Vegetarian Grilling: Vegetable Tofu Skewers

Reblogged from The Crunchy Journal:

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One of my go-to dinners for summertime is grilled veggies. There are so many great vegetables to choose from and they taste amazing over an open flame. As summer winds to a close and fall puts that nip in the air ... I can't help but want to wander out to my grill and give it some more love before it's too cold to use it.

Read more… 309 more words

This sounds perfect for a hot day like today! I've been grilling a lot of veggies lately, now I can add some protein with the tofu!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Hello Friends!

Today’s Post will be short and sweet.

Where I am, we are smack dab in the middle of planting season and I am loving it! I have never been a big gardener before; we tried a few small things last year but nothing to the extent to which I am trying this year.
Then, last year I read this great book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This is a wonderful book about a family that makes a vow to themselves to only eat what they can grow themselves or get within a 100 mile radius (within reason) of them.
This book inspired me to try to grow a lot more of my own food. I’ll talk about my own gardening next time but I wanted to tell you about this book today. Check out the book’s website and think about it.

Can you tell me where your food comes from?

Talk to you soon and Happy Reading!

Natural Fabric Softener

Reblogged from The Crunchy Journal:

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Okay, I admit, dryer sheets smell awesome but, they are bad for us:

US National Library of Medicine: Respiratory toxicity of fabric softener emissions: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10872633

Since I'm not a scientist or doctor - you can read that abstract or google your little heart out to find out why they are so bad.

So what's our option to those toxic sheets of anti-static magic?

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I tried using vinegar as my fabric softener this week and it totally works!! And your clothes don't smell like vinegar either. I will definitely be continuing to do this!

Eco Emi

Hi Everybody!

 

So earlier this week I talked to you about the KlutchClub box I received, well I signed up for another sample box and it’s here! This one is pretty girl, sorry guys…..if there are any of you reading this ha-ha! This box is geared toward all-natural and vegan and vegetarian, cruelty free kind of stuff, which is right up my alley. It’s not as big as the KlutchClub box but its still full of fun products to try. It’s called Eco Emi. Here we go!

 

In this month’s box is:

 

1)      Oluv Care by. OluvSkin-a salve made from estate-cold-pressed, 100% extra virgin olive oil, medicinal herbs, raw unfiltered shea butter, virgin coconut oil, unfiltered bee’s wax and lavender essential oil. (I already tried this on my elbows, which have been so dry they have been itching and burning, and one day later they feel so much better! And I’ve only used it once so far!)

2)      Dahlia Crème Eye Shadow by. Lauren Brooke Cosmetiques- these crème eye shadows are infused with an organic vanilla scent (the nice thing about this program is you tell them all about your eye color and hair color and skin coloring, so this eye shadow is the perfect color to go with my brown eyes!)

3)      Dead Sea Mud Mask- this mud removes excess oil and dead cells from the skin surface (can’t wait to try it during my next relaxing bath!)

4)      Moisturizing Hair Milk by. Shea Radiance- VEGAN moisturizing hair milk, it softens, detangles and eliminates frizz (again customized to me, they sent me one that is for wavy curly hair)

5)      Unscented deodorant towelettes by. Crystal Essence- crystal infused biodegradable towelette. (perfect for on the go, throw one in your bad for after the gym, or for one of those over 100 degree days since summer is coming)

6)      Organic gluten free guacamole dip by. Simply organic- I think this is pretty self-explanatory lol, just mix it with avocados

7)      Organic hemp shine lipstick by. Colorganics- clear lipstick to use alone or adds shine to any lipstick (living in the dry climate that I do, I am a chap stick junkie so I am LOVING this!)

8)      Comforting geranium mineral bath salts by. Aura Cacia- aromatherapy mineral bath salts (can’t wait for my next relaxing bath to try these out!)

 

Do you belong to any sample box clubs?

 

Thanks for reading and Happy Sampling!

KlutchClub

Hi Readers!

I am very happy to say that my life will calm down quite a bit here in just less than 3 weeks when I graduate with my bachelor’s degree!!! So I am super excited for that. Hopefully after that I will be a lot better about posting more often ha-ha.
Something new I just discovered and have fallen in love with is sample box memberships! These are awesome boxes that for usually about $15/month you can get a box of sample products shipped to you to try out. I just received my first box this week from KlutchClub. It is geared toward healthy and fitness oriented products. They have boxes geared toward both men and women, which I think is fabulous! Here is what I got in my first box:

 

1) Fresh feet wipes-they are antibacterial, 99% natural, and alcohol free. Great for after a night at the club in heels or after being out and about in flip flops.

