Mini Update and Sept. Food Pen Pal

Happy Monday! Today is the reveal of my Food Pen Pal package and also I'd like to update everyone on what's going on in my life. As you can tell, I haven't been posting as much lately. Part of it is because I am so busy with my baby boy, but also a few other things. I thought I was going to be moving to another state, so I spent a whole week researching the area, movers, etc. It was going to be an immediate move - meaning I had 3 weeks to get everything together, so I was trying to crunch everything as quickly as I could. Well, it turns out it isn't happening, so that weight is lifted off of me. Also I started working last week and I'm still trying to get used to my new schedule. Finding a routine with breastfeeding/pumping, working, spending time with my family, keeping house and cooking is pretty overwhelming. I'm starting to get into the swing of things, but I think in another 2 weeks, I should have it down. I'm hoping that by the beginning of November that I'll be back and posting regularly on the blog (2-3 times a week). I want to thank all of you for your support and understanding. 

My son is going to be 12 weeks tomorrow and I can't believe how quickly time has flown by! It's been an amazing time so far and I couldn't imagine not being a mother at this point. I don't know how I got by! Jared is already holding up his head, cooing and reaching for mommy when he needs love. He's over 13lbs and over 2ft tall already, he's such a big boy. I'm so lucky to have such an awesome son.  

Sept. Food Pen Pal! 

I received the most amazing package this month from Valerie of That's What We Did! She sent me a lovely variety of spicy and sweet items. She also sent me an awesome recipe to make Spicy Chocolate Clusters using the granola and spicy peanut butter that she sent. They sound like they'd be great to make and take to work. I'll post pictures and the recipe once I get a chance to make them (or you can check out her post here).

Here's a breakdown of what was in the box:

• Vanilla Almond Granola
• Hot & Spicy Peanut Butter
• Peach Salsa
• Cherry Almond Fruit & Nut Bar
• Chipotle Chili Powder
• Cranberry Balsamic Vinegar
• Sea Salt Dark Chocoalte
• Chipotle Chili Dark Chocolate

As most of you know, I love spicy foods and I love peanut butter. Well I got both in one jar! Spicy Peanut Butter!!!!! It's so awesome, especially with jalapeno pepper jelly. It the new Laurie's PB & J. It's made locally to where Valerie is from (Ohio), which makes me so happy. I love trying local foods from different areas. Following the spicy theme - I also received a delicious piece of chipotle chocolate, which was enjoyed with a nice cup of coffee. Absolutely heavenly :) 

I actually served some of the peach salsa yesterday during the football game with some blue corn chips. It's really balanced and tasty. I reserved some to serve over some broiled fish later in the week. It will make it easy to put together a quick week night meal. 

Hope everyone has an awesome week and I'll beginning posting regularly soon!

Foodie Pen Pal - August!

Happy Friday!! Today is reveal day for Foodie Pen Pal and I'm so excited to share what I've received this month! My package was sent by Sarah @ Zoe's Lunch Box. She is always coming up with an exciting way to make lunch look fun! Cute bento boxes that are balanced with fruits, veggies, protein and whole grains. Any kid (or adult) would enjoy these lunches! She has inspired me to take my lunch to the next level. I usually eat leftovers, sandwiches or salads - but I really love the bento box concept of having a bit of everything (and it being delicious to look at too). I'm going to make an effort to make awesome lunches and I'll post pictures and such. 

On to the Foodie Pen Pal Package... 
I love the fact that it was a bunch snacks! I am a notorious grazer, especially crunchy things - and portion control is key. 

Here's the breakdown of everything:

• Can of Chickpeas
• Seasoning for Chickpeas
• Sunbutter
• Veