Guest Post: Marvelous Zucchini Muffins With Cubit's Organic Living (Plus A Giveaway!)

Tonight I bring you a tasty guest post & a yummy giveaway to boot! Say hello to Laura, of Cubit's Organic Living fame. She's a rad Toronto blogger, a purveyor of seeds and an all around awesome mama. Enjoy her zucchini muffin recipe, and enter to win below!

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These muffins are one of our favourites. A nice combination of seasonal vegetable and whole ingredients that everyone will happily eat.

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 cup sunflower oil (or another light cooking oil like grapeseed or canola)
1 small zucchini grated
2 large carrot grated
1 cup raisins
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cut steal cut oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350. Line or grease 24 muffin cups.
Whisk eggs, sugar and honey together.
Add the oil, then vanilla, and then the grated zucchini and carrots along with the raisins.

Combine your dry ingredients in another bowl.
Whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and oats together.

Combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients together slowly.
Divide the mixture evenly into your greased or lined muffin tins.
Bake 18-20 minutes at 350.
Remove from tins and cool on wire racks.

These are so good. Sometimes I throw half a cup of finely chopped walnuts for extra goodness. Enjoy!

GIVEAWAY
Laura has generously offered one of you a lovely prize, including:
A copy of An Illustrated Guide to Growing Food on your Balcony -- a great container gardening resource
5 packs of Cubit's Organic seeds -- for growing some yummy muffin ingredients!

HOW TO ENTER
Please comment with your favourite breakfast ideas, especially for finicky toddlers, along with your email.

For additional entries (leave one comment per entry):

• Follow @sofawned on Twitter
• Follow @Cubits on Twitter
• Like So Fawned on Facebook
• Like Cubit's Organic Living on Facebook

Open to Canada & US. Giveaway ends January 18th @ noon! A winner will be chosen at random & announced here. Merci & best wishes!

Update: The winner is Steph Diaz! Congrats!

Guest Post: 6 Instant Ways to Stress Less and Smile More With Life & Beauty Weekly's Catherine Ryan

After the way August has been kicking my butt, I figured I was just about due for a little treat this morning. I hope you enjoy these great tips from the lovely ladies over at Life & Beauty Weekly. Tea time!

You can’t completely eliminate stress from your life, but you can learn to deal with it in a healthy way. And since stress is associated with all sorts of negative health effects like high blood pressure and a weakened immune system, taking a few minutes a day to fight stress keeps you not only happy and smiling, but healthy too.

“Daily hassles and annoyances can get to anyone, but small changes make a big difference,” explains Judy Saltzberg, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s Masters of Applied Positive Psychology program. Here’s how to keep smiling:

1. Take it outside.
“The first intervention I advise is physical activity,” says Saltzberg. Even if you don’t have time for a full workout, you can still boost your happiness. A study from the University of Essex found that just five minutes of walking, biking or even gardening outdoors can lift your mood and improve self-esteem.

Health bonus: Aside from melting away stress, you’ll melt calories too!

2. Find time for tea.
Sipping a few cups of tea may make you more resilient to stress, according to research from the University College of London. Study participants who drank four cups of black tea a day had less of the stress hormone cortisol in their body after completing a challenging task than did those who didn’t drink tea.

Health bonus: Tea’s antioxidants may ward off some cancers, improve heart health and decrease risk of stroke.

3. Pop a piece of gum.
Under pressure? Chewing gum could help, say experts at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. Researchers found that people who chewed while multitasking reported feeling less anxious and less stressed than their gum-free peers. They also felt more alert and performed twice as well on stressful tasks.

Health bonus: Chewing sugarless gum after meals will not only reduce stress, but it can also help fight bacteria that cause cavities.

4. Indulge in dark chocolate.
Dessert probably puts a smile on your face already, but now there’s proof of chocolate’s joy-boosting benefits. German researchers found that people who ate 1.5 ounces of dark chocolate a day for two weeks had significantly lower levels of anxiety- and stress-related hormones in their system.

Health bonus: Dark chocolate may also contribute to lower blood pressure and reduce your risk of stroke or heart attack by 39 percent, suggests a study in the European Heart Journal.

5. Stop and smell the flowers.
Sniff your way to serenity and fight off sickness by keeping a bouquet of roses on your desk, wearing citrus-scented lotion or getting a whiff of cinnamon. Stress can wreak havoc on your immune system, but Japanese scientists found that when people inhaled a scent compound common in flowers, herbs and spices, their systems kept functioning normally in spite of the stress.

