Author Archives: Adriana Zoder

Nov 10 2017

Gluten Free Apple Crisp

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September and October are apple months where we live. That’s when we can applesauce and make apple crisp almost every day. November can be apple crisp month too. Why not?

Gluten free apple crisp to warm you on a cool fall morning

If you ask me, any month is apple crisp month. I love, love, love apple crisp and any kind of fruit crisp, really. And since becoming gluten free, I have changed my baking recipes and the result is just as tasty if not even better.

Gluten free apple crisp with vegan cream

Option: serve it with vegan cream

This recipe I will share with you is inspired by the Minimalist Baker apple crisp, but I had to modify it because I like a different apple-to-topping ratio than what their recipe was. Also, I like a healthier take on it, so I put less sugar in mine. Continue reading »

Oct 27 2017

Gluten Free, Vegan Enchiladas

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Over the summer months, I found out what has been causing my abdominal pain for the past 24 years: gluten. As a result, I am now adapting all my recipes to be gluten free. Most of them are easy to switch. There are so many gluten free substitutes out there.

However, there is a learning curve. I have never been afraid of a little learning, so it’s all good. So far, I have been pleasantly surprised to hear from my husband and children that they like gluten free pancakes better than regular ones. The same goes for store-bought gluten free cookies and a gluten free zucchini cake I made a couple of weeks ago.

Here’s how I have adapted my enchilada recipe to be gluten free and vegan. By the way, if you do not like vegan cheese, you can always use the genuine article.

Gluten free, vegan enchiladas

Gluten free, vegan enchiladas

 

Ingredients

One pack of Bfree tortilla wraps (or use whatever brand you like)

1 1/2 c Bob’s Mill TVP

1 jar of your favorite Marinara sauce Continue reading »

Oct 25 2017

Enriching Children’s Minds

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There are so many ways to enrich a child’s mind that do not involve being sat in front of a teacher for hours at a time. This is where homeschooling comes into its own. In a natural, comfortable environment, it’s so much easier for your child to concentrate and learn.

Helping your own child through their life as a parent and a teacher is very rewarding. Yet the majority of parents send their children to a mainstream school for two main reasons. It’s easy and it is sociable. But homeschooling can be just as sociable! 

Girl homeschooling

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Field Trips

In school, your child will have two or three field trips or educational visits a year. With homeschooling, you can base as much of the learning as you want around field trips. For example, if you’re studying a part of history that your local museum is showcasing, it is so much more effective for it to be seen and understood by looking at artifacts face to face. Continue reading »

Oct 23 2017

Copenhangen, Denmark

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A few days ago, I was talking to an American public school teacher and he asked me where we went on our trip to Europe. I replied, “Sweden and Denmark.” He asked me, “And is Denmark in Germany?”

Father and children in restaurant

Waiting for our dinner in a Nyhavn restaurant

Stunned but trying hard not to show it, I said, “Denmark is a country north of Germany. It has a peninsula and about 400 islands of its own, one of them being Greenland.” He smiled and we moved on with our conversation. Continue reading »

Oct 22 2017

Avoid Buying Baby Products With These Ingredients

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My blog deals with homeschooling, but part of a thriving homeschool is to keep health and safety at the forefront. Many moms of babies are preparing to homeschool by doing lots of research on the internet. This post is for them.

When it comes to your baby’s health, you can’t afford to make any mistakes. There is a huge industry built around soaps and skin products for your baby and they all claim to be healthy for them. If you’ve ever looked into the dangers of your own skin products, you’ll probably know that isn’t true. Continue reading »

Oct 12 2017

What Makes a Good Fundraiser?

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Recently, KSYO asked me to join their fundraiser team of parents and staff. I am not looking for things to do, but it was hard to refuse. I like this organization and what they are doing for my children. I accepted and then started researching a bit how I can help.

Fundraisers are notoriously difficult to get right. No matter how hard you work, there is always something waiting to go wrong for you. However, real persistence and a willingness to go the extra mile can pay off big time. You first need to start thinking about what makes a good school fundraiser. When you know what success would look like, you can start putting the right plans in place. Here are some of the things that help make a good fundraiser.

