This is an easy salad. In the picture, I made it with red quinoa, but the yellow works just as well. Delicious, healthy salad packed full of super foods!

1 head broccoli, steamed & cooled
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 cup quinoa cooked & cooled
juice from 1 or 2 lemons
olive oil
salt to taste
dried cranberries

combine all. add more lemon or salt to taste.

If you’re looking for great handmade jewelry, you should checkout the fabulous creations by Girl in the Pear. Whether you like classic, stylish or something more modern, she has it all. Great sense of style combined with wonderful colors and textures. Heather herself is the essence of style and that shows through in her handmade jewelry. She made this necklace for me using two charms with my daughter’s names on them that I had for years and was looking for the right necklace. She added the lovely pearl and crystals to make the perfect statement. Love the handmade earrings too.

Just finished reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck. What a fascinating book! A little scary about all the chemicals in plastics and as we know plastics are everywhere! Have been slowly switching to ceramic and glass in the kitchen, but as the research by these authors shows it’s impossible to get away from plastics. Some of the results of exposure to these toxic chemicals are pretty bad, so how can we protect our kids and still live a modern life? The book includes a few handy practical suggestions:

get rid of air fresheners
avoid bath products that have a lot of artificial fragrance/perfumes
throw away non-stick frying pans
don’t eat microwave popcorn (the bag is coated with chemicals)
choose hardwood floors instead of carpets
if you eat fish, choose small fish (like the flake tuna instead of larger cuts) as the smaller fish are younger and absorb less toxic chemicals
don’t use antibacterial products that include microban, triclosan, etc…
use vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to clean your kitchen (is just as effective as the harsh chemicals)
replace your lawn with native meadow/plants
don’t microwave in plastic
don’t drink bottled water

went to a class this past week by one of the staff at TrackersNW. It was a short class that only covered 3 plants, but whetted my curiosity for more. The ones discussed and their possible uses were:

Oregon Grape (mahonia) Apparently has antimicrobial properties in the root (and I guess the leaves and berries as well) since it’s from berberine which creates the bitter taste, so is probably in the whole plant. A digestive tincture or in glycerin for skin problems.

Dandelion – steam the greens

Western Red Cedar – crush the needles, put in a french press and make a tea. good for respiratory and allergy problems.

NOTE: not intended as medical advice and whatever other disclaimers are necessary

yes, would be great to have fulfillment in life, but for now, happy to take 3rd party order processing and order fulfillment! what is that you may ask? well, it’s a great service that processes orders for yahoo stores (also called 3pl third party logistics) and handles all the inventory, packaging and shipping of online orders. check it out for more about fulfillment for yahoo store

just read a book about the paleo diet. hadn’t heard about this concept until a friend mentioned it on facebook. the book has some interesting idea. basically the concept is: lean meat, fruit, vegetables all okay. grains and dairy not okay. there’s discussion about the acid vs alkaline levels in food. supposedly the imbalance is our current modern diets is what causes a lot of the chronic diseases we see today. makes a lot of sense on it’s own, but when taken together with what i’ve read from michael pollan and jonathan safran foer it doesn’t provide a comprehensive system of thinking about food. working through what makes sense for me. vegetarianism is common sense with all the factory farming. processed food is bad, salt is bad, but what about good food. raw food is a great idea in concept, but how is it practical?

We got a new tv, it’s obscenely huge. I was almost embarrassed to bring it in the house. Can’t believe how we survived on a small 24″ tv for all those years. setup all the high-def, home audio and needed some extra hdmi to hdmi cables. Found great quality cables at trianglecable.com and the shipping was fast. love the prices. the people at Triangle Cables helped get us all setup so it really was just plug and play. it’s important to get the right high quality cables to take advantage of all the high def features in my tv, so these cables were just right. Checkout their deals on hdmi cables.

I love the products at Essential Wholesale. The serums are luscious, the toner refreshing and lotions hydrating! My favorite is the Turmeric Salt Scrub. Try it out today

over dinner i mentioned to my husband that I read an article in fastcompany magazine about a guy (Tom Davies) who builds custom eye glasses. In the sidebar of the article there was a nifty list of reasons to get custom glasses. Item number 1 is that “americans’ ears are typically set about 10 mm farther back than europeans”. This sparked interesting conversation. is this true and if so why.

my take on it…. environment is one factor, i think american’s health habits etc.. might an influence. also genetics. this is where it gets interesting. what is the genetic makeup of the “average” american. i’m guessing it’s still european caucasian. if so, why is there difference in skull size? take my genetics for example, aside for an unverified rumor of gypsy, i’m 100% european mix — english, dutch, german, scotch, italian. a little of everything. i’m curious now, do i have an american head or a european?

i first tried coconut water in asia about 20 years ago. It was at a roadside stand in india. one of the mantras while traveling is asia is “don’t eat anything uncooked”. (forgot the rule and had ice my next trip to thailand and had a yummy jelly dessert topped with crushed ice. paid for it the next 3 days. they call it montezuma’s revenge, but i think it should be called stupid-foreigner’s-gut-wrenching-lose-three-days-of-my-vacation-moaning-in-a-dark-room-remember-to-only-eat-cooked-food-next-time-you-idiot. anyway, back in india, having not suffered yet, i believed my husband and tried some coconut water straight from the raw-uncooked coconut. the guy at the stand had a well-used old machete and with a practiced swing, whacked off the top of the coconut, and inserted straw. the nirvana of this delectable nectar! it was refreshing, glorious, a great respite while on our travels! after sucking it dry, we took the coconuts back to the machete man, he sliced off a side of the coconut shell, chopped the coconut in half. we used the slice of shell like a spoon and scooped out the luscious jelly inside. what a treat!

back at home, in the pacific northwest, we don’t get a lot of coconut trees growing by the side of the road. when we go to the asian store, my kids get a coconut each that we take home and perform our own ritualistic rites to extract the juice. but it’s not quite the same.

read about vitacoco in one of the multitude of magazines i get and am intrigued. i don’t see a retailer close to us, so i’m ordering online. bummed that it’s only through amazon as i have a love-hate relationship with them, so maybe i’ll have to drive across town. i’ll let you know, i’m sure my kids will love it!