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.