Fair trade

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year was ethically sourced. I'm happy to support industries that promote fair working conditions!

This bag is from a company called, "Global Girlfriend." Their products are woman made, eco-friendly and support the fair trade movement.

Jute fiber, locally available and sustainable, was used to make the bag. It has a wide strap (super comfy!) and reads, "BE FREE." A great message and an even greater reality for artisans who might otherwise be exploited. I look forward to buying their products in the future!

Midnight snack

Yeah right, it's 9:30 and I'm ready for bed. I've tried the 'don't eat after x hour' thing enough times to know it's not for me! Let the snacking commence.

Tonight's snack consists of granola with almond milk and a couple squares of organic chocolate. Time to stop typing and start munching #nomnomnom

The way to my heart is through a smoothie straw!

Potstickers, smoothies and artichokes for dinner tonight. An odd, yet delicious, trio!

We drink smoothies almost every morning. On an average work-day morning, I fix our lunches while Jared blends together fruits and veggies. He excels at this morning chore and definitely
earned, not only street cred with me, but the unofficial title of Smoothie Master!

With months of practice under his belt, Jared is now a master of his craft! The smoothies he makes are packed with nutrients and SO tasty!

Recipe for tonight's organic smoothie:

1 banana
1 stalk of celery
1 apple (we use fuji apples)
1 carrot
2 strawberries
1 handful raspberries
1 handful spinach
3 ice cubes
1 1/2-2 cups of filtered water

The ingredients, color and flavors change daily depending on what ingredients we have available.

We recently started adding organic flaxseed oil to our smoothies. Why, you ask? read me!

The final product in my favorite cups!

Sweet tooth

Jared had a brownie craving tonight. We keep baking supplies well stocked for this very reason! I used the following recipe as a guide, replacing what was listed with organic ingredients. They turned out great!

Brownie recipe

Organic on the go!

As a freelance interpreter, I work in multiple locations every day. I'm a huge advocate of packing lunches at home but am definitely willing to grab some healthy food while I'm out and about! Whole Foods is one of my favorite places to grab food on the go. They have a great selection of natural foods. I almost always go for kombucha and the organic salad bar. Everything in the bar is organic from the chard & grapes to the wheat berries. Yummm!

Cosmic Cranberry! My favorite kombucha, both raw and organic, paired with an organic salad. Bon appetit!

My untamed mane; Part 1

My hair has changed SO much over time. From dreadlocks, to a fauxhawk, a pixie cut, to months of awkwardness and most recently to a lovely messy mane of curls. (There may be a hair timeline post in my future) After straightening my hair for years on end, I watched my curls slowly wither until they were unrecognizable. In an attempt to rectify years of neglect, I've been trying to go natural more often.

It's safe to say this approach is working wonders

A head full of curls; my blessing, my curse! Whilst trying to nurture my curls back to their original state, I had yet to develop an action plan for what to do with them after the fact. My curls are still somewhere in between restoration and rejuvenation. My current approach includes slathering them with detangler & leave-in conditioner and of course staying far away from my curls' greatest enemy..the brush *shudders at the thought*

My current hair care rotation

I have yet to find the ever elusive perfect product combo. In the movie, Good Hair, Chris Rock refers to this concept as, "The antidote." Until that day comes, I try new products often, always looking for something natural and even better, organic, to try next. Out of my current rotation, I have a few favorites that I'll be reviewing soon. Stay tuned!

Chicken stir fry

We're very fortunate to have a large selection of organic groceries at the grocery store across the street. I like to take a weekly trip to our local farmers market and to Yes Organic but most of our food comes from a big box, Harris Teeter. I have seen their organic product selection grow over the year that Ms. Teeter has been my neighbor.

Now I know the produce section like the back of my hand and am almost always able to get what I need from there. Their shelved products have been expanding as well. Last week I was able to get organic brown sugar AND organic canola oil. They also sell kombucha, a huge variety of organic greens (last week they added a mix with kale and red & green chard. (Why eat chard?) and natural paper items like wax paper bags and chlorine-free baking cups. Go Ms. Teeter!

Though I often have an idea of what I'll cook for the week, some nights I just wander around the kitchen until inspiration strikes. Tonight was one of those nights! I ended up making a delicious stir fry made from whole ingredients.

*Unpackaged, never frozen produce is best when trying to eat minimally processed food

Stir-fry

The first step was to start the rice of which I made one cup (for two of us, according to the directions on the bag) and marinate the chicken strips. I left the organic chicken marinating in a mix of soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and rice vinegar (I really don't measure when I'm cooking..but I do taste everything along the way!) while starting the rice and chopping the veggies. I baked the chicken at 350 for about 20 mins. *I bake damn near everything at 350

Veggies: Cabbage, Carrots, Green beans, and Onions

After the veggies were sauteed and chicken was cooked, I cut up the chicken and added the protein to the veggies. Then served the mixture over a bed of jasmine rice. 

