Sunday, April 25, 2010
Diet for a happy planet site
This is an interesting site I stumbled upon today. The author attests that a fruit only diet (with some veggies as well) is very good for our bodies and the planet. I usually tend to stray from "extreme dieting" and this seemed that way to me as well. Take a look and let me know what you think.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Wheat Flour Tortillas Recipe
I hate having to shell out a few dollars to buy tortillas every week. We often eat a variation of breakfast burritos, enchaladas, quesodillas, etc often, so the shells are a pricy item over time, especially if we buy wheat. I decided to try and make them from scratch. This recipe doesn't use shortning, so I liked it much better. If you try making them with rice flour, wheat flour, or soy flour, let me know. I'd love to hear a different take! Make sure to use a nonstick pan! :o) They should refrigerate after they're cooked for 1 to 2 weeks.
Prep Time:
15 MinCook Time:
1 Minute eachReady In:
1 Hr 36 Min
Servings
18
Original Recipe Yield 18 tortillas
Ingredients
5 cups whole wheat bread flour
1/2 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups boiling water
whole wheat flour flour for rolling
Directions
1.In a large bowl, stir together half of the whole wheat flour and salt. stir in the olive oil and honey with a fork. Rub in the remaining whole wheat flour by hand until it is the consistency of wet sand. Make a well in the center, and pour in the boiling water. Mix with a fork until all of the water is evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with a bit of additional flour, and knead until the dough does not stick to your fingers. The dough should be smooth.
2.Make balls the size of golf balls, about 2 ounces each. Place them on a tray, and cover with a cloth. Let stand for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.
3.Heat a DRY griddle or large frying pan over high heat. On a floured surface, roll out a tortilla to your preferred thinness. (these can be rolled out super thin if you like) Fry one at a time. Place on the griddle and let the tortilla cook for about 30 minutes and as soon as you see the top start to bubble, flip the tortilla over. Cook the other side for another 30 seconds. Roll out the next tortilla while you wait for that one to cook. Repeat until all of the balls have been cooked. Works well if you place them in an airtight container while they are still warm to maintain softness. Tortillas can be refrigerated or frozen.
Footnotes:
If you want to use these tortillas for wraps you will probably need to make the balls a little larger than suggested
15 MinCook Time:
1 Minute eachReady In:
1 Hr 36 Min
Servings
18
Original Recipe Yield 18 tortillas
Ingredients
5 cups whole wheat bread flour
1/2 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups boiling water
whole wheat flour flour for rolling
Directions
1.In a large bowl, stir together half of the whole wheat flour and salt. stir in the olive oil and honey with a fork. Rub in the remaining whole wheat flour by hand until it is the consistency of wet sand. Make a well in the center, and pour in the boiling water. Mix with a fork until all of the water is evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with a bit of additional flour, and knead until the dough does not stick to your fingers. The dough should be smooth.
2.Make balls the size of golf balls, about 2 ounces each. Place them on a tray, and cover with a cloth. Let stand for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours.
3.Heat a DRY griddle or large frying pan over high heat. On a floured surface, roll out a tortilla to your preferred thinness. (these can be rolled out super thin if you like) Fry one at a time. Place on the griddle and let the tortilla cook for about 30 minutes and as soon as you see the top start to bubble, flip the tortilla over. Cook the other side for another 30 seconds. Roll out the next tortilla while you wait for that one to cook. Repeat until all of the balls have been cooked. Works well if you place them in an airtight container while they are still warm to maintain softness. Tortillas can be refrigerated or frozen.
Footnotes:
If you want to use these tortillas for wraps you will probably need to make the balls a little larger than suggested
Homemade Tething Biscuits/Cookies
I found this site and am quite excited to try out the different recipes. I have quite a bit of left over baby cereal, which my daughter doesn't seem to like any longer, which some of the recipes use as a main ingredient. I guess I won't have to throw it out after all.
Please share with me your teething cookie recipes or if you try any on this site, let me know what you think and how they worked for you. Click on the title of this post to link to the site.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Homemade Earwax Softner
My 8 month old daughter has been very cranky this week, and I suspected an ear infection, which is quite common in infants her age. So, after two hours in the Quick Care office, an exhasuted, screaming child had a doctor's advice that earwax the the reason for her suffering.
Gee, thanks. Not very helpful after the Dr. bill and no real solution. It has now been almost one week since that visit and my beautiful little girl has become more of a screaming banche than the princess she normally is. I want my little girl back.
So, I did some research. The pharmacist at Walgreens suggested earwax softner, but, being the kind person she was, steered us away from making an expensive $10 purchase for a .5 oz. bottle of softner when she pointed out the ingredient list: olive oil. After handing my husband a glass dropper, we headed home.
I'll let you know how the natural remedy works. Now, does anyone have any great ideas for getting an infant to hold still long enough to get the oil in her ear and then keeping it there? If you do, let me know!
Gee, thanks. Not very helpful after the Dr. bill and no real solution. It has now been almost one week since that visit and my beautiful little girl has become more of a screaming banche than the princess she normally is. I want my little girl back.
So, I did some research. The pharmacist at Walgreens suggested earwax softner, but, being the kind person she was, steered us away from making an expensive $10 purchase for a .5 oz. bottle of softner when she pointed out the ingredient list: olive oil. After handing my husband a glass dropper, we headed home.
I'll let you know how the natural remedy works. Now, does anyone have any great ideas for getting an infant to hold still long enough to get the oil in her ear and then keeping it there? If you do, let me know!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Healthy Sweet Potato Breakfast Burrito
Sweet Potato Breakfast Burrito
Tonight I made breakfast burritos, not a very healthy dinner if you make it the old fashioned way. But tonight I decided to try a new ingredient: sweet potatoes. I did not tell my husband, a burly construction worker, until after he'd eaten it. When I told him, he was surprised and commented that it made the burrito taste sweet, like adding maple flavored sausage.
Most people will argue about what defines a sweet potato. Is it the deep orange colored root or is that a yam? For the purpose of this article, it will be the white root, a cousin to the potato, not the orange one.
I was curious to compare the different nutritionally between the potato and the sweet potato. Which is the better choice? Using the website http://healthycooking.suite101.com/article.cfm/russet_potatoes_vs_sweet_potatoes, I made this discovery:
Russett Potato: 280 Cal, >1 gram of fat, 7 grams of fiber, nearly 50% daily value (DV) for vitamin C and B6, 63 grams of carbs, 52 grams of starch, 4 grams of sugar, also a good source of potassium and manganese.
Sweet Potato: 270 cal, 0 fat, 9 grams of fiber, over 400% DV in vitamin A, nearly 100% DV for vitamin C, 40% DV for B6, 62 grams of carbs, 22 grams of starch, 19 grams of natural sugar, also a good source of potassium and manganese.
So, overall, the two potatoes are very similar, though the sweet potatoe has more vitamin C and less starch, it has almost 5 times the amount of sugar (though it is natural sugar). Whatever you choose, I enjoyed the naturally sweet taste of the sweet potato in my breakfast burrito tonight and found I needed less salt and other seasonings because of the flavor the sweet potato brought to this dish.
Most people will argue about what defines a sweet potato. Is it the deep orange colored root or is that a yam? For the purpose of this article, it will be the white root, a cousin to the potato, not the orange one.
I was curious to compare the different nutritionally between the potato and the sweet potato. Which is the better choice? Using the website http://healthycooking.suite101.com/article.cfm/russet_potatoes_vs_sweet_potatoes, I made this discovery:
Russett Potato: 280 Cal, >1 gram of fat, 7 grams of fiber, nearly 50% daily value (DV) for vitamin C and B6, 63 grams of carbs, 52 grams of starch, 4 grams of sugar, also a good source of potassium and manganese.
