Raw Almonds for Sale!

Almonds are a delicious and nutritious snack, but the ones we get in the grocery store have been pasteurized, so the greatest health benefit has been heated right out of them.

This fall we are trying something new. Get in our our big bulk buy of fresh, unpasteurized almonds from California! At just $6 per pound, you can get these wonderful almonds in increments of 20 pounds.

Since these almonds are fresh, they will stay nice at room temperature for 9-12 months or more. If you store them in the fridge they'll last for years, and in the freezer they'll last for a really, really, really long time. :)

These almonds are not certified organic, but the farm that they come from has not used any pesticides in at least 15 years.

The almonds are shelled and fresh!

This is a pre-order. That means that you will order and pay for your almonds now. I will be placing our large order (many hundreds or even a thousand pounds or more) around October 15-20. Once they arrive here I will be shipping them out to you.

Feel free to go in on this order with a friend if you like. Almonds are great for Christmas gifts too!

This is a one-time opportunity. These almonds are just sold once a year when the fresh harvest comes in. There is a slight possibility that I may be able to take another order in November, but for right now this is the only time I can be sure of that there will be enough supply to fill the orders.

Click here to order.

Anise Toothpaste--Yummy!

Up until the other day we'd been using the mint toothpaste. When we ran out, I decided to give the anise a try. Boy-oh-boy I loooove it! There isn't as much of the salty taste as there is with the mint, and the licorice-y flavor is not too much, not too little.....just right!

If you are looking for a safe, natural, fluoride-free toothpaste, do check out the mint and anise options from Miessence. We are very happy with them!

What to do if you get the flu

I am planning to write a post about my take on the swine flu, but haven't completed it yet. In the meantime, here is a very practical article that may help calm your concerns about what to do if you or your loved one gets the flu (of any type).

The short points of what I will share with you later on about the swine flu is this:

NO WAY on the vaccine. Dangerous. Not worth the risk. Do your homework. Don't just let yourself become a guinea pig on the latest vaccine fiasco. You may end up paying for it the rest of your life.

Take care of your health in a fundamental way: nutrition and prevention.

No-Sugar Barbeque Sauce

Facebook is good for many things, including getting some great recipes from friends! This is one I thought you all would enjoy:

Ingredients:
- 1 6oz can tomato paste (preferable organic)
- 1 to 1.5 cups of beef stock (I made my own but if you buy, you want it without salt and MSG. Imagine brand is usually a safe one)
- 3 Cloves Garlic
- half of an onion... Read More
- 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons chili powder

Directions:
1. Dice your onions and garlic as fine as possible. You want your BBQ sauce a little chunky but the more fine you dice these, the better the flavor will spread through the entire sauce.
2. Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan. Whether you use 1 cup or 1.5 cups of beef stock will depend on how thick you want your sauce.
3. Bring sauce to heat on stove with a low setting.
4. Cover and simmer. Stir frequently and taste regularly. The longer you simmer, the more consistent your flavor will be. I simmered for 20-30 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

A note!

Hey Ma,
Thanx for the amazing smoothies
every morning.
=) ILYA

This was the content of the note waiting for me on the kitchen counter this morning. It was from my 17 year old son. :)
A great reminder that kids DO notice and appreciate when we take the time to nurture them with delicious healthy foods!

Healthy Lemonade Recipe

The number one most beloved recipe that I share with people is the one for Healthy Lemonade. It is super easy to make, so SO good for you! Why?

Drinking this lemonade helps prevent kidney stones, gall stones, and cleans out your liver. It is also very beneficial for your overall immune system.

Most people know they should be drinking more water, but sometimes they complain that they don't like the taste or want to have a flavored drink. Healthy Lemonade is the best of both worlds. It gives you all the benefits of drinking water, PLUS the extra benefits of the fresh lemon juice. Even HEALTHIER than just drinking water! :)

Here's how to make it:

Squeeze the juice from two fresh lemons. (I use a regular hand twist juicer that cost about $2.50, but a nice electric citrus juicer is great too)

Pour the lemon juice into a two quart pitcher. You can add in the pulp if you like it, or leave it out if you don't.