Health bonus: Smelling lavender before bed can help you sleep better, according to a study in Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery.

6. Flip your perspective.
Focusing on the positive in a stressful situation can help keep you smiling, says Saltzberg. Instead of stewing on a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam, for example, think of it as an opportunity to call an old friend. “Tuning into your thinking and challenging doomsday thoughts can put a situation in perspective,” says Saltzberg. And that defuses the tension.

Health bonus: A glass-half-full approach has been linked to faster recovery from injury and illness, according to research in the Journal of Personality.

After a few weeks of practicing these techniques, you’ll not only feel happier, but you can rest easy knowing you’re healthier too -- which is one less thing for you to stress about!



Photo source.

20SB Blog Swap: Summertime

Today I'm participating in the big blog swap hosted by some fine folks over at 20 Something Bloggers. Please enjoy this lovely snippet (and tasty recipe!) from my partner Alexandra, over at The Little Crumbs. Also be sure to visit her site today for my guest post as well. Happy Wednesday!

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Hello, So Fawned readers! It is my great pleasure to have been selected as the guest writer on this blog! I thought I should start with a quick bio of myself:

I currently own my own catering business with my mom and sister. I am an opera singer, I play piano and also teach piano. I was raised in a Christian home and am very active in my church. My mother’s love for entertaining and cooking for our family and others, has rubbed off on me completely! I have been in the kitchen for as far back as I can remember, and loved every minute of it. I started my blog, The Little Crumbs, about three year ago. Writing was never something I thought I was very good at, but I wanted to share with people the foods I loved, and I have always wanted people to enjoy them with me!

The subject of this post is supposed to be about my summer. And I have been racking my brain with some witty stories to tell you, or just an amazing event that made my summer complete. Well, I don't have one! It's not that my summer was boring, or that it didn't contain memorable things. I was just looking back over the summer and realized it’s just been pure relaxation.

I swam almost every day (in 115 degree weather!!), spent time with family and friends, and just enjoyed myself. So even though it wasn't filled with a European cruise, it was great!

During this summer it seemed like my sister and I were always whipping something up in the kitchen. Whether it was for ourselves, a church event, or a party we were throwing, when one of us was in the kitchen baking away, the other was going through cookbooks to find our next creation.

This dessert was found by my sister and was made for my darling little cousin’s 6th birthday party. This dessert fit that occasion perfectly!

Rich chocolate cake, combined with a raspberry infused icing and some fresh raspberries on top! To me that is a perfect summer dessert!

Elegant Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Icing

CHOCOLATE CAKE

*3 cups flour

*3 cups sugar

*1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

*1/4 teaspoon salt

*3 large eggs

*3/4 cup sour cream

*2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

*1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter

*3/4 cup cocoa powder

*1 1/2 cups hot water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake sheet pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sour cream, and vanilla. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the butter and stir in the cocoa powder, and hot water. Bring the mixture to a boil and then remove from the heat. Cool slightly, and incorporate the cocoa mixture with the dry ingredients, mixing just until blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely.

RASPBERRY SAUCE

*1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

*12 oz of raspberries fresh or frozen

*1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

*3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar

*Pinch of salt

*1-2 tablespoons whole milk, room temperature

*Fresh raspberries for the top

Put raspberries in a small sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a spoon until they break down the sauce. Pour the sauce through a fine mesh strainer to take out seeds. And then put the seedless sauce back in the pot and simmer until it reduces to a 1/4 cup of a very concentrated raspberry sauce.

Set aside to cool. When raspberry sauce is at room temperature, cream the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer, using a paddle attachment. Then add about 2 cups of powdered sugar, then raspberry sauce 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Process until smooth. Add another 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and continue to mix until it is spreading consistency, adding the milk to make it less stiff.

Now taste the frosting, if you like it as is, then you’re done. If you would like it to be sweeter, add additional powdered sugar and milk to get to the flavor you want.

Top with fresh raspberries and Enjoy!

**I would like to thank Desiree for allowing me to share my little crumbs with you!
Please check out my blog for more recipes, that you and your family will thoroughly enjoy!

Guest Post: A 5 Step Guide To Giving With The Conscious Perspective's Heidi Oran

Today I'm excited to be sharing an important post written by one of my lovely friends & blogging cohorts, Heidi, who has recently started a new blog called The Conscious Perspective. If you've ever felt the urge to reach out to a cause, a charity or organization, but weren't sure how to go about it -- then this is the post for you. Enjoy!

