Have no fear!

HAVE NO FEAR!- I have not went anywhere!!

BUT- My fiancé has been away with our camera for work! Leaving my ideas for new posts and videos on the side line. Babies and wedding planning sure makes it hard to get stuff done with out your partner! 

A lot of stuff has been going on but there are some recipes and videos I would like to get done some time next month. My mango tree is fruiting like crazy and would like to share some awesome recipes with you! 

Keep Calm & Drink Some Tea

because Ill be back with lots of new stuff in a few weeks!

xo BB

A Trip to The Urban Farmer

Double click the video for full screen.

We really enjoyed finding this hidden gem in pompano beach! The Urban Farmer is a hydroponics' farm who successfully grows all types of veggies and fruit in South Florida! When we went they had strawberries, eggplant, different types of lettuce, cabbage, kale, colorful rhubarb and all the herbs you can possibly think of (and I'm missing a lot in-between)! They had a cute little farmers market where I was so happy to find their juicing cucumbers for 25 cents! The staff was very friendly and everyone I spoke with started up a conversation with us and tried to help us out with what ever we needed. They helped me pick what seeds will thrive in this time of year in florida. One of the head farmers explained to us how amazing okra is and that we need to try it! He was such a nice man with so much to learn from. They have classes on farming and composting which I want to attend soon. I started my seeds and they are happily sprouting! Can't wait till they fruit! 

I really enjoyed our trip to the Urban Farmer and would love to bring my family there to see it. It truly made me feel inspired to not let go of the gardening in my back yard. I feel that if I take a class or too it will help my confidence and will help me pant more! Happy late Earth Day! 

 Love always 

BB

The Urban Farmer

Sunday we took a trip to the Urban Farmer! It was a great experience and really motivational! I don't want to give too much away just yet but heres my favorite three pictures from the farm wile you wait for our review video.

Check out The Urban Farmer on Facebook!

Love BB

Look at all that Kale!!

Ok ok... 4 pictures!! My handsome Fiancée and son!

Food-speration

 Okay... So I'm not going to lie with this one, I did a few mess-ups which is why this isn't a recipe post, just inspiration! You can cook a good gluten free pizza crust with cauliflower, but I managed to cheat the one step which makes it work! Do not try to boil the clauiflower just because you think the microwave is BAD!- It will end up being too watery and the crust will not bake the same =[....too bad I found that out the hard way! Ill figure a better way to get around it next time with out boiling. Either way the flavors were amazing even though it was a little OD on the daiya cheese! Hope this inspires you to just give something a try even though you have no idea what you are doing! You live, you learn and you end up a better cook because of it! Next time I will nail this crust but for now, its more like a casserole in my fridge right now.  

Love always BB

Jayces 1rst Birthday Party Preveiw

Just a preview! Much more coming soon!!

GLUTEN.. the evil monster that can't be seen and NO ONE believes!

18 days vegetarian!!!! HIP HIP HORRAY! I resisted the smell of my mothers MEAT PACKED chilly at my babes 1rst bday party! Sausage, ground beef & bacon-  EW! NO THANK YOU! - Sorry mom your chilly is really yummy but not for the animals! 

Everything has been going great besides a few run-ins with GLUTEN.. the evil monster that can't be seen and NO ONE believes! Every time I slip and think if i just take a few bites of a birthday cake, or a few chips at a mexican restaurant it will be fine - literally the NEXT DAY my face gets a little swollen and pimples take over my face! They get big a really swell if I don't make sure to stay off the gluten. It is a bit hard since I am new to this and don't know everything its in even though most of my diet is clean and not processed. -Oh well I guess you live and learn!

Besides that being a vegetarian has been great! My family thinks I'm nuts, my fiancé thinks I'm going to pressure him into not eating meat. Everyone things I am pushing, when I am not even suggesting.. ya know the normal reactions to being VEG. Its almost like a guilty conscious they need to defend? I don't know! But I have been neglecting the site a little due to birthday parties, family visiting and weddings and its not going to get any better until next week!

