Peaceful Sunday

Halal
Orthodox
Kosher
Urdu
Yalmuka
Passover
Pashtu
Roman Catholic

(Smiling, laughing, running, playing, crying)

No milk with meat
Kosher food only
No pork
Burqa
Hijab (head scarf)
Communion

(Speaking with concern, faith, respect, impatience)

Family in
Israel
Iraq
Pakistan
Haiti
United States
Puerto Rico

(Will my baby talk, grow, learn?)

This is my preschool work environment. This is my community. This is why i live in a large city, with a beautifully diverse environment. I make peace when I go to mass with my community who may call Puerto Rico, Africa, Vietnam, or the United States (And of course our neighborhood) HOME. I make peace when I speak to parents, children, brothers sister -- Regardless of their language or country of origin.

I cannot change the war in Iraq, the hunger in Haiti. But my choice to live in this city, to work in this preschool, to act with Love and Peace are my personal change.

Oh gee......Are gas prices all I see?

Gas prices bite right now. It's a fact. 3.81 a gallon was the price today. I'm blessed enough to not be too worried about this, although it DOES impact my decisions, my budget, and my overall budget.

SO, here is our family 'plan.' It's partially motivated by gas prices but I think also motivated by desire to 'drive less.' Luckily, we live in a city that makes biking easy and breezy.

I use my car two and from work each day. Necessary. K uses bike or shuttle. Only occasionally car. On the weekend, we use K's car for trips. Also, we use OUR FEET to walk to the local coffee shop, church, CVS or THE BIKE as often as possible.

It's not a perfect plan, but we too are making an effort to reduce overall driving. What about u?

Simple Change . . . It's still change.

1. Reduce.
2. Recycle.
3. Reuse.

In other words:

1. Buy, consume, use less stuff. Make choices that create less stuff.
2. Recycle thru your community collections the stuff you use.
3. Instead of throwing stuff away/recycling: Use it again.

Whole Wheat Flat Bread & Chicken Salad

Recipe for FLAT BREAD from Food Network. (My additions in RED) Homemade Flat Bread Recipe courtesy Kathleen Daelemans Show: Cooking Thin Episode: Southern Sisters

1 package active yeast 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (WHOLE WHEAT) 1 teaspoon coarse salt 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (I used 1/2 tablespoon crushed, dried rosemary) 3/4 cup water (might need more) 1 teaspoon oil In the bowl of a food processor combine the yeast, sugar, flour, salt and thyme. Pulse to combine. (I mixed by hand). Add the water in a steady stream until the dough begins to form a ball, turn it on to a board and knead with the heel of your hand until the dough is smooth and elastic. Coat a bowl with oil. Place dough in bowl, and cover with a damp cloth. Put in a warm spot to rise until double in size, about 1 hour. (Mine rose for 2 hours...went on a bike ride.) When the dough has doubled in size, punch the dough, scrape it onto the counter and knead it lightly into a smooth ball. Cut into 20 pieces and with a rolling pin roll out to form very flat 5 to 6-inch circles. Preheat a stove top grill pan over medium high. Do not oil. Place bread on hot grill and cook without touching it until you see bubbles on the surface, about 1 to 2 minutes. Turn and continue to cook 1 to 2 minutes more or until bread has puffed up. Serve immediately. Now, for the chicken salad: 1/3 cup mayo 2 cups shredded chicken (I used pre-cooked bbq. The whole kind you buy at the store.) 1/3 lemon squeezed into mix 5 whole green olives sliced diced onions, to taste Salt, pepper, and chile/texas seasoning to taste Combine in bowl and stir well. Chill in fridge. Serve on flatbread. This was an awesome meal. The flatbread isn't fast, but it was delish. The bubbles when it cooks are fun to watch, if you lead the exciting life I do. Plus, the sweet fiance loved it AND I did too. Yummy.

Basil -n- Pesto Pizza

So, this week I made DELICIOUS pesto for the first time. I got 2 recipes out of the pesto.
Go to this web address for the entire pesto recipe + great pics:
http://www.pickyourown.org/pesto.php

Tomato, Cheese & Pesto Pizza

- 2 ripe vine tomatoes
- 1 bag pre-shredded mozzarella cheese
- basil leaves (enough for 2 cups)
- fresh grated Parmesan cheese (a cheaper sub of Parmesan-Reggiano)
- EXTRA virgin olive oil
- pine nuts
- Fresh garlic cloves (to taste)
- Pizza Crust (pre-made or homemade)

1. If you are making your own pizza crust, look up recipe and prep the dough to rise 1st. Lots of recipes available online, depending on your taste. I used one with honey and whole wheat flour.

2. While dough rises, prepare pesto. Put in fridge to chill. (See website! This one is great.)

3. Rest while dough finishes rising after pesto is prepped.

4. Roll-out dough or prep your pre-made crust.

5. Spread chilled pesto onto pizza crust as base/sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over pesto. Place tomatoes on top.

Bake at 350 until cheese is melted and slightly brown/crust is cooked through.

ENJOY~ I didn't include all the specific details of times/amounts because you can really tweak the recipe depending on ingredients/preference. I'm a really flexible 'chef' so I constantly make adaptations. For example, when making this recipe I also took leftover dough and spread spaghetti sauce on top then added cheese. These were lunch the next day. Also, the leftover pesto went on quickly boiled pasta (simple pasta and pesto) the next night. Even though this was an evening of cooking, it resulted in 3 awesome meals.


Your recipes? Thoughts? Ideas? I was surprised at how easy it is to make my own bread, wheat tortillas, crust. It does take several hours of open time to hang out around the house, but money wise---a GREAT deal. Also, even though it takes time, when you think about how much other's pay for access to simple flour and how much CHEAPER it is to make our own bread . . . . Well, that's food for thought.

If we see where our food comes from, does that change our decisions?

Recipes to follow:
- homemade salsa with home grown cilantro
- homemade enchiladas, the easy way

Britney Spears

Ok, seriously...

Really, the girl just can't drive. C'mon.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20199899,00.html


I know, commenting on britney borders on lame. But, it's just proof that money can't
buy you everything...like the sense to use your driver's if you are a bad driver.

Ok...ASAP we will return to our faithful topic of enviro-saving/fun eating/planting 101.


To follow:
Recipes for homemade honey-wheat pizza with pesto.

SPROUTS!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls . . .

I have sprouts, of the basil and cilantro variety. Pics to follow.

It's exciting, esp. since I live in the city, to see 'lil seeds
sprout up into plants that can hopefully be used in my food.

Kinda like when I made homemade wheat tortillas last weekend. You see flour.
You see oil. You mix and stir and press. Cook. Then you see food.

(I know, right? Growin herbs and cooking homemade tortillas....)

Simply Thursday Challenge

Turn down two bags at stores between NOW and next Thursday.
Only two.

Or turn down more, and use cloth bags.

(If everyone says, 'no thank you' 2x per week to plastic/paper bags in the U.S...what would the impact be?)