Home Grown Cantina

Welcome to the Festival of Food Carnival. This month, we celebrate Recipes from the Garden!  Hosted by Diary of a First Child and Hybrid Rasta Mama, you're welcome to join us next time, or if you have a previously published recipe you'd like to share, add it to the linky below.
***

What's not to love about a good cantina bowl? One of my favorite foods is Mexican-American and my favorite place to eat is Chipotle Mexican Grill. I know that Taco Bell has put out a pretty good imitation, and there have been many home recipes mimicking them both. I believe I have found the key to this specific flavor, however, and I have not only adapted the recipe to include more raw ingredients, I have dialed down the fat as well.

This is my healthy, more natural version of an already healthy and natural way of eating!

You may choose to add a seasoned beef or chicken, either tastes really nice. However, this recipe is meatless.

Notice my thick bed of lettuce in the above picture. This is one of those recipes where the fresher your ingredients, the better it will taste! Not all of my ingredients are grown at home, but most can be. Others can be found in your local farmers market. The few things that will need to be bought in the store can be bought raw and unprocessed. They are beans and brown rice, and of course some seasonings.

There are three layers to your cantina bowl (or burrito): Seasoned rice, black bean salsa and toppings.

Begin by cooking your beans. You will want to cook 1 cup of dry beans with however much water seems fitting. While it's true that you can buy canned beans, I prefer to cook from scratch. They do take extra time, but little work and canned beans contain some pretty ugly additives. I strongly suggest avoiding them. Simply cook the beans according to the package directions. They will take about an hour, two at the most. Cook them in the morning and allow them to cool. They will keep until you need them.

For the Rice

• 2 cups dried brown rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 2 tps. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1 tomato, seeded and pureed
• juice from 1/2 lime

Add all of the ingredients into a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, or until rice is tender. Allow to cool

For the Black Bean Salsa

• 3 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 ear of fresh sweet corn, kernels removed (1 cup of frozen)
• 3 heaping tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro
• juice from one whole lime
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. pepper

Chop all of the ingredients and toss into a large mixing bowl. Drain the black beans and rinse them. Gently fold them in. Allow the salsa to sit for a little while in the refrigerator. The longer it sits, the more the flavors will meld together.

Once the rice has cooked and cooled, and the salsa has had a chance to stew for a bit, put a cupful of rice in the bottom of a bowl and add some salsa. If you have meat prepared, you can add it as well. Finish with your toppings.

Toppings

• fresh lettuce
• skim mozzarella cheese
• Fresh chopped avocado

You may choose to add sour cream or a lime ranch dressing, but this is a very good start. Serve with corn chips or tortillas or eat it straight with a fork. I like to make a batch of rice and a batch of salsa and keep them in the refrigerator. Putting a bowl together for my lunch is then super easy and I can eat deliciously healthy all week long. In the summer months - with tomatoes, fresh lettuce, cilantro, onion and corn straight from my garden, wholesome home grown eating is simple but exciting!

Do you have a garden? Do you have a favorite recipe using whole fruits and vegetables?

***********

Please take a moment to visit the blogs of our other Festival of Food participants. The links in this list will be live by the end of the day, as participants are all in different time zones.

• Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares Grilled Fennel and Tomatoes with Basil! This recipe brings together some of the freshest, most vibrant flavors from her garden into a simple dish that even her wee-one adores!  You can also find Jennifer on Facebook.
• Luschka at Keeper of the Kitchen shares a simple, summery salad of kale and parmesan, one of the only crops Luschka's managed to keep away from the snugs and snails so far this year. You can also find Luschka on Facebook.
• Sam in a guest post at Hobo Mama shares a garlicky, sweet, salty, and tangy topping for salads, sandwiches, pasta, and burgers and pairs it with a delightful dish that will help you use up the tomatoes and spinach fresh from your garden or farmers' market! You can also follow Hobo Mama on Facebook.
• Lindy at Poppy Soap Company shares a recipe for Grilled Peaches with Balsamic Vinegar. This easy recipe pairs well with protein heavy meals as a decadent and easy side dish! You can also find Lindy on Facebook.
• Angela from Earth Mama's World scored some 'imperfect' veggies from a local farmer's market and turned them into a perfect rosemary roasted veggie dish! You can also follow Angela on Facebook.
• Amy at Anktangle details two different methods of preserving hearty summer greens (such as kale and chard) so you can enjoy the variety—and nutritional benefits!—year-round. You can also follow Amy on Facebook.
• Destany at They Are All of Me creates low fat, healthy mock ups of some of her favorite restaurant dishes, using whole foods and ingredients from her garden. You can also follow Destany on Facebook.

Stay connected! Be sure to "Like" the Festival of Food Carnival Facebook page.

Growing Native in My Flower Beds

Welcome to the April edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Going Green cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month, we write about going green and environmentally friendly living. Please check out the links to posts by our other participants at the end of this post.

***

I have always enjoyed growing a flower garden. My first flower bed was a six foot by two foot patch of dirt in front of a town home I was renting. That year we planted several flower seeds, but none of them took despite my best efforts of watering daily, fertilizing and weeding at least once a week.

That was eight or nine years ago. My green thumb is more practiced now and I can grow a whole lot of things. I have six flower beds in my yard now, as well as several large terracotta pots that I also grow flowers in.

I know that growing flowers isn't the most eco-friendly practice. I choose to forego fertilizer, though my flowers my look a bit wimpy. However, they still need water at least three times a week, and daily in the hottest months. With six large beds, it's a lot of water and it has bothered me for years that my marigolds and petunia's are so darn needy.

I learned about growing native when I first began gardening. Actually, I was looking for cheap/free seeds and I had wondered if I would be able to find plants out in the wild that would look nice in a flower bed. That is how I came across the term “Growing Native.”

But wildflowers in the city are hard to come by and I didn't have the time to drive all over the countryside looking for cone flowers and black-eyed susans. It was less expensive to spend 50 cents for a packet of allysum than order wild flower seeds from a nursery.

Then last spring, my city surprised me. They decided to grow native in all of their public landscaping! That's right, every city park has flower beds brimming with daisies, native asters, flowering milk weed, and some very interesting plants that I had never seen before.

