since we embarked on our own crazy adventures of parenthood.

At the playdate, I showcased a number of toys and product samples that I’ve received, but haven’t had the chance to write about on NKT.  It was a great way of getting the products into my friends’ hands, and getting a different perspective while sharing some cool kid finds.  I’ll be sure to write a more thorough post on what I shared and what some of them had to say.  Since it was my birthday earlier this week, naturally, I still have cake on the brain!

One of the cool activity sets I featured was the Girl Gourmet Cake Bakery from Jakks Pacific, which came out last fall.  The Cake Bakery is one of those fun activity sets that’s quite timely in relation to the ongoing cake craze.  With the rise in popularity of cakes from hit shows like our neighborhood favorite, Carlo’s Bakery of The Cake Boss fame to the ever-inspiring Ace of Cakes, cake-making and decorating has never been so sweet.

This set allows kids to create cakes with a little help from Duff of Charm City Cakes, the bakery which is chronicled on the Food Network’s Ace of Cakes.  With the Girl Gourmet Cake Bakery, kids can create a mini 2-tiered fondant cakes. Kids just add water to one of the cake flavors, stir and pour into the cake molds, and then place into the container and microwave for 30 seconds. To create one of the fondant mixes, water is added and then can be rolled out onto the non-stick mat. The cakes are then removed from the mold after they cool, which are then ready to be covered with the fondant. The mini cakes can be placed on the decorating turntable and can be fancied up by using the air powered gel decorator gun.  Need more embellishments? Add the included candy garnishes!   How sweet it is!

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Always a fan of promoting healthier eating choices, I spotted Laptop Lunches, these fun lunch containers over on today’s Eco Baby Buys.

I was recently asked to review the toys from the latest happy meal, and as much as my kid is obsessed with the show that said toys are promoting, I had to decline the review opportunity.  I appreciate convenience as much as the next person, especially when we’re traveling, but as we all know, fast food isn’t always the best choice. With the unlimited selection and creative possibilities of packing fun and healthy meals, I think Bento Boxes are the new happy meal.

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On Monday, CNN via Health.com reported that a new study revealed what many of us already speculated about pesticides being linked to ADHD in children.

photo credit: maistora

The article said :

Children exposed to higher levels of a type of pesticide found in trace amounts on commercially grown fruit and vegetables are more likely to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder than children with less exposure, a nationwide study suggests.

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Happy Earth Day, everyone!  Many of us do our best to live greener and wiser, especially for our children’s benefit.  Aside from the ever-so-important 3Rs–Reduce, Reuse and Recycle–there are a host of ways families can help Planet Earth.

Year round, I try to feature sustainable products that would complement our lives, but for Earth Day, I thought I’d showcase some innovative green and eco-friendly items that I’ve dogeared just for this week.

In line with our family starting a new chapter in the suburbs, we’re implementing quite a few sustainable changes to our everyday way of life.  The kitchen and the way we eat has been an ongoing process, but specifically, I’m hoping to phase out plastics in the kitchen as much as possible.

The kid’s tableware and cups have taken over their own shelf.  I just noticed that more than half of the plates, cups, forks and spoons are plastic, which concerns me.  They’re likely full of pthalates and other elements that we just need to avoid all together.

When I was at Toy Fair, I fell in love with Dandeloin products, including their Natural Tableware Products.

These bright yellow forks, spoons and knives stand out among the crowd of plastic kiddie-sized cutlery.  Dandelion’s line of tableware are constructed of corn—as in, on- the-cob.

That’s right…corn.

I like corn as much as the next person, but I’m not a fan of all the food that’s being processed and engineered with corn.

Dandelion ReUsables tableware thrusts the use of corn into a new light.  According to the company, Reducing our dependency on both petroleum-based plastics and disposable ware in general, is an essential step toward a healthier future for our families and our environment.

Dandelion uses a unique corn (PLA) formula. Unlike conventional plastic, which is largely made from petroleum, our bioplastic is primarily made from corn! Polylactic acid (PLA) requires significantly less fossil resources, and generates far fewer green house gases than conventional plastic. And corn is a renewable and sustainable resource.

