Meatless Mondays

  Meatless Monday--It's a new trend out there, even has it's own website: http://www.meatlessmonday.com/ .  But actually, it's not a new trend, the history is described on the website as

• During World War I, the U.S. Food Administration urged families to reduce consumption of key staples to aid the war effort. “Food Will Win the War,” the government proclaimed, and “Meatless Monday” and “Wheatless Wednesday” were introduced to encourage Americans to do their part.
• The campaign returned during World War II and beyond, when Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman used rationing to help feed war-ravaged Europe.
• In 2003 Meatless Monday was recreated as public health awareness program in association with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future. The campaign was endorsed by over 20 schools of public health. Its goal was to help Americans reduce their risk of preventable disease by cutting back saturated fat.

I only recently found out about this a few months ago and we have been following it (most weeks!).  The website has LOTS of yummy recipes and ideas and most are very easy to make.

So, you are probably asking, "Why go meatless?" Well, first of all it's just 1 day a week, but skipping one meal of eating meat does have health benefits--reduce heart disease, fight diabetes, and help with weight issues, just to name a few.

But you know what else?  If you don't eat meat 1 day a week, think of how much money you are saving!  Next time you are shopping, compare the price of a bag of dried beans to the price of a steak, or even chicken breasts. 

So, what's our Meatless Monday Menu for today?  Lunch=veggie stir fry and Dinner=black eyed peas, turnip greens, and cornbread (my hubby picked this one!).  Yummy!

Have you ever tried going meatless?

Thomas Lap Book

Anyone that homeschools and has a younger sibling running around can relate to this.  I’m always looking for activities for J. to do while his big brother is doing homeschool. Normally, he plays well by himself with his trains or cars, but near the end he wanders in and wants to join in the fun where he can.

I recently saw a great idea on a homeschooling blog, http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/ .  It was for a lap book, which had theme based activities.  J. loves Thomas the train and so I decided to make him one.  He LOVES it. He will sit happily and play with it while we finish up with school, and he will play with it at other times too.

Then, of course, big brother became jealous and wanted a lap book too.  Right now he is absolutely obsessed with New York (after a group did this year’s VBS theme with the kids), and so that is what his book is. I’ll post more about it next time….

Surprising Blood Test Results

OK, so I’ve mentioned many times on this blog so far that we are trying to eat more healthy. I’m sure that if you have read any other blog posts then you will have read that statement. :) 

Well, there is a reason that started it all.  At the end of February I had a routine physical and during this exam I was told I had high cholesterol, namely high triglycerides.  Well, all the normal recommendations of quit smoking and drinking, lose weight, start exercising, and eat healthy didn’t really apply.  I didn’t fall into any of those categories. 

To be honest, I wasn’t very excited about taking a pill for the rest of my life.  I tried eating even healthier for a month and then redid the test. Numbers were still pretty high.  :( The doctor told me to start taking a pill and to see if that would work. Well, I ended up having very bad side effects (including a racing heart which really scared me!).  So, I stopped taking that pill and wondered what my other options were.  I really didn’t want to have to take another pill, if I didn’t have to. (I totally understand that there are times where you need to take medicine and I’m fine with that!)

I started looking into even healthier forms of eating and making complete changes in the way we view food.  We switched to brown rice, started cutting out almost all packaged and highly processed foods, completely cut out refined sugars (I only use honey as a natural sweetener now), and the most recent change has been to cut out refined flour and we switched to whole grain, whole wheat flour (I now grind our own flour).  

After consciously looking at all of our food and what the ingredients are, I’m surprised at how many changes we have made—when we already ate “healthy”.  In packaged and processed foods, when you look at the list of ingredients, you will be surprised (and even appalled) at all the stuff that is hidden in there!

Well, I wanted to do a test for myself and see if these changes were helping at all. I first started the changes with the hopes of being a healthier family and of lowering my cholesterol.

