5 juicing tips | Leave a comment
By Heather Ledeboer | Category: Healthy Living, Recipes & Kitchen Tips
You may remember that I decided to go 10 days juicing my breakfast and lunch at the beginning of the year. I wanted to follow up to let you know how that went.
I can think of at least 38 other types of eating plans that would be be more difficult for me 
. I LOVE fresh juice so I didn’t mind drinking it so often at all. I did however, have big temptations at night. My initial plan was to eat dinner with my family but avoid desserts. I did okay for the first few days but somewhere early on I had dinner with some friends at Red Robin. The dessert menu was calling my name and a friend at the table offered to share a mile high mud pie with me and I caved. The stinky part was that even though it tasted great in the beginning, by the end I was totally done, it was TOO sweet. Sadly, I can’t even report that it ended there. That mud pie was some sort of gateway drug for me and each evening after that I decided that dessert would be okay. *sigh* I kept having mental debates with myself about why I was doing this, if it was important to not have desserts or if I should just be more flexible, it was really quite entertaining (to myself).
In retrospect I think I did myself a big diservice by allowing that first dessert past my lips. But oh well, I am giving myself grace and am still glad that I did the rest of my challenge.
One blog reader emailed me asking how I juice frozen strawberries (as I had mentioned that was one of the foods we often included in our juice). I realized that was not very well explained on my end, sorry! Below are a few tips that might help if you are new to juicing:
Juicing tips:
1. If you are making smoothies in a blender or VitaMix type machine you can of course just pop in the frozen items as-is. However, for juicing, frozen foods must first be thawed. I often try to set them out the night before on the counter, but if I forget I will put them in the microwave briefly (I do try to avoid that step when possible however as I have a tendency to not trust that appliance).
2. If you are juicing both soft and hard things, to do some soft (such as oranges, spinach or thawed strawberries) followed by some hard (such as apples or carrots). This helps push the softer foods down and through the juicer more easily.
3. I have been thrilled to discover that spinach has such a mild flavor that I can easily add at least two handfuls to my juice (followed by something hard to help push it through) without any major flavor change. The color of course will be SUPER green. I use the organic plastic rectangular box of spinach from Costco.
4. If you think your kids might turn their noses up at the color of your juice, you might try hiding it for the first few times in a sippy cup like these stainless steel ones from Kid Basix where they cannot see the color. I did that a few times and then we ended up talking about Popeye and how it was our “power juice” and made us strong and they were won over and now they don’t care at all that it is green.
5. The first few times that I introduced the green juice to my kids I made sure to add some extra amounts of strawberries so it was really nice and sweet. After those first few times I backed off on the amount and they didn’t notice.
Heather Ledeboer
I am a Christian, wife, mom and the owner of Mom 4 Life. I have a passion for helping moms and encouraging them in their journey through motherhood. I invite you to journey along with me!
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Posted Wednesday, February 8, 2012
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Baby Light & Clip Safety Nail Clippers – A Mom4Life Giveaway | 15 Comments
By Heather Ledeboer | Category: 4 Free Giveaway, Mom 4 Life News & Giveaways
Congratulations to Christine, the winner of last week’s giveaway! Dapper Snappers Adjustable Toddler Belts are now 20% off for one week only! Keep your child’s pants up where they belong with Dapper Snappers.
Do you enjoy clipping your baby’s nails? I used to worry about accidently clipping their fingers. In fact, I have a scar on the end of my index finger from when my mom cut my finger by accident when I was a baby. If this is something you worry about from time to time, this week’s giveaway is the solution for you!
Dapper Snappers Adjustable Toddler Belts to the rescue to fix droopy drawers in a snap!
Retail Price: $13.99 $11.19 20% off for one week only!
Imagine this… You’re getting the kids dressed in the morning and discover that, lo and behold, your smallest darling has had a nighttime growth spurt and all his pants are too short. “Thank goodness for hand-me-downs,” you think as you raid your preschooler’s outgrown clothes from last year. You slide them up and snap them, concentrating on the cuffs, delighted to see they are the correct length…until you let go of the clasp and the waist shimmies down to the poor child’s thighs! Ugh…the length is good but the waist is too big. Dapper Snappers can solve this situation in a snap! Simply slip it in the back belt loops and customize the fit according to your child’s waist size. Soon their pants will fit and they won’t have to fuss with a belt to get their pants on and off, easy peasy!… learn more or watch my Dapper Snappers toddler belt review video (this week’s video is extra fun as it features the children’ of the mom inventor as well as my daughter Ashlyn all talking about what they like about their Dapper Snappers and showing us how easy it is to use)!
