Bye-Bye June!

Hey Buttercups! I hope you are all having a great week! Mine seems to be dragging! Probably because ONE WEEK FROM TODAY WE FIND OUT THE SEX OF OUR BABY!!!! Eeek! I am so excited, mostly because we can start working on the nursery! I am almost 19 weeks now, in my 5th month! Time is going by pretty fast! I actually *might* take a picture of my bump for you all! I guess you'll have to come back Friday and see! ;)

Anyway, lot's of yummy meals this week. One breakfast I've been really enjoying is Two Mom's in The Raw Granola with lots of fresh fruit on top. This one had strawberries, bananas and raspberries topped with almond milk (all organic).
I've been using my citrus press a lot too! I made some yummy grapefruit juice the other morning! No sweetener needed! I love grapefruit on it's on or juiced, I never add Stevia or agave!
For lunch, I've been making amazing cucumbers salads with cucumbers right from my garden! This one had grape tomatoes, cracked black pepper, Himalayan sea salt, Nutritional Yeast and this delicious dressing that the people from Foods Alive sent me!
A nice bowl of Organic Rainier Cherries for a mid-day snack! I just love Summer fruit, I know I've said that 1,000 times, but I really can't get enough!
For dinner one night I made quinoa and added some roasted brussell sprouts and peas, I also topped it with a drizzle of the same dressing I used on the cucumber salad. YUM!
More juice from my citrus press: this time I made orange and grapefruit. A lovely blend! :)
And finally, my dinner last night. I really wasn't in the mood for anything so I blended up a few bananas, some Sunwarrior Protein, Blue Mountain Organic Raw Ice Cream (this time I got Vanilla, I didn't like it as much as the chocolate), almond milk and some cacao nibs. This definitely hit the spot. Later (waaay after digesting), I had a big bowl of watermelon. My appetite has been all over this week. I read that it is common, so hopefully I will be in the mood to eat again soon!
Don't forget to enter my $100 gift code giveaway! I'll announce the winner on Friday! Have a great day everyone!

How you feeling? HOT HOT HOT!

Hey Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. We decided not to go blueberry picking because the heat was just too much for me. We were going to go Sunday, but after being in the heat most of the day Saturday, we opted to stay in at watch movies in the air conditioning.

Anyway, I've been picking cucumbers from my garden daily. They are growing like weeds!! Today I plan on making a big cucumber salad and I also want to make some cucumber juice on ice like Kristen Suzanne always talks about (congrats to her, on her new baby girl!!!). One way I'm enjoying my cucs are on some sprouted grain bread with hummus, nutritional yeast some cracked pepper. YUM!
Is that a sandwich or what? I swear I could eat 3 of these! They are so delicious!
Another gem from our garden has been zucchini. I am not a huge fan of zucchini, but I love it juiced. Another way I like to enjoy it is smothered in tomato sauce.
On Friday, we did our usual grocery trip to Whole Foods. I stocked up on organic fruit for the week: Oranges, Grapefruit, Cherries, White Peaches, Strawberries and Raspberries. Both the strawberries and raspberries were on sale. Has anyone else noticed that organic strawberries have been amazing this season? They are so juicy, red and HUGE! Beat that Monsanto!
As I mentioned, on Saturday we were outside a lot. That is because we went to the city to walk around! We hit up a lovely little street fair in our travels and I had a fresh made watermelon juice! YUM, this was so refreshing and definitely cooled me down. The guy made it right when I ordered, umm, can we get one of those stands at the street fairs in my town? ;)
I also picked up some fabulous earrings, they were 3 for $5! Aren't they adorable? I like the hearts the most!

Have a great day everyone!

$100 Gift Certificate Giveaway!

Happy Friday Everyone!!!!

Any weekend plans? I hope to go blueberry picking, as long as the weather isn't too hot! I've been sitting inside with Ginger, in the air conditioning most of the week. I'm not a big air conditioning person, I like fresh air. But when the fresh air is hard to come by (we have been having air quality warnings), I stick to the A.C. T comes home and laughs because I will sit in the dark with no lights on all day just to save some energy since I am blasting the A.C. Hey, what can I say, I'm green at heart?