Dandelion ReUsables is sustainability at its best.  Before grabbing a package of those convenient plastic kiddie forks and spoons, consider all the resources it took to get them on the shelf.  Dandelion ReUsables is a fantastic alternative to the conventional options out there.  When we move, I hope to replenish our tableware supply and minimize the usage of plastic by going the corn route.

In addition to forks, knives and spoons, Dandelion also has bowls, plates and soon, sippy cups.  Dandelion ReUsables can be found online and I even saw a link to them at Kmart online.  They range in price, but it looks like they are in the $6-10 pricepoint.

Last year, Michelle Obama visited Sesame Street to tout the importance of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Later in the year, the First Lady cultivated her own organic garden at the White House to further emphasize the value of healthy eating and gardening.

Since then, announcing her Let’s Move campaign, which focuses on combatting childhood obesity, Mrs. Obama has made it her mission to educate families and kids about making healthy choices, including cultivating your own seeds—figuratively and literally.

So, when Sesame Street, together with Ferry Morse, introduced their new line of gardening products geared to kids, the marketplace area at the Annual Easter Egg Roll was an impeccably-timed venue to help even more kids learn about gardening first hand.  The kid and I had a fun time learning how to plant watermelon seeds, or um, excuse me—wataaaahmelons.

The Muppets of Sesame Street can be seen on packets of watermelon, pepper, sunflower, pumpkin, garden beans and tomato seeds, for parents and children to plant together.  The new product line also features Sesame Street-themed gardening totes complete with an activity booklet, seeds, tools, labeling stakes and stickers, a mini garden kit and a mini greenhouse with recipe card.

Sesame Street’s new gardening line is a perfect way to encourage kids to be green while going green.  As part of Sesame Street’s My World is Green and Growing initiative designed to support children’s innate curiosity about nature, each product includes educational materials that teach children how fruits and vegetables begin with seeds and grow to become food for the table.  Additionally, it compliments Sesame Street’s ongoing Healthy Habits for Life initiative, helping children develop healthy lifestyles they can practice forever through fun and simple every day activities.  Materials include a booklet with activities for children, planting tips for parents and healthy recipes parents and children can make and enjoy together.  The following items are available now:

• Seed Packets – $1.99
• My First Mini Greenhouse – $4.99
• My First Mini Garden – $5.99
• My First Gardening Kit (tote) – $10.99

“Research shows that introducing young children to the natural world is the first step towards helping them develop a caring attitude towards the environment,” said Maura Regan, Sesame Workshop’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Licensing states.

Be sure to head to Lowe’s to grab a few gardening items for the kids. I found them at the back of the store, close to the garden center.  Though I wasn’t too impressed with the plastic Sesame Street gardening tools (though, they’d be perfect for the littlest gardeners), the kits do look cool.  Even if you don’t pick up the tote or kits, the seed packets are reasonably priced at $1.99. We’ve got some peppers, sunflowers and green beans to plant!  Let’s hope they fare better than our watermelon seeds which didn’t make it back from DC in tact!

Just in time for prime picnicking weather, Skip Hop, a brand associated with smart, modern and fun designs, has introduced the Central Park Outdoor Blanket + Cooler Bag.  With their new blanket + cooler bag, the NYC-based company covered their bases by meeting parents’ need for portability, functionality and style.

As city dwellers, I find that we’re outside eating all the time, whether it’s for Movie Under the Stars, family concert night in the park or for a regular picnic while we play at the playground. Schlepping a big blanket stuffed in a big bag, in addition to a bag of food or toys can get cumbersome, so I appreciate that this blanket + cooler bag can be carried as a messenger bag or a backpack.

Unfolded, it’s 5×5, but folded up as a bag, it’s 11.5in x 11.5in x 3in, which is compact.  It’s big enough for a small family to sit together, or even just mom or dad and a babe.  It’s seems like it’s easy to wipe clean, but in case there are minor spills, it can be thrown into the washing machine.  The cooler part, isn’t huge.  It looks like it can hold several smaller containers, sandwiches and a few drinks, but not much else.  Less is always more.

The Central Park Outdoor Blanket + Cooler Bag retails for about $45 and is available in the chocolate/uptown stripe or the black/wave dot.  The kid and I plan on spending as much time as possible outdoors this spring and summer, so this would be a perfect addition to our picnicking aresenal.

Skip Hop products can be found at retailers such as BRU, Buy Buy Baby, giggle, Whole Foods and more.