Coffee & Sunshine

Preparing for my baby girl...

2011-12-22T19:22:00.000-08:00

This was my baby shirt, that will soon be my baby's baby shirt.

Cloth diaper changing station

Homemade wipe solution and cloth wipes

Water kefir, kombucha, two types of baby oil and vanilla extract

Development - third trimester

Himalayan Salt Lamp Review

2011-12-22T18:57:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness, it has been almost a month since I have been on here! So sorry everyone. It's almost Christmas too??!! Well, just to quickly update you all, I am 7 months and 1 week pregnant today. It's going by faster and faster! I am so nervous about my home birth, but I know that everything will be fine if I just trust God :) Down to business...

The Himalayan Salt Shop was kind enough to send me a salt lamp to review for them. I have had this lamp since November 5th, and I just love it! A few facts about these salt lamps:

These salt lamps are made from crystal salt mined from underground the Himalayan Mountains.
They naturally emit negative ions into the air.
These negative ions bond with positive ions (which are air pollutants) and neutralize them.
Negative ions combate electo-smog put off my our electronic devices at home.
There has also been cases where these salt lamps have helps with asthma, allergies & other illnesses.
And lastly, aren't they just so pretty?

I was very curious to see how this salt lamp would work in my home once I got it. I turn it on whenever we are home (which for me is almost all day). The hotter you allow the lamp to get, the better it is for purifying the air! My husband is a preschool director and he is around sick kids and germs all day. My mom & brother also work at school and they are at my house almost every day. This made me worried when I got pregnant and moved home to Hawaii, because I am REALLY trying not to get sick while pregnant. I get sick easily. Since having this salt lamp, there has been no sickness in my house! Now, I am not saying that for sure this lamp will keep everyone in your house sickness free all the time. I am just saying, so far, so good! There have been days when I was out with my mom all day (and she has been sick a lot lately) and come home with a sore throat. Right when I got home, I turned on the salt lamp and sat near it in my living room for a few hours then went to bed. When I woke up, no more sore throat! I haven't gotten sick yet and neither has my husband who has also come home with sore throats!

It lights up so pretty at night time. My cats seem to like it too. They jump up on the shelf where I have it and just sit by it and they never would jump up there before that! I am very happy to have this for the baby room after I give birth as well. I plan on getting at least one more for our house at some point. You can see some of their beautiful lamps for sale HERE. I know I am a little late but these would be great Christmas presents! The owner Ernest is very helpful if you email him he will answer any questions you have! They also have a Facebook & Twitter! Please check them out! They have everything from himalayan salt candle holders, to lamps, baht salts and salt inhalers!

Merry almost Christmas everyone!!!

Baby shower & lots of photos to share

2011-11-28T12:53:00.000-08:00

Breakfast of oats, soy milk, blueberries, maple syrup & chia with some red raspberry leaf tea.

This was my Thanksgiving meal ordered from Peace Cafe. It was pretty tasty. I really liked their mushroom gravy!

Beeswax candles in baby food jars. These were going to be the party favors at my baby shower, but we decided against it so that it would be a little less work :)

Wool dryer balls I made with leftover wool that my cats got into. These are great! I needle felt them and then added some lavender oil to them. You throw them in the dryer instead of dryer sheets. They work great for softening and help to shorten your dryer time!

Baby Bath Herbs

Mix together:

Organic rose petals

Organic chamomile flowers

Organic ground oats

Lavender flowers (didn't have organic on hand)

Rosemary leaves

Organic calendula/marigold flowers

Store in a glass jar with lid. When ready to use, put some of the mixture in a cheesecloth and tie closed. Add to warm baby bath and enjoy the sweet smelling aroma! I normally add yarrow flowers as well for the antibacterial properties, but I was all out.

Newest hippy pack from my cousin! This hippy pack contained two onesies, dried elderberries, acorns, homemade sweet almond hand cream, amber teething necklace, two used cloth diapers (they were some old ones she was no longer using :) & some Method baby products. Thanks cuz!

Flowers for the centerpieces at my baby shower.

Mermaid coloring sheets with crayons in baby food jars for the kids

Truffles from Ulimana for favors! These are raw & vegan and so tasty!

Homemade necklace from my sis-in-law. So cute!

My beautiful chocolate cake with mint frosting made by my good friend Maciana.

My best friend who threw the shower for me :)

Briana, Maciana & I- all sporting baby bumps. We are due January, February & March :)

My husband and friend Mark

Lastly, my god daughter, Kalea playing on the playground at the baby shower.

~Fairy Skirts~

2011-11-17T18:42:00.000-08:00

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping

than you can understand.

~William Butler Yeats

My newest thing I am making to sell and give away to family for Christmas, fairy skirts!

One of my nieces modeling for me :)

Isn't she precious? Let me know if any of you are interested in buying! I don't have an etsy or anything though. You can pick the colors and I can make the size to fit to your child exactly. You just send me the measurements!

More pregnancy eats & midwife visit

2011-11-15T00:21:00.000-08:00

Breakfast one day of tofu scramble mixed with mushrooms, salsa, nutritional yeast & turmeric, some seaweed and a green smoothie that contained bananas, dates, spinach, chia seeds and I can't remember what all else.

Breakfast of Hawaiian Pancakes revised to add ground flax with some maple syrup and another green smoothie. This one had bananas, dates, spirulina, mango, chia seeds & almond milk blueberry yogurt. I was out of veggies this day.

An acai bowl from Beet Box Cafe with acai, banana, strawberry, blueberry, apple juice, banana, papaya, hempseed granola, agave & spinach.

Chocolate peanut butter smoothie from Robeks

Homemade hummus with garbanzo beans, lemon, tahini, olive oil, garlic & salt, then topped with paprika and more olive oil. I just got some organic olive oil and I love it!

This is my midwife, Dr Lori's, office. This is a small house that is on her 2 acre land on the North Shore. It's so peaceful down here :)

And here is the risky photo...I am just about 6 months pregnant here. This was on our way home from the beach. I am just so excited about being pregnant that I don't even care about how bad I look in this picture. I'M PREGNANT!!!!

Lately...

2011-11-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

What I have been working on...trying to make things I can sell and give away as Christmas presents.

Tinctures I made for my little brother for his birthday. He requested a "dream tincture".

Been spending a lot of time with my babies.

He closed his eyes and turned away when I tried to take this picture.

This is a new friend I found. I was in the car with my mom and saw him on the side of the road in our neighborhood. I jumped out of the car and got him. His name is Morla- like the big turtle in the never ending story. I asked around the neighborhood and no one is claiming him. He has to have belonged to someone at some point though, because we don't have turtle like this in the wild here.

Here he/she is! Any guesses of what sex you think he/she is? I really want a girl, but I feel like I am having a boy :)

Winner of Himalayan salt lamp giveaway is.....

2011-11-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

.... Praise to the Highest! You won!!! Please contact me with your email address so that I can get your lamp sent out!

Happy World Vegan Day & Himalayan Salt Lamp Giveaway!

2011-11-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

Guess what everyone?

Ernest, from the Himalayan Salt Shop, is allowing me the awesome opportunity to offer a giveaway of one 6-8 lb Himalayan Salt Crystal Lamp! Just a few facts about Himalayan Salt Lamps:

These lamps are natural air purifiers that purify the air of dust, pollen, dander, cigarette smoke & bacteria!
Heat from the bulb inside the salt lamp emits negative ions into the air.
These negative ions bond with air pollutants (positive ions) and neutralize them!
They bond with positive ions produced by computer monitors, TV's and other electrical devices.
Once the ions bond with the air pollutants they become heavier and fall to the ground, which removes them from air circulation!
These lamps have also been shown to help with asthma, allergies and other illnesses!

THIS PAGE will answer all your other questions about Himalyan salt lamps.

This contest begins November 1st and ends November 9th.

In order to win you must:

Be within the United States, excluding Alaska & Hawaii, to win :)

Comment saying you want to win &

Join their newsletter HERE!

For additional entries:

Follow them on Twitter HERE

Follow them on Facebook HERE & HERE

Good luck! Also, remember guys, even if you don't win these are great presents for Christmas time coming up! One more thing, stay tuned because I will be doing a review on Himalayan Salt Lamps shortly as well.

Strawsome winner...

2011-11-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

iiiiiiiiisssss Maria Rose! Give me your email address and I will have Strawesome contact you :)

Desserts...tasty, tasty desserts!

2011-10-28T17:43:00.000-07:00

I have been making lots of sweet things lately, and I wanted to share two awesome recipes with you.

How awesome does this look? This was the cake I made my brother for his birthday.

Chocolatey Chocolate Cake

1 chocolate cake mix (ex. Cherrybrook Kitchen)

1 vegan chocolate pudding mix

1 cup Tofutti sour cream

1 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)

4 egg replacers

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups vegan chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together and pour into greased bunt cake pan. Bake at 350 for 50-55 min. Cool for 1 hour before inverting (this is the hardest part :). While it's cooling, make frosting sauce.

3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

3 Tbsp Earth Balance

1/4 tsp vanilla

Pour that over cake once it is inverted and you've got yourself a chocolatey chocolate cake!

I made this for a halloween BBQ we are having tonight :)

Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding

I veganized this from THIS recipe.

1 stick Earth Balance

1 cup sugar (raw if you like)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

5 egg replacers

2 1/2 cups soy creamer

12 croissants

1/2 cup raisins

3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

Go to the link above to see how to make the recipe :) Enjoy!

Also, please don't forget to enter my STRAWESOME giveaway! It ends November 1st!

Strawesome Giveaway!

2011-10-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a giveaway for you guys in a while, so I thought it was about time I did one again. Strawesome is an awesome company that makes reusable, stylish glass straws & the lovely Daedra from Strawesome is allowing me to host a blog giveaway for one free "artist's choice" straw!

This is a picture of one of their bent glass straws.

This is one of my straws I was using to drink green juice!

This is a picture of homemade bubble tea that I am drinking from a Strawesome straw.

This was today's smoothie :)

For those of you who have not heard of Strawesome yet, these straws are hand made from borosilicate glass. They are also guarenteed not to break! If your straw breaks, it will be replaced. I LOVE these straws. I cannot say enough good things about them. I actually have an order coming in the mail or two more. My husband and I use them every day!

To enter to win a free Strawesome straw:

*Become a follower of my blog &

*Tell me why you want to win a glass Strawesome straw!

Contest begins today and ends November 1st!

Good luck!

Simon says vote for me!

2011-10-21T13:09:00.001-07:00

Meet Simon! This is my good friend Jenny's cow that she rescued from a meat farm.

He wanted to be a butterfly for Halloween.

So, he's entered HERE to win a pet costume contest! If he wins, then Jenny gets a year supply of dog food, which she could really use with her four rescued dogs! Please vote for Simon!!!

Green is goooooood!

2011-10-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

Green Goodness

Organic spinach

Apple banana

Mango

Papaya

Chia seeds

Spirulina

Unsweetened almond milk

Stevia

Sprouted bagel with veganese, avocado, nutritional yeast, salt & pepper

Guacamole

2 avocados

1 small tomato

1/4 a sweet onion

Cilantro (to taste)

Salt (to taste)

Lime (to taste)

Dinner of an Amy's bean and rice burrito with guac & chips

Red raspberry leaf & nettle tea

Oh and keep in mind, this is just the green stuff I ate today :)

Autumn things

2011-10-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

Bunny Juice

Organic almond milk

Fresh juiced carrot juice

Cinnamon

Cardamon

Nutmeg

Ginger

See Rahj in the corner sniffing them?

