Blend it with Blendtec

Let's talk about one my other loves.  My blender.

The Twister

I know I exaggerated, but not with this statement.  

I use my blender AT least once a week.  (Haha, I just wrote month instead a week, but that wouldn't be a great statement.)

Truly, truly.  Especially since my little man stopped nursing.  He's hungry ALL the time and loves to eat. 

What do you feed a 9 month of baby?  Almost anything it seems.  I make my kids green smoothies every day.  I'm a super lazy preparer too.  I don't chop things up nice. It doesn't always taste very good either. Sometimes it takes a little trial and error.  

  

I freeze most of my produce before it goes bad so we can just throw it in the blender.  I don't even cut out the seeds in my apples.  I do, take out the stem.  (Mother of the year award right?)  I either break or chop up carrots and throw it in the blender.

Luckily, these bad boys can chew up anything and everything.  Solid, frozen apples, frozen carrots, frozen half peaches, frozen kale, pineapple.  These guys can do it all.

I really love this new Twister jar.

Perfect for baby food, pizza dough, guac.  Ya know, the thicker stuff.

My kids both know that when the blender is going, it means they will be eating something soon.  It really does make my life easier.  The photo above shows I've used it 543 times.  Which, I had to send in my old base that had over 1500 uses on it.  But it's got a warranty of 7 years or something crazy and they sent a new one in 3 days.  I've had the blender a little over three years and if you do the math?  I actually use it way more than just once a day! 

This blender is on of the few appliances I let sit on my counter, mainly because I get sick of putting it away all the time.  

Since I'm a footzoner and kind of a health nut, I tell all my clients that they need to get on the green smoothie boat. It's one of the easiest and fastest ways to get anyone the proper fruits, veggies and grains in their diet.  Especially if you have little kids, big kids or husbands who need a little shot of good food in their lives.  

Now, I know they are pricey, believe me, I know.  But really, the blender helps my family and I be healthier with the green smoothies, plus, we totally have made our money back.  Now, my aunt and my two sisters both own one, because we use them that much.  

If you've been thinking about it, just do it.  It's totally worth it. E-mail me if you have questions.

Also, if you are looking for a good Green Smoothie book, I suggest this one.  It's not a diet, it's a way a life. 

*This is a sponsored post.

Other posts about green smoothies. Here.

Green Smoothies and Pooping. Part 1 to changing my body.

Often times, my conversation are steered towards people's bowel movements.  You'd be surprised (or maybe you won't be) about how many people have issues with their guts.  I find it makes the world go round.  My husband often gets embarrassed about this subject.  

"You've got to stop talking to people about pooping." he says.  

Well, he's just never had problems.  If you don't have gut problems consider yourself lucky, otherwise, read on about ones journey through their bowels. 

Because pooping is a big deal. 

This is just my story and each person's body is different.  

I have been lactose intolerant my entire life.  I didn't really realize it until I was in high school and seemed to suffer some serious gas pains constantly.  (Laugh if you must, but in high school, it wasn't cool.)  I should have known, my mom and most of my aunts are lactose intolerant as well.  (Most Asians can't tolerate milk well anyway.)  

I remember rolling on the floor because my guts her so bad.  My mom would tell me to stretch, so I would.  It didn't really work.  It was finally in college that I decided to cut out milk.  Instead I drank soy milk.  (Which I regret to this day, don't take soy, try almond, coconut, rice) Now, I've never been able to just sit down and drink a cup of milk, never have, and still don't like to drink anything but water like this.  It was mainly for cereal and cooking.  

Flash forward years to when I got married and started taking birth control.  Again, everybody's body's are different and mine DIDN'T like the pill.  I was constipated for years to come.  I went to doctor after doctor, trying to find someone that could help me poop.  I was told to take in more fiber, take miralax, take laxatives, drink hot water with lemon, take laxatives, take suppositories, drink more water.  I had a few laproscopes done.  The Doc found that I had an extra 5 inches of colon.  (This often happens to elder people as waste sits too long and stretches the system because it's took full.)    It seemed to be the same answers everywhere I went. 

 So for the first 2 years I was married and on birth control, my bowels were constantly flucuating between super constipated (like we're lucky if I pooped every 3-4 days) or I was sick from the latest laxative.   As a result, I lost 20 pounds (which I needed to loose anyway) but I was none the happy with my bowel system.   What does bowels have to do with my uterus?  EVERYTHING.  I stopped taking birth control and basically suffered 2 more years of not knowing what to do.  

