I made banana bread. Banana bread required mashed up bananas and what better way to mash them up than by hand? My 2 year old believes that banana mushing is necessary for a complete and healthy preschooler life and I tend to agree with her. Yes it usually means that I have mashed bananas in the living room, kitchen, and sometimes my hair… yes it means that half of the bananas dont end up in the bread… and yes it means that I spend the rest of the day cleaning banana goo from her body. Yes… it is worth it. Not just to see how happy she is but to eat the end results!

Banana loaves

This was the end result today. Four little banana loaves that were full of nuts, bananas, raisins, and love.

Today we went to the store and saw these:

Taco set

This is a set for people making tacos. Seems innocent enough right?

Except not… this is what is included in the taco set.

taco holders?

Forgive the pic quality please this was taken with my camera phone… but anyways.. taco holders?

Seriously?

How are these necessary? And talk about a uni-tasker!!!   Why do people need little contraptions that hold their tacos up for them? Isn’t that what your hands are for? TWO HANDS for TWO TACOS!

If you see another use for this please email me or drop me a line. Until then I shall keep using my hands to hold up my tacos.

Katrina: which was obviously huge to Louisiana, Houston ended up with many of the refugees of the area and saw the toll that it took on the people of the south personally. It was devastating and scary.

Rita: My in laws saw this one personally, the hurricane demolished a great deal of the Golden Triangle area between Texas and Louisiana. They were without electricity for weeks and the towns are still recovering.

Ike: We don’t like Ike. I don’t care what anyone says. There are few things scarier than a hurricane passing over your house in the middle of the night while you sleep in a closed off bedroom with your small children. The sound of a train passing over your house. The pitch black. The loss of the food and of parts of your own home. We lived through Ike and the aftermath of it almost exactly a year ago.

Because of these recent events we have learned to prepare for hurricanes when the season starts. In our location we are more likely to get hurricanes in the later part of the season, around August-October.

In the beginning of the season we buy shelf stable foods in bulk. Canned tomatoes, dried fruits and veggies, powedered milk, shelf stable juices and milk in tetrapaks. We make sure that our generators are running and that we have enough fuel for them.  We bought some water containers for storing potable water in case of emergencies and made sure that we had some water purification tablets on hand. We have a family emergency preparedness plan together and I even made sure that our company bought a little emergency kit.

This is what FEMA tells us that we need:

• Water
  • Store at least 1 gallon of water per person per day for up to 2 weeks (family of 5 needs 70 gallons).
  • “Watersafe can help you meet that requirement.”
• Food
  • At least a 3-Day supply of ready-to-eat non-perishable food for each person
  • Manual can opener for canned foods
  • Select foods that require no refrigeration, preparation or cooking and little or no water. If you must heat food, pack a can of sterno.
  • Select food items that are compact and lightweight. Avoid foods that will make you thirsty.
  • Choose salt-free crackers, whole grain cereals, and canned foods with high liquid content.
• First Aid Supplies
  • Essential medicines including:
    • Eyeglasses and contact lenses
    • Sterile adhesive bandages in assorted sizes
    • 2-inch sterile gauze pads (4-6)
    • 4-inch sterile gauze pads (4-6)
    • Hypoallergenic adhesive tape
    • Triangular bandages (3)
    • 2-inch sterile roller bandages (3 rolls)
    • 3-inch sterile roller bandages (3 rolls)
    • Scissors
    • Tweezers
    • Needle
    • Moistened towelettes
    • Antiseptic
    • Thermometer
    • Tongue blades (2)
    • Tube of petroleum jelly or other lubricant
    • Assorted sizes of safety pins
    • Cleansing agent/soap
    • Latex gloves (2 pair) Sunscreen
  • Non-prescription drugs
    • Aspirin or nonaspirin pain reliever
    • Anti-diarrhea medication
    • Antacid (for stomach upset)
    • Syrup of Ipecac (use to induce vomiting if advised by the Poison Control Center)
    • Laxative
    • Activated charcoal (use if advised by the Poison Control Center)
• Clothing, Bedding and Sanitation Supplies
  • Include at least 1 change of clothes and shoes per person
    • Jacket or coat
    • Long pants
    • Long sleeve shirt
    • Sturdy shoes or work boots
    • Hat, gloves and scarf�
    • Rain gear
    • Thermal underwear
    • Blankets or sleeping bags
    • Sunglasses
  • Sanitation
    • Toilet paper
    • Soap, liquid detergent
    • Feminine supplies
    • Personal hygiene items
    • Plastic garbage bags, ties (for personal sanitation uses)
    • Plastic bucket with tight lid
    • Disinfectant
    • Household chlorine bleach
• Tools
  • Mess kits, or paper cups, plates and plastic utensils
  • 2 coolers – one for food and one for ice
  • Emergency preparedness manual
  • Portable, battery-operated radio or television and extra batteries
  • Flashlight and extra batteries
  • Cash or traveler’s checks, change
  • Nonelectric can opener, utility knife
  • Fire extinguisher: small canister, ABC type
  • Tube tent
  • Pliers
  • Tape
  • Compass
  • Matches in a waterproof container
  • Aluminum foil
  • Plastic storage containers
  • Signal flare
  • Paper, pencil
  • Needles, thread
  • Medicine dropper
  • Shut-off wrench, to turn off household gas and water
  • Whistle
  • Plastic sheeting
  • Map of the area (for locating shelters)
• Special Items
  • For Baby
    • Formula
    • Diapers
    • Bottles
    • Pacifiers
    • Powdered milk
    • Medications
  • For Adults
    • Heart and high blood pressure medication
    • Insulin
    • Prescription drugs
    • Denture needs
    • Contact lenses and supplies
    • Extra eye glasses
    • Hearing aid batteries
      
  • Important Family Documents
    • Keep these records in a waterproof, portable container.
    • Will, insurance policies, contracts, deeds, stocks and bonds
    • Photo IDs, passports, social security cards, immunization records
    • Bank account numbers
    • Credit card account numbers and companies
    • Inventory of valuable household goods, important telephone numbers
    • Family records (birth, marriage, death certificates)
    • Photocopies of credit and identification cards
  • Cash and coins
  • Entertainment–games and books

I will admit that I am an over planner.

So tell me? What does your family do to prepare for the worst?

I over prepare everything… and that is ok. I accept myself and love myself.

So of course I have all sorts of things prepared, I even have grains and recipes for bread that dont need ovens. I am pretty sure that if the next nuclear holocaust were to come my family and I would be safe, you know like that movie “Blast from the Past” (oh man how I love Christopher Walken).

Anyways, I think that no matter where you live you have to prepare for emergencies. Be it hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, killer cockroaches, etc.  I think preperation is a big part of living green anyways so this is fine by me. I have found that we are the most wasteful when we are not ready for what is coming because we have to buy what is convenient.

The first step in this was getting a deep freeze.  We put meat, fruits, jams, nuts, dried stuff, etc. in there. It keeps for a long time and helps us stay prepared. We do not have to do huge grocery runs every week and are ready to feed our family at a moment’s notice. It also helps us avoid a lot of packaging by being able to buy things in bulk.

Home preperation is an important part of our life and it wasnt instant but I think that we are finally at a point where we can say we will be ok even if we are unable to purchase any new foods for a while.

Let’s talk. What is your family doing to prepare for the worst? Do you have any suggestions for me or anyone else?

I obviously vote yes, and I even go as far as to say that it is my duty as a savvy consumer and earth-lover to buy organic. I also add to this my distaste for GMO’s. What is a GMO?

It means Genetically Modified Organism.  There have been many foods in our world that have been genetically spliced and diced, for example soy and corn. They have been bred to resist bugs better, to grow faster, to produce faster, larger, stronger, better… so of course the stuff we are left with now is stuff that would not be found anywhere in nature.  It is my humble belief that we should stay far far away from them as well.