Leftover beeswax from making candles. I decided not to make the crayons yet. When I do I WILL post them. I promise :)

Teaching myself how to needle felt

An autumn fairy

18 weeks!

Homemade plant dyes

2011-09-29T18:37:00.000-07:00

I just made some homemade plant dyes today and thought I would share how to make it. It's SO simple, just time consuming. I will show you in my next post how to make crayons with these dyes.

Plant Dyes

Boil water in four different pots.

Add one vegetable or fruit to each pot.

(You don't really have to be exact with measurements on this, so sorry I do not have measurements.)

For yellow, I use carrots & turmeric.

For red/pink, I use beets.

For green, I use spirulina.

For blue/purple, I use blueberries.

Bring to boil, and then simmer for around an hour.

Strain out vegetables and fruit, and keep remaining liquid.

Pour each color into a separate canning jar leaving about an inch on top of space.

Pour white vinegar and fill remainder of jar.

Use in place of dye!

*I am not sure the exact shelf life, but they last a while with the vinegar. They don't keep forever of course because they are natural and plant based.*

*Other colors you can make are strawberry pink, coffee ground brown, weeping willow bark peach and oak galls black.*

*If you use this dye for dying clothes it will eventually fade.*

Food & a couple cleaning recipes

2011-09-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

Green breakfast smoothie containing organic purple kale, organic blueberries, mango, organic banana, organic spirulina, RAW protein powder & chia seeds.

Organic kiwi snack

My first attempt at seitan! I really liked it! My brother and mom both ate some and liked it too! Here is the recipe I used from VegWeb:

Basic Seitan

1 cup vital wheat gluten
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon thyme
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup homemade vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 375. Mix together all ingredients. Form into a "sausage like" shape and then cut into strips. Oil a cookie sheet or lay down parchment paper on one. Bake for 10 min then flip and bake for 3-5 more min.

These would be great with some type of gravy! I had them with cranberry sauce because they reminded me of turkey because of the thyme smell :)

This was dinner two nights ago: String bean tempura sushi. I also had some avocado sushi.

This was from my husband :) He had dinner at his parents house and knew I didn't have anything so he made these for me. All it is, is carrot and string bean in a won ton. Cute that he thought of me :)

I wanted to show was was inside here, but of course Rahjah had to be in the picture trying to eat my food.

I also made this last night for dinner since the won tons didn't have much nutrition. This was around 5 organic carrots, 2 leaves of organic collards and 1 organic apple juiced.

I wanted to share this because it is the best recipe I have come up with so far for bathtub cleaner. Sorry the picture isn't great. All it is is 1 cup of baking soda (aluminum free), 1/2 cup Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap (I used lavender because that is what we have on hand) and a few drops of tea tree oil. Just shake it all up and use! So simple, yet so effective!

Cloth Dryer Sheets

*Not the best picture above either sorry.*

All you need to make your own dryer sheets is some natural fabric softener. Now, you can use a store bought one or make one like I always do.

Natural Fabric Softener

1/2 cup baking soda (no aluminum)

3 cups white vinegar

4 cups water

Essential oils (I used 10 drops lavender oil & 10 drops grapefruit oil, but you can use whatever smell you like)

Mix together water, vinegar and oils. SLOWLY add the baking soda. If you add all at once, it will overflow all over everything! *Great science experiment idea for the kids* Pour ingredients into large glass container if you have. I use this old plastic jar that someone gave us cookies in once. Next, simply add pieces of cloth the size of wash clothes. Flannel cloth works well, but anything really is fine. Ring out your cloth before adding it to the dryer. Throw a sheet in dryer with your wet clothes and dry away!

New kombucha my husband bought us to try on our way home from the beach. It's organic like Synergy. I actually really liked it! I haven't found anything that could compare to Synergy but this one is pretty close!

A little over 16 weeks at the beach. I didn't want to take pictures, but my husband insisted we needed more pregnancy photos so here you go!

A few days worth of pregnancy eating

2011-09-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

This was my smoothie this morning: frozen mango, frozen organic raspberries, organic banana, organic spinach, coconut water, organic spirulina, chia seeds & RAW protein powder.

Vegan Blueberry Coffee Cake

3-4 cups of fresh or frozen organic blueberries

4 cups wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1 1/2 cups raw cane sugar

1/2 cup Earth Balance

2 egg replacers (I use ground chia and water)

1 cup fresh homemade almond milk

Crumb Topping

1/2 cup raw cane sugar

1/3 cup wheat flour

1/4 cup Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix flour, salt and baking soda. (Sift if you have a sifter but you don't have to.)

Separately mix Earth Balance, sugar, egg replacers and almond milk.

Slowly combine wet ingredients into dry ingredients.

(If your mixture is still too dry slowly add a little more almond milk just until everything is incorporated and sticking together.)

Fold in blueberries. (Try not to break or mush them)

Pour mixture into a greased pan.

Mix together crumb topping and sprinkle on top of cake.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

*My husband said, "This is good! You should sell it!"*

*My brother said, "This is good for being a weird vegan thing."*

So, I guess that means success?

My husband bought us a ten pound bag of organic carrots so that means looooooots of carrot juice. This is a great book by the way!

My brother took me to his favorite sushi place. I didn't really like it. I found it funny that the "Vegetarian" part of the menu said, "Vegetarian Keiki Menu." Keiki means kid in Hawaiian. So they were saying that the vegetarian menu was only something that kids would get I guess. Funny.

I made some kale chips yesterday. These just had a little olive oil and sea salt on them. I still don't have a dehydrator so I baked these at 275 for 20 minutes. They turned out good! My brother said he'd rather have these then spinach anything. By the way, don't get your hopes up, but my brother and husband have been eating vegetarian for the last couple days! I'm trying not to get overly excited. I had them both watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and also Forks Over Knives. I guess it might have had an impact! My husband is going to juice fast for a few weeks soon, so he is preparing by eating vegetarian. Keep your fingers crossed and some how, some way it might stick!

Apples & almond butter

Garbanzo Bean Burgers

Olive oil, enough to saute

1/2 cup sweet onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon parsley

sea salt, just a little

1/2 cup walnuts or almonds

1 can organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 Tbsp wheat flour

1 Tbsp arrowroot (If you don't have this just add a little more flour)

Saute the onions, garlic, cumin, celery seed, and salt over medium heat until the onions are cooked well. Food process the nuts until they are a coarse meal. Put garbanzo beans in the processor and process the same way as the nuts. Mix together all ingredients in a bowl. Form the mixture into four burgers. Fry them on a frying pan until lightly brown. Then follow my recipe below to make the burger sauce.

Tahini Dill Veganese

3-4 Tbsp Veganese

1 Tbsp tahini

1 Tbsp fresh dill, less if you're not into dill

1 clove garlic, miced

Mix all ingredients together well and serve on your garbanzo burgers.

I had a smoothie for dinner last night with organic blueberries, chocolate acai juice, mango chunks, banana, chia seeds & hemp seeds.

Meeoooooooow, good morning!

A typical day of food during a vegan pregnancy

2011-09-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend my husband and I spent the night in a hotel in Waikiki. He had some conferences for work, so his work paid for two nights in a hotel. SCORE! Although, it's always hard for me being away from my animals overnight. I went to go check on them during the day though just to make sure they still had food and water. They were mad at me. Go figure. The picture above is some fruit my husband brought me while I was still in bed and he was already in the middle of a conference. I've also been trying to read a LOT about vegan babies and children. I am trying to make sure I know everything there is to know. Any good book suggestions?

Once I got back home I could get back to normal eating without eating out. This is what I had for breakfast. Green juice containing 1 organic green apple, 4 organic carrots, 2 leaves of organic collard greens.

I also had a smoothie for breakfast. This one had 1 cup organic frozen blueberries, 1 cup organic spinach, half an organic avocado, 2 dates, chia seeds & organic spirulina. I change it up and add other things too like Raw protein powder, hemp seeds, maca powder, cacao nibs, etc.

Snack was one organic orange.

Lunch was massaged kale salad with a Bubbies pickle and nutritional yeast. I am not a huge fan of kale in salads but I am getting used to it. It helps if you make massaged kale salad. You just chop up organic kale and massage it with half of the juice of an organic lemon, sea salt and a little olive oil. Once it starts to wilt, you can add a dressing like olive oil, pepper, agave & the juice from the other half of the lemon. Then chop up a Bubbies pickle and sprinkle with nutritional yeast! Enjoy.

For dinner, I had leftover kale salad, baked maple yams & basil quinoa. I also had a small glass of juiced organic carrots, organic collard greens, organic celery & organic apple. I shared some of my juice with my husband, that's why I didn't have much :) To make the maple yams, you just have to chop up an organic washed yam and add pure grade B maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg & coconut oil. Cover and bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes until soft. For the quinoa, I just add quinoa, water, olive oil, salt and basil to a rice cooker and cook like normal rice!

So there it is! A typical pregnant day of eating for a pregnant vegan. I also had some vegan chocolate chips & chips and salsa for dessert that night. That's normal right?

Sonic relaxing next to me on the couch. Good night all!

(It's morning time, but I need a nap:)

Quick pregnancy post

2011-09-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

I am 14 weeks and 3 days today (excuse the mess).

I had my second midwife appointment yesterday and everything is going good. She said that my baby's heart sounds good, my blood pressure is good (although low but that is normal for me) and my body and weight are right on track as well. She told me that I am not eating enough though, so I am trying to be better about that. She said I need to add a little more protein and iron to my diet. She told me to buy blackstrap molasses and mix it with water and yellow dock root (which I just so happen to have.) The molasses has a good amount of iron and the yellow dock helps to absorb the iron right into my body instead of peeing most of it out. I am also putting in an order for some organic beet root powder (for protein and iron), organic red raspberry leaf and organic nettle. I am in my second trimester so I feel it now safe to take the red raspberry leaf. My midwife said that it was a great idea and it is so good for pregnant woman. I told her that I was getting a lot of controversy online with different herbs that I thought were ok and actually really good for pregnancy. What she told me is that, with herbs there is always going to be controversy. Since she has been a midwife and naturopathic doctor for 29 years, I trust that she knows what she is talking about :)

I am sharing with you my first video ever. This was me listening to my babies heart beat for the first time. I cried of course afterward. Best sound on earth. You might have to listen and put your ear really close to the screen to hear the heartbeat. It took her a really long time to find the heartbeat because I guess my baby was hanging out really low in my uterus, so this is the edited shorter version of the video :)

Green juice, power balls & walks

2011-08-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

I am sure many will agree with me when I say that no day has officially started without green juice or a green smoothie. My husband bought me a cheepy blender to hold me over until all our things are shipped here, so I can have my smoothies again. It's nice because my food aversions haven't been so bad lately so I can stomach a lot more of my normal healthy food that I like. When I first got pregnant, almost everything would gross me out. This smoothie above had organic kale, bananas, chia seeds, chocolate Vega powder & almond milk.

