Liquidizing Bar Soap

Easy trick to save bucks. Liquid soap clearly has a lot of water in it, but bar soap can be annoying to use. The solution is simple, get a one litre bottle, with an openning large enough for a bar of soap (or be prepared to chop up a bar of soap), fill it up with water and drop in a bar of soap (chopped or grated for faster results). I stirred mine at least once a day and after 4 days pourred enough out to fill a soap dispenser. Voila!


Next time I think I'll grated the bar of soap so it'll have less chunks.

Sprouting Lentils

Go buy a bag of dry green lentils right now.

It cost me $1.89 and lasts a very long time. They're great protein addition to pasta dishes or stir-frys, great snack by themselves (although I don't like them this way myself), once sprouted awesome addition to a toss salad and are probably the best-cheapest things you can buy for your pantry.

You'll probably find them in the beans section next to the dry split peas. Careful to get green lentils and not red ones if you hope to sprout them. Red lentils are generally split and wont  sprout.


Take a look at the nutritional info right from the bag ~~>
Amazing source of Protein, Iron, and Fibre... what else could you ask for?

So how do you make them edible? They're as hard as rocks in the bag!

I'll briefly talk about 3 ways, spending much more time on the third (sprouting). Any way you choose make sure to rinse them first. Both the first and second way would also work for split lentils (including red lentils).

If you've got no time, cooking right now and didn't really think ahead... boil them. Pretty simple, much like split peas. They wont really get much bigger them the original size. Just throw 'em with your soup or in a pot alone, adding it to your dish afterwards. You'll know they're done when you can bite threw one.

If you've got anywhere from 4 hours to a day, measure out half the amount you want, rinse, and soak them in water. They will double in size, so make sure they have enough water to cover them even at double size. Drain the water, add them to your dish.

The pictures depict the same lentils before and after soaking in water overnight.

Finally, sprouting. This four days but feel free to use some on even the third day if you feel like it. But most importantly, be prepared to use them all between the fourth and the sixth day, they wont keep well beyond that.

I used a medium size mason jar, about a 1/2 cup of dry lentils and a bit of cheesecloth (found at dollerama). I used the mason jar lid without the actual lid, just the screw on sides, to keep the cheesecloth in place.

The first night, just soak them in water, easy peazy. The 2nd day, drain all the water out (why the cheesecloth is useful), fill it back up and swish it around and drain it again. After that first night, you always shake out as much water as possible. For the next four days, repeat this 2-3 times daily. This is so you don't get anything else growing in there.

You'll notice the lentils starting to sprout after the 2nd night (pic to the left) and after the 3rd night you get something like the picture to the right. At any point these are edible after about the 4 hour mark but when you really want to chow down is when you see leaves, after the 4th night. (See first picture at beginning)

Now don't forget to eat them all before 6 nights have passed!

I heard about sprouting from this fine blog here: http://honestfare.com/windowsill-sprouting-through-the-winter/

The Intra-web?

 

This TED talk was given by Eli Pariser, and really it floored me a little. The idea that my facebook news feed is filtering out my Conservative friends because it knows on the political scale I'm to the left is astonishing. Well no wonder I'm baffled and confused by the Majority Harper now holds... I didn't see a single news story in Harper's favor... apparently google is filtering my news intake.

So what is the problem with catering to each interweb user? It does mean I get results that uphold my beliefs, generally something people like. But isn't that kind of like Brazilia for the Internet? Brazilia, the capital of Brazil, is a city built from a blueprint on a barren land, an architect's dream. Might at first seem like a wonderful idea where there are no nuances, no weird twists and turns, no one way streets. In fact, there's a whole road dedicated to the sale of lightbulbs, no shopping around town... all of the lightbulbs are on that street. Weird right? What is really means is no surprises.

Why do we need surprises? Well, it makes us more tolerable people. To grow up in Brazilia means you've never been lost or ended up where you never meant to go. When faced with difficult situations we gain character, the aspect of ourselves which is specific to the experiences we have had. Give everyone the same experiences, no surprises, no chance for growth and you have a self contained population which only has the opportunity to reproduce exactly itself.

More to the point of filtering the internet, without showing us opposing points of view, not only do we lose the chance to challenge our own view points, we lose the option of challenging other's beliefs as well. While we preach to the filtered choir, our cries for democracy will be squashed and silenced without our knowledge for we have rose colored glasses filtering out any challenge, surprise or opposing viewpoint.

T-shirt Shopping Bags

I have been hoarding these four t-shirts for far too long and finally I found use for them! I always figured they'd be pillows but instead they are now shopping bags!! Voila the final result:

 Very simple, especially if you can use a sewing machine or has somebody whose willing to do some quick sewing for you. It's possible to sew by hand but the bag wont be as sturdy for sure.

Step one:
Find t-shirts you're willing to re purpose. These are the prints on my four:

Step two:
Use pinking shears to cut off sleeves (if there are any) and widen the neck as that will be the mouth of your bag. Here's a picture of pinking shears and an example.

