Crack Juice (AKA vegetable juice) Is My New Best Friend

My juicer came in the mail the other day...ohhhhhhmygod.

I purchased the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth Juicer.  It's a middle-of-the-road juicer, coming in at about $60.00.  For a beginner like me, that will do.  Some day I'll spring for one of those fancy ones, but this will do the job for now!

I have to say, I'm officially addicted to crack juice.  Yah...that's how you'll feel after one of these bad boys.  Maybe it's all in my head, but I felt like a friggin' rockstar all day after juicing some fruits and veggies first thing in the morning.  I literally had more energy, was in a better mood, and managed to stay up past 10:00pm!  Crack juice is where it's at, ya'll!!

You'll find my recipe below.  But seriously, just buy a ton of fruits and veggies and juice that 'ish.  You'll feel amaze.


Recipe:

2 salad cucumbers
1 Fuji apple
1 red beet
2 carrots
1 handful of spinach
3-4 mint leaves
1/5 of a pineapple


A few side notes.  Try to keep sugary fruits to a minimum.  I am trying to stick with apples, lemons, limes, and small amounts of pineapple.  Surprisingly, beets and carrots add a lot of sweetness naturally, so those are great alternatives.  Secondly, juice on a empty stomach.  Absorption is best at this time and you'll avoid any heartburn that might occur when you juice after a heavy meal.   

Go on and get your juice on, peeps!   
  

 

 

 

 

Cheers!!

 

Cloth Diapering

Despite being an Organomama, I never really considered cloth diapering for Dylan. I am not sure why. I think I was overwhelmed by figuring out how it worked, or scared to touch poo or something. Because I never touch poo on Dylan’s disposables…right?! Well I finally got the full lowdown from two of my beautiful friends, Joanna and Brandy, and I have to say I am sold! We spent a fabulous morning together, watching our babies roll around in a pile, and talking all about the (strangely fascinating) world of cloth diapering!

I think I’ll just let them do the talking. But first, a brief introduction: Joanna and Stella (5 months), and Brandy and Raleigh (7 months)!





Here goes. I warn you, it’s a LOT of info. I couldn’t bear to cut down all the great deets they provided. I figure if you’ve decided to read on, you care about this crap. (literally)  

The Green Monster

'Ish got weird this weekend.  REAL weird.  And by weird I actually mean awesome.  My 4th of July festivities started on the 3rd and ended....well...today.  The last seven days have included fireworks, a wedding, boating at the lake, a road trip, a concert, a few country drives, and probably thirty adult sodas.  Oh, and throw in about ten red bulls in there too.  Oops.  Sorry for partying.  Despite eating mostly organo all weekend, my bod is still in shambles.  It's time for some major damage control.

I headed to the grocery store and loaded about fifty pounds of produce and other goodies into my cart in hopes that the nutrient bomb would cure my week long vodka head.  I'm a smoothie freak (see last smoothie post) so I bought tons of items to throw in the blender and go.  Here was my grocery list:

•  spinach
•  frozen blueberries
•  bananas
•  frozen mangoes
•  apples
•  kale
•  avocados
•  frozen papaya
•  frozen raspberries
•  frozen strawberries
•  frozen pineapple
• Greek yogurt
• OJ
• green tea

I got home and decided that I needed to make the greenest smoothie possible, because that was obviously going to reverse an entire week of poor decisions....right?  Well, I whipped up this little guy and was pretty freakin' impressed.

Below are the ingredients for this bad boy:

• 4 oz. organic OJ
• A ridiculous amount of spinach ( just dump a ton in there so you can feel smug about yourself )
• 1/2 cup of fat free greek yogurt
• 1/2 banana
• 1 cup of frozen papaya, mango, and pineapple ( I bought this sweet combo in a "tropical" frozen fruit mix )

Blend. Chug.  Pat yourself on the back for taking this green monster straight to the face.  This smoothie is honestly SO good.  And it blends into a freakishly neon green color which is pretty sweet too.  I recommend starting out your day or ending your day with one of these guys.  What are your favorite smoothie recipes?  What fab ingredients do you add to make your smoothie amazeballs?