The following are the ingredients I used for my Power Balls below:

GREENSuperFood chocolate powder (which I LOVE)

Dried coconut (no sugar added)

Chia seeds

Steel cut oats

Pumpkin seeds

Coconut nectar

Leftover soaked cashews

Hemp seeds

Cacao nibs

Vanilla

Coconut oil

I wanted something chocolatey but also super healthy, so I came up with these. Just blend together (or food process) your pumpkin seeds and cashews, then add the rest of your ingredients. Slowly add coconut oil until everything is bound together. I added a little too much in mine so be careful.

This is the end result. This was actually before I froze them though. You can either freeze or place in refrigerator. These are so great as a quick snack for a little energy and protein on the go! Great for kids too :)

I went walking around my favorite gardens/park again yesterday with my dad. I have been trying to get some type of exercise every day so that my pregnancy and birth will all go smoothly. The picture above is a beautiful huge hitachi tree!

Here is another beautiful tree. My dad kept having to stop walking so I could take pictures with my iPhone. I can't help it! This place is so beautiful!

It was so nice to be able to make hummus again. I love hummus, but only homemade hummus. I hate store bought ones, unless they are fresh made ones.

Garlic Hummus

1 can organic garbanzo beans (peeled, this makes it so creamy, just peel each garbanzo bean)

2 Tbsp organic raw tahini

1-2 Tbsp organic coconut oil

2 cloves garlic

1/2 an organic lemon (squeeze out juice & add a little lemon zest too)

Cumin

Salt

Water (to incorporate)

Blend all together until creamy!

Organic apple with almond butter

Panther acting crazy because I was visiting him. Only 9 more days!

Recent Eats

2011-08-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

This was my most recent trip to China town. I was really craving rambutans, but I guess they are not in season because I could not find them anywhere! I LOVE rambutans. China town in great because it has lots of fresh produce for sale and usually if you go to the right vender, it's cheeper than the grocery stores.

Watermelon slush- fresh watermelon chunks, fresh papaya chunks & a tiny bit of liquid sugar. If I would have known beforehand I would have just told him not to add the sugar because it is plenty sweet without it. This was so nice and refreshing though.

This was what I came away with from China town. I got one dragon fruit, two papaya and some on choi.

This was my yummy veggie burger from The Counter next to Wholefoods. I love their veggie burgers because they are fresh made patties. Mine had pickles, mixed organic greens and grilled onions on it.

My ingredients to make some fresh pesto. My sister in law was doing pizza night at her house, so I got together what I wanted for my vegan pizza. I settled on tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, spinach and pesto. It was so good!

Vegan Pesto

A huge bunch of fresh basil (this was from my communal herb garden)

Two cloves garlic

1/4-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup cashews (soaked in water for an hour)

Salt

Blend or food process together and then eat!

*I also love adding things like avocado or spinach. Gives it extra smoothness and flavor.

*You can also use really any nut you like. I have used cashews, macadamia nuts and walnuts as well.

This was the pizza crust I used. This is definitely my favorite frozen crust! I mistakenly thought it was gluten-free and told my sis in law to buy them (as she and my mom in law are gluten free) and it turned out this does contain whole wheat flour. Oops!

My newest thing I am interested in: Coconut Nectar. Has anyone else tried this yet? I'm not sure what all to do with it, but I am definitely excited about it. Coconut nectar is harvested from the sap of the coconut tree. It doesn't taste like coconut at all though. The closest thing I can kind of compare the flavor to is maple syrup but not as sweet. This is low in sugar so great for diabetics (like my husband and dad). It's great to use as a sweetener in place of sugar. All natural and raw are always the way to go in my book. By the way, those little orange looking things next to it are calamansi. They are very sour like lemons but more sour. I grew up eating them, so I really like them. I used them here with the coconut nectar to make some fresh lemonade, nice and high in vitamin C!

I finally got to stop at my favorite juice spot after being gone for a year. I missed you Robeks! Since I don't have my blender or juicer I have been missing fresh juice a lot. I stopped at Robeks on my way to quarentine and got the ABC, which is Apple, Beet & Carrot.

Here is my Nano rubbing his face against mine from the other side of the cage. I was just about to leave here, but he was begging me to stay so I stayed a little longer.

Sonic boy just chillin with his favorite big toy. It's funny because pretty much every time I come I bring either a new toy or a treat so he always goes straight for my purse to sniff it out. I feel so bad for the other dogs here in quarentine. A lot of them have absolutely nothing in their kennels. No toys, blankets or anything. I also almost never see any of the other dog owners visiting their dogs. I am there every day of the week!

Have a blessed day everyone and eat your veggies ;)

I'm back where I belong

2011-08-24T11:14:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! I am finally back in Hawaii! So happy to be back too. I have a bunch of pictures to share!

This is my development so far. I am around 3 months pregnant or 12 weeks. I am not positive because I have yet to see a doctor. I have an appointment this weekend though and I am super excited about it. It is with Sacred Arts Healing. Both of their doctors are naturopathic as well as midwives. I have lots of questions, especially about my choice to have an at home water birth. I just want to make sure that they can accommodate. I hope so, because they are the only two midwives really left in Hawaii. I guess not a lot of people are doing natural home births here, who knows?

I am still having morning sickness, mostly in the morning and night. It helps that it's not all day anymore. I will continue to update you on my beautiful pregnancy experience.

Question: Have any of you pregnant or already moms drank nettle herb during pregnancy?

Papaya has been a daily thing for me. I love it and missed it in Omaha. Plus, it's suppose to help with morning sickness. Don't know if it works, but I keep eating it anyway. It is so good for you!

I have been eating a lot of organic soy yogurt lately too. The movers have not brought our things yet so I DEARLY miss my BlendTec. I used it every day for many of the things I eat on a normal basis. I miss my smoothies, juices and hummus especially. This picture has organic soy yogurt, organic blueberry granola and kiwi.

Organic soy yogurt, apple bananas, strawberries, blueberries and organic blueberry granola

This is a view from up a mountain hike called Makapu'u Trail.

I went hiking with my husbands family. It was lots of fun! It was very hot though and my back was killing me, but I made it! (My back has been sore because I've been sleeping on a couch until our bed gets here.)

Here I was having lunch in one of my favorite parks with my brother.

Down to Earth avocado sandwich with no sprouts. Let me know if this is wrong moms, but I've read not to eat sprouts while pregnant?

One of the beautiful trees in the park. So tall and magnificent with lots of shade. For those of you familiar with Lord of the Rings, my brother and I were arguing if these trees could possibly be Ents. I think they are at least a hundred years old, but he says that they have to be much older to be Ents. I guess we will never know unless one decides to reveal itself to us.

My favorite flower- Hibiscus

Taro growing in one side of the gardens. Taro is a root vegetable, very prominent in a Hawaiian diet. Taro is kind of hard to grow because it needs a swampy area with constant flowing water.

Lastly, here is Koko. All four of my cats and my dog Sonic are still in the animal quarentine station for 3 more weeks. Two of my cats, Nano and Panther, were not doing well here AT ALL. They wouldn't eat for 10 days! I finally got quarentine to admit them to my vet. Panther had a fever but later that night it went away and he started eating again. Thank God!

My cat Nano, on the other hand, had to stay at the vet for six days. He would not eat and had a low grade fever. They found that he had a pretty bad hair impaction, which I guess is basically a hair ball that is too big to come out so it tries to come out the other way. So it was stuck and they had to do an enama. I won't go into detail, but it was gross and almost more that my pregnant stomach could take. They thought that might be all he needed to start eating again, but he still wouldn't eat. I had them do blood work and he ended up testing positive for FIV (Feline Aids). Now, it is possible that he does not have FIV and that he was just exposed to the virus. The vet advised I have them send in a second sample to the pros that can tell if its an exposure or if he actually has the virus. I'm still waiting on those results. Just so you know, because my mom was super worried about this too, FIV cannot infect humans only other cats. So my baby is safe. I really hope Nano doesn't have this, but if he does I will cross that bridge when I come to it. Cats with FIV can still live full lives, they just can get really sick towards the end of their lives.

Well any way, the good news is that he finally ate and was released from the vet back to quarentine. Please pray for my Nano that he will continue to eat and not be so depressed. I know I shouldn't have a favorite, but he is my favorite cat and he's been through so much and deserves to be happy and healthy.

Thanks for reading...I'll be back soon!

Sooooooo....guess what?

2011-07-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

One of my many excuses for my absence, I am PREGNANT! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I am super excited! I have actually gone back to vegetarian eating for now. I am eating pasture raised organic eggs and some dairy. I am SO excited you have no idea. So far my only symptoms I have are that I have mild cramping, mild headaches, SUPER tired and sore sore boobs! I will try my best to keep you all updated!

It's me...I have returned!

2011-06-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, so sorry for the long absence. I have still been reading your guys blogs, but I've been a combination of busy and lazy lately which is my reasoning for not posting. I am back though! I am working shorter hours this summer so I will have more time on my hands. I am excited for the break, but bummed about the less pay factor. Anyway, Here are some pictures to update you a little.

Breakfast of peanut butter and mango sandwich while tanning outside

There is a sushi place near my house, and they serve cucumbers in their water. It's good!

I don't remember the names of these sushi, but one had green soy paper wrapped around and other had sun dried tomato paper. Tastiness!

Dinner last night was a chick'n patty with a portobello mushroom cap bun.

This day I was craving a Guam dish, so I ended up modifying chicken keleguen and making tofu keleguen. This contained tofu, coconut, unrippened mango, lemon juice, green onion, thai peppers and salt. This is definitally not for everyone. I personally love it though. I eat it with Guam red rice!

Tofu scramble, fresh made salsa, plantains and pretzel bread

I went to the farmers market on Sunday and found these for my Sonic boy. They only had two vegan ones. Sonic is not vegan, but I try to either make or buy all his treats vegan.

I like this picture. He has such a funny look on his face!

My love :) Adios until next time!

2011 Sexiest Vegetarian Next Door Contest

2011-04-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post on this. PLEASE vote for me! Here is my direct link: Carissa's PETA Link. The winner gets two tickets to Hawaii and I would love to go back and visit my family! Thank you guys! Please spread the world. Love yas :)

UliMana Winner & Tincture Recipes

2011-04-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

The winner of the UliMana truffles is...........Michelle!!! YAY MICHELLE!!! So email me your address and I'll get those over as soon as it's payday (I'm broke right now :). My email address is scarshelter (at) gmail (dot) com.

Breakfast was hash browns with lots of catsup and hot sauce and a green juice with bananas, kale, cinnamon and ginger.

Tinctures I have been working on. I have three tinctures "extracting" right now including Sleep tincture, PMS tincture and Immunity tincture. Would you like to know how to make these? Well, I'll tell you then! To make an alcohol tincture, it is actually very simple.

Alcohol Tincture Instructions:

Fill a quart jar 1/3 to 1/2 full of herbs.
Fill jar to the brim with alcohol.

