Living Simply Magic: Making Something Out Of Virtually Nothing

Sundays at the Living Simply home are the one day when we can spend an entire uninterrupted day together.  We love going to the farmers market in the village and then Fresh & Easy to do our grocery shopping for the week.  I usually try to plan our meals for the week, so we know what groceries to get.  But I never plan for Sundays.  Sunday is the day when we make sure we have finished all of our food from the previous week, so nothing gets wasted.

This morning, I looked to see what we had left.  I was greeted by slim pickings:  no leftovers, just 1lb ground beef, carrot & celery sticks, an onion, eggs, bacon, a small piece of angel food cake and 4 slices of stale bread.  We always keep staples in the pantry, like rice, pasta, pasta sauce, flour, sugar, cereal, etc.  But we were still left with very limited resources.  I momentarily ignored the need to plan our meals for the day, french-pressed my morning coffee, and turned on PBS for our Sunday morning cooking shows!

Lidia was in the middle of making something when I tuned in.  She was putting carrots, celery and onions in a food processor.  Then she added pancetta, and I thought, I wonder if she's making bolognese?  Bolognese!!!  Of course!!!  It turns out she was making stuffing, but the seed had been planted.  I had almost all the ingredients I need to make a kick-ass bolognese sauce! 

I have never attempted to make bolognese, but I know what the basic ingredients are, and decided I would take on the challenge.  We picked up the few remaining necessary ingredients (basil, garlic, cream) when we went shopping.  We found artisan rosemary bread & organic berries on clearance at Fresh & Easy.  (FYI-  Fresh & Easy reduces the price on food items that are about to expire.  If you are planning on using the item the same day, it can be a wonderful way to save money.)

When we returned home from shopping we made a simple yet tasty brunch of eggs and bacon.  Then we started to prepare dinner!  As usual we used bread leftover from the previous week, to make croutons for the next week.  If you have never made your own croutons, you are missing out.  They are so easy and delicious.  Just cut bread into small cubes, pour about 1 tablespoon of melted butter per slice of bread over the cubes and toss.  Sprinkle salt and garlic powder to taste and toss again.  Put the bread cubes on a cookie sheet and place in oven preheated to 400.  You will know when they are done, usually 10-15 minutes.  They get darker and your house starts to smell wonderful.


Homemade Croutons, Before & After Baking

 The base of the sauce is pretty easy and can be made in bulk, so you can freeze some for those busy days when you just don't feel like cooking.

Bolognese Base

1 lb ground beef (crumbled, browned & drained)

4oz Italian sausage (crumbled, browned & drained)

4-6 strips of regular bacon or 4 oz of Pancetta (crumbled & cooked, SAVE THE FAT)

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced celery (peel strings off for best results)

1 cup diced onion (sauteed til soft in 1-2 tablespoons of bacon fat)

3-5 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely diced

6-10 basil leaves, finely chopped

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream (DO NOT SUBSTITUTE, the cream is the glue that holds the sauce together)

All of the above ingredients (except cream) need to be put through a food processor or blender.  I processed the meat first, set it aside, then processed the veg.  Then I mixed them together.  You can process the ingredients however you want, but I found the way I did it to be ideal.  After you have mixed the meat & veg in a large bowl, add the cream and stir it in.  The base is now complete!  It is not the most visually appealing concoction (Mr. LS lovingly called it meat paste), but it is a necessary part of the journey to an amazing bolognese. 



Bolognese Base

Once you have the base completed, you may freeze it and use it at a later date.  Or you can finish making this sauce and enjoy it right away!  To complete this sauce, all you need to do is dump the base in a large skillet and add some basic pasta sauce (pomodoro or marinara). 

I used about half of a 25oz. jar, but you could use more or less, depending on your tastes.  Stir over medium high heat until it bubbles.  At this point, I added more cream, but you don't have to.  Once the sauce is heated through and bubbling, remove it from the heat.  There is very little water left in this sauce and it will reduce down to a very thick mix, too thick to be a good pasta sauce.  It's finished!  toss with your favorite pasta and then spoon a little more on top for good measure!  If you want to get fancy you can garnish with fresh basil and parmesan.

