North Shore Green Markets, a program to bring healthy and local food as well as arts and crafts to North Vancouver, is currently running summer markets all across North Vancouver. We visited our first Green market, the Friday Night Market, held at the Shipbuilders plaza down by Lonsdale Quay.
Local performers took stage while booths were set up with arts, clothing, local produce, baked goods and a number of food vendors. We came away from the night with some local strawberries (most of which were in the bin, some of which were on Aiden’s face), a fantastic homemade drink syrup, some bread and full tummies from the Chili Tank chili we had for dinner. It was a wonderful way to spend a summer night – next time, I’m getting some chocolates!
The Friday Night market is held each Friday until September 23rd from 5pm – 11pm. The most up-to-date info about the Markets can be found on Facebook.
I admit it. I’ve been a judgmental non-parent and even a judgmental parent about what I see other kids eating. “I would never let my child eat that,” I’ve thought. “All that toddler food is just marketing,” I would say. Oh, how I’ve eaten my words.
When Aiden was first introduced to solids, he’d eat just about anything. So, I gave him healthy choices – food we ate, but chunked or pureed up a bit. I definitely adhere to the “eat what we eat” philosophy.
As he grew older, and went through picky stages, I’ve relaxed a bit. Rice crackers and bananas may have cut it for snacks when Aiden was younger, but he demands more variety now. Trying to come up with 3 meals and 2 snacks a day is exhausting, so pre-packaged snacks, in particular, have invaded my home. I’ve also realized that a few “bad” foods are really not a big deal if the overall week-long diet is pretty balanced.
So yeah, I let my child eat THAT.
- french fries
- cookies
- goldfish, or other assorted cheddar/animal snacks
- cappuccino or mocha foam. He loves it.
- A vast variety of toddler-snacks. Puffs and bars and fruit twists galore.
- Mum-mums. I was all for the rice crackers (sugar free, one ingredient!), until Aiden decided they were too boring
- Packaged applesauce – handy won out over homemade
Lest you think I feed my child a horrible assortment of foods, his most common snacks at home are cucumber and edamame. We don’t eat fast food, though fries and burgers may adorn our plates at restaurants. We try to eat organic, though not to extremes.
At the end of the day, Aiden eats, and mostly well. I’ve learned that keeping him happy and full is worth relaxing my standards a bit.
P.S. – I also provide a snack cup in the car more frequently than I’d like to admit.
What about you? What foods do your kids eat that you never thought you’d “let” them?
There are hundreds of places you can order pizza from all over Vancouver. There are chains big and small. There are one-off pizza shops. There are restaurants that have pizza. There are places that just sell thin-crust and places that just sell weird toppings. A lot of it goes down to preference.
The most amazing pizza we’ve ever had – sadly, it was in Italy
In North Vancouver, we’ve had experience with these pizza delivery options:
- Boston Pizza – more expensive if you’re just getting pizza, but if your family wants pizza and other *stuff*, it’s a good option. Plus, they have an iPhone app.
- Deep Cove Pizza - greasy crust aside, I’ll always love this pizza because I grew up with it. They always have some really interesting pizza combinations – and usually they end up more appetizing than some others
- Flying Wedge – over-rated and overpriced, I think.
- Hell Pizza – love the diversity of the menu and ordering options (including half/half pizza topping choices), but find the regular menu items too ‘different’. We always consider the options then end up choosing completely custom pizzas anyway. Good, but more pricey.
- Little Caesars – I haven’t had this since I was quite young, but I thought I’d list it anyway.
- Panago – admittedly our go-to. We know what we like and it’s reliably quick and tasty.
- Raven Pizza – I’ve gone to the new Raven location on Lonsdale a couple of times for lunch and haven’t been super pleased. I don’t love the flavour of this pizza, though I know it’s a huge favourite with many.
Have you had pizza elsewhere in North Vancouver? If so, contribute to this list!
When we were on our honeymoon in Europe, we stayed a few days with my extended family in Waddinxveen in the Netherlands. While there, we were introduce to a staple in the Dutch family meal plans: a stamppot. A stamppot is a “mash pot” – a dish made with potatoes mashed with other vegetables and sometimes with meat. It serves as a fantastic “all-in-one” meal and we’ve made it many times in the past few years.
Staple additions to our stamppot recipes include spinach or kale, though I’d probably add onion if I had my way. You could add any vegetable in your fridge – what doesn’t go with potato!? – and make a tasty meal.
In our last stamppot, we added some Mexican chorizo we purchased from Cilantro and Jalapeno in the Quay.
To make this samppot, we took the casing off the chorizo and cooked the crumbled chorizo. We cooked and mashed potatoes (we leave the skin on) in a separate pot, adding butter, milk, salt & pepper. We then added in some lightly steamed (ok, we did it in the microwave) spinach and the cooked meat. Viola!
Aiden is always inconsistent in his meals and what he’ll choose to eat, but he was all over the leftovers of this meal today at lunch. He’s a big fan of meat sausages and this was the first time he ate mashed potatoes without spitting them out (yay for flavour). Now that I know he likes the idea of the stamppot, I’ll plan to make a version with vegetables he likes, such as carrots, instead of the spinach.
Aiden has learned how to feed himself with a spoon and to sort-of feed himself with a fork – he can sometimes spear food, but usually that’s still Mom or Dad’s job. A few weeks ago, I decided to involve Aiden in cooking some applesauce. I make mine with the skin on, though I cut it up small so the skins are less bothersome to Aiden.
I taught Aiden how to push down with his knife. Since he has a set of cutting fruit toys (which we love!!), and quickly picked up the concept of slicing, it was fun to begin to get him involved in the cooking process.
Of course, his attention span wasn’t great and he refused to wear the cute apron I had for him. Still, it’s a step in the right direction – we’d love to be able to cook while he’s awake instead of dealing with him during his fussy hours, putting him to bed, then eating our own dinner sometime after 7pm.
