Are Our Nachos Healthy

10:16 AM in Aqua, are, healthy, nachos, our

When we wrote about our one-year meal plan a few months back, we had nachos in the mix for a not-insignificant number of meals.  After all, they take only a few minutes to prepare, are undisputedly delicious, and, with all the vegetables we tend to heap on top of the chips and cheese, surely not a poor choice nutritionally...right?

While the first two points are self-evident (and/or subjective), the last point was an assumption (or hypothesis) that we could put to the test.  A few minutes with the nutrition labels on our ingredients, and some additional help from the ol internets, and we could actually see (with numbers!) how our nachos stack up.

First, we need an approximate recipe, so heres a what makes up a fairly typical 8" plate of nachos for us:

THL Plate O Nachos
21 tortilla chips (a couple handfuls)
2.5 oz. shredded cheese
0.5 cup salsa
0.5 cup plain yogurt (instead of sour cream)
1 cup chopped greens (often, lettuce)
0.25 cup chopped avocado
0.25 cup chopped tomato
0.25 cup chopped sweet red pepper
0.25 cup chopped chicken

Now, if we pull the nutrition info off the chips, cheese, salsa, and yogurt in our pantry and fridge (Sprouts brand for the first three, Mountain High brand for the yogurt), along with nutrition info from the Self Database (for romaine lettuce, avocado, tomato, pepper, and chicken), we can put together a sort of nutrition label and compare to the recommended daily values from the FDA.

So, if were eating the nachos for one of our three meals (i.e., if we should hit about a third of our %RDV for each category), it looks like were pretty close for calories, a little high on the fat, cholesterol, sodium and protein, and a little low on the carbs.  Were also rockin the vitamins A and C, thanks to the lettuce and peppers.  But can these nachos make up a significant fraction of a healthy diet?  The nachos obviously arent perfectly balanced, but if our other two meals of the day are a little more carb-heavy (like oatmeal and PBJ sandwiches!), it looks like we probably wont get too far out of whack.

But for some extra perspective, we could also compare our nachos to other entrees that we might eat instead, if we werent so lazy busy.  We found data for another version of chicken nachos grande, and also for taco salad, quiche, spaghetti, chili, and the quintessential example of nutritionally-challenged food, a Big Mac.

Somewhat surprisingly, even with the veggies, our nachos dont stack up particularly well against anything but the other nachos, except for vitamins A and C, and calcium.  (Normalizing everything to 100-gram portions makes our nachos look better, but thats not very realistic if were actually eating the whole plate!)  Guess we better not make a regular habit of nachos for supper, unless we cut back on the chips and cheese, and ramp up on the other toppings. 

New house rule: nachos cannot be an entree if chips and cheese are initially visible through the layer of vegetable matter on top.

Thanks for keeping us in check, science!

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New On Our Reading List Critter Tales

5:53 PM in Aqua, critter, list, new, on, our, reading, tales

Leigh Tates new book, Critter Tales, is out! 

In it, she chronicles her first-hand experiences with many types of livestock on her five-acre quasi-rural homestead in the southern Appalachian mountains. If you read Leighs blog, you know that she is working to maximize self-sufficiency for herself, her husband, and their animals. Most of her livestock-related posts are on goats, chickens, and more recently, bees, but the book also covers llamas, pigs, guinea fowl, guard dogs, and farm cats.  

Were regular readers of Leighs blog because she does very good research and combines that research with valuable insight from her own experiences. Were definitely looking forward to reading her new book.  

In the interest of full disclosure, were helping her promote the book partly because were hoping to win a copy.  The other part is because we dig her stuff and think you would, too.  If youre interested in winning a copy yourself, check out her announcement post for more info.

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Advent Reflection God is Present with Our Neighbor

5:29 PM in advent, Aqua, god, is, neighbor, our, present, reflection, with

In todays text, (Luke 4: 14-30)  I hear Jesus telling the people whom he is physically with (God with us) that God is also present with our neighbor. I sense an invitation to consider that Gods abundance necessarily means that there is room for someone else, other than us, to also be blessed by God. Our willingness to accept the breadth of Gods abundance means that we can dispel our notions of scarcity that keep our fists clenched.   -Rev. Ruth T. West, San Francisco Theological Seminary   (from Advent Reflection, Blessings Just for Us?)

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Fixing Our Electric Chainsaw

8:51 AM in Aqua, chainsaw, electric, fixing, our

Last summer, we needed some trees taken down in the yard.  The trees being large enough to smash something valuable in any direction they fell, our landlords outsourced the operation to professionals.  The wood from the trees, representing a disposal cost for the arborists (and a valuable source of heat for us), stayed in the yard, but in barely-small-enough-to-move portions.  This spring, we got an electric chainsaw to convert it into more bite-size bits.  It worked gloriously.

This summer, we tackled another tree on our own (being amateur arborists ourselves) that was less dangerous, but had a bit of an ingrown fence problem.  As luck would have it, the last cut of the felling operation saw a chainsaw tooth collide with a link of chainlink fence.  The result was that the electric motor continued to spin, but the chain, not so much.  The fix turned out to be relatively simple, but there were a few tricks we wanted to make note of in case we have to do it again.  Its here on the blog because 1. well know where to find it and 2. someone else might also find the tricks useful.  Here goes:

Sprocket gear comparison: well, theres your problem!  That there sprocket gear on the left only has half his teeth!  Solution: buy a new sprocket gear.  Useful trick #1: the sprocket gear assembly sold by Sears for this model is the wrong part for our saw, which came from Lowes.  Fortunately, PartsTree has us covered and gives two options, which prompted us to count the teeth to make sure we got the right one.  Our saw has (had) 59 teeth on its sprocket gear.

Drive gear in place, then new sprocket gear on top like this.

Then the bar, the sprocket cover and e-ring (its not just for getting electronically engaged anymore!).  The sprocket cover isnt shown directly on the parts diagram.

When putting the shield back on, the chain tensioner has a hook that has to engage with the bar in order for the tension screw to work.  Useful trick #2: the best view of that is from the bottom of the saw, although its not great even from there.

With the new sprocket gear, it cuts like a boss!  Or at least, the chain moves with the motor now.  It would cut a lot better if the chain were sharp.  Guess we know what the next task is!

Do you have any other tips for replacing the sprocket gear on a chainsaw?

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Our Father of Benevolence

3:59 PM in Aqua, benevolence, father, of, our

(Here is a wonderful reflection on The Lords Prayer (Matthew 6: 9-13 and Luke 11: 1-4) , paraphrased by Malcolm Street, a member of  the Bread for the World board of directors from Fort Worth, Texas. The prayer was said at one of the sessions of the November board meeting).

Our Father, Father of all benevolence, We are in reverent awe of you: your Goodness and your Grace, your Mercy and Forgiveness, your power and might, your humble and gentle heart.

We pray that your reign of love be realized, made real, in us and that your desire for Good be pursued by us, as it is already so in the saints who have preceded us to heaven.

Just as your earth yields bread for our bodies, give us a Word from you to nourish our souls.

Release us from the debt we have incurred by acting as if we were God and not you, as we will forgive the debt of those who have tried to lord it over us.

O Lord, dont lead us as you did Jesus, into the desert that tests our faith; But if it must be so, deliver us from falling away from you in the time of trial.

We long for your Kingdom rule over us in love, your power in us that frees us from our sins, and for Christ, who is our only hope of glory.

And Lord, we go on to pray that you would bless our deliberations here today that they may bear the fruit of blessing to those on the margins, yes even beyond the margins of hunger and poverty.

Lord, may you give bread to the hungry and a hunger for you to those who have bread.

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