Healthy Individual Brownie Cakes

I just love chocolate.  It's my downfall when it comes to healthy eating.  I can say no to fried foods and packaged foods, but I'm going to cheat a little if there's a warm, gooey brownie in front of me.  So, in my attempt to find something healthy to satisfy that craving, I experimented today.  I'm really shocked these turned out so good, and the kids ate one and loved it too.  You'd never know there's NO FLOUR, OIL, OR SUGAR IN IT! A-mazing.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp. Apple Sauce
• 1 Tbsp. Peanut Butter or other Nut Butter 
• 1 Tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 Tbsp.-1 Tbsp. Pure Maple Syrup (optional)
• 1/2 Tbsp. Milk of Choice (use 1 Tbsp. if leaving out maple syrup)
• 1/2 Tbsp.- 1 Tbsp. Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
• few drops of vanilla
• Tiny pinch of baking soda

Directions:

• Mix all of the following in a small microwavable, single serving bowl.  Small ramekins are the perfect size. Heat in microwave for 1 minute and 25 seconds. Viola!  You're done and you have yourself a yummy treat that's not bad for you but is still delicious!  Can you tell I'm excited about this!?

Note: I tried it with Almond Butter and Peanut Butter and thought it was a little dryer with the Almond Butter, but it was still good!

If you've never used Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips before, give them a try.  They are gluten, nut, soy and dairy free, but they taste wonderful! Buy them on here for a cheaper price (this is for a 6 pack of them).

Roasted Vegetables (Beets, Potatoes, Carrots, and Apples)

Beets.  They are one of those vegetables that just don't sound too appealing.  Am I the only one? They just look like a lot of work, and I don't know what to do with them. I tried making something with them once, they didn't taste very good, so I kind of just gave up on them.  Until recently.  My aunt made some roasted vegetables when we went to her house for dinner a few weeks ago.  They were great, and beets were part of the medley.  She said that roasting them is the best way because it caramelizes them and gives them a great flavor.  So today, I roasted some beets!  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2-3 Beets, Peeled and chopped small
• 1 Bag of Baby Carrots, cut into small chunks
• 3 Large Red Potatoes or 2 Large Sweet Potatoes or combination of both, diced 
• 2 Apples, diced (I didn't peel them)
• 2 Tbsp. Oil of Choice (I used Avocado Oil.  Coconut oil or Olive oil would work great too.)
• Generous sprinkling of a high quality sea salt.  Here is a good choice.

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Cover baking sheet with parchment paper. 
• After all of the vegetables have been diced, toss in oil and sprinkle with salt.  Place on the baking sheet and bake for 45-55 minutes, stirring half-way.  

The apples give the vegetables a slightly sweet flavor.  Yummy!

Natural Beauty Products

It can be frustrating to find beauty products without all of the bad stuff in it.  Many times, it is much more expensive than the stuff you can buy at Walmart and Target and a lot of the time it just doesn't work very well.

But, did you know that companies are allowed to use almost any ingredient that they want?! The U.S. government does not review the safety of products before they are sold!  Toxic ingredients are used in many of the beauty products available today.  These toxic ingredients are endocrine disruptors that can lead to cancer, autoimmune diseases, and other illnesses.  Our skin absorbs 60% of any topical product we use, so that's why it's so important that we are not putting these harmful toxins on our body.

Have you ever used the Environmental Working Group database? You'll want to check out this website if you haven't already.  Their mission is to protect human health and the environment by creating online safety profiles for cosmetics and personal care products. You can search for a brand of make up and it will tell you the ratings (as far as safety goes) for your beauty product.

For example, if you searched for Burt's Bees Baby Nourishing Lotion, you would see a rating of a 5, which is a moderate hazard. You want your rating to be as close to 0 as possible.  I was pretty upset to see that the expensive lotion I was buying and that I thought was healthy for my baby, was actually full of bad things that are toxic for my baby.  I might as well buy the cheapest brand possible.

So, yes, it does take a little extra work to find products that are not toxic. But, I definitely don't want to be putting harmful things into my body.  Here is a list of products that have worked for me, and I hope they'll help you too.

Note: I am not a sales rep for any of these products, but some affiliate links are below.  If you purchase through an affiliate link, your costs will be the same, but I will receive a very small commission.  Thanks for your support!

Body Wash: 
Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps -Peppermint
This body wash contains organic certified ingredients and can be used for cleaning the body as well as used to make natural household cleaners.  I like the peppermint oil because it creates a tingly-cool and increases vitality and clarity.
Dr. Bronner's Baby-mild Liquid Soap  (no essential oil scent)

To make it last longer, you can also dilute with water.  We usually add 1/2 water to it and the 32 oz bottles lasts a LONG time!

