Strawberry Oatmeal; A simple breakfast

Aynaria 2 Comments

organic-steel-cut-oats.07.24.10.jpgToday’s breakfast was a simple but delicious affair, no fruit puddings this morning. The star performer for our breakfast meal was oats.

Last evening, I added one cup of steel-cut organic oats into a bowl, I poured in 1.5 cups of water, and let the oats soak overnight. This morning, the oats were soft, fluffy, and ready to be eaten. The only thing I had to do was add fresh fruit and serve. I meant to snap a few photos, but my daughter and I ate it before I even thought about taking a picture.

Strawberry Oatmeal

  • 1 cup of steel-cut oats (if you don’t have those buy some old fashioned oatmeal) that have been soaked overnight

    • The beauty of letting your oats soak overnight, is that you don’t have to cook them the next morning.

  • 1/2 freshly pureed or diced strawberries
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • *Add natural sweetener to taste. You could use honey (not vegan), or raw turbinado sugar, sweeten to taste

Directions

  1. Split oats into two bowls
  2. Add spices
  3. Garnish with strawberries
  4. Serve & enjoy!

*Makes two servings

My daughter and I are used to the natural sweetness of fresh fruit, so the sweetness from the strawberries was enough for us, however, if you need more why not add a natural sweetener? Another thing, sample the soaked oats before making your cereal, if you think it’s to chewy, by all means cook the oats. The great thing, is since the oats have been soaked they’ll be ready in minutes.

What are steel-cut oats?

Steel-cut oats are the inner part of the oat. Instead of being rolled, like your standard oats, they have only been cut two or three times by steel. This means minimal processing for the oats (good news for a person like myself who prefers whole food cuisine.) This results in a coarser cut oat. Check out the above picture, the oats resemble brown rice. I love steel-cut oats; it has a chewier and nuttier texture. Just remember, if you’re cooking steel-cut oats, the cooking time can be longer. Naturally, if you soak your oats first, that time is diminished.

A few oat benefits;

  1. lower glycemic index
  2. lower spike in insulin levels when eaten

Being the whole food diva that I am, it’s no surprise that I tend to reach for the steel cut oats instead of the rolled oats.

In other news…

My father turned 72 years old today, happy Birthday Dad! He’s still in phenomenal shape. He runs, lift weights, works around the house. He can still can beat men half his age in races, much to the embarrassment of them, heh. He was part time National Guard, along with his regular job. They still had to compete in PT (physical training test) and it was with great satisfaction that he still left the “younguns” in the dust up until he retired at 65. Nice to see he can still do that too, at 72! I imagine I’ll be similar to him, if I reach his age. I physically active, and love competition too. I’m definitely my father’s daughter.

Decluttering is almost complete, I try not to do work on Sunday’s however I think I might work a bit after church to get the last room (my bedroom) back to normal. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to post the bean burger recipe tomorrow

Decluttering our living space

Aynaria 4 Comments

hammer.07.23.10.gifFor the past several months renovations have been going on in our home, furniture, and numerous other items were moved while the work was being completed, and over time we were able to move things back into their proper home.

Some of the items found new locations because they simply fit better in the new space, and other items were donated to nonprofit organization or given away to family/friends.

Our house renovations are almost complete, the house is a little bigger, a litte more environmentally friendly, and more importantantly the house is feeling like home again. Our dog, Mr. Bentley is happy too, as the reigning king of “his castle” aka our home, he now has full command of every room, so his bouts with the occasional grumpy attack is becoming a distant memory.

To be honest, I’m shocked with the amount of items I’ve parted with over the past several months. Some items were things I had latched on for sentimental reasons and haven’t used in years, others were things I did use but realized I could do without them. I still have bookshelves full of books, and have no desire to get rid of them.

Regarding my books, I realize that our home can only house so many books. I get it, do I like it? No, but I’ve eased up on my book purchases. These days, I’m picking up books from the library, and I’m looking for alternative methods, like the electronic ebooks.

