Organic Online Shopping: Thrive and Pete’s Paleo

I love to shop from the couch.  I thought I would share two of my new favorite hangouts.

Thrive:

Beware The Duck

Ever wonder if there are gangs of ducks roaming the streets at night?

Shady characters in the parking lot.

Maybe you should.

I celebrated my one year blogging anniversary by taking the week off.  To avoid withdrawal symptoms, I tried to keep myself busy…

I made some pantry cleaning, chicken stew.

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Katie’s Kitchen

I cooked last weekend!  Not the fried egg sandwich kind of cooking.  I mean, I actually cooked real stuff.  I have a freezer full of soup to prove it.

It started with a turkey.  No, I don’t mean me.

I used folded aluminum foil to make a drip pan inside of a cake dish.  I put a cup or two of vegetable broth in a pan with some raw, local honey.  A little heat, a little stir, and a lovely mix for basting.  I did put some sea salt, pepper, thyme, and clove in it as well.  The turkey was massaged with sea salt, ground pepper, sage, and marjoram after a light rub of lemon.  The lemon wedge and a garlic clove were placed very delicately under the turkey breast.  No butter, no oil, no no fat of any kind added.  Not bad for my first turkey 8)

Baked for about 2 hours at 350 degrees F. with occasional basting.

The Plot Thickens…or the soup thickens.

Roasted Vegetable Soup with Turkey

As the turkey cooled, I cut up, salt and peppered some veg to put in the oven for roasting:  Brussels sprouts, yellow bell pepper,parsnips, and garlic cloves.

I diced up a yellow onion and sweat it down with a 1/2 tsp butter.  Mixed in some celery and added the carrot and kale pulp from some juices, and the base was ready for vegetable broth.

After adding some water, I put some of the skin and bone from the turkey in the pot.  Any part of the turkey breast that did not carve pretty or have fat on it, ended up in the pot.

It was about then that I received a call from some friends.  “You want to come along while we pick up our new baby?”  How can anyone say no to that?

After that adventure, I put the pot back on the stove.  Fishing out the skin and bones, I thought it needed a little brightening.  The juice of half a lemon found its way into the pot.  la fin

A Juicer and a Blender walked into a Bar…

I addition to all of the wonderful and tasty treats I had through the holiday season, a new blender made its way home with me.  With new toy in hand, I have been re-inspired about my juicing and smoothie operation.  So I thought I would share a few of my concoctions from my juice site just to update and maybe even inspire.

Fasting 10 Days

I started the fast on a bit of a whim.  It ended most purposefully with an apple and a big spoon of peanut butter.  It was not as good as I had been imagining all week, but I looked down at my stomach and asked it, “Are you happy now?”  It gurgled, thank you, back at me.

Lessons and observations from my adventure:

1. Just because I want to eat, does not mean I have to.  I give into cravings so often with the excuse that I should go ahead, otherwise I will never be able to stop thinking about it.  Another favorite excuse:  my body must need something, so go ahead and eat that chocolate milkshake and fries. 8)
2. Media has way too many pictures of food.  There are the obvious commercials for the -gotta have it now- fast food and sugary treats.  Pinterest can be evil.  My DVR has a list of cooking competition shows waiting for me.  I had never noticed how much regular TV shows flash food across the screen.  I envied Homer Simpson’s plate.  Really, craving cartoon food!

Accidental Fast

Have you ever gotten up in the morning and thought, “today would be a great day to start a juice fast?”  Me either, until Wednesday.  I have been feeling bloated and just blah.  With vacation eating and lunch meetings, I had strayed from my low gluten and lactose diet for the past few weeks.

My Favorite Grocery Stop

I am so lucky to have a great shop near me with organic produce and so much more.  I have alluded to it in the past but, as requested, here is the rest of the story (Paul Harvey’s voice here).

Sustain Natural Market has been open for a couple of years. There was a coffee shop there previously and they tried to use as much of the material as possible in building out their space.  Sustain is not just a name, it is their way.  One of the most impressive features of this store is that the products and their sources are researched.  If you are ever there, feel free to ask about a product and they will tell you with pride where it comes from.

I started shopping here shortly after I started juicing.  It is a relatively small shop, compared to the mega stores, and it shows in all the good ways.  There is always at least one person nearby to offer help and answer questions.  I must talk to at least three people each time I visit.  I do experiment and try other products but I go because of the produce.  This photo was from back in April and, I believe, everything in the picture was from this store.  When I venture

Adding to Juice

  Adding anything from a package to nice, fresh juice seems odd.  I have found three things that I occasionally use to give juice an extra kick or just to have something a little different.

Chia Seeds:  Vegan and gluten free, they add fiber, omega fatty acids, antioxidants, protein, and other vitamins and minerals.  They may also help in weight loss.

Wheat Grass:  alkaline, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, protein, gluten free and vegan.

Pure Green Protein:  Packed with protein “with the amino acid ratio of human muscle.”  Great for mornings that I feel bad about not having a protein for breakfast or for using the mixed berry flavor to mask an unfortunate juice mix.

Do you have any favorites?

Prepare for Nutrition

Watch out! Katie is in the kitchen.  My cooking style seems to have landed somewhere between dorm room cuisine and Food Network fan.  To eat well during the week, I need to cook on the weekend.  Today’s preparations were inspired by fellow bloggers and Dr. Oz.

A little Less Guilt in Your Coffee

There are plenty of reasons people say that you should not drink coffee at all.  It is addictive.  It can increase anxiety and stress hormones.  It creates an artificial high that leads into a crash.  It stains our teeth.  It can negatively affect blood sugar levels.

Knowing all of that, I still love my joe.  It does have antioxidants.  It can increase alertness and metabolism, perhaps only short term, but it works.  It can help headaches and dilates airways.  Maybe that is why it is found in medications.  There are studies that found that it may help to prevent some illnesses, such as cancer and type II diabetes.  As I described in a previous post, I am usually tired.  Even with coffee, I sometimes have to use tools that I learned playing sports to jazz myself up to be productive.  Instead doing sprints at the end of practice, I am finishing up paperwork.