Throughout the season I watched these flower beds mature with my home made seed packets at the ready. In this post from last fall, I describe the process of seed harvesting. When I knew that the seeds were ready, I went on a few excursions to get the native flowers that I wanted from some of my favorite parks. I was very careful to only clip a few dead flower heads and and be respectful to the plant the habitat.

I have waited all winter long to plant my precious little seeds and now that spring is here, I put them into the ground last week. Because I harvested my own, I was able to get a lot of seeds – especially purple cone flower. But I also planted daisies, poppies and a tall exotic looking (but native) grass. I missed harvesting the black-eyed susans, they were spent before I got to them.

While I do still have a few rose bushes and other non-native water plants in my water garden, I will slowly replace these with native species as they age and need replaced.

So what is the point of growing native? How is this a green thing to do, and how does it simplify my world?

Native plants require very little, if any, watering. They are completely used to living in the conditions which I planted them so no need to amend the soil. They are resistant to local pests and plant diseases. They don't need fertilizer to grow well. In other words, you can plant native flowers in their home environment and they will thrive with virtually no care whatsoever. That's easy on my time constraints as well as my budget and it also keeps my yard organic while looking top-notch.

Another plus of native growing is that the local wild life will benefit from what I have planted. These are the plants that best serve the butterflies, lady bugs and other local insects who can feast on the plants without damaging them. In many urban settings, the beneficial insect populations are dwindling, which impacts the larger animals who need the bugs to survive.

Growing native looks great, costs very little (if anything), requires practically no care, and boosts the health of the native ecosystem.

If you would like more information about growing native, visit:
grownative.org

If you live in Missouri and are looking for information (or seeds and seedlings) of native Missouri plants, visit:

www.missouriplants.com
www.missourinativeplantsociety.org
www.mowildflowers.net



Cone Flower Photo Credit: Sean McMenemy

***

***

  Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children , Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair . Read about how others are incorporating eco-friendly living solutions into their everyday lives. We hope you will join us next month, as the Simply Living Blog Carnival focuses on Daily Lives!

 

 

• Green Renovating: A Lot, A Little, Not So Much - Laura at Authentic Parenting ponders about the many things that have an impact on eco-friendly renovating
• Growing Native in My Flower Beds - Destany at They Are All of Me takes the guilt out of her flower habit by switching from high maintenance flowers to native plants which not only lessens her gardening load, but also benefits the local wild life.
• Baby Steps - Kellie at Our Mindful Life shares how her family became more sustainable, one step at a time.
• A Greener Holiday - Sara from Family Organic discusses the overwhelming amount of "stuff" that comes with every holiday and talks about how to simplify instead.
• Forcibly Green--Obligatory Organic - Survivor at Surviving Mexico talks about her family's evolution from passive to active green and sustainable living.
• Giving It Away - Juliet Kemp of Twisting Vines writes about the role of Freecycle, the giant karmic lending library, in her simple and green living.
• Simply Sustainable - Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children discusses her family's attempts to live in harmony with the earth by living simply and more sustainably.
• How Does Your Yarden Grow - Alisha at Cinnamon&Sassafras writes about an ongoing permaculture project, converting her grass lawn into a mower-free paradise.
• Green? - Is it about ticking the boxes? sustainablemum shares her thoughts on what being green means in her life.
• Using Cloth Products To Reduce Household Waste - Angela from Earth Mama's World shares how her family replaced many disposable household products with cloth to reduce their household waste.
• Going Green in Baby Steps - Joella of Fine and Fair shares some small, easy steps to gradually reduce your environmental impact.
• Are You Ready To Play Outside?! - Alex from AN Portraits writes about gardening, and playing in the dirt, and how it's O.K. to get dirty, play in the dirt, play with worms, for both adults and kids.
• Lavender and Tea Tree Oil Laundry Booster - At Natural Parents Network, Megan from The Boho Mama shares an all-natural way to freshen laundry.

So... Do You Want to Make Your Own Coconut Oil?

Welcome to the Festival of Food Carnival. In celebration of Spring, we're sharing real raw recipe ideas.  Hosted by Diary of a First Child and Hybrid Rasta Mama, you're welcome to join us next time, or if you have a previously published recipe you'd like to share, add it to the linky below.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a coconut. I love coconut meat, they taste similar to Brazil nuts, which are my favorites.

After a friend of mine shared an article on homemade coconut milk, I began playing around with my coconut. And then I bought another one, and another one. I started experimenting and researching.

I decided I wanted to make three things with coconuts: Coconut Milk, Coconut Flour, and Coconut oil. All of which can be very expensive and as my regular readers know, expensive ain't my thing!

One thing I discovered however, was that no website, blog article or Youtube video (that I was able to find) showed how to process coconuts in all three ways, simultaneously. So here you go! I will post the links to the pages and videos that I saw at the end of this article. I am not an expert on coconuts, but I am something of an expert on cheap!

Real quick, I'm going to bore you with some math.
Here, I bought five coconuts. They were 1.38$ each, and I picked up the largest ones out of the bin.
My yields from these 5 coconuts are thus:
1.5 cups of coconut oil
220 oz. of coconut milk
8 cups of coconut flour

All for less than 7$.
It's important here to note that had I chosen either the coconut milk OR the coconut oil, I would have gotten quite a lot more of each. But because I wanted both, the totals for each were less.

So let's get started!
Shopping for coconuts, you want to pick heavy ones. Shake them to see if they have plenty of liquid inside. Low liquid content likely means there is a hole or a crack and the coconut inside has been compromised.
Hold the coconut over a bowl and whack it hard with the back edge of a heavy knife. It splits in half magically! Sometimes the first blow does it, sometimes you need to hit it a few times.

I had all five coconuts split in just a couple of minutes.

You can save the liquid and strain it as it likely has bits of the hull floating around in it.

Some people add a bit of sugar to this and drink it up. I just processed it back into the coconut milk.

Another trick I read online. Put the coconut halves into a 350F oven for 15 minutes. This won't hurt them a bit!

When you take them out, you will find that they are a lot easier to remove from their shells, as heating them causes them to pull away a little from the outer hulls.

Turning the halves upside down on the counter and giving them another good whack with the back of a heavy knife will now cause them to pop out of their shells, most of the time. Otherwise, use a butter knife to pop it out.

I had a bowlful of large chunks of meat.

I chopped them up into pieces that my blender could handle.

