The 'Unjunked' verdict

Well the verdict is in! I had posted awhile back about 'Unjunked' candy that i now on the market. I thought, how neat candy that doesn't have any preservatives, no artificial ingredients, no corn syrup, no hydrogenated oil, GMO's, or for lack of a better word 'junk' in it!  This week I went to CVS and when we were checking out my daughter wanted some candy. I looked down and there (on the lowest shelf possible) it was! There were four different options in fun bright packaging.

My daughter loves the ones like M & M's

My son wanted to eat it right out of the packaging.

Here's what the M & M ones looked like. I love the colors, so pretty!

This one was my favorite. I'm caramel kind of girl.

• chocolate caramel nougat bar
• ones like regular m & m's
• ones like peanut m & m's
• ones like peanut butter cups

They were on sale 2 for $2. I went back later in the week to buy some for my husband to try and they were $1.19 a piece. The packaging is about the same size as regular candy bars.  Let's just say they are all AMAZING! My kids couldn't get enough, my husband loves them. I honestly couldn't taste the difference. I love that when you eat them, you know exactly what the ingredients are inside them. There's no junk! They simply are UNREAL!

Give them a whirl and see what you think.

Local Honey

Did you know that there is a difference between eating honey from a company that mass produces honey and eating honey from your local bee keeper? I didn't, until only recently.  There are amazing health benefits to eating honey that's produced locally. Here are some reasons to enjoy local, raw honey:

• It's a natural sweetener, much better than sugar for you

• Raw honey contains: assortment of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and amino acids

• Modern food-processing techniques often involve filtering honey for clarity and superheating it to avoid crystallization and extend its shelf life. These processes can dilute much of the nutritional value of the honey, however. Filtering might remove minerals, for example, and superheating honey partially destroys its vitamins, nutrients, and enzymes. 

• Another casualty of industrial honey production is taste. Much of the honey found in stores is a mixture of many different kinds of honey, with much of its uniqueness lost in the process of filtering, heating, and mixing. 

• Because local raw honey contains minute particles of pollen from local plants, some people believe that ingesting local raw honey helps build up immunity to the pollen, alleviating springtime allergies.

• If you don't know where your honey is coming from, chances are it's imported: 
The majority of honey sold in the U.S. is now imported from four major sources: Canada, Mexico, Argentina, and China. This is a shift from past decades, when most of the honey sold in the U.S. was produced domestically. 

• Buying local honey causes less pollution and saves resources.

So where do I get my honey? Well if you live in Pace or Pensacola I highly recommend East Hill Honey Company. Not only do they sell local, raw honey, but they're on a mission to bring apiary's to other neighborhoods. They're working to live more of a sustainable life, which is exactly the same mission I'm on. I'm trying to find ways to live a 'greener life'. 

This past Saturday I went to our local farmers market: The Palafox Market.  Tommy Van Horn (the founder and beekeeper for East Hill Honey) was there selling his honey. I shared with him how much I appreciated the lavender soap I purchased from him in the past. He was so kind and gave me these three beautiful end pieces of soap for me to try free of charge! What a blessing. I was so surprised, and thankful for his generosity! A whole bar of beeswax soap from him costs $6 regularly. I bought some creamed honey from him as well. I adore creamed honey. I used to eat it a lot as a child growing up in Canada. I couldn't wait to try East Hill's version of it. It came in such a pretty bottle. When I got home, I put a piece of homemade bread in the toaster and covered it in the creamed honey. It tasted a lot like my childhood, but better. His honey has a distinct flavor, almost fruity.  

I've bought their amazing soap. My favorite is the lavender.  Here's what they say about their soap:

"Our Lavender Soap bars measure 2.5" x 3.25" x 1" thick - a great size for a bar of soap. We use all natural ingredients (oatmeal) and they feel great to use everyday. Our soaps have no Parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate (or similar), unnatural preservatives, or petroleum products. All soaps are vegan."

My children LOVE their honey sticks. They remind me of pixie sticks, except they're such a fun, delicious, and good for you treat! They cost $2.00 for 5 honey sticks. 

I'm finding that when I know where my food comes from, and when I know the story behind it, I become so much more grateful for it. I can envision the labor and care that went into it. There becomes this appreciation for it, like I haven't had before when just picking up a manufactured bottle of honey on the store shelf at the local grocery store. The experience is almost spiritual, as I thank God for providing the food and sincerely thank him for the hands that prepared it. 

If you get the opportunity go to your local farmers market and meet the beekeeper. If you're in pensacola, meet Tommy.  Pick up some honey and I guarantee you, it will taste nothing like the store bought kind you have purchased in the past. Once you try local, raw honey, there's definitely no going back. 

