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What’s Your Water Footprint? 9

dakota pharmgirlFebruary 5, 2016March 19, 20269 Comments

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).

Winter Greens and Squash in Coconut Milk

dakota pharmgirlJanuary 6, 2016March 19, 2026Leave a comment

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.

What’s your gut telling you??

dakota pharmgirlNovember 6, 2015March 20, 2026Leave a comment

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??

Sauerkraut and ‘Nifla’ 11

dakota pharmgirlOctober 17, 2015March 20, 202611 Comments

What kind of good Dakota girl doesn't know how to make sauerkraut and nifla??
This one didn't until a couple months ago, but I've got it down now and am ready to share!

Just like my previous post about kekle (kuechle), our family apparently goes for the simplified spellings of these words........so we spell it 'nifla'....others spell it 'knoephla' or 'knipfla'.....potayto potahto.....the point is that it is carb heaven.

I don't think its possible to have lived in North Dakota and never eaten sauerkraut and nifla or had a soothing cup of nifla soup...so good. Ya, you betcha. There's probably something wrong with your prairie genes if you don't like it......just saying.

However, at their age, the kids love the nifla, not so much the sauerkraut. So for now, I make them a 'nifla and bacon' version to go alongside my 'nifla and sauerkraut' version. I usually don't cater to their dislikes but more sauerkraut for me so I'm ok with it. Bacon solves everything.

Green Reads

dakota pharmgirlOctober 3, 2015March 20, 2026Leave a comment

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
― Michael Pollan, In 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.)

Open Letter to My Hot Flash 1

dakota pharmgirlSeptember 26, 2015March 19, 20261 Comment

Since I'm new to blogging, I've read a bunch of advice books and webpages on getting started, what plug-ins and web hosts to use, how to create a name and logo, and all that jazz. All of them advise you to find your niche and to not write about a bunch of disparate things. But they also say to write what you know.

While the topic this week is certainly something I know, it's quite a bit 'off road' from what I expect to be writing about. But it's been like an irritating bug bite in my Evernote files - I wrote it just to get it out of my head one night and now, quite frankly, I'm posting it just to stop looking at it. I'll go back to my regular programming of recipes and guilt tripping you into eating more veggies next week.

Many parents thoroughly enjoyed M.blazoned's viral post that circulated all over Facebook this summer entitled 'Open Letter to My Kids About Summer'. If you have not yet busted a gut over that one, stop now and go there - click on the link and read it. It's well worth the laughs even if you don't have kids and despite the fact that summer has come and gone.

What are kids’ favorite veggies? The ones they make! 2

dakota pharmgirlSeptember 20, 2015March 19, 20262 Comments

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.

The ABC’s of CSA’s 4

dakota pharmgirlSeptember 11, 2015April 9, 20264 Comments

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.

Kekle: An Old Twist on the Donut 10

dakota pharmgirlSeptember 5, 2015March 18, 202610 Comments

Since this is my first post, why not start with one of my favorite heritage recipes?

I'm talking about Kekle ('KEE Cleh') which is how my family spelled it, but you may see it spelled as Kuechle or some other variation. This is 'Grandma Werner's" recipe (my dad's mom) which my mother continues to make when family gathers.