Baby Light & Clip Lighted Safety Nail Clippers
Retail Price: $9.99
Baby Light & Clip Lighted Safety Nail Clippers are a unique and safe way to trim baby’s nails! The lighted nail clipper light illuminates from under baby’s tiny nail . . . taking the guess work out of just where to safely clip! Trim in dark or dimly lit room while baby’s sleeping! Help prevent your baby’s tiny fingertip from going in between cutting blades with Safety Guards. The Nail Clipping Tray helps keep clippings from falling into baby’s bedding… learn more or watch my Baby Light & Clip review video to see how easy it is to use!
To enter: simply follow the directions in the Rafflecopter entry form below (it is necessary to be on our blog to do this so if you are reading this via email you will need to visit this post directly).
Heather Ledeboer
I am a Christian, wife, mom and the owner of Mom 4 Life. I have a passion for helping moms and encouraging them in their journey through motherhood. I invite you to journey along with me!
Follow Me:
Posted Friday, February 3, 2012
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Cooking with beans | 6 Comments
By Heather Ledeboer | Category: Healthy Living, Recipes & Kitchen Tips, The Journey of Motherhood
Beans, beans the musical fruit, the more . . .
Let’s talk about beans today!
One year ago I shared that my goal for 2011 was to add more whole grains, nuts and grains into our diet. I took the plunge by purchasing 5 large 25 pound bags of dried beans (kidney, pinto, Northern, black and garbanzo) from Azure Standard. Prices range depending on the variety but average just slightly over $1 a pound. For most beans: 1 pound dried beans = 2 cups dried = 4 – 5 cups cooked beans (source). I split each bag with a friend allowing both of us to enjoy the savings of buying in bulk without having to store a ton of beans. I found room in a guest bedroom closet for the bags and simply stocked and labeled Mason jars in my pantry for each type of bean.
I am super pleased to say that I am getting ready to place a restocking order through Azure for more beans. Although I don’t feel that our bean consumption last year was where I want it to be, I feel it was a good start that I can build on this year.
Cooking with beans.
When it comes right down to it, the main two things that have kept me from cooking more often with beans is simply a lack of advanced planning and a lack of bean recipes. Cooking with dried beans is not hard (in fact it is quite easy) but it does require planning ahead. I simply can’t cook with dried beans unless I am meal planning.
Planning out my meals in advance is a crucial step for me because:
- It allows me the opportunity each evening to examine what I will be making the next two days and if necessary begin the soaking process (details on how to do this below).
- It provides me with the opportunity to be intentional about finding and scheduling bean based (or supplemented) recipes.
I found this one page PDF summery explaining how to soak and cook dried beans very helpful.
Bean Recipes.
Bean based recipes are not something that I have felt very equipped with in general. I do have my favorite standard Chili recipe and within the last year I have discovered some other great favorites such as:
But lets be real, refried beans are a side dish and hummus is more of a dip/spread. These are not meals.
Lucky for me I have also been reading the Kitchen Stewardship blog. Katie has an ebook called The Everything Beans book which (even after cooking with beans for a year) has been a wonderful resource. Not only do I appreciate having an entire recipe book filled with new bean recipes as I plan out my weekly meals (this recipe book includes appetizers, soups, main dishes and desserts), but I have also found Katie’s detailed instructions on how to soak and cook beans to be extremely helpful.
I have learned things such as why it is helpful to do long bean soaks whenever possible, what foods to eat with beans to help make them a complete protein and helpful tips on how to reduce the gas that bean consumption can create. I also realized how easy it is to simply cook more than I need and refrigerate (for about a week) or freeze the extras for another meal!
I also was SHOCKED to learn that bringing my kidney beans to a boil for at least 10 minutes is absolutely essential to deactivating a toxic compound called phytohaemagglutinin. This compound can cause horrible nausea, vomiting and diarrhea by consuming as few as four-five beans which are raw or improperly cooked. Because I like to use my slow cooker, this was really good to learn because cooking kidney beans in a slow cooker without bringing them to a boil can actually make the toxic effects five times worse!
