Educating Children About the Economy

place of our own logo With back to school about set to begin and the holidays just around the corner, many working class families are either losing or having difficulty obtaining employment. Many are also finding it very hard to make ends meet while trying to keep things together for the sake of their family.

As parents we want to protect our children but what do we do when faced with such an issue and how do we speak to our children about it?

With many parents wondering how to broach the subject to their children, PBS has taken their show, A Place of Our Own and created a series regarding the economy and ways in which children would be able to understand this sensitive subject.

a place of our own spanish

Below the Economic Week Airdates are as follows:
Monday, September 7th, Coping with Economic Insecurities (Emotional)

Tuesday, September 8th, Financial Tips to Help Families Cope

Wednesday, September 9th, Trimming Your Family’s Food Budget

Thursday, September 10th, Coping with Economic Insecurities (Care Provider)

Friday, September 11th, Week in Review” and “Activities for Children that cost next to nothing

Please click here to check your local listing

Be sure to check out their website, A Place of Our Own at for more information.

In line with the economic issue during the week of transmission of the five special episodes, PBS will also air a special presentation of Sesame Street called, “Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times“.

The special will air on September 9 at 8 PM EST and will provide simple and practical strategies that can be easily integrated into the daily lives of families. The program will be a documentary aimed at young adults and will be hosted by Donald Faison.

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Back to School Honey Recipes

sheep cheeseCheck out these delicious recipes made with honey, for more ideas, visit Honey.com

Sheep’s Cheese and Honey Sandwich
Makes 1 sandwich

Ingredients:
2 slices thick bread, like ciabatta or bolillo
2 slices of sheep’s milk cheese, like manchego, Oaxaca, brie or feta
Honey to taste

Directions: Toast bread slices.  Place slices of pecorino on bread and drizzle honey on top. Close sandwich and serve.

hamandhoneyHam and Honey Torta
Makes 1 sandwich

Ingredients:
Bolillo bread, or other roll, split in half length-wise
2 thick slices cooked ham or other favorite deli cold-cut
Honey to taste

Directions: Toast bread slices.  Place slices of ham on toasted bread and pour honey on top. Close sandwich and serve.

crostiniCrostini Snacks
Crostini for Kids!
This is fun for kids to assemble themselves and even more fun to eat!!!

Honey-berry Crostini
Makes 4 servings or crostini

Ingredients:
4 thin slices of bread, like bolillo, baguette or ciabatta
1 basket of fresh strawberries
4 tablespoons peanut butter
4 tablespoons strawberry jam
4 tablespoons honey

Directions: Toast bread slices lightly and let cool.  Wash, remove stems and slice the strawberries. Spread one tablespoon peanut butter on each slice of bread.  On top of peanut butter, spread one tablespoon strawberry jam on each slice of bread. Top each crostini with slices of fresh strawberries and a drizzle of honey.

Choco-nana Crostini
Makes 4 servings or crostini

Ingredients:
4 thin slices of bread, like bolillo, baguette or ciabatta
4 tablespoons of chocolate hazelnut spread
2 bananas, peeled and sliced
4 tablespoons honey
Corn flakes

Toast bread slices lightly and let cool. Spread first one tablespoon of the chocolate hazelnut spread on each slice of the bread, and then arrange slices of banana to cover. Pour the honey over banana and sprinkle with cornflakes on top.

More Yummy Snacks!

tortillaFresh Corn Tortillas with Butter and Honey
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
4 Fresh corn tortillas, warm
Butter to taste
Honey to taste

Directions: Spread a pat of butter on hot tortilla. Drizzle with honey, roll up and serve warm.

crepesHoney Crepes with Marmalade
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

4 Freshly made crepes or pancakes, warm
Favorite fruit marmalade
Honey to taste

Directions: Spread fruit marmalade to taste over crepe. Roll up or fold and serve with a drizzle of honey on top.

dessertswithhoneyDesserts with Honey
Ricotta Stuffed Fruit with Honey
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
4 peaches, apricots, nectarines or figs, washed and sliced in half. Pits and stems removed as necessary.
Fresh Ricotta or Cottage Cheese
Honey to taste

Directions:On a plate, place slices of fruit side by side, cut side up. Place a spoonful of the ricotta in the middle of the fruit.  Drizzle honey over the top of each slice of stuffed fruit and serve.