So other than going around with a little pesticide and gene tester in your pocket when you go grocery shopping…. how can you tell what is organic, what is a GMO, and what is not?

Pretty simple really.

Thanks for the food labeling laws here in the States our fresh fruits and veggies have stickers on them… and this is how to read them.

4 digits – i.e. 4536 or 3297 – This is not organic

5 digits that start with an 9 – i.e. 94536 or 93237 – This is organic

5 digits that start with an 8 – i.e. 83456 or 81242 – This is a GMO,

When you are looking food that is not fresh fruits and veggies you should look for the USDA Organic label, read the ingredients (you should always be doing this anyways) and make sure that they are what you want them to be, and dont be afraid to do research on the company’s website to find out more. I highly suggest this and this is why. Some companies have foods that are organic but the source of the fruits and veggies is from a country like China that has little to no control over stuff like this. If you dont trust China to be in control over testing of a few kid toys for lead or not, for tires, or for much of anything else… do you trust them to enforce a TRUE organic certification on their foods? I sure dont.

So for me finding the source of the foods that come to my home is an important matter. After all, if I am working so hard to protect my kids from the evils of the world outside, why not protect them from the evils of the world that can creep into our homes and into their bodies?

I just came back from vacation and realized how hard it is to keep a green lifestyle while travelling. They dont make it easy on you, especially if you have kids.

Mike mentioned that he was thankful that I always did what I could to make sure that even while travelling we were healthy and eating well but I honestly did not feel like we did a great job.

We went to a couple of parks and such.  Amusement parks are incredibly wasteful…and some make it almost impossible to stay green.

We went to Schlitterbahn and stayed on the resort at the rapids part.  My reasoning was this. We did not have to drive to the park, the prices at the resort were not that different than a hotel around New Braunfels, we could go back to the hotel to have lunch/dinner/etc. and it would be easier on the kids.

My reasons were all right and we did do all of those things… I have to say that I loved staying there and I loved the park. They encourage people to bring in their own food and drinks, they do not allow styrofoam containers and they really are friendly to packing your own stuff.  It makes it much easier to save money and eat healthier foods. You bring your cooler along and go to town. This part wasnt so bad…

Then we went to Sea World and it all went downhill from there.  Not going into the issues that I have with Sea World (which will be in another post rest assured) they are really awful at helping families eat well while they are there. Their food is outrageously expensive and they do not let you bring in any foods or drinks. For our family with two young children this is incredibly difficult because we have to give them water and food every few minutes, especially in 105+ degree heat in central Texas. We spent a fortune and the food was no better than a McDonalds or Burger King, two places where my children have never eaten and that I hope they dont in a long time…  I have to say that I have no desire to go back to Sea World and that I feel truly guilty for how wasteful we were during this day. They give you everything in paper/carboard. They have nowhere to recycle it, it is all just trashed. While they do have recycling for plastic bottles I saw 3 of those recycling baskets in the whole park (there might be more but not nearly enough) and while I wanted to purchase a reusable sports bottle that they give (a souvenir one with Shamu on it) so that we wouldnt have to purchase and throw away more paper cups with plastic lids, the 4 places where I asked about them were out. I dont understand it. Apart from being the most expensive (by far) day of our trip it was probably the one that we enjoyed the least. We went as part of a family tradition of going and because Mike thought that the kids would enjoy it. They did enjoy parts of it, I wont lie… it wasnt a total bust. The aquarium was really cool for both of them and Kate loved seeing the sharks… but I would have preferred an aquarium, not an amusement park owned by Budweiser. .. I digress. The quality of the food was just abismal. I got 7 strawberries for 5 dollars because I really wanted my children to have fruits/veggies and not just fried chicken strips and french fries while out.