So, instead of giving a recipe, ill leave you with a little meatless inspiration instead!

Quinoa & Lentil stuffed peppers! Yum Yum Yum!

My non vegetarian fiancé LOVED this to death! It actually can be vegan if you opt for diaya cheese instead of the regular cheese I put on his. ENJOY!!

Love always

BB

Family Moments Pt 1 - Lip Smakking

Double click the Video to watch it bigger!

So, I think I am going to start to do a small series of videos capturing moments of our son growing up. Basically: Home videos with fancy music and titles!

I'll be doing this not only to make sure we remember and never loose memories and footage, but for the family who does not have Facebook and can't see everything we post. 

Giggles and lip smacking over dinner time. 

Such a beautiful moment between father and son 

I really hope you enjoy =]

Love always

BB

Hungry For Change - Take a bite!

TODAY IS THE DAY!

...or it was 2 days ago!

Today is my 3rd day being vegetarian/vegan! I put a slash in between them because I have been staying mostly to vegan with a few slices vegetarian gluten free toast (which had eggs and such in it ) I had this morning but wise no dairy & no meat !

3 days ago, after searching the web listening to what vegans had to say and looking up recipes, I came to realize,

Why do I preach what I preach?

Why do I do what I do ?

Why do I cook raw, vegan meals and then have chicken the next day when I know as much as I know?

I know whats right, whats best and I know what to do but ..

WHY AM I NOT DOING IT?!

After that I decided, "To day is the day!!". 

I really wanted to post that first day and express how motivated and compelled I was but that motivation turning ran me to Whole Foods to stock up on organic veggie goodness! After cooking up a mean quinoa salad my Fiancé and I snuggled and watched a movie some organic red wine. When I told him what I decide he smiled and told me "Great Babe! Good for you! Im so proud of you!",

when I know what he is thinking is, "Crap! I'm in trouble now!"

Bubs sharing a veggie meal with me for lunch.
A LOT ended up on the floor!

He has also been very interested in health and all things average people don't know about food - he loves any good conspiracy theory and I think he considers the truth of health one too. Like me, he preached and did so much, but left out a few details. He actually once told me, "Im scared your going to become a vegetarian". When I asked him why he replied, "Because then you'll make me stop eating meat", with a sort of "sad face" expression on his face. Well, this boy from Montana is being honest! Honey, I will not force you to do anything! You can eat my vegan meals, which you like, but I will ask you to cook your meat your self if you want some =]. Sorry! Love you!

But I have been staying strong! I have decided what I am going to do and I have not looked back! It feels great being empowered! Tomorrow I plan on starting the Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse! I have been eating pretty close to it, besides a few details. 

I am not going to blab to much today but I want to share one thing with you:

Hungry For Change

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/online-premiere

This is a movie about what we are doing to our self with food, how we are not aware of what we are doing, how the industry manipulates what is going on and what we can do.

I think it is important for everyone to watch this film. Most of the people in this video I have been following for a wile and respect and trust. I hope to share this video with some people I know can relate to this, hear what me and my fiancé say but don't quite understand ( and probably don't believe until it comes out of someone else's mouth). I really hope people are starting to become more aware of their bodies and what they put in it, not just what they put on it- thats why I made this blog! I would love if I could just open one persons eyes and help them follow the path I a following. I will continue to show what I am doing to encourage others. Check it out! It is a free preview for the next 10 days and after that you will have to perchance the film. 

Love always

BB

Raw Hemp Seed & Zucchini Hummus!

Double click the video to view it better!

This is my first recipe video! Its a great alternative to a chickpea hummus or a nut based hummus. It is much easier  on your stumic than beans and nuts so the whole family will love it! It has the same taste as hummus but more creamy and has a lot more nutrients in it!