Don't throw away the shells, they can be very useful!

Coconut shells make excellent mulch, they can be composted or burned. Because they are highly flammable, they are terrific fire starters for your summertime bar-b-q or weenie roast. You can also crunch them up and use them in your fish tank filter, water filter or other application instead of activated charcoal. Ground to dust, they are very absorbent and a great way to handle those pesky oil stains in your driveway. You can even use the dust as a facial exfoliant. So keep them!

Next step, into the blender.

Before adding liquid, use the crush setting and get the pieces as small as you can.

Obviously, this is not five coconuts. Only blend about a half a coconut at a time, unless your blender is a mean machine and can handle more.

I was using a cheap Sunbeam blender that I bought at a thrift store without a lid.

 Now add the liquid that you extracted from the coconuts. You will run out, so just use fresh water afterward.

Blend, blend, blend.

Because I was making flour with the solids, I took care to get my pieces as miniscule as possible. If I had a Blendtec, this would have been an easy thing. But my cheap little Sunbeam just went and went.

This is maybe one coconut. By the time I was finished blending, the bowl was filled to the brim. Looks like oatmeal and it smelled delicious!

It confuses me when people talk about keeping things on hand like cheesecloth.
Bandanas can be used for so many things! I always have plenty lying around.

Dampen the bandana and place it (or strainer, or cheesecloths over the mouth of a pitcher and scoop one or two cupfuls of the pulp into it.

Squeeze, and squeeze and wring and wring. You can be as forceful as you need to be with the bandana, you won't tear it, wear as cheesecloth would after a bit.

I was able to squeeze out enough super concentrated coconut milk to fill up six 24 oz. jars.

If you're only making coconut milk, good job, you all done! This is, as I said, very concentrated so you would want to dilute it quite a bit.

If you want to make the coconut oil and flour, read on.

After getting as much liquid out of the pulp as possible, dump the coconut grounds out onto a cookie sheet.

I had to use two of them.

Spread it out as evenly as you can, then place it in a 200F oven for a few hours to dry out.

Once the coconut flour has fully dried, run it back through the blender or a food processor to break it up further.

I placed my jars into the refrigerator and let them rest for several hours. The fat separated to the top.

If I was only making coconut oil, I would have wanted to put my milk into a bowl or some container that would allow me to scoop the cream out easily. But making the milk as well, I didn't want to remove all of the cream.

I ladled approximately
1/2 to 2/3's of the cream into a heavy bottomed pot.

I placed the pot on medium heat and went on with my day. There is nothing you need to do here, just check on it every so often.

After a while, you will see the oil begin to come to the top.

Continue to cook until you are unable to get any more oil out of the sludge. I would estimate that this took me about an hour.

You can see that I got about a cup and a half of pure virgin coconut oil. If I had taken all of the cream from the milk, I would easily have gotten over two cups.













I can't say that it was a blast to make all of this, as you can see it was a ton of work! Was it worth it? Oh yes! Especially the coconut milk. And as I said in the beginning of this post, all of these products are fair bit pricey, and making your own makes them affordable for just about anyone. In fact, going to a regular grocery store and purchasing cooking oil (corn, canola, vegetable) plus a sack of wheat flour, plus two gallons of cow milk would cost you at least double what I spent here for much, MUCH healthier products.

Stay tuned to this blog for recipes using coconut milk, coconut oil and coconut flour, as I can see this being something that I do on a regular basis!

Research Links:
Hybrid Rasta Mama; 333 Uses for Coconut Oil
WikiHow; 8 Ways to Open a Coconut
Homemade Desert Recipes; How to Open a Coconut
Wellness Mama; Homemade Coconut Milk
Whole New Mom; Easiest Coconut Milk Recipe - Improved!
Youtube: Raw Pleasure Australia; How to make coconut milk. (obnoxious music, but good video).
Ehow; How To Make Homemade Coconut Oil
Youtube: Christopher Silverton-Thong; Coconut Oil - Homemade
Trini Style; Homemade Coconut Oil

*********** Please take a moment to visit the blogs of our other Festival of Food participants. The links in this list will be live by the end of the day, as participants are all in different time zones.

• Gone are the days where dairy-free, gluten-free deserts mean a fruit platter! This "raw" cheesecake from Luschka at Diary of a First Child is a wonderful introduction to raw food, and is pretty simple to make too! You can also find Luschka on Facebook.
• Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares Tropical Twist Kale Chips, a recipe guaranteed to take your taste buds to the tropics! Kid love these tangy treats too!  You can also find Jennifer on Facebook.
• Sarah at Why Food Works discusses the importance of fat and enzymes - and offers up a recipe for a raw, 5-minute blender gazpacho that's perfect for warmer weather. You can also find Sarah on Facebook.
• Abbie at Farmer's Daughter shares tips for introducing Raw First Foods based on her experiences following baby-led weaning with her older son. You can also find Farmer's Daughter on Facebook.
• Destany at They Are All of Me shows to how she made coconut oil, coconut milk and coconut flour in her own kitchen, using whole coconuts. You can also fine They Are All of Me on Facebook.

Stay connected! Be sure to "Like" the Festival of Food Carnival Facebook page.

<a href="http://www.hybridrastamama.com/p/festival-of-food.html"><img src="http://i27.photobucket. com/albums/c173/Rastakitty/FestivalofFoodBadge_zps00831708.jpg" alt="Festival of Food Carnival" width="150" height="84" border="0" /></a>

Lowfat Smoothies To Promote Healthy Weightloss

Welcome to the Festival of Food Carnival. In celebration of the New Year and Healthy Starts, we're sharing recipe ideas for healthy, nourishing recipes or anything you would enjoy this time of year. Hosted by Diary of a First Child and Hybrid Rasta Mama, you're welcome to join us next time, or if you have a previously published recipe you'd like to share, add it to the linky below.

Whenever I decide that I would like to lose a bit of weight, or even just to get a handle on my eating, I will break out my blender and make myself smoothies to replace my lunch. I created this recipe 6 years ago, but I have modified it a few times since then as my idea of what is healthy changes. It's important to me that the smoothies taste good - I don't want to dread them. I also want to make sure they have plenty of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants while containing little fat.
Some may not feel that these are healthy when they consider their own personal standards and dietary goals, but this recipe can be tweaked and ingredients substituted with ones that are appropriate for different needs.


