Memorial Weekend Walk

We took a really beautiful hike asking the San Clemente Beach Trail this morning.

Sure, it was crowded with joggers, moms with strollers and plenty of other dogs, but it was still very enjoyable.

Poor Milo, the trains scare him and they kept blowing their horns right next to the little guy.  We'll be sure to be careful with him next time we go.

Bella Monica Gluten Free Pizza

We are still on it quest to find an affordable, yet tasty gluten free frozen pizza.

All of the pizzas we have tried so far have been uneven to say the least.  Coughing up $12.00 for a pizza that tastes like cardboard is something I wish to avoid from now on.

Fortunately, last week I was walking through my local grocery store and spotted these gluten free pizzas from Bella Monica.  They are a personal size and were priced at $4.99 each!  That was enough for me to try them.

My daughter loved her cheese pizza.  It was a little too much food for her.  Surprisingly, she asked us to save the leftovers so she could enjoy it the next day!  She has never asked that before!

Cheese pizza for the little princess

I really enjoyed the Spinach & Feta pizza.  It was wonderful to have a non-meat option and feta is one of my favorite cheeses.  The toppings were delicious.  It did bake up looking quite nice.  The crust did get golden brown.  The crust was a tad bit chewy and stuck in the teeth just a bit.  Despite the chewiness, overall this is the best frozen pizza we have tried!

Spinach & Feta for me

My husband equally enjoyed his pepperoni pizza.  He loves meat pizza and it would be great to see a meat lover's option from Bella Monica in the future.

Pepperoni for the hubby

We were impressed with the quality of these pizzas.  We also loved the price, which is less than half of those other gluten free pizzas we have tried.  While we won't have these on a weekly basis, we now have a nice option when the rest of the family is in a mood to stay home, watch a movie and eat pizza.

We loved all three

The Joy Of Unmixed Martial Art

We have been so fortunate to be involved in a really wonderful local karate school for the past few years.  My middle child had not really found her "thing" as far as sports.  She loves athletics, but was not interested in soccer, basketball, volleyball, etc.  When we found the Shoshin Karate School, we knew she had found something she could really be passionate about.

Making friends and having fun are part of karate!

Traditional karate is not as flashy as some martial arts, and it certainly is not the loud martial art where kids are running and screaming while flailing their arms.  No, Shotokan (traditional) karate is about form, movement and discipline.  That might not sound exciting, but it is a beautiful martial art where strength and balance are as important as will power.

These classes are broken up into three parts.  First they work on drills, next early non-contact sparring and finally they practice kata.  Katas are individual practice routines that you can probably compare to a memorized dance, but uses karate forms instead.  The katas are important.  They teach a student to strive for perfection, to be aware of each movement of their body and not "just go through the motions", but feel the motions and understand the purpose of each one.

As my daughter has learned and tested in her belts, she has grown a sense of pride and self confidence that I didn't know existed inside of her.  She is a different kid in the studio.  She exudes a certain air of humility that is mixed with a self assuredness.  She is stronger than I knew, she is faster than I knew and she is not scared of anyone in that studio.  She holds her own, whether she is practicing with another same age student or advanced black belt.  Here, students compete with themselves to learn and do better and all students support all other students.  We love the sensei.  He knows how to pull the very best out each student.

It has been a beautiful experience and one that I am proud to promote.  Come by and try this fun (yes it is fun!) traditional karate.  It is held in a BEAUTIFUL studio that is located behind Fluidmaster in San Juan Capistrano.  You can contact Sensei Johnston at 949-728-2611.  www.shoshinkarate.org

Classes are for adults AND kids!  Starting at $80/month!!!

Delgado Canyon Trail

This morning, Milo and I took a quick walk into a local canyon.  He loves his walks and I am trying to do as many different ones we can.

So far we have done trails by the harbor, hills of San Clemente and a lovely one by the new dog park in San Juan Capistrano.

I hope to finish this trail in the near future, it is really nicely maintained.

Park May 2014

Spent a lovely afternoon at the local park.  Love spending time with my kids.  Gotta do it while they still want to hang out with me!

The Biggest Mistakes You Are Making With Your Sunscreen

Protect Your Kids From Skin Cancer!

