Health benefits of pumpkin

This post is a part of the Fantabulous Fall Favorites blog chain put together by a great group of bloggers. The theme this week is pumpkins. Be sure to check out all the great ideas shared at the end of this post!

 

This is what has been appearing in front of the grocery stores lately. I took this photo in front of a Dillon's store, which is part of the Kroger chain. Aren't they beautiful?

 

And not only are pumpkins plentiful now, they are starting to go on sale. In a few weeks, they'll be really cheap! I, for one, plan to stock up and I'll tell you why. Pumpkins are good for you! 

I like pumpkins in general because they are so versatile - pie, soup, muffins, pancakes - on and on. And not only that, their consistency makes them a good substitute for egg which I always need because of Brady's egg allergy.

I had the idea they were healthy, but just recently did a little research to find out just exactly HOW healthy.  Here's what I found out about the nutrition of pumpkins as well as their interesting history:

• Pumpkins are loaded with beta carotene. Every source I looked at, from CNN to Men's Health, mentioned this benefit. This antioxidant gives it its orange color and may help prevent heart disease and cancer and boost immunity.
• It has tons of Vitamin A and Potassium. 
• 1 cup has few calories (49) and lots of fiber (almost 3g). 
• According to this article at How Stuff Works, canned pumpkin and fresh are about equally nutritious.
• At WebMD, this article states that 80 % of the U.S. pumpkin supply is available in October. This article also states canned and fresh are fairly similar with small variations in Vitamin C and Vitamin A. 
• According to the Poughkeepsie Journal it is also a good source of vitamin E, thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin C, riboflavin, copper and manganese. 
• The Huffington Post reports that pumpkin seeds - also called pepitas - are rich in phytosterols which are touted for reducing bad cholesterol. Wikipedia states they are a good source of protein, magnesium, copper and zinc. 
• The Huffington Post also states that pumpkin seeds can boost your mood because they contain the amino acid tryptophan and that pumpkin boasts more potassium than a banana. 
• Livestrong.com touts the seeds' zinc content. 
• Jack Creek Farms in California has a really neat website all about pumpkins. There is a full nutrition break down here, information on growing pumpkins here, a great list of varieties here and recipes here.
• According to the farm website, pumpkin is a fruit!  Here's more about what constitutes a fruit or vegetable at Mayo Clinic's website.
• Pumpkins originated in North America and were grown, cooked and eaten by Native Americans. I had no idea!
• According to Wikipedia, the oldest evidence of pumpkin-related seeds dates between 7000 and 5500 BC in Mexico.
• Also at Wikipedia, Nestle (under the name Libby's) produces 85 % of the processed pumpkin the U.S. I remember in 2009 when canned pumpkin had a shortage because of rains in Illinois.
• When I first attempted to grow pumpkins last year, I was surprised to learn that the plant has both male and female flowers. It is well described here at Missouri Botanical Garden's website.

I hope this little research project has inspired you to go out and stock up on pumpkin as well. It's a far more interesting plant than I ever knew. Happy Fall!

Interested in more amazing Pumpkins ideas? Check out these posts!

Bee Tree Studios - This is Halloween, Halloween!
Gift of Curiosity - Pumpkin Decorating with Melted Crayon
Creative K Kids - Monster Pumpkin Cookies
Called to Be a Mom - 6 Easy Pumpkin Activities for Preschoolers

Still want more? Head to our Fantabulous Fall Favorites Pinterest Board!

My peaceful place is gone... for now...

Fall has come to Kansas. There are a few patchy yellow spots in the trees now. Our morning temps dipped  into the 30s this weekend.

The growing season is over. The picture below is of a garden in its prime. Now the plants are pale, listless; the growth all but stopped. Except those okra, I'm telling you they are nearly indestructible.

Last week, I picked my last big bowls full of green tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and okra. I have one squash left to cook. And I need to dig up the carrots. 

To be honest, I'm ready to be done. The coming of fall does that to a person. It tells you it's time to dig in and brace for the coming cold. Here our habits follow the weather.

But I will miss it. This is a place where I always find peace. It is the most interesting and hopeful place I know. I will turn my mind to winter things, and turn my energy toward jewelry making and cleaning old bottles I dug up and cold-weather cooking.

But I will also start planning for next year's garden.

What gives you peace? And are you ready for winter?

