Creative Outlet aka Keeping Sane

On this blog I write about the importance lifestyle plays in health, mainly focusing on diet and sharing recipes. This week, through blogging, I reconnected with a cousin that I have not seen since childhood. I am so excited to have found you Dolly! Reading her blog  reminded me of something that I believe is essential to good health. Since it's second nature to me, I've completely overlooked mentioning it. But I know that in my own life it is crucial, and I could not function without it.

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Goodbye Oreo

To all of you dear readers, I wish you the happiest of holidays! They are going by so quickly that I do not want to miss a minute of the time with my family. Things will be back to normal next week and I will resume posting regularly.
We had a nice Christmas, but sadly my daughter's guinea pig died on Christmas day. Oreo was six years old and we knew it was coming, but it's never easy. She was the last of our little herd. She was the sweetest,  friendliest guinea pig I've ever seen and she was greatly loved. Her cage took up a whole wall in the library where the computer is and the room seems big and empty without her now.

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart"

— Helen Keller

Love deeply my friends.

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I Won!

I am so excited, I won the giveaway at one of my favorite blogs, Green and Crunchy ! When I arrived home last night this little beauty was waiting for me:

It's a thinksport stainless steel drink bottle. It's insulated to keep drinks hot or cold for hours, is free of BPA, PVC, pthalates, lead, and cadmium. And my favorite part- it has an awesome removable mesh strainer, so I can put loose leaf tea in it and I don't get any leaves in my mouth when I drink it. I am drinking my tea from it as I write this.

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Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Today is winter solstice, officially marking the first day of winter and the darkest day of the year. Beginning tomorrow, the days will begin to get longer again. This makes me incredibly happy. Even though the snow is beautiful, I long for spring. So I decided to make something with a little heat to warm and cheer us on this, the longest night of the year.

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Tea, Glorious Tea

Tea is the most consumed beverage in the world. Green, black, or oolong, they all come from the same species of plant- Camellia sinensis. The difference is in the processing. Green tea is unfermented, so the least processed. It retains the most antioxidant polyphenols. One of these, a catechin called epigallocatechin gallate or ECGC, is thought to be responsible for most of the long list of health benefits attributed to green tea. And it's quite an impressive list.

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Top 10 Reasons to Eat More Salad

When people find out I'm vegetarian, they often think I only eat salad. While that is certainly not true, salads made up of dark leafy greens are one of the most important things you can eat. Most people don't eat nearly enough. According to the CDC State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables for 2009, only 14% of American adults eat the minimum recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Now keep in mind that the minimum recommendation is to avoid serious deficiencies, not to promote actual health. To promote health and reduce risk of cancer, heart disease, etc. you need to eat double that amount. Here are 10 reasons to get more salad into your diet.

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Five Minute Gazpacho Soup Recipe

Lookie what I got!! Christmas came early at my house. I am so excited to say that I am now the proud owner of one of these:

Yessirree, my very own Vita-mix. Last weekend the demonstrator was at Costco. The hubby happened to be shopping with me and knowing that I've wanted one for quite some time, and that the demonstrator wasn't going to be back until next year, he told me to go ahead and get it. Merry Christmas to me!!

I am in love. Now I can add things to my smoothies that my old blender couldn't handle like whole apples, lemon slices, carrots, celery, etc. and they are ultrasmoooooth. I've never been interested in juicing. With juicing, the pulp which contains nutrients and fiber gets discarded. I prefer smoothies because they use the whole food, retaining the nutrients and fiber. And now I can add anything I like to my smoothies!

 I love that this machine makes hot soup from whole raw vegetables in about five minutes. I am always looking for ways to increase our fruit and veggie intake, and this will certainly help. I made a couple of quick raw veggie soups this weekend.

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Christmas Cookies to Savor

I have been on an avocado kick this week. I purchased too many and after yesterday's mexican pizza, still needed to use some up. So I went surfing for ideas. I came across this article about substituting avocado for butter in baking . The cold, snow and Christmas music on the radio had me craving cookies, so I went for it.

While these cookies contain lots of healthy ingredients; avocado, oats, walnuts and brazil nuts, I am not pretending they are healthy. They are cookies.

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Mexican Pizza

Yesterday was one of those days. Everything I touched seemed to go wrong. As I was filling a bucket of water to wash the floor, I lost control of the laundry tub hose and completely drenched myself and the whole laundry room. After washing the floor and cleaning the kitchen, I spilled ground flaxseed everywhere and had to rewash the floor. And the day just went downhill after that.

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Red Lentil Soup

I could eat soup everyday. It's quite possibly the perfect food. It can be made raw or cooked, from beans, lentils, veggies or fruits. The possibilities are endless. Lentil soup is one of my favorites, and even that has many varieties. There are brown lentils, french green lentils and these lovely red lentils.

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Home Fermented Sauerkraut

Even though I love diy projects, I was very nervous about making home fermented sauerkraut. I finally tried it and now there's no going back!  People have been fermenting vegetables for thousands of years, but our culture of cheap, fast convenience bombards us with the message that processed store-bought food is better and safer.  It convinces us we might get botulism if we do it ourselves. I'm glad I let go of that fear.

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Coconut Thai Curry Recipe and a Review

I recently became an affiliate of Mountain Rose Herbs . I am very impressed with their business practices; they sell healthy organic products through fair trade policies and donate a portion of their profits to charities including the Organic Farming Research Foundation, and Farm Sanctuary which provides care for rescued animals. They use recycled and chemical free office supplies, they do not allow chemical cleaning agents in their facility (they clean like I do with healthy natural cleaning supplies like lemon oil, baking soda and vinegar!), and they ship in recycled boxes.

They generously sent me these products to review:

Oohlong Tea, Oregon Chai Tea, Thai Curry, and Himalayan Pink Salt. Everything looked wonderful and it was a tough choice, but I decided to try the Thai Curry first. I love that it comes in a glass jar and not plastic, since I try to avoid plastic for all food storage. It smelled insanely good when I opened the jar, so I knew I would have to come up with a great recipe for it.

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