Earthy roots

I've officially embraced my hippy side today. I went to a local co op called People's for the first time today. It's interesting how a co op works. It's owned by the customers, everything is super earthy, and you can even work there (not for pay, just for a discount).

They had a lot of bulk stuff. Anything from herbs, grains, soap, laundry detergent, herbal remedies, and lots of raw products.

I also got some dark chocolate chips, only because I needed to restock my supply and they carried the kind from Italy that I get. I was also a sucker for these raw dark chocolate coconut haystacks. It's just unsweetened coconut, maple syrup, and dark chocolate, OH MY!!!

I also found a great deal on coconut oil, crofter's all fruit spread in raspberry and apricot, and garlic gold. I was so excited to see garlic gold products. It's all the rage on all the blogs and I've been wanting to try it. It's olive oil and roasted garlic pieces. I hear it makes a great homemade salad dressing.

And to top off my hippy times I stopped at Laughing plant cafe for lunch. It's got a hippy vibe and everything is vegetarian and then you can add free range chicken, tofu, or tempeh to any dish.

I got the Cuban bowl: brown rice, black beans, sweet potatoes, plantains, and salsa. I added some free range chicken and a whole wheat tortilla on the side for making my own little burrito pieces. I got it to go so when I got home I added some lettuce on top for a dose of healthy leafy greens. I ate half of the bowl and half of the tortilla. I'm saving the other half for dinner.

Ready to go snacks

Snacky balls!!!! I know, not the best description. But they are tasty and perfect to have around for a quick pick me up.

Oats and any and everything else balls:

Base:

1.5 cups oats

1/4 cup raw honey warmed up for a few seconds

1 cup natural nut butter of choice ( I used a mix of pb and almond butter)

1/4 cup non fat powdered milk

dash salt and cinnamon

Then after that you can add anything you'd like.

I added:

1/4 cup raisins

2 TB. ground flax meal

2 TB. ground almond meal

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips The best part!!!!

Mix together and roll into balls. For best results resist temptation and let them sit in the fridge overnight before enjoying.

I like enjoying mine straight from the fridge so that they are nice and firm.

Welcome to spring

We've finally had two day's in a row of nice sunny weather. Perfect for getting outside and reuniting with nature.

I picked up some herbs to be planted in a patio pot today. Some basil, cilantro, lemon thyme (one of my favorites), and dill. I'm also planning on planting some veggies too. But I'm waiting until it warms up just slightly. We've had a couple really cold nights lately.

This evening I went on a bike ride and then came home to enjoy a bowl of Julie's organic chocolate frozen yogurt. Topped with fresh organic strawberries, it was perfect.

Tonight's bike ride was my first since moving to my new neighborhood and my first ride in about 3 months. Man my legs were feeling it, but it was so fun. I forgot how much I liked my bike. I'm definitely going to be doing more biking in the upcoming months.

Giving back to Mother earth

Happy Earth day!!!

Some way's that I help the environment and reduce my foot print on the world are:

Using re usable bags for everyday shopping as well as groceries.

Biking, walking, and running!!!! It's one of the reason's I picked the neighborhood I live in.

Buying local

Planting flowers and tree's.

Recycling.

Using reusable travel cups and dishes.

Using Pyrex storage container's for leftover's or for transporting my lunch to work. Instead of little baggies or foil.

As well as so many other things.

Bob's refill

Today I made a trip to the Bob's red mill flagship store. I feel so lucky to have Bob's only a few minutes from my house. They have a HUGE bulk area that I love. As you can see I have a lot of grains, and this is only one of two cabinets.

I stocked up on:

raisins

dried cherries and dried cranberries

pastry whole wheat flour

apple cinnamon hot cereal and spice n nice hot cereal

organic dark chocolate chips

shredded coconut

muesli

buckwheat groats

millet

Along with some millet grits. I've never cooked millet before and I thought grits sounded delicious.

I made it per Bob's instructions, as seen here. Plus a tsp. of Earth balance butter stirred in at the end. Topped with some Tj's brushetta mix.

And paired with a few leftover sweet potato crisps and some BBQ turkey meat loaf.

I made some extra millet grits for another recipe that I'm thinking about.

BBQ turkey meatloaf: (serving for two)

1/4 pound dark meat ground turkey

1/4 pound white meat ground turkey

2 TB. oats

2 TB. BBQ sauce

half of a grated zucchini (squeeze any excess liquid out)

spices: salt, pepper, basil, oregano, garlic, and smoked paprika

few dashes Parmesan cheese

Mix together and top with ketchup. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. Remove and bake uncovered for the last 5 min.

From Earth to table

I spent my Saturday morning helping out at a local nature area. It's Earth Month and Earth day this coming week. So I joined a group of co workers and we helped out SOLV with some trash removal.

The rest of the day was spent working on the home remodeling along with getting groceries and running errands, you know all the fun stuff!

