Get Active Outside with KidVentures!

May 8, 2013 by Erin Leave a Comment

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The sun is shining, the boys are rowdy, the outdoors is just calling your name…but what will you all do outside?!

Mother of quadruplet boys, Jen Murray, has FIFTY ideas for you in her brand new ebook launching today, KidVentures: 50 Outdoor Experiences of Wonder, Discovery, & Childhood Memories!

KidVentures is a practical step-by-step ebook guide for your outdoor summer adventures, filled to the brim with creative, active, and hands-on learning activities for you and your family! It also includes supply lists, detailed instructions, printables, diagrams, and resources to take each activity a step further!

A few of our favorite ACTIVE activities in the book include…

Go Geocaching
Swim in a Natural Body of Water
Play Water Balloon Dodge Ball
Paddle a Canoe or Kayak

There is so much fun for year-round outdoor awesomeness in this book! I guarantee you and your boys will go back to it over and over again as you enjoy the outdoors together! My boys and I have been making big plans for our summer with this ebook!

The ebook just launched today and you can get your copy NOW as a PDF or for Kindle for just $4.99!

To connect with others using this book over the summer, like the KidVentures Facebook page and tweet with the #KidVentures hashtag!

Now tell us: What active outdoor activity does your family enjoy together?

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Filed Under: Fitness, Fun, Outdoor Activities

Serving Food with Love

May 7, 2013 by Erin Leave a Comment

What does this look like at your house? How do you serve food to your family with love?

We’d love to hear your everyday and special family meal traditions!

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Filed Under: Food, Meal Time

Homemade Tortillas

May 6, 2013 by Jessica Leave a Comment

Homemade tortillas are one of the easiest ways to take back your kitchen and start flirting with making your own breads. And they’re truly easy to make, I promise. I’ve been making my own for a few years now so it’s second nature, I don’t even consider running to the store anymore, I just whip them up when I need a batch.

Tortillas are a great bread to start with because you don’t have to worry about scary things like yeast or rising. In fact, they only have four gloriously simple ingredients!

Homemade Tortillas

Ingredients:

5 cups of flour
1/2 stick of butter , softened
1 1/2 – 2 cups of hot water
2 tsp salt

Using your flour cutter (or fork, or whisk, or hands, or whatever you have to get the job done) blend your butter into your flour until there are no super large chunks left. Then pour 1 1/2 cups of the very hot water onto the flour mixture and stir it in until it’s combined as well as possible. If it still seems super dry, add the bit of extra water.

Turn the dough onto your countertop and knead until it’s well combined. This is a relatively dry dough, so it absolutely should not be sticky. If it’s sticky, add more flour. But you also want to make sure that the dough isn’t too dry, you want soft, pliable tortillas, not ones that break and tear when rolled.

Once your dough is well combined, pinch off palm sized chunks at a time, slightly bigger than a golf ball. This makes a nice medium sized tortilla. I like to shape the dough ball in my hand for a second to ensure I’ll have a relatively round tortilla.

Lightly flour your surface to make sure your tortilla doesn’t stick and then roll those bad boys out. Rolling is fast and easy once you get the hang of it. The trick is to roll in one direction, then both flip and turn. A few rolls do the trick. I don’t make mine super thin.

Then cook them on a preheated skillet or pan on medium high heat. They cook pretty quickly, needing less than a minute on each side. A few bubbles and brown spots mean you’re doing it right. Once you’re practiced at this, you can fall into a quick rhythm of rolling and cooking.

One batch of these can easily feed my family of six with one or two leftover if we’re lucky. And they freeze well. We love our homemade tortillas, they’re thick, soft, and delicious. If you’re feeling really snazzy you can incorporate other spices and herbs into the dough. Garlic is to die for.

Lazy Cooks’ Tip:

Once you’re practiced at this and know exactly how much water your need for your particular flour (I use whole wheat bread flour and the full 2 cups of water), you can take a shortcut by putting your water and butter in a pot and heating up just to the point of boiling and then removing from heat. Then add to your dry mixture and knead (careful, it’s hot!).

