Kit’s Organic fruit and nut bars appear to be CLIFs version of the all popular LaraBar. Up until these, CLIF was mostly offering grain based protein bars for active folks and a specialty brand of the same for women. I am not a fan because they have grains and they have soy. It was one these brands actually that I started consuming shorty before my thyroid disaster. When CLIF contacted me about trying these bars I was a nano second away from hitting delete when I saw that these were fruit and nut bars only. Well, okay, sure…why not?

When I got my Kit’s Organic bars in the mail I was curious to see if they could topple the other fruit and nut bars from my pantry shelves because LaraBar is pretty much King in this house. I eat them daily and my husband usually does as well. After diving into my Kit’s Organic box I quickly decided that CLIF is in fact trying to compete with LaraBar because the flavors are pretty much the same as some of LaraBar’s best sellers.

I started with the competition for my absolute favorite LaraBar…Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip. The CLIF version is simply “Peanut Butter”. I don’t eat peanut butter anymore due to the aflatoxins, except I will eat these. Not going to give them up any time soon. LaraBar remains supreme for this flavor IMO. The Kit’s Organic peanut butter bar was only so-so.

This is where it got interesting though…

The Berry Almond Kit’s bar is very, very similar to the LaraBar Blueberry Muffin bar, which I also love. It is my second favorite in fact. Kit’s came out on top though. Their bar tasted like a moist and delicious blueberry cake.

The Cashew bar from Kit’s is exactly like LaraBar’s cashew cookie, except the LaraBar version is not very tasty IMO and the Kit’s version is insanely delicious. I might actually pass up a Peanut Butter LaraBar for this one!!

The Chocolate Almond Coconut Kit’s bar can be compared to LaraBar’s Chocolate Coconut Chew. Once again Kit’s comes out on top. I really like coconut and chocolate but never found the Larabar with these flavors to be really that good but I was wowed by the Kit’s brand.

Got to give props were they are deserved. Kit’s Organic bars are off the hook! Plus they are 100% organic, gluten free, soy free, and dairy free. The only drawback that I can see is that they are $1.59 per bar, which makes them about $.30 cents more expensive, per bar. Plus I only buy LaraBar’s in bulk when I see the price dip to $.80-$1.00 per  bar. If Kit’s bars have similar sales I will definitely buy in the future.

Attn: Giveaway at the end of this post!

A few weeks back Mountain Rose Herbs sent me a few of their Epicurean Organic Seasonings and the husband and I were excited to get cooking with them! I have been a fan of the store for a very long time and have bought their bulk herbs and essential oils in the past. They are one of my top sources for quality herbal ingredients for natural remedies. I never even thought about buying spices and cooking herbs there, not sure why exactly. Probably because I am not very adventurous with spices and herbs. I kinda stick to those I know and don’t deviate. My husband on the other hand loves to use herbs and spices, the more exotic the better. I can totally admit that he is a much better cook than I.

We ended trying four of the Epicurian Organics – Thai Curry, Herbs De Provence, West Indies Rub, and Grilling Herbs.

Grilling Herbs – This blend packs a punch with its bold flavor and penetrating aroma which holds itself well against high heat and direct flame. It is perfect for grilling those steaks outside and that is what we used it for. Contains the following ingredients: organic garlic, organic rosemary, organic black pepper, organic thyme and organic herbs. It was nice to have these all in one bottle as opposed to many and we love to use our grill so these will go fast.

Herbs de Provence –This one ended up being my favorite! From the birthplace of Gastronomy and fine cooking comes this flavorful and floral blend used for most dishes which need a “high-lifting” flavor. Best reserved for pastas, fish and most seafood. Contains the following ingredients: organic thyme, organic rosemary, organic marjoram, organic lavender and organic herbs. I used it for salmon (yum!) and in homemade chicken soup (double yum!).

West Indies Rub – A tasty and alluring blend which has been popularized by traditional Caribbean and Jamaican dishes, and is best in stir fry entrees, on fish, and as a seasoning base for gumbo. Will also enhance the flavor of traditional Thai dishes. Contains the following ingredients: organic garlic, organic black pepper, sea salt, organic ginger, organic fenugreek, organic coriander, organic mustard seed and organic spices. I made baked chicken legs with this selection and also some tacos. They were quite tasty!

Thai Curry Blend – A traditional seasoning used for the entire spectrum of Thai, Indonesian, or Szechuan dishes. Any lover of Thai or Indonesian food will rejoice in the splendor that this deeply penetrating blend provides. Contains the following ingredients: organic garlic, organic onion, organic lemon peel, organic red pepper, organic black pepper, organic herbs and organic spices. My husband used this a few times for some Asian dishes that incorporated kelp noodles. He doesn’t use a recipe as he just prefers to throw everything together and hope it works out well. Everything was delicious though.

In addition to coming from a very ethical and reputable company the spices are certified organic, Kosher certified, fairly traded, non GMO, irradition free, and chemical free. You could spend hours on their site reading up on their mission, ethical trading, their sustainability projects, and their commitment to a healthy world and planet. 2% of the proceeds from this line is donated to the Organic Consumers Association. These spices/herbs are also packaged in beautiful recycled glass bottles with post-consumer waste paper labels and original botanical watercolors. They are 100% organic and eco friendly goodness. It must also be said that they are VERY reasonably priced.

I hope my pictures above look mouth watering because one reader will get the exact same herbs/spices I did! You can see them below…

To enter just follow the prompts on the Rafflecopter form below, you have many options/chances to enter. The giveaway closes on May 16. Good luck and happy cooking!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A few weeks back Cascadian Farm asked me to participate in an all organic Earth Day feast celebration. My mission was simply to create an Earth Day feast, or rather a feast worthy of Earth Day since I would have to do it earlier in the month, and use organic foods. To facilitate they sent me an Earth Day Celebration Kit with Cascadian Farms products and coupons. So of course I decided to incorporate Cascadian Farm foods wherever I could.

In honor of the warmer weather of late I decided to go with a backyard picnic feast. I dug out my fave yard sale quilt (only $1.00!) that we use for picnics and I made light and fresh foods. That ended up being paleo chicken tacos, homemade salsa, and blueberry coconut milk smoothies. Perfect for a mid day picnic in the back yard. All the fresh fruit and veggies just scream Earth Day.

Pretty much everything was organic and to make it a Cascadian Farm affair we used their Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes in the salsa, frozen sweet corn as a taco topping, and frozen blueberries in the smoothies. It was delicious! We might just do the whole thing over again on Earth Day for reals. ;)

We buy organic most of the time but it is always good to have that reminder that it is better for the planet and for our health. Supporting organic is a crucial step in voting for the world we want. “Like” the Cascadian Farm Facebook page to get more information on their Earth Day celebration. Also many thanks to them for our kit, which came in that nifty canvas basket seen in the pictures.

Attn: There is a Tropical Traditions giveaway at the bottom of this post!

I have known about Tropical Traditions for a couple years now and always meant to order some of their amazing coconut oil. For whatever reason I just never got around to it and ended up buying the coconut oil I found at my local grocery. Going paleo/primal really revved up my quest for quality though and I finally decided to buy what I considered the BEST coconut oil and coconut products out there. In my mind that honor belongs to Tropical Traditions. I ended falling in love with their coconut oil and several of their other products. Consider this my love letter.

The company itself is also amazing. This is small family business in the Philippines that uses local, organic coconuts. None of their products are mass produced which is why sometimes you go to their site and find your favorite items are backordered. The ethical way in which they grow and harvest from their own land as well as other area farmers speak volumes. The volcanic soil of Mt. Banahaw (where they are located) makes their organic coconuts some of the most nutritionally rich coconuts you can buy too. Reading about the history of the company and their farm practices from their web site is fascinating!