I made a stop at the produce stand and stocked up. For dinner I created one of my favorite and most simple meals. I VERY thinly sliced up an organic sweet potato and roasted it at 400 degrees for 30 min.

It makes the most crispy and crunchy sweet potato chips, watch out they are VERY addicting. Seasoned simply with pink sea salt, pepper, garlic, and basil.

On a separate pan I also roasted some red pepper, shallot, little baby crimini mushrooms, asparagus, and Tj's turkey polish sausage.

I know it looks like a feast, but it's actually a salad plate and it's just a sampling of each veggie and some of the turkey sausage.

Served with a dollop of Tj's jalapeno and cilantro hummus, my favorite. The best part of the meal was the crispy chips. Unfortunately the worst part was the asparagus, blah. It was over cooked and wasn't the freshest in the beginning either.

The Insanity Defense: Fact or Fiction?

By Molly McVoy, M.D. 

When you hear about a defendant pleading insane at the time he or she committed a crime, what thoughts cross your mind?  You may be thinking of those infamous court cases: John Hinckley, Andrea Yates, Brian David Mitchell (Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper), and most recently, Jared Laughner.  It's common to feel conflicting emotions - anger, confusion, even sympathy - as you remember these high-profile defendants and traumatic court cases.

The word “sanity” is a legal term, not a mental health or clinical term.  Generally, a determination of “sanity” in a court of law refers to whether a “mental disease or defect” (also a legal, not clinical term) causes a person to be unable to know the wrongfulness of his or her action.

Over time, the court clarified what qualifies as a “mental disease or defect,” and it's not always directly related to clinical diagnosis as used by practicing psychiatrists.  Typically, severe mood and psychotic disorders do classify as a “mental disease or defect,” but many other psychiatric illnesses and personality disorders do not.  Courts ultimately determine what illnesses do and do not qualify as a “mental disease or defect” under the “not guilty by reason of insanity” defense. 

The application of this defense has also changed in scope.  Early in American law, only if someone had total loss of memory or understanding would this defense apply.  But in time, that became more liberal -- applying if someone was unable to know the wrongfulness of his or her actions or, because of illness, was unable to resist the urge to commit the crime.

After the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, the standard became narrower once again, returning to apply only to those whose “mental disease or defect” prevented him or her from knowing the wrongfulness of the crime.

Finally, some states have an additional “guilty but mentally ill” statute that affects eventual sentencing but not strict guilt or innocence.  You will probably hear more debate about the insanity defense in media's coverage of Jared Laughner.  There may always be misunderstanding and controversy for this complicated, highly sensitive issue.

 

For more information:

http://www.aapl.org/

Tweet

Mini pizza

There's a thousand ways to make pizza. You can use your traditional handmade or store bought pizza dough. As well as french bread, naan bread, or English muffins.

English muffins make for cute little mini pizza's and are so easy to make.

I always tend to go too heavy with the pizza toppings. I just can't help myself. This mini pizza included a base of tomato sauce, topped with hot chicken sausage, zucchini, mushrooms, and fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Muffin breakfast bake

Everyone seems to making these breakfast bakes lately, like Ashley and Kath. Especially the buckwheat variety.

I knew this was something that I wanted to try and the ingredient list looked very simple to make. When I pulled out my little ramekin from the oven it smelled just like banana bread, yum.

I'm not a big fan of buckwheat flour, I find it too dense. So I tried mine with some spelt flour and a little bit of muesli added for some texture.

Unfortunately mine came out a little too dense in texture. It needs a little tweaking before coming up with the winning recipe. I would like to try using oat flour or maybe even adding some almond flour next time.

My little bake had half of a banana mixed into the dough and surprise in the middle of blueberries. Topped off with almond flax nut butter, coconut, and a few dark chocolate chips for a Sunday treat.

In the moment

Yes I still eat oatmeal almost everyday.

Yes I still workout about 5 days a week.

Yes I'm still on my Journey figuring out life and everything as I go.

Just checking in with everyone.

Right now I'm in the beginning stages of starting some home remodeling. I'm looking forward to everything being pretty and just my style.

I'm also taking up some new fitness challenges in the next month or so. I will be sure to report back to you. There may be some indoor rock climbing in my future, scary.

Sunday

My Sunday morning started with a nice sunny morning run in the neighborhood. It was such a peaceful morning and a great way to start the day.

I then met up with my mom to have lunch and do some antiquing. My new neighborhood is famous for it's antique stores, there's lots of them. I picked up these old fashioned blocks that spell my name, how cute.

With all my running around today I took a little help with dinner from this box of rice. I love Seeds of Change products. Their grains are amazing, but also pricey unless on sale.

I added a can of black beans for more flavor and protein to the rice. Along with some sliced organic chicken breast.

I then created a little fiesta tasting plate of regular tortilla chips, baked blue corn chips, salsa, cheese, and lettuce.