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Next week I’m sending out a special edition to my email newsletter where I’m sharing everything holidays… recipes, tips, and special announcements you won’t want to miss.
Make sure you’re signed up here. (You’ll see the spot to enter your email address on the right side of my main website’s home page.)
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Thanks for everyone who participated in my giveaway for a chance to win a copy of my Easy Raw Vegan Holiday Recipe Book. I LOVED reading everyone’s comments. I took some trips down memory lane with you… especially those of you who wrote about pierogi!
After randomly drawing two winners…. Here they are…
Jessica - Pistachio pudding, you know the kind with the little marshmallows in it? Oh so yummy, I need to find a way to veganize that dish.
Lisa - Hmm, the one food I couldn’t get enough of as a kid was tomatoes. I could eat piles of them, and still can!
Email me your address and I’ll get your book to you! Cheers!
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I’m quite excited and proud to announce that my recipe for Raw Harvest Soup made its way in the line up of recommended recipes on Huffington Post!!
I found this article interesting from Orthomolecular Medicine News Service… you can read more articles here and subscribe to their newsletter here.
(OMNS, Oct 3, 2011) Many of our readers have written to say that when they try to talk to their physician about using nutritional medicine, the subject is promptly dismissed. Furthermore, such dismissal is often accompanied with doctor statements such as, “I have not seen any good research showing that vitamins work therapeutically.”
That your doctor has not seen the research is probably true. However, the research has been there all along. The problem is that many health practitioners are often too busy, and sometimes too complacent, to look for it.
It is time to change that. Here are some highly-reliable orthomolecular resources online, for free access.
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Even though I just had an awesome giveaway where I featured Jigsaw’s fantastic magnesium with SRT, I’m doing another giveaway right now.
This time I’m offering 2 lucky winners each a copy of my Easy Raw Vegan Holidays book!
The holidays are fast approaching with Halloween right around the corner, and I’m already planning my Thanksgiving and Christmas menus. As usual, I’m turning to my Easy Raw Vegan Holidays book for ideas, which offers fun, nutritious, and delicious recipes for the whole family. In fact, I just received an email the other day from someone who made my raw pumpkin pie and couldn’t believe how delicious it was. :)
Let’s get to it! How can you enter for a chance to win a copy of my book? It’s simple! Answer the following question in this blog post’s comment section.
The contest will end Thursday night, October 6th @ 11:59pm. I’ll enter everyone’s name who answered the question into a drawing and announce the winners on my blog Friday, October 7th. (This contest is open to everyone around the globe, and if you don’t live in the United States, I will send you the ebook version.)
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Congratulations, Bitt! You are the randomly selected winner of Jigsaw’s Magnesium with SRT. Whoo hoo! This is great stuff. I hope it works wonders for you. (Simply email me your mailing address and I’ll get the Magnesium to you straight away.)
Here was Bitt’s response when I asked how she thought Jigsaw’s Magnesium with SRT could help her…
I’ve been taking magnesium for years for just the things you mentioned–sleep, constipation, muscle issues. I like that theirs is the dimagnesium malate, I haven’t tried that kind before. I learned that it also helps the female cycle (no wonder we crave chocolate during that TOTM). Great giveaway!
Jigsaw was so excited about all of your comments that they’re offering a special coupon to my readers for $10 off with coupon code: KRISTENSRAW10
I don’t know about you, but I’m off to buy a few bottles for myself and my family. I want my mom and step-dad on it, and Greg and I need to replenish our supply. The more bottles you buy at once, the cheaper the price per bottle. Plus, they have a great 90-day money back guarantee. I love a company with a solid promise like that.
If you’d like to take advantage of this special offer, visit here, and remember to enter the code KRISTENSRAW10
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Wow… it’s been too long since my last giveaway! I promise to get on top of that in the future. ;)
This is a very important giveaway because it highlights a mineral that research shows many of us are sorely lacking. Magnesium. I used to think that I didn’t need to supplement with magnesium because I had enough in my diet. I knew that cashews contained it. Chocolate, too! (In fact, many believe that when you crave chocolate, it’s often a sign of your body needing magnesium). But, I was wrong with my thinking that I’m getting enough with food alone. A quarter cup ofc ashews gives about 20-25% of the recommended daily intake (400 mg). I believe there are many nutrients, including magnesium, of which we need higher levels than what the RDI recommends.
But, that’s not all. If you have a magnesium deficiency, it seems that you can’t replenish by just getting the RDI amount of 400 mg. Experts believe that if you’re low on magnesium (by the way, this is not obvious info from blood tests; see why here), then you’ll need to consume higher levels. According to Jigsaw’s website, “Some experts in the field — such as Dr. Russell Blaylock — recommend 1000mg a day as the optimal dose to relieve the effects that can be connected to magnesium-deprived diets.”* Therefore, I’d need to consume at least a cup of cashews and lots of chocolate (ummm… okay, maybe that’s not a bad thing – lol) to reach the amount I think I need. That’s a lot of cashews every day! And — thought it pains me to admit — too much chocolate. :(
So I always try to rely first on organic whole foods to give me a strong foundation of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, and then I supplement to fill in the gaps.
