Happy Halloween/Samhain!

Happy Halloween everyone!  We're enjoying a nice Sunday here after hitting 3 parties already this weekend, it was nice to sleep in a bit today and have nothing on the agenda aside from greeting Trick or Treaters later =)  We're handing out the same treats this year. 

Annie's snack bags, we buy them in a big box from Costco



and Organic suckers



We've been so busy lately, I'm beginning to wonder if this time of year is the new summer or what???  One of the tasks that's been on my to do list was to find a non-toxic lawn service(TruGreen has been canvasing the neighborhood and pestering me, so thanks for the kick in the butt ;).  Today being Halloween marks our fourth year as homeowners!  In those four years we have not treated our lawn obviously.  We've been handpulling weeds, keeping the grass mowed long, and timing our mowing with the rain.  It's been working well, but living in a sub-division is a whole new ball game for us with manicured lawns.  We didn't want to let the weeds spread too much to where we'd need to treat them with something awful.  I contacted eco-logic lawn and landscape.  They were super helpful, knowledgeable, and willing to take the time to answer all of my questions.  Our fall treatment consisted of aeration, a corn gluten pre-emergent application, and an animal/byproduct free non-toxic organic fertilizer.  They left this cute little sign so our neighbors would know that nothing toxic was used.  I don't know about you but when the neighbors' lawns are treated the smell is awful and I hate walking through it on the sidewalks and tracking it back to our home, in all honesty I close all the windows when the trucks come into the neighborhood!  My Mom recently said that she loves that she can walk barefoot in your lawn and not worry about anything!  Me too, I don't really see the point of having a lawn that you don't feel safe to lay down on, walk barefoot in (I'm barefoot anytime it's warm enough), and let kids and animals play on.



pretty green grass with fall leaves =)



As I understand the corn gluten works by drying out any seeds making it's shell crack and prohibiting germination.  These methods will not work as fast nor probably quite as effectively, but it's safe and eco-friendly and that makes us happy.  And really isn't this true about weeds:  "A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson.  We still see dandelions as weeds in the lawn when they are actually really health promoting food, and free no less!  I should be harvesting our dandelions, maybe a few more years since I'm unsure of how the lawn was treated by our previous homeowner.  We enjoy their greens in smoothies and salads through the summer.  Ok, enough about the lawn ;) ...

Our library was kind enough to order this book in from my suggestion!  It's Get Naked Fast by Diana Stobo.  It's a nice sized book, not overwhelming with lots of good information.  The first recipe I made was the Banana Buckwheat Pancakes.



I had some trouble getting them to flip well (this is probably user error, I have this problem a lot ;)  but found that the longer I let them cook the easier it was.  Anyway they were really delicious with some extra protein from the quinoa.  I did add 1 tsp of cinnamon to the batter, I can't seem to get enough of that spice! 



We had breakfast for dinner or 'blinner' for any fellow Scrubs fans ;)  Here we are actually watching Scrubs while eating (yes I know this is a bad habit) blinner.  We had green smoothies and pancakes.  I dusted off our big bordeaux glasses so we could drink them all fancy like ;)



Our blinner green smoothie recipe:
(serves 2)

20 oz water
3 big handfuls of curly kale
4 T hemp seeds
2 t spirulina
splash of almond extract
cinnamon
raw vanilla powder
2 frozen bananas
large peeled orange
fresh raspberries

I topped our smoothies with local organic bee pollen and fresh organic raspberries, these smoothies are seriously delicious!



The previous night we had also eaten breakfast for dinner.  We had some purple potatoes from the FM left so I sliced them with, purple onion, red peppers from our garden, and lots of local garlic.  I sauted this mix in virgin coconut oil with some dried oregano, sliced mushrooms, and a splash of veg stock until the potatoes were softened enough. 



I finished it by stirring in the mozzarella style daiya, sea salt, and pepper. 



quick and easy dinner that pleases the hubby (ie. potatoes ;) and is nutritious. 



Hope you all have a fabulous Halloween!  Thanks for reading =)