Avery's tastes just run a little on this side of weird

Andy was sleeping one day and Avery thought it'd be a good idea to bathe him.

Generally I tend to not go into rants on my blog because who wants to read a bunch of rants? I try to keep more of a positive feel around here. There is already enough negative floating around in the world so I try to spread the good joo joo. No bad joo joo around here.

Today however I have to share something that made me kind of upset. I didn't make myself too familiar with the Casey Anthony case but I know what happened, I think its sad, the end. Its an unfortunate event and I'm neither here nor there about whether she did it or not, I just know a kid died and that's sad. Other than that I don't know any details, I did not watch the trial, I hardly even use my TV. When I have time to watch something I'm all about Netflix.

So Facebook, annoying at times but handy in keeping up with the world, is where I learn about everything. If it happened, you'll probably read about it in your news feed. Like I learned today that Amy Winehouse died today. Travesty in the music world if you ask me.

I have a tendency to stray from topic, can you tell?

This particular Facebook event notified me that I was welcome me to come remember Caylee Anthony by releasing balloons into the sky. Touching thought. I think its great when people gather together to stop and realize that horrible things happen and we should be contented everyday that we have what we have, that we're very lucky people. That life is short and very serendipitous.

My beef is with the balloons. Balloons are detrimental to wild life and the environment. I feel like its counterproductive to be sending balloons into the environment. Why not honor her memory with some less advantageous and more considerate options? It's like showing the environment you have manners. That sounds weird but it's like:

That doesn't sound like something in the spirit of homage to me. Why can't something else be done?

• Peace Garden
• Candlelight vigil
• Using the funds for the balloons to donate to a cause that fights for abused children.

I don't mean any disrespect to the situation at hand of course. My heart goes out to all those involved. I just feel certain courtesies should be payed even while paying our tribute.


Now in memory of those lost I leave you with my favorite Amy Winehouse videos.









i.

Epic 80s video of the week

Greatest Elvis movie scene ever

The Gospel of the Seuss.

I'm sure like myself many of you were raised on the genius works of Dr. Seuss. I think half of the moral fiber that went into making me into the girl I am was due to his genius. Every single story has a moral to it. If you read his books as many times as I have you too must feel that Dr. Seuss was an incredible guy. From Horton Hears a Who's message, "A person's a person, no matter how small," to I can read with my eyes shut, "The more that you read, The more things you will know. The more that you learn, The more places you’ll go." Who doesn't believe that equality and the drive to learn more are amazing morals? Nobody that's who! These are incredible rules to live by in my opinion.

If you ask me Dr. Seuss knows everything there is to know about everything. My all time favorite story by the great doctor is The Lorax. This is the greatest story ever written if you ask me. There is no greater message than spreading concern about the environment. "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

That my friends is true wisdom. Nothing will get better unless we do something about it. If I ever have the opportunity to raise children one day I will most assuredly preach the gospel of the Seuss.

"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose."
- Oh the Places you will go!

Happy 27th Birthday to me!

Hey loyal followers, it's me again! In just under 2 weeks I will be turning the big 27! Instead of gifts this year from those of you that are on a gift giving basis with me I would like you to donate to my fundraiser with Charity:Water. My goal is to raise $200 by my birthday giving 10 people clean drinking water. This is a tremendous gift that we can all give in honor of my day of birth. I also encourage everyone that isn't on a gift giving basis with me to donate as well. Let's see what we can do!

http://mycharitywater.org/27thbday

Earth Hour 2011

Hey fellow environmental enthusiasts! Its that time again! That's right Earth Hour. What will you do for Earth Hour this year? What will you do beyond Earth Hour to help make a sustainable world for your children or your children's children. If you want to make a difference but don't know where to start, try Earth Hour and go from there. Its amazing what we can do when we put our minds to it. Saturday, March 26th at 8:30pm no matter where you are in the world shut off your lights for one hour to make a stand against climate change. Last year's Earth Hour was the most successful yet so lets make this year that much better!

Plastic State of mind.

As some of you know I am an avid reader of Alicia Silverstone's Kind Life Blog and she always has great information and tidbits to share. Today she posted the coolest video about banning plastic single use bags. So I thought I'd share it! Great message and cute video!

Our Valentines gift.

So as I said before, Andy and I aren't keen on giving each other more stuff. We have enough stuff to get us through a lot of years. So this year instead of giving each other cards that would end up in a landfill if we weren't avid recyclers, we decided to take that money we would spend on gifts for each other and put it to good use. We took that $50 and put it towards clean water by donating to Charity: Water. Just $20 can give 1 person clean water to drink so even if you have only a little cash to spare you can still make a difference for one person. Its amazing what we can do when we're not going through life thinking only about ourselves. I think we're going to make this a tradition for all holidays.

