My Wonderful Weekend

Sorry it’s taken so long since my contest ended Saturday, but here are the winners......Sara Orvis & Debi Funk! Yay! But since you guys decided to follow me, I’ve decided you’re all winners! Sarah, Debi, Holly, Jocelyn, Nikki, Melissa, and someone who’s name isn’t on there. So please let me know which you’d prefer, 1 dozen Cosmic Cookies, or a laundry soap kit! Please leave it in the comments and I’ll get those out to you! Thanks!

This past weekend was such a great weekend! Lately we’ve been having all our beautiful weather during the week and miserable weather on the weekend, but this past weekend it decided to be beautiful all weekend! On Saturday we decided to take our boat out for the first time this year. Sam had rebuilt the motor over the spring so it needed to be tested out. Daniella was so excited to go fishing again as well. We stopped and bought some Subway sandwiches and drove to Lake Scugog.

As we got into the boat and started the motor, we discovered it wasn’t completely fixed. It ran...but only on one cylinder. So even at full throttle we were barley moving. Oh well. We made the best of it. In addition to our gas motor we also have a trolling motor (it’s a small electric motor that is slow and quiet- great for moving around without scaring the fish). So we slowly boated around for awhile staying reasonably close to the dock in case we had any trouble. Sam & Daniella pulled out their fishing rods and within a few minutes Daniella had caught a fish. She ended up catching 2 crappies and Sam caught 1 little sunfish! Daniella was quite proud of the fact that she caught more than her daddy and on her little Dora fishing rod! After fishing we had a little picnic on the boat. After we docked the boat we walked around the town of Port Perry. What a beautiful little downtown! We went through a few little shops, bought some ice cream and let Daniella play at the playground for awhile. When we got home, we had a BBQ outside! AH! This is the life!

Sunday we stayed home from church because Daniella had been up several times during the night and I knew she needed some sleep. So after sleeping in, we all went for a bike ride. We came home, had some lunch and decided to try boating again (Sam had found and fixed the problem in the motor Saturday night). So we drove back to the lake, put the boat in the water and crossed our fingers....it purred like a kitten! Okay, more like growled like a tiger, but what can you expect with a motor from the 1960’s! :) We cruised all over the lake and went along the shores and checked out all the houses. Some little cottages, some mega mansions, but they were all beautiful! We discussed how nice it would be to live on the water and sip coffee from the dock in the morning. How nice.... Well after the cruise we once again pulled out the fishing rods. This time Daniella caught 2 sunfish and Sam caught 1 crappie. Daniella still won! We put them back in the lake and told Daniella we’ll come back for them next time.

That was pretty much my perfect weekend. We spent hardly any money, didn’t go anywhere fancy but just spent some great time with my family. Oh, and I also called my grandma to wish her a happy birthday from the middle of the lake. I love technology!

Another thing I made over the weekend was raw flaxseed crackers. I puréed a mixture of tomatoes, red pepper, cilantro, salt and garlic and mixed in 2 cups of flaxseeds. I then spread them out on a screen in my dehydrator and used a pizza cutter to mark the lines where I wanted them cut. After dehydrating them for about 12 hours, I had crackers! I made some hummus to go with them and they were yummy!

On Monday evening I took a cup of buckwheat and soaked it for an hour. I then allowed it to sit for about 24 hours rinsing it several times. Once the buckwheat started to sprout I added a squirt of agave syrup and some cinnamon and mixed it all up. I dehydrated this for about 10 hours on 105°, taking it out this morning. I put some in a bowl with some sliced almonds and poured in some vanilla almond milk. MMM!!! It was so good and quite filling! It lasted me all morning! I think I need something else to add to it though, maybe raisins, or something? Any suggestions?

Well right now at home I have some chickpeas soaking. I haven’t decided yet if they will become raw falafel patties or raw hummus, or maybe I’ll have enough to make both. I’ll let you know in a couple days. Until then, have a great day!

The Dangers of Fluoride

How would you feel if something you were taught in school and told by doctors and dentists was healthy and you find out that it’s not only not healthy, it’s poisonous! Then you find out that you ingest this all the time thinking you’re doing something good! I’m talking about fluoride. We’ve been taught that we need fluoride to make our teeth strong and prevent cavities. Our drinking water is tainted with the stuff, our toothpastes have it too! But our government wouldn’t lie to us would they?

Around the 1930’s it was thought that fluoride strengthened teeth and prevented cavities. So to “help” everyone, it was put into the water supply and into toothpaste. Since the beginning of this there have been scientists researching this and they’ve come to the conclusion that fluoride does WAY more damage than good!

