What a beautiful raw day!

I made a new breakfast today: Goji berry sunshine cereal with brazil nut milk. It was so good I had to take a picture, and so started my idea to document everything we ate today. On a normal day we usually start off with a green smoothie, but they have been getting bored with them lately. I've been switching them up with different fruits, but they still wanted something to crunch on. I make raw granola which they love, but I wanted something new and exciting, and I certainly got what I asked for. Tomorrow I've promised to make coconut breakfast cakes, and I hope they turn out as yummy!

For lunch we took a picnic to the park. It was a warm but slightly cloudy day and ended up being perfect. I brought a quart of green smoothie, this one had blueberry, spinach and banana. We also brought grapes, 2 nectarines, flax chips and guacamole. Our third course consisted of a raw almond butter and fresh smashed blueberry sandwich on ezekiel bread. To wash it all down we had refreshing H20. Everything organic of course. I didn't have any sandwich, it's just to help them in transitioning.

Stealing a nectarine, then on to the smoothie. I don't really feed him food yet, but these were adorable moments.

I love how the juice is all over him. The park is where I let loose and let them make a mess. I brought a wet washcloth for the imminent messes.

Dinner was simpler. Just romaine lettuce today with organic raw cheese, organic olives from a jar not a can, avocado, and a vinegar, olive oil dressing.

For snack they had chocolate brazil nut milk popsicles. YUM! I didn't have time to take a picture. I had to get them to bed early since they missed nap time.

Now I leave you with a message from my tea bag: Let love elevate yourself to excellence.

Got Greens Bags

It's official I've sold my first produce bags! So here they are, my Got Greens bags:

$8 per set of 3

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

I am having a weak moment today and think I'll make some cookies. I searched through pages and pages of my Facebook looking for this recipe that I made a couple months ago. I had experimented a few times and was extremely happy with this final result, so I wasn't willing to start over again.

1 cup Organic Peanut butter (not a health food, unbalanced omega's, but I didn't want to cook my raw almond butter)

1/2 cup of following:
buckwheat flower
organic brown sugar
organic sugar
1/4 hazelnut (or other nut) milk

Mix together roll into balls and cook for 18-20 min at 325

Here's another version that is gluten free, but not vegan:
1 cup organic peanut butter
1 cup organic sugar
1 egg

Bake at 350 for 6 to 8 minutes.

No Pooing

First let me say that I can't stand the name of this procedure. How about no chem-hairing or something more pleasant to the ear the first time it's said. Next, let me say that this procedure has had no allure for me at all since I heard of it. Or maybe you're wondering what "it" is. Well Simply put, the number one procedure I've found was 1 Tbsp Baking Soda in 1 cup water massaged into hair and rinsed followed by 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar to 1 cup water massaged through hair and rinsed.

So why in the world would I try it? Because my research on eczema provides that many people are allergic to the harsh ingredients in the many cleaners we use on our bodies. Not to mention the many toxins that come in contact with our skin. I have been so extremely pleased with the switch over to coconut oil for lotion and have often questioned why I never realized sooner that the amounts of toxins I slathered on my dry skin we taxing my system. So this would be the next logical step for me, right? I mean, I have transitioned away from aluminum laden deodorant (not a pleasant task), stopped using fluoride toothpastes years ago, switched to expensive toxin free sunblocks, only use all natural chemical free soaps, and changed over to toxin free nail polishes as well. So I thought I would skip the step of organic shampoo and conditioners and go right to the finish line where all the hippies are, and no poo my hair.

I hardly ever shampoo my boys hair and when I do I use the all natural California Baby soap. I'd like to say this was all me, but it was John who would chew me out when he would see me shampooing them. "Why do you want to put all of those chemicals on him, he doesn't need it?" After realizing it wasn't worth arguing about it I quit shampooing them. They have beautiful shiny, silky hair, so I knew that there could be something to the no pooing.

So for my first time I am not thrilled. Lack Lustre is the phrase that comes to mind. I am not giving up though. I have color treated hair, and I guess I am missing the extreme shine that the conditioner provides. I was shocked at how easy it was to comb through though. I thought it would be difficult without all the assistance from the conditioner, but it wasn't. My hair needs a chance to recover from all of the years of build up being put on it and I know that. I also know that if I delve into a couple sites that there are plenty of things for me to experiment with to get what I want. Plus I saw pictures of others who no poo and their hair was beautiful, even color treated. However none of them were bleach blonde's, so only time will tell.