We are at the tail end of a terrible heatwave and we are only in May!  Thanks to the heat, we have let the kids start swimming in our pool and we know plenty of other families heading to the beach and local swimming clubs trying to cool off.

I have always been extremely careful with my kids and active in their prevention of sunburn.  We have many family members with skin cancer who were sun-worshippers using baby oil for sunscreen back in their younger years.  While we have come a long way, we still have to start using modern suncsreen properly.

There are many mistakes we do when using sunscreen, and as a mom and a consumer, I want to use it as effectively as possible.  Here are some tips for using that sunscreen and protecting your kids and yourself.

Hooray for summer!

1 - Apply sunscreen at least 15 minutes before getting into any water.  

This is really the most important tip, since I see it as the one most often made.

If you are going to the beach, apply it at home.  Hitting a water park?  Apply it home.  If you swim at home, get the kids ready, apply it and set the timer for 15 minutes.  Get the idea?  Wait, wait, wait!

Many times we go swimming or a water park and see moms calling and hog-typing their kids for the few minutes it takes to apply to the sunscreen, only to see the children rush and jump right into the water and witness the "oil slick" left behind.

If you have ever used a sunscreen and it "didn't work", it is most likely because you didn't wait before getting it wet.  TRUST ME.  Just do it before getting in the car and you kids can jump right in as soon as they get there!

2 - Sunscreen goes on anything that is exposed to the sun  

We have all forgotten those little areas that can get sunburned before. Some of the most common areas we forget to put sunscreen on include:  top of the ears, back of the neck, scalp where part in hair is, under arms and my favorite....the top of their feet.  

3 - Reapply it, even if you have to drag them out  

After two hours, most kids will have to take a break for a snack or at least the restroom. (unless they are pool/ocean as a casual restroom)  Get them out and dried off and before they eat their snack, reapply the sunscreen and let it set in while they eat their snack and get rehydrated.  Even the best sunscreen can't go more than two hours after being in the water.

4 - Use sunscreen that hasn't been compromised

You know that bottle of sunscreen that has been sitting in your car since last summer?  Yeah....that needs to be thrown out.  The chemicals in sunscreen degrade when exposed to high temperatures.  So your car, heating up over and over again, is a sunscreen killer.  Throw it out.

Hint: Keep your sunscreen cool when you go out.  If you go to the beach and you take a cooler, you can keep it in the cooler. Bonus!  It will feel delightfully chilly when you use it!   

You should also toss all of the sunscreens at home from last summer.  That time factor also degrades sunscreens and makes them less effective.  

5 - Use The Right Sunscreen

The SPF factor can be confusing.  The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends anything SPF30 or higher with both UVA and UVB protection for enjoying the water.  While I usually use a SPF45, anything above a SPF50 is not really going to make much difference.  So don't fork over more money for a SPF70 or SPF 75.
I was a fan of more natural zinc oxide based sunscreens for years, but they are very expensive and we can use a tube in two days in our family.  As a compromise, I use the more commercially available spray for the limbs and torso and the zinc oxide based sunscreens for the face and neck areas.   

If you can find Blue Lizard Sunscreen, I highly recommend it.  It is a family favorite!

Stay safe this summer!

Product Review: Northern Chef Gluten Free Shrimp & Cod

My daughter's favorite food in the world is shrimp.  She loves it grilled, sauteed and she loved it breaded.  I have been able to make our own breaded shrimp, but I have missed the ease of a pre-breaded shrimp over the last year.

Imagine my happy surprise when I found these bags of Lightly Breaded Shrimp and Lightly Breaded Cod with the words "gluten free" on them?????  I found them in my local Stater Bros. and I couldn't believe it.  

Oven ready and totally gluten free

After taking the bags home and preheating my oven, I poured the amount I wanted for my kids on a lined baking sheet that had foil on it.  The shrimp were impressively large and were "lightly breaded".  I very much dislike heavy breading that masks the taste of the shrimp, so bravo for the description matching the actual food.  The cod was also just lightly coated and came in 2" chunks or larger.  

