Hi Bloggie Friends! I hope your weekend is off to a good start! Scott came home from his business trip and we are going to spend some
quality family time together and I am excited about that! A walk through
Balboa Park is in order just as soon as I hit
Publish. Even though it's a little
cloudy at the moment, I can't wait to
unplug and enjoy the fresh air and be with my family! There are only so many
summer weekends and I really try to live them all to the fullest!
This week I've gotten a few
things in the mail that I wanted to show you.
I received these
two books:1.
The 30 Minute Vegan's Taste of the East 2.
the Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook Both of these books were sent to me by
Perseus Book Groups . That's who publishes
Ani Phyo's Raw Food Essentials that I
reviewed here .
Thanks, Perseus, you guys are awesome!I read her book nightly like a novel. And I am not kidding. I read it chapter by chapter, making sure not to miss anything!
I love it so much! So until I finish my "novel", I won't have time to start on these new books but I'll
keep you all posted. Here's my thoughts about
Ani's Book .
And I have
reviewed many other cookbooks...Also in the mail,
Attune Foods sent me some of their new
Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice with Mixed Berries Cereal - 0g Trans Fat
- 100% Natural
- 100% Whole Grain
- Gluten Free
- Kosher
- Low Fat
- Low Sodium
- Made with Organic Ingredients
- No Artificial Colors, Flavors, or Preservatives
- No Cane Sweeteners
- No Dairy Ingredients
- Wheat Free
How does it taste? It's good. It's like a healthy
brown rice version of Rice Krispies meets
lightly flavored berry patch. Thanks for thinking of me Attune Foods !And lastly, I won
Keri's Give Away for
Mary's Crackers. Those buggers aren't cheap and this was a great win, thank you so much, Keri! New to Me Cookies. Can't wait to break into these!
Keri sent me the
most touching note and some
stickers that she has had for
Twenty Years in a
sticker album for Skylar to have and play with.
Skylar loves the stickers! Thank you so much, Keri, for unloading your treasured stickers on us!
20 years later I feel like I shouldn't even let Skylar play with them since they will qualify as
collector's items, soon...haha!
Thanks for your friendship, the note, the crackers, and the stickers, Keri !From my Last Post...
So many of you were in agreement with me about
Grocery Store Pet Peeves and that one of the biggest peeves I read over and over is the same as mine:
checkers who are careless with your
perfectly-selected produce and
baggers who bag it improperly causing your beloved,
hand-picked-slaved-over-finding-the-perfect-one produce to be
squished, bruised, and beatup when you get home.
I used to bag my own groceries, by choice, but try to manage a 3 year old with all that candy and gum in the checkout aisle. Not to mention well-intended adults who want to give suckers, stickers, balloons, and the kitchen sink out. No, Thank You. We don't need to "reward" every single trip to the market with candy and stickers. Sometimes we just go. Without a million "rewards" at the end. Gosh, I must be old school.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about if you think
blog reading has changed you . Most of you said that
you are your own person, and that it's
fun to read blogs and that you have learned lots, and
some things have been fun to put into practice in your own life, but that you are
not "changed" because of blog reading. You can still
think for yourself and
stand firm in your own beliefs and who you are and
pick and choose what works for you from food to exercise choices. I think this is great!
I love
reading, learning, growing, expanding my horizons and I
admit to jumping on some Xanthum Gum and Nutritional Yeast bandwagons. Some of the things I've tried have worked for me, some haven't, and going forward, dare I say I am
a bit more selective in what I do jump into full force, just because as I've said before,
I've found what works for me. It's a Groove, not a rut .
However,
I love reading blogs,
ahem like 50 a day, because I am
inspired by my peers and others around me. That's the beauty of the internet and blogs...you can
learn so much, so fast, and if you don't like it or it doesn't work for you or a particular blog doesn't resonate with you, fine, there's no shortage of blogs to choose from, click off and find one that does. It sounds like
most of you employ the use what you can, forget about the rest, approach too. Thanks for such
great comments about
blog reading, trends, what you've tried, if you've been changed and how...great feedback!
I cleared a space in the garage all by myself. Putting those muscles to good use just re-arranging everything!
I am
even more overwhelmed now that I have
half a clue what I want in a
home gym machine when I am reading
Craigslist, but considering some of the home gyms I've been pondering are less than the price of the
Garmin I returned , I am going to try to
not belabor this decision too much. Onto some Food...
Flat and dry as a pancake, love it!
Slice & Marinate the 'fu
Bake
Done!
Green Food: Edamame Salad with
Stevia leaves from the Stevia Plant I bought.
For my T
houghts on Stevia Plants and
What the Leaves Taste Like,
Click Here I topped this green bowl with the Tofu once it cooled down and it was great!
No post is complete without some
Chocolate....Remember the other day I posted about the
Chocolate Coconut Princess Shake ? Here's another one,
no Princess cups actually required.Skylar now begs me for Chocolate Shapes. Not Shakes. Hey at least she's got numbers and shapes on the brain rather than shakes. There are worse things.
Scott begs me for Tempt Hemp Milk Ice cream that I got as part of the
Hemp Jackpot My Dessert: High Raw All Vegan Sugar Cookie Dough Balls 3 Ingredients & 5 Minutes later, these little Sugar Cookies will hit the spot!
Once you pop, you can't stop!
Yoga Today is
Tittibhasana (Firefly Pose) I'm flying away like a firefly.Gym & Weights Workout Today From
This Tab :
Chest/Shoulders Tip of the Day: My
Ani Phyo Raw Essentials Cookbook Give Away !
This is quite possibly My Favorite Cookbook, ever.
Questions1. What's on your agenda for this weekend? Best thing you've done or ate, so far?Me = I think the
muffins I am about to make are going to rank right up there. So is my
family walk on a sunny morning.
2. If you ever have a child, you know that once you get pregnant, every magazine publication under the sun that caters to parents,
subscribes you and you receive free, unsolicited magazines, and these
subscriptions seem to live on forever. Skylar is 3.5 years old and I am
still getting these magazines! I was never a "Parents" girl. A little
too mainstream for me.
Click Here to see
my Parenting Choices and what works, for us. Anyway, catering to Picky Eaters who don't eat their veggies and trying to create recipes that
exclude veggies, in my opinion,
sets up a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits. I don't believe any dietary path that excludes plants is healthy. I also don't believe as parents we should have to
"sneak" veggies into our kids diets,
i.e. pureeing spinach and incorporating that into homemade marinara sauce or sneaking beans into brownies. As an
additional way to get veggies or healthy foods into your child, your partner,
yourself, great. But I don't believe that the
sneak attack, long term, is appropriate.
Supplemental, fine. But
not the "only" method.
Which brings me back to a question that many parents write to me about.
How do I get Skylar to eat her veggies? Well, easy.
That's what's served in a plant-based household so if you don't like broccoli at 10am, maybe you'll like carrots. And if you don't like broccoli at noon, that's fine, I have cucumbers. And since 80% of our meals are raw/vegan, there is no shortage of everything from squash to tomatoes to cucumbers to sugar snap peas to kale. If you don't like veggies in this house, you may indeed
starve. haha! Kidding! Seriously though, as a parent it's my job to make sure my child is eating well, and that includes veggies! If your child is
not eating boat loads of calories from crappy foods, they will
be hungry when it comes to meal time, and
meal time includes veggies. This is not rocket science for me. And as long as you provide an
appetizing array of veggies to choose from,
throughout the day, every day, your child
will eat plants. You just cannot sabotage your own efforts by also providing things like chips and candy!Did your parents "enforce" vegetable eating? If so,
how did they do it? Gently and just
woven into your diet as a whole or sitting alone at the table for 2 hours while you
stared down those peas you just weren't going to eat?3. Do you believe that any
dietary path the excludes veggies, or for that matter
any dietary path that excludes large categories of foods, from
carb-exclusion and copious amounts of protein to no fruit to no veggies to the fat-free craze, is any of that ok with you? Personally I think that
broad brushstroke exclusion of food groups is fanatical and I am a
moderation girl. However, since I have
food allergies and have chosen a plant-based path, I have
written off gluten-containing foods, dairy, and animal products. I guess some could see this as extreme, but for me, it's not. What I see as
extreme are people who have
arbitrary "rules" such as they can't eat more than
x grams of carbs or cannot eat after
y time of day. Or are on a high protein diet at the exclusion of veggies! Do you think that diets that
exclude categories of food are healthy? Or balanced? Or are using
good judgment for the long term?4. Weekend Traditions? Anything you love to do on the weekends that you really look forward to?
Me =
long power walks with the family and
making recipes that take me
a little too long to tackle during the week but on the weekends, no problem!
Like the 20 minutes I am going to spend making muffins right now...and that's hardly a "long time", but ya know...Ok kids, I am going to get a batch of
Vegan Gluten Free Blueberry Struesel Muffins in the Oven.
3 Bites of Goodness
Saturday morning + warm muffins = just goes together.
Have a great weekend!
Soak up the great weather and happy times with your friends and family and
unplug a little. I plan to do just that! Stay Tuned For The Weekend Recap...
This week I've gotten a few things in the mail that I wanted to show you.
I received these two books:
1. The 30 Minute Vegan's Taste of the East
2. the Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook
Both of these books were sent to me by Perseus Book Groups . That's who publishes Ani Phyo's Raw Food Essentials that I reviewed here . Thanks, Perseus, you guys are awesome!
I love it so much! So until I finish my "novel", I won't have time to start on these new books but I'll keep you all posted. Here's my thoughts about Ani's Book .
