Quinoa For Dinner

This week’s vegetarian meal was an experiment. Since I don’t have a lot of vegetarian recipes my family likes, I have to experiment.

I made quinoa with vegetables. Really simple, just cook 1 cup of quinoa in two cups of water about 20-25 minutes. Rather like cooking rice, and in fact I used my rice cooker so I didn’t have to pay much attention to the process. It worked.

Cooked up some veggies, put them together with some spices and olive oil, and that was the main dish for dinner tonight.

The baby loved it, but then she loves anything she can fit into her mouth, even dirt.

My son didn’t like it.

My oldest daughter didn’t like it either. I honestly didn’t think she would, as the taste is rather nutty and she loathes all nuts. Except once in a while when she admits to liking cashews or filberts, but in between she loathes all nuts, including those two. But I didn’t warn her about the flavor beforehand.

My husband liked it. He felt the taste was rather like cashews.

But he also made his usual comments in the vein that comes out every time I make a new vegetarian dish. He thinks quinoa could be really interesting in meatloaf. Or perhaps with lamb.

You know. With meat.

He does that every time I make a new vegetarian meal. It’s gotten so that I expect it. But at least he eats them when that’s what I serve for dinner.

I’m determined to keep experimenting with meatless meals once a week for my family, no matter the resistance. There has to be more than one that suits everybody!

We Finally Have a Reel Mower!

I’m very happy right now. My husband finally tired of using his electric weed whacker to mow the lawn and bought a reel mower. I’ve only been suggesting this since we moved into this house and opted to do lawn care ourselves rather than pay a service.

He was a bit worried about the reel mower being hard to push. It’s more work than an electric or gas powered one, certainly. But he was quick to agree that it’s still easier than swinging the weed whacker over the whole lawn.

Even where the clover had gotten a bit tall and thick.

We chose one that has the catcher in the back. Love to just leave clippings there, but we do live in an area with a homeowner’s association, and don’t need to be hearing from them on that issue.

The salesperson at the store tried really hard to talk us into an electric mower. He pointed out that it was zero emissions too. Sorry, wrong! Just because it’s zero emissions at my house doesn’t mean it’s zero overall. The power comes from somewhere, and that’s where the emissions are.

I think my husband is pretty content with the new mower. He’s even talking about getting a manual edger.

Check a Kill-a-Watt Out From the Library

I’ve posted before about using a Kill-A-Watt to keep an eye on your energy usage. They’re useful little devices. But did you know you can check them out from some libraries?

This isn’t available everywhere, but you can check with your local library to see if they have one. They’re available in libraries in Georgia and many other places. You should be able to check the website of your local library to see if you can borrow a Kill-a-Watt from them.

I like this because my one problem with a Kill-a-Watt is that once you’re done, what do you do with it? My mother has talked about getting one for the whole family to be passed around, which is a good way to handle it as well. But once you’ve found your energy wasting electronics there’s just not much more for it to do for you.

Make Your Meals Meatless Once a Week

As I mentioned in my One Small Change Challenge post, I’m trying to go one meal a week meatless for my family. It’s a bit of a push, but I believe that we can do it. This first week was an easy one, just an old family favorite, Sand and Shells. I’ll be trying new recipes out in future weeks.

But why is this a good thing to do?

Meat has a fairly high environmental price. It takes a lot of resources to feed whichever kinds of animals. Huge amounts of water, crops and land go to it, and the animals aren’t even always treated very well.

Add in antibiotics use in animals and the pesticides they consume from their feed, and meat gets less and less appetizing. Now add in the amount of fossil fuels used for producing meat.

You can buy organically produced, free range meat if you like, but there are still problems with that. Free range means they take more land. The meat itself will likely be better for you, but still consumes quite a bit of land.

Even if you aren’t ready to go vegetarian or vegan yet, you can cut down on how much meat your family eats. Simply start going without meat one day a week.

Eating less meat isn’t just eco friendly. Done right, it’s also good for your health and your wallet.

Vegetarian meals cooked with a focus on being healthy help you to lower cholesterol and reduce your chances of a heart attack, strokes, cancer and more. It doesn’t mean these will never happen to you, but lowering your odds is a good thing.

There’s nothing boring about vegetarian fare. People who say that haven’t done much searching for interesting recipes, of which there are plenty online.

In terms of money, meat is far more expensive than many vegetarian ingredients. Cook beans of one sort or another and serve them with your favorite vegetables and grains. You can have a meal that looks and tastes amazing, and have spent less than on a simpler meal that included meat.

Make your meatless days fun. Have chopped fresh vegetables ready for when you want a snack, as well as for a great addition to any meal. Cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, snap peas and others are wonderful, and you may not even need a dip to make them interesting.

It’s also great for parents who want to expose their children to a greater variety of foods. Meatless meals can be challenging with picky eaters, but you can work with them to make it more fun. Have them help you pick the ingredients. Have them help you prepare the foods. Talk about where food comes from, and why you sometimes go meatless.

All this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. You can. It takes some time to adjust, but if that’s a step you’re ready for, go for it. If not, try working up to it!

Another alternative is to simply cut down on how much meat you include in meals when you use it. Don’t have it be the main dish. Have it be a small part of a side dish. You can satisfy that urge to have meat while eating a meal that is overall better for you.

And of course remember to keep your kitchen eco friendly where possible. Try organic produce, eco friendly cookware and so forth for your health and to be kind to the environment.

BumGenius 3.0 Review – One Year Later

We’ve been cloth diapering my little girl for right about a year now. It’s been interesting, and I figured now is a good time to share how the diapers have held up.

Overall, I’m pleased with how the bumGenius 3.0 diapers have held up. They’re in generally good shape.

The Good Parts

The cloth diapers have held up really well. I can see that the elastic is a little looser on some of the covers, but most are still in very good shape. The elastic is not so loose as to cause problems on any of them.

They’re all still nicely waterproof. The colors have all held up quite well. They still fit great.

We’ve run out of snaps to undo on the diapers for sizing, but given how long each section lasted us, that doesn’t worry me. Especially since we’re already encouraging the baby in her potty training. She does use it just a little. We aren’t pushing hard yet, just having her sit on the potty at every diaper change or before a bath. But there’s a bit of interest and she’s very happy when she does something.

We’re still using Country Save detergent to wash the diapers. It’s also working quite well. The occasional use of an oxygen bleach or some original Dawn dish detergent takes care the occasional stain or smell issues.

My One Complaint

The one problem we’ve been dealing with is that the tabs that hold the velcro in place when you wash the diapers isn’t holding them anymore. This means awful chains of diapers when I do the laundry, and makes me feel that they aren’t rinsing out as well.

Having to pull apart convoluted chains of cloth diapers that have firmly velcroed together is inconvenient. It’s causing some extra wear to the fuzzy side of the velcro too.

I really need to spend a little time figuring out the solution to this one. It’s pretty minor, all things considered, but I’d sure like to solve the problem.