The Pleasures of Pumpkin

Mmmm. Simple, nutritious, chock-full of healthy stuff.

During the summer, I purchased food from local producers. In addition to enjoying fresh, local produce, I also dried/dehydrated enough (mostly at temps low enough to keep nutrients intact) so I could have nutritional local food throughout the winter. I also came across a family selling pumpkins for $2 each. Having read about pumpkin's super-food qualifications, I picked up 10.  I dehydrated bits of pumpkins (and pumpkin seeds!) for hours on end, grinding some down into a powder. Then I learned that pumpkins, like tomatoes, actually have some sort of additional nutritional benefit when cooked so I baked the rest and filled the freezer with orange goodness.

Every few days, I usually do up a batch of quinoa (and was surprised to find that the PC Organics quinoa was less expensive to buy than quinoa in the Superstore bulk section) and store that in the fridge. Then every couple of days I put together various ingredients to mix with my almost-daily serving of quinoa. This provides me with a healthy meal that's always in my fridge. The quinoa rings in at less than $2.50 a box and provides me with numerous meals/snacks over the course of about 3 days (I'm more of a grazer, not so much a sit-down-and-eat-a-big-meal sort of person). I always add in pumpkin for the nutritional benefits. Each pumpkin was $2, half a pumpkin would be $1, which means my daily pumpkin costs less than 25cents. From thereon in, it's just a matter of choosing what else I want to toss in. If I add in beans (lima, garbanzo, black beans, etc.) they're the ones purchased in bulk or in a bag and soaked overnight before cooking (I sometimes grind them down as well into a houmous/hummus sort of blend before adding them to other ingredients for the quinoa OR just have them on their own, blended down with raw garlic and whatever else I feel like adding) - again, a nutritional boost for pennies per serving. I usually add in turmeric and then whatever vegetables I choose from the jars of dehydrated goodness in my cupboard.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how many seeds small pumpkins could hold. They're packed! And what a great, low-cost food item! They pack a nutritional punch. I dehydrated mine, mostly without salt but some of the last batches were sprinkled with sea salt. You can imagine all the seeds we have from the 10 pumpkins we bought. I'm so thankful we came across the pumpkin folks. 

Easy, Nutritious Summer Drinks

A couple of summers ago, my son and I decided to make homemade soda for his birthday party. We made six different flavours. My son thoroughly enjoyed them all. He knew this was a rarity because each required a simple syrup (requiring sugar - thankfully we have fair-trade, organic cane sugar available from Ten Thousand Villages) and club soda. I knew there had to be healthier, inexpensive alternatives.

Here are some of our experiments:

Ginger Juice

Boil sliced ginger in a pot of water (I use about 2-3 inches for about 8 cups)
Sweeten to taste (optional)
I find the warm version tastes different than the cooled version, and though I enjoy them both, I probably enjoy the chilled version more than I should. I've started making this much less than I used to because even the thought of it makes me want some, and I'm not even a ginger fan otherwise!

Citrus Blends

Our nearby grocery store has a "50% off" produce shelf. A couple of weeks ago, it was full of oranges, lemons, and limes. Did you know lemons have a myriad of health benefits? It's true! We've been peeling a combination of citrus, then cutting them into wedges, gently poking numerous holes into them, tossing them into a pot along with the peels, covering them in boiling water from the kettle, then putting the lid on the pot and leaving it to brew for a few minutes just like that. About 10 minutes or so later, I use a potato masher and gently mash the fruit a bit, then add more water and let the pot simmer. Strain. I added honey and cinnamon to my first batch. Divine! Unfortunately, we (mostly I!) drank all of it that afternoon. I did up subsequent batches without anything other than the fruit and water, and canned the blends into quart jars for later sweetening. I also kept a jar in the fridge, and I really didn't mind it without the honey once it was chilled.

I also did up a couple of jars of ginger/citrus - and will definitely be doing up more of those!

Smoothies/Juice

Many folks make smoothies these days. This is nothing new. We greatly enjoy the fact that you can toss almost any produce into the blender.

One of my favourite things about smoothies is that you can toss in raw beets, spinach, etc., and drink down a greater quantity of produce than you might eat otherwise in one sitting.

And for the cocoa-holics out there, you can toss in additional health benefits by tossing in some cocoa.

Here's one of our favourite smoothies:
Coconut milk or other milk, and water
Frozen fruit (mangoes, friends' organic berries, etc)
Banana
Spinach (I usually toss in 2 servings)
Sprinkle of cinnamon on top

For those of you scrunching up your nose at the thought of the taste of spinach in a smoothie, have no fear. The spinach is masked by the other flavours.

No coconut milk? No problem, if you have coconut or other nuts at home. Walnuts or almonds are a great alternative - before making your smoothie, just toss half a cup or so into the blender with 2 cups of water, blend blend blend, then strain out the leftovers (and eat with honey or on cereal, etc) or leave them in your smoothie when you add the other ingredients.

Of course, you can experiment with leaving out the "milk" part and just try out different fruit/vegetable/water/herbal tea blends to find some that you enjoy. There are no rules - at least, I haven't come across any yet!