*Make sure alcohol is at least 40% alcohol which is 80 proof. I don't recommend anything more than 100 proof because it is pretty strong and burns when drinking. Also, I recommend using organic vodka, but you can really use any plain vodka and if you absolutely don't have any vodka then you can use plain rum*

3. Keep in dark cool place for two weeks.

4. After the two weeks, strain vodka/herb tincture through cheesecloth.

5. Pour into bottles and use! (It can be stored in a dark cool place for approximately 3 years, but usually longer.)

*This method is NOT for children, adults only. I only say that because it contains alcohol.*

*Also, I personally feel that alcohol tinctures work better, faster and they are stronger. That is why I like to make alcohol tinctures as opposed to glycerin.*

Child & Adult friendly method is the following:

Glycerin Tincture Instructions:

Fill crock pot 1/3 full of herbs.
Pour hot water over herbs, mix with spoon until herbs are damp. Do not soak them with water!
Pour vegetable glycerin over herbs until crock pot is full.

*Make sure that glycerin is FOOD GRADE. You can ask for help in the store if you need to.*

4. Heat on low for 3 days. Stir occasionally.

*This makes a HUGE batch by the way. You can cut down the mixture to make a smaller batch if you want. I like to make big batches though :) *

5. Always keep an eye on your mixture. If it smells like it is cooking (very strong smelling) or burning, don't worry. Your mixture is not ruined, the process is just sped up. So cut your time down to 2 days instead of 3.

6. Strain glycerin mixture after 2-3 days while it is still warm. It's easier to pour while warm.

Here are the herbs I used in the three tinctures above:

Sleep tincture: Lemon Balm, Chamomile, Passionflower, Hops Flowers & Valerian Root.

PMS tincture: Cramp Bark, White Willow, Chamomile, Passionflower & Valerian Root.

Immunity tincture: Peppermint Leaf, Echinacea Root, Elderberries & Rose Hips.

If you aren't interested in buying all the things to make a tincture and just want to buy one from me, then just let me know what type of tincture you need and I can make you one :)

This is all some awesome Thai food I had the other day. I am sure you haven't noticed by now that I LOVE Thai food.

Here is a picture of my friends hairless cat. She is super friendly!

...and my Panther just chillin.

Review: Artisana & An Ulimana Giveaway

2011-03-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

Jaisan with Artisana Nut Butters was kind enough to allow me the chance to review some of their wonderful products. Here is a little information about them. They are fresh, organic and raw! We all know the benefits of raw food eating and there aren't too many "butters" out there that are raw. All of their products are peanut, gluten and dairy free! They have an awesome variety of butters as you can see above. They have coconut butter, cashew butter, macadamia butter, pecan butter, walnut butter, almond butter, tahini butter, cacao bliss, cashini and more! I can honestly say that it was so hard to chose my favorites! I LOVED the macadamia, pecan and cacao bliss the best though. The coconut butter is also so tasty and sweet. Great for making dessert bars! They were seriously ALL so good. You guys NEED to try this brand out. Seriously, you will not regret it!

They have some great looking recipes on their site HERE. There is a recipe HERE for macadamia nut butter ball cookies that sounds so good and can easily be veganized! I see this brand in every health food store I go to, so it should not be hard for you to find. If you can't find it near you though, not to worry, they sell Artisana online on many different sites! Thank you again Artisana for allowing me the chance to try out all your awesome butters! I am now hooked and will definitely be loading up on some more on my next trip to Whole Foods :)

As always, I was not paid for this review and Artisana sent me these products for free to sample.

Want to win some raw truffles and a sticker or two? Of course you do! UliMana was nice enough to send me some truffles that I could use for a giveaway. I asked for some coconut nectar ones as those are the ones that you guys seemed to be the most intrigued with :)

To win:

*Become a follower on my site.

*Post that you would like to win these raw truffles.

*For an extra entry, post a link to my blog contest on your Facebook and leave me the link.

That's it!

Contest ends:

April 10th

I wanted to give everyone a shot at winning.

What are you looking at?

Quick Post

2011-03-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been a while. I just wanted you to know I wasn't dead. For those of you who read my last post, I ended up having to go to the dentist. I had my three wisdom teeth pulled. There was a bad cavity in one of them, but I refused to have it filled and decided to just get them all pulled. I don't need them anyway.

Smoothie from McFosters with mint, pineapple, tempeh milk, tahini and agave.

Fresh mango snack

Spankopita with tofu scramble, no egg agave hollandaise and hash browns from McFosters.

Yam tempura from Wasabi

This is what I have been working on. I have been getting all my herbs organized.

They are all labeled now!

My Nano and his new homemade catnip toy.

Tooth decay

2011-03-12T12:17:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I recently have developed a bad tooth ache due to the fact that I have a wisdom tooth growing in as well as a cavity in that wisdom tooth. Has anyone read this book:

I am very interested in it, but it is about $30 so I have not purchased it yet. I am going to look for it in some used book stores though. I am against getting fillings because of the high levels of mercury in them. Just for those who aren't familiar, here are a few facts about fillings that I have copied and pasted:

"For years, dental patients have assumed that the materials being used in dentistry are safe. It is now becoming widely believed that this is not the case. With the recent rise in awareness about amalgam (mercury-based) fillings and how they continuously offgas highly toxic mercury vapor into the mouth, dental consumers are becoming more choosy about what materials they decide to have placed the the highly-volatile environment of their mouths. A close look at the materials used in dentistry show that there may be no such thing as a perfect filling material.

Porcelain/Ceramic
Although porcelain/ceramic fillings have been used for years, they often contain a substantial amount of aluminum, normally in the form of aluminum oxide. In some cases, they contain 45% aluminum oxide. Some manufacturers claim that only very minute amounts of aluminum leach from these fillings, however, medical professionals have claimed to have witnessed aluminum toxicity allegedly caused by this type of filling material. The general belief is that aluminum toxicity leads to immune system issues and neurological disorders. It has also been reported that porcelain fillings contain various other metals such as cobalt, barium and cadmium, each of which can be harmful to your health. Some manufacturers of porcelain fillings utilize chemicals like acrylate, formaldehyde, hexane, hydroquinone, phenol, polyurethane, silane, strontium, toluene and xylene which can be present in the final filling material.

It is well known that mercury and aluminum are extremely toxic to the body when mixed. Dr. Boyd Haley states that the two metals together are 100-times more toxic to the body than either metal alone. It may be wise to consider this fact if you believe that aluminum leaches from fillings, especially if you're having amalgam (mercury-based) fillings removed just prior.

Resin
Resin fillings are often thought of as "plastic" fillings. They normally contain a mixture of glass and plastic with other substances. The health concern associated with resins are that they contain a class of chemicals known as bis-phenol (or BIS-GMAs). This substance has been shown—in some cases—to leach estrogen-mimicking compounds into the body. There are also reports that some brands of resin contain barium and/or aluminum. Some resins are based on another class of chemicals known as methacrylates and have properties that may make them hard on the liver and kidneys over an extended period of time.

Gold
Gold, in it's pure form, is not useful as a dental restoration material (in most cases) because it is too soft. For this reason, it is normally mixed with other metals including chromium, nickel, copper or palladium in order to increase its strength. The incidence of diagnosed nickel and copper toxicity is increasing rapidly as the awareness of the harmful physical effects of these metals is realized. Copper toxicity often has many of the same symptoms as does mercury toxicity.

Amalgam ("Silver")
Amalgam fillings contain up to 50% (more in some cases) of mercury. This mercury is well-known to offgass into the oral cavity constantly. Because the toxic properties of mercury are well-known, and considering mercury is the most toxic non-radioactive metal, amalgam fillings are virtually never considered an option by dentists who stay current with medical research. Most (or all) of the arguments promoted by the American Dental Association claiming amalgam safety have been successfully rebutted in the medical literature and by professional organizations.

Popular Materials
There are several trends in the dental industry as information about the possible toxic nature of fillings becomes apparent. One of these trends is the use of a filling material called DiamondLite. Many biological dentists are now considering this material to be one of the "safer" alternatives, although not perfect."

With all this being said, I really need your help if anyone has any in site into reversing cavities. I am researching as well. The biggest thing I found is that we need to eat less sugar and processed foods.Also, I am currently applying one drop of clove bud essential oil to my infected area daily.

Clove oil kills bacteria. Its main component is eugenol. Eugenol is a powerful phyochemical that anesthetizes, fights free radical oxidation, kills intestinal parasites and bacteria and fungi. Clove oil is antiseptic and antimicrobial which make it great for tooth infections I think. Just to warn you if you plan on trying this, clove oil is very strong! Also, do your research before hand. The best thing to do is to soak a cotton ball in olive oil and then add a couple drops of clove oil. Apply this directly to the infected tooth for as long as you can. Do not sleep with it on your tooth though!

Pets & My Anniversary

2011-03-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

It seems like everyones anniversary is at the beginning of the year huh? Well, my husband and I just celebrated our 6th year wedding anniversary. We celebrated the night before by going to get my favorite type of food, Thai. We tried out a new place called Thai Spice near our house.

This is the fried tofu that we got as an appetizer.

Tofu drunken noodles

Sticky rice with a vegetable curry

On the day of our anniversary, we went out for some mexican food at Hectors. I got the vegetarian fajitas. They were pretty tasty. My husband ate the dairy on the plate with rice. They also had jumbo margaritas which were over double the size of one regular margarita. Bingo!

I was happy to get a picture sent to me on my phone of my turtle I had to leave in Hawaii. Noggin seems to get happy with his new home. He lives in an old bathtub outside so he has lots of space to swim and bask. I miss you Noggin!

Sonic got tired of begging while I was cooking and decided to take a nap.

Alright so...this is what I am attempting at the moment. I am attempting to potty train my cats. I will update you on the progress as I go. I am really hoping this works though, because that would save a lot of money on litter since having four cats is not cheep. My cats are smart though, so I don't see why they wouldn't be able to get this. The only one I am worried about is Panther, because he is naughty sometimes and might start peeing on things. Wish me luck!

Rahjah being cute

Thanks so much for the bandana Molly at Vegan Flower. I love it! Anything that I can have to represent being vegan I love :) Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

PS: I will be posting pictures of the finished kombucha soon!

How to make your own kombucha

2011-02-27T12:56:00.000-08:00

Two organic apples, one organic beet, one organic swiss chard leaf and some walnut butter.

This was my snack at work. It's just cantaloup, chia seeds and coconut milk.

This was my lunch. It is a sandwich packed with almond butter, cashew butter and strawberries. So tasty!

For dinner, I had a sandwich with fresh red pepper hummus, avocado and nutritional yeast along with some boiled brussels sprouts.

Now, on to the kombucha. This was fun to make! I will try to give you all the instructions and just let me know if you have any questions.

Rahjah always wants to be in all the pictures :)

This is a picture of the SCOBY growing.

This is the best picture I have of the SCOBY right now. It is suppose to be kept in the dark for another three weeks, so I didn't want to bother it too much.

SCOBY instructions:

1. Buy a bottle of Original Synergy Kombucha. Make sure it is original, no juice added. Also you will need a large glass jar (I had an old milk jar), caffeinated green tea (black is also ok), organic cane sugar, cheesecloth (or something of the like), and a rubber band.

2. In glass jar, pour two cups of boiling water, two teabags of your choice of tea and one Tbsp sugar. Let it steep for at least 10 minutes.

3. Remove tea bags. Allow your mixture to cool COMPLETELY to room temperature and then add bottle of kombucha. (I like to let my bottle of kombucha reach around room temperature first.)

4. Cover your glass jar with cheesecloth and rubber band. Now, place your bowl somewhere warm and dry. Let this sit for two weeks! After the two weeks has passed, if you do not plan on brewing kombucha with your SCOBY right away, then store your SCOBY in the fridge.