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The degree of suffering in our world today is apparent in society on a mass scale. Every time we turn on the news, visit a website, or check our Twitter accounts, many of us are reminded that our lives are actually quite charmed.

We recently shared a study stating that many of us today feel that we cannot be truly happy in our own lives when there is such great suffering in the rest of the world. This proves that now more then ever we as a society are compelled to do something; to make a difference.

There are millions of charities and other non-profit organizations currently operating throughout the world. So, how do we begin to find out how we can help to make a difference? What steps should we take? These are questions I have asked myself, and have heard others ponder as well.

With all of the amazing resources available to help us learn more about charities at our fingertips, we can make informed decisions, and feel good about them.

It can be overwhelming when you first begin thinking about giving back, and in order to help you get started we have created a 5-Step-Guide To Giving . We can’t change the world all on our own, but each of us is an integral part of the process.

01. Think about what cause is near and dear to your heart

There are many degrees of giving. Think about where you would most like to see a change. In your local community, your country, or internationally. I know many people who take comfort in knowing that they are making a difference in their local community and can see the results. This may even provide a hands-on volunteering opportunity on a regular basis.

Others may feel a pull towards a certain cause that is international. Your donation could be monetary, you could be a voice for the cause, or you could even visit an area to help out which would no doubt be a life-changing experience. The reality of the situation is that there are no shortage of causes. Give yourself some quiet time to think about what ranks high on your list of importance.

02. Research the cause

Once you have decided on the cause(es) that are most important to you, spend some time researching the subject. Make use of the internet, just be sure that the sites you are using are legitimate. Become informed and learn about where help is needed and change is required the most within the situation. This will allow you to know where to direct your efforts.

03. Visit a charitable organization ranking website

Luckily for us, there are many websites available that rank and/or compare charities. This is a comforting thought, as we often hear of corruption and issues with finances in charities. Websites such as Charity Navigator are there for us to use and learn from. Their site in particular is jam-packed with insightful articles and ratings.

04. Compare your top choices

You may have felt compelled to select more than one cause, and more than one charity. This is great and there is no reason to fret and narrow down your list. Unless you are blessed with a steady flow of extra cash and time however, you may need to compare your causes for now and select which one may be more realistic for you to focus on.

Once you have selected your cause, you may then need to compare charities. It is important that you connect with them – visit their websites, Twitter, Facebook. If what you are seeing/reading feels right to you, then you can take the next step

05. Take action

You have many options for taking action. You can assist financially which is always necessary with any charity. You may plan a trip or look into volunteering opportunities abroad or locally*. Or you can use the power of social media and your voice to spread the word to raise funds and awareness about the cause.

* If you are able to donate your time, but are having trouble coming up with the cash to get to where you need to be, consider holding a fundraiser to help you pay the way. This is another way to get others involved and include your community.

Heidi is a work-at-home mom with two young boys, living on a farm in a small city outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Visit her blog & Facebook page. Follow @conscious_blog on Twitter.

Guest Post: On Being An Attached Nanny with Birth Routes' Amber Morrisey

I'm really honoured to share this beautiful post with you today, mes amis. As an attachment parenting mama, I know that when I was searching for someone to care for my daughter, many aspects of my parenting style became my reason for choosing the wonderful daycare that she now attends. It's not impossible to find a caregiver to mesh with the way you enjoy raising your children. Read on as Amber Morrisey of Birth Routes gives an in depth look into her life as an attachment parenting nanny. She's also included some wonderful tips for finding an AP style caregiver for your own children. Brilliant!

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I'm not a huge fan of labeling people in general, but if I must, you'd hear me say I'm an attachment parenting style nanny.

Attachment is a natural process of bonding with the children I mind, but I'm talking a bit past just the attachment of being close to someone day in and day out, I'm talking about the entire way of caring and treating the children I mind.

As a nanny, I treat the children I mind as if they were my own (or, as close to that as one can imagine, since I do not have my own children to contrast to). I strive to achieve a deep bond with them, form strong relationships based on trust, and "parent" to their cues. This to me is just normal, so I find it hard to describe in some ways.

I am recently in a new nanny job, and at the beginning of our relationship together. As a care provider, I have so much catching up to do - learning to identify subtle cues, what they like and what they don't, sleeping styles and personalities. So much to learn about these two new children in my life, and it takes a lot of attention and hands on loving care as possible. I babywear my nannybabies as much as possible, including wearing both at the same time (they are 8 months and 12 months), I love to undoonesie snaps and get in some good skin-to-skin back rubs, I rock them to sleep in my arms or lay with them depending on their moods. One is bottle fed by me during the day (breastfed by mom when together), and I try to simulate the environment of closeness, holding him for feeds and talking to him. He isn't one to look at me when feeding, and I respect that, we hold hands instead.

