Making (Toxin-Free!) Memories

One of hardest things about our first year living away from our family that first holiday season in New York City was missing out on my mom’s holiday cookie baking tradition. My babies hadn’t been quite old enough to join in the ritual of making her famous koulourikia, baklava and kourabiedes Greek pastries with her, but we all surely enjoyed eating them, especially when they arrived at our apartment straight from her kitchen.

It was home in a cardboard box lined with wax paper.

It was through that separation from my mom and her longtime family traditions that my own were born. It’s one of those things about life, when you realize that you’re learning the most about yourself when you’ve been put into the hardest situations. I began to develop my own holiday traditions with my children, and not just at Christmas. Baking is involved in almost each of my holiday traditions as it was with my mother. Halloween, being one of my favorite days of the year, was the most fun for me to tinker with. It’s around that time in October when the seasons just start to change and the introduction of pumpkin into just about every food begins. It’s my favorite season, and so I decided that on our annual trip to the patch we’d grab some sugar pie pumpkins to bake and make cupcakes with as a family.

Despite the fact that we were wiping sweat off of our brows while hoisting pumpkins into our wagon, this fall tradition was still as fun as ever. The kids had a blast, but were eager to get home and watch the pumpkin making process and get into some mixing and baking themselves. The kids have been dying to use our new silicone cupcake liners, so this gave us the perfect reason to break in a bunch of supplies that were helping to build out my toxin-free kitchen. In alignment with my goal to rid our children’s exposure to plastics and chemical toxins in the kitchen by the end of 2014, finding MightyNest came just in time. MightyNest is an online shop that supports healthy living with Better Goods for home and family. Everything they offer-from bakeware to lunch gear to food storage-has been selected to be free of toxins and harmful materials. Not only that, but they donate 15% of each order to the buyer’s local school. I was able to look up my children’s school easily, and I can tell you how good it feels to be donating when making a purchase, especially when many of our public schools are in need.

Organic LOVE tea towel, stainless steel cupcake tin, bamboo utensils, natural sugar sprinkles

It’s no small feat, baking with three kids, but it was really good time spent with them. We belly laughed when the cracked egg fell outside the mixing bowl and the flour mix covered our hands and faces. We filled the silicone cupcake liners with the batter and peered into the oven as we watched them rise, while the most amazing aroma of fall and pumpkin filled our home.

In the end, our kitchen was a disaster and I was a bit frazzled, but the cupcakes were yummy and we even had an awesome Cupcakebox to store them.

Zoe’s adorable apron is organic, too.

These are the moments I’ll remember. They’re the ones that I remember from my own childhood, and I hope they will, too.

Taking my kitchen to a plastic and toxin-free place has been a process, but it’s been so worth it for the piece of mind it’s brought me. I was thrilled to find MightyNest to make that transition a bit easier. If this is something that is important to you, too, I’m offering an incentive: Pledge to take your kitchen toxin free and be entered in our giveaway for $250 of Better Goods for healthy baking plus a $250 donation to your family’s school. You’ll also receive a gift code for your first order at MightyNest after entering.

Enter the giveaway and learn how Better Goods for your healthy family can also support your family’s school.

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Thank you to MightyNest for sponsoring this post and thank you for reading!