All posts by The Natural Mammas

Green Halloween-The New Way to be Ghoulish

September 10, 2011 The Natural Mammas 6 Comments

I was just writing about Halloween party ideas for a client and realized, I never really pay much attention to the environmentality (if that were even a word) of the holiday (I use that word loosely as well…since technically Halloween isn’t a national holiday). I started thinking about how if you go to a store, even the Good Will store; all the costumes are gone in the few short weeks before Halloween. Seriously, I have seen racks with only one or two costumes left and although we keep our costumes in our home for years to come both as hand me downs and dress up clothes, I never realized that other people actually throw those costumes away each year.

Yes, Yes! Call me naïve. I live in a bubble. What can I say! But seriously, when I read the following statement on another website I was totally floored:

“Green Halloween notes that if we could just swap out about half the costumes used each year, we’d help reduce annual landfill waste by 6,250 tons (the weight of 2500 midsize cars).”

So then I started thinking about all the big retailers and they must sell millions of Halloween costumes each and every year right. Why on earth would anyone throw away a perfectly good Halloween costume after just one use and even more to the point, why throw it away rather than pass it on. Perhaps it came into disrepair, but I am betting there is some natural mamma out there somewhere that could use it to create the best green Halloween costume of all.

This past Halloween, my daughter wore a witch’s costume that I wore over 20 years ago that my mother had made by hand. Her accessories included an incredibly heavy broom made entirely out of twigs and wood fashioned by her father, a purple apron made from some old fabric that I had left from the curtains of someone’s Volkswagen bus (that used to be my thing…making curtains that is) and a witches hat passed down from her second cousin in Florida about 4 years ago. OH! Can’t forget the sparkly purple spider ring that came from who knows where…maybe a gift from the library? And we put glow stick juice in Jello and poured it into some old spice jars and added dead bugs; classic witch material. Point is, it all came from pretty much right here in the home and she LOVED it!

But really that isn’t what I came to tell all of you about! In my discovery of the statement above I was intrigued by Green Halloween and went on a World Wide Web adventure to learn more. I wanted to share what I found about their great annual costume swap and hope that all of you will consider a green Halloween too! Enjoy, Swap and Be Scary!!

Natural Mamma's Recipes

Yummy Veggie Hot Pockets Recipe!

September 7, 2011 The Natural Mammas Leave a comment

Autumn is here and is one of my favorite seasons of the year. It’s so beautiful out the weather is amazing, we have some family birthdays as well as other celebrations, and, the food!

One of my favorite autumn (and winter, and sometimes spring and even summer….) dishes is these yummy veggie hot pockets, or turnovers. Homemade crust wrapped around tasty root vegetables and other fall staples with a vegetarian sauce over them. You can really use any vegetables just get them tender if needed, via steaming or sauteing – which ever is appropriate.

Also, these vegetarian hot pockets freeze really well so you might want to make extra. This also makes them excellent options for bringing meals to help others like new mothers or those caring for ill loved ones. Just wrap individually and freeze then bring over w/instructions for re heating whenever they need a quick, homemade meal.

Yummy Veggie Hot Pockets Recipe!

Recipe Type: Vegetarian Entree

Author: K.

Prep time: 40 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

Serves: 4-6

A super tasty vegetarian recipe for hot potkets/turnovers featuring fall veggies, a special vegetarian sauce and homemade crust. Perfect for autumn or, any time of year! Can also become a veggie pie.

Ingredients

Dough for Crust
1/2 C Butter (1 stick)
2 C Flour
1/4 C Iced Water (may need more especially if using whole wheat flour)
Veggies
Use any combination of these you wish just adjust the amounts as you work out the ingredients ie use the larger amt called for if you omit another ingredient – or if you just like it a lot – I’d say the only essential ingredients are at least a bit of garlic and the onion for flavor.
Steam or saute in olive oil as appropriate.
1-2 Carrots
2-3 Potatoes
1/2-1 C Pumpkin and/or other Squash
2 Ears of Corn w/kernals removed (or frozen corn)
1/2-1C Broccoli
1/2-3/4 C Green Beans
2-4 Cloves of Garlic (more if you really like garlic)
1 Large Onion
1 Med Bell Pepper
1/2 C Peas
Sauce
4T Butter
1/4C Flour
1 C Milk
2 Egg Yolks
1/2 C Cheddar Cheese
Olive Oil to brush onto the top

Instructions

Make the dough by cutting the butter into the flour until its a crumbly mixture.
Then, add water and mix until you create a dough that doesn’t stick to your fingers but forms nicely into a ball.
Now prepare the veggies as appropriate (ie steam carrots, broccoli, pumpkin, etc – boil potatoes – saute onions, garlic, peppers in a bit of olive oil, and just add the corn and the peas)
Once veggies have been prepped add them all into a big bowl. This is where you’ll mix them up with the sauce – so give yourself room!
Next its time for the sauce. Melt the butter over med heat, then add the flour. Stir until combined over low heat.
Add Milk and stir over med heat until it boils.
Once the mixture boils let go for 1 min then take off the heat. Add the egg yolks and the cheddar cheese stirring until all combined.
Now, pour over veggies.
Next, get your dough and separate into 4 med – 6 small balls.
Roll out each ball into a flat circle and add a few spoonfuls of the veggie and sauce mixture into the front/center area.
Fold the back of the dough up and over the veggies and press bottom and top together to create a seal.
Repeat with each dough circle.
Then glaze all turnovers with a bit of olive oil – I like to mix mine with a bit of salt too.
Now bake at 350 until dough is golden – about 30 min.