Going back to the rest of the trip. What helped us in trying to both save money and not be wasteful was a) our cooler b) ice and c) local grocery stores and d) our Kleen Kanteens. We loaded those puppies up before we left and they lasted us 3 days so we did not have to get bottled water while we were in our rooms or pay for the overpriced stuff that was being sold in vending machines at the hotels.

We stopped at a Super S Foods is Johnson City and gathered some supplies in the middle of our journey across the Hill Country in central Texas. With those provisions we had fresh fruit, sandwich material, and were able to stop at Pedernales State Park for a picnic and eat at our hotel room. You can never have enough ice. Ever.

What would I have done differently? Had some more shelf stable foods. Made some more snacks like granola bars and cookies. I made muffins and they were great but they did not last very long with a family of 4 in a 7 day road trip.

I will be posting more random ideas that come to me as I get them but I learned a great deal on this trip regarding how to keep your ethical/moral beliefs while enjoying a vacation in a world that does not understand why you dont want to feed your kids doritos and koolad jammers for breakfast/lunch/dinner.

Thai is a very close second (sometimes it is first) favorite behind Chinese food and one of the reasons why is because of their amazing sauces… peanut sauces, sweet spicy sauces… just amazing.

Last night I made this sauce to put on chicken satay, yes I know that usually people eat it with peanut sauce but I had no peanuts and I wanted this. Sue me.

I have to share the sauce here because it is just so amazing. Right now I am eating it poured over some steamed jasmine rice and just loving it.

Sweet sauce for spring rolls (this is also REALLY good on tofu)

Start off with a simple syrup… 1 part water and 1 part sugar. For this recipe I used half a cup of both. These need too simmer and reduce by 1/2 – 1/3. You know it is ready when you put a spoon in it and it coats the spoon.. you know.. like syrup.

add to this 1/2 of red wine vinegar. i actually didnt have any so i used white whine vinegar.. the result was very similar though not as good… but know that you can use this in a pinch. make sure that it is good stuff though…not the cheap stuff. this is worth it.

Now, I know you are supposed to use a couple Tbsps. of fish sauce but we cant have that here and if you are veganizing this you cant… so omit this. The result will not be exactly the same but really.. it doesnt need it (i know I might get angry emails because of this and I am prepared to deal with that).

After it reduces you add the vinegar, fish sauce, red pepper flakes (to taste, I like it HOT so I add 3 or 4 tsps.) and some shredded carrots. again.. to taste.. I like it in mine a LOT. I usually HATE carrots but this calls for them… and they give it a nice color.

Mix this all together and let it sit for a bit. Chilling it would be good but not chilling it is ok too. I also add a little green onions to it. Most people dont but I love it in mine.

If I had a choice I would hook an IV full of this stuff to my vena cava… the rest of you that understand moderation just should enjoy this.

A little bit of family history here… my brother wont eat veggies. My father wont eat veggies. My mother would try to force feed us canned green beans and spinach which would promptly make us gag and puke yet we were not allowed to get up from our chairs until it was all off of our plate. So… I grew up hating veggies. One of my youngest memories is of sitting at a table with a plate of green metal smelling goop in front of me that my mother called spinach that I saw her pour out of a can and into our plates, it looked like sludge. I have vivid memories of the juices that my mother would make us with her extractor… all carrot based. I hate carrots.  She would try to trick us by putting apples, pears, and other fruits into it… but it was just a waste of good fruit to us. The carrots killed the yummy fruit flavor, worse when celery was put in it. ICK.

To this day I still believe that this harmed the way that my family views healthy eating. I cook and if the words “healthy” are uttered it is almost like a bad word… yet if I dont tell them what is in it.. they will eat it… and ask for seconds… so I have stopped saying what is in food and we are good to go.

WHen cooking for MIke and the kids I dont have the same struggle. Mike and i eat most veggies and Kate will too, we are starting Calvin on eating everything and hope that we dont have troubles with him. Yet sometimes all kids, even the best eaters…get picky.

