An introduction to Natural Vegan Eco Mom

In our house the food that we eat and products that we use are so important. We're really picky about what we buy when shopping. It wasn't always like this for me though. Taking care of my physical well being definitely took a back seat and going out, partying and generally living a care free life took president. It's amazing though how dramatically things can change. Although I have always been a good eater when it came to fruit and veg, years ago i would (as much as it sickens me to say it now) frequent KFC more than I would have liked (gross I know). 

Back in 2010, Mrs M while pregnant became really ill and it changed our opinions about food and pushed us into making some dramatic lifestyle changes. It wasn't just about what we were eating but also about where it came from and it's life before reaching our mouths. To many it probably sounds insane but with pesticides and other chemicals on the supermarket veg, unnatural sweeteners in food and just the general unnecessary rubbish that is put into food for preservation you've got to eventually start to wonder what it is doing to our bodies. I for one want to live a long and fruitful life and to do that these changes needed to be made.

Our diet isn't to most people's taste, we know that from the reaction we get when it's talked about but it has been the necessary element firstly for our weight loss (which will be in a post I have written and will publish soon) but also for having the best possible lifestyle for us and the boys. Eating this way has given us all the extra energy and motivation that was needed for us to fully take advantage of our time together.

I know that eating healthy can come at a higher financial cost, especially if like us you also eat as much organic produce that is available but there are so many more benefits. With the ridiculous GMO foods scenario looming over us in the UK and the pressure for the country to get on board this seems like it was the best time for us as a family to make this change. This post isn't supposed to be healthy living shoved in your face like many, (not all) of the vegan sites that are out there, promoting how amazing they are as a person for being a vegan. I'm not concerned with what other people eat apart from the people who are closest to me and anyone that asks, But as the blog is written for my boys it's an insight into why sometimes we say 'we would rather you didn't eat those sweets' or we offer the boys a healthy alternative to something that to them seems harmless to eat. They will understand when they are older why we don't allow them to have McDonald's or most processed foods and I think they will appreciate the effort we (especially Mrs M) go to to prepare their daily meals. 

Which brings me to the main reason for this post, i thought that a post about food would be a perfect introduction. If healthy living is something that interests you or like us you or a family member suffer with food allergies then Natural Vegan Eco Mom (written by my beautiful wife to be) is a must read for spicing up what could possibly be a boring diet. I know that without her cooking flair or crazy food prep knowledge I wouldn't have shifted the weight I have. Having a stash of her homemade healthy peanut butter cups has been motivation enough to keep me eating well knowing that there is a chocolatey treat waiting for me as a reward for my healthy eating throughout the day. To have a mooch through some great recipe's Please click on THIS LINK .

Thanks for reading xx

"the beast lies somewhere in the stump, choose a passage"

After my post a few days back about Opeie's eating habits ("Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon." ). I decided to go out and buy a few of the products that we had found online in the hope of saving our poor Cream carpets. Asda have got one of their Parent and Baby events on at the moment and as if by chance many of the items from the Nuby I Monster range were included in this. Obviously it was meant to be so i added a few items to my basket.

After mentioning it in my last post i had to purchase the I Monster Snack Keeper (the one that made me think of the Woodbeast from Flash Gordon) and give it a try. Weve been having real difficulty over the last few weeks with feeding Opeie, brought on by his larger back teeth coming through. I know it's happened to all of us already but i cant even begin to imagine how uncomfortable it is for him, poor little thing.

He's really lost his appetite which has been stressing Mrs M out. I on the other hand am a little more laid back about it. One of the moms at the school once said to me "no one ever starved next to a full pot" which i guess is very true, the food is always there just at the moment he's not eating loads. Plus to be fair he's still feeding from Mrs M too so we know he's well fed in that sense.

Well lunch time came round and we unleashed the new tableware onto our unsuspected child. Our little Flash Gordon wasnt at all scared by the Woodbeast and shoved his hand straight in. Our snack of choice for the Monster Snack keeper was cheerios...

 ...as Opeie loves them. Their slightly sticky and when thrown off the high chair can end up as a permanent fixture to the rug. This item completely stopped that (i did the probably typical dad thing and threw it about a little to really test its worth and i wasn't disappointed). The rubber teeth are soft enough for your child's hand to easily get to the snack yet firm enough to not let anything get out when dropped. I will be testing this with maybe raspberries tomorrow to see how that goes.