If you have leftover veggies – they can be wrapped up in a tortilla to make super tasty leftover veggie burritos.

Or, you can make this recipe as a pie – Just roll out the crust and put it into a baking dish trimming off the extra. Then, add the veggie mixture and you can make a lattice top from your crust trimmings. Baking time is the same.

gallery, Natural Beauty

To Shave or Not To Shave? One Natural Mamma’s Thoughts On A Very Personal Subject

September 4, 2011 The Natural Mammas 2 Comments

I saw an article in a magazine recently talking about 4th and 5th grade girls shaving and how their parents should let them “because all the other girls will be smooth and your daughter will want to be too”.

That just didn’t sit well with me.

Shaving is and has been a big issue for me. I don’t like to shave and feel like I have better things to do with my time; like write this post for instance! I also feel that I have hair for a reason; it’s part of my earthly, natural beauty – why expend all that time and energy to shave it off day after day in a fruitless attempt to be smooth in spots the Universe gave me hair!

But, I’m also a pretty self conscious person, and, as a result, over the years I’ve gone back and forth from shaving all the time, to being hairy, and back to shaving again. I can see the advantages and disadvantages of each choice and each time I vacillated from one to the other, the motivations were different, personal, and actually really mixed.

When I started shaving around 12-13 or so it was for the “Everyone else is doing it” reason. As I got older, I wished someone would have discussed the fact that women didn’t always shave and that shaving, while a US societal norm, isn’t the norm in most other countries even today.

In fact, the history of women shaving in the US is not even that long of one, and that, in and of itself, is something to consider when deciding whether or not to shave; or discussing the subject with a girl in your life.

Not until the early 1900s did you see shaved American women and this ad is credited by historians as being why :

This ad ran in a 1915 issue of Harper’s Bazaar and informed women that their underarm hair was “objectionable”. The ad was paid for by a razor blade manufacturer who wanted to expand his market place. To do so he informed women of a problem they didn’t even know they had and, of course, offered a way to solve it! His ad campaign was extremely successful and changed the way a woman’s natural beauty was, and continues to be, seen.

After the hair on the underarms went, women were shown how and why they should shave their legs too. Again, razor manufacturers are at work here and have made gobs of money off of disposable razors, razor blades, shaving cream and more now that both genders feel the need to shave off the hair on various parts of their bodies.

Since this ad ran and shaving became a norm for US women, there have only been pockets of ladies who chose to go the road less shaven. The largest and most notable of these are the “hippies” of the 60s and 70s; but there are others too. Mostly though, women in the United States shave – that’s just how it is now….or is it?

Actually I know quite a few women who don’t shave. They’re definitely not the norm, but, more and more women are starting to explore the idea of not shaving. There are many different reasons for this of course but, each one has thought about it all quite a lot, including yours truly.

In fact, currently, I’m still struggling with what to do with/about my leg hair.

I know shaving isn’t the most earth friendly pass time in this world. Between the plastic razors, the sharp metal razor blades, the often toxic ingredients used to make shaving creams and lotions; it’s much less energy to leave the hair there.

But there are options. Electric razors aren’t ones you throw away and while they do run off of nasty batteries and require electricity to charge said nasty batteries most allow you to dry shave which reduces the amount of water and shaving cream used.

Also, companies like Preserve make razors from recycled plastic (yogurt cups actually) that you simply replace the blades in; they even allow you to send the razor handle back to be recycled again once you’re done with it. This is another great option to help make shaving more eco friendly.

And, there are more and more organic shaving lotion options out there made from non toxic ingredients that are good for your skin, but don’t harm the earth of the animals that reside here with us.

In my opinion though, there’s just something to be said for allowing your natural beauty to shine and to me, part of being naturally beautiful is hairy armpits and legs. And, no matter what, shaving does use up resources that can be saved by staying hairy.

The main thing that article brought up for me though is that we do have a choice to shave or not to shave. Yes, societal pressure is a factor but, that’s all it is – a factor; it doesn’t make shaving, or anything else simply what we do.

Many women I know decide to shave after really considering weather to or not because it’s more comfortable to them – at least it’s a choice though, instead of just blindly following the heard.

Others decide they are going to let their natural beauty show regardless of what the rest of folks say and do about it! Again though, it’s a conscious choice not just one of following a fad or trend.

What do you think? What do you do? Have you struggled with whether or not to shave your armpits/legs/face/other naturally hairy area of your body? Talk about it with us! It’s always nice to know you’re not alone and we sure do love a good conversation here at naturalmammas.com so share away!