Honey balsamic roasted vegetables

This one is a keeper! While perusing my local natural food store I stopped in the deli to see a dish I knew I had to recreate.

Preheat your oven to 375.
First chop carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yellow onion, parsnip (first time I've ever cooked it!), and garlic. Next put them all in a large pan, I used a 9 by 11 baking dish. Then I liberally poured olive oil and some balsamic vinegar on top. The final and most special part is the honey. My friend Collette recently bought our local honey companay, Humboldt Honey. It is super good and she is awesome which is why I'm so excited that I found another use for honey.

New favorite things

I have been slightly obsessed with a few new healthy things and thought I'd share them. The first one is called a Rumble Roller.

It is a new way to do self massage and boy does it work! According to the website:


The surface of the RumbleRoller contains specially designed bumps that are firm, but flexible, much like the thumbs of a massage therapist. As you roll over the top of the RumbleRoller, the bumps continuously knead the contours of your body, gently stretching soft tissue (muscle and fascia) in multiple directions. This action erodes trigger points, helps restore flexibility, and brings quick relief to common types of muscular pain. By design, the RumbleRoller's bumps are firmer than muscle tissue, but much softer than bone, so they deflect out of the way if they contact your spine or other bony protrusions. Through simple techniques, you can control the amount of pressure the bumps apply to your body. The bumps are closely spaced to one another (< 2" apart), so several of them simultaneously contact your body during most exercises. However, with a slight shift of your body, you can reduce your area of contact with the RumbleRoller, which increases pressure and provides deeper, more penetrating relief. So go out and buy one for yourself and anyone else who needs this -PS we all need it!

Another new thing that I love is my vitamix
I posted a smoothie recipe a while ago and since then we have been having a green smoothie every morning. Our current favorite is apple juice, 5-6 stalks of kale, 1 cucumber, 1 peeled lemon, inch of peeled ginger, some grapes, and frozen pineapple. WOW....I tell you its better than coffee, and much better for you!

The last thing I'll drop on you today is the Neti-pot. It is for cleaning your nose. It seriously gets up there and gets all the congestion out. Its not as unknown as it once was, I think Dr. Oz talked about it on Oprah and I even saw a commercial for an Arm and Hammer one! I am a total believer. I try to do a Neti every morning. I use a special Neti tincture, salt, and really warm to hot water in my Neti.

Thats all for now! More to come I am sure. Take care and Happy Thanksgiving!!

Perfect meals

Sometimes the perfect meal is the easiest one. I. Take tonights dinner for example, handmade style corn tortillas, pinto beans, brown rice, salsa and avocados. Yummy.
I'm glad we can all eat how we want. Feeling surprised that here in California proposition 37 did not pass. Why are we begging to read about what's in our food? For our family we just keep buying organic and stay as far away from as much packaged food as we can.

Green theme

This morning created a very good drink. Cilantro, spinach, frozen mango, frozen pineapple and apple juice! yummy! The friend of mine gave me to two raw cookbooks and I am so inspired by them!

Goat cheese - The gateway cheese

I came to the conclusion today that goat cheese is my gateway to eating animal products. It's what I first started with when I was pregnant years ago and what I continue to love on my salads today. I'm also enjoying goat cheese yogurt ... Especially as little frozen pellets. This is how you make these!


Put your yogurt in a makeshift icing bag, I use a ziplock. Next you cut a tiny hole in the corner. Carefully pipe bits onto a cookie sheet and freeze for a a few hours. Remove with a spatula and watch them disappear.

Green Soup

This one is a recipe my friend Meghan told me about. She serves it to her 14 month old. Mine didn't love it (today, anything can change in 24 hours), but I found it amazing. Creamy, sweet, just the right amount of everything. My oldest daughter is fighting the flu and I hoped this might be medicine to her. Too bad she is refusing to eat. At least I can enjoy it!

1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
2 carrots
5-8 yellow potatoes
3/4 bunch of kale chopped
1 long strip Kombu
3 small pieces astragalus root

Saute olive oil, garlic and onion for about 15 minutes on low.
Add the carrots and potatoes. Let saute for 7-8 minutes. Add broth of some sort. I use veggie bouillon cubes and 4 cups of water. Cook on medium until carrots and potatoes are soft, then add kale. Cook for about 3 minutes more and, after removing the kombu and astragalus root, puree and enjoy!

For those interested...here is a little snippet from WebMD about Astragalus.

It is a natural dietary supplement that's used for various health conditions. For instance, it's used to treat the common cold, upper respiratory infections, fibromyalgia, and diabetes. Some proponents of astragalus use it for its heart benefits. They claim it may protect against heart disease. It's also used to help improve overall weakness.

Proponents also say astragalus stimulates the spleen, liver, lungs, circulatory, and urinary system. It's also used to treat arthritis, asthma, and nervous conditions as well as to lower blood sugar and blood pressure.

Amazing new discovery

This came from one of my favorite blog's I don't know why it took me so long to try it. http://fitnessista.com/2010/08/serious-cereal/
I used my beloved Vega as the protein powder, and proceeded to make and consume three servings!

Summer is almost here-tomorrow in fact!

As the days get shorter and shorter and our layers clothes become more and more important I am thinking fondly of summer cucumbers and tomatoes-such a simple meal....that makes me so happy. Throw a little homemade balsamic dressing on it and I am flying high. Side note-I wrote this last October and I like it so much I am finally going to publish it! Hurrah, we will soon be eating these little tasty morsels soon!!!

Easy Breezie

My youngest daughter Lola is very easy to cook for. She simply loves everything. I'd say her favorite food is frozen peas....straight out of the freezer. Too bad everyone in my family isn't so easily satisfied. In this shot she has noodles, blueberries and yup you guessed it-frozen peas!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

MMMMM...These were good! My husband loves banana muffins and I think he purposefully buys too many bananas so I am forced to make these. I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil and it turned out so good! Mix the dry then the wet and then combine! Here is the recipe ... Its originally from allrecipes.com 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 egg 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/2 cup plain yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup mashed ripe bananas 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Family Time

In the midst of life I sometimes have to be reminded by my children to slow down. Enjoy a game of GO FISH, play cars, draw a picture..Thank goodness for these little ones. The days here are so cold! We all are wondering when its going to really rain. We like these cold clear days, but we long for drinking water too! We have been taking advantage of the clearness by taking lots of walks and by going to the river. We got to bring Gigi's cousin Dante there the other day and a good time was had by all! Is this really February or is it May?

Nearly vegan

My dad and his lovely lady came to visit last week and it was a chance to cook something delicious for all! Since they aren't vegan I thought I'd throw them a bone in the form of some goat & feta cheese. First I assembled a salad of spinach, pecans, goat cheese, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and some red onion. Then I dressed it with a homemade dressing of olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and maple syrup. Then I roasted the potatoes and garlic. I used a new method to do the roasting. First I cut the potatoes and put them in a bowl with olive oil, peeled garlic and salt, then I covered them with foil and cooked them for about 20 minutes at 400. After the 20 minutes was over I tossed the potatoes and garlic and baked them for another 20 minutes. The main part of the meal was Spanakopita from Costco. I totally cheated and didn't cook it by hand and it was delicious!