Anniversary...

...30 Years TodayClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Peg and I are celebrating our 30th Anniversary today.

And just how are we celebrating it?

By immersing ourselves in the common everyday beauty of our simple fragile lives, by taking an early morning walk with our beloved Dallas, and, by sharing a delicious home-cooked breakfast together out on the junk-shop patio before we get back to work painting the house and cleaning up the yard in preparation for winter...

To live a life of voluntary simplicity, "Simple in Means, but Rich in Ends", to borrow a phrase from the Deep Ecology movement, has been our goal for many years, and our commitment to that ideal strengthens with each passing day.

Extravagance and consumerism are not habits either of us find attractive, sustainable, or rewarding, but we did purchase a gift for ourselves which is in harmony with what we've accomplished thus far in our lifestyle changes.

Peggy has been researching Haybox Cooking and I've decided to build one for us in the very near future. So we bought ourselves a new Lodge cast iron 5 quart Dutch Oven (regularly $43.99, on sale for $26.99, with free shipping) which will be ideal for use with a Haybox.

Thirty Years...

...and you got Peggy a dutch oven???

Exactlioto Quasimoto, Peggy is the frugal one in our household, and I would've been in hot water had I gone out and squandered a wad of money on some lavish gift. Peggy is extremely down to earth and I really love that about her.

Remember, it was her idea to get rid of the car almost 13 years ago.

Thank goodness, because I wouldn't be the least bit interested in, or compatible with, a 'Material Girl'.

And tonight, after the day's work is finished, we'll be enjoying a nice hot bath together, a little massage, and then, who knows???

;~)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY PEGGY SUE!!!

AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE PRECIOUS YEARS YOU'VE SHARED WITH ME...

...another anniversary gift

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Shortly before 7 A.M., during our walk this morning, three Great Blue Herons were congregating near the footbridge, two of them sitting on the railing. As we approached I was taking pictures and two of the giant birds flew off before I was close enough for a good shot. But this one here allowed me to get within 12 feet or so, staying there for a good long time while I snapped pictures and Peggy & Dallas looked on.

It's rare for a heron in the wild to allow a human to get this close, let alone two humans with a big black dog.

A gift indeed!!!

Tool-Shed/Workshop/Studio/Beer-Garden Nearing Completion

Front Entrance & West Facing Beer Garden Patio

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

All summer long we've been enjoying our meals out here on this cozy little patio decorated with the recycled artifacts of the lost (Mid-Twentieth Century) civilization I grew up in.

South Facing Wall With Big WindowClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

I just finished siding the north and south walls of the shed, the day before yesterday, then painted the recycled window olive drab.

The siding on these walls all comes from four 10 foot long sections of weathered picket fence we salvaged from a neighbor several years ago when he replaced it with chain link. I still have three more 10 foot sections for some future project.

This beautiful wood was either going to be kindling for a fireplace or would've ended up at the county landfill.

The big window came from an old lodge up here that was being remodeled some decades ago and fitted with new windows. I got several of them free of charge, just for hauling 'em away, and they've been used here over the years as tomato hot-houses and even a temporary home for baby chicks once. I have at least two more of these I'm saving for a garden potting-shed.

North Facing WallClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

On this wall I staggered the old fence pickets randomly, using as many of the original nail holes as possible and then drilling new holes where they were needed.

The very old marble-reflector porcelain-on-steel DETOUR sign was given to me by a friend & neighbor some years ago.

Workbench Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

As you might guess, I spend a lot of time out here now tinkering around with my various hobbies & crafts. Again, most everything here was built from scrap, salvaged wood, or recycled junk. The 'carvings' at each side of the window are from an old piece of junk furniture we dismantled (I have 3 more of them too).

The workbench and ceiling are from salvaged wood, and the wall around the window is covered with empty seed packets used in our vegetable garden, which I adhered to the wall then tinted with amber shellac. The trim by the ceiling is recycled wiggle-board.

The small stained-glass windows hanging there were the first two windows I made, for a stained-glass class I took way back in the early 1970s. The tulip design was made from a very simple beginner's pattern.

