Soaking Your Beans

Since I quit buying can foods, I started buying beans in bulk. I love love me some beans! I don't eat a lot of meat so I get my protein in tossing a variety of beans on my salads. Fred Meyer has organic beans in bulk for a great price. You get a whole lot more than what you would pay for in a can.

To prepare my pinto and black beans, I began by soaking them overnight. Why soak them, you ask? Here are some benefits:

• Better digestibility
• Minimizes gas
• Preserves nutrients
• Shortens cooking time
• Removes contaminants
• Reduces phytic acid effects

Begin by rinsing the beans thoroughly.


Cover them in water and place a towel over the bowl overnight. I would suggest not soaking pinto or black beans more than 8 hours. I soaked mine for 8 hours and it was too much. {Other beans with harder coverings will require longer soaking though.}


In the morning, rinse the beans and place in crock pot on high setting for 3-4 hours.


Because I soaked them overnight too long, my pinto beans turned out a little mushy and the black beans broke apart. Thankfully, they were still edible.


My first time soaking the beans didn't turn out so well but there was a trial and error period that I went through until I figured out the right soaking and cooking times depending on the bean. This batch was one of my better ones. Here's a helpful link if you'd like more information on soaking beans: Nourished Kitchen.

I used these beans to make Spinach and Three Bean Enchiladas. They were delicious! Even my meat-loving husband loved them. I'll post the recipe soon!

New Blog Design

I decided today that my blog needs a new design. I'll be working on revamping my blog so bear with me while I try out different layouts.

I'm not very tech-saavy so it may take awhile. It took me weeks to set up my last one.

Please share with me what websites you use for tutorials and where you get your designs. Thanks!

Answered Prayers

Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. I John 3:22

I racked up a pretty big medical bill from my uninsured emergency visit back in December {mentioned in this blog entry}. I applied for a bill reduction and fervently prayed that God would find a way for the money owed to be minimized. Today, I received a letter from the hospital that they wrote off 90% of the bill. God is good! He saved us thousands of dollars and in realization of my answered prayer, I broke down. I felt relief and overwhelmed with thankfulness.

And it gets even better....

I haven't had health insurance since I had Everett {except for 3 months of coverage that I was temporarily approved for} and He has blessed us and financially provided a way for me to be insured effective next month.

God will never, never, never let us down if we have faith and put our trust in Him. He will always look after us. So we must cleave to Jesus. Our whole life must simply be woven into Jesus. -Mother Teresa

*****
On another note, here's a short, random conversation I had with my husband today:

Husband: "Hey, what do you think about having another baby? Would you like to have a little girl you can cuddle?"

Me: "Uh...whaaat? What?!"

Husband: "Yeah, another baby."

Me: " Uh...no. Ok, how about we just pray about it?"

Husband: {laughing} "Ok, babe."

Where did that come from?! Last time we talked, which was less than a month ago, he was completely opposed to having another one. So was I. Evidently, he had a quick change of mind.

This little dude...cute, but keeps my hands very full these days...

Quick Post

I have quite a few things and pictures I want to blog about but it seems like there's sometimes not enough hours in a day to do everything that we want. I'm sure as a parent, you can relate. Anyway, I wanted to quickly share a photo of Everett from the other day. His naps are hit and miss these days and he often times spends the 2 hours in his crib talking to himself, playing around, and who knows what. The other afternoon, I heard him repeatedly saying "uh-oh" over and over again. I waited until his nap time was over to go see what the uh-oh's were about and sure enough, they were legitimate uh-oh's and not a tactic to get mom into the room for a shortened nap time.

You've got to really wonder sometimes how these things happen. I wish I had a video monitor. What silly things have you discovered after getting your child after nap time?

Sweet Little Boy

Some days, Everett is all over the place and gives me a run for my money. Other days, he's the sweetest boy ever. I've been blessed with a very cuddly, snuggly, sweet boy for the most part. He always wants me close to him and if I happen to be in the kitchen, bathroom, or anywhere else out of his site, I'll hear him calling for me saying "mama, mamaaaa, mama." This usually happens if I'm out of his site for any longer than a minute. Often times, he'll be playing and run up to me and give me a hug, pat my arm, say "mama" and run back to whatever he was doing. Could my little boy be any sweeter?! I'm truly blessed!

