Greener Today

With the chemical overload of today's society, our body burdens are unbelievable. As such, the more opportunities I can find to up our antioxidant quota, the better. This is why I was really interested in trying Tropical Traditions Antioxidant Natural Greens. Rich in ALA Omega-3, this was a product we had to try. Looking over the nutrition information, I was pleased to learn this is also probiotic, which is another component we pay a lot of attention to in our diet. Throw into the mix the fact that it is made with Certified Organic Ingredients, and this became a product must.

Berry flavor was our choice, and when it showed up, my husband and I were eager to take a crack at it. A small scoop mixed into a glass of water was all that was necessary to get the full benefits of this healthy drink. I expected it to be thick, and rather something I just had to 'get through' because I knew it would be really beneficial.

However, that wasn't the case. It's not thick, and while I can't say the color is particularly appealing, I do find it satisfying to know that just because it's berry flavored did not mean they felt the need to pump it full of red dye. The greens are indeed a rich green. The taste is not overpowering, and certainly not hard to handle.

One thing to note is that the mixture does sort of settle on the bottom of the glass if not drank promptly, so I wouldn't suggest sipping it over breakfast. However, 8 oz is not a large glass, and drinking it in a few moments isn't a challenge.

My husband quite liked the taste, and we both intend to make it a regular part of our diets. Do you feel your diet could use the boost of antioxidants? Tropical Traditions is giving away a jar of Natural Greens to one lucky Greener Today winner. Want that winner to be you? Stop by Tropical Traditions and tell me about one other product they carry that you would like to try. Want a bonus chance to win? Complete one or more of the following and leave a separate comment for each one. Each additional one will be worth an extra entry!

-Like Tropical Traditions on Facebook!
-Sign up for the Tropical Traditions Newsletter
-Follow Greener_Today on Twitter and tweet this contest!
-Like Greener Today on Facebook

Contest open to residents of Canada and the US. Contest closes on August 26th at midnight. Winner will be notified by email and have 72 hours to respond before an alternate winner is selected.

Good Luck!!

First of all, let me start by saying thank you to everyone who messaged me last week with warm birthday wishes. I was surprised by how many of my readers know my birthday. Time marches on!

******************

Baby M is a big 13 months old now. Wow. Does time ever march on. He has graduated to a sippy cup, and beyond that, loves drinking from my glass through a straw. But I can't honestly say I feel so good about that. Straws are thin, cheap plastic and moreover, I have no idea what grade of plastic. Not to mention that they are tossed with each use. Granted, they aren't exactly taking up a whole lot of landfill space on their own, but it's that whole collective throw away mentality I want to avoid instilling in my son in the first place. If there is one thing I've finally come to realize in this greening up journey, it's that it really is about the little things.

The idea of trying Glass Dharma's glass drinking straws beyond intrigued me. I knew I would love this product. The concept of reusable glass straws is genius, and there was no doubt that my family had to have a set of them. For those of you who haven't heard of Glass Dharma, you really don't know what you are missing. Their line of fab products are made in the USA, which is refreshing in an age where it seems everything is outsourced off continent. And they are hand made. I couldn't wait to get them.

Well, like I said, I expected to love this product. The concept was great. No toxins leaching into your drinks. No plastic-y taste, which sometimes happen with cheap straws. No waste. They showed up today, in four varying sizes, and I couldn't wait to put them to the test. What I was not expecting when I received my straws was how seriously styling they are. Oh. My. God. These are really cute.

Tragically, the first thing I did was drop one. I was taking them out of the box, and really, I dropped it. I wouldn't recommend trying this at home. It is a testiment to Glass Dharma that the straws do indeed stand up to my life. Most people would be more careful, I'm sure. But really, the straw I dropped did not break. Very cool.

My son loved his. He drank from it all day. So extremely cute to see. He is spent the biggest part of the afternoon requesting 'another??' drink, just so he could use it.

My personal favorite is the biggest size, just right for smoothies. Worried you won't be able to really get a glass straw clean? Worry no more. They carry a line of cleaning wands that are just the right size. I can't think of a better giveaway to have in the summer, when we are all leisurely sipping something. And guess what?

