Hummus has gotten really popular lately, which is a fantastic thing! It is heart healthy, protein strong and very filling. But just like anything else, it's much better for you if you make it fresh because many of the nutrients are lost once processing starts.
So, here's a simple hummus recipe that you can make in your blender. If you want it smoother, take a few minutes to get the outer layering off the chickpeas. After rinsing and draining the chickpeas, roll them in a tea towel. This will loosen the shell so you can easily pop them out. Takes time, but sometimes I need a little forced meditation!
Basic Hummus
can of chickpeas (rinsed, drained)
tablespoon of tahini
tablespoon of olive oil
dash of salt
squeeze of lemon
COMBINE all in a blender and zoom until smooth. Drizzle more olive oil if it's not smooth enough.
ADD INS:
garlic clove
basil leaves
red pepper
pine nuts (mix in after blending)
cumin
any of your favorite seasonings
ALTERNATIVE:
try different kinds of beans or lentils to make a healthy dip/spread
Friday, August 24, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Hiking Revelation
The hike I take with my little one strapped into a back pack is tough. It's rocky and a high grade up most of the mountain. But with a little effort, the trails wind around and open up to broad views of Atlanta - just a taste of what's waiting at the top. They wind again to take us past Civil War era earth mounds, through green woods and finally to the top, where all who make it finally enjoy respite from the hike and rewards of 360° views of metro-Atlanta.
As we move through the trails, we receive big smiles and "good mornings" from most passerby's. There's an occasional "I'd like a ride in that pack!" or "you sure are fit!" as friendly people exude the joy from exercise.
Whether it's their first time or their 100th, the mountain doesn't discriminate, it only shows us beauty and provides a challenge for all who accept. Whether we are black, white, brown, young, old or in-between, the mountain doesn't care. It offers the same opportunity and challenge to each of us, as does our great country.
We're caught up in a battle of us vs. them, rich vs. poor, black vs. white. This country is based on the rule of law which allows each of us the same opportunity but can not guarantee the same outcomes.
As I watched an obese, middle-aged woman take her first step up the mountain, I cheered for her. I cheered for her success the same as if she were starting her first business. "Let me get out of your way! You can do it! One step at a time!" I want for her to succeed, for her to see the views and to enjoy the history of Kennesaw Mountain.
Most Americans believe as I do. We want to see individual success. We know that the mountain is HUGE and there's room for all of us at the top. And as we make it to the top, we bring more people with us, for we want everyone to see the view!
It is time to reject the political elite's attempt to ransack our American nature. We are good people who want to see everyone succeed. The government just needs to get out of our way and let us do it, one step at a time; the views are always sweeter when they reward the journey.
Visit Kennesaw Mountain and enjoy for yourself!
As we move through the trails, we receive big smiles and "good mornings" from most passerby's. There's an occasional "I'd like a ride in that pack!" or "you sure are fit!" as friendly people exude the joy from exercise.
Whether it's their first time or their 100th, the mountain doesn't discriminate, it only shows us beauty and provides a challenge for all who accept. Whether we are black, white, brown, young, old or in-between, the mountain doesn't care. It offers the same opportunity and challenge to each of us, as does our great country.
We're caught up in a battle of us vs. them, rich vs. poor, black vs. white. This country is based on the rule of law which allows each of us the same opportunity but can not guarantee the same outcomes.
As I watched an obese, middle-aged woman take her first step up the mountain, I cheered for her. I cheered for her success the same as if she were starting her first business. "Let me get out of your way! You can do it! One step at a time!" I want for her to succeed, for her to see the views and to enjoy the history of Kennesaw Mountain.
Most Americans believe as I do. We want to see individual success. We know that the mountain is HUGE and there's room for all of us at the top. And as we make it to the top, we bring more people with us, for we want everyone to see the view!
It is time to reject the political elite's attempt to ransack our American nature. We are good people who want to see everyone succeed. The government just needs to get out of our way and let us do it, one step at a time; the views are always sweeter when they reward the journey.
