Taco Soup.

So yesterday I did a food party and made this recipe for everyone that attended -- it was passed down to me by someone else and I had yet to try it. I got so busy yesterday that it slipped my mind again. So tonight I HAD to make it for the beau and I :)

Recipe: Thrive Taco Soup

1 cup Thrive Cooked Ground Beef (not pictured)

1 cup Thrive Instant Black Beans

1-3/4 cups Thrive Sweet Corn

1/4 cup Thrive Tomato Powder

1 packet of favorite Taco Seasoning

desired amount of Thrive Green Chili Peppers (optional)

Didn't have: 1 cup Thrive Sour Cream (ran out yesterday, BOO!)

2 cup Thrive Cheddar Cheese -- just used block cheese instead

Take all ingredients + 6 cups of water. Bring to boil for 5 minutes, then

reduce temperature to a simmer for 15 minutes or until desired thickness.

Garnish with cheese and favorite taco toppings. Added hot sauce to taste!

There were SO many things I liked about this meal. Taste and consistency were way up there. Plus I made it spicy the way we like it, so no complaints there. I was bummed I didn't have any sour cream left. I could've stirred some cheese in while cooking it to make it thicker, but I wanted to wait and see what would happen if I didn't have either on hand. The Instant Black Beans are EPIC! No more remembering to rinse beans overnight. I'm excited to have another quick protein source to add to my weekly arsenal of meals. And the Ground Beef was great because I didn't have to thaw, cook, drain and add in to the soup. I do want to try this with the some of the Thrive TVP (textured vegetable protein) since I'm trying really hard not to eat meat on the regular anymore. But I wanted to make the beau happy with tonight's dinner choice :) All in all, I give it a 8 out of 10. There are a few areas for improvement, but it was great and quick!

What's your favorite go to meals?

Never Forgotten.

So some of you are probably wondering where I've been all week. 

A good friend of the beau's passed away abruptly and violently Saturday

evening -- we found out Sunday around lunch time. I can't say that I personally

knew Josh McLean well at all, I'd only had the pleasure of meeting him

once for just a brief moment in passing. What I do know though, is that he was 

an amazing human being that was young and vibrant, full of life and had a beautiful

smile that lit up those around him. Myself included. Friends and family say he 

had a great heart and loved everyone around him. He never met a stranger.

He was a friend to animals and was always picking up strays and 

finding them homes. He left behind a strong and beautiful wife.

And a family that has been hit hard by this loss. 

August 17, 1982 -- September 22, 2012

I took this week to really focus on what's important in life. If I've learned anything from

Josh, it's that you must life everyday as though it's your last -- take risks and enjoy

the adventures that are before us. Work hard. Love everyone around you.

Communicate daily with those that matter most to you and make sure they know

how important they are in your life. Enjoy your children. I know that he would've

made such an amazing father had he been given the chance.

Love your families this weekend guys. And be safe.

Friday Night Market.

So I know that today should be "Eat Your Colors" Friday, but the Night Market is going on and I feature it today and take a little break from the norm. In all honesty, if you went tonight, you would've gotten your fill of colors! I love this time of year because of the unusual bounty it brings. Fall is definitely in the air and it was such a beautiful night for this monthly event.

Peaches were absolutely beautiful and smelled so sweet. Didn't have a
chance to ask, but I assume that these are freestone ones since it's
that time of year. These are great for canning and juicing since you
don't have as much prep work -- ala clingstone peaches.

Concord Grapes -- quick start making jelly! These were hard to spot and
I only noticed them at one booth. Not sure if they are on their way in
or are starting to thin out. Liked that they had chestnuts as well.

Always forget about this guy having bulk grains/legumes/etc for sale.
Decided to grab some red lentils while I was out tonight and will be
going back next week to grab some other newbies to the diet.

Potatoes Potatoes Potatoes! They were everywhere. Sweet Potatoes were
average of $1.00/lb and I found reds for $1.50/lb or $12 for a 50# bag!

So much squash (and pumpkins) -- this is truly one of my favorite times
of year when it comes to produce. I love that everyone is so uniquely
different. And has it's own great taste!

If I remember correctly from last year, she had these boxes of hot banana
peppers for only $15-$20 bucks. I know I snagged some jalapenos for
that much, but she was super swamped tonight so I didn't ask price.
Wish I had some time to can this year, I would definitely grab a box or two.

See, you still got your 'Eat Your Colors' inspiration for the weekend! If you weren't at the Market tonight, get your butt down there this weekend and enjoy some fall treats :)

Juicy Juice.