Tear-free wash for Kids:
Nature's Baby Organics Shampoo & Body Wash
This is a tear-free formula without all the bad stuff.  It has a calming scent from essential oils.

Face:
Derma e, Soothing Cleanser 
I like this face wash.  It's gentle and fragrance free.

Toner:
Heritage Rosewater & Glycerin With Atomizer 
I LOVE this stuff.  See this article to learn more about it.  It's a great price and it can bring benefit to all skin types.

Eye Gel:
derma e Pycnogenol Eye Gel with Green Tea Extract
This eye gel helps diminish the look of undereye puffiness...not that that ever happens to my eyes ;)

Make-up Remover:
Nutiva Organic Virgin Coconut Oil
I use coconut oil.  I love this brand, and we use it for cooking all the time too! I put some in a small container and just dip a cotton ball in it to remove my make-up each day.

Face Lotion:
Aim 2 Health Face and Neck Cream
For dry spots or when you need something extra moisturizing, I love using this.  The aloe is very soothing.

Make-up:
Elegant Minerals
I found a new make-up that I really like.  It's similar to Bare Minerals, but the prices are a little better. You can also order samples on most of their products for only $1.  I love their clay masks as well.  From their site:

Elegant Minerals Makeup is free of all potentially harmful ingredients found in many commercial brands, such as: preservatives, talc, synthetic chemicals, carmine, parabens, artificial dyes, fragrances, bismuth, cornstarch, and various fillers. We do not use micronized minerals. We are confident you will love our mineral makeup and offer a 30 money-back guarantee.

Mascara:
My favorite non-toxic mascara is actually from Target and it is the Boots No. 7 Brand.  It gets a lower rating of 2 on EWG, although it is not a 0. I like that it costs under $10!

Epsom salt:
Epsoak Epsom Salt 
In thinking about toxins, an epsom salt bath is excellent at removing toxins from the body.  See this article here.  This is, by far, my favorite brand, and it's well worth it to buy the 20 lb. bag, because you'll need to use 1-2 cups per bath.  This has become a treat for me, and I try to take an epsom salt bath several times a week.

Skin Brush:
Yerba Prima Tampico Skin Brush
Read about the importance of skin brushing and how to do it here.

What are your favorite non-toxic beauty products?

The Key to Your Life

This morning, I read Deuteronomy 30.  The title for the chapter was A Call to Return to the Lord.  Moses is speaking to the Israelites and imploring them to return to the Lord.  He urges them to make the right choice.  He presents them with two options: choose life or choose death.  Even after the Israelites had turned away from God so many times, God still extends His mercy and grace to them.  God wants them to have life and He knew that they could not have true life without Him.

The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live! Deuteronomy 30:6

This verse is so encouraging because it shows that God wants to change our hearts...He wants to replace our desires with His desires and help us love Him with all our heart and soul.  And the result is so that we may live!  He knows that to truly live is to live only for Him.  When we live for ourselves, we are not living at all.  We are taking...taking from others, taking from this world to try and satisfy a longing that will never truly be satisfied.  

Sometimes we can get a distorted view of God.  We can feel like He is so out of reach, so intangible, a standard that we can never attain.  We can feel like since we know we'll never measure up, we shouldn't even try...that He is going to be disappointed no matter what happens.  But this is so untrue.  Deuteronomy 30 reminds us that His commands are not too difficult for us to understand:

This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach...No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it  (vs. 11, 14).

Yes, we are all sinners and we will not always make the right choice.  But, His Word is there to guide us and bring us back to Him.  God doesn't want us to fail.  He wants us to cling to Him, to forsake everything else and to choose life.  When we are tempted to think that His standards are too high for us to ever attain, may we remember that it is not too difficult for us to understand.

God wants to give us a new heart to obey Him in place of our former stubbornness. This new heart will teach us how to love the Lord wholeheartedly.  Thank God that He can replace our sinful hearts with a new one so that we may have life.  But, are we willing to let Him have control of our lives, to surrender our old heart's desires for His new heart?  It may be hard to let go of our pursuits, our dreams and our goals.  This world has a way of making our desires look so attractive.  The enemy wants nothing more than to see us choose our own way of living instead of His way of living.  But the sad part is that when we choose our way of living, we really are not living at all.  Because He is the key to our life. 

You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him.  This is they key to your life...(vs. 20). 

This whole chapter is so full of verses that remind us to forsake our old way of living. Take time to read Deuteronomy 30.