You might be surprised to know that well over half of our clients are busy families who are want to homemade, healthy meals but just don’t have the time to shop and cook it all, so they rely on Magic Meals to simplify their busy lives.  As school ends for the year, some families will order less often from Magic Meals while they travel to visit family and friends.  Other busy families begin to order more often as summer sports kick into full gear.  Many families order a combination of individually packaged meals and family-style meals (larger, more affordable aluminum pans that feed 4 to 6 adults) to help keep the family healthy as they run from sunup to sundown.

For you high school seniors (and those of you who love a high school senior) you don’t have to leave behind Magic Meals when you go to college.  We deliver to a number of Washburn University and KU students who want to stay healthy, save some money, and avoid that dreaded “Freshmen 15” as they focus on their studies.   We even have parents of college students who add meals for their kids onto their regular orders.  We know the kids appreciate the home cooked meals, and we’re equally sure that the parents like having another reason for their busy college kids to stop by and visit Mom & Dad when they pick up their Magic Meals.

On the homestead, we’re hoping we have our first broody hen of the spring!  When a hen “goes broody” it means that her maternal instincts have kicked in and she’s ready to sit on a clutch of eggs and hatch some babies.  A broody hen sits on the nest nearly all day long, leaving only to get a quick drink and bite to eat.  When she’s on the nest, she protects her eggs with stinging pecks to the back of your hand if you try to mess with her eggs.   It takes about 21 days from the time she sits until her eggs begin to hatch.  Chickens aren’t very smart and if a hen is trying to sit in one nesting box in a long row of nesting boxes, she’ll often get back into the wrong box after her daily drink.   We’ve seen one hen sitting in the corner of the chicken coop for a couple of days now, so we’ll just leave her alone and not try to move her and her eggs.  If she stays there, we may have yet another batch of chicks!

Experts believe that delta-tocopherols and gamma – two forms of vitamin E that are contained in soybeans, nuts and corn oil play an important role in preventing colon, prostate and lung cancers. Further studies reveal that when animals are exposed to substances that cause cancer while at the same time being fed foods rich in cancer preventing tecopherols, they show minimal tumor growth.

This is valuable information for us all to remember, but especially healthy men who regularly use vitamin E supplements to stay in shape. Studies show that the use of vitamin E supplements that contain alpha-tocopherol increases the chances of acquiring prostate cancer significantly. It is therefore very important to distinguish between the different types of vitamin E out there and look for opportunities to increase the healthy naturally occurring Vitamin E foods when possible.

Natural foods are always the best way to go when it comes to your nutrition and so the next time you are out getting groceries, consider buying the following vitamin E rich foods; some might not be your favorite but each is a favorite for your Vitamin E craving body.

Vitamin E Rich Foods

• Sunflower Seeds
• Almonds
• Pine Nuts
• Peanuts
• Dried Apricots
• Basil and Oregano
• Cooked Taro Root
• Spinach

All these foods contain a significant amount of healthy Vitamin E that would make a good Cancer Diet. Since not everyone can cook, affordable prepared meals from Magic Meals Home Delivery would be an excellent choice not only to eat healthier but to simplify your life. Delivered meals can be healthy, especially when they eliminate processed foods such margarine and instead substitute natural oils such canola oil and olive oil and Magic Meals does. With natural oils and vegetables like spinach and broccoli, you give your body many of the essential building blocks of nutrition needed for a long and healthy life.

Most medical professionals agree that nearly everyone needs more Vitamin E, and consuming a diet that contains the natural vitamin is the best way to get it. The next time you are out buying food, just think about how the ingredients will affect you and your children now and in the long run.  The choices you make now might help prevent, treat and slow the process of cancer. And if you live in Topeka KS and you don’t have the time or inclination to plan, shop for, and cook the healthy meals your family needs, then just call Magic Meals and let them simplify your life while still helping your family grow healthy.

The team at Magic Meals has worked closely with countless families in the Topeka and Lawrence KS area who were striving for a healthy lifestyle as well as with dozens of cancer patients who were following diets chosen by themselves or by their health care professional.  While Magic Meals does not prescribe diets, they are experts in following the guidelines set by you or your nutritional professional.

You can learn more about Magic Meals Home Delivery at www.MealsLikeMagic.com

Good thing, frozen food home delivery service is just a call away. Such companies can save the family from starving when mommy doesn’t have the time to cook dinner. However, there are a lot of companies to choose from which often confuse the consumers. For this reason, it is highly suggested to compare the options available before making a decision.

Schwans is probably the most popular name in the business because it’s been operating for the longest time. So far, many Schwans customers say that they are satisfied with the services. Although the prices are a bit steep, there is a guarantee that their meals have a good standard and safe to eat.

If you live in NE Kansas, the greater Topeka KS and Lawrence KS area, another company that you should give a try is Magic Meals Home Delivery. If, like many others, you’ve already gotten tired of Schwans, this is a fresh option that your loved ones will surely enjoy.  Are you very picky when it comes to prepared meal delivery services? Magic Meals is the right choice for you.  Magic Meals delivers meals just like Schawans, but instead of delivering meals from a warehouse, Magic Meals delivers meals that were made locally following your individual requests.  Like Schwans, Magic Meals offers prepared frozen meals delivered right to your freezer to use when you need them.

