One of the few ready-made packaged foods I buy now and then is organic all-fruit fruit leather strips. They’re a very special treat for Miss G and I don’t feel horrible about letting her have one once and a while (as long as her teeth are brushed extra well that day), but I’ve always known that I should probably be making them at home instead. Recently, our local grocery store stopped restocking their organic fruit leather supply (I think they’re getting rid of the current stock and then no longer carrying them) and they were down to just two lonely strips on our last visit. It was the perfect push I needed to try making my own.
Today I asked Gracen if she’d like to try making some fruit leather of our own, and she responded enthusiastically with, “Sure! Purple ones.” so I decided we’d try a berry variety first. Since we don’t really buy many berries when they’re out of season, we went with what we had in the freezer – strawberries, raspberries, and wild blueberries. Plus an apple and half a lemon for texture and a little kick.
As we were prepping the fruit, which really only consists of peeling and coring the apple, we decided to add a banana in the mix for sweetness.
With all of the ingredients ready to go, Gracen popped them into a large pot…
Then squeezed the lemon on top…
And added a little bit of water.
Then we popped the mixture on the stove to stew over medium heat for a while.
About a half hour later, this is what we had.
We let it cool for a little bit and then dumped it in the food processor to puree for a bit.
With our mixture nice and smooth, we lined a baking sheet with parchment paper…
And poured our berry mixture on top.
Using a spatula, we spread the mixture out to cover the entire base of the pan (on our next attempt, I’d spend a little more time getting it as evenly as possible) and put the pan in the oven on the lowest temperature.
Eight and a half hours later (yes – it takes a long time!) this is what we had.
We carefully peeled off the parchment paper…
And then I used kitchen scissors to cut it into strips.
A little parchment paper and baking twine later, we had our own homemade {and healthy!} version of a Fruit Roll-Up. ☺
Banana Berry Fruit Leather
- 1 cup of raspberries, frozen or fresh
- 1 cup of strawberries, frozen or fresh
- 1 cup of blueberries, frozen or fresh
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 Granny Smith apple
- juice of 1/2 of a lemon
- 1/3 cup of water
♥
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After drying off the coins, we spread them out on a plastic serving tray…
During.
After.
A sweet little style.
Celebratory pony ride.
While on Christmas vacation in the Okanagan, I finally came across something I’d been on the lookout for for a while now… Old-school 
Gracen was really excited about trying skating, so we got suited up and hit the ice. At first, we skated hand in hand, her taking quick small steps on the slippery surface and I doing my best to balance the both of us. After a few minutes, I realized we’d both be better off starting with one of the plastic support apparatuses (thank heavens for them!) It was so much easier, especially with my rusty skating skills involved. Grae stood in front with me behind her and all was good. In fact, we happily made it all the way down the ice and halfway back again before she took her first spill. That’s when things started going downhill a wee bit. While she’d been confident and happy for the first bit, after the fall she was anxious and much more cautious. Though I got her up and having fun again, she told me several times ‘Dis ice is soooooo slippery. Too slippery, Mama!’ 
In an effort to turn things around, I offered to push her on a chair for a bit like many of the other parents were doing with their kids. Needless to say, with the risk of falling removed and the fact that she could glide across the ice at super speed without really having to put forth any effort added in, she loved it.
With spirits boosted from a good long chair ride, we hit the ice again and tried holding hands and using a cone for support. 
The perfect way to cap off a Sunday. ☺
A new goal of mine is to explore places around our beautiful city that we don’t usually venture out to. So today, the three of us headed out, walked the seawall along Beach Avenue (stopping to visit the inukshuk and explore the beach), and visited a new-to-us 
So tonight, as I was whipping together some dinner, I thought of a little game that would allow Miss G (my purple dinosaur) to be right there in the kitchen with me, while allowing me a wee bit of space. Flipping some chicken using tongs caused me to remember the mini tongs we’d put in Grae’s Christmas stocking. I added two bowls and some shell pasta to the mix, and we had a game on our hands.
