The good people at Juliet Mae’s sent me their Indian Spice Sampler to try and I was so excited I dove right in. After work I made myself a sandwich for lunch filled with yummy Cool Vindaloo Spice mix.
The spice mix suggested adding vinegar to my mix to enhance the mustard flavor so I decided to add some coconut water vinegar. It really enhanced my tempeh, mushrooms and onions.
What is the inspiration behind HerbalWater?
I am a pediatrician and one of my main interests in pediatrics was preventive medicine, especially the role good nutrition has on overall health.
Well before everyone became concerned with the obesity epidemic, I started advising parents to stay away from sweet drinks, because there are so many calories and so much junk in most sweet drinks and drinking sweet is so habit forming.
You see, the average American consumes about 300cal/day in sweet beverages, mostly empty calories from sugar. There’s pretty good evidence that these calories don’t register the way solid food does, and therefore they’re not compensated for. Just attacking this habit is a going to make a huge impact on our waistlines.
And since I try very hard to practice what I preach, and I believe that anything you put in your mouth should taste good, and not just be good for you, I started exploring calorie free beverages for my home
I grow an organic herb garden, and have an abundance of herbs in the warm months. I love cooking with herbs: Culinary herbs are the natural way to flavor anything, while adding health benefits. Herbs are also, to me one of the most sensual foods, and really connect you to nature and memories. I would make herbal beverages to pair with meals, and our guests were offered this herbal water as an alternative to regular water or wine. They came to expect it, and asked for it whenever they came. But I couldn’t make it in the winter, since I didn’t have the fresh herbs growing then.
The enthusiasm for this healthy alternative led my husband to believe that this beverage answers a need in the market, and we should make it commercially available. My enthusiasm for making this drink widely available is so great because there just aren’t many truly healthy alternative drinks out there.
What is your favorite flavor and why?
I love all my kids the same, really. I find that I’ll tend to drink the Cloves Cardamom Cinnamon Herbal Water with a meal, the Verbena Geranium with dessert, the Lavender Mint when I want to relax and the Lemongrass Mint Vanilla on a warm day after exercise. The Ginger Lemon Peel and Cinnamon Orange Peel are my “anytime, anyplace” drinks. Each of the Herbal Water flavors has a place in my own routine, and a lot of it also depends on the mood I’m after.
What makes Herbal Water a better choice than other flavored waters and functional drinks?
Ayala’s herbal water is a delicious flavored water that is 100% good for you. It is made by infusing pure water with organic herbs, adding nothing else. It has no calories, no preservatives and no additives and it delivers the wonderful taste and aroma of herbs. Herbs are the natural way to flavor water without adding calories. We achieved a full flavored plant based drink, without manipulating the ingredients, or using any additives and preservatives.
Unlike some of the other functional offerings, Ayala’s Herbal Water doesn’t throw in the new hot nutrient, thinking you can get away from eating well by drinking nutrients, many times mixed in lots of sugar and artificial ingredients. What we offer is a centuries old traditional food that was always known for both its benefits and wonderful taste.
for Lemongrass Mint Vanilla And here for Ginger Lemon Peel 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:
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
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
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.
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.
This morning is all about getting down to business and my agenda is packed with breakfast, coffee, budgeting, yoga and blogging all before I head to work. This mornings breakfast was a little unconventional. I wasn’t really feeling the oatmeal, cereal, toast, or grits so I decided to have leftover spaghetti for breakfast (so did the Hubz). We then sipped some coffee and I did yoga while the Hubz worked on a few things. Now it’s time to finish the coffee while blogging and budgeting!
I love that the Hubz is a coffee drinker now and that we can make a french press of coffee for the two of us in the mornings and share it while waking up and getting ready for the day. I however have been trying to be good and cut back on my coffee intake because it isn’t great to have too much of it but I have a cup or 2 a day and tons of water. My favorite Bodum french press (above) is in my OpenSky shop and is such a good deal too.
Oh and here is breakfast:
I finally have got myself back in the yoga groove again and am loving how the balance between my running and hiking and gentle yoga that helps to stretch my tight body. I have recently received a new yoga mat from Aurorae and I am really starting to like it. For me and I assume most people it takes a little time to get used to a new yoga mat and work it in but I am really starting to enjoy this one. I also love that each of the Aurorae mats are a different color which are meant to define your inner self; mine is pink which is Hope.
