Good Fats Recipe

The benefits of coconut oil are controversial but hey, it's a simple ingredient that is not processed. Coconut oil has many uses; good to rub all over your skin, shines the hair (I know it's good but makes mine just greasy) and one does need to eat some fat, better to get it from a coconut than bacon grease.  Avocados are a great source of Omega 3 fats and are just yummy.

I'm trying to consume more coconut oil for various health reasons.  I put a couple tablespoons in my smoothies and the new rage is in coffee. It does taste good, but I'll stick to black.  My favorite is popping popcorn on the stove in coconut oil...the possibilities are endless.


Avocado Coconut Oil Guacamole...
AKA The Good Fats Recipe

Serves 1

Three simple ingredients:

1 avocado, smashed
2 T. coconut oil
Salt to taste

Combine and mixa mixa mixa, presto you've got it.

I used cauliflower to dip it in. It was awesome.



If only bacon grease were a healthy fat.

Let me know if you make this and if you thought it was yummy!

What good fats do you eat?

Spring Forward or Fall Behind

Daylight saving times makes no sense.

What's the purpose?

I must warn you, I'm a little grouchy as a I write this, albeit most people of Indiana are too this Monday morning. Especially those hard to wake up little children.

How can a simple thing like turning the clock ahead one hour cause so much trouble?  Two times a year we must fall back one hour in November and spring forward one hour in March. 

From a mom's point of view, the morning was lighter 3 days ago when my kids were walking down to the bus, now it's pitch black.  A few years ago, I had my mom make BLACK Pittsburgh Steelers curtains for the boys because 8:30 bedtime was as bright as the noon of the day.  The sun doesn't go down until after 10:00 in the summer.  Our circadian rhythms are all screwed up.

Star gazing in summer.

When I was a kid...

Summertime was a blast.  We had NO daylight savings time. I think it was 2007 when the entire state of Indiana went to this.  We played in the dark til we were tired of itching from the mosquitoes.

Ahhh the simple joys of..

Flashlight tag

Catching lightening bugs

Gazing at the stars

Sounds of frogs, crickets, owls, and other night creatures

Our kids can still do those things of course, but it's almost midnight before we get to bed and in this house I have early morning risers (which isn't a bad thing) but we have to deal with grouchy.

Catching lightening bugs.

It's snowing outside, summer nights will be here before we know it.  I love all seasons, but summer really is for fun and relaxing. This will be the last summer before my oldest goes to college. She's like me in the since we like simple things. She's my nature girl.  She is old enough to stay up and gaze the stars with me, the problem is, I'm old enough to want to go to bed by 9!

Legislators may have invented Daylight Savings Time, but the Father, Almighty created day and night.  Why we mess with his creation is beyond me, free will I guess.

"Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the luminaries and the sun.  You have fixed all the bounds of the earth you have made summer and winter."  
                                                                                                  Psalm 74: 16-17

I choose to let God control my time.  I sometimes interfere and that's usually when things go wrong.  Right now, we live in time, but there is no time in eternity.  Big picture, Daylight Savings Time is only temporary so I will...

Get over myself

I'm a hot mess today. I woke up with about 30 extra wrinkles under each eye.  Since giving up coffee for lent, I realized, bad idea, didn't factor in the time change. It's a real sacrifice today. 

It's time for me to wake up, get over myself, and do something. 

So I'll chose to spring forward from the couch or I will fall behind in my chores.

Who really is in charge of your time?

Oil and Vinegar Slaw Recipe

Simple ingredients can make the most delicious eats!

Hubby and I are 'all in' these days with healthy eating.  We are making a really, concentrated effort to to eat as little processed food as possible.  I often like to get different recipes and create my own.  Here's the latest creation.  It's easy peasy if you have a salad shooter.  My kids LOVE to help shred any vegetable with that awesome invention.

Oil and vinegar slaw

Oil and Vinegar Slaw Recipe

1 head of cabbage-shredded
2 shredded beets
2 shredded carrots
1 or 2 radishes, shredded
1 t. celery seed
1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar
1 T. honey
Sunflower seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Mix celery seed, oil, vinegar, honey and salt and pepper.  Pour over veggies and mix.  Top with sunflower seeds.

Let me know if you make this and if you liked it!

Also, I added an email sign up if you would like to see when I post.

What kind of easy, peasy, non-processed foods do you like? 

Simple Country Catholic: Simple Health

Simple Country Catholic: Simple Health: My degree is in Community Health Education.  I often say this makes me nothing more than a 'certifiable health nut."  I do enjoy re...

Simple Country Catholic: Simple Country Catholic

Simple Country Catholic: Simple Country Catholic: So, I've changed the name of the blog because the other name was too long.  Plus, I believe the name change reflects more of what I like...

Simple Country Catholic

So, I've changed the name of the blog because the other name was too long.  Plus, I believe the name change reflects more of what I like to write about; simple living in a rural, country home in Indiana and my faith.  I also want to write more about health.  My degree is in community health education and that makes me nothing more than a 'certifiable health nut'.  I've included a health page for simple ways I have learned to be healthy that I would like to share.  My leisure reading usually involves a book on nutrition or a health issue like cancer, heart disease, natural remedy etc. Yep, I'm a health geek.

I was going to have it as "Simple Rural Catholic" but I'm not a farmer and when many hear the word 'rural' they think farming.  I just live in the country, although I live next to a farm.  So it's like I do farm, not really, that's incredibly hard work. I secretly believe I would have made one heck of a farmer's wife but God gave me this very handsome electrician instead!  God's choice is ALWAYS better.

