High Maintenance Mom

Whole Foods is introducing their Whole Baby program with an informative booklet, coupons, free samples, and a lecture series. The booklet, which is available at Whole Foods stores, contains information about healthy eating, natural soothers, body care, and coupons. The coupons are good through 10/31/06 and include Stonyfield Farm yogurt or milk, Earth's Best products, Burt's Bees buttermilk lotion, Mothering Magazine, and Seventh Generation diapers...

Do you need to pack a lunch for your kids? Let High Maintenance Mom and Whole Foods help you prepare for the new school year with a basket of healthy back-to-school foods kids love. Two lucky High Maintenance Mom readers will win a Whole Foods Basket filled with some of our favorite items...

I made my first peach cobbler over the weekend and asked B to help cut out shapes for the topping. We decided it was time to test out the Williams Sonoma cookie cutter letters that have been displayed in the kitchen for a few years as if they were used frequently. It fun to see B get excited about putting words on a food item...

We watched Super Size Me the other night and I highly recommend it. For anyone who hasn't heard of it, you get to watch Morgan's health deteriorate as he eats only McDonalds for 30 days...

I've often wondered why finishing everything on your plate seemed so American. The clean plate club: why your family shouldn't join, explains the history and outcome of this phenomenon along with suggestions for creating our own mealtime rituals. Like many of us, I have painful memories of eating at my Nana's where it was insisted that I finish everything on my plate through very structured meals. Breakfast included of a huge glass of milk followed by a huge glass of juice, then cereal then fruit. It appears that this type of behavior can be traced back to the Food and Fuel Control Act of 1917. The plan that taught all of us not to trust when we were full was originally enacted to conserve food...

Today's Daily Candy Kids was about the Octodog, a converter that turns a normal hot dog into an octopus shaped hot dog. The Octodog website has nice images and I was able to read most of the site before needing to try it myself. I do understand that there is a device you can buy, but even if I ordered it now, it wouldn't be here in time for dinner. So I hid my immediate gratification desire behind my "I'm a scientist" facade as I grabbed a hotdog (all natural, no nitrates for anyone who is wincing at the idea of eating hotdogs) out of the freezer and starting cutting...