Heart at Home

Avocado Makes the Best Salad Dressing Ever

Robin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:59:57 +0000

I’ve gone Gluten Free or G Free (read about it here) so I eat a lot of salads. I’m trying several new dressings. This is my very favorite.

Avocados are an amazing super food. They provide nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid. They also act as a “nutrient booster” by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha and beta-carotene and lutein, in foods that are eaten with the fruit.

Ingredients

2 avocados, peeled, seeded and cubed
1/3 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
1/4 cup lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

I make mine in the Magic Bullet Express High-Speed Blender Mixing System. You can use any type food processor or blender.

Puree the olive oil and garlic in a blender until smooth. Add theavocado, cucumber, and lemon juice. Puree again until smooth, then season to taste with salt and pepper.

This Common Food Ingredient Is As Addictive as Cocaine?

Robin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:40:11 +0000

The number one source of calories in the American diet might cause obesity, high blood pressure, and a number of other common diseases.

Fructose corn syrup isn’t natural. It’s been chemically altered to enhance its sweetness. And it certainly isn’t part of a healthy diet.

Research shows that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) can damage your organs, trigger weight gain, and increase your insulin resistance leading to diabetes.

The Deadly Truth Behind this Popular Sweetener

Food manufacturers like high fructose corn syrup because it’s cheap, it’s super sweet and it has a long shelf life.

Unfortunately, once it’s in your body, there isn’t much good to say about it. It disrupts your metabolism and puts you at higher risk for diabetes in many ways.

Once upon a time, doctors actually recommended fructose to people with diabetes because your body absorbs it more slowly. It also doesn’t cause the same spikes in blood sugar that glucose does. It turns out that these “benefits” are actually part of the reason behind the dangers of HFCS.

Your body absorbs fructose more slowly because it has to be metabolized by the liver, unlike glucose, which can be absorbed and used by every cell in your body. Because it’s only metabolized in the liver, fructose doesn’t trigger insulin production in the pancreas. So, rather than being used by the cells, fructose is usually stored as fat.

High fructose corn syrup is so hard on your liver that it can actually cause nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). One of the complications of NAFLD is insulin resistance.

In order to use fructose, your body must contribute a number of minerals such as magnesium, copper, and chromium. Depletion of these minerals, especially chromium, interferes with insulin production and use… and that’s the first step toward diabetes. HFCS also impairs the function of insulin receptors on your cells. That leads to insulin resistance, and again, a higher risk of diabetes.

Finally, when you eat HFCS, it doesn’t make you feel full. People who eat a lot of HFCS-containing foods are likely to consume more calories and become overweight or obese. Obesity is another risk factor for diabetes.

How to Immediately Boost Your Health and Drastically Reduce… Your Risk of Diabetes

As you can see, high fructose corn syrup contributes to diabetes in a number of ways. It depletes minerals that are critical for proper insulin production. It damages your liver. It leads to weight gain. It directly contributes to insulin resistance.

The average American gets 25% of their calories from sugar. Most of that comes from HFCS. That’s a recipe for disaster.

But you don’t have to wait for disaster to strike. You can make three simple changes right now that will dramatically cut your HFCS consumption. As a result, you’ll probably lose weight, your liver will be healthier, and your body will be better able to deal with the other sugars you eat.

First, cut sodas and sweetened fruit juices from your diet. Drink water, tea, or coffee instead.
Second, start reading the labels on any packaged or processed foods that you buy. If a product contains HFCS, look for an alternative.
Third, begin eating more fiber-rich foods. Fiber slows the absorption of fructose and reduces the negative effects. That’s why fruit, which contains fructose and fiber, is still a healthy choice.

High fructose corn syrup is just not good for you. It puts you in danger of becoming overweight, developing liver disease, and becoming diabetic. If you want to be healthy and full of energy, cutting out HFCS is a good start.

This article was written by Mark Rosenberg, M.D. Institute For Healthy Aging. Read more at Vitalmaxvitamins.com and Vitalmaxvitamins.com/blog

Roasted Cabbage, Kielbasa, Potatoes, Carrots & Goat Salad

Robin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:28:51 +0000

I adapted this recipe by Emeril Lagasse. My version is healthier.

