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Mamas-
Check out this cool new event … think about submitting/auditioning if you’re a writerly type. There’ll be humor, poignant moments, and just motherly comaraderie. Ann Imig, a cool mommy/writer pal is organizing it. She’s HILARIOUS by the way, and if you don’t yet read her blog, you should! Check it out: www.annsrants.com.
Hope to see you there! Wear your corsage!
—Mama Kate
Dear Friends, Loved ones, and People who may/may not be interested:
I’m directing and producing a show on Mother’s Day: LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER will be an afternoon of readings by Madison writers on Motherhood at 3:00 pm, Sunday 5/9/10 at The Barrymore.
Auditions are scheduled for Saturday April 10th by appointment, and full details can be found here.http://www.listentoyourmothershow.blogspot.com
I am so excited about creating a new Mother’s Day Madison tradition. After brunch and seeing the lilacs, why not celebrate yourself or your Mom, Grandma, Aunt, Sister, Best Friend, or hamster by listening to authentic voices from women who know the beauty, beast and the barely-rested that is MOTHERHOOD.
Thank you for your help and I really hope you’ll come. Now, back to your regularly scheduled screen-time.
With fondest regards and appreciation,
Ann
March 18th, 2010
Hot off the griddle!
I just nabbed a copy of Bean Appétit: Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food, and can’t wait to put it to work in the kitchen with my kiddos.
Dynamic duo Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthen—co-owners of Bean Sprouts Cafe and Cooking School, a kid friendly restaurant serving healthy fare to Madison, WI, families—have filled their book with fun, fun, fun. What grown-up cookbook has instructions that tell you to spin in a circle three times before beginning or to waddle like a penguin around the table or shake your hips while the blender’s a whirling?
The book’s design is bright and colorful, filled with a mix of illustration and engaging “food as art” photography kids will love perusing. The recipe instructions are easy for families to follow together, and feature ingredients lists that are reasonable in length and with easily attainable items. Though they run the gamut from breakfast to snacks to outdoor eats and sweet bites, recipes are organized in clever new ways—food fun for a wintry day, book-themed eats, making music and munchies.
The book’s overriding philosophy: Encourage kids to “play” with their food, and you’ll instill a lifelong interest in preparing delicious healthy foods. It’s good for kid giggles, and frustrated parents. Because they’re engaged in the process and having so much fun prepping food in the kitchen, that should translate to fun at the table for mom and dad, as the kids gobble up the new yummy recipes they’ve helped make—perhaps out of foods their tastebuds had previously rejected. Amen to that.
I also dig the cookbook’s fun extras: questions to inspire table talk, games, crafts, and factoids, like favorite pizza toppings, birthday treats, and table manners from around the world. It’s also got handy conversion charts and tips, on top of its just plain good ideas.
So, get cookin’ with your kids. Pick up your copy at a bookstore near you, or order online.
Our Mom Appeal kudos go out to these two busy and creative mompreneurs, who have got the mojo thing going on! Successful cafe and cooking classes, now the fab cookbook, and also a cooking show that’s in the works! Whew! I don’t know how they do it!
—Mama Kate
March 3rd, 2010
As spring edges closer, the snow will begin to melt, the ground will thaw and plants and trees will suddenly spring to life again. But, that doesn’t mean cold weather is behind us. For those chilly mid-winter days, or cool spring nights, Nowali is making sure little feet are protected with four new styles of their award-winning Swedish moccasins.
The four new styles are inspired by spring and include a flower, frog, dot and boat style. Each traditional Swedish moccasin is hand-stitched, and made with yarn and foxing materials that meet the Öko-Tex Standard 100, an ‘eco’ standard which ensures they contain no harmful dyes or substances—AND they are washable!! No worries if your tot trots outside…
We have the adorable blue frog style that is pictured above(alongside the brown frog style), and they are sooooo soft and sweet on our little man’s feet! The flexible soles that are non-slip keep him steady as he learns to take his first steps!!
I just love these moccasins and the fun designs they come in.
Nowali is offering one lucky MomAppeal reader a pair of moccasins for their little one! Perfect while cozy-ing up and watching the Olympics! To enter to win, you need to visit www.nowali.com and choose your favorite design of the four new styles released (flower, frog, dot or boat styles) and email mamajen@momappeal.com with your favorite and we will randomly choose a winner!
Good luck!!
Mama Jen
February 24th, 2010
Some busy days it’s all I can do to eat something green and leafy, or remember to grab fruit on the way out the door so I don’t hoard the Bunny Crackers I packed for the kids. On tired days, I fall back on chocolate and caffeine, with maybe some raisins for fiber. And, usually, I just end up feeling more tired … and wanting more sugary stuff … and totally cranky by day’s end. I need a new plan.
You are what you eat—right? Maybe, like me, you’d like to rethink things—and think a bit more about yourself when you hit the grocery aisles—and know more about what and how you should eat. What’s more important—overall calories, saturated fat calories, protein, fiber, the ingredients? How do you figure it all out?
Find out at our Tuesday, February 23, 10-11 am Coffee Talk, at Bean Sprouts Cafe in Middleton.
Our expert guest is nutrition consultant Tracie Hittman, owner of It’s Your Plate. Tracie’s primary philosophy is easy to remember and embrace (perfect for us busy mamas): “Eat Real Food.” She is known around Madison for her great and insightful events—from healthy grocery store tours to a slew of educational classes, including her upcoming Balance Your Blood Suagar, Nutrition 101, and Endless Energy.
