Food, Inc.

Here is the trailer for a new documentary out called Food, Inc., which is about the farming and food industry in our country...



Doesn't it look good? I cannot wait to see it! I found the following clip particularly interesting...



Personally, just the thought of fast food grosses me out, but it was interesting seeing this struggling family's perspective on what they choose to spend their money on. I know it was just a clip, but it didn't seem to make a proper comparison though. If you're weighing 3 pears vs. 3 hamburgers...well yeah, that pear isn't going to fill you up or satisfy you initially like the hamburger would, so you would spend your money on the hamburger. A more proper comparison would be something like beans and rice, which is very nutritionally dense and filling, as well as very very cheap. But anyway, I digress...

The way our country thinks about food really does have to change! People have to realize the importance of what they put in their bodies. We have to stop thinking "faster, bigger, cheaper, available year-round," etc. and start thinking "wholesome, nutritionally dense, organic, local, seasonal," and so forth! We have to. There are alot of people coming around and realizing the impact their food has on them (and the environment), but we have such a long long long way to go.

Alot of people still have a vision of their food coming from some small idyllic farm, which is so far from the truth in most instances. People don't realize the conditions, treatment, and often disgusting things used to grow/raise their food. More and more people are educating themselves though and truly purchasing with intent, purpose, and a conscience. This is especially important because, as mentioned in the documentary, when we buy something we truly are voting/supporting what we believe in.

Hopefully, Food, Inc. will help reach and inspire lots of people to make and demand changes, as well as serve as extra encouragement for the ones that are already aware and acting on it...

If anyone has actually seen it, I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions!

Happy Friday my friends! This weekend we are doing some organizing and moving things around...Hopefully it will be both productive and relaxing! Have a good one.

Flu Season...

Whenever I hear people talking about the flu vaccine, I immediately think of this video clip:



I first saw it at Dr. Ben Kim's, of whom I am a fan. It is pretty funny, but I think people really need to know what the ingredients are in everything they buy, use, take, inject, and so forth. While I am NOT an expert by any means, I do NOT think the flu vaccine is the way to go. We're not fans of vaccinations in general around here, but specifically the flu vax is no good. This article at Dr. Kim's website has some good information, as does this one and this one from Dr. Mercola.

Basically, the flu vaccine weakens your immune system and makes you more susceptible to getting it. The risks really do outweigh any "benefit" that the vaccine might have. In order to help prevent getting the flu we need to eat healthy organic food (LOTS of vegetables), exercise, drink lots of water, get good rest and sleep, and do our best to minimize stress in our life. We can also further boost our immune systems by taking quality whole-food supplements, whole-food Vitamin C, lots of garlic, and probiotics. Also, washing our hands alot will help, but NOT with an antibacterial soap. That stuff does more harm than good as well. We blend our own using organic castile soap and organic essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs (of course). Also, make a simple non-toxic all-purpose spray using baking soda, vinegar, castile soap, distilled water and essential oils. It can be used to clean anything and everything!!

However, if you do all of this and still get the flu, treat your body as it deserves and allow plenty of time for it to rest and recuperate because you need it!!! Take care of yourself...and if anyone wants that all-purpose disinfectant recipe, let me know!

The Perfect Pair

Yes, me and my Love of course :)...but also mint and chocolate! It's one of my favorite flavor combinations and I don't know why in the WORLD we've never tried this before, but on Friday we decided to go a little crazy and add chopped up fresh organic mint to our vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe, as well as organic peppermint extract in lieu of the vanilla. WOW, so yummy and delicious! They are our favorite cookies ever now - for reals people! So if you like to pair mint and chocolate together, go get you some fresh mint and try it and let me know what you think.


Our weekend was a little "off" as Saturday morning I woke up feeling not myself - so tired and SOOOO sore - almost fluish but no tummy issues or fever. Pretty sure it was the beginning of mastitis, which I've had before in my early breastfeeding days but yeah, it's no fun. So I rested and slept as much as possible on Saturday to fight it off, and my Love and Lovebug were so wonderful! They made me a Vitamin C-full smoothie, brought me chamomile tea with echinacea and st. john's wort tinctures, and just took care of me. I barely saw them though :( except when Lovebug came in to nurse or my Love brought me things or checked up on me, but they had lots of special daddy/daughter time which is always a very good thing.