Honey Arroz con Leche
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
4 cups Milk
3 tablespoons Honey
1 cup long grain or Arborio rice, rinsed clean
Fresh berries

Directions:
In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring milk and honey to a boil. Add rice by sprinkling it in.  Let cook 15 minutes over low flame, stirring constantly.  When rice is cooked, place in ramekins with its juice, let cool.  The rice will continue to absorb the milk as it cools.  Serve topped with fresh berries. This can be made ahead of time and kept, covered, in the refrigerator and can be served cold or at room temperature.

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Recipes – Creative Uses of Honey

creative honey recipesLook into these creative uses for honey. For more, visit honey.com

Honey Balms for Hair and Lips

Honey and Orange Lip Balm
Ingredients:
7-8 teaspoons of almond oil
2 teaspoons of beeswax
1 vitamin E capsule
1 teaspoon of honey
5 drops orange flour extract

Preparation: Melt the almond oil and the beeswax in the microwave for 2-5 minutes. Pour the content of the Vitamin E capsule into the mix. Add the honey and the orange flower extract until the mixture is well in tact. Empty the balm into a small bottle with a lid, and apply freely to your lips.

Honey Treatment for Hair
Ingredients:
½ cup of honey
¼ cup of olive oil

Preparation: Mix the Honey with the olive oil. Place a small portion of it on your hair until it is all covered. Leave it in for 5 minutes. Wash your hair with shampoo, as done regularly.

Energy Drinks with Honey

Booster with Honey
Ingredients:
1 lemon (the juice)
1 tablespoon of honey
1 cup of orange juice

Preparation: Mix all the ingredients together in a glass.  Drink in the morning to get full of energy.

Honey-Tropical Juice Boost
Ingredients:
¼ cup of honey
3 whole guavas
2 slices of pineapple
2 cups of natural orange juice
½ cup of lemon juice

Preparation: Cut the guavas and slices of pineapple into small pieces, incorporate the honey and blend it with the orange and lemon juices. Drink immediately.

Hydrating Honey Drinks for Athletes

Honey and Orange Energy Drink
- Makes 8 servings -
Ingredients:
½ cup of honey
½ teaspoon of salt
2 cup of orange juice
5 ½ cups of water

Preparation: Combine all the ingredients using warm water and mix until the honey dissolves.

Eugenio Peregrina’s Natural Honey Sports Drink
- Eugenio Peregrina, Nutritionist and Physical Trainer of Tecos of UAG and Ex-Director of Re-cooperation Active Work of the Chivas of Guadalajara -
Ingredients:
3 ½ teaspoons of honey
1 liter of water
¼ cups of fruit juice
A pinch of salt

Preparation: Mix the water and the juice.  Add the honey.  The fruit juice and the honey proportion the taste and natural glucose. Put in the pinch of salt. Refrigerate.  Drink every 15-20 minutes in order to prevent from getting dehydrated.

Cold and Cough Honey based Soother

Squeaky Fresh Honey, Apple and Celery Juice
Ingredients:
¼ cup of honey
3 cups of orange juice
4 stalks of celery
2 large carrots
1 large apple, cored

Preparation: Wash the fruit and vegetables using a stiff vegetable brush, keep the leaves on the celery, but remove the carrot tops.  Use a juice maker and blend together with honey and enjoy.

Honey and Lemon Mix
Ingredients:
1/4 cup of honey
1/2 cup of natural lemon juice

Preparation: Mix the Honey and the lemon and heat it up for a couple minutes

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Back to School – “Honey My Way”

mielBack to school is synonymous with shopping for new clothes, supplies and packing lunches. Now you can incorporate something else into your routine for this new school year. You can now add honey to your children’s meals to provide them with the nutritional properties needed.

This natural sweetner and energy food, is a natural aliment derived from the nectar of flowers and is a great addition to any meal as well as an excellent remedy source. Click here for creative ways to use honey and here for brown bag lunch recipes.

In order to encourage parents and kids to learn more about the various uses of honey, The National Honey Board has decided to launch the “Honey My Way” contest.

To participate, consumers can submit their favorite honey recipes in two categories:

  1. as a kid-friendly snack/meal recipe or
  2. their favorite creative use of honey recipe (i.e. recipe for throat soother, sports drink, etc.).

The contest runs through September 25th.

Note: Recipes will be judged on creativity, originality and its use of 100% pure honey. The winner of the first category (meal/snack) will receive a cash prize of $1000 and the winner of the second prize (creative use) will receive $500.

To participate, submit your honey recipes to www.mielpura.org and click on the “Miel A Mi Manera” icon to submit your entry for a chance to win.

To find lunch and snack recipes as well as ways to use honey for sports, beauty and other uses, please visit www.mielpura.org.

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Raising a Fast Food Generation

fastfood1According to Healthline.com, obesity is defined as body weight that is much greater than what is considered healthy. If you are obese, you have a much higher amount of body fat than lean muscle mass.

Obesity is a chronic disease affecting our young children more than ever.

Did you know that Latino children make up a significant portion of the overweight/obese population in the United States?

This problem has become widespread; I believe it should and must become the main focus in our communities and a very important discussion topic throughout the country.fastfood2

There are many factors that contribute to our children becoming overweight and/or obese, factors that we as parents can help prevent and/or control:

  • Genetics. Children of overweight or obese parents are at a much greater risk of becoming overweight or obese themselves. Knowing this, more of an effort should be made to control and maintain their weight at a healthy level.
  • The lack of physical activity is also a factor. Kids nowadays are more inactive than ever, replacing fun at the park with video games or going online foregoing the exercise needed to keep them healthy.
  • Lastly, the dependence on high fat/calorie foods. It’s sad to say that we have become a fast food nation bombarded by commercials and ads from the leading fast food companies on an hourly and daily basis. Making it that much easier to offer or kids a super sized meal than a home cooked one.

With risk factors come health factors and with health factors come more doctors’ visits which result in higher health care costs. Asthma, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, arthritis, depression and low self-esteem are only some effects associated with being overweight or obese.

It is extremely important to teach healthy eating habits to our children early on. It begins and ends with us, their parents, guardians, the ones our children come to for comfort, security and guidance.

As parents, we should know that everything experienced as children directly impact habits as adults.

So my question to you is, what is stopping us from leading our children through a path of healthy living?

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Win a Fabulous Quinces Party from Verizon Wireless

quinceVerizon Wireless is giving a teen the opportunity to have her very own Fabulous Quinceañera celebration.

One lucky Quinceañera will be given the opportunity to create her very own extravaganza. A $45,000 prize which includes Verizon wireless phones for the teen and her parents an event planner, venue, catering for 200 guests & transportation to the grand event.  This bash is topped off with a LIVE performance by young singing sensation Pee Wee!

This contest will run until August 16th, 2009 for eligible teens from select cities throughout the western states (California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara & Ventura. Colorado: Adams, Arapahoe, Bloomfield, Boulder. Denver: Douglas, Jefferson, Weld. Nevada: Clark County. Oregon: Umatilla. Washington State: Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, & Yakima).

For more information including rules, eligibility and more, visit My Fabulous 15.

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Product Review – BabyGanics

BabyGanics, the makers of natural and non-toxic cleaning products was kind enough to give me the opportunity to try out their Essentials Kit (retail price $19.99) and share my feedback with you all.

First, how BabyGanics came to be, founded by two compulsive clean freaks, dads, Kevin and Keith wanted to make a product that cleaned, was safe to use around babies and was environmentally friendly. They figured if the product was intended to be safe for the planet it should also include people.
With a thought as simple as that BabyGanics was born.

The Germinator – Foaming Hand Sanitizer -This was the first BabyGanics product that I’ve used in the past and absolutely love! Unlike other hand sanitizers, The Germinator does not use alcohol and is not an antiseptic. It is an antimicrobial which kills the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria and destroys viruses. I’ve carried this handy little bottle in my diaper bag and have shared it with friends who like it for the simple reason that it doesn’t dry out their hands or makes them feel like they just dipped their hands in a vat of alcohol.

Dish Dazzler – This product is great, with just a few pumps I was able to clean a load of dishes and most importantly didn’t dry out my hands afterwards.

The Grime Fighter – All Purpose Household Cleaner – This is a fantastic product! I used this everywhere and cleaned everything that I was able to get my hands on. I primarily used it to clean my son’s exersaucer, high chair and all the other toys that end up with his little food smudged prints.

The Grime Fighter – All purpose wipes – These were great as well; I actually kept these in the car. I used them to wipe down the steering wheel; dashboard or simply wipe down the baby seat after the smudged little fingers would get to.

And finally…the Breathin’ Easy Lavender Vanilla Air Freshener & Odor Eliminator – First thing I did was smell it. Second thing was to test its effectiveness against the dangers that lurked inside the diaper pail. All in all, I have to say that it did a very good job clearing the air (literally!). I expected it to be like the other air fresheners that would mask the odor and make the room smell good for a few minutes before being taken over by the foul odor. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at its efficiency.

After using these products, I can honestly say that I am extremely pleased with the experience that I’ve had using the BabyGanics product. I highly recommend these products to anyone looking to provide their families with a safe, non-toxic, clean environment.

BabyGanics holds true to their motto: “Works Hard. Plays safe”.

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