DIY frozen blueberries

 

I got a great deal on blueberries today!  I love blueberries. They are very healthy for you full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidant power.

Blueberries are one of the easiest berries to add to your diet and one of the most nutritious.

Blueberries are easy to prepare; just wash and eat. They are easy to stir into oatmeal, or yogurt for an added breakfast boost.

They add a nice flavor to smoothies, and who doesn't love a blueberry muffin?

One of our favorite breakfasts is blueberry pancakes, and pancakes with berries make a nice dinner treat.


Blueberries are wonderful  to use fresh and they freeze nicely for later use.




Freezing blueberries is super easy


1. Wash the fruit with clean, cool water

2. Pick over the fruit, discard any withered, moldy, or squashed berries.

3. Place the fruit on a dishtowel and gently blot with another dishtowel (or paper towels) to remove any excess water.

4. Gently place the dry berries into zip-top style freezer bags and seal them up.

5. Place the bags full of berries in the freezer for later use.

Frozen berries will keep in the freezer for up to a year (they don't last that long at our house)



Get some of these wonderful berries in your diet today. 

When the box has better nutrition than what's inside

 
We all have had a chance to poke fun of Twinkies and other foods that have been the stories of urban legend. You know the ones that may or may not be classified food, those foods that will outlast every other thing because of the preservatives. But what about these foods and the other things that we eat on a daily basis?  



It is said that "you are what you eat" I do believe this to be true. If we eat nutritious foods in its whole form we will also be whole. We should be eating our fruits and vegetables and whole grains as the main staple foods in our life.  God did not make a mistake. He made our bodies to run off of whole foods. We should be eating food that comes from the farmer's field not the battlefield of food marketing.

 

Here is an interesting article from peeling back the layers.  In this article they discuss a group of researchers who were looking at the effects of fortified breakfast cereals in mice.  During the research someone got the idea that it would be interesting to feed the mice the box that the cereal came in. The results were interesting. They found that the rats fed the box lived longer than those that ate the cereal. Needless to say, this research was never published because it did not fit the needs of the cereal manufacturers. It would ruin them if the truth was really known.

What is a person to do to escape from that battlefield of food marketing, and how do we know if the foods we are eating will really harm us?   



1. Be aware. You should know that the studies we hear about are usually  paid for by the big companies. The results are usually "spun" to fit whatever it is they are selling and often studies like the one quoted above are never published.  

2. Your attitude about food makes a big difference. There was a time that I did very well.  My thought process was this "I eat to fuel my body, not feed my emotions!"  I had babies and forgot all that. I let myself get caught up in the attitudes of those around me because it was easier, therefore I have had to start over on the process of eliminating the bad food and gaining ground with the good stuff.



 

 

 



 

 

3. Begin with a few fruits and vegetables, and keep adding them until you have some great recipes for nutritious and delicious foods. It will be easier to make the transition and make it stick as a lifestyle change if you have some good recipes to rely on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more info you can check out the Weston A Price foundation

There is also an interesting book about the tricks that the large food companies employ

 

   

The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You to Know About

Check out some of these resources and see what happens in your life. 

Use this simple trick to clean and restore your car headlights

Who knew that regular old toothpaste could easily shine and restore your headlights? I tried this trick and was pleased with the results.

 

While there are several methods for doing this, I chose a direct approach.


1.  Apply a good amount of  regular old toothpaste directly to the headlight cover.

2.  Use a soft cloth to rub the toothpaste across the entire surface of the lens cover

3.  Wait 3-5 minutes

4. With a clean cloth and a bucket of cool water scrub the lens  cover clean.

5. Repeat step 4 until all the gunk and goo is removed.  

6. Wipe dry 


My experience with this method:

The toothpaste dried up fast as I rubbed (maybe it was the fact that I stopped to take a few pictures). I had to add more toothpaste as I went to ensure complete coverage. The other trouble I had was I had three young helpers (as Mom's often do) so I ended up with toothpaste in places that I didn't really want, like on the hood of the car. It took quite a bit of rinsing to get rid of all the extra toothpaste that comes from my helpers. 

It was well worth it. I have looked into lens restoration before, it is expensive to have someone else do it. Do it yourself kits are less expensive but still cost quit a bit. I got as good results with toothpaste as I did with one of the commercial cleaners that I used several years ago on another car before I knew about toothpaste.  

I give the simple toothpaste method 5 stars.


     

Don't heat the house making breads, make stove top breads instead

Wow, the summer heat has come!

What do you do when you don't like to eat store bought breads and heating up the house to make a batch of home-made bread is not a very good option?

 

 

      Make stove top breads! 

 

We make......

 homemade tortillas,

 flat bread,

 and English muffins (just to name a few).

They are all very easy to make and can really spice up a brown bag lunch or a summer picnic.

Life less hurried homemade tortillas

 

 

 

 

 

 

Herbed flat bread @ life less hurried



 

 

Life less hurried English muffins

You can check out these recipes and more in my cookbook Quick breads made easy from A-Z: with over 30 recipes for every season






For a limited time (Through Saturday July 12th) you can pick up the kindle edition of my cookbook for free! 

Just click on one of the links below and you will be taken to Amazon where you can pick up your free kindle book.

  
                                                         


                  Quick breads made easy from A-Z: with over 30 recipes for every season


While you are there, check out my other book For the love of popcorn: a cookbook for popcorn lovers of all ages





 

Earn stamps as part of a mail tracking program

For the last two and a half years I have been part of a mail tracking program. It has been a simple way to get stamps for free. As part of this volunteer program I help them track how long it takes the mail to arrive. They send me 10 stamps each month as a thank you for helping them.  It has been a blessing to our family. It is fairly simple work. When the mail comes you take a few moments and make a phone call to the 800 number to report on the publications came that day. Usually it takes less than two minutes to call in and report.

Once you have reported you can do whatever you desire with the magazines, catalogs, and flyers. Our children have loved some of the children's magazines that come to us through this program. They read them for a while and then we send the magazines to our local Elementary School for classroom use. The teachers have been appreciative of our donation to the classroom. The majority of the mail that comes to us through this program goes to the recycle bin that supports our local community.

The company is in need of people all across the country. If you would like to find out if there is a need in your particular area you can e-mail me   kookykeck @ yahoo (dot) com and I will get you in touch with the company.