We now order and use with regularity their:

Expeller Pressed Coconut Oil – It is 100% pure organic coconut oil made without the use of solvent extracts. It is made the “old” way by expeller-pressed mechanical extraction. Also, unlike virgin coconut oil it does not have a coconut taste or smell, which makes it our preferred oil for cooking.

Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil – This oil has that coconut taste and smell so it is perfect for baking and cooking foods that you want to have that special coconut flavor… think coconut shrimp or coconut brownies. Since going paleo I am making a lot more coconut based desserts so this is perfect for that use. It’s quite yummy!

Shredded Coconut and Coconut Flakes – We bought the one gallon pails once and now we just buy the refill packages. These go in all sorts of dishes – pancakes, cookies, cereal, etc.

Coconut Cream Concentrate - This is certified organic whole coconut meat in concentrated form. It is sometimes referred to as “coconut butter” and it is food, not a cooking oil. Typically we put it in drinks like smoothies and coffee but you can drizzle it on fruit, use it in homemade nut butters, or put it in puddings and fudge. Oh, and you can mix with water to make coconut milk.

Organic Coconut Flour – We use this in place of regular grain based flour for all sorts of recipes.

Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Moisturizing Cream – This is the stuff of heaven. It is so creamy and soft and it makes your skin feel that way too. Love, love, love this stuff! My husband also uses it quite frequently for his own skin and he uses it in his hair. We both prefer the peppermint scented.

Coconut Oil Teeth Cleaners – They don’t foam and they take some getting used to but I really like them. I have used and like the mint and the cinnamon.

Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Lip Moisturizers – Another wonderfully soft and luxurious skincare product. The citrus flavor is my favorite.

Coconut Bar Soap and Shampoo Bars – Ingredients: Just saponified organic virgin coconut oil.

They also sent me a free book about Virgin Coconut Oil after my very first order. Woot!

The Non-Coconut Products:

Certified Organic Canadian Raw Honey – Yum times a million. Best honey I ever tasted.

Organic Maple Syrup – Gives you a reason to eat pancakes every day!

I totally plan to try to just about everything they offer because I adore everything thus far and they have become my go-to standards for these products. So far we seem to be dousing ourselves pretty liberally with coconut and I am more than okay with that because it is so darn healthy for you, yet I would like to try their grass fed and pastured meats too. I guess I am a Tropical Traditions junkie at this point but there are worse things to be. ;)

So, on to the giveaway! Tropical Tradition has generously offered to send on of my readers a jar of their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil. They also sent me a jar for free. It was very happy to join the rest of our coconut goodies in the pantry.

This video shows all the ways you can benefit from using coconut oil:

Are you sold yet?!?! To enter just comment (below the Rafflecopter form) and tell me how you will enjoy this coconut oil. You can also get more entries by liking some Facebook pages and following twitter accounts. Use the Rafflecopter form below and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nowadays we rarely eat out. Once a month hubby and I hit the sushi bar for date night and occasionally we hit up Chipotle for a “primal” salad bowl. On special occasions, like birthdays, we may go to a restaurant as a family. That is about the extent of our eating outside of the home. We don’t ever order pizza. I think my kids did have McDonald’s around Halloween time because they really wanted the trick or treat bucket. I didn’t feel badly about it though because it is so rare. Pretty much every night we know that our food needs to be cooked and eaten at home. Once you make that commitment it just become normal. Here are some ways to bring the family back to the table…

1. Stock the Kitchen with Tried and True Favorites

You know what you like to eat and you know what your kids like to eat so stock up and make it easy on yourself by making certain meals each week. Monday can be meatloaf night, Tuesday can be almond crusted chicken wings night, Wednesday can be soup night, etc. Knowing what you need at the store and exactly what you will make, means cooking is so much easier!

2. Keep Some “Fast” Home Cooked Meal Ideas on File

Most of our meals require some planning on my part and often some advance preparation but it helps to have ideas when you need to cook it fast. When I am looking for a fast dinner option I go with egg salad, cauliflower soup, egg drop soup, or coconut flour pancakes. All of these can be made in 20 to 30 minutes and we usually have all the stuff to make them on hand. I am always on the lookout for quick and easy recipes that I can file away mentally for nights when I didn’t plan well or I am short on time.

3. Shop Smart for Home Cooked Goodness on a Budget

There are all sorts of ways to eat healthy real foods on a budget. Some of my favorites include:

• Buying in bulk
• Using free shipping online or online deals and coupons
• Shopping after the meat dept closes when all the grass fed beef and lamb are marked down
• Buying from the Farmer’s Market just before close
• Buying the raw ingredients for processed foods and making my own (kefir, yogurt, kombucha, etc)

Anyway, I am not a food photographer so please excuse my awful photos. I can take a decent portrait or candid but food photos… nope, I suck wax fruit. I also didn’t plan any of these meals so they were spur of the moment cooking decisions and food grabs. I think it ended up pretty decent nutritionally but when each meal is planned right then and there it is hard to know. I do usually plan a little more than I did on this day, especially dinner, but some days I am just so busy that we eat a mish mash of whatever we have.

Okay… here we go.

Breakfast was a bowl of grain free cereal with coconut milk. Yes, grain free, paleo cereal is totally possible! It was made with a blend of chopped raw almonds, chopped raw pecans, shredded coconut, and pine nuts, drenched in a half cup of yummy coconut milk. It is low carb with lots of delicious, healthy fats. I didn’t have a whole lot of it though (1/2 cup) because this was a gym day and if I eat too much I will get crampy while working out. Most mornings I just eat a cup of greek yogurt but I felt like mixing it up.

After eating my cereal I showered, put my swimsuit on, and hit the gym. After a one hour swim I rinsed off in the shower and then changed into workout clothes and Vibrams so I could lift some weights. From the gym I drove to the library to pick up some books on reserve and then I drove home to see my youngest kiddo off to school (who was being watched by Daddy). After he left, the husband and I ran some errands and picked up some local pastured eggs (three dozen). When we got home I made lunch for myself. Often times hubby and I make lunch together but he ate and precooked his dinner (for work) while I was at the gym, so I was on my own for lunch.

My lunch was:

• A pork chop
• Salad w/collards, wild arugula, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, bell pepper, and feta cheese topped w/balsamic vinegar
• A handful of yummy roasted seaweed crisps w/wasabi (not this exact brand but close enough)
• A chunk of dark chocolate
• A couple spoonfuls of Cognac Fig Goat Cheese (not pictured)
• Dark chocolate coconut water (not pictured)

My kids spied the fresh eggs in the frig so they requested tuna egg salad, carrot sticks, and apple slices with almond butter dip for dinner. That was super easy but not what I wanted so I made myself something different. I actually wanted to have grilled fish, sauteed mushrooms, and salad but due to poor planning the fish was still frozen solid. Phooey! So I decided to have breakfast for dinner:

• Uncured bacon
• Two eggs fried in coconut oil
• Half an apple topped with almond butter
• Greek yogurt

Throughout the day I also had some fish oil and spirulina as well as water to drink. After dinner we did our 15 minute clean-up and then the kids went off to their rooms to do their own thing until bed time. I gave the kitchen a deeper cleaning and baked some more coconut bars for after school snacking throughout the week. I stayed up late since the next day was/is hubby’s day to get up with the kids and hit the gym himself. Since I knew I would get to sleep in (if I wanted) I decided to catch up on some DVR’d shows… ala Justified and Lost Girl.

