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Hungry for Change Shares Top 10 Food Additives to Avoid

Posted by html404 on June 26, 2012
in Downloads, DVDs & CDs, Food and Treats, Health, Health & Garden Tuesday, Health and Garden Tuesday, Health and Nutrition

Do you know what’s in your food? I mean really know. Do you care what’s put in your food? If you don’t, you should because what’s in your food is or will eventually make you sick.

On Friday I received an email from Hungry for Change. By the way, I love the work they are doing! In the email they shared a link to top 10 food additives to avoid. I think you are going to be surprised! If you go to the link below you can read about the food additives to avoid, as well as download a 1 page shopping guide:

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/top-10-food-additives-to-avoid

You can also check out their documentaries, Food Matters (I am going to re-watch this and post about it next week) and Hungry for Change. They share a little bit about these food documentaries at their other site: http://www.foodmatters.tv/

What’s stopping you from changing your eating habits? Self-discipline and just saying no to the bad stuff is my problem. It helps if we don’t bring junk into the house.

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Green Smoothies & Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

Posted by html404 on June 22, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Movies, Recipes

A couple of weeks ago at the homeschool convention the documenatry Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead came up in a couple of conversations, including one with my friend Audrey, who I was working with. It is a documentary about an Australian man who is overweight, became sick enough to be put on medications due to the health issues he was experiencing. He decides to go on a 60-day juice fast of green smoothies in order to improve his health. Juicing enables nutrients to get into the blood stream, unlike food that needs to be chewed, swallowed and digested.

Audrey is very health conscious, more so than me and had watched this documentary. I don’t think it was the movie that made her start drinking green smoothies as I have seen her drink carrot juice type drinks before. Well, she ended up bringing her older daughter and I a green smoothie on Saturday of the conference. I liked it and thought I could/should start drinking them too, but didn’t until nearly a week later.

Last weekend we finally watched the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It was really interesting. Inspiring even and amazing how much weight this man dropped. He was eventually able to get off all medications and get rid of his illness. He completely changed his lifestyle.

I ended up deciding I wanted to start drinking green smoothies. I wanted to do it for 60 days too, until I remembered that I am still breastfeeding and couldn’t. In a fast, like a juice fast, your body goes through what is called a detox. This is when your body releases toxins that are stored in your body. I would hate for my son to be affected by any toxins released into my breast milk as my body detoxed. That’s why I decided to start with one green smoothie a day and hopefully increase that after a while. I actually persuaded my husband that he needed to start with me! Because it’s much more fun to do something like this with someone rather than by myself. Yes, he actually agreed to start drinking green smoothies! He who has an aversion to any green vegetable except broccoli and kale soup! We also decided the children should join us. On Sunday all of us started drinking green smoothies….until my Bosch blender stopped working on Tuesday morning, but the part arrived yesterday so we are good to go again.

You can watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead too for free at this link: http://www.jointhereboot.com/

Green Smoothies

All I do for our green smoothies is use what we have on hand as far as vegetable and fruits go. At the beginning of the week we had carrot juice, bananas, grapes, orange juice, spinach (store bought), romaine lettuce, broccoli slaw, our spinach and arugula from the garden. I decided for the children and husband’s sake we’d start with the smoothies being on the sweeter side first and slowly decrease the amount of fruit we add.

I simply put the carrot juice in the blender first then added enough fruit and veggies to fill the blender, depending upon the consistency of the smoothie I would add more carrot or orange juice and blended it until it was smooth, not chunky. Everyone mostly liked the smoothies, even my almost 2 year old had 4 helpings of it! Though it was a little glass. We really only had 1 or 2 say something negative and 1 of those two outright didn’t like it, but we motivated him to drink it. My husband really liked the one batch that had more grapes in it, as he couldn’t taste the greens at all, even though the smoothie was indeed the color green.

Now I’m off to make our smoothies….

What have you been doing for your health and wellness?

