A New HEALTHY recipe that tastes delicious!!! Quinoa Porridge!

 I don't know why, but Lil'L has decided as of late that he doesn't like any of his "go - to" breakfast foods anymore! He won't eat eggs, toast, cereal or fruit... Foods he usually LOVES!  Considering we don't eat meat, don't drink dairy and I don't want to give him a carb / sugar overload first thing in the morning, I really needed a new idea for a breakfast that my boy would eat.  Lil'L loves oatmeal, but I want to make sure that he is getting more protein and vitamins in his diet to make up for the fact that we don't eat meat. Today we tried Quinoa Porridge. Quinoa is a sprouted seed (not a grain as people think it is) that provides a complete protein. I just kind of improvised the recipe, but it turned out super good and Lil'L gobbled it right up.
Here is the recipe! Enjoy!

Daily Deals List UPDATED!

I have put all of the daily deals that I find online into one list for all of you to peruse. There are deals that can't be beat! Click HERE to see the new updated list!

CONTESTS!

Win a shopping spree with Aldo! Visit their website to enter to win a 3 minute all you can grab shopping spree!!
Click here to enter!






Win a $2500 gift card to a destination of your choice from Well.ca!.  Enter for your chance to win. 
Contest ends July 31, 2012.

Enter to win one of two $1000 gift cards to Lululemon! Contest is brought to you by TeamBuy.Ca and ends May 31, 2012. Enter Now!

Go CRAZY with Well.ca!

This long weekend, Well.ca, one of Canada's leading online retailers of green & natural products is offering their customers 5 AMAZING DEALS!!! Each person may only purchase 1 of the 5 deals, so take your pick! Save up to $30 with these limited time coupon codes!
 Read more to see the deals!

Wordless Wednesday

Lil'L 's Birthday Cupcakes

Lil' L turns 1 year old tomorrow, so instead of making a birthday cake, I've decided to make birthday cupcakes....chocolate of course! This recipe is super easy, fast, and best of all vegan friendly. It has no milk, eggs or butter in it at all. This recipe makes super moist, flavourful cupcakes with very little effort...infact, you don't even need to use an electric mixer.

Super EASY Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
(Makes 18)

• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups of sugar
• 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon of vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare muffin tins with cupcake papers.
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Add the liquid ingredients.
Using a wooden spoon or electric mixer, mix until smooth.
Pour into muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes.

Top with your choice of topping. I used a home made buttercream frosting...but if you would like to keep the cupcakes vegan friendly, you could just dust them with powdered sugar to make them look pretty :)

For extra flavour, I added 1 packet of powdered instant coffee (1 cup portion), or you could substitute the water in the recipe for 1 cup of strong brewed coffee. I also added 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. You really could add anything you want to this recipe such as nuts, peanut butter chips etc.

Enjoy!

Decadent "Dairy Free , Sugar free" Chocolate pudding

Now that I am responsible not only for what goes into my body, but also for what goes into my sons body, I have been looking for ways to make yummy snacks that are NUTRITIOUS and delicious. Here is my latest, and trust me, it is AWESOME!

Avocado Chocolate Pudding

Lil'L absolutely LOVES this pudding! I know it may scare you to think of using avocado in a pudding...but trust me, it works wonderfully. Plus, this is a SUPER healthy way for your kids to get an extra serving of veg.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

• 1 Avocado
• 1/4 Cup of raw honey
• 1/4 Cup of cocoa powder or raw cocoa
• 1 tsp. Pure vanilla extract
•  1/4 Cup of soy milk, almond milk, or water (whatever you so desire)

Combine the avocado (diced, and pitted),  honey, cocoa and vanilla in a blender. Add the soy milk (or whatever "milk" liquid you chose) by the spoonful as you blend until you achieve your desired consistency.

The only thing left to do is eat it!
Enjoy!

Immigration Update

I mailed our applications for a Family Class - Spousal Sponsorship application to Citizenship and Immigration Canada on August 18, 2011. It was received and entered into the system on August 25, 2011. The processing guidelines on the CIC website indicated that the processing time for the sponsorship portion (my part) of the application could take up to 70 days (it is now currently 55 days). On November 2, 2011 I received a letter from CIC stating that my sponsorship request had been approved (YAY!) and that our application for permanent residence would be forwarded to the Canadian Consulate in Colombia to be processed. The processing guidelines given for the second portion of the application is listed as 17 months.
17 months is a LONG time to wait for my husband to come to Canada, but there is nothing we can do to speed it up, so we just have to wait. I  check the "Client Application Status" website every Wednesday (it's updated every Tuesday) in hopes that by some miracle, our application has been processed unusually fast...and normally I am disappointed. On March 1, 2012 our status on the website changed! We are now "In Process" rather than just "Application Received". It blows my mind that it took them 4 months to ever START processing it...but it is good news I guess. Now we just have to wait and see how much longer we have to wait. Keeping my fingers Crossed that it's not tooo much longer.

Theme Days

In order to keep things informative...and INTERESTING, I have decided to dedicate a theme to each day, and write a post based on said theme. I need to stick with the whole eco-friendly, natural parenting thing...since that is what my blog is about, and was wondering what you all think. Any ideas for themes you would like to see? Leave me a comment and let me know. 
Here are a few ideas that I have in mind:

• Natural Alternative Mondays - Giving a natural alternative / solution to replace common products and activities.
• Cloth Diaper Tuesdays - Info on anything and everything cloth diaper related.
• Wordless Wednesdays - Only pics, no writing.
• Attachment Parenting Thursdays - Info on different aspects of attachment parenting
• Fun Fridays - Something fun related.
• Blog Hop Saturdays - I will host a blog hop every Saturday.
• Let's get cookin' Sundays - A new healthy recipe that is delicious.

Of course, I will also post other things as they come to mind...but on those dry days, or when I just can't manage to come up with something interesting, at least there will be SOMETHING to read. :)

xo
Erin & Lil'L

What's in YOUR childs cereal?

I was browsing some websites tonight, and came across a very interesting report on popular cereals. Definately something that parents should read. Although I am extremely diligent in my label reading when I buy cereals, every once in a while I end up with something that I WANT rather than what is good for me...or the baby.  I must admit, that lately I have  been wondering what the deal is with the fruitloops that Lil' L likes so very much....now I know.  Check it out.

http://static.ewg.org/reports/2011/cereals/pdf/2011-EWG-Cereals-Report.pdf