The goal? Simply using the tongs to pick up the shells from one bowl and transfer them to the other bowl.
Now this may sound ridiculously easy, but for a toddler who’s had minimal experience with tongs and whose motor skills are not yet fully developed, it’s quite a challenge at first.
But not for long. After successfully transferring all of the pasta pieces twice, Gracen asked for something new. I quickly scanned our kitchen and came up these honey mandarins.
I could already see that her tong transferring skills had improved this time around.
After a couple of rounds with the oranges, Miss G wanted to try something new again, so we dug these bells out of a craft box to use. 
sous chef // best part of baking
Us.
Growing up, there was a group of 7 of us girls who were extremely close. Throughout the years, some of us have moved, married, developed careers, and had babies, and all of us have grown up and changed. The thing is, bring us all together again, and it’s as close to effortless as friendship can be. 
Breakfast // Organic shredded wheat cereal with hemp hearts, frozen blueberries, fresh raspberries, and organic milk.
Breakfast // French toast (made with omega seed bread) with plain organic yogurt, frozen blueberries, a TINY drizzle of pure maple syrup, and a sprinkling of cinnamon.
Breakfast // Wholewheat cinnamon raisin English muffin with all-natural peanut butter. Kiwi slices. Fresh raspberries.
Breakfast // Parmesan basil scrambled eggs. Homestyle potatoes with onions and peppers. Flaxseed toast.
Breakfast // 
Breakfast // Flaxseed toast with all-natural peanut butter, chia seeds, and hemp hearts.
Breakfast // Wholewheat ‘Gracen’ 
Lunch // 
Lunch // Black bean veggie quesadilla on an Ezekiel 4:9 tortilla with sour cream and fresh avocado.
Lunch // Parmesan and avocado toast. Carrot sticks and hummus. Apple slices.
Lunch // 
Lunch // Chicken, tofu, and veggie stir-fry on fresh rice noodles.
Lunch // Curried tuna and apple salad on a tomato wrap. Red pepper slices. Roasted squash.
Lunch // 
Dinner // Wholewheat spaghetti with spicy turkey tomato sauce and fresh parmesan. Roasted Brussels sprouts.
Dinner // Creamy corn and veggie soup. Multi-seed flatbread with humus.
Dinner // Harvest grains, steamed veggies, and sesame tempeh.
Dinner // Parmesan and walnut encrusted chicken. Roasted Brussels sprouts. Roasted golden beets with feta. Cheese ravioli with herbs and spices brought home from Italy.
Dinner // Tuscan sausage soup with shell pasta, spinach, and white beans. Parmesan rye spears. 
Dinner // Homemade pizza (BBQ chicken and roasted veggie and feta).
Dinner // Wholewheat penne with tomato basil turkey sauce and feta.
I know that green smoothies may seem a little trendy with all of the New Year’s resolutions happening right now, but the truth is that they’re really easy, really healthy, and pretty much a fool-proof way to start your day. 
Here’s the lineup of ingredients… Some cold water, several ice cubes, pure orange juice (or better yet – a fresh squeezed orange), half an apple, a pear, a banana, and a few kale leaves.
To get started, peel the banana, chop up the pear, and peel and chop the apple (as long as you don’t mind some added texture, feel free to leave the apple peel on).
Now pop those things into the blender {while sneaking a few bites of course}.
Next, remove the stems from the kale.
And add it to the blender along with the orange juice, water, and ice cubes.
This part isn’t necessary and certainly doesn’t change the flavour, but we always add a big scoop of chia seeds to our smoothies. The nutritional benefits of chia are amazing and it keeps your smoothie from separating if you store extras in the fridge overnight. Bonus!
Next, blend everything up. We normally start on a low setting until the ingredients are combined, then crank it up and let it blend a while longer so that it doesn’t feel as though you’re drinking a salad. ☺
Now pour into cups and enjoy!