1/4 cup of cooked/cooled unseasoned, unsalted beans
1/2 cup vanilla flavored nonfat yogurt
1/2 cup fruit juice or skim milk
1tbs. honey
1 cup of frozen berries or fruit (strawberries, blackberries and blueberries are loaded with antioxidants)
1 fresh banana

Place the ingredients into the blender, beginning with the liquid and the beans. Add in the yogurt, fruit and berries. You may wish to add more liquid.
You will have approximately 2 cups or 16oz of smoothie from this, which is appropriate for a meal replacement.



That is a good base. You can also add pureed vegetables, vegetable juice, spinach, wheat germ or any other items that contain nutrients that you feel you need.

The beans not only contain added protein and fiber, they are complex carbs that will slow down the digestion of the slurry and help you feel full longer and help stabilize your blood sugar so that you will not "crash" as easily during the day. They also contain soluble and insoluble fiber to help aid digestion. Unflavored, you do not taste them.
The yogurt supplies calcium, but also probiotics which help with digestion and cleansing and this provides many health benefits throughout the body.
The fruit juice and frozen berries contain even more antioxidants and vitamins and minerals. The berries are full of fiber to help further with digestion. Eating berries is also thought by some to ease joint inflammation and lessen the effects of arthritis.
The banana has many vitamins and minerals as other fruits do, but they also contain larger amounts of potassium than any other natural and easily attainable food. Potassium helps the circulatory system deliver oxygen to the brain and your muscles (which is vital when you are exercising more), helps regulate your heartbeat, maintain blood pressure and proper balance of water - which again, is important when you are working out.

Because we are talking about health and I am touting the nutritional benefits of this recipe, I am including a breakdown of the nutritional information - as generated by the Recipe Calculator at SparkPeople.com. This recipe calculator is a fantastic tool for keeping track of nutrition and calorie content of your personal recipes.

 

What are your favorite ingredients to add to your smoothie?


Photo Credit: S. Schleicher *********** Please take a moment to visit the blogs of our other Festival of Food participants. The links in this list will be live by the end of the day, as participants are all in different time zones.

• Sarah at Why Food Works shares Guilt Free Ranch Dip. Food is more fun when dunked, and kids eat more veggies with dip - use this high-protein, low-fat, Ranch-flavored spread at picnics, parties, and meals! You can also find Sarah on Facebook.
• Christina at The Hippy Homemaker shares her tasty vegan Black Bean and Barley Salad With a Cilantro Lime Dressing, a low-fat meal that packs a real flavor punch! You can also find Christine on Facebook.
• Bianca at the Pierogie Mama shares a quick and simple recipe for roasting cauliflower. Garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese make anything taste amazing!You can also find Bianca on Facebook.  
• Have a blender? Then That Mama Gretchen says it's time to gather your veggies and plan a Mexican fiesta to debut this skinny version of taco soup. You can also find That Mama Gretchen on Facebook.
• Lindy at Poppy Soap Co. shared an incredibly easy Herb Rice recipe that makes a great pantry staple! You can also find Lindy on Facebook.
• Luschka at Diary of a First Child loves foraging for her food, and this Nettle Soup recipe is a great immune boost for the changing season. You can also fine Luschka on Facebook. 
• Mari at Honey on the Bum shares her love of beet kvass, a daily drink that holds particular importance in the winter.
• Destany and They Are All of Me shares her recipe for low-fat healthy smoothies that taste just like dessert.
• Lauren at Hobo Mama offers a nut-buttery, chocolatey treat that tastes indulgent while being grain- and sugar-free. You can also find Hobo Mama on Facebook.
• Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares a super easy, fix it and freeze it Curried Lentil Soup In A Jar! You can also find Jennifer on Facebook.

Stay connected! Be sure to "Like" the Festival of Food Carnival Facebook page.

<a href="http://www.hybridrastamama.com/p/festival-of-food.html"><img src="http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c173/Rastakitty/FestivalofFoodBadge_zps00831708.jpg" alt="Festival of Food Carnival" width="150" height="84" border="0" /></a>

Seven Recipes for Beans - Post Holiday Cleaning

Welcome to the January 2013 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Recovering from the Holidays This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have written about how their families get back to normal after the holidays are over. ***

To say that I overindulged in the holidays this year is like saying Richard Simmons has frizzy hair. I know I over did it, and that's not typical for me.

 

I try to eat fairly healthy. I love vegetables and have a strange fondness for beans that others don't really get. I haven't been eating well lately, and coming off of a really restrictive diet a few weeks ago caused me to lose sight of my healthy eating goals, in a really big way.  

I don't want to add up how many cookies, peanut butter balls, pieces of fudge, or coconut macaroons I have eaten in the last week. Nope, I'm not going to do that to myself. But I can tell you that I feel BAD, physically. My muscles feel weak and tired, my head feels foggy, my stomach is queasy and has that "sour" feeling that I get when I abuse it. I feel headachy and tired and I want to go to sleep throughout the day. My body is sick on the sugar and butter and trash I have fed it and I long to feel energized, fit and clean inside. I want... beans.

Beans - they are amazing! Honestly, when I would go running (too long ago) I had twice the energy to put those miles out on days when I had beans for early lunch. They provide the right amount of protein to keep muscles moving all day long with out wearing out; they're full of fiber and basically keep you running smooth and clean all throughout the day. One bowl of beans a day will do some amazing things  and you notice the changes pretty quickly.

• Beans contain plenty of protein for your muscles to do what they need to do throughout the day.
• Beans contain lots of fiber - both soluble and insoluble. Insoluble fiber cannot be broken down by your body, and can help cleanse toxins and other waste that tends to stay in your colon and putrefy. It also contains soluble fiber that can help break down some of that other stuff and process it more easily.
• Beans are positively loaded with antioxidants which can help combat toxins in your body. FYI, the darker the beans, the more antioxidants they tend to have.
• Beans help you feel full, and stay full longer. They are what is considered a low-glycemic food. The sugars found in beans break down more slowly and steadily, preventing blood sugar crashes that send you running for high processed carbs like bleached flour products and sugary stuff. Ergo, they help to reduce food cravings substantially, and help you lose weight.
• Beans and other plant based, nutrient rich foods help your body produce more leptin - a hormone generated by our bodies fat cells that controls our appetites and boosts metabolism, giving us even more energy and decreasing our food cravings.