Seasoned with organic soy sauce to taste

Dinner is served!

Yummy dessert!

I made dessert in preparation for a dinner with friends tonight..zucchini cupcakes & cream cheese frosting! Below are my recipes for the cupcakes and frosting. All organic and all from scratch (:

Cupcakes:
1 C flour
2 eggs
1/4 C canola oil
1 zucchini skin, shredded
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
2 TBS cinnamon
1/2 C sugar (I did 1/4 C brown and 1/4 C cane)

Cream sugar(s) with wet ingredients (including zucchini). Sift dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Combine wet and dry. Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean..around 20 minutes. Let cupcakes cool before frosting.

Frosting:
I package cream cheese
Powered sugar to taste
1 TBS honey
2 TBS brown sugar

*This recipe yields about 10 cupcakes. I like to make small batches to help us not go overboard on the sweets and to keep buying organic within our budget

*I found these cupcake papers at my local grocery store. They are FSC certified and contain no chlorine. A great way to keep baking all natural!

The finished product!

An (almost) organic dinner

I truly do my best to make sure that we have a stockpile of organic food to choose from to make healthy meals. That being said, I had one Thanksgiving itch that didn't get scratched...and I love to embrace a good craving! Tonight I made baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top *drools*

As a recovering vegan, I've tried a few versions of "healthier" animal product free marshmallows over the years and let me tell you, nothing fluffs up like traditional, gelatin filled marshmallows! Organic sweet potatoes were a perfect side dish to roasted chicken.

I roast whole chickens often. I like the idea of using an entire animal instead of a select few parts from multiple animals, and the meat can be added to so many different recipes! We always have roasted chicken on the first day and then in subsequent days I use the remaining chicken to make chicken noodle soup, chicken salad or something chickenpotpiesque (yup, that's a word).

Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables and we buy it whenever we see it offered organic. It's a great source of B vitamins, protein and fiber...Tasty + healthy = a great combination!

Chicken:

I usually roast a whole bird for 5 hours at 250 degrees. This time I bought a pre-cut bird and roasted it for about 2 hours at 350. I prefer to use a whole bird but this was the organic kind that Harris Teeter had available on the day I was there. #organicfirstworldpromlems

Baste often!

Asparagus: Saute the asparagus in water, on medium heat, until tender. Add 1/2 TBS butter & salt/pepper to taste

Sweet potatoes:

Boil the sweet potatoes until you can comfortably stick a fork in them. In a separate saucepan melt 4TBS of butter and 1/4 C brown sugar until well congealed. Then transfer the potatoes to a glass baking pan and spoon the sugar mixture over the potatoes. Baked in the oven at 350 for 20 mins and then the fun part! Cover the top of the potatoes with marshmallows and crank the oven up to 450. *I stared diligently at through the oven window until I could see the mallows were a perfect shade of brown. Voila!

Voila!

Recycle project & organic greens!

My mom gave me a great idea on what to do with empty cans..use them as small flower pots! What a great, inexpensive recycle project! Make sure you poke holes in bottom to allow water to drain out. I recommend adding some rocks to the bottom of the cans, also to help with water drainage.

This is my boyfriend and I's first attempt at growing something tasty to eat..organic of course! We purchased organic soil and seeds from our local farmers market. We are very fortunate to have a thriving year-round farmers market available to us..and just a short bus ride away! I chose to start with spinach because we consume it daily in our daily green smoothies and I love throwing a couple handfuls into pasta, scrambled eggs or baked with chicken. Yum!

We are growing the spinach indoors because the weather is so cold right now. I love watching the little plants grow every day! I can't wait until we can harvest the leaves and start the process all over again!

12/8 update

Our little plants are thriving! 

Product review-Organic Surge

I love this face wash! It's organic, vegan friendly and leaves my face feeling SO soft!

They are certified organic by Eco-Cert, one of the largest organic certification organizations. A good tip when looking for organic or natural product or food is to read the ingredient list. If I come across an ingredient that I can't pronounce or that may have a questionable origin, I look for something more natural! I am familiar with most of the ingredients in this cleanser and did some research on the ones I didn't.

• Glycerel Sterate...................Organic self-emulsifier
• Cetostearyl alcohol..... .........A fatty alcohol that imparts an emollient feel to the skin
• Tocopheral..........................Vitamin E
• Sodium Steroly Glutamate.....A mild amino acid based emulsifier derived from natural and renewable sources
• Sodium Phytate....................A saturated cyclic acid 
• Geraniol...............................The primary part of rose oil, palmarosa oil, and citronella oil 
• Linalool............................... A naturally occurring alcohol chemical found in flowers & spice plants 

Why Eat Organic?