If you have any room left in your tummy after this delicious meal, I suggest something light for dessert.  We shared a fresh and cheery springtime treat thanks to those berries that were on clearance. 

Spaghetti Bolognese has been a favorite of ours for many years, and I am so upset that I waited so long to try to make it myself at home.  Don't make the same mistake I did, try it this week!

How to Get Publicity For Less Than $1.50

Last fall, I started a new business venture and new life journey as a birth doula.  It is such amazing work, and I love every minute of it, but marketing myself and my services is hard work!

I recently became aware of an opportunity to sponsor The Great Cloth Diaper Change. which is being held locally in conjunction with the anniversary celebration of No Sugar Added (a local natural baby store).  I wore cloth diapers as a baby, and I'm so happy to see that they are making a comeback!  The requirements for being a sponsor include: a donation of cash to cover expenses or a prize for a raffle drawing and "goodies" to go in 100 goody bags that will be distributed to participants.  This sounded like such a great idea, but I have no marketing budget, so I wondered if I could pull it off. 

I decided to donate a gift certificate for the raffle and coupons and breastfeeding cards for the goody bags.  "What is a breastfeeding card?"  Glad you asked.  It is a small card displaying the text of CA civil code section 43.3 which states in part "...a mother may breastfeed her child in any location, public or private..."  Its a wonderful thing to have on hand as a breastfeeding mom.



Breastfeeding Cards

I was then faced with designing and printing all of the these things!  The designing part wasn't difficult, as I have some graphic design experience.  But the potential prohibitive price of paper and printing was posing a problem, given my budget of almost nothing.  I needed a strong cardstock or thick paper for the gift certificate and BF cards, as well as some nice paper (preferably undyed and recyclable) for the coupons.  I decided to print at home, hoping I had enough ink left in my printer.

As I mentioned in my very first post, I am not a big fan of shopping at big chain stores and I purchase secondhand goods as much as possible.  I decided to make the round of local thrift stores to look for paper for this project and asked my mom if she wanted to join me.  She seemed so confused when I told her what I was shopping for, commenting that she didn't think that thrift stores sold paper.  I assured her that one can find almost anything at a second hand store, including paper.

The very first thrift store we visited had a small, ugly, journal type book with the most beautiful papyrus-like paper inside.  There were 52 sheets of  4x6 paper; enough to make 100 small coupons for the goody bags.  And, it only cost 49 cents.  After a little more searching at the same store, I found a never-used 8x8 scrapbook with 20 pages of heavy cardstock, which cost me 99 cents.

So, for only $1.48, I purchased all the paper I will need for this project! 

I designed the BF cards small (2x2) so I could fit 9 on a single page of cardstock.  They came out great, but now I am debating whether or not to laminate them.  It is definitely an added expense, but durability would benefit the pass-it-on nature of the card.  Hmmm. That's a tough one.  Any thoughts? 

Unbinding the little book of paper took patience, but wasn't too difficult.  After creating a custom page size on my printer, and a few trial runs with scrap paper, I successfully printed 100 beautiful little flyers with coupons to go in each of the goody bags!

At the end of the day, I felt so proud of myself.  I spent less than a day and $1.50 to launch the biggest marketing campaign my little business has seen yet!

Living simply and INTACT! Genital Integrity Awareness Week March 28- April 2 2011

Genital Integrity Awareness Week 2011

Yesterday marked the 14th anniversary of the United States' criminalization of female genital mutilation (a.k.a. female circumcision).  Although it was never a threat to a majority of girls in the States, a law was passed affirming their rights to genital integrity, regardless of their parents' cultural or religious traditions. 

This may be the one time in American history when congress defined and affirmed specific rights of female citizens, while failing to ensure comparable rights for their male counterparts. 

