La Bella Vita

Chipotle roasted sweet potatoes & vegetables

♥

Roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, corn, red bell pepper, entire onion, chipotle & jalapeno pepper, cilantro, cumin, coriander, red chili pepper... over brown rice :)

"An estimated 800 million pairs of jeans are sold worldwide each year."

-Whole Living Magazine

WOW! I love a pair of jeans... but yikes! Just last week I got a "new" pair of designer jeans from Hallelu (on Wrightsville Beach, beside WINGS) for like $45 opposed to the like $200 that they normally cost. They were basically brand new... and actually fit perfect. I am going to have to get all new jeans this year :( and :) ... I put a sad face because money, but happy face because the reason I have to get new ones is because all of mine are huge on me now.

...FERNS...

are masters at clearing indoor air...? Who knew! It's the most effective air-purifying species... Whole Living Magazine says to put one (or many) in a bathroom with a window and let the steam from the shower act as a virtual greenhouse. (hmmmm that is pretty neat)

STRESS

Greenery reduces stress. Studies show the presence of plants significantly eases the recovery of hospital patients & lowers the blood pressure of office workers.

I can't wait until (I think) March when my lease is up at my apartment and I can move into a house with (hopefully) Kailee... I can't wait to paint a wall with that chalkboard paint. I think it is SO neat. I also think it would be cool to have like a "corkboard" wall, so we could put up pretty pictures, recipes, random pictures up and like make a collage...

When I "grow-up" aka get married and settle down, I plan ;) to have an office where I can have one wall with the chalkboard paint (for myself) or my kids to play on, a corkboard wall... and yeah I'll stop with my daydreaming... :)

Do you have migraines/headaches?

I found THIS interesting. Click here to read.

I've suffered from migraines my entire life... yes, even as a child... and completely think that my change in my diet, without a doubt helped me out... especially the dairy/cheese.

Beautiful skin...

Karyn Calabrese, a holistic health expert said "I use coconut oil for everything, without fail. It works as a makeup remover and as an intensive moisturizer. Jojoba Oil is even lighter and keeps oil skin in balance." It's absorbed into the skin instead of sitting on top of the surface, blocking pores and causing breakouts unlike mineral oils.

(I loved hearing this because I myself use coconut oil for ABSOLUTELY everything. Cooking, makeup remover, lotion, EVERYTHING... seriously. There is a glass jar of it right this second in my purse... you can get it at Tidal Creek & Fresh Market in the big containers... not positive about the other places. I'll have to go and get some Jojoba Oil to try out.

10-25% of Americans have a sensitivity to at least one food.

-Thought this was interesting because of gluten "deal"-

Brain Food

blueberries - red wine - dark chocolate

NAP TIME

2003 Harvard study showed that a 60-90 minute nap, including both slow-wave and REM sleep stages, boosted learning retention as much as a full 8 hours of sleep!

BUILD YOUR IMMUNITY

Veggie ppl way: beans, legumes (lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans)

nuts, and seeds (try sunflower & pumpkin)

Battle of the Superfoods

Almond Butter > Peanut Butter

Almond butter has 60% more monounsaturated fat than peanut butter.

This fat decreases harmful LDL levels, lowering heart-disease and stroke risk.

-Runners World Magazine

Kale > Spinach

Kale contains 4 times more vitamin C and one and a half times

the amount of immune-boosting vitamin A & vitamin K.

Quinoa > Brown Rice

Quinoa has 3 extra grams of protein per cooked cup

plus more fiber, iron & magnesium.

Orange > Apple

Have similar amounts of calories & fiber but oranges have 12 times as much vitamin C.

Red Pepper > Green Pepper

Red Pepper has 8 times the vitamin A

(keeps your immune system strong)

Stole these from their facebook page :) so cute!

It's the most wonderful time of the year..... BOO!

Okay, so every year I get SUPER stressed out (drama queen)

about what I'm going to be for Halloween... it's like my version of

my wedding day every year haha... okay... so that's a little extreme...

But I don't want to be wearing the same thing as someone else.

Last year I went to this dance store called "Tutus to Taps" and purchased

a dance costume that a girl had worn for a recital. Well... I decided this year

that I would spoil myself. And since today started awesome, and wound up

being pretty stupid... I decided I wasn't going to have nunnnna that...

SO NOW I AM HAPPY :)

I spent incredibly too much money. BUT it's beautiful.

And I can always sell it on good ol' EBAY. :)

Technologyyyyyyyy is grand hehehe....

Hope your opinion of it is as good as mine... :)

When I first became vegan... I ate THIS (click on this) seriously almost every night for dinner... and would put it with a vegetable (broc or green beans usually) and a cup of brown rice.