I’ve seen the Amazon Kindle, touched it, played with it, and even reviewed it for a few tech websites. It does a lot of the things you want from a ebook, but I didn’t like it’s appearance. I am interested in the iPad, love the looks and the fact that it’s more than an ebook device. I’ve been wanting Apple to release something similar for years. I’m in no rush to get one; it will be around when I finally decide to get it.

In other news…

Yesterday, my daughter, and I went to the pool. It’s always nice to take a break from your work/personal activities and spend time with the family. Yes, I did more aqua jogging to the delight of my seven-year old daughter.

Shortly after returning home, I made Black Bean burgers; they turned out amazing. They were slightly crisp on the outside, and moist on the inside. The combination of black beans, vegetables, and spices, made a delicious and healthy burger. These vegan burgers stayed firm, even during the burger flipping. I used a 1/2 cup of oatmeal to bind the ingredients, more on those burgers and a recipe (or two) will be posted this weekend.

Last evening my daughter and I had a craving for Chinese food and so I made stir fried vegetable rice. We’re not late night eaters, but it was a nice change, the vegetables tasted delicious, plenty of photos were taken, so I’ll be sure to post a few over the weekend.

Garden Produce – Beware of our Tomato Guardian

Aynaria 8 Comments
Shih-Tzu-Tomato-Guardian_2.07.22.10.jpg

Mr. Bentley, tomato guardian: You no take tomatoes!
Say hello to Mr. B, ferocious Shih Tzu that keeps our property safe from any unsavory elements that dares venture into our environment. He’s a tough little bugger and will attack his victim with licks, begs to be rubbed, all while batting his big brown eyes. So much for being ferocious, in this picture he’s guarding our tomato harvest, and could not be swayed from the area. Actually, I think he’s hoping for a treat.

Shih-Tzu-Tomato-Guardian_1.07.22.10.jpg

I can be bribed with treats
Tomato facts

    • Tomatoes are colorful

Besides the customary red or orange color, tomatoes can also be purple, green, yellow, and brown. Add a few of those colors to a salad or lightly steamed dish and you’ll have a colorful display!

    • Tomato are fruits
    • Tomatoes are an excellent source of antioxidants
    • Tomatoes paired with broccoli are a delicious way to fight prostate cancer
    • Tomatoes are a great source of vitamin B6, potassium, folate, and niacin.
    • Tomatoes are a good for bone health, since they contain vitamin K.

Why is Vitamin K important? I’m glad you asked. In the Vitamin K family, there’s a cool one named Vitamin K1. This vitamin triggers osteocalcin. Think of Osteocalcin as the top dog when it comes to non collagen protein in the bone. Perhaps that’s why Mr. B, is so protective of our tomatoes? Top dog, he’s a dog! Ok, ok that was so bad! Moving along… Osteocalcin latches onto calcium inside the bone. You need Vitamin K1 to maintain adequate bone mineralization; one of the tasty ways you can nourish your bones is by eating your tomatoes.

Upcoming gardening post…

I’m hoping I can post more gardening pictures today. It’s going to be busy in our household. My daughter has piano practice this morning. So we’ll be visting the piano teacher. Gardening wise, we still have a lot to harvest, or I should say “I still have a lot to harvest” my daughter helps for a bit than she’s off playing in the garden. I let her play, she does chores around the house.

What’s cooking?

Currently I have black beans cooking on the stove, here’s hoping I get around to making black bean burgers later today. Currently I’m trying to decide what type of smoothie I want. Mentally flipping through my stash of vegan recipes I decided to make a savory green smoothie. After all, I definitely have enough tomatoes.

Check out more Wordless Wednesday particpants.

Steam snags Alien Swarm; Catch it now, it's free!

Aynaria 5 Comments

steam-powered.07.21.10.gifI enjoy video games, however, recently I really haven’t had a chance to play anything. You know how it is, at times you don’t get to indulge in your me time activities because there’s so much going on in your life. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, jobs, family time, volunteering, working on a side project (in my case this website, and a few other things) gets into the way of doing some of the carefree activities like gaming, catching movies with friends, or curling up with a good book.

