The Curly Butterfly

Clean Living in the Real World

Chia Seed Pudding

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Way before chia seed pudding was trendy, I was testing it out in my own kitchen. After I tried my first Whole30, I continued to eat a strict paleo diet for a while. As the cooler temperatures settled in that fall, I was craving a good, warm bowl of oatmeal. So I set off to find a replacement for that comforting breakfast and found chia seed pudding.

Skip the Drive-Thru

Around the time we moved to Cincinnati, I started a job that required a lot of travel. My commute was over an hour, so I wasn’t hungry before leaving my house at 5:30 a.m. Rather than get into the drive-thru habit, I searched for an option that was portable. I stumbled on some recipes in the paleo community called chia seed pudding. It’s a very simple concept involving soaking the seeds in milk overnight in the refrigerator. This results in a gelatinous concoction similar to pudding.

Two jars of lavender chia seed pudding with two spoons all on top of a wooden cutting board

At first, I just used almond milk, but found it very bland. I tried adding fruit, but it didn’t add much flavor. Then I had the idea of treating it like oatmeal (since that’s what I was craving). I added cinnamon and vanilla for a little flavor. Shaking all together before putting it in the fridge and then after you pull it out in the morning also helps distribute the flavors. I like to use a pint Mason jar since it can be heated in the microwave as well. Heating it up got me even closer to that warm, oatmeal feel.

Over the years, I’ve experimented with different flavors, non-dairy milk, and various toppings. I finally settled on Cashew milk because it has a creamier, richer flavor to it. Just be careful about added ingredients in whatever milk you choose if you are doing a Whole30. Below is my favorite go-to recipe. Eat it cold or hot. Top it with your favorite nuts and seasonal fruit for a great breakfast or snack.

Chia Seed Pudding in an orange bowl with walnuts and blackberries on the top

Chia Seed Pudding

Christy
A great alternative to overnight oats for Paleo, Whole30, or Keto diets
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 mins
Refrigerate Overnight 8 hrs
Total Time 8 hrs 5 mins
Course Breakfast
Servings 1

Equipment

  • Mason jar

Ingredients
  

Pudding

  • 2 tbsp chia seed
  • 1 cup cashew milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • dash sea salt optional

Toppings

  • 1/4 cup walnuts
  • 1/2 cup blueberries
  • drizzle honey optional

Instructions
 

  • Add the chia seeds, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla to a glass jar with a lid.
  • Screw lid on tightly and shake vigorously until all ingredients are mixed well (chia sees will settle to the bottom).
  • Let sit in the refrigerator overnight for at least 8 hours. Can be kept for up to 4 days.
  • Remove the lid and, if preferred, heat in the microwave for about 60-90 seconds.
  • Add toppings and enjoy!

Notes

Keyword Chia Seed, Chia Seed Pudding, Keto, Paleo, Whole30

Getting Rid of Plastic

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What to do with plastic once you start your zero waste journey.

I will be the first to admit that I will probably never get rid of plastic from my life altogether. My inner Frannie wants to go all in all at once and live in a tiny house out in the mountains and live off the land. However, before she starts to throw everything out and go join the hippies to start a zero waste revolution, let’s start with the most obvious problem. PLASTIC! What are the statistics on that? Why is it such a problem? What are companies doing to help with this problem? And before you go filling up the oceans with all of your unwanted plastic, think through how you can reuse or recycle what you currently have.

Why Plastic is Such a Problem

Title Why Plastic is Such a Problem over an illustration of plastic trash floating in the ocean.

According to an article on Science Direct, Americans increased their bottled water intake from 29 gallons to 42 gallons in the ten year period between 2007 and 2017. That’s a nearly 50% increase! A study by the EPA states that only 8.4% of plastic is recycled each year. However, many local waste companies don’t recycle all plastics so just because you chunk all of your plastic trash into the recycle bin doesn’t mean it’s getting recycled. Every year, 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in our oceans. 80% of that comes from land-based plastic (plastic found in landfills, on the ground, and that can’t be recycled). So after checking with your local recycling center on what their rules are, what can you do with all that plastic?

