Gotta Give My Props!

Okay - I just have a freakin' LIST of great products/ tips here... This may count as one, giant TIP and WHIDFML!

Thought I had to choose between greys or tumultuous tresses... No longer! I DID find a "happy medium" product out there (somewhere in between making a mess of every shirt worn, pillow-case slept upon, or towel dried with - and the opposite extreme: harsh chemicals that make your color last longer)... It's Herbatint! Can only be found online - for approx $10/ box... PLUS $6 s&h... BUT, the bonus is that since I'm only applying streaky-low-lights, I get 2 uses out of that box! It's SO much better for the hair, FAB color, and my strands are still manageable and low-maintenance! I use 2 additionally new (and inexpensive) products to help with that trend: Garnier Fructis brand Sleek & Shine Anti-frizz serum... ($4-5/ bottle, need one to two pumps - me love you long time), AND, same brand 3-Minute Undo, Tripple Nutrition conditioning treatment ($3/ tube). *TRICK: leave a tad in the hair - don't completely rinse out. The combo works wonders when color-treating... and this new colorant is such a find!

Also recently substituted our regular Seventh Generation Dish-washing Liquid Gel with a Method brand of drop-in-style detergent. Never again! Seventh Gen works miraculously on dishes - whereas the Method brand left a film over EVERYTHING. (BTW - this film doesn't simply rinse away... must be scrubbed off.) While I'm a huge fan of Method brand for other cleaning items - this one didn't slice it for us. 


For fellow Gluten-intolerant folks out there - I found a french bread & pizza mix by Gluten Free Pantry that turned our home-made pizza into now-edible-YUM! The only prob is that I can't seem to find it anywhere locally... We found this in the grocery store up in Alexandria, MN. May need to ask my MIL to pick them up for us periodically! (Still haven't managed the google search...)
We also found there, a package of "Premium Gluten Free English Muffins" by GLUMNO. OMG - TDF! Tastes just like the "real" thing ;) Still a pending search to locate more of these as well...

While I'm at it - I might as well also throw in a BOO for soy products... It's SOOOOO frustrating to me that I had to find out about this possibility via another health-aware friend, and DIG for the information to learn that there may be cause for concern over the supposed "super-food" that's been sweeping the market. Not surprisingly, all of the 'yay-sayers' (at least in this very informative article - provided below) are somehow influenced by the financial gain to be obtained by the soy market. I have to say that I've had some really strange effects when I've consumed it - particularly when I've consumed it via multiple sources in one day. (ie: soybeans in the veggies w/ dinner, and a glass of soy milk...) We were using butter made from soy, soy milk, soy beans, soy-based ice cream, tofu etc, etc, etc... After reading this - combined with my own odd experiences and bodily reactions - I've been phasing it out of our diet. The thing that angers me, however, is that when our daughter was determined to be lactose intolerant, and I found myself pregnant again - we moved to formula - that was of course, soy-based. Thankfully, that formula didn't agree with our second daughter, and we wound up feeding her a milk-based product for the majority of her infancy. BUT ARGH! It pisses me off that our FDA will approve anything that means financial gain - even allowing false/ unconfirmed health claims to promote the product's use in nearly everything now. Thankfully - there is such thing as a soy allergy (sorry to those of you who may suffer from it!) But I think that's the only reason manufacturers are continuing to make soy-free options! See article HERE

This does lead into my final happy-point for this post: Calcium-fortified RICE DREAM! I love it. Thank you to the makers of this, as well as to another fab find: Trader Joe's Organic Whole Grain Drinks! It's just like milk - so tasty. Now that I'm mildly dairy intolerant (milk), and want to avoid the noticeable-whether-scientifically-proven-or-not-hazards of soy... along with my need to ingest whole grains that aren't gluten-laden, these are my saving grace! (I LOVE milk.)

ALSO! Since we ousted the soy ice cream, we decided to try a regular ice cream: TJ's Super Premium Ice Cream in chocolate... HOLY SHEISSE! I'm in LOVE. (Thankfully, my bod can handle 'dairy' in the form of ice cream, cheese, and other processed forms.)
I may have plugged them before - but in general - I heart Trader Joe's! They specialize in unique, hard-to-find, gourmet, and ALL-NATURAL (many, many organic options) of AFFORDABLE groceries! I don't know what I did without them. And as a Gluten-avoiding girl, it's truly amazing! Check out their list of gluten-free goods (6 pages long!!!!) TJ's Gluten-Free List

Whew! Now that I got all of that off of my chest... I feel like I've done my duty to spread the word. Kudos!

A QUOTE: "Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity. "
~Bo Bennett