Author: Lindsay Ingalls

Review: Pure Sweets

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Pure Sweets is an organic, gluten-free, vegan, kosher bakery in Philly.  A few months ago I contacted them about doing a review and the sent me a few items to try which include one of their crisp bars –The Ladybug, a flourless cookie- The Ape, a trio of mini macaroons- The Poodle  and a bag of trail mix- The Camel. Neil and I enjoyed everything so much that we ended up placing an order for a few more goodies for ourselves and an order of mini macaroons for our babyshower.

For ourselves we ordered:

  • The Kitty: Organic citrus cardamom cookies made with organic citrus fruit. We both really loved the flavor of these cookies but unfortunately they didn’t travel so well and ended up having a strange consistency.  I blame the heat and humidity we have been having here.
  • The Kid:  Organic brown rice crisp bar topped with organic peanut butter, organic blackberry preserves from Italy and organic single-origin dark chocolate. After loving The Ladybug we had to order another crisp bar and let me tell you that this one was even better! Neil and I both wished we had ordered two because it was really hard to share (we fought over the last bite).
  • The Bat: Organic single-origin chocolate macaroons peppered with organic cayenne. This was one of my favorite macaroons.  It was chocolately with just a mild hit of spice.
  • The Sphinx:  Organic rosewater cardamom macaroons. These macaroons were really great, such an interesting flavor.  We both really liked them but after trying a number of other flavors at the shower they ddin’t end up being a favorite of ours.  Tip: Crumble and add to vanilla coconut yogurt with sliced strawberries- so good!
   
   

For the shower we ordered:

  • The Sphinx:  Organic rosewater cardamom macaroons.
  • The Elephant: Organic cashew butter macaroons with organic caramelized nuts. This was my favorite of all the macaroons that I tried.  The caramelized nuts really made this so delicious.  I plan on ordering more of these soon!
  • The Owl: Organic salted almond vanilla bean macaroons. This one was good but you can get it dipped in chocolate and I think that would have made it even better.
  • The Panda: Organic single-origin chocolate chunk macaroons. I didn’t actually get to try this one (sad face) but Neil did and he absolutely loved it!
  • The Poodle: Organic lemon lavender macaroons.(I just checked my order and this one must have been snuck in by the good people at Pure Sweets) These are my second favorite ( The Elephant being my first) of all the macaroons. The lemon and lavender is such a great combination.
Pure Sweets photo shoot at our baby shower featuring father-to-be Neil and our friend Laura
   

Other things I love about Pure Sweets:

  • They donate 5% of their profits to charity.
  • The “bonus” details that are included with their products–> example The Poodle: Bonus: immune booster, 60 calories per macaroon.
  • Their products are organic, vegan, gluten free and kosher.
  • They have an amazing and personable staff to work with.
  • I also love that they offer gift boxes and wedding and other favors.
Disclosure: I purchased the reviewed items from Pure Sweets. All opinions are honest and my own.
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If you haven’t stop over to our family blog, Naturally Family, then head over now and Meet The Family.  We have been discussing this weeks pregnancy ups and downs, our baby bucket list and my labor and deliver fears.

Recipe of The Week: Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

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On Saturday we were at the farmers market and we tired strawberry-rhubarb juice we fell in love. We liked it so much that we ended up purchasing the ingredients at the market to make it again ourselves.

Fast forward to Sunday night. I have had a major craving for a fruit crumble and then it hit me strawberry-rhubarb crumble would be amazing. So our juice ingredients quickly became the ingredients for a crumble. I started on the crumble and sent Neil out to the store to pick up some vanilla coconut milk ice cream- because really how can you have warm crumble without ice cream?

Since this would be my first time ever using rhubarb I searched around the internet until I found what seemed to be a good recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble.  I finally came across this recipe from Willow over at Will Cook For Friends.  Her recipe is vegan and gluten free, but because I was out of gluten free flours I decided to just make mine vegan and used all purpose flour.  I also cut the recipe in half and used coconut sugar instead of granulated sugar, otherwise I followed the recipes ingredient list and directions.

The result was a delicious crumble! It was a little sweet for me but overall it was delicious.  We even had a little extra filling leftover (because we couldn’t finish our bowls) and we used it last night as a topping to our vanilla coconut milk ice cream.

Weekend Wrap Up: Showers and Dates

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How is it Monday already? We had such a busy weekend that I could use another day just to sit around and do nothing!