2) Orgain organic nutritional shake- world’s first USDA organic, ready-to-drink, complete nutritional shake

3) BlueprintBar- 100% raw and organic bar made from fruits, nuts, and nothing else

4) Celsius Acai Green Tea drink- a negative calorie drink for your active healthy life that has been clinically shown to burn up to 100 calories and provides lasting energy

5) DailyBurn 2-months membership- an online fitness site that has workouts tailored to different fitness goals

6) Speed nutritionals qspeed fast melts-sugar-free tablet formulated with naturally fermented coenzyme Q10 (also known as CoQ10) ***this is the only sample I’ve tried yet, but I love it! It actually tasted good as it dissolved on my tongue and it helped me get through an entire INSANITY workout with almost no breaks, something I have NEVER accomplished before and this was after a few crazy school weeks where I had eaten nothing but junk food for 3 weeks and not worked out once. This product gets 2 thumbs up from me.

7) Nature’s gate herbal body was- vegetable based body wash with skin smoothing herbal extracts

8) Ziggy Marley’s coco’mon & hemp rules- coconut oil (to use in cooking) and roasted hemp seeds (to eat, I’ve never had hemp seeds before, this will be interesting ha-ha)

9) Crunchmaster Crackers- crunchy gluten-free crackers made of toasted seeds and multi grains

10) Coupons to go with the products so if I like them I can purchase more at a discounted price.

I’ve only tried the one thing so but I loved it, can’t wait to try the rest!
The link is up top where it says KlutchClub is you want to take a look.

Comment and tell me is you belong to any sample box programs and what you think of them.

Thanks for reading and happy sampling!

Charity Miles

Hello readers!

Happy Easter! I hope you all have a lovely day, I woke up to some beautiful rain so I am a happy person. Today is also day 1 of a challenge I gave to myself to watch no TV all week! (except for a workout video or two) and to only check Facebook 3 times a day maximum. I am a total Facebook junkie so this will be good for me. So far its going great I have gotten so much done this morning! I feel so productive ha-ha. That being said lets get to the real content of this post; last time I talked to you about running and a great app called Couch-to-5k, which I still love! I ran for 20 straight minutes on Wednesday! Woohoo! Today I am going to tell you about an app that I use hand in hand with Couch-to-5k, its called Charity Miles. It earns you money while you walk, run, or bike for the charity you chose at the beginning of your run. To date, I have donated 1 bed net to help a child not get malaria from mosquitos and fed 5 hungry people. Its amazing to be able to help someone while doing something good for yourself. If you have a smart phone I urge you to get this app and start helping people! Also it will help get you off the treadmill and get outside because it tracks you through GPS so it wont work on a treadmill…..I don’t think.

Check out the App and tell me what you think!

Thanks for reading and Happy Donating!

 

Running

Hey guys!

For me, part of a balanced life, is excercise. Ever since i read the book “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” when i was in middle school, i have wanted to run and love to run like the character Bridgette. She talked about it so passionately that i wanted to feel that too. Now i tried a few times to learn to love running and it never worked. I would jog until i got a side cramp and was super out of breath (which was all of 2 min, if that) then would walk until the cramp went away and try again. After maybe 3 rounds of this i would give up.

I even registerd for a 5k last december, then my friends who said they would run with me backed out for various reasons (no hard feelings) and i ‘trained’ all of once before the race. Race day came and the race was postponed due to weather. The next sunday i got food poisening the night before so i never ran the race, not that i would have been able to run it anyways.

A 5k was still a goal of mine but i didnt really know how to train myself in a way that i would stick with it. Then i found this great smartphone app called couch-2-5k that takes you from not running at all to the start line of a 5k! It is wonderful! Today i just finished week 4 day 3 (its three workouts a week) and i am loving it! I am actually loving running! And my body is getting stronger and the running is getting easier. I cant wait to cross the finish line of my first 5k on June 23, 2013!

Tell me how the app works for you and when your first run will be

Thanks for reading and Happy running!