The qualities that the Hope (pink mat) define are intuitive, faithful, visionary, power of positive thought, energetic & healing. Additionally I really like that this mat is longer and thicker than some of my other mats which is great when I want a gentle practice or meditation. Lastly one of the great features of this mat is the focal point icon at the end of the mat to help with concentration. I find myself drawn to focusing there and it helps me balance and focus. Since I really like this mat I’ve decided to add it to my OpenSky shop hope you check it out!
Lastly don’t forget to let me know if you are interested in participating in the vegan care package swap. At this point there is no commitment I am just trying to get a feel for how many people are interested. You do not have to be vegan to participate in this swap however you do need to have a blog and unless paired with another non-vegan you will be expected to only include vegan items in your care package. These items can be store bought or homemade and can be anything from food to clothes to gadgets or basically anything you like and want to share with someone else. If you are interested please go here and leave a comment letting me know. Oh and you can be international so long as I have participants who want to ship internationally! In the next day or 2 I will be posting more information about what the swap entails and how to sign up.
Yesterday after work I wasn’t feeling great so I just spent the afternoon relaxing on the couch with the fur baby. I wasn’t really feeling up to solid foods but was hungry so I decided to make myself a smoothie. In the smoothie I had original 1 cup unsweetened hemp milk, 1/4 of a cantaloupe, 1/2 banana and about 1 cup of frozen mango.
It was so cool and refreshing I think it is my new smoothie love. I also tried out my new GlassDharma straw which I absolutely love! It as a little weird to drink our of at first but I really like it. Above is just one of the straws I have and I can’t wait to show you the others! Not only are these straws pretty but they are sustainable, dishwasher safe, kid friendly and they have a life time guarantee; you can’t beat that! Also at first I was like how am I supposed to clean this thing? Well GlassDharma includes a cleaning brush which makes things so much easier because otherwise I would have had a hard time getting that smoothie residue out of the straw. They are also part of my new OpenSky Shop where right now until August 16th you can save 25% of your total purchase when you use coupon code EXCITE25; this a one time use only so make sure to check out other items on my OpenSky shop as well as others shops before checking out!
Finally dinner time rolled around and I knew the Hubz would not be down for a liquid dinner so I decided to use up some veggies and rice that was in the fridge and make bean and rice burgers. This is one of my favorite things to make when I have left over grains, veggies and beans in the pantry. I also love how easy it is to make these because there is very little work that I have to do; I just stick everything except the spices, condiments and rice into the food processor and pulse. In last nights mix there was: 1/2 parsley, 10 olives, 1 carrot, 1/2 onion and 1 can of drained and rinsed white beans all tossed into the food processor.
Pulse everything until it is pretty well combined but there are still some small chunks.
Once the mixture has reached the right consistency dump it into a bowl and start adding the remaining ingredients: 1 cup of cooked rice or grain (I only had white rice; need to restock the pantry), 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, 1t salt, 1/2t black pepper, 1t chili flakes (optional), 1t paprika, 1 heaping tablespoon each of dijon mustard and tomato ketchup, 1/2 tablespoon hot sauce and 1t garlic powder.
Mix to combine all of the ingredients and then scoop out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and place in a 425F oven for 23-27 minutes, flipping part way through. I then topped mine with a little BBQ sauce and served it up with roasted broccoli.
I get this question a lot of time from friends and family: “I really want a food processor however they are a lot of money, do you have any suggestions for a lower cost one?” YES! I do have a great suggestion! I have always wanted wanted a really nice Cuisinart 14 cup food processor, however these are around $200+ and just not in my budget at this time. I one day was checking out reviews online for lower end food processors and came across the Black & Decker Quick & Easy and decided that the price was right and that I would get one. I have now had mine for a few years and I love it! I can make hummus, dips, veggie burgers, cookies and baked goods, and my favorite banana ice cream in it with no problem. When I was looking through OpenSky to see what items that I love and use in the kitchen I was excited to see that they actually had this food processor so now you can have it too!
For now I am going to be glad I have a good food processor that works but I still am dreaming of the day when I will come home to a nice big Cuisinart food processor.
Q: What one appliance do you wish you had but don’t?