The sun is high in the sky, this Friday afternoon, as we curl up together on the bed.
You are cuddled in as I wrap my arm around you, patting the belly of the baby on your side. Some fussing, like usual as you drift off to sleep, eyes popping open to ensure I am still here even though I'm singing and we are touching. You always take a bit longer to let go, as your sweaty hair curls against the pillow. I lay here next to you both wondering if you dream together as you fall asleep within ten minutes of each other. Watching as you both enter stillness, then later restlessness of sleep. I know one of you has to pee, as you often do about 45 minutes into dreamland, waking only slightly, then back to sleep. One of you wakes before the other, with a stretch and wide eyes, I take you for a pee and when I return the other baby is stirring awake also. Ready for hugs, and a new diaper, and a snack and a play. Just another sleepy nap, midday.

So why do I bother being all attached and connected? What is the big deal?

Simple - these children are away from the warmth of their parents arms, put into a strangers. That is a lot of stress on their systems already. My goal as an attached caregiver is for the children to feel loved and cared for, and trust me fully so that they can bloom as close to as they would with their parents - I want them to be in a state of peace. I want them to know I understand them, or I am trying my very hardest. To feel validated, respected and heard. Sometimes part of being attached is just easier I couldn't imagine trying to provide care to 2 children without the help of my many carriers. And sometimes I assume it's harder (although, I can't confirm this, since I've never been not me, so you know), I don't prop bottles, or ignore cues, or close my ears off to them. I don't let them cry to sleep alone, or care for them in any way that is all that more convenient for the care provider, but difficult on them. I do allow them room to grow, and crawl, and gain independence away for me, of course. It's beautiful to watch.

Sure, I push a stroller (with two carriers in the bottom just in case), I cannot always answer every cry immediately if I'm busy with the another (but I talk through it, letting them know why and when I will be able to), and sometimes I know the 8 month old is popping and I'm not able to take him to the toilet because I'm otherwise busy. I'm not perfect. But who is, right?

I get asked a lot how to find someone who is like me....or people trying to hire me. In my experience, it can take time to find someone who lines up well with your belief system and also what you can afford and what you need.

• I post ads on Craigslist and Kijiji. I often rotate different ads, one more generic ad and one more detailed including words like "attachment parenting", "cloth diapers", "babywearing", in hopes that people using the search functions on the site will find it.
• Do the same, search the site for similar key words and try to not only find caregivers, but also families that pull up those words, tell them you are looking for an AP nanny or whatever you are looking for.
• Tell your friends that parent in a similar way that you are looking for a caregiver, most of my nanny jobs are nanny-shares where the families split my wages 50/50, making it more affordable for them.
• When hosting your interviews, try to not tell them your whole philosophy of raising your child, ask them open ended questions like "how do you discipline", "what do you think of bed sharing", "do you know how to heat and handle breastmilk", "what do you think of cloth diapers" etc. This will give you a better insight into what they actual believe, then just landing a job.
• Check references! Ask previous families specific questions as well, not just did they work there, for how long etc. Nanny references are more than just checking on employment, they offer amazing insight into how the nanny helps to raise your family.
• Consider a co-parent co-op childcare share. Find like minded families and organize alternating care amoungst yourselves for more part-time relief, it can also work on a full-time basis, but I've seen it work much better part-time.
• Join parenting groups online that align with your beliefs, and tell them you are looking for childcare. Spread the word.

At the end of the day, I'm not an "attachment parenting nanny", I'm just one caring person in the village that raises them. Warm arms ready to snuggle, fingers for tickling, and a shoulder to sleep against. I'm just "parenting" in how I'd like to be treated, fairly, with compassion and with love.

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Amber Morrisey is a nanny, birth & postpartum doula, Reiki practitioner, placenta encapsulator and babywearing educator. You can read more at her blog, Birth Routes.

Guest Post: Feeding Your Toddler With Your Green Baby's Kim Corrigan-Oliver

I have a seriously exciting guest post to share with you lovelies today! I'm so lucky to have a holistic nutritionist friend in my circle and today, Kim (of Your Green Baby fame!) is here to share her tips for feedings toddlers -- something we all know can be a bit of a test. This rad post comes along with a delightful surprise as well, so keep reading. You'll be walking away with a whole range of ideas for helping your tot to develop a wonderful relationship with food!