Once cooked, these little babies were ready for lunch.  My daughter loved the shrimp.  I tried a few pieces and was impressed.  Juicy shrimp with a crispy light coating and it even comes with its own cocktail sauce.  

The fish was delicious, or at least I think it was.  My son inhaled it so quickly I only got a small morsel.  When I asked him about, he said he liked it but next time, could I make more?

These bags of frozen seafood are absolutely perfect for keeping in the freezer for those nights you come home late and need a quick, hot meal.  This can easily be paired with a salad, some roasted veges and some rice and you can have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes!

Dodge the Draft

Just when you think you can hear a more ridiculous story about the culture of today, I happened upon this little gem coming out of our local Newport area.

 High School Boys Hold "Draft" To Pick Prom Dates

Ok, really?  Really?  REALLY?!?!?!?

I feel as if asking this over and over will make it somehow make sense to me.  Gathering a bunch of guys together to publicly "draft" which girls will be asked by which guy is something that is happening (and not in an Adam Sandler movie)?!

There are, apparently, several students AND parents who do not get what the big deal is.  What dad wouldn't want their son to pick his prom date like he was picking cattle stock at an auction?  And what mother can't wait to meet her son's prom date? Even if it wasn't his first choice, because that girl was already "off the board".

Several protest the notion that this is happening with any sort of objectifying of the teenage girls.  I'm assuming then that girls were ranked by their GPA, charity work and overall good manners, right?  No one factored in things like boob size, propensity to "have a good time" and/or what rank they were on the social ladder?

The craziest part of this is that it has been happening FOR YEARS.  Generations of teenage girls have allowed themselves to become participants (willing or not) of this extremely mysogynistic draft.  There have been dozens of classes of high school boys who have spent hours calculating a potential girl's WORTH into a formula for ranking.

What of the girls at the bottom of the draft?  What of the girls who find out their worth according to the order in which they were taken off the board?  I find it hard to swallow that this kind of behavior is even happening in our area.  Wasn't Orange County supposed to be progressive?

Can these parents and students tell me that all of these female students were happy to be in the draft?  That is really "hurts no one"?  It is extremely distressing.  I am spending years developing my girls to be proud of themselves.  To value themselves for who they are.  To know that their virtues and values will always be the most important thing.  That God loves them just as they are.  The last think I want to see is them devalued into a piece of meat to fight over.

With that in mind, I would like to address the female students at Corona del Mar High School.

Dear CdM female students,
Your high school career is something that you have worked hard for.  Your parents and yourself have spent hours on your education to better yourself and your future. 
Proms and social events are an important part of your high school experience.  With that said, they are not a good enough reason to literally sell yourself out and attend the event knowing that you were objectified and ranked by a group of teenage boys.  Yes, boys.  Boys are fun, but they are no judge of you.
Look around at your female classmates.  They should not be viewed as your competition.  They should be viewed as your sisters.
Too many girls grow up to be women in mindless and endless competition.  From the parties they host, to the weddings they have, how they look pregnant to how they deliver their own child.  Girls who grow up to be competitive women compare and complain about how another woman feeds her child, takes care of her family or what gym she joins.
Do not give into this now.  Refuse to be placed into another pointless competition.  Value yourself.  Value integrity.  You are more than a simple ranking.  Find the courage to tell someone "no" and find a friend or two or three to attend your prom without dates. 

This draft benefits no female at your school.  Dodge the draft.  

Weekly Menu for 1st Week of May!

Yesterday was another milestone for our family as our youngest daughter received her First Communion.  It was a picture perfect day that was spent with loved ones and we feel truly blessed it went so well.  I'll have an post later with a mess of pictures.

Time moves on and we need to spend some time today on the everyday things. So first things first, here is this weeks menu:

Want more great recipes like these?  Follow me on Pinterest!
http://www.pinterest.com/mangosoco/gluten-free/

Sunday
Braised Chicken with Tomatillos
baked potatoes

Monday - Cinco de Mayo!
Grilled shrimp made into tacos
Mexican rice
Fat free refried beans

Tuesday
Arroz Con Pollo (chicken with rice)
Green salad

Wednesday
Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
gluten free noodles
sliced tomatoes

Thursday
Bubble Pizza
Green salad