Food

8 Easy Tips To Prevent Gnats and Fruit Flies in the Home

Fruit Flies are a very common occurrence during the fall, spring, and summer months. They can multiply easily, and depending on what kind of bugs you have in your kitchen, some of them can reproduce quickly and can carry bacteria into the home. Your kitchen can be spotless, yet you will find fruit flies by the fruit bowl, sugary spots on the table, countertop, thrash can, or recycle bin. Regardless of where you find fruit flies, there are steps to take to stop them from multiplying and becoming a nuisance.

Clean sugar spills on the counter and kitchen table as they occur. Make sure the sugar bowl is firmly closed, and sugary treats are put away in closed lid containers.
Empty the recycle bin and trash can daily and make sure they are clean before bringing them back to the kitchen. All spills from the bottom of the bins have to be clean with soap and water to get rid of the sugary smell and stickiness from the bottom of the containers.
Refrigerate your fruits placed in the fruit bowl. Bananas attract fruit flies to the bowl and can multiply quickly if you keep leaving them there. Once the bananas are yellow, put them in the refrigerator and take them out as needed. The less fruit you have outside the refrigerator the better to keep fruit flies at a minimum.
Pour hot water into the drains. It is not only recommended for the kitchen sinks but bathroom and shower drain as well. A gallon of hot water poured into the kitchen, bathroom, and shower sink should be enough to kill the fruit flies’ eggs and clear any soap build-up. You can add more hot water if you think it is necessary. Also, you can use a solution of 1 cup white vinegar, and 1 cup of baking soda to get rid of any blockage you have in the drains. This will also allow you to have cleaner drains and fewer fruit flies in the kitchen.
Clean your kitchen sink. Make sure your kitchen sink stays clean overnight. Snack dishes or ice cream bowls used after dinner should be rinsed and put in the dishwasher. Dishes with a sugary smell left overnight will most certainly bring ants, fruit flies, and gnats to your kitchen.
Do not store potatoes, onions, or any other root vegetable in bins in warm places where they can rot quickly. Make sure you sort all vegetables and wash them before storing them. Make sure any vegetable with a brown or discolored spot is used quickly before it rots and contaminates all the other vegetables. Do not replenish the bins with new vegetables before taking inventory of the old ones. Do not mix new and old ones.
Gnats can be found in potted plants all year round. Make sure you do not overwater your plants. Potting soil that is too wet is a perfect environment for gnats. Also, make sure roots that are rotting or decaying are put in the trash can outside the home right away.
Dirty glasses or dishes in your child’s bedroom can also be the reason you have flies or fruit flies in the home. Checking your child’s bedroom for wrappers or dirty dishes might be a starting point to get rid of fruit flies.

Every year there is a season when it seems impossible to get rid of the flies, gnats, or fruit flies in the home. By following these 8 easy tips you can have a cleaner and insect-free home all year round.

Sustainable Health and Fitness – Creating a Lifestyle

There are countless articles relating to fitness. There are those that will convince you that it is possible to lose 7 inches in one month, and others that layout radical diets. A majority of these articles are based around getting quick results, or seeing the numbers on the scale dial back with minimal effort. We often times buy into these gimmicks with false hope, knowing that maybe it is too good to be true, but reading on despite that fact. We fall in love with this fallacy, and it can cause problems when trying to get healthy, stay healthy, or change the paradigm of our eating habits.

It is the small changes you make now that will transform into significant differences later in your life. This is a small outline of changes you can make now, that will help create a healthier, and sustainable lifestyle.