Don’t let that last bit scare you away from adding this healthy, economical and versatile food to your meal plans!
Do you already cook with beans? Why or why not? Which beans do you like best? What recipe(s) are your favorites?
Please note: I am an affiliate of Kitchen Stewardship’s eBooks, which means I’ll earn a small commission from any sales made through links to her book. I first read and used her book personally before deciding if it was one that I felt you would find valuable.
Heather Ledeboer
I am a Christian, wife, mom and the owner of Mom 4 Life. I have a passion for helping moms and encouraging them in their journey through motherhood. I invite you to journey along with me!
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Posted Thursday, February 2, 2012
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My first twitter hate message | 18 Comments
By Heather Ledeboer | Category: The Journey of Motherhood
I will admit it, I still have a little bit of a hard time understanding twitter. I try, I really do. But something about facebook just makes more sense to me (maybe it is the way I can see the name and photo of the person talking and see the conversations all stacked together in a logical way so I don’t mistakenly wonder who is saying what to who and why).
So when I saw this twitter post saying “i.hate.you.mom.4.life.” you can understand why I sat there staring at my computer screen for a few minutes trying to decide if this was directed at me or this woman’s actual mother. After checking out her profile and seeing that see was a college student I decided to feel sorry for her mom.
How about you, do you prefer twitter or facebook (or neither) and why?
Heather Ledeboer
I am a Christian, wife, mom and the owner of Mom 4 Life. I have a passion for helping moms and encouraging them in their journey through motherhood. I invite you to journey along with me!
Follow Me:
Posted Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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Dapper Snappers – A Mom4Life Giveaway | 22 Comments
By Heather Ledeboer | Category: 4 Free Giveaway, Mom 4 Life News & Giveaways
Congratulations to Laura, the winner of last week’s giveaway! The Tag*a*Long Handle is now 20% off for one week only, so don’t miss this opportunity to shop for a great product at a great price!
Do your child’s hand-me-downs fit as well as they could? Is the waist often too big for your little ones pants? Does your child struggle with a traditional belt? Keep your child’s pants up where they belong with this week’s easy-to-use and affordable giveaway!
The Tag*a*Long Handle to Keep Independent Kids Close
Retail Price: $11.99 $9.99 20% off for one week only!
Do you have a child that longs to be independent but is still to young to safely walk totally on their own? The Tag*a*Long addresses this need head on. It is a handle that you can easily attach to your stroller, shopping cart, or diaper bag providing an option for older siblings or those kids that do not want to sit in the stroller, keeping them close by your side… learn more or watch my Tag a Long review video to see not only how easy it is to start using, but the many places and ways in which it can be used!
Dapper Snappers Adjustable Toddler Belts to the rescue to fix droopy drawers in a snap!
Retail price: $13.99
Imagine this… You’re getting the kids dressed in the morning and discover that, lo and behold, your smallest darling has had a nighttime growth spurt and all his pants are too short. “Thank goodness for hand-me-downs,” you think as you raid your preschooler’s outgrown clothes from last year. You slide them up and snap them, concentrating on the cuffs, delighted to see they are the correct length…until you let go of the clasp and the waist shimmies down to the poor child’s thighs! Ugh…the length is good but the waist is too big. Dapper Snappers can solve this situation in a snap! Simply slip it in the back belt loops and customize the fit according to your child’s waist size. Soon their pants will fit and they won’t have to fuss with a belt to get their pants on and off, easy peasy!… learn more or watch my Dapper Snappers toddler belt review video (this week’s video is extra fun as it features the children’ of the mom inventor as well as my daughter Ashlyn all talking about what they like about their Dapper Snappers and showing us how easy it is to use)!
To enter: simply follow the directions in the Rafflecopter entry form below (it is necessary to be on our blog to do this so if you are reading this via email you will need to visit this post directly).
Heather Ledeboer
I am a Christian, wife, mom and the owner of Mom 4 Life. I have a passion for helping moms and encouraging them in their journey through motherhood. I invite you to journey along with me!
Follow Me:
