Make ahead black bean salad

My new creation... (tomorrows dinner)

I've been scouring through my cookbook to find simple recipes. Recipes that I have all the ingredients for already. I came accross a buch!!! (I have a pretty well stocked spice cabinet)
Well, I found this recipe called Southwestern Tabbouleh Salad. The recipe sounded pretty good, but I think it needed some improvements.

So.... Instead of using Bulgar Wheat (something I actually didn't have), I used whole wheat brown rice. What I love about this recipe is that I can make it the day before and forget about it. YAY for make ahead dinners! Now, I did taste this and it tastes wonderful! All this needs tomorrow is some salsa.

This is my verson. I'll call it simply:
Southwestern Black Bean Salad.
1 cup whole wheat brown rice (cooked)
2 roma tomatoes
1 can Organic black beans, drained and rinsed
A few tablespoons of fresh minced cilantro
grated lime rind
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground crushed red peppers
1 can Organic corn, drained
Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate for 8 hours. OR cook till warm and serve.

I think I'm going to serve this with some homemade Mango Salsa

Lesson learned: Buy some bulgar wheat, and try something new. I've never had bulgar wheat before.

Gotta love it.

God made such colorful foods!

Methyl Mercury Filled Fish

The following was a paper I wrote for English. Although I should have made improvements on this paper before posting I won't because this is really just FYI. I chose to write this paper because some students in my class said that the mother was overprotective because she did not want her daughter eating tuna. Oh how ill informed this generation is. My generation. We should be asking more questions. We should be protecting our environment. Instead we sit on facebook and such seeing what everyone else is doing. I want to make a difference. I want to know where my food comes from, if it has poison in it, or if I am told to limit certain foods I love. I don't want to be in the dark. I will search for answers...

Methyl Mercury Filled Fish

      Are Fish safe to eat? Did you know that omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in tuna fish, are known to ease the pain of arthritis and is essential in the growth and development of young children? Tuna is widely known and loved. In, “Tune of The Tuna Fish” Sandra Steingraber tells about how her daughter came to love tuna. She is concerned with her new favorite food and is torn on what to tell her about why she cannot have it every day. Her daughter finds her editorial on the effects of methyl mercury on the human being. Upon finding her paper she is worried and scared about whether or not she will get poisoned from eating this toxin filled fish. Sandra shows her young daughter the factory that is burning the highly toxic coal whose pollutants get transferred to the lakes, rivers, and oceans. She then explains why they choose green energy that does not harm the environment to show her daughter how we can make a difference. Our environment is becoming so polluted that we cannot eat fish out of the ocean more than once a week. Nowadays we cannot even drink tap water without worrying its too harmful to our bodies. If we value life at all we must change our habits and switch to renewable sources of energy. We need to start now to save what’s left of our dying planet. 

    Steingraber is concerned for her daughters health. Upon eating a tuna sandwich at a party her daughter discovers this fish tastes amazing. Steingraber knows that tuna in not the safest fish for a child to eat due to the effects of methyl mercury. “Methyl mercury has been shown to paralyze migrating fetal brain cells and halt their cell division. As a result, the architecture of the brain is altered in ways ways that can lead to learning disabilities, delayed mental development, and shortened attention spans in later childhood.” (p. 664) Upon revisiting the subject, Steingraber sees these harmful effects of tuna are too great a risk to allow her innocent child to consume tuna again. The tuna her daughter loves is simply too toxic. It is not right that we should have to limit tuna to only one serving per month, when it should be a wonderful, brain enriching food for our children. The first time my children tried tuna they loved it. They, of course, wanted to eat a lot of it, being in that it was a newly discovered food to them. I did not know how harmful tuna still was, but upon reading “Tune of the Tuna Fish” I got on the ball about tuna’s content and potential harmful effects on my precious children. Being a concerned mother of two, I would not feed my children tuna more than the recommended limit of one serving per month if even that. I would rather choose an alternate form of seafood till the mercury level is drastically reduced in their loved tuna.

