Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Have you ever wondered why those tasty nuts and seeds always sit so heavy on your stomach? Well, it is because there are enzyme inhibitors in nuts.  The inhibitors are there to protect the seeds so that they don't sprout under less than ideal conditions.  However, these enzyme inhibitors can cause digestive problems in us as well as keeping some of the great nutrients that are found in nuts not even available to us.  

The Solution

Soak your nuts in warm filtered water with sea salt over night and then either roast the nuts in a 150 degree oven for 12 hours or put the nuts in a dehydrator for a day.  This not only makes the nuts more easily digestible, but quite a bit tastier as well!

Pumpkin seeds

Since I was roasting a pumpkin for Thanksgiving today I thought it would be a great opportunity to try out roasted pumpkin seeds as well.  Pumpkin seeds are full of all kinds of important nutrients and natural oils.  Plus, they make a tasty snack to have laying around the house this time of year as people gather around to talk, reconnect and break bread.

This post is part of Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.  To find more posts head over to Tammy's Recipes.

Beef, It's what's for dinner!

I am so excited that while we were gone to Kansas, our meat arrived!  Not just any ole meat, mind you--free range, hormone free, antibiotic free, straight from the good ole state of New Mexico meat.  My parents and I bought a half of a cow.  :)  Now we probably paid way more than you would in a store (about $7 a pound), but when you factor in that we are getting a wide range of cuts of meat for that price and that similar types of meat sell for $5 in the grocery store, but you can only get ground meat that way, then I'd say in the long run we saved money.  Besides the fact that I really need red meat for my anemia issues, I believe strongly that all of the hormones pumped into our food is really negatively affecting our society--especially children who are most susceptible.  Ever wonder why girls are starting puberty younger and younger?  What about the boys?  And why are so many more couples having a hard time conceiving?  While I believe there are many factors to this issue, I think a major factor is the amount of hormones pumped into our bodies everyday by our beef, chicken, milk, eggs, turkey, etc.  Having this abundance has got to put serious strain on our bodies ability to effectively regulate our hormones. 

So, in the long run, I'm glad to be paying a little more money for some quality meat that I know is nourishing my  family.  

By the way, if anyone is interested I bought our meat from Ranney Ranch in Corona, NM.  Or, you could check out the Eat Wild website to find some local grass fed beef in your area.  I believe that is how I found my local-ish meat as well.  The website also has great information on why eating grass fed beef is so much better for you.

Embarking on an Adventure

This week a large portion of the family on my husband's side is embarking on an adventure. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and myself are the wedding decorators for one of my best friend's wedding. The fun part about this wedding is that it is two dear friends. My husband has known the groom since he was a teenager from Kansas Bible Camp. The bride is a dear friend we met while in Oklahoma City after college. We met her at church and God knit our friendship together. We are so excited from them, but have also decided that we are a little crazy to not only be doing the decorations and in the wedding party, we also made all of the favors--homemade apple butter. We think ceremonies are important and that people do not place enough importance on the ceremony of a wedding. If something is just haphazardly thrown together with no thought then we are missing something. God loves ceremonies and believes they are important. Look at all the covenants--ceremonies. He has us perform a ceremony as identification of his body--baptism. He even calls Christians His bride and invites us to one day join the wedding feast. God values the picture that ceremonies create not only to those involved in the ceremony, but to those who observe the ceremony. Weddings seem to hold an extra special place as cited above, but also because Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding. There is something holy about knitting two people together with Christ.

With that in mind, we decided to help this couple with their ceremony, because they are special and we want this ceremony to honor God, as a picture of how their marriage will honor God.

The above picture is an early picture of one of the tables we hope to create at the wedding. I will post more pictures after we return.

Virginia

I thought it was about time to post some pictures of our trip. This is inside Luray Caverns. It's a beautiful place and such a different type of cave than Carlsbad Caverns. Luray seems to be more interactive because the cavern isn't as tall so you feel like you are right in the middle of the beauty.








I've also officially decided it's much more fun to experience things through my kiddo. He loved the caves! "Wrock" "wrock" that's all he kept saying--he loves rocks!










I'd also like to take this time to mention that my family rocks. This was about the best cake I've ever eaten. My sister-in-law made this cake and it was really beautiful before we started eating it. ;) That icing was really fantastic and I definitely need to get that recipe. Every time I make frosting it's thin and runny--look at how thick that stuff is!



Sorry for a rambling post.

What Great Things He Has Done

This past week has so much to be thankful for that I find it hard to narrow down.  I am especially thankful for a flexible little 21 month old boy who did wonderfully traveling to visit family.  He did not cry or get upset on either 5 and a half hour flight to and from Washington, DC.  The only time he felt the need to cry was after being in the car one and half hours after DC traveling to VA.  My husband graciously told him "it's okay, you can cry you've come about 1500 (?!) miles."  I am thankful for a loving and patient husband who carried our son everywhere in airports and held him in his lap on the plane.  What joy it is to see the bond they have together.  My son is usually pretty rigid in his schedule and liking things to be the same so I figured he would have a hard time on our travels since we stayed at a new place nearly every night, but he slept wonderfully!  God was so good to insure that our time in VA was an enjoyable time with family. It seems like a minute thing in the grand scheme of life, but I am so thankful to have a God who is personal and cares about even the small things of life.  Who knows even the hairs on my head.

To read more Gratituesday posts visit Heavenly Homemakers.

The Forbidden Chile

We recently went to Virginia for four days to visit my brother-in-law and his wife (does that make her my sister-in-law?  It's so confusing!).  We had so much fun and did so much I could never fully summarize in a readable post.  ha!  My favorite part of the trip, I think, was visiting Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house.  The country side was beautiful and the garden and orchard area are still in  use, although much scaled back from the 5,000 acre plantation that it once was.  I apparently did an Eve impression while we were perusing the garden though.  We came across a plant called Texas red bird peppers.  Well being from New Mexico and growing up eating hot chilies I thought any pepper from Texas surely couldn't be that hot.  So, I asked my husband if he would eat half if I hate half.  He reluctantly agreed so I picked the pepper, took a bite and handed the other half to him.  What I failed to realize between the time that I took a bite and then handed it to my husband was that this pepper was incredibly hot and the entire berry sized pepper was completely full of seeds (which is the hottest part of any chile)!  I quickly spit it out and then my breath was taken away as my eyes watered uncontrollably.  Once I could see through my pain I looked at my husband who was doing the same thing.  About 30 minutes later the burn had stopped, but it did sort of ruin the rest of the beautiful vegetable garden.  I thought it was pretty funny, but I wonder what this speaks of my character.  I guess I am still prone to the same sin as Eve, it was a bit of a humbling experience.  I always give Eve a hard time, but I guess I wouldn't have been much better except my forbidden fruit is a chile.  :)

Disturbing trend

I was perusing a few sites I normally frequent and came across this article.  I hate to even mention anything political because I hate to fight with people on an issue I think we all have the right to choose for ourselves.  But, I also highly doubt this will make a big splash in the media so I thought I'd pass it along.  Apparently, Obama is in favor of a mandatory register for the draft for women.  I find it rather disturbing that once again our society is trying to pit that there is no difference between men and women.  I say there definitely is a difference--a very good difference--and I'm soooo glad there is one.  How boring life would be without the differing of sexes.