Friday, February 4, 2011

Things That Make You Go Hmmm...

I truly don't believe there is only ONE way to eat for health and although I strongly believe in the way I eat, I know it is right for me and for my family. I certainly don't judge others for the way they eat. Most of my family and friends eat meat and non-organic and I love them all just the same.

I do however have issues with the way America depends WAY TOO heavily on fast food and with the way FACTORY FARMS treat the animals. I emphasize FACTORY FARMS because I am not talking about responsible farmers. I fully support responsible farming. I am talking about mass producers who could care less about the treatment of animals.

I think with anything it is important we are educated fully and understand the truth, especially with what we put on and in our bodies.

So with that, here a few controversial commercials to ponder. I am not trying to push being a vegetarian, but maybe just consider consuming less meat IF YOU WANT or not. Either way, I think these commercials are interesting.




Things that make you go hmmm...

~A

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Ice, Ice, Baby!




Well, today is day 3 of operation iced in here in Indy! Another day off of school!  And of course this guy keeps popping into my brain!

ICE, ICE BABY!

We have had lots of fun being off this week. It's nice being married to a teacher too because it allows for a lot of nice family time.

Here are some of the shenanigans we have been up to.
Sophia and I made this beautiful jewelry box.
I also made me green juice with kale, ginger, cucumber, lemon, and green apple.

And then I got it stolen!

Next, was some chickpea curry over quinoa. For this I just used 2 cans of organic chickpeas and store bought coconut curry sauce. It was very good! I love quinoa and I love how quick it cooks!
After some good food, we practiced some yoga moves.
Then settled down to a nice cup of tea.


Heading back to the grind tomorrow and it will be Friday already!
I could get used to this kind of work week!

~A

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Bling!

Happy winter! We are iced in here in Indy and I have to say it is incredibly exciting! One of the perks of teaching is still getting snow days, and I still get just as excited about them (maybe even more) than I did as a kid! Everything here is so shiny and beautiful!
817-ice-covered-tree.jpg
                                                      (source)

So, to add to the excitement of being home today, it is also my beautiful sister's birthday AND the groundhog says we are getting an early spring! Wowza!

                                               (my sis and her husband)

I was perusing my vegan cookbooks to make my sis a vegan b-day cake but unfortunately the roads are too bad for us to get together. Here is what I was really wanting to make her!
This is from Angela's blog click here for the recipe. It calls for arrowroot, I have never heard of this have you?
So, with all the buzz around the new movie Black Swan, and seeing how cute Natalie Portman was at The Golden Globes, I was interested to learn more about her and to my surprise she is a vegan and is into being Eco savy. Check out her new bling!

                                                   (source)
This ring is "conflict free" which means no one was injured or treated unfairly during the mining process. The middle stone is an antique and it is set in rrecycled platinum. Go Natalie! Since my ring is not Eco friendly I am trying to talk Matt into one of these beauties for Valentine's Day!

A girl can dream!

Peace, love, and BLING!

~A

Monday, January 31, 2011

pHabulous

Hello Blog Posse!

I thought I would take a minute to update on how I am aiming to eat these days! I still say I am a "flexitarian" being free to eat whatever I want but mainly sticking to plants. However, I find I am living "mostly" a vegan lifestyle these days. I have still been eating goat cheese and a little feta here and there, but am pretty close to cutting that out as well. Last week I had no dairy at all until Friday when I had goat cheese on my pizza and my tummy was singing the blues!

I am really trying hard not to get caught up in what I can't have but rather really focusing on what I can have that is going to really serve my body and create wellness!

I have been pretty much living by Kris Carr's wellness principles since the summer. She has now gone mainstream with her new book Crazy Sexy Diet and I highly recommend it!

 I really try to focus on eating a lot of alkaline foods and limit the acidic ones. Kris explains this in detail in chapter 2 of Crazy Sexy Diet. The title of this chapter is pHabulous! You can also click here to learn more about balancing your pH.

I LOVE my green juice, but have to admit it does get hard to keep up on making it while working and raising a family. I usually do my big juicing sesh on Sundays and freeze it for the week, but I also go to the grocery that day, plan dinners for the week, prep lunches for the week, and try to get things done around the house. So sometimes my juicing falls short. Which is exactly what happened this past Sunday, so I am excited to have this new green powder to sip on when I don't have my juice or feel like I need an extra boost of alkalinity!







I will say it is NOT quite as tasty as my green juice and I have some MAJOR getting used to with it. It is not for the faint of heart but the cleaner my diet becomes I think the easier it will be to drink. I LOVE green powders in my smoothies, but drinking it straight with water is a new thing for me.

Well, we are prepping for an ice storm here in Indy, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a snow day tomorrow! My cuboards are stocked and we have a gas powered generator so bring it you big bad storm!

Peace and pH,

~A

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sunday Funday

Today began like this...
Sophia had her first sleepover at our house and you better believe she showed her friend EVERY toy in our house! They stayed up until close to 11:00 and were up bright and shining at 6:30 this morning!

So, I of course deserved really wanted this...

Soy Chai Latte baby!


Look at these beautiful dancing queens!

While these girls were dancing their hearts away, I began my food prep for the week.

Vegan whip cream for Sophia's breakfast waffles,

Toppings for Me and Matt's lunch salads, (I cut all the topping so in the morning all I have to do is put the spinach in a container and scoop on these toppings)
I miserably failed at baking us a pizza for lunch! I was so excited to try this dough that I got in my CSA this week but I burnt it to a crisp! It helps to read the directions carefully, I only tell my class that 50 times a day! I guess I should take my own advice!

Dinner was falafel and homemade fries with basil, sea salt, rosemary, and garlic powder! Yumola!

And here is where my day ended! Pure bliss! I made Gingerbread with spiced butter cream icing! It was the most AMAZING thing I have ever made in my life and it is vegan! I got the recipe from my favorite blog, Oh She Glows. Click here for the recipe. This bread is life changing! Fo real, fo sure! It will be my new Christmas time staple!

Now, I'm going to settle in and watch the new Nick Jr. show Bubble Guppy with Sophia!

Have a great week!

~A