Co-schooling: spelling mnemonics & practicing letters

In Brady's 2nd grade class, every few spelling tests each child is tested only on words they missed on previous tests. It's called their "word bank."

Out of four tests - a total of 48 words - Brady missed five. Of those five, three were simply because he wrote a 'b' instead of a 'd' or vice versa. He knew how to spell the word. He just wrote those letters backwards.

Overall, he's doing really well at spelling, but we needed to address this problem. We did it in two ways:

1. Mnemonic

I had to look up the spelling of this! In a spelling post! That seems ironic.

Anyway, according to Merriam-Webster, a mnemonic is "assisting or intended to assist memory." For now we use it only for spelling, but I'll bet down the road it will be useful elsewhere.

We did this a lot last year. For example, "together" was to-get-her. He spelled it right and still knows how. And "enough" is eno-ugh (sounds like eeno-ugg). This worked wonders for Brady, especially coupled with the letter scramble and repetition.

This year, 'b' and 'd' were vexing us. So I came up with another mnemonic which capitalized on his love of Star Wars: "Death star to the left, Boba Fett to the right." It took him awhile to get it down pat, but soon he could say it and knew it meant D was to the left and B was to the right.

2. Practice

Every night for two weeks I wrote a capital D and capital B at the top of a paper and then 1. 2. 3. under each one. So he'd practice writing each one in lower case three times.

When he was tested over his word bank, he didn't miss any.

I thought these simple techniques might help someone else with spelling woes as much as they helped us.

Small town Tuesday: Why I couldn't get my mail

It's time for the weekly installment of Small Town Tuesday. If you have a small-town story (with pictures is even better! ) please send me a message at vash_ii@yahoo.com or on Facebook.

In larger cities, mail just happens. It shows up in your box or on your doorstep every day. You don't have to think about it much or do much to get it. You just go and look for it.

Even if you live in an apartment and a box is too large, you usually have between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to pick it up at the office.

That's not the case here. Awhile back I signed up for a free 39-week subscription to the Wall Street Journal. My hubby's been loving it. I had no idea the problems it would cause.

You see, we don't have curbside delivery. Since it's a small town, we each have a post office box instead and have to go up town to get it.

Lots of PO boxes. The bonus is getting to see people you know at the post office!

Not a big deal. Unless you get the Wall Street Journal every day.

That paper is HUGE. Geez, I wonder what it was like before the journalism downturn. And our box is really small. Even that one paper the mail lady has to really stuff in there. Half the time I tear it trying to get it out.

A stack of our Wall Street Journals. They're bigger than I thought!

Anyway, if I don't pick the mail up EVERY single day or if we get a little more mail than normal, I get a yellow slip in my box. Oh I hate that yellow slip.

It means my mail is inaccessible until the mail lady is back in the office. And she's only there 4 hours a day. There are a few key boxes where she puts packages sometimes but for some reason she never puts my overflowing mail in there.

So the other day I *GASP* forgot to pick up the mail on a Friday. Oh no, now it will really get backed up because she's only there 15 minutes on Saturday and I never EVER can remember what time that is. 

No mail for Friday. 

Being an optimist, I check Saturday morning (after the 15 minutes is over of course). No luck. Yellow slip.

No mail for Saturday. 

Aw, dang. I missed her again.

Monday comes around and I totally forget the post office is only open 4 hours (It changed from 5.5 to 4 hours back in May). I got there ONE MINUTE past closing time and, sure enough, another yellow slip.

Sigh. No mail for Monday.

So Tuesday morning I had to take the yellow slips to the lady and had a HUGE pile of mail, three days worth with, of course, three Wall Street Journals. This deal drives me crazy.

Don't tell my husband, but I'll be glad when the free subscription ends because then I can go back to my nice peaceful mail routine. Unless... what if he likes it so much he wants to pay for a subscription!

Then I guess my life will just stay interesting.

Easy peasy way to peel tomatoes

There are these wonderful little moments in life - infrequent as they are - when you learn something that is very useful to you and also very simple at the same time.

That's how it was about a year ago when I saw a You Tube video on how to peel tomatoes. I tried it and it really actually worked. Wow. 

This one little thing has made whipping up salsa or stewed okra and tomatoes or any diced tomato dish super easy. So I thought I'd share it.

First step, cut an X on the bottom of the tomatoes.

 

 Step 2, boil some water and let the tomatoes boil for only 30 seconds.

Step 3, put the tomatoes in an ice bath for a minute or so.