Fill the pitcher up with water. Then add approximately 3-4 droppers full of Sweet Leaf Stevia to sweeten it to taste. (some people only need two droppers, some like it sweeter. Start with less, stir, and taste to see how much you need. Stevia starts to taste bad when you get too much, so go slow!) You can use the plain Stevia Clear, or use a flavor such as Lemon Drop, Grape, Valencia Orange, or the brand new Berry flavor if you or your children would enjoy something with a fruity flavor. All of them are delicious!

Sweet Leaf Stevia is a pure herbal sweetener that has zero carbs, zero calories, and zero impact on your blood sugar, so it's safe for diabetics as well as a wonderful choice for people wanting to lose weight. Stevia is natural, NOT an artificial sweetener. Sweet Leaf is the only brand of stevia that I recommend, for many reasons. You can read more about this here.

An entire two quart pitcher of Healthy Lemonade has only 25 calories in it, thanks to the lemon juice! I get comments from customers all the time telling me how much they and their families love this healthy lemonade. Try it--it's goooood! :)

Join the fun on Facebook!

We now have a Facebook fan page for Supermom's Health and Wellness. Come on over and join me there!

New Flavors of Sweet Leaf Stevia!

I'm so excited about the two new flavors from Sweet Leaf Stevia! Check 'em out:

Hazelnut will be popular with coffee drinkers that are looking for a healthy, zero calorie way to sweeten and flavor their favorite beverages.


People have been asking for a Berry flavored stevia for as long as I've been selling it. I'm so glad it's finally here! This is a great addition to the collection, and will be especially yummy to sweeten plain yogurt, to use as a fun new twist in the healthy lemonade recipe, and even in tea!

Both flavors are in stock now, though I expect they will probably sell out fast.

Also, Lemon Drop, Cinnamon, and 2 ounce plain liquid stevia is also all back in stock and ready to ship! :)

Back to School Sale

Don't let the cooties get you down this school year! Stock up on Supermom's No-Lice Hair and Body Spray.

Right now you can Buy 1 Get 1 FREE!

Whether you want two bottles for your own family, want to split the cost with a friend, or share the extra bottle with your day care provider or classmate, this is a GREAT deal that we have never offered before.

Shipping is a bit more when shipping two bottles together, so the sale price is $29.99 including shipping

Options

2 Bottles of No-Lice Spray $29.99 add a metal egg comb $37.89

Would you rather purchase with a credit card? Click here to go to my store!

Back After a Hiatus

The blog has been quiet, and the newsletter lists have too. My dear grandmother died in early July, and there was a lot of resulting grief, travel, and weariness that went along with it. I was very close to my grandmother and she has been a major part of my family and our entire extended family. A huge loss for all of us, though of course we are so glad for her pain and health problems to be gone.

I know that a lot of people do not have the option to take time to rest and recover when life gets to be tough. Thankfully, I do, and I did. I took two weeks "off" from all non-essential business, and did not allow myself to scurry around making lists of business or homeschooling plans and to-do lists. It is easy for my brain to get overloaded with many thoughts, plans, concerns, and ideas, and I knew what I needed was as much rest and focus on my home and family as possible.

I enjoy the simplicity of folding laundry, gathering veggies from the garden, and being the lifeguard by the pool while the children played. I took naps whenever I felt like it. (lucky for me my children are old enough to play with their Legos and allow their mom to snooze) I cried when I felt sad, and the kids did too. I set the table with my grandmother's tablecloths and dishes and thought of her, even though it meant that I burst into tears no less than four times during the course of preparing the meal.