Video games, are one of my “me time” activities. I haven’t played them too much recently. I’m not sad, I simply have other things that take priority over gaming. However, I still keep up-to-date with the gaming news. Hellmode (one of my new favorite gaming sites by the way) posted that Steam is offering Alien Swarm for free. All you need to do is log on and download the game? Oh, you do have to have Windows. Sorry to all the Mac and Linux users out there. I won’t be playing it either, since I mainly play or my Mac or Xbox 360. If you aren’t a Steam member you can join for free. Simply sign up for an account at Steam’s website and your in business.

From Steam’s website…

Alien Swarm is a game and Source SDK release from a group of talented designers at Valve who were hired from the Mod community. Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. With your friends, form a squad of four distinct IAF Marine classes.

It’s always nice seeing Indy people recognized. I use a lot of Indy applications on my MacBook Pro, and have snagged a few Indy games in the past too. Earlier today, I logged onto steam to check out the video. I haven’t been on there since early July when I was playing Torchlight. The gameplay appealed to me, and if it were available for Mac users, it’s something I would download. If you want to learn more about the game, surf over to Hellmode and check out Ashelia’s writeup about Alien Swarm. It’s an excellent review, it almost makes me wish I had the time to play it.

In other news…

Upcoming screenshots of the garden, and the overabundance of produce we’ve reveived. I’m so thankful for the rain. Plums, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, cucmbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, blackberries, figs, etc., We’re truly blessed.

Murdering my Darlings; A decrease in categories

Aynaria 4 Comments

wall-E.07.21.10.jpgHere at Celebrate Life, checking out my Category section was a bit of an embarrassment. They were a big mess. There were times when I had posts listed under multiple categories. It’s something I didn’t like. However, I decided to push it out of my mind, and not think about other things. Your problems will magically disappear if you do that. Ok, that’s not true… They don’t go away, however, they can get bigger!

In my case, that’s exactly what happened. Although I completely ignored my category mess, it didn’t stop me from adding more. Yeah, yeah, I know that didn’t make any sense. My little darlings kept growing, and growing… it was out of control! Yes, in many cases those categories were repetitive. I had a hard time getting my “it’s the same but it isn’t the same” category naming tendencies under control. Let’s not even go into how many I had, mkay?

Yesterday, I took action, and eliminated a lot of categories. What caused this change of heart? Being a person who loves stats, I had already checked the effectiveness of the Categories via Google Analytics Site Overlay (very similar to Heatmap.) It confirmed my suspicions, my readers, rarely used my categories. The amount that do, was under 4%. That tag cloud I have? Well that doesn’t get used a lot either. I’m happy to say I’ve cut my categories down to nine. It’s simplistic, and not as confusing as before.

I’d recommend Google Site Analytics Site Overlay feature (or something similar) for anyone that is focused on building their virtual community. It lets you know what interests your readers, and where they are clicking too. With my older sites, I used it for many things, one of those being a spot that would get the most clicks for my Top Commenter’s. It’s always nice sending referrals their way.

Here’s something to think about… this site is still new the top way I’m getting traffic is simply by commenting on other peoples websites. I don’t comment on a lot of sites at the moment, my time is limited however when I actually do read what you write and am not giving you a canned answer with my response. I try to add to the conversation. It’s paid off since people have come to my site, that’s known as a referral.

In hindsight, I should have created my categories when I started this website, instead of creating them as I wrote.

If you’re a WordPress user and have the urge to decrease your categories. I’d like to recommend a WordPress Plug In that might make the transition a lot easier.

Recommended WordPress Plugin

Broken Link Checker created by Janis Elsts

It does exactly what it says, if you’re like myself and do a bit of internal linking, yes I linked to categories in some of my posts, chances are you might have a broken link. You want this WordPress plugin, seriously! This little addon will track them down for you and let you fix them. That it folks, after you’ve cleaned your categories to a respectable size, head on over to your PlugIns and click on the Broken Link Checker. You did install it right? No, what are you waiting for? If not grab it from the Plugin section in your admin tools, click on New, enter Broken Link Checker, install, activate, and you’re ready to go.

Of course, you can use this WordPress Plug in for more things than fixing your categories. I installed this a few weeks ago. I found a few broken links after the installation, and was able to update the links to point to the correct link in a few easy steps.

