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Kristen Helmstetter

(Brisa Starr)

kindle 2

I’m Homesick for Italy – Italian Expat Life

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It didn’t take long… I’m homesick for Italy.

Within the first few days of our trip to Ireland I was missing Italy with all of my heart.

This is a very different experience than I had after leaving the US. I was gone from the United States for 5 months when my brother-in-law asked me what I missed about the states. I didn’t hesitate before sincerely replying, “nothing” (save for family, of course).

Here I’m gone from Italy less than a week, and I’m craving all things Italian – cappuccino, spritz, our community at the local bar, proper pizza, loud neighbors, and more. That feeling of belonging.

So, there are a few things I’m doing to ease the heartache.

[Read more…] about I’m Homesick for Italy – Italian Expat Life

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Raw Awakening – My New Book – Now Available (on Kindle, too!)

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As many of you know, my newest book, Raw Awakening was released last month. Yay! I’m really excited about this book and all of the recipes I included. And, now, it’s available on Kindle (I’m a big kindle reader. Actually, I read all books on my iPhone with the Kindle App – it’s the only way I can read which translates into a lot of reading as I snuggle with Kamea while she naps.)

I have a busy couple of weeks coming up with PR and radio interviews. When I get more details about them, I’ll be sure to tweet and Facebook them. (If we’re not connected yet via Facebook or Twitter, what ya waiting for? I’m a Chatty Kathy and love to connect, answer questions, and share good stuff on them! – Here’s my personal Facebook page that you can subscribe to as well)

So, if you haven’t grabbed your copy yet, hop on over to Amazon and pick it up here.

Raw Awakening Now Available!

Stay tuned for my next blog post… a funny story about Kamea. Speaking of future blog posts, I have quite the line up this summer for you with topics like: Running (me? ha – not likely… or maybe?), Quinoa (how to use it, and other things, as a great and easy staple), Dehydrating, Acai Bowls (the perfect summer recipe for the whole family), Essential Oils (they could be life changing), Giveaways, Nut Milks (my new go-to recipe!), cell phones (I’m asked all the time about my thoughts on their usage and whether protection is needed), and more!

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High Raw, All Vegan Food Intake – Pregnancy Food Journal – Wednesday

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I keep getting emails and comments from people interested in my food intake, so here is today’s. It’s another day of delicious food.


Breakfast

Organic Hemp Protein Smoothie made from: 1.5 cups water, 1/4 cup Manitoba Harvest Hemp Protein Powder, 2 Tablespoons Manitoba Harvest Hemp Seeds, 2 bananas (I recently bought a 25 pound bucket of seeds from Manitoba Harvest! I transferred them to glass mason jars and they’re all stored in my freezer now. I’m going to enjoy giving a couple of jars away to friends and family as gifts; I’ll even tie a little bow on it. That’s the gift of health!)


Mid-morning Snack

I was cold and still a little hungry after my protein shake so I had the following nourishing, warming foods. Let me tell you, they warmed my body right up, literally in minutes.

~1 cup organic miso soup from South River Miso (dandelion leek flavor – one of my faves!)

~1/2 cup organic kim-chi by Rejuvenative (they were so kind to send me samples – yum!).


Second Little Snack

While shopping at Whole Foods, I bought GoRaw’s little chocolate cookies and opened the bag in the store, eating 3 of them.


Lunch

~Large organic Delicious Apple (this was so delicious and juicy)

~Large organic salad with romaine, cucumber ($2.50 each now at Whole Foods – yikes!), tomato, and another batch of Cayenne Tahini Recipe I talked about in yesterday’s post. This batch I made last night around midnight and added a big handful of organic cilantro that I had in the fridge. When I gave my husband his salad he said, “Honey, thanks so much for making me so healthy with all the food you make.” I replied, “Of course! I want us to be centenarians together!”

~1 piece of Mother Earth Chocolate


We went to Starbucks to read (these are the books I’m reading on my Kindle2 right now: Playful Parenting and Unconditional Parenting). On a side note… I absolutely love my Kindle and it’s one of the best things we ever bought. While we were there I had some organic herbal tea (Mountain Rose Herbs) that I brought with me in a Starbucks thermos and glass mug.


Dinner

~Huge Salad (same as above)

~Rejuvenative’s Kim-Chi (same as above)

~Vegan Pizza! ZPizza makes the yummiest vegan pizza and they use Daiya cheese. If you haven’t had Daiya cheese, and if you have some cooked vegan food from time to time, then you’re truly missing out. This is reputed as the cheese to keep vegans as vegans (for those of you feeling like life isn’t the same without cheese). It’s life changing for many. It’s non-dairy, non-soy, non-gluten, non-rice, non-corn, non-nut, non-preservatives. For the most part, only a handful of restaurants around the country have access to it (ZPizza, Blossom, etc), but it’s supposed to be available for retail stores like Whole Foods in 2010. Furthermore, I did hear a rumor that it’s actually available in some Whole Foods now, but that they have been running out of it because it’s so popular. Anyway, back to ZPizza… they offer a whole wheat crust made with organic wheat and they also have organic vegan sauce. I top my cooked pizza with fresh veggie toppings to get some extra Raw into the meal.


