What’s in your Tea?

Yesterday afternoon I was craving something sweet, so I decided I would make myself a cup of tea with Stevia. I had brought from home and kept at my desk, Island Mango and Peach Tea, which sounded good for a change. Not sure what prompted me to look at the ingredients (because you know, tea is made from TEA LEAVES), but I did, and much to my shock and disappointment (in Lipton), one ingredient was modified corn starch! Corn is a grain, why do I need grain in my tea? I don’t.

In the garbage it went! Goodbye tea with corn.

Grassfed vs Grainfed

Grassfed beef is so much healthier, it just isn’t always easy to locate, or affordable. Seth and I attended an event recently at a local brewery, where we went on a brewery tour, and the brewmaster was talking about how they save up their “fermented grain slop” for a truck that comes once a week, and delivers it to cows, like it was a good thing that these cows are getting this (who knows after it’s saved for a week at the brewery for pick-up, how long it is until it’s actually delivered for feeding…). I think it clicked even a little more for me after that, and maybe even more so for Seth. They weren’t meant to eat that garbage, just like we weren’t meant to eat the garbage available to us today, only difference, we have a choice.

Further, doctors today are always saying that we need to limit our consumption of red meat, well, yes, we need to limit it if it’s grainfed, because it is poor quality and damaging to our bodies, so in essence they’re right. What they’re leaving out though, is that moderation and food eaten the way it was meant to be eaten, are what’s important. Not limited quantities of the low quality, added sugar/fat food around today.

Fun Snack Finds!

I have tried to avoid entering a Whole Foods for as long as I could, because I know myself, and that I would freak out 🙂 We ended up there yesterday morning for quality meat, and we ended up getting a few other things too: Hail Merry Macaroons, Organic Honeycrisp Apples, and two seasonal Lara Bar flavors!

  • Not even kidding-the macaroons are to die for, made with organic almond flour and coconut oil (they’re big on coconut, YAY!). They have a lot of other options too: http://www.hailmerry.com/.
  • This was the first time I’ve seen Organic Honeycrisp! Each Fall (even though it is record setting heat in San Diego right now, not feeling Fall) I wait for them to arrive, but I’d never seen them organic, and there they were, I was SO EXCITED. We bought 4, and they were $13, ouch! There were some that were the size of grapefruits, just huge.
  • Last, the two new seasonal Lara Bar flavors which I’d seen on their website: http://www.larabar.com/, Orange Dream (I love orange anything) and Pineapple Upside Down Cake:

Excited for new snack flavors! 🙂

Egg Burgers, anyone?

Seth and I got creative with our burger toppings the other night, and ended up with these:

Egg Burgers

  • Organic grass-fed burgers (we get TJ’s)
  • 4 eggs ( we use Organic Valley, pastured)
  • Sliced red onion
  • Sliced tomato
  • Sliced avocado
  • Kosher salt/pepp

Seth grilled the burgers, they cook fast and shrink, fyi. He also sliced the red onion into rings, and kept them intact for grilling. Then we decided to break 1 egg each into little glass dishes, and pop them in the microwave for about 2 minutes, checking frequently. Then we simply layered the ingredients and sprinkled with kosher salt/pepp, added a little green salad on the side, and some fresh strawberries.

Another colorful dinner!

Thursday Thoughts

When you’re a beautiful person on the inside, nothing in the world can change that about you. Jealousy is the result of one’s lack of self-confidence, self-worth, and self-acceptance. The Lesson: If you can’t accept yourself, then certainly no one else will.

–Sasha Azevedo