Also, if you’re like me and you don’t like to dirty up your counter if you don’t have to you can do a fair job of kneading with one hand right in your bowl until everything is well combined. But if you’re a beginner you might need to let it all hang out on the countertop so you can really get at the dough.

-Jessica from Bohemian Bowmans and Parenting Wild Things

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Soccer Fun For Everyone

April 25, 2013 by Mitzi Leave a Comment

What I love about soccer is it is FUN exercise. In a group or alone, all you need to play is a ball and a place to run. Soccer is played in over 200 countries around the world. No matter the social economics of an area, kids can play soccer. In Indonesia, I saw children playing soccer with a ball made of paper and tape.

A sport that brings the world together can also bring your family together for a little exercise and fun.

My boys love soccer, so one way we spend quality family time together is getting out in the yard and kicking the soccer ball around together.

We have a small yard. It doesn’t stop us from playing man on man defense in our front yard or blocking off the road in front of our house to play a neighborhood game.

We have the most fun when we go to the local park. The boys find sticks or rocks to make goals and set boundaries. We divide our family of four into teams and play a soccer game with the boys. I will say that the teams are usually pretty evenly distributed and my husband and I play our hardest and make the boys work for any goals. We are pretty competitive about trying to score goals, but we don’t really keep score.

Over Spring Break we went to our local park and my youngest just had to place the goals what seemed like miles a part. Needless to say, we got lots of exercise as a family running from goal to goal.

Besides an old fashion game of soccer, we do soccer drills like:

Kicking the ball back and forth trying to kick it passed the other person
Setting up cones and seeing who can be the fastest to weave the ball in-between the cones
Playing keep away

So the next time you are looking for something to do with your boys, grab a ball and start a game of soccer.

What are some fun active games you play with your family?

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Filed Under: Fitness, Outdoor Activities, Sports

Boy-Approved Broccoli

April 11, 2013 by Erin M. 4 Comments

I honestly thought my boys would never eat broccoli. And I seriously mean never, ever, ever in my wildest dreams.

We are a family of somewhat picky eaters, although The Hubby and I have grown out of some of it, so I thought broccoli would never even make it on to their plates.

However, The Hubby and I enjoy broccoli so I decided to try roasting it in the oven one night and required the boys to try one bite.

I think their may have been angels singing when the older two BOTH said they liked it and wanted more! It was a major mom victory for me that night, and even better, they’ve continued to eat it ever since that night. Little J has even requested the “crunchy broccoli” on more than one occasion.

As an added bonus for me, I throw in some sliced red peppers to roast right alongside the broccoli. I think it adds to the flavor of the broccoli and I get all of the red peppers!

Now for the recipe, if you can even call it a recipe since it is so amazingly simple and you can make as much or as little as you want…

Boy-Approved Broccoli

Ingredients

Broccoli
Red pepper {optional}
Olive oil spray
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with foil and spray lightly with olive oil.

Cut the broccoli into florets. If using the red pepper, cut the red pepper into strips.

Put the broccoli {and red pepper} onto the baking sheet. Spray the vegetables lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the broccoli tops are a little crispy and the red peppers are soft.

Will your boys eat broccoli? How do you prepare it?

What other veggies do your guys enjoy?

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Filed Under: Food, Recipe

Homemade Lara Bars

April 9, 2013 by Jessica 1 Comment

It’s really important to me that my boys eat healthy snacks. I don’t want to put a lot of nutritionally devoid snack foods with lots of processed ingredients in their little bodies. The way I look at it, healthy whole foods are medicine and unhealthy processed foods are (more or less) poison (gasp).

However, I try very hard not to be that mom. You know, that one – the one that’s super uptight about everything their kids eat and won’t let them take part in the “good stuff” at parties and holidays. Thankfully none of my children suffer from food allergies so I always leave room for a little indulging when we’re out and about, though I do set limits, such as only having one glass of fruit punch and then switching to water.