Shop Smart: Avoid temptations that lurk in the candy and chip aisles. It is much easier to avoid the danger zones in the grocery store than to avoid the snacks burrowed in your own cabinets. A trick to avoiding the unhealthier items in the store is to shop around the perimeter of your store. The outside areas of the store are usually where the fresh veggies and fruit live. You can also find the freezers and refrigerators with eggs, milk, yogurts, and meats on the perimeter.
Drink More: Not just water either, tea and coffee have health benefits, and can help increase energy as well. Although water does not have any caffeine, it is the most effective way to hydrate, and dehydration is a common cause of sleepiness. Dehydration can also cause muscle cramping, headaches, and even dizziness in some cases.
Find Your Physical Activity: Gyms are great, and so are CrossFit boxes, but if they’re not something you enjoy, then they’re probably not going to be something you will continue doing. Physical activity is important, but sometimes people neglect the fact that there are countless ways to exercise. Playing a sport, going on a hike, or even taking your dog for a more lengthy walk are all examples of exercise that are not as cookie-cutter as going to a gym or doing a structured hour and a half workout, but they will improve you physical fitness and health. The important aspect of this, is to find joy in the activity. To make a healthy lifestyle sustainable, you must get pleasure out of leading one, and enjoy the activities that keep you active.
Accountability: If leading a healthy lifestyle is a newer goal of yours, accountability to others can be a huge motivator to stay in track. It is a much easier feat when the people closest to you are aware, supportive, and encouraging of your choices. Having a partner that is trying to lead a similar lifestyle is very helpful and can lead to a stronger relationship by bonding over staying active, or discover new fun ways to eat cleanly. This is a successful way to stay on track, as well as make it more fun for both parties.
Cook at Home: As fun and tasty as the food in restaurants can be, often times, they are packing a very high caloric punch. Although we all can understand that a double decker cheeseburger is not healthy, we tend to gloss over the fact that we are eating our entire daily allotment of calories and fat in a single sitting. Restaurants focus more on making food taste good, than on making it moderately healthy. Learning to cook home-cooked meals can greatly increase your health, as well as keep some extra cash in your wallet. Cooking can also be a fun adventure, learning to mimic healthy recipes online can be exciting and rewarding, as well as help sharpen up a useful skill.

All these small changes are easy to start implementing slowly into your lifestyle. Although none of these are incredibly drastic, they can all be a great additions to your lifestyle change, and making it more sustainable as well.

One last important aspect is understanding balance, as well as flexibility in your lifestyle. No one is perfect, and there is nothing wrong with occasionally digging into some pizza, or spending a day binge watching your newest Netflix obsession instead of going for a run. Everything is best in moderation, but leading a healthy lifestyle can make some significantly positive changes for you.

Transitioning From Outdoor Fit to Indoor Fit

With the cooler weather coming soon, it is time for Ohio residents to start planning their transition from outdoor fitness activities to indoor. Northeast Ohio has a wealth of bike trails, hiking, beaches, swimming, outdoor sports and other ways to stay outside (for free) in the Summer. But once it dips below 50 degrees, those outdoor activities seem a bit less appealing and eventually only are options for hard core outdoorsy people.

So what are some of your options this Winter to stay in shape?

Join a Gym. This is obvious, but one nice thing that has changed in the last few years is you can join gyms month to month and only use them in the Winter months.

Buy limited fitness equipment to stay fit at home. A tread mill and some kettle bells might be all you need to stay beach body ready in your home. Look for used kettle bells to save some money.

Join Indoor Sports. We recently covered options of Indoor Tennis and Indoor Soccer. Basketball would be another obvious one. Maybe you can even find adult dodge ball. There are plenty of indoor sporting opportunities for kids and adults.

Do Winter sports. Cross country and downhill skiing are great workouts. Snow shoe hiking? Sure. You can also simply hike snow trails with some extra preparation.

Watch what you eat. There is the issue of paying close attention to your Winter diet. Do not start eating more at night because you are spending more time in front of the television. Do not cut back on fresh fruits and vegetables just because they cost a little bit more. Do not stop grilling healthy lean meats just because you have to push some snow off the grill cover first.

With some advanced planning and careful attention being paid to how your habits change, you can stay fit and firm no matter how long the ground is covered in permafrost.