There are days when Kate wont eat anything but soy cheese and crackers with maybe two grapes and 4 raisins. I have realized that this is why all kid food is “fortified” and has “100% of the needed supply of vitamins and minerals”.. because you dont know if that is all they are going to eat for the day… so you want to make sure that your food packs a serious punch healthwise.

This explains the allure of books like  The Sneaky Chef,and Deceptively Delicious. They are all mother’s desperate attempts at trying to trick their kids into eating better.

This becomes a real issue for those of us with kids with allergies or who are veg*s. I remember the phone call from my own inlaws that were concerned that Kate wasnt getting enough calcium in her diet because she couldnt eat dairy. I of course dont worry since I know that soy milk, tofu, and other products that we have on hand all have calcium in them. Leafy greens also have that and her diet is balanced enough that we arent concerned about her calcium intake.

I found the Pyramind website that the government has set up has some interesting info on where veg or dietary restricted families can get their nutricion from.

As for us?

I have been known to put turnips, brocolli, and cauliflower into mashed potatoes. I put tomatoes and spinach into breads. I bread meats with oats and whole wheat flour.  Grated zucchini and carrots taste great in cakes.  My family loooves quiches. Some phyllo dough and cream cheese/tofutti is a great device for delivering greens and other veggies into picky eaters.  Raw green beans are crunchy like chips and are well loved, sprinkle some paprika and salt on them for a twist. Or better yet, make your own baked veggie chips. Soups are a staple here. We make our own broths that are boiled down veggies and bones or something similar…  the list goes on and on…

Want some fun drinks for parties?  Here is one from Veg Kitchen:

Sneaky Peppermint!

Makes about 2 to 2 1/2 cups

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup brewed, then cooled, peppermint tea (fairly strong)
• 1 cup ice cubes
• Handful of fresh spinach leaves (don’t let anybody see you do this.. it will make the drink green but not interrupt the flavor, adds nutrition)
• Raw sugar to taste, optional

Whirl away until in a food processor or blender until smooth. Pour into glasses to serve.

Teas are a great way to get nourishment into kids too. Red Raspberry Leaf and Nettle Tea which I drank when i was pregnant is a great sources of potassium , iron, and other goodies for your blood. Make a tea of these and make it into a popsciple for kids while sweetened with honey or stevia makes a good treat that they will LOVE to eat…. and they will think that they are getting away with something when they do!

Now I am off to find a way to sneak peas and liver into cream cheese icing. Wish me luck!

Squash is a food that is in season a great deal of the year here, our climate seems to lend itself to it being grown. We have this green which is my fave, a few yellow variaties, and some other round ones that look like little pumpkins.

The name of my dish “Calabazitas” is actually “little pumpkins” in spanish. This is a really great veg*an dish that is easy to make and inexpensive. We have been getting some great squash in our share recently and i had been waiting for the right opportunity to make a good dish out of them. Last night was the night.

I chopped some red onion. I like using red in this because it is sweeter. I let it sweat for a bit… I didnt want it brown but just translucent and soft. You know what I mean.  I love onion when it is soft and sweet. It adds depts to the party.

After this I added the chopped squash. I like it in squares or strips. I dont know the fancy schamncy name for that… I didnt go to culinary school folks. I just know that small means it cooks faster and I dont have patience or time. So small it is. I let those sweat for a bit and then I add a can of diced tomatoes and raise the heat a bit. At this time you can add corn, cooked and drained beans, and maybe a little veggie broth.  For spices I like cumin (duh), garlic, salt, pepper, maybe some red pepper or chipotle powder… but only if you can handle it. This dish has some great flavors on its own so it doesnt need much. Dont over do it. Cover and let it simmer for a while.

It tastes great right off of the oven but it also tastes good cold…I dont know why it actually tastes better the next day right out of the fridge like a cold soup.

This is a pretty typical mexican dish that I inherited from my mom. It is savory but subtle and easy for kids to eat because it is in small-ish chunks. I tell my kids that the tomato is ketchup. That helps a ton too.