Company Recycling Programs

While the first and most obvious way to deal with plastic waste is to refuse to accept it when you are out and about shopping, Frannie often gets in such a rush that she just grabs what she’s used to getting and then realizes her mistake when she starts seeing her husband throw it in the trash can! Plastic is in so much packaging but luckily some companies are starting to help reduce the plastic that goes into the landfill in the first place.

  • TerraCycle – Working in the school system for almost 30 years, I have been a participant in many recycling programs. One that I was introduced to several years ago was TerraCycle. Founded in 2001, this company has many recycling programs that you can participate in. Some are local and others are send in. You can even earn points that you can donate to charity. This one is great for researching a lot of plastics not accepted in your local bins.
  • Canon – We live in a world with electronics, but before you go buy the latest printer or camera, check with Canon’s recycle program. They take many electronics, cameras, and even those pesky tiny empty ink cartridges (now stop throwing those in the landfills!!)
  • Kroger – Since 2018, Kroger has recycled 52.2 million pounds of plastic. In addition to the 1000 plastic bags I collected for my husband’s “lunch boxes”, you can recycle bread bags, plastic overwrap and even bubble wrap! Now I just need to remember to bring my big ball of bags to the store with me!
Image of multicolored plastic bags spilling out of a black plastic bag on a white wooden background.

Reuse or Recycle

When I started becoming more aware of my surroundings, I was appalled at the amount of plastic in my environment. Even now, after 2 years of making small changes, plastic can be found in almost every cabinet in my kitchen. Tupperware, bread bags, MORE plastic grocery bags (they’re worse than rabbits!), medicine bottles, fruit and yogurt cups. Arguably, I am not going to be getting rid of all plastic any time soon (I have autistic kids). However, as I’ve made changes, I can to make conscious decisions about where I put it when I’m done.

Reuse

First, think about how you can reuse it. When it comes to things like Tupperware and food storage containers, I plan on using them until they are unsuitable for food. Scratches and heating cause leaching, and even if they are BPA free, any plastic leaching is questionable in my opinion. So when they get scratches or a lid goes missing, I try to use it for storage of other household items like medicine, office supplies, toys, and bathroom organization. DVD and CD cases make great storage for colored pencils and markers for my kids as well.

Second, if you are really crafty, you can save your trash for an art piece. You can find plenty of inspiration on Pinterest for art and craft projects to do with the kids. Many artists have made huge statement pieces all over the world using recycled materials. Please feel free to go all Kenny Scharf on me and show off your recycled plastic art! (Unfortunately, Frannie, you don’t have time right now. You cannot save the broken plastic cup to make a tile stepping stone. It’s time for second breakfast with the kids who broke it. Ha!)

Recycle

Finally, when all else fails, check with your local municipality about your recycling rules. Now if someone can help me train my husband to do this, we might be on our way to a waste free home! At least I have managed to reduce the amount of trash we have going to the landfill each week.

What do you do with the plastic you have in your house? Share in the comments your tips on reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reducing Waste in Your Home

by Filed Under: Clean Living, Reducing Waste Leave a Comment

Reducing waste in your home can seem like a daunting task initially. What does that mean anyway? Do you stop using trash altogether? Do you join a commune and only live off the land? Well, here at The Curly Butterfly, my motto is “Clean Living in the Real World”. That means I strive to live somewhere between zero waste and all the plastic floating in the ocean.

Grocery Supplies

When I started on my journey, I did an analysis of where I was producing waste (yeah, I’m a data nerd). After looking at where I had the most waste, I immediately made the most obvious change. Reducing waste in my home kitchen was as easy as swapping out my grocery bags. I was bringing home upwards of 20-30 plastic bags for an average weekly shopping trip! Now, while my husband calls these his “lunch bags”, I don’t think I need 1000 of them. So I made the investment and bought some reusable shopping bags. Big surprise, I can fit more groceries in one reusable bag than in a plastic bag! Bonus: less trips inside the house, and I get a good weight workout at the same time!!

Green apples in a reusable white cotton bag on a gray background.
Photo by Ramil Gibadullin via Adobe Photostock

The next investment I made was the produce bags. I like my bags from Norwex, which I talk about in this post. But you can also pick some up from Package Free Store or this cotton set from Amazon.