How to brew kombucha with your own live SCOBY:

1. In stainless steel pot, boil half a gallon of water.

2. Remove from heat and add about 3/4 cup of organic cane sugar. Stir it in with a METAL spoon. Unfortunately, substituting anything for sugar does not work well with kombucha. So no agave, honey, stevia, splenda, etc.

3. Add your choice of caffeinated tea. You can use any kind including flavored for this step. I use loose snap dragon green tea, but you can really use anything as long as it's caffeinated. If you use loose tea, make sure to have some type of mesh infuser so that there are no tea leaves inside your kombucha.

4. Now, steep your tea for at least 4 hours. You want it to get really strong.

5. After the 4 hours, pour your sweet tea into a glass jar large enough.

*Do not use metal beyond this point. It reacts poorly with the SCOBY.*

*Also, if you plan on touching the SCOBY at all, make sure that your hands are VERY clean.*

6. Pour your starter SCOBY into the jar with your sweet tea. You are going to want most of the liquid from the SCOBY jar to be drained out before plopping the SCOBY in the the sweet tea.

7. Place the cheesecloth over the top of your jar and make it tight with the rubber band. Now, tuck your kombucha away in a warm dark spot. NO DRAFTS OR SUNLIGHT.

8. You can brew it between 3 weeks to a month. It all depends on how strong a flavor you want. Also, keep in mind that if you live in a warmer climate, it will brew faster so cut the brewing time in half.

After a few weeks:

9. First off, you need to remove the SCOBY. Every time you brew, the "mother" (which is the original SCOBY) grows a "baby". These two are actually identical in every way, so you will not be able to tell them apart. They will be stacked together looking like two pancakes. You can leave them together and just have a double thick SCOBY or carefully separate them. If you take them apart, you can brew a new batch with both the mother and the baby. Reminder: each time you brew, the mother makes a baby. Which is awesome if you love kombucha like me, because you will have a continuous flow of kombucha.

10. You will need to hold your SCOBY somewhere while you are brewing a new batch of tea. Make sure that the jar that your live SCOBY is in is glass and the lid is either plastic or glass. NO METAL. Carefully fish out your SCOBY with CLEAN hands, and place it into a clean jar and pour enough of the new brew to completely cover it. This is going to be your starter for your next batch. You can store this in the refrigerator.

11. Your kombucha can be stored in the fridge for 6 weeks. The SCOBY can can be stored in the fridge indefinitely.

12. ENJOY!!!

Important notes:

WASH YOUR HANDS!
Sometimes your SCOBY will become contaminated. If your SCOBY looks like it has mold, smells funny or tastes funny, throw it away! Contamination happens. So throw it away if you think it is contaminated.
Only use vinegar to clean you equipment. Do NOT use bleach.
Do NOT add juice before fermentation! If you want juice added to your kombucha, wait until after fermentation.
Start off drinking a little at a time. Home brewed kombucha is WAY stronger than store bought. It has lots of B vitmamins too!

PS guys, today is the last day to get your 10% off on Dark Chocolate & Tulips jewelry! Please take advantage of it! The code is a couple posts down :)

Cat Home Needed!

2011-02-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

Hey fellow animal lovers, meet Pig! This is Pig as a baby. He was found under a car in a parking lot at 2 weeks old. I bottle fed him up to 7 weeks old and then he went to a foster home.

This is what he has grown into: a big handsome boy! He is gorgeous, in my opinion. The reason I am posting him is because he needs a home. I know it's a long shot, but his current foster home has offered to help towards the cost of shipping him, if someone adopts him in the US outside of Hawaii.

He is so cuddly and playful! He is also neutered of course. He gets along fine with other dogs and cats that like to play. If you are interested or know someone who is, please refer them to my blog! This boy really needs a loving forever home! Please get the word out! Thanks friends!

Winner of necklace from Dark Chocolate & Tulips!

2011-02-20T11:22:00.000-08:00

The winner of the custom made necklace from Dark Chocolate & Tulips is number 8.......Cody Anne! Yay!!! Just so that you all know, Cody Anne is one of the people that adopted a cat from my organization in Hawaii SCARShelter :) Congrats girl!

Now, for the rest of you, my sis in law is going to be offering 10% off to any of my followers for the next two weeks starting tomorrow Presidents Day. So the 10% off is good from Feb 21-Feb 28. Please take advantage of this, she has some awesome designs! Here is her Etsy site: Dark Chocolate & Tulips. I have two necklaces from her site and I wear them all the time! Here are some examples of her work:

Look around and see what you are interested in! The gift code to receive 10% off is coffeesunshine. Please check her stuff out!

Quick Valentines Day Post

2011-02-14T19:03:00.000-08:00

This is just going to be a quick Valentines post. These are the lovely flowers my husband brought me at work.

...and the gigantic bear he got me (that I may have been hinting about wanting for about 7 years now). I love you babe! Should I be embarrassed for wanting a giant stuffed bear when I am 24 years old?

My husband brought me to a new Thai place called Thai Spice. It was pretty good! This is the fried tofu.

Yummy Basil Tofu Fried Rice

Green Curry Tofu with sticky rice. I liked that both main dishes came with these interesting salad on the side. It has a crispy wonton type of thing underneath. Loved it!

Probably one of my favorite desserts, mango coconut sticky rice.

Lastly, you still have a few more days to enter the giveaway below for this necklace that you can have custom made with your choice of names or words! Last day to enter is the 19th, contest ends on the 20th. Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Giveaway from Dark Chocolate & Tulips

2011-02-10T14:19:00.000-08:00

Happy almost Valentines Day everyone! My awesome sister in law over at Dark Chocolate & Tulips (also check out her blog BUBnCHUNK's Health Bar) offered to do this awesome giveaway of this beautiful necklace you see above. The necklace is called My Important Two, made of sterling silver, and it is a $25 value! You can personalize this necklace to say what ever you want, so long as it fits on the necklace. How cool is that? This is a short bio from her Etsy page:

Aloha,

I was born and raised in Hawaii but have been blessed to travel the world as a hula dancer. So with that being said, I truly am appreciative of my home, where I have been born and raised and the beauty of it! I'm a mom of two wild and lovable boys and just had a beautiful blue eyed brunette born December 5, 2010!

I have always loved hand stamped jewelry. I am attracted to not only one style, that is why you will find an eclectic mix of girly, whimsical and modern pieces in my shop. I am a Christian and love using Bible verses and inspirational quotes to grace my work and I hope one of these inspire you! Sterling silver and copper are fun to work with, but I am loving the versatility of aluminum!

Please look around, enjoy and inspire someone or be inspired today!

inspire.love.cherish.

Here are a few example of the personalized, hand stamped jewelry she makes:

To enter this contest to win My Important Two, you must do only two things:

*Become a follower on my blog &

*Post a comment that you would like to win!

*For an extra entry, post this contest link on your Facebook and send me the link to your Facebook so that I can see that you have posted it on there as well.
*Lastly, sorry international friends but this contest in for US only.

The contest ends on February 20th, 2011. This should give everyone plenty of time to enter the contest.

Also, Dark Chocolate & Tulips will be offering 10% off on any purchases on her Etsy page after this contest is over. I will give you more information on that once the time comes. I am telling you ahead of time so that you can be checking out her jewelry and seeing what designs you would be interested in possibly purchasing! Good luck!

Places I ate recently, indian food and oats

2011-02-08T17:42:00.000-08:00

I had "oats in a jar" for the first time. Finally! They are good but nothing special. I think I prefer muesli. It is a good idea to use up the remainder of your nut butters though. I had organic oats, peanut butter, maple syrup, chia seeds, maca powder, and almond milk in mine.

I had some coffee, which I have been trying to stay away from lately. Turkish coffee to be exact. I love Turkish coffee. It is very strong and as thick as coffee can be as you can tell from the picture. It is made in an ibrik. I add raw sugar and cardamom to mine as well.

I was feeling Indian food lately, so I made some samosas. Here are the ingredients I used:

Samosas

Vegan phyllo dough

2 russet potatoes (cooked, peeled and cut into cubes)

1 bag of organic peas and carrots

1/2 onion (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1 knob fresh ginger (minced)

2 tsp garam masala

1 1/2 tsp ground coriander

Salt

1 1/2 tsp turmeric

1/8 tsp cayenne

Saute all ingredients in a pan until onions are translucent. Lastly, add:

4 Tbsp cilantro (chopped)
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Roll ingredients into phyllo dough. Follow directions and roll into triangles or whatever shape you want. Triangles are easiest. Bake until golden brown.

My husband and I checked out a new place called Kona Grill for happy hour. Our bill for four appetizers and one margarita came out to only $20, so not too bad I thought. Above is a picture of vegetable sushi and my husband's sushi with fish I believe. It was good, nice and fresh.

These were avocado egg rolls with cilantro dipping sauce. They had a TON of avocado in them, which I loved. They were super good. One fun fact that I learned a while ago was that most egg rolls do not contain any egg. Weird huh? Good for us vegans though!

These are the vegetarian lettuce wraps at PF Changs. They were very tasty!

These were from PF Changs as well. Vegetarian dim sum. I loved these, but they only give you three in your appetizer and I could have eaten 20!

Last recipe of the day is for lava flows. I made these on super bowl Sunday.

Hawaiian Lava Flows

*This recipe is per glass*

5-6 fresh or frozen strawberries

1 shot rum (I used Bacardi Silver)

Blend and pour in glass.

Next, blend:

1 banana

1 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 to 2 shots of Malibu original (depending on how strong you want)

Ice

Pour this into glass with strawberry mixture. Drink! I do not think that lava flows are known here in Omaha, because I mentioned it at work and no one knew what I was talking about.

(I don't use creme de coco because it has bad preservatives. Just mix a couple Tbsp of raw sugar in your plain coconut milk and it's just as good & way better for you.)

...and Rahjah is meerkatting it up, looking at Panther over the ledge from the kitchen table. Good night all and I will have information on an awesome giveaway soon!

CSN Stores Winner

2011-02-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

Winner of the CSN contest is number 7......FOOD FEUD!!! I used true random number generator. Send me your email address if you didn't already :)

Stay tuned for next awesome giveaway!

Stylish Blogger Award

2011-02-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

Thank you Viv at Vivacious Vegan for this fun award!

Here are the rules for this award:

1. Make a post & link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 10 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them they’ve won!

These are going to be totally random, but here it goes!

1. I am a hippy, minus the free love and drugs :) Everyone who knows me always calls me one. Sometimes in a derogatory way, but what do I care?

2. I cry a lot. I am very emotional.

3. Racism bothers me more than almost anything on this earth.

4. I am very shy. I get really stressed out being around lots of people I don't know and thinking that I might have to talk to them.

5. I want a pet cow so bad!

6. I am originally from Guam.

7. My mom gave birth to me at home all natural.

I would like to give this award to:

Vegan Flower

Dirty Duck

Happy Little Vegan

Vegan Fox in the Snow

Going Raw- A University Student's Experience

Sorry I couldn't give it to all of you! I wanted to do it right and give it to people I who's blogs I recently started following :)

PS- Tonight is your last chance to enter to win the CSN giveaway!

