Pretty Easy Fruit Salad Recipe

Pretty Easy Fruit Salad Recipe

Ingredients:
•    3 cups mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries)
•    2 cups seedless grapes (red or green)
•    2 crisp sweet apples
•    3 peaches, nectarines or 6 apricots
•    2 bananas, sliced thin
•    1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (3 juicy Valencia oranges)
•    Nutmeg (optional)
Directions:
1.    Chop the fruit and mix gently in a large bowl.
2.    Pour fresh orange juice over the fruit, stir and refrigerate.
3.    Serve with a dash of nutmeg.
Yields: about 10 cups.

Lightened Up Protein Power Goddess Bowl

Lightened Up Protein Power Goddess Bowl

Yield: 6 cups
Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked green lentils (yield 2 & 3/4 cups cooked)
• 1 cup uncooked speltberries (yield 2 cups cooked) OR grain of choice, like brown rice for GF option
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil, for sautéing
• 1/2 red onion (~1 & 1/3 cups), chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 3 cups spinach or kale, roughly chopped (I used Lacinato kale)
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
• 1 batch of Lightened Up Tahini-Lemon Dressing (recipe below)
• Kosher salt & black pepper, to taste
• Lemon Wedges & lemon zest, to garnish

Directions:
1. Cook lentils and speltberries (or grain of choice) according to package directions. I did this the night before to save time. Drain and set aside.
2. Prepare the Lightened Up tahini-Lemon dressing in food processor (see below for recipe).
3. In a large skillet over low-medium heat, add your olive oil and sauté the chopped onion and minced garlic for a few minutes, being careful not to burn. Now add in the chopped red pepper and tomato and sauté for another 7-8 minutes.
4. Stir in the chopped kale or spinach and sauté for another few minutes, just until tender. Stir in the full batch of tahini-Lemon dressing, the cooked & drained grains and lentils, and simmer on low for another few minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the minced parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with lemon wedges and zest. Makes 6 cups.


Lightening up the Tahini-Lemon dressing was a huge success! I cut down the oil by 75% and the dressing still tasted wonderful.
Here are the changes I made to the lightened up version:

• I added another garlic clove (to make 3) (to add more flava!)
• I added 2-3 more tbsp water (to thin it out more)

I was worried the taste would be compromised but it was just as addicting like I remembered. Even if you don’t want to make this lentil salad, you could always make the dressing and use it for salads all week long. It is truly one of my most loved homemade dressings to date.

Lightened Up Tahini-Lemon Dressing

Yield: Just under 1 cup of dressing
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Tahini
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
• 1/4 cup Nutritional yeast or a bit more, to taste
• 2-4 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil, to taste
• 1 tsp kosher salt + freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• 3 tbsp water, or as needed

Directions:
1. In a food processor, add all ingredients and process until smooth. Makes just under 1 cup.

Once you cook your desired grains and make the dressing, you simply sauté some vegetables of your choice until tender.

Yesterday, I added Lacinato Kale instead of spinach and I loved it! It’s less bitter than regular kale.
 
Mix in your grains and dressing.
 
When it’s all cooked, remove from heat and stir in the minced Parsley for another kick of fresh flavour.

Taste test… Uncontrollably!

Serve with a lemon wedge and zest and you have yourself a protein and fibre packed dinner! It’s creamy & comforting, with a tangy kick that is just irresistible.
This will definitely be my go-to version of this salad from now on. We didn’t miss the 6 tablespoons of oil at all.

Have a good one!

Autumn Coffee Cake with Pumpkin and Pecans

Autumn Coffee Cake with Pumpkin and Pecans

Prep time:  10 mins
Cook time:  20 mins
Total time:  30 mins

Serves: 9 servings

A low fat coffee cake chock full of pumpkin and topped with a pecan oat crumb mixture. It's a winner any morning, but especially great for an autumn treat.