Streamline Paperwork

Now that EVERYTHING is online, there really are very few things you need to keep in a physical file. Marriage and birth certificates, licenses, leases/mortgages, and taxes may need paper copies (just in case everything crashes). These things I keep in my emergency red “Go Folder”. But almost everything else can be found and kept online. As I was going through my bills each month, I started slowly switching to paperless accounts (I just need some system of remembering all of my passwords!). Now, I get very little mail except for junk mail and the occasional mail for my kids school related paperwork. That’s a whole filing system in itself!

The next thing I did was started cleaning out my old file folders and throwing stuff in the recycle bin (or shredding it if it had sensitive information). When I cam across my file with all of my home manuals (oven, refrigerator, Kitchen Aid mixer, etc), I started wondering if I could find those manuals online instead. Sure enough, I was able to find almost every single one in a PDF file that I saved on my desktop. I mean, how many times do we actually use those things anyway?

Swap Cloth for Paper Towels

One of the biggest changes I made was to stop using windex and paper towels. Let me rephrase that, my husband is the OCD house cleaner in our family and for 18 years he was obsessed with cleaning everything in the house with windex and paper towels. I mean, we would go through 1 bottle of windex and a big 6-8 pack of paper towels in a week! Now we use microfiber cloths and water. I go into much more detail about our cloths in this post if you want more details.

Sort Your Trash

Picture of items to be recycled next to a picture of the items in the trash with a red circle and line through it. Caption says Do This Not That.

Finally, one of the easiest ways to reduce waste is to sort your trash. This may be intuitive for some people, but I really have to put some effort into this thinking. Even though I am a science teacher, there were a lot of things I didn’t know about basic recycling and have learned over time. First, just because it’s plastic or glass, doesn’t mean it can be recycled. Contact your local waste company to find out which things can go into your recycle bin. Second, compost food scraps if you can, or check to see if there is a compost drop off in your area. Litterless is a great site I found that lists where to compost, where to buy bulk groceries, and so much more in your area in the United States.

What tips do you have for reducing waste in your home? I love to add tips to my list, so share with me in the comments below!

Clear glass containers, a laptop, a produce bag with apples, and 3 blue microfiber cloths on a white counter. Teal banner over the pictures with the blog Title Reducing Waste in Your Home 5 Easy Steps.

Whole30 Breakfast Frittata

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Need an easy Whole30 Breakfast solution to fill you up, then try this frittata you can cook ahead and eat throughout the week! Throughout my journey to clean eating, I have successfully completed 3 Whole30 months since 2014. While breakfast is my favorite meal, I tend to not eat it when I am in a rush, which is like always (hello, mom of 2 with special needs, plus dog, plus husband, plus full time job, etc, you get it!). So when I know I’m going to have a super busy week, and I don’t want to ruin my diet by slugging down a breakfast of sausage biscuits and hash browns at the evil drive thru, I will cook this frittata up and store it in the fridge for a quick and healthy breakfast.

Jump to Recipe

Whole30 Approved Ingredients

I have written the recipe as I usually cook it up. However, I sometimes call this my “clean out the vegetable drawer frittata” because I will use just about anything that is about to go bad. It packs it with tons of vitamins and colors. Win-win. Not throwing out cash in the dumpster and filling your gut with wholesome food just before you run out the door to discover your gas tank is empty! Crap! At least you ate well.

When I was searching for a great Whole30 breakfast frittata recipe, I knew I had to watch my ingredients very carefully. When I started scouring the meat section for breakfast sausage, I couldn’t find one single package that didn’t contain sugar or nitrates or some other non-approved ingredient in it. So I decided to head to Pinterest and see what I could find in the way of DIY sausage. Pinterest did not disappoint and I found several different versions of Paleo and Whole30 approved sausage. I ended up going with this recipe from Michele at Paleo Running Momma. I exclude the cayenne pepper in my recipe because my hubby is allergic. This is now my go to recipe for any time I need sausage for any of my other breakfast endeavors (like my Christmas Overnight Breakfast Casserole!)

