• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

HippieMommy

always learning

  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
You are here: Home / Archives for Homekeeping

Homekeeping

Getting Your Family to Eat More Vegetables

January 17, 2014 by amanda 2 Comments

There is one thing that almost every diet (vegan, paleo, Mediterranean, traditional Chinese, Ayurvedic…) agrees upon:

We should all be eating more vegetables!

As a busy mom, I understand that veggies can take extra prep work and have longer cooking times than other side dishes. On top of that, I think every mom has felt the pain of working hard to prepare a new veggie, only to have everyone pass on it and for it to end up in the trash. I am going to share what I’ve learned about getting veggies cooked efficiently, on the table, and used up by the end of the week.

The vegetable “crisper” is a graveyard for produce

If I just put my veggies in the crisper drawer, probably 50% of them end up going straight to the compost bin at the end of the week. That is why, if possible, I need to prepare my veggies BEFORE they go into the fridge. I looked up the numbers, and my experience is not unusual. Estimates are that half of our fresh produce ends up thrown away. That’s a pretty sad number. We put a lot of resources into growing food, so I’d much rather have it go in my belly!

Produce tastes best when it is cooked fresh

It wasn’t until I started reading An Everlasting Meal that I considered how much better my produce tasted when I prepared it the same day that I brought it home. The beautiful carrots from the farmers’ market were limp and soggy after just a few days in the fridge. However, if I came home and roasted them, we could eat them that day or reheat them sometime over the next few days. They tasted even better after being roasted, and the texture was still just as great as if I’d eaten them the first day.

Preparing and cooking in batches saves time and energy

Sitting down and peeling squash or chopping broccoli can be a pain, especially if it is the only thing I’m cutting. If I, instead, cut and roast all of my veggies at the same time, I am able to save both my own energy (less clean up and time spent throughout the week) and household energy (from only running the oven once for all of my veggies.)

My Veggie Prep Routine

The first thing that I do is preheat my oven to 375, and prepare my veggies to roast. Pretty much everything gets diced up, tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper before I cook it. Then I sprinkle on any other herbs that I want.

I like to group my veggies by the size/shape that I cut them, and then I roast them together. That helps keep the cooking times similar.

This week I had parsnips and celeriac, which I cut into sticks and roasted together in a pan. I also had a big batch of carrots, which I coined and roasted in a second pan. Then I had a romanesco and broccoli, which seemed to work well in a pan together, so they were my third pan. I also had leeks and potatoes, which I diced up and roasted in a fourth pan. These four pans all fit in my oven at once, and were all happy at the same temperature. I threw in whole sweet potatoes that I had as well, and my oven was pleasantly full. About an hour later, I had veggies ready to go for the week.

While all of my roasted veggies are cooking, I wash, chop, and put my greens in a container. Having my greens already washed and chopped means that I am SO much more likely to use them throughout the week. For a long time, I bought bagged greens, because I found that I was more likely to make a salad, toss them in a soup, or whip them into a smoothie if I had them ready to go. Now I do that for myself, and the taste is so much fresher than the bags at the store.

By the time my veggies come out of the oven, I can have the kitchen cleaned up and the bulk of my work done for the week. I love that. I toss the finished veggies in mason jars, and I am good to go!

Having veggies prepared means you eat more of them

I am a homeschooling mom to four kids, and we have a full schedule. If I have food ready to go in the fridge, it is easy to reheat what I have and make a healthy lunch. If I don’t, it is far more likely to be a day of gluten-free sandwiches and fruit…. maybe with a pre-made Trader Joe’s salad, if I had the forethought to buy one.

On the other hand, if I have veggies already made, I can pretty much guarantee that we will eat them with every meal. You don’t even need to heat them up. They make excellent salads at room temperature, and can easily be tossed in anything from eggs to rice or noodles to make for an instant meal.

Near the end of the week, I simply take the vegetables that I haven’t used, and toss them in a soup. Sometimes I make smooth soups. Other times I just add them to stock, throw in some kind of meat, and let it all simmer together. Herbs make anything better, so I just experiment and see what happens. Homemade stock is obviously great to have around, but sometimes I cheat and use organic vegetable broth cubes. They are good in a pinch, when my soup needs just a little more flavor.

