Happy New Year!

This time of year with its new notebooks and lunchboxes is also the Jewish New Year. I love the feeling I get as I emerge from the casual relaxed chaos of the summer months into the order and schedule of the fall. It's always the time when I start new projects, make resolutions and buy new office supplies. 

It's also the time of the Jewish New Year - Rosh Hashannah (The Head of the Year). We celebrate the creation of the world and then spend ten days reflecting on the past year and how we have (or have not) lived up to our promises, standards and expectations. Ten days later, after a day of fasting on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), we emerge all clean and tidy and ready to head off into the new year with new determination, just like tidy little school children with their hair combed on the first day of school.  So much promise!  So much optimism!

Finding out you're pregnant - beginning the Childbearing Year -  also has this feeling of starting fresh. You get to start a whole new life as a pregnant woman. This woman will eat healthy and exercise regularly and get enough sleep. This new woman that you are will start practicing right now to be the perfect mother. You can even buy new supplies - a little notebook to keep track of appointments or a new yoga mat.

As the pregnancy progresses, though, you realize that it's just like everything, else, you can't be perfect.  Some weeks you miss yoga.  And some days you don't eat your greens. But you keep trying and sometimes you have a day where you walk and eat your whole grains and do your breathing exercises and you feel quite good.

This is a good lesson in preparation for becoming a parent.  We can't be perfect. But we can try our best to be good enough. And with support and good luck, sometimes we make it.

I wish you all the best of luck for your New Year - however you define it!

Eva

On Food and Feeding

There's a lot of stress around feeding our children. It's a constant question of what do I give her? How much does he need? The newest guidelines from BC's Best Chance (you can read more about that here ) suggest giving a variety of most foods, without waiting on the common allergens such as eggs and peanuts. It has been found that waiting to give those foods hasn't decreased the incidence of allergies in children, so there's no need to wait until twelve or twenty-four months before serving almond butter on toast to your child (unless your family has a history of allergies). I love these new recommendations as I'm a firm believer in 'This is what's for dinner and no, I'm not making you a grilled cheese sandwich'.

Last summer I was at my family's cottage in Quebec, and with my two children and all their cousins there were 12 kids running around. Mealtimes were insane, with at least a couple of dishes made especially for the pickiest eaters - white pasta with parmesan cheese was a favourite. I was talking with my mum one day, and she said 'I don't know why kids think that everything they eat has to be their favourite. You don't need to absolutely LOVE everything you eat!'. That really stuck with me, because I think it's a really important lesson to learn that there are times when we do things because they need to be done. Toys need to be tidied, hats need to be worn, and sometimes we eat kale because we haven't had a single green for three days. If we offer our children a healthy variety of food and trust them to eat what they need, they will learn to try new things, even if they aren't the most delicious thing they could think of eating right then. And who knows, maybe one day our kids will thank us for turning them into kale-and-collard-eating superheros!

Recipe of the Month

We at Mothering Touch believe strongly in the 'family meal' - that is, everyone sitting down together and eating (mostly) the same food. In the Recipe of the Month column, I will post food ideas that hopefully the whole family will love. After all, just because we have kids doesn't mean that we have to be relegated to the land of never-ending mac'n'cheese, right?

Zucchini Strand Rotini With Fresh Herbs

I've been making this constantly this summer, and have found it infinitely adaptable to what's ripe in my garden. Switch the sage for basil, the zuch for diced tomatoes, green beans, etc.

4 cups dry rotini pasta 

1/4 cup olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh sage

1/2 cup grated parmesan

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of water to boil; cook pasta until al dente; drain in colander.

Heat oil in a large skillet. Cook garlic in oil until golden; add zucchini and sage and cook on low heat until zucchini is soft. Toss pasta, zucchini mixture, and parmesan cheese in a large serving bowl; add salt and pepper to taste. Serve in pasta bowls with freshly ground black pepper.

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