I just gave to charity: water - you should too! 100% goes to clean water projects for people in developing countries. http://bit.ly/TmWS

Valentines day for sustainably minded people in love

My husband, Andrew, and I are about to spend our first Valentines day together as a married couple. We don't ordinarily do anything at all but get something to eat and go shopping together because Andy isn't the best shopper when left to his own devices. I have heard from several of my girl friends that their significant others suffer from the same problem. This year we've been trying to donate and declutter all the masses of things that collect after combing two homes and receiving a multitude of gifts for our nuptials. So in this respect we weren't so keen on going out and buying each other more stuff. We've come to a point where we're not all that materialistic. I mean we like stuff, but who doesn't. We just want less stuff so we can actually enjoy what we have. In addition we're not so keen on buying new stuff to create more waste. Sustainable Valentines shopping seemed to be the way to go. If we were going to buy something it was going to be something we were going to use and something that was repurposed. In my search I found quite a few interesting sites of fully repurposed items, sustainable goods and Eco friendly products.

Here are a few of my favorite sites:

http://www.modernecohomes.com/gifts/for-him/

All the products in this site have been made from something else. My absolute favorite item is the bookends made from salvaged street signs. Very cute!

http://www.goodcleanlove.com/

The products from Good Clean Love are all Eco friendly, intimacy products. They call it chemistry without the chemicals. I am a big fan of having some V-day love without all the yucky stuff that generally comes with your prophylactics.

http://www.nature.org/

This site was my absolute favorite. Basically you can do one of several things. You can order organic flowers for your loved one, which is pretty sweet but I'd probably go with a potted plant as flowers with eventually die. With this site you can also adopt an acre of several different kinds of Eco Systems in your love's name. Among the choices are an acre of Australian outback, an acre of rain forest or even an acre of humming bird habitat.

http://www.sweetfreedombakery.com/

And last but not least don't forget the lover of sweets in your life. Sweet Freedom Bakery is an amazing vegan bakery based out of Philadelphia. You can order your special honey some vegan, allergen-free goodies and they'll ship them UPS for you. I am presently trying to stop myself from ordering as many double mint chocolate chip cookies as I can.

No matter what your special love's passion is in life there is a site out there to fulfill their needs with Eco-friendly, sustainable products. If you're really looking to make it as Eco-Friendly as possible, cook at home and forgo all the waste that can be accumulated by restaurants. At least at home you can reuse your dishes as well as recycle any packaging you're going to use. Andy and I are probably going to make ourselves a little picnic on our living room floor, with some organic wine and watch a few movies. If you ask me, that's way better than anything else we could have done. Happy Valentines Day!

Help a charity

Help a Charity

In today's society people get so wrapped up in doing things that they don't think that they can help. I think that's not the case at all. I happen to be a very busy person and I still want to help. Though I really don't have any of my time to donate right now and my pocket book is rather tight I discovered a way that I can help. My good friend Kristen told me about something she does to help that I have decided to adopt as well. She picks a charity every month that she donates $10 to. Its not too much to lighten your pocket book and it only takes but a minute. So this is my goal every month to pick a different charity to give my $10 to. In the spirit of breast cancer awareness month (October every year in case you didn't know) I donated my $10 this morning to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. I think that was $10 really well spent. Especially when you consider how much pointless nonsense we buy for ourselves. So I challenge you to donate $10 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and help fight breast cancer. Its definitely a worthy cause.

If you have any suggestions for charities for me to donate to please leave me a comment.

Damn Hot Chili

Today was finally a chilly day after crazy heat in September. It didn't even warm up once! So Andy and I decided it was a chili kind of day (no pun intended). Lately we've been into hot food so we decided to make it Damn Hot Chili.

Damn Hot Chili

1 Mirasol Chili chopped
1 Red matured Jalapeno minced
1 Anaheim Chili chopped
1 lrg. Green Bell Pepper chopped
1 lrg. Onion chopped
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can white hominy
chili powder to taste
crushed red pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste
1 lrg can crushed tomatoes (I used Eden Organic and they were really crushed like a puree so it ended up thicker than I intended but I prefer the chunky tomatoes so now I know)
1 lrg can V8

Lightly caramelize peppers and onions with seasonings. Once veggies are caramelized add all other ingredients and then add more chili powder to taste. Then let simmer on low to medium heat for an hour. Adjust temperature depending on your stove. I'm a sissy and I only like it so hot so you can adjust your spicy to your tastes. Andy is a Tabasco junkie so he made his a lot hotter. Then you can serve up your chili however you like it. Here are a few suggestions of toppings you can use:

• avacado
• vegan sour cream
• vegan cheese (I am not in favor of these I would just rather go without cheese)
• crackers
• roasted sesame seeds
• chopped onions
• make your own ideas and share them!