Potty Training

We got Everett a potty chair a few weeks ago. He had been really showing signs that he was ready so we took his lead and got him the Baby Bjorn potty chair. The first few days we had it, he seemed really excited and sat on it willingly a handful of times throughout the day. He sat on it both with his clothes/diaper on and with his diaper off. By the way, what is up with him wanting to remove all of his clothes when he sits on it? Even down to his socks? Anyway, the excitement lasted just a few days and he no longer wants anything to do with it. He's still young for me to expect him to potty train in a short amount of time and I am not rushing it at all. If he doesn't want to sit on it, I tell him that he doesn't have to. We went a few days where I kept his diaper off a handful of hours a day. I told him to sit on his potty when he had to go pee or poo poo and to let mommy know when he had to go. We had many accidents and he started asking for me to put his diaper on. He hates diaper changes and it's a huge struggle for us each time so for him to ask me to put his diaper on and he willingly lays himself down, I sensed that it'd be a good idea to take some time off. He's sick now so hopefully we can refocus once he's feeling better.

This is the extent of our potty training lately....

Yup. My colander works for a potty chair and he also wears it as a hat too.

Where are you at with potty training your toddler??

Recent Changes We've Made

We've made some recent green changes:

• No more can foods. The metal cans are lined in BPA. The only things we usually bought in cans were beans, spaghetti sauce, cream of mushroom, diced tomatoes, and tuna fish. I now buy dry beans and cook them, make homemade spaghetti sauce, and dice fresh tomatoes. I didn't use cream of mushroom too often but I found a homemade recipe. It looks very time consuming so I'm thinking about making a very large batch and freezing it. Speaking of freezing, I've been saving all my glass containers and using them to freeze food in. Better option in plastic containers or ziploc bags and even better, it reduces my carbon footprint.
  

• Make my own chicken stock. I used to buy organic pre-made broth. Homemade stock is so extremely easy to do. There are many ways to do it but I do it the way my mom does. You can boil either a whole or half of a chicken {bones intact} in a large pot of water. I like mine to cook for about 3-4 hours so I keep it on medium for that length of time. Afterward, just add in your ingredients. Keep in mind, if you choose to add noodles or rice, wait until the last 10-15 minutes. Otherwise, it'll absorb a good amount of the liquid/broth. I recently made some chicken soup and I included gluten free and organic pasta, carrots, corn, green beans, lima beans and peas. All of the veggies excluding the carrots were frozen organic. I buy a lot of frozen {out of season} veggies. Again, to avoid the BPA lined cans.
  

It was a lot of soup that week. If some of you didn't know, my parents grow for a local chicken company. They started the farm the same year they adopted my sister and I {1987} and they still continue to raise chickens for poultry. Sometimes, I wish they did eggs! Anyway, that week, they had butchered a handful of chickens and they gave us four whole ones. We cut them down into parts and separated them out into meat and bones. I've been using the bones to make chicken stock. There's nothing like fresh, homemade stock. Later on that week, I made soup with fresh carrots, celery, and zucchini.

• Switched to Biokleen laundry detergent and dishwasher gel. Biokleen products are: "readily biodegradable and do not biodegrade to more harmful compounds. Uses natural extracts {grapefruit seed, lime, orange peel, and natural essential oils…no cheap substitutes, dyes, or synthetic fragrances. Complete ingredient statements on labels. No known carcinogens, mutagens, teratogens, or pollutants. Non-corrosive. Non-flammable. Non-reactive. Reviewed by a Certified Hazardous Materials Management Inspector. Kind to those with chemical sensitivities and allergies." We use....
  

We've been doing this for a few years now but we wash our clothes in cold water too. It is just as effective as warm or hot water and it saves both money and energy!

• Make homemade baby wipes. I spent a week researching all the different kinds of baby wipes out there. I eliminated Pampers Sensitive which Everett has used since birth. We then switched to Earth's Best but I wasn't happy with those either. It has Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate in it which isn't really a researched substance so that makes it questionable. The wipes also have concerns of formaldehyde contamination. All the other crunchy baby wipes had one sort of questionable ingredient or another which I wasn't willing to risk. Here's the recipe to the homemade baby wipes:

1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup Dr Bronner baby mild soap.
3 cups warm water
Tbsp distilled white vinegar to {prevent molding}
Few drops of lavender essential oil
Few drops of tea tree oil

I get Viva paper towels {they are the thickest} and cut them up so they fit into a used baby wipes box. Pour liquid over paper towels and voila! I have no question over any of the ingredients. No chemicals or irritants.

