This morning I woke up with a desire to find out why it has these special abilities. A Bounce sheet contains: biodegradable cationic softeners and perfume. (Taken right from the Bounce.com website) Let’s start with perfume because I used to love loading up the kids laundry in Bounce sheets so that they would smell like their mommy had been hard at work. I got so many compliments that it was a hard habit to quit. Yep, Bounce was hard to quit. What’s in the stuff?

I just read a great article in Natural News and I found my answer. Perfumes and fragrance contain toxic petrochemicals. These chemicals contain known allergens that trigger headaches & dermatitis, can disrupt hormones and have been linked to reproductive defects in males, sperm damage in men and even hyperactivity in children. Some perfume ingredients are known to react with indoor air to form formaldehyde. The kicker is that these toxic chemicals are not only found in fabric softeners but also in every day household products such as shampoo, lotions, air fresheners and dishwashing detergents. The sad part is that the FDA has never tested the majority of the compounds in perfumes for safety in personal care products.

With no requirement for either safety testing or labeling, there is simply no way for consumers to know what lies behind the terms fragrance and perfume.

To summarize: Most popular dryer sheets and fabric softeners are made with toxic synthetic chemicals that are not safe to use on children’s clothing. The fragrance chemicals alone are often highly carcinogenic, and the other chemicals contribute additional toxicity to the clothing. Children’s clothes should never be washed or dried in chemicals. Only use natural detergents and fabric softeners, or avoid the fabric softeners altogether. http://www.naturalnews.com/022014.html#ixzz1XkC0DRBO

No wonder my trailer still smells almost a year later, and better yet no wonder mice won’t touch the trailer with a ten foot pole. I can’t recommend Bounce for use on children’s clothing but if you google Bounce pest control you will find lots of other uses for it. Some of this information was taken from , http://www.NaturalNews.com/030635_perfumes_toxic_chemicals.html#ixzz1Xk7SKvV6 & www.bounceeverywhere.com

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The interesting thing is that my daughters have food sensitivities to different things, yet they both get dark circles under their eyes from their trigger food.  I was tested for an allergy to dairy that came up negative but since I gave it up I have no more dark circles under my eyes.  I am convinced my sensitivity to dairy caused them (along with other things like sinusitis, hives, and effects on mood)  

If your child has dark circles under their eyes and they are getting enough sleep, and they are not low on iron or other minerals it could be possible that they have a food sensitivity that can be easy to manage with a tweak in diet.

The post Why Does My Child Have Dark Circles Under Their Eyes? appeared first on Penny Kane.

Ingredients:

1 large head romaine lettuce cut up into small pieces

1/4  cup extra virgin olive oil

2 large garlic cloves minced

1-2 Tbsp of anchovy paste

1 Tsp of dijon mustard

1-2 squeezed lemons

1 egg (optional)

3-4 pieces of cooked nitrate free bacon cut up into small pieces

Sea salt & coarse black pepper to taste

Directions:

Put olive oil and minced garlic into a bowl, preferably a wooden one.  Whisk in the anchovy paste, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper.  Boil the egg for 1 minute and the add it to the mixture. Whisk well.  Add any more of the ingredients to get the taste you prefer.  Mix in romaine lettuce and garnish with nitrate free bacon.

The post Dairy Free Caesar Salad appeared first on Penny Kane.

We commonly refer to ourselves as just a mom.  When someone asks “So what do you do?”  Do you ever answer with “Oh…..I’m just a mom.”  I used to say that all too often.  But why?

I graduated with honors from high school, have a degree in Political Science and a minor in Business Administration, marketing, finance and advertising work experience, certification in applied kinesiology, and even founded a not for profit.  Those accomplishments should be the things I would want to yell from the roof top or say when someone asks me what I do. But I don’t because my most valuable experiences have come from being a mother.

Remember when you met that little person who looked up at you with those eyes and you felt so many emotions?  I felt indescribable love, so much that I can’t even put that feeling into words because there are none that do it justice.  I am no longer just me, because now there are parts of me running around outside of my body. My inner mama bear was born the day I met them and I would literally stop at nothing to protect them. They give me the strength and the determination to leave this world better off than I found it.

But being a mom comes with many sacrifices.  You give your body away for at least ten months. You go arm deep in #2 for what feels like eons.  For at least two years all of your shirts either smell like barf, or contain leftovers of it.  Showering becomes a thing of the past, so does having a nice hair do. The only buff thing left on your body is your arms from carrying your child hundreds of times in the football hold from the grocery store while cursing the name of whoever put candy in the checkout at their eye level.  You find yourself doing that weird hip shake when you hold anyone else’s kid.  You long for the days when you were unattached, carefree and could just go out but when given the opportunity your girls night ends up more like the scene from Hall Pass. Sitting at Applebee’s, looking like a rodeo clown by 8:30pm. You cook, you clean, you grocery shop, you do crafts, you make strange baby voices and play with lightsabers while running around imitating Chewbacca.  It’s really quite humbling.