Just measure out the ingredients and throw them in a food processor or blender! Heres what you will need:

6 TBS Raw Hemp Seeds

1 1/2 Tbs of Either Olive, Flax or Hemp Oil

1/2 Cup of Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

3 TBS of Tahini

1/2 TSP Of Pink Himalayan Salt

1 1/2- 2 Cups Zucchini 

Acidental Vegan

"..oh wait, I was vegan all day and didn't even mean to be!"

No really, thats what happened! I started my morning off with a wheat grass shot with my fiancé followed by a green smoothy. For lunch I made my regular: nori rolls with cashew cheese, mock-vegan-tuna fish and lots-oh-veggies! For dinner I ended up having left over meatless and tortilla-less tacos with letice leafs instead- yum yum yum. It seems planned but I've never gone an entire day vegetarian or vegan! I usually will have some sort of egg breakfast which is the hardest thing for me to change since its my easy, go to regular. Getting rid of that just because we ran out of eggs made it so easy! We normally will have some  meat for dinner but since my hubby was at a meeting, there was no need for heavy cooking!

All in all, I limit my meat but don't want to take it fully out until my baby is done breast feeding (the weaning has begun!).

But let me tell ya, I feel great! I feel energetic, clear minded and satisfied too! I have already lost a few pounds after starting the wheatgrass, I'm sure if I keep eating like this after I'm done nursing, the weight will come off like nothing! 

As for the salad above, it was my lunch today and was to die for! So fresh, crunchy and flavorful!

All you need is:

1 Avocado

1 Tomato

1/2 Cucumber

1/4th Bell paper (red or orange)

1 Tbs Minced Onion

The dressing I did with out measurements, its more of a guessing and tasting game than a science. I used:

Rice Vinegar

Honey Mustard

Regular Yellow Mustard

Olive oil

Italian Herb mix

Dill

 Chop, Mix & DIG IN!

Vegan tuna salad nori rolls

Growing Grass Update #2

Grass is greener on this side

Alright,  I promise I will stray away from the wheatgrass topic for a while and bring you some great recipe videos after this post! But for now, its day 3 guzzelin' wheatgrass shots! I am feeling great! Today my head feels totally clear, I have truly been in a fog since I have stopped taking medicine for ADD under 2 years ago. It was the first time I really felt awake with out any stimulus - just aware, happy and light. I could get use to this! I can only Imagine how I will feel when I start adding a green juice or smoothy for my daily breakfest!

 Today I cut up all my grass and bagged it! I already have a jar starting to sprout and so I can be ready when this is all gone!

But even with all this goodness coming from this experience, I am really having a hard time with this juicer! The Dr. Squeeze got a lot more juice out today than the days before, but I have more concerns now. Today was the second day I could not take apart the juicer and had to wait till Hubby came home from work to get him to manhandle it for me! I remember the same thing happened to my mother when she use to use this juicer.

The juicer comes with a tightener to secure the parts. Sounds great, but if you tighten it too loose it starts to un-turn it self and not juice. If you tighten it too tight, you are stuck like me waiting for a man to twist this damn thing off! This makes it so you can't even clean your machine for hours!! On top of that, I couldn't even pull the pulp out when it was on or off! I might have to see if I can find a manual hand crank wheat grass juicer some place for a good price since I really want to keep this up but the machine just isn't for me (even with its pretty green color)! Maybe I have a bad machine but thus far I would not recommend this juicer to anyone! Any suggestions on any good, affordable hand cranks?! 

The picture above, my babies feet, is just for the cute factor! I hope you have noticed a beautiful new quality to my picture from this post, it is because my fiancé and I have bought a Canon 5D ! He will be showing me how to edit videos so I can bring lots of new information to you in a visual! Hope you enjoyed the new resolution of the pictures! I sure love taking them!

Always with Love

BB

Growing Grass Update 1

Hooray!! My Wheatgrass is grown and ready to chug down! It was very painful to slice it up actually. It grew so vibrant and green, and so much faster than anyone expected (my family that is)!! I have already started to soak the next batch of seeds so it will be done in time when I finnish this round.

