Archives: June 2010

Dear blog friends,

You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been working on… my own gluten free, vegan, no refined sugar muffins! I’m creating my own brand! YES you heard me… finally after all those thoughts of creating something on my own I’m actually making it happen. Let me introduce you to:

*** The Lovely You: Treat Yourself.

I am creating a logo as we speak and am getting very excited about this amazing new market that I’m about to dive into.

Of course there are some kinks to work out, like how to get my muffin papers to stop sticking to the delicious muffins! I’ll figure it out, although if anyone has any suggestions for me I’d greatly appreciate them. I may just decide to do away with the papers and simplify the whole situation!

My IIN (Integrative Institute of Nutrition) friends are hosting an event next Saturday, June 26 where I will be having one on one yoga alignment sessions as well as selling my newly branded Lovely You muffins. Please contact me for more information (my contact info is in the tab above). This event was incentive for me to make my brand happen and I am SUPER excited to make my debut.

Stay tuned for more info regarding The Lovely You and where you’ll be able to purchase them.

Enjoy your beautiful weekend!

Dear friends,

We are now the proud owners of the Excalibur food dehydrator!! Yes you heard right, we can now make our own dried fruit, fruit roll ups, raw treats, granola and lots more!

Clearly I am quite excited about this new addition to our tiny kitchen although we don’t have much space to store the new tool, but we will find a place – even if it has to hang from the ceiling! Kidding… but that’s a running joke around my apartment – we have to start sticking things to the ceiling so we can walk a straight line! I’m exaggerating a bit, but let’s put it this way, we need a new apartment JUST to have space for all our fun kitchen goodies.

For those of you who eat a raw diet or know someone who eats that way, this dehydrator is the perfect gift for him or her! I was so excited to try it out that I took whatever fruit we had in our fridge, sliced them and stuck them in the dehydrator for about 10 hours -maybe longer next time though – the mango looked SO delicious that we couldn’t resist. I will post pictures next time, but this time there just wasn’t enough, and it was gone within minutes that I didn’t even have time to reach for my camera.

Stay tuned for more raw yummy food from the Excalibur!
dehydrator

During my IIN (Integrative Institute of Nutrition) classes we had the pleasure of meeting David Wolfe, raw food guru. The most important lesson that I learned from him is that going raw may not be the best idea for everyone – but adding raw products into your existing daily diet can’t hurt at all.

He taught us how to make a “superfood smoothie,” which uses ingredients that I usually use on a daily basis but now I’ve learned how to also add in superfoods to pump it up.

Here is the recipe:

Handful of strawberries

Handful of blueberries

Handful of blackberries

Handful of raspberries

Coconut water – enough to cover the fruit and a little extra (too much is never a bad thing) one cup-full of coconut water contains more electrolytes than most sports drinks and more potassium than a banana**

1 tbls chia seeds– Chia is very rich in omega-3 fatty acids, even more so than flax seeds! Chia is rich in antioxidants, provide fiber as well as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, copper, iron, molybdenum, niacin, and zinc. Chia is an AMAZING superfood!

½ tbls maca powder- Has been found to enhance fertility and sexual performance in both men and women.

½ tbls cacao powder – All chocolate is made from the cacao (cocoa) bean, and cacao beans in their natural, unprocessed, unadulterated state are rich in nutrients and beneficial to health. Cacao helps dilate bloods vessels, reduce blood clotting, improve circulation, help regulate heartbeat and blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, and reduce the risk of stroke and heart attacks. It is a feel good food and it may reduce the risk of certain cancers.

½ tbls camu camu powder – Camu camu fruits contain more vitamin C than any other plant in the world from 30 to 60 times more than an orange. It has astringent, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, emollient and nutritional properties, and also contains important levels of beta-carotene, calcium, iron, niacin, phosphorus, riboflavin and thiamin.

1 tbls raw honey – Honey is antiseptic, antibiotic, antifungal, and antibacterial — it never spoils and is best in it’s raw, unprocessed state.

½ tbls blue green algae – A form of microalgae phytoplankton containing chlorophyll, vitamin B-12, complete protein and omega 3 fatty acids.

1 tincture of cat’s claw – Is thought to have anti-inflammatory effects and has been used for rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. It has also been used for high blood pressure, HIV, diverticulitis, gastritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

1 tincture of pau’darco – An anti-inflammatory

1 tincture of fo-ti – Can lower serum cholesterol, decrease hardening of the arteries, and improve immune function.

1 tincture of reishi mushroom – Regulates and fine tunes the immune system.

A handful of almonds (if you like them!)

Feel free to add in a green veggie if you want, sometimes I add in spinach or kale depending on what I have in the fridge.

If you have any serious health problems I suggest you do some more research on these superfoods to make sure they won’t effect you in a negative way – they are powerful and wonderful if you use them properly.

It’s finally time to enjoy what Mother Nature’s given us!