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Healthy Eating on the Go Twitter Party

Posted by html404 on June 15, 2012
in Food and Treats, Health and Nutrition

What’s a Twitter party you say? A Twitter party is simply a group of people chatting via Twitter about a specific topic. All you have to do is log into your Twitter or Hootsuite account (or sign up if you don’t have an account), enter a hashtag – for example #BerryTasty – to gain access to the online conversation. Questions are usually asked and answered. There is also other social media platforms to use to follow along like TweetGrid and I am drawing a blank at other since I always use Hootsuite. Participation and interaction is necessary if you want to be entered into drawings for prizes! Here are the details for the Wendy’s Healthy Eating on the Go Twitter party:

What: A Twitter party with Wendy’s to discuss healthy eating on the go. With the summer months upon us, Wendy’s knows families will be traveling and on-the-go with busy schedules. They also know that people are paying more attention these days to health and wellness, and they have been offering new menu items to reflect those interests. Wendy’s registered dietitians Patty Wynkoop and Mike Sieminski, who work closely with the Wendy’s culinary team to find new ways to come up with tasty and nutritious menu items, will join the Twitter party to provide their insights into nutritious on-the-go options.

When: Wednesday, June 20, 1-2 p.m. ET

Where: We’ll be on Twitter – follow the #BerryTasty hashtag to track the conversation. You can see the details and RSVP via this Twtvite: http://twtvite.com/WendysNutritiousOptions

Hashtag: #BerryTasty

Prizes: Wendy’s will give away 10 total prizes (each prize is a $20 Wendy’s gift card). Winners will be chosen randomly from among participants who respond correctly to trivia questions, and there will be two winners per question.

Hosts: @Wendys & @theMotherhood

More Information: Check out the Wendy’s Nutrition & Health page: http://www.aboutwendys.com/Responsibility/Nutrition-and-Health/

Twitter Party Co-hosts
Andrea, @AndreaUpdyke
Bing, @luckytoddler
Cherise, @mamasmoney
Deb, @DebMomof3
Fadra, @allthingsfadra
Jackie, @freeismylife
Jennifer, @5_dollarshake
Jennifer, @onemomsworld
Kia, @KiaMorganSmith
Lea Ann, @mommyswishlist
Michele, @scrappinmichele
Paula, @frostedfingers
Theresa, @FaithFamilyRevw
Wendy, @MyFamilyTable
Yona, @PricelessTeam

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2012 Savory Summer Giveaway #SavorySummer

Posted by html404 on May 15, 2012
in Blog Stuff, Contests, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, Health, Health and Nutrition, Recipes

It is that time of year again with warm weather and sunshine and I bet many of you are thinking picnics, barbecues and pool parties! Well….Welcome to the 2012 Savory Summer blog-hopping giveaway event! I have teamed up with Measuring Flower, Graphoniac, and about 60 other bloggers to bring you yummy food or food-related giveaways (each worth at least $25) Woohoo! Let the party begin!

Grand Prize Sponsors

The grand prize sponsors for this Savory Summer event are Nostalgia Electrics and Ella’s Kitchen, who are each offering prizes worth over $100! If you want to win either prize enter HERE.

Grand Prizes

Nostalgia Electrics Stainless Steel Margarator

$109 ARV

3 Month Supply of Ella’s Kitchen Baby Food Pouches

$170 ARV

My Giveaway Sponsor

Cornucopia Health Scents is providing my giveaway item, which just happens to be one of my businesses. We have been Young Living distributors for nearly two years, but have been using the products for nearly four years. We love Young Living Essential Oils and have made them a part of our every day life.

My Giveaway Item

For this giveaway event, I have a 1 liter bottle of Ningxia (ning-sha) Red to giveaway. It is a nutritional supplement high in antioxidants, great for your health and wonderful served cold to your barbecue, picnic or party guests!

1 Liter of Ningxia Red

$55 ARV

About Ningxia Red

Ningxia Red is made of wolfberry puree, blueberry juice, pomegrantate juice, apricot juice, raspberry juice, grape pomace and a proprietary essential blend of blue agave nectar, lemon rind and orange rind. The Ningxia wolfberry has long been considered a national treasure in China. The wolfberry is native to the Ningxia Hui Autonomane Region of Northern China. This potent little red berry offers medicinal and healing benefits.

One ounce of Ningxia Red only has 34 calories!

My Review (and it’s my 5th post in my Losing Weight Series too)

We have used Ningxia Red over the past few years pretty infrequently. However, this past January we started using it on a daily basis. Most of our children like it. It has a different taste, not bad, but different and it definitely tastes better cold!