Beer Wall Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

As some of you may be aware, we have several friends who get together now and then to enjoy the many delicious craft beers being brewed these days, so, just for fun, I decorated the back wall of the shed with nearly 100 different beer carton graphics, giving them the same amber shellacked finish as the seed packets.

These are the actual cardboard six-pack (or four-pack) cartons which I cut out and pieced together one by one. They were mostly donated to me by my beer drinking buddies, Bill and Denny (thanks guys), but I've had just about every one of these beers over the years. Ohhhh, and so many more!

They make an appropriate addition to the workshop considering that the adjoining patio is the beer garden which will be served by the tap in the front wall, starting on September 27th, when we will be christening the joint with keg of good beer and a shrimp-kabob barbecue.

Jim In His Workshop/Studio This MorningClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 peggy otterstrom

Peggy took this shot of me in the studio about 8:45 this morning, a quite common sight around here now.

I have a just little more work to do inside, finishing up trim on the interior west wall.

Click here, here, & here, to see older posts of the beginning and evolution of the project...

Afternoon Pickin's

Very Fresh Organic Food

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Some of this fresh-picked organically home-grown food will be on our dinner plates in a matter of minutes. We're having broiled tuna (our friends Mark & Deb caught it) with salad tonight, poached eggs on toast for breakfast tomorrow, and something with eggplant for either lunch or dinner tomorrow.

Unfortunately, you can't see the abundant variety of salad greens in that basket because I kind of buried them under the other stuff.

The Greenhouse Today...

Eggplant, Tomatoes, & Yellow Crookneck

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

In the greenhouse today we have several dozen Japanese Eggplant ripening on the vine, a bunch of Yellow Crookneck Squash, and hundreds of Tomatoes just beginning to ripen.

Our Saturday Lunch

~Veggie Sandwich~ Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Lunch yesterday was a veggie sandwich consisting of healthy-sauteéd' (in vegetable broth) Portobello Mushrooms with Japanese Eggplant & onions, on a bed of Romaine Lettuce & fresh cucumber slabs, under sliced tomato & Mung Bean sprouts, all stacked between two slices of Food For Life 100% Whole Grain Ezekiel 4:9 Flourless Bread, lathered on one side with home-made hummus, and on the other, with Follow Your Heart Grapeseed Oil Vegenaise.

We create variations on this theme several days a week, sometimes with avocado and a slice of cheddar, but always making a superb tasting sandwich!

By my best reckoning, this absolutely cholesterol free sandwich, including the hummus and Vegenaise, provides about 290 calories, maybe 75 of them from fat (derived mostly from healthful essential fatty acids). But that's not the reason to eat this thing, the reason is because it tastes so danged good!!!

While I'm on the subject of food, I should, once again, recommend our bible on healthy eating, 'The World's Healthiest Foods', by George Mateljan.

880 pages of comprehensive and invaluable information on the world's hundred most healthful (commonly available) foods, including nutrient richness charts (based on nutrient density per calorie), exhaustive nutritional analysis charts, detailed explanations of why each of the foods is good for you, and, the most healthful ways to store, prepare, and cook them.

~Includes 500 delicious recipes~

(Incidently, the sandwich above is not one of the recipes, but the ingredients are among the Hundred Healthiest Foods, and the method of healthy sauteéing the eggplant, mushrooms, and onions is right out of the book.)

This huge book is the product of 10 years of research by Mateljan and a team of nutritional scientists, and it's a virtual steal at around $25.

If you're interested in this book you can order it directly from http://www.whfoods.com/ or buy new & used copies through our Amazon.com book link in the sidebar to the right.

Today Is The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life...

...How Did You Begin Yours?

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Peggy and I have been sleeping on the deck, outside, under the stars, for the past few weeks. We wake up about 5 A.M. and have been alternating between long morning walks and bike rides around the lake.

This morning we left the house on our bikes, at 5:45, and found another beautiful sky waiting for us. We could see rain in the distance ahead of us so I stopped at Von's deli and asked for a plastic bag to put my camera in, just in case.

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

In the enlarged picture you can see rain falling over to the west of us, and, as we got over near Boulder Bay, the roads were wet but the rain had moved out ahead of us.