I will not go into why or how circumcision became so rampant in the western world.  I will only address why we as a country should stop circumcising our boys and dispel myths that say we should.

American Academy of Pediatrics' policy on circumcision clearly discriminates against males when compared to their policy on FGM, and yet they ultimately state that there is no evidence supporting routine neonatal circumcision. 

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology's policy on circumcision repeatedly calls it an elective procedure but also stresses that it is a decision that should be left completely up to the parents.  (I find this very interesting, because if a parent brought their kids in for almost any other elective procedure, like, say, a nose job, the doctors and nurses would be shocked and dismayed and maybe even call CPS.)

The argument that one should circumcise for hygienic reasons is ridiculous and could just as easily be used to justify female circumcision.  Parents can very easily learn how to clean and care for their intact sons, just as easily if not more easily than learning how to care for a raw post-op penis that spends 24/7 in a dark, damp (and sometimes dirty) diaper.

Studies linking male circumcision and AIDS are conflicting at best.  The United States has one of the highest rates of male circumcision and also one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the developed world, suggesting that circumcision is not helping.  Conversely, Finland and Japan have some of the lowest rates of circumcision and also some of the lowest rates of HIV/AIDS.

In a meta-analysis of statistics catalogued from 1989-2009, results are clear.  There is a much greater likelihood of complications, including illness, infection, and death from circumcision than there is from keeping a baby whole and intact. Plainly, circumcising carries more risk than not circumcising.  (Duh!)

Parents have two options when it comes to deciding whether to circumcise their newborn son; only one is reversible.  That is to say, an uncircumcised boy can always decide to get circumcised later in life.  Conversely, it is virtually impossible for a circumcised boy to decide to regenerate his foreskin. 

I have personally heard doctors make the argument against waiting to let the boy grow up and make his own decision.  They say that it is better to do it when the baby is young, so he won't remember it.  However, there are some people who believe that we subconsciously retain memories from as early as in utero.  If that is true, then it stands to reason we would retain some kind of subconscious memory of trauma in our first days earthside. 

Doctors also like to calm new parents by telling them that circumcision is not painful because local anesthesia is used.  If it doesn't hurt, then why is it so important to do it "before the baby will remember it"?  Also, talk to my husband about how much pain is actually still involved when local anesthesia is used.  (He had a local for his vasectomy, and said he felt A LOT of pain.)

I think that if we left it up to the boys to decide for themselves, there would be 99% intact males in this country.  Why do I believe this?  Because every intact man I know, is eternally grateful that he was never circumcised.  While I have read or heard hundreds of stories of men who were forever scarred (literally and figuratively) by their parents decision to fundamentally change their sexual organs.  And only 1% of intact males are faced with a medical indication for circumcision in adulthood.

Circumcision can cause permanent nerve damage, which may explain why adult males who were circumcised after becoming sexually active, report decreased sensation during sexual contact.  I guess the bright side for men circumcised as newborns is that they never knew how good it could be, so they don't know what they're missing. 

Sex is one of the most basic, necessary, intimate, joyful human experiences we are blessed with in our short time on this rock.  Take pride in giving your baby boy the opportunity to grow up to have a fulfilling and satisfying life in every way possible, including sexually! 

A Day in the Life of Living Simply

I had a wonderful day yesterday after a pretty rough start, so I thought I would share! 

I woke up feeling like crap.  After an hour of yoga and a long, hot shower, I was finally ready to start my day.

8:30 a.m. Made coffee, then called mom to commiserate about cramps.