So that is a sampling of what I eat in a day. I can’t say that it is typical because I had more sweet stuff this day than I usually do in a week. I also ate more “packaged” food than usual I think but it’s a real look into my lacto-paleo diet. Today I had more paleo cereal and I rectified that fish craving:

Hubby had the same meal except he had a grass fed steak instead of fish. For dinner I have chicken soup (minus the noodles) stewing in the crock pot. It will be soup and salad for dinner.

What are you having?

There have been so many diet changes lately and so many new and wonderful products I have tried looking to prioritize my health and that of my family. One of the smaller changes we made was that we started consuming fish oils so that our diet would have an ample supply of Omega 3 essential fatty acids, EPA and DHA. I have been trying a few different brands and products but one of the front runners is Nordic Naturals and their Ultimate Omega – D3, which has fish oils obviously and 1000 I.U. of vitamin D3. Nordic Naturals has long been known as a brand that provides some of the purest and freshest fish oils. They are third party tested for environmental toxins such as heavy metals, dioxins, and PCBs. This is hugely important for moms because there are so many fish oils on the market and it can really be a crap shoot as to what is in them and how pure they are. This isn’t one of those situations where you just want to run out and buy the generic, drug store brand. You want fish oils from a place you can trust and Nordic Naturals has been on my list of trustworthy sources for years. Their lemon flavor fish oils are also very palatable. The lemony flavor comes through the gel caps even and makes it easy to take these… you even want to chew on them a little before swallowing. Sounds weird, I know.

While this particular brand isn’t my absolute favorite, it is lower in price than my preferred and makes an excellent backup when money is tight. I also like that they have so many offerings for kids. My own kids really like the Nordic Naturals Nordic Berries. The D3 in this formulation is also important to me this time of year when we don’t get a whole lot of sunlight.  D3 is a natural form of vitamin D produced by the body, and is better absorbed and utilized than other forms. It does wonders for our mood in the winter time, not to mention the helpful effects it has on immunity and sleep rhythms.

Right now the company is sponsoring a What’s Essential™ contest where they are asking people to share what is essential to them in living an extraordinary life. I didn’t enter the contest but it did give me some food for thought. What is essential to me?

It is essential that we are the healthiest we can be so that we can enjoy our lives to the fullest extent possible. So many people (adults and children) have health problems that keep them running to and from doctors. They eat foods that foster this state of poor health and they just accept the aches and pains as part of life. They get up in the morning with congestion in their chest  or a pain in the small of their back and they just say “Oh well, guess I am getting old.” Their kids get frequent cavities and allergies that seem to get worse each year but they just accept this. It was in protest of this attitude that spurred so many dietary changes of late. We were a pretty healthy bunch but there were still some nagging health issues and I do NOT accept them. I do not accept that is is normal for my children’s teeth to decay or for me to feel the aches and pains of old age in my early thirties. It is essential to me to get to the bottom of these issues and help our bodies heal as I know they can. It is essential that I always keep growing, learning, and questioning and that I teach my kids to do the same.

What about you? What is essential to you?

** Many thanks to Nordic Naturals for sending me a sampling of their products and the bottle of Ultimate Omega – D3 to review. Some were old favorites and some are now new favorites.

Leading up to Valentine’s Day you are likely to read articles about gift ideas, ways to make it magical, or perhaps what candy and chocolate is the most ethical and healthy. You don’t typically see articles about what to do if your kids came home from school with a metric ton of candy and sweets and you don’t actually have the heart to confiscate it. That would be me. I don’t buy any Valentine’s candy his time of year. Not a single piece for me or the kids. When we have to send the kids to school with Valentine’s we either make our own cards or go with ones that have little toys, bookmarks, or pencils instead of candy. But it is understood that when they come home from school they are going to have a paper bag full of Valentine’s Day booty. Since they don’t get candy very often I don’t worry so much about it, but then again I don’t dismiss it either.

Valentine’s candy is actually pretty bad for our children’s health. That is the just the truth of it. It is loaded with immune suppressing sugar and other junk ingredients like artificial dyes and additives. Consuming all that candy is literally putting their immune systems under a form of attack and during a time when they are already vulnerable… few sunlight hours available, activity can dwindle, and cold and flu bugs are going around like party favors.

If you want to get creative and trade the candy for money or other treats go right ahead. That actually worked with my youngest son this year. My daughter would not be swayed. Rather than let it bug me I just decided that it is a grand opportunity to teach my kids how to take care of their bodies after they have had a lapse in judgement. Giving them insight into how their body works when we eat junk and how we can nurture ourselves in the aftermath is just as important in my mind as teaching them about healthy eating. They need to know how to heal themselves when their healthy habits take a detour.

You might decide to try and ration the candy so they don’t go crazy and eat it all at once but that is actually not a good idea. Let them eat up all the candy. It just extends the immune suppressing abilities of all that junk so it’s best to get it gone and start the healing. Whatever they don’t eat that afternoon/evening might even magically disappear. Give me the rest of that candy and I will take you to a movie on Saturday morning, deal?

Here are some other ways that we give our family an immunity boost after gorging on candy. These tips work for Valentine’s Day or any candy centric holiday (ie Halloween and Easter).

Broth – Once that candy is gone we go into a week long spree of nourishing, nutrient dense, broth based soups that are heavy on the veggies, garlic, onions, and ginger. My dutch oven get a mighty workout all week long.

Hydration – The drink of choice after Valentine’s is good old fashioned water and I make sure it is alkaline as well. No natural juice, smoothies, or sweetened teas right now, just water.

Fermented Cod Liver Oil – Very nutrient dense and helps boost immunity and sleep. This brand is especially good because it is fermented, unheated, and it retains the natural vitamins and enzymes that are destroyed in the processing of many other brands.

Garlic - It has strong antiviral and antibacterial properties and can help ward of illness. I will often use an entire bulb in our soups after we have had excessive candy exposure.

No White Stuff or Grains - Sugar is one of the white things to be avoided but also white rice and flour. Make pancakes with coconut flour or give them a cereal of just chopped almonds, pecans, pine nuts, and shredded coconut. It is especially important not to eat any white stuff after a candy binge but grains just convert to sugar in the body too so it is best to avoid them.

Ginger - Ginger warms you up so fast you think you might be having a hot flash. That is of course why it works so well. It raises your body temperature and fights off viruses and prevents them from replicating. It is also anti-inflammatory and it supports our immune system.

Elderberry - This amazing herb is an anti-viral and it helps to fight viruses by warming your body temperature. It also has strong antioxidant properties that boost the immune system. You can make your own or you can buy it in the form of Sambucol.

Exercise – Take the kids out for evening walks, dance while you do chores, and go on some weekend hikes. Exercise boosts immune function.

Whole Foods Vitamins – Give your kids vitamins sourced from whole foods (ala apples, mango, etc), not one with synthetic ingredients.

Plenty of Rest – After an event like Valentine’s Day we send the kids to bed earlier so they can get plenty of rest… their little bodies need it. All week long they are required to hit the sack an hour earlier than usual and this gives their immune system a chance to recover from the shock of all that sugar.

How will you keep your kids healthy after Valentine’s Day?

As I mentioned in my Valentine’s post I am declaring Buddha Chocolate a new fave around here. I have always adored raw chocolate but since going Paleo late last year I am craving chocolate more than ever. Not the milk chocolate you find at most grocery stores either. I only want super dark chocolate, which is harder to find unless I drive to a health foods store. Not sure why I am experiencing these cravings but I feel comfortable just going with it. Buddha Chocolate sent me some of their offerings to review and I shared them with the husband this week. We both curled up on the couch for a good movie while the kiddies were at school and we noshed on chocolate. Does it get better than that? Nay.