The government shows us studies that tooth decay has declined since fluoridating the water. But Europe has also seen a decline in tooth decay and they have not fluoridated the water. But around the same time as the fluoridating started, so did the push for brushing teeth. It wasn’t quite seen as necessary until around this time. This is why tooth decay has decreased. It had nothing to do with fluoride! But the government saves money by fluoridating our water. This way they don’t have to pay to safely dispose of the toxic chemical as they do with other chemicals.

It’s not easy to get away from fluoride either. Unless you have an expensive reverse osmosis system in your house, you are stuck with fluoride in your water. Most bottled water also has it. Even setting the water to evaporate won’t do it, the chlorine will evaporate but you’re stuck with fluoride.

Flouride has also been found to cause cancer. In an article by Dr. Mercola[1], he writes,

Burk and Yiamouyiannis completed a monumental research project in 1977 in which they compared cancer death rates in 10 fluoridated and 10 non-fluoridated US cities between 1940 and 1970. The results are on p75 of Fluoride the Aging Factor.

The unmistakable fact is that the graph shows that for the first ten years (1940-1950), when none of the 20 cities fluoridated, the average cancer deaths were virtually identical. But after 1950, there is a major increase in cancer deaths in every single one of the fluoridated cities, while the nonfluoridated cities remain clustered together at a much lower level of death.

They actually put a number on it:
" ... 30,000 to 50,000 deaths each year from various causes may now be attributable to fluoridation. This total includes 10,000 to 20,000 deaths attributable to fluoride-induced cancer every year."

These findings were first confirmed, then denied by the National Cancer Institute (what a surprise). Finally the research was upheld as valid in two separate state courts, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

So what can you do? Change your toothpaste! Stop using the drugstore toothpastes that are so filled with toxins and junk and switch to something natural! There are tons of natural brands out there, you just have to look. You likely won’t find them in the drugstore or grocery store, but you will find them in a health food store. A popular natural toothpaste is Tom’s of Maine. I do NOT recommend this one. This brand’s toothpaste contains Sodium lauryl sulfate. Sodium lauryl sulfate is commonly used in engine degreasers, floor cleaners, and car wash soaps[2]. It’s in there to create the lather you are used to having in your toothpaste and other soaps. But it’s completely unnecessary. One brand I strongly recommend is Green Beaver. It’s a Canadian brand and it only contains natural necessary ingredients. I’ve been using it for almost 2 years and I love it! But you can also make your own. My sister-in-law makes her own using just glycerin, baking soda, and peppermint oil.

I strongly urge you to read up on fluoride and learn all you can. Since learning this I have changed my toothpaste as well as my children’s (I’m still working on my husband). I would love to be able to get a reverse osmosis system in my house but cannot afford to do so. We may not be able to detoxify ourselves completely, as this is a fairly toxic world. Between air pollutants, and other things that are thrown at us in every direction, I only try to do what I can with the understanding that I won’t be able to do it all.

Another way we can make a change is to petition our government. There was recently a woman who lives in a nearby city who has started to petition against fluoride in their water system[3]. We can make a change!

Please read some of the links below on the subject.

· http://www.mercola.com/article/links/fluoride_links.htm
· http://blogs.mercola.com/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2007/06/05/The-Dangerous-Fluoride-Deception-You-Need-to-be-Aware-Of.aspx
· http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/02/02/fluoride-safety-part-one.aspx
· http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article798991.ece
· http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2578355.htm
· http://www.fluoridealert.org/
· http://www.mbschachter.com/dangers_of_fluoride_and_fluorida.htm
· http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/fluoride.htm
· http://www.fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/
· http://ezinearticles.com/?Fluoride-Dangers---The-Shocking-Facts-You-Must-Know-About-Fluoridation-of-Water&id=2144449
· http://tinyurl.com/oa6d5u

I would love to have gone more in depth on this, but I realize I’ve already written so much! Please let me know if you have any questions, and I will answer them to the best of my ability!

Have a great day!


[1] Dr. Mercola, http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/02/02/fluoride-safety-part-one.aspx

[2] Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_dodecyl_sulfate

[3] The Globe & Mail, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article798991.ece

My May Long Weekend

This past weekend was a great weekend with my family. My step-daughter turned 12 last week so we celebrated with a Strawberry Cheesequake Blizzard Cake from Dairy Queen- her favorite! We also took her shopping to spend her birthday money which also ended up including piercing her ears. It's funny that she didn't have them pierced already as my 3 year old has had them pierced since she was 2 months old. So now Emily is like her little sister! :) Then we 3 girls went to the movie, "17 Again". My husband wasn't too interested in that movie so we thought we'd have a girl’s night out. I thought it was great!

On Saturday morning I had another one of my cooking classes. This time it was a mother & daughter class. Since Daniella is a little young for that sort of thing, just Emily & I went. We had a great time! Emily tried some new things and learned how easy it is to throw some things together to make something yummy! We made a Banango Smoothie, Raw Pizzas, Salsa, Guacamole, Veggie Sushi, & Chapatti (Indian bread). It was definitely geared more for the kids so I didn't pick up much new knowledge but I did get a few new recipes. Here is a picture of the kids posing with their sushi.

