Happy Earth Day (April 22)! If you’ve read my blog at all before you know that I have deep convictions about the way I treat the planet I’m allowed to live on. On this day and every day I encourage you to take the time to care for the earth. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We can not enjoy the beauty of God’s creation if we destroy the creation.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
I’ve done pretty well with recycling for a while now. I keep several bins outside my kitchen door for easy access. Even though my city only has curb-side pick up for paper I collect glass, albumin, tin, plastic and cardboard to take downtown to the recycling center any time I’m heading that way. I check out the numbers on the bottom of anything plastic and I try to only buy products that have a 1 or 2 since that’s what I can recycle. I also buy as many products as I can that are made from recycled material. Our market exists on a supply and demand basis so if we demand recycled materials more companies will use them.
However, not until pretty recently was I conscious about reducing or reusing. Reusing is even more important than recycling since it takes a great deal of energy to recycle. Before I throw anything in the trash or recycling bin I try to think of another use. Here are a few of the things I’ve been doing lately to reduce and reuse.
What do you do to reuse? Any new ideas?
There is much debate in the world of nutrition as to the definition of healthy food. Some believe a low-fat diet is best, some believe a low-carb diet is best, some believe a meat-free diet is best and so on and on it goes. I have tried all of the diets at different points in my life and certainly pass no judgment on what others choose as “healthy” for themselves but my family has been recently making changes towards what we believe is healthy eating. It’s not low-fat, low-carb or meat-free it’s simply “whole” foods. We are trying to cut out as much processed foods as possible. I buy mostly organic food but when I indulge with something processed organic is a must for us. As a part of this we are eating a lot less meat, partly to help even out the cost difference between organic and conventional food costs. There are other reasons we are cutting back on our meat consumption but I’ll save those for another post on another day.
I’m certainly no expert on whole foods or cooking from scratch. I’m learning as I go so I thought as a way to keep myself accountable I’ll try to blog as often as I can with menus, pictures and recipes of what we are eating. Some days I may choose to blog about what I made for breakfast while others it may be lunch or dinner.
Tonight’s dinner was Black Bean Burgers on Whole Wheat buns with homemade French fries. This was an incredibly delicious and filling meal. Even my dear husband who looked at me strangely when I told him we were having veggie burgers instead of the venison burgers he was hoping for enjoyed the meal a great deal. My dinner preparation started in the morning when I made the yummy whole wheat buns for the night’s meal. I got the recipe off of another blog. This was a very easy recipe and the buns tasted 100 times better than store bought buns.
A little closer to dinner I made up the black bean burgers and cut up the fries. All three recipes were a first for me. The black bean burger recipe was one I pieced together after reading several veggie burger recipes and not finding exactly what I was looking for. Here’s a picture of the finished product.
The fries were organic Idaho potatoes cut up with salt, pepper and garlic. I baked them on 450 for 30 mins.
Black Bean Burgers
16 ounces of cooked ( and cooled) black beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup mushrooms
½ onion
3 gloves of garlic
1 egg
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon of hot sauce
1 cup of bread crumbs ( I used the homemade wheat loaf I had on hand)
I could go into a big explanation for my blogging absence but I won’t bore you! I could also make promises about how often I will blog but I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep. Anyway, thanks for visiting my blog! You will get to read about all of the random thoughts in my mind that I have no where else to process. J
Over the past few years I have struggled with loving the “skin” I am in. My body doesn’t look like it did when I was 18 or 21 and somehow that makes me feel inadequate. It is however my personal belief that my body is both a gift from God and his temple, therefore it is my responsibility to take care of it to the best of my ability. I really struggle with the fine line between sheer vanity and self care. I try to take care of my body with regular exercise and conscious eating without being extreme. I think most extreme measures are bad and most things are ok in moderation. I also try to limit the number of sugary snacks I consume in a day (this one is really hard for me).
My two newest improvements are whole foods and natural personal care products. I have been making efforts to buy whole and/or organic foods when possible and I’ve tried to cut out a large amount of processed foods. We eat lots of fresh vegetables, whole grains and lean meat. I still splurge on special outings or parties but I try to make our day to day eating better. Eating healthy is a little more expensive but worth the cost. I try to watch sells and use coupons when possible but when it comes down to cost or health I choose health.
Most recently I’ve been researching the chemicals that are put in lots of personal care products such as make-up, shampoo, deodorant and even toothpaste. I’ve gradually been trying to replace my chemically laced products with natural products. This is a great web-site for reviews on products, http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/.
I have been pleasantly surprised with many of the natural products. They work just as well as or better than the chemical ones. I have also been surprised to find many of these products at Target, Wal-Mart and Kroger. Most stores have a natural products section which I never knew before. Below is a list of a few of my new favorites.
All Natural Face make-up http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6292094
Burt’s Bee’s orange face wash
Yes to Carrots night- time face cream
Some days I get overwhelmed but I try to remember that the most I can do in any given day is to be the best me I can be by trying to make choices that honor my body.
I dug up all my veggie plants right after the first frost but not before I picked about 30 green tomatoes and 4 bell peppers. The tomatoes are sitting in the window a few at a time turning red. We’ll have tomatoes a while longer and I may have enough to freeze a bag or two more. We have really enjoyed eating the fruits our plants this year. I’m doing some reading on gardening and I plan to have a big garden next year. I love knowing that nothing harmful has been put on my food!
