Monday, April 27, 2015

Why Flush Your Toilet? Product Review

 Why Flush?
It's a question and a product name. Why Flush? 

This is a serious question for the world as we waste a lot of water in the bathroom, my friends. You may be curious what is it actually doing and it's purpose being in the toilet?  I'll answer those mystifying questions and help you realize that you should have Why Flush? in your home, so should your family and friends. We all should own Why Flush (available on Amazon) as part of our everyday life because we all need a place to relieve ourselves in our society yet we all should care more about water conservation. Together, we can accomplish a mental change in toilet behavior with just 2-3 flushes in the middle of the toilet after each #1 pee. This results in neutralized toilet water with a citrus, fresh scented bathroom via Why Flush.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

EZ Gluten Test Kit Product Review


How Can I Know For Sure 
If Food & Beverages Are Gluten-Free?

If you haven't used the EZ Gluten Test Kit before then it's time  pick up a few kits for the holidays for you or someone you truly care about.  Whether you have Celiac Disease, gluten intolerance or another form of sensitivity to gluten proteins, Elisa Technologies offer kits for you to test food and beverages quickly and efficiently via a test strip. Most of us know not to take risks, but every once in a while I hear about people taking way too many risks, so now in less than 10 minutes you can check that food sample, finally! I tried it and I'll share with you my results.  These EZ Gluten Test are extremely simple kit that in less than ten minutes will detect the presence of gluten proteins in foods and beverages. It is sensitive enough to detect levels of gluten as low as 10 ppm (which is 2x better than the FDA guidelines). As you can see in my example here, the test kit is small and portable enough for at home, going to friends, or family, heading to a restaurant or whenever you need to know if a food could have gluten contamination, and avoid it! 

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Recipe: Baked Squash & Sweet Potato Stew

RECIPE 

Baked Sweet potatoes and squash can take your stew or soup to a whole new level year round. Although it's spring, I was craving some amazing stew.  By taking your favorite nutrient rich vegetables, legumes, and tubers, with an optional meat source you can have a low calorie, energy rich stew for a few days.  Each element of this recipe can also be edited to have something else that's in season or a vegetable that you love so much that you can't resist. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS




  • Sweet potatoes - Use 1 or 2 large sweet potatoes for pre-baking. 
  • Squash - Take a whole medium size squash for pre-baking.
  • Cauliflower  - Take 1/2 cut into smaller sizes for adding into to stew 
  • Black beans - Add 1 can or cooked beans
  • Onions - Use 1, chop to your delight
  • Cumin - Sprinkle to your delight
  • Litehouse herbs - Add to your delight
  • Beef - Optional and a nice touch (or chicken)
  • Creamy tomato soup - 32 oz suggested. Optional use a tomato sauce, but a low sodium, organic soup is creamier 


INSTRUCTIONS

Pre-Bake #1
  • Sweet potatoes - Wash well and peel skin off. Cut into round slices, pre-bake separately than squash at 375 degrees for approximately 35 minutes. Potatoes take longer.
  • Squash - Wash well and take 1/2 squash and cut into smaller round slices, pre-bake separately than sweet potatoes at 375 degrees for approximately 25 minutes. Bakes faster than potatoes. 
Pre-Sautee #2
  • Saute the chopped onions and meat ahead of time only about medium/rare for 5-6 minutes. 
Pre-Heat The Big Pot #3
  • Add the tomato sauce to pot. You can also add a cup or two of water or chicken broth depending how thick or soupy you prefer. Prep this liquid portion on medium heat ahead of time to coordinate the ending of baked and sauce preparations for the stewing below.  
Stew Time (30 minutes)
  1. In the same large stove pot add your cauliflower to the pre-heated soup
  2. Next cut your pre-baked sweet potatoes and squash into smaller pieces. Now you can peel the skin off quash and add directly into the stew.
  3. Add the optional beef strips
  4. Add in the spices to taste
  5. Your big pot can now slow cook on light flame or until everything is soft. 


Home






Sunday, April 12, 2015

Udis & Smashburger Unite To Devastate Gluten-Free Safety


I can't tell you how upset I was after reading about Gluten Free Dude's finding that Smashburger used Udi's Gluten Free Bread (a once gluten-free leader) and failed an obvious cross contamination gluten-free test with a gluten free customer.   

Let's be very clear to those who manage a restaurant, servers and chefs along with those who are responsible at home to cook for gluten free family and friends:
  1. It's not okay to serve gluten free products in a cross contaminated area so wash, clean and/or separate all utensils and food much better.
  2. It's not okay to pretend you're promoting gluten-free options but exclude those with actual gluten related illnesses. Duh!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

I Heart Keenwah Gluten Free Product Review

 I heart Keenwah snacks


Imagine bite size square snacks that are perfectly shaped, crunch in your mouth and have desirable taste, ingredients and leave you satisfied. Welcome to I heart Keenwah, taking the quinoa snack to a whole new level and taste experience. The founder, Ravi, was touring Bolivia and learning about the quinoa grains. He immediately became smitten over a ready to eat snack and pitched the ideas to his grad school friends. They concept was born and they went to the kitchen mixing quinoa to find a crunchy treat as we see today in the cluster snacks. 

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Gatherer's Granola Gluten-Free Product Review

 Gatherer's Granola

Here's my Gatherer's Granola observations: It's obvious, they have better granola ingredients and taste to take you through your day and adventures ahead. Inspired by the cute fuzzy animals out there who gather, burrow, and even scavenge day-to-day to get by, this concept of "gathering" has been birthed by Sandro Gerbini (jazz musician) out of Schenectady, NY.