Friday we had our midwife appointment in the morning and then headed off to our designated jobs before meeting back up for dinner at American Flatbread. After dinner we headed to Neil’s Studio 54 themed work party for a short time but ended up leaving after being evacuated from the party tent due to severe thunderstorms.  We managed to get a little bit of socializing in and a session in the photo booth but unfortunately a certain soaking wet pregnant lady did not want to stand around the safety shelter and wait for the storm to pass so we didn’t end up returning to the party and missed The Village People (yes the REAL Village People), oh well!

Saturday we woke up early and made our way down to the farmers market where we made our first stop at the juice bar, which is new this summer and is our new addiction. We decided to go with two different juices to share, the minty lemonade and the strawberry rhubarb, both of which were really delicious.  We also picked up a load of veggies for the week including garlic scapes, greens, strawberries, herbs and radishes.

After the market it was time to head home and get ready for our baby shower!

After the shower we headed home to re-open all of our gifts and get them somewhat organized in the nursery.  After that we decided to have a date night out at Babies’R’Us and dinner.

Sunday we headed out to another market which wasn’t great but we did end up seeing our juice bar friends again and this time I ordered up a Green Energy and Neil a Runners Remedy.  After the market we picked up a few groceries and headed home for lunch before walking down to the beach, where we spent most of the early afternoon.

After spending a few hours at the beach we walked home and decided to use our free passes to the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center. We decided to pay the extra and visit the special Our Body exhibit that is going on until September.  Our friends raved about it and it was pretty amazing.

(Source)

After ECHO we weren’t ready to head home yet so we stopped down by the waterfront to sit and have a drink and a snack before heading home to relax on the couch and eat strawberry-rhubarb crisp.

How was your weekend?


{Pregnancy Update} 35 Weeks

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35 Weeks 2 Days

How far along are you: 35 Weeks!

How big is the baby: Your baby doesn’t have much room to maneuver now that he’s over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it’s so snug in your womb, he isn’t likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he’ll spend the next few weeks putting on weight. (source)

Baby’s Gender: We both think it’s a boy (most of the time although this week I think it’s a girl).

Baby’s Name: We have a name for a boy or a girl–> we actually are stuck on two different girl names, decisions, decisions.

Weight Gained: 25 lbs

Clothes: Shirts are getting shorter. Pants are getting more uncomfortable. Mostly wearing dresses.

How are you feeling: I am feeling pretty good. A little tired. A little cranky. A little hot (it’s been 70-80’s).

What do you miss: I miss sleeping comfortably. Beer. Running.

Symptoms: ,

Cravings: Extra large salads.

How are you sleeping: Sleeping was going pretty well but this week not as good.  I am up more often and I have been waking up in the middle of the night or super early.

Workouts: This week I went to yoga Tuesday and have been doing lots of walking!

Things I’m looking forward to: Our baby shower which is tomorrow! Finishing up at my office job (only 15 more working days).  Post-baby shower shopping for the things we want to get before the baby arrives.

In other news:

We are still on track to launch Naturally Family on June 4th  JUNE 11TH but until then check us out of Facebook and Twitter.

We still haven’t been able to tour our birthing center which is making me pretty nervous.  I called yesterday about touring but it wasn’t a good day for them.  Hopefully next Friday when we go down for our appointment we will be able to.  Update: We still haven’t been able to tour the birthing center.  At our appointment this morning the entire birthing center was full!!

Also at our appointment this morning we discussed the worst case scenarios for two different reasons I might have to have a c-section.  The first of which is the emergency c-section, which after hearing their protocol/procedures around this left me feeling a little traumatized and I burst into tears (I blame the pregnancy hormones- I just couldn’t stop myself!).  The second was the “we’ve tired absolutely everything but you aren’t progressing” scenario which results in a much more calm transition to c-section than the emergency.  I already knew the reasons for a c-section, that there is always a possibility and the general info on how it works but it was really overwhelming to hear what could happen to ME. Luckily our birthing center/hospital as a 16% cesarean rate which is half of what the national average for c-sections.

Next week is my Strep-B test which I am nervous about since 25% of women have Strep-B and if you do it is highly recommended that you be on antibiotics during labor and birth. Did you pass your Strep-B test? If you didn’t did you have the antibiotics or take the risk?