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When it comes to drinks, we all know we don't need soda or energy drinks or even commercial fruit juice. Our bodies need water. Our bodies need vegetables and fruits. We need to have some fun. When we toss a few things into our blender, we're in control of what we're drinking which means we're healthier. It also means we can probably slip in a few more vegetables than we or our children might be taking in otherwise.

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One morning, my son called to me from the kitchen.
"Mom, do you want some iced tea?"
"You made iced tea? And it's cold already?"
"Yeah. I made it with cold water."

And he had. And it tasted - well, it tasted like cold tea. He'd put a couple of herbal cinnamon teabags into a pitcher and filled the pitcher with water then let it sit for awhile. Basically, it was flavoured water. But it was nicely flavoured and already cold without having to wait.  So I guess we really don't need to use power to heat up a kettle for to make iced tea (with the exception of sun-brewed tea) only to later put it into the fridge to cool, and we definitely don't need that syrupy, sugar-laden stuff of yore.

Soon it will be time to experiment with drinks that will satisfy and warm through the Autumn months. A friend of mine once served me a cup of warm beet juice with just a splash of vinegar. I'd never had beet juice before, but oddly enough it immediately brought back memories of walking to school through fragrant fallen leaves, and all felt right with the world.

Happy Experimenting!

Gardening, Volunteering, and Drinking

June 9, 2011

Small-Space Urban Gardening

My squash plants are up!

"How are you going to grow squash plants on a deck?" you might be thinking.

Well, the original plan was to start them from seed then transfer the seedlings into the community garden. But now I've decided I'm also going to experiment a bit. Two plants are going to be transplanted into two separate containers. The containers will be set on the floor of the deck and I'll be carefully training the vines to run along the deck floor. The containers will be fairly shallow, less than 6 inches in depth, but will be long and will only have one plant each. That will be Experiment #1.

The second experiment is to see how well dandelions grow in various containers. I'm going to dedicate two containers to the gentle green and see if we can have fresh produce all summer. Part B of Experiment #2 will be to see how long dandelions will grow inside once their main growing season is over.

What else...oh yes - the tomato plants I seeded into melon rinds. There are four seedlings that came up in one rind and zero in the other. While I'm obviously happy to see the four that have come up, the resulting data leaves much to be desired for scientific purposes ;-)   I also started two tomato plants by seed in separate corners of a rectangular container and put varying amounts of "pre-compost produce-waste" in an around the seeded sites. One plant came up. Unfortunately, in my carelessness one day, I accidentally pulled the teeny plant out when moving an orange rind.

Community

There are so many financially-free ways to be involved in one's community. Here are some of the ways we've been community-minded over the years:
-Many local festivals offer some free activities in addition to those with a price tag
-Attend different levels of sports games, from peewee to adult, for free afternoons/evenings of entertainment and community-connection
-Volunteer, Volunteer, Volunteer! Oh, and then Volunteer some more! I've been on various committees in our community. I've volunteered as a crisis counsellor and with our local arts center and with our local teen drop-in center.  My son and I have volunteered with programs for newcomers to our city, with programs for adults who live with disabilities, at our local library, in our local parade, and with seniors. We're presently working on organizing an afternoon in the park for local families of children with disabilities. Once in awhile, we've done some secret volunteering as well - secretly dropping off a bag of groceries for someone in need, organizing a Mother's Day basket for women at the local shelter, etc. In addition to all the community-building benefits, it's also good for my son to be involved in giving to his community to develop his sense of becoming a positively-participating member of his community and all the personal good that goes along with that. A meaningful life really is possible for all.

In Our Kitchen: Healthy Alternatives to Soda and Juice

We don't buy bottled water. I boil the water from our tap and generally just drink from that throughout the day/evening. On a cool evening or rainy day, however, I enjoy brewing up a bunch of homemade drinks to stock our fridge. Here are some favourites:

Mint
-Bruise/break mint leaves and toss into bottom of drink container
-Add boiled, cooled water
-Refrigerate

Parsley or Basil
-Boil a pot of water
-Add parsley (dried or fresh) or basil (fresh)
-Remove from heat and let steep
-Strain and cool
-Pour into container and refrigerate

Ginger (my favourite thus far!)
-Boil a pot of water
-While waiting for water to boil, use a metal spoon to scrape the skin from a piece of fresh ginger (how much you use depends on how much water and personal taste - enjoy experimenting!)
-Slice your ginger and add to the boiling water, then simmer til desired taste
-Strain if desired
-Add honey to taste
-Cool, pour into container and refrigerate

Honey (use the good stuff so you get all the health benefits!)
-Boil water. Add honey. Cool. Pour into container and refrigerate.


Enjoy!

Still Figuring Out The Details

"One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things." 
(Henry Miller)

The Environment; Our Environment

In our home, we use vinegar and baking soda for cleaning. There is no vehicle in our driveway except when friends stop by.

We try to stay as clear as possible from processed food products, though the items from the food bank fall mostly under that category and we appreciate the availability of all food bank items.