Visit Kennesaw Mountain and enjoy for yourself!
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Clothespins & Paint
I was feelin' crafty yesterday, so I pulled out the acrylic paints and some odds and ends. Using clothes pins from the baby shower for my oldest son (5 years ago this August), the "chip clip" project produced a masterpiece! The Gator Chip Clip is cute, functional and fun.
SUPPLIES:
clothes pins
acrylic pain in light green, dark green & white
paint brush
toothpick (bite or cut off very tip to make it a little blunt)
METHOD:
Paint the outer sides of the clothespin green (any light shade will do)
Dip the end of your paint brush in a darker green and dot eyes
Dip once again and make a line of tail dots that get smaller to the end
Use a toothpick to make white teeth, green nostrils & glowing yellow eyes
TIPS:
Do several at a time in an assembly line fashion. Once the supplies are out, it's easy to get it done and the paint dries pretty quickly between stages of application.
Just wipe your toothpick on a paper towel between colors rather than using several picks.
______________________________
Then the pins inspired another project! We needed a place to hang art in the playroom, so we hung a couple lines and used the cute new clothespins to hold the paper.
SUPPLIES:
Long string or small rope
Nails with fat heads
hammer
METHOD:
Decide if you want straight lines or hanging lines
Hammer in nails, one on each end of where rope will tie
Tie rope tightly to nail
TIPS:
Easiest as a two person job; have each person hold an end of the rope to help center before tying
Start the nails and then let a little one finish hammering
He loves it!
Monday, April 30, 2012
How poison ends up on your dinner table
For four years, my husband and I owned a chicken wing restaurant. At our peak, we sold thousands of chicken wings a day! It was about a year into the grind that I gave up meat completely. I was over raw chicken & friers; my first child was turning 1 (which is when it's recommended to start feeding meat to children) and my neighbor lent me the book Skinny Bitch. http://www.skinnybitch.net/ The timing of all three of these things reinforced my long-standing disgust of raw meat.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't think meat, in general, is bad. I don't promote vegetarianism as a religion and I certainly have had some meat over the past four years. (I have a soft spot for bacon, but now my choice is organic, uncured and it's so freakin' tasty!!) It's undeniable that processed meat is very bad for the human body, and it's certainly believable that organic meat would be best. So, eat what you want and I'll eat what I want. :)
Anyway, here's some information on what is really in that factory chicken...
-CHC
How poison ends up on your dinner table
W.C. Douglass, M.D.
It might take a tough man to make a tender bird. But it takes a mad scientist to create the "chicken" on your dinner plate these days.
In fact, a recent series of tests finds enough drugs to stock a pharmacy hidden inside your chicken -- including Prozac, antibiotics, antihistamines, acetaminophen, and (as if that's not enough) a side of arsenic.
Yum!
In one study, researchers tested a poultry byproduct called feather-meal made (obviously) of feathers. That might sound strange, but toxins, drugs and everything else fed to a chicken end up in those feathers.
That means if it's in the feathers, it's in the meat -- and they found everything short of Col. Sanders' goatee in the feathers.
First and foremost, they found traces of banned antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin. Poultry farms aren't supposed to use these drugs, but to hell with the rules. They have chickens to grow, and antibiotics plump those birds up fast and easy.
Just one problem: Along with fatter chickens, the overuse of antibiotics has created a frightening new class of drug-resistant superbugs. So while they get more meat to sell, we get incurable infections.
The researchers also found caffeine, which stimulates chickens so they stay awake and eat more. But since caffeinated stressed-out chickens have tough meat, the birds need something else to bring them down.
That would explain the Benadryl and acetaminophen also found in the feather-meal. They're basically tenderizers. That would also explain the PROZAC (!!!!) found in samples of feather-meal from China.
I'd say that's what you get for buying chicken from China -- but clearly, we have nothing to crow about since the rest of those drug-laced samples were all-American.
