I just finished up an awesome new book last night. Crazy Sexy Diet: Eat Your Veggies, Ignite Your Spark, and Live Like You Mean It! by Kris Carr. I was looking forward to this book for a long time because Kris Carr and her ideas have a lot of personal significance to me. Kris’s first book, Crazy Sexy Cancer, was the first one I read after my cancer diagnosis and it was amazing to read about her journey with cancer just as I was beginning my own. Kris was diagnosed with a rare and deadly cancer at age 31. She had lesions or tumors all over her liver and lungs and was told there was nada anyone could do about it. So she decided to find her own treatment which began with macrobiotics but ended with what you read about in Crazy Sexy Diet… “a low fat, vegetarian (or vegan) program that reduces inflammation and balances the pH of the body with lush whole foods, low-glycemic fruits, raw veggies, alkalizing green drinks, and superpowered smoothies”. It is not a diet book as in lose weight either… it is a diet book in the sense that it highlights how to create a lifestyle change.

Kris’s cancer went dormant and has been that way for a few years now. She is gorgeous, vibrant, and inspirational.

I appreciate this book and its ideas because they are soooo similar to mine.. although I am sure her earlier works and her website helped me to form some of these ideas. I eat vegetarian, I try to avoid grains and gluten as much as possible, I love to eat high raw and I am mindful of the pH of certain foods which is why meat is a no-no and dairy is not front and center. I am a mix of Crazy Sexy Diet, Nourishing Traditions, and The Kind Diet but the emphasis is usually on the first one and after reading this book is likely to remain so.

Nourishing Traditions folks eat too much meat for my liking and not enough veggies. The macrobiotic diet (Kind Diet) emphasizes too many grains… Crazy, Sexy Diet is “just right” when I add some pastured eggs, and small amounts of grass fed dairy. The only thing I saw in CSD that I did not care for was recipes with tofu… yeah soy is not a health food IMO. It is easy to just add double the veggies and get rid of soy though.

The book has a 21 day cleanse for those wanting to get started right away. It is a detox really. There are also recipes in the back for the cleanse and advice on doing a juice fast one day a week. Fasting one day a week is something I am now really considering.

But the book does not stop at eating. It also has advice on dry brushing (which I also plan to start), supplements (gotta buy some E3Live), meditation, exercise, positive thinking, bathing, a healthy home, ect. Spirituality too. I got a kick out of seeing an alter of sorts in the book (I assume it is Kris’s) that had a mish mesh of different deities/religious ideas.. aka Jesus on the cross right next to the Goddess Lakshmi. I have a mix of sorts like that as well. But if you are staunchly in one camp have no fear because it does not preach, just encourages spirituality in whatever form you wish.

It is really a powerhouse book with so much good information I could not put it down. I recommend it to all: Crazy Sexy Diet. As a side note it has already achieved best seller status and it has been selling out in stores and even Amazon. It’s THAT good!

After my post about our Worm Factory I got an email from a reader that asked if we put all our scraps from the table immediately into the worm condo AND if we microwave them first. I guess microwaving kitchen scraps to soften them up is a common practice.

The answer to both is no. We collect our kitchen scraps in a smaller compost collector because we don’t want to overwhelm our worms and we will very likely be generating more waste than they will be able to handle anyway, at least until we start having generations of worms babies. We also want to soften up our scraps and start the decomp process so that it will be faster and easier for the worms to tackle but we do not have a microwave. Nor do we want one, microwaves are not good for your health.

To that end we first collect food waste in a kitchen compost collector. This allows us to collect any excess food waste that can’t go in the worm bin yet and it gets the compost brewing in the meantime. We chose the Exaco Trading ECO-2000 2.4 Gallon Kitchen Compost Waste Collector for a couple reasons. Firstly because it was one of the biggest ones for the money (less than $20). Yes, I would have preferred a stainless steel or ceramic collector but we are a family of five… the rinky dink one gallon size on those models would be filled in a week… or less. Larger ones cost more than we wanted to invest. And of course any plastic that helps us in our greener living journey overall gets a pass from me.

Right now it sits on top of the worm bin but it could easily go under the sink as well. Our old collector was a big mixing bowl that was open and visible every time you passed by… yuck. I like this system much better. We mix it occasionally with a wooden mixing spoon or I dump it into a bowl and then dump it back in the composter to reverse the top/bottom.

Another aspect of our composting system is the fact that I collect a lot of scraps and freeze them. When I get a nice large bunch I will make my homemade vegetable broth and this is even better than microwaving. The scraps are super soft and I have broth to boot. Easy peasy!

Sometimes the perks of being a blogger are pretty darn nice. This past weekend my brood of five all went and saw an advance screening of Gnomeo & Juliet in 3D. Much thanks to The Owens Group for the tickets. Anyway, I don’t have to write about it obviously but this particular movie, in addition to being VERY good, was actually very “green” in many ways. That surprised me but I guess it shouldn’t have.

The main characters are all lawn ornaments… ceramic mushrooms and frogs, pink flamingos, and of course Gnomes. All of these characters have great pride in taking care of their environment and making sure everything stays beautiful. There was a lot of eye candy in the way of prized flower beds, secret gardens, fountains, and the like. So while that wasn’t what the story is primarily about I loved that most of the story takes place outside as the Gnomes seek adventure in new places, wanting to make it beautiful everywhere they go.

The actual story is… well… a new take on Romeo and Juliet. The blue gnomes and red gnomes are at war because their respective homeowners are. Juliet takes off one night to nab a beautiful flower she saw in abandoned greenhouse down the road and she runs into Gnomeo. Both are in disguise since they are involved in mischief to some extent and they fall in love before they find out that the other is supposed to be their mortal enemy. Thankfully the whole suicide stuff was left out of this particular movie!