Step 4, the skin peels off very easily.

Step 5, here are your beautiful peel-free garden tomatoes ready to go. The possibilities are endless!

Garlic Parmesan pull-apart bread

I made this fantastic bread for our country Labor Day supper and everyone loved it. The recipe came from Facebook and I think the original source is Pillsbury.

It is easy and quick and good.

Garlic Parmesan Pull Apart Bread

1 can refrigerated Grands biscuits
1/2 stick of butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 350. Throw the cold 1/2 stick of butter in a bundt pan and let it melt in preheating oven. While butter melts, cut the Grands biscuits into quarters. In a bowl, toss the biscuit pieces, garlic, Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese together.

Once butter is melted, add biscuit mixture, sprinkling any cheese and garlic that gets left behind in the bowl. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Turn out onto a dish. Yum!

We were made to persevere

I got 17 cukes - including these 11 in 1 day - in a week.

I learn a lot from my garden. Lately, one plant in particular has become a metaphor for perseverance.

Let me tell you his story.

My garden started this year with 10 cucumber plants (all planted late after a failed attempt at using last year's saved seeds). Within a couple weeks, rabbits reduced the number of fledgling plants to 3.

Shortly after, golfball-sized hail took out 2 more.

That left 1.

This one plant only had a few leaves left and beat up by the hail at that. I thought, sheesh, might as well forget it. No cukes this year. But I thought wrong.

Little Mighty started to grow. And grow. And grow. I began to collect a good 6 cucumbers off of him a week. Not bad for one plant, I thought. We've had marinated cucumbers in the frig solid for at least two months.

Then he started taking over the garden. One day as I watered a tomato plant, I noticed a strange yellow flower in the middle of it. What's that? I looked closer. It was one of old Mighty's tendrils climbing up the tomato plant! Baby cukes were growing up there!

Little Mighty has several vines in many directions.

My father-in-law stopped by the other day. "Is that a squash plant?"  he asked.

"No, it's a cucumber."

He paused and really regarded it. He's been gardening for decades. "I've never seen a cucumber plant with leaves that big."

In one week, I picked 17 cucumbers off that one plant. Enough to share, which is my ultimate measure of garden success.

Here's what it means to me. This plant was the last in a long line of others that succumbed to various pressures. He had lots of chances to get beaten down and shrivel up. But God didn't make this plant to give up. Life fights and fights and fights until it dies or catches hold.

Gosh, if that one little plant can produce so much, if it can persevere after the elements took out so many others, then what's my excuse for giving up? That plant doesn't know about failure, about the odds, about giving up.

It was made to do its best to thrive as long as possible.

Truly, that's how we as humans are made as well. I need to remember this simple lesson from nature when times are tough.

I'm not made to give up. I'm not made to lay down in defeat. I'm not made to lament my situation, but to get up and keep trying, over and over if necessary.  Even if it's hard.

God made me to keep doing my best, to keep getting up and moving forward, to keep trying to catch hold. Tomorrow's a new day. No matter what today brings, I will wake up with the will of a cucumber plant.  

Co-schooling: reading help for 2nd grade

Brady's ever-expanding "library."

Gosh, we love books.

Brady has several crates in his room stuffed with books that he calls his "library." I like that he thinks of it as his own personal library. We're always adding to it.

The things is, Brady may LOVE books, really love them, but he's still a little hesitant about reading. (And writing will be our next goal)

He's improving. He looked over my shoulder the other day and easily read an entire reply I left to someone's comment on one of my posts.

And he didn't even HAVE to do that. He just did it because he could. Now, either he's getting better, or my comments aren't all that complex. Ha! Maybe both.

The other night he brought home a "Step 2" book. "What does that mean?" he asked. I told him: "It says, 'reading with help," to which he said proudly, "I don't need help! I can read it myself!"  

Eureka!

The school sent home a note that he was getting further reading assistance at school. That's great. But I didn't want to leave it at that. I want to help from home to alleviate his hesitancy, motivate him and help improve his skills.

Here are the ways we are achieving that:

Communicate with teachers & support the school

First and foremost, I want to understand what they are observing, and both get and give suggestions. I immediately emailed the reading teacher and we exchanged a few emails. I also encourage Brady to participate in the reading groups and do his best. I ask him every day how they went, what he learned, what was good or bad about it and we talk it through.

