The Carrot

penguincarrotfoot

Hey parents, do any of you have kids that just eat their dinner without a fuss? You do? Liers!

Meal times have been a struggle lately, mostly with Charlie. He seems to think dessert is one of the meals of the day and not a nice treat after eating the meal you are supposed to eat first.

You know what I am talking about.

  • My tummy is full
  • I don’t like that
  • I am not hungry anymore
  • What’s that green thing on there
  • I don’t want dinner tonight

All classics in our house. I also want to mention we never cook anything we don’t think the boys will like. It certainly limits what we get to enjoy, but we do it anyways.

2016: It Wasn’t A Total Dumpster Fire

As the year closes, I have been pulled in by my computer to put a stamp on 2016, in my own words. If you simply live your life through your social feed, it has been a shitty one. So many celebs we grew up with passing away, the whole Trump thing and an endless supply of other WTF moments. While I agree the last 365 days have been overall bad, I do want to focus on all the good, especially when it comes to my personal life.

Remember, life is how you look at it, so I suggest stop dwelling in the negative and celebrate the good times a lot more.

Time To Scrap The Following

Republican U.S. presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump speaks during the Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada December 15, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake - RTX1YVD0

All week I have been reading about Donald J. Trump scrapping this and scrapping that as he prepares to become the leader of the free world. To me it seems like he is getting rid of things just because he can and there is no reason other than it’s change.

Whether it is trade relations, climate research, immigrants living in the country or so many other actual issues, Trump is just chomping at the bit to flush it all down the toilet, which probably leads to the swamp he said he would drain.

It doesn’t need to make sense. It doesn’t need to make things better. It just has to be filed under change.

So in honour of Mr. Trump and his scrapping ways, I wanted to share a list full of things that I would scrap if I could even if they are important. Buckle up, this post is going to be HUGE.

Buying Our First House in Toronto

You have heard all the scary stories, read about all the crazy prices and for many, gave up on the dream of owning a house in Toronto.

It’s all true and with the banks starting to raise the roof so-to-speak on mortgage rates, it’s not going to get any easier.

As we just hit the first anniversary of buying our first Toronto home, I wanted to share a positive story that it can happen in a quick time frame. For us it was being at the right place at the right time. I want to share a story to show it is possible to buy a house in an area that meets your needs as well as staying under budget. Everything lined up for us and we could not be happier a year later.

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But the adventure to get there? It was a roller coaster that I am glad we don’t have to go through again this year.

Memories of Small Town Life & KFC

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Do you have a particular food that makes you hungry every time the scent hits your nose? Does that smell take you back to your childhood and remind you of how awesome it was to be a kid? We all do.

For me, one such smell that whisks me back to a time when life was simple has to be the smell of KFC.

Why KFC, you ask? Because I grew up in a very small town. Corunna, Ontario to be exact. Short of local pizza places, KFC was the only real restaurant in town. Its smell was always wafting down the main drag, known as Lyndoch Street.

There were no McDonald’s Restaurants or even other chains like Ponderosa or Casey’s in Corunna. For those, you had to make the 20 minute drive into Sarnia, so they were very special treats.

5 of My Favourite Halloween Costumes Inspired by Netflix

As the candy bags start to dwindle in size, I am finally getting around to my Halloween post for October. Yes I have been a bad #streamteam member but for this blog entry it actually works in my favour to be running behind. Now that it is a week after Halloween, I have seen all the best costumes and enjoyed all the effort some mega Netflix watchers went to.

Every time I checked Facebook or Instagram, there was a new frontrunner for costume that rocked and cleary came from the mind of a Netflix binge artist.

As my kids did not use Netflix as their inspiration this year I had to go to the Internet. In case you are wondering, they were a Gorilla and Kevin Pillar of the Toronto Blue Jays.

 

So without further delay, let’s get to the awesomeness.

Talking Chicken Myths and Other Crazy Food Lies

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A few weeks ago I got the chance to go and see where the chicken comes from that we eat at home and at the local KFC. Yes, that’s right, the chicken KFC serves, is real, farm-raised chicken and it always has been.

The reason for their latest “C is For Chicken” campaign was to stomp the crazy myth that their chicken was not really. Just do a quick Google search for KFC or any other chicken for that matter and there are so many untrue stories out there.

  • Mutant chickens.
  • They stopped calling themselves Kentucky Fried Chicken because they were not using chicken.
  • The chickens used were unhealthy and did not even have beaks.
  • I won’t even go into the really crazy conspiracy myths out there.

Now I never believed any of those myths. My only thinking on KFC growing up was that it was not that healthy for you. That’s not KFC’s fault. That’s what fried chicken in. You don’t eat it every day.

Getting Up Close and Farm Fresh With KFC

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Ever since I became a parent, I had to start caring more about the food we eat. I admit, it was easy to eat crappy and not care where food came from when it was just me. But when you are responsible for other people’s diet and health, things change. You become pickier over the groceries you eat, where you eat out and what you cook at home.

Add to the fact that things are different compared to when your parents did the same, there can be a lot of confusion. The amount of information we have at our fingertips can be a blessing or a disaster.

One big change over the last few decades would be the transparency that many food vendors are trying to create about where their food comes from. Is is real? Is it good for the environment? Are the animals happy being raised just to be eaten?

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Want to win a $100 gift card for KFC – check out the contest at the bottom of this post.

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