Since this weekend was a long weekend, we decided to take the girls to Canada's Wonderland. What a mistake! Every year we buy season passes and go often. Since we live so close it makes it nice that we can sometime just go for a couple hours at a time. We don't feel obligated to spend the whole day to get our money's worth since we go many time over the summer. Well it seems that the whole world decided yesterday was Wonderland day! It was SO chaotic. It felt like we walked a million miles just to get through the crowded parking lot. When we finally got in, it was a zoo! You could barely walk through the crowds and the line ups for the rides were WAY longer than usual. There were lines that were over an hour long in the kid’s area. What 3 year old wants to wait for an hour for a 3 minute swan ride? After 2 hours and only getting 2 rides in, we decided to call it a day and go home.

Since the weather was beautiful for the first time that weekend we decided to have a BBQ in the back yard. What a difference from Wonderland. We sat outside; listened to the birds chirp; the squirrels and bunnies run through the yard and watched the birds mating outside the birdhouse. Try explaining that to a 3 year old! We told her they were having a tickle fight. :) Sam BBQ'd burgers and I made Moroccan Couscous Salad. Yummy!

The Moroccan Couscous Salad has been a favorite of mine for awhile. I discovered it in the deli section of Planet Organic and love it! But it's not the cheapest so I've been trying to figure out how to make it on my own. After a few failed attempts, I think I've got it. It's still missing a little something, but I thought I'd share the recipe as it's definitely delicious the way it is!

Let me know if you try it! It's SO tasty! I've paired it with grilled chicken and with a lentil loaf before. I think it pretty much works with anything!

If you haven't heard of it yet, I'm running a contest right now until May 23rd. For more info, please click here.


Have a great day!

My First Ever Contest!

I've decided I want to do a contest. I see many other bloggers doing this, so I thought I'd follow the crowd! :)

If you "follow" my blog, I will add your name to the contest. There will be 2 lucky winners! One will win a Laundry Soap Kit (enough to last about 6 months) and 1 winner will win 1 dozen Cosmic Cookies! So follow me today! Also, if you get a friend to follow me, get them to comment on this post that they followed me through your reference. Then I'll add their name to the draw as well as a another chance for you! So just click on "Follow" on the right hand side of the blog and you'll be in. Remember, the more friends you get to follow me, the better your chances are!

This contest will be open until Saturday, May 23/09 until 12am EST.

Have a great day!

Goat Cheese Meatloaf & Miso Soup

As you may have noticed it has been some time since my last post. I have been doing some renovations on my blog and I think I'm finally done! Thanks for your patience!

I've been frustrated with myself lately because I had not been organized enough to plan ahead for supper. We were planning things last minute which meant less than healthy choices and added stress. I also found myself walking up at the last minute before needing to leave for work so I was picking up a breakfast sandwich on the way.

Not this week! On Thursday I put together a menu for the following week and went out and bought all the needed groceries. I've been putting together a lot of the ingredients the night before so it can start cooking as soon as I get home. It's been much less stress and it's been healthier. For example, Sunday night I assembled a goat cheese stuffed meatloaf and I partially cooked a lentil & sweet potato side dish. So when my husband got home (which is an hour before me), he put them both in the oven and they were ready when I got home. It was SO nice! I'm trying hard to just take this one day at a time because I know if I plan too big, I plan to fail.

One of the raw recipes I had made a couple weeks ago required me to buy miso. What on earth is miso? Well it's fermented soy and according to my cooking teacher it's very good for you. I had asked her what I should make to use up the leftover miso I still had in my fridge and she suggested miso soup. Of course! I've had miso soup at Japanese restaurants! So I went online and looked up various recipes for miso soup and went with the one that sounded the tastiest. And it was good! I was very impressed!

There are quite a few blogs that I try to read each morning before I start work. Some are on healthy organic eating, some on eating raw, some on homemaking, sewing, gardening, etc.All of these are the different things I think are important. I'm not much of a sewer but I really loved it in high school and have tackled a few small projects in the last couple years. I would love to take a course to improve my skills and maybe sometime I will, but for now I thought I would try a project that doesn't require too much talent. I'm going to attempt a blanket. Recently my husband cleaned out his side of the closet and got rid of several t-shirts and a few old pairs of jeans. So I thought I would be thrifty and well as creative and make a blanket out of these items. I took a picture of each t-shirt to make a mock up of approximately what I want the blanket to look like. I thought if I post it on here then I will accountable to follow through with this.

Well that's all for today! Have a great day!

Bear With Me

Please bear with me as I change some font, styles & colors. I'm trying to quickly learn some HTML.

Have a great day!