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I think it is becoming increasingly common for people to be vegetarians these days.  Not only is it a "trend" but it is people who are becoming aware of what is healthy, the need to stay away from chemicals in meat, and of course the age-old reason of the inhumane treatment of animals.  I fully respect all reasons (except for the trend one…if you’re only a vegetarian because it’s "cool", get over it.). 

As such, I’ve met quite a few families who have the struggle of making meals for both the herbivores and carnivores in the family!  Life is busy, and it can be a challenge to make special meals for one or the other each night.  So how can you strike a balance?

We don’t have this particular issue in our home, but we do have friends who come over for dinner and we do our best to prepare meals that everyone can enjoy.  I thought that I would share some of those options to you as you consider how to feed everyone!

Option #1: Middle Eastern Food

Middle Eastern food has a ton of different dishes that incorporate both meat and vegetables.  Middle Eastern food makes for a great meal for vegetarians and non-vegetarians.  I made a meal a couple of weeks ago that consisted of channa masala (a chickpea based dish), masoor daal (a lentil based dish), beef keftas (meat), naan bread, couscous, and fresh veggies.  This satisfied the need for starch, protein and vegetables, and gave both vegetarians and non-vegetarians food they could enjoy.

Option #2: Mexican Food

Mexican food is also a great option for vegetarians and non-vegetarians.  One of the simplest meals to incorporate this is burritos.  In separate bowls lay out shredded cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes, chopped onions, salsa and sour cream.  And then do up a bowl of rice, a bowl of Mexican-flavoured ground beef, and Mexican-flavoured black beans.  I did up both the beef and black beans with the same spice mix and some onions and garlic.  Everyone got tortillas and could pile on what they wanted!  It was easy and it pleased everyone’s dietary needs.  You could also do the same thing with taco shells.

Option #3: Pasta

Everyone loves spaghetti or other types of pasta.  It’s a pretty safe option when you have company coming and you’re rushed, or when you need to whip something up for your family at night.  However, it can be an issue if you’re used to ground-beef based spaghetti sauce!  An easy solution for this is to cook your pasta like regular, and then cook two pots of the same sauce.  In one pot, add ground beef like usual, and in the other pot add a cup of lentils (or more, depending on the amount of people).  Lentils add protein and will give vegetarians the same nourishment as those eating the sauce with the ground beef.  Serve the pasta on the table and the two separate sauces so people can choose.  Add a side of salad, and garlic bread, and everyone can enjoy this meal!

Option #4: Pizza

Pizza is always a classic for parties, gatherings, and busy nights!  I make up a batch of pizza dough every so often and since there’s only the two of us I divide it in half and freeze one.  You could easily either split one pizza to have half vegetarian, and half with meat.  Or, if there’s more than two of you, you could have one vegetarian pizza and one meat pizza.  Of course the toppings can be endless, and it can suit your tastes!  Easy solution, and always a hit! 

Do you have any tips?

Since we’ve been married, we have been striving to make the holiday season more Christ-centred rather than commerically-centred.

It’s hard.

We live in a culture that teaches us that the more gifts, the merrier, and if we don’t "obey" that we’re bad people!

But I refuse to give in!  Well, at least completely.  So we have been doing some creative work over the last 3 and a half years to bring Christmas back to Christ in our home.  Here are some of the ways we’ve changed things…

1.) We don’t give gifts on Christmas Day.  I know, I know, this is a hard one to change.  But hear me out!  We realized that we were over-giving.  We were spending too much, and sometimes buying things that we didn’t really need all in a effort to make someone else feel appreciated.  All of this was taking away our focus from Christ’s birth.  Which, just so happens to be the point of Christmas!  Instead, we decided to focus our gift-giving on good ol’ Saint Nick.  So we exchange gifts on St. Nikolaus Day which is December 6th.  My husband is of European roots and also grew up partially in Europe.  As such he was used to getting his shoe filled on the eve of St. Nikolaus Day.  So we have combined this tradition with our North American one.  Instead of shoes, we put out our stockings.  Our stockings get filled up with our presents, and we open them up on December 6th!  If it doesn’t fit in the stocking, we don’t buy it!  Simple as that.  This has worked REALLY well in reminding us that Christmas is about CHRIST, thus leaving the 25th for that celebration.

2.) We have a Nativity Set.  This might seem basic, but we own a really nice Nativity Set that we love and cherish, and we place it directly under the Christmas tree where everyone can see it!

 

3.) We don’t buy gifts for anyone else.  At first I think our family members were a little bit surprised.  But instead of mailing gifts far away (most of our family is spread out across the world), we chose to purchase "Gifts of Hope" in their honour.  We designate an amount for what we personally want to spend as a whole, and we split that amongst our family and close friends and send them a "postcard"-type picture that describes what we bought in their honour, and how it is helping someone in need.  My husband is handy with photoshop and so he makes the postcards himself and then we print them through Walmart as 4x6 pictures. 

4.) We celebrate Advent at home.  There are two ways that we do this, so I’ll outline the first one.  Normally at Church you’ll have your typical advent wreath and each Sunday leading up to Christmas a candle is lit, and some Scripture is read.  This is a special tradition that we love.  We decided that we wanted to include that in our home.  So I purchased a simple wreath, and some ribbon and some candles (we went with "Christmas-colours" but you can buy the real advent colours) and made it a centrepiece on our dining room table.  As we share in our Sunday meal, we read our advent material and light the appropriate candles.  This is what our advent display looks like:

 

5.) The Jesse Tree: For the second part of our advent celebration, we use our Christmas tree as a reminder of Jesus’ heritage by considering the Jesse Tree.  It takes place throughout the entire month of advent.  This is a new concept for us, but one that we love.  Of course we have all kinds of sentimental and beautiful ornaments on our Christmas tree, but we also use some of those ornaments to tell the lineage of Jesus and how God’s love and faithfulness has transpired over time leading us to the birth of Christ.  It really connects us with our Old Testament roots.  It is inspired from Isaiah 11:1-2 "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.  The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD." 