Ingredients

1 cabbage cut into 8ths
6-8 large potatoes
6-8 carrots
Turkey or Beef Kielbasa

(read ingredients- beware of pork casings)

1 large onions, peeled and sliced lengthwise
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chicken stock

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

I started with 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish but we like lots of potatoes and carrots so I needed to use a second pan You could use a large roasting pan.

Rinse the cabbage under cold running water and remove the tough outer leaves. Cut the cabbage into quarters and remove the hard core. Cut the cabbage quarters into halves and place, rounded side down, in a roasting pan.

Cut the potatoes in half crosswise and peel. Cut the peeled potato halves into quarters, and arrange in the roasting pan, alternating with the cabbage pieces, and Kielbasa, add sliced onion.

Mix olive oil, salt, rosemary, and black pepper in a bowl. Sprinkle over top of vegetables and toss.

Pour the chicken stock on top. Tightly cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow to sit, covered, for 15 minutes before serving. Serve the vegetables with broth spooned over them.

Bonus: Scrap Salad for the Horses and Goats

Everybody got a good meal. Did you see the baby kids? They are just too cute! Only 3 days old.

I use to make Cabbage and Kielbasa in a steamer. I like the roasted version much better.

How do cook your cabbage?

Beat Dry Winter Skin with Goat Soap

Robin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:15:02 +0000

Tackle dry winter skin with goat soap. Once I started showering with goat soap I gave up Oil of Olay and Caress. All the dryness and itchiness is gone. I now use goat lotion for feet and elbows.

I buy my soap at our local goat shows. You can buy goat soap at many drugstores and online. Just type in goat soap at Google.com

James Pickavance from http://www.keeping-goats.com explains: Goats’ milk is rich with nutrients like proteins, vitamin A, B12, B6, E, beta casein, and minerals. Skin absorbs beta caseins easily and helps in rapid hydration of the dry skins. Goats’ milk helps in moisturizing and soothing the skin as it is natural emollient.

It can make soap creamy, moisturizing, as well as lovely. More over goats’ milk will lower the Ph value of soaps, so that it becomes skin friendly. Goats’ milk soaps are effective for acne treatment as well as other problems of skins.

With these qualities, goat milk soaps have positives for regular use. One can easily make goat milk soap at home. You might be wondering how to make goat soap at your home.

How to Make Goat Soap at Home

With or Without a Goat

For soap making goats’ milk soaps, milk is used as either liquid milk or powdered milk. It is easier to buy powdered goat milk from food stores. Use either pure milk or equal quantity of water and milk. There is hot process and cold process for making soap with liquid milk.
Two ounces of glycerine, three cups of goats milk, two teaspoon of borax, six and half ounces of lye, one and half pounds of fat etc makes a simple recipe for goats milk soap. Like this, various recipes are there for making goat soaps.
Melt and pour method is widely used for making goat milk soaps. You can buy both bases of pour soap as well as goats milk melt. Decide the recipe for the soap. Decide the type of molds for using.
Decide the shape of the soap that you want to make. Once you stock the goats melt milk as well as base for pour soap, you can look for colours and fragrances for the soap.
It is important that you follow the recipe for goat soap making. Using Vaseline, grease the molds properly so that soap does not stick after it sets. Melt the fat and cool it up to temperature range of eighty-five and ninety-degree Celsius. Pour lye into the paper cup, and then add goat milk. Slowly keep adding the lye. Mix the solution with hand mixer.
Chemical reaction will change the colour of milk to golden one, and the mixture becomes hot. So let the mixture to cool up to eighty-five degrees. To this mixture add glycerine, oatmeal, borax and mix well with the hand mixture for at least fifteen minutes.
Then keep it to rest and then mix at regular intervals of five minutes. Until noticeable changes takes place in consistency keep continuing the above process.
Pour the mixture of soap into the molds and allow it to set. Cover the top part of the molds with cheesecloth. For 24 hours, keep this soap at room temperature, which must be constant.
Remove the cloth off the top of molds and then take the soaps out of it. If the molds used is larger one, cut the soap into equal sized bars.
It is better to cure the soap by the air-drying method for a period of four to six weeks before using.

