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Celebrating the Year of the Farmer with Ginger Teriyaki Sliders

March 14, 2013 by 14 Comments


Ginger Teriyaki Sliders

Since 2009, Ohio hog farmers have been actively involved in the fight against hunger. They have donated more than 750,000 meals to Ohio foodbanks. For Easter this year, the Ohio Pork Producers Council is making it easy for all of us to make sure that no child, adult or senior in Ohio goes hungry.

For each visit to the Ohio hog farmer’s YouTube video “Pork from Fork to Farm”, the Ohio Pork Producers Council and its partners will will donate one pound of ground pork to Ohio’s foodbanks.

Thanks to the donations from Farm Credit Services of Mid-America, the Ohio Corn Marketing Program, and other farmers and businesses, Ohio Pork Producers Council will be able to provide up to 35,000 pounds of ground pork to foodbanks in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo.

In celebration of the Farmer, I made Ginger Teriyaki Sliders for dinner yesterday. My kids enjoyed them and I enjoyed being able to make dinner in under 30 minutes. What are some of your favorite pork meals?

Please visit the farmer’s YouTube video and support families this Easter. We can all make this a grand celebration for everyone.

Ginger Teriyaki Pork Sliders

Pkg of wheat slider buns
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 green onions, cut up (plus more for garnish)
2 tsp chopped ginger
1 pound ground pork
1/4 cup + 1 tsp teriyaki stir fry sauce
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup mayonnaise

(1.) Turn over to broil and line a baking sheet with foil, coat foil with oil or cooking spray.
Wrap rolls in foil and place in oven to warm.
(2.) In a mini chopper, combine mushrooms, 2 green onions and ginger. Pulse
until finely chopped. Put in a bowl and add pork, 1/4 cup stir fry sauce
and the bread crumbs. Stir to blend.
(3.) Shape mixture into 12 patties. Place patties on baking pan, broil 6 min.
turning once, or until desired doneness.
(4.) Stir together mayonnaise and remaining stir fry sauce in a bowl.
Split rolls and top each with a burger. Spread 1 tsp teriyaki mayonnaise on each
roll, sprinkle with green onion, then serve.
MAKES 12 SLIDERS.

 

Check out these other posts and recipes from Ohio bloggers supporting the cause:

Shugary Sweets

Wenderly

Unsophisticook

Cooking with Caitlin

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Starting a 30 Day Home Yoga Practice

March 11, 2013 by 2 Comments

One of my commitments to myself this year is to improve my health and wellness. It seems when life starts to get busy and more demands are made on our time, the first thing we let go of is taking care of ourselves. We start to eat poorly, we stop exercising, we work too many hours and neglect our families all for the sake of being busy. To me, nothing about those things leads to or fosters a good or quality life.

Home Yoga Practice

A couple of years ago, I started a yoga practice with the help of Marianne Elliott’s 30 Days of Yoga for Beginners class. I enjoyed being able to do the classes at home and doing them at my own pace. It was not as easy for me to make the excuse I did not have time when all I had to do was give up a little TV time to take better care of myself. During the 30 days, I learned how to relax and let go of the stresses of the day. My kids even joined in and we have practiced yoga together as a family.

30 Days of Yoga for Busy People

Earlier this month, Marianne re-launched her yoga classes with a new website and I am excited about starting my own yoga practice again. This time around, I signed up for the 30 Days of Yoga for Busy People. I am really looking forward to this class, because of the variety of short yoga practices ranging in duration from one to twenty minutes. They include grounding, breathing and short simple sequences of poses specifically designed for: energizing; relaxing; and undoing the damage from spending too much time at a computer. I need that! I spend many hours during the day in front of the computer and I am looking forward to winding down at the end of the day with a great yoga practice.

If you would like to check out Marianne’s teaching style, give her Easy Breezy Do it in a Chair yoga lesson a listen. If you are looking to revive your yoga practice or start one, consider joining me and many others in cultivating a yoga practice. You will be glad you did.

*There are affiliate links for the 30 Days of Yoga program in this post.

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4 Tips for Awesome Food Photography

March 4, 2013 by 10 Comments

I’ve been baking. A couple weeks ago, it was quiche. Last week, devil’s food cupcakes. I used to take pictures of food faithfully a few years ago. I loved exploring shopping for interesting foods to shoot and baked goods always made for great subjects. The baking has renewed my interest and love of food photography.

Shoot with Natural Light.

Foods always look better when you use natural light. I shoot next to a window or outside. Having an awareness of how the light looks at certain times of the day makes a difference with your food pictures. Experiment and play around. It is worth it.

Keep it Real and Fresh.

I remember when I found out years ago all the crap photographers used to put in foods to make them look better or last longer during a photo shoot. I don’t do that. I will not put glue in a bowl of cereal. I will not shoot my fruit with glycerin. I don’t have money to waste on foods for a shoot, so I keep it real, authentic and natural.

Collect plates, bowls and fabric.

The more you get into shooting foods, the more you are going to want to style your images. Thrift stores are perfect for finding interesting bowls and plates to place your food on. Also, check out your local fabric store and start collecting a yard or two of fabric for backgrounds.

Experiment with Color.

You know that thing called the Color Wheel you learned about in grade school? This is a good time to resurrect your knowledge of primary, secondary and complementary colors. Primary colors are red, yellow and blue. Secondary colors are a combination of two primary colors (orange, green and purple). Complementary colors are colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel (such as red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple). Why is this important? Choosing colors that complement each other can make a difference in the interest of your image. For example, green and purple grapes. They are secondary colors and tend to look great when photographed together. Play around with color combinations and see how it adds interests to your pictures.

I hope they inspire you to give it a try and if you do, please share. I would love to see your photos.

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How Restoration is More than #40Days of Water

March 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment

For three years, I have started each new year with a Daniel Fast for 21 days. I give the first part of my year to God to set the tone for the year. This kind of fast involves giving up everything except plant based food and water. So, when I was asked to be a part of the Blood:Water campaign and drink only water for 40 days during the season of Lent, I agreed. I figured I could do that. After all, I had many fasts under my belt and I believed in bringing awareness to what Blood:Water is trying to do.

What I did not bank on was how all this intentional sacrifice is falling in line with the year of Restoration I am going through. Restoration is my word of the year and I sit now realizing this word involves a lot of waiting. Restoration does not instantly happen, at least not for me. In the midst of my waiting, I am seeing a major purging of things and people in my life. It can be lonely sometimes, but isn’t that what the Winter season is all about? We see nature stripped down and dormant, not realizing that something is brewing deep inside the Earth where no one can see it. Restoration is coming, but we don’t always see it, but we are called to believe in it.

The promise of Spring, change, restoration, and a new beginning all happens when we go through intentional sacrifice. When I joined the Blood:Water campaign, I did not realize it would align with what is going on in my life. I no longer question why things happen in my life. Instead, I believe that the purpose and my purpose will be revealed. When I fill up my water bottle and drink clean water from it everyday, I think about the people who would give anything to have the same clean water to drink. It is such a basic human need, yet there are so many people who do not have access to it.

We are halfway through the #40Days and you can still join me to bring awareness and support to a great cause. Everyone deserves clean water. Everyone.

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