Oh, and I'll leave you with a little evidence of the weekend's shenanigans....gah!

I wear my sunglasses at night...

Cheers!

All Natural: What Does That Even Mean?!

I'm about to information bomb you with some mad facts on the differences between organic, all natural, natural flavorings, etc.  To be honest with you, I'm kind of a bozo when it comes to these terms, as I honestly thought they were all the same until recently.  Little did I know, "all natural" ingredients can be anything from bug guts (aka carmine - see my previous blog post) to wood pulp (aka cellulose) to beaver butts (aka castoreum).  The last one was so vile and almost unbelievable that I had to get the lowdown.  Castoreum, labeled as a natural flavoring on food packages, is quite literally the yellowish secretion of the castor sac in combination with the beaver's urine, used during territorial marking out in the wild.  Here in the USA, the FDA has considered this "natural" additive to be GRAS (generally recognized as safe).  It is mainly used in food and beverages requiring a vanilla flavoring.   So a beaver's ummm...byproducts...smell like vanilla?! Well hot damn, you learn something new everyday, don't you? 

I gotta say, I have a little bit of creepy vanilla anxiety now.  I mean, what am I going to put in my coffee?  Clearly not my Natural Bliss creamer!  Gah!  Let's be serious, I'm a die hard carnivore, but I'm not trying to have beaver in my beverage.     

Dear KRAFT: I Hate Your Guts

Hey Kraft...I think you need to go pound salt.  Why, you ask?  While the GMO-filled science experiments that you like to call food generally are reason enough to make me see red, your most recent advertising gimmick takes the cake.  Speaking of cake...check out the ingredients in the brand's Jello-O, Cool Whip, and Jet Puffed Marshmallows. SICK.  I just vommed up my spinach smoothie.  I digress.

I read an article the other day written by one of our favorite bloggers, The Food Babe, who also shares our distaste for certain elements of Kraft.  She wrote an article on GMO's lurking in their mac & cheese so I immediately started stalking Kraft's website and other sites to get more information on the creepyballs ingredients in the rest of their products.  While doing my research, I came across their newest marketing scheme.

Kraft has come up with the "County Time Great American Lemonade Stand-tacular."  Basically, parents are urged to enter their kids into Kraft's contest for the ultimate lemonade stand, and Kraft will donate $5 for every entry to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for child cancer research.  Check out the details here.  Decent enough idea, right?  There's just one little problem here.  County Time lemonade is creepy chemical water, and promoting your kids to not only drink it but sell it is disgusting!  So, let me get this right.  You want kids to drink chemicals, genetically modified ingredients, and processed food dyes, but then want to donate to cancer research?  Really, Kraft?  What ever happened to lemons being in lemonade? If I'm not mistaken, it can be made with water, LEMONS, and good old fashioned sugar.

So, when life gives you lemons...take out the lemons and add maltodextrin, sodium acid pyrophosphate, magnesium oxide, calcium fumarate, soy lecithin, artificial color, yellow 5 Lake, and tocopherol?  YUM!





I WANT REAL LEMONADE, MOM !!!!!!

 Unfortunately, we live in a society that values convenience over health.  Is it easier to dump chemically bombed "lemonade" powder into some water and call it a day?  Probably.  Are those few minutes saved really worth it?  I sure wouldn't want to deal with that little lady above.  That's just scaryballs.

Ditch the fake stuff and make some DIY lemonade next time.  Ain't nothin' like the real thang!  Here is a VERY simple recipe:

8 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of lemon juice
1 3/4 cups of white sugar

*I like to add honey too.  I don't measure.  I just pour, taste, and add more if necessary*


Cheers.

Smoothie Love

I'm a smoothie kind of gal. I'm all about nutrient bombing my food, and smoothies are one of the easiest ways to do that!  I'm also convinced smoothies are THE hangover cure.  You best believe these guys are in my belly every Saturday...Sunday...and ummm *cough Wednesday cough* morning.  Stop with the judging eyes!