Anyway..

I have a special Friday post for you all! The lovely people at CSNStores.com are offering ONE lucky reader of Ginger is The New Pink, an $100 gift certificate to one of there many sites!

All you have to do to enter is:

*Go to CSNStores.com and let me know which product you would like then come back here and let me know.

That's it! :)

For extra entries...

*Tweet this giveaway and mention my twitter name (@LaurenGinger). Come back here and let me know you've done so.

*Blog about this giveaway and let me know you've done so.

*Follow my blog in Google Friend Connect and leave a comment letting me.

I will announce the winner on Friday July 2nd, but using Random.org to pick a number. This giveaway is open to US and Canadian readers, but some items may incur international shipping charges (so Canadian readers or winners should keep an eye out for these products). Good luck!

Food Fuel and A Garden Update

Happy Wednesday All! I hope you are having a great week, so far. I sure am! :) Although, the weather is a little too hot for this pregnant lady! Today we even have an air quality warning! Eek! I will be staying in the A.C. with Ginger! We are anti heat!

Onto food, here are some highlights... Cantaloupe! So sweet, so delicious! I wish I had another one to suck down!
I used the left over broccoli rabe my Mother in Law made and put it on top of gluten free pasta.. yum! Heavy on the greens, light on the pasta!
I also have been nibbling on this bad boy! Of course, the health food store didn't have the caramel bar again! So this time I grabbed a Maca Bar. I love Righteously Raw bars, they are my favorite raw chocolate!
For lunch one day I made a big kale salad (I pretty much have this 5 days a week for lunch). This time I added avocado, raw sauerkraut, raw crackers and nutritional yeast!
And finally, a garden update! Holy moly, look at this thing grow!
The weather has been so hot and we get a good rain every few nights, so our garden has flourished faster then last year at this time.
Since we already harvested our kale, we replaced it with watermelon and cantaloupe. Just for fun! I hope we actually get a few!!!! I will be in craving heaven!
Here are our cucumbers.. we have a ton already!
See.. YUM!!! We are going to make raw pickles next week! If you have a good recipe please post them! We made them last year but T was afraid to make them raw. He was worried about contamination or something. This year we are doing it my way! :) Don't mess with a pregnant lady when it comes to pickles! He he!
Two zucchini from the garden! Wow-e! I can't wait to juice these! Have you ever juiced zucchini? It's like cucumber but fluffy! I love it!



Speaking of gardens.. the lovely people at hometownseeds.com are offering readers of Ginger is the New Pink a 20% discount now through July 31st, 2010, using the coupon code "Thanks" at checkout. How nice of them! :)

Have a great day everyone!

Weekend Highlights

Hey All! I hope you had a great weekend! Happy first day of Summer!! Thanks for all the well wishes, I am still feeling dizzy in the mornings and now I am having some nausea! So much for thinking it was gone! 17 weeks and it's back! But, luckily, much milder then those first few months.

On Friday, I was lucky enough to receive an email from my Whole Foods letting me know that they got Blue Mountain Raw Cashew Creamery ice cream in, at my request! Whooohoo!! Luckily, I was going there later on anyway, for my weekly shopping. They told me they only have vanilla and chocolate at this time, but they plan on getting more flavors in soon! Of course I went with chocolate..
I made myself a chocolate ice cream sundae with fresh organic strawberries and raspberries and some mint from my herbs.
This ice cream is delicious!!! I like it better then some of the other raw ice creams I have purchased. The chocolate tasted just like a chocolate mousse, airy and creamy. Mmm!
Saturday morning I made this delicious smoothie: Blueberry/Green Smoothie: Blueberries, Spinach, Banana, Sunwarrior Protein, DHA oil, Spirulina, Almond Milk.
Sunday morning I had Kaia's Cocoa Bliss Raw Granola topped with banana, raspberries, strawberries and almond milk. All organic of course!
Yesterday we had dinner at my mother in laws house. This was my plate (sorry for the blurry picture): salad with lots of goodies in it, roasted baby potatoes and broccoli rabe. She is an amazing cook. Her salads and broccoli rabe are the best I've ever had! I brought some home for leftovers tonight! ;)

Have a great day everyone!

