Dining Out: What are you really paying for?

I've asked myself this question many times over the past year when we we get the wonderful opportunity to have "date night" together. We've been finding ourselves more and more drawn to small, organic restaurants. There's something about going out and knowing you're being pampered and NOURISHED at the same time. We are so lucky here in the Northwest to have a nice selection of natural, sustainable, organic restaurants. We've been to several over the past year and really enjoyed the experience. We've also found ourselves being choosier where we take the whole family out for meals (we usually eat at home) when we go out - opting to eat deli or prepared foods at PCC or Whole Foods... or a quick dinner at Chipotle's Mexican Grill (LOVE that place!).

Last weekend for date night, we chose a fabulous restaurant called Bennett's Bistro on Mercer Island. They filter their own water (in a huge, 3-chamber filtration process), serve vegetables and fruits from local farms, RAW cheeses from local dairies, Sunshine Dairy (the brand I buy) products and sustainably farmed meats and seafoods. The meal was absolutely fantastic.




We ordered the salmon poki appetizer (raw salmon on top of avocado with a poki sauce), which was to die for! Then I ordered their "Tip of the Iceberg" salad with a blue cheese-lemon vinagrette, Oregonzola raw cheese, toasted hazelnuts and tomatoes - I substituted the iceberg lettuce for romaine. Horus ordered their turkey burger with Beecher's (local cheese company) mac-n-cheese and chipotle cilantro coleslaw. Mmmmmmmmmm!!!!!

I'm so proud of how natural and organic my own kitchen has become... It's already expensive to SHOP for organic and natural grocery items... I guess part of me just can't get over thinking - why pay extra money for food that I wouldn't serve my family at home? At least when we're home, I know (for about 95% of our food) WHERE it came from, EXACTLY what's in it and HOW it was raised/farmed.

How do you feel about this? What does a fancy dinner really mean to you? Does it mean just simply spending a lot of money? Does it mean getting the absolutely best, most expensive food available (like a mouth-watering, well-marbled, fifty-dollar, corn-fed steak or the most beautiful, bright-orange fillet of salmon), regardless of where it came from and how it was "farmed?" I ask myself this question constantly when we go out to eat - anywhere. ...and if it's not the greatest restaurant, I try to pick the most natural item on the menu.

Do you think about this when you eat out AT ALL or am I just a weird-o? :)

Scrappy Stockings

We have always had a mix of Christmas stockings. A couple of standard red and white fuzzy ones, some knit ones picked up at a drugstore that looked semi-handmade. I had one handmade several years ago, but unfortunately it didn't turn out the way I'd hoped.

I've become addicted to this wonderful website called Etsy.com where everything is handmade. I've met some of the nicest people from this website and the products have been fantastic. My latest purchase was a set of new Christmas stockings for the whole family. I chose this "envivronmentally friendly" seller because she uses scraps to make her products and the end result is an extremely unique item! Huge green thumbs up from me!

Spongetta (The Land of the Misfit Fabric) gets her materials from lots of different sources, such as a local seamstress who does alterations for bridal salons, discontinued upholstery samples from a furniture store, thrift stores, yard sales and rescues from the back of fabric stores. All of these materials would have been thrown out otherwise. I'm drooling over the patchwork pillows she has listed right now! :)

I received my stockings in the mail today and I am so pleased! I chose three out of her store and then had a fourth custom made for my oldest daughter who loves purple. They're a bit oversized, which is awesome for stuffing them full of goodies each year, fully lined and well-made so they should last for years to come.





Happy shopping!

Greening your house - CFL bulbs

It feels so good to make this small change in our house. We just replaced every recessed light in our entire house with CFL's (compact fluorescent lamps) today. Home Depot has a whole section dedicated to CFL's and Puget Sound Energy has $3 coupons PER BULB!!!

So if you buy a two-pack, use TWO coupons, saving $6. Woo hoo! Since we bought mostly small and large flood lights (for the recessed cans) which are sold in 2-packs, this was a fantastic savings! We also bought CFL's for our master bathroom's vanity strip of lights... Fluorescent lighting and makeup typically don't mesh well so we'll see how that goes... :)

The 4-pack for standard light bulbs (like lamps & things) had a separate 4-pack coupon that was different from the others.

Natural Deoderants SUCK!

Ok, someone please explain HOW natural deoderants are supposed to work. I've tried several of them with very little success. I keep reverting back to my old, toxic standby. :-(

I've tried the Crystal rock (the one you have to wet), the Crystal roll-on and Avalon Organics lavender deodorant. Those are the only three I've tried. I'd like to try Weleda's version next, but I'm hesitatant to throw my money away on another product that doesn't work.

Does it work similar to my post on sunburns??? That maybe better nutrition causes less body odor? Because I can be very careful about what I eat when I know I'm going to be in the sun all day (so as not to get sunburned), but deodorant is a whole different issue... If this is the case and nutrition does impact odor, then the only way to NOT STINK is to eat perfect 24/7??? Just a theory...

If I'm missing another huge part of the natural deodorant effectiveness, please share. For those of you who DO use natural deodorants, what brand do you use and how effective is it? Do I need to reapply it more often? This is one topic that I'd like to understand better because I hate that I'm continuing to buy this toxic brand.

Thanks for your thoughts!!! :)

Non-toxic Products

This is a list of non-toxic products and items recommended in Mercola's latest book. I'm posting this list more for myself so it's available online. I keep going to the store and then I forget what brand to look for! Especially the air quality house plants. :)

As much as I like Method products, they're not totally non-toxic. They're environmentally friendly, but they do contain sulfates and other ingredients I'd rather not put on or in my body. I think they definitely have a great niche though - many people who buy toxic products would be wise to switch to Method. It's a good alternative to mainstream. But in my quest to become more green, I'm finding myself looking for something crunchier (Chewy-Mama defines the crunchy/chewy lifestyle quite well).

