The Real Deal

  I was talking to some of my friends the other day when our conversation turned to cooking food. The girls laughingly stated that they couldn't cook anything. I said I was sure they could cook something so I threw out a few suggestions. Soup? No. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches? No. Raman Noodles? Nope ( I was getting pretty desperate.). Mac and Cheese?! Here they took a second to think and then answered, ' Well it depends on what brand. If its anything other than Kraft, than no...'
  Ok, Kraft Mac and Cheese is, in the first place, DISGUSTING! In the second, its not the best food for you. So I thought I would share one of my favorite Macaroni and Cheese recipes for all you cooks out there! And yes this is all from scratch... no box, no powder. The real deal.

    Ingredients:

   1 box of pasta ( small shells or macaroni works great!)
   Salt
   Pepper
   1 Onion chopped and saute'
   2-3 cups of good old cheese (the more cheese the cheesier!!)
   2 sticks of butter
   About 1 1/2 cup of white flour
   3-4 cups of milk

   Directions:

    Cook the pasta and then drain and set aside for later. In a small saute' pan cook the onion and set aside. Thats the easy part. For those of you that have made white sauce before this next part should be easy too. In the pot you used for the pasta and is now empty (hint hint) melt the butter. When thats done, take the flour and slowly add to the butter and stir with a fork. Dont let it burn. After a little bit the mixture should look like clumpy brown flour. Thats a good thing. Right when it looks like that, add the milk and stir like crazy. It should un-clump and get smooth. Just remember, the longer you keep heat on the pan and the more you stir the milk in, the thicker its going to get. You dont want it too thick, but if it does happen to get that way, just add a some more milk until its better. When all that is ready and the sauce resembles white creamy goodness then add the cheese, onion, salt and pepper. Then throw in the noodles and enjoy!!!
 

Plastic? No, Metal.

  You may have heard of the recent studies going on about plastic water bottles and other plastic products such as Tupperware, baby bottles, toys and even metal food cans. The studies are showing that hard plastic has a chemical in it called BPA, which causes cancer and  other sicknesses. Than they came out with new studies and found that even soft plastic contains other estrogen-like compounds, still unidentified, that could have the same harmful effects as BPA. Because of these things in the plastic, every time you drink from your water bottle you are downing harmful things into your body.
  But dont worry! There are ways of keeping water with you when ever you want. Just not with plastic. Instead, invest in a nice metal stainless steel water bottle that doesn't have all those bad things in it. As a plus, the water seems to taste better from the metal ones and (at least to me) the bottles look way cooler. Go figure.

http://www.kleankanteen.com/
http://www.rei.com/search?cat=40006322/
http://www.ecovessel.com/

Headache Galore

  We all get those annoying headaches every once in a while. You know the ones... causing you to get grumpy or tired or just plain in pain. Sometimes popping an Advil is pretty easy and convenient but there are other times when you might not want to throw one of those medicines in your mouth. If you where ever wondering if there was a more natural way to tell those pains to go away I'm here to tell you there is. Reflexology is a way of massaging yourself to help body pains. Depending where the pain is, there is usually a corresponding point on your hand or foot that you can massage and rub. 

 -Take the time to sit comfortably and try to relax your neck and shoulders.

 -Press the thumb of one hand into the web between the thumb and forefinger of the other hand. Continue massaging all around the base of the thumb.

 -Sometimes you will need to switch hands and massage both thumbs in order to get rid of the headache, but usually massaging one side will work.

 -Continue to sit in a relaxed position and take deep breaths for a minute or two to allow your body to relax.

 This, and also taking pure peppermint essential oil and rubbing lightly on your temples, will help to relieve you of your annoying headache.


Love, 
Sara <3

Ohh boy...

 Your standing in the shower, closing your eyes and whistling a little tune, when you start to reach toward the shampoo bottle. Its second nature to you. You do it without thinking about it because your so used to doing it. But what you might not realize while you clasp the wet slippery bottle in your hands is that the contents of the soap are actually poisonous. Yes, those friendly white bubbles that float around on the bottom of your bathtub are very detrimental to your health. Sure the soap may feel like its cleaning your hair perfectly, but its also dumping chemicals into your skin that are really not good for you... at all. Its called sodium lauryl sulfate, an essential ingredient to make the soap sudsy up in your hair. Among other things, it can lead to skin damage, permanent eye damage in children and even liver toxicity. The news is not much better for sodium laureth sulfate (SLS). On the up side, SLS cannot be metabolized by the liver. But that just mean the other bad things about it hang out that much longer in your body.  And don’t forget, it is also used to degrease engines. Lovely thought. 
 But dont worry! There are other things you can use that will help keep your hair clean and keep chemicals out. As a family we use Desert Essence Organics Hair Care ( it doesn't have those bad ingredients in it). It smells AMAZING and still suds up a little. I actually noticed my hair smelling like fruit longer when using this, than when I used V8. For another great shampoo I like Dr. Bronner's, a very straight forward and down to business soap, thats great for body wash also. After using it, I notice that I feel extremely clean. Almost squeaky clean. I know that these soaps are expensive and sometimes we might not want to spend the extra money on something like that because; a) we cant see the bad effects right away and b) we can get another non-organic one that is wayyy cheaper. But listen, the soap thats good for you lasts pretty long. It doesn't take much to keep your hair clean, especially if you wash every day.   


 Love, 
  Sara