Ingredients

• dry ingredients:
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• ¾ teaspoon stevia (Nu-stevia brand)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon cardamom
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• wet ingredients:
• ¾ cup pureed pumpkin
• ½ cup unsweetened nondairy milk
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds mixed with 2 tablespoons water
• topping ingredients:
• ½ cup pecans
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cups oats
• 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil an 8 by 8 baking pan.
2. Mix the wet ingredients together in one bowl and the dry ones in a different one.
3. Add all the topping ingredients to a food processor and process until it's the perfect size for a crumb topping.
4. Mix the wet with the dry and spread the mixture into the oiled pan. Sprinkle topping evenly over the coffee cake.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Make something interesting

Make something interesting
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How electricity is generated through wind

Wind turbines use the wind’s kinetic energy to generate electrical energy that can be used in homes and businesses. Individual wind turbines can be used to generate electricity on a small scale – to power a single home, for example. A large number of wind turbines grouped together, sometimes known as a wind farm or wind park, can generate electricity on a much larger scale.
A wind turbine works like a high-tech version of an old-fashioned windmill. The wind blows on the angled blades of the rotor, causing it to spin, converting some of the wind’s kinetic energy into mechanical energy. Sensors in the turbine detect how strongly the wind is blowing and from which direction. The rotor automatically turns to face the wind, and automatically brakes in dangerously high winds to protect the turbine from damage.
A shaft and gearbox connect the rotor to a generator (1), so when the rotor spins, so does the generator. The generator uses an electromagnetic field to convert this mechanical energy into electrical energy.
The electrical energy from the generator is transmitted along cables to a substation (2). Here, the electrical energy generated by all the turbines in the wind farm is combined and converted to a high voltage. The national grid uses high voltages to transmit electricity efficiently through the power lines (3) to the homes and businesses that need it (4). Here, other transformers reduce the voltage back down to a usable level.

Soruce

Hot water from the Sun

Solar Thermal Collector (Flat Panel)

Heating water represents the biggest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in an average household.

30% of total greenhouse gases households produce is due to water heating. Solar water heaters can dramatically reduce energy bills without any environmental impacts. Installing solar hot water also reduces our dependency on fossil fuels.

Hot water and household energy usage

Electric and gas hot water systems account for approximately 20% of a household’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The technology for solar thermal water heaters is entirely different to a photo-voltaic off grid or grid connect system.
For example, solar heaters use a flat plate with collector panels or evacuated tubes to absorb the heat from sunlight and then raise the temperature of the water.

Solar thermal hot water explained

Flat plate collectors work on copper pipes running through a glass covered collector, often connected to a water storage tank on the roof. The hot water can then thermo-siphon itself in and out of the tank, thus heating the water.
Read our blog for more information on how a solar hot water system works and  How much energy and money can you save.

Benefits of Solar thermal hot water systems

By installing a solar thermal water system you will reduce these emissions and also save up to 75% of your water heating costs! Not only be lessening your family’s environmental impact through reducing carbon emissions, but saving money on an ongoing basis - free hot water courtesy of the sun.

We can arrange installation throughout your area and have completed hundreds of projects through our list of accredited partners.

If you have a written quote from another supplier on a solar hot water system below our price, fax or email it to us – we will better any written quote on comparable solar hot water systems.

Contact us via email or call us on +55 71 9917.5920 for free, no-obligation advice.

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Biomass energy

Biomass is biological material made from living, or recently living organisms. It is the oldest source of renewable energy, used since our ancestors learned the secret of fire. Biomass is essentially carbon, hydrogen and oxygen based. Biomass energy is derived from five distinct energy sources: garbage, wood, waste, landfill gases, and alcohol fuels.

Used as an energy source to produce heat or in modern times electricity directly, or converted into other energy products such as bio-fuel.

One thing for sure, biomass is a green energy source because it uses renewable resources to produce energy. This means that we will have an endless supply of biomass just like the sun and the wind. The biggest challenge is perhaps to find a suitable land with a sufficient water supply to make the system work. When water is not abundant, it is very difficult to rely on biomass technology to generate energy.

Until recently, biomass supplied far more renewable electricity than Solar or Wind, as the most common way to capture the energy from biomass was to burn it to make heat. The most common way of converting biomass to electricity is to burn it to produce steam, which turns a turbine that produces electricity.
The problems with direct combustion of biomass are that much of the energy is wasted and that it can cause some pollution if it is not carefully controlled. One way to offset this downside is by planting more crops which will be a great help to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

It is a good idea if you can use organic waste to produce electricity. This is the key that makes biomass different than other green energy sources. When biomass is used extensively, the government can save a considerable amount of money for reduction in waste disposal. Furthermore, they can reduce their dependency toward foreign oil to power their plants.

The growth of bio-power will depend on the availability of resources, land-use and harvesting practices, and the amount of biomass used to make fuel for transportation and other uses. However, like Hydro generated energy there are some environmental impacts and risks, that come with the benefits.

The main impacts and risks from biomass are sustainability of the resource use, air quality and carbon emissions.

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