Visit http://www.keeping-goats.com for all your goat farming and produce tips and get a free report on How to Make Goat’s Cheese!

Dozens of Goat Soap Recipes

Growing Kids Photos and Video

Robin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:33:43 +0000

I was trying to get a side by side pic to compare the 2-month-old kids to the newborn kids but it was like dressing an octopus. I gave up and had David hold them.

Video Clip of Our Menagerie

The boys and I built a pen for the kids and mom ( to keep them away from the Billy) yesterday.
I was so proud we did this by ourselves. But I didn’t think ahead.

As soon as the pen was up and goats were in it started raining so we let them out to go to the barn.
As I was grumbling about all the work for nothing I look up and see this:

Beautiful isn’t it?

My grumbling quickly turned to praise. Rarely a day goes by I don’t get a spiritual lesson from our mini farm.

I’ll add igloos for the kids inside the pen today.

Help Us Name Our New Twin Kids

Robin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:23:01 +0000

Sweetie (Alpine/ Nigerian miniature blue-eyed goat about 35 lbs) finally had her kids. These photos were taken with my cell phone. The kids are one day old and weigh about 3 lbs.

Cameo (Sweetie’s sister) had twins in January we names Jack and Jill. See Jack and Jill here.

We’d like you to help us name the boy and girl kids.

This is Sweetie’s first birth. Normally these goats only have one kid so we feel blessed to have twins again.

This is Sweetie the mom.

This is the daddy, Cocoa. He is Nigerian and smaller than the Sweetie. He weights about 28 lbs. He is polled (means born without horns).

This is my stress relief–I just walk out side and watch these kids play. So sweet, so tiny and so cute. Its good for my heart.

Any name ideas? The kids like Romeo and Juliet. I was thinking something like Sweet Cocoa and Latte.

Benefits of a Square Foot Garden

Robin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:00:17 +0000

I am in the process of planning my Square Foot Garden. This concept is brilliant.

It involves creating 4×4 raised beds. You never walk on your garden only the paths between. Conventional gardening demands using heavy work to loosen the soil, but here the soil stays loose. Weeding is easy too because of the soil.

Almost no weeds, easy weeding
No rototiller
You can customize soil mixture for each bed
Increased productivity per square foot
Less watering (water only plants no paths)
Improved soil drainage
Beds warm quicker so you can plant earlier and extend your season
No thinning (plant fewer seeds)
Better pest control
Ability to quickly chance soil or plans

This Video Introduces Square Foot Gardening

My past gardens were in traditional rows that demanded a lot of weeding, and rotter tiller. When contemplating a garden this year I had to take my health into consideration. Some days I don’t have the energy to work outdoors. I am so excited I found Square Foot Gardening.

Here is my garden plan using the trail version of Growveg.com

Square Foot Gardening Overview

Layout: Grow vegetables in squares, not rows. Begin with a 4′ x 4′ box.
Boxes: Build simple boxes that will hold soil above the ground. (untreated lumber)
Aisles: Leave a minimum of 3′ between boxes for walking between rows.
Soil: Mix together 1/3 good compost, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 coarse vermiculite.
Grid: Make a grid with twin in each box measuring 1′ x by 1’squares.
Select: Use a variety of crop, plant, herbs or flowers in each square foot.
Plant: Read the instructions regarding spacing on the seed packet, and accordingly, plant 1, 4, 9 or 16 crops or plants per grid square. Plant up to 3 seeds or plants per hole.
Water: Water your plants directly at their base.
Harvest: After each harvest, add compost.

Photos from Flickr

Square Foot Gardening Videos

Don’t have a grandpa nearby to teach you to garden. Not to worry. You have YouTube!

Mel Bartholomew’s Videos (Creator of Sg Ft Gardening, severqal videos including FAQs)
Donna’s Square Foot Gardening (very motivating. 16 videos step-by-step)
How to Plant Square Foot Gardens (a dozen videos from Expert Village)

More about Square Foot Gardening

If you don’t have the space for Sq Ft Garden, consider container gardening.

