Eco-Friendly Tips With Low Costs and High Savings

Most homeowners have weather-stripped their doors to maximize climate control, and have switched out traditional incandescent light bulbs with eco-friendly CFL models. Short of installing double paned windows or making other costly home improvements, what more can you do to make your home “greener” without emptying your wallet?

Change filters often. Change air conditioning filters monthly to keep the system running at peak performance.

Dry bigger loads. Your dryer has more capacity than you think. Dry two or more loads at once so the dryer cools down and heats up less frequently. And clean out the lint filter often.

Check the fridge seal. Feel for cold air around your closed refrigerator door to be sure the seal is in good condition.

Adjust stove top cooking. Avoid wasting heat by matching up your pot/pan size to the correct burner.

Unplug battery chargers. Many chargers continue to draw power even when not connected to a device, so unplug yours after charging.

Use a laptop. They use less energy than your desktop computer, so use them instead when you can.

Reduce hot water consumption. Install low-flow, aerating faucets and shower heads. Select a shower head with a flow rate of less than 2.5 gallons per minute.

Choose drought-tolerant plants. Any number of plants and ground covers can add greenery to a yard without gulping lots of water – including clover, certain breeds of grass like Bermuda and Zoysia, and edible plants like herbs and strawberries. (Note: you may want to put in some type of wood or brick border to contain groundcovers or plants in the area you want them to stay in.)

Old MacDonald Had a…Farmer’s Market?

Oh yes, he did. Especially here in Omaha, Nebraska. We have lots of farms and farmer’s markets. I wanted to share a little bit of information on these wonderful places, and highlight one of my favorites, Nelson Produce & Farm. I really enjoy taking my grandson to this place and boy does he ever enjoy going there. We like to go when they first open in June. You can find a list of all the local farms here and a list of farmers markets here.

Nelson Produce & Farm

For over 12 years Tyler and Pam Nelson along with our 4 girls, has supplied Omaha and surrounding areas with their farm fresh produce. In 2019, they opened their farm to the public to help bridge the gap between rural and urban Nebraska! Guests at the farm have the opportunity to tour the farm, pick fresh produce, and engage with barn yard animals. Families have a chance to jump hay bales, ride pedal trikes, and spend hours getting creative in their natural playground. Not only can you pick and take home their fresh produce you can enjoy a home cooked meal and yummy treats baked in Pam’s Farmhouse Cafe. And don’t miss out on Baby Animal Days from June 3rd to June 6th. Farm season opens on June 3rd. You can also buy season passes. When you buy a season pass there is Private Pizza Night on June 4th. And lastly there is a Farm to Table night on June 11th featuring all their dairy products. Plus there are many other events to check out here.

Benson Bounty

Fresh, quality produce from a family-run farm right next door. Michelle and Mark Brannen own and operate Benson Bounty LLC, a family farm located on 1.5 acres of land in the Benson neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. They utilize sustainable practices to care for their land and pride themselves on producing clean, healthy food for the community. They grow Nebraska’s finest heirloom garlic as well as countless varieties of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs—both culinary and medicinal. Benson Bounty has a Thursday night farm stand, you can shop online, buy flowers either at their stand or get a flower subscription. Their web site has information on their farm, new and events, like their spring plant sale on May 6th and their blog.

Barreras Family Farm

Barreras is a neat family farm because they not only sell premium beef and pork, but they host a variety of events. To start with they have a bundled meat choices that are nice. You choose your bundle; they box it up and ship it to you along with recipes to show you how to cook the items that you’ve ordered. In addition, they have an impressive line up on events that they put on for the public. Some of these are things like a summer farm camp where kids can visit the farm and explore everything there is to know about farm animal, from the cute and cuddle to the strong and massive. If you child is wanting to take things to the next level, they have a Farm STEM Camp that teaches them about tractors, implements, weather, butchery, animal veterinary science and a whole host of other things. The web site includes online learning as well. And they have the cutest rent-a-chick educational program which allows you 1 week and two baby chicks giving you the opportunity to enjoy the simple pleasures of farm life at home. Too cute! They also have group field trips and tours and other special events.