Anyway, it was really quite good. My 3 kids loved it (5, 7, 10) and my husband and I did as well. LOVED the references that went over the kids heads… like a line from Brokeback Mountain, Elton John in Gnome form, a Borat style swimsuit, and a play on an American Beauty scene. Oh and I was very happy to hear the voices of James McAvoy and Jason Statham.. my faves! I probably would not have chosen to see this film if not for the free tickets. I guess I need to stop being such a cartoon snob.. or so my husband would say. ;)

Will you being see this film?

Usually twice a week I forgo the morning green smoothie and drink a Kefir one instead. I am one of those people who will forget to eat breakfast but I have no problem remembering to drink it. My Kefir making process is pretty simple. I ferment dairy for Kefir 1 day a week and keep it in a half gallon Ball jar when done. The rest of the week, the grains rest in the frig.

This smoothie is ready in 2 minutes… just 2 cups of homemade Kefir, a cup of frozen fruit, a banana, and for me at least… a Tbsp of Colonix powder. You could forgo adding anything or go with hemp powder or flax seeds for an extra boost. I prefer the Colonix for its intestinal cleaning properties. It works great and tastes great. Plus as a colon cancer survivor I am always cognizant of my digestive track, adding this to Kefir makes my insides doubly happy.

But I am always looking for more amazing ways to drink Kefir. What is your favorite kefir recipe/drink?

Can you believe how old my son looks?? Egads… he is getting this wide, strong jaw like his Dad and he is looking like a teenager!!! But… I am getting off track…

A couple weeks ago we welcomed some new “pets” into the house… Red Wrigglers (worms). They even have a posh new condo in the kitchen so they are getting royal treatment. They are of course expected to pay their way in the form of wonderfully rich and dark compost for our garden this spring/summer.

When we moved into this house it came with no composting area and we had other things on our mind prior to winter so we gave up composting for awhile. But I started to feel guilty about that as I saw scraps sitting in the garbage so I decided to try my hand at indoor composting for winter months. I started researching it and was intent to just rig up some sort of worm bin using plastic storage tubs we have in the garage but I saw there were some issues with doing it this way as well as it being really ugly.. and our worm bin was going to be in the kitchen, visible to all. So I decided that if this was something I was really going to pursue passionately I needed to go with an efficient and easy system. A commercial worm bin seemed the better option and after reading up the various ones and scouring reviews, I chose… The Worm Factory, specifically the Worm Factory DS5TT 5-Tray Worm Composter – Terra Cotta.

It came in only a few days (free shipping too) and I ordered my worms a few days after that. I tried to get them locally but the only source I could find wasn’t answering any calls so I ended up ordering from the go-to place for composting worms, Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm (via Amazon) where you can get a about 1000 Red Wriggler Worms for $15. They came from Pennsylvania, so almost local. We got them in a couple days and they moved into their new digs. I read several places that worms often try to escape and you should leave the lights on in the room where the bin is for a few nights so they choose to stay but my husband works second shift and gets in late and always turned off the lights. They chose to stay anyway… I guess they like it here.

Anyway the Worm factory we bought has 5 trays. You start by laying a few layers of moist newspaper down on the bottom of the first tray and then cover with the included coir (coconut husk fiber) and some sand or crushed eggshells. We didn’t have any sand so we went with pastured eggshells. Then we filled the remaining space with shredded newspaper (also included) and a couple whole layers of moist newspaper. At one corner we put some food scraps… onion skin, grated carrots, lettuce, etc. It sat like that for a few days before we welcomed our worms. They came in dry soil so we added them and used a spray bottle to moisten things up and after a few days I took this photo which shows they gravitated to the corner with the food (top right). I went ahead and added some more scraps to the lower corner as well.

When I add more scraps I do so in the corners, going in order. After about a month or so I will add the next tray and repeat the whole process. Gradually the worms will seek out new food and will move up to the higher tray (there are little holes for them in the tray bottoms). Or you can take the bottom tray and put in on top and the light will make them move to the lower tray. Repeat until all trays are full. By the time the top tray is being worked, the bottom tray is likely ready for adding to your garden or potted plants.

At the very bottom of the unit is a slanted collection tray for the compost tea. This was another reason I wanted this particular composter. I read several reviews from people who tried using storage tubs and they claim the amount of compost tea they got from the Worm Factory was double. It has a nifty spigot on the bottom so you can collect the tea easily.

We are still early in the game but so far there is no odor whatsoever. It looks good sitting in the kitchen (IMO) and it is soooo easy to use. I am glad we went with this system. There is also no need for guilt about buying new plastic because the Worm Factory is made from post consumer recycled plastic. Yeah! Plus it is also helping us compost and encouraging us to grow our own food.. which we plan to do on our backyard deck this year, since we have so little space. I am also collecting and using newspaper instead of sending it to the recycling center. We seem to have enough for composting and for my son’s Bearded Dragons (yes we have two now) just with the little junk papers and community news that gets put on our mailboxes.

If you want to compost but live in an apartment or a small space or you just want to keep winter compost going strong by doing it indoors I recommend this system highly. I will post regularly about issues we may have… like potential fruit flies and the like. We may even move this unit outdoors as the weather warms because it can go inside or out if left in a shady, cooler, spot. Either way I cannot wait to get my hands on some of that black gold this spring!

Also another recommendation is this wonderful book on composting with worm bins, Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System. I read it YEARS ago and never acted on it. Lucky for me I kept it in storage until I needed it!

Are you composting yet?