Living next to the farm is like being on the farm without having to clean up any feces!  We call it the petting zoo.  There's goats, chickens, turkeys, geese, cows, two beautiful mules and a really handsome bull named Clouse.  It's a joy to see and hear all the animals every day.

For a brief time in college and a few years after I lived in the city.  I couldn't stand it.  I have this recurring nightmare about living in a beautiful home but I go outside and I have close neighbors! I grew up in the country and the country is where I belong.  I'm not saying nothing bad about city slickers or townies, I just prefer the peace and quiet (besides the occasional bleating goat) of the country.

If school is cancelled because of ice, we ice skate!

The Woods

Behind my house my dad owns LOTS of acres.  We occasionally go tromping around in the woods but not as much as I would like.  I was SUPER excited when four of my kids announced they didn't want to play ball this summer.  My plan is to spend lots of hours outside with them in the woods like I did as a kid.  The best time of year to go in the woods is in winter and spring.  NO bugs and NO poison ivy!   In the summer, we will just have to stick to the creek and the path.

Little House on the Prairie books are one of my favorite series.  My hubby bought me Little house DVD box series set a few years ago.  Talk about living simple.  Charles made a living to support his family whether it be farming, putting up telephone poles or cutting wood at the mill.  Caroline made delicious meals out of whatever foods were available.  Laura fished, Mary read, and Albert helped on the farm.  They sure don't make shows like they used to.

Our 5 acres, ragweed and all!

Our country home has 5 acres, lots of berries, a garden and was built on a tiny hill.  I like to refer to it as 'the house on the little hill'.  Our land could be called berry acres because we stopped mowing all 5 acres a few years ago. We have berries and bunnies galore (and ragweed).

Berry acres

10 Simple Country Catholic Everyday Life Ideas (even if you are a townie or not Catholic):

1.  Pray every day at sunrise. Thank God for his beauty in creation and all the blessings you have.

2. Whatever the weather, walk your dog, or your kids, or your spouse everyday around your yard,    woods, or neighborhood.  Learn to embrace the seasons, rain, snow, hot, cold, sun, wind.
 
3.  Listen to the sounds God created in nature.  Birds' voices are a myriad of composition.

4.  Exercise outside.

5.  Grow a garden.

6.  Go barefoot like St. Francis of Assisi.

7.  Learn what you can forage;  mushrooms, weeds, seeds, flowers.

8.  Tap a maple tree in late winter and drink the sap.

9.  Kick your kids outside to play.

10.  At the end of the day, pray with your family.


Joy
Joy does not mean happy.  It's the radiance of happy, the happiest of happy.  That's what this country girl feels about her Simple Country Catholic life.

Where do you find your joy in a simple life?

Lent, Worries, and Bosco, the Convicted Chicken Killer

I'm doing it. I'm blogging after a long hiatus.

Lent

We Catholics are in the season of lent.   Guess what I gave up? Besides coffee, which is truly a sacrifice.  I am a consumer of a pot a day so this has been harder than giving up sugar in the past!  What else did I gave up?  TV and talk radio.  No idea what is going on in the world and loving it. The two channels I often listen to are EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) and the Catholic Channel. Yep, gave them up.  Seems ironic seeing that one would think you would WANT to listen to those channels during lent.  Nope, I  have been basking in the other 200 channels on Sirius Radio!  So far my favorites are the 40's junction, Bluegrass and Spa.  The reason why? They are calming, peaceful and make me happy. Simple music. I get out of my head and just breathe.

Our family has had some rough patches the last few months; health problems, death, other dramas so I've been thinking a lot about love.  How life is about loving and serving others. When you are there for others and 'serve' them you truly do get more in return.  Things as simple as just showing up shows people you care.  Showing up for a funeral, showing up at the hospital, showing up at the door with a 'hey, how's it going'.



I really love what St. Augustine said "our hearts are restless until we rest in thee".  I sometimes can't believe how blessed I am.  Lately I have been having tireless anxiety, but at the end of the day I am still filled with a joy knowing I can rest in our Father's hands. I give him my worries.  Pray that his will be done in all circumstances.

First Born College-Bound-YIKES!

Another worry...my oldest is going to college next fall.

I really believe the tide will be turning soon. In my Pollyanna optimistic way, people will tire of all the busyness they have in their lives and return to a more simple way to live.  My oldest daughter has chosen her college.  We have been talking to about majors.  I'm beginning to wonder if the days of the traditional college are starting to dwindle. Why do we send our children off, have them find a career that sends them far from us?  They find someone, marry and we visit a few times a year to hardly see our grandchildren.  Families are spread throughout the nation.  St. John Paul II said "so goes the family, so goes the nation, so goes the world."  Our small parish (45 or so families) would be thriving had the children of my generation (80's) stuck around to raise their family.  I realize some situations you need to fly away and never return to your childhood, but extended families are the cornerstone of society.  So, I've been encouraging my daughter to consider a career that will land her a job around here.  I will push the trades and common sense careers with the rest of my children, all the while encouraging one of the most important factors in life (besides God) is family.




Don't let his cuteness fool you, Bosco is still a chicken killer.

Another tragedy that has happened in our family is my dog has been convicted as a chicken killer.  Two of my neighbor's chickens succumbed to his torture.  He is sentenced to a life of having to be tied up.  This has forced me to walk him which has turned out to be a blessing.  I LOVE winter.  I'm sorta hoping for one more snow.  Snow is so beautiful. Makes everything clean (hides all the trash along the roads too).  So walking him forces me outside which is good for me.

So, family, love, doggies, music, are some simple things that can fill our lives. 

What can you give up to make your life more simple?