It's not gluten free, so I don't eat it anymore...

Vegetarian & Vegan Recipe's on The Ellen Degeneres Website...

Click here to see them :)

10-20-2010

Well I forgot to wear my purple today...

but I saw these quotes on my friends' facebooks and thought I would share them...

"Everybody's journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality." ~James Baldwin *Wear Purple Today* :)" -Jana Suggs Wirtel

"I'm as straight as they come but I will gladly stand up for the LGBT youth of America, scared to stand up for themselves. This gay bashing & bullying has got to stop. We have kids committing suicide because they are bullied & taunted for being "different." I've grown up & realized that there's so much more important shit goin on, then what society teaches us, as kids. Stop the hate. Love is louder." -Mel Atoa Siaki

Can we talk about boys... who want their cake and wanna eat it too... and then want nibbles out of other cakes... no, never mind I don't even want to go there....

This made me laugh... hope it makes you laugh too... :)

"At some point, we have to learn to let go of all control that we THINK we have." -Erica Denton

"Our Daily Ocean: A Story of Butts"

I just wanted to thank everyone that has been voting for my friend Danielle Richardet and her project .... "Our Daily Ocean: A Story of Butts" ... yay! She has 827 votes as of RIGHT NOW... 9:10 AM on Wednesday :) woohoo! You should check out her blog: "It Starts With Me" ... and the name of her blog, definitely deserves it's given name... because it HAS started with her! :) So proud of her!

If you have not voted... please do! You can do it everyday up until Oct 29th!

Yesterday, I had planned on going to the gym, doing P90X, etc but it was SUCH a beautiful day out that I decided to get some exercise outdoors... so I decided to go to, well... ONLY my favorite place in the entire world... yes, yes, yes, DA BEACH hehe... well I started at Stone Street (near Wings/Trolly Stop) and ran a little ways, until I found a Starbuck's coffee cup in my path just skirting around on the sand, feet from the water... and of course, I picked it up... had a few words (with myself, hehe) and then proceeded to run, with it in hand... well I continued seeing trash and it started to make me kinda angry... so I decided to turn my "beach run" into a mini "beach sweep"... and spent the next 3 hours picking up trash AND cigarette butts. I honestly should've put cigarette butts first, because that was definitely the majority of what was out there. I have to say, I never doubted Danielle's findings, or that there was a lot... and you probably don't either... but until you really go out there and LOOK for what has become so COMMON that we don't even notice anymore (so ridiculously sad) you probably won't understand... because I didn't realize JUST. HOW. SAD. it was/is. I spent the 3 hours seriously like talking to myself. Cussing to myself and then praying to myself... weird right? It's something so incredibly simple that could literally make the world of difference.

I picked up 541 cigarette butts, 6 plastic filters, tons of plastic straws, tops to bottles, bottles, glass beer bottles, numerous birthday balloons... I mean I was like in complete shock. I'm a nanny as I'm sure you know... and I brought most of the stuff I picked up with me to work, after Girls on the Run, I talked to Sonja (10) and Charlie (6) about Danielle's project again (they've been hearing me talk about it) and we sat outside and counted the cigarette butts. Sonja (10) couldn't believe how many I found, but I told her that it was NOTHING compared to what was still out there. If I compared it to the ocean, I told her it's like I only was one drop. Sonja was upset that I had gone without her, but I assured her that there will definitely be more times for her to participate.

Click here to see some of the pics from my FIRST mini beach sweep

I really think that I may start just picking up trash everyday, wherever it may be... of course, as many of you know, I was already "environmentally friendly" and what not... many of you call me a "Tree Hugger" or whatever, and that's okay... I don't take offense to it. It's honestly a compliment. Driving around yesterday afternoon with the kids to all of their activities, you should've seen me looking out the window at the side of the road, looking around and scoping out all the litter. arg. Danielle has made a Nazi out of me! hehe!

Random Interesting Facts/Info-ish

Did you know 12% of college students consider themselves vegetarian?

If vegetarian were a college major, it would be the largest!

I also heard on the radio that Psyche majors are the least

satisfied once they are placed in their jobs... grrrrrreat.

Cancer survivors who increase soy consumption are less likely to face disease again.

I was cleaning all the pictures off of my phone... yeah... still in the process of finishing because I take pictures of EVERYTHING... and this one SO reminds me of MYSPACEDOTCOM pictures back in the day... haha makes me laugh...

Ryan and I at the Oktoberfest @ Fat Tony's Friday, October 15th...

