If
you haven't cooked with Swiss Chard, I suggest you do it this summer!
It's delicious! I'm embarrassed to say I had never cooked Swiss Chard before a couple of years ago, but after I did, there was no turning back. The leafs are very thick and don't look like they would be very good raw, like in a salad.
First, I cut up an onion, 2 carrots and some garlic. I sauteed these in some bacon drippings until they were tender. (I love bacon drippings. I'm like my grandmother, I save it every time we cook bacon!)
I then added some chicken broth and put in the finely chopped red stalks of the chard. I cooked these until they were tender and lastly, added the leaves and cooked them until they wilted! I added some crumbled bacon, lemon juice and topped it with Parmesan Cheese.
The result was amazing! I felt like a chef indeed! I absolutely love the subtle zingy taste of the chard. It is a great addition to any meal!
Some of you know I have a Border Collie named Evee! She is quite like my child and definitely
part of the family.She likes to play
tug-of-war, fetch, catch, and go on long walks, both on and off leash. She is an amazing Frisbee catcher and loves to
show off her skills.She loves to hear
the oohs and ahhhhs when she leaps off of the ground and catches the Frisbee mid-air.She is
a bit finicky and doesn’t like to share very much with other dogs or with
children.Each of my three youngest
nephews has had a little run-in with her because they have gotten into her space a
little too quickly.She requests, no she
demands, respect from those who interact with her, especially those she feels
dominant towards.And by respect, I mean to not get too touchy-feelie too quickly, especially around her nose and face, don’t
take her toys from her unless you have that confidence that she wants you to, don’t tease her with food
and don’t play with her food dish while she is eating.To her pack she is a protector, a nurturer, a companion
and a child.She knows I’m momma.
When I heard there is a company called The Magic Zoo that is passionate about
creating pieces of quality jewelry that depict animals, I was very
intrigued. I love all kinds of
animals and I feel kinship with many of them and felt that I would love many different kinds of animals in a piece of
jewelry.But what did I do first when I
visited the website?I looked to see if
there might be a border collie piece.Why?Because I love my dog!And yes, there was a sterling silver border
collie pendant, which I ordered.
When I received the piece, I was impressed because the
artist captured the Border Collie at rest.The ears flopping down, the content smile on the face with the tongue
slightly out, and the stripe down the nose.I loved it!Don’t have a border
collie?No worries, there are 46
different dog breeds depicted on the site.Also, I heard through the grapevine that the artist, Merry Rosenfield,
loves to work with her customers to make the perfect piece.She is very accessible.I
actually had a question about her most popular animal pieces and she personally
responded, telling me that the guinea pig pieces are super popular.People must really love their guineas! It makes me want to have a guinea pig as a pet...The most popular dog order is the Yorkie
puppy, another really sweet and popular pet!
But there are so many more animals depicted with jewelry at
The Magic Zoo!There are farm animals,
pocket pets, sea animals, butterflies, cats, reptiles, and insects.The materials used are sterling silver,
enamel, pewter, gold, and bronze.There
is a metal for everyone and a price for everyone.
About the Artist:Merry Rosenfield has been fascinated with animals since her childhood
and now has meshed her art talent with her love of animals.She has animals represented from all around
the world.She states, “My dream day
would include creating new animal designs from early morning until I couldn’t
keep my eyes open at night.”You want someone who is that passionate about their work doing
work for you!
If you love animals, and want to express that with the very
fashion you wear, you can count on Magic Zoo to help you make the statement beautifully.Animals are beautiful--why not make them a
part of what makes you unique? Make a lasting tribute to your favorite animal with a unique piece of jewelry! If you had just one choice, what animal would you want to pay tribute to?
Disclaimer: I received product for the purpose of review. All thoughts and experiences are mine!