You may also notice a rainbow coming down through the clouds in the right side of the photo. It appears to be touching down near the Serrano Campground on the north shore, near the solar observatory, and sure enough, when we got over to the bike path that runs through the campground the ground was still wet.

Boulder Bay

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

As we rolled west the clouds moved to the horizon and blues skies opened above us.

Near The Dam, Looking Southeast
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Shortly after crossing the dam, and heading back eastward toward home, we stopped for a water break at this overlook.

A Couple Of Hours Later...
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom
Tuesday is the day our local little Farmer's Market sets up shop, just 2 blocks from our house, so after our ride we leashed up Dallas and headed over to pick up some fresh produce.




Click on photos to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

All this fun and we were home before 9 A.M. looking forward to working in our own gardens.

~We Hope You Are Enjoying Your Day~

Peace & Love
Jim & Peg

We Made The Front Page!

Click on article to enlarge - © 2008 Big Bear Grizzly & Kathy Portie

Our local newspaper, the Big Bear Grizzly, has been doing some recent stories on the high cost of gasoline and how people might cut back on their fuel expenses.

The paper got word of our car-free lifestyle and called us over the weekend to arrange an interview about our experiences.

So we knew this was coming out today but were surprised to see our mugs on the front page.

Peggy and I think the article is nicely written, simple and to the point, and we feel honored to be featured in our local paper.

There is one slight error in the story that I will correct here. It says that we retired from the Postal Service in 1997, but I retired in 2001, and Peggy retired in 2004.

A Visionary Architect, Humanitarian, Writer & Philosopher

Nader Khalili 1936-2008 Click on photo to enlarge - photo credit unknown
Borrowed from Kelly Hart at his Green Home Building Blog

"No one can prove there is a meaning to life. I must make my own life meaningful. That is all."

One of the ways Iranian born and educated architect Nader Khalili made his life meaningful was by designing and building beautiful earth-friendly super-adobe structures at his Cal-Earth Institute Of Earth Art And Architecture in nearby Hesperia, California. And by sharing his ideas and enthusiasm not only with his Cal-Earth students, but also within a larger global community of thoughtful, creative & hopeful people from all walks of life. People who are concerned about a viable future as they take deliberate steps toward sustainable living.

Peggy and I had been admiring Khalili's work, through photographs, newspaper articles, and websites for some 15 years before finally visiting Cal-Earth last April for a first-hand look at his delightful creations.

See photos at our post here.

We didn't get to meet Mr. Khalili when we were at Cal-Earth, we missed him by a day, and figured we'd get the chance on our next visit, but that's not going to happen.

Nader Khalili passed away last Wednesday, March 5th, he was 72 years old.

Much has been written about Nader Khalili by the people who knew, loved, and worked with him.

Yesterday morning, one of those people posted a comment at my previous post.

I have re-posted the comment below---and I thank 'anonymous' for the information---because Nader Khalili was the rare kind of human being this over-populated world needs more of.

"Nader Khalili, internationally renowned architect, author, and educator, passed away at the age of 72 on Wednesday, March 5th.He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Hospital, of congestive heart failure.

Khalili was known for his innovation into the Geltaftan Earth-and-Fire System known as Ceramic Houses and the SuperAdobe Construction (sandbag and barbed wire) technique also known as Earthbag.

He developed his SuperAdobe technology in 1984, in response to a NASA call for designs for human settlements on the Moon and Mars.

He had been involved with Earth Architecture and Third World Development since 1975, and was a U.N. consultant for Earth Architecture.

In 1991 he founded the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture (Cal-Earth), in Hesperia, CA, which teaches his SuperAdobe building technique.

His sustainable solutions to human shelter have been published by NASA, and awarded by the United Nations, the Aga Khan award for Architecture, amongst others. (see http://www.calearth.org/khalili.htm, for more.)

He authored six books, including his international best-selling auto-biography, "Racing Alone," (his newest book "Emergency Shelter," available this summer) as well as two highly-acclaimed volumes translating the poetry of Rumi, "Fountain of Fire" and "Dancing the Flame."

