Be Yummy.

So, since it's fall now I think it's time to start baking! It's starting to get chilly outside, and what better to do when it's cold out than bake, right? So bust out those little baking pumpkins you had for decoration and get cookin! I made roasted pumpkin seeds, banana-pumpkin bread, and a pumpkin pie with my little pumpkins. It's so easy and delicious!

Make sure you have your ingredients...

(Banana Pumpkin Bread)

2 ripe bananas, mashed

2 eggs

1/3 c vegetable oil

1 1/3 c pumpkin puree

1/2 c honey

1/2 c white sugar

2 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 c raisins - or - walnuts/pecans (I used both nuts in lieu of the raisins)

(Pumpkin Pie)

1 egg

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1 c white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 c pumpkin puree

1 1/2 c evaporated milk

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

2 Tbsp light corn syrup

1 pie crust

I used two baking pumpkins (the little cute ones), and had a bit of pumpkin puree left over. 

The first thing you wanna do is preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Then cut each pumpkin in half and seed it. (this is great if you have kids to do it for you - otherwise it's a little gross)

You'll need 4 baking dishes of sorts, I used oven-safe bowls and a 9x9" brownie pan for mine. In each dish place the pumpkin halves cut-side down, and add about 1 cup of water.

 Now, they bake! ...for 90 minutes, until meltingly tender.

 Don't worry, this is what they're supposed to look like when they come out of the oven, but be careful, the stem will slide right out.

 So, now you just scoop all of the 'meat' right out, and dump it straight into the blender and puree!

 From here, for the bread, in a large bowl stir together the banana (mashed), eggs, oil, pumpkin, honey, and sugar. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pie spice and cinnamon. The stir the dry combination into the banana mixture until just combined. Now you can fold in the raisins/walnuts/pecans.

Bake at 350F in a greased 9x5" loaf pan for 45 minutes (or until a toothpick will come out clean, it took me a little over 45 mins I think). Cool the bread in the pan for about 10 minutes, put it on a wire cooling rack, and then enjoy!

 **This bread is fantastic, but if you don't think you're going to eat all of it within a few days, I would freeze half. The ripe bananas will make this wonderful bread awful after about 5 days.

For the pumpkin pie, preheat the oven to 450F.

Add the sugar gradually to the pumpkin puree. Beat well and stir in the flour, salt and spices. Stir in the corn syrup and beat well. Stir in the slightly beaten egg, slowly add the evaporated milk and mix well until blended. Pour the batter into an unbaked pie shell and bake at 450F for ten minutes, reduce heat to 325F and bake for 30 minutes. (It actually took my pie a lot longer than 30 minutes to bake, and I ended up turning the heat down to around 300F, but 30 minutes is a good time to start checking it - you'll know it's done when a knife or toothpick comes out clean).

This pumpkin pie is amazing, so hopefully you'll get a chance to try it!

Be Compassionate.

So, on my way to class this morning I was driving down highway 380 to Denton and was surprised to see feathers blowing down the road. It was about 8:30 am and there was the normal commuter traffic, work trucks, semis, etc. so I was a little confused. It wasn't until I switched lanes and stopped at the next light that I figured out where the feathers were coming from...the semi that had been a few cars ahead of me. This guy was carrying a truck load of live chickens!

I pulled up to next to him, completely horrified by the chickens pressed up against the wire of the truck staring at me. These poor little guys were completely cram-packed and stuffed into metal shelving units on wheels in the truck. Some of their faces were pressed up against the wire, and their little legs falling through the gaps below them. 

The truck (though I didn't get a picture of it) read 'Mayhard Egg Farms'. From what I've heard, these are actually fairly decent conditions, comparatively speaking at least. I've driven past Mayhard Egg Farms, and this truck was not driving toward it, he was driving the chickens to the slaughterhouse. 

 According to the Science channel, chickens are at appropriate age for slaughter between 12 and 18 months of age. That seems like such a waste and very distasteful.

If you're going to eat chickens or their eggs, please consider buying only farm raised, free range chickens, not those that are mass bred solely for their eggs then whisked away to slaughter.

Be Creative.

I've been very busy lately, but still needing a creative outlet. Since I have little to no money at almost any given time, I really have to think about using things around the house to do my crafts. This time I decided to paint some old shoes! I know it sounds a little crazy, but I have some Toms shoes that are (or at least started out) white, and my dog chewed a small hole in them, so I really don't wear them much anymore....until now : ) I thought it'd be fun to snazz 'em up a bit, so I busted out the old acrylic paint. (I know you're really supposed to use fabric paint, but this worked just fine for me). Now I can barely see the hole, and they don't look so dingy, plus, they're one of a kind!

This was super easy and fun, everyone should try this before getting rid of anything!

Plastics

Have you ever thought about how much we (especially as Americans) depend on plastic? I hear people talk all the time about our dependence on (foreign) oil for gas, but what about everything else we use oil for. What about plastic, which is made from oil?

I'm sure you've heard of BPA in plastics, like baby bottles, water bottles, etc. and how harmful it is. In fact, many baby products are now flaunting their 'BPA free' status. Did you know that when you leave a bottle of water in your car on a hot day the bottle heats up releasing chemicals (BPA - Bisphenol-A) into your drinking water? This particular chemical (BPA) can cause health defects up to and including cancer. BPA has been shown to emulate the feminine hormone estrogen, and once in the human body will essentially raise estrogen levels. This chemical is found in plastic food containers as well, making it pretty risky to microwave your dinner in tupperware.

Not only is it pretty bad for your body, but for the environment as well. Think about all the plastic surrounding you on a day to day basis:

cups

plastic forks/spoons/knives

plastic plates/bowls

computers

electronics

remote controls

picture frames

appliances

food storage bags

your car's interior

light switches

shampoo bottles

power cords

pacifiers

dvd cases

dvds

cds

pens

straws

spatulas

baby gates

toothbrushes

toothpaste tubes

--the list goes on and on. If it's not healthy to drink from a warm water bottle because of the chemicals that seep out, it can't possibly be healthy to use toothpaste from a plastic tube that has always been kept at room temperature, or warmer. Think about warehouses that mass produce plastics, I bet they don't keep everything cool.

And we have to make sure we recycle. If not, plastic lies around for years and years before decomposing, and chemicals such as BPA leak out into the land around it, eventually reaching ground water, lakes, rivers, whatever, until it finds its way into our drinking water. Yep, its in tap water.

So, I think we all need to think twice about what we're doing to our environment, and especially our bodies. Even if you start small and just stop buying plastic drinking cups, we could make a huge impact.