But when we’re home we are pretty good about only keeping whole-food snacks in the house. There are some healthy options at the store without ingredient labels that aren’t too horrifying, but those can cost a pretty penny. Lara Bars are one such treat. I love Lara Bars, they’re raw, filled with fruits and nuts, and aren’t laced with preservatives. But I’d have to sacrifice my first born daughter to keep them in supply for my boys.

So I did what all good foodie moms do when looking for a solution – I turned to Pinterest. And I found this easy Homemade Lara Bars Recipe.

Easy Homemade Lara Bars

Ingredients

1 cup of salted peanuts
1 cup of dates
a sprinkle of shredded coconut
a pinch of cinnamon
a dash of vanilla
and a dollop of maple syrup.

As you can see, these have lots of wiggle room. I made sure that I had a 1 to 1 ratio of nuts and dried fruit, and then just sprinkled and dolloped as I saw fit. Just throw everything into your food processor until everything is nice and mushy and easily shaped.

You can shape them into rectangles like a traditional lara bar and wrap them in parchment paper or you can simply let the four-year-old help and shape them into balls (like play-doh).

These were so very easy and turned out great. I made 3 or 4 batches at once and then froze some to save for later. My boys love them and I love knowing exactly what they’re eating so that I don’t have nutritional mama guilt.

For lots of great flavor combination ideas click the picture to the right to find the original recipe that was my inspiration. Apple Pie, Blueberry Muffin, Carrot Cake, Cherry Pie, and more.

Have you ever tried homemade lara bars?

You can find Jessica writing about life and faith at Bohemian Bowmans and parenting at Parenting Wild Things.

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Walk It Out!

April 4, 2013 by Kristi Leave a Comment

Thank goodness it’s springtime. Are you as tired of the dreary winter as I am?

It’s so hard sometimes to stay fit as mom (or dad) and find time to get in a full workout at the (garage) gym or do an entire session on a DVD. Luckily, I’ve recently read a book that discussed food and fitness which said the best exercise we can do (and is often overlooked) is walking!!!

Woohoo!!

According to The Paleo Coach by Jason Seib,

On busy days, one brisk ten-minute walk is a far cry better than nothing, and two or three such walks whenever you can fit them in would be fantastic. Walking is perhaps the one activity about which you can do that more is always better: some walking is better than none, and you really can’t walk too much unless it causes you to miss a lot of meals or PTA meetings.

I don’t know about you, but that encourages me. I often try to start a new DVD series or Couch to 5K to only run out of time and energy. (If you’re able to do these things, more power to you, keep it up, run on!) To know, however, that walking is a great place to start (and stay) is a wonderful thing.

So open up the door, get out in the sunshine, and take your boys for a walk. Even go out in the backyard and do some laps. I’ve read that a good goal is 10,000 steps a day (which I track using my awesome fitbit!).

Here are some of the resources I mentioned in this post:

Amazon.com Widgets

Do you have a spring walking route for you and your boys? Why don’t you create one today?!

photo source

*This post contains affiliate links.

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Filed Under: Fitness, For Mom & Dad, Outdoor Activities

3 Ways to Move From Fast Food to Good Grub {Guest Post}

April 2, 2013 by Erin 1 Comment

3 Ways to Move From Fast Food to Good Grub Today we have a fabulous guest post from Trisha Gilkerson! I think you’ll love her insight on helping our boys – and ourselves – eat healthier! Welcome Trisha!

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Raising hearty boys amidst our fast food culture is not as easy as a mom would hope. Our schedule often become monopolized with school programs, sports, church functions, and other extra-curricular activities. It’s just too easy to default to fast-food and other convenience foods. On top of all of that, the “nutrition advice” our government has purported that we learned from childhood has resulted in a nation of fat and sick people living a less than optimal life.

The rates of ADHD, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune diseases in children are rising. Your sons are more likely than ever to become afflicted with one of these problems while they are still a child. On top of that, it appears that the life expectancy rates are now declining. But there are things you can do to give your son an optimal start to life, lower his risk of disease, and help his body heal from any existing maladies.

What’s a Mom to Do?

Making family dietary changes can impact the health of your family more than just about anything. Don’t go out and do a total overhaul of your diet today, though.