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Toddlerhood comes with many challenges. One which often concerns parents is food. There are many different food challenges in the toddler years, here are a few:

• The toddler who can’t sit still long enough to eat.
• The toddler who suddenly decides not to eat anything, and I mean anything.
• The toddler who becomes picky, only eating foods that are red, not eating foods that are green, eating only cooked foods...you get the picture.
• The toddler who loves food and will jump in and try anything (I know, this one is hard to believe, but there are some of these toddlers out there).

So what can you do? Here are a few tips for feeding your toddler:

1. You can’t force them to eat. So, instead, relax. Prepare the meal and offer it. Let your toddler decide what to eat and how much to eat.
2. Don’t become a short order cook. Make one meal for everyone. If your toddler it not interested in eating it, no worries. Do not head into the kitchen to whip up something else.
3. Make food easy to eat. Cut food up into perfect size pieces for easy eating. This makes it easy for your toddler to use their hands to eat, or to try using a spoon or fork.
4. Offer small amounts of food. Too much food on your toddler’s plate can scare them. Instead offer small amounts of food and let them ask for more if they want it. It gives them control.
5. Keep offering the foods they reject. It can take up to 15 times before a food is accepted, you have to keep trying.
6. For picky eaters, serve new foods or foods they dislike with favourite foods to increase the chance they will give it a try.
7. Add a dip. I have yet to meet a toddler who didn’t like to dip. Use mashed avocados, hummus, apple sauce, salsa, tomato sauce, etc to get your toddler’s interest.
8. Make food fun. Serve meals up on a fun plate or use a muffin tin. Cut food into shapes. Make faces or spell their name with the food. Just have fun with it.
9. Offer foods in different ways. Cut up fruit on a plate may not be well received, but put it on a wooden skewer and all of sudden it is fun and exciting. Instead of steamed cauliflower, mash it and bake it. Try roasting vegetables to really bring out the flavour. Add herbs and spices to tickle their tiny taste buds.
10. Set a good example. I hate to say it, but if mom and dad don’t eat their veggies, you can’t expect your toddler to. What you do speaks so much louder than what you say. If your toddler sees you enjoying food and trying new things, they will be more likely to do the same.

Feeding a toddler can be a tough; I won’t lie to you about that. They are going through a stage where they want to assert some of the independence and decision making skills. I suggest not making food a battle. Serve it up, sit back and let them take control. They will eat, eventually...


In the meantime here is a toddler snack to tickle your toddler’s tiny taste buds! 

Brown Rice Crisp Squares
½ cup brown rice syrup
1tsp vanilla
¼ cup pumpkin seed butter
¼ cup tahini (sesame seed butter)
2tbsp chia seeds
2tbsp hemp seeds
2tbsp sunflower seeds
2tbsp pumpkin seeds
5 cups organic rice crisp cereal (I use Nature’s Path)

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Heat brown rice syrup, vanilla and seed butters in a saucepan over low to medium heat until the mixture is easy to stir. Remove from heat.
Add the dry ingredients and stir well to coat.
Put mixture in an 8×11 pan and press flat with a wooden spoon. Let cool and cut into squares.

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Thank you so much to Kim for this incredibly informative post! And let me tell you -- those brown rice crisp squares are beyond tasty! You'll be making them on a regular basis, I promise. Yum! And as an added treat, Kim is offering a brand spanking-new copy of her book, Raising Happy Healthy Babies, for one of my readers! This book includes a wealth of information about nutrition from preconception through babyhood, and includes 95 yummy recipes to try.

For your chance to win, simply comment below with your fav toddler treat, or family mealtime tip. If you wanted an extra entry or so, you can feel free to tweet/Facebook/blog about the giveaway -- just be sure to leave a comment for each. Merci, merci! (Winner will be announced June 1st.)

Best wishes, mes amis -- and if you just can't wait to get your hands on this book, you can purchase your own copy for just $25 via Your Green Baby. No mama should be without this one -- it's just that good!

Guest Post: Everything You Ever Needed To Know About Car Seat Safety!

Hello, friends! I'm really excited to be sharing this guest post from my friend Emma: The Car Seat Expert! She has kindly put together this fabulous post all about the installation and use of car seats!

In the summertime, Emma actually spotted this photo on my blog and sent a message to help me correct the strap positioning above Gretchen's shoulders! Thank goodness!

Enjoy this must-read post! You'll be glad you did!

Read more...