Swap {THIS} for {THAT}

Hey!

I wanted to give you all a few simple “swaps” that you can easily incorporate into your daily routine. By making these switches, you’re detoxing your current routine and moving towards a more healthful approach! Might I add, that these are all quite cost effective as well (save a $ here, spend it somewhere more useful!)

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Why would you want to make these switches, you ask? Read on to find out…

1. Ditch the “table salt” in favour of Himalayan Pink Sea Salt.

Why?

Sadly, table salt has been processed enough that it no longer contains all the wonderful minerals that salt should – pink salt is rich with 80+ minerals. Your table salt has been enriched with Iodine and often times sugar is added to it – check your labels!

2. Toss out your chemically-laden moisturizer in favour of coconut oil.

I’ve discussed this in a previous post which can be accessed here!

Once again, I can’t say enough good things about coconut oil. If you haven’t tried it yet, get yourself some next time you’re at the grocery store! It can be found in the health food section.

3. Make your own household cleaners!

Why?

Store-bought cleaners are full of chemicals. These chemicals are harmful to you, and everyone else who lives in or visits your house. These seemingly harmless products can cause skin irritation, allergies, respiratory irritation, hormone disruption… The list goes on and on and on.

You can read more about it on The Organic Consumers website here.

Solution?

D.I.Y – It’s beyond easy once you’ve invested in the supplies (and will save you $ in the long run!!). Get a squirt bottle; vinegar; baking soda; some essential oils… etc.

Living Well Spending Less blog gives you some great links to homemade cleaners for all areas of the house

5. Swap out store bought salad dressings for homemade dressings

Free of additives, preservatives, and nasty gunk – a homemade salad dressing tastes better and is more cost effective. You can keep it simple with this recipe from Vega, or go with something a little more complex!

This dressing is dee-lish, if you’re interested!

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6. Ditch the St. Ives Apricot Scrub (guilty!) and make a DIY facial scrub (2 Tbsp. White Sugar + 1 Tbsp. Olive Oil; just be gentle with it)

David Suzuki has some great resources on homemade cosmetics.

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Eat Your Way Through Valentines– Without the GUILT!

If you’re like me – you look for any reason under the sun to do some baking.

Cooking, I’m not so fond of. But baking is different…  I’ve always felt a sense of comfort in baking, maybe because it reminds me of home and happiness.

With Valentines Day coming up tomorrow, are you planning to bake anything for your “Valentine”/Friend/Family/Roommate/Etc… ?

It will likely make their day a bit brighter – so pick one of these “healthier” cookie recipes to whip up before tomorrow.

Happy Valentines!

(This photo is from the “Love Your Body Campaign” that I put on during my undergrad)

Recipe # 1

From the blog, “The Healing Kitchen”

RAW VEGAN VALENTINES COOKIES

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They are dairy free, gluten free, mostly raw, sugar free, vegan, vegetarian – you name it!

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Recipe # 2

This recipe comes from the blog Squirrelly Minds…

These are Peanut Butter and Oat bites: Vegan Approved!

I have made a very similar recipe to these before, and I love them because they are SIMPLE. Quick, not too time consuming, and tons of taste!

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Recipe # 3

For the raw-foodie – this recipe from Ravishing Raw looks SO good.

(Click the link to see the photo)

I love that they’ve used avocado and carob as opposed to traditional ingredients found in mousse. Much healthier!

The options are really endless!

Happy Healthy Baking !

Goals of the New Year.

Happy New Year Everybody!

How did you ring in the New Year?

I spent mine with friends and family – beginning with an amazing pulled pork potluck dinner and a ‘photo booth’, followed by a night of catching up with friends and drinking lots of champagne! Cheers to that!

Sadly, I didn’t take a single photo on my camera!

The New Year always gets me thinking about making some ‘Resolutions’ – which usually include; read more books and be the best version of myself. Lame and boring, I know.

This year… I’m getting specific. These goals will be posted on my blog for the year, serving as a constant reminder of what I’d like to accomplish in the year of 2013. Making it visible will definitely increase the odds of these goals being attained, If I know myself at all! And my list is allowed to grow or shrink at any time, it’s not restricted to what it is now – because a lot changes from month to month!

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Here are my goals, as of now.

☐ Buy a new Bike – mine is a junker.

☐ Following my purchase of a New/Used Road Bike – Join an outdoor cycling club

☐ Try a ‘Barre’ Fitness Class

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☐ Increase readership to my blog

☐ Write an article for a magazine or newspaper

☐ Shadow a Holistic Nutritionist for a day

☐ Run another 1/2 Marathon and do it in 2 Hours or LESS!

☐ Try a 3-Day Juice Fast, and report  back if I live

☐ Read more (yepp, it made the list again this year!)

☐… more to come… this is only the beginning!

 

 

healthy homemade energy bars

What do you get for the people who have everything?

You make them a personalized gift – something that they will actually use…

How about some homemade snacks – healthy ones, of course! If there’s one way that I can promote healthy eating, it’s going to be by offering to let people TRY my healthy goodies, and show them that it’s easy enough for them to do it in their own kitchen!

I wasn’t sure how these bad boys would turn out, but I was very very VERY pleasantly surprised!

Good thing, since I didn’t have a back-up plan – and made a triple batch right off the bat (I know, not smart!)

Some ingredients that you’ll need to run out and grab before you make these;

First up, CAROB chips (1/4 cup).

What the heck are these? Wikipedia can answer that…

“Ceratonia siliqua, commonly known as the Carob tree and St John’s-bread,^[1] is a species of flowering evergreen shrub or tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible legumes, and as an ornamental tree in gardens. The seed pod may be crushed and used as ersatz chocolate.

It is native to the Mediterranean region including Southern Europe, Northern Africa, the larger Mediterranean islands; to the Levant and Middle-East of Western Asia into Iran; and to the Canary Islands and Macaronesia.^[2][3]”

Still confused… Ya, me too.

Basically it’s just a plant that grows in the tropics, which grows these “pea pod” type things. Inside each pod, there are beans that are naturally sweet and they are roasted and can be used as a chocolate substitute!

Cool, right? I can hear the groans – this definitely is not classified as “cool”…

Oh well, I enjoyed it!

Some unsalted peanuts (1/4 cup chopped)… Yes, I know – I talk about how they are a naturally moldy nut – but I wanted to keep the recipe in it’s original form.

Brown rice syrup (1/3 cup) and some rice puffs (1 and 1/4 cup)!

Other things you will need…

• 1 cup of Dates
• 1 cup of Oats
• 2 Tbsp. of Flaxseed (ground)
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter

Okay, now you’re ready to stir it all up.

Woops, poor photo skills here!

Directions.

1. Line a tray with wax papers, set aside
2. Place the dates in the food processor and pulse until finely chopped (this was very difficult with my Mom’s old processor – so we added some water and did some of the chopping ourselves)
3. Combine the dates with the cereal, oats, peanuts, flax, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl
4. Combine the peanut butter and brown rice syrup in a saucepan over low heat, mix until combined, remove from heat
5. Mix dry and wet mixture together, add carob
6. Press onto a tray, and refrigerated for 1 hour

Chop them into squares, and wrap individually if you so desire!

Eat, enjoy, repeat!

Happy Holiday’s!