Yesterday I awoke feeling much better after all that rest, so I think I'm in the clear. Thank goodness, because full-blown mastitis is terrible. Really and seriously, although it was an "off" weekend and I didn't feel well at all, the mint chocolate chip cookies truly made it a bit better so I insist you try it for yourself. Mint has definitely now been added to our planting list for the spring almost solely to make these cookies :)! I hope none of you had "off" weekends and wish you a wonderful week.

OH and there was another part of the weekend that made it nearly all better, which I'll share with you next time. Until then friends! :)

If you're feeling "blah"

Last night my Love made a delicious kale and garlic whole wheat pasta dish with no recipe followed - he's amazing!...he's the "Top Chef" around this nest and I'm typically his "sous-chef" (but I bake - OH, I do bake!). Tonight I'm going to surprise him though because Lovebug and I are making him a special dinner - well, it's "special" because I'm making it (but there will certainly be a recipe followed :).


While we were doing dishes after din-din last night, my Love mentioned he had kind of felt physically "blah" all afternoon. Well I went straight to our pantry and gathered up some supplements and ingredients to make a little immune-boosting drink for him, and wanted to share it. I used oat milk, but the base could be whatever - orange juice, almond milk, or I suppose, even water, but to it I added some Berry Green which has probiotics in it and some powdered whole-food Vitamin C. Whole-food Vitamin C is MUCH better than synthetic Vitamin C (absorbic acid), which isn't the greatest because your body doesn't absorb much of it - you might have heard it called "expensive yellow pee". For our Vitamin C, we currently use this, but are about to switch to Alive! Vitamin C, which is from organic fruit. Lastly, I added a little agave nectar to sweeten it up. Then the supplements included a Calcium tab and a couple All-Flora probiotics to get some extra good bacteria in his body. We put the Berry Green and Vitamin C powder in our green fruit smoothies every morning but since he was feeling "blah" I wanted him to get more of all that goodness inside of him, because we can't have our Dada getting sick!

I've been doing alot of research into homeopathic and herbal remedies the last couple of months and am thoroughly enjoying it, but this was just some stuff to help boost his immune system. I would HIGHLY suggest getting your whole family to start taking some probiotics every day (especially kids)...Some other good things to add would be ground flaxseed or flax oil (add to smoothies, salad dressings, etc. and the flaxseed to baked goods, sandwiches, etc.) and a good whole-food vitamin C, as well as something like Juice Plus or Berry Green which will help to ensure you're getting as many fruits and veggies as possible because it's hard to get as many as your body needs - we're vegan and it's even hard for us!


All of these things, along with lots of pure water and good rest/sleep, and as much organic fruits/veggies and whole grains as possible will do alot for our immune systems in the upcoming fall/winter months. My goal is to constantly try to improve my family's health in some way so I'm forever seeking, learning, and evolving and LOVE it so! I'll try to share bits here and there with you all if that's cool.

So anyway, after the extra immune boost, it was off to bed for some good sleep so said the Doc! Well my Love went off early this morning for a good run so hopefully he's feeling GREAT and not "blah" today! Looking forward to cooking that "special" dinner for you tonight sweetheart - See you then my Love.

P.S. I KNOW these pics have nothing to do with this post but the lighting was so pretty the other day and I couldn't resist taking some shots of Lovebug playing with the toy chest's latch. She looks so serious in that first one...wonder what she's thinking? :)

Independence Day & Vaccine Seminar

The 4th of July is such a beautiful holiday that evokes so many wonderful memories for me...mainly, swimming, fun outdoor games/activities like wiffle ball and tennis, watermelon, corn on the cob, cherries, peach cobbler, homemade ice cream, sparklers, and fireworks of course all enjoyed with family! What memories/things does the 4th evoke to you?


OH and for you DFW locals, there is a vaccine seminar (Educate Before You Vaccinate!) that our dear friends organized Sunday, July 27th, at 1 PM that I wanted to let you all know about. The speakers will be April Renee and her husband Dr. Gary Tunsky (a naturopathic doctor)- they lost their autistic daughter to a vaccine injury and have since made it their mission to get the dangers about vaccines (given to both children and adults) out there.

