Eggs Egg-splained

When you go to the store, it can be very confusing to see all those eggs. Free-range, cage-free, organic, vegetarian-fed. Which egg is best?

Chickens are omnivores. They will eat grain, seeds, plants, rats, bugs, and raw meat. In other words, chickens will eat almost anything they can find.

A cage-free chicken is kept out of the traditional "battery cages" commonly used on factory farms. Battery cages are tiny cages that aren't even big enough for the chicken to turn around. Even if they are not kept in a battery cage, these chickens might be living in a crowded barn where they never see daylight. A cage-free egg does not mean it's a good egg.

A vegetarian-fed chicken is only fed a vegetarian diet. It used to be quite common for farmers to throw back the unusable parts of butchered chickens outside for whoever was around to eat. Thus, chickens were eating chickens. Due to public outcry after mad cow disease, where cows were eating cow parts, most farmers stopped feeding meat to their animals. Still, vegetarian-fed eggs are not the best options because of the feed. The grain is usually cheap, which means that it's commonly genetically modified and has been sprayed with pesticides.

An organic egg is from a chicken that's been fed an organic diet. These chickens are not administered hormones or antibiotics to increase egg production. This is a better option, but it is still unnatural for a chicken to only eat grain.

A free-range chicken is allowed access to the outside. Chickens are not meant to be cooped up, like they are on factory farms. Free-range chickens will scratch to find their food. True free-range chickens make the best eggs for 3 reasons: they get sunlight which gives them vitamin D, they are allowed to run around and get exercise like any animal should in nature, and because they are eating natural foods.

You can usually find free-range eggs at any grocery store or superstore. However, it is hard to know how that producer defines free-range. The United States Department of Agriculture does not have any specific rules on how much time or space the chicken must be allowed outsde. Egg producers might simply leave the door to the barn open, or let the chickens go outside on a concrete slab. It's hard to forage on concrete. For this reason, it is best to buy eggs from the farmers' market. Then you will be able to talk to the farmers about how they raise their chickens. Small farmers generally treat their animals well and allow them to live as nature intended.

Eat Your Fruit!

First fresh strawberries of the season!

I remember reading an interview with Britney Spears a couple of years ago. She said that her doctor told her fruit had too much sugar and she should stop eating it. So she did.

I would switch doctors if ever she told me to not eat fruit.

The sugar in fruit is called fructose. Fructose is also found in honey and some vegetables. Adding glucose to fructose is what makes sucrose, or table sugar. Fructose is lower on the glycaemic index scale than sucrose. This means that it breaks down more slowly so the body can properly process it so that it doesn't turn to fat. You need 50 grams of fructose before it turns into fat. This would be easy with soda, but the truth is that fruit contains relatively low levels of fructose. One serving of berries has 2-3 grams of fructose, while most other fruit has 5-10 grams.

The health benefits of fruit are just too great! Fruit contains fiber, antioxidants, vitamin C, and vitamin A. A diet rich in fruit lowers the risk of stroke, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. But here are some of the benefits of fruit that you probably didn't know about:

Strawberries: boosts memory, calms stress

Pineapples: relieves colds, gets rid of warts, strengthens bones

Grapefruits: lowers cholesterol, helps prevent prostate cancer

Cherries: slows aging, ends insomnia, helps prevent Alzheimer's

Bananas: quiets coughing, controls blood pressure, strengthens bones

How much fruit should you eat every day? The saying is that you should get "5 A Day." You will probably need 2 to 3 cups of fruit every day. You can use a calculator to figure out what is right for you by visiting Fruits and Veggies Matter and clicking on 'How Many Fruits and Vegetables Do You Need?' in the top left column.

One cup of fruit is: 1 small apple, 1 large banana, 32 grapes, or 8 strawberries.

4 ounces of 100% fruit juice also counts as one serving of fruit. Personally, I do not advocate drinking juice as a means of getting fruit. Fresh squeezed pure fruit is okay, and this is what they mean when they say 4 ounces. Fruit juice from the store is, besides possibly containing added sugar, is pasteurized. Once fruit juice has been pasteurized, it is dead. It's now just sugar water.

Getting your daily allowance of fruit is easy, because it's great in so many foods! Besides being sweet and delicious on its own, fruit is also easily added to yogurt, waffles, salads, and even on sandwiches!

For the record: although botanically the tomato is a fruit, is has legally been a vegetable since 1893. :)

A Place I Love

In 2007, I went to Belfast, Northern Ireland where I "worked" as a missionary. I use the term "worked" loosely, because I did a lot of community outreach, which means that I spent most of my time hanging out with a bunch of really cool people.