9 a.m. Made breakfast and read my BBC News app

10 a.m. Gathered everything I would need for the day, and put it into a bag that would fit on the back of my bike

• Business cards & marketing goodies
• Client file
• Notebook
• A Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer (to lend to a client)
• The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin CD(DONA)
• Lavendar vanilla massage oil & room scent
• Rebozo
• small purse
• heavy sweater
• spare tube, wrench & pump
• water & snacks

10:30 a.m.  Left home and rode 9 miles to Chino Hills for Doula Appreciation Day at AquaNatal Birth Center



East End Avenue toward Chino Hills
Photo by Living Simply

10:50 a.m.  Not even halfway through my ride and I feel 100% better!  Physical activity produces the most awesome pain-relieving endorphins.  (Not to mention that it was an utterly gorgeous, sunny yet crisp, Southern California day)  How can you help but smile and feel well?

11:15 a.m.  Arrived at AquaNatal Birth Center, where I met many wonderful women committed to helping mamas birth the way they want to!

1:45 p.m.  Left birth center and rode a mile to catch a northbound bus.

2:10 p.m.  Got off bus and rode 2 miles to my client's house.

2:20 p.m.  Had my last prenatal meeting with clients before Baby B decides to come.

4 p.m.  Left client's house & rode two miles to catch another northbound bus.



French bread from Some Crust Bakery
Photo by Living Simply

 4:30 p.m. Got off bus and rode two miles to the Claremont Village to buy a loaf of fresh french bread from Some Crust Bakery to go with the baked penne with meat sauce I planned for dinner.

4:50 p.m.  Rode one mile home to prepare dinner and spend time with my best friend in the world!

Halfway through my long ride in the morning, this song came on my shuffle and made me smile for so many reasons.  It is such an appropriate song to describe my simple living philosophy.  And, of course, you can't go wrong with a little Harry Connick Jr. in the morning!

Song: Nowhere With Love
Album: Come By Me
Artist:  Harry Connick Jr.

"In a way, I really don't know much at all
And if you say that I'm simple, you're on the ball
On the ball to say that I'm going nowhere
But I'm going nowhere with love

They all say that I'm not impressive at best
That's okay, I've got nobody to impress
My impression is they'd rather be elsewhere
Oh, I'm staying nowhere with love

Well, it's better to be happy in a cardboard shack
Than to be alone in a castle
All you get for your money is a heart attack
I'd just as soon alleviate the hassle

Everyday I watch the go-getters go by
Even they say that the ladder is much to high
Why should I go high, I'm happy below there
Right here in nowhere with love"

Get Out Of The Car & Into Simple Living

Los Angeles Union Station
Photo by Living Simply

Rapidly Rising Gas Prices Give Public Transit Riders Highest Savings in Two Years
"Using public transportation is the quickest way people can beat high gasoline prices,” states William Millar, president American Public Transportation Association (APTA).  Los Angelinos can save more than $10,000/year when a two-person household lives with one less car. 

While most people in Los Angeles will tell you that it is impossible to live here without owning an automobile, I am here to tell you otherwise. 

First, let me be clear: owning an automobile is NOT a necessity.  It is a convenience-providing luxury.  Besides being stupidly expensive to purchase, use and maintain, autos add to the pollution stew that we have been cooking for the past century here in LA.  And they make you lazy. I know people who will drive less than a mile to buy a quart of milk.  It just doesn’t occur to them that there are options beyond driving.  I call these people Auto Addicts. 

Why not combine things you have to do with things you want to do?  For example, if exercise is important to you, save some money on transportation AND the gym membership by walking or cycling to the market to do your grocery shopping.  Walking, jogging, cycling and taking public transport are great ways to save money and improve the health and economy of our community.  The fewer cars we have on the road, the less traffic and pollution there will be, and isn’t that better for everybody? 

Utilizing public transport requires just a little bit more thought and time budgeting than using a car, and therefore many people don’t even consider it as an option.  But in this age of technology, utilizing public transport has never been easier!  Smartphones have made it possible to have bus and train schedules available to you in an instant.  Google Maps has increased the ease of surface travel in general, but it has completely revolutionized travel by public transport. 

