Review

Business Before the Party

4 Comments

This day started bright and early with a wonderful session on my yoga mat:

Hope Aurorae Yoga Mat

Considering I had a huge day ahead of me I decided that I needed to enjoy a healthy yummy breakfast. This morning I enjoyed miso soup, whole wheat toast and I attempted to enjoy some melon from our CSA but it as just awful.

I made myself some lunch which was good minus a little failure; I made a mesclun salad with chickpeas, raisins and heirloom tomatoes. Raisins a little old and were supper sugary and secondly I HATE MESCLUN MIX. There I said it. I have tried to like it but it just isn’t going to happen. With my chickpeas and tomato salad I had a dijon balsamic dressing and had some dried mango and Mr. Krsipers on the side.

Dressing: 1t agave, 1t dijon mustard, 1t hemp oil and 3t balsamic

For dinner I made some grinders (aka heros, submarine sandwiches) for the Hubz and I which had sauteed onions, peppers, fennel, vegan sausage, tomatoes, lettuce, dijon mustard and Nasoya vegan mayo.

Grinders with squash "fries" and a few crackers

Nasoya sent me a coupon for a free jar of Nayonaise so I tried fat free Nayonaise.  I honestly never was a fan of Nayonaise when I have had it before but decided since it had been years since I last tried it that I would give it another chance.  Honestly though the consistency and the flavor just isn’t very great.  I find that Vegenaise is much more similar to what I remember as mayo. So I have to say this was a sample fail for me 🙁

Q: What is your favorite vegan mayo?

Tomorrow starts my Birthday Weekend! On the agenda:

  • Spa Treatments
  • Shopping at Target
  • Dinner with Friends
  • Homework—yeah I know, I know

How Do You Like Your Almond Butter?

6 Comments

Over the last few years I have becoming an almond butter addict.  It is amazing on so many things such as:

Between Bread with Jam

In My Overnight Oats

In My Banana Soft Serve

On top of My Oatmeal

In My Raw Cookies

And the Best way to eat Almond Butter is Straight out of the JAR!

As you probably saw earlier this week launched the OpenSky Lunch Box Project where a dollar from select items will go to help this charity. “The Lunch Box provides schools with free, tangible tools to transform school lunch from highly processed foods to made-from-scratch meals using nutritious, fresh ingredients. It contains tools for real change including school-tested recipes with nutritionals and training tips, financial modeling guides, budget templates, downloadable, customizable calendars, and training videos.” Source

In honor of this amazing charity and my love for almond butter you can now find Artisana Almond Butter in my OpenSky shop and  for every jar sold from now until September 7th  $1 will be donated by OpenSky and I will also be making a donation for every jar sold as well to The Lunch Box Project.
Buy Now

GREENLICIOUS

1 Comment

I am so excited to show off my new Greenlicious t-shirt to you all! This green t-shirt is eco-friendly and has a wonderful vintage feel and great fit.  I am always nervous about ordering clothes before trying them on but I was assured that the shirts fit true to size and they really do. The shirt is soft and fits nicely against the body.

To tell you a little more about the HUMANWEAR, the company behind this shirt, I interviewed the Jellie Stanton the founder:

Q: Why did you choose to partner up with OpenSky?

I believe that OpenSky is a great new e-commerce platform for introducing innovative products to those who follow bloggers that they share common interests with and respect.  I’ve bought products myself based on recommendations from bloggers I follow.

Q: What is the inspiration behind the different shirts that you offer?

It all started after watching the documentary “Go Further” where Woody Harrelson and a group of friends take a road trip to demonstrate ways to be environmentally responsible.   I decided that I was going to become really involved in the green movement, just like they were hoping to inspire.

My desire was to form a company that would create the “greenest” t-shirt possible, that met the conditions of being stylish, really appealing colors that could be found in nature, with light-hearted yet thought-provoking messages, and was affordable.

Q: Besides making green t-shirts what other environmentally responsible practices does your company do?

We use recycled paper for our hangtags and gift cards and offer really cool recycled wrapping paper.  We also ship in recyclable boxes and buy carbon offsets so all shipments are made carbon-neutral.

Q: Tell me what is your favorite shirt?

My favorite t-shirt is COMMUNAL EVOLUTION-a collective push towards a higher state.  Woody talks about this concept in the movie and to me, it really sums up the idea that we must come together as a world-wide community to effect the change needed to preserve our planet.                  I also love HUMAN BEING because it says so much without you having to say anything.

Disclaimer: HUMANWEAR provided me with a discount to purchase this shirt of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway or add this to my OpenSky shop in return for a discount on this product.

Ayala’s Herbal Water

5 Comments

Ayala’s Herbal Water recently sent me samples of their Herbal Water, a water that has been infused with organic herbs to create a wonderfully tasty water. The flavors are different than most flavored waters and taste great. At first I as as bit apprehensive and expecting this water to taste like all the other flavored waters that I have tried, which is basically like an empty juice bottle was filled with water. This product was nothing like that, the flavor was strong but not over powering. It also was extremely refreshing.