Some people only use small trees and just add ornaments as they go throughout advent.  However, we place all of our ornaments on the tree as soon as we put it up, and then we remove the specific ornament for that day and add it symoblically after the reading.  You can do it however you like!

Here are some specific links so you can understand more about the Jesse Tree, and what that could look like in your home:

*Summary of one family’s experience with a Jesse Tree, and their ornaments.

*A free summary of Scripture and daily readings and ideas for symbolic ornaments.

*A detailed description of the Jesse Tree and an easy-to-read chart with Scripture, themes & ornament ideas.

*You can purchase an e-book quite reasonably with 40 pages of material and information on the Jesse Tree.

So, now that some of you are inspired and others of you think I’m absolutely crazy…what are some ways that you promote CHRIST in Christmas?

"If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty." (Japanese Proverb)

While I type this blog I am sitting sipping some cherry tea.  I have an incredible love for tea, even though for years I avoided it.  My cup of tea has inspired me to write a blog (or two or three!) about my love of tea.  For the next couple of Wednesdays look forward to some blogs about types of teas, tea products, and perhaps more! 

For today I plan on sharing some tips I have discovered about the uses of tea.  To read more than I’ve written here, you can check out this website.

1.) A tea bag works well as a compress on swollen, puffy eyes.  Especially chamomile tea.

2.) Chamomile tea is a natural sleep aid.

3.) Tea bags that have cooled can be applied to sunburned areas of skin.

4.) Tea "sachets" made with plain old black tea make a perfect addition to your refrigerator.  They help to keep odours to a minimum!

5.) Chamomile or peppermint tea makes a very soothing footbath.

6.) Tea is excellent to feed your plants!  Give them an occasional drink of tea instead of water, or add wet tea leaves into the soil.

7.) Try marinatng your meat in tea. 

8.) Sprinkle damp tea leaves over the ashes in your fireplace before cleaning it out.  The tea will help to keep the ashes from rising and getting all over the place while you lift them out.

9.) A wet tea bag can soothe shaving cuts.

10.) Apply a cool wet green teabag to the area where a shot was had.  It will help to soothe the pain.

11.) Use warm teabags on your eyes to soothe pinkeye infections.

12.) Place warm teabags on canker sores or blisters to draw out infections.

13.) Wash your face with tea to cure acne.

14.) Cold, wet teabags will soothe beestings and insect bites.

Do you have any tips or tricks for household uses of tea?

Since sometime in the new year I have been steadily menu planning for my dinner meals each week.  Of course there are weeks where it doesn’t happen as much as I’d like it to, but for the most part, I’ve followed it pretty well!  I have really come to see the value in it, and I just want to share a few of the hilights for me from menu planning:

1.) It has cut down on costs.  I know exactly what I have to purchase when I go grocery shopping, and so this eliminates most (if not all!) of the impulse buying that happens.

2.) It simply organizes my meals and I know what I’m having on what day, and that’s a nice feeling!

3.) It saves time.  I don’t have to rush home and wonder what to do, and stress when I don’t have something thawed, or not enough time to cook something!  I have it all ready, and all I have to do is prepare it.

4.) It helps control weight and health.  This is not a benefit I thought about prior to starting meal planning, but it has helped a lot.  By knowing what I’m eating, I’m not just grabbing things to satisfy my hunger temporarily.  Plus, I’m eating much healthier.  This has worked for me, and I can’t promise that you’ll lose weight from menu planning, because it depends on what you cook!  But it has been an added bonus.

Do you menu plan?  If so, why?  If not, would you consider starting?

Club Soda is a marvelous substance!!  It has sooo many purposes!  I keep a case of cans on hand and I’ve found it to be a great addition to our house.  Here are just a few of the ways that we use it:

1.) It’s a good cleaning substance!  Use a little club soda on your windows or mirrors and it’ll shine them right up!  If you have an old spray-bottle, just pour some in and spray it out!   

2.) It’s delicious with a little concentrated drink syrup.  We buy blackberry syrup or mango syrup (or whatever flavour you like!) and you pour a little of the concentrate in your glass, top it up with club soda, and it’s a "fancy", yet simple drink!

3.) Club soda works REALLY well marinating meat.  I created a delicious marinade for beef which my husband and I enjoyed recently.  Here’s a rough explanation of what it entailed: 1 can of club soda, 1 cup of soy sauce, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 package of onion soup mix, 1 tsp. crushed red pepper, a dash of chili powder, a tbsp. of garlic salt, 1/2 tsp. of pepper, and any other flavouring you’d like to add in!!  I just went with what was in my cupboard, and it was delicious.  The longer you marinate the meat, the better.  The club soda just tenderizes it beautifully.  YUM!

What do you use club soda for?  Or do you have a "wonder product" that does multiple things?

I came across a fascinating video on someone’s facebook page, about the state of feeding kids in the USA.  Although I’m from Canada, this video is still relevant!! 

Please click on this link and watch the video.  It’s 20 minutes, but it’s interesting. 

What are your thoughts?