Okay so what makes this chocolate better than what you can get at the grocery checkout? Well, it is raw & organic artisan chocolate made with pure Ecuadorian cacao beans. They sweeten it with raw, humane honey and the total ingredient list is very short with REAL food ingredients. Since the chocolate is not heated over 108 degrees all the enzymes and nutrients are in tact, which makes it a healthy, living food. They are dairy free, soy free, gluten free, and have no added sugar.

I was also blown away by the taste. The two almond butter cups they sent were my fave. A healthy version of the infamous peanut butter cup! The almond butter was creamy and delicious and the chocolate was rich and amazing. One of them (the red) has strawberries and full Goji berries in it. It was my #1 pick. All three chocolates have mesquite in them which gives them a lovely smoky flavor and they all have Pink Himalayan Crystal salt in them too. The salt factor gave them a real wow factor. The chocolate bar was generously sprinkled in the stuff. Insanely delicious!

The packaging is gorgeous and each piece has a Buddha quote on it for a bit of fun. I still have the little quotes on my desk. One was about quality of life and the other was about love. Both timely for Valentine’s Day I think. The owners of Buddha Chocolate are two adorable yoga teachers in New York City so this is a small business worth supporting too. As with most raw chocolate the price is up there but these are luxurious chocolates that are very rich and worth the price as long as they are an occasional luxury. If you love raw chocolate as I do, Buddha Chocolate is a must try. Enjoy!

Telling me you are a doctor and know a little something about nutrition and health doesn’t mean much to me. The more you research and take your health into your own hands… the further you go down that rabbit hole, the more you realize that most doctors and physicians are just products of a failed system and flawed science. Vaccination is a perfect example. We are told over and over again that vaccines are safe and that they keep us safe. Get those shots! It is only when a parent comes home from a well check or a hospital with a severely damaged child that they decide to kick over some rocks and find the truth. It is the same with many other aspects of health, disease, and nutrition. We have all been indoctrinated and it takes a great bit of courage and strength to take the red pill (ala The Matrix) and wake up from the fog. When you do, you start to realize that many doctors and physicians took the blue pill and they cannot help you on your journey to true wisdom and knowledge.

From there you have to find the physicians, researchers, scientists, and otherwise motivated individuals who have been brave enough to forge their own path and challenge current ideas about health and diet. I am going to list some resources that I feel fit the bill here. This is not to say that I agree 100% with everything contained therein but they have a lot of great info that challenges conventional wisdom. Read through and see what you think. Also shout out your own resources in the comments. Enjoy!

Wheat Belly – You may be sick of hearing about this book by now since I mention it quite often. It really is a life changing book that manages to take random bits and pieces you already knew and arrange them in a completed puzzle. You close the book wondering how you never saw it before.  You also wonder if mainstream medicine is really that stupid or if they are covering this up to protect other interests.

The New Evolution Diet - This book shows our paleolithic ancestors did not suffer from heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, or obesity. It also exposes a good deal of what we view as normal aging as a modern condition that is more akin to disease than any natural state of growing older. While it does confirm that we have made many wonderful advances in medicine it also shares why our modern ideas on nutrition and diet have been devastating for human health.

Nourishing Traditions – This is one of those books I don’t completely agree with but it still has lots of great info. Most importantly it shares how saturated fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors for health. While it doesn’t encourage us to go back as far as our paleolithic ancestors for dietary ideas it definitely encourages us to stay away from modern processed foods.

Eat Fat Lose Fat - Flouts conventional wisdom by revealing that so-called healthy vegetable oils (such as corn and soybean) are in large part responsible for our national obesity and health crisis, while the saturated fats traditionally considered “harmful” are essential to weight loss and health.

The No Grain Diet - The main point is that refined grains of any type are basically deadly and eating them should be viewed as an unhealthy addiction.

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health -  This book could use a Cliff Notes companion. It is REALLY in depth and at times a tough read but WOW. It is jam packed with wonderful information. The author shows us that almost everything we have been taught about the nature of a healthy diet is wrong.

The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food - An expose about the information the soy industry has tried to suppress. Soy is not a health food, does not prevent disease and has not even been proven safe.  Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive problems, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders, even heart disease and cancer.

Fat Head – This is a movie and you can actually get it on Netflix. When I sat down to watch it for the first time I thought it was going to be a crock of you know what because it takes aim at another documentary, Super Size Me. I have no love for McDonalds so even though I have never seen Super Size Me I WANT to believe that every incriminating thing in the movie is true. Fat Head shows us how that other documentary was more fiction than fact. Tim Naughton does a high fat, fast food diet himself for 30 days and loses weight. And no the movie is not actually an endorsement for fast food. You have to watch. The latter half is actually the most informative. Naughton discusses how we came to accept current nutrition ideas, why they are wrong, and how politics and the food industry is keeping that from us. It is also VERY funny.

Earthing – Demonstrates how our loss of physical contact with the earth is harming our health and provides a solution that does not include sleeping in a grass hut.

Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival - This book attacks agriculture and grains as the most devastating thing to happen to human health and the invention of the light bulb and artificial light as the second worst. Lots of wonderful information on why we need more sleep and how we can help reduce stress in our bodies caused by artificial light.

There are probably numerous other resources I could mention but those are the ones on the front burner for me lately. How about you?

Added to Real Food Wednesday

I have limited knowledge of Paula Deen myself. I did not watch her show (though I may have seen bits of an episode or two) and I don’t want to bash her or bash her food. That is not the intent of this post. What irritates me about this whole thing is that the first thing people say when they hear about this is… “Well, just look at all the fat in her recipes!” They talk about her fried foods and her love of butter. They talk about all the bacon she used in her recipes. They talk about how she needs to go vegan and get rid of all that fat. Huh????

Color me confused but what in the heck does fat have to do with this issue. Nothing. Why does everyone bring up the fat content of her meals? It was not the fat that made her diabetic. It was all the sugar and other foods that turn into sugar and cause insulin spikes and blood sugar imbalance, the carbs. It was not the butter, it was the bread, pasta, grains, baked goods, and sugar. It wasn’t the egg, or the patty, or the bacon in her Lady’s Brunch Burger… it was the glazed doughnut that sandwiched these things.

Perhaps Ms. Deen DID go overboard with fats in her recipes. I don’t dispute that. I highly doubt she much considered the quality of her fats either. But I do not think that fats make you fat and lots of current research supports this. Watch the movie Fat Head for a crash course. The book Wheat Belly also addresses this at length. It is too many calories and all the carbs… grains, pancakes, pasta, doughnuts, bread, oatmeal, etc that causes obesity. The insulin causes our body to store fat and send messages to our brain to keep eating carbs, even though technically we have eaten enough calories. Fat satiates us and makes us feel full. Carbs make us hungry again an hour after we eat a big meal. The insulin spikes from the constant carb load eventually cause insulin resistance. Our body is worn out from years of abuse and we develop type 2 diabetes and it wasn’t from eating fat. If you put two sticks of butter in your mac and cheese that didn’t help matters. Yet it was the pasta next to all that cheese and butter that caused your body to store that fat instead of burn it and make you ready for seconds before the first plate even digested.

It bothers me to see bloggers and other media folks harping on the fat while they give a free pass to the real culprits… the grains and carbs. Obesity is blamed when obesity is simply the symptom. Sadly when Paula Deen’s recipes are revamped for “healthier” eating they will likely become low fat whilst remaining high carb. A diet like that almost ensures that a diabetic will need to take insulin for management and intertwine their future with a pharma company who is motivated by profit and has no desire to help you achieve actual health.