The first thing to know is that not all magnesiums (magnesia?) are created equally. Again, it’s a very important mineral. Remember that I mentioned that many people are deficient and need to supplement more than the RDI? Well, it turns out that you don’t want to do this with just any magnesium or you might have bowel trouble due to the mineral’s laxative effect. That’s why I like Jigsaw’s Sustained Release Magnesium, which lets you take higher amounts without having to worry about, er, explosive bowel issues. I speak from experience… (TMI alert)… in the past, I supplemented by drinking Natural Calm’s popular magnesium drink, but I found that I had to be careful with it because it gave me… um… issues. Also, taking the time to drink a cup of something every night inevitably means that there will be times that I miss it because I don’t feel like making or drinking it. So… what to do?
Enter: Jigsaw’s magnesium with SRT supplement and this giveaway! One lucky winner will receive a bottle of Jigsaw’s magnesium with SRT (240 tablets, a 2-month supply. That’s a $39.97 value!… more than regular magnesium due to its time-released formulation that prevents the laxative effect). Details on how to enter for this great prize are at the end of this post.
I’ve only scratched the surface about magnesium and supplementing with it. Here’s some more info from Jigsaw’s website.
What Can Magnesium Help Me With?*
- Promote healthy relaxed muscle tone and function.*
- Promote athletic recovery.*
- Support steady energy production. Promote healthy, restful sleep.*
- Support a balanced response to stress.*
- Maintain healthy blood pressure levels.*
- Maintain healthy blood sugar/glucose levels within normal limits.*
- Promote regularity and healthy digestion.*
- Support the body’s ability to properly dissolve and utilize calcium in joints, muscles, and arteries.*
- Support respiratory and cardiovascular health.*
- Support healthy hormonal balance—especially in connection with the female cycle.*
- Support overall bone health.*
Up to 80% of Americans are Running Low on Magnesium… Why?
The simplest answer is that our modern food supply (including organic food) simply doesn’t contain the magnesium it should due to highly depleted soil conditions. Even back in 1915, there were worries about the nutrient quality of the soil, as found in a record of Congressional Testimony. So even if you eat healthy, it is likely that you are running low on this critical mineral.
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It’s been a while since I posted a day’s eats here but I have been frequently sharing food deets on my facebook page here.
Today, I decided I want to start having my heavier (typically carb loaded) meals in the earlier part of the day and trying to eat lighter at night. It’s something I’ve never been good at doing, but I’ll give it a deliberate go today. The goal is to have light digestion at night which is better for sleep as well as being effective for weight loss and possibly anti-aging. No, I’m not in the market for weight loss, but this should also help me maintain my weight (I’m cool with that).
As for the anti-aging, well, the story goes that by reducing carbs late at night, it enables better release of growth hormone (eating carbs late at night results in insulin being released, which could compete with the growth hormone you should be releasing, and you’d miss out on that. Boohoo.). Growth hormone is reputed as amazing for anti aging, muscle growth, and weight loss. (Another way to release growth hormone is through exercise.) However, there are some competing sources who say growth hormone does nilly willy for anti aging. We’ll see about that. And, be sure that I’m not promoting the idea of getting growth hormone injected! I’m just talking about ways to improve your own body’s ability to enhance it’s natural surge. Geez, this is supposed to be a post on what I’m eating for the day. I’m a bit passionate about the topic of longevity and anti aging…
On to the food for today!
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A while back I opened up my blog for questions…. it’s been a lot of fun answering them. Recently, a reader asked me some other questions via email that I chose to feature on my Green Mommy Blog. Things like… my favorite magazines, parenting books, etc. Check it out!
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A while back I blogged about the protein grenades I routinely make Greg. Basically, they’re little glass mason jars that have a single serving protein mixture (vegan and mostly raw) in each. I say “single” but there’s more than that in each (typically a few scoops of protein powder and other goodies). However, for Greg, it’s a single serving in that he dumps the contents into his shaker cup, adds filtered water, and drinks it as one of his shakes for the day. He’ll drink anywhere from 2-5 of these a day. It’s a lot of protein, but it’s what he wants for his body in building lean muscle. Plus, he works out, by strength training a 3-day split, regularly. You can read more about his grenades in detail here.
Today, I’m featuring a couple of new items we’ve tried recently in an attempt to further diversify his grenades. One is a new protein powder and the other items are sprouted (dried) ingredients.
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I make lots of kitchen sink raw recipes. For those of you not familiar with those, they’re basically recipes where you throw in everything, except the kitchen sink! Most often, they’re recipes with odds-and-ends ingredients that you’re trying to use up before the next shopping trip. I’ve made Kitchen Sink Green Juices, Kitchen Sink Smoothies, Kitchen Sink Breads and Crackers, Kitchen Sink Pates, and now… Kitchen Sink Nut Butter.
And, this may be the best nut butter I ever made. Too bad it’s never to be truly replicated because I didn’t measure anything, as is the case in most kitchen sink recipes. I just threw the last nuts from my jars into my food processor and hit “on.” (Took only a few minutes and it was done!) I do know the main ingredients though (all organic): almonds, cashews, walnuts, Brazil nuts, and pecans.
I'm Kristen, and welcome to my blog. I'm a wife, mom, author, and I love to eat so food is usually the topic of my blog posts. I'm a former (almost decade long) vegan turned back omnivore who enjoys reading, rebounding, coffee, and dark chocolate. More...
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