Meanwhile, a second new study finds arsenic in the feather-meal. This is no accident; poultry farmers feed low levels of the poison to their chickens to give the meat that pink glow consumers love so much.
All this is bad news for chicken-lovers, of course, but don't flip the bird into the trash just yet. Just go organic.
It'll cost you a wing and a leg, but it'll be worth it.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Pineapple PB Snack
Peanut butter on these yummy crackers are always a quick go-to for lunch or snack (find them hidden on the bottom shelf at Publix). The crackers are light and small enough that even the little guy chomps them up! We're always trying new combinations in our house, though, so we got a little creative today.
Enjoy your peanut butter crackers with a thin slice of pineapple on top! Delish!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Nutty Spread & Apple Fried Rice
We were driving home from school yesterday and I asked my son what he wanted for lunch - he's very creative with food and loves to eat! Peanut butter on apple cinnamon rice cakes with raisins on top was decided.
By now, you should know of my love of the VitaMix. It's so easy to make shakes, soups and spreads using this machine! So, instead of just plain peanut butter, a flash of brilliance came to me as we enjoyed the :25 minute ride home: MAKE A NUT SPREAD! Every kid loves to dip!
And so my new nutrient-packed indulgence was created. Both the kids loved dipping apples and rice cakes into the Nutty Spread. Being that it's so dense in protein, it really filled them up.
Nutty Spread:
- handful of Cocoa Roast Almonds from Emerald
- two heaping spoonfuls of all-natural peanut butter (peanuts and salt is all that should be in PB! I love Smucker's Natural)
- a squeeze of honey
- enough almond milk to make the mixture creamy
- METHOD: put almonds, PB & honey in the VitaMix; turn on, turn to 10 and flip to HIGH; slowly add milk from the top of the blender. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides. Continue blending on high and adding milk until you get the consistency you want. (I doubled the recipe and had enough to snack on later with pretzels and for the awesome Apple Fried Rice recipe below)
- Put in a bowl and dip away! Good items for dipping include apple slices, rice cakes, pretzels, celery or crackers.
Apple Fried Rice
And now for the lunch feast that blossomed out of my son's mind today! Again, we were on our way home from school and he was snacking on those delicious Kroger brand Apple Cinnamon rice cakes when I asked him what he wanted for lunch. He asked, "can we make these for lunch?" Well, one of my favorite things to do with apples is pan fry them. I knew that we could make something yummy with the leftover rice from last night's dinner and some sweet Fuji apples!
And so Apple Fried Rice was born. The kids LOVED it and I only wished I had more for myself! With only a cup of rice leftover, I did what I could do.
To serve 2 little ones and a hungry mama...
Apple Fried Rice
- 1 cup cooked rice
- 1 apple, grated
- 1 carrot, grated
- olive oil
- cinnamon
- handful of raisins
- couple leftover scoops of Nutty Spread
- METHOD: heat oil in a pan and then fry rice for a few minutes to get it hot and a little crispy; add apple, carrot, raisins and a little bit of water, liberally season with cinnamon and cover pan for a couple minutes to steam; finally dab the Nutty Spread into the pan and stir until well combined. YUM!!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Obama Propaganda - Official Response
I ran across this picture on FaceBook the other day. First of all, this is not a very becoming becoming picture of our President. Secondly, with all the typos, I don't even know why I'm taking it seriously! I guess it's because some voters out there take every bit of these remarks as fact, as truth, and defend it with their hearts. They choose not to flip the coin, to see the other side or, as I like to say, listen to ALL THREE SIDES of the story: their side, my side and the whole truth.
It's time we start thinking with our brains! Like Herman Cain says, "We are not stupid!", but we certainly are ignorant. It doesn't matter who you're supporting, if you're not fact-checking, you're not doing your job as an American voter. The political class is purposefully pitting us against each other. They're taking our eye off the American prize, which is independence, opportunity and self-reliance. The state of America today is a direct result of our public refusing to think critically.