After Dinner Snack

Large Organic Apple


Late Snack

Cucumber Wheat Grass Refresher (recipe in this post)

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Raw Vegan Organic Food in South Carolina

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Today, we headed south along the coast until we reached South Carolina, where we spent most of our day. During the morning ride, we each had one of those protein shakes I mentioned yesterday. I also munched on an organic cucumber. Refreshing, simple, low calorie, and hydrating. Great travel snack.


We changed our plan, of trying to land at Whole Foods for the main
destination, to a place called The Sprout (they serve delicious, organic raw vegan food). What a little gem of a place. Firstly, they place a huge emphasis on organic food which I loved. They had a few places where it was written “everything is organic.” That’s my kind of place… not compromising. Secondly, they mostly served raw vegan options, while still offering a couple of cooked vegan foods.


We started the lunch with fresh wheatgrass juice (nasty as heck, as usual, but good for us so we did it). They served it on a small slab of “marble.” I love that extra little touch. Then, I had the largest size they offered of fresh green juice (I think the name was Alkaline Battery – or something like that). It was simply cucumber, kale, celery. Another little lovely touch was that they served it in a wine glass. Awesome.



Next up, we both opted for a large salad which had a raw veggie / nut pattie on the side of it. We devoured these, they were so good. I kept moaning with every bite. Major yum!

The little cafe was right next to a fitness center, which excited my husband because (for $10) he was able to work out after lunch. While he did that, I hunkered down inside The Sprout with my Kindle 2 (blog details on the Kindle 2 here).

Before getting back on the road, we ordered two more large salads to go, and bought some raw cookie balls which were quite good. This is picture of my salad with some fermented okra. Interesting, slimy, and pretty tasty. Oh! And, they had some adorable organic onesies! I bought one for our little monkey that said on the front “Save The Planet, We Deserve It.”

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My Kindle 2 Love Affair – Travel Rocks With Kindle 2

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I love my Kindle 2. And, let me tell you, I had no idea I’d love it this much. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited when my husband bought it for me on Valentine’s Day, but I was excited because I simply thought it was cool. I had no idea I’d love it this much. Even so… truth be told… I was a teeny bit skeptical at first. I figured that for non-fiction I wouldn’t use it much (which is mostly what I read, except for, ehem… TWILIGHT SERIES! (We already bought our opening night tickets for New Moon… but I digress… sorry).

I thought non-fiction wouldn’t be ideal on the Kindle 2 because I like to highlight and tab the heck out of my books. I use stickers. I use glitter pens. I tab my books with post it notes. But! I took a chance for this trip to New York. I decided to buy a non-fiction book for my Kindle 2 that was too heavy to bring on the trip, and would you believe, it was actually more expensive than the paper version? I took the leap though and bought it. I’m so happy I did. Not only do I not have to lug around a heavy-ass book but I can indeed HIGHLIGHT (although it’s a boring gray color, that’s OK because my fear of not being able to mark things well in a Kindle 2 book are gone). My kindle has a highlighting function that keeps everything I highlight in a special section that I can easily refer to anytime, which I have found I actually like even more than highlighting in books. Go figure. The picture above is my Kindle 2 with the animal-friendly carrying case my husband also bought me.

Trust me, the Kindle 2 is awesome. I LOVE IT. I’m forever hooked. My only regret is that I wish I had figured this out before I bought a butt load of pregnancy / vaccine / birth books in print. That picture only shows about half of them. Oh well… At least I can offer those to my blog readers when I’m done with them (if anyone is interested).


See how thin it is? The Kindle 2 is nothing short of awesome. It’s light. It holds tons of books. It fits in my hemp purse. It’s easy to read on and use. It can even read the book out loud to you (or you can use headphones). And, there are so many more great things about it. This is one very cool gift for the upcoming holidays for either yourself or a loved one. It ROCKS! I will definitely carry my Kindle 2 around every where I go. For sure.

Do any of you have a Kindle? Are you loving it as much as I am?

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Fertility Update: Retrieval Day Is Tuesday!

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We went to the clinic for more blood work (checking my hormone levels) and another sonogram to check my uterus and ovaries today. We’ve been tracking one particular follicle that is growing nicely, every day, for the past three days. (This is a picture of me reading my Kindle 2 while waiting for the doctor. I LOVE my Kindle 2… so much that I’m dedicating a blog post to it this week. So, be on the lookout for that.)

Today, we received good news. I’m finally ready for the retrieval of my egg (grown naturally, without any drugs – yippee!). Tuesday afternoon they’ll grab my cute little egg via an ultrasound guided apparatus (the technical name for the procedure is: ultrasonically guided transvaginal ovarian cyst aspiration for oocyte {egg} retrieval). It should be very easy (and painless) and only take a few minutes to do the procedure. They’ll fertilize the egg tomorrow and let it grow 5 days before transferring it into my uterus. Pretty cool. I’ll keep you posted.

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