I'd like to eat primarily organic food but that's a bit tricky for low-income families. I'm looking forward to having a bit of a garden on our deck again this year ("Deck Gardening"), and though we don't have storage/freezer space, we're working on our plan for this year's community garden and are looking forward to having homegrown produce throughout the Summer.

I'm also thinking of picking up a few extra seed packets this season to see if I can grow some produce indoors next Winter. If you've done so, I'd love to hear from you!

In the meantime, we are aiming to focus mostly on "The Clean 15" for the next while and see how we do. I'll keep you posted on our progress!

That said, today's recipe is a GFCF snack using packaged rice crackers.

2-Ingredient, Snack-Size GFCF Pancakes

Ingredients:

24 Rice Crackers (I used Superstore's plain, "no name" crackers)
3 Eggs

That's it!
I used my "Magic Bullet" and first made the rice crackers into crumbs then blended in the eggs. I spooned the batter into a non-stick frying pan and cooked just til the batter seemed to start firming up, then flipped them over. Watch that they don't burn.
****This recipe only makes 8 very small pancakes, each about 2 inches in diameter. They were perfect with honey!

A few months back, I was craving french toast and didn't have any gfcf bread in the house, so I coarsely crunched up some rice crackers, mixed in some eggs, and poured the mixture into egg molds in my frying pan. They were pretty good, and I've turned to that often as a french toast alternative. 
One day when I was recovering from some sort of something or other, I wanted something more along the pancake line, and knew I needed something with protein that would be light on the stomach and wouldn't take long to make. These worked out to be a perfect solution. Obviously this doesn't work well for families having a big pancake breakfast, but that's not healthy anyway! These are great as a snack or as part of a meal.

Enjoy!

Almond Pudding, Living with Autism, Train the Brain, Thrift Shop Stained Glass, Red Squirrel

TODAY AT THE THRIFT SHOP
I'm not into consumerism. I believe in reusing, and find no shame (a bit of a thrill, actually!) in finding ways to reuse thrift shop items. For my son, our treks to the thrift shop provide him the opportunity to peruse an abundance of items and maybe even take some of them home with him - most frequently, movies for $1. and board games for $2.  It also allows me to address my son's ongoing clothing needs on bag sale days and replace the numerous items that often need replacing in our home. As an added bonus, we often see a few folks we know there on Saturdays which makes for a nice social outing.  Today's little gem is going to be cleaned up and hung on an old barn door I have on my deck. Yes, that's a $1.00 price tag at the top!

OUTSIDE OUR FRONT WINDOW
Last September, we noticed a small red squirrel in our front yard. This was the first I'd seen in this area and hadn't expected to see much of him/her. I've been pleasantly surprised to discover that he or she seems to appreciate the neighbourhood and seems quite at home in our evergreen trees. This little gift is providing us with much viewing enjoyment. Stayed tuned for apple stories.

INSIDE MY SON'S WORLD
Training the Brain
For children whose brains did not either fully develop in utero or developed differently than "the norm", daily functioning can be an ongoing challenge.  While visual and/or verbal prompts are helpful to many, my son has repeatedly rejected the idea through the years because he often doesn't remember to use the visual prompt and usually doesn't want to have to be reminded.  What's one left to do? Train the brain! My son either takes some quiet time to himself or shifts into brief physical exercise in order to help him focus and train his brain to think about what he needs/needed to do. In addition, there's repetion repetition repetition! Learning by rote is one of the strongest tools my son has been able to use.

TODAY'S BIT OF ART

"Living With Autism"

Acrylics on 20"x20" gallery-wrapped canvas

TODAY'S RECIPE:
Amazing Almond Pudding
This is one of our favourite foods! It's light, made without dairy and without processed sugar, and everything about it is adjustable to your personal tastes. The following makes four just-right servings, about 1/2 cup each.
Ingredients: 1 cup almonds, 2.5 cups water, honey or maple syrup to taste, vanilla (optional), cinnamon (or other spices) to taste, cornstarch
Mmmmmaking it!
1.Toss 1 cup almonds into your blender. Add 2.5 cups of water. Don't forget the lid! Blend on high for a couple of minutes until well-blended then strain the liquid into the top pot of a double-boiler. You can also use a regular pot on the stove, but you'll have to be very careful not to let it burn. (Keep the "almond mash" for future use - cereal topping, add honey to it and just enjoy, etc.)
2. Add melted honey or maple syrup to taste.
3. Sprinkle a bit of spice to taste. We use either cinnamon or a pumpkin pie spice blend.
4. Add about half a teaspoon of vanilla, or to taste. (Optional)
5. Heat the mixture to bubbling, constantly stirring/whisking while thickening with cornstarch blend (about 1.5 Tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 0.5 Tablespoon of water   -    repeat if you prefer a thicker consistency) or whatever you prefer to use as a thickener (tapioca starch doesn't work - we tried!)
6. Pour into ramekins or other small serving dishes. Can be eaten warm or cooled. To keep the pudding from forming a rubbery skin on top, place a small square of foil or parchment paper onto each dish so it is in contact with the entire surface of the pudding. When serving, I often sprinkle a bit of added cinnamon on top and/or a square of Fair Trade chocolate.

Enjoy!