We have a new grocery store in town, Fresh Market. I went to check it out last night and I was quite impressed. The store sells fresh regionally grown produce and meat. They also sell fresh baked bread and a very limited selection of processed food. The processed food they sell is organic. It was a bit pricier than Kroger (my usual choice for food shopping) but I’ll return for produce and meat I’m sure. And, I hate to admit it but I still cook with a lot of processed foods for convince so I’ll still need to do a lot of my shopping at Kroger.
Outside of the food they carry the store gives you a fresh cup of coffee and gives every child a bakery cookie for free with every visit. It’s worth the trip to just look around and enjoy a cup of coffee! Little Belle didn’t complain about her cookie either!
I’ve grown a few vegetables this summer for the first time since I was a child and my family had a garden. I’ve grown eggplant, bell peppers and tomatoes. My tomato plants have done great! I’ve had tons of big red tomatoes and my dear husband and I have enjoyed them a lot. When I first started seeing tomatoes I noticed a few small black worms attached to the plants. My mama told me to mix dish detergent and water and spray the plants with the mixture. I did and no more bugs all summer until last week when I began to see ants. The little creatures were eating away at my tomatoes and the detergent mixture only seemed to entice the ants more. So, I went on a mission to find out how to get rid of the little pests. I didn’t want to use pesticides since having organic veggies is one of the main reasons I wanted to grow my own. I did a little research and discovered that ants don’t like cinnamon. I’ve placed cinnamon sticks at the roots of all the plants and sprinkled ground cinnamon over all the plants. Almost instantly the ants were gone. I will continue to sprinkle with cinnamon as needed because it appears little ants run away at the smell and/or taste of cinnamon.
As I’ve said in many posts I’m really trying to make my lifestyle one that respects the beautiful earth we’ve been given. I’ve made lots of strides in the last 6 months or so but I’m still moving forward . My latest “green” endeavor is my clothes washing and drying. My washing machine went out and we had to purchase a new one so we decided to go with a energy efficient front loader. And, let me add that it’s awesome!!!!!!!!!!! The clothes have no excess water and they aren’t full of lint and hair like the old washer had a tendency to do. It also doesn’t have an agitator so no heavy clothes or towels get it off balance. And, best of all it should help conserve power which is good for the earth and our bank account.
The same week that the washer went out I noticed that my dryer wasn’t drying well. It was taking several times to get a load of clothes dry I thought it was just because the washer wasn’t spinning the clothes out. It turns out it was the dryer. Even with the new washer the clothes dryer is taking forever to dry a load of clothes. So we talked about and looked at a few new dryers and I suggested to my dear husband that we get a clothes line. I anticipated him shooting my idea down since the last time I mentioned this he just raised his eyebrows. Much to my surprise he agreed to give a try, at least temporarily! The one way to get my dear husband to agree to anything is to convince him it will save money. He loves to save money. I think even if we were millionaires he would save every penny he could. And, I should add that I’m very thankful for that trait since it’s kept us out of debt and allows me to stay at home with Little Belle!
It’s a bit more time consuming to hang them out but I really love the way the clothes smell after drying outside! And with this heat it isn’t taking but 10-15 mins to get a load dry. That’s much more efficient than even the best dryer! It’s also very nostalgic for me when Little Belle helps since I remember helping my mama hang clothes too. Little Belle’s been very sick and not enjoying much, but yesterday she had a blast handing me the clothes pins as I hung up the clothes.
For some time now I’ve wanted to start making homemade bread for both health and economic reasons. Homemade bread can be made for a little less than $1.00 per loaf while store bought bread is $3.00-$4.00 per loaf. 
I love to bake deserts so I thought I would try my hand at baking bread. Yesterday I made my first loaf and it turned out well. I decided to give it a try since I’m visiting my mom and I knew I would have her expertise to help me. My mom made all our bread when I was young. The process wasn’t as hard as I anticipated. It actually wasn’t hard at all, just time consuming. It took about 3 ½ hours to make the loaf, although the entire time was not consumed. You have to mix ingredients and let it rise and repeat the process several times before it can be baked. So, it was easy to-do other stuff while the bread was rising. I made a basic white bread recipe but I think I’ll try whole grain bread this week.
Like most Saturday mornings my dear husband, Little Belle and I ventured out to Target and the grocery store. We first went to Target to get Method Cleaning Products. However, instead of heading straight to Kroger we headed to a local college to feed ducks and then to a local market. Little Belle loved feeding the ducks a ½ loaf of bread. She has quacked since we left the pound.Then we headed to another area of the college for the local market. The market had lots of fresh produce, homemade bread and goodies. It also had some yummy homemade peach ice-cream that we all shared. I bought a few veggies and then we headed to Kroger. We shopped for and purchased our “big” weekly groceries and are now home to put them away. I can’t seem to stay out of Kroger. It seems that I spend a great deal of time and money there each month.
The afternoon will likely prove to not be as much fun since I know it will include mopping the kitchen and cleaning a bathroom. However, I’m thankful to have spent my Saturday morning having fun with my family.