The 365 blog above has a good description of what one can entail. It usually involved herbs, incense, blood of some animal, prayers, an egg, a curandera, and whatever else your shaman has decided in their vast experience exorcising the bad energies and spirits out of people that you will need to heal.

I dont really believe in any things like this but the “limpia” ceremony (literally means “clean”) is an interesting phenomenon in Mexican culture. We are really a superticious people. I have two beautiful children (no bias here) and everytime we go out and a lady looks at them they have to touch them.  If you dont the kid will get the evil eye or “Mal de Ojo”. A result of this ailment usually involves kids having stomach problems… possibly a great deal of vomiting. It might involve a cold. It some extreme cases it could maybe even lead to the death of the beautiful child. Supposedly this “eye” is not done on purpose but if you look at a child long enough and want one like it or admire it… you can do it without knowing it.. so you must touch the baby or carry it for a few seconds. This will ward off the eye that you could have given the child.

If we go out somewhere and our kids have been stared at we come home and give them a bath with some herbs… this is a good step is keeping the evil out, Gloria goes so far as to give them a rub down with alcohol. She tells me when they have been around women with no children who want children because if that is the case I need to keep an eye out for any signs of sickness that could have been caused as a result.

These beliefs are old and ingrained deep within the culture and psyche of my family. My family doesnt claim to follow the old folk traditions because they are generally based on pagan rituals and beliefs… but when I saw them this Tuesday to have dinner with them they insisted that I put socks on my children to avoid them getting any kind of “bad airs” that come in through their feet. We live in a large city in the united state and my father went to medical school…. and he truly and honest to goodness believes this to be true. They refused to leave until I put sock on my kids feet eventhough it was 80 degrees outside. I shook my head and nodded… knowing full well that even in my skepticism I do my own little things to make sure that none of the evil spirits or energies get to us.

Mike believes in karma, wayyyy before My name is Earl came out… Mike was a believer that karma was a powerful force in our lives and he doesnt believe in doing certain things because it created bad juju for us. We joke about it… and I wonder sometimes if it is he really thinks that it is true or not… but when certain things pop up he will stop me or himself from doing things.. as to not get the dark clouds around us as a result of our actions. I guess this is his own form of weird beliefs.

What’s funny about these beliefs in my culture is that we are very high and mighty about how this is not witchcraft… this is not dark magic.. this is just the energies moving around us.  I guess it is like the “force”… if you want to put it in a geek term.

I find it funny how most cultures have something like this.

So my family insists that someone has somehow put some kind of black mark on our house or our family… maybe we made someone angry or maybe someone is jealous of us. They are unsure but we need a cleansing apparently.

Gloria has made sure to give her house a good cleansing because she wants to make sure that it is not coming from her. She burned a few oils and moved some furniture around to try and create a cleaner “air” for the children and for her.  Their suggestion is that we do something similar.

I have been eating copious amounts of chocolate recently. I think that it is my way of fending off the foul mood I get into when I feel sick. I made chocolate cupcakes this week and the week before I made donuts.

I dont know what the world is telling me but maybe I just need to start using bleach again…

Regardless, I might pick up a dozen eggs tonight to shake in front of my coughing kids and husband. Hey, it cant hurt.

Curried Lentil Soup
Serves 6 heartily

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 1/4 teaspoons curry powder or paste
4 cups chicken broth (vegetarians, use veggie broth)
2 cans coconut milk
3 cups lentils (or use one package)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes — undrained

I sauteed the onions and cabbage (i added cabbage to the soup) and then added the rest of the ingredients…  the result was amazing.

We had it for dinner Friday night and then we had it for lunch Saturday along with some chicken soup. My inlaws came over and they mixed the soups together which was really quite tasty.

Yesterday I made oats and cheese bread and it was finished up fast. Too fast.

I will post pics later on tonight. Yum-o.