Born in Iran as one of nine children, his quest was to empower the world's poor and refugees to build homes using the earth under their feet.

He was a prominent American leader on the value of ethically based architecture, where the needs of the homeless are considered above all else.

Inspired by the mystical poetry of Rumi, (whose poems he studied and translated, from an early age) his architecture was distilled from the timeless principles of this universe and its timeless materials -- the elements of earth, water, air, and fire, and has been described as "Poetry crystallized into structure."

Laura Huxley, Aldous Huxley's widow, called Khalili the "practical visionary."

He was a quiet hero and a gentle humanitarian, who wrote: "No one can prove there is a meaning to life. I must make my own life meaningful. That is all."

He is survived by his wife Iliona, son Dastan, daughter Sheefteh, eight brothers and sisters and extended family.

~~~The Burial Ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday March 11th at the Sontag Greek Amphitheater, Pomona College, 300 E. Bonita Avenue, Claremont, CA, 91711. North-East Parking Lot entrance.

Burial and wake to follow after the ceremony.

10:00 - 10:30 am arrive at the Sontag Greek Amphitheater: For directions call: (909) 576-9830 (The Sontag Greek Amphitheatre is adjacent to the Seaver Theatre due east of Oldenborg Residence Hall.

Located in a wonderful wooded area known as the Wash, it is secluded from traffic yet a five minute walk from the center of campus. There are many theaters in the college but only one open air amphitheater.)

Ceremony until around 12:00 noon.

Then to Oak Park Cemetery for the burial. The main entrance is at the end of Oak Park Drive, cross street with Sycamore Avenue. (909) 399-5487

After the burial, the wake/refreshments at the Seaver House, Pomona College close to the amphitheater and the organic garden."

Cozy Winter Coop...

~YARDBIRDS~ Click on photo to enlarge -© 2008 jim otterstrom

Some of our hens and the recently rechristened Boris Major, a bantam Golden Lace Cochin Rooster, enjoy the chicken yard before the approaching storm hits.

This is predicted to be a major winter storm so I decided to clean out the coop yesterday, laying down fresh alfalfa litter, and refilling the nest boxes with wood chips.

I also consolidated our three stacks of firewood into two, covered them with tarps, cleaned out the raingutters and generally straightened up the yard.

HENSPECTION!Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

One of our Black Australorp hens carefully inspects the nest boxes after I freshened them up.

Everything Seems To Be In OrderClick on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

The Black Australorp is soon joined by a Light Brahma and a Barred Rock who all seem to approve of the housekeeping efforts.

Food (check), water (check), edible litter (check), comfy nests (check), perches intact (check), OK, let's go back outside while we can!

ME FIRST!!Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

The storm was supposed to hit last night but it was still clear and relatively warm when Peggy & I took our walk at 7 this morning.

It's clouded up now though and getting quite cold so it shouldn't be long now. Let's hope we do get some substantial precipitation, whether rain, or snow.

The chickens are ready...

Our kind of folks! Unsung heroes of The Stanfield Marsh

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

Meet Joe, Jim, and Charmaine

We encounter these folks almost every morning on our walks along the marsh, where they can often be found picking up trash and repairing vandalism to the boardwalk.

Jim is 82 years young and Charmaine is 78. Their autistic son Joe (on the left) is 51, and never developed the ability to speak.

Rather than institutionalizing Joe, Jim and Charmaine have dedicated much of their lives to caring for him, which has included taking him out daily for long walks, and the healthful benefits of fresh air and exercise.

A couple of years ago Charmaine fell down a flight of stairs, breaking her neck, and I worried that she might never recover. But, as soon as possible, Jim had her back out on the boardwalk, in a wheelchair, pushing her along while holding onto Joe at the same time.

Charmaine has been walking again for quite some time now, out there every day like the trooper she is, but they still bring the wheelchair along in case she gets tired.

The kind of care Jim and Charmaine give their son, and each other, is also evident in the way they care for their environment.

Every week-end, especially around holidays, hoards of tourists flock to the marsh to picnic and view the beautiful scenery & wildlife of Big Bear. And every Sunday they drive off in their humongous rolling trash-bins, leaving behind, literally, mountains of garbage along the lakeshore.