So enjoy my list! Mecola's latest book is AWESOME! Thoughts on any of these products would be greatly appreciated! :)

Cleaners:

• Ecover
• Earthrite
• Bon Ami
• Homemade - 2 cups borax powder, 2 T distilled white vinegar or lemon juice, 3 drops eucalyptus or lavender oil, 2 cups hot water. Optionally add 1/4 cup Dr. Bronner's liquid soap and place all ingredients in a spray bottle

Air Quality Plants:

• Areca Palms
• Lady Palms
• Boston ferns
• Rubber plants (ficus elastica)

Laundry Detergent:

• Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile soap
• EarthRite
• Ecover

Shampoos & Conditioners:

• Aubrey Organics
• Weleda
• Logona
• Add shine to hair by adding a few drops of peppermint essential oil to conditioner (Ferbit: just bought some peppermint oil the other day to try this!)
• 1/2 cup raw apple cider to remove build-up

Deoderant:

• LeCrystal roll-on (Ferbit: trying this product now - mixed feelings on it)
• Nature DeFrance French clay
• Weleda sage deoderant
• Homemade - two parts pure water to one part apple cider vinegar with a few drops of tea tree oil and or lavender oil in a spray bottle

Liquid and Bar Soap:

• Dr. Bronner's castile bar and liquid soap (Ferbit: best product ever!)
• Kiss My Face olive oil bar soap
• Aubrey Organics
• Aura Cacia
• Chica Bella

Toothpaste & Mouthwash:

• Peelu toothpaste
• Ecodent toothpowder
• Weleda pink toothpaste
• Xylifresh toothpaste
• Homemade toothpaste - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and a dash celtic salt
• Logona herbal mouthwash concentrate
• Weleda mouthwash
• Xylifresh mouthwash
• Homemade mouthwash - 2 drops tea tree oil or peppermint essential oil with 1/2 cup pure water. Rinse 60 seconds.

Make-up:

• Dr. Hauschka
• Ecco Bella
• Aubrey Organics
• Gabriel
• Larenim mineral make-up


• Hemp Organics

Hair-color:

• Henna (made with henna, chamomile, walnut and black walnut)
• Ecocolors
• Naturetint (not best choice, but better than mainstream)

Skin-Care:

• MyChelle (Ferbit: trying their Fruit Enzyme cleanser - love it so far, smells amazing)
• Arcona
• Dr. Alkaitis
• Trilogy
• Aubrey Organics
• Homemade
• strongly brewed green tea and raw milk. Apply to skin to add luster and tone to skin.
• 1 tsp fresh ginger juice, t 2bsp watercress juice, 1/2 tsp lime or lemon and apply with cotton to promote skin circulation, maintain clear skin, and speed up the healing process.
• For dry skin, make a cleanser with raw cream combined with freshly squeezed orange juice and work into skin for 60 seconds. rinse with tepid water.

Green Carpet Cleaning

So excited! We've hired a local "green" carpet cleaning company called Alpine Specialty Cleaning.

They should be here in about an hour and I'll be sure to report how they did on our horrible, builder-grade, white carpets. *sigh* Previous owners put in new carpet to sell the home... grrr... It's that situation where you ask yourself, "Why replace brand new carpet, even though it's crappy carpet?"

This company uses BioKleen products as well as another green, botanical product to clean the floors. :)

Benefits of buying local, there are many!

I've been talking about this topic lately with friends and family, but really haven't seen an article yet until now. I noticed this article today about Whole Foods and how they promote local products; not just for supporting the local community, but for many reasons, including:

• Fewer or no chemicals to preserve the food


• Less packaging and package waste


• Lower shipping costs, which uses less fuel


• Promotes/supports the local community


• Personalized service (it's great to know your local seller)

Here is a small snip from the full article:

Chains have long sought local suppliers to keep distribution costs down. But the influence of top chefs, farmers markets, Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma," and concerns about the environmental effects of shipping food long distances have raised shoppers' interest in buying local. The U.S. Department of Agriculture listed 4,385 farmers markets nationwide in 2006, up 18 percent from 3,706 in 2004.

Small local growers often cannot offer lower prices than large-scale operations that benefit from economies of scale and cheaper labor. But fuel costs for shipping food are less for shorter trips, which in turn often require less packaging to preserve food. Buying local also shortens the time it takes produce to get to market, preserving nutrients and freshness, the Center for Food & Justice said in a December report.

We buy weekly from a great company called Pioneer Organics. The prices are very competitive and they strive to buy from only local sellers and the food is very fresh. We've needed to adjust our deliveries lately, because they normally deliver so much food each week, it's difficult to eat all of it. We enjoy getting their delivery where they pick the products, so you get the best in-season foods. We like everything so it's great to get the variety.

It's nice to buy products from Whole Foods and Pioneer Organics, not only for the good local produce, but we know who we're buying from so we can ask questions, offer suggestions to improve service, and the personal attention is awesome!

I highly recommend everyone research and try-out a local seller or store that offers local products. You'll be amazed how much you'll enjoy the local products, supporting the community, and getting to know your local businesses.

By the way... if you wanted to know how to find locally grown produce ANYWHERE, check out Local Harvest. They have a great map to narrow down the search criteria and have many categories if you are looking for something specific.