We love anything sustainable, and are looking forward to visiting Jordandal Farms—which practices sustainably in Argyle, WI—for this year’s “A Day on the Farm.”
It’s sponsored by REAP Food Group—Research, Education, Action and Policy on Food Group, focused on building a regional food system that is healthful, just, and both environmentally and economically sustainable.
The day features a farm tour, kids activities, oohing over baby farm animals, and getting up to speed about Jordandal’s sustainable practices with the farm’s owners. A farm-fresh picnic-style meal will be served up by some of Madison’s finest chefs Madison Club, Restaurant Magnus, Dayton Street Grill, and Tornado Steak House.
Here’s what else you should know about REAP: The organization is all about making local farm-to-table connections easy, supports small family farms, and also organizes the Farms to Schools program (YAY! Keeping it fresh by connecting our local farmers with our schools’ food needs), and the excellent “Food for Thought Festival,” Burgers and Brew, and Pie Palooza, among other events, in Madison each year. Check those out — and don’t miss the organization’s local coupon book.
If you ask me, and Maleah Moskoff, there is nothing so welcoming as a good cup of tea.
Where to find one? Check in with Moskoff’s Madison-based Cha Cha Tea, an online tea purveyor site. One of her business’s mantras—“Take Time for Tea”—captures the beauty and benefit of tea: It makes us slow down. I think we all need a little of that.
Moskoff is a tea enthusiast. And, when she’s not busy caring for her young son, she’s working bringing the good stuff—locally blended high-quality, organic and fair trade loose teas from around the globe—to the masses, at least in this part of the world. (World-wide, tea is the #2 consumed beverage.)
She recently schooled me in the particulars—the fact that tea is like wine, influenced by terrior, how to brew a perfect cup and in the most economical way, and most importantly what NOT to do when preparing that cup (do NOT heat your water in the microwave!).
I love the Earl Gray Black Organic & Fair Trade, a rich, citrusy mouthful; Citrus Mountain Oolong, which is light and floral with jasmine flowers, lemon myrtle and essential orange oil; and Blueberry Rooibos, safe for the kids, it contains no caffeine and packs a refreshing, fruity, sugar-free punch (I am thinking of long cool drinks of it on ice this summer).
Worried about minutes and torn between the perceived coffee-pot convenience and the tea-brewing process? Moskoff aims to dispel the myth that a great cup of tea takes too much time to brew. Put your water on the stove to boil (or thereabouts, depending on your tea choice), add tea to your filter, then steep for 3 to 5 minutes. I added that time up—really, it was just about how long it takes my coffee maker to brew me a nice hot cup. And, you know, I find that a cup of tea is just a much gentler way to contemplate my day.
Cha Cha sells more than 50 outstanding teas, as well as tea pots, tea cups, and other artisan-made items for serving, preparing and enjoying tea.
Now that I’ve discovered Cha Cha Tea, I don’t think I’ll buy a box of pre-packaged tea bags from the grocery store again! SO glad that this mompreneur has enlightened me.
Come to the Capital Brewery on Sunday, June 6th from 2p-6pm to enjoy great music by Natty Nation, Capital Brewery’s brews, fun kid’s activities and amazing Ethiopian food —all while supporting Clinic at a Time, a wonderful grassroots organization that helps the people of Ethiopia!
“The goal of the organization is to improve the quality of health care for the poor and the underprivileged communities in the Province of Gojjam, located in northwestern Ethiopia. They do this by collecting and providing medical supplies; helping to improve existing public health care facilities; helping to build new facilities; and providing health care-related information and education to health care workers and the community.Working from her home – with no paid staff and virtually no “overhead” costs – Mulu is able to commit 100 percent of the donations collected for CAAT toward improving health conditions in Gojjam.
Everyone working with CAAT is doing so on a volunteer basis. And because of her lifelong ties to the community, Mulu can work directly with regional government authorities, civic organizations and community volunteers there.”
“CAAT is truly a unique organization. Because of Mulu’s personal connections to people in the region – and because of CAAT’s lack of “bureaucratic red tape” and expenses for office space and employees that that larger organizations must cover – donations to CAAT will have an immediate and direct impact on the health care needs of the region.”