On Friday morning I went to the local clinic here. It was kinda painful b/c it didn’t open until 9:00am and I had to fast until then!  But I ended up getting a quick and cheap! (only $12!) blood test.  I got the results back that evening and I was S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E-D.

Only 3 months ago my total cholesterol was 198. It has sense dropped 20 points or 10%!

And the triglycerides—I must say that I am pleased!  3 months ago the number was 382 (a good number is less than 160).  Now the number was 198. It dropped 148 points or 48%. WOW!

Ok, so I know that I still have a ways to go, but come on! The changes are great!  I just have to keep it up now! :)

New Snacks

 A few weeks ago I saw a recipe for easy, cheesy crackers.  I'm always looking for new ideas for healthy and easy ideas for snacks for our boys, and so this afternoon I decided to try them.

I have to say, they were VERY easy to make. Only 3 ingredients--whole wheat flour, cheese and butter.

I had my 2 taste testers try them and they approved--they asked for more!  The only problem is that mozzarella cheese is the only kind we can easily find here. The crackers would have been more cheesy had I used cheddar. The boys said they didn't taste like cheese, but they were still good.

And on to the 2nd new snack--Banana Ice Cream (without a ice cream maker).  Once again, only 3 simple ingredients--frozen bananas, milk, and a little bit of honey. It was YUMMY! Once, again, healthy and actually VERY tasty!




As you can see in the last picture, my taste tester definitely approved! :)

I'm AMAZED!!

 I learned something new and exciting this morning!! Ok, so it probably isn't totally "new", but it is new to me!

First of all, how long have we lived over seas? Over 5 years.  And all of that time we have missed grits.  This is one thing that we often ask teams to bring down to us or we stock up on it when we are in the states.  Actually, our favorite kind of grits isn't the instant, it is the freshly ground kind from a mill in the North Georgia Mountains.  I have to admit though, we ran out of the good kind of grits a few months ago.  We've been eating the instant kind (that was brought down to us), but our supply of that is dangerously low.   We've never found grits anywhere in Peru. It's not one of those items that you can get if you actually want to pay the price for it; it's just not here.

 Well, that's what I thought!!

Then, this past Mother's Day the boys got me a hand grinder for grains.  I was excited, and it was something that I had actually wanted!

Then, I suddenly had this bright idea!! Hey, do you think we can make grits???? What are grits anyway?  I looked it up online and found "grits are coarsely ground white corn." 

Hmm...we can buy white corn here.  Now, I have a grinder.  Hey--let's try to MAKE OUR OWN GRITS!!

What a bright idea!! Here's the process. First, we bought the corn at the market this morning.  Then, we dumped some in the grinder. You can see that my littlest one had fun with this part!

Out came the ground up corn--or grits!!! John then sifted it to separate the fine powder (now I have white corn flour too) from the coarse parts.

We then cooked the grits just like we do the ones we buy from the mill-- clean them first; boil in water; add salt, pepper and butter; then add cheese (if desired).

Yummy G-R-I-T-S! I know what is for breakfast tomorrow.   Now, if only I would have realized this important discovery a few years earlier...

My New Toy!!

I'm SO excited!

 Recently, we started looking into eating more healthy.  In some ways, it's easier here in Peru because we can easily buy fresh fruits and veggies. 

However, some things are harder because we can't find specialty things here (well, not very easily, if at all).

One of the things not found very easily is whole grain, whole wheat bread.  I started looking into wheat grinders and was really starting to drool over them and the possibility of making my own wheat. But, how was I going to get one down here in Peru?  Then, John surprised me by contacting a volunteer team and they were willing to bring one to me!! (Thanks sweetie! And thanks to the team!!)

So, now I have my new toy!! And I'm EXCITED!!

It feels like such an accomplishment to go from this above (the whole wheat berries) to:

THIS--whole wheat pizza crust

and THIS--fresh bread!! SO YUMMY!