14th Day of Halloween

Farewell, geese! May the wind be at your backs as you fly south, and may you enjoy your winter retreat! Return safely as you bring warm weather back with you!

It's the simple things in life that nourish my soul. Watching my children bang away on musical instruments with their friends here in my livingroom brings me more joy than I can possibly express.  In this age of constant TV, I am so happy that my children enjoy playing with their toys more than sitting in front of the television.  Don't get me wrong; we DO watch some tv. I limit the kids to PBS and educational or children's videos.  During the day, I encourage the children to play instead of sitting on the couch all day. 

Very recently, I stumbled upon a blog about natural clothes drying.  I guess this is just something I kind of take for granted and rarely think about, because to me it is just a part of life.  I made the conscious decision years ago to try to save electricity and the environment by cutting back on using dryers and instead opting to dry my clothes on a line or on a rack.  When we moved to an apartment that did not have a dryer, I simply never bought one. There was a coin-op washer and dryer in one of the buildings, but to save money I'd just wash the clothes and bring them home to dry on racks.  That really cemented me on my path, because I always felt so good about what would seem we were "forced" into out of neccessity. Now that I have a dryer hook-up, I purposely chose NOT to buy a dryer! 

I will not kid you: it does take some organization and planning, because you cannot have clean and dry clothes on demand as you might have been used to.  Initially, it meant buying a couple extra packages of underwear and a couple of extra nice work shirts, so that there would always be a clean one when it was needed.  I am a huge fan and advocate of air drying one's clothes naturally, and I suspect I don't need to bore you with all the reasons that it's a great environmental idea and money saver.  I would just like to say that YES, you can definately hang your clothes to dry, even in small spaces (or last apartment was only about 900 square feet for 3 people!)  You just need to get creative about where to put your racks, moving them around if people need to use the space.  I hope everyone considers doing it, even if only for 1 load a week!

Alphabet Soup For The Soul, An October Delight!

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I am a HUGE fan of soups and stews, especially as the weather gets cooler.  Here's a fun and healthy soup recipe you can make with the kids. Of course, young children probably won't be cutting up veggies with knives, but they can do other things like rip the kale and help add things to the pot... and can help you with measurements as well. I've adapted this recipe from several I have found online, so I hope you enjoy it!

1 large onion, peeled and chopped (any color onion works in my opinion)

2 large carrots*, peeled and chopped

2-4 garlic cloves, minced (depending on your taste)

1/4 cup chives and/or scallions, chopped (I love the flavor of onion, so I use 1/4 cup of each!)

1/2 cup kale, destemmed and chopped/ripped into pieces (just rip the kale right off the stem with your fingers, works for me!  The kids will LOVE doing this duty with clean hands!) - discard stems.

4-5 cups of broth (I use organic chicken broth)

1 cup (or 2) of  already cooked/canned beans (whatever beans you have on hand is fine - white is my favorite for this dish)

1 (398 ml) can diced tomatoes (I love the kind with jalepenos added, but that's just me!)

1or 2 tsp italian seasoning (or any combo of oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, etc) to taste
1 cup dry alphabet pasta (I like Organic Vegetable Alphabets)
Olive oil for sautee

* How about introducing a new veggie? Parsnips are very similar to carrots, but are white in color and taste a little sweeter.  It has even more vitamins and minerals than carrots, so give it a try!

** you may also add additional spices to taste (crushed red pepper, for example)

DIRECTIONS

1.  Spray or pour enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of your soup pot (about 2 tbsp)

2.  Add onion, garlic and carrot and sautee until onion starts to become translucent, about 5 mins. 

3.  Puree about 1/2 of the cooked beans in a food processor.

4. Add beans and all the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Bring to a boil.  Boil about 10 mins and then simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until carrots* and pasta are tender.  If the soup seems too thick, simply add some water or some more broth.

4. If desired, serve with shredded cheese over the top and fresh apple sauce on the side.

What words or letters can your child find on his/her spoon?  Can they spell BOO! or for older children, how about pumpkin, witch, black cat or full moon?

Enjoy!