Step three: Turn each one inside out and sew the the bottom of the t-shirt together as well as reinforce anywhere you cut stitching, ie, where the neck was cut and if it started as a t-shirt rather then strapless underneath the arms.


 

Voila! You're done! Enjoy!!

Here's another great example of how to re purpose an old t-shirt. A friend of mine made a sentimental t-shirt from her younger years into this bag holder.

Pita Pizza!

The only hard thing about homemade pizza is the crust... the rest is just throwing on toppings. Thus this is a super simple recipe!

Don't worry, it doesn't include a frozen crust either! I'll teach you how to make tortilla shells from scratch later, but that is what we're using for the crust -so go grab some at the store or tackle the recipe here at Om Nom Nomnivore yourselves -though I definitely recommend a partner in the kitchen for that recipe!!


But for now...

You'll need:

• A whole wheat pita for every person (those are generally thicker tortillas)
• Enough salsa to cover each pita
• Bowl of mushrooms, sliced
• Bowl of broccoli, sliced
• Ramekin of Bell Peppers, chopped
• A sprinkle of cheese
• Optional: Lentils that have been soaking for several hours at least

Pretty basic really. Lay out your pitas on what you're cooking them on, perhaps a pizza pan. Cover them in salsa. Add lentils if you've chosen to. Evenly distribute the vegetables. Sprinkle on cheese. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If you notice the broccoli burning before that, take it out -they're done!

Wire Words

This is a really simple and cheap craft I started making as gifts for friends and family. I got the idea from Family Chic, a wonderful blog with tons of other ideas. All you need is wire, yarn, a set of piliers and an idea as to what word you'd like to make (which might be the hardest part when making them for others.

A couple quick tips:

1. Choose yarn that's subsantially thick. Fluffy or fuzzy are great but feathery can be a pain.

2. Be consistant with how tight your pulling it. For "Maia Claire" I kept it loose which really the yarn and the size of the word I wanted called for. (Which btw was done with a yarn that changes color, I haven't attempted to do any with multiple yarns.) Whereas you'll see "Peace" below which was smaller with a completely different type of yarn so I kept it pulled super tight.

3. Always cut off too much wire... you never know when you'll have to reshape the wire. For example, when your "a" looks like a "o" (always create the a's with the tail on top like you see in type and not how most of us would print). Obviously cut off the access wire before cover it in yarn at the end.

4. When shaping the wire, realize that there cannot be any closed circles. Understand the yarn has to go around each part of the wire and you wont be cutting it off from the ball to feed it through. Thus, while you can use yarn to shut a circle (like in an "e") you cannot use the wire itself (notice the "a"s in Maia above).

To start and finish use piliers to create a little hook that you can squeeze together once the thread is in place. Below are 2 more completed examples.

Election Blues

This election has been a roller coaster ride. Just when you thought you had it all figured out your smacked in the face by polls and then their apparently lack of meaning! So what did we get? With 24% of Canadians voting Conservative, Harper gained one of the most illegitimate majorities in Canadian history. 37 % of Canadians did not vote for Harper and 39% did not vote. I honestly thought we'd see a higher voter turn out this time as youths across the Nation responded to Rick Mercer's 2008 election rant with vote mobs.

Silly me and my idealism even thought we might see a coalition government  for the first time since 1925-6 under Mackenzie King. My hopes were set so high even at 8:30pm as polls closed in Newfoundland and remained so as my riding and the rest of the island went red or orange. But once Conservatives reached into the hundreds before ever hitting Alberta, with Liberals and NDPs still under 30, I knew it was over and yet I watched with shock. Even after 155 I watched, waited and hoped as some numbers toggled up and down.

Four days later I've dared wearing something that isn't black or gray, perhaps because I need to do blacks in the laundry. Perhaps because I held hope for the electoral reform referendum in the UK today. A live blog shows the results as they stream in and I search another black or gray shirt to blend in with the fog rolling in.

Some friends have reminded me that a negative attitude, or worse apathy, will do nothing. We must celebrate the victories we've had and fight ever but of spite we muster up. Elizabeth May won the first green seat in Parliament, may she be the largest thorn in Harper's side that has ever existed. Jack Layton and the New Democrats became the official opposition with 102 seats and 30.62% of the vote; I wish him ever ounce of luck as he takes control of a rookie caucus. Finally, best wishes to Ignatieff, who's already found a different job and Gilles Duceppe, as we wait to see if the Bloc will remain without him, their first MP ever.

As for what we can do... well I challenge you to fight. A facebook friend made the comment Tuesday morning that they did not feel very Canadian. But I do, I am Canadian and that's something to be proud of and something to fight for. Consider these two classic quotes:

"Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism."- Thomas Jefferson
"It is the duty of the Patriot to protect his country from his government" -Thomas Paine

Finally, if you're looking for tangible ways to fight, please check out my sister's recent blog post here.

Cheers,
Trina