Sweet Potato: 270 cal, 0 fat, 9 grams of fiber, over 400% DV in vitamin A, nearly 100% DV for vitamin C, 40% DV for B6, 62 grams of carbs, 22 grams of starch, 19 grams of natural sugar, also a good source of potassium and manganese.
So, overall, the two potatoes are very similar, though the sweet potatoe has more vitamin C and less starch, it has almost 5 times the amount of sugar (though it is natural sugar). Whatever you choose, I enjoyed the naturally sweet taste of the sweet potato in my breakfast burrito tonight and found I needed less salt and other seasonings because of the flavor the sweet potato brought to this dish.
Tip 1: Tackle the Monsters Under Your Sink
Tackle the Monsters Under Your Sink
Tonight, I decided it was finally time to brave the monsters under the sink. Mold, you might be wondering? No, these monsters are the poisons of our planet: chemicals. But if you decide to tackle this project at your home as well, consider following these tips and replacing them with the cleaner, greener, CHEEPER alternatives.
1) DO NOT dump the chemicals down the sink. Not only will you be poisoning the ground water and soils of your surrounding area or sending them through the water treatment plant, but you can also create a chemical reaction, sending toxic fumes into the air in your home (kind of the opposit effect we're going for here :o)
2) Contact your local recycling center and ask when and where you can drop them off. For some of you, this may be several hours from home. If so, save them in a safe space outside (where animals can't get to them) until you can transport your chemicals to the recycling center.
3) Consider this list of alternative cleaning supplies that are MUCH cheeper than the store bought versions. You'll be surprised how many things you can clean with just vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice.
a) Window Cleaner--distilled white vinegar
*Recipe: 2 c. distilled water (or water that won't have minerals build up on your glass), 1/4 c. vinegar, 1/2 tsp. dish soap (helps remove chemical buildup from your synthetic cleaners. After a few uses, you shouldn't need the soap any longer.).
--Lemon juice/Lemon rind *Because of the acid in the juice, it is great for cleaning and smells better than windex. Lemon rind contains natural oils that can also remove stickers and other sticky substances.
b) Toilet Bowl--baking soda or Salt
*Directions: pour 1 Tbsp. of baking soda (or salt) into the bowl. Use a toilet brush to scrub away most of the residue. If you have hard water stains, use a pumice stone (made of lava rock. It turns to dust when broke down).
c) Floor Cleaners (Pine Sol, Bleach)--Vinegar
*While this won't disinfect the floor, it will remove any unwanted stains. 1 qt water to 1 c. vinegar. Safe for sealed hard wood and tile floors too.
--Steam Floor Cleaner
*I invested in a steam floor cleaner. There are a variety on the market today. Because we have a baby and three inside dogs, keeping the hardwood and tile floors, which cover every inch of the house, clean was a priority. The steam kills all bacteria that might have resided in the cracks as well. I would put the vinegar in to the solution in the tank.
--Young Living Theives Household (Green) Cleaner
*I have loved the Young Living company since I was a young girl. I have used this product for two years now and love the smell much better than vinegar. You can use it in about anything. Washing clothes, dishes, cleaning water tanks, floors, etc. Go to https://www.youngliving.org/US/products.asp to check out their products page. If you decide to order anything, please let ME know. I can get you a discount. ;o)
d) Laundry Detergents--Borax
*Though the name makes it sound like its a chemical, borax is actually a naturally occuring, water soluable mineral. It is a deoderizer and inhibits the growth of mildew and mold. It can also be used as a stain/spot remover.
--Hypoalergenic liquid soap
*It's back to the basics with washing clothes. Most people are sensative to the chemicals in laundry detergent, but if you wash the clothes with 1 Tbsp. of liquid soap for a large load, it will do just as well. Try these additives in place of bleach and fabric softner.
*1/2 c. baking soda will keep clothes soft. If you have a dispencer, make sure you mix it with water until runny so it will not clog your washing machine.
*1 c vinegar added in the place of bleach helps keep colors bright.
--Young Living Theives Household Cleaner
e) Dish Detergent--Theives cleaner, lemon juice, lemon oil, vinegar.