Opeie really loved this bowl and at one point was even trying to feed him some fresh fruit (obviously concerned that the little monster wasnt getting his 5 a day.

The second item i picked up in the supermarket was the I Monster Toddler Feeding Bowl i was instantly drawn in by the very high sides which obviously is great for the prevention of any unwanted spillages. It resembles a free standing roll top bath. Mrs M made a comment about bathing our new baby bunnies in there for fun... I had to resist the temptation of a cute photo opportunity (our boy will be eating out of it after all). It is a great sturdy plastic bowl and it really put a smile on Opeies face.

The third item i brought was the I Monster Toddler Feeding Plate and to be honest i brought this mainly on the fact it looked so fun. We already have some low sided plastic feeding bowls that are roughly the same size and shape but i really loved the design on this and it was nice to go with the set. Plus one of Opeie's favourite words at the moment is 'teeth' and there's plenty of those to point at.

Opeie ate loads better during this meal and i honestly believe that it was because of the bowls especially the Monster Snack Keeper as he was excitedly putting his hand in and then was eating eating his find quickly so that he could shove his hand back in again. Were really hoping that it continues so that Mrs M can relax a little.

On the whole the range is great the only way i could improve on the design myself would be to add a sucker to the base as although the high sides lessened the spillages Opeie was still able to pick the bowls up and move them about which as we know as parents can sometimes end in food being catapulted across the room.

Well it turns out that rather than being scary the woodbeast instead caused excitement and intrigue and our poor teething boy finally having a full tummy, Thanks Nuby.

"A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love."

We bring the boys up to be as open minded as we can, well Opeie doesn't really understand but we try our hardest with Seth. Unfortunately outside influences are damaging our good work. Last week while we were in Toys R Us Opeie picked up a Toy Story Barbie doll and Seth said those words i hoped i would never hear come from his mouth 'Opeie you cant play with that, those are for girls'. That's what starting school does to you i guess, Seth instantly became that little more Macho. I took Opeie to Toys R Us about 6 months ago and he picked a doll to take home which personally i thought was really nice. There's loads of action figures in our house and for him to choose a doll over his beloved Spider-man was really sweet and showed us that he's not growing up to quickly (which I'm sure makes Mrs M very happy).

Changing the subject completely, although we will come back to where i started, Opeie has become a nightmare with his feeding. He's going through an 'i don't want to eat, bath or brush my teeth phase' everything seems to just send him into floods of tears so we thought we would change around his plates and bowls etc to see if that might spur on some proper eating. I was so impressed with the I Monster range from Nuby when i wrote my last post about Opeie's eating habits that i decided to give the flower child range a try, this was also spurred on by Seth's macho comment (told you I'd find my way back to the start).

The great thing about this range for us is that as you know if you've been reading the blog a while Opeie loves Yo Gabba Gabba, in fact we all like it and the range looks a little like Foofa which Opeie loves. She's a flower child herself...

 The plates went down great. He didn't eat loads but the fact that he ate some if his food today was a bonus and means Mrs M can rest that little bit easier. It can be a little worrying when he just refuses to eat anything but he is still milking Mrs M dry so at least we know he's getting his nutrients. 

I did actually prefer this range over the I Monster range, first and foremost because I'm a sucker for anything pink, but also because of the soft rubber around the base. When eating with the I monster range if Opeie was in an excitable mood meal time would turn into a mini game of air hockey.

Thank fully we didn't hear a peep out of Seth about them being girly`and hopefully after me talking to him we wont hear anything like that for a while at least. I think its really important to let your children play with what they want in terms of colour etc. There's no need for macho behaviour when it comes to your toddler, their going to go for things that are bright and colourful, i still do myself. If Opeie wants to play with dolls, wear mommy's shoes, push a pushchair around or have a tea party with his toys then obviously I'm going to join in with him

We tried the Flower child feeder too as i loved the monster one that we had brought. It had lost the Flash Gordon feel (if you remember my previous post) but Opeie loved it just as much. I think that anything that he has to push his hand in to find out whats inside is going to be a winner.