Cleaning up those broken category links will help out tremendously since your visitors won’t be tossed onto the dreaded 404 error page (which isn’t so dreadful if you have customized it.) For the record, I haven’t customized my 404 Error page yet, but it’s one of the things I’ll complete today.

Oh, the phrase Murder your Darlings, came from the excellent article by Rob Parnell.

Upcoming changes to Celebrate Life

Aynaria 6 Comments

changes.07.20.10.jpgWhoa, can you believe August is almost here? Time is really flying by. It won’t be long before my seven year old daughter heads off to school I’ll miss her while she’s away, but I’ll definitely get more accomplished.

if you follow me through the social media sites like Twitter. My name is @Moonndancer, you’ll know that I’ve been unusually quiet. Shocking I know, with the amount of tweets I can pump out. To be fair, I chat with and retweet a lot of my buddies post. I’m still around, I’ve just been focusing most of my online time on this website.

Celebrate Life is my newest website (it went live early this month.) The actual website started as a free WordPress site called Not Your Ordinary Momma, towards the end of May 2010. I love my daughter, but got tired of having Momma in my blog url, additionally I couldn’t stand the limitations with the Free WordPress site so I purchased a url, and moved to a paid hosting provider. Heals & Dots and Not your Ordinary Momma was my first time checking out a free platform. All my other sites, just like this one, are housed with a paid hosting provider.

Blogging isn’t new to me, it’s something I’ve been doing for several years. When I started, blogging I knew nothing about Search Engine Optimization. I believe I did know how to interact with others in a positive way. I hope it showed in the comments I left on the sites I visited. I enjoyed the interaction and did it often.

I can still recall when someone left a comment on my websites about Page Rank. I had no clue what they were talking about. My website had a Google Page Rank of five, which according to some was a ‘good thing.’ If I liked a person’s site, I would occasionally link to them in my posts. I didn’t do it to get a link back from them. It was simply my way of sharing a particular post to my readers. I figured if I like it, some of my readers might like the article and the writer. I can’t keep a good blog to myself. Whether you had a huge following or none at all that didn’t matter. I’d still link to you. If you think about it, we all have to start at the beginning. Even after becoming aware of Search Engine Optimization, I’m still following that principle. It’s just how I am.

Writing down my goals…

I’m a list person; I tend to write down my goals for whatever I want to accomplish. My lists are usually electronic, so you’ll find them on my 17″ MacBook Pro. I really like lists, since it keeps me focused, and motivated enough to turn those goals into a reality.

I’m not the only one who creates list, Amber Garner of Is this thing on? recently wrote The List. Her list isn’t focused on her website, but things she would like to do in general. Pinkie Larue, has a 101 list and has crossed off several things already. Here’s hoping we all achieve our goals.

Do I have a list for this site? You better believe it!

Upcoming Additions to Celebrate Life

  • Cleaning up my Catergory section

    • Have you seen it, it’s a mess! I don’t know what I was thinking when I created all those categories, and so I’ll be trimming it down. Chris Pearson wrote a great article titled, What Every Blogger Needs to Know About Categories. It’s an excellent read, I’d recommend reading through the comments too.

  • Recipe Page

    • Recently I’ve been doing a lot of behind the scenes work, and I hope the changes made are helpful and help you navigate through Celebrate Life as efficently as possible. Checking out Google Analytics, I’ve learned, that people come to Celebrate Life looking for recipes. Currently, I’m working on linking all the recipes I’ve posted here to a static page. I still have a long ways to go before I even put a dent in the amount of recipes I had on my cooking website, but in time they’ll get published.

  • Word Press Plugins

    • Ever visited a website and wondered what awesome Plug in they were using? Yeah, me too. I’m always happy when writers have a post or page dedicated to the WordPress Plug Ins they use. Interesting enough, on one of my older websites, my WordPress recommendation pages, received a lot of traffic. It seems a lot of folk were interested in reading what others thought about a specific Plugin.