 Heres my juicer : DR. Squeeze. This is a handed down bad boy which was left unwanted and lonely in my parents garage. Luckily, I decided to dust it off and rev up its engine! After growing some beautiful grass I started juicing yesterday for the first time. Above you can see how much I cut out for the two small shots! I knew it takes a lot of grass to get a small amount of juice but gesh! I felt like I had to help pull the pulp out to get it to really go. I looked up reviews on Amazon and someone else had the same problem : not enough juice.

 Unfortunately, I do not want to spend money right now on a new juicer, but might consider a cheaper hand crank which I heard works just as good for a fraction of the price. Im crossing my fingers and really hoping that some dear family member will be generous to get us a Omega #8005 (or something close) for our wedding! I could replace my average juicer and wheatgrass juicer with one easy to clean machine which gets MUCH more juice out and will save a lot of money in the long run. I'm sure my mom would be glad to have her hand-me-down juicers back to give it a try.

 Anyway, I'm off topic and am just telling my self that so I don't get frustrated with this machine! The wheat grass was surprisingly sweeter than I remembered! It tasted way better than the shots my mom had ben doing. Hers were definitely bitter and old, which is why she got sick from it. I took the shot after a cup or two of water ( not sure if the order was right or not). I think since I have not been drinking coffee it made me feel almost like I did a shot of expresso. I was surprised to feel energy almost like my blood was pumping stronger. Today, my second day taking wheatgrass I feel like my mind is clearer. I hope I keep seeing improving results!

Sadly, I am not starting my cleanse right away since I am still weaning my wee-one from nursing. It is going well but I do not want to start a full on cleanse and detox wile he is still taking in my milk. In the next few or so I really do hope to start. I need to be healthy and full of energy wile my monkey starts runs around (or more like walk first!). Hope you try some wheatgrass! Anyone have any experiences?

Love always BB

"A shot of chlorophyll right to your blood stream!"

ALL MIGHTY WHEAT GRASS!!

Okay, I'll try to contain my excitment!

I definitely will be making a video sometime about growing wheatgrass once I get the whole thing down. This is actually the first time I have grown it, and will be the first time I actually will be doing shots religiously - well...not including my college alcohol phase, lol.

I am actually quite excited to be starting up on this. I have recently read Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr after hearing a lot of great reviews about it and thought it was exactly what I was looking for! A lifestyle with no grains, dairy-free, whole foods, lots of juices and real factual philosiphies. I will review her book and explain the 21 day cleanse I will be doing from her book when I start (as soon the wheat grass is ready!). For now I will talk a little about wheatgrass.

I have started to get ready for this cleanse by cutting back on meat and have slowly removed coffee from my diet. Coffee was a HUGE thing for me. What artist (or fashion designer) have you seen who doesn't drink coffee?! Its our fuel, our blood! When deadlines come and late nights turn into weeks its what we reach for as a life support. In all reality a little coffee is alright, but we sure do over do it and it doesn't even work the same way when we do! We become addicted to it with out realizing, until the day we miss a mug full! We pour in bleached highly prossesed sugar substitutes and/or creamy dairy products with even more sugar and chemicals, up to the rim. Now, that was my problem. I couldn't give up the creamer even with replacing my horrible Splenda habit with the all natural stevia. So after reading Crazy Sexy Diet, I figured I would at least TRY to give it up. 

Every day I left a little more crack (coffee) in my cup until the mug was almost full. That last day was hard! I mostly missed the sweet taste and the habit of having it with breakfast. The first day or so I felt a little out of it but did not have a headache, it definitely wasn't as bad as I expected. Its 1 day shy of a week now and I need something to give me a boost when starting my day. Enter : Wheatgrass

In Crazy Sexy Diet she says to check out Michael Bergnozi since he is the wheatgrass king! After exploring his website and taking in all the information possible, I found a company called Got Sprouts? under his links. I was so excited to find a company relatively close to me that sold quality wheatgrass seeds! Got Sprouts? actually delivered them to my door- thats 40 min drive for them! 