Using Cast Iron

When cooking this up, I like to use my cast iron skillet. Growing up in the south, my grandma and daddy cooked in this time tested material and I remember buying my very first skillet and learning how to season it properly. I have been using one of my skillets for over 25 years and it just gets better with age. A benefit of using cast iron as opposed to non-stick pans is they will keep the food from sticking without releasing chemicals at high temperatures. You will also be moving this from stove top to oven and most non-stick pans don’t have that capability. This cast iron skillet is similar to the one I use.

Recipe

Frittata with tomatoes on top and a silver serving spoon in a cast iron skillet

Whole30 Breakfast Frittata

Christy
Healthy, wholesome frittata loaded with veggies and sausage to fill you up before you start your day.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Cooling Time 5 mins
Total Time 50 mins
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Servings 8 slices
Calories 173 kcal

Equipment

  • Cast Iron Skillet

Ingredients
  

Sausage

  • 1 lb ground pork organic
  • 2 tsp poultry seasoning
  • 1/8 tsp allspice
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt fine grain

Vegetables

  • 1 cup red onion diced
  • 1 cup mushrooms diced
  • 2 cups spinach or kale stems removed
  • 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes halved

Dairy

  • 9 large eggs

Optional

  • salt and pepper to taste

Fats

  • 2 tbsp coconut oil

Instructions
 

  • Mix all seasonings together and hand mix with ground pork
  • Heat 1 tbsp coconut oil in a cast iron skillet (or any oven-proof skillet)
  • Brown sausage in skillet until cooked through and crumbles. Remove from skillet and set aside. Reserve fat in skillet to sauté vegetables.
  • Add 1 tbsp coconut oil to reserved fat and sauté onions and mushrooms. (This is where I like to add in any other veggies that might need to be used like bell peppers, squash, or zucchini.)
  • Once the vegetables have started to get soft (about 5 minutes), add in the spinach or kale. Sprinkle with sea salt and pop a lid on the skillet. Cook until just wilted (the color should be a bright green).
  • Add back in the sausage. Stir it all together. Move the mixture toward the middle of the skillet to make a trench for the eggs.
  • Scramble 8 of the eggs and pour evenly over the sausage and vegetable mixture. Use a spatula to let the eggs run to the sides of the skillet (they will act as the "crust of the pie").
  • While the eggs are setting, top the frittata with the halved cherry tomatoes. Top with the remaining scrambled egg to cover the tomatoes.
  • Place the pan under the broiler and cook until golden brown.
  • Let cool for about 5 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edge to loosen it. Slice and serve.

Notes

Keyword Eggs, Frittata, Sausage, Whole30

I like to serve mine with some sliced avocado and whatever berries are in season.

Have you made frittata before? What ingredients do you like in yours? Share your recipe modifications in the comments below!

Frittata in a cast iron skillet with a silver serving spoon on top. Plated frittata, avocado, and strawberries on bottom. Title overlay that says Whole30 Breakfast frittata Paleo Keto Whole30.

3 Easy Steps to Starting a Clean Living Journey

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You see it all over social media these days. Whether you call it non-toxic, waste free, zero waste, eco-friendly, or a whole other host of related hashtags, they all mean the same thing. Clean living to help make an impact on the environment. If you are a perfectionist like me, you want to go all in and buy all the things RIGHT NOW! Throttle back Frannie. Just like losing weight, we are not going to change our entire life from modern, plastic, foam packed convenience to homesteader living overnight.

If you are like me, you grew up in the microwaved, tv dinner, everything packaged in plastic of the 80’s 90’s and 2000’s. But it’s 2020 now and unless you’ve been living under a rock (in which case, I want to see your cool underground tiny house!), buying things packaged in plastic is just not what the cool kids are doing anymore. Before you go and throw out all of your plastic water bottles and start a new landfill, let’s look at 3 ways to start your clean living journey without breaking the bank. Pick one change that is easy, cost-efficient, and can work into a daily habit.