Read things other than books

Notes, words on TV shows or commercials, boxes at the store, signs when we're out. I want him to see reading as practical as well as fun. And the more practice the better. At the dentist's office he read this cartoon on the wall, after which he cracked up: 

 

Get new books regularly 

We order books from school every time they send an order sheet home. I work it out so they are usually both cheapy and interesting, so it is usually less than $15 for 4 or 5 books. It tells Brady I think it's important and keeps him excited about reading. You could also have a regular library time to check out books or trips to the Goodwill or used book store.

Alternate readers

Sometimes I read to him, sometimes he reads to me. I don't want all the pressure on him, but I don't want to let him off the hook either. He gets challenged but then gets to relax and enjoy the story too. 

Feed the passion

We choose books he's really excited about, like Star Wars or Transformers or Little Critter. If he's not into a book, we don't read it right then.

Make it a routine

Reading has been a part of our daily routine forever, always at bedtime, and sometimes throughout the day too. No day goes by without reading at some point, even in the summer. 

Why is it important

I remind him reading is the basis for everything - the math he loves so much, the books he enjoys, becoming an inventor, going to college, finding a good job. I show him the ways in which I have to  read every day to be successful in my life.

Speak your attitude

Lastly, I tell him if he changes his attitude he will enjoy reading more. That if he speaks good things about it, he will feel good things. Doesn't always work, but slowly I think we are changing his perspective.

Small Town Tuesday: Grocery store fun

This is my weekly installment of Small Town Tuesday. If you have a small-town story (with pictures is even better! ) please send me a message at vash_ii@yahoo.com or on Facebook.

  

We're very fortunate in our town of less than 1,000 to have our own grocery store. If we didn't, we'd have to drive a ways to get anything! 

Not only that, our grocery store is open every day and is rather known as a gourmet store with unique and specialty products delivered from towns throughout Kansas. 

I try to shop there at least once a week and of course it is my last-minute shopping place, even for Christmas presents! 

Doesn't it look quaint? We often see local residents sitting in these chairs drinking coffee and chatting.

A lot of times we get a pop and sit in front of the grocery store and see people we know go in and out. 

The grocery store owners are really wonderful people. Brady used to be afraid of the guy because of his big mustache (and because he was always chopping meat) but he seems to have gotten over that. 

The woman though, he has always loved. She treats him like a little prince in there. See the date below? Brady got a whole box of conversation hearts for free from her if he'd only try a bite of the date which he did. (It was a small bite. I ate the rest). 

And lately Brady's sitter has been using fun ideas with him from a book the grocer lady gave her to help  work with kids, both as a sitter and also as instructor of a weekly Good News Club and summer Five Day Club.

But the best time we ever had was when she dropped whatever she was doing and took us on a 30-minute, impromptu tour of the entire place. She showed him the freezer, the refrigerator, the butcher shop, the back door where deliveries are made, the fork lift they use, the bathroom, the downstairs, the stock room, everything.

What a treat for a curious 7-year-old! He loves going to the store. I've never known my grocer in such a close way. It's a blessing. 

And lastly, her daughter has gone on an 11-month, 11-country mission around the world to bring Jesus and the Word of God to people in all sorts of impoverished and unimaginable situations. Our town has championed her efforts and raised money through our church and Brady's school, providing cattle and other supplies to a school in Africa as well as helping to fund her mission trip. 

Brady seems to know she is doing something special and always asks her mother about her. I love the spider web network of connections in this town. 

In this place, even a trip to the grocery store is cause for joy.

New challenge: Record everything I spend

I just read this post at Moms are Frugal and it inspired me to - starting Friday - record everything I spend my money on in a two-week period.

Who's with me?

I only pay with cash unless it is an online purchase, so I don't spend beyond my means, but sometimes it seems like the cash just disappears! I wonder where it goes and why it didn't last longer.

When I first started changing my spending habits about 7 years ago, I did this with grocery store receipts and was SHOCKED at how much I spent a month on groceries. I have gone from $800 a month at that time to about $300 a month now.

Maybe I can do the same with general spending - on eating out, treats, clothes or toys or movies or whatever. Anybody who is in the same boat and wants to do this challenge with me, hop on and we can compare notes two weeks from Friday.

I am really curious to see what I learn from this, what trends I discover or things I didn't even realize I was doing. And the goal is to be more intentional with the cash I have and perhaps start a little cash savings fund for a special trip or something I really want.