In addition to driving directions, Google Maps offers detailed walking, cycling and transit directions to one’s destination with options for departure/arrival times, mode of transit, and routes with the least walking or transfers.  You simply click on the icon above Point A that applies to the type of directions you want.
(See Photo)

The most common argument I hear by Auto Addicts against public transport is that it takes too long.  I could not disagree more!!  At rush hour, trains are always faster than freeways!  Most commuter or express buses get you where you need to be in approximately the same amount of time as if you had driven.  For this reason, these routes are usually a little pricier (but still cheaper than driving).  Local routes can take a little longer to get from point A to point B, due to the increased bus stops and street traffic.  However, this is not lost time! 

Whenever you are on a bus or train, you can do so many things to conserve your time (things that are virtually impossible if you're driving).  For instance, you can catch up on your emails or blogs, check your Twitter and Facebook feeds, read a book, do your homework, watch TV on your smartphone or close your eyes for a quick cat nap.  (Just don’t forget to set an alarm, so you don’t miss your stop!)



Just another empty bus on this rainy Sunday!
Foothill Transit Line 492
Photo By Living Simply

I understand that very few people will voluntarily opt not to own a car.  But, even if you do own a car, it doesn’t mean you can’t set one day a week aside to utilize public transport.  Spice up your family “staycation” by charting a map with your kids and exploring your city by rail! 

And lastly, if you must drive, please be responsible about it.  First of all, yield to cyclists and pedestrians!  Second, please carpool!  It breaks my heart when I am on a nearly empty train, riding down the middle of the freeway (which actually resembles a parking lot).  I see so many cars, trucks and SUVs with only ONE person inside (and these are the people who have the nerve to complain about traffic).  For the sake of everyone’s lungs and your pocketbook, please carpool!

 

Living Simply, Simply Explained

I love life!  More specifically, I love my life! 

As my husband and I navigated the first decade of our marriage, we learned how to simplify our life, thereby giving us time to enjoy it AND each other!  We do not own a home or a car.  In fact, we don't own much of anything, and what we do possess is mostly secondhand.  The most monetarily valuable things I possess are my wedding rings.  But even they are partially secondhand, as we used the diamond from my mother-in-law's engagement ring.  90% of my wardrobe is secondhand; (underwear and hosiery account for the other 10%).  We do not have cable or a DVR or a video game system.  I rarely shop retail, (and the list of retail stores at which I do shop is getting shorter every week).  We do not have ANY credit cards.   My own two legs are my primary source of transportation (I ride my bike everywhere, though trains and buses do provide an efficient and inexpensive supplement)!  Together, we bring in between $20,000-$30,000 per year.

I fall asleep in the arms of my best friend every night and wake up there every morning.  And I am HAPPY!

We met in college where I was stage managing a production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town."  Mr. LS auditioned and earned the role of Howie Newsome.  He also scored and played original music for the production.  We became fast friends as we learned that we shared common ideals about how we wanted to live our lives as individuals.  Interestingly enough, marriage was not in either of our plans.  I believe the reason neither of us had ever planned to marry is because we thought it was unfair to subject someone to the "starving artist" lifestyle we were prepared to lead.  We both appreciated the finite nature of our time in this world and we wanted to get as much out of that time here as possible.

The idea of simple living is not a new one by any means, but put into practice it was certainly new to us.  Having been raised in a gluttonously consumptive society, the idea of leading a simple life seemed foreign, old-fashioned, and, at times, even impossible.  The key to this kind of simple life is budgeting, which forces one to examine what one truly needs.  The more stuff you "need," the more of your time you have to sell, which results in less time to enjoy that stuff you "needed" so badly and less time to truly live.  So we figured out what we need (food & shelter) and what luxuries we just wanted (TV, cell phone, computer, microwave, fridge, etc), and we sell enough of our time (doing stuff we love, btw) to allow us those things. 

I lead a beautifully neo-bohemian lifestyle, rejecting the idea of private property, materialism and the pursuit of wealth. 

Viva la vie boheme!

I am Living Simply.