Gluten free info for a friend :)

You can't eat:

Wheat in all forms including spelt, kamut, triticale (a combination of wheat and rye), durum, einkorn, farina, semolina, cake flour, matzo (or matzah) and couscous.

Ingredients with "wheat" in the name including wheat starch, modified wheat starch, hydrolyzed wheat protein and pregelatinized wheat protein. Buckwheat, which is gluten free, is an exception.

Barley malt, which is usually made from barley, and malt syrup, malt extract, malt flavoring and malt vinegar.

Breaded or floured meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables. Also meat, poultry and vegetables when they have a sauce or marinade that contains gluten, such as soy and teriyaki sauces.

Licorice, imitation crab meat, beer, most is fermented from barley. (Specialty gluten-free beer is available from several companies.)

You can eat:

Foods made from grains (and grain-like plants) that do notcontain harmful gluten, including: Corn in all forms (corn flour, corn meal, grits,etc.). Rice in all forms (white, brown, basmati and enriched rice). Also amaranth, buckwheat (kasha), Montina, millet, quinoa, teff, sorghum and soy.

The following ingredients:

Annatto, glucose syrup, lecithin, maltodextrin (even when it is made from wheat), oat gum, plain spices, silicon dioxide, starch, food starch and vinegar (only malt vinegar might contain gluten). Also citric, lactic and malic acids as well as sucrose, dextrose and lactose; and these baking products: arrowroot, cornstarch, guar and xanthan gums, tapioca four or starch, potato starch flour and potato starch, vanilla.

The following foods:

Milk, butter, margarine, real cheese, plain yogurt and vegetable oils including canola. Plain fruits, vegetables, (fresh, frozen and canned), meat, seafood, eggs, nuts, beans and legumes and flours made from them.

Distilled vinegar is gluten free. (See malt vinegar under NO below).

Distilled alcoholic beverages are gluten free because distillation effectively removes gluten from wheat. They are not gluten free if gluten-containing ingredients are added after distillation, but this rarely, if ever, happens.

Mono and diglycerides are fats and are gluten free.

Spices are gluten free. If there is no ingredient list on the container, it contains only the pure spice noted on the label.

Actually! Honestly... gluten free is super easy.

A lot of restaurants have a whole separate menu

just for gluten free customers.

Click here for Gluten Free in Wilmington

Click here for another type of dining out list...

Grocery Store wise... there are TONS of gluten free things!

If you live in Wilmington, two good places to check out are

Lovey's (Landfall Shopping Center)

and Tidal Creek (on Oleander across from Jungle Rapids)

Okay, so it's not that expensive...

if you think about it in terms of... OMG there's so much I can't eat!

You're setting yourself up for failure. But the easiest way to start...

eat more fruits and veggies... REAL food. And then you don't have

to really stress/worry over it.

Gluten Free Shopping List....

this one is good too!!!!

For pasta if you go to Harris Teeter,

in their pasta section they have a selection of just gluten free pastas...

The brand that I usually get is 'De Boles' and usually the multi-grain

rather than the rice kind, I feel like it's more like... "pasta texture".

Quinoa is good... they actually make pasta too out of it.

If you look on the back of alot of packages they have GF on them,

it's becoming alot more popular, so it's getting much easier.

In Walmart (hell on Earth) they have a gluten free section.

Brown Rice is always a goodie. I eat it like..... nonstop.

"Amy's" the organic brand, has alot of things in the frozen section,

like frozen pizzas and "microwave dinners"

"Van's natural foods" has frozen waffles and frozen french toast sticks.

CORN flour tortillas. Corn tortilla chips.

Annie's & Organicville have some yummy salad dressings

(My favorite is Annie's roasted red pepper dressing.)

It'll be tough in the beginning but it'll be like singing your ABCs in no time.

SO many people have Blogs (like me) about their diet, ideas, etc...

These are GREAT tools to see what other people are doing

and also give you some confidence to branch out!! :)

Here's a good one...

Just go to google and type "Gluten Free + _______"

and you'll find your answer.

Vegan & Gluten Free Mac & Chz & Apple Crumble

Thanks to Happy Herbivore I made vegan & gluten free Mac & Cheeeze :)

Her recipe is found here: Mac & Chz

I used gluten free penne to make it gluten free.

I put diced tomatoes with mine...

because I don't know how to eat anything just by itself

Apple Crumble

Slices apples... 1/2 unsweetened organic applesauce, gluten free oats,

agave nectar, lots of cinnamon... hmmm I think that's it.

I baked it at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

I put it on top of almond ice cream for Ryan.

I tasted it but was too full to actually eat because of the mac & chz.

He said it was amazing. :)