The good people at Glass Dharma have generously offered up a $25 gift certificate to one lucky Greener Today reader!

Want a chance to win? Stop by Glass Dharma's , and tell me what you would do with a $25 gift certificate! That's it. Want an additional chance to win?

Follow Glass Dharma on Twitter and tweet this contest. Or Like Glass Dharma on Facebook. Do both and you will be entered in the draw three times!

Contest closes on August 20th at midnight. The winner will be notified by email. If they do not respond after 72 hours, another winner will be chosen. Contest open to residents of Canada and the US. Good Luck!!

The 20 minute video 'The Story of Stuff' has been on my to watch list for some time now. There always seems to be other things to do in my down time. However, recently, I did take the opportunity to watch the life cycle of our throw away culture. Extremely well presented and extremely well explained, this is a video that should be seen by the masses. So instead of telling you about it any further, I'm just going to ask you to take 20ish minutes, click on the link, and watch it. Hope you do.

The Story of Stuff

The radishes have taken over. They are always my first crop, and every year I'm excited to see my rows teeming with them. We pull them as soon as we can and start adding them to salads. But as the days pass, we end up with more radishes than I could reasonably add to a salad. Which leaves me asking the same damn question every year?

Why did I plant so many radishes?? This year, I've decided to do something different with them. I hopped online and did a quick search for recipes that were radish heavy. And I found a new blog I'm in love with. It's called Eating From the Ground Up. Very cool. I would definitely recommend stopping by for a look around. I found a recipe there for radish dip. You can find the actual recipe there. Following recipes to a T is a personality type that I don't have. Here is what I did.

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temp
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, drained
1 teaspoons dried dill
1 teaspoons dried parsley
3 cups of red radishes
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 pinch of salt

Everything went into the food processor. I did not drain my horseradish, but I should have. Keeps in the fridge for 4 days. This tastes like summer. I am loving the dill and horseradish flavor in this. We are having it with bread, carrots, and broccoli. And it has inspired me to plant another crop of radishes to enjoy again in a few more weeks. Yum.

Here in Atlantic Canada, warm weather is later showing up than in many other places. We can't even begin planting until mid May, and many would advise waiting until early June. That means a short growing season, and a bit of a limit on what we can actually grow. However, it never stops us from reaping the rewards of a home garden.

Long before I started my green journey, I had been planting vegetables. It's been years and years now, and I love it. The only things that are ready for eating just yet are the radishes, last years parsnips and a few strawberries (most are still white), but I'm already in love with what's happening in the yard. And as you can see, weeding is a family affair here.

So long as we are carefully supervising, nothing gets pulled out that shouldn't. It's great for us to get our hands dirty. Soon we'll be loving the carrots, cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, califlower, corn and many other things in our little garden space. What are you growing this year?

I love Summer. We try to unplug as often as possible. No phones. No internet. No TV (which is easy for us, as we never bothered getting cable in the first place). We head outside as often as possible.

Whether it's a trip to the beach, our land, or our own little backyard, we try to see the beauty in the randomness of it. The weeds can be as pretty as the flowers, from the right perspective.

No pesticides. No interuptions. Just Summer bliss. Hope you enjoy a few photos today.

As I mentioned, Baby M is a year. And as I also mentioned, the affair itself was small and simple. But what I have not yet mentioned, is that I wanted his cake to be a big deal. I considered buying one from one of the many cake decorators in my area. They do an incredible job. But I really didn't want my son to have chemical colorants in his first cake. So I started researching India Tree. They make all natural vegetable colorings. They are considerably more costly than traditional food colors, but I expected that.

I used these primaries to create my own colors. It was set in stone now. I would be making the cake. I wanted it to have three tiers, so the top one could be plucked off and set in front of my baby to mangle at his leisure. That cake was made from a sugar free recipe (delicious, by the way) and the other two tiers would be more pleasing to my other guests.

Between learning to make fondant (not hard, but time consuming), making the butter cream frosting for underneath, making all the cakes twice (thanks to Baby M for plowing his toy train into the oven while I was cooking) and countless other trials, I invested 19 hours into making this cake.

And yet, something looks a little....off...

Yup. That's right. That isn't just the photograph. My cake has a wicked lean on it. Much to my surprise, of course, since that was in no way my intention. It was midnight the night before his birthday when I finally got the damn thing together. I laughed so hard when I stood back from it, I didn't think I was going to be able to recover.

In the morning, to no one's surprise, the leaning layers had jumped ship, and I came downstairs to find them on the floor. Never one to be easily deterred, I set to work immediately whipping off two more tiers. They were cooled, decorated and stacked minutes before our guests arrived. No problems. No one would have had any idea of the disaster of mythic proportions that had taken place. Except, of course, that I keep telling everyone.

So this was the final product. I figured out why it was leaning, and fixed it the second time, as you can see. The India Tree colors were pretty, and fairly vibrant really, although I had a hell of a time making greens and blues. They looked like grey and miscellanious. They weren't pretty. But I probably need more practice. Anyway, the grand total of cake time all inclusively is 22 hours. Was it worth it?

You better believe it!!

You may or may not realize that Baby M officially turned a year on Saturday. Wow. I cannot believe how quickly the time is going. We celebrated his first major milestone quietly with the few members of our family who were not dealing with the flu this weekend. His day was neither elaborate, nor fancy, but it was very special. Now, here it is Tuesday and I find myself reeling at all the toys that have taken up residence in our living room. Luckily, our family and friends know and respect our wishes for eco easy toys, and Baby M received many natural, gentle toys that complement some homemade ones. And with toys this beautiful, who minds having them in the living room?!

This is my first encounter with Plan Toys and Oh. My. God. They are beautiful indeed. This sweet little xylophone has been extremely popular lately, as has the wooden walker and block set by the same company. Plan Toys, I think I'm in love.

Also, this is the finished table and chair set I've been mentioning. I'll snap a better picture that really shows it off soon, but here it is! Baby M, Happy Birthday Honey!

I love giving away products here on Greener Today! I get to try out a lot of different types of things, and I give away the best of the best. In my former life (read: before my efforts to go green), I was a product girl. I had every type of hair, make up and skin product you can imagine. I loved high end treats, and if you had told me a year ago I would pitch all those little luxuries for natural products, I would have told you that you were crazy. Yet here we are.

Knowing all the largely unregulated chemicals in the 'treats' made them feel a lot less like luxuries. I am not willing to use products that cause endocrine disruption and are carcinogenic in the name of beauty. So product purchases have been drastically cut.

So obviously, trying out a natural deep conditioner intrigued me, and I wanted to test it a few times before I formed my opinion on it. Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil Hair Treatment from Tropical Traditions was a great fit. The ingredient list is amazing. Only coconuts are in this product. The feeling of the cream is rich and smooth. I couldn't wait.

Without a doubt, I overdid it the first time. This is extremely pure and you simply do not need the amount I applied to my hair. I was over excited. It's been a long time since I've gotten a little hair treat. Like any deep conditioning treatment, too much makes your hair feel heavy. So after washing it again and giving it some time, I tried again.

Even when I over applied, my hair felt amazing. Heavy, yes, but soft and silky. It even straightened easier than ever before. It felt wonderful. But when I used a more reasonable amount as a pretreatment before washing, I found it was just right. The oil gives it a wonderful luster and just the pick me up my hair needed. I personally do not have overly dry hair, so I find using it once every week or two is plenty. It gives it that sheen that I want, and makes straightening it a breeze. It's pure, it's organic, it's high quality. I would definitely recommend trying it out for yourself.

And now, one lucky Greener Today reader can! Tropical Traditions is giving away a jar of this gorgeous, organic product! Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil Hair Treatment can be yours. All you have to do is visit their site and tell me what other product from their great product line you would like to try. Want a bonus entry? Sign up for their newsletter. For another bonus entry, follow Greener Today on twitter and tweet this contest! Leave me a separate comment telling me you've completed the bonus entries. Contest closes at midnight on July 12th. The winner will be contacted by email and have 72 hours to respond before another winner is chosen. Contest open to residents of Canada and the US. Good Luck!

As you may know, Baby M's first birthday is just around the corner, and my husband and I have committed to making his first gift. It's going to be a table and chair set. I can hardly wait. It's not entirely done, but here is a sample of one chair. It's still unpainted, but you get the idea. What do you think?