Kitchen Gadgets and Food Facts

Is cooking a dying art? Home cooking in American households might be a thing of the past. The obsession we have with cooking shows stops right then and there in front of the TV. We like watching fancy meals being prepared by chefs in a cooking show, but would rather just be spectators than participants. An article( www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3639863/ ) published in the United States National Library of Medicine analyzes the trend in the United States home preparation and consumption from 1965-1966 and then again from 2007-2008.

The conclusion is simple: Regardless of your socioeconomic status, Americans are spending less time than before cooking. Home prepared meals are a rarity, and the average household in the United States spends over $3,000 dollars eating out. (http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-spending-food-bls-2017-2), that’s almost half the budget they have for food for a year.

According to research done by Marketing Charts(http://www.marketingcharts.com/television-13719) 8 in 10 US adults watch a cooking show, and 36% of those adults have purchased a kitchen gadget as a result of viewing the show. Why? To store the gadget, forget they own it and rebuy it again when they watch the rerun of the show.

But seriously, It is true that cooking is not for everyone, it is also true that a huge majority of women work outside the home. The time they want to spend at the kitchen is minimum, and the research has shown it. Home cooked meals are a thing of the past. But, if your health and the health of your children is in jeopardy, most Americans would probably try to get back to the kitchen.

Before you make a decision about cooking or not, here is a statistic for you.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (cdc.gov), More than one-third (36.5%) of U.S. adults have obesity. And 1 in 6 children are obese in the United States. The various diseases link to obesity are many and scary. Cooking your meals at home and making sure you use the best possible ingredients- and we do not mean expensive ingredients-can give your family a life full of health benefits.

If you are decided and want to tackle the dying art of cooking, where do you start? First, you need to have essential kitchen gadgets to help you navigate the journey of cooking. Most of us, whether we cook or not, have them. Here is a list:

A cutting board
Knives
Spoons, spatulas, whisks, potato masher and measuring cups
Pots and pans of various sizes
Blender
Pressure cooker
Slow cooker
Baking dishes
Can opener
Wine opener to celebrate your first home cooked meal.

Personally, I love the pressure cooker and a garlic masher, but some of the things here are essentially in every kitchen, and you do not need a garlic masher if you are just starting. Cooking a meal can be a family affair. Children DO LOVE to cook and help prepare meals. Make it fun and eventually a home prepared meal will become easy for you, and will become a necessity for your family.

5 Reasons To Cook More At Home

I get a little concerned when I hear that Americans do not cook. I get it if you both have professional jobs working 50+ hours a week and long commutes. I also get it if you live alone and it is easier and sometimes cheaper to go out to eat. But if you have two or more people and you are not making a bunch of money working crazy hours, going out to eat should be more of a treat and not a twice a day occurrence.

From what is reported in the media, it seems like many people did not learn cooking growing up and decide this means it is too late to learn. In fact, it is just a matter of building up your comfort level with different ways to cook and different ingredients. You can do trial and error, starting with easier stuff and building up your competence over time. You can watch cooking channels and try things you see. You can take cooking classes. You could offer to buy ingredients and cook with a friend who is a better cook than you but let them know you want to cook with them and learn.

Here are five very good reasons to cook at home – even if it is going to take you a while to get good at it.

Healthier Food – The top reason is that you know what is going in your food and you can make it healthier. The reality is that it might not taste as good as that unhealthy stuff, but it can be very good and be much better for you. For example, I make Chipotle burritos at home and they are not as good because I put less of the cheese and no sour cream. I just can’t bring myself to glob on huge portions like they do in the restaurant (even though it is delicious.)
Less Fried Foods – You can also cut back on fried foods when you eat at home. It is easy to order a side of fries but a pain in the but to heat up the fryer and fry things just for an unhealthy side.
Show Off a Skill – As good cooks get more rare, it is even more impressive when you meet one. The only way you become a good cook is by cooking regularly and experimenting with new recipes. Once you get there you can amaze your friends and family, impress a date and act like a snob know it all in restaurants. So much fun.
Save Money – Sometimes you might spend MORE on a meal than you would have getting the same thing in a restaurant. But what you might not factor in is that you have a lot more food than you would have by going out. So you may get 3 meals for roughly the same spend. Alcohol is one big bonus when it comes to saving money as you buy your bottle of wine or case of beer for what two glasses would have cost in that dinner out.
Get Sick Less – I am not anti-restaurant, but we do notice we get sick more when we eat out more. When you have a restaurant kitchen full of people cooking and prepping your food, it only takes one person with a cold to get the whole family sick. Restaurants do not want employees to come sick, but since the employees most likely do not get sick pay, they need to work when they are feeling under the weather. This results in people working while sick more then you would like to think.