Kids eat food they see often

I had a revelation when I read French Kids Eat Everything, I considered the culture of food in our house. The truth is that we hadn’t done a great job at making new foods exciting (as opposed to scary) and we didn’t offer them nearly enough times before we gave up. Research indicates that you need to offer a food up to 15 times before you expect a child to eat it. Having vegetables around, all of the time, is one of the keys to getting kids to try them and eat them. They need to see you eating and enjoying them.

I Want to Hear From You!

Which time-saving meal prep tips have helped you? I am always looking for new inspiration as I strive to make our family as healthy as possible! 🙂

Pin It
Email

Filed Under: Meal Planning, Nutrition

From Frazzled to Focused

May 25, 2013 by amanda Leave a Comment

I’m not sure what initially motivated me to pick up this book when I saw that it was available for review. I wouldn’t self-identify as “frazzled,” but I am always interested in being more focused. I am an organizational junkie (and sometimes I wonder if I prefer the theory to the actual doing.) Something about the description led me to believe that this book would be one I’d like.

In From Frazzled to Focused, Rivka Caroline leads the reader through exercises to organize and “systemize” his or her life. She focuses on areas in the house (broken down by room) and activities (like meal planning and scheduling.) The book is aimed at mothers with young children, although many of the ideas could apply to anyone. Rivka is witty, and even though we obviously live very different lifestyles (she’s in Miami Beach), I appreciated her self-deprecating humor.

Although I cringed at all of her systems and plans at first, I realized as I went through the book that I already do a lot of what she recommends. I read the book slowly over a few weeks, and noticed that by the end I’d naturally adopted many of her techniques.

If you’re looking for a quick, fairly light read on organizing your home and your time, this book could fit the bill. 🙂

Pin It
Email

Filed Under: Book Talk, Homekeeping, Parenting and Family Books, Self-Improvement Books

The Family Dinner

June 14, 2011 by amanda 1 Comment

People say they don’t have time to cook, yet in the last few years we have found an extra two hours a day for the internet. — Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma

There is nothing like a crisis to remind you of what is important in life.

Over the past few months, as my family has adjusted to our current, leukemia-battling life, I’ve come to appreciate just how important family dinners are for all of us. When my mom was released from the hospital after her induction therapy, I realized that cooking big dinners for my parents and my family was healing for me. I’ve always loved food, and I show love with healthy, yummy food, so it just felt “right”.

Not surprisingly, as times of higher-stress have come… times when I’ve been at the hospital for large chunks of time (including dinner time), we’ve eaten out more. Not only have our bodies screamed that they don’t appreciate crappy food, but so have our spirits. It just isn’t the same.

So, it isn’t a shock that I was instantly drawn to The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time by Laurie David. Part book and part cookbook, it is a nice reminder of why I value family meals so much.

The encouragement, recipes, and ideas for family rituals are really beautiful. I love the place setting, conversation starters, table games and music ideas. Each recipe includes a list of prep/cooking items that kids can do. Are these things necessary for a great family meal? Absolutely not. They are fun, though 🙂

Some parts of our family meals have been harder to keep up during this high-stress time, and one of those was our Shabbat meal with homemade challah bread. It is something that my kids love — the fresh bread, lighting candles, giving thanks… I smiled when I saw Shabbat meals mentioned in the first chapter and again later in the book, and realized that I’ve really missed those Friday night meals. I’m re-instituting them, effective immediately 😉

…I think Shabbat is a perfect concept for any family, regardless of religion. It’s just too great an idea not to do your own version: a special night once a week where everyone knows they will sit leisurely around the table, take stock of the week’s highs and lows, and savor family, food, and friends… — The Family Dinner pg. 199

On top of everything else: This book is just beautiful. The quotes and photography are lovely, and it is a joy to read. I can see how it’d be an encouragement for both those who already practice a family dinner or for those who want to start one.

(For the record, I didn’t get a free copy or any compensation. I had to check the book out at the library ;))

Pin It
Email

Filed Under: Book Talk, Meal Planning

The Laundry Monster

May 5, 2010 by amanda 4 Comments

Laundry. It is my nemesis.

I am fairly good with everything else, but I just detest laundry. Actually, that isn’t true: I don’t mind washing a load, and I find something incredibly relaxing about hanging my laundry outside. I just hate folding and putting away!