Raw Chocolate Shortage in My House!

Happy Friday everyone! Any plans for the weekend? We will be visiting family on Sunday and possibly going to dinner with my father in law on Saturday night. I'm now almost 17 weeks pregnant and my belly is definitely noticeable! T and I took Ginger for a walk yesterday and one of our neighbors gave us a thumbs up and yelled congrats across his yard. I swear he would of ran up and gave T a high five..men. Then he said "There is something in the water in this neighborhood.." LOL! I guess you could say that, with the amount of kids and babies (the youngest being only 2 months old!) that live on my block. This past week I've been feeling extra dizzy. I would blame the heat, but it hasn't been very hot. I feel like I have vertigo, especially in the morning. I've been laying down a lot, which helps. Hopefully it will pass and isn't anything to worry about.

Anyway, I finally finished the L.O.V.E cups! This was the pecan one. I am so sad I don't have anymore.. or any raw chocolate left for that matter. I'm going to have to stock up at the health food store this weekend.
I did have some other chocolate though.. dark chocolate covered mulberries!!!
These are amazing! Look at those big chunks! Yum!!! And yes, I do have a freckle on my pinkie..he he!
Of course I snacked on my new favorite snack--dried mulberries! These are like candy! I just can't stop popping them!
I also had a few cooked meals this week. For lunch one day, I made a bowl of brown rice with peas. I like to add lots of nutritional yeast!
This was big green smoothie I had for breakfast yesterday: Spinach, Pineapple, Banana, Almond Milk, Maca, DHA oil, Spirulina, Bee Pollen and Sunwarrior protein.
Last night I made lentils for dinner, I added celery, red potatoes, kale and carrots. I like using the red lentils because they breakdown and get all creamy. This was delicious!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Belly Eats

Hey Everyone! Thank you all so much for the kind words and prayers for my friend and her father. The situation has not improved, so she had to head down to Florida, I am hoping she comes back with good news.

Anyway, I'm glad you all liked my Coconut Bliss review! I love that stuff! Someone had asked if it tastes like coconut, I really didn't think so. But, T, always says it's all he can taste with coconut milk ice cream. So I guess it's different for everyone.

My little "pupernickel" relaxing..
I finally broke down and bought some organic cherries. The price is rather steep right now, so I went for the smallest bag Whole Foods had. YUM!
Another finally, I used my Kelp Noodles! I made a sauce that was mixture of this sauce by the Pure2Raw twins and this sauce by Kristens Raw. The sauce was delicious, the noodles? I'm not a big fan. I know so many people love them, but I just couldn't. I have issues when it comes to raw pastas. I really don't like zucchini noodles either. I'm just a picky Italian when it comes to pasta! :)
The left over sauce I used to dip some raw crackers in!
I made this yummy white bean salad one night for T and ended up enjoying a bowl myself. I used cannelini beans, celery, cherry tomatoes, basil, olive oil, Himalayan sea salt and ground pepper.
Last night I made one of our all time favorite dishes, escarole and beans. I made my own broth using South River Soy Free Miso! I just love that stuff!
Have a nice day everyone! If you get a chance check out Terri Coles audition video for Oprah's search for the next TV star on her new network OWN. You can vote as many times as you'd like. Terri rocks Crazy Sexy Life as our very own Life Coach and she is such an inspiration. Her show would be awesome!

Review: Coconut Bliss

Hey Everyone! Thanks for coming back for "review day"--a new feature on my blog. The people at Luna and Larry's Coconut Bliss sent me 2 coupons for free pints of their amazing coconut milk ice cream.