Im really impressed with the whole range and would definitely advise people to give them a try. I still looking for some tableware with suckers on the bottom to try so i will be keeping them peeled for them. If you have any idea's then please let me know. I'm sure there will be many more post's about Opeie's eating. He's now starting to use cutlery more so I'm sure thats a post ill be writing soon.

Now its time for me to try and get Seth wearing something pink...

Gifts from the Pirates in Orlando - Eating out and Dinner at Ethos Vegan Kitchen

Eating out in Orlando became increasingly difficult throughout our entire holiday,  for a place thats so huge and boasts insane amounts of eateries i really expected more. Not being a vegan myself or having any food allergies there were plenty of restaurants i would have loved to have eaten at but when 50% of your family are extremely limited to what and where they can eat it kind of throws a spanner in the works. We attempted to eat at a few of the well known restaurants and i got really fed up of hearing the words "we can offer you a salad?". The hard rock cafe couldn't even offer Mrs M and Opeie a Baked potato. What kind of restaurant doesn't have potatoes? Crazy!

Any way because of Mrs M's blog naturalveganecomom.com we spent plenty of time in the supermarkets (mainly wholefoods market) looking for interesting and new things for Mrs M and Opeie to include in the packed lunches we were having to take with us every time we left to go out. On one of the evenings we did get to eat out at a restaurant that Mrs M had heard about through a friend of hers that works at Wholefoods Orlando. 

I'm a meat eater and I've always said that i couldn't be vegan but after eating the meal i had i think it pushed me that one step closer to 'could i walk away from it all'. I chose the 'All American Burger', in any other restaurant in Orlando this would 9 times out of 10 guarantee you a huge slab of juicy meat between two halves of a bun. What i received was a meat free burger like nothing i had tasted before served with blue corn tortilla chips, it was amazing.

It probably sounds crazy to most people but it was so nice to be able to go out and eat a meal together like a normal family, unless you or your family have severe dietary issues then you cant imagine how frustrating it is trying to dine out.

Needless to say i wasn't the only one that thoroughly enjoyed my meal, everyone wolfed down the lot, it was beautiful. The thing that gobsmacked me the most about this very tasty meal, amazing friendly service and upbeat surroundings was the extremely low bill at the end of it all. For four meals and two bottles of natural vanilla cream soda the bill was a mere $31 (£19). 

The best part about the meal was finally seeing Mrs M eating something she wanted to eat with a huge smile on her face. It must be so difficult for her as many of her dietary issues are because of Opeie's breast feeding. She has given up a lot to give our boy the best start he can and i will be forever grateful for that.

To here what Mrs M thought of her lovely meal then CLICK HERE.

If you are interested in visiting Ethos vegan kitchen then here's the menu for you to have a mooch.

Ethos Kitchen Menu

Thanks Ethos for a great meal and fantastic friendly service i can't recommend you enough.

"So he kept eating books... And he kept getting smarter... ...and smarter ...and smarter. He went from eating books whole to eating them three or four at a time."

Going to the Library has been great for ploughing through books with the boys at no cost. I'm annoyed at myself for not taking advantage of it sooner as we've brought hundreds of books for Opeie (and Seth) over the years...

 ...many of them once finished with, finding their way to charity shops or have been read so much that they have fallen apart and we've used them for craft activities. 

Our visits to the library have also introduced us to one of Opeie's new favourite authors and Mine and Mrs Ms favourite children's illustrators. I'm surprised with all the books we've read to Opeie Oliver Jeffers hadn't popped up sooner. As soon as we had read 'this moose belongs to me' we were all hooked and as soon as we had returned the few of his books we had borrowed from the library I went on a mission to get our own copies of these beautifully written and illustrated books.

With Mrs M being a huge Dick Bruna fan and me being a Dr Seuss addict it's actually nice for us to get into a childrens author a little more recent. We haven't gone a bed time for weeks without having at least one of his stories read before the boys go to sleep and it's great that Seth has got really in to them too and has even been reading them to his little brother.

We're always on the lookout for new books and Authors so if there's anyone you can recommend send your recommendations our way. Our new love of Oliver Jeffers has started yet another page in Opeie's reading diary and it seems there is no stopping Opeie's love of books.