I read a post from a wise, fellow mama-of-many, and she said that she turned a corner when she accepted that 2 loads of laundry a day was just a necessity. I thought about this and rejected it for a few months, but I recently decided to accept it. Something amazing has happened: My laundry isn’t so bad.

I’ve realized that I was trying to deny something that could not be denied. It was as if I wanted to pretend that gravity did not exist. It does not help to deny it, because the reality of it is still there whether you accept it or not. Just like with birth, life is so much easier and less painful if you accept it and just ride the waves. Fighting it only makes for frustration.

And, on that note, it is time to put another load in…

Pin It
Email

Filed Under: Homekeeping

Many hands make light work

December 30, 2009 by amanda 1 Comment

Behold, I am blogging again!

I’ve been so busy with… well, life. I’m 32 weeks pregnant, a student midwife (yay!), and of course I have my main jobs: a wife and homeschooling mom to three. So, please forgive me. I really do want to blog… I just haven’t found much time.

I was inspired today to make a post. My husband was at Barnes and Noble last week with the kids while I had some unexpected dental work done (woohoo, lucky me!) and he skimmed this book at the store. He told me to check it out from the library, and he was totally right. I’m devouring it.

Better Off is Eric Brende’s story of his own experiment to live without technology. He wanted to find the balance between

how much–or how little– technology was needed. Was there some baseline of minimal machinery needed for human convenience, comfort, and sociability– a line below which physical effort was too demanding and above which machines began to create their own demands?

I find this to be a really interesting question. Some of my processes that I used to do entirely by hand, like making bread, I have recently been using machines instead. I originally (for money’s sake) had a hand mill for my grain, and kneaded my bread by hand. Last year I received gifts of an electric grain mill and a Kitchenaid. I sold my hand mill. Ironically, I soon realized that those appliances were too loud to do before the kids woke up in the morning, so I stopped even trying. As a matter of fact, the grain mill is so loud that I feel the need to warn my baby in the womb of the loud sound that is on its way, LOL. I can no longer sneak downstairs and get breakfast going. Now I must warn the children and they run out of the room. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

Anyways, back to the book… So Brende ends up living off of the grid in a community that is similar to the Amish. One of the points that I’ve been meditating on tonight is this one:

‘Many hands make work light.’ The statement was true, though hard to explain. Gradually, as you applied yourself to a task, the threads of friendship and conversation would grow and connect you to laborers around you. Then everything suddenly became inverted. You’d forget you were working and get caught up in the camaraderie, the sense of lightened effort. This surely must rank among the greatest of labor-saving secrets. Work folded into fun and disappeared. Friendship, conversation, exercise, fresh air, all melded together into a single act of mutual self-forgetting.

Brende goes on to talk about this in detail, and shares many examples. I have experienced this myself, especially in physical labor outdoors or in working with my hands (like knitting.) It is interesting that I have felt this far less often with technological work.

One of the things that I love about group knit nights or working with my family in the garden is that you forget the job that you’re doing, and pretty soon the job is done and everyone is happier and closer. I learned in my doula training that when a group of women get together and talk, they release hormones that make them happy. I think that God made us that way for a reason. We are social creatures, and it is a shame that we often have to split the things that we must do (chores, work, etc.) and our social time. It is so much nicer to be able to work together and accomplish these goals at once. I can’t tell you how many times I have wished that the women in my neighborhood could get together and work on laundry together like women did 100 years ago. Wouldn’t that be great? I think it’d be awesome. 🙂

Pin It
Email

Filed Under: Voluntary Simplicity

Living More with Less

June 14, 2009 by amanda 8 Comments

Things in my life keep pointing to the Mennonites. I truly have no idea what that means – no conversion plans in the future – but Joe and I really like a lot of what they stand for. I checked out Living More with Less from the library after I saw it recommended on mothering.com. I had no idea that it was a Christian book. Joe grabbed it from the book basket and practically devoured it. I read it next, and we had so much fun discussing it.

One of the really striking things in this book is how oddly “ahead of the times” the Mennonites were when this book was written. It was published in 1980, and it is filled with “green” ideas that are just now becoming popular.

This book is split into two sections. The first section is more of the “why’s” of voluntary simplicity. The second section is filled with chapters that start with some words from the author on a particular subject (transportation, clothes, eating together, recreation…), and then there are pages of ideas from fellow Christians on how to live out simplicity.