Not vaccinating is something that we're very passionate about (here's a past post about it)...It truly is something that every family as to decide for themselves but it's SO important to educate yourself before you vaccinate, so you know what you're injecting your children or yourselves with and what your options truly are! Hope to see some of you there at the seminar - but NOTE that the room holds about 100 people, so get there early!!! Here's the location info:

North Branch Denton Library
3020 N Locust St
Denton, TX 76209
July 27th @ 1 PM

Happy Independence Day everyone- hope you and yours have a most enjoyable one!!

The food we eat and why...

This GREAT NY Times article (written by a meat eater) ran awhile back on the environmental costs of meat eating and I would encourage you all to read it...We went vegetarian years ago for environmental and health reasons, as well as some info on factory farming that really grossed me out that I wasn't aware of before.

Our health has never been better since going veg (and since then vegan)...other factors involved of course like eating all-organic, taking probiotics, drinking lots of water, being as active as possible, and MANY others, but I know a huge part of it was the veg switch. I also feel so much lighter after eating, have more energy, and overall enjoy food more! Plus, our diet is naturally cholesterol-free and on average vegetarians/vegans are said to live longer...so there are many benefits of a veg diet!


Unfortunately, there is some concern/misinformation out there about it though...A balanced vegetarian/vegan diet provides you with more than the adequate amount of protein (meat eaters actually get MUCH more than their bodies need) and nutrients. As Americans, we're taught that every meal has to have some sort of meat or poultry for it to be complete, which is not true. Every meal needs a protein source and animals aren't the only source of this - grains, legumes (BEANS), and nuts all contain tons of protein.

Looking back, I really wish I had been aware of exactly what I was putting into my mouth when I ate those chicken strips years ago and how that chicken was raised, treated, and killed on the factory farms. Anyway, I think it's something to think about. I really believe "you are what you eat" and it's so important to truly think about the food you fuel your body with - where it came from, how it was grown/raised, etc. etc. - whether it be meat, vegetables, beans, fruit, chicken - whatever.

Many of you might already know about factory farms and it might not make a difference to you, but for those of you who don't know (because I'm pretty sure there are some), check out this website on factory farming conditions and then here's some more info on factory farms in the U.S....I won't go into the details here - they're pretty disgusting, shocking, and there's alot of cruelty involved - but please read for yourselves and see how you feel afterwards. I would be interested to hear if you still feel the same way about meat eating. Some people say "well, they're JUST animals..."...but would you treat your beloved dog or cat how factory farms treat animals? No, you wouldn't, so what's the difference with a cow or a chicken? Animals are animals...or at least that's how I see it.


As far as the environment, we know that our impact on the earth has been far less since we switched. I've seen it said many times that probably the GREENEST thing that someone can do is to go veg and I believe it...because you're living so much lighter on the earth if you eat vegetarian/vegan. It takes alot more resources to produce let's say 5 pounds of beef protein than it takes to produce 5 pounds of bean protein, and the beef protein production is FAR more polluting to the earth.

Many people just can't imagine giving up meat/poultry for any reason though, let alone health or environmental causes, so if you're one of those, then consider seeking out a local organic farm to supply you with your meat, eggs, chicken, cow's milk, etc., and look for grass-fed beef, and free-range eggs and chickens...You'll be living ALOT lighter off the earth that way than if you buy from the factory farms, even the organic ones! BUT keep in mind that "organic" (even local ones) does not equate "animals being treated humanely" - but in general, definitely more so than factory farms.

Further, I would challenge you to start by making a couple meals every week veg...or goodness, even one day of meals...and that will lessen your environmental impact a GREAT deal! Or even better, go completely vegetarian/vegan - your body and the earth will thank you for it :). It's really easy and FUN and YUMMY honestly - if you ever want any recipe suggestions, just let me know!


This post was NOT intended to guilt any meat eaters out there, but rather get the info about factory farms and their effects on the environment out there...because, as I said, I truly wish I had been aware before...

Oh and the pics are yummy organic veggies from our local farmer's market we've been blessed to eat lately...