Update: I mentioned in this blog entry that I tried Mrs. Meyers Clean Day hand and dish liquid soap. I did some further research into all the ingredients and discovered that these products use synthetic fragrances. Ew. We still have close to full bottles left so I'm planning on using it up and trying a few other soaps that scored zeros on the non-toxic level; such as products by Soap for Goodness Sake. It's a bit expensive so I'll probably search around for homemade liquid soap recipes.

These are a few recent changes we've made to crunchify our life. I have so many more things I am anxious to try, a lot of them being homemade, but I gotta take it easy on the pocket book and continue to make a few changes here and there.

Today

Today was a good day. It was a rainy day but it was good nonetheless. Everett and I had a wonderful day of Lego building, somersaults, growling, puzzles, reading, and playing with trucks and trains.

Just an update on his diet, I realized today how well he eats for a 2 year old. I do wish at times that he ate better but he actually eats pretty decent. He loves fruits and vegetables! He enjoys:

-green peppers
-carrots (raw and steamed)
-green peas {one of his favorites!}
-green beans
-corn
-tomatoes
-steamed cabbage
-steamed zucchini
-cucumbers {one of his favorites!}
-apples
-pears
-bananas
-kiwi {one of his favorites!}
-sweet potatoes
-blueberries
-strawberries
-grapes
-pineapple
-oranges
-peaches
-cantaloupe
-honeydew
-apricots

While he napped today, I got in a good 45 minutes of cardio, toning, hand weights, and abs. I wanted to get a good run in but wasn't able to get over to my parents to use their treadmill. Perhaps tomorrow. My go-to after workout meal is this salad...

Romaine lettuce, carrot sticks, one hard-boiled egg, chickpeas, black beans, splash of extra virgin olive oil and Tabasco Sauce, and pepper to taste. Mmmm.

I mentioned earlier that Everett and I did some growling today. He's been into growling like a bear lately.

Very Berry Muffins

With trying to live a greener and crunchier lifestyle, I've vowed to make everything from scratch. This will be a progressive journey of course and will take time to get to that point.

Minus organic produce {non organic=pesticides}, many of the foods in the stores have at least one ingredient that isn't necessary; even the so-called organic and healthy foods. I recently became aware that the organic almond, rice, and coconut milk that we've been drinking contains a few harmful ingredients. I was disappointed. It's only encouraged me to make my own almond milk. {More on that later.}

A few days ago, I made Very Berry Muffins. Everett enjoyed them and I thought they were quite tasty.

The original recipe called for all purpose flour and canola/vegetable oil. I've thrown out all that we had of those three ingredients. I've never been a fan of white unbleached flour anyway or vegetable oil. It asked for frozen berries but I used fresh. Below is my modified version of the original recipe:

Ingredients
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice Flour
3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 cup Old Fashioned Oats
2 tsp Baking Powder {aluminum free}
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1/3 cup Brown Sugar {no molasses added}
1 large egg, whisked
1 tsp vanilla extract {alcohol free}
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup extra virgin coconut oil {I'd suggest melting it first}
2 cups of fresh strawberries and blueberries, chopped {you can use any kind of berry}

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Place the first 6 ingredients in a bowl and combine
3. Combine the egg, vanilla extract, milk, and oil in a separate bowl
4. Slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients
5. Gently mix berries into the batter.
6. Pour batter into greased or muffin-lined regular sized tins
7. Bake for 20-22 minutes
8. Allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes then remove to a cooling rack
9. Serve

Keeping Track of My Fitness

I had been meaning to write a blog post about the recent health issues I've been experiencing for the past month and a half but have decided to avoid going into specific details about it. Nonetheless, fitness has seemed to keep these issues at bay; not just physically but mentally as well. Finding time to exercise hasn't been as straining as I had anticipated. Thankfully, I have had my mom watch Everett while I use their treadmill at their house. While I would like to work out every single day, I have limited myself to about 5 days a week, allowing some recovery time for my body. I've been running about 4 miles on my run days and also incorporate some fully body and ab exercises during his naps. I notice that when I go 2 days without any form of physical activity, my health issues resurface and the inevitable happens. Needless to say, fitness has now become a very important aspect in my life. I need it. I yearn for it. After a workout, I'm already thinking about when my next workout will be. I'd say it's a good, healthy addiction (if you want to call it that) to have.

I've found a great website to track my fitness. If you'd like to follow along, join me at dailymile. It has a similar layout as Facebook but it's strictly fitness related. It seems to be more targeted to runners but I've been able to track other workouts on there as well. If you decide to join, add me!

Happy Exercising!