Here's just a little of what I saw...

As I was flying over the Emerald Isle about to land, I thought, Oh my God. It really is as green as they say!

Northern Ireland is green, and it's green. The beauty of it is that they weren't trying to be environmentally conscious. They were simply living. They were eco-friendly before it was cool to be eco-friendly.

We had to go to the market every day for groceries. Everything was fresh. They didn't have genetically modified foods. They used little to no preservatives. I remember someone asking me one day why we Americans used so many chemicals in our foods. All I could answer was "I don't know."

They eat mostly organic, but they don't call it organic. They call it food. Everybody asks me what they eat in Northern Ireland. The truth is they eat a lot of "American" food - it's just so much better! I ate hamburgers, chicken, and potatoes in every form. But somehow, it just tasted real. And when you thought it couldn't get any better, there were the meat pies. Cheese toast. Soda bread. What I wouldn't do for some authentic soda bread.

So the lady that I lived with, Lynda, who I affectionately called Mom, and I walked to the market daily to procure these culinary treasures. Mom brought reusable bags. She even had her own little trolley (cart). It was adorable. But we didn't just walk to the store. We walked everywhere.

And when it was too far to walk, we took the bus. Yes, I once even rode one of those double-decker buses that you see on television. Taking the bus was fun. I recently tried to figure out the public bus system in Oklahoma City, and it's really confusing. They also don't have as many stops as they did in Northern Ireland, which makes it inconvenient.

Most homes didn't have clothes dryers. In Northern Ireland, it rains a lot, but still we hung our clothes outside on a clothesline. I remember my grandma doing that when I was little. There's just something about clothes hung outside in a fresh breeze. Last weekend I bought clothesline, tied it up in the backyard, and put my laundry out to dry. I was so excited about it. That's how I know I'm becoming an old married woman - I get excited about things like grocery shopping and clothesline.

That's some of the green parts of Northern Ireland. It's not perfect, and it's not all green. They still have processed foods. Believe me. I ate my fair share of Salt & Vinegar Pringles.

Then there's Orangemen's Day, July 12^th. That's when Northern Ireland celebrates The Battle of the Boyne by putting a flag from the Republic of Ireland on top of a giant tower made of pallets and tires and having a bonfire. There are hundreds of these bonfires all over the country. I'm sure it's not on Al Gore's list of things to do, but it is quite an experience.

So that's Northern Ireland. It's one of my favorite places in the world. The people there are really great, and that's the reason why I loved it most! It really is beautiful, and I hope you get the chance to go there someday.



          In Northern Ireland, it really is green, and there really are a lot of sheep.


My good friend Andrea and I. She took me to the ocean for my first time. I miss her.



                    A traditional Ulster fry- fried egg, potato bread, and soda bread.
         Usually there is ham with it, but at the time I wasn't eating pork. Long story.



                               One of the bonfires we went to on Orangemen's Day.

Go Green: Pets

I love my pets, I couldn't imagine life without them. We have a near-100 pound lab named Chief and two bunnies, Smarty Jones and Funny Cide. You can be green and still enjoy all the benefits of having pets! Here are a few tips to help get you started.

1. Get Your Pet Neutered
Pet overpopulation is a huge problem. 5,500 puppies and kittens are born every hour in the United States! There are health benefits to getting your pet neutered, so even if you only have one pet, please just get it done. You'll guarantee that you never cause a litter. Same thing with my bunnies - even though I got two males, for all I knew one of them could've been a female. I got them both fixed and they're better behaved because of it.

2. Don't Buy Into Fads
A pet is a lifetime commitment, not a toy. I preach this a lot as Easter season is upon us. Please don't buy your child a real bunny for their Easter basket! Don't buy a puppy after seeing 101 Dalmatians, etc. When people realize they didn't get the pet they thought they were, too many of these innocent animals end up in shelters.

3. Make or Reuse Toys
My rabbits weren't playing with any of the toys I bought them, so I kept buying more toys in an effort to find something they liked. After all options were exhausted, I realized their favorite toys were... empty toilet paper rolls. They also like chewing and jumping on empty cereal boxes. We bought Chief a few toys too. Every so often, one will roll under the couch. A few months later we'll dig it out again, and he thinks he's gotten a brand new toy.

4. Buy Green Food
You can make your own pet food, or you can buy a good brand. I tried making Chief dog biscuits once, and he didn't even like them, so I at least try to buy him the good stuff. Newman's Own is just one brand that makes organic pet foods and treats. I only buy my rabbits organic vegetables and pesticide-free hay. If pesticides are bad for humans, how fast are they going to react badly inside a small animal? I used to buy them organic pellets, although now they're pellet-free.