Our food adventure : Wholefoods Market Cheltenham

Hello, It's Mrs M here.

Remember in my last post, I touched upon my love for Wholefoods Market? The amazing supermarket which I became obsessed with whilst we were in Florida... well this week I have some exciting news.  ( even more exciting if your a lover of Wholefoods in the UK.)

Being a person who's always always loved dairy and eggs until three years ago, life and food became tricky when I had to stop eating the above, with soya in a matter of a day.  Last week I tried eating products with eggs and dairy in them, and boy was I ill, I could barely breathe, to the point I was contemplating ringing the hospital in the middle of the night... no more eggs or dairy for me!

Well, I'm starting to feel a bit happier about the thought of being a 'Vegan' for the rest of my days... ( I'm still not that happy with the term 'Vegan' - not sure why though ... I usually just say I can't have meat, fish, eggs, dairy or soya, but i suppose 'vegan minus soya' is a quicker explanation, right? )

Due to being slightly miserable about eating the same meals, we decided to go on a little adventure.

You're right! You guessed it, a Wholefoods Market in the UK! I was so worried about feeling let down when we were on our way over there, as i knew they didn't have the Daiya that I pine over, and I knew they didn't do other things like hoagie rolls, or the coconut ice cream, and yoghurts I love in America, because the night before I'd spoken to the team leader in charge of the produce, I'm not sure if it's ok to add his name, but let's call him , Mr Helpful. {Because that's what he was!}

Mr H at Wholefoods was amazing, and told me to ask for him when I got to the store. When I arrived he came over and greeted me, which was lovely. He is very knowledgeable and you can tell how much he really cares about his customers and the job he does. I was so grateful to him for listening to me go on about how much  I LOVE Florida, and Wholefoods Market on Turkey Lake Ave, and lots of other random things....  we had a lovely chat.

Mr H, introduced me to the team leader of Health & Beauty ( lets call him Mr Info)  who was also a Vegan, and interestingly had done a raw food diet for 6 months, ( I've been reading Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet) so we had a lot to chat about, and he had so many interesting facts to tell me about foods, and how they will benefit me, ( and Opeie, I explained he still has Mama milk - which thankfully didn't phase him) and was totally inspiring in the way that he spoke about the food that we eat. He also knew the answer to everything I asked him, gave me a sample of Vegan Raw protein powder which I've tried and love, and it was so helpful and I felt so relieved that I wasn't the only person in the world with these dietry issues. So Mr I, and I found me some great things to eat!

 

One of the things I love about Wholefoods Market is that everything looks so damn tasty! They have so many different types of veggies, fruits, salads, herbs, spices and things, it's a beautiful thing. If I could afford to, i'd buy everything from there. But sadly my grocery budget doesn't stretch that far :( 

They also have a real good selection of all the things I love, stocking all Pukka products, Doves Farm, Nakd, and they do their own range which is called Fresh & Wild ( instead of the 365 range in the USA)

One thing I was hoping to find was coconut milk yoghurt, as the one in Florida was delicious, and I've not been able to find one in the UK, so when I saw this... 

Gorgeous So Yo Coconut milk yoghurt.

Amy's frozen Vegan meals.

....... I was in heaven! The Co Yo Coconut dairy, soya free yogurt was on offer too! ( And may I add, It is the most amazing yoghurt ever!)

It's not all overly, overly healthy foods, Cheltenham Wholefoods Market have a vast selection of wines, beers and desserts, chocolates, a amazing bakery which makes everything from gluten free cookies, cakes and breads, regular cookies biscuits, breads, rolls etc, and they seem to specialise  with the most amazing cupcakes ( which Opeie and Seth had the hard task of sampling) and so many other things. ( Including a resturant which i will visit next time and let you guys know about!)

 

Notice how the Sam Adams beers have gone down? haha!

So after about 2 hours of chatting and being shown around the store with Mr H and Mr I, I had a trolley full of veggies, vegan foods, US Beers, cupcakes, almond milk, coconut yoghurts and lots of other things. Opeie was very very happy, as the kind lady at the till even gave him some cute stickers. ( The staff are so helpful and lovely! ) Thanks to the staff at Wholefoods Cheltenham.  See you again! x