I'm not sure if I will no poo for my next shower, but I will keep trying again in the future.

Our almost hike

We had a nice escape to the cooler weather for a day. We had to wait in our car for the storm to clear so we could enjoy it, but once it did we got to run around in a little snow. We had planned to hike but it was too cold for Triton to be in it for a long period of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urgjpfAI-2c

Little laundry tricks

I get regular updates from Dr Mercola that are mostly health related. Today he had one about how to end laundry chaos that was a fun little read. I had more ideas to add though, especially for those of us who have children.

I have taught my boys to put their own clothes in the laundry basket, and they sort them into the right color section too! This is so easy a 3 year old or even younger can do this I promise. I can't tell you how much easier this made my life.

Then if your children are like mine they love to get into their clothes and change several times a day. That's fine with me as long as they put them back. I have let them know that certain clothes are off limits like the ones hanging up that are hard for them to put back.

I have a shoe rack by my front door. No shoes in my house. That's where my baby crawls, yuck! When we lived in Utah we had a shelf and hooks in the garage before you came into the house, but this house didn't have an area for it. So it may be a bit of an eye sore but it makes our lives functional and provides a clean place to put things. I put two pretty baskets on top of it with the boys names on them, so they can put their clothes in their basket and they can wear them again later. When we come in the door they always strip down to their underwear and you know this if you've seen our videos. That's just how they are comfortable.

Lastly, I get them involved when I fold laundry. They put their own clothes away. Thanks to Kristal for this idea. I don't have cute little tags though. I've taught them what goes where. They have an underwear, sock, shorts drawer, etc. They don't like to put it away, but I give them the speech about how mommy likes to go to the park with them and color with them, and I wash their clothes for them so they can put them away so mommy can do fun things with them. It always works. They just need to be reminded why they are expected to do it. However they do love helping fold dish towels, so I get unsolicited help there.

What do you do to make laundry time easier? We all know it takes up a good portion of our lives. They always come out with those statistics about how long we spend sitting in traffic or using the restroom. I wonder how many years of our lives we spend doing laundry on average.

Red Bull gives you wings?

I am always harping about coffee and other stimulants to the people I love, and it wasn't until recently that I was able to pester them guilt free. I have only had decaf since I've been pregnant and nursing, but it is still full of sugar and other poisonous ingredients, and none of it is organic! For over a month, maybe two I have not had any coffee! My husband just drinks them in front of me while I enjoy my organic tea. I love the comfort of a warm caramel macci-wait make that HOT caramel macciato as much as anybody, and I savor my iced white chocolate mocha's on hot days. We've all been told how a Starbuck's coffee can cost us as much as a thousand of our calories that day, but we try to put it out of our mind while we savor our forbidden treat. Even though I love them I let them go, for the love of my children. Everything I do is for them. I feel sad that my husband used to hate coffee and after sharing mine for so many years he's created his own addiction that has yet to be broken. He used to get very angry if he found out I'd had a coffee at work, and now look how the tables have turned. Now tell me that's not the token of a drug.

So when I read about Red Bull having cocaine in it, I thought of all the people I know who drink it. I used to love Red Bull and even better are Rockstar's. When we would go boating at the lake I would buy us a case to burn through. Forget the beer, I like being hyper!! I was hoping now I would have another fact to tell those loved ones about this high in a can. After reading the article I was a little disappointed. It gave me nothing good to repeat to them to break their addiction, but then I thought about it, and the stuff still sucks. Just because the traces of cocaine are minuscule that doesn't mean they aren't bad, and it doesn't mean that caffeine doesn't increase heart rate and blood pressure and doesn't induce heart attacks, strokes and respiratory illness.

No matter how you put it caffeine wreaks havoc on our bodies. I believe it is just a legal drug. I find it very addictive myself. I hope to never fall into that rut of needing my daily buzz to get through the day again. Besides, since I've been staying away from cooked and processed foods I've been having plenty of energy.