Earth Day Bearthday!

Happy Earth Day everyone!

I’d just like to take a moment and give a great big hug to this wonderful planet of ours.

I realize this sounds cliche, but it should be:

I love our planet, and I sometimes worry about our future generations and the earthly problems that they will have to deal with. But anyways, I won’t get political here…

Let’s talk cleaning!

I found this great website with all the recipes to make natural cleaners for basically anything! I thought it was great!! You should check it out!

All you really need is:

• Baking Soda
  
• Vinegar
  
• Hydrogen Peroxide
  
• All Natural Tea Tree Oil And Grapefruit Oil (which have known antibacterial properties) And Lemon Juice
  
• Liquid Castile Soap

To make:

Surface Spray, All Purpose Liquid Cleaner,All Purpose Abrasive Cleaner, Refrigerator Cleaner, Oven Cleaner, Microwave Cleaner, Dishwasher Detergent, Gorgeously Green All-Purpose Spray, Fruit and Vegetable Wash, Drain Cleaner, Window, Glass and Chrome Cleaner, Toilet Bowl Cleaners, Scrub with a toilet brush, Tub And Tile Cleaner, Soft Scrub for Fixtures, Mildew/Germ Killer, Mildew/Germ Killer 2, Wood Floor Cleaner, Linoleum Floor Cleaner, Carpet Stain Remover, Carpet Deodorizer, All-Purpose Carpet Cleaner, Air Freshener, Furniture Polish, Metal Polish (copper and brass), Powdered Laundry Detergent, Liquid Laundry Detergent, Laundry Pre-treatment, Fabric Softener, Bleach Alternative (Laundry)………….

Anywho, you get the point! Pretty much any type of cleaner you can image can be made easily at a low cost to you and the environment! WIN.

I love using fruit and vegetable wash, but it’s quite expensive, so when I run out, I will salvage the bottle and make my own 🙂

I want to try and make it a point to make natural cleaners! For me, there’s no excuse not too!

Onto other greenness!

I bought this wine in lieu of the holiday:

Cono Sure Cabernet Sauvignon Carmenere Organic Wine

They were voted green company of the year in 2011!!

I’ll support that – ESPECIALLY if it involves wine 🙂

Plus, It came with this sweet bracelet!

Now let’s chat about recycling. Just a casual little chat…

I’m really happy that my roommates and I recycle and all, buttt, we seem to have trouble with the TAKING OUT part of recycling.

Although this photo goes up with embarrassment, THIS is our balcony.

Yes, you see that right, it is FULL of recycling. To the point of ridiculousness!

We may need to be on the show HOARDERS soon.

To be fair, I have 5 roommates (so it piles up very fast!)…and we have all been very busy with exams and studying. There is no excuse though. I think now that the recycle pile has gotten THIS BIG, no one is willing to tackle the project on their own.

Roommates unite- recycle we will conquer thee once and for all.

Happy Sunday,

Peace, Love, Earth,

Ellie

Let’s Go to the Tropics!!

With this tasty

Tropical Orange Mango Fennel Salad w/ Toasted Almonds

Ingredients:

For the salad:

• 1 medium fennel bulb
• 1/4 cup finely sliced onions
• 1 small pit-less orange
• 1 mango
• 1/3 cup sliced roasted red peppers
• 1/2 cup blanched diced almonds

For the dressing:

• 4 tbs apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbs melted virgin coconut oil
• Tabasco sauce (last minute add in – unpictured)
• salt and pepper to taste!

Procedure:

1) Finely slice the salad components like so:

2) Place in a medium mixing bowl

3) Put the almonds in a pan on medium heat and stir until they go from this:

To this:

(Once the almonds are golden – remove from heat immediately – they burn quickly!)

4) Add the almonds to the salad and toss in the coconut oil and apple cider vinegar. Salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste!

The tartness from the vinegar in contrast with the sweetness from the fruit and oil with a little kick of spicy from the Tabasco really works! Very tropical!

Just a little note: If you refrigerate the salad, the coconut oil kind of “hardens” and makes the salad not look as pretty – but it’s still darn darn tasty!

I love the licorice-y taste of fennel! I know some people absolutely cannot stand this taste – what are your thoughts on fennel or licorice? Is it a yay or nay in your taste bud department?

It’s a big YAY for me…

Plus it’s super healthy and has great health benefits. Click here to read more about how great fennel is for ya body!

Here are some of my other recent eats:

for breakfast this morning:

Cinnamon Apple Oats: Heated in the micro wave and topped with maple syrup! MMmmm!

recent snack:

Chilled Peanut Butter Green Protein Pudding - 3/4 scoop vanilla protein powder, 2 tbs peanut flour, 1/2 frozen banana, 1 tbs chia seeds, 3/4 cup water, a huge handful of spinach. All blended together in the magic bullet and placed in the freezer for about 35 minutes. Realllly good! Tastes like dessert!

recent lunch:

Veggie burger topped with a boat load of toppings: avocado, hummus, ketchup, mustard... I love ketchup! With this beet salad on the side.

Today is going to be a study day for moi! I want Saturday to be here. SUMMER BREAK IS. SO. CLOSE.

🙂 Have a terrific Tuesday!

Tootaloo!

Monday Mishaps…Onesie Wonders

Well, hello! Glad to see you stopped by!

So you know how I usually get REALLY excited and enthusiastic about all the yummy food I make?!? (In all complete modesty of course)…

Well, today will not be one of those days.

I have a screw missing in my brain this Monday… My breakfast, and my gluten free baking attempt…both sucked.

You win some you lose some, right?

Enter my failed breakfast:

Breakfast cookie topped with cinnamon and coconut butter. Mixed berry "green" smoothie.

My breakfast cookie this morning tasted off… I didn’t add the almond milk like I usually do – which resulted in a sticky/gooey texture not super pleasing to the palate. And my dark purple brown smoothie- looks delish, huh? Yeah, that was off as well – I made it with the pumpkin seed protein powder, and didn’t put a frozen banana, which just made it taste very “earthy”… Not the best folks, not the best.

You know what else was not the best? This gluten free/ vegan refined sugar free cinnamon raisin bread I tried to make this morning.

I followed a recipe for a normal gluten free bread for the proportions, but I went wild with the vegan, cinnamon, and raisin aspect of this bread. My wild side didn’t completely pay off… This wasn’t a complete failure… Texture wise it’s pretty alright, taste wise, not what I was going for.

You know the smell of freshly toasted:

That’s what I was going for – THAT smell, and a similar taste…

I got this instead:

Not THAT smell, and not THAT similar taste…

I will definitely try making a healthier version of the cinnamon swirl bread we all know and love, but this time I may try and swallow my pride and follow a recipe… Ain’t nothin’ wrong with a little direction!

If that second baking attempt doesn’t go as planned… I may just leave the bread baking to the experts.

Or try this:

But hey! At the end of the day (or the beginning- it’s still the morning), I am not complaining…I mean, what fun would it be if all cooking adventures resulted in pure amazingness?! Not that fun at all….Failed attempts make you really appreciate and excited for the successful attempts (and when I say “you” I mean me).

Moving on..

The weather here today in Vancouver:

Makes me want to curl up in this:

and watch a movie…

I WANT this onesie sweat suit!

No, you’re right, I do not NEED it…but HOW COMFY DOES IT LOOK?!?!?

Hope you all have a marvelous Monday!

; ) Ellie