Make one small, manageable change at a time. Stick with it. Baby steps.

If you try to do a complete overhaul, chances are you’ll get burned out and won’t stick with it. There are many people who look in on my life and wonder how we’ve moved from a diet with a decent share of convenience foods, pasta, and sugary treats to a nourishing nutrient-rich whole foods diet. It didn’t happen overnight.

Where Should I Start?

There are any number of places you can start. Start with with changes that are easy to implement. Stick with it for at least a month —make it a habit. Then, move on to the next change. Here are some ideas for small changes you can start with.

1. Find a source of farm-fresh eggs and begin using them on a regular basis. Your family won’t even miss the anemic eggs you’ve been purchasing from the store. Along with having a more robust flavor eggs from happy hens allowed access to pasture are more nutrient-dense. Your eggs purchased from a local farmer contain:

twice as many omega-3 fatty acids
2/3 more vitamin A
3 times more vitamin E
7 times more beta carotene
4-6 time more vitamin D

2. Increase consumption of healthy fats. Yes, increase fat consumption! It’s a myth that fat makes you fat. Fat is an excellent source of fuel. Fat nourishes the body as well as the mind. Be sure you are using natural, real fats.

When your sons don’t get enough fat it will rob their brains of the raw materials they need to function. Diets high in saturated fat have been found to be effective treatment for epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and prevention of stroke.

3. Cut the sugar! I mean, really cut the sugar. Sugar is difficult to get away from, but extremely detrimental to your health.

You may even need to decrease or eliminate natural sugars from fruits for a time. Many kids (and adults) are addicted to sugar and it can be difficult to break the addiction while eating even natural sugars. You may want to begin cutting sugar back a bit at a time.

Stop buying cereal, pop tarts, and other sugary breakfast items. Replace these with eggs cooked in grass-fed butter or coconut oil, bacon, and sausage. This is great brain food and a fantastic way to start day.

When I began feeding my boys a high protein breakfast with plenty of fat they stayed full for much longer. They used to complain that they were hungry constantly and snack throughout the entire day (no wonder—their blood sugar levels were like a roller coaster). Now, my boys are satisfied with their meals and ask for snacks much less frequently.

After you tackle the sugary breakfast, work on cutting sugar throughout the rest of your boys’ day. If you are able to tackle the sugar issue, your boys will be much better for it!

These ideas should get you started on moving your family to healthier eating patterns! If you’re looking for more ideas hop on over to IntoxicatedOnLife.com for our monthly Wellness Wednesday challenges.

Trisha is a Christian homeschooling mom to 4 energetic boys! Trisha and her husband blog at Intoxicated on Life. They write on a wide variety of topics—growing close to God, health and wellness, parenting, homeschooling, and sharing nutritious recipes. Trisha also developed the handwriting curriculum Write Through the Bible. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+.

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Filed Under: Food, Nutrition

Feeding Boys Recipe Link-up + Giveaway!

March 26, 2013 by Erin 13 Comments

We KNOW you have great recipes your boys just eat up and we want you to share them with us!

The last Tuesday of every month, we’re hosting a recipe link-up right here at Raising Hearty Boys and that is today!

To join the fun, just do the following:

Pick a recipe your own boys love…
Post the recipe on your own blog {or choose one you’ve posted this month}…
Link back to our link-up post…
And find lots of new recipes from other boy moms!

Easy and SO FUN, right?! Let the sharing begin! {link-up is at the bottom of this post}

And we also have a giveaway from our wonderful March sponsor, Tabletop Truths!

These sturdy, handmade placemats are a great way to remind your kids of the important things in life as you sit around the dinner table together! My boys love reading the verses and talking about the pictures on the placemats! There are several different designs and each one comes with a guide for you as a parent to use to start discussions about the armor of God, who Jesus is, and much more!

Today we’re giving away two placemats – The Armor of God and Jesus Is – to one winner! Just enter using the widget below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And link up your recipes here:

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…

*Tabletop Truths is one of our monthly sponsors and provided placemats for review and giveaway. All opinions are 100% our own!

