Nails and California

I took a picture of my nails last week but it didn't come out good. Here is my hand this week. As you can see I stumbled with my goal of not biting. My middle finger had a deep split in it so I bit it off to even it out ( a horrible excuse I know ) and my index finger was right next to it so I just had to bite it too. :(


Here is some scenery from my friends backyard out in Placentia, CA.


Birds of Paradise and two bushy looking palm trees


My first day there we went hiking in the mountains. I wish I could remember the name of the mountain. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. I really missed seeing the mountains. I lived for a small spell in Colorado and had the priviledge of seeing Pikes Peak everyday. The mountains here brought it all back.


Here is a view of the mountains on the trail.


A pretty vine that grew onto the trail.



The view at sunset.




I think one of the places that I liked most was Santa Monica. It had a view of the mountains and it has the ocean. Here is what you see when you enter the pier.




We also went to The Huntington, a botonical garden in San Marino. One of my favourites are wisteria




I thought these cacti were quite interesting and somewhat alien looking...






I have to give a hug to every oversized character that I see and this shrimp was no exception. Here I am at Universal Studios giving a hug to the Bubba Gump shrimp.




My friend took me to this awesome crepe place that sells these drinks called boba. I had never heard of them before but it looked interesting. I did some research and found out that the little balls that are in your drink are huge tapioca pearls. The point of the drink for those of you who don't know what boba is, you suck up the pearls with the drink in a huge straw. The tapioca has little flavour so it soaks up the flavour of the juice you have it in. Drinking this with a straw forces you to drink up the tapioca. It's really wierd and really fun to drink.
Traditional boba is made with tea that is sweetened and has milk in it. Mine had blueberry juice. You can kinda see the tapioca in the cup.




I never had a desire to go to California before and everyone told me I would love it there. After having gone there I have to agree. It's quite beautiful and the weather is nice too. I wouldn't live there but I do plan to make another trip out there.

Co-op(s)

We just joined a co-op. It's interesting enough. A lot of the stuff I can find cheaper somewhere else. There is also a lot of stuff we don't even buy. But the real savings especially for us in the bulk items are the staples. Rice, rice milk, soy milk, beans, sugar, seasonings. All cheap. The seasonings especially. Just ground cumin alone if I buy 1 lb shows more than half in savings!!! I go through a lot of cumin. Once I am done with all that stupid white rice I bought a year ago I will be buying a 25lb bag of brown rice. $26!! I'll be putting in my first order today.

Teriyaki Bowls and Lent

I know I've posted this photo before on my other blog. My teriyaki bowls all pretty much look the same and are all tasty. A great way to get veggies and salt. I seem to be craving salt a lot in the past few months and teriyaki bowls are a good way to get salt without downing a bunch of chips.


Week 2 of Lent and no nail biting. Not much change from last weeks photos but there is a little more white now on the nail.

The Body Detox Part 2

Foods to eat on a detox include fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. All fresh vegetables. Be sure to include brocolli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, artichokes, beets, red and green vegetables.
Rice, brown or basmati rice, rice cakes, rice crackers and rice pasta.
Other Grains like quinoa, amaranth, millet, and buckwheat can be used instead of rice.
Beans, split yellow and green peas and lentils are easiest to digest and require the least soaking time. Other acceptable beans include kidney beans, pinto beans, mung beans and garbanzo beans (chickpeas).
Nuts and Seeds, unsalted nuts, seeds and nut butters can be sprinkled over any meal. Includes flaxseed, pumpkinseeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews and walnuts. Avoid peanuts. Peanuts have a high allergen rate and should be avoided.
Oil, Extra-virgin olive oil
Condiments like vegetable salt, sea salt, vinegar, naturally fermented soy sauce or tamari, any culinary herbs or spices, limited amounts of honey.
Herbal Tea, non-caffeinated teas, green tea.
Other Beverages, water, lemon water, 100% natural fruit and vegetable juices, rice milk
And be sure to drink lots of water at warm or room temperature. Water helps to clear waste from the blood. Also remember that thirst is often mistaken for hunger.
* Dilute fruit juice with 50% water.

Foods you may want to avoid during a detox are refined sugars and mixtures containing refined sugar, including sucrose, dextrose, corn syrup, brown sugar, turbinado. Avoid artificial sweeteners.
Dairy Products, milk, butter and other dairy products.
Wheat and products containing wheat.
Gluten. All gluten-containing grains, including barley, rye, spelt and kamut. Some people are sensitive to gluten, a protein fragment in these grains.
Caffeine, coffee, both regular and decaffeinated, black tea, and other drinks containing caffeine should be reduced. Green tea is a great substitute to regular coffee.
Other Foods to Avoid
* Yeast
* Alcohol
* Food additives and preservatives
* Chocolate
* High-Fat Foods

Here is a sample detox menu that I found online


When you wake up have....