    Furthermore, the cause of this tuna toxicity is mainly due to source of energy consumption currently used, burning coal. For example, In LaPorte, where I grew up, 225 is lined with power plants all burning this toxic coal. Thinking back to my childhood and remembering all the “shelter in place” warnings we were so accustomed to I realize this is not where I want my children growing up. Steingraber mentions that the coal burning factory is the most viewable source of pollutants for her young daughter. Steingraber says, “On the far bank floated the vaporous emissions form New York State Electric and Gas Corporation’s Cayuga Plant, whose coal-burning stacks were plainly visible against an otherwise cloudless sky. it’s one of the state’s biggest emitters of mercury. In the year my daughter was born, the Cayuga tacitly release 323 pounds of mercury into the environment” (p. 666). With all the emissions from this one plant come deadly toxins in our air we breath and in the fish we eat. She is heart broken that this plant is just careless in the amount of toxins being released into the environment. She is hurt that her daughter cannot enjoy a food she loves because of others’ carelessness about the environment. These chemical plants in the Houston area are the root of this mercury problem. It begins with them and ends with us. 

    How can we change our habits in order to save our hurting ecosystem? Changing our way of life will be difficult to say the least. Once habits are formed they do not break easily. By choosing renewable energy we can make baby steps toward healing our area and our fish. Many people would say simply switching their energy would not make a significant difference, but they are wrong.We must all do our part to heal these toxic waters. Steingraber says, “I said that I was was working hard to stop the mercury contamination of seafood so that she could someday enjoy tuna without needing to worry. I said that keeping mercury out of tuna required generating electricity in some way other than burning coal, which is why her father and I support solar energy and wind power” (p. 665). Green energy is a simply way to stop pollution. Green energy takes almost no effort on our part to clean up the waters and begin the healing process of our tuna fish. There is no reason as to why we shouldn’t change to green energy. Green energy is good for the environment, therefore its good for the fish, in turn being good for us. Another was to help the environment would be to buy organic foods from local farmers. By purchasing organic you are keeping pesticides not only out of your body buy out of rivers and streams that run off would harm. Steingraber mentions her choice of organics over pesticide rich food saying, “I life to give my food dollars to farmers who sustain the soil, are kind to their animals, and don't use chemicals that poison birds, fish and toads” (p.664). By purchasing organics we help farmers do whats right by their land and animals. Organic food is more than just good for you, its good for the environment as well. I would love to see the day when we could freely eat tuna and not worry about methyl mercury contamination.

    We should all be concerned with out waters pollution, our environment and what we put into our bodies. We know tuna is toxic, when it should not be. We know that burning coal is causing its toxicity. Yet we regretfully do nothing. We need to change our decrepit ways and start setting good examples for generations to come. Switching to green energy is an easy and effective way to help dramatically reduce the toxins in our area. Would you want to knowingly eat, or even feed your child, poisonous tuna knowing the harm it causes others? How do you make a difference?

Works Cited

Linda H. Peterson, and John C. Brereton. Tune Of The Tuna Fish, Ed. Sandra Steingraber.
      NewYork: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008. Print


God is the answer!

To know the truth...

I could not access my Research paper on Organic and GMO free food from my laptop. I'll have to go use the school computers tomorrow to pull it up. I really hope these pages help inform people about the FACTS about Pesticide use, GMO's and Organics.
This was just a short "bibliography" I was supposed to do before writing my paper. It'w exactly what I had to submit to my professor. Short and sweet, but it was a brainstorming assignment.

"Pesticides." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 18 July 2005. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. http://0-www.2facts.com.libcat.sanjac.edu/article/i0501350.

This source talks about the uses of pesticide, as well as the harm that comes from its use. Currently, in America, the use of pesticides is 40% beyond that of over 50 years ago. Pesticides are used maily in farming, but can also be found in the use of keeping grass greener on golf courses and at home. Pesticides are found in the foods we eat which can lead to cancer, birth defects and more. This source will be the main source of my paper because it tells about the harms of pesticides. It is a credible source.

     "Update: Genetically Modified Food." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 31 Dec. 2008. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. http://0-www.2facts.com.libcat.sanjac.edu/article/i1000400.