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. We did some painting in our living room and kitchen area, which I am very excited about. Today we need to put it all back together (pictures on the walls, furniture arranged, cleaning the areas that were revealed by pulling things out from their usual locations). And after that I've got to start getting my brain in gear for the upcoming school year plans, and continuing on with business plans and needs. I have so many ideas that I would like to share with you all, but so little time to make them available. Little by little I'll be doing my best to bring them to you as it seems the time is right.

If you're in need of anything at the store, please click through here to get a 10% discount on your order. You deserve it if you read through this whole post. ;) Coupon expires Sunday, August 9, 2009.

Swine Flu Vaccine: No Thank You!

I know that many people are concerned about the swine flu right now, and with the latest hype about the new vaccine for it, it is in the news a lot. For me, there is no way that I would counter the minor risk of a flu like this one with the major lifelong health risk that would be associated with getting the vaccine. Here is an article that will explain more about the ingredients and risks associated with the swine flu vaccine. Please do your best to become informed before subjecting yourself or your family members to any vaccines.

Questions about getting off sugar and eating more raw foods

My friend Amy sent me this email today:

I have been reading a book about giving up sugar. I am a major addict- I know I am- driving to McD for a coke....... ridiculous! I believe that it will be possibly my ticket to lose the weight i need to lose- I could use to lose at least 35 pounds but 50 would be perfect! At any rate, I was wondering about how hard it was to quit, why you decided to, and if you use a "cook book" for your raw creations? Time consuming?

thanks for answering my many questions!

Amy

Here's what I wrote back:

Hi Amy!

Good to hear from you.

I was stuck at the same weight for a long time, despite doing several different things to try to get it down. It was like it just couldn't budge. Back in March I started thinking about getting off of sugar, which I have done before. I felt like my health needed it, and thought that it might also pay off in the weight loss dept. too.

This time what I did to quit was just stopped eating anything overtly sugary (cake, cookies, etc.) but didn't go the whole nine yards on weeding out spaghetti sauce that has sugar as an ingredient. I just took it slow. (I now weed out more of these things, but still am not completely perfect at it)

I have a lot of recipes for healthy treats that I use as a bridge to get over wanting sugary stuff. I did use honey and agave nectar (still do) but was more mindful of what I was eating, and didn't just replace every sugary thing with something made with honey. I really hadn't been eating a lot of junk, but for whatever reason weight started to come off just from changing to no sugar. I lost about a pound a week like that.

In May I started really ramping up how much raw food I was eating. Again, I've done that before, usually very gung-ho and then burning out because there was so much new stuff to try to get used to. By this point in my life I've done enough raw foods that I had a lot of things we like to eat that happen to be raw, but we just eat it because we like it. So this time eating more raw has actually felt easy for the first time ever.

I've purposely not made a ton of rules for myself. I stick to the no-sugar pretty hard, just because my past experience is that once I'm off of sugar, eating something with sugar tends to give me a bad headache and sometimes other unpleasant symptoms. So I just avoid that and it hasn't been a problem.

I didn't run into hardly any problems with getting off of sugar. I don't know if it is because I did it sort of gradually or what. The main trouble I have is during PMS I want chocolate so bad that it can be tough. I now have a bunch of awesome raw chocolate treats that I make, though, so as long as I am stocked up on the ingredients I need I am all set. :)

The first time I got off of sugar it was a lot harder. We also went to all whole foods at the same time, all cold turkey, and the process was more difficult. But, really, I hit a hard spot several days into the process, and just rode it out for maybe 2-4 days, and then it was done. It is amazing how once I'm off of sugar it doesn't seem hard. I can go to a church potluck and feel no pain to pass by the desserts. :) We have had 6 birthdays in our home since me stopping the sugar and it has been no problem for me to not eat cake. (even the kind that was my favorite) Breaking that cycle is really, really nice. Also, taste buds really do change, and I am finding it really interesting to see how even healthy treats will seem too sweet to me if I have not had any for a week or two.

I just got two wonderful raw recipe books by Ani Phyo. You can find both at any book seller. Her stuff is delicious, but very easy to put together. Some other raw foods books I've had are very gormet and just too time consuming. Ani's style is just what I like. Quick and easy and tastes great. She has a lot of recipes at her web site aniphyo.com (on the blog).