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Filed Under: Food, Fun, giveaway, Recipe

Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers

March 23, 2013 by Jessica 5 Comments

Like all red-blooded Americans, you think burger and you think Black Bean Quinoa Burgers, right? Yeah. Sarcasm intended. Believe me when I say I never thought I’d be someone who pursued what I call a “relatively vegetarian” lifestyle. It wasn’t too many years ago that I would have both laughed and turned up my nose at even the idea of a veggie burger.

So, I hope you’ll take me very seriously when I say I, honest to goodness, prefer these black bean quinoa burgers to the “real thing”. Particularly when the “real thing” are the cheap, frozen boxes of questionable quality moo-cow. The flavor of these veggie burgers trump anything you could imagine if you’ve never dipped your toe in veggie waters. So let’s get started.

Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers

(Or as I like to affectionately call them – Beanoa Burgers)

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked and drained black beans
1 cup of dry quinoa, cooked and drained
1 carrot
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
seasoning to taste

Start by cooking your quinoa and beans according to the package directions. I work with dried beans which means I soak the night before and then cook them to store and use as I need them. But you could also use canned dried beans, in some sort of equivalent fashion, leaving out the bean cooking step in this process.

Cut up and saute your carrot and onion together on the stove until nice and tender, adding salt and pepper to taste. (I like to use a vegetable peeler to get my carrots nice and thin for quicker cooking).

Now here’s the part where you get to be a bit spontaneous and flavorful. Once your veggies are tender, spice and herb those things to your heart’s content. I’m a bit of a free spirit in the spice department so I’m very sorry if this lack of instruction scares you. If you’re unsure where to start, a steak seasoning would pack a good flavor punch and be less guess work for you. Don’t skimp though. This is where things get tasty. Now add a cup of water to your vegetable and herb pan and let it cook off.

Now (tada!) add everything to your food processor or blender. Quinoa, beans, veggies, and garlic. I like to lead with the raw garlic, letting the food processor chop it for me, and then adding the other ingredients on top of it. Stop and scrape the sides as needed and then just let the food processor do it’s work to combine those delicious ingredients for a couple of minutes. By all means, taste the mixture and add more spices and herbs as you see fit.

Spray a baking pan with non-stick spray and then using a large spoon, dip and spread the mixture onto your pan. It’s a nice thick, sticky mixture that is easily patted and spread into a relative burger shape and size.

Bake at 350 on one side for 20 minutes or until brown on the bottom and easily flipped. Then bake on the other side for another 15 minutes or so. It will be a softer consistency than a meat burger, but it should easily hold it’s shape when cooked and not crumble or run.

Now just add all your preferred burger fixin’s!

All of my kids love these burgers, including my super picky six year old. He also prefers these to meat burgers. I think the softer texture makes them more appealing for little people missing front teeth. My red-blooded, ex-military man also likes them and always has seconds.

We’ve been making these about once a week in our house lately. The recipe makes a dozen burgers so sometimes I double it just to have more leftovers to work with. And because the flavor is so dependent on the spices, each time they’re a little different. (Hint: they’re excellent spiced as “taco” burgers and used in burritos).

Have you ever tried a homemade veggie burger?

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Filed Under: Food, Recipe Tagged With: black bean burger recipe, black bean quinoa burger recipe, veggie burger recipe

Raising Hearty Boys

Get Active Outside with KidVentures!

Serving Food with Love

Homemade Tortillas

Homemade Tortillas

Lazy Cooks’ Tip:

Soccer Fun For Everyone

What are some fun active games you play with your family?

Boy-Approved Broccoli

Boy-Approved Broccoli

Will your boys eat broccoli? How do you prepare it?

What other veggies do your guys enjoy?

Homemade Lara Bars

Easy Homemade Lara Bars

Walk It Out!

Do you have a spring walking route for you and your boys? Why don’t you create one today?!

3 Ways to Move From Fast Food to Good Grub {Guest Post}

What’s a Mom to Do?

Where Should I Start?

Feeding Boys Recipe Link-up + Giveaway!

Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers

Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers

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