I am not suggesting not eating out anymore. Far from it. But also you do not want to get into the habit of eating out all the time and eating prepackaged stuff at home that you only need to microwave. It is so much healthier, cheaper and more rewarding to learn how to cook nice meals. Start slow and build up your skills until you are an Iron Chef of your home.

How To Prepare Your Garden In The Fall for Next Spring

As the summer months wean, and the fall and winter months approach, it is time for the gardener to prepare for next year’s bountiful and colorful vegetable and flower gardens. While the temperatures are still mild, there are different chores every gardener must do to prepare themselves for next year’s spring gardening. From cleaning, storing, and oiling tools to getting ready the soil, many gardeners view the fall as a preparation time for their spring gardening. Here are 8 gardening tips to follow to have a beautiful garden without the backbreaking chores that come in the spring.

Clean the leaves, dead branches, or plants from your garden. Gardening during the springtime will be less time-consuming and strenuous if you get rid of unwanted plants in the fall.
Trim the bushes and small trees.
Plant bulbs during October for a colorful spring garden. From daffodils, tulips, and crocuses, to Asiatic Lily Blacklist and Dutch Iris Sapphire Beauty, your garden will surely be a beauty to see. Check the planting periods recommended for the bulbs you buy or want to plant.
Do you want lush grass on your lawn next spring? You need to fertilize and aerate your lawn in the fall, and plant grass seed to obtain great results. Buying a lawn aerator to accomplish this task should not be too expensive, or difficult to accomplish.
Getting your flower pots ready for next spring means you need to clean them and stored them for the winter. The terra cotta pots might break if you leave out in cold climates. For that reason, it is better to store them in your shed in crates or stack them carefully on a shelf.
Bring delicate plants inside to keep them from dying during the winter months. Your lemon tree needs to be inside before the first frost to survive. Any other delicate plants need to have a cool temperature to make it through the winter months.
Store your garden tools in the shed. Make sure they do not get wet and are safe from the elements. Your garden hose needs to be stored away as well. Empty your lawnmower from gasoline. You need fresh gasoline next spring for it to start without trouble.
Stored your patio furniture or cover them till spring. A heavy-duty polyester covering can protect your garden furniture from the elements and keep them ready for spring.

Protecting your garden furniture, plants, garden tools, and plants from the winter will make the time you spend gardening more enjoyable in the spring. If you clean your flower beds, leaves, brush, or dead plants from the garden, you will have more time planning the vegetable garden or design the flower garden you always wanted. Because gardening can be a wonderful hobby and an enjoyable activity, preparation is key to having a wonderful time gardening during the spring. Fertilizing your front and back yard during the fall might not seem important, but it is if you want to have a beautiful lush lawn during the year. Your local nursery is always a good source of advice if you have a specific question about a plant, tree, or fertilizer. Moreover, a visit to your local nursery might inspire you to try a new plant or shrub.

5 Non-Traditional Forms of Travel

The traditional trip can be fun but can also feel a little bit stale if you have been there, done that. While people are all aware of the traditional “vacation” of one or two weeks, I wanted to come up with some alternatives to travel for you to consider. Not all of these will work for most people, as they depend on your current life situation as well as your tolerance for adventure.