CSN Giveaway

2011-02-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

Guess what everyone? Another CSN Giveaway!!! The lovely Cailtin with CSN Stores contacted me last week. She asked if I would be interested in either giving away a gift certificate or reviewing a product, and since I love you all so much I chose the gift certificate for one lucky winner!!!

CSN Stores is a great online store that sells everything from an Eames Lounge Chair to NFL fan products to home decor! Anything that you need for your home or garden, chances are that they have it. I was also just browsing around on their webpage and they have great deals right in time for Valentines Day as well!

Now for the fun stuff. CSN is giving me a $40 gift certificate to give away to one lucky winner! All you need to do to enter is to become a follower of my blog and comment on this post letting me know you want this gift certificate. For a second chance to win, post about this contest on your Facebook and send me the link :) Also, if you do not have a blog, make sure I have a way of contacting you if you are the winner.

Contest ends on February 7th, 2011. Good luck!

Desserts & Kittys

2011-02-01T14:23:00.000-08:00

Today is my third "Snow Day" since I've been here. Regular school was canceled but the early childhood center part of school still stays open so that people who work can still drop off their kids there. So I worked a shorter day, which was nice. I just worked 8:30-1:30. I am crossing my fingers for another snow day tomorrow because if there is then I am off! I work every other snow day. The weather man is saying it might be -30 tomorrow with wind chill, so I would think that school would cancel.

For breakfast I had my regular green smoothie. This one had two leaves of organic kale (save stems for vegetable stock), one organic banana, two menjool dates, two Tbsp chia seeds, ginger and cinnamon with enough water to process. This is enough to make two small smoothies or one large one for yourself. I always make one for my husband as well, because he doesn't eat most of the food I make, but he will drink this :)

My favorite tea cup, well, one of my favorite. It has a strainer that you can take in an out. I try to drink tea daily, but I drink so many smoothies and I also try to drink water so I sometimes forget. Its better that way for me though, because before I would ONLY drink tea and coffee all day. I've been drinking a lot of moroccan mint green tea.

This was dinner last night. I had a spinach tortilla from TJ's with long red peppers, a little Daiya and homemade hummus (garbanzo beans, tahini, coconut oil, garlic & cumin) with a Bubbies pickle. I also made a smoothie for my husband and I which contained the following: organic coconut milk (no sugar), TJ's frozen mango, TJ's frozen pineapple, half an organic banana, frozen blueberries, chia seeds, organic golden flax seeds, dates and half an avocado. This was the sweetest smoothie I've had in a while, but it was so so good!

It is winter, as you all know, and winter is not a season I am accustom to or familiar with. My skin does not like winter, I found out. I've never had a problem with dry skin, but here my skin is super dry. It gets so dry that it hurts. So last night I finally took the time to make an easy bath soak to help with dry skin.

The tied cheese cloth is filled with ground organic oats and turmeric. I used a mortar to grind up my oats, but you can easily use your blender. (I chose not to because I had just washed mine.) Oats help to sooth skin irritation while turmeric softens your skin and leaves it glowing! In India, they apply turmeric to their entire bodies before a wedding to leave their skin glowing. The third thing you need is some type of milk or cream. I ended up using some of my husbands cow milk because I was out of my own milk. You can use any type of creamy milk though like coconut, hemp or hazelnut. Just be sure that you don't have skin allergies to any of the nut milks you use or you or NOT going to be happy with your bath results :) Just pour milk into hot bath along with your cheesecloth. While in the bath try to squeeze out as much juice from the cheesecloth as you can. I did notice my skin had a certain glow afterward.

Now, on to more unhealthy things. These are pretty much the easiest, tastiest and most unhealthy dessert ever! All you need is a box of brownies and Oreos. I used Dr Oetkers Organic Brownie mix from Jenny's hippy pack to me. You can use either Oreos or Newman O's. I just so happened to have Oreos, so Oreos it is! All you need to do is mix your brownie mix like normal and then fill up your cupcake cup about half way. Then add the Oreo. Lastly, fill up the rest of the cupcake cup. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Not the best picture because I was so excited to eat it. Mmmmmmmm

My husband got a donut maker for Christmas, so of course I had to try to make some vegan donuts. I used THIS recipe but just changed it a little. For the frosting I just melted down vegan chocolate chips with a little coconut milk. Pretty good for my first shot!

This is pretty much a nightly routine for Nano and Panther. They sleep all day and then are very active at night time. Which just so happens to be the normal time that us humans are trying to sleep. Panther likes to chase and bother Nano. Nano doesn't like exercise or moving of any kind.

Rahjah is laying on my husband's stomach while we watch TV with Sonic. He craves attention so much. He acts like he never gets any. Spoiled animals.

Review: UliMana

2011-01-29T18:25:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness, can I just start by saying that I love this company! That being said, Shawn and Theresa with UliMana sent me this awesome variety of samples that you see Rahjah sniffing above. When I got the box in the mail I could not WAIT to try them.

Let me tell you a bit about their products first. UliMana was started in 2005 and thought to be the first raw chocolate company ever! All their truffles are vegan, organic and raw. All the words that we love to hear! All the truffles are made from pure cacao and sweetened with agave. No soy lectin or sugar in these truffles!

Just one truffle packs some FLAVOR let me tell you! I could only eat one per day, because they are so rich and flavorful. Which is great because I usually go through any chocolate in my house so fast. This will totally ease your chocolate crave with just one truffle. I can't tell you favorite one because I honestly liked all of them equally. They all have their own unique flavor. I guess if I HAD to pick I would say either the goji cherry truffles or the dark cacao truffles. You can't even tell these truffles are raw! They are just pure raw goodness.

These truffles come in ten different flavors: H emp, Dark Cacao, Peppermint, Coconut, goji Cherry, Cacao Nibs and Mayan. The three newest additions are C oconut Nectar, Harvest Nectar and Chia Moon. I think everyone should try these UliMana truffles. Just to warn you, once you try them you will be addicted. Please visit their site and try some for yourself. Totally worth every penny! You can also follow them on Facebook HERE.

Thanks so much for the chance to review these products Theresa and Shawn. As always, I was not paid for this review and UliMana sent me these products for free to sample.

I'm done!

2011-01-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

I am done with the detox guys! It was a great experience, but I am glad to be done. Yesterday, day 4, I drank orange juice, carrot/apple, and then for dinner I had a smoothie with blueberries, banana, strawberries, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, and coconut milk. My stomach was ok with all that.

This morning I woke up with my stomach feeling a little weird. I am had a big glass of water with peppermint oil in it and some oatmeal for my first official meal off the cleanse. I ate about half my oatmeal. I got full really fast! I want to eat more, but I don't think my stomach can handle it right now.

~Org oats, org coconut milk, org peanut butter, chia seeds, blueberries and org maple syrup~

Oh, I wanted to show you all my shopping list that I had compiled while detoxing. Note to self: Do not go shopping while hungry. I walked into Whole Foods yesterday and my heart about exploded. I was grabbing all kinds of stuff! So here was my list:

Veggies & Fruits

*Avocado-guacamole & sandwiches

Jalapeno- for the tamales & mex rice

*Frozen Blueberries

*Daikon-Vietnamese Sub

*Kale

Carrots

*Apples

*Banana

Plantains?-tamales and omelet

Shitake

*Frozen Peas-for samosas

*Cilantro-mex rice & tamales & subs, etc

*Parsley

Cold section

*Bubbies Sauerkraut- for reuben & hot dogs & potato pancakes

Kimchi

Parma-Eat in the Raw-lasagna

*Vegan Cream Cheese

*Salami

*Daiya motzerella -lasagna and pasta

*Thousand Island

*Ceaser salad dressing

*Bubbies Pickles

*Puff Pastry or Phyllo Dough

Beans & Things

*Oats

Buckwheat

Sun dried tomatoes -raw refried beans

*Raw sunflower seeds

*Garbanzo-hummus

*Cashews

*Flax oil or flax seeds

*Hazelnuts-vegan nutella

Cocoa nibs or alternative chocolate

Masa organic & corn husks-tamales

Shredded coconut -Indonesian rice

Marmite or vegemite-Allotments winter vegetable recipe

Canned

*Lasagna noodles

Spatzlee vegan

*Canned beans, navy, black, garbanzo (organic & bpa free)-for beans and rice, etc

*Artichokes-pizza & salad

Canned tomatoes

Chili- for chili cheese dogs

Random

*Almond milk

*Veg margarine

Veganese

*Rye bread & bagette

Hail Merry Raw cake

I put a star next to everything I actually bought. I also broke it down in order to not have to go back and forth in the store. I know where everything is located so I sectioned everything off. I know. I am crazy. There were some isles I didn't even go down because I knew I would buy more if I did.

For lunch, a vietnamese baguette! All you need is a baguette spread with Veganese and loaded with pickled carrots and daikon, jalapenos and cilantro.

Pickled Daikon & Carrot

1 Large Mason Jar

Carrots

Daikon

Vinigar - fill jar about 3/4 full

2 Tbsp raw sugar

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp salt

Let this sit overnight at the least. The more days it sits in the refrigerator the better! I grew up eating pickled things and I love love love pickled daikon. It is a acquired taste.

Thanks for hanging in there with me for my fun journey of this detox by the way. Love you guys!

Day 3 of MC

2011-01-27T09:24:00.000-08:00

Hello friends. It is day 3 of the Master Cleanse and I am getting sick. This morning I woke up with a sore throat, bad headache and slightly nauseous. I called in sick today. It's 12 pm now and I am feeling a lot better. I have just been laying in bed and drinking my juice all morning. When I finally felt good enough to get up I made some Smooth Move. There is still stuff coming out by the way. Ew.

My husband asked me to stop this cleanse today. He doesn't like when I get sick and he knows that normally when I feel like this I start passing out and throwing up. He worries about me when I am at home alone because we have no friends here so he doesn't want anything to happen to me. He's so sweet. So I am starting the Ease Out process this afternoon. I could go until day 10 though! It is true what they say, the first two days are hardest. I am not even hungry today, which is weird for me because I LOVE eating.

My husband couldn't find any organic orange juice so the best he found was Simply Orange. I am mixing it half with water. They say that if you drink too much and don't water it down you will get a headache. I am still drinking my lemon mixture as well as my Smooth Move morning and night. Tomorrow is Orange Juice, Lemon Juice and Vegetable Broth only. Just so that you all know, aside from feeling sick, my body feels great!