*If you add some baking soda or salt to the liquid cleaner it adds a natural abrasive to help remove caked on, greesy food stains and removes hard water build up.
*Check out this website for some other great ideas for inside and outside the house and the reasons why they work. http://www.inspiredliving.com/health/envir~non-toxproducts.htm
*The author of this article does not make an guarantees about the claims in this article or any other article. Reader can implement any suggestions at their own risk.
1) DO NOT dump the chemicals down the sink. Not only will you be poisoning the ground water and soils of your surrounding area or sending them through the water treatment plant, but you can also create a chemical reaction, sending toxic fumes into the air in your home (kind of the opposit effect we're going for here :o)
2) Contact your local recycling center and ask when and where you can drop them off. For some of you, this may be several hours from home. If so, save them in a safe space outside (where animals can't get to them) until you can transport your chemicals to the recycling center.
3) Consider this list of alternative cleaning supplies that are MUCH cheeper than the store bought versions. You'll be surprised how many things you can clean with just vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice.
a) Window Cleaner--distilled white vinegar
*Recipe: 2 c. distilled water (or water that won't have minerals build up on your glass), 1/4 c. vinegar, 1/2 tsp. dish soap (helps remove chemical buildup from your synthetic cleaners. After a few uses, you shouldn't need the soap any longer.).
--Lemon juice/Lemon rind *Because of the acid in the juice, it is great for cleaning and smells better than windex. Lemon rind contains natural oils that can also remove stickers and other sticky substances.
b) Toilet Bowl--baking soda or Salt
*Directions: pour 1 Tbsp. of baking soda (or salt) into the bowl. Use a toilet brush to scrub away most of the residue. If you have hard water stains, use a pumice stone (made of lava rock. It turns to dust when broke down).
c) Floor Cleaners (Pine Sol, Bleach)--Vinegar
*While this won't disinfect the floor, it will remove any unwanted stains. 1 qt water to 1 c. vinegar. Safe for sealed hard wood and tile floors too.
--Steam Floor Cleaner
*I invested in a steam floor cleaner. There are a variety on the market today. Because we have a baby and three inside dogs, keeping the hardwood and tile floors, which cover every inch of the house, clean was a priority. The steam kills all bacteria that might have resided in the cracks as well. I would put the vinegar in to the solution in the tank.
--Young Living Theives Household (Green) Cleaner
*I have loved the Young Living company since I was a young girl. I have used this product for two years now and love the smell much better than vinegar. You can use it in about anything. Washing clothes, dishes, cleaning water tanks, floors, etc. Go to https://www.youngliving.org/US/products.asp to check out their products page. If you decide to order anything, please let ME know. I can get you a discount. ;o)
d) Laundry Detergents--Borax
*Though the name makes it sound like its a chemical, borax is actually a naturally occuring, water soluable mineral. It is a deoderizer and inhibits the growth of mildew and mold. It can also be used as a stain/spot remover.
--Hypoalergenic liquid soap
*It's back to the basics with washing clothes. Most people are sensative to the chemicals in laundry detergent, but if you wash the clothes with 1 Tbsp. of liquid soap for a large load, it will do just as well. Try these additives in place of bleach and fabric softner.
*1/2 c. baking soda will keep clothes soft. If you have a dispencer, make sure you mix it with water until runny so it will not clog your washing machine.
*1 c vinegar added in the place of bleach helps keep colors bright.
--Young Living Theives Household Cleaner
e) Dish Detergent--Theives cleaner, lemon juice, lemon oil, vinegar.
*If you add some baking soda or salt to the liquid cleaner it adds a natural abrasive to help remove caked on, greesy food stains and removes hard water build up.
*Check out this website for some other great ideas for inside and outside the house and the reasons why they work. http://www.inspiredliving.com/health/envir~non-toxproducts.htm
*The author of this article does not make an guarantees about the claims in this article or any other article. Reader can implement any suggestions at their own risk.
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