Over the months I have noticed that I do not have to wear my glasses all the time, especially while reading or doing things on my iPhone. This is strange because ever since I got glasses I have worn them all the time because I am near sighted and hate to see things blurry, so I even wore them while reading. Improving our eyesight is actually what we hoped would happen for as there are seven of us who wear glasses. However, so far I am the only one seeing any difference in my eyesight. Time will tell. The wolfberry is suppose to be very good for the eyes for some reason that I can’t remember.

My second oldest daughter likes to take Ningxia Red to ward off migraines.

We have also drank an ounce or two for a boost of energy too. I have taken as much as 4-5 ounces when I have worked long hours at trade shows so I could stay alert to talk to people and be able to remain awake when I drive home. (This happened back in December!)

Ningxia Red Sorbet

½ c. water

¼ c. agave

2 c. NingXia Red®

2 12-oz. bags frozen raspberries, blueberries or strawberries

1 orange

In a small sauce pan, simmer Blue Agave and water for 1–2 minutes or until agave mixes easily with the water. Set aside to cool slightly. In a blender, puree NingXia Red and one bag of raspberries. Transfer mixture into a metal bowl and stir in the zest of half the orange. Next, squeeze half the orange into the mixture. Place agave and water mixture into blender along with the remaining bag of raspberries and puree. If mixture becomes too thick, simply add a cup of the mixture in the bowl. Pour into bowl and fold in until well mixed. Place in freezer and freeze for two hours. Serves 12–15.

Refreshing and yummy summer treat compliments of Young Living!

How to Enter

Just enter the Rafflecopter form as you would for any of my other giveaways.

Giveaway Rules

Must be 18 years or older and live in the US.

No prize substitutions allowed.

Winners are allowed to win once over a six-month period.

Only email addresses used for the giveaway will be eligible to claim the prize. (I don’t want to hunt you down on Facebook!)

Winner will be notified within a week or two from closing date and item will be shipped directly to winner.

The Deadline

Giveaway Ends

Wednesday, May 31, 2012 at 12:01AM CST

Open to U.S. Residents Only

Enter to Win Ningxia Red

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Linky to the Giveaways on Other Blogs

Have fun entering the 2012 Savory Summer Giveaway!

Disclosure: Facebook is in no way affiliated with the Savory Summer event, its hosts, its sponsors, or its participating bloggers. The hosts (Measuring Flower and Graphoniac) are not responsible for event sponsors that do not fulfill their prizes.

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Tick Removal

Posted by Brande on May 15, 2012
in Animals, Articles, Camping, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Gardening, Health, Health and Nutrition, Parenting, Safety

Ugg… Ticks! I dislike ticks greatly! I dislike the stuff I have to put on my dog to prevent ticks! I dislike removing ticks! Ewe…. Yuck… They are gross insects! I recently received an email from a friend. I haven’t tried it yet, hopefully I won’t have to! But, it’s better than using tweezers.

“A School Nurse has written the information below – Good Enough to share – and it really works.”

“I had a pediatrician tell me what she believes is the best way to remove a tick. This is great because it works in those places where it’s sometimes difficult to get to with tweezers: between toes, in the middle of a head full of dark hair, etc.”

Tick Removal

“Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20); the tick will come out on it own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away.”

Let me know if it work, unless I need to do it before that!

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Organic Valley Farm Friends

Posted by Brande on May 10, 2012
in Coupons, Deals, Downloads, Education, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Health, Health and Nutrition, Organic, Thrifty Thursday

This was the first time I visited Organic Valley’s Website! Shame on me, right!?

We are all trying to keep our families happy and healthy, well Organic Valley will help. They have a fantastic website and even two apps for Apple devices (Organic Valley and Organic Moo Can), they are FREE and you can download them from Organic Valley’s Site! **Sorry, they don’t have it for Android at this time**

On this site you can Find your Farmer, Organic Valley Products, Recipes, Reason to Choose Organic Products, and more. Organic Valley’s website is full of wonderful information.

Head to the Tab “Community” – on the right you can a subscribe section. Enter your email and zip code. It will then take you to where you can sign up for newsletters and the “Farm Friends Welcome kit” – “The Kit contains Rootstock Magazine, a Kid’s Activity Booklet, a Go Organic! bumper sticker, and a booklet of useful Organic Valley coupons.” Sound good to me!