Consequently, throughout any week, you will find Jim and Charmaine, walking Joe, and selflessly collecting trash without thoughts of recognition or reward for their work.

Some people also enjoy vandalizing the boardwalk by tearing the wire fencing loose from the wooden railings but Jim is soon there, with his hammer and a pocket full of horse-shoe nails, putting the fence back together again (see photo below).

For years, Peggy and I have also gone out with our bike trailer (and an extension pole with a home-made hook, fashioned from an old paint-roller, for snagging floating trash out of the water) picking up trash behind thoughtless humans who think nothing of desecrating nature and beauty.

While I completely understand that, for Joe and Charmaine, doing this work is its own reward, I personally want to thank them for being the kind of people who restore my faith in humanity.

As a society we seem to look for some hero, or leader to solve our problems for us, but Joe and Charmaine, by their caring example, demonstrate that each of us, through personal responsibilty, can make a huge difference in the world, if we choose to.

If the human species is to survive the 21st Century, I don't believe it will be through the efforts of celebrities, politicians, technologists, or philanthropists.

I believe any future we have is in the hands of average men, women, and children, who can change the world profoundly by caring enough to change themselves.

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

Jim, at a young 82, repairing fence along The Stanfield Marsh boardwalk.

Click on photo to enlarge - 1954 photo credit unknown

52 YEARS AGO

Charmaine and Jim on their Wedding Day

The very lovely young Charmaine, and her handsome Jim, were married on September 25th, 1954 and will be celebrating their 53rd Anniversary this year.

Jim, a B-24 pilot during World War II, later earned an engineering degree and went on to a career with Rockwell.

A veteran with a conscience, Jim is rightfully proud of his WWII service but also thinks the Viet-Nam and Iraq Wars should never have been waged.

Charmaine was a personnel manager for Atlantic-Richfield before she married Jim, thereafter becoming a devoted housewife and mother.

They also have a loving daughter, Nancy, who lives in Colorado.

Thank You Jim And Charmaine!

For Caring...

Postscript 2-26-07

When Jim gave me the wedding picture to scan, he also pointed out that his father had painted the beautiful landscape scene hanging on the wall behind the newlyweds.

The Art Of Tea, In A Brand New Year...

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

Peggy and I are enjoying a quiet peaceful first day of 2007.

Our second pot of green tea, 'China Tips', is steeping in the pot.

We're listening to music from an entire century as the iPod shuffles through random play, selecting tunes from our own ROBINHOOD RADIO© collection of 12,000+ carefully chosen songs*, while Peggy and I work on our new TOP SECRET project.

We can't tell you about it, or show pictures yet, because it's a surprise for loved ones who visit the blog, but as soon as it's finished and delivered I'll post the photos.

But I did post a picture of Peggy's new teapot. The lid on her other one was broken just before Christmas, which spurred me on to find her another one. So now she has two, because I managed to glue the top to the old one back together.

Much of my morning was spent cleaning the above tea kettle, which only had a light sheen of splattered grease on it, before I seriously burned it on the other day after boiling all the water away, while I was blogging. Maybe now the pot will stop callin' the kettle black!

Last night was mellow too, highlighted by Peggy's way delicious home-made Turkey soup. We burned a Bayberry Candle throughout the evening, shared a great bottle of 2002 Pinot Noir (a timely gift from our friends, Mark & Deb**), and then I practiced on the guitar while Peggy read.

We were asleep by 9 o'clock but Dallas jumped up on the bed just before midnight, frightened, as the revelers started cutting loose, so we were awake for the big moment.

Home Sweet Home...

WISHING YOU ALL A GOOD NEW YEAR...

*I'm unrepentant in my lifetime addiction to recorded music, having been a collector of records, tapes, and CDs since I was 11 years old, so our iPod is programmed with 50 years worth of my favorite tunes, a good percentage of them recorded well before my time, and from many diverse cultures. For me, music is the sweetest of all languages, and, although I can fully feel the emotion in it, I'm not very fluent in my practice of music (unless I'm dancing to it with the insrument that is my body). Too much listening and not enough playing is my diagnosis.