The best thing about ordering prepared meals from Magic Meals is that you can choose your meals from each week’s healthy menu created based upon the best seasonal ingredients. These dishes are not only delicious and superb in taste but are also healthy for the body. How would you like to eat a meal that is made from all whole ingredients just like Grandma used to make, only healthier? Every meal package from Magic Meals Home Delivery is not just low in sodium but it is also filled with high fiber ingredients that promote good digestion.

Also, don’t worry if you are looking for prepared meals that are specifically cooked for your family’s special needs. There are a lot of packages to choose from. For instance, the weight loss package is ideal for your husband who wants to tone his muscles. While medically restricted diets can be served to your parents who are trying to avoid certain types of food. If these are not applicable to you, Magic Meals is also accepting requests for customized meals to ensure that clients are 100% satisfied.

The idea behind a Rabbit Tractor is that you can easily move the rabbits daily to new grass and to spread their droppings around instead of allowing them to accumulate in one big stinky pile. The bottom of our tractor is made of slats with about 1 1/2″ between them. That gives the rabbits room to nibble grass between the slats, but not room to dig out.

The trick seems to be building the pen strong enough to withstand predators and storms, but light enough to move. The problem is that we won’t know if we’ve succeeded until it’s tested by each and the penalty for failure is pretty steep.

Evander can barely move the cage without the rabbits, feed, and water in it. With it loaded, he’s not quite big enough to move it. Both kids together can kind of move it, but it’s a pretty rough ride for the rabbits. For now, moving the tractor is Dad and Mom’s job.

In the winter we plan to set it up on legs to become a more traditional rabbit hutch, then just set it back on the ground in the spring.

So far so good. The largest concern we have right now is that the rabbits have been raised in a traditional rabbit hutch and are not used to having access to grass. The doe has some diarrhea already, but we’ll watch them both over the next few days. Hopefully their bodies will get used to real food in a few days…that’s what normally happens for our clients who don’t get enough veggies before beginning with Magic Meals Home Delivery.

We’re ready to garden!!!  Angela and Marley transplanted many of our seedlings from the big flats to individual pots on Tuesday.  Stacey still doesn’t have the greenhouse cleaned out, so all the pots are still in the utility room.  Maybe this weekend we’ll get both the greenhouse in order and plow up a little more garden space for this year.

The free-range chickens love the sunshine, and they are laying eggs like crazy.  We are starting to get a lot of eggs in the fridge.   We were planning to add some more chicks this spring, but we seem to have more eggs than we need right now, so we may hold off.  It also seems that the guineas are helping to keep predators away, and we haven’t lost any chickens in a while.  The guineas are amazing watch-fowl.  The racket they make when they see something that might be a threat is pretty impressive.  If only they could tell the difference between a hawk and a refueling plane headed for Forbes Field.

Our fruit trees have beautiful blooms on them, but one cold snap and those blooms will be just a memory.  We’re guessing that fresh fruit from the homestead will not be on this summer’s menu.

Take care

Be sure to check out the picture of the new rooster.  He’s one we hatched last spring, and he’s growing into a handsome young man.  He’s just now starting to figure out where he stands in the pecking order.  So far, he’s not even close to Marilyn (the old rooster) and only above about ½ of the hens.  He has some growing to do.  The kids are still debating his name.  Right now they’re leaning towards just calling him “Handsome”.

You’ll also see pictures of the guineas.  We really think they are the catalyst for the chickens doing a better job foraging.  Guineas are great foragers and we think the peer pressure got the rest the chickens out and around.  The guineas also give us some concern about keeping them out of the garden come spring.  They are much better flyers than chickens and now that they’ve gotten used to picking the garden, the spring might be a challenge.

Angela has had a table at a couple of health fairs in the last week, one at the library and one at Brewster Place.  Welcome to all of the new email list subscribers.

As those of you who have been our friends for awhile already know, our family is very involved in our community, including politically.  We try to keep politics to a minimum in our emails, but we believe that the conventional wisdom that keeps people from talking about politics is part of the reason we’re facing such difficult times.  We are supporting Ron Paul for President, and we are organizing Topeka / Shawnee County to support him in the caucus.  If you’re interested in learning more about why we support Dr. Paul, please visit the website we put together at www.CommonlyQualified.com and don’t hesitate to drop us an email or give us a call.  Regardless of whom you support, we hope that you participate in the upcoming election.

Peace to you and yours.

Stacey, Angela, Marley & Evander

The Magic Meals Team

Be sure to check out the news feed on the Magic Meals page on Facebook which is available here HERE.  This week we’ve shared news stories about how the growing demand for local food is creating jobs, secrets to reducing stress, a cool story about how a big company joined forces with a non-profit to provide micro loans to startup businesses that will create jobs and prosperity.  We need a little good news in the world, and you’ll find it on the Magic Meals news feed.

Marley loves her dance class.  She’s learning both a tap and a ballet routine.  Who knew that a three year old would need two costumes and two pairs of shoes for dance class, but it’s worth it.  She’s practicing all the time, and you can see the excitement in her eyes as she manages to successfully complete a new move.

Evander is making sketches of things he wants to build when he gets a few more skills of his own.  Yesterday he took apart a broken alarm clock and salvaged all of the switches and other bits.  He’s not sure what we’ll use them for, but he’s starting to get quite the collection of spare parts.  He continues to learn about electronic circuits with the kit that Dad got him for Christmas.  If you have a little one with a passion for invention, Stacey & Evander recommend this kit, Snap Circuits SC-300.

We’ll visit with you all next week,

Stacey, Angela, Evander & Marley

The Magic Meals Team