Sadly I see the wrong foods being blamed here and the “cure” isn’t going to do anything but ensure you become and remain, a pharma customer. Why isn’t anyone talking about that?

Lady Brunch Burger Photo Source  | Added to Real Food Wednesday

The comments I got in regards to this were a mixture of confusion (what is left to eat?!) and frustration. It is indeed very frustrating to hear that the foods that have been paraded around in front of you as healthy for all your life, actually aren’t so healthy for you after all. Everyone thinks they have the “right” answer as well. The Weston A. Price folks cling to their lard, tallow, and liver like a security blanket, while the vegetarians and vegans sing the praises of their grains and soy. Raw foodies have wisely ditched the grains but go a bit overboard with nuts and carbs. I have followed all of these diets in the past. None of them seemed to cure everything that ailed me though and recently that has really started to bother me. I truly believe that food should be our medicine and instead of accepting certain nagging health issues as part of life I decided I wanted to get to the bottom of mine. I never imagined that I would want to go paleo or primal and in fact last year I would have said you were out of your cottin pickin mind if you told me I ever would. Those folks are fanatical about meat! And they don’t like dairy, like my beloved yogurt!

So what changed my mind? Actually it was by listening to my own body and analyzing all of my food intake in depth. Thanks to my obsession with SparkPeople.com I have tracked every bit of food that has entered my mouth for over a year. I saw exactly how many grams of carbs, fat, and protein I was consuming as well as all the major vitamins and minerals. It is conventional wisdom that guides Sparkpeople so it is naturally aimed me for a high carb, low fat, moderate protein diet as the goal. Even if I knew that fats were not bad as we have been programmed to believe it still bothered me to get a warning at the end of the day if I went over what they considered healthy. It was almost impossible to eat too many carbs though, which seemed wrong to me. I also had trouble meeting the minimum protein requirements many days.

After I got into weight training I realized my protein load was lacking and my carb load was causing me to feel hungry all day. I was frankly sick and tired of feeling ravenous only an hour or two after a big meal. It got to where I was making dinner for myself later and later because I hoped I would be in bed and asleep before the inevitable after-dinner hunger pangs struck. I knew something was off… my blood sugar and insulin levels. I need protein to keep making gains at the gym. I need less carbs so that I won’t be hungry all the time and be causing my blood sugar to spike all day long. I need more fats in the diet for the same reason… fats are what make you feel satiated and full. My analysis leads me to think I would be better served by a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet.

If I want low carb then I need to stick to fruits and veggies as my source of carbs and drop any processed carbs that cause blood sugar spikes like grains, rice, potatoes, beans, and the like. After reading books like Wheat Belly I learned of another bazillion reasons to ditch them as well, especially grains like wheat. Going raw again was my first thought but I didn’t want to go crazy with nuts just to get my protein and fat levels higher. They are really hard on the digestive system. I am not a fan of avocados the way most raw foodies are either and coconut products are good but not in massive quantities. Plus raw foodies typically eat metric tons of fruit and dehydrated fruit… ala constant blood sugar spikes yet again. Ironically I had just read a blog post by a raw foodie talking about how many raw food dessert bars they ate in one day, uncontrollably. That sealed it. Lots of dehydrated fruit is no good either because the concentrated sugars will cause you to be ravenous just a short time later as your blood sugar drops. I needed to get off that roller coaster, not find a different version of the same ride.

At the same time I also wanted to address nagging health issues. My thyroid problem was not going away and I am still forced to take meds, something I detest. The hair loss in women is a deal breaker for many, me included. I am also suffering from sleep issues, seasonal depression, some annoying aches and pains, bloating, dry skin, and I broke out like a teenager during a couple of my last menstrual cycles. Yeah, something was way off. It isn’t something I started eating, like the soy-thyroid fiasco, because my diet has been constant, it is most likely something I wasn’t eating.

My research kept leading me back to the paleo or primal diet which is high fat, moderate protein, and low carb (no bad carbs). So why not? Well there is that whole vegetarian thing but I never gave up meat because I thought it was unhealthy to eat. It was out of concern for body acidity and environmental impact that I gave up on meat. I will keep things alkaline by going grain free and the eco issues are solved by buying local, pastured, ethically treated meat and not supporting factory farming. I always said I would go back to eating meat the moment we could raise our own on a small family farm but I guess I can’t wait that long. Of course I will have to put my own spin on the paleo diet and keep most of the fruits and veggies raw, drink my green smoothies, and not forgo dairy entirely. Another big factor is that the rest of my family eats meat and cooking/making different meals has got to stop. It will be such a huge stress reliever to make one meal that all of us eat!

This blog is not vegetarian centric in any way but I know that early this year when I posted a picture of a fish my son caught, some readers acted as though they wanted to come through their computer screens and claw my eyes out. I know some may be disappointed or angry to read I am going back to eating meat but I think I have explained some very solid reasons for doing so. It’s worth a try in my opinion.

I started this diet just before Christmas so it is hard to say with certainty how it is going but I am encouraged thus far that I am on the right track. I am already noticing that I am not experiencing bloating anymore, and I am not hungry between meals. Not hungry AT ALL. In fact I am having trouble getting in all the calories I should be consuming because my body already seems to be using fat stores for energy rather than sending messages to my brain that glucose fuel is needed and I need to eat carbs. I have also been sleeping better already, waking up slightly less in the night. No miracles to proclaim but there is improvement. I look forward to seeing what 2012 brings my way.

Right now I am reading lots about paleo/primal diets. It is based upon meats, seafood, nuts, healthy oils, greens, veggies, and fruit. We all know that previous generations were healthier than our own but rather than eating like my grandmother or my great-grandmother did, I am going back a bit further. The science is there and it is fascinating to read about the way we ate for thousands of years, primal health, and even ways we can exercise that can help us achieve the lean but immensely strong bodies of our ancestors. After reading The Primal Blueprint I was ready to kiss Mark Sisson, whose blog I used to eyeball occasionally but never read in depth, until now. He advises against chronic cardio and shows why that is actually not good for us to run marathons and do extensive cardio as so many do these days. I felt like a lazy slug because I had no desire to run long distances. I am totally content with running a mile or two max (and not every day) and yet all the cool kids seem to be doing marathons and half marathons. Now I am completely content to stick with my mild cardio workouts and weights.

Other Books I am Loving:

The Primal Blueprint Cookbook

Everyday Paleo (pictured above)

The New Evolution Diet

Hope I have answered the “What Will You Eat” question. I wanted to find a happy balance… WAPF with less grains and dairy, raw with more protein and diverse fats, and less sugar/carbs. I think that paleo /primal is a happy middle ground. Is it the “right” way? The jury is still out.

For the new year I decided to make some diet changes. I would consider myself a pretty healthy person who eats a healthy, balanced diet. The nourishing vegetarian, high raw diet I have “mostly” followed since my cancer diagnosis in 2006 has brought me back to health and vitality and yet there are some nagging health issues that have not been cleared up. My thyroid issue, which I am certain was caused by the soy I didn’t even know I was eating, is not reversing itself. I have had trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep for several years now. I think I have a few too many aches and pains for a 34 year old woman to have. As healthy as I may think my diet is, something has to be missing, right? The answer seems to be lurking in the dietary realms in which I did not want to go. Time to man up, or woman up, and go there for 2012.