  • Spotlight Post

    • With my other community based website, I spent a great deal of time recognizing those that made up my fabulous community. I met some amazing people from all over the world, and some of them I still keep in contact with. As this website grows, I’ll be adding that feature here. I’m not going to do it now. This url isn’t a month old yet, Google Analytics does tell me I’m starting to gain a small following of repeat visitors so for that I’m thankful. Thanks for returning to my site, it’s appreciated.

  • Giveaways

    • Giveaways can be a lot of fun; no I won’t have my readers jumping through hoops to enter to win something. With a few of my older websites, I was contacted a lot by various businesses to sample and offer items to my readers. I turned down a lot of those offers, since it’s something I knew that I or those within my little community wouldn’t want. When I do have giveaways I promise I’ll keep the requirements simple. So no, you won’t have to friend me on a ton of social media sites to enter to win. Who knows, you might see some of my own skin care products in the giveaway.

  • Instructional videos

    • This is something you won’t be seeing for a long time. The reason is simple, I’m extremely busy and really don’t have the time to devote to shooting or editing a video. However when I finally do get around to posting videos you’ll most likely see me cooking, sharing a natural skin care recipes, or showing you various exercises you can do at home, or the gym. I’ll need to get my workout partner to help out with the last one.

Overall I’m pleased with the direction Celebrate Life is headed. After blogging for several years, I know what I like. I’ll be incorporating some of what I’ve learned here. Naturally you’ll see improvements too. I still have a lot to learn.

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Moondancer, WordPress

Chronic Constipation: Eliminating It Naturally

Aynaria 5 Comments

constipation.07.20.10.jpg

I used to suffer from chronic constipation although I was rarely doubled over in pain from the lack of bowel movements, heaviness, and occasional cramps I experienced were uncomfortable. It surprised me because well… I was ‘healthy’ as a whole food vegan I was eating the right foods so why in the wold was I experiencing this problem? I decided to do some research as it turns out I wasn’t eating enough fiber rich foods.

Greens such as collards, kale, mustard greens, and turnip greens, were something I didn’t eat a lot of about eleven years ago. Sure I ate greens daily, mainly lettuce and spinach, but the amount of dark leafy greens I consumed was very small.

In my case simply upping my intake of greens caused me to have bowel movements again. Also, I incorporated self massage using specific essential oils. That did the trick in a few days; I was having bowel movements a few times daily.

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Constipation: Why does it happen?

  1. Not eating enough dietary fiber
  2. Not drinking enough liquids
  3. Lack of exercise
  4. Poor eating habits
  5. Ignoring the urge to have bowel movements

Several years ago, I was guilty of #1 and #5. Regarding #1, I realized that although I was consuming fiber daily I needed to increase the amount of fiber that I was adding into my diet. Now I usually eat at least three cups of some type of greens daily. It has been extremely effective in helping me have bowel movements a few times daily.

With #5, there were times when I did not want to have a bowel movement, for example, if I were in a public restroom I “held it” until I was in a private location, my own home. However the more I read about bowel health the more I realized that this isn’t a good practice and can contribute to a lazy bowels. I changed my ways.

If you listen to the mainstream view about bowel health having a bowel movement three times a week is considered normal and healthy. Really, if that is healthy why are there so many bowel related diseases in westernized cultures? I’m not buying it. Doesn’t it make sense that we should be eliminating shortly after we consume our foods?

When we look at the high amount of processed foods that invade our diets, the lack of exercise, and the poor excuse many of us make when it comes to changing our eating habits is it really any wonder that our health is so poor and many of us are plagued with health related diseases?

Natural ways to prevent or eliminate constipation

  • Eat fiber rich foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains)
  • Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of water
  • Avoid sugar and processed foods
  • Exercise regularly
  • Drink peppermint tea

    • peppermint has long history of relaxing muscles on the gastrointestinal tract.

  • Drink Apple Cider Vinegar tea.

At times, it seems that openly talking about constipation is frowned upon. Which is unfortunate, especially when we think of the complications it can cause in a persons life. A better approach would be to educate the public (and yourself) on natural ways we can eliminate constipation.

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Moondancer, Natural Remedies, whole food