I will post a reminder about this great event and will see you there!!! *If you cannot make it to the event, but want to make a donation, please visit Clinic At a Time. There is such a great need…I have seen it firsthand…
On a side note, Mama Jen is taking a break from MomAppeal for awhile because I find myself wanting the extra family time… I struggled with this decision, but it is the best thing for me right now…The fabulous Mama Kate plans to keep things going and would love to hear from you if you have a fab find or important event that you want people to know about!
Dynamic duo Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthen—co-owners of Bean Sprouts Cafe and Cooking School, a kid friendly restaurant serving healthy fare to Madison-area families—have filled their book with fun, fun, fun. What grown-up cookbook has instructions that tell you to spin in a circle three times before beginning or to waddle like a penguin around the table or shake your hips while the blender’s a whirling?
The book’s design is bright and colorful, filled with a mix of illustration and engaging “food as art” photography kids will love perusing. The recipe instructions are easy for families to follow together, and feature ingredients lists that are reasonable in length and with easily attainable items. Though they run the gamut from breakfast to snacks to outdoor eats and sweet bites, recipes are organized in clever new ways—food fun for a wintry day, book-themed eats, making music and munchies.
The book’s overriding philosophy: Encourage kids to “play” with their food, and you’ll instill a lifelong interest in preparing delicious healthy foods. It’s good for kid giggles, and frustrated parents. Because they’re engaged in the process and having so much fun prepping food in the kitchen, that should translate to fun at the table for mom and dad, as the kids gobble up the new yummy recipes they’ve helped make—perhaps out of foods their tastebuds had previously rejected. Amen to that.
I also dig the cookbook’s fun extras: questions to inspire table talk, games, crafts, and factoids, like favorite pizza toppings, birthday treats, and table manners from around the world. It’s also got handy conversion charts and tips, on top of its just plain good ideas.
So, get cookin’ with your kids. Pick up your copy at a bookstore near you, or order online. Or, better yet, stop into Bean Sprouts Cafe in Middleton and get an autographed copy.
Our Mom Appeal kudos go out to these two busy and creative mompreneurs, who have got the mojo thing going on! Successful cafe and cooking classes, now the fab cookbook, and also a cooking show that’s in the works! Whew! I don’t know how they do it!
Some busy days it’s all I can do to eat something green and leafy, or remember to grab fruit on the way out the door so I don’t hoard the Bunny Crackers I packed for the kids. On tired days, I fall back on chocolate and caffeine, with maybe some raisins for fiber. And, usually, I just end up feeling more tired … and wanting more sugary stuff … and totally cranky by day’s end. I need a new plan.
You are what you eat—right? Maybe, like me, you’d like to rethink things—and think a bit more about yourself when you hit the grocery aisles—and know more about what and how you should eat. What’s more important—overall calories, saturated fat calories, protein, fiber, the ingredients? How do you figure it all out?
Find out at our Tuesday, February 23, 10-11 am Coffee Talk, at Bean Sprouts Cafe in Middleton.
Our expert guest is nutrition consultant Tracie Hittman, owner of It’s Your Plate. Tracie’s primary philosophy is easy to remember and embrace (perfect for us busy mamas): “Eat Real Food.” She is known around Madison for her great and insightful events—from healthy grocery store tours to a slew of educational classes, including her upcoming Balance Your Blood Suagar, Nutrition 101, and Endless Energy.
She’ll focus on nutrition for moms, and fill us in on how to balance food choices to create health—whether it’s about just eating more healthfully, eating smarter, eating to fuel and active lifestyle, or eating to be slimmer.Her great tips and advice will include: How to read nutrition labels to find the right choices for best health, including the importance of how choices—especially poor ones—can affect blood sugar, hormones, behavior/how your feel, weight, etc. We’ll start with an interactive “Know Your Ingredients” quiz, and also share shopping lists, snack choices to keep you in balance, and resources for best foods.
An added morsel: All Coffee Talk attendees can enjoy a free 20-minute session with Tracie, by appointment!!!