This week like every week lately seems to be f-l-y-i-n-g by. In the last two weeks, I've gotten engaged (finally!), opened a new business and am in the process of closing my old one and switching everything over. Not to mention, I've been trying to spend quality time with the kiddo and the beau -- and trying to get out and do some me stuff. So as you can see, life is busy. And unfortunately my eating habits haven't been what I'd like them to be. Juicing is still a HUGE way for me to get the 'goods' that I need in my diet. Here's your weekly 'Instagram Inspiration' guys :)

@briweekly

@clarebeezy -- orange, peach, strawberry, pear, apple

@kalecrush -- romaine, celery, apple, orange, and lime.
Still in the middle of a long juice fast -- check out all the
recipes and inspiration on her feed!

@vegieterrain

@softcollapse

What are some of your juice combos this week?

Stuffed Again.

So we've been trying to make stuffed peppers at least once every week -- there's just so many good reasons for us, including that they're fun and easy -- and we get to cook in the kitchen together! I found some beautiful organic peppers at Turnip Truck yesterday and was super excited, even though they were $5+ a pound. I decided to break out the Thrive Ground Beef to give it a shot. I was afraid that the beau was going to be skeptical, but I was pleasantly surprised by his reaction. One look at the bowl and "Hey, that looks like meat cereal! I could eat that every night!" Ugh, you can tell he's the meat eater in this family. I was raised on venison growing up, so beef isn't really my first go-to meat for dinner. But it was great to please him -- AND not have to thaw, cook and drain all the grease out of some frozen meat. So I'm a true believer in this stuff.

What's one of your favorite go to dinners during the week?

Review: Justin's PB Cups

So I've been seeing a lot of these around lately on Instagram -- everyone is raving about them. And though I've seen them at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, I just can't bring myself to spend $2+tax on a very small treat. I had to go into Turnip Truck today though to grab some peppers for dinner tomorrow night and noticed they were at the counter for only .99! Couldn't beat that! And a bad habit was formed :) These are AMAZING! They come in dark chocolate as well. And I felt great about the ingredients list.

Ingredients: Organic Milk Chocolate (Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Whole Milk Powder, Organic Chocolate Liquor, Organic Soy Lecithin, Organic Vanilla), Organic Peanut Butter (Organic Dry Roasted Peanuts, Organic Palm Fruit Oil), Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Vanilla Flavor, Sea Salt.

That's something worth smiling about :)

Check out their website to see what other products they have and what they stand for. You can even shop online for your treats -- Justin's Nut Butter. I've noticed they've even started selling it at Target stores!

What's your favorite organic treats?

Not So Diet After All.

So I saw this article on Yahoo today and wanted to share the general gist of it and let you read the article to sort out the rest for yourself. I've been told ever since I was younger that drinking regular soda was much better for you than diet soda if you had to get your 'fix' of caffeine. All in all though, you should just nix the habit 100% but for some of us, that's not the easiest thing.

1. Diet soda is linked to a decline in overall kidney function. They also believe that because kidney issues weren't noticed with regular soda, that it has something to do with the artificial sweeteners in the diet.
2. One diet soda a day increases your risk for metabolic syndrome by 34% -- this includes belly fat, high cholesterol and higher chance of heart disease. It was noted though that researchers were unsure if it had something to do with one of the ingredients in the product or just the diet habits of those studied.
3. Diet soda has been linked to obesity and drinking 2+ cans a day can increase your waist size by 500%. Yep, you read it right. Check out the link below to find out why -- I'm afraid that if I type it out, it'll just look like plagiarism :)
4. Ordering an alcoholic beverage with a 'diet' mixer will actually increase your hangover because your body absorbs alcohol quicker into the bloodstream when it has a 'sugar free' mixer. 
5. Diet sodas =  sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate. These can cause damage and reek all kinds of havoc on your cells. 
6. Diet soda (and regular for that matter) are very acidic and cause all kinds of problems for your teeth and gums. 
7. Sodas in general is linked to reproductive issues (and several others) due to the coating that can be found on their cans. 

Sorry I had to be a little vague with some of my explanations. I didn't want to be accused of just doing a 'copy/paste' job on this blog post. Here's the article in it's entirety: 7 Side Effects of Drinking Diet Soda and it will give you some more insight and a point of reference when doing your own research. Stay away from the stuff guys -- it's toxic!

His and Hers.

So Jason and I eat very differently most of the time -- he loves meat, I prefer veggies. He could literally eat raw beef every night, I prefer medium well if I eat it. He's a potato kinda guy, I'd love some steamed broccoli. Same routine for almost every meal -- makes it hard to stick to a healthy diet. But sometimes you just have to do it even though it's not easy! Here's a shot of our His and Hers breakfast :) Have a good weekend guys!