Here are some more recourses for the health benefits of beans and their restorative properties:
Nine Reasons You Should Eat Beans
Beans and Their Healing Power
Beans - A Natural Fat Burner!
WebMD, Beans: Protein Rich Super Foods
10 Best Super Foods
WebMD, Antioxidant Superstars
Prevent Disease Dot Com

Also, check out Hillbilly Housewife's Bean Recipes! She has some terrific recipes. I love the black bean soup, especially.

Although beans are amazing healers and can restore our bodies from the inside out, a bowl of beans a day gets pretty tiring - especially when you're eating the same variety every day. So, here are seven of my favorite bean recipes. You can make a bunch in advance and freeze them individually for convenience, if you like.

 First, some tips and general information about beans:

• Always allow 4 hours to prepare the bean dishes. You may not need that long, but it's always better to have them finish early and keep warm, than to have to wait on them while you're hungry.
• Water amounts and cooking times in these recipes are approximate. Use enough water to keep the beans covered, and add more as you need it.
• Don't boil the beans outside of doing the rapid soak. The skins will burst if you do. It won't hurt them or affect their taste, but they look better and have a better texture if the skins are on.
• Always cook beans in a large enough pan.
• If you over salt the beans, you can drain them off in the middle of cooking and add additional water.
• The older your beans are, the longer they will take to cook. If you have been cooking your beans for hours and they never seem to soften, they may be quite old. It is said that salt and acid in the beans can toughen them, but I've never had issues with that myself.
• Always sort beans to remove bad ones and small rocks. You can go through ten bags of beans and never find a rock, but you don't want the one you find to be the one that breaks your tooth.
• You can use canned beans and adapt these recipes, but take care to note the sodium content of the canned beans - and stay away from beans that have preservatives - especially disodium EDTA.  Not only because it is a carcinogenic substance used in house hold cleaners and cosmetics, they make it out if several toxic chemicals, including formaldehyde. Yep, right there in your food.
• It is said that draining the water the beans have soaked in and cooking them in fresh water can reduce the amount of intestinal gas that results from eating them. I have also heard that adding a tablespoon of sugar can reduce it.
  The scientific fact is that beans produce excess gas because their molecules don't break down much in the stomach - and the job is left to the bacteria in the small intestine.  I've also heard that the more often you eat beans, the easier your stomach can break them down.
  If you are worried about producing excessive gas, take a beano tablet and also reduce the amount of onion/garlic and other odor producing foods you put into the beans.

*************************************************************************************

Ham and Beans with Banana Cornbread
Although this recipe is very basic, it's perfect for the day after holidays. The simplicity is pretty welcome after a big extravagant meal the day before.

Basic Ham and Beans
Ham (either bone from left over Christmas Ham, or a pound of ham cubes
1tbsp. oil
1 cup onion, diced small
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1lbs. dry pinto beans - sorted, rinsed and soaked
Salt and Pepper to taste
6 cups of water (approximately)


In a large stock pot, heat oil over medium high heat. Add your onion and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and cook until it browns at the edges (caramelized garlic is so sweet and nutty!). Add your ham. If using cubes, put a little sear on them. If using the bone from a left over ham, immediately add water, brown sugar and salt and pepper.

Bring the beans to a boil and turn the heat down to low. Cover with a lid and simmer for one to two hours, stirring occasionally and checking the water level.

Banana Cornbread
1 cup of milk
2 ripe bananas
1 egg
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 400F. and grease an 8"x8" pan (or line a muffin tin). Beat milk, egg and  bananas until the banana chunks are broken up. Add remaining ingredients. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.

*************************************************************************************

Apple Bacon Black-eyed Peas

1lbs. black eyed peas, rinsed, sorted and soaked
1/2 lbs. hickory smoked bacon, cut into half inch pieces
1 granny smith apple, cubed small (leave the peal on)
1/2 cup minced onion
3 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Enough water to keep beans covered

In a large pot, start cooking your bacon. Leave the fat in the pan and add in your onion, garlic and apple. Cook until it breaks down. Add in your beans, water, cinnamon and brown sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer on low with a lid on until the beans are tender - usually about one to two hours.

*************************************************************************************

Chicken and Navy Beans with Cheesy Vienna Style Bread


Chicken and Navy Beans
2 lbs. chicken meat, boned and skinned
1 lbs. navy beans - sorted, rinsed and soaked
1 tbs. oil
1 onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 carrots, pealed and diced
1 tbs. chili powder
1 tsp. paprika (smoked, if you have it)
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 can stewed tomatoes, broken up
1 can tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh Cilantro
Six to eight cups of water or chicken stock

In a large pot, heat your oil. Add in the onion and the carrot. Cook until soft. Add in garlic and lightly brown.  Add in your liquid, tomatoes and tomato sauce, chili powder, paprika, oregano, salt and pepper. Add the chicken and beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook on low for one to two hours until the beans are soft.

Add in the cilantro and cook for 10 more minutes.

Cheesy Vienna Style Bread
When I'm talking about Vienna Style Bread,  I mean THIS. However, I don't bake my own, I buy Roma Brand, which is a local bread company in my city.

Slice your bread (if you didn't buy pre-sliced) and butter it on one side. Heat a skillet over medium, and lay the buttered side down. Add a slice of provolone cheese and cook until the buttered side is browned.
Yah. It's hard. It's like, half a grilled cheese sandwich.

************************************************************************************

Beef Chili


2 lbs. ground (extra lean) beef
1 lbs. red kidney beans - sorted, rinsed and soaked
2 cans stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup of onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbs. chili powder
1 tsp. oregano
1 tbs. cocoa powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
6 cups of water (or so)

In a pot, brown the beef. Add in the onion and garlic, cook until soft. Drain the fat.
Add in the cans of stewed tomatoes and break up with a spatula. Add chili powder, oregano, salt, pepper and cocoa powder. Let cook for 10 minutes, so that the flavors are well infused.

Add in the beans, and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low and simmer with a cover for one to two hours. Check the beans regularly to add in more water as needed.

 

I like my chili topped with sour cream and cheddar, lettuce and tomato and served with corn chips.

*************************************************************************************

Red Beans and Rice

This is not a very healthy meal, when you put in the beef smoked sausage, but I love it. I try to cut down on the sausage in my portion. You can also substitute turkey sausage, or omit it altogether, if you wish.

2 lbs. Beef Smoked Sausage, sliced
1 lbs. red beans, sorted, rinsed and soaked
1 tsp vegetable oil

1 onion chopped

5 cloves of garlic, minced

2 carrots, diced small

1 bell pepper, diced small

2 cups fat free beef stock

4 cups water

2 cups uncooked brown rice

3 tbs. Cajun Seasoning

 

In a large pan, sauté your beef sausage. Without draining the fat (you may need to add more oil), add in your vegetables (add the garlic last, when the rest are half way finished cooking). Add the beef stock and water, the Cajun seasoning and the beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer for one to two hours until the beans are tender.

Cook the rice according to instructions. Serve the beans and beef mixture over the rice, or stir the rice in.

*************************************************************************************

Refried Beans

Refried beans are wonderful to cook yourself. I always have a bag of pinto beans in my cupboard for making refried beans. Whether you wrap them in tortillas, eat them with corn chips, or form them into patties for making burgers, you can make a bunch ahead of time and freeze it. You'll also find it hard going back to store bought ones!


1 lbs. pinto beans - sorted, rinsed and soaked
1 tbs. oil
1 cup of onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tps. pepper

In a large pot, heat your oil and sauté the onion and garlic until tender. Add your soaked beans and water. Heat to a boil, then reduce heat. Cook on low, simmering for one to two hours until the beans are soft. Drain the beans fully. Any liquid left in the beans will make them runny when you mash them.
You may mash the beans with a potato masher, or run them through a blender. The beans will be light in color when you mash them up. They certainly won't look much like canned beans. Add your seasonings in, adjusting to your preference. Place them back into the pot and cook over medium heat until heated through and they darken.

Homemade tortillas are simple to make and go wonderfully with your refried beans!

*************************************************************************************

Black Bean Salad

This salad is great to put on a regular garden salad, or add some chicken to it and have it on tacos. Add some quinoa for texture, or eat it with couscous

1 tbsp. oil
1 cup onion minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lbs. black beans - sorted, rinsed and soaked
6 cups of water

1 cup of ham, finely minced
1 cup of red bell pepper, chopped small
1 cup of corn (frozen, thawed)
2 tbs. fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tbs. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/3 cup of green pimento stuff olives, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup of rice vinegar
1/3 cup of oil
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat the oil and sauté the onion and garlic until the garlic begins to caramelize. Add the beans and water, cook for one to two hours until the beans are soft. Let the beans cool at least to room temperature, place them in a large bowl.
Add in the ham, corn, bell pepper, parsley, cilantro, and olives.
In a small mixing bowl, combine the vinegar and oil, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the bean salad and mix gently so you don't mash the beans.



***
Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting this March!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

• Pinterest Inspiration for Easier Winter Holidays Shannon, writing at Natural Parents Network, shares inspiration for having more relaxed winter holidays from their Handmade Holidays Pinterest board.
• Seven Recipes for Beans - Post Holiday Cleaning — Destany at They Are All of Me shares her favorite bean recipes that she hopes will help her body recover from overindulging her sweet tooth during the holidays.
• The Recovery in the Change — Laura at Pug in the Kitchen made changes in her life and attitude throughout 2012 and was pleasantly surprised at how those changes impacted her holiday recovery!
• Could this question change your life for ever? — To get your new year off on the right footing, Mrs Green of Little Green Blog is challenging us all to love ourselves with commitment and discipline. She asks you to focus on a simple question which might just bring you back in balance...
• Holiday Recovery — Meegs at A New Day talks about how the holidays can be overwhelming for a toddler, and how she's helping her 3 year old recover.
• 5 Ways to Detox After the Holidays — Brittany at The Pistachio Project gives a few ways to help you detox and get back on track after the holiday season has passed.
• 3 Simple Ways to Establishing Rhythm After the Holidays or Any Time — Sheila at A Living Family shares 3 simple ways to reestablish a rhythm of connection and calm in your family after holidays, visitors, travel or any time.
• Gemstones For Holiday Hangoverss — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama delves into the power of gemstones as an often overlooked means of dealing with the holiday letdown.
• Getting back to Healthy — Bess at A Warrior Mom talks about the struggle of getting young ones back to eating healthy after several days to weeks of getting more candy and sweets than normal for the holidays and gives some suggestions on how to get them back to eating healthy in the new year.
• Post Christmas Juice Feast — Sam at Love Parenting explains why she has created a new tradition of juice feasting, and how she includes her toddler when detoxing.
• The Java Monkey On My Back — Christy at Eco Journey in the Burbs realizes it is time to kick her cup of Joe habit as a first step toward detoxing.
• Minimalist Holidays — Jorje of Momma Jorje doesn't find much need for recovery after her minimalist version of the holidays.
• Do something for you — Lauren at Hobo Mama urges you to find a silly and indulgent reward of me-time — and she has hers.
• do we recover? — Kenna at Million Tiny Things wonders what recovery really means in the context of the tragedies of this past holiday season.
• 37 Easy Ways to Save Money — Shannon at GrowingSlower is sharing these money-saving tips to help get your budget back on track after the holidays.
• A Two Year Old's Resolutions — That Mama Gretchen is putting the holidays behind her with a spin on traditional resolutions — New Year's goals for her two-year-old! Sound crazy? Read on for an explanation!
• How to Find Balance after the Holidays — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now tells her favorite ways to start a new year with hope and calmness.
• Fresh Awakening — For Luschka at Diary of a First Child, the new year has coincided with a return to restful nights. With sleep, she's found new directions in life, but while she can't make too many changes to her life right now, she's inspired and excited about the future.
• Learning to slow down after a busy Festive Season — Stoneageparent describes the joys and lows of this year's festive season, as well as her New Year's resolutions.
• Detoxing' Your Toddler After the Holidays — Does your family suffer side effects from the holidays? Join Christine from African Babies Don't Cry to learn how she detoxed herself and her toddler off the treats and festivities of the season.
• Scheduling is OK! — Jaye Anne at Wide Awake, Half Asleep explores the possibilities of the — SCHEDULE!!
• We're Saving their First Christmas for Next Time — Mercedes at Project Procrastinot takes it easy after moving with her husband and new babies to Scotland.
• A Vacation from the World — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children retreats with her family at the end of every year in order to recuperate and enjoy one another.
• On the Road to Recovery — Dionna at Code Name: Mama isn't just recovering from the holidays, she's recovering from a lifestyle.
• We Never Left the Grind — Erika Gebhardt compares a typical day pre-holidays and post-holidays.
• Remembering and Recovering from the Holidays (One day at a time) — Emily at S.A.H.M i AM is recovering from holidays slowly--taking one day at a time--while trying to remember all the sweet moments that passed too quickly.
• 5 a Day — To get back on track Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy needed a simple system to help her family learn new values.
• Holiday Detox & Healing: Bieler Broth — Megan at The Boho Mama shares her secret for a gentle, whole-foods-based post-holiday detox: Bieler Broth!
• I'm Mama Not Supermom — After a year filled with changes Angela at EarthMamas World has to remind herself that she does not have to be supermom while recovering from the holiday chaos.