Here is my diet cycle.Sound familiar anyone?Day 1 – I’m
so motivated. I've got a vacation, events, and cute clothes to wear and I'm going to take advantage of it by being 10 lbs. lighter! This is the day I will
pull myself out of the quagmire of diet failure! I start out with a healthy breakfast.I know that it’s important to start out with
a good breakfast! Gotta keep that energy up!2 hours later, however, I start
to feel hungry and my stomach starts to feel a little growly.I go in and grab a healthy sized
healthy snack, telling myself I will watch it at lunchtime.It’s definitely not too late, I've got this!Lunchtime comes and I’m feeling hungry
again.I look at what my co-workers or
my husband or the people on the Food Network are eating and I don’t want to be
deprived, so I get myself an extra helping of something plus another food
item.Alright now I’m feeling a little
apprehensive about the future of this first day of the rest of my life. C’mon, let’s not make it like all of the rest
of the days I failed!I swear to myself
that I will definitely have to watch it from now until bedtime.Evening comes around and I’m watching my
favorite t.v. show.I can’t watch t.v.
without feeling a bit hungry, which I am.It’s been 5 hours already.I feel
deprived but yet at the same time I tell myself I should be careful.I eat a full dinner.In front of the t.v.Day 1 – Epic Fail!!!!
Day 2 – I don’t eat breakfast, in fact, I don’t eat until 2
pm.I hop on the scale again, after this
morning’s initial eye-popping number to
validate that this was a great idea.Sure enough, I’ve lost a lb. from this morning’s dismal reading.Great!It’s a good thing, ‘cause I’m hungry.I look in the freezer and there sits a carton of my favorite ice
cream!Tillamook, you are a bad, bad
company because before I know what’s happening, I dish out 3 large scoops of
Mudslide.Ha!But I’m being smart.I put in a half cup of Oatmeal to up the fiber count!And hey, that’s all I’ll be eating until
right at 7 pm when I plan to have a healthy green smoothie and call it a
night.
At 3 pm I realize that I
committed to bring food for our women’s group summer get-together.It’s going to be salad with a chicken option
and desserts.I tell myself I will just
have the salad and a tiny bit of chicken for the protein.When I get there, it looks amazing! The food
is delicious and conversations are lively.I look around and I am not, by any means, the biggest gal in the
room.It makes me feel more at ease and
so, I sample all of the entrees and many of the desserts.I leave realizing that I have just failed
Day 2.
But there is a ray of hope.After my 4th of July food fest, I found the motivation to do a little
less eating and a little more exercising and so this morning I was right at my
ready-set-go weight.It is 15 lbs. above
what I’d llke to be, but not as bad as it could be.Of course I've already repeated my Day 1 pattern.However, I do know something that breaks my
cycle of epic diet fails.
Appetite Curbing Foods. I
recently wrote about barley being very good at suppressing the appetite because
it makes you feel fuller longer.It
really does work!Another thing that is
a great substitute for the ice cream that somehow I feel like I need in my life,
is an appetite suppressing shake.It needs to have natural ingredients and it needs to make me feel full,
as well as satisfy that sweet-tooth dairy craving I have. It's the craving that makes me buy ice cream even
though I know I’m kidding myself when I tell myself that it will only be eaten
in small amounts and will last for at least a fortnight. I will eat every last bit of it in less than a
week.
I know appetite
curbing foods work because I was successful at replacing certain trigger foods
that are high in calories--low in staying power.And that is why I’m not any heavier than I am
right now.I just need to have a lot of
it on hand. And that is my commitment.
Trusted Health Products carries some amazing natural facial care products that I love.Now they have
finished developing and have released their newest product.It’s called Shake The Crave, an all-natural meal replacement/snack.The name says it all.I like it because it’s 120 calories of high
protein, great- tasting goodness!You
can mix it with whole milk, 2% milk, almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk, etc.
depending on your preference.I really liked the taste of both the chocolate
and vanilla!They taste great, not like
some kind of yukky diet drink.And it
does keep me very satisfied until it’s time to eat.It’s got 100% organic natural ingredients.Here is the ingredient label for the
vanilla:Organic Non-Fat Dry Milk,
Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Coconut Powder, Organic Ground Vanilla Bean,
Electrolyte Blend (Potassium Citrate, Calcium Chloride, Sodium Bicarbonate,
Sodium Sulfate, Potassium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride).Allergen information: Contains milk and coconut.