I also like Serene Allison's raw recipe book Rejuvenate Your Life which is available at the Above Rubies store aboverubies.org. Some of her stuff is a lot more fussy to make, but we have many favorites from it that we love.

I have shared a lot of recipes on my blog at http://supermomshealthandwellness.blogspot.com/ and that includes raw stuff, no sugar stuff, and dehydrator recipes.

What I teach people in my healthy eating classes is that baby steps is the key to long term success, and it certainly seems to be true for me.

The raw foods aren't really time consuming, so much as sometimes needing to plan ahead. For instance, today in my dehydrator I have these raw foods:

peach spice grawnola
breakfast toast
sunflower bread
some sort of raw burger

Some of these things had ingredients that needed to be soaked ahead of time. Some of it needs to be ground (flax) or whatever. Some of it is simply mix and throw it onto the dehydrator tray. This stuff was overwhelming to me back when I first started and I had to map out which days to soak or start sprouting things or dry things or whatever. It was sort of hard to get it to all come out "on time." Now that I've done it long enough it doesn't seem that hard. I just think to myself what I'd like to have this week and just start the process and then I've got it.

With everything in my dehydrator today, I'll have food for today plus leftovers for another day. Many days I don't have to make anything "fresh" except for my morning smoothie and a salad. I typically have some sort of raw bread, crackers, and treats on hand. When it is time to eat I will sometimes just have whatever everybody else is having, but often I will just ask myself, "Is there something raw I would like to eat?" and usually there is.

Another interesting thing since making these changes in eating this time around is that I need less food to feel satisfied, and if I overeat I really feel gross (and my old normal sized portions are definitely too big now). This seems to help keep things in check.

About 3 weeks ago I added in some exercise with a friend of mine. I do a 3 mile walk workout about 3 times a week. Since adding that the weight is coming off a little faster.

This is the first time that I've done anything that is bringing me weight loss that feels like the regular way I want to live, instead of like a punishing place that I cannot wait to leave. I've lost 12 pounds since March which is a little less than a pound a week, but it seems sustainable, so I am really pleased about that.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!
~Erica

Gentle Exfoliant for Sensitive Skin

Some exfoliants feel like you're taking sand paper to your face. This one feels heavenly!

Natural jojoba beads safely and gently remove dead, dry surface skin cells, promoting a renewed and glowing skin. Contains organic lavender to calm and soothe the senses.

A build up of dead skin cells causes a rough and dull appearance. Exfoliating the top layers of dehydrated cells promotes a youthful, glowing skin.

I love this product even though I don't really need the sensitive skin products. The jojoba beads feel wonderful!

Enjoy a sale price on this and all Miessence products from now until July 17.

Baby Bottom Mist

I never have understood the point of diaper ointments that are gunky and difficult to spread. If your baby has a sore bottom, they sure don't want you smearing ointment all over the painful area! Finally, here is a perfect solution that makes sense and is completely safe.

A soothing and calming diaper area salve in a convenient spray. Use daily and at the first sign of redness or irritation for quick relief. Hygienic and convenient. No need to touch sore bottoms; just spray and soothe. Also beneficial for itches, rashes, nicks, scrapes and cuts, sunburn, windburn and other skin irritations. Helps to restore skin to its natural healthy softness.

All Miessence products are on sale from now until July 17.

Heading out of town

Many of my regular subscribers will remember that back in May my grandmother was doing very poorly and I made an urgent trip to visit her. As it turned out, she enjoyed many more weeks of decent enough health to enjoy her gardening and family. She took a turn a week ago and passed on to eternity yesterday.

I have been blessed in my life to have wonderful grandparents. My Gram has been a huge part of my life and will be missed in so many ways.

Late next week I'll be traveling out of state for her funeral. Orders placed from July 10-16 will be processed on July 17 and 18.