One of the underlying principles that I really liked about the book was the focus on learning from those who live in countries that we consider to be developing… Countries that we think we need to swoop in and save. For all of our advances, and all of our technical knowledge, we are becoming more and more like the humans in Wall-E 😛 We are divorced from natural processes, and if we were forced to live without our conveniences, we certainly wouldn’t look like the advanced society that we like to think ourselves to be. This is how the author, Doris Janzen Longacre, discusses this topic.

If you as a North American travel to an economically poor country such as Haiti or Bangladesh, your first reaction is likely to be shock. You have heard of poverty, and seen it in pictures. But to find yourself face to face with hungry people jars your soul with feelings for which you are unprepared.
After a while, shock gives ways to ideas for development projects typically conducted by church agencies. These usually promote better education, nutrition, agriculture, sanitation, family planning, small business investments, and, increasingly, a concern that people receive just access to resources….
These reactions are certainly warranted. God help us when poverty no longer shakes us into action. But how rarely we realize that persons from other countries often go through a similar thought process when living with us!

It does seem that we want to swoop in and save everyone, but we could really benefit from making this a two-way street of assistance. They have as much to teach us as we do them, and it seems easy for Americans to overlook this fact. I say this as someone who did this EXACT same thing when I was overseas on a mission trip, and I wasn’t even in a poor country.

For we, of course, have problems too. No one wants to hear the whole sordid list again, but it begins with materialism, violence in streets and homes, family breakdown, drug and alcohol abuse, automobile accidents, poor diet and degenerative diseases, waste of material resources, pollution, and nuclear proliferation. What if we became as concerned with our own overdevelopment or maldevelopment as we are with the underdevelopment of poor nations? … Could they help?

Then she begins with quotes from foreigners who were shocked when they saw the blindspots of Americans. Here are just a few.

“America is a wasteful society. In every store you see disposable things. People want everything to go fast, so after using things once, they throw them away.” –Jusef Sumadi, Indonesia

“People in North America don’t care to repair things once they are out of order. There are few repair shops. I cannot imagine how many TVs and refrigerators are put into junk which are repairable.”–Guillermo Abanco, Philippines

“When we first walked into a North American church, my friend from Indonesia said, “The cost of this carpet alone would build a beautiful church in Indonesia.”–Sammy Sacapano, Philippines

“Children don’t like vegetables? No, I never heard of that in my country!”–Taiwanese nutrition student, Kansas State University

“American communities are beautiful. But instead of growing vegetables or fruits, the people prefer grass and spend money taking care of it.”–Guillermo Abanco, Philippines

So you get the idea. A lot of the ideas in the book come from missionaries who learned simpler ways of living when they were overseas. One, in particular, has happily been adopted in my home this week. This was the tip (actually, there were two on the same idea…)

Cordless Crockpots

“During our stay at the Thokoza Conference Center in Mbabane, I saw demonstrated what I’m calling an African crockpot. This is a fairly deep, simple grass basket stuffed full of crumpled newspaper. You make an impression at the top to hold the pot. In the morning, boil soaked dry beans for fifteen minutes. Then nestle the pot down in the newspaper inside the basket. Put a heavy blanket or pillow on top to keep in the heat. At suppertime the beans are soft, hot, and ready to eat.” –Darlene Keller, Mbabane, Swaziland

So it turns out that this is a pretty popular idea. I found some information here – http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Heat-retention_cooking – that I used to cook both rice and beans this week. They turned out delicious, and I only used a very small amount of electricity and gas to make them. It was so cool!

There were tons of other great ideas in there, but this post is getting rather long-winded, so I think I’ll wrap it up, lol. It really is a good book, though, and I recommend it if you can grab a copy. Joe particularly liked the ideas on transportation and ways to simplify around the house. I really liked the sections on eating together and homekeeping. We both liked a lot of the ideas for simple celebrations and recreation. We’ve already implemented quite a few, and its been wonderful. 🙂

Pin It
Email

Filed Under: Spiritual Disciplines, Voluntary Simplicity

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Book Review – Long Way Down
  • Book Review – Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud
  • Easy, healthy (and plant-based) breakfasts for families
  • Making my own “mystery” knitting club
  • Cold Sheep Update: I haven’t bought yarn for a year!

Instagram Feed

Something is wrong.
Instagram token error.

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Wellness Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in