Homemade Delicious Bread

For my birthday about 10 years ago I would've been thrilled with getting a pair of boots, gift certificates to my favorite clothing store, or something along those lines. Is it because I'm in my 30's, or perhaps because I'm on this new journey about living the healthiest lifestyle I asked for kitchen products for my birthday.  I was hoping for a Green dutch oven from my parents, and a grain mill from my hubby. Of course I got made fun of, by my wonderful parents, who think I'll want a butter churn for christmas. My reply to them was "I don't need a butter churn, my kitchenaid mixer makes butter just fine." I don't think I'll be stopping their teasing much with that comment, but I'll ensure I don't receive a butter churn for Christmas.

The grain mill arrived in the mail the day after Thanksgiving. I couldn't wait to try it. The only downside: I know nothing about wheat, what kind to buy, where to buy, how much to buy, where to store it, how long it lasts, once ground how long will it last. I had a slew of questions and not sure where to start. Sarah Jones from Bread of life bakery was a HUGE help. I messaged her with many questions. I was ready to buy a six gallon bucket of wheat. She recommended buying 3-5 pounds of three different kinds of the main wheats to start. Here's what I've learned so far.

• Hard wheats are good for breads.
• Soft wheats are good for pastries.
• I realized I've never seen wheat before it was ground up. It looks kind of like rice to me. 
• I can grind corn, rice, oats for different types of grain
• buying the grain whole is cheaper than buying flour
• Whole grain can last 40-60 years, if kept in a sealed container

So I bought five pounds of each:

• Red hard wheat
• White hard wheat
• White soft wheat

I love the grain mill. It attaches right to my KitchenAid KSM75WH Classic Tilt-Head Stand Mixer (Google Affiliate Ad). I placed a bowl underneath it to catch the flour. I placed the white hard grain in the top and turn on the mixer. It took about 6-10 minutes to grind three cups of flour. While it was grinding I grabbed all my ingredients for the bread maker. I have to say I've made bread by hand, and I've used the bread maker. What a lifesaver a bread maker can be! There's so much kneading, and rising that I pop all the ingredients inside the maker and in 3 hours I have fresh bread, my house smells like bread and it's beyond delicious with some honey on it. 

3 cups of beautiful whole grain flour. 

There's my hardworking bread maker (thanks to a dear friend who gave it to me! Such a blessing). On the right is the 1st loaf of white bread I made. I made the mistake of opening the bread maker while it baking and the top of the bread sunk in. It didn't rise all the way. 

So why am I interested in grinding my own wheat and baking my own bread? A couple reasons:

• I'm always looking to save money
• I want to provide the healthiest food for my family. Store bought breads have so many ingredients in them, that I can't even pronounce. If I make it myself, I know exactly what 5-10 ingredients I'm putting in the bread. I can pronounce my ingredients.
• Flour bought at the store has been sitting on the shelf, for who knows how long
• If I buy organic bread, it can be expensive.
• The choice to use a bread maker is to make it easier, quicker, and less work. 

The Dancing cucumber

I'm not sure if any of you remember my last post about my cucumbers...but they didn't end well for me. The ants came in and enjoyed my plant. However after I wrote that I didn't pull the plant. I left it. I figured I'll pull it once it's completely dead and brown. It never completely turned dead and brown. I had the surprise of my life this week, when I went outside and spotted a CUCUMBER on the vine! My cucumber plant miraculously survived. I literally jumped up and down and shouted "WOHOO! I didn't kill my plant!"I couldn't believe it.

Can you spot my lone cucumber?

Every time I talk about my cucumbers I always think of Veggie tales and the Dance of the cucumber song. I figured it was best to share that video, than one of my attempt at singing that song. haha.

So if you think something is far beyond help/repair, don't count it out. It might surprise you. Like my cucumber coming back from what I thought was dead.  Another gardening lesson from the newbie gardner.

Best Juice I've EVER made

My favorite juice is called:

SHERBET LEMONADE

• 2 apples
• 1/2 a lemon

That's it! So simple, yet so delicious!  I was amazed at how simple it is. So refreshing!

Courtesy of Jason Vale (who I consider the king of juicing). He's written countless books on the subject. Juicing has changed his life.  He makes that recipe in this video. He's pretty eccentric. I absolutely love the juicer he uses in this video. It's a wide mouth juicer, so you don't have to cut most of the fruit before you put it in. For example when I juice an apple I have to cut it into 6 pieces to fit into my juicer. This one, you just put the whole apple in. Plus it cleans in one minute! This is definitely going on my dream list. 

