Cat beds

Maggie and Marley have cat beds after 10 and 11 years!  On my wish list last year I had asked for a soft non-toxic, eco-friendly bed for my old man Marley to lay his bones on.  His loving and generous Grandma and pa ordered him this amazing little bed from West Paw Design.  The bed was in the house for four months and not once walked on let alone layed in, so I called and asked if it were possible to try a different shape of bed.  Their customer service is fabulous and it was no problem to try a different bed.  I chose two flat mats for them and they are already kitty approved.

West Paw Design makes wonderful pet products in Montana.  They ship responsibly with no extra packaging and stuff the beds into small boxes. 



These are the two I chose.  They are machine washable too, very important ;)









Mom and Dad had also gotten another bed from Costco so Maggie had one too.  She still spends most of her snoozing time in a reed basket and on our bed...but Marley LOVES the bed from Costco.  It is so funny, it looks like a little cat couch.  I'll share a pic when I have it all cleaned up...it gets hairy!  (<-that's an understatement ;)

I was lucky this week to recieve these gorgeous jars that were my Grandmother's!  I love them so much.



They will get so much use here.  I would be kind of a lot lost without canning jars in my house.

Last night after we got home from work and school we put together this delicious salad for dinner.  Thanks to the current sale at Whole Foods, Sunshine burgers have returned to our house =D

We had julienned kale, sliced fennel, zucchini, raw olives, topped with a BBQ Sunshine burger and pepperjack Daiya.  We dressed the salads with olive oil, coconut vinegar, S&P, and curry powder (thanks Ginger Is The New Pink!)  it's so delicious, I swear we have the same tastebuds ;) 



In between appts today I enjoyed this awesome salad:
chopped bok choy, fennel, zucchini, roasted red pepper, green beans, and cauliflower.  I dressed it with dulse flakes and the same dressing as above, man was it so good!



I think I average about 5 meals a day.  They're not (usually) super huge, but very nutrient dense.  This works for me because I love good food and it keeps my belly happy too as I am a former IBSer.  So a bit after the salad I ate this bowl of Go Raw Live Chocolate Granola with almond milk, almond butter, and an insanely delicious peach. 



Ok, house cleaning is next on the self made honey-do list... I'm sharing the quote of the day from Gaiam's FB:
 “Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.” ~ Herman Hesse

and an awesome article on Detroit as Growtown!!! here

baby apple trees!

Well, our apple trees live!  We planted them  maybe a month ago now, they are so cute and starting to bud and leaf out, yea!  They arrived while it was pretty cold here yet from California in a neat little box.  We opened them and let them hang out in the garage until the ground was ready to be dug.  They came bare root, so pretty much just a tall twig with some roots on the end ;)  They're so cute, I know they're going to grow the best little apples, I'm in love.  Our trees came from Trees of Antiquity. 

Wee little trees





future branches =)





leaves!



Hope they like their new home.  We moved a blue spruce to make room for them, and put the spruce back by the composters.  It was crazy windy the next day after we planted and it blew right over, hubby was awesome and staked her back up, isn't she a pretty tree?  We added a composter this year now that the first one is full we can let it complete the composting process this summer while we add to the new one.  We're hoping for some excellent black gold since we put a lot of really great scraps in there! 



In garden news there is not much happening yet, as I've been, as my husband says 'busier than a cat covered in shit' really?  I don't know where he comes up with these sayings ;)  I have been too busy to make time for our garden yet....I will get it rolling soon-here's hoping for a really long summer.  I usually just let the garden time happen organically when it feels right, sometimes it gets in late, but seems to work out alright.  I haven't even been to the farmer's market yet this spring, boo.  So far there are weeds coming up with one chive clump.



and our garlic is growing well



When we juice we pretty much always include celery, but the stores have been out of organic celery for a bit here...then I found this gem at the co-op



just what I was looking for, yum

Our favorite dessert as of late has been raw cacao pudding with berries.

Just process an avocado and a mango together.  Add in a couple of soaked dates, your sweetener of choice (we've been using maple syrup- not raw), and cacao powder.  Holy yumminess.  The leftovers even hold up well for a few days in the fridge.









For Mother's Day I made my Mom some raw fudgy balls.  I used the ingredients from my raw girlfriend, added oats and rolled in coconut.  I didn't measure as I was in a hurry.  So just use your judgement, they are delicious!  We also ordered her a salt lamp (thanks for the store link Bitt of Raw!).  which is beautiful.