Day 2 of MC

2011-01-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

*Warning again, do not read any further if you don't want to hear words like poop.*

Day 2 has been a lot harder than day 1 was. Day 1 was pretty much a breeze with hunger pains towards the end of the day. I think it was because I ran out of juice around 2:30 at work and didn't get home until 6:30. I contemplated giving up after today and just making this a two day thing. My husband has been trying to not eat in front of me as much which helps. We also have not been watching any Food Network which we normally watch a lot of together. I am drinking some peppermint tea today which is a nice change of flavor from nasty lemon juice :)

I pooped about 6 times today and it is only 2 pm. I starting reading blogs online about other people who did this cleanse and it is helping to encourage me to not give up tomorrow. On the plus side, I feel really good! I am a little tired, but not too tired. I already went through almost 2 bags of organic lemons! My mind is very sporadic. I am starting to get a few pimples and I've been very cold lately, even inside my own house. I am hoping that what they say online, that the first two days are the hardest, is true. If so, I will keep going tomorrow:)

*Side note- I MIGHT try the salt water thing tomorrow morning. We'll see.*

Day 1 on MC

2011-01-26T06:26:00.000-08:00

Yup, that about sums it up for me! Except I AM doing the laxative part. Don't read any further if you don't want to hear a little "too much information." With my friends, I am known as the queen of too much information, so they just expect me to say random things at any given moment. So, yesterday, I drank my laxative tea in the morning "Smooth Move" and had the same tea the night before. I prepared myself by waking up an hour early for work in case I had to go to the bathroom. I would say yesterday I had a "BM" as we write on the toddler sheets at my work, at least 7 times. That is like....a world record for me!!! It was hard though, because working while doing this cleanse has its challenges. Plus I am super shy about going number 2 in public but with this detox, you have to! Last night my treat (hah treat) was Chocolate Smooth Move tea. It's basically the same as the Smooth Move original but I think it adds cacao nibs. My husband sat next to me while we watched our shows on tv and ate chicken and rice, so that didn't really appeal to me. My brother was making spaghetti upstairs and kept offering it to me like a jerk. I would say that today I was totally fine except for when we had to serve lunch to the toddlers at school, which just so happened to be almost ALL vegan that day. I was so mad. Oh well, it's all for a good cause!

The morning of day 2 is upon me. I am up bright and early making my juice and tea for the day. I make my lemon juice with VERY minimal cayenne pepper. For some reason, too much gives me a headache and I can't afford to have a headache while working. Being a teacher gives you a headache in itself. That's pretty much all I got for today. I will keep keeping you all updated. Thanks for all your encouragement!

Master Cleanse

2011-01-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

So...I am attempting, key word attempting to start the master cleanse tomorrow. I tried it once before when I was not vegan yet and addicted to coffee. After not even a day, I got an extremely bad migraine. I am thinking it may have been my body going into withdrawal over coffee. Needless to say, I didn't even last a day. It's embarrassing really. I am hoping that now that I am vegan, my body won't go into a super withdrawal. Also, I don't like lemonade. Pray for me guys, pray for me. If any of you have done the cleanse with success any tips or encouragement would be great! I will try to update you as I go. That is...if I go...I especially need tips on getting the salt water down in the morning. For those of you not familiar with the cleanse, here it is in short:

In the morning: Down 1 liter of water with 2 teaspoons of unionized salt water.

Throughout the day: Drink your lemonade mixture every time you feel hungry. The recipe is the following-- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, 2 Tbsp grade B maple syrup, 1/10 tsp cayenne pepper & 8 ounces pure water.

At night: Drink a laxative tea like Smooth Move. You may also "cheat" and drink an herbal non-caffeinated tea as well. Just to change it up.

Hippy Pack Number 4 & Spring Rolls

2011-01-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

This morning I had some Moroccan Mint Green Tea to start off the day.

Also had some lovely oatmeal. I added dried cranberries, golden raisins, chia seeds & maca powder.

I had some pomegranate for a snack while watching documentaries all day. I like documentaries, I don't know about you guys. Today I watched the Earthlings (horribly sad movie, but I wanted my husband to see it), the Gerson Therapy & the Beautiful Truth. All are well worth your time to watch! If you have streaming Netflix the last two I mentioned are streaming.

Hippy pack time!!!!!! This is my fourth or fifth hippy pack exchange so far. It's something fun that I invented :) This hippy pack was from Jenny over at Vegan & So Forth . I got so many awesome things I don't even know where to begin!

This was from her daughter. How sweet huh? Jenny you can show your daughter that I have this hanging up on my fridge now :)

Here's the loot! Organic brownie mix, unbleached eco friendly muffin cups, chickpea fritatta mix, organic jelly, an awesome soy pine scented candle and holder, two different types of organic tea, hazelnut butter, superfood mix, candies, vegan bubble gum & plant lollipop!

This was so cool I thought. It looks like a lollipop but it's a parsley plant! Isn't this just the coolest idea?? I can't wait to plant it! Where did you get this Jenny? This is a good gift for my coworkers during Christmas or Valentines Day even :)

My husband already claimed the soy pine candle. He LOVES pine scented candles. This is already lit in his bathroom as you can see. Thanks so much Jenny for all the great things in my hippy pack! I hope you enjoy yours as much as I enjoyed mine!

Zuchini in my Spiralizer. (I cut my finger pretty bad trying to clean the blade.)

Here is the veggies all cut up and ready to go in the spring rolls. Here we have organic golden carrots, organic zucchini, avocado and mint. The mint looks weird because I had it in the freezer.

Here is the final product that we had for lunch with some peanut dipping sauce that I made.

I only have $20 left to last me the next week and a half until payday, so what better to spend it on then fresh veggies! I bought two bags of organic carrots and I already had some oranges and lemons in the fridge.

I bought two bags of organic apples. We need these for juicing. I also got myself a glass tupperware for work lunches since my schedule recently switched from part to full time so now I need to bring lunches. If anyone else wants to do a hippy pack I'm down, but it'll have to be spaced out as I don't have any money at this very moment:) Have a great nights rest for work tomorrow everyone!

Gerson Therapy aka The Cure for Cancer

2011-01-16T14:44:00.000-08:00

Have you guys heard of this? I just watched a documentary on it and read about it online. It is amazing! I copy and pasted the information from the website.

The Diet:

The Gerson diet is naturally high in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, micro-nutrients, extremely low in sodium and fats, and rich in fluids.

The following is a typical daily diet for a Gerson patient on the full therapy regimen:

Thirteen glasses of fresh, raw carrot/apple and green-leaf juices prepared hourly from fresh, organic fruits and vegetables.
Three full vegetarian meals, freshly prepared from organically grown fruits, vegetables and whole grains. A typical meal will include salad, cooked vegetables, baked potatoes, vegetable soup and juice.
Fresh fruit and fresh fruit dessert available at all hours for snacking, in addition to the regular diet.

Medications:

All medications used in connection with the Gerson Therapy are classed as biologicals, materials of organic origin that are supplied in therapeutic amounts.

Potassium compound
Lugol's solution
Vitamin B-12
Thyroid hormone
Injectable Crude Liver Extract
Pancreatic Enzymes
Enemas of coffee and/or chamomile

Detoxification:

A very important part of the Gerson Therapy is frequent detoxification of the tissues and blood. This is accomplished through a variety of means, first and foremost through the use of coffee enemas.

The scientific basis for the use of coffee enemas is well documented, and can be obtained from the Gerson Institute. Patients report that the enemas decrease pain and hasten healing. Biologically, enzyme systems of the gut wall and liver are stimulated, and bile flow is increased. This has been shown to enhance the body's ability to eliminate toxic residues from environmental, chemotherapeutic, and other sources.

Tumor and other diseased tissue is also more rapidly eliminated as it is broken down.
Other means of detoxification include castor oil, used as an additional stimulant of bile flow and as another way to enhance the liver's ability to filter blood. In addition, digestive enzymes serve to enhance absorption of nutrients as well as assist in the elimination of damaged tissue.

Info from: http://www.gerson.org/GersonTherapy/gersontherapy.htm

Eating Out or To Go

2011-01-15T09:57:00.000-08:00

We went out for breakfast a couple days ago at Garden Cafe, and I think this was all they had on the menu I could get. I was fine with it though, because I like oatmeal in the morning. This oatmeal was pretty plain. It came with raisins and brown sugar on the side with a banana. My favorite part of it was the pan it was served in. *Just a reminder, it's always good to ask your server if the oatmeal is made with milk or water. Most places make it with water, but some use milk.*

I have a bunch of lemons that I haven't been using and don't want to go to waste so I had a little lemon water. I zest the lemon and squeezed the juice out into my water. Lots of vitamin C.

My husband and brother wanted pizza the other day, so we stopped at Papa Murphey's by our house. According to Yelp, the crust and tomato sauce here is vegan. I got the medium pizza with tomato sauce, zucchini, artichoke and garlic. It was really good! The guy who was making the pizza was so confused. He was like, "Sooooooo, no meat right? And no cheese either?" Yeeeeeees, that is what I ordered :) So he started making the pizza, and my husband has designated himself as the inspector of my food to make sure they get it right, because I am always too nice about it if they make it wrong. Lucky for me, he was watching them well this time. The worker making the pizza, made it WITH cheese. Go figure. Fudge, my husband, kindly told them, "Excuse me, but she doesn't want cheese." The guy remade the pizza correctly and we were on our merry way.

You guys know that I love my plants! I have missed having plants and fresh veggies and herbs since moving here. Since it is winter here I have not been able to start a garden yet. I was able to get this parsley to grow fairly well inside my house near my kitchen window though!

Here is my basil. It is slowly making its way upward.

Last night, my husband surprised me with taking me to Omahas ONLY all vegan restaurant! It was about 7 pm by the time we got there, so I apologize for the quality of some of the pictures. This place is called Daily Grub. They have sopes, soups, sandwiches, sweets and drinks!

They have very simple decor, but I really liked this place.

I decided to get the Banh Mi which was a Vietnamese sub sandwich on baguette filled with daikon, carrot, cucumber, mint, cilantro, slices of marinated tofu and ancho cashew cream spread. I meant to ask for no tofu, but my husband wanted to get home and asked for me to get it to go, so I was kind of in a rush. He told me to get two sandwiches so I could try out two things here so I also go the Hummus Sandwich. This sandwich had hummus, cucumber, romaine and roasted red pepper on toasted baguette with salad or chips.

I ate this one last night. This is the Banh Mi. It was so so good! I love daikon! Thanks babe!

PS- Today is day 1 of going "poo free". I have tried it once before in Hawaii and my hair got so greasy that I had to quite. I am giving it one more try in this climate here. We'll see...

Snow Day Eats

2011-01-11T14:40:00.000-08:00

The last two days have been "snow days" here in Omaha. I work at a school who has an all day center including before and after school care. We are open almost every holiday and open on snow days. I love those little boogers though.

Greeness

1 Banana

4 Collard Green Leaves

1 Tbsp Chia Seeds

Ginger

Cinnamon

Water to incorporate

Thanks Ali for the recommendation on the ginger and cinnamon :)

I wanted to show you guys this because this is what I have to work with in Omaha for healthy eats. We went out to eat one morning for breakfast. My husband got the breakfast buffet. I looked the menu over and this was about it if I didn't want anything fried. So I got the toast & oatmeal combo with coffee. It was good, but not really what I wanted.

Lunch today I stopped at Wholefoods after work and got some mango & blueberries pre sliced.

From the hot food bar, I got the potato & pea samosas, pineapple rice and some type of bean polenta.

Dinner a couple nights ago I made some fresh vegetable soup. I put way too much beans.

Dinner last night was red quinoa with black beans, avocados & tomatoes. For the quinoa, I cook it in my rice cooker just like how you would cook rice. After it is cooked, I add coconut oil & lots of basil!

Next, I soaked the organic dried black beans in water overnight. In the morning, I poured fresh water inside and threw it in the slow cooker. I let it cook all day on low.

Lastly, I chopped up an avocado, a tomato and half an onion. Mix all that together. Then add a few cloves of chopped garlic, fresh organic lemon juice, Himalayan salt and pepper. Mix that together with the avocado mixture.

Layer your quinoa, black beans and avocado mixture and top with nutritional yeast.