I picked to two of my classic all time favorites: Chocolate Peanut Butter... oh wow! Ribbons and chunks of peanut butter in this rich, decant flavor. I loved that every scoop had a little PB in it!
And Mint Galactica.. mint/chocolate chip is probably my favorite of all time! I have yet to find a vegan version that I liked, that is until Coconut Bliss! Usually the chocolate is in chunks or pieces, not like I remember as a child. I like there to be little pieces throughout my mint, and Coconut Bliss does that!
I love that the ingredient list is so short and has only pronounceable ingredients. Coconut Bliss is agave sweetened, low hypoglycemic, uses only Fair Trade Chocolate, and they are organic, vegan, gluten and soy free. Rock on!

Coconut Bliss is delicious! By far my new favorite vegan ice cream! I love the short ingredient list and the flavor is over the top--creamy, rich, and exactly like I remember them to be as a child. We enjoyed the flavors on gluten free cones one night. What a special treat! I really never purchase vegan ice cream because I always find it to be icy and the ingredients to be long and too many artificial ingredients. I'm so happy I have the option of buying Coconut Bliss now! I just wish I could find it at the grocery store down the street (for those late night cravings!), since Whole Foods is a little further away! I guess I'll have to stock up!
Please note, Coconut Bliss donated these coupons to me, I was not paid for this or any reviews I do I my blog. A few of you have asked how I get these products for reviews, usually the company emails me and asks, or if I really like the product I will email them and ask. Easy peasy! ;)

Prayer Request

Monday, Monday!

I hope you all had a great weekend. The weather was pretty funky here, but of course, hot! We did a few interesting things. But yesterday my bestie (my future sister in law) found out her Dad is pretty sick. I normally don't put personal things like this on my blog, but I thought she could use the prayers and healing vibes. Please keep them in your heart.

Anyway, before we went to my brother in law's graduation on Friday, T picked me up these 2 treats from Starbucks! Two Moms in The Raw Bars! Whooo! :) I had one then and I will probably enjoy the other one during the week. They are very tasty!
He also brought me home this cute little butterfly pad. I love anything with butterflies on it and he saw it at the car wash (lol, random, I know) and bought it for me! What a sweet hubby! I think he was trying to make me feel better about being seen in public since I am so big now! HA HA! I haven't been complaining, but I know I am large..I'm enjoying my pregnancy! Maybe because I'm small in general the weight is just loving coming on, because I am eating better then ever! I seem to be one of those mommies that gains it all over, not just in the tummy. For the first time in my life I'm not worried about calories and food! I'm eating healthy and if that involves weight gain, so be it! He thinks I'm beautiful no matter what! Besides, I WILL lose it after the baby comes. That's not even an issue! ;) Hello, raw/vegan food? Ultimate weight loss tool without even trying! No stress about it, I will worry about eating right for breastfeeding and hopefully the weight will melt off.
On Saturday, T and I went to Whole Foods for groceries and lunch. I filled my plate with lots of raw kale with avocado and red cabbage (it's under the beans too) then topped it off with black beans, white beans, chickpeas, hummus and olives, I also sprinkled some nutritional yeast on top! YUM!
When we went to the graduation I was lucky enough to be able to make a pit stop at my favorite health food store. I picked up a Righteously Raw Bar in Goji (they were out of the caramel! Boo!).
And some delicious ranch flavored kale chips by Kale in a Krunch.
These are so delicious!!! They taste just like ranch chips, but of course BETTER! Look at that chip!
I also had a special treat this weekend. My Whole Foods had Amy's Roasted Vegetable Pizza in Gluten Free! The ingredients are very minimal and there isn't anything artificial or unpronounceable about it! This is a new product and they only had the small version, so I made a kale salad on the side! So delicious!!
Lastly, I was interviewed on the site HealthMiracles.net, check it out here! Have a great day everyone! I will probably post another review tomorrow so come back for that! XO