 

Fun

First and foremost, your school fundraiser has to be a lot of fun. Otherwise, why would anyone even want to get involved or play a part? It might seem like an obvious thing to point out, but you’d be surprised by the number of school fundraisers that truly are no fun at all. All that will do is sour the experience and ensure people don’t come back next time. It’s important to think about the long-term, not just the here and now.

 

Something Out of the Ordinary

Most people and most parents have been to a million school fundraisers before. That means they don’t want to be presented with the same old stuff and the same old ideas that they’ve seen a million times before. Do something out of the ordinary if you want to get people talking about your fundraiser and turning up in higher numbers. To put it simply, don’t be boring.

 

Prizes to be Won

No school fundraiser would be complete without a raft of prizes waiting to be given away. You definitely need to make sure the prizes you’ve got lined up are appealing to the kinds of families and parents that are most likely to show up to this whole thing. Head to httpss://www.the-fund-raiser.com/how-to-personalize-wine-gift-baskets/ if you want some gift basket ideas. Put thought and care into the selections you make.

Science Fair as Fundraiser

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A Strong Venue

You’re going to need to have a good venue lined up for your fundraising event because if you don’t, it might not be suited to what you’re trying to achieve. Make it somewhere that people will find easy to get to. And don’t forget to think about all the logistical things such as car parking. All these things matter a lot, and they shouldn’t be swept to one side. Continue reading »

Oct 8 2017

Stockholm Technology Museum

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Tekniska Museet is the Swedish name for this museum in Stockholm, Sweden, which features a mathematical garden outside, and two floors of interactive exhibits covering physics, chemistry, biology, robotics, computer science etc. In other words, a STEM museum.

Tekniska Museet

One of the installations in the mathematical garden. Preschoolers and their vests in the foreground.

There is also a large collection of early innovations showing the history of technology since the 18th century, e.g. an old printing press, sewing machine, early MacIntosh computer, automobile and so on. All the exhibits have iPads where one can select the language of the presentation, either Swedish or English.

Continue reading »

Oct 2 2017

Legoland, Billund

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When you think of LEGO bricks and Legoland, you think of toys and playtime, right? Right. But LEGO bricks are so much more than a toy. Children gain a lot of knowledge about the world around them when they play with LEGO bricks.

Legoland Billund

My husband took this picture of us.

A visit to Legoland is always fun, but it can also help you focus your child on building if you have ventured too much into screen time. Many people get lured into “educational video games” and forget all about the box of LEGO bricks they have in the corner of the play room. I say it is time to give LEGO bricks another chance. Your child will find the joy of building and story telling all over again.

Miniland Legoland Billund

My favorite part of the park was Miniland.

I have always wanted to take my children to the closest Legoland to us, which is in Florida. We never made it. Instead, we visited the Legoland Discovery Centery in Atlanta. Continue reading »

Oct 1 2017

Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights

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One of our goals in traveling to Sweden for our family vacation this year was to see the northern lights, or aurora borealis. Growing up with the story of Fram, the polar bear, by Cezar Petrescu, I loved the words “aurora borealis.” I did not know what they meant, but I knew it had something to do with special lights one can see way up there, beyond the arctic circle.

Aurora Borealis in Sweden

The northern lights as we saw them in Abisko National Park.

I wanted my children to understand the phenomenon before we witnessed it, so we read up on it on the internet and saw some pictures. Of course, we had no idea if we were actually going to get to see them. Three factors must be there for you to see them and one of them is a clear sky. Continue reading »

Sep 11 2017

Junibacken and Skansen

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We are still in Stockholm. The best activity so far for the children has been Skansen. Then, we went to Junibacken and they loved it just as much. Skansen is the world’s oldest open air museum. You can see Swedish homesteads representing different geographical regions and eras. Like time capsules, these homes and the farms around them have preserved the specific details of Swedish culture. Actors dressed in traditional garb for their period and location will tell you the story of that particular homestead.

Family on the bridge to Djurgarden

On the bridge to Djurgarden

They also have a petting zoo and then another zoo dedicated to Nordic animals like brown bear, elk (or moose), reindeer, lynx, wolf, wolverine, owls etc. The kids spent a lot of time in front of the huge tank for seals, as the seals jumped out of the water a couple of times. For really small children, they have an area called Little Skansen, with indoor-outdoor play zones also filled with animals like rabbits and hens. Continue reading »