After having too many miscarriages and not knowing what else there was, I decided to talk to a friend's dad.  

It. Was. Life. Changing. 

(He's a health fanatic (meant in the most serious, complimentory way) and has researched healthy eating and habits his whole life.)  I hadn't really ever had a conversation with him before, and awkwardly, I decided to talk to him about pooping.  After two hours talking with him, I had a new book to read (Tissue Cleansing Through Bowel Management: Bernard Jensen), Apple Cider Vinegar, Black Walnut tincture, my very own enema kit, a recipe for a gallbladder cleanse, magnesium and many other natural cleansers.

He actually went and lived with Bernard Jensen in Mexico.  You guys, this author is a big deal in the health world. 

We discussed in detail my diet.  He told me to clean out my system with the enema kit and stop eating anything that had "tose" in it. (Fructose, cellulose etc.)  Basically, stop eating all processed foods.  Stop using hydrogenated everything.  He promised that if I cleaned up my diet and got my guts cleaned out I would be able to have kids just fine.  

He was right.  It didn't happen over night, it took probably a good year to feel like a completely different person.  Between his advice, Green Smoothies (Everyday), Footzoning (see my tab in the blog), Essential oils, whole eating, our lives have been completely turned upside down.  In the best way ever.  I felt super healthy, I didn't have gaseous pains, I was regular, I was pregnant and I felt like I was who I should have been all along.  I may be considered weird, hippy, anal, extreme (which I'm not even close to what I could/should be) but I know my family is happy and healthier.  I may have to spend more time in the kitchen doing more work, but it's all worth it.  

Think it's too expensive to switch?  Well, we spend $15 dollars a week on our Bountiful Baskets, which you see above.  I don't really buy meat, so it helps keep costs down.  I buy chicken once in a great while, mainly if we are having guests.  We've always had a garden so we dehydrate and freeze everything we can.   You guys, really, I know it seems like a trend, but we've been going strong in this healthy trend for 3 years now and have seen awesome changes with all of us. 

Not sure how to start?  Just ask me.  Green Smoothies are an easy way to start...but that's another whole story.  I was originally going to blog about that too, but this has gotten too long already.   Since we've started green smoothies, almost all of my family has joined in, and then it's gone out to the extended family.  Above is the Juice pack for an additional $8.50 with our Bountiful basket.   Nothing ever goes to waste.  We always eat what we can and freeze the rest.  

I better stop now before this gets any longer. I'm just a little passionate about a happy life. 

Food for the missionaries

We fed the missionaries the other day, which, I feel makes me feel somewhat adultish.  I asked the husband what he wanted and he said "chicken."  To be honest, I rarely buy meat.  I only cook it when I know we are going to be feeding others.

Now that I've been in the second trimester for a while...I feel like cooking!  Hooray!  Trying out new recipes from my Pinterest board here.  (I didn't add the feta cheese but kept it separate.  I also added olives and sweet peppers...and quinoa and then decided some chicken in it was good too.   I tried super hard to follow the recipe but it's just so hard!)  

I was going to make this Blackened Chicken with Avocado...but then realized I didn't want heartburn and Auntie Mitsie doesn't handle the spicy well either...so we just made some cilantro chicken.  

Also, second trimester means I really have been craving fruit and veggies like crazy.  Started buying Bountiful Baskets again.  Over the holidays we went over budget like crazy on eating out and then groceries!  So we come back to your humbly Bountiful Baskets.  Usually we buy it throughout the year except for when our garden is going.  $15 bucks a week is a steal if you ask me. 

  

This was our haul last time (above).

This was our juicing add on.  I think it's only 8 bucks, but for all three of us with green smoothies, we need it.  I'm also going to be writing a green smoothie blog sometime.  We've been doing green smoothies pretty consistently for the last 3 years or so now.  As a Footzoner I recommend Green Smoothies to almost every client...

Green Smoothie Kitchen

I've been reading a lot of whole foods/natural/raw cooking books.

Which results in many new recipes and suffering for my family.

I had gone to class by The Green Smoothie Girl

Robyn is a sassy, slim lady trying to spread the word about her smoothies.

After we got our free t-shirt from class, I was sold. 

so of COURSE i'm going to try out her book, buy an expensive blender and make everyone suffer by eating green smoothies. 

And make poopy messes with my blender.

For some reason, i don't think the Comet is such a good thing to have in the open next to all my food...but apparently it was a sign that something was going to happen.