After one particularly boozy Friday night in Charlotte, I got my life together the next morning and headed to Lauren's in hopes that this delish little guy would cure my vodka head.

The miracle ingredients are listed below:

• Organic Spinach (get as much of it as you can in there!)
• 1/2 Avocado
• Organic Frozen Blueberries, Mangoes, and Raspberries
• 4 oz. 50% Reduced Sugar OJ
• Flax Oil ( a tablespoon or so)
• 1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 Banana
• Ice
• 1 Packet of Stevia
• 4 oz. Green Tea (I usually steep two tea bags and let it chill in the fridge)

To be honest, I don't measure the amount of fruit I put in.  I throw in enough to fill the entire blender.  If you're feeling rebellious, you can experiment with what fruits you enjoy most.  Sometimes, the blender is so full that I have to mix it down so that the concoction has room for more ridic ingredients.  


Does this smoothie not look ridicballs?!?!

Don't be fooled, I'm still wearing my clothes from the night before.

I understand it looks like mud.  Who cares? It tastes friggin' phenom. 

Get in my belly!

I want to give ya"ll a little disclaimer.  If you're used to smoothies from Jamba Juice or any of those other WHACK places, these smoothies will taste a bit different to you.  That's because they DON'T have artificial sugars or any other mystery ingredients.  You can also remove the green tea if you're not down with caffeine (ummm...who are you?!) or simply don't like the taste.  Nevertheless, WHOLE FOOD smoothies are amaze.       

All in all, If this smoothie doesn't rock your socks off then you are whack balls.

I'm interested in what your favorite ingredients are.  Have you found any magic ingredients I'm missing? 

 
Cheers!

The 80/20 Rule

Here at OB we’re all about balance.  We’ve spent the last couple of years transitioning into a more natural and organic lifestyle, and we are loving it! However, we’re human, and they don’t make organic red bull!  A philosophy I’ve always tried to stick to when it comes to health and fitness is the “80/20 rule”.  If 80% of what you eat is wholesome, organic, and/or nutrient rich, then go to town on the other 20%!  I’ve put together a little list of my 20%.  What's yours?

The 4 things that ain’t goin’ anywhere:

1)      RED BULL:  As stated before, Hell is going to freeze over before I give up that 8oz. bottle of pure heaven.  We’ve had a love affair for ohhhh…6 or 7 years now, and I see no end in sight.  Is it loaded with chems? Yep.  Do I give a damn? Not for a second.

                                 

                                       

2)      SUAVE DRY SHAMPOO:  I’ve switched most of my bathroom products over to their natural counterparts, but this is one I’m just not willing to get rid of.  Lauren and I douse our hair with bleach on a monthly basis, so it’s not exactly in our best interest to wash our hair daily.  This is a MAGICAL product.  Flip your hair upside down, spray the roots, and boom! A salon blowout in seconds.  Thanks to SDS I can go a good 4 or 5 days without a wash.  Dirty, huh?!

               
                                                    

3)      TACO BELL:  I know…it’s the worst of the worst. Grade F meat.  It’s also the love of my life.  I’m not a drunk TB eater.  I’m a 10:55am, waiting in the parking lot because they don’t open until 11am, kind of TB eater.  Nachos Bell Grande gives me all sorts of crazy emotions I’m not sure how to handle.  However, I have had to tell TB lately that we may need to take things a little slower and probably not see each other 5 days a week anymore.  But we can be friends with benefits, right?!     

                                       

4)      SOUR PATCH KIDS:  These little guys have rocked my world for as long as I can remember.  You know it is love when you eat something until the entire first layer of your tongue is gone. 

                                         
                                          
                                                   

These are just a few of the vices that I'm not willing to part with.  Vices are good!! They keep you sane.  On that note, I'm going to broil my free range chicken, roast some organic sweet potatoes,  and then I'm going to consume one...or 5 RBV's.  (Red Bull Vodka, silly!)  It is Sunday Funday after all!


Cheers.