Texas A&M University: Vegetable gardening in containers
Garden Guides: Guide to container gardening
West Virginia University extension service: Container gardening
Arizona Master Gardener manual: Vegetable garden: Container garden
Virginia Tech extension service: Four keys to successful container gardening

I’ll post more with photos when I get my boxes put together.

Visit Works for me Wednesday at We Are That Family for lots of motivating ideas.

3 Bible Verse Valentine Craft Ideas

Robin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:08:32 +0000

Our 4th grade Sunday school made Valentines for the local retirement home. I used a digital scrapbook kit and Bible verses below this post. You can purchase cards to print from your computer here.

Valentine Cards

I made the base of the card and print out the embellishments so the children could decorate them.

This is one of the kits I used.

Sweetie Pie Scrapbook Kit

With the Confection Collection you can create over a dozen adorable crafts (purses, crayon boxes, candy boxes, etc)

Valentine Candy Bars

You can create candy bar wrappers with digital kits and add Bible verses or find printable candy wrappers andlet the children write the Bible verses on the wrappers. Candy wrapper templates are available in regular size candy or miniature sizes.

Valentine Tree

Visit FaveCrafts for Valentine Heart Tree instructions. Add love Bible verses to hearts (see verses below).

Love Bible Verses

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 New International Version
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Ephesians 4:2
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Ephesians 5:25
“However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” Ephesians 5:33
“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14

What do you have planned for Valentine’s Day?

Our New Twin Kids

Robin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:36:47 +0000

Jack and Jill were born to Cameo on January 19 or 20, 2010. They are miniature Nigerian Dwarf / Alpines. We found in the early morning around 6 am. I lost my camera the day before so I couldn’t get any good photos. But here are a few from my phone camera.

Christopher and Jack

I can’t take these babies to Blissdom.

David and Jill

That white blur is Frosty one of our Schichon dogs.

I wish you could see how tiny they are. They are the same size as our cat (which is not very big) They are so adorable bouncing around.

This is Jack and Jill’s daddy, Cocoa.

This is Jack and Jill’s Mom and Aunty Cameo and Sweetie.

Notice the snow? Whats the weather like in your area?

Quick & Easy Stromboli Recipe & Video

Robin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:33:54 +0000

Ever had a meal you crave often? This is one of them. My recipe is different from the one in the video but I included the video so you can you can see how easy it is to make it.

This is a family favorite and so easy I make it at lease once a week. I have alos made it with Pillsbury® refrigerated French Bread. I love it too but the dough is harder to work with.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1 (13.8-oz.) can Pillsbury® refrigerated classic pizza crust
1/4 cup pizza sauce
4 oz. (1 cup) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 oz. (1/4 cup) shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 400°F. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. I use Pam Olive Olil.
Brown ground beef in medium skillet over medium-high heat until thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain. Set aside.
Unroll dough; place on sprayed cookie sheet. Starting at center, press out dough with hands to form 12×8-inch rectangle.
Spread sauce over dough to within 2 inches of long sides and 1/2 inch of short sides. Place cooked ground beef lengthwise down center, forming 3-inch-wide strip and to within 1/2 inch of short sides. Top with cheese and Italian seasoning. Fold long sides of dough over filling; press edges to seal.
Bake at 400°F. for 15 to 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

This is a WINNER! Just so you know I’m not the only one who loves this recipe check out just a few of the reviews from Pillsbury:

DATE POSTED: 1/8/2010
SUBMITTED BY: bearsfan544
This is awesome, I took the advice and put the dough in the freezer a few minutes and it unrolled perfect, I’ve always had trouble with the dough too soft. I’ve always made my stroboli by rolling it and just using salami and pepperoni and always to greasy, I followed the recipe and just added a few slices pepperoni and I watced the video by folding it and it was perfect and so easy! I’m actually about to make another just to have for snacks it was so good

DATE POSTED: 1/6/2010
SUBMITTED BY: msturgis
Really good and super easy. I used Colby jack cheese instead. I also put green peppers and white onion in with the meat, instead of the red pepper and Italian seasoning. It was so good! I thought 1/2 lb of meat wasn’t enough but any more and the dough wouldn’t have closed! I’ll be adding this to my monthly dinner menu for sure!