Head to Organic Valley and start your next organic journey!

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Copy-Kids Fruits & Vegetables DVD

Posted by html404 on April 17, 2012
in Baby Products, DVDs & CDs, Health, Health & Garden Tuesday, Health and Garden Tuesday, Health and Nutrition, Parenting

Teaching our children good eating habits is important to my husband and I. Easter weekend my husband even had to convince his mother that our children did not need any Easter candy. Shocking! I know, but that’s who we are. Not that we don’t eat sweets we do but we are selective and try to eat homemade goodies over pre-packaged ones. My husband finally talked his mom into just buying our children a couple bags of apples and told her they’d be happy. She reluctantly relented. But do you know what our children did as soon as they saw their Daddy bring them in? They asked for an apple and after dinner what did they ask for, yep, another apple! If children have access to healthy food, they will eat it. There is far too much “junk” and chemicals in what is offered on store shelves. Over the years my motto has become, “Read the labels!”

Copy-Kids Fruits & Vegetables DVD

The idea that kids will follow other kids and copy what they eat is not new, it’s a given. Monkey see, monkey do…remember that saying? Yep, it goes for kids seeing what their parents and siblings are eating too.

Copy-Kids has created a DVD just for kids to help parents teach their children to eat their fruit and vegetables.

DVD Review

Our little ones really enjoyed this DVD. They liked watching the kids eat their fruit and vegetables. Our older children commented that the kids on the video were playing with their food.

Overall it is a cute video that young children will enjoy watching with their parents.

To learn more visit Copy-Kids.

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

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Food Fights Review & Giveaway

Posted by html404 on April 13, 2012
in Books, Food and Treats, Giveaways, Health and Nutrition, Parenting

I am always hesitant to read parenting books because after being a parent for so long you kind of get into your own groove. Our groove tends to be very different from most, as it should be because every family, every child and every parent is different. None of us are cookie cutter parents or we shouldn’t be! We each have to develop our own style of parenting that fits us as individuals and our children.

Book Reviews

You all know that I do a fair amount of book reviews, but I do not do a lot of parenting books. Guess they scare me! Ha! No seriously. When I was a young mom I tended to want to do what every good parenting book said but parenting just does not work like that. I gradually learned that we get ideas from other parents, books etc. but we tweak them to make it work for our individual family.

Food Fights

Food Fights is the book I mentioned at the beginning of the week and shared a juicy update about. It offers parenting tips on how to pick food battles, dealing with the mine fields of TV dinners, fast food, eating out, sick kids and so much more. This book is written by two pediatricians, Dr. Laura A. Jana and Dr. Jennifer Shu. I know how picky some children can be and thought this book would be a great one to share.

What I Liked

The facts they shared throughout the book were very interesting and helpful.

It has a beautiful cover of a darling baby.

Spoke out against feeding kids junk food, soda pop and sugary juices.

Encouragement to feed your children fresh fruits and veggies.

Supportive of breastfeeding.

They were concerned with childhood obesity, but our food system has a huge part in that! Read labels!

What I Didn’t LikeBeware I go into a tangent!

The book discourages breastfeeding your child at bedtime/naptime. This one gets me riled up! I have breastfed eight children for 1-3 years each and have breastfed them all to sleep at some point or another and it DOES NOT make them dependent. Babies and children are already dependent for pity sake! Arggggh……..’Nough said.

Ok, I realize this next one is a can of worms in certain circles – what kind of milk do you serve your children? Rhetorical no need to answer, however, have you ever heard of not feeding children over 2 whole milk, only skim? Hmmm…..that’s a new one to me. Raw milk is better, but even our family doesn’t buy raw milk because of the price. That’s why we need a cow!

Another myth the book advises against is drinking well water. Oh really? I grew up in the country and that is the only water we had and I am fine (ok that’s debatable sometimes! Ha!) as are my parents, my sisters and all those that lived around us. Since moving to a rural area we now drink well water. Ummmm….so far none of us are any worse for doing so, but the authors claimed it was dangerous to drink well water. Did you know that Chlorine and Fluoride are NOT good for you and that they are chemicals? Just do a little research and you’ll learn ALOT.