* 1/2 lemon squeezed into a glass of warm water
* 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds in a glass of water

Breakfast

* breakfast smoothie made with pear, rice milk and rice protein powder
* supplements: vitamin C and B complex

Snacks

* apple juice diluted with water
* water
* vegetable broth
* celery sticks and hummus

Lunch

* chunky vegetable soup made with vegetable stock and your choice of vegetables
* steamed broccoli with sesame seeds and beets sprinkled with lemon juice on brown rice
* apple sauce
* supplements: multivitamin

Snacks

* carrot sticks with hummus dip
* water
* supplements: milk thistle

Dinner

* curried lentils on quinoa
* salad with mixed greens, red peppers, artichokes and sprouts drizzled with salad dressing of garlic, lemon juice and olive oil
* vegetable broth

Before bed

* 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds in a glass of water

Why Detox? Detoxing the body has great health benefits. If you feed your body better food then in return your body will
give you better skin, hair, nails and that's just on the outside. On the inside you will have more energy. You're cravings for sweets will be less and you will actually find yourself avoiding the fast food restaurants, eating less when you go out to eat, and actually craving those healthful foods.
So if you decide to detox I say good luck and remember to have fun creating new menus to help you along your way. Remember to always do your own research before starting any new diet or program.

Veggie goodness, Lent and White Bean Alfredo

See my beautiful bounty? Our new vegetable is bok choy. I've been pretty much using it in stir fry but I did make some potatoes the other day and put in some bok choy with other veggies and 1 tbsp of hot curry. It was really good.












For Lent I am giving up biting my nails. A trivial thing for most people but for it's one of the hardest things ever. I have been a chronic nail biter since I was 5. I think only 4 times in my life I stopped enough to have nails but it never lasts long. The longest I've ever had nails is a year and a half. This is a pic of my nails one week after Lent started. Most people when they stop biting nails start at this point. Look closely. Imagine the nails shorter and the meat around the nails chewed to oblivion. Yeah........



For dinner last night I got an idea from
VegCookingBlog on the PETA site. Amy offered up a dish of "Alfredo Sauce" with pasta. It looked so good I had to go try it. I miss alfredo very much. Its made of white beans with garlic, vegan margarine, salt and pepper. I added some Italian Seasoning to it, a dash of chilli pepper and some onion.
Everyone loved this sauce!!!! They raved about it all through dinner. It tastes absolutely delicious and its good for you too. I cooked up a little bit of vegetable to add to the pasta to get those extra veggies in.
Next time I will have to double the recipe.


If anyone can tell me how to do a link on blogger it would be much appreciated. Apparently the a href thing does not work on here.

The Body Detox Part 1

Detox is short for detoxification, Although detox is primarily thought of as a treatment for alcohol or drug dependence, the term is also used to refer to diets, herbs, and other methods of removing environmental and dietary toxins from the body for general health. The reasoning behind this is to clean the major functions of the liver, lower gastrointestinal tract and kidneys.

Many of you have heard of detoxing the body. There is no way to be completely free of toxins. Our world is filled with them and we literally ingest thousands of different type of toxins throughout the day that are so imbedded in our food, our water, our air, there is no escaping it. But what we can do is get rid of as much as possible in our bodies. Doing this will help our bodies grab more minerals and vitamins from our food than we did before. There are a lot of detoxifying programs out there from juicing, to fasting. Most of it is just diet.

Many foods are considered detoxifying. First and foremost is water. Water is extremely important in your diet. It helps to eliminate toxic waste.Your body also uses more water than you realize. Your main organs are the ones that need it most. The brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys. They will pull water from other "lesser" important organs and parts of the body so that they can function normally. When you start to feel dehydrated it's too late. Drinking plenty of water ensures that all of your body functions normally and that no organ has to pull water away from another part of your body just to do its job. Non-chlorinated, filtered water is great for you. It is recommended that you take half of your body weight and drink that in ounces for your water intake, for instance if you weight 190lbs, half of that would be 80 lbs., so you should drink 80 ounces of water a day. Now I personally think that this is a LOT of FREAKIN water. If you are not used to drinking water this is killer. Try starting out with 36 ounces of water a day until you get used to that and then build up from there. Don't like the taste of water? There are now choices in your tea/kool aid aisle at the grocery store that have these handy little packets of lemon and lime to add to your water. They are dehydrated crystals. No sugar, aspartame or sucrose included. I have not been able to find anything yet without sweeteners that are non-citrus, sorry guys.

Now you can also get water from veggies and fruit. In fact if you are the type to put on water weight easily try eating your water. Most veggies and fruit are over 85% water, so if you like veggies be sure to add more to your diet. Veggies and fruit are also a great detoxifying food. Most are better in the antioxidant/detoxifying stage if eaten raw. Unfortunately a lot of us don't like to eat raw veggies. If you must cook them, steam your veggies until they turn into a nice bright color. If you have cooked them until the color has turned dull you have cooked all the vitamins and minerals out of your vegetable.

Another way of getting veggies into your system is homemade soup made with as little salt as possible. So where can you get flavor? God didn't leave us with anything. Herbs are great for adding flavor to soup or just about anything and are also benefiting to the body. Onions and celery have salt naturally in them, which is why you find these items in low-salt diet recipes all the time. For a great listing of veggies and their benefits click or copy/paste here.

http://www.detoxification.ws/Vegetable_Guide.htm

Added Flaire

Writing about food, thinking about food and eating food is a major part of my life. This blog has been started to make the most out of it.
The struggle for food. I'm not struggling for food. I'm struggling to stay away from it. I am a notorious over eater. I blame it on old Roman blood.
Read about me learn/struggle how to control food portions and eat like a normal person should.
Diet, lifestyle, vegetarianism, veganism and health. I'm obsessed. Are you?