To clarify, I do not think that Barack Obama is a bad man nor do I believe he means harm to the American people. What I do believe is that he is a supporter of communism and is okay with fascism and socialism. These are not American ideals nor do they help our free-market economy nor are they legal in our Constitutional Republic. I implore you to refrain from personal attacks and I will do the same.
It's about time we expand on the words coming from the Obama Propaganda machine. I don't have the time to research every claim nor do I have an opinion for each, so I challenge you to help complete this list of rebuttals. I did take the liberty of correcting the grammatical errors from the list on the photo; please let me know if I missed any.
1. President Obama created 3,000,000 new private sector jobs? What in the world does 3 million "created or saved" jobs mean in a country with an 8.3% unemployment rate*? If you have 142 million people in the US labor force and President Obama "created or saved" 3 million jobs, without destroying any others, he increased employment by a measley 2% in 3 years. (3,000,000/142,000,000=.02)
* http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea01.htm
2. Smaller Government? How? Federal work force has increased by over 6% and so has spending and entitlement.* He's also adopted 75 major regulations in his first two years. For comparison, Bush adopted 120 during 8 years. So, if we keep going at 37.5/year and Obama wins another election, we'll have 300 new major regulations. How does that decrease government?
* http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/25/news/economy/obama_government/index.htm
Why are public sector employees receiving more benefits and higher salaries than their private sector counterparts?
Under the Affordable Healthcare Reform Act, thousands of government jobs will be created just to enforce the regulations and mandate. So, we pay taxes to have our new employees force us to either buy health insurance or pay more taxes.
3. $2,000,000,000,000 in deficit reduction? ha! Is that before or after he increased the deficit by $3.5 trillion? Or is it a big switch-a-roo? This makes no sense.
4. Health Care Reform: a monstrosity of a bill with over 2,000 pages. Written into the bill are hundreds of regulations that actually make it more difficult to get individual health insurance and have already banned the maternity rider (first hand experience here!). The goal of this bill, just like Medicare, is to get everyone on a "single payer" system. Have you thought about who that "single payer" is? It's the government! What has the government done well that you would trust them with your healthcare?
5. Wall Street Reform: Why are there Occupy Wallstreet Protesters if the reform Obama & the Democrats pushed through congress was having a good effect? Experts say that it's an over-reaching bill that will not only affect the financial industry, but US job creation as well*. It seems that this legislation was created to increase government revenue rather than help the public or create jobs. More government revenue means more government spending.
*http://www.tax-news.com/news/Disquiet_Over_Effects_Of_Dodd_Frank_Act_On_US_Industry____47836.html
6. Saved the US Auto Industry? We must ask the question: why do American auto industries need to be bailed out? And how come foreign auto makers with plants in America employ more people and didn't have to get bailed out? (answer: Unions) It's not the government's job to bail out an industry "too big to fail". Since when does the government get to choose who succeeds and who fails? It's not their job to regulate a free market enterprise! And why did Ford, our country's original auto company, avoid the need of a bailout?
7. All "bailout money" returned, with interest? not true. GM borrowed more tax dollars to pay off the government loan. How do you pay me back with my own money?*
* http://hotair.com/archives/2011/05/27/the-fake-chrysler-loan-payoff/
8. Three new trade agreements: ?? Who is it benefiting?
9. Repealed "Don't ask don't tell": not a big deal to me. I support equal protection under the law and for gay people to have the same rights as me, but I don't see why people need to flaunt their sexuality in any work place.
10. Killed Osama Bin Laden: thank you, President Obama, for trusting your military leaders and okaying the mission to kill Bin Laden.
And because of you, Mr. President, we all know it was Seal Team 6 who killed Osama Bin Laden. You named the team that killed a high-profile terrorist and put them and their families in danger. For the rest of their lives, there will be bounty on their heads. Shame on you, Mr. President.