Snack was a pear

My wonderful friend in Hawaii sent me some Hawaiian tea for Christmas. I really like it!

Sonic looking out the window at the snow and other doggies walking by.

Question: What is a food, beverage you will never ever give up?

Mine used to be cheese, but look at me now all grown up and vegan.

Peanut butter noodles & raw chocolate cake

2011-01-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

Today's breakfast was a collard green shake. I didn't get a picture of it though. I added blueberries, bananas, collard greens, hemp seeds, chia seeds, spirulina, maple syrup and enough water to incorporate.

I also had some lovely red pomegranate. Pomegranates are so good for you! They help to prevent different types of cancers, illnesses and heart attacks! They are also packed with antioxidants!

Isn't it beautiful? I think avocados are so beautiful.

Lunch was Sesame Ezekial Bread with sliced avocado and nutritional yeast.

My husband took me to Trader Joe's and I picked up a few things. I got 2 batches of bananas, organic sugar, almond meal, vegetable pasta, sweet chili sauce, organic marinara sauce, thai green curry sauce, mango ginger chutney, cocoa powder, organic peanut butter and medjool dates.

We got these to try. I MUCH prefer fresh pineapple.

This stuff on the other hand, I LOVE! There is a thai brand I use to buy in Hawaii but haven't seen it here yet. It's so good! I used this in my peanut butter noodles for dinner.

Thai Peanut Butter Noodles

Coconut oil

1/2 sweet onion

3-4 cloves garlic

1 inch sliced ginger (more or less depending on your taste)

1 can organic coconut milk (I used light, regular is better for creamier though)

1/4 - 1/2 cup plain organic peanut butter (more or less depending on taste)

4-5 Tbsp sweet chili sauce

Himalayan Salt

Pepper

Basil leaves

1/2 package Thai rice noodles

Precook rice noodles and set aside. Saute onion, garlic and ginger in a little coconut oil. Add coconut milk, peanut butter, salt, pepper and sweet chili sauce. Add a few fresh basil leaves last. Once everything is blended together well, mix in noodles. Serve with peanut on top if you wish. I ate mine with some fresh cauliflower and broccoli.

I made raw chocolate cake for dessert. This is a shot of the cake before I added the frosting.

Pretty Much Raw Chocolate Cake

1 cup chopped dates

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp vanilla

Himalayan Salt

1/2 cup cocoa powder (cacao nibs are best but more expensive)

1 1/2 cups almond meal (Trader Joe's carries this and it's fairly cheep)

1/2 cup cashews (that have been soaked overnight in water to soften)

1 cup shredded coconut

Blend together all ingredients. Add water, just enough to blend.

Frosting:

1/2 cup cashews (presoaked)

1/2 cup macadamia nuts (presoaked)

1 cup canned organic coconut milk

1/8 cup organic agave

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp vanilla

Himalayan salt

1/2 cup melted coconut oil

1 Tbsp psyllium husks

Blend everything except last two ingredients. Add coconut oil and psyllium husks last. Blend. Let this sit in the refrigerator for an hour before adding to cake. After it sits, frost cake and then add sliced bananas. I really enjoyed this cake, but my husband didn't prefer it. He is picky about this kind of thing though. I already ate three pieces since yesterday! Give it a shot guys.

I got this recipe from the Sunny Raw Kitchen, but just changed it a little :) Please visit her blog as well.

~Goodnight my friends~

PS...

Thanks Rose!!! I love it :)

Fat Day

2011-01-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

Breakfast was a very interesting smoothie. It was pretty much everything I needed to use up in my fridge. I put blueberries, strawberries, spinach, avocado, cucumber, hemp seeds, chia seeds, almond milk, maple syrup and UDO's dha oil. My brother took one look at it and said...it looks like concrete.

Grapefruit & Agave

Ezekial Sesame Toast with bruchetta and nutritional yeast for breakfast.

We tried out a new place near our house for lunch. This is where the "fat day" began by the way. It's all you can eat and I stuffed my face. This is broccoli, yam, zucchini and mushroom tempura.

Avocado maki of course. I also had some yam/avocado maki which was really good!

This was dinner. I thought I would give it a shot. It was pretty creamy and cheezy!

Next up, I made this harvest mix soup that my husband bought for me. He neglected to see that the ingredients included beef base though. Fortunately for me the spices came in a totally separate ziplock on top of the jar. That went in the trash quick. I added my own spices, just some rosemary, oregano and thyme.

Here is my fat indulgence of mac n cheeze with catsup and harvest soup with tabasco. Is my period coming soon? I guess so.

I figured I needed something healthy with dinner. This kombucha brand has a good flavor, but I still prefer Synergy over Unpeeled.

I had fully planned on making some raw chocolate pudding but it turns out that I am out of bananas. Great. Well, I guess that will be in my next post! I already have the chia seeds soaking in the fridge since yesterday, so just a quick stop at Trader Joe's tomorrow and I will be set to go!

McFosters Natural Kind Cafe

2011-01-02T16:54:00.000-08:00

Check it out guys! I got this new app on my phone that lets me do fun stuff with the pictures. So my husband took me to McFosters today, one of my favorite restaurants in Omaha. I started off with some fresh juice. I got apple/spinach/beet. It was very good, very sweet and a beautiful color.

Here is my husband with his juice. He was kind of forced to get juice by me :) He got celery/beet/apple. He really liked it!

I got the falafel sandwich. I was pretty tasty! It had fresh greens and pickled radish inside with tahini sauce.

Here is a new kombucha that I tried today. Pretty good flavor. The only disadvantage this brand has compared to Synergy is that not all the ingredients in this one are organic. I really like kombucha. It makes me feel good after drinking it.

This is all I am having for dinner so far tonight. I am not super hungry, nor am I in the mood to make something. I might have a sandwich later, but for now I am just going to have some pom and blackberries.

I made this a few days ago but never posted it. I had been craving puppy chow for some reason.

Vegan Puppy Chow

4 cups rice chex

4 cups wheat chex

1 cup vegan chocolate chips

(my husband bought me carob chips on accident but it turned out ok with them.)

1/2 cup peanut butter (no sugar added)

1 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup Earth Balance

1 tsp vanilla

Microwave or melt in pot butter, chocolate and peanut butter. Mix in chex. Slowly add powdered sugar and vanilla last. Eat!

Jan 1, 2011, wow...

2011-01-01T16:20:00.000-08:00

Breakfast shake today was a combination of organic almond milk, almond butter, chia seeds, organic maple syrup and ice. Not very thick, but it had a good flavor. Note to self: Buy bananas.

Later on I had some apple/zucchini juice. Very tasty!

I like this picture because of Rahjah's leg sticking out :) Panther had just woken up here.

Dinner was sushi. I know, they don't look great but this was only my second try at this so give me a break! I put rice, hummus (that I just made a huge batch of today), organic cucumbers and organic avocado in these. They would have been better with soy sauce, but I am trying to lay off that now.

Dessert was some Rice Dream and red wine. I don't particularly like Rice Dream, but it is what I have at the moment and I need to finish it off before I buy some more of my favorite which is, of course, Coconut Bliss.

Now for my New Year Resolutions:

No soy. Or at least limit my soy intake to very rare occasions. This is hard too coming from the islands, we use soy sauce all the time. I have heard so much contradictory things on soy lately. Some say it's this amazing food and other say it causes all kinds of problems and diseases. One thing that seems to be universally agreed on is that people who regularly eat soy have a higher risk for breast and prostate cancer. That is enough to make me not want to eat or drink it anymore.
Dry brush daily. Skin is our largest organ. Dry brushing helps to detox the body and improve circulation among other things. Read about it HERE.
Do my devotions daily. I have been slacking on this big time. I need to have a stronger relationship with God. "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."
Be a better wife. Nag less, love more :)
Eat less processed things and more whole foods like vegetables, beans, and fruit.
Lastly, try to convert one person to veganism. Wish me luck on that one. I am hoping either my mom or sister. I would LOVE for my husband to go vegan, but it has to be his decision not mine.

Lastly, I have a question: What are your guys thoughts on agave vs. stevia? Right now, I use agave. I tried growing stevia in Hawaii and my dog knocked over the plant before it had a chance. Once it's summer here I will try to grow it again possibly.

Happy New Year Poi Balls

2010-12-31T14:39:00.000-08:00

Before we left Hawaii I bought four of these since I knew there was no way we would be able to get poi in Omaha. For those who do not know, poi is taro. If you still have no clue what I am talking about click HERE. That will explain it. Anyway, this is what I used to make my poi balls.

I posted this picture on facebook and one of my aunties said, oh mushrooms? I didn't even think about it but they do look just like mushrooms! They are suppose to be in ball form, but oh well. This is what my husband requested for New Years, so here it is!

Poi Mochi Balls

1 bag poi
1 cup Sugar
1 + 1/4 box Mochiko four
2 cups Water

Mix poi and sugar until smooth. Add Mochiko and slowly mix while adding water. Continue adding water until batter is consistency of thick pancake batter. Drop by spoonfuls into hot oil. Fry until golden brown. Ta da!

I have been cleaning all day and stopped to finally eat a bite of food.

Apparently, I was being very rude eating in front of people and not offering any.

The pictures are blurry because Sonic is so hyper and moves so quickly. My cutie pie. I don't know what my resolutions will be, but when I do I'll let you all know. Everyone please have a happy and safe new year!

Hawaiian pancakes on a cold day

2010-12-29T10:35:00.000-08:00

Here's my usual green smoothie. I think this one had kale, apple, avocado and chia seeds. My husband hated it, so I drank it all.

Rahjah, the inquisitor had to make sure this was safe for consumption.

Here are the Hawaiian pancakes. They are basically like crepes, but without the cream filling. I had an old recipe that I had to veganize and they turned out just lovely.

Hawaiian Pancakes

4 egg replacers (I've been using Ener-G)

1 cup flour

1 1/3 cup unsweetened organic almond milk

1 Tbsp organic agave

1/2 tsp vanilla

Pour all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. I normally whisk it to make it very smooth. The smoother the better! Pour about...a tennis ball size of batter in a hot pan on stove. Move your pan around so that the batter spreads all over the whole pan. I normally use a small pan that is the size of a large pancake. Cook on one side until it bubbles, flip it and serve! I eat mine with Earth Balance and Grade B Organic Maple Syrup, my fav!

This was lunch yesterday. I bought some garbanzo bean flour the other day and wanted to try it out for making some hummus. Not so good. I don't think I have the consistency right yet. I will let you know once I get a good recipe. I don't like to post recipes on here unless I reallllly like them :)

My parents gave us a gift card for Panchero's Mexican Grill, so we went the day after Christmas. I got the burrito bowl without sour cream or cheese. It was pretty tasty. It's so funny the looks I get from the employees at some of these places. They are like, no meat OR sour cream OR CHEESE!!

This picture wouldn't let me rotate it. Oh well. We went to Blue Sushi last night near our house. I got the vegetarian lettuce wraps minus the yogurt sauce. These were really good! I love the peanut dipping sauce!

Sonic looks so innocent doesn't he. He's tricking you.

This was his new toy he just got yesterday from Costco. I wish I could show you about 5 minutes after he started chewing on it. There is cotton all over the floor and couch now. Thanks so much Sonic. He loves to shred his toys.