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Basmati Rice Salad
Basmati Rice Salad
1 cup brown basmati rice
2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons safflower oil, divided
2 1/2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 pound extra firm tofu, cubed small
2 medium red peppers, cut into thin strips
3.5 oz (about 15 black olives
In a medium saucepan, combine the rice, water and sea salt, and 1 tablespoon of the safflower oil. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook over low heat until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is tender (about 35-40 minutes.)
While the rice cooks, combine the tamari, balsamic vinegar and rest of oil and mix well. In a small bowl, coat the cubes of tofu with this mixture; pour off and save any extra to dress the salad later. Set the coated tofu cubes aside.
Let the cooked rice cool. In a mixing bowl, combine it with the red peppers and olives. Toss well. Add the tofu cubes and give the salad one last gentle toss to mix. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
Yield: 4 servings
Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
4 med. Sweet potatoes (1.5 #) peeled & cubed 1 inch
1 large red onion, chopped
4 Tbsp olive oil,
Salt & Pepper
1 T minced jalapeno
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 limes, juiced
2 C cooked black beans
1 C. Red or yellow bell peppers, seeded & diced
1 C chopped cilantro
Roast potatoes & onion, tossed with 2 Tbsp oil and S & P, in 400 degree oven till beginning to brown and just tender, about 30 min. Set aside.
Process chilies with garlic, lime juice & 2 T olive oil. Season to taste. Process till well blended.
Toss warm veggies with beans & bell pepper. Mix with dressing and cilantro.
Serve warm, room temp or cold. If making ahead store salad & dressing separately and combine just before servings.
Makes 4 servings.
Slow Cooker Dried Beans
Ingredients
Any amount of dried beans (Other than lentils)
2 teaspoon salt per pound of beans, divided
Aromatics, like fresh herbs, a bay leaf, peeled garlic, or minced onion. Herb options to try: 4-5 long stems of sage, winter savory, thyme, rosemary
Equipment
3 1/2-quart or smaller slow cooker, for 1 pound of beans or less
OR
5-quart or larger slow cooker for 2 pounds of beans or more
Instructions
- Soak the beans overnight: Rinse the beans under cool, running water and remove any shriveled/ broken beans. Prepare soaking water in your crock pot (1 teaspoon salt dissolved in water, filling half way of crockpot) Add rinsed beans & soak overnight.
Kidneys: boil them for 10 minutes before cooking. This neutralizes a toxin called phytohemagglutinin (say that 3 times fast) that can cause acute digestive distress.
Garbanzos Take very long time to cook! Modify by soaking 2 nights. Cook on high for 2.5 – 3 hrs. Then low for another couple hours.
- Drain water and beans through colander. Transfer beans back into crockpot. Fill pot with water till 2 inches over bean level, leaving about 2 inches space between water and lid.
- Add aromatics: Place the aromatics on top.
- Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours: If you this is your first time cooking beans or you’re cooking an unfamiliar kind of bean, begin checking the beans after 5 hours and then every 30 minutes until they are cooked to your liking. Doneness test = Sample 8 or so beans to make sure all are cooked through.
- Drain beans through colander. Portion into serving sizes. Store in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Rice salad
This is a great way to use odds and ends in your refrigerator or to make for a gathering.
Rice Salad
Combine cut up tomatoes, onions, firm tofu, and cucumber with rice, guacamole, humus red pepper and peas.
Granny’s Gems No. 4
Granny’s Gems offers simple solutions for everyday life to save our planet, ourselves, and for future generations. These solutions will save money, save our environment, find alternatives, and reduce the chemicals that are all around us. Each one of us can reduce, reuse, and recycle. Never stop learning. Never stop trying. We offer and accept input from all. Have an idea? We’d love to hear from you.
Think about what you’ve had for breakfast from the jam on your toast to the coffee beans or tea leaves that make up your morning cup. All of these products rely on pollinators to survive and thrive. Consider keeping your lawn chemical free and pollinator-friendly. Leave the dandelions alone. We can really do something for the local bees, insects, birds and plants.
If you’d like to help the birds with their nest building which saves them valuable energy for breeding – here is a simple solution. Pile grass clippings or small twigs and sticks in your yard, allowing birds easy access to materials they would otherwise have to search for. Be sure you don’t use fertilizers, pesticides, or other chemicals on your lawn.
Cleaning recyclables prevents contamination, mold and pests which pose health and sanitation risks. How do you properly prep recycling without sending valuable gallons of water down the drain? Bottles containing liquids can be emptied and air-dried. If you need to use water, consider using graywater which is lightly used water. Washing fruits, vegetables or dishes in a large bowl or tub will leave you with graywater perfectly suited for washing recyclables before going down the drain. Bottles with smaller openings that are tougher to clean can be filled with graywater, closed and shaken until clean.
Posted in Education, Recycling
Tagged bees, granny's gems, gray water
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Hope by Quinn Norton
Excerpt From: “A Sermon on Hope” by Quinn Norton, American journalist and essayist.
People often mistake hope for a feeling, but it’s not. It’s a mental discipline, an attentional practice that you can learn.
Hope isn’t just looking at the positive things in this world, or expecting the best. That’s a fragile kind of cheerfulness, something that breaks under the weight of a normal human life. To practice hope is to face hard truths, harder truths than you can face without the practice of hope. You can’t navigate dark places without a light, and hope is that light for humanity’s dark places. Our practice of hope cannot be so fragile that understanding the truth can wreck it.
This hope, above all, gives us the strength to live and continually to try new things, even in conditions that seem hopeless as ours do, here and now.
The discipline of hope …. begins in kindness, …it comes from looking for places to serve something larger than yourself…. It comes from cultivating gratitude. Hope teaches you to put the world before yourself, but in doing so, hope teaches you an unfragile happiness in loving the world.
A “teach-in” Saturday 23 May 2020
“How to Get Off Fossil Fuels Quickly—and Fairly” A “teach-in” Saturday, May 23 at 3 p.m. CST featuring author Stan Cox
About the participants
Stan Cox is a research fellow in Ecosphere Studies at The Land Institute. His most recent book is The Green New Deal and Beyond: Ending the Climate Emergency While We Still Can (City Lights Books, 2020)
Wes Jackson, president emeritus of The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, is the author and editor of numerous books, including Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson and Consulting the Genius of the Place.
Aubrey Streit Krug directs The Land Institute’s Ecosphere Studies program. She is a writer and teacher who studies stories of relationships between humans and plants, and is co-author of The Omaha Language and the Omaha Way.
Robert Jensen (moderator) is Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas in Austin and a longtime YES! Magazine Contributing Editor. He collaborates with The Land Institute’s Ecosphere Studies program. His books include Plain Radical: Living, Loving, and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully.
Breanna Draxler (host) is Climate Editor at YES!, covering science and the environment with a particular focus on solutions. She serves on the board for the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Northwest Science Writers Association.
Posted in Activism, Education
Tagged Green New Deal, teach-in
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