This article tells about Genetically Modified Food, otherwise known as GMO's. Most foods contain these GMO's. Many countries must label if the food has GMO's in it, but in America it has yet to be passed as a law. GMO food has been altered at a genetic level. Most people don't even know that about 70% of the processed food they eat contains these GMO's. This site was very informative, it gave tons of information on GMO's which will be another main point for my paper. GMO's are not only found in processed foods but fruit and veggies as well.

     "National High School Debate Topic: Alternative Energy Incentives." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 27 June 2008. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. http://0-www.2facts.com.libcat.sanjac.edu/article/i1300340.

This article talks about fossil fuel and renewable energy. The incentives of renewable energy have yet to become a trend due to its high expense. About 85% of energy used in America comes from fossil fuel. The article tells about the different sounces of renewable energy we use and used to use, such as wood, wind and water. This article was very interesting. It will help finish off my paper with ways to help the environment that are simple on our part.


     "Local Food Movement." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 7 Sept. 2007. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. http://0-www.2facts.com.libcat.sanjac.edu/article/i1200480.

This article was very interesting in that it told about why purchasing food grow close to home is important. It talkes both side of the arguement, the good reasons and the bad about whether or not eating foods grown close to home was reasonable or not. What was really neat about this article was that it told that the government has been cracking down on what is considered organic. This article will help my arguement about eating foods grown close to home. It is better for the environment and for our own bodies as well to have something that isn't shipped thousands of miles.

     "Labeling Genetically Modified Foods (sidebar)." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 22 July 2005. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. <http://0-www.2facts.com.libcat.sanjac.edu/article/ib100402>.

I really loved this article, it had to be the most informative for me. It told about the long, painful expensive process of getting the NO GMO, and ORGANIC labels for foods. It was pretty interesting finding out this because it was something I had not yet know about. This source will help to give a little background in the process and why we should support the organic, sustainable farmers. I found it was very creditable.

Spinach Cheese Puffs

Spinach Cheese Puffs

Ok, so this has got to be the ugliest thing I have ever made. I don't know what was wrong, but the dough was NOT ok. The dough was all sticky and did not even fold out properly once thawed. Not only that... but I went to the store to buy some parmesan and green onions, but I FORGOT them. EEEK. Needless to say, I made it anyways. I'd already started thawing the dough and the spinach past the point of no return.
The ugly beginning...

The spinach cheese puffs took:
1/2 a package of Puff Pastery Sheets, thawed.
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 pkg  frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained.

All in all, they turned out alright. The kids loved it and asked for more. The finished result->->

Will I make this again: Yes, but I'm going to figure out what I did wrong with thawing the dough.
Lesson learned: I know nothing about Puff Pastry Sheets, and need some pointers if you have any (So leave COMMENTS)! Please.
Taste: Yummy, have I not said before how I love fresh baked bread. :) These taste like crossants.
Health benifit: The spinach is a great source of soluable fiber and has lots of vitamin K!

Gotta love it.

God made spinach and spinach is yummy!

What we call organic, our grandparents called food

What we call Organic, our Grandparents called FOOD.

3 Easy ways to get Organics... without breaking the bank.

1. Shop sales. You'd be surprised by the things you can find by looking through the ads  Sometimes at Kroger they well have their Organic apples on sale for $1 a pound, which is cheaper that their non organic counterparts.

Just the other day I found an ecoupon good at kroger for buy one get one free Organic Sweet Leaf Iced Tea. (I got 2 for $1)

2. Check the organic section at your local supermarket, if they have one, each time you go. It never fails, I always find something on sale that I could use instead of the non organic version. Last trip I found Organic Chocolate Chips for the same price as the non organic ones.

Now, these chocolate chips are only 10 ounces, but hey, I didn't need the extra chips anyways.

3. Sometimes when a produce doesn't sell as much as another one, I'm guessing, (this happends with organics because most people don't know why we should eat organics whenever possible) it gets reduced. I love when this happends. I purchased two boxes or Organic cereal and two boxes of Organic breakfast bars at Kroger the other for $1 per box! YAY!