Try the sherbet lemonade, let me know what you think. By watching his enthusiasm I had to try it, and I absolutely love it. Plus, I had the kids & hubby try it and it was a hit! I know it's a good juice when they'll drink it too. Now I wonder if I could hide any veggies in that...probably not, probably is why it's so good!

Girls Spa night!

I had the opportunity to host a 'Spa Party' at my home. Friends of mine started selling beauticontrol products. I chose a Detox themed party. There are many different kinds of spa parties they can throw. I was very excited to try their detox line of products. The 'beauty' of hosting one of these parties is the lovely ladies who sell beauty control do all the spa treatments to you! My part was just opening my home, inviting all my friends and of course, providing the food. So what kind of food do you prepare for a spa party? I assumed it would need to be a lighter fare. Here's what I prepared:

1. Fruit Kabobs 
2. Veggie Tray
3. Quinoa Salad
4. Semi Dried Tomatoes 
5. Hummus and pita chips (both were store bought)
6. Cucumber cups filled with olive tapenade
7. Organic Iced white peppermint tea (sweetened with organic cane sugar)
8. Iced raspberry tea (sweetened with organic cane sugar)
9. Coffee (organic sugar, organic cream, homemade whipped cream)

Instead of the usual fruit tray I would do, I got the idea to do fruit kabobs from Pinterest!  Their fruit kabobs had strawberries on them, and I agree they would've made the kabobs much prettier. Unfortunately when I went to purchase the strawberries they had doubled in price since I was there earlier in the week. I wasn't going to pay what they were selling them for...so I opted for blackberries since they were on sale. 

Nothing special. Just my regular veggie tray. Our Veggie tray included:

tomatoes, celery, cucumbers, green peppers, broccolini (tiny broccoli!), organic carrots and organic ranch dressing.

Cucumber cups filled with Olive tepanade. Courtesy of Kris Carr from her latest book Crazy Sexy kitchen. (if you're not sure who this girl is...she was diagnosed with cancer about a decade ago and have held her cancer at bay by completely changing her lifestyle. To learn more about her journey click here

Semi-dried tomatoes. These were so yummy! This is my first time blanching anything! It turned out great. After blanching them, they went into the oven on the lowest setting for 4 hours. Of course I topped them with yummy seasonings first. You can get the recipe from Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Kitchen Book.

Quinoa Salad. (sorry it's blurry). It tasted kinda like tabouli (one of my favorite mediterranean dishes). 

Us girls, had a great time. The comments at the party included:

"Do you normally eat like this?" -- haha. I'm not sure how to take that. I didn't find it abnormal...

"Do you do all the cooking at your home?" --absolutely not. My hubby does MOST of the cooking. I usually do it on my days off (2x a week).

"What is this?" --referring to the quinoa salad. 

I think the veggie fare was enjoyed by most...we hardly had any leftovers to put in the fridge. That's definitely always a good sign.

30 New Healthy Habits this Year

I decided this past year to add 30 new healthy habits to my life. As I came up with new ideas I would jot them down in my 30 year journal.

Here's what I came up with.

1. Washing Face daily with Organic Face wash system
2. Discipline to morning bible/prayer time at 6am daily
3. One night a week is family night: homemade pizza, homemade popcorn, and watching a movie in the living room with lots of pillows & blankets
4. Sunday nights being "my night" to do spa stuff: face masks etc
5. Went to Natural Skin Care Class at Everman - Jan 14
6. Cleaned every crevis of my home
7. Went Vegetarian - April 7th
8. Started Juicing - April 22
9. Went to a seminar on Fair Trade - April 29
10. Created a Raised Veggie Garden - May 28
11. Turned the front garden into a veggie garden - May 10
12. Picked blueberries 3x this summer
13. Planted tomatoes, cucumbers in raised vegetable garden - July
14. Blogged about all my adventures
15. Planted tops of my pinnapples
16. Started growing veggies by seeds
17. Juan created another veggie garden
18. Led a 6 week mom's group on greener living
19. Teaching green cleaning at  a seminar at brownsville - Sept
20. Make laundry detergent for my family monthly
21. Make our dishwashing detergent for our family
22. Only buy organic meats & dairy for our home
23. Saw the eye dr and had an eye analysis done
24. Made tomato sauce from scratch
25. Devotions with Charlotte every morning
26. planted a lemon tree
27. refurbished the baby crib to make a bench
28. Enjoy a cup of green tea each night with honey before bed
29. 3 day juice/liquid fast
30. ____________________

I'm sure there will be more adventures up until November 16, but after re-reading this list I'm blown away at all we've accomplished this year.