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Given the recent news from Flint, Michigan and the tragedy of their completely unacceptable water quality, I've had water on my mind lately.  What a precious resource we take for granted and don't even think about unless it's undrinkable (Michigan) or unavailable (California), right??

A couple months ago, I had ordered a book called the 'Waste Free Kitchen Handbook'. At the time, I was really just trying to find suggestions to reduce the amount of waste our family produces (beyond composting and feeding veggie scraps to our guinea pigs, rabbit, and chickens).

...continue reading "What’s Your Water Footprint?"

Happy New Year Everyone!

I've been way too busy enjoying the wacky 50 to 60 degree temperatures we've had in PA these past couple months, celebrating birthdays, and the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with family.  But it's good to be back!

Now that temperatures are back to our typical frosty January days, seems like a great time for a cozy winter vegetable recipe!

On New Year's Day I watched a news program that said that the #2 'How to' Google search in 2015 was "How to make kale chips?"  And #8 was "How to cook collard greens?"  Ha! Can you believe that?  Who knew these two would be such sexy veggies??

So if you still wanted to jump on that kale or collard green bandwagon but have been unsure how to do it outside of all the hype about kale chips, here's a great tasting way to work them into your meal.


...continue reading "Winter Greens and Squash in Coconut Milk"

A couple weeks back I attended a continuing education program called 'The Pharmacy in Your Kitchen: An Overview of Medical and Medicinal Foods' given by Dr. Michael Lara.  It was a fascinating all-day presentation, and I am hoping to share a couple posts regarding the valuable information shared that day.

Did you know your gut contains more than 10 trillion microorganisms?!
Don't you want to know what they're doing??

...continue reading "What’s your gut telling you??"

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
― Michael PollanIn Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Don't get me wrong, I still love a great bacon cheeseburger or juicy grilled steak.....that's not going to change.  But I have been trying to switch around the portions in our household and make meat more of a 'side dish' and the veggies and other stuff the main deal.

It's a slow process trying to build more vegetarian dishes into the repertoire over time but hopefully one that changes habits for good going forward.  It also helps that the kids are past that preschool picky stage and are actually starting to enjoy a wider variety of foods.  I'm a no drama mama......my least favorite thing about cooking is hearing from diminutive food critics.

So I'm constantly on the lookout for good, easy - not too crazy - vegetarian recipes to add for variety.  Plus I need inspirational pictures to motivate me and also prevent me from standing in front of the fridge after getting home from work with that blank stare of 'what should I make today?'.  (and for all of you out there that do meal plans, good for you - you probably don't stand in front of your fridge doing that.  But for all my organizational skills, meal plans are something I've never been able to get on board with - too restrictive or something about it - can't do it.)

...continue reading "Green Reads"

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Remember that old commercial '3 out of 4 dentists surveyed recommend Trident gum...'?  It feels like that's our dinner table every night......

It's a given that 3 out of our 4 kids will either love (or hate) whatever vegetable is served with dinner.  It is NEVER unanimous and well, that's OKAY.  Hey, I still don't like beets.

If this sounds like a similar issue at your dinner table, I've got 2 solutions that seem to be working for us.

...continue reading "What are kids’ favorite veggies? The ones they make!"

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CSA? You've maybe heard the acronym before but weren't quite sure what it meant....maybe a new criminal investigative show set in rural America???

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is a way for consumers to buy local seasonal food directly from a farm. Farms typically sell 'shares' to the public - you pay a price ahead of time like a subscription or membership and then fresh food is delivered directly to you or to a location near you for pick up on a regular basis.

There are many different types of CSA programs depending on what farms are in your area. They may be able to provide not just vegetables but a wide variety of foods including fruit, meat, yogurt, cheese, honey, bread, or eggs.

 

...continue reading "The ABC’s of CSA’s"