And I have reviewed many other cookbooks...
Also in the mail, Attune Foods sent me some of their new Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice with Mixed Berries Cereal
- 0g Trans Fat
- 100% Natural
- 100% Whole Grain
- Gluten Free
- Kosher
- Low Fat
- Low Sodium
- Made with Organic Ingredients
- No Artificial Colors, Flavors, or Preservatives
- No Cane Sweeteners
- No Dairy Ingredients
- Wheat Free
How does it taste? It's good. It's like a healthy brown rice version of Rice Krispies meets lightly flavored berry patch. Thanks for thinking of me Attune Foods !Keri sent me the most touching note and some stickers that she has had for Twenty Years in a sticker album for Skylar to have and play with.
Skylar loves the stickers! Thank you so much, Keri, for unloading your treasured stickers on us!
Onto some Food...
Green Food: Edamame Salad with Stevia leaves from the Stevia Plant I bought.
No post is complete without some Chocolate....
Remember the other day I posted about the Chocolate Coconut Princess Shake ? Here's another one, no Princess cups actually required.
Scott begs me for Tempt Hemp Milk Ice cream that I got as part of the Hemp Jackpot
My Dessert: High Raw All Vegan Sugar Cookie Dough Balls
Gym & Weights Workout Today From This Tab : Chest/Shoulders
Tip of the Day: My Ani Phyo Raw Essentials Cookbook Give Away !
Questions
1. What's on your agenda for this weekend? Best thing you've done or ate, so far?
Me = I think the muffins I am about to make are going to rank right up there. So is my family walk on a sunny morning.
2. If you ever have a child, you know that once you get pregnant, every magazine publication under the sun that caters to parents, subscribes you and you receive free, unsolicited magazines, and these subscriptions seem to live on forever. Skylar is 3.5 years old and I am still getting these magazines! I was never a "Parents" girl. A little too mainstream for me. Click Here to see my Parenting Choices and what works, for us.
Anyway, catering to Picky Eaters who don't eat their veggies and trying to create recipes that exclude veggies, in my opinion, sets up a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits. I don't believe any dietary path that excludes plants is healthy.
I also don't believe as parents we should have to "sneak" veggies into our kids diets, i.e. pureeing spinach and incorporating that into homemade marinara sauce or sneaking beans into brownies. As an additional way to get veggies or healthy foods into your child, your partner, yourself, great. But I don't believe that the sneak attack, long term, is appropriate. Supplemental, fine. But not the "only" method.
Which brings me back to a question that many parents write to me about. How do I get Skylar to eat her veggies? Well, easy. That's what's served in a plant-based household so if you don't like broccoli at 10am, maybe you'll like carrots. And if you don't like broccoli at noon, that's fine, I have cucumbers. And since 80% of our meals are raw/vegan, there is no shortage of everything from squash to tomatoes to cucumbers to sugar snap peas to kale. If you don't like veggies in this house, you may indeed starve. haha! Kidding!
Seriously though, as a parent it's my job to make sure my child is eating well, and that includes veggies! If your child is not eating boat loads of calories from crappy foods, they will be hungry when it comes to meal time, and meal time includes veggies. This is not rocket science for me. And as long as you provide an appetizing array of veggies to choose from, throughout the day, every day, your child will eat plants. You just cannot sabotage your own efforts by also providing things like chips and candy!
Did your parents "enforce" vegetable eating? If so, how did they do it? Gently and just woven into your diet as a whole or sitting alone at the table for 2 hours while you stared down those peas you just weren't going to eat?
3. Do you believe that any dietary path the excludes veggies, or for that matter any dietary path that excludes large categories of foods, from carb-exclusion and copious amounts of protein to no fruit to no veggies to the fat-free craze, is any of that ok with you?
Personally I think that broad brushstroke exclusion of food groups is fanatical and I am a moderation girl. However, since I have food allergies and have chosen a plant-based path, I have written off gluten-containing foods, dairy, and animal products. I guess some could see this as extreme, but for me, it's not.
What I see as extreme are people who have arbitrary "rules" such as they can't eat more than x grams of carbs or cannot eat after y time of day. Or are on a high protein diet at the exclusion of veggies!
Do you think that diets that exclude categories of food are healthy? Or balanced? Or are using good judgment for the long term?
4. Weekend Traditions? Anything you love to do on the weekends that you really look forward to?
Me = long power walks with the family and making recipes that take me a little too long to tackle during the week but on the weekends, no problem! Like the 20 minutes I am going to spend making muffins right now...and that's hardly a "long time", but ya know...
Ok kids, I am going to get a batch of Vegan Gluten Free Blueberry Struesel Muffins in the Oven.
Have a great weekend! Soak up the great weather and happy times with your friends and family and unplug a little. I plan to do just that!
Stay Tuned For The Weekend Recap...