The flavors hubz and I tried were:

  • lemongrass mint vanilla
    • My husband described this perfectly “it taste like your drinking a fresh roll” and it did – the flavor was fresh and cooling and we both loved it.
  • lavender mint
    • at first I didn’t know what to expect with this considering lavender is not something I generally eat or drink but the flavor with the mint was really nice
  • ginger lemon peel
    • this was one of my favorites it almost reminded me of a iced ginger tea it was delicious
  • cinnamon orange peel
    • another favorite of mine (who am I kidding I pretty much loved all of them) this one was different than the other because the cinnamon actually had more of a savory warming taste
  • cloves cardamom cinnamon
    • this was similar to the cinnamon orange peel in that the flavors were warming and reminded me of the fall
  • lemon verbena geranium
    • I liked this one but it was the only one that I didn’t love. I think it was the geranium flavor it was a bit too much floral tasting for me.

Overall these were a hit at my house.  After one bottle my husband was asking where we could buy more because he loved it.  This is my new favorite go to drink when I’m looking for something refreshing that isn’t just plain water.

All of the flavors are now available in my OpenSky shop hope you enjoy them!

“At Herbal Water™, we make our beverages by infusing organic culinary herbs in pure water. We use no artificial sweeteners, no preservatives, and no additives of any kind. Culinary herbs have been prized for centuries, for their calming, stimulating and aphrodisiac qualities, and are the natural way to flavor and enhance any food or drink. You’ll find Ayala’s Herbal Water a delightfully refreshing, mellow yet complex aromatic drink that’s 100% good for you!™. Enjoy our taste of the garden, with fresh spring breezes in every sip.”source

Disclaimer: Alaya’s Herbal Water provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Our First Dinner Party

1 Comment

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time to blog this morning because the Hubz and I are getting ready to go get bagels and then head out on a 12 mile hike on the Long Trail.

Last night we had our first dinner party at our new home!  I made a peanutty pad thai, cucumber salad and tempeh lettuce wraps.

After dinner we played a game “What is Yours Like” which was pretty fun, however, the best part of after dinner were the Coco-Zen Truffles that we ate.  Isn’t the tin really cute that they came in? It turns into a lunch box after!

Also I am excited to say that all of my OpenSky stuff that I ordered on Tuesday came yesterday, service was quick and efficient!

Q: Have you ordered anything from OpenSky yet?

Coconut Water and C25K

7 Comments

This morning the Hubz and I were up and raring to go so we packed up our laundry and headed to the laundromat to get some washing done since we have yet to purchase a washer and dryer for our new condo.  I worked on some school work and snacked on a bagel with hummus (that I brought from home) and sipped on a horrible iced coffee which I unfortunately did not take a photo of and threw out after about half was gone. When we got back to the condo it was down to business for me and I set up a work station near the windows for me.

About and hour in I got antsy and decided that I would try out the new Couch to 5K iPhone App that I had purchased last night.  The Hubz decided he would go swimming and we headed out to the bike path which is conveniently behind our place and right on the lake *swoon*.

So I successfully completed day 1 of C25K and I LOVE IT!  I think that this is one of the best app’s that I have ever purchased never mind that it’s the only app I have ever purchased. Three things that I love about it are:

  • You can add play list right to the music section of the app and they start when you start the workout.
  • Before each interval starts there are 3 beeps and then it tells you to run/walk so you never have to look at the screen to see what you need to do next.
  • When you reach the half way point it lets you know so that you can either turn around like I had to or just so you have a reference point to how long you have been going.

This program is really great for me because I was running and then for various reasons you can go back to read about I just drifted away from running.  I signed up for a run in September and I am so excited to do it and use this app for my training.  The Hubz has even decided that he would like to try it after he met up with me after swimming and saw/heard how enthusiastic I was about it.

All the running and extra speed walking I did worked up an appetite and so we came home and made yummy wraps and had coconut water and Brad’s Raw Chips-sweet potato.  The wraps had sauteed portobello, avocado, spinach, green onions and a little hot sauce in them, and some cilantro in mine.

Hubby scrapped out the insides of the coconut and I will use it later to make some “chicken” burgers from Ani Phyo’s new recipe book.  Now it’s back to the work station to get down to business.  Then we are off to  run errands and to the movies with my GF to see Inception!

Product Review: Sodastream Jet Soda Maker

4 Comments

Sodastream Jet Soda MakerHey Bloggies Hubz here to bring you a product review of my new favorite kitchen gadget!

A couple of months ago, the fine people at Sodastream sent us a Sodastream Jet Soda Maker and a whole host of flavours to sample.

As someone who used to drink way too much soda, the soda stream is definitely a great product.  While the upfront cost may be a little intimidating, it doesn’t take long for it to be paid back. When you take into consideration the cost of the flavours and the cartridges it works out to about $0.25 per can of soda or $0.25 per litre of soda water.

It’s also wonderfully convenient.  It’s nice to be able to make some seltzer to mix a drink or some soda to go with your meal whenever you want.

We were also provided with many different soda and water flavourings.  The flavours were similar to those of mainstream soda brands.  One good thing about adding your own flavouring is that you are able to control how much you add.  I found this great because it would allow me to control how sweet the soda was.  My favourite soda flavours were the cola and lemon lime.  My favourite of all though were the  “MyWater” flavourings.  These flavours are made from natural ingredients. With a little drop of the flavours, you could add a little punch to your drink.

There is a lot less sugar and calories in these sodas than commercial sodas (and they have no High Fructose Corn Syrup), but this comes at the expense of combining sugar with the artificial sweetener Splenda to keep the calories low.  To avoid the artificial sweeteners, you can stick to the MyWater flavours or by coming up with your own flavours for the sparkling water.

Overall, I think the SodaStream is a great value for people who drink a lot of soda and seltzer.

Disclaimer: SodaStream provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.