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Homespun Aesthetic

Sharing my love for the beauty of handmade

Cooking

Various Coconut Uses

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The coconut’s functions and benefits are highly overlooked in the United States, as the coconut is not a common part of the American diet and coconut products in the US are quite scarce. However, communities in other parts of the globe owe much to coconuts – their source of a pure beverage, healthful cooking, and even their livelihoods.

While coconuts are famous for their outstanding nutritional profile, their uses aren’t limited to food. Every part of the tree – from the leaves and roots to the husk of its fruit – offers various functions for fuel or shelter. The cultivation of coconut is also among the most sustainable in the world. If you do your research, many countries continue to produce and earn from coconut products.

Discover in this infographic the benefits of coconut, which is the source of the commonly consumed coconut milk and coconut water. The benefits of coconut around the world will simply amaze you.

The coconut isn’t called “the plant of life” for nothing. This infographic shows the different uses and benefits of coconut around the world.

various coconut uses infographic

Mushroom and Wild Rice Soup

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Some nights I just crave something for dinner that is not only hearty and filling, but good for me and easy to toss together. That’s where this delicious mushroom & wild rice soup comes in. As an added bonus, it’s vegetarian, so I’m sure that will make some of you a little extra excited. 😉
Delicious Mushroom & Wild Rice Soup
  • 3 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 small red onion, diced
  • 3/4 pound Crimini mushrooms, chopped (These are also labeled ‘baby bella’ at some stores)
  • 2 large Portobella mushrooms, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 4 cups (32 oz.) chicken broth –(Feel free to substitute with vegetable broth to keep it vegetarian)
  • 2 packages long grain and wild rice mix
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

In a medium pot, heat butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and  mushrooms; cook and stir until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.

Stir in the broth, rice mix (with contents of seasoning packet), salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover at a simmer for 20-25 minutes or until rice is tender.
Stir in cream; heat through. Yields about 6 hefty servings. Enjoy!
mushroom soup

How To Grow Your Own Wheat Grass

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Sometimes in our journey to living a more natural lifestyle I find myself doing things I never thought I would. In this case, I never thought I’d be the person that was growing their own wheat grass to juice and drink. Keep in mind I’m a Missouri girl raised on meals that consisted of meat and potatoes and I loved every bit of it. Not long ago we started getting this organic red wheat seed and since we don’t have a grinder to grind it into flour, we looked at alternative ways to use it and still reap some benefits from it.

Other than using as flour, wheat seed is most commonly used to grow wheatgrass. There are many reasons why people grow and eat their own wheat grass and I like that a lot of them I can actually feel. It has over 90 different minerals and is a super concentrated way to get all the benefits of green leafy vegetables. For instance, a single shot of wheat grass juice packs in as much nutritional value as over 2 pounds of other greens! The 19 amino acids in wheat grass and as the building blocks of proteins, they are one of the more beneficial elements the wheat grass has to offer.

Wheat grass also helps create new red blood cells, which are tasked with carrying oxygen throughout your body. The increased chlorophyll in wheat grass is able to closely mimic the hemoglobin in our blood and can help you build a stronger supply quickly. When your blood becomes more oxygenated you can think more clearly and since it increases endurance, you can get in a little more exercise. 😉 There are a ton more benefits to ingesting wheat grass that can easily be found if you’re up to doing a search. Since the information is so widely available, I’ll get on to how to grow it at home.

