Green Drinks

If you watched the London Olympics you might have caught a horrified Mary Carillo pounding down a sludgy, neon green drink with Olympic runner, Oscar Pistorius. What Pistorius was drinking is part of a growing trend toward making healthy, fresh juices, and many of them green (meaning they contain spinach, kale and other green vegetables.) You don't need to be an Olympic athlete or even Jack LaLane to benefit from these magical, nutrient rich concoctions. They can be part your daily routine for maintaining good health.

According to Healthy Healing by Linda Page:

Green drinks have anti-infective properties, carry off acid wastes, neutralize body pH, and are excellent for mucous cleansing. They can help clear the skin, cleanse the kidneys, and purify and build the blood.

They also taste light and refreshing. Whether you want to cleanse your body and  'reboot your system' like Joe Cross in Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead or simply get your veggies to go, consider trying a fresh juice each day and see how you feel. I have been drinking a green juice every day for the past three weeks based upon the Mean Green Juice from Joe Cross, and I have been feeling great.    

Vegan Cuts

Jenni signed us up to get alerts from Vegan Cuts. They have some awesome deals on vegan  products and are a great resource if you live in an area where where vegan products are hard to come by. We've ordered Nacheez (Gluten Free and Soy-Free) Nacho Sauce, MuLondon Moisturizer, and Brownie Bites from Twin Cakes Bakery through them. Great brownies. 

Vegan Cuts is looking to partner with companies with Vegan products to sell. So, give them a shout if you have a product to sell. Shop Vegan!

Sjaak's Organic Vegan Chocolate

Jenni ordered these fantastic organic - dairy free chocolate bars for us, available from Sjaak's Organic Chocolates. Eli’s Earth Bars are organic and Fair trade with 5% of each sale going to a charitable children's organization. 

Ingredients: Dairy free milk chocolate(organic rice milk, organic evaporated cane juice, organic cocoa butter, organic cocoa paste, organic soy lecithin, organic vanilla) organic peanuts, organic rice syrup, sea salt

Gardein

For the last several weeks we've been picking up the 'Gardein,' short for 'garden protein. The ever expanding family of Gardein products are: vegan, delicious and easy to work with. I'm not a huge fan of processed foods, but having two 6 year old boys sometimes leaves me pretty pressed for time. Gardein contains excellent ingredients and remarkably good flavor. I've been throwing the 'chicken' strips into pasta, and mixing the 'beef' tips with rice and vegetables for quick weekend meals. They're a little expensive, but worth it. If you go to the Gardein website you'll find recipes and information on where to pick them up.

Annie Chun

As a vegetarian and a bit of a foodie I prefer preparing as much of our food from scratch as I have time. And I do. But between my work and Jenni's, not to mention the boy's busy schedules; it's hard to always plan ahead, or find the time to get it all done. I try to grab as much on the go healthy food as I can; some almonds, fruit, a Clif bar. But sometimes I need something a little more substantial. Lately,  I've been stashing these quick little Pan-Asian meals from Annie Chun in my pantry and desk. Many of them, like the Korean Kimchi soup bowl I had for lunch today are vegan/vegetarian. The noodles are delicious and they taste surprisingly fresh. The Miso soup was also very tasty. They've started carrying these products in Bloomington, so I'm sure they're available just about everywhere.

Consumed - The Cult of Mexican Coca-Cola - NYTimes.com

Though I'm not a big pop drinker here at home, I find myself ordering Coca-Cola all the time when we're on the road. In Europe and Latin America, Coca-Cola is made with sugar, as opposed to the high fructose corn syrup used here in the States. I have to admit; to me it tastes better: a little sweeter, a little fizzier. I was listening to a podcast yesterday from This Week in Travel, and apparently quite a phenomenon has developed regarding Mexican Coca-Cola. I did a quick search and found this article from the New York Times. I've bought Mexican Coca-Cola at our local grocery store. Maybe it's the sugar, maybe it's the glass bottle, I don't know. But go have a coke and a smile while supplies last.

Consumed - The Cult of Mexican Coca-Cola - NYTimes.com

Maltesers

Ah Maltesers, the tastiest malted milk ball money can buy. I picked up a box over the weekend at our international foods store. They always make me think of England. I was looking the box over, and it said they are safe for vegetarians. Good thing, since I had about 6 of them stuffed in my cheek. It's the holiday season, treat yourself to some vegetarian-friendly Matlesers, or a Crunchie if you can find one.

Soup For You

I'm not a big fan of canned soups. They're generally not vegetarian and they usually taste like can. But we've been on the go a lot this past week with the boy's birthday party and whatnot. So, I needed some quick, nutritious things to throw together. So, in a pinch, here are my recommendations.

Wild Harvest Organic is making some terrific Vegan friendly, organic soups. They have black bean, lentil, tomato, and vegetable. I picked up the black bean and the vegetable soups this week.

Wild Harvest® Organic - Black Bean Soup

Another soup I'd recommend is Wolfgang Puck's brand. They've been carrying them at our local grocers lately. They're exceptionally good soups. I particularly liked the corn chowder and old fashioned potato.

Clif Kid Bars

I had to plan ahead for our trip to Sweden. Since we took our 4 year old twin boys, who, like us, are vegetarians (and picky ones at that), I knew we would encounter food issues. I wanted some snacks that were (somewhat) healthy, easy to carry and very tasty. I discovered Clif Kid ZBars. First, I tried them out at home on my two subjects. From Amazon, I ordered a Clif Kid ZBar variety pack which includes 8 Chocolate Brownie, 8 Chocolate Chip and 8 Honey Graham bars. The boys (and their parents) liked all three varieties. Success! Since we're gluttons, we ended up eating the entire variety pack before we left on our trip. I ordered two more variety packs and kept them under lock and key until we left.

Since the bars have vitamins and minerals, whole grains, no artificial ingredients, no high fructose corn syrup or trans fats, I felt good about the boys eating them. They just thought they were getting a treat.