One major change is that I am going grain free this year. No more wheat for me. I am also adding to my “NO” list rice, legumes, lentils, potatoes, corn, and quinoa. All of these things have either gluten-like components that cause digestive issues and immunity issues or they cause blood sugar spikes which can lead to insulin resistance. After reading Wheat Belly I am more and more convinced that this is the right thing to do. Despite the fact that I already limit grains and/or soak and ferment them, I know that they actually have no place in my diet at all and there is no time like the present to bite the bullet.

The book is essentially about modern wheat’s assault on our health. It follows the evolution of wheat, starting with its much milder, ancestors einkorn and emmer to the drastically hybridized and genetically modified wheat we have today. The early versions of wheat would not be suitable for things like bread and doughnuts; it was more suitable for porridge. It was also not suitable to be grown on a very large scale. Hence human involvement to adapt and change wheat so that it was everything we wanted it to be. Everything except safe for consumption ironically. No studies or tests were done to determine if all these changes we have made to wheat were safe and many scientists, including the doctor who wrote this book, think it is one of the most devastating foods to human health there is. It is a major factor behind obesity, diabetes, intestinal issues, Celiac Disease, compromised bones, heart disease, skin conditions, hair loss, and inflammation like rheumatoid arthritis. The book also explains how wheat is an addictive substance. There are numerous stories about how his patients reversed some very serious health conditions simply by kicking wheat to the curb.

The reason the book is called Wheat Belly is pretty clear from the beginning chapters. Wheat actually causes your body to store fat. It elevates blood sugar almost more than any other carb, including candy bars. It triggers insulin and the growth of fat, especially in the abdominal area. Not only does it make us fatter, it also stresses out our endocrine system with all the glucose spikes. If we eat a lot of complex carbs it’s like a roller coaster ride that never ends. It is no wonder that so many are getting type 2 diabetes. They are wearing these bodily systems out!

Another big sticking point is that wheat and other grains make the body acidic. This, coupled with concerns about factory farming, was why I gave up meat. I did not realize that grains had the same, and even worse, effect. I would have been much better served giving those up instead but conventional wisdom trains us to believe that grains are so good for us. Just think about how many times you read a food package and it says “Heart Healthy Whole Grains”.

There is so much information in this book that I barely knew where to start in reviewing it. I think I have hit on several of the major points but I barely scratched the surface. It is a must read for anyone who is eating grains.

Here is to a great “grain free” year!

I think I may need to do a once monthly column on new food products I have reviewed. Lately here I have been getting more and more food product pitches from companies and have been pleasantly surprised to find some really good eats among the offerings. I don’t buy processed foods all that often but a I do buy some for convenience’s sake if they are healthy enough to justify it. Some of my recent discoveries wowed me enough to ensure that I will keep buying.

The first product I have to mention is Melt Buttery Spread. When I first read the email I only skimmed it and thought it was a pitch for a margarine-like butter substitute. We are big pastured butter fans here. REAL butter with all its healthy and delicious fats. I was just about ready to hit the delete button when I noticed the mention of coconut oil. So then I had to go back through and read more carefully and this time I was intrigued. It is a butter substitute, which I really didn’t have a need for, but instead of margarine with its unhealthy soy oils and transfats, this spread has healthy fats via coconut oil. It is organic, has Omega 3 fatty acids, has no GMO ingredients, is gluten free, soy free, trans fat free, and has no preservatives or artificial coloring. So if it has healthy fats like butter does then why use Melt? It has half the calories. While I do love me some butter I think it is all too easy with nourishing, real foods to overdo it on the portion sizes and calories. I think Melt has provided us with a nice way to enjoy even more of the creamy buttery goodness without so many calories. Its a win win.

Ingredients: Organic oil blend (organic virgin coconut oil, organic palm fruit oil, organic canola oil, organic hi-oleic sunflower oil, organic flaxseed oil), water, organic unsalted butter, sea salt, organic butter flavor, non-GMO sunflower lecithin, tocopherols, annatto-turmeric.

We have used Melt for a couple months now and will keep purchasing if we see it in our local stores. We will keep buying butter too but I can see a place in our frig for both. A whole wheat english muffin just tastes divine with Melt on it because you get just a hint of coconut flavor from the coconut oil. Yum!!

The second stand out winner was That’s it Fruit Snack Bars. I decided to accept some of these because I thought they would be good snacks for the kids. And I am sure they are but I wouldn’t know because none of the bars made it to my kids. I ended up tasting the cherry/apple bar and deciding that these were PERFECT for pre-workout and post workout snacking. They are tasty and satisfying but not overly heavy. Love them! It is seriously hard to find good snack bars and protein bars that are healthy I tell ya.

These taste like real fruit roll ups but they are thick like a Lara bar. The only ingredient in them is fruit so you get 2 servings of healthy fruits with each bar and they have high levels of antioxidants and minerals. The 3 flavors are apple/cherry (1 apple, 10 cherries), apple/apricot (1 apple, 3 apricots), and apple/pear (1 apple, 1 pear). My fave is the apple/apricot. I have always been a fan of dried apricots. My second fave is the apple/pear. You can buy them via their online store or on Amazon. I have continued to buy these and probably will for a long time to come.

While we are talking about snack bars it seems a good time to mention Two Degrees Bars. This company makes healthy, all-natural, gluten-free nutrition bars in three delicious flavors. Two of them are fruit/nut combos and one is a nut/chocolate combo. I got one of each flavor from Klout, a member perk. I loved all of the flavors but sadly they have soy lecithin as an ingredient. They did not seem to adversely affect me the way soy protein isolate does but I cannot help that I am totally anti-soy now. I probably wouldn’t buy them again for that reason. They were delicious though.

Lastly I got a couple loaves of Rudi’s Organic bakery bread to try recently. Their breads are organic and gluten free. They were also tasty as well. We don’t eat that much bread here but I think theirs is a pretty good option compared to most of the products in the bread isle at conventional grocery stores.

Have any new products at your natural grocer knocked your socks off lately?

I have written about eating well on less money many times. This post on affordable organic food is a popular one. Even though I think it is totally possible to eat well and not spend a fortune it can be a difficult and delicate process. I asked fans on my Facebook page how much they spend on food, assuming that they eat mostly organic, whole, nourishing foods. The answers varied but it seemed that families with only 2 or 3 managed to get away with spending only $200-400 per month. When the family size went up to 4-5 the amount rose to an average of $750-$800. I had an inkling that I had gotten a little lazy with my own family’s budget and thanks to Mint.com I was able to quickly see that we spent over $1000 on food in August. This month I put a little more effort into it and I think we will end up around $850. That still seems high to me but what we are paying in money, we are not paying in doctor bills. Food, in my mind, is like a supplemental insurance policy. We almost never have to go see doctors anymore. What once was a large annual expense we wrote off on our taxes is now only a couple hundred dollars a year and that is mostly from preventative stuff like teeth cleaning and state hoops we have to jump through (our two boys both have IEPs).

So once I reminded myself of how healthy we are and how we rarely get sick I stopped feeling guilty about that $850 and started patting myself on the back. I don’t feel a bit guilty about the $65 a month we spend on gym memberships or the gas money we use to get to and from almost every day of the week between the two of us. So why feel guilty about nourishing my body, and my family’s bodies, with the best food? I shouldn’t and I have to let that go. But even so, I like a challenge and the idea that I could whittle that down even further appealed to me. I also happened to run across the book Wildly Affordable Organic: Eat Fabulous Food, Get Healthy, and Save the Planet–All on $5 a Day or Less at the library and it was a great read.