Funny Cide helps himself to food. Isn't he a doll?

5. Clean Up Green
Don't use paper towels to clean up your pets' messes. Just use an old rag or a dirty towel. Use vinegar diluted with water. This is not only an eco-friendly cleaner, but it's safer for your pets.

6. Make Their Home Green
When I first got my bunnies, I was using shavings in their hutch. It was a complete mess, they kept kicking it everywhere, and I hated cleaning it out. Then a friend with guinea pigs told me to just use blankets. Using blankets and towels is eco-friendly, but also much healthier than shavings, as they aren't good for your small animals' respiratory tracts. I put down a towel, and then put a fleece blanket on top. I clip the blanket to the sides of the hutch with binder clips (otherwise rabbits will 'dig' and undo it). That's all! Every day I sweep out their droppings, and once a week I wash the blankets and towels. Wash in cold water with a little bit of vinegar. This helps the pee to 'wick' through to the towels so it doesn't build up on the blankets throughout the week. I'm now in the process of trying to litter-train my little monsters, so this will also cut back on how often I need to wash them.  

Funny Cide and Smarty Jones in their hutch.

7. Compost
Compost your pets' droppings. It makes really good fertilizer.

8. Use a Green Litter Box
They now make self-washing, self-flushing cat litter boxes. These use eco-litter that can be flushed. For my rabbits' litter box, I just put old newspaper in the bottom.

9. Bathe Pets in Green
Wash your pets with organic or natural shampoos. Considering how often you probably wash your pet, a bottle of organic shampoo is a good value. It's safe to use on animals, and the runoff is gentle on the planet.

10. Buy Green Accessories
You can find almost anything green, from pet beds made of organic cotton to hemp leashes and collars, which are much softer on your dog anyway.

And because I never turn down an opportunity to show off my fur babies...

                   Chief. What a stud.                       Smarty Jones and Funny Cide.

                                                                     Don't let the cute faces fool you.

The Basics of Yogurt

Yogurt is a superfood that you should make a regular part of your diet. Yogurt is simply milk with good bacteria. Cultured foods like yogurt can be used as a natural antibiotic. I used to get urinary tract infections and yeast infections all the time, but ever since I started eating yogurt, I haven't had a single one!

I am lucky enough to get grass-fed yogurt from a local dairy. The ingredient in it is simply: Grade A Pasterized Cultured Whole Milk. It is non-homogenized so the cream rises to the top.

If you don't have access to local yogurt, you can find organic yogurt at your nearest health food store. Stonyfield is one such brand. Their Plain, Smooth and Creamy, Whole Milk yogurt contains: cultured pasteurized organic whole milk, pectin, vitamin D₃, and their exclusive blend of six live active cultures. Although it contains a couple of additives, it is a good alternative if that's all you have access to.

Pasteurizing the milk means that it is heated to a certain temperature, usually no more than 161° F, and then cooled immediately. This is done to kill the bad bacteria. I won't get into the raw milk debate right now, but sometimes you have to take what you can get. Culturing the yogurt adds some good back in after it's been removed during pasteurization.

Pectin is a complex carbohydrate found naturally in the cells of plants and is used as a thickening agent. Vitamin D₃ is found naturally in milk. This is an important vitamin, as its consumpution is linked to improved bone health and decreased cancer risk, including breast cancer in women.

Now let's look at the live active cultures. The six that Stonyfield use are:

Lactobacillus bulgaricus
Streptococcus thermophilus
Lactobacillus acidophilus
Bifidus
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacillus rhamnosus

These are all natural probiotics that live in your digestive tract. The yogurt helps to replenish them, as the natural good bacteria is depleted due to stress, aging, and especially antibiotic use. The good bacteria take up space so that harmful bacteria have no where to live and must pass through the digestive system. Yogurt is highly digestible. Within one hour of eating it, almost 90% is digested. The probiotics also help to strengthen the immune system.

Yogurt is usually the first cultured food that people implement into their diet because it's readily available and it's tasty. Will you try some today?

Recipe: The Best Tortillas Ever

These really are the best tortillas ever! Once I started making my own, I never went back to store-bought tortillas again. They're great for breakfast burritos, taco night, or dipping in salsa or queso. I think they're a lot of fun to make too.

Ingredients:
5 c. white whole wheat flour (about 4 c. hard white wheat berries)
½ tsp. baking powder
½ c. tallow (or lard, coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil)
1-1 ½ c. water

Process four cups of hard white wheat berries through a grain mill to get five cups of fresh flour.

Put the flour, baking powder, and tallow (or lard, coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil) in a food processor. You can also do this by hand with a large bowl and wooden spoon.

