My Favorite Vegetable...

Chocolate. It comes from a bean, and therefore, in my book, counts as a vegetable.

So I bought some really dark chocolate the other day. I was excited to take it home and enjoy it! I pulled back the wrapper from this super fancy, super dark goodness, and using the sharpest kitchen knife I have, sliced myself a corner off the block, and hoisted the rich, smooth, creamy chunk toward my already salivating mouth.....

BLAH!

Apparently, I don't read labels. This WAS Chocolate, and really GOOD chocolate - but it was 100% UNSWEETENED Cocao. Now, I enjoy 70% dark chocolate - but I usually take mine with at least a little bit of sugar to take the edge off of the natural bitterness.

So now I had a hunk of chocolate that for all intents and purposes, was to me entirely inedible! What a waste!

Until I looked online and found this recipe.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Hot-Chocolate

All I'm going to say is that you HAVE to try this! This is the REAL DEAL.

5 A Day The Easy (or Easier) Way!

So I've known since I was little that you're supposed to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Growing up in a rural area, and in a family that owned a family farm for some time, I'm used to having a plethora of fresh produce all summer long, making it easier to eat the recommended amount.

Granted, although there were so many options available to me, I always preferred fruit. I'll blame it on genetics, since it seems everyone in my family has a sweet tooth.

That being said, as an adult, whenever I go to the grocery store, you can bet that I spend at least $25-$35 a week on fruit alone. Comparably, I probably only spend about $10 on vegetables.

I recently learned that the "5 a day" slogan doesn't mean that if you eat five servings of fruit ONLY, that you're covered for the day. In actuality, you're supposed to eat 3-4 servings of vegetables, and only 1-2 of fruit. My vegetable to fruit ratio is often more like 1:5 rather than the recommended 4:1.

Needless to say, I've been experimenting with different strategies to up my vegetable intake. Here are some creative strategies I've found recently:

* Add Vegetables to Breakfast. Put onions, spinach, mushrooms, peppers, etc. in your eggs for a sweet omelet or gourmet scrambled eggs!

* Put Carrots, Walnuts, and raisins in your pancakes for a sweet breakfast treat - and gain 1 serving of veggies toward your daily total!

* Vegetable juice. My grandfather LOVED tomato juice, and I remember convincing my grandmother that I liked it too - even as a 3 year old.  This is  a simple way to get one more serving.

* Buy Mini carrots or celery and cut the celery into snack sized sticks. Pack a mix of two in your lunch every day.

* Have a salad with lunch or dinner. It's just another way to get in a serving of veggies!

Any other ideas?

New Love

I have found a new musical love: Marta Gomez.

I think if you listen to the following two clips, you will fall in love too!

CONTIGO (WITH YOU)

To Franco

Music and Lyrics by Marta Gómez (2008)

Rhythm: Ballad 

It is of wind that my song is made

of blood that my pain is stained 

of green that I lose myself in your gaze

of water, of water that I navigate on your words

It is of days and nights, my dreaming

of suns and stars, my singing

of skies that I invent for you

of water, of water that innundates my reason with you

It is of earth that my heart is made

that insists on nesting in your life

searching not to forget its own voice

of air, of air that entangles every instant

with you, with you

ASÍ TE ESPERO YO (THAT’S HOW I WAIT FOR YOU)

Music and Lyrics by Marta Gómez (2005)

Rhythm: Festejo (Perú) 

The kernel surrenders itself to the corn

like the rain to the harvest

like my heart to you.

Like when it rains and then clears

like when the harvest fly sings

like the cricket that comes out to celebrate the rain

like the snail that waits until the rain’s over

that’s how I wait for you.

Like when the wind blows softly

like when whispering, it sings

that’s how my voice learned to whisper to you

like the tree that waits for the wind to sing to him

that’s how I wait for you

That’s how my thoughts await your words

that’s how I await your gaze

when you are near me

Like when it rains and then clears

and the whispering rain sings

and the sound of the wind invents a thousand songs

that I learn and teach to my throat

that’s how I sing to you

that’s how I sing to you

Going All-Natural

I recently purchased a book called "The Self Health Revolution" by J. Michael Zenn at my local Whole Foods store. What a great book!