Hand Made Baby Books

Welcome to the December 2012 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Childhood Memories
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have talked about memories of growing up — their own or the ones they’re helping their children create. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
***

My very first memory is one I can still easily recall. I was sitting on the green shag carpet of my families living room, when the front door swung open and my father walked inside. He scooped me up and kissed my cheek and put a piece of paper in my hand.

It was a cartoon image of a blond headed little girl in a blue dress, with little white shoes. He showed me how to move the paper feet, and it looked like the girl was  walking. I was simply amazed, and I loved it!

What I remember most poignantly about that first memory was not the cardboard child - it was the feeling of peace and safety that washed over me when I saw my father, and how relieved I felt when he picked me up. I have always had a special relationship with my father, as things between my mother and I were strained, pretty much from day one.

In my next memory, I was in what I knew to be my own room, in front of a toy box full of broken barbie dolls, a See-and-Say, blocks, and general wreckage created by a toddler and a preschooler. I was holding my little paper girl, and I was crying loudly because I had ripped her feet off. My mother rushed in and yelled at me, she took the girl away and I never saw her again.

My parents split up when I was five and my mother moved us to another state. I was completely crushed. After all, I was a daddy's girl from very early on and I'm pretty sure I hated my mother from the moment she told me that I would never see him again.

Years later, when I was ten, we were unpacking from a move. My mother pulled out a box with some old looking albums and told my sisters and I that they were our baby books. I eagerly opened mine up and beamed over all of the stickers and the newspaper cutting that announced my birth, the list of presents from my first birthday. Seeing the details my mother felt important enough to write down about me, offered me a rare momentary affection towards her. When I flicked the page, I was shocked and stunned to see the blond headed paper girl I had recalled from my very first memory.

At first I disbelieved what I was reading on the card. It was, after all,  a birthday card from my very first birthday. I didn't think that people could remember that early but I most certainly did. My mother, of course, thought I was telling stories. When I opened the card, the mystery of the moving feet was finally revealed to me. There were four feet, on a wheel that turned as you moved them. I ignored my mothers admonitions about children not being able to recall memories from that long ago, and went on looking through the book.

***

When I was pregnant with my first child, it never occurred to me that he would not have a baby book. I assumed this was something all children had, and was skeptical of my husbands claims that he never did. He also didn't see the point of them, and when we saw how expensive they were, it was clear that it would not be going on the "Need For Baby" list. I was heartbroken that we couldn't afford one. But I had learned from a very young age that if you want something bad enough and you cannot buy one, you can nearly always make one with items that you have on hand.

The following are the baby books I have made for my children, over the years. It was only necessary to improvise for the first, but it ended up being such a special treasure that it really never occurred to us after that to NOT make them. 

This first baby book that I made was put together with whatever I could find around the house. The pages are from an old sketch pad, and the illustrations were colored with watered down acrylic paints and a fountain tip pen.

The outside of the book was made with cardboard  padded with paper towels, and "dressed" with fabric and trim from my wedding dress.

This baby book was for my second child. We bought the paper and the fabric that we felt suitable, and I chose characters from the books of Peter Rabbit because they were among my husbands favorite.

The illustrations were painted with oil 

pastel and turpentine.

When I pictured my third son while he was in the womb, I kept imaging a devious, mischief loving little boy. When I designed the illustrations, it was with that personality in mind. Believe me, I hit the nail on the head there!

When we discovered that we were going to have a little girl, we went a little crazy with the pink and the lace and the frills. I'm relieved that she is every bit as "girly" as her baby book implies, or I'm sure she would hate it!

By the time I had made this book, my skills as an artist had grown exponentially and as I had mastered figure drawing, most of the illustrations are of children. We also chose an extremely old fashioned font for the titles. Again, I feel this matches her.

I have taken great joy and pride making these baby books for my children. Even though I was the one writing and illustrating and constructing the books, my husband also enjoyed choosing the papers and the fabrics and helping with the layout of the cover. We are truly hoping one day to add a fifth to the collection and when that time comes, I will certainly post the step-by-step. For now, I've done a small book to show the basics.

***

How to make a book

This is a basic handmade book tutorial. It's not perfect, these are made by hand with materials you typically find around the house. There are likely wobbles and bubbles in them. This is normal and most imperfections will usually sort themselves out over time. As your book ages, it will "relax," so to speak.

Materials:

Pages of the book:

Intro page

Name/Weight/Length

Foot Prints

Family Information

Family Tree

Babies First Bath

First Outing

First Year Photo Montage

First Laugh

Miscellaneous Writing Page

Baby Rolls Over

Baby Sits Up

First Holidays

First Holidays

Favorites

Baby Stands Up

Babies First Steps

First Birthday

First Words

Pages for cards, hair, tooth and other memorabilia

Announcement and Cards

Teeth Chart

One Year Old Portrait

Two Year Old Portrait

Second Birthday

Favorites

Pets

Third Birthday

Best Friends

Vacations

Three Years Old

Photo Pages

Two to four blank pages

3 Three inch wide strips, the height of your pages

2 pieces of cardboard, the thicker the better

Glue - The thicker your fabric, the stronger you want your glue. Elmers glue works well if using a standard weight of fabric. If using a heavy fleece, you'll want a tacky glue and probably want to get some squeeze clamps to hold it while it dries.