She’ll focus on nutrition for moms, and fill us in on how to balance food choices to create health—whether it’s about just eating more healthfully, eating smarter, eating to fuel and active lifestyle, or eating to be slimmer.Her great tips and advice will include: How to read nutrition labels to find the right choices for best health, including the importance of how choices—especially poor ones—can affect blood sugar, hormones, behavior/how your feel, weight, etc. We’ll start with an interactive “Know Your Ingredients” quiz, and also share shopping lists, snack choices to keep you in balance, and resources for best foods.
An added morsel: All Coffee Talk attendees can enjoy a free 20-minute session with Tracie, by appointment!!!
See you at Bean Sprouts. Bring your nutrition and food questions for Tracie Hittman. Enjoy a gratis cuppa joe. Stay for some great (and healthy) eats! Kids are welcome!
—Mama Kate
veggie photos by Kate Bast
February 12th, 2010
Families!
Get your taste buds out and get ready for some good eats—and play a little game in the process. Bean Sprouts Cafe is looking for VIPea Taste Testers to test out the online recipes that with the cafe’s Bean-GO game!
This healthy twist on Bingo is a great way to get kids to try to new taste (read: fruits and veggies). To play, get out your Bean-go card and let the kids pick a food to try. Together with your kids, follow the provided recipe to make the delicious eats. Cross off each new food after your kids try it, until they get five in a row. Or, play “blackout,” in which each square must get crossed off. Winner gets a reward! (Perfect reward: Make an entire meal or snack of their favorite tastes or recipes! I think my kids will get an extra few Ring-a-Bing-Bing Cherry + Chocolate Chip Cookies washed down with a double-sized Super Star Fruit Smoothie!)
A Bean-go card activated with a recipe for each taste is available on the Bean Sprouts web site. Be sure to rate the recipes—you and your bitty bakers can pass along your expert taste bud and prep chef advice for Bean Sprouts’ new book “Bean Appetit: Hip & Healthy Ways to Have Fun With Food.”
Food IS fun!
—Mama Kate
February 10th, 2010
LOVE THIS BUMPER MAGNET!
It’s produced by The Save the Ta-tas Foundation, a private not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the advancement of breast cancer awareness, education, prevention, and research—and laughter as good medicine.
You can, in fact, clad your entire family in shirts and accessories to proclaim support. Don’t miss the all-natural Boob Loob, to help make breast self-exams easier. With each purchase, 5% of the price is donated to the foundation, to fund its efforts. You also can make a tax-deductible contribution via the foundation’s website. Be sure to check out the “Show Us Yours” link.
For those of you brave enough to permanently affix something to your bumper, the foundation also makes stickers you can attached to your rockin’ kid-hauler.
Heck, “the girls” proceed us all anyway, so why not?
— Mama Kate
January 25th, 2010
A little bird, who is in the know, alerted me to the amazing Adorable Kinders. Handmade in the US, these classic rag dolls are also culturally diverse - available in a wide variety of nationalities. My husband and I recently adopted an amazing little 11 month old boy from Ethiopia, so representation of other races and cultures in our household just became even more important than it already was.When I saw Adorable Kinders, I got excited. And I was right to be… Zachary arrived under our tree this year, and is a welcome addition! The craftsmanship of this handmade doll is awe-inspiring. Its sure to be an heirloom passed down through generations.This fantastic mom-owned business is absolutely amazing and has been a long time in the making. Originally, Aranza, the mother who makes the dolls, began the company and it’s vision with her son Ivan after he graduated highschool. Unfortunately, Ivan passed away unexpectedly. Understandably, Aranza ceased to work on the handmade dolls.Years later, Aranza decided to make Adorable Kinders Ivan’s legacy while creating local jobs and helping the US economy.The rag dolls are vintage looking and absolutely beautiful. It doesn’t end there…part of Ivan and Aranza’s vison to have the dolls be educational has also come to fruition. Your child can take their new doll to “eSchool” with the unique code that comes with your doll. The eSchool is fantastic!!!!Education, imagination, handmade and local? Perfect.Mama Jen
January 4th, 2010
Mamas,
Check out the article “The 7 Foods Experts Won’t Eat.” It’s pretty interesting. Prevention magazine asked food safety experts which foods they avoid. It’s short, but I found it good food for thought for reconfiguring the ole grocery list when it comes to buying healthful things for my family.
—Mama Kate
December 10th, 2009
Gals—
Thanks for your suggestions! Here there are to share, in another rundown of great reads:
“Derby Girl” or “Whip It” by Shauna Cross
“A Gate at the Stairs” by Lorrie Moore
“Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Vergese
“The Help” by Kathryn Stockett
“Still Alice” by Lisa Genova
“Those Who Save Us” by Jenna Blum
“A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth
“The Glass Castle: A Memoir” by Jeanette Walls
“Women of the Silk” by Gail Tsykiyama
“Beneath the Marble Sky” by John Shors
“Beautiful Boy” by David Sheff
… and his son’s “Tweak” Nic Sheff
“Sonata for Miriam” by Linda Olsson
“Outlyer” by Jim Harrison
Santa Baby, if you’re reading this, I’d love to find anything on this list under the tree on Xmas morning.
—Mama Kate
November 23rd, 2009
For years I’ve struggled to put my diaper bag into the basket of strollers, and I have had no idea that there was a solution out there… I bet you have found yourself in the same position!!
Leave it to Skip Hop, a company that makes hip and stylish diaper bags to have a bag, called The Saddlebag which attaches to your stroller frame for hands-free stroller time—like blue-tooth technology for your diaper-bag! Fantastic!!!
I adore mine and got it at 
, a site that will have you drooling all over the place…great stuff there!!! Mama Jen
November 3rd, 2009
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