Krista's Fudgy Balls ingredients
raw almond butter
thick rolled oats
coconut butter (warmed in the dehydrator)
soaked raisins and /or dates ( I used both)
cacao powder
sweetener of choice (I used a  little raw agave)
sea salt to taste

process all to combine, roll into balls, and roll in unsweetened coconut shreds.  Store in freezer and eat as you please =)

Hockeytown

This week we were fortunate to be given tickets to game 6 of the Redwings and Sharks.  We had amazing seats, 6th row off the glass.  The only other time I'd been to a Wings game was in Middle School when my Dad took me, my brother, and a friend where we sat up in the top of the upper bowl, little bit different perspective!  The atmosphere was so fun, we really had a blast cheering on the Wings.  It was hubby's first time to the Joe so I had to take his pic ;)

Enjoying a beautiful evening walking the Detroit Riverwalk to the arena.

The view from our seats. 



Us having fun on a Tuesday night =) 


While watching the game I was not inspired to drink beer and eat pizza, I was however very inspired to get back to exercising!  I find it pretty ironic that we will often cheer for athletes in top physical shape while gathering together and doing decidedly unhealthy things.  I'm not against having fun, don't get me wrong, but when I watch people at the top of their game I find it motiving...so I took my five fingers out for their first run.  I actually intended on going for a walk to enjoy the sun and fresh air as a break from studying, but my feet felt like running.  So that's what we did and I was amazed at how much I wanted to run (I am not much of a runner let me tell you).  I did an hour of run/walk intervals and felt pretty amazing.  It may have been a combination of the sunshine here (finally!) and all the chia seeds that I eat, or how the first run is always the easiest, but I do know that my body loved running in my new shoes!


I was a good girl and did my stretching afterwards in the yard.  Where I decided then to lay down and read while the cats explored a bit and enjoyed the sun themselves.  Breaking free from winter!



I'm reading Something Blue. Last weekend I had a great meet up after school with a couple of girlies to see Something Borrowed!  I love girl movie dates  =) The movie was cute and got me in the mood to watch love stories, I have promptly watched The Notebook since, swoon!  If you are a Ryan Gosling fan, just wait until you see one of the previews during Something Blue! 

Other inspiring sightings:  I saw these cute window signs in Petoskey at Yoga Roots.

"Yoga has been known to cause health and happiness"



"Trying to find the answers from outside yourself is nonsense.  You need to look inward."  ~HH the Dalai Lama



What inspires you?

Do you embrace your dandelions??? 

Raspberry dressing

I finished my homework and cleaning the floors on my day off today!  Yea for being productive, now I can take some time to blog =)  Hope this finds you all well and enjoying some sunshine. 

I ordered a couple of books that I've been wanting.  One of the them is The Cancer Survivor's Guide to Foods That Help You Fight Back.  I think the idea of this book is so great and I wanted to check it out.  We have unfortunately had a few family members and loved ones diagnosed recently.  I haven't gotten too far into it yet, but we have enjoyed a fab dressing recipe so far. 



The Raspberry Salad Dressing on spinach, avocado, and yellow squash. 



I've been eating our raw granola with these little cultured almond milks by amande.  It's sweetened with fruit not sugar, although I could use it a little less sweet.  I've tried all the flavors that our stores carry and love them all, peach and blueberry are my favorite if I had to pick.  You know me, I do also wish it was organic, maybe they'll do that in the future...



and eating more grawnola with fresh almond milk and banana



We finished our stash of dates from the Date People and got a new order in from the co-op.  I think of medjools as the cadillacs of dates and they are very delicious, but man I have a thing for the barhi date!  I'll have to be patient and wait until next season again and just daydream about them in the meantime ;)



apparently the box is usually purchased for store use ;)  They would greatly underestimate my date consumtion, haha.



I was up in East Lansing last week to see a cool osteopathic manipulative doc at MSU (I'm in TMJ/D treatment to hopefully get rid of my tinnitus and then get my bite fixed...if you were curious) I knew there was a co-op in town so I thought it would be the perfect place for lunch.  They don't have prepared foods like ours does though so I ate my banana and headed out.  They have this sweet wooden sign in the front window that I snagged a photo of. 



I'll call on my inner Kris Carr and wish you all a juicy day!  hugs xxxx



(cucumber, granny smiths, celery, wheatgrass, and lemon)  our favorite!  with dinner of GF blueberry pancakes last night.