Fabric

Sqeeze Clamps - if your paper and fabric is thick.

Batting - optional

Old Paint Brush

Measuring Tape

Scissors

Step 1:

Make the pages of your book first, because you won't be able to replace one later if you bungle it. The pages are permanently in place, so double and triple check that you have them in the right order and just as you want them.

Fan the pages out, making sure there is about a quarter inch showing on each one. Spread some glue out over them and using the old paint brush, coat them all well.




Step 2:

Slide the pages back together and use the table top to make sure they are even along the front and sides. It doesn't really matter if the back end isn't totally even.










Step 3:

Paint the outside of your spine, and wrap a 3 inch wide strip around it.

You can clamp this, if you like. If your paper is thick, you may well find it necessary.









Step 4:

Press your fabric flat, iron it if needed. Lay two pieces of batting (you may also use paper towels) on each side, and place your cardboard on top. Depending on the thickness of your books pages, you'll want about an inch - give or take, of a gap in between them.
Trim off until you have an inch and a half of fabric all the way around.
Fold the four corners in first and paint heavily with the glue. Don't be stingy, and don't worry about the cardboard warping. That will happen regardless, and it will sort itself out in time.



Step 5:

Fold up the four sides, and again, paint them heavily with glue. You really want to saturate the fibers.









Step 6:

After painting glue along the entire surface of each side of your book, lay down one of the blank pages on each side, taking care to line them up.

If you find that there is excessive wrinkling, you may choose to paint a very light coat of glue only around the edges and lay new clean pages over this. There will again be some wrinkling, but a lot of it will diminish as the book ages.
When making my baby books, I always chose to do the extra pages. Because I made this book for my own personal use as a jotting book, I only used one sheet of paper on the inside of the cover.


Step 7:

Lay your finished and bound pages on one side. Keep everything flat and loose. It's fine to have a gap between the cover and the pages. If you move the cardboard over to the spine of your bound pages and then glue the strip over it, your book will pull apart after it has dried.
Simply lay the bound pages in place and glue the three inch strip onto both the bound pages and the inside cover. Close the book, flip it over, and repeat on the other side.



Step 8:

Close your finished book and lay a heavy book on top of it. You want to let it sit underneath a heavy item for a couple of weeks until it has had time to fully dry.

If you open your book and find that a page or two was not glued well enough it's easy to take your plain white glue and run a very fine bead of glue down the crevice. Repeat on any pages that were missed, close the book back up, and stash it for a few more days.

***
Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be updated by afternoon December 11 with all the carnival links.)

• Childhood Memories of Peace, Support, Joy, and Love — Amber at Heart Wanderings wants to make sure the majority of the memories that her children have as a part of their family are ones that are positive and help support the amazing people that they are now and will become as adults.
• Hand Made Baby Books — Destany at They Are All of Me talks about why baby books are important to her for preserving memories of her childrens first years, and shows how she made one by hand for each child.
• Can your childhood memories help you keep your cool? — Here's To A Boring Year uses memories of being a child to keep her on the path to peaceful parenting.
• Inter-Generational Memories {Carnival of Natural Parenting} — Meegs at A New Day talks about her own childhood memories, and what she hopes her daughter will remember in the future.
• Snapshots — ANonyMous at Radical Ramblings reflects on the ways our childhood memories appear to us, and hopes her own daughter's childhood will be one she remembers as being happy and fulfilled.
• What makes the perfect parent? — In a guest post on Natural Parents Network, Mrs Green from Little Green Blog reflects on camp follow and camp no-follow...
• In My Own Handwriting — Laura from Pug in the Kitchen talks about her journals and the hope that they will be able to keep her stories alive even if she isn't able to.
• Candlelight, fairylight, firelight — Lucy at Dreaming Aloud re-discovers the ingredients for bringing magic to life, especially at Christmas.
• Making Memories (or) How We Celebrate Christmas — Rosemary at Rosmarinus Officinalis talks about creating new memories at Christmas, and the joy their adventures bring to her whole family.
• The Importance of Recording Feelings and Emotions and Not Just the Experience — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares why she puts pen to paper every day to record more than just her experiences as a mother and her daughter's experiences as a child. Jennifer looks at the importance of capturing feelings and emotions that accompany the experience.
• Dredged up — Kenna at Million Tiny Things has been forced to recount childhood memories at bedtime, due to the failure of her middle-aged imagination. She resists, of course.
• Crafting Memories — Handmade is what makes the holidays special for Christy at Eco Journey In the Burbs, and she wants to create the same connection with her daughters that she remembers with mother and grandmother.
• My Childhood Memories; beacons of light in the darkness — Stone Age Parent shares the impact of her childhood memories on her life as a parent today, listing some of her many rich childhood memories and how they now act as beacons of light helping her in the complex, often confusing world of child-rearing.
• 10 Ways I Preserve Memories for My Children — From video interviews to time capsules, Dionna at Code Name: Mama wants to make sure her children have many different ways to cherish their childhood memories. Dionna's carnival post features ten of the ways she preserves memories; check out her Pinterest board for more ideas.
• Memories of my mother — Luschka at Diary of a First Child remembers her mother and the fondest moments of her childhood, especially poignant as she sits by her mother's sickbed writing.
• Creating Happy Childhood Memories through Family Traditions — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now tells why family traditions are so important to her and her family and shares how she’s worked to create traditions for her children.
• Traditional Christmas Tree — Jaye Anne at Wide Awake, Half Asleep remembers the great times spent with her family driving for the Christmas Tree and the lessons learned.
• Wet Socks and Presents — Kat at MomeeeZen writes about her favorite Christmas childhood memory and why it's so special. And she hopes one day her kids will also have a feel-good memory of their own to look back on.
• Stuff does not equal memories — Lauren at Hobo Mama learns that letting go does not mean failing to remember.
• A Child's Loss- Will They Remember Dad? — Erica at ChildOrganics writes about their family's loss of their husband and father. She trys to find answers to the question: Will they remember their Dad?
• Childhood Memories - Hers and Mine — Jorje of Momma Jorje wished for her daughter the same passions and experiences she loved as a child, but learns the hard way to accept whatever passions strike in her child.
• Holiday Non-Traditions — Erika Gebhardt enjoys her family's tradition of not having traditions for the holidays.