The last two items are certainly personal choice but ones I happen to disagree with. First one, you shouldn’t make your children eat if they don’t want to both hunger wise and what you serve them. I understand and agree that if they are referring to not being hungry, but not when it comes to what is being served. We are a family of ten and neither my daughters, who now cook, nor I will make ten different meals. That is ridiculous. Therefore, our kids are required to eat whatever they are served. Period. If they really dislike it then they are required to eat bites according to their age. For example: If our four year old did not like what was for dinner he would be required to eat four bites, our six year old would need to eat six bites and so on.

The book has merit and will be helpful to those parents searching for a solution to “food fights”.

Enter to Win!

If you are interested in owning a copy we are hosting a giveaway and I will mail you your copy in a 2-3 of weeks, whenever I close the giveaway. Just fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter. Thanks!

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Win KIWI Magazine’s Cookbook on Facebook!

Posted by Brande on April 12, 2012
in Books, Contests, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Health, Health and Nutrition, Organic, Parenting, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, Recipes

Remember when I told you about KIWI Magazine’s New Allergy – Friendly Cookbook?

Why not try and win it first? When I read the rules they are only giving away 3, but hey you never know! Hurry because the contest ends on April 13th, which is tomorrow! Log onto Facebook – here’s the direct link!

https://www.facebook.com/KIWIMagazine/app_208195102528120

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A Juicy Update

Posted by html404 on April 9, 2012
in Books, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition

Mysterious (or should I say juicy? ;)) blog title, eh? Here are a couple excerpt from an upcoming book review and giveaway….

A Juicy Update

The answer to whether or not young children should be allowed to drink juice on a regular basis has been a bit of a sticky one for years. After all, the fight against childhood obesity has most definitely included a focus on limiting sugary liquids. And juice—whether it is delivered in a box or carton, sippy cup or straw—most definitely contains sugar. In fact, when we set out to write the first edition of Food Fights, the latest research at the time had us all but convinced that fruit juice was almost as much to blame for childhood obesity (not to mention tooth decay) as soda pop. Sugar was sugar, after all, and it was hard to look past the fact that a 12-ounce serving of 100% grape juice had been shown to have 11/2 times the calories as grape soda. Additionally, a few small initial studies suggested a worrisome connection between obesity in young children and their fruit juice consumption. But unlike soda pop and its utter lack of redeeming nutritional qualities, 100% fruit juice has since proven itself significantly more worthy of further nutritional consideration. Several subsequent large national studies have revealed some interesting findings about kids, juice, nutrition, and obesity, not the least of which has been the lack of an association between drinking 100% fruit juice and an increased likelihood of children being or becoming overweight. These new findings have led us to reassess our take on juice, and to reformulate our own juice-related advice for parents accordingly.

A Convenient Juice Box

If and when you plan on incorporating juice into your child’s diet responsibly,we suggest the following approach:

• Make sure it’s pure fruit juice. Fruit drinks that aren’t 100% juice typically
contain added sugars and/or sweeteners that can up both the cavity and
calorie counts.
• Hold off on introducing your child to juice for at least his first year and
refrain from serving it in a bottle.
• Avoid letting your child sip on juice (or any other sugar-containing liquid,
for that matter) for prolonged periods. Whether by bottle, sippy cup, or
cup, bathing one’s teeth in sugary liquids can cause serious tooth decay.
• Consider diluting it with water.
• Encourage your child to eat fresh, whole fruits whenever available.
• Whenever possible, serve juice that contains pulp for added fiber.
• Make sure juice doesn’t entirely drown out your child’s interest in drinking
milk and water.
• Buy only pasteurized products (shelf-stable juices, frozen concentrates,
or specially marked refrigerated juices) to avoid potential diarrhea-causing
infections.
• While the American Academy of Pediatrics does suggest 100% fruit juice
as an acceptable part of a healthy diet, be aware that it’s wise to offer it in
age-appropriate moderation (none under 6 months of age and no more
than 4 to 6 ounces a day for older infants and children).
• Keep an eye out for warning signs of excessive juice intake, such as tooth
decay and “toddler’s diarrhea.” Not only do young kids tend to suck on
sugary liquids for prolonged periods when allowed, thus putting their newly
acquired teeth at considerable risk., but kids
between the ages of 2 and 3 tend to have the highest juice consumption—
in some instances enough to cause persistent diarrhea.