This book summarizes what's wrong with our food and why so many Americans today are overweight, suffering from diabetes and heart problems.

I highly recommend that everyone check this book out. It's short, easy to read (the author uses a lot of humor!) and is packed with information about how to live a healthy life.

I've made a few changes to my lifestyle after reading this book - and one of them has resulted in rapid results. For the past year and a half, I have been struggling with terrible skin problems. I've had worse acne as a young adult than I ever did as a teenager!

In my search for clear skin, I've done everything short of seeing a dermatologist (which I've put off because I am convinced would only result in the Doctor prescribing either Acutane (a very bad drug which has terrible side effects) or the Pill (which I object to on moral grounds)). I've tried every over-the-counter product out there; I've purchased all the 'kits' - ones on TV, ones at the drugstore, etc.

Nothing worked. Most of the products left my skin red, burning, or flaky (they made my skin so dry it peeled!)

I even tried the oil cleansing method. My skin DID get a little better with this method (and thankfully, there was no peeling!) but it ultimately did not alleviate the problem.

So after I purchased this book, I was shocked when I started reading about what kinds of ingredients are in our personal care products, including skincare.

Given that our skin is very porous, everything we put on it is absorbed into our system. (Think: That's why the medical profession uses patches to dispense medication into our system...). What I discovered from reading this book is that some common ingredients in our skin care and personal care items (shampoo, conditioner, etc) are toxic, including:

Propylene Glycol
Butylene Glycol
Polyethlyne Glycol
Ethylene Glycol -

Here's the kicker: two of the three ingredients in ANTIFREEZE are GLYCOL-BASED.

So using products with these ingredients are somewhat akin to putting ANTI-FREEZE on your skin - which remember, is a highly porous surface which absorbs anything you put on it, delivering these chemicals into your system.

Even worse, the "glycol family' are not the only harmful ingredients which show up in these types of products. Additional toxic ingredients include:

* Mineral oil, Paraffin and Petrolatum (Petroleum products)
* Parabens (have been linked to cancer and have hormone disrupting qualities).
* Phenol carbolic acid (can cause circulatory collapse, paralysis, convulsions, coma and even death).
* Acrylamide (linked to tumors in lab research)
* Sodium laurel or lauryl sulfate - (found in car washes, engine degreasers, garage floor cleaners...and in over 90% of personal care products)

And the list goes on.

Needless to say, I was appalled when I read this. I immediately went out and bought some organic alternatives to the face washes, shampoos, and lotions that I had been using.

While looking at some alternative products, I came across a kit called "Organics to Clear Skin" by Juice Beauty. I was interested. As I mentioned before, I have struggled for the past year and a half with skin problems.

Although the kit was a bit pricey (although still around average for what you would pay for a comparable acne treatment kit in a drugstore), I decided to purchase it.

I've only been using it for a week - but the results have been AMAZING! After three days, my skin was already noticeably healthier, softer, and clearer. A week into the treatment, my skin looks even better! Old scars and pimples are healing. No new pimples have developed (*crosses fingers and hopes this trend continues*)

The cleansing gel is made out of fruit and is light and fresh. It doesn't have a perfumey smell- but the smell isn't bad either. It's natural, I guess. The blemish clearing serum smells great, and the moisturizing lotion - even better. Again, all natural smelling.

After using these products, I have NO itchiness, no redness, no peeling, etc. which I had with practically every other product I had tried. My skin looks great! I'm excited to continue and see what happens over time.

All of this has made me think about what I put in my body on a daily basis. Now, I want to make sure that I am eating foods as close to their natural state as possible, and without adding anything harmful. I want to be healthy from the inside out.

Call me a food-snob or a health-nut, but I think I'm going to be buying organic from now on.