You’ll Need:

—GMO Free Hard Red Wheat Berries –Container for Sprouting** –Strainer –Small Amount of Space –Tiny Amount of Soil –Water
You could also buy an Organic Wheatgrass Growing Kit and it will have all the supplies you need to get started. 😉
**As a note, I recycled a plastic container that my organic spinach comes in and my wheat grass grew fantastically. Just be sure that whatever you use has drainage holes so you don’t cause your roots to mold from too much moisture. For our container, I put holes of four across and eight or so rows in just the bottom. I then did two rows of small holes along all fours sides of the container. You can then keep the lid underneath your new planter and not only will it catch excess water but that water can then be reabsorbed by the wheat grass if necessary. 
Soak your wheat berries 8-12 hours. For us, a small soup bowl is enough and I usually start the new batch before bed and let it soak overnight. In the morning (or after the soaking period), transfer to a strainer and allow seeds to begin sprouting but no longer be immersed in water. At about 24 hours you may notice a bit of a “tail” on the seeds. This means the seeds have germinated and are ready to plant. Sometimes if it seems they aren’t popping as quickly, I will give them until the next morning before planting.
To plant, put a small amount of soil into your chosen container. Place your sprouted seeds on top of the soil. (In all honesty, we’ve probably got too many seeds for this container size, but they grow well just the same.) When you add your soil on top keep in mind you do not want to bury your seeds, you simply want to cover them enough to hold in moisture.

Also, if you let your toddler help water, some seeds may expose themselves, otherwise water gently each day. This photo goes to show you just how close to the surface my seeds really are and were already making yummy green sprouts the morning after being planted.

Gently water each day and you’ll see it grow quick!!

Once it gets nice and full you simply take scissors and cut it just above the soil. You can then continue to water it and get a second cutting in about 5 days. I like to use new soil after 2 cuttings and begin again. If you have a good wheat grass juicer you just pop in your cuttings and collect your juice! So, you see, it’s that easy to add in some BIG nutritional value just by growing your own wheat grass and taking a few minutes out of each day to check on it.

What You Eat Matters

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You’ve all heard the old adage “Your body is a temple” and have always been told to treat it as such, right? Too often people limit this thinking to ideas pertaining to body modification such as piercings and tattoos, promiscuity, and that sort of thing. Why is it that so many people forget to look beyond the outside of their temple body and focus on what they are doing to the inside? I’ve read too many articles and studies that link your diet to your physical health to think that there’s not truly a connection.

It boggles my mind that people would fill their body with sugars, sodium, preservatives and other known illness causing ingredients. Then when they come down with something, they go to the doctor to then fill their bodies with man-made medications.

colorful vegetablesGet your vitamins and minerals from real, nutritious fresh foods.

Avoid snacking. If you eat on a somewhat regular schedule you are more likely to avoid the high sugar, bad for you snacks that you would otherwise reach for.

Eat the rainbow. You should be eating foods that fall in all the color categories of the rainbow. 

Something that helps my family eat healthier is the way I tackle my shopping trips. When I go to the grocery store, I stay along the perimeter of the store and avoid all the middle aisles. think about how your store is set up. I can get produce, select meats, dairy and bread without even venturing into the middle aisles where all the processed foods are kept. By not even going to that part of the store, I cut out any temptation that there might be to buy those junk foods, especially now that I’m almost 3 months pregnant.

Try to avoid canned foods. Most cans are actually lined with a chemical that we know as BPA. This chemical is also known as the “pregnancy drug” since it was first created to aid in pregnancy. does it come as a shock to any of you that it was of course never actually used for that purpose because they found it to be harmful. Companies have instead started using it for other things such as the inside of metal cans to help keep the food from being contaminated by the metal degradation. BPA has been linked to neural defects in fetuses as well as endocrine disorders, heart disease and cancer.

I’ll admit it, I was one of those people that would pull out a can of whatever vegetable, dump in a bowl and nuke until ready as a side for dinner. I can barely even stand to eat canned vegetables these days after eating fresh for so long. Even if something’s not in season you can always buy frozen. Canned should be a very last option, if you let it be an option at all.

The last bit of advice I’ll offer is to not eat a low-fat diet. Instead you want to eat a good-fat diet that is full of fats that are beneficial to you body.

People may call me picky because I like to eat healthy and I like to know exactly what is going into my food and therefore into my body. You only have one body during this lifetime, why wouldn’t you want to be choosy and care for it to the best of your ability, and do so naturally?

Think about that when you reach for that next energy drink..