At only $40 per canister, allowing for 2 shakes per day for
one week, the cost boils down to $2.67 per day.Not bad, you could break an energy drink habit, a diet coke habit, or a
candy bar habit for that amount, replacing it with something amazing for your
health!Right now you can get a free 2
sample package for just the cost of shipping, which is $4.95 U.S.It’s a great way to see for yourself whether
or not you can succeed at your goals, especially if you have
unwanted food cravings!
disclaimer: I received sample products for review purposes. All opinions and experiences are my own.
I’ve been
interested in cooking with different grains lately for health reasons, but also
for diversity. We recently rediscovered
cracked wheat cereal and it’s not as terrible as I remember when I was a kid. My cute mom would try to make us eat it, but to no avail! The mistake she made with that was to have a
variety of cold cereals tucked neatly into the cupboards. What sugar-infused kid wouldn’t
prefer the artificial rush of manufactured cereal over cracked wheat? We were
good at holding out, that’s for sure! I've wondered what other kinds of grains are out there that I haven’t tried, but want
to now!
I’ve chosen barley as my grain du jour and
will be focusing on some recipes here for the next little while.
For one thing, barley is a natural appetite suppressant, keeping you
filled up for up to 16 hours, while being tasty and nutritious. As someone who loves to eat-- and
eat a lot--this would be a great weight control tool! I know from first-hand experience that while
it is hard enough to practice portion control when feeling satisfied, it is
virtually impossible when hungry!
Barley has
the most fiber of all the grains, which is why you stay feeling fuller,
longer. It may also have anti-diabetes
and anti-obesity actions. Basically, it
is eaten like rice, except it takes longer to cook. Hulled barley is the best, because it has
the tough outer shell taken off, but is still not processed other than that. It’s also best to soak it overnight unless you are cooking it for a long time.
I made a Bean and Barley soup in the crock pot that was really tasty and super easy! It had Parmesan Cheese, bacon and lots of veggies.
I actually utilized the rind on the cheese, which is naturally salty, to give it a bit more flavor. Also, because it's summer, I put my pot outside on a bar stool because I don't want the extra heat inside! That's why it's called Summer Bean and Barley Soup! Put the pot inside and it becomes Winter Bean and Barley Stew! See how that works?
Adding the rind to the mix!
Ingredients
1 cup
multi-bean mix or Great Northern Beans, rinsed and soaked overnight.
½ cup barley
3 cloves
garlic, smashed
3 medium
carrots, roughly chopped
2 ribs
celery, roughly chopped
½ medium
onion, roughly chopped
1 bay leaf
4 tsp. dried
Italian herb blend
Salt and
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 14-ounce
can whole or diced tomatoes with juice
¼ cup freshly
grated Parmesan
1 Parmesan cheese
rind
Optional: 4
- 5 crisp bacon strips, crumbled, Hot n' Spicy All Purpose Seasoning
Mixture before cooking and adding water
Directions
Put beans,
barley, vegetables and seasonings and cheese rind into a crock pot. Add 6 cups water, cover, and cook on high
until the beans are tender and the soup is thick, which could be 6 – 8 hours.
1 hour
before done, add the tomatoes and stir well.
Just before serving, add the Parmesan and the crumbled bacon. If you have any Hot 'n Spicy All Purpose Seasoning, you can put that on and it really makes the flavor pop! I use Spike. Serve
with a crusty bread and salad. You'll stay full for quite awhile!