Pool Talk Featuring Bell Pool & Spa

If you’re fortunate enough to have a pool, then you will love today’s pool talk. If you’re in the market for a pool, then Bell Pool & Spa is the place to go. Summertime is just around the corner and we all know that Nebraska can get pretty darn toasty some days. What better way to enjoy the hot weather than to cool down in a brand-new pool? And after last year, more people are staying at home and entertaining the family in their own pool. But demand is up…if you think you’re going to get a pool installed this year, think again. You’ll likely have to wait until next season and possible the season after that. This is how in demand pools are right now. So, if you’re ready, make a call and get started making plans for your very own pool.

Pool Shapes & Features

Rectangle shapes are the best if you’re looking to maximize space inside of the pool or if you’re a person who like to exercise by swimming laps since you can divide the pool up into lanes and swim a straight line. Kidney shaped pools don’t seem to be all that popular anymore, but I see a few here and there. Mostly in smaller backyards where space is a little more limited. Pools come in many shapes and sizes, some with grottos and some with waterfalls. Some with slides and some with diving boards. If you’re really lucky, you can get a walk-in pool that starts off very shallow at one end and gets deeper as you go toward the other side. No steps or ladders needed to enter the pool and smaller children can use the shallow end as a kind of wading area without having to be courageous enough to get in deeper.

Spas & Hot Tubs

These are my absolute favorite. In fact, I opted for a hot tub in my backyard instead of a pool. Not only is the hot water very therapeutic but I don’t have the maintenance of a large pool and my smaller backyard accommodates a hot tub much better. The babies come in all shapes and sizes. From swim spas that have their own jets/current to help you swim in place, to soaking spas with tons of jets to soothe the savage beast. That’s me after I exercise. You can get a small four-person hot tub and you can get them much larger for several people. They come contoured so that you can sit up and recline and some even have what they call foot volcanos. That is a large jet at the bottom of the tub that massages your feet. Heavenly! Don’t want to take care of one. Their very easy to maintain however you can hire a service to do it for you. Depends how involved you want to get. My favorite thing to do is get a cup of coffee and go soak early in the morning.

Saunas

Not a lot of homes have their own sauna, but they can also be very therapeutic. They’re especially nice for warming up before a workout. Sit in one for about ten minutes then start up some yoga or even cardio and it steps up the exercise a notch. They come in infrared now, so the heat is more even and not necessarily coming from one place inside the sauna. Or you can get a more traditional one with a hot box and lava rocks. I like the infrared because it feels cleaner to me but that’s just my opinion. I don’t necessarily have any proof to back that statement up. Whether you install one in your basement bathroom or put one in your workout area, they are pretty plan looking and won’t take away from the aesthetics of the room. If you’re considering one, I highly recommend it.

Pool Service & Repair

Bell Pool & Spa offer service and repair as well. If you’re buying a previously owned home with a pool that needs a little TLC or just needs to be caught up on its maintenance, it’s certainly nice to go to a reputable place for those things. I work with many clients who need pools repaired and in the new home market where homeowners want to install a pool when they build a home. Bell Pool is great for both types of work. And again, it’s best to work with a reputable place just like this one. For more information, go to https://www.bellpool.com/

And for more of my blogs or to find out more about the Priority Group go to www.omahaprioritygroup.com

Tips on Cooking and Eating Clean

Today’s topic du jour is food. Spring is just around the corner and if you want to maximize your exercise routine to get in shape for the summer than you must consider your diet. And by diet, I don’t mean the kind where you reduce calories to lose weight. What I mean is a healthy diet that keeps your metabolism and your weight proportionate to your natural physique. In other words, you should have the physique that fits your body frame. Diet is huge part of overall health and eating clean doesn’t mean you have to give up on tasty meals, it just means cutting out obviously and some not so obviously unhealthy foods.

Sugar

Now we all know that eating a lot of sweet foods isn’t good, but did you know that you’re getting even more sugar than you think. It’s not just about the candy bar you ate but the foods you don’t even think about. Take, tomato sauce for instance. There is plenty of added sugar in it and it’s the sort of food you don’t even consider when you think about cutting sugars out of your diet but there are 10 grams of sugar in one cup of tomato sauce. Fruit juices are another one. Most juices have added sugar, not just the natural sugar that comes from the fruit itself. If you want to avoid getting the extra sugar, go for an all-natural fruit juice. Those will be sweetened by only the fruit itself. Don’t take for granted that something organic will not have added sugar. Real the labels. You’ll be surprised. Just by changing up a couple of the brands you buy or cutting out foods that you probably don’t eat a lot of anyway, you can cut a lot of sugar out of your diet.

