"Every time you buy, you're voting for the world you want or the world you don't want." - Gary Hirshberg, Chairman of Stonyfield and Founder of Just Label It & Only Organic I found this to be the most powerful sentence I heard at last week's ShiftCon event. It's such a simple and somewhat obvious statement, but it brings to light the fact that when you purchase something, you're supporting a product - and not only the product itself, but also how it was made. ShiftCon took place last week in the pretty town of Manhattan Beach, and was an event geared towards health, wellness and green living. You can check out this YouTube video to get a better idea of what the conference is all about. I randomly won a ticket to the event through my ambassadorship with FitFluential, and was ... [Read More]
Archives for September 2015
7 Healthy Snacks & Desserts I’ve Been Eating Lately
Hi friends! I hope that you had a wonderful weekend! I had a great 3 days out of town for ShiftCon, and then I came home to spend time with my little family. Highlights on Sunday were a relaxing few hours at the mostly empty beach... ...and making vegan s'mores via our fire pit under the Blood Moon: I've been wanting to make s'mores for months since finding these vegan marshmallows at my natural foods store, and even included it on my Before 30 Bucket List. Mmm, now I can check that one off the list! I'm going to share some highlights about ShiftCon - a conference that puts the topics of wellness, health, and the environment front and center - in my next post, but today I want to chat with you guys about new snacks that I've tried lately. As of late I've been ... [Read More]
Roasted Tomato & Spinach Ricotta Pesto Stuffed Shells
Happy Hump Day friends! I'm excited because tomorrow I head up to Manhattan Beach for ShiftCon - a social media conference focusing on wellness, health, and the environment. There are so many sessions that seem so interesting and fun that I'm looking forward to, and it's always great to connect with other bloggers and people in the healthy food industry! I'm sure I'll be recapping all of the fun for you next week, but today, let's talk about this deliciousness: The idea for roasted tomato & ricotta pesto stuffed shells first came to mind when I bought a bag of locally grown beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes. There's just something about those vibrant colors that makes me want to get all creative with the meal I use the tomatoes for. I roasted them with just a bit of olive oil, salt ... [Read More]
Weekend Escape to Big Bear Lake
"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny space you occupy in the world." - Gustave Flaubert With my hubby and I both home last weekend with nothing on the agenda, we decided to take a road trip to a place we'd never visited before: Big Bear Lake. Located in the San Bernardino Mountains about 2 1/2 hours away from our house in San Diego's North County, Big Bear Lake is a popular destination known for its winter ski slopes as well as summertime water sports. My hubby had brought up the idea of camping in the area mid-last week. However, all of the campsites at the lakeside campground I wanted to stay at were already reserved. Plus fires aren't currently allowed there because of the extremely dry conditions and high fire danger, and that's kind of my favorite part of camping, ... [Read More]
PB & J Oatmeal Crumble Bars
Happy Friday friends! So, when a new recipe idea doesn't turn out exactly how I want it to, there are two conclusions I come to: 1.) I just fuhgeddaboudit, or 2.) If at first you don't succeed, try, try again! Today's recipe is a case of something working out the second time around. Some of you may remember that a few months ago, I included the below photo in a weekend recap: This was the first run of testing out my idea for PB & J bars, and while they tasted great, they just weren't holding together well at all. Since the ingredients seemed to work well together and it was just a texture issue, I gave it a second go a few weeks ago. This time I adjusted a few ingredients and BOOM! The recipe became a winner. ... [Read More]
Creamy Mango Melon Smoothie
It's mid-September, which means that a lot of you are starting to experience some cooler temperatures and the start of autumn. You're stashing your flip-flops away in exchange for ballet flats, throwing on pants instead of shorts, and starting to make pumpkin everything. If this is you, this recipe is not being shared with you in mind... because this post is dedicated for all of the Californians who have been experiencing a heat wave with me (and anyone else whose sweating somewhere in the world)! ;-) The last couple of weeks here have been hot. I'm not complaining, especially because I live in a place that has awesome weather year-round, but not having air conditioning makes temperatures in the 90s with a crazy high UV index feel kind of brutal. Okay, maybe I'm complaining a little - I ... [Read More]