No Power? Lights for You

Last week, a thunderstorm rolled through our neighborhood and a huge oak tree came down on some power lines, creating a power outage for a large area around us. We lost power for about 5 hours.

We were scrambling around in the darkness, looking for matches,
candles, flashlights, etc.

We looked outside, and noticed our solar lights shining brightly all
around our patio, stairs, dock, etc. They were beautiful. My wife
walked outside, and brought several of the solar lights inside.

We stuck the solar light pipes into plastic drink bottle containers
and they made the nicest, brightest, safest, lighting you could
ever imagine.

We put one in the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, etc. There was plenty of light.

There are all types of solar lights available. We bought ours at
Harbor Freight. We put them all around our yard. They look
nice and they do not attract flying bugs like the outdoor
lights around our doorway.

The lights we have fit into the small (20oz) water bottles and
they also fit into most of the larger liter bottles. If you need
a weight in the plastic bottle to keep them from tipping over,
you can put a few of the pretty colorful "flat marbles" that they
put in aquariums, and vases. (you can also use sand, aquarium
gravel, etc., whatever you have available).

The lights we have were perfect inside our home. They burn
all night long if you need them.

The next day, you just take your solar lights back outside and they
will quickly recharge and be ready for you to use again any time
you need them.  Perfect for power outages , hurricanes, etc.

 Thanks Bev for this great post! 

 

Raw Hummus Recipe

Fooduciary

Ingredients:

1 cup garbanzos,  soak 1 cup raw and then use all of them
1 – 2 garlic cloves chopped
1 cup cilantro  (I use a whole bunch)
4-6 Tbs raw tahini
1/3 cup juice from lemon or more to taste
4 or moreTbs olive oil (organic, extra-virgin, cold pressed)
1 tsp sea salt

1 jalepeno  chopped no seeds which make it too hot for me

Directions:

Sprout garbanzos by first rinsing them, then soaking them in filtered water for 12 hours. Rinse them and let them sit (no water) in a shady area, covered, rinsing again every 8 to 12 hours until the sprout is about ¼ inch long.

Combine the sprouted garbanzos with the remaining ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. Love it. Let marinate in fridge 24 hours.

Sprouting - Beans… Grains… Seeds… Nuts…

Here is some basic info about sprouting.  Thanks Lesa!

There is much information on the web.  Check out Sprout People.  You can purchase all the seeds, supplies, get information, recipes etc. The easiest way to eat them is adding them to a salad or just by the handful.  Sprouting unlocks more nutrients.  At least up to 50X.  Best to buy organic to sprout.

Basic directions:

Soak in water 1-24 hours depending on size of food. Rinse well and place in jar on its side or sprouting container.  Rise every 12 hours and store in dark place for 2 days or until the tail is ¼”-1/2” long on beans, grains, seeds. Nuts don’t grow tails.  At this point you can set it on counter to get some light and dry out to how you want them and spread them out on something larger like a cookie sheet.

Beans:  I like to sprout the smaller beans like mung, lentil, azuki. 

            Sprouted Garbonzo beans are  great to make a raw hummus.  

Grains:  Quinoa, Wheat, Tuff, Oat Groats   anything you want

Seeds:  Broccoli, Radish, alfalfa, (these grow a tail)

              Soak 1 hour or more: flax, hemp, chia, sesame

             Soak 8 hours or overnight: sunflower, pumpkin, fenugreek

Nuts:  Almonds soak 24 hours.  Rinse 12 hours and add fresh water. I soak cashews, walnuts, pecans only when I am going to make something with them like granola. They need only a few hours, but you can soak for 8.

COOKING BEANS

Instructions 
Thanks Linda C. for all this information.

Things You'll Need

• Beans

1 First, sort and wash the beans. Discard any shriveled or broken ones.

2 Soak most beans in three times their volume of cold water for six hours before
cooking. (You can cook beans without soaking, but it takes longer, and some
people think the beans taste better when soaked.)

3 Drain and rinse the beans, and then put them in a large pot. Add water to come an
inch or two over the beans. Do not add salt!

4 Bring the beans to a boil, and then lower the heat and simmer for 60 to 90 minutes,
or until the beans are tender. (Check your package of beans, as cooking times vary
for different varieties. But also check the beans occasionally, because sometimes
the beans will cook more quickly than the package says.)

Tips & Warnings

·     Split peas and lentils don't need to be soaked. They take about 30 minutes to cook, or you can cool
them longer until they "puree themselves" into a smooth paste (which is desirable for soups or India
dais). Some Indian lentil varieties cook even faster.

• One cup of beans is about three cups cooked.

• Salt toughens the beans - don't add it until the beans are fairly tender.

·     Add a chopped onion, a bay leaf, some peppercorns and a chopped carrot to beans as they cook,

    particularly to chickpeas and white beans.                                                                                          

• Save the flavorful bean water to use in soups or stocks.

• Store cooked beans for up to four days in your refrigerator.

DISASTER IQ List

Ward Assignments - Dry Pack Canning

Home Hazard Checklist - (click to enlarge & print)