**Mark brought over the bottle of wine on Sunday afternoon (New Years Eve) when I was still in the midst of a 2-day battle with leaking faucets in our bathtub/shower. I spent an aggravating Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday trying to stop a stubborn leak that was trickling down the inside wall of the tub enclosure and soaking the floor. Finally, after not being able to find new valves locally to replace our well worn 37 year-old plumber's antiques, and after replacing all the washers twice, then all the packing and the brass seats (one of those twice because of bad threads), I got the leak stopped, and the water turned back on. Just in time to enjoy our New Years Eve.

Why does this stuff always seem to happen on week-ends or during the holidays when hardware stores have short hours?

Thanks Mark & Deb, we both found the Pinot Noir to be exceptional!

Sleeping Outside...

Click on photo to enlarge

Peggy, Dallas, and I, spent the first night of July out on the deck, under a black mountain sky framed with Ponderosa and Jeffrey Pines, watching bats, stars, and clouds roll overhead until we all drifted off into our own dreamworlds.

Peggy and I agree it was the soundest sleep we'd had in weeks, but Dallas had no comment, he seems to think civilized dogs, and their people, sleep indoors.

Today our friends Craig and Pam are coming up from The Big Smoke (the L.A. Basin) and we're all off to a potluck BBQ beerfest at the east end of the valley.

Quiet Candlelight Solstice Dinner...

Click on photo to enlarge

Peggy lights the candles as we observe the Winter Solstice with a quiet dinner at home.

Not quite a 3-course meal here but Peggy's delicious Jalapeno Sun Quiche, and a nice Sunflower cornbread is a more than adequate, very tasty, and quite appropriate tribute to the returning of the Waxing Sun.

As we enjoy our meal tonight we will be thinking of you, our friends, as if we were all here, in a circle together.

From the warmth of the sun grew the life of our planet and from the warmth of our hearts we wish you well.

Love,

Peggy & Jim

Spicy Squash Vegan Stew!

Click on photo to enlarge
We're not vegetarians but vegetarian meals make up the largest part of our diet.
Peggy cooked up this new high potassium vegan find for dinner tonight and it was so tasty I'm posting the recipe.
I've noted 'organic' in the ingredients list for every organic ingredient we had access to for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped organic onions
5 organic garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon organic ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon crushed chili pepper
4 cups (1-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash
1 cup chopped parsnip
2 cups organic vegetable broth
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced organic tomatoes, undrained
1 10 ounce package of frozen baby lima beans, thawed
1 15 ounce can organic garbanzo beans, drained
3 cups fresh organic baby spinach
1 14 ounce can coconut milk
1/4 cup organic cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat canola oil in a Dutch oven (large pot) over medium-high heat. Add onion; saute 4 minutes or until onion is tender. Add garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt, and saute 1 minute. Add curry powder, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and chili pepper; cook 2 minutes stirring constantly. Stir in the squash, parsnip, broth, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes (Peggy had to cook it for about 25 minutes at our 6,750' elevation) or until squash is slightly tender, stirring occasionally.

2. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, lima beans, and garbanzo beans. Uncover and simmer 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. Add spinach and coconut milk; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro and lime juice. Serve immediately.

Approximately 8 servings

Food For Thought...

Click on photo to enlarge
My favorite breakfast served up in my wooden bowl out on the porch this morning.
Organic oatmeal with hemp hearts, wheat germ, wheat bran, raw sunflower seeds, pepitos, dried cranberries, walnuts, banana, organic soy milk and a little honey.
MMmmmmm, the good things in life...

But to keep me in touch with reality, and the everpresent evil going on around us, I had my orange juice in a Du Pont mug.

Better Living Through Chemistry!
How much Du Pont Teflon is in your bloodstream?

Americans hear a lot of rhetoric these days about family values, but what kind of people allow corporations like Du Pont (Teflon), General Electric (PCBs) and so many others to get away with concealing test results which reveal their products to be toxic to us, our children, and the rest of the species on earth?

Why are these companies still in business?

Where are the voices of people who really care about their families?