See you at Bean Sprouts. Bring your nutrition and food questions for Tracie Hittman. Enjoy a gratis cuppa joe. Stay for some great (and healthy) eats! Kids are welcome!
Get your taste buds out and get ready for some good eats—and play a little game in the process. Bean Sprouts Cafe is looking for VIPea Taste Testers to test out the online recipes that with the cafe’s Bean-GO game!
This healthy twist on Bingo is a great way to get kids to try to new taste (read: fruits and veggies). To play, get out your Bean-go card and let the kids pick a food to try. Together with your kids, follow the provided recipe to make the delicious eats. Cross off each new food after your kids try it, until they get five in a row. Or, play “blackout,” in which each square must get crossed off. Winner gets a reward! (Perfect reward: Make an entire meal or snack of their favorite tastes or recipes! I think my kids will get an extra few Ring-a-Bing-Bing Cherry and Chocolate Chip Cookies washed down with a double-sized Super Star Fruit Smoothie!)
A Bean-go card activated with a recipe for each taste is available on the Bean Sprouts web site. Be sure to rate the recipes—you and your bitty bakers can pass along your expert taste bud and prep chef advice for Bean Sprouts’ new book “Bean Appetit: Hip & Healthy Ways to Have Fun With Food.”
I have been hearing about Wildtree for a while now, but, until recently, I haven’t given it a try. Mo Tiedeman, a wonderful MomAppeal reader helped me to learn more about it and try some of the amazing food options they have. Wildtree offers healthy meals for families and has offerings that allow for allergies to be considered. This was exciting for Mama Kate and I for personal reasons. My father has Celiac disease and Mama Kate’s son has a severe nut allergy—quick and easy food that is healthy(no hydrogenated oils, no high fructose corn syrup, no preservatives, no additives…) and comes with options that are available to her son and my father? Fantastic!!!
In fact—all of the products are peanut free. Last year, Wildtree decided to go tree nut free as well. Peanut allergies are a very serious thing to those dealing with them, and being a pantry line that is peanut free AND preservative free is the cornerstone of how Wildtree was built. Wildtree oversees the entire production of everything in the line. The idea for a pantry line that was additive free and peanut free was due to necessity.
Company founder, Leslie Montie, had a child with a severe allergy to peanuts, along with other severe food allergies. She also had a daughter with with diabetes, as well as some other afflictions in her family that caused her to really struggle to find easily prepared meals at dinner time. In addition to raising a family, she had the added stress of food allergies that would literally be deathly to her children. So, she did what she had to. She created her own line of pantry staples based on the type of food her kids wanted to be eating but could not. Word about her preservative free line spread through friends and neighbors, and before she knew it, she was selling her blends at local craft fairs until recently, when there was such a demand for these products that the idea of going nationwide through direct sales was born.
And that’s where Wildtree is now. After trying a number of their items…the Wheat Flax Beer Bread and Butter Flavored Grape-seed oil being favorites, I am a fan. Homemade bread with dinner in about 25 minutes…all of which was in the oven–insane?? My family was amazed!! I adore the fact that this line is nut free and does have some gluten free options!
Mamas who are fighting the nut and gluten beasts in their households just got a leg up!
One way for you to try the Wildtree items is by attending Mo’s ” Wildtree Martini’s and Manicures” (MARTINIS!!!!), February 5, from 5-8 at the Horizon Apartment Clubhouse, 360 Prairie Way Boulevard, Verona. Those that mention they saw this post on MadisonMomAppeal will receive the following promotion—make any bundle purchase and you will receive the following 3 full sized bonus items:
Wildtree Whole Wheat Flax Seed Beer Bread—my FAVE
Wildtree Garlic and Herb BlendWildtree
Just Like Mom’s Meatloaf
If you are interested in more information or want to order online –which you can do if parties aren’t your bag! Mo’s contact information and website is below!