I called my
sister the other day to catch up and talk about her upcoming visit in
July. I mentioned some things I've noticed myself doing lately, like telling my husband I can only do a certain
number of activities in one day, choosing and agreeing upon which ones we do. I can’t just go, go, go until we run out of
time or money. Because before that happens, I
will run out of energy. Her
response was humorous but true, “We’re getting OLD!” She said it in a kind of disbelief, as if our
mortality has sneaked up on us and we didn’t even realize it. Of course, I’m not ready to say I’m old
because of the negative connotations.
I
believe that being mature, however, is a great compliment – things like coming to terms
with life, having experience on a variety of fronts, wisdom, etc. and so forth,
and so I’m going to refer to myself as "mature" (although I'll be the first to admit I'm like a teenager in some ways~I like to drive fast and I love Bruno Mars, for instance!).
Of course
another sign of maturity is the wrinkles that come a-callin’. I have found that there is the commercial way
or the natural way to treat them. I use
a little of both. (e-mail me and
I’d love to share with you what I am currently doing!) But right now I’d like to discuss some of
the benefits of natural ingredients in the care of your skin.
Natural
ingredients can be either home-grown in your garden, obtained at a health food
co-op or they are sold by companies that combine and formulate natural ingredients as the sole active ingredient or in exclusive formulations.
Here are
some natural skin remedies I’ve found to be good:
1.Cleansing with oils. I didn’t start the Oil Cleansing Method until last year and
I’m so glad I did. When I was a teenager
I cleansed with soap. When that became too drying, I used foaming cleansers
until they too, became too drying, at which time, I switched to the creamy cleansers.
It wasn’t until just this last year that
I started using oils and washing it off with a hot washcloth. It leaves my skin feeling moist and not tight-feeling. Suggested oils are Castor Oil, which is slightly drying,
but the best bargain for cleansing and dissolving and it is a natural antibacterial!
Mix it with other oils like avocado, apricot kernel oil or Argan oil (all
excellent for mature skin). Mix them
together, for instance 1/3 part castor oil to 2/3 part any other oil. All you do is mix them in your hand, apply to
a moistened face, leave for 30 – 60 seconds, steaming optional, and remove with a hot
washcloth. Ahhh…..feels great!
2.Easy Natural Remedies From The Kitchen – There are so many of these, I’m
sure your grandma had her own kitchen beauty secrets but here’s a few that I
know:
Put the last bit of leftover egg white from a cracked egg under your eyes
now and then and watch the wrinkles disappear. You can soak cotton pads with buttermilk and pat it on
your face. Let it dry for 15 minutes then remove
to refine your pores. Mayonnaise can be used as a mask or even a night
cream to relieve dry skin! (If you can stand the smell!)
3.Rosehip Oil – This versatile oil has been touted
by some as the next Coconut Oil!
This oil is full of viatmins, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids
that are known to correct dark spots and hydrate dry, itchy skin, all the while
reducing scars and fine lines. Try to
get cold-pressed because it has all of the unaltered nutrients. The oil absorbs directly into the skin and
one only needs a very tiny amount for it to be effective! I use a few drops a few times a week.
4.Combination of ingredients – To keep up with scientific studies
on natural compounds and oils, companies are constantly formulating
combinations of these ingredients to make the ultimate natural beauty
product. I really like the Vitamin C
Serum made by InstaNatural.com, combining Vitamin C,
Ferulic and Hyaluronic Acids (known for exfoliating and brightening skin),
Aloe Vera and Vitamin E. It really does
a great job for a fraction of the price you’d pay at a department store!
Going the natural ingredient route is a great way to know what is in your beauty products, but even with that being said, make sure that you're not getting more in them than you bargained for, such as strange preservatives. Also please watch out for anything made in China. I am really leery of products coming out of China because so many times, upon independent testing, toxic ingredients are found to be in those products. Not always, but be careful!
I've had fun sharing some of my natural beauty routines. Have your own fun and find the natural ingredients that make sense for your beauty routine!
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