The author, Linda Watson, was inspired to try an experiment in the summer of 2007 when food philosophy and food politics came to the forefront. It was inspired by the work of Michael Pollan and the Food Stamp Challenge whereby some were trying to live on the national food stamp allowance of a dollar a meal. When public figures attempted the challenge and bemoaned how impossible it was, she talked her husband into doing the challenge with her so they could see just how well you could eat on a dollar a day. She also took a full time job outside the home while this was going on so that her attempt would be realistic to the lives of the working class. She and her husband discovered a lot on that journey but perhaps the most important thing was that they could eat healthy food on so little money AND they felt better physically than they had in a long while.

The book has two sets of meal plans. The “green” plan, which is the $5 plan, involves cooking with organic, sustainable, and kindly raised ingredients. The “thrifty” plan picks ingredients with a focus on cost. All recipes are vegetarian because the author is and I think that is awesome because IMO our society is meat obsessed. Whether you decide to be a vegetarian or not I think it is vital to know how to turn out lots of meatless meals, especially if you are on a budget. The meals plans in this book are compatible with the food stamp budget per person allotted by the state where the author lives (North Carolina).

I thought the book was quite excellent. It walks you through a bunch of educational info and pricing information so that you can get a feel for how to save money while still buying the pricier, healthier options. The recipes also look quite tasty although many of them would be adapted in my house to use less grains. I have said it a million times but veggie based cookbooks and recipe plans are heavy on bread and grains. This one isn’t too bad but I would still make some changes here and there.. mostly using a different sweetener here or coconut flour in leu of whole wheat flour there, etc.

The author also gives recipes for making your own bread, yogurt, and pizza dough. I admit that I do not bake my own bread and that is mostly because we do not buy enough or eat enough to justify it. My 5 year old son is usually the only one who demands bread and buying a loaf every two weeks is not breaking the budget. Still I plan on making bread more often over the winter. My sourdough starter has just come out of hibernation (the frig) and I plan to see if I can get a second hand heating pad for helping dough to rise. We already make our own sourdough pizza though I am going to add some of the seasonal toppings recommened in this book. Kale pizza here we come!

I already make yogurt at home but I could do it more because we still buy some at the store as well. We are big yogurt eaters here. Another recipe I want to try is the homemade burger buns. We have some turkey burger enthusiasts in the house and my hubby is always lamenting the crappy ingredients in his burger buns. I think he might like these.

After reading I made a list of ways I think I can whittle down food costs even more without sacrificing the quality of our food and most of that is all about planning better.

How about you? Do you feel that eating well can happen on a food stamp budget?

Awhile back I asked the Natural Family Living Facebook fans what their favorite cookbook was. I am ALWAYS in the market for something new and tasty to cook and the answers provided an excellent mix of real foods and nourishing foods cookbooks. There were also some specialty cookbooks that came highly recommended. Here are the cookbooks that ranked the highest. Enjoy and comment below if you have any suggestions to add!

First on the list was Nourishing Traditions. This was to be expected. I don’t know many real foods enthusiasts that don’t have a copy. It is on my bookshelf as well. Written by Sally Fallon of WAPF fame, it is full of traditional recipes that are nourishing and nutrient dense. It is so well accepted because it challenges the rather modern idea that we need to eat low fat diets. Rather fats and cholesterol are vital to normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. If you love your pastured butter and cream you will likely love this book.

Also highly rated was The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. Alice is a chef and a food activist who has spent years trying to bring fresh, local, sustainable foods back to our plates. She has even been called the mother of American Food. Her cookbook is full of simple, seasonal recipes that are simply delicious. In my opinion it is like The Joy of Cooking for real food cooks. 4 ingredient soda bread, onion custard pie, nectarine and blueberry crisp… YUM!

The Blue Heron Cookbook (pictured above) is a cookbook full of recipes that are served at the Blue Heron Zen Retreat Center. It is just a fascinating cookbook and the hand drawn pictures just give it such a dreamy, whimsical feel. Recipes we particularly liked where the Banana Bread (which uses whole wheat flour and honey), the Sunday Pancakes, and the Simply Miso Soup. If you have a cook in the family, they would be delighted to get this unique book as a gift.

The Moosewood Cookbook is a classic and one of the best selling cookbooks of all time. Even better it has lots of healthy, real food recipes. Hand-drawn pictures and handwritten recipes make it feel like Grandma’s secret recipe book.

Feeding the Whole Family concentrates on healthy, organic, whole foods meals that everyone in the family will enjoy. Many times it can be tempting to make one dish for the grown ups and something else for the kids but these meals are designed to be healthy and savory while appealing to all family members.

Mediterranean food is considered by many to be one of the healthiest cuisines around. I also happen to think it is the tastiest as well so those that recommended Mediterranean Harvest are gals after my own heart. It has 500 vegetarian recipes from this region. Olive oil and garlic, herbs and spices, tomatoes and eggplants, peppers and squash, figs and peaches, seasonal produce, crusty bread, local cheese, the freshest yogurt, and wine. Yep, this one is a winner.

One of my fave cookbooks that seems to be well received everywhere is A Spoonful of Ginger – Irresistible, health-giving, recipes from Asian kitchens. I love Asian cuisine so any cookbook that helps me replicate some of their most flavorful dishes while keeping it real and healthy gets an A+ in my book. LOVE the sweet and sour soup!

On my wish list is a newer cookbook called Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen.

Hungry yet?

One of the most important places that we can make an impact in child nutrition is the school lunch. Have you seen what is on school menus these days? Chicken nuggets, pizzas, burgers, mac and cheese, sugar laden drinks, and french fries are what is passing for veggies these days. It is truly sad that often times it is cheaper for parents to let their kids eat at school rather than to pack a lunch. This may be why @DrPraegers had designated each Wednesday as Healthy Lunchbox Day and parents are encouraged to pack a veggie rich, healthy lunch for the day. The idea that we might need to completely overhaul our kids diet can seem daunting, especially if your kids have been raised on the Standard American Diet (SAD). Healthy Lunchbox Day breaks this into an achievable goal… make Wednesday the day you give your child’s lunchbox a makeover and work from there. Baby steps right? Start small and help your kids establish healthy eating habits for life.

Here are some quickie lunchbox makeover tips:

• Use sprouted whole wheat bread instead the “white stuff”.
• Blend veggies into a hearty soup and send your child to school with a thermos.
• Add greens like spinach to fruit muffins. They won’t even know they are there!
• Use nori sheets to add funny faces to fruits and veggies.
• Sprinkle veggies with Parmesan cheese.
• Add snap peas to their lunch and almond butter or peanut butter for dipping.
• Instead of plain old carrot sticks pack some jicama sticks for variety.
• Sliced cucumbers go well with rice wine vinegar.
• Grated carrots can be hidden in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as well as grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Hide broccoli sprouts or bean sprouts in the bottom of a pita.
• Make a chocolate pudding with avocado.
• Finely chopped veggies can be disguised in egg salad sandwiches.
• Sprinkle sesame seeds, sunflower seeds or flax seeds on top of salads and sandwiches.

Dr. Praeger’s is a company that makes healthier food options for kids including nuggets that have spinach, sweet potatoes, and other healthy ingredients. Their all-natural, delicious and nutrient-rich options that are a great way to help kids eat sensibly, maintain a healthy lifestyle and make smart food choices. Whether you serve their line of foods or you cook from scratch the goal is shine the spotlight on healthy foods and start those healthy eating habits early.

Any way you slice it, it is a monumental job in this age of sugary, processed, chemical laden food. Do you have any secret tips to share that have worked in your family?

This is part of a campaign sponsored by Dr.Praeger’s that I have been participating in for the month of September.