This Tuesday, December 15th, from 10am-11am, come to Bean Sprouts for our co-hosted Coffee Talk—which includes FREE COFFEE and a chance to chat with one of Madison’s most artistic and talented photographers, Tara Kuhlow.Tara will share tips on how to best photograph your family, how to get great holiday shots and answer any photo taking questions you may have! Check out her website….um..yeah…you’ll want to get some tips from her…wonderful relaxed style!Tara will also take some candid photos of your little ones if you’d like and you can see these shots and purchase them if you’d like to on her website shortly afterwards!Also…there will be a drawing where the first prize winner gets a FREE PHOTO SESSION with Tara (a $200 value)!! Second and third place winners will also get $50 off of a photo session. Getting artistic pictures of your family starts to look pretty accessible!I have to add that we (Bean Sprouts and MomAppeal) have been doing these events for a while now and they are so much fun…totally casual, caffeinated and a great way to get your yourself and your kids out of the house and meeting some great moms! If you haven’t checked one of our Coffee Talks out, come out this Tuesday from 10am-11. There is a wonderful area for kids to play while you get your chat on as well as healthy snacks and drinks!See you there! Mama JenP.S. Please exuse this crazy wraparound style text…I have a new computer and am having some formatting issues
Even though my kids are not yet school age, as a foodie who’s into eating locally grown organics, and healthy living in general, I’m a little worried about what their hot lunch options will be once they hit grade school. This mama might just be packing lunches for the next 20 years.
The movie—billed as part exposé, part how-to—highlights the grassroots movement by moms Amy Kalafa and Susan Rubin, who wanted more focus on what kids eat in school lunches, and their quest to get healthy, tasty, real food into the cafeterias.
Check out the organization Rubin founded, in her exasperation regarding school food: www.betterschoolfood.org. You also, like me, may want to sign the Slow Food USA petition telling Congress to provide America’s children with real food at school. Click here to add your name: http://slowfoodusa.org/timeforlunch.
We know the drill. Have a kid or two, feel lumpy and soft. You want to exercise, but where do you find the time or an affordable class or gym?
A couple of years ago, we both started training with Dustin Maher through his MamaTone group fitness classes for moms. We can’t say enough about the experience—particularly the fact that it’s great to work out with gals of all shapes, sizes, and fitness levels who know what you’re going through. Dustin’s created a fun and supportive community atmosphere in his MamaTone fitness classes at Supreme Health club, and it’s fantastic to have a workout that is geared toward women’s bodies and getting us mommies back in shape fast. We’ve come to believe that we deserve to carve out time for focused exercise, as it makes us feel and look better, and helps us cope with and de-stress from the everyday aspects of momhood. That’s good stuff.
Together with the gals at Bean Sprouts cafe, we’ve created a monthly mommy chat. It’s an opportunity to gather, grow your community of moms, and talk about topics that are of interest to you. This month’s Coffee Talk, at Bean Sprouts, is loaded with inspiration and tips to make getting into shape easy. Dustin will teach 5 body-transforming
exercises you can easily do at home—whether watching the kids in the yard or Oprah on TV. He’ll also advise on exercises to avoid (yes mamas, it’s crunches!), and share nutrition tips on the top metabolism-boosting foods you can eat. You may have heard of Dustin; his fitness advice has been featured on local news casts for NBC, ABC, and CBS, as well as on Wisconsin Public Radio. He’s also founder of Fit Fun Bootcamps, and has recently launched a series of workout videos.
To learn more about Dustin Maher, his workouts and fitness philosophy, visit dustinmaherfitness.com/about-2/. Be sure to visit his site for more details on attending a MamaTone class free, and receiving a free fitness-related gift from Dustin (sign up for his newsletter). On his site, you’ll also be inspired by some amazing body transformations from some of his clients, and appreciate all the fitness and nutrition advice he offers.
Kids are welcome! They can play while we moms enjoy a complimentary cuppa joe and catch up on getting fit. Stay for lunch afterward, and gnosh on Bean Sprouts delish and healthy eats.
No more excuses — we’ll see you at Coffee Talk!
Date: Tuesday, August 18
Time: 10am-11am
FREE! Bring the kids.
Location: Bean Sprouts cafe, 6719 Frank Lloyd Wright Avenue, Suite 101, Middleton, WI 53562. 608.826.6YUM.
helping to build new facilities; and providing health care-related information and education to health care workers and the community.