Now, I could have done without these breakfast bars, but hey they were a dollar. I know I get tired of cereal every day so the kids must too. Something easy to change it up (even though I wouldn't eat them, I don't do breakfast bars).

So, I know that people turn there nose up to Organics, but we shouldn't. In fact, what we call organic, our Grandparents called food.

Some other simple things to switch to buying Organic:

Organic Pinto beans, Just 99 cents at Kroger.

I think I payed $1.25 for these Mixed Veggies at Target. Simple choice I'd say.

I bought this canned corn at H.E.B. It cost $1.25 which Is a big increase from other corn but hey my grandparents eat corn a lot so it was yet another simple choice. I want them around for many years to come.

Ok, so the jelly... It is more expensive but have you read the labels on Jelly lately? Plus I don't like pesticides in or on my fruit, so why would I want it on my fruit spread. I paid $2.99 for this. Let me tell you, they flavor of this jelly is far more superior to the others. Plus they carry Blackberry Fruit spread, I love Blackberries!

I HAD to share this one... I have bought 3 bags of this lately and have been paying $5 for it, and I saw it for $6 at targer, but yesterday I saw it at H.E.B. on sale, randomly, for only $4!!! I almost bought another bag, but I have plenty, for now. (I mainly use this in my buttermilk pancakes, but it can go in a lot of things.)

Ok ok, last one for today, these are some Organic Juices I bought the other day at Kroger, they were on sale: Four for $5. I couldn't believe it because the regular price of some of them was $2.99 YAY for Organics!

So, that's my speal for today. Get to know your supermarkets and their Organic sections.

Later on tonight maybe I'll post my Research paper about Organic and GMO free food, IF I can find it...

Lesson learned: I am very passionate about Organics... I used to think washing fruit was stupid. Now, I wash my fruit and I try to purchase organic when I have the means to.

Gotta love it!

God amazes me with the YUMMY food he provides!!!

Rolls

Rolls...
I don't know why I strayed from my usual roll recipe that has never failed me, but I did.
Today I made broccoli and rice, some sausage they were giving out samples of at H.E.B. today and this new roll recipe.

The rolls did turn out ok, besides the fact that my oven burnt the bottom of them (making new oven recipes is difficult because my oven tempature isn't exactly correct :( but I digress).
I must have used too hot of water and killed the yeast because, well, the dough never rose. Sad day, I know. I love rolls, or almost any type of bread come to think of it.

They looked amazing on the pan, I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of them. Oh ya, I was too busy eating them. I love fresh baked breads.

And to be honest, I think I ate 5 of them...

Well, todays lesson learned: Don't try and scare the person washing dishes by jumping up behind the bar... you'll hit your face. Yep, adri hit just above her zygomatic bone (cheek bone) and now has a boo boo. :(  Don't worry it will heal with Ice cream and kisses. :) Good thing God made our bodies with the abilities to heal themselves.

Well, tomorrow maybe I'll try something a little more exciting like: Spinach Cheese Swirls, but who knows.

Gotta love it.

God continues to amaze!

Uncle Sam cereal

OK
Today I just wanted to say what an awesome cereal I found over the weekend.
The cereal is called: Uncle Sams Cereal.
When I was reading the box I was impressed.
Do you know the fiber content of your regular cereal?

Bonus:This cereal contains Omega-3!

10 Grams of FIBER!

Uncle Sams Cereal fiber content is 40% your daily value of fiber.
Crazy, I know.
I've never come across a cereal with so much fiber.
Well, I found the cereal at Walmart.
I don't remember how much it was, but it was definatly worth it.
I have been mixing it in the kids cereal and my Special K each morning.

Back of the Uncle Sams Cereal box.

NON GMO Project Verified is always a plussss with me!
And check out the Ingredients list... How many ingrediends are in kids cereal now days...? A lot!

Lesson learned: There are cereals which contain Omega-3, which most of us are deficient in, and the Omega-3 has TONS of great health benifits.

Gotta love it

God is so good to me!