Work Abroad – It will take months to arrange, but there are many countries that bring in native English speakers to teach English. This is often just a matter of having a degree in anything and being a native speaker. Living a summer or years in another country teaching is very rewarding if you get with a good school and a nice location.
Study Abroad – Don’t want to teach? Get taught. Take an educational trip. These are sometimes lead or might be just taking classes in a university in another country.
Extended Business Trip – This one is not as involved, but it is a must if you can swing it. If you have a business trip, negotiate a swap and take your family or friends along for free. When I was touring the country as a national speaker, I would frequently trade extra nights in the hotel in exchange for airfare. Then we would drive and get a paid vacation for the cost of gas and food. Had a lot of nice 3-4 day trips like this.
Coach Surfing – If you are young and hungry to hit the road, coach surfing can be fun. You talk to your friends and line up places to stay and then travel from place to place staying with friends of friends. You meet a lot of great people. Just be careful to not end up with anyone who is not highly recommended by people you trust.
Airbnb – You can save a lot staying at Airbnb locations and I have heard of one writer living in Airbnb locations. He stays until he gets tired of the location and then moves to a new location. Not quite vagabonding but close.

Any of these options can lead to some nice experiences without doing the traditional vacation.

Exploring Local Unknowns

Are you resisting living in a bubble or happily basking in a homogeneous vat of comfort?

News isn’t the only place people are selectively choosing only what they want and not a broader experience. It is also how people live their life in their local neighborhoods.

People who want to live a GR8TR life actively seek out fresh, broad experiences. You do not have to travel to other cultures to try new things most of the time. If you are even in a mid-sized city, you can find many multi-cultural experiences close to home. Here are some ideas for exploring other cultures while not travelling to other countries.

Restaurants – This is the obvious one. Do not got to the big chain restaurants and expect an authentic experience. Instead, seek out locally owned, authentic restaurants where the immigrant families probably make up most of the employees. And do not just go Chinese or Mexican. Ethiopian, Greek, Nepali, Indian, Japanese, Lebanese and Russian restaurants can all provide unique experiences.
Teach ESL – If you want to make a lot of friends from other places, consider volunteering for ESL, which stands for English as a Second Language. Sometimes you may need to be certified, but if you volunteer at a library you may just oversee conversational practice classes. When I have done this in the past, I have had people bring food and become good friends. Even though their English language skills may be limited, they are going to get you outside of your comfort zone and get you to learn more about people from all over the world.
Go to Festivals – Keep and eye out for those festivals different cultures have. They are celebrating their heritage and when you go you will get to taste the food, hear the music and meet some of the people. A great way to dive into another culture.
Visit Neighborhoods – Many cities have areas where a certain ethnic group will live in and open businesses in. Going to these places can be a lot of fun. The grocery store will have different foods, the restaurants and bars will be mostly local people and the whole feel can seem like you are in another city or country. Go once and if you enjoy it, become a regular. Learn to cook some dishes on YouTube and go to the grocery store regularly for your exotic ingredients. Talk to people there and find out some other things to try.

This is good for you to appreciate other cultures and get out of your bubble – and it is even more important for young kids. Kids growing up with an appreciation for other cultures and many different foods starts with exposure at a young age. This all takes effort, and it is far easier to stay in your own community. But you will be a more interesting, more whole person when you have a broader human experience.

Buffalo Cauliflower with Instapot Airfryer

There was a groan when I told the family I was making cauliflower for lunch. At the end of lunch, they were mad I did not make two heads of cauliflower instead of one. This Buffalo Cauliflower recipe is done in an air fryer and is very healthy and does not taste like you are eating cauliflower at all.

These buffalo caulifower nuggest were crisp, healthy and delicious. And so fast and easy to make.

Print Recipe

Air-Fried Buffalo Cauliflower

This healthy, fried Buffalo Cauliflower recipe is so good, you might want to make two batches.