Pasture Raised Eggs with Thrive Bacon TVP and Thrive Chili Peppers

Juice: Spinach, Orange, Apples, Carrots, Lemons, Pineapple, Pears

How does your family's eating habits differ from ours? More in sync? More extreme?

EYC Friday.

So I know it may not seem like pool party weather in the mornings lately, but it's the perfect time of year to just lounge out with your feet up and get some Vitamin D! Better enjoy it while we can folks! Here's a fun way to eat your colors this weekend -- graham cracker crust, some sort of yogurt base or filling, and all your favorite rainbow fruits! This would be great to take to a get together as well! 

What are some fun and creative ways that you eat your colors?

Juice of Life!

Health wise, I feel great this week! Even with all the chaos going on around me, I've been full of life (and energy) and have had some great mental clarity instead of my usual fuzziness. I'm so grateful that I've introduced juicing into my lifestyle and can't stress enough how important I think it is for everyone to do at least a couple times a week. Here's some 'Instagram Inspiration' for all you juice lovers this week!

@ahnah_bahnahnah

@beachmama

@n_athaliee

@nomnompr -- kale, chard, mustard greens, celery, cucumber, carrot, beet,
pineapple, parsley, serrano peppers, ginger, lemon (pretty adventurous) 

@thisiswhatieat -- ginger, apple, orange, cauliflower, squash, kale

Hope you all are having great weeks too! Sometimes things can be overwhelming, chin up!

Food Play II.

So I LOVE that people still find time in their busy day to day lives to 'play' with their food. I have a little one that is almost to the stage where playing with her food is going to be fun. And I'm dreading it a little. Not so much the 'having fun part' but more the 'cleaning up' part -- and trying to teach her when it's appropriate (ie at home) and when it's not (ie at a restaurant). Only time will tell :) Enjoy this 'Instagram Inspiration' of other people playing with theirs!

@keeleymcquireblog -- fun bento box idea

@simplegreensmoothies -- check out their pictures on how to make, well,
'simple green smoothies' haha :)

@tom_peluso

@amel_lin

To see the first installment of 'Food Play' back in June, click here.

Review: Fearless Chocolate!

So I've been looking for some new 'healthier' chocolate options -- milk chocolate and white chocolate will always be my favorites, but I know that they aren't very good health wise. So that pretty much only leaves dark chocolate on the drawing board. While perusing thru Whole Foods the other day, I came across the 'sweet' aisle -- and decided to take a gander. I was completely overwhelmed by all the choices and wasn't sure what I should be looking for exactly. So my eye spotted 'exploding coconuts' and an elephant on the package, so the choice was obvious :)

The front of the package (and the back) indicates that a 'bite' of the chocolate bar is missing. I didn't realize till I got home and read the package...and then opened it, that it LITERALLY is missing a big bite :) The back says "Thank you for donating a bite of your chocolate bar to those who enrich our world with wild and wondrous creativity! FEARLESS donates 1% of it's annual profits to changemakers suggested by YOU! Check out what else it says: ChangeMakers.

So besides the cool logo and the charity benefits of buying it -- it has great ingredients, it's organic and it just tastes good! Check out their website in it's entirety. There are several different flavors to choose from and not only is there a 'store locator' button, but you can also order the bars online :) Win -win situation!

What's your favorite indulgence?

Breakfast of Champs!

So I've been pretty proud of myself over the last two days. Ok, more like two mornings. I've been juicing again! I just decided it was now or never and if I kept making excuses for myself, I'd never get around to doing it. Don't think people, just DO! Juice up! I feel it -- a 10 day juice fast -- it's coming soon guys! Whose in?

This one literally had some/all of what was in the fridge -- this made a HUGE
batch and I drank it through out the entire day. Orange. Lemons. Pears.
GS Apples. Carrots. Celery. Swiss Chard. Zucchini. Kiwis. Pineapple. and
something that's similar to Red Cabbage, can't remember the name.

2 GS Apples. 1 Orange. 1 Lemon. 6 Carrots. 1 Pear. And a handful of
Brussel Sprouts. I know that most people don't like to eat these, let alone
even think about juicing them, but they're surprisingly good. They give
the juice a little bit of a strong 'kick' in the flavor department and it's a
great way to get more green veggies in to your diet!

What are you guys juicing lately? Always looking for new recipes!!

EYC Friday: Orange Edition.

So I know it's suppose to be Eat Your Colors Friday -- but I wanted to just feature 'orange' today since Fall Squashes are starting to pop up everywhere! What are some of your favorite orange fruits/veggies?

Can't remember what orange fruits/veggies are good for? Here's a refresher: EYC: Orange/Yellow.