Constitution: 1 - Biggots: 0

Something I feel is pretty darn amazing happened yesterday. A federal Judge in San Francisco tossed out Proposition 8 deeming it unconstitutional. That's right this lovely lady, Judge Virginia Philips put an end to the disgusting policy of "don't ask, don't tell" for gays in the military. I think that is absolutely amazing. Personally at first I didn't understand why gays would want to fight for a country that denies their rights to be openly who they are while defending their nation. Then after I thought about it for a while I realized despite all our down falls we still live in a pretty amazing country and they are just doing their duty to help protect whats theirs. We still have to wait for senate to eventually make a decision but so far I say that the scoreboard is favoring the constitution and the freedom of sexual orientation. Proposition 8 is unconstitutional and I for one will be very happy when this nonsense is over and more attention can be paid towards more important things.

4 pepper sloppy lentils

As the weather is cooling off and my plate is getting fuller I have been using my crock pot a lot lately to cook while I'm at work. Today I made a variation of my grandmother's sloppy lentil recipe. It tastes just like sloppy joes but without the death of a cute cow. This time I sliced up a bunch of sweet potatoes in uneven slices (who wants uniform fries anyway?), seasoned them and made sweet potato fries. This recipe is usually better the next day after its had a chance to marry over night in the fridge but it's definitely good hot and fresh on day one. This recipe makes a lot so be prepared to have all kinds of yummy left overs.
2 cups of lentils (I prefer green but you can use whatever you like)
1 small green pepper chopped
1 small red pepper chopped
1 small yellow pepper chopped
1 med. yellow chili pepper chopped1 med. onion chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
1 tblsp. garlic powder
1 tblsp. onion powder
1 tblsp. crushed red pepper
Chili powder to taste
1 bottle chili sauce (I like Hines but again whatever you like)

put all ingredients in crock pot except chili sauce. cover with water. let cook on low till lentils are tender but not completely done. check water throughout cooking, should be kept thick though don't add too much water. When lentils get to tender stage add bottle of chili sauce and let cook on low for another hour. Then usually you would let it cool and then refrigerate overnight to serve the next day. But again you can eat this right away if you'd like...I sure did!

*please by all means use this recipe if you like but do not try to take credit it for it in another blog or anything else as this recipe was created by my grandmother. Thanks.

Goodsearch

I just came across a very cool site in my never ending pursuit of knowledge. Goodsearch.com is a search engine that allows you to pick a charity of your choice for them to donate to every time you use their search engine. They even have a pretty cool tool bar that you can download so that you don't have to keep going to the site every time you want to search. Its such an easy way to donate to a charity when you're completely broke. Giving back has never been so easy!

World Vegan Day

Hey everybody! I just wanted to let all my wonderful readers know that November 1st is a day to celebrate! Its World Vegan Day! Show all your vegan friends and family that you care by eating vegan for a day. Also don't you want to make the animals happy?

Slow Cooked Stuffed Peppers

While at my personal trainer's last night (Stephanie Zoch is awesome!) she had some recipe cards out for her sister to look at and I saw one for slow cooked stuffed peppers and since I had some peppers at home I decided to try it. I just sort of memorized the recipe a little and then improvised from what was in my pantry and fridge.

2 cups long brown basmati rice
3 large green peppers
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 md. onion (diced)
1 tblsp. chili powder
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 can mushroom spaghetti sauce (I use the no sugar added kind or the low sodium)

cut the tops of your peppers off and clean out the insides. (I fed the remains to the guinea pig). set peppers aside. In a bowl mix all the other ingredients except the spaghetti sauce. Spray the inside of your crock pot or slow cooker with cooking spray (I use Pam olive oil spray). stuff peppers and stand them up at the bottom of the pot. Then smother with spaghetti sauce. Cook on low for 3-4 hrs. (or until rice is cooked through).

Looks smells and tastes absolutely amazing. Thanks Steph!

Attention Champaign-Urbana Citizens!

So today has been pretty much dedicated (unintentionally) to planning my honeymoon on no money. During this mind-numbing adventure I struck gold. Picture me now with trusty lap top and kitty side kick (who is more of a hindrance than a side kick as he won't stop laying on the key board) dutifully checking every website known and unknown to find the perfect activities. Low and behold I find the most amazing site in the whole world. Okay I'm getting a little carried away with myself but its still pretty amazing. 40 North/88 West is an amazing site that basically tells you about free or inexpensive activities that have everything to do with the arts and nothing to do with boring! I have always been a firm believer that Champaign-Urbana has its thumb on the cultural pulse but I never knew we had so much art at our fingertips. And hello! Did I mention it's free? Hey poverty stick that in your juice box and suck it!

Food Rules.

I just got done reading this really interesting book. Its called Food Rules by Michael Pollen. Its got something like 64 food rules to follow that are easy to remember and some are pretty common sense. I think the best rule was to never eat cereal that changes the color of your milk. I never thought of that before but it definitely makes sense. If you're trying to eat healthier or even lose a little weight you should definitely check this book out. Its pretty short so its an easy ready. I think I was done in like 2 hrs. You can get it for around $7 used on Amazon or check it out at your local library.

Etsy!

I am completely obsessed with the site Etsy! Everything is handmade or retro. Its completely amazing. I am in love with this toilet seat of all things. Everyone should definitely check it out!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/49704196/through-the-looking-glass-seat