Winter Carseat Safety!

Winter Carseat Safety!

As winter has arrived, I feel the need to remind or inform some parents of some winter no-nos for carseat safety!

1. Winter Coats: Thick winter coats or snowsuits can compromise your child's safety. In order for a childs carseat to function properly, the straps need to remain tight against the child's chest. It is unsafe to put a thick coat, snowsuit, or blanket on under the harness of a car seat because in a crash the coat would compress, making the straps too loose and possibly allowing the child to be ejected from the seat. Also when compressed the straps are not tight against the child making the child lurch forward more in a crash, not keeping the child in the safe position they should.

2. Bundle Me Bags - A big No-no, but sadly sold regularly at local stores as a great winter alternative. Again they are unsafe to have in an infant carseat as they have too much padding between the baby and the back of the seat. This padding would also compress in a collision, causing the fit of the straps to not be tight enough to safely protect a child.

Check out this video to see more info

Solutions:

1. Put your child's coat on backwards while driving. No need to zip up, place your child in their seat without a coat and simply put their coat on backwards, left open.
2. Purchase a nice warm, fleece jacket. A good quality fleece jacket is good in temperatures of up to -40c. (Great ones available at LLBean!)
3. Put a blanket over your child, as long as its not interfering with the straps.
4. Make, or purchase a carseat poncho, or even use a snuggy!
5. For infants, a safe alternative to the Bundle Bags are simply using the kind which goes OVER the seat known as a Cozy Cover, in which nothing is placed inside the seat (pictured below). So you can dress your baby in something warm, then put a blanket over them if you wish to keep them warm, then stretch this over their seat, has a small flap to lift up to see your baby!

So overview:

No-Nos = Big Bulky Coats & Bundle Me Bags:

Winter Alternatives that work!! Covers, Light Fleece Jackets and car seat ponchos!!

Blueberry Popsciles!

Couple days ago we made some yummy, super simple Blueberry Popscicles!

In our trusty Magic Bullet, I whipped up some Vanilla Yogurt, Fresh local Blueberries and a little milk up. Poured it into the popscicle mold and froze it over night. Next day we had yummy Blueberry Popscicles after supper! Kids LOVE them!

Rainbow Cupcakes!

We recently had a family day and Button and I set out to make a delicious desert. We decided to make Rainbow Cupcakes! Its super simple but a little messy ;)

First make up some white cake mix and seperate it into a couple bowls, depending how many colours you want.

Next take some food colouring and make a couple colours of your choice up.

Next scoop one colour at a time with a spoon and put a little bit in each muffin tin. Layer in different orders to get different results!

Bake according to instructions!

Put on icing and enjoy! Kids LOVE them! As you can see from the background mess of this pic ;)

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes!

I made these this morning for the boys (pics to come, i need more time on my phone to email them lol)

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients

•1 cup (250 mL) large-flake oatmeal

•1 cup (250 mL) whole wheat flour

•1/4 cup (50 mL) brown sugar

•1 tsp (5 mL) each baking powder and baking soda

•1/4 tsp (1 mL) each salt and nutmeg

•2 ripe bananas

•2 eggs

•1 cup (250 mL) plain yogurt (we use Vanilla)

•1/2 cup (125 mL) milk

•1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla

•1/4 cup (50 mL) melted butter or vegetable oil

1. In a large bowl, stir oatmeal with flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. In another large bowl, mash banana with a fork. Then whisk in eggs and yogourt. Stir in milk and vanilla. Make a well in oatmeal mixture. Pour in banana mixture and stir until blended. Then stir in butter or vegetable oil.

2. Drop batter into by 1/4 cupful.

Fruit Rollups!

So I decided this morning to set out on a mission to make my own Fruit Rollups (or Fruit Leather). Was a little worried about this one... but I think it worked out decent!

Button wasnt a huge fan of them (but hes in a I hate everything mood lately) but Bear & I both liked it (which is huge cause Im a picky eater ;)). Waiting on DH when he gets home to give us his verdict.

So this is how they're made!

In a blender, blend strawberries until an even liquid. (I used about 10 strawerries, next time Ill do more to make more)

No more chunks!

Spread out on a greased pan, I decided to do small circles, next time I might do the whole pan...

Bake in the oven at 150f for 2-3 hours, checking to see when its finished. When its done it will no longer be sticky (in the middle, outsides cook faster).

Finished product:

And the taste tester:

Shortbread Cookies

This week I had a craving for shortbread cookies. Ive never been able to get these right, so I decided to turn to the always reliable all recipes . I found one to try that's super easy and had great comments, read a bunch of comments to see what they had to say and went for it! Recipe doesnt make very much (maybe 12-15 small cookies) so adjust or double if you're looking for more...

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C.)
2. Combine butter or margarine, flour and confectioner's sugar and beat for 5-10 minutes. (I only did 5 minutes, they looked right then)
3. Drop from teaspoon onto cookie sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes (I did 15 minutes, from what I read from others, bake until the tops start to golden, otherwise they will be crumbly. I did this and they turned out perfect!)
5. Make sure to take them off baking sheet to cool on a cooling rack. If you leave them on the baking sheet they will continue to cook from the heat inside the baking sheet. If the tops are golden, this shouldn't be hard, cookies from start firm and transfer easily.

Enjoy!

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

My kids love to have muffins for breakfast, or a snack, so yesterday morning Button and I decided to make some Healthy Blueberry Muffins from a new recipe I found online. They turned out good, not as fully as they said they'd be but Button says they taste good! lol It's a variation of a recipe someone found online, which they substituted whole wheat flour instead of white (I actually used 7 grain flour cause I was out of whole wheat), canola oil instead of butter, and plain yogurt instead of sour cream. Heres the recipe we used:

Healthy Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Steps:

1. Pre-heat oven to 425F. While you wait, grease a 12-cup muffin pan (or line with paper baking cups, I use silicone baking cups from Epicure). In a large bowl, whisk the oil and sugar until combined. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Whisk in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, and salt). Add the dry mixture to the egg mixture in two batches, alternating with the plain yogurt. Add in the blueberries and fold gently.
2. Fill the muffin cups half full and bake for 12 to 15 minutes (I found in my oven I had to bake them longer, I think I was about 18 minutes). Remove from pan and let cool. Yield: 12 muffins (I got 14!).
3. ENJOY!

My little naked chef (he does have bottoms on for the record ;))