But you do it all to nurture that little person who looked up at you with those eyes that very first day you met each other.  That little one who relies on you for everything that is a part of you just craving your mommy love. It is up to you to give them their wings to fly. We are on 24/7 with no pay, and it doesn’t matter.

Raising a child is the biggest deal I can think of.  Saying you are “just a mom” does not give yourself enough credit.  Please, next time someone asks what you do, stand up, look them in the eye and proudly say “I am a mother” because that is one heck of a huge, complicated, selfless, emotional, loving job that you have!

Proud Mama Bear,

Penny

The post “Just A Mom” appeared first on Penny Kane.

Besides the constant tears Taylor was also having repeated bouts of pneumonia so I was willing to try anything.  My husband suggested we take corn out of her diet and see what happens.  I felt her diet was already pristine but I agreed as a last ditch effort to avoid counselling.  I sat Taylor down and let her know that we were going to make some dietary changes to see if we could help her lungs and heart and she agreed. That is one of the things I love about little kids. They trust us, they look up to us for guidance, and they believe what we say. Some parents may feel that making a dietary change would be shocking to the whole family. Perhaps that mindset is projection stemming from our own fear of changing the way we eat. Kids are much more resilient than we give them credit for.

How is corn eliminated?  When I went through the pantry I discovered most of the foods I purchased trying to avoid wheat, dairy and soy contained corn. There was corn starch, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, corn derivative, maize, and also the good old corn chips, and corn thins that were obvious.  I could not believe the amount of corn that was in the food we ate every single day.  A new shopping routine was a must and after another pity party I got the show on the road.

What happened was truly amazing.  After about a solid month of avoiding corn the colds/lung illnesses went away. So did the dark circles under her eyes and the rash on the back of her arms. It was then that she told me that when she was eating corn she felt like crying all of the time and her legs felt numb and didn’t want to work. Until we took her off corn, she didn’t know that those feelings were not normal. Without corn she has fewer lung issues, and no more crying fits and anxiety related symptoms. She wakes up happy and looks forward to going to school every day.  She is literally a brand new kid.

Why is my Taylor a new kid without corn? For starters did you know that corn is a grain? And it is the most widely planted crop in the US? Corn is big business and producers need to find places for it to be used in your food. So basically it is in a lot of food even though it doesn’t need to be there.

Most of the corn that we consume in North America is genetically modified. What does this mean?  GM corn, commonly called Bt corn, is manufactured with a toxin designed to rupture the stomach of insects that eat it.  In theory this works because it wards off insects and could create a higher yield.

I think we are in a position to ask some questions.  Does it do the same thing to us when we eat it too?  What are the health implications if it does? Does it come with a shut off valve for human consumption? 

Most of the corn that we eat is not what great grandma used to eat and the health implications are still unknown.  Taylor would be so sick emotionally and physically if she was still fed it. Thankfully without it, I have a brand new happy little girl.

The post Follow Up To “Why Does My Child Cry All Of The Time?” appeared first on Penny Kane.

Here is the recipe:

Blueberry Muffins

½ cup coconut flour, sifted
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
6 eggs
⅓ cup agave nectar
⅓ cup grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

In a small bowl, combine coconut flour, salt and baking soda.  In a large bowl, combine eggs, agave, grapeseed oil and vanilla and blend well with a hand blender.  Mix dry ingredients into wet, blending with a hand mixer.  Gently fold in blueberries.  Place batter into a paper lined 12 cup muffin pan.  Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes.  Cool and serve

Makes 12 muffins

I was worried that 1/2 cup of coconut flour wasn’t enough but the eggs balance it out perfectly.  I put Enjoy life mini chocolate chips (dairy, peanut, tree nut and soy free) in some of the batch and frozen blueberries in the rest.

The real test was to see if my picky eater would eat one…. And she did! Anyone who has a picky eater can probably relate.  Not only can it be hard to get them to eat period, but introducing new foods can be stressful.

I highly recommend this recipe to anyone looking for something delicious and easy to make!

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I am very excited that Food For Life makes these brown rice wraps.  They come frozen and do fall apart sometimes after you heat them up but overall they make a really tasty gluten free alternative to wheat based wraps.  They really work well to make:

Fajitas

Burritos

Chicken/Veggie wraps *or can be used for any one of your favourite wraps

Make a great tortilla type of chip when toasted and cut into smaller wedge sized pieces. *delicious with salsa

Here are the ingredients: Brown rice flour, filtered water, tapioca flour, safflower oil, rice bran, xanthan cellulose, and sea salt.  Below is more information taken from their website

• We use many organic ingredients, plus all our products are all natural
• We use no artificial anything, no chemicals, no preservatives
• Our products do not contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
• We slow baked to preserve all the natural vitamins and minerals
• Our Gluten Free products are made with no dairy, casein, or egg products

The best part is that my kids will actually eat them so if you are looking for an alternative these might work for your family too!