Keto

“Ketogenic” is a term for a low-carb diet (like the Atkins diet). The idea is for you to get more calories from protein and fat and less from carbohydrates. You cut back most on the carbs that are easy to digest, like sugar, soda, pastries, and white bread. Eventually your body will be in a state of ketosis which means that it’s burning more body fat and less carbs from the food you eat. If you’re a meat eater, then this is an easier diet for you to follow. You’ll feel better and lose the extra weight that you naturally shouldn’t be carrying around. If you have high cholesterol, check with you doctor first on this one because you’ll be eating more fats than normal which could contribute to higher cholesterol levels. And I’ve heard tales about the “keto flu” said to be fly like symptoms you experience when you first begin eating this way but didn’t experience them myself.

Paleo

Also, a great diet plan for meat eaters. The theory is that you won’t eat anything a cave man would not have eaten. It’s a little trickier in terms of sticking to this lifestyle because you must make more of a concerted effort to think about what you’re eating before you eat it. No processed foods since obviously a cave man would have that, no wheat just meat and veggies for the most part. The nice thing about eating this way is that it’s pretty popular and you can save yourself the hassle of trying to think up recipes that give you diversity in your meals by subscribing to a meal delivery service. There are several companies that provide this service and they cost around the same as buying groceries for those meals. Plus, you can choose to have already prepared meals delivered or ingredients for meals that you prepare yourself. I’ve used a couple of these services and they all seem to be similar in service type and price. The only inconvenience is choosing the meals that you want each week in such a way as to get diversity and not get repeats after a few weeks.

Lectin Free

A lot of us have sensitivities or allergies to lectin just the way some are lactose or gluten intolerant. Lectin is a type of protein mainly found in plants the binds to carbohydrates. Lectins are found in all plants, but raw legumes (beans, lentils, peas, soybeans, peanuts) and whole grains like wheat contain the highest amounts of lectins. Certain types of lectins can prevent your body from absorbing other substances that have nutritional value which could eventually cause malnutrition. Some sources of lectins are considered seriously poisonous. Castor beans, for example, contain a potent lectin poison called ricin. Certain types of lectin may bind with the walls of your digestive system which can lead to serious problems. Eating one particular lectin, phytohemagglutinin, can lead to severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Avoiding eating these foods will keep you feeling better in your gut and allow you to be at the top of your game.

Grain Alternatives

There are many good grain alternatives for those of us considering any of these diets. I for one initially had trouble giving up breads when I first tried cutting our grains but eventually discovered there are a lot of breads that are made with grain alternatives which are an excellent substitute. Wild rice (which isn't technically a rice) contains almost twice the protein of brown rice and is high in several B vitamins, manganese, zinc, potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium. According to one study, it has 30 times more antioxidants than white rice. I personally like the flavor of wild rice better than white. You've likely seen quinoa on restaurant menus but might not have tried cooking it at home—which is a shame. Quinoa is a seed and is exceptionally high in protein, fiber, and is low on the glycemic index. There are other alternatives like Millet, Teff, Wheatberry and Buckwheat. It is exceptionally high in protein, fiber, and is low on the glycemic index. I was skeptical at first but found out that all of these are as tasty to cook with as regular grain products.

How Do I Cook Clean?

Knowing that most of us don’t have the time or perhaps the creativity it takes to come up with and cook clean I did some research and found that you it can be as easy as searching the internet for Clean Recipes. My challenge was finding clean eating recipes that didn’t require too much time or extravagant ingredients. I found some great treats you can cook up rather quickly while sticking to a healthy diet at www.tasteofhome.com/collection/clean-eating-recipes Best of luck with your 2021 healthy resolutions!

For more information on the author of this blog, Sallie Elliott and the Priority Group go to www.omahaprioritygroup.com