DATE POSTED: 1/5/2010
SUBMITTED BY: cynthiawdnr
i just wanted to say i tried this before i even seen the reciepe and it was extremley easy and very good too.

DATE POSTED: 12/23/2009
SUBMITTED BY: rhoshe
LOVE THIS!!! My whole family loved this recipe! It is SO EASY and fun for the kids to prepare – even the smaller children enjoyed assebling it! Put out a side of sauce and some salad and you’re ready to go!!!!

DATE POSTED: 12/3/2009
SUBMITTED BY: PMK
I’ve made this for several parties and it was a big hit!

DATE POSTED: 10/26/2009
SUBMITTED BY: klange82
Super easy and very good. I used 1/2 cup of pizza sauce instead of the 1/4 cup suggested. There are so many different variations that you can try with this recipe.

DATE POSTED: 10/25/2009
SUBMITTED BY: krystalsmom
I added a layer of pepperoni slices at my husband’s request and it was soooo good. I loved how easy it was to prepare – I’ll definitely be making this again.

DATE POSTED: 7/25/2009
SUBMITTED BY: smudge71
I made this last night with a few changes……I added hot sausage with the hamburger meat and chopped onions. I also substituted cheddar cheese……..The crust is yummy….would make good bread sticks……

DATE POSTED: 6/3/2009
SUBMITTED BY: Sandy J
This really is easy and tasty. I used italian sausage instead of ground beef, and my husband loved it.

DATE POSTED: 5/29/2009
SUBMITTED BY: sylversun
My guys simply loved this! All things made for under $15 dollars! Helps the buck go a long way!

DATE POSTED: 5/22/2009
SUBMITTED BY: Mrs. Clark
Easy to make. I added onions and upped the ground beef resulting in a thinner crust. Next time I’ll follow the 1/2 lb recommendation. My husband loved it though.

DATE POSTED: 5/20/2009
SUBMITTED BY: MommyDance
This stromboli was wonderful! I just finished making this dish for my daughter and me, and we devoured it…not even any crumbs left for the dog! It was very simple to make, and you can easily add ingredients of your choice to make variable flavorings. Thanks to whomever shared this first!

DATE POSTED: 4/29/2009
SUBMITTED BY: Mrs-Roldan
Oh my gosh! Out of this world! I thought this dish was going to be bland and not as good as it looks. Well, let me tell you its fabulous! So easy and really good. I added a few ingredients. My family likes flavor and a little spice. So I added some onions and sautéed my veggies: onions, orange and green bell peppers first. Than added the ground beef. I also put a little extra sauce on top of the meat mixture. I have made this twice for during the week meals. You have to try it.

DATE POSTED: 4/16/2009
SUBMITTED BY: C548
I have made this recipe more than once, but I do add some sugar to the Pizza sauce. I recently made it while my brother-in-law was down over Easter and he loved it. I added chopped up Pepperoni to this and added more cheese than the recipe calls for – this is also good warmed up on the second day. This is so easy to make, I am going to share this recipe with my family members and friends.

Heart at Home

Avocado Makes the Best Salad Dressing Ever

Ingredients

Directions

This Common Food Ingredient Is As Addictive as Cocaine?

The Deadly Truth Behind this Popular Sweetener

How to Immediately Boost Your Health and Drastically Reduce… Your Risk of Diabetes

Roasted Cabbage, Kielbasa, Potatoes, Carrots & Goat Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Bonus: Scrap Salad for the Horses and Goats

Beat Dry Winter Skin with Goat Soap

How to Make Goat Soap at Home

With or Without a Goat

Growing Kids Photos and Video

Video Clip of Our Menagerie

Help Us Name Our New Twin Kids

Benefits of a Square Foot Garden

Related

3 Bible Verse Valentine Craft Ideas

Valentine Cards

Valentine Candy Bars

Valentine Tree

Love Bible Verses

Our New Twin Kids

Quick & Easy Stromboli Recipe & Video