A few months back my husband and I fell in love with coconut juice/water. I had long known the claims surrounding it and we already used coconut oil, coconut flour, and the fresh meat from young coconuts for raw desserts, coconut yogurt and coconut kefir. Coconut is just all around one of the most AMAZING foods you can consume. But despite that we didn’t buy the individual bottles of coconut juice. Water seemed to work just fine for our hydration needs.

Earlier this year though my husband kind of kicked off a new wave of fitness goals around here when he joined a workplace challenge. Unlike many workplaces in this country my husband’s actually wants to try and do something about outrageous healthcare costs and so they negotiate breaks on insurance costs by actively encouraging their employees to be healthier. The employees participate because the payoff might be a large monetary bonus or a new flat screen TV. The company benefits by having healthier employees and by getting cheaper rates when they can show their insurance carrier their progress. Well, my husband started running every day and lifting weights. He didn’t end up winning the challenge at work but he won in his mind and mine because he started looking like his teenage self again. Both of us were pretty muscular and active in years past and seeing him get closer to his old physique was enough to send me to the gym too. ;) Both of us embarked on a journey into fitness, weight lifting, running, barefoot shoes, protein shakes, food supplements, and various other things including… coconut water.

What makes coconut water different from plain old water is the electrolytes: calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and phosphorous. When we exercise for any length of time and sweat a lot, our body can be depleted and the electrolytes help us recover faster. This is why sports drinks are so popular but I happen to think Gatorade and most other sports drinks taste nasty. They also have artificial sugar which is no good IMO. Coconut water is a natural source of electrolytes with natural sugars and it is low in calories and fat if you want to watch that type of thing. I happen to like the extra calories (compared to water) because it can be tough to get all your calorie requirements met when you eat heavy on the fruits and veggies. I just went over this with my mom who was not eating nearly enough calories on her almost vegan diet and replacing water with coconut water in her twice daily green smoothies was just one way to get more calories without making her feel like she was eating all day long.

Anyway, we tried and liked one of the major coconut water brands. The only issue was that I did not like the way they tasted straight up so I it was green smoothie or nothing for me. Then I came across Amy and Brian Coconut Juice on Twitter and they offered to send me some cans for review. It has turned out to be a match made in heaven.

One issue I had with some other coconut drinks is that they come in plastic bottles or non-recyclable juice boxes. I didn’t really care for either of these packaging options. Amy and Brian Coconut Juice comes in cans, which have their drawbacks as well, but I prefer them overall. No one is making a glass bottle coconut juice/water that I know of. ;) Also I like the taste 1000% better than any other brand I have tried and that may be because it is coconut water mixed with some of the coconut flesh. My fave option, as well as my husband’s, was the coconut juice with pulp. It looks a little strange but it is delicious! I LOVE the chunks of coconut swimming around and I can drink it straight up or in a green smoothie.

The cost is not to bad either. These are big cans with two servings so we can easily use half and save it for the next day if we want. My husband prefers to drink only one serving but I have no issue downing a whole can. You can buy a 12 pack on Amazon and use the subscribe & save feature to get them for  just over $25. That qualifies you for free shipping and the per can price is just over 2.00.  Hubs and I buy Amazon gift cards through Giant Eagle so we can get the fuelperks to and that ends up knocking off another $6 on two 12 packs. Right now my husband and I are both lifting 4 days a week. We will usually have Amy and Brian Coconut Juice mixed in a green smoothie on gym days. On off days we drink almond milk and whey protein powder shakes. It seems to be working out well for us right now and we plan to keep buying since we like them so much.

But what about their impact on the planet? Well, I came across an article on the Mother Jones web site that addresses the sustainability of coconut products and overall coconut farming is pretty easy on the environment. Coconuts require little fertilizer, and their giant root systems help prevent soil erosion. The tough husks also mean that pesticides are rarely used. For the most part coconut farming is still done by small scale family operations so that that is a nice perk. Shipping to the US is the biggest environmental impact, as with many products. Coconut products go on my list of acceptable compromises (along with bananas and pineapple) in our household.

Green Smoothie Recipe:

Popeye’s Coconut Surprise

1 can Amy and Brian Coconut Juice w/pulp
1 banana (frozen or fresh)
1 cup of frozen fruit ( I used peaches)
3 cups fresh spinach
1-2 scoops greens powder
Ice cubes

When the weather is warm and I am not in the mood for a green smoothie I make the next best thing… a milkshake. Nosh on some chocolate on the side and I am heaven sent. Yum!

This is a raw, vegan “mylkshake” made from unsweetened almond milk. I added a bit of Thai coconut sugar, a ripe banana, some vanilla, and ice cubes. It is frothy and delicious. I think the Ball jar and glass straw just add a little something too.

In the bowl is handful of Nativas Naturals Cacao Goji Power Snacks. I have long liked the brand for their raw, vegan, organic offerings. They sent me this bag and and a bag of Citrus Chia snacks. The chocolate ones are killer. The Chia Citrus ones tasted like soap. I did not like them at all. My husband, however, devoured the whole bag in about 30 minutes. Guess they don’t taste like soap to everyone.

Now I am powered up for errands and laundry!

What are you snacking on?

The folks at Zico sent me a case of their coconut water a few weeks back. I was excited to try some coconut water pre and post workout because it seems to be all the rage right now. Fitness bloggers are talking about it and pics of celebrities leaving the gym with a bottle or sippy box in their hand are everywhere. The protein bar thing didn’t work out so well when I decided to get in THAT fad but this seemed relatively harmless. Coconut water as it appears in these products is just the water found inside young coconuts and we love young coconuts here.

So why coconut water anyway? Well, it hydrates you amazingly well just like water but it has some flavor. It is low in calories, fat free, has as much potassium as a banana, and also has electrolytes like calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. There is no added sugar either, which is awesome. In actually it is isn’t some miracle drink, just a good source of nutrients and hydration. Although coconut water can be used intravenously which is rather cool.

It is MUCH better IMO than a lot of sports drinks that are marketed to fitness enthusiasts. But is it better than water? My answer would have to be maybe. If you want the extra nutrients and you like the flavor then sure why not? My husband and I both decided, after working through our case, that we prefer water. The coconut water was tasty but it just didn’t satiate our thirst like good old fashioned water. My husband liked them a bit more than I did. In fact I really only liked the “plain” coconut water and would not drink the flavored ones. Of course that is when I was drinking them straight up.

I found that I MUCH prefer to put coconut water in green smoothies where that extra bit of sweetness is appreciated more. In fact I LOVED adding them to my daily smoothies, even the flavored ones. My smoothies are not very sweet. I can taste all the greens and veggies and most other family members do not much appreciate the smoothies I make for myself but adding the coconut water gave it an extra little kick that we all liked. I also liked that it upped the calorie content because sometimes it can be hard to get enough calories in when you are eating/drinking high raw AND exercising a lot.

The smoothie in the picture above is one quart of a two quart blender… 3 cups of collard greens, a banana, some frozen mango, two scoops of Vita Mineral Green, a couple teaspoons of chia seeds, and lime flavored coconut water. It is served as all my smoothies are, in wide mouth Ball jar with a glass straw. Yum!

So the million dollar question is… will we buy more? The answer is maybe. You can get them at Amazon for about $2.00 a bottle and that is a bit expensive when we prefer water. They also come in either non-recyclable boxes or recyclable plastic bottles. Yes, the bottles can be sent out for third party recycling but that is not a sure thing. I think if I got a good deal on them I would buy them now and again… as a treat for my green smoothies. :)