I soaked,

I sprouted,

I planted,

and I (soon) will conquer !

The best part about Got Sprouts? website is under FAQ. If you are visual like me, lazy, or just want to learn more, then this is a great place to spend a few hours! I watched all the videos before the seeds came in the mail and I feel like a pro already! 

But the big questions are 

WHY WHEATGRASS?

WHY GROW YOUR OWN?

There was a few reasons why I decided to grow my own wheatgrass instead of purchasing it already grown.  My mother and I have started growing some container organic gardens and realized how much money it saves to grow your own! Its so much more convenient to walk to your backyard for tomatoes, then to go to the local organic market and drop big bucks. I started sprouting other seeds, so why not grow my own wheatgrass! I got 2 pounds of seeds and a tray for about $9! You need less than a pound to grow a whole tray so its WAY cheaper than spending $10+ on only one fully grown tray of wheat grass. 

One of my concerns was my mother had tried wheatgrass before and actually got sick from it! I found on Got Sprouts FAQ page that Michael Bergnozi discussed how important it was to make sure you cut your grass at the right time and that most juice bars do not grow it them selfs, thus their grass tastes more bitter and people feel sick. This was very important to be since I did not want to have the same thing happen to me and I also wanted my mom to try it again with out worrying.

Wheatgrass is a powerful detoxifier that brings oxygen to your blood with its high chlorophyll content.  It is full of vitamins B-12, B-6, K & C and beta-carotine. It cleanses the colon, liver, gastrointestinal track wile protecting your organs for observing toxins! It also stimulates the thyroid gland and alkalizes your blood flow! The list of reasons why to juice wheatgrass is endless. Check out Benefits of Wheatgrass from Hippocrates Heath Institute .. Man, I hope I hope I will be able t study there some day!

It certainly gives me reason to try it!

I have learned a lot from researching online but the best test is to try it your self! The only rule is make sure you do it everyday! Only a few times a week won't make a difference!

Hope this has inspired you to think about wheat grass.

  "A shot of chlorophyll right to your blood stream!"

-Kris Carr

Love always

BB

Creamy almond butter

This is a recipe I tried for the first time this weekend. I was craving something salty and sweet, so I looked through my cabinet. There was nothing salty and sweet that was also not bad for you and nutritious. So i took a bag of raw almonds and decided to make something new! Creamy almond butter! MMM!!

all you will need is :

-2 Cups Raw Almonds

-1/4 Tsp Pink Salt (or to taste)

-Food Processor

Optional:

- Tbs of Unrefined Coconut Oil

-1/4 Tsp of Gluten-Free Organic Vanilla Extract

Some other ideas I did not use in this recipe: Honey, cinnamon, stevia, raw cocoa

Time: about 20 mins

Easy steps:

Add 2 Cups Raw Almonds to food processer

Now this is the most you will have to do besides making sure the almond mill doest get stuck on the sides. It goes get pretty loud when doing this - I had to actually make this in my office room so I wouldn't wake up my baby from nap time in the living room!

Keep mixing! Make sure to occasionally take a spatchula and help the almonds blend all together. 

After a LONG 20 mins here is what you get! Now its time to blend in some extra flavors!

Coconut oil is optional but I like the extra benefits it gives the almond butter. You won't taste much coconut until after you put it in the refrigerator and it will make it more solid like a traditional peanut butter.

   Give it a quick pulse to mix all ingredients completely together.

Pour almond butter into mason jar or any air tight container, and try not to spoon too much into your mouth before this step!

 Tah-Dah! you have made your very own home-made Almond butter! A great alternative for the kids for yucky-not-so-good peanut butter. You can add it on bananas, celery, in healthy raw baking recipes and even more! I used mine in a green smoothy! Kale, spinach, banana, raw cocoa powder, raw maca powder, spiraling, ice cubes and almond milk (and of course the almond butter) all blended together for a delicious, creamy, green but cocoa almond butter smoothy to satisfy that salt, sweet tooth with all the nutrients!!
What did you use your almond butter for?