Mix until it becomes incorporated and crumbly.

Slowly drizzle in the water. It just depends on the humidity and type of flour you use, but you'll probably need between 1 and 1 ½ cups. When it all comes together into a dough, it's ready.

Move the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes, until it becomes smooth.

Tear off pieces of the dough and make little balls. The smaller the dough balls, the smaller the tortillas will be. Depending on size, you should get about 12 to 16 tortillas.

Cover the dough balls with a damp towel and let them proof for at least one hour. After one hour, preheat a cast iron skillet and give it time to really warm up. Take a tortilla and roll it out, then place it directly on the skillet (no oiling required).

When the tortilla bubbles up and the edges start to dry, it is ready to flip. They will only take about 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side to cook.

Repeat for each tortilla. When you are done, you will have a plate of fresh, homemade tortillas!

Make sure you eat one fresh from the skillet! I usually make a double batch and freeze them. They're great for pulling out and making a quick dinner.

Printable: The Best Tortillas Ever

Go Green: Stop Junk Mail

A few months ago, I was expecting something in the mail. Something good. On the day it was supposed to arrive, I got 7 pieces of junk mail instead.

I'd say we were averaging about 3 pieces of junk mail a day... from companies we didn't use, had never heard of, or had no interest in. Not only was it completely obnoxious, but I knew that it was having a bad effect on the environment. Even though I recycled them, the amount of trees, greenhouse gas, and water that it took to make all that mail bothered me.

So, at the beginning of the year I decided to reduce our junk mail. Every time we got a piece in the mail, I'd e-mail, write a letter, or call that company. This was very time consuming, and annoying. If I e-mailed, they'd tell me I needed to call. If I called, they transferred me 8 times and then told me they needed something in writing. If I wrote a letter, I had no idea if they even bothered to read it. While my efforts were successful with some companies, the junk mail continued. It seemed like for every company I cancelled, two more new ones would find me.

Recently I found a website that made all this so much easier. Catalog Choice helps you manage your mail, catalogs, and phone books. When you sign up (for free), you can search for companies and then opt-out of their mailings. You can even add multiple names so you can stop junk that is addressed to your spouse or your maiden name. If, after 90 days, you are still receiving junk mail, you can file a complaint with that company. For a minimum donation of $20, you can get unlisted for one year. Catalog Choice will work to remove your personal information from third-party marketing lists and personal search services.

This is a super easy way to go green. I know there are other websites with similar services. Pick one and reduce the junk mail in your life!

*Please note: I am not a paid endorser for Catalog Choice. I just like not getting junk mail!

Support Your Farmers' Market

Have you ever been to a farmers' market?

I promise, it's a lot of fun.

Going to a farmers' market is what (I imagine) going to a bazaar is like. There's a lot of people, there are many different kinds fruits and vegetables everywhere you look, and money and goods are constantly being exchanged across tables.

This picture is from my very first trip to my local farmers' market at OSU-OKC. I got carrots, grass-fed ground beef, and a homemade coconut brownie. I spent $9.

You can get almost anything at a farmers' market! Nowadays they can almost be a one-stop shop for your groceries. Besides fruits and vegetables, my farmers' market has grass-fed beef and buffalo, chicken, pork, honey, nut butters, nuts, cheeses, yogurt, eggs, jams, salsas, flour, breads, and homemade desserts. They also sell other homemade items - jewelry, deodorant, lotion, lip balm, soap, baskets, hand towels, and dog treats. I can't think of much more that you would need!

I'm sure you're thinking that all this stuff probably costs more than if you buy it from a store. That's not necessarily true. Most items are comparable in price or cheaper. This is because you are buying produce that is in season. You are also not paying for them to be shipped from anywhere around the world.

I pay $5 for one pound of grass-fed ground beef at the farmers' market. The only decent ground beef I could find at the grocery store was part grass-feed and part grain-fed. It was $5.14 a pound for the fattier cut, and almost $6 a pound to get it lean. My beef is cheaper and is a higher quality.

The quality is unmatched from a farmers' market. It's brought to you by small farmers who take pride in what they do and really care about their community. Most produce is picked the very morning that it goes to market - now that's fresh! Rules vary from market to market, but everything at the OSU-OKC Farmers' Market must be grown or made in Oklahoma. Even if they're not certified, a lot of the produce is organic. Get to know your local farmers and ask them about their growing methods (they're usually really nice!). They might even let you take a tour of their farm.

Here in Oklahoma, the OSU-OKC Farmers' Market is the only market in the state that is open year-round. There are many other great markets open in the summer. To find a farmers' market near you, go to Local Harvest.