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time25 mins

Course: Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: buffalo, spicy, vegetarian

Servings: 4 People

Calories: 55kcal

Cost: $4

Equipment

Instapot
Instapot Air Frier Lid

Ingredients

1 Head Cauliflower Medium
1/2 tsp Course Salt
2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1 tbsp Sriracha Sauce
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp Breadcrumbs
Side of Ranch Dressing

Instructions

Peel leaves and core Cauliflower. Wash well.
Pull florets into about one inch pieces. If some are big, cut them in half.
Put into large plastic container with tight lid. Place all other ingredients in container with Cauliflower and shake to evenly coat all pieces. Do not overshake as pieces may break and become too small.
Add to Instapost Airfrier Basket and use air fryer setting for 20 minutes. At 10 minutes, use tongs to rotate and move them around. Be careful, it is hot.
After 20 minutes, they should be lightly browned on the outside. Serve with ranch dressing on side.

Notes

A nice thing about the air fryer is that it does not need to preheat. It will be hot within a minute or so.

Don’t have an instapot air fryer? You can bake them in the over at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, stir and bake for another 10 minutes as well. The down side is they may stick to the pan more and you will need to preheat the oven, so it will take longer.

If you have an instapot and do not have the air fryer lid yet, I got it yesterday and in less than 24 hours made homemade sweet potato frenchfries and then for lunch the next day just made up this recipe for cauliflower buffalo nuggest. It is so easy and convenient. We almost never deep fry things because of the health aspect, but now we can make many more dishes.

Of course, the ranch to dip them in is totally optional. We used an off the shelf ranch dressing, but you can get fancy and make your own as well.

Some ideas for substitutions are more olive oil to exclude mayonnaise. Cayenne Pepper in place of sriracha sauce and if you only have Galic Salt, use it but exclude the other salt recommendation.

Your bread crumbs can be plain or seasoned, but if they are seasoned be sure to cut back on salt additions as well. Since several of these ingredients have salt, like sriracha, mustard, and seasoned bread crumbs, you may want to leave the additional salt out until after cooking and you taste it.

One thing that pleasantly surprised me also about this dish is that the cleanup was so easy. The instapot air fryer has a basket inside the usual instapot pot, which got some crumbs in it. However, it was a very quick clean and did not produce the waste and mess that I expected. I think that is partially because the mayonnaise binds well to the cauliflower and holds the spices to it, keeping the bites intact and helping them turn out perfectly.

Your family is going to love this Buffalo Cauliflower nugget recipe and you are going to have to start buying more heads of cauliflower because suddenly a fairly bland vegetable is going to go from a fake rice substitute to a fried buffalo chicken wing substitute.

Healthy Pancake Syrup

I stumbled onto this healthy pancake syrup recipe by accident. We make a healthy version of pancakes for my daughter, who goes to college and does not get lunch until 2 PM and she needs to minimize hunger throughout the morning. I know protein would be better, but she is also mostly vegetarian so loading up on chicken is not an option.

We have had syrup in the house ever since the kids were little, but we use it so infrequently that I did not worry about it. It was more a treat and definitely not a common thing anyone ate.

So with her increase in eating banana oatmeal pancakes, I went looking for a healthier syrup to accompany them. What I found is that there are “light” syrups and more natural syrups, but really nothing that would come close to being a healthy option.

Just by accident, I found a very simple way to make something she enjoys, is much more healthy and she actually likes BETTER than store-bought syrup. Now you can modify this as you see fit, such as Stevia instead of sugar if you prefer. But my philosophy about “healthy eating” is that if I am cooking at home and I know the bad ingredients are moderate, and not loaded on to make something taste great in a restaurant, I win. Even if it is not a kale salad.

The most important issue when making a variation of this healthy pancake syrup recipe is to watch it closely. It will burn very quickly because you only use a small amount of water to start to break down the berries and then the thicker, more syrupy berry compote will burn in seconds if you do not turn off the heat.

A small squirt of ReadyWhip is also a nice addition to the berry syrup and only adds 15 calories per serving, so while not “healthy” it is certainly better than fake maple syrup bought at the grocery store. And my kids would take the berry option every time over store-bought syrup.

Print Recipe

Healthy Pancake Syrup

Making pancakes less bad for you starts with a healthy pancake syrup recipe that is easy and tastes great.

Prep Time2 mins

Cook Time5 mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: syrup

Servings: 2 people

Cost: $1