11. Rescued American Hostages: not sure about this one.
12. Toppled Gadhafi without an American casualty: toppled? You mean that Obama knocked him over and no one else got hurt? Go Obama!
13. Unified the world against Iran: what? huh?
14. Has the Arab League watching Syria? anyone an expert on this?
15. No tax dollars spent on BP clean-up? Definitely respectable that there were no tax dollars used to clean up the BP mess. That doesn't mean that there won't be restitutions in the future. Just this week, Hillsboro County announced that they'll be suing us, the tax payers, for a windfall reimbursement in the millions for their loss in the oil spill*.
* http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/hillsborough-commissioners-may-seek-tax-dollars-lost-due-to-2010-bp-oil/1221200
And BP has actually received tax write-offs for their payments to victims and cost of clean up that equals about $11 billion in tax savings for BP. So says Rep. Bill Nelson of Florida anyway.*
*http://billnelson.senate.gov/news/details.cfm?id=332841
How about the fact that Obama unconstitutionally instituted a moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico with no factual environmental information to support his decision? It killed jobs and caused previously viable companies to go bankrupt.*
* http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/15/first-gulf-of-mexico-drilling-company-seahawk-files-bankruptcy-because-of-offshore-drilling-moratorium/
16. More deportations per year than Bush? dunno about that, but aren't the Democrats trying to also naturalize millions of illegal immigrants through the Dream Act?
* http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/03/20/truth-about-dream-act/
17. Supports states rights on medical marijuana? Why hasn't he done anything to stop the Feds from arresting people selling legally in their own states? If he "supports states rights" regarding marijuana, then he should disassemble the federal swat teams raiding legal businesses. Give these decisions back to the states.
* http://www.capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=58723501
18. Ended the war in Iraq? Really? He SAID he ended the war, but it's not over, we didn't win and he's just moved the troops to Afganistan. What's it worth ending Iraq if the war has just been transplanted into another country?
19. Increased veterans benefits every year? Obama did this? How?
20. Saved the world from global financial collapse? Double ha! How can this be? Someone give me some facts!
21. Hired more border patrol agents than Bush? Were these border patrol agents there to protect our border or to stop States from protecting it? He's suing Arizona, for goodness sakes!
22. Quit smoking. Good for you! You know, I never started.
23. What did you do at the last 3 years of your job? Let's see if I can come up with 22 fantastic and true things I've done in the past 3 years in my job as mother, housewife and entrepreneur.
- took no "free" money or services from the federal or state government
- owned a business employing 12 people, which eventually closed down because of economic conditions
- paid an accountant to do my taxes
- paid taxes
- educated people on the tyranny of the income tax
- wrote letters to my Representatives
- gave birth, at home, to a healthy baby boy
- wrote blog posts to share my opinion on current events and a healthy lifestyle
- joined a weekly radio show to open dialogue on current events
- lost my mother to cancer
- discovered that the American Cancer Society is a proponent of socialized medicine; tried to alert the media; quit volunteering for them after 7 years of service
- came to an understanding that "non-profits" are the "winners" chosen by government in addition to the chosen industries that the government blesses with tax incentives
- paid for my own healthcare & health insurance
- ate healthy and exercised to prevent illness
- moved to Georgia and started a new business
- enrolled my child in a private, Montessori school so he will learn critical thinking, independence and social skills
- spent quality time with family, talking, playing games, hiking, swimming and just enjoying each other's company. Conversations keep families close.
- bought a gas guzzling SUV
- developed a social network of mothers for friendship, support and conversation
- voted in local elections to help end alcohol prohibition in Georgia
- donated to the Disabled Veterans and Goodwill
- made fun of my brother for smoking cigarettes
- What have you done in the past 3 years?
* * *
And now, just for fun, here's a list of President Obama's firsts from the right! These are not my thoughts. Feel free to fact check and reply.
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