I have been able to find them in the freezer sections in both Canada and the US, so they are a good option when travelling with a gluten sensitivity.

The post Wednesday Review: Food For Life Brown Rice Wraps appeared first on Penny Kane.

A couple of months ago I was concerned because I was having blurred vision especially when driving.  It’s so hard to explain but along with it was a weird vertigo type of feeling and an inability to focus.  I started to wear my glasses all of the time but it really wasn’t helping.  It was scary because when I was driving and I would be at a stop light trying to look in one direction, it would happen.

At this time, I was enjoying at least three cups of coffee in the morning and sometimes more.  I didn’t equate coffee with my symptoms until a friend posted an article about coffee being the most common reactor to gluten.  To be honest I glazed over it and decided to take it seriously another day because I was already trying to live dairy, soy, gluten and almost corn free so the thought of a life without coffee was not going to happen. Yet.

One day, I was stopped at a red light and literally could not focus.  My vision was so blurry and my head so dizzy that I knew I couldn’t drive.  Thankfully I found a place to pull over safely and decided to look into the possibility that I was sensitive to coffee.  That incident scared me enough to decide to cut it out for a week and thankfully I did.  I had no more vertigo or blurred vision.

Never in my life would I have considered giving it up but I also never wanted to feel those symptoms again. Gluten affects me very seriously and so does coffee.

Here is the info that convinced me there was a link:

In a nutshell, fairly recent lab research has revealed that 10% of coffee is a protein that cross reacts with gluten antibodies.

This means that if you are gluten sensitive or celiac and are avoiding gluten containing grains or perhaps have even gone completely grain free, if you still drink coffee there is a strong likelihood that the protein in the coffee is triggering the very same gluten related health problems you are trying to avoid.

In other words, even if you think you are doing fine with your current gluten free diet, it is very possible that skipping the coffee could take your health to the next level.

The problem has nothing to do with caffeine, so decaf coffee would be included in this discussion.

You can read more here: http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/gluten-issues-or-celiac-dont-drink-coffee/

The post Coffee Is The Most Common Reactor To Gluten appeared first on Penny Kane.

There is an obvious difference~the colour.  The texture of the icing is also different but when I showed it to my girls they didn’t reminisce about the monkey cake.  They were excited that I made them this cake.  I love kids.

I used a kinnikinnick gluten/corn free chocolate cake mix.  Glutino chocolate cake mix is also another good option.

The mane is made from this recipe.  The chocolate avocado mixture is very easy to decorate with.  For this horse cake I doubled the recipe so I used a total of two avocados.

The rest of the icing was a meringue type of recipe.  Here it is:

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

3 large egg whites

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp cold water

Place ingredients in a metal bowl and whisk until it is mixed.  Fill a large pot with about 2 cups of water and let it boil.  Place the metal (heat proof) bowl with the mixture on top of the pot.  Allow it to sit on top of the pot but not touching the water so the mixture doesn’t boil.  Whisk the mixture until all of the sugar is dissolved *very important.  This is what mine looked like:

When all of the sugar is dissolved, place the bowl in the mixer or use regular beaters and whisk the meringue until peaks form and it looks glossy. This took me 15 minutes with regular beaters and it looked like this:

I separated the icing into bowls for each colour.  For the main part of the horse I added cocoa powder to the meringue. (more for the darker parts) For the bridle I used a natural beet juice/purple carrot extract food colour that I found at a natural food store.  Next time I want to try to get a brighter pink colour from raspberries.

The meringue isn’t as easy to decorate with as traditional icing but it tastes very good!

This cake is dairy, gluten, soy, corn, and peanut free.

The post Dye Free Icing appeared first on Penny Kane.

I recently heard about a little girl who was diagnosed with a milk allergy but her family is not on board.  They don’t understand why this little girl can’t tolerate milk but they feed it to her anyway. She is always vomiting, and has terrible asthma attacks.  I wondered why they just didn’t take her off of milk and it dawned on me.  To some, food “issues” signify weakness.

What if we looked at it this way.  We are not eating the same food great grandma or even grandma used to eat.  Over the past 50 years thousands of chemicals have been added to our food supply and that has changed things for our children.

It’s not the food itself that is causing all of these children to have food sensitivities, but rather how it is processed and what has been done to it that is the issue.

Much of the food today is chemically based and genetically modified.  Think about how many children you know dealing with some kind of health issue right now.  Whether it’s a food allergy or a food sensitivity that can manifest in many different ways the numbers are scary, and children everywhere need us to acknowledge that there is a problem.  For the record, I believe that my children have multiple food sensitivities because they are being inundated with a bunch of chemicals.  

Does that make them weak?  No, it makes them human.  I hope with more awareness the parents who are fighting it realize that their children might have food sensitivities because of what has been done to the food and that they could feel so much better with a change in their diet.

The post What’s Really Causing Food Sensitivities appeared first on Penny Kane.