Chemicals Are Making Us Fat by Jessica Ainscough

I love her honesty at the beginning - both about her own vanity and the sad truth that most women aren't motivated into health unless it does affect their jean size.  Read on peeps and see a short list of dangerous chemicals in products you use every day.

http://www.thewellnesswarrior.com.au/2012/09/chemicals-are-making-us-fat/

FDA At It Again.

Anything pure, wholesome, natural and God-given is a target to the FDA.  They will not be happy until all our rights are stripped away and we are a docile, drug-laden herd of Americans.  News articles like this one:

http://wholenewmom.com/reaching-out/fda-to-ban-natural-supplements-in-us/

are all over the net.  Everyone is trying to do their part to ensure that the FDA cannot continue robbing us of our freedoms and choices.  They do not decide what is best for you or me to put into our bodies or what we decide to use to heal ourselves.  I like this blog because she does her homework and she's included ways to get in touch with our 'government' and let them know how we feel.  I've signed more petitions this last few weeks than I have in my lifetime.  It's so vitally important that everyone get educated, become aware of what's going on and what the FDA's evil plans are and, most importantly, GET INVOLVED!!!!  Please take a few seconds to scroll through and see what you can do and I recommend signing this petition:

https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=833

Watermelon Bowl

Check out my snack:

Awhile ago I was curious if there was a better way to cut up a watermelon - one that didn't take half my life and wasn't so messy.  I got on YouTube and was very happy with the first video I clicked on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPBdMonan20

I love that this older guy is up with the technology and posting videos on YouTube.  I don't even know how to edit videos...I'm sure it would be easy if I just decided to learn how.  But I don't and he does so I think he's cool.  

Anyway, I had this mini watermelon and I cut it using the fancy new way I learned and went outside to enjoy the sunshine, ate my melon out of it's 'bowl' and read a good book.  Yay!

Don't be fooled by all the media coverage falsely saying that organic foods are no healthier than conventionally grown foods. It's simply not true.  Here's a little article about GMO's and why you should care about the labeling Proposition 37 going on right now.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/09/04/whats-gmo-and-why-should-we-care

Broccoli: Eat It!

Always A Better Way

I just read this article published today over at Natural News.  It's just one more example of how God created everything we need to take care of ourselves naturally.  We live in an age of knowledge and information...we just need to be able to sort out the right stuff.

http://www.naturalnews.com/037063_vitamin_B3_superbugs_infection.html#ixzz25Vcarlkg

Ps.  You'll notice in the article how the government's recommended level of B3 is way lower than need be to fight off infection...just as it is for Vitamin D and probably every life saving vitamin/mineral.  This is to keep you sick, folks, so that you stay in need of Dr. visits, antibiotics, drugs, vaccines and surgery.  It's way more profitable than sunshine and B3.

Will We All Be Forced To Be Vegetarian?

Speaking of leaving our world a better place...

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/will-we-all-be-forced-to-be-vegetarian-by-2050/#

I'm a religious person and my religion tells us to eat very little meat, only in times of winter or famine.  There are great many reason for avoiding meat, both health and environmental.  I encourage all my friends and family (and anybody who may read this little blog of mine) to consider eating less meat.  And who knows?  From there you may decide to cut it out completely. I did - and I never thought I'd see the day!!

Plastic Bottle Wall

This is so sad!  We all need to be aware of our choices and the effect we are having on our planet!  We have to make changes and leave this place better for our children and their posterity.

http://www.startribune.com/local/yourvoices/167725245.html

Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry

I urge you to read this article!  Urge, URGE I say!!  It doesn't matter if you already know that food processing is bad for you - this shed a little more light on some subjects and I learned some things I didn't know before (the behind the scenes aspect).  Read it, my friends and be enlightened.  As I've said before, ignorance is not bliss :)

http://www.foodmatters.tv/articles-1/dirty-secrets-of-the-food-processing-industry

Vegan Smash Cake :)

My little baby turned 1! It was an exciting and fun celebration for us.  It was also a little crazy on my end because I wanted him to have the smash cake experience but I didn't want him to have any of the cake!

I contemplated doing just a vegetable or fruit, such as an apple.  I researched raw desserts like crazy but, as raw desserts always have nuts as a base, I didn't want to take the chance of some sort of nut reaction.  Now, my baby up until about 1 month ago, has been exclusively breastfed.  He hasn't shown much interest in food until recently and so now we have introduced foods that we can give him that are as much in their raw natural state as possible - specifically fruits.  Out of curiosity we let him try something (now I can't remember what it was) other than fruit or veggie and he didn't care for it.  So with that in mind, I decided to make him a cake because I didn't think he would have any interest in putting any in his mouth anyway.

I actually did two different recipes.  One for his 1 year pictures and one for his birthday party.

I ended up going with a vegan carrot cake recipes that didn't have any sugar in it.  

In this picture, I used the 'Single Lady Cupcake' recipes called Five Minute Carrot Cake from Chocolate Covered Katie.  Her desserts look delish and I thought this carrot cake would have a super cute look paired with my kiddos outfit.  As expected, he didn't care to eat it, he only cared to swirl the stuff on the ground with the candle :)   I used Coconut Milk frosting instead of some vegan soy crap.  I had to do a bit of experimenting with that one, too and I'll have another post on that.

For his big birthday bash I made him a big smash cake.  Although in hind sight I kind of wish I wouldn't have worried about the cake itself since I already knew he wouldn't eat it and just worried about what was on top.  Instead I worried about both.  

For this cake, I used a recipe found on this blog.  I made a little variation and used the rest of my spelt flour instead of wheat flour and I made it into a cake using a round cake pan instead of going with the cupcakes.  I  wasn't too impressed with the taste though (I stole a bite after the smashing was done - hence why I wish I wouldn't have worried about having actual cake under that frosting - it ended up being a waste).  I was, however, super happy with my raw chocolate icing found on one of my favorite raw dessert websites, The Rawtarian.  You can find this particular recipe here and I liked it a lot because it was so simple and made with ingredients I already had on hand. It's creamy and has a dark chocolate taste which normally I wouldn't care for but Husband and I wanted to keep on licking. It also spread incredibly easy. 

Again, my baby wasn't too into smashing.  He was a little curious but I think he has a thing about getting super dirty!  He had to have help from some kiddos to get a little dirtier :)  I thought he would actually like eating this frosting because I let him lick a little off the spatula when I made it and he was really into it.  However, when I helped him out and put some in his mouth, he gagged.  Not the first time he'd done that but   I promise it wasn't because the recipe sucked cuz it didn't..or doesn't!

Hopefully someone else finds this information a little useful.  :)