Pick Something Easy

Start by taking a look around your house. Where do you see plastic? Paper? Water waste? I like to make lists and one of my favorite lists to make is wish lists. Make a brain dump of all of the changes you want to make as you go throughout your day.

  • Throwing the coffee filter in the trash? Can you put your coffee grounds in the garden?
  • Using plastic water bottles? Can you make the switch to a water filter system?
  • Running the water while you brush your teeth? Turn it off!

The idea here is that you want to look for something easy. Make one change each week and it will add up to 52 changes each year!

Make it Cost-Efficient

Frannie (who is my inner child) loves to dream of how she can be the “perfect woman”. But she gets me in trouble if I don’t reign her in a little bit. When I went through 3 auto drip coffee pots in 2 years after we moved to Cincinnati, I started researching better ways to make coffee. Now, being the science nerd that I am, Frannie was pushing me to get the super shiny chemistry lab looking coffee maker called the siphon, like this one. Now, some day I may indulge her and give her that fun toy, but for now, with two autistic kids in the house that break EVERYTHING, that is just not a practical purchase. Instead I went with a Chemex, like this. It still meets my need to eliminate the plastic tubing in an auto drip that can clog up with calcium deposits, and it still looks like a shiny beaker in a chemistry lab, so it satisfies my nerdy nature!

  • Do a budget-check: Can you afford the big commitment of building a big compost bin? Or do you need to just switch to drinking from reusable water bottles?
  • Where can you save money: Turning lights off and opening the blinds will save you on energy costs. Using quick wash cycles on the washing machine and dishwasher saves water. I even saw a tip on Instagram where a lady puts a bucket in her shower to collect the cold water while it’s heating up and uses that to water her house plants!

Remember, don’t splurge for the all house water filtration system if it’s not in your budget, just go buy a Brita to start off. Frannie can live with that simple change for now.

Swap a Daily Habit

When you make your wish list or brain dump, identify something that can easily be integrated into your daily habits already. Which daily habit can your start, swap, or do better?

  • Switch to an aluminum bottle for drinking water
  • Bring your own straw to the drive-thru (it is ok to refuse a plastic straw! They may look at you funny, but maybe the kids just look weird with their noses pressed against the window behind you! You never know.)
  • Buy one glass bowl for leftovers . . . and eat them! Rinse and repeat.

The point here is to work your change into a daily habit.

So what is one “clean living” swap you have made? What change can you work into your daily routine today? Let us know in the comments below.

What is The Curly Butterfly?

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Hey y’all! My name is Christy Byrd Vacchio and welcome to The Curly Butterfly. If you are here, which you are because you’re reading this, you want to know what this site is all about. I’m just a Southern girl in her 40’s trying to navigate life with 2 special needs kiddos and a nutty husband who keeps us laughing daily.

The idea for The Curly Butterfly started back in 2015 after I had been floundering to understand non-toxic eating. I had tried a gluten-free/casein-free diet for a year with my son who has autism. Not seeing any significant changes, we gave up. But that year of endless recipe testing and research led me on the path to Paleo, and in 2014, Whole 30.

After detoxing my diet, I started looking at other ways to eliminate the toxins in my life. Since I have curly hair, I am always looking for great products to make it less frizzy. In 2018, the direct sales company I was with came out with a great hair product. This spurred me on to do more research into other non-toxic products and thus, my journey into a whole new world began.

Now, I look for easy ways to swap out things that are toxic, or wasteful. Honestly, as a busy mother of two with a side hustle (and two blogs!), I just don’t have the time to be a big d-i-y-er. It’s more like an awareness of what comes into and goes out of my house. I figure if I can make even a small difference, and others join me, we can collaboratively make a global change!

As for the name, Curly is two-fold. On the surface it references my curly hair. But it also represents my journey, that has been anything BUT a straight line. I take turns and curves. I fall off the proverbial wagon, but circle back around to the path and what I have found works for me. Butterfly is what I want to be seen as some day. Right now, and probably for many more years, I am in my cocoon. I am going through a slow metamorphosis and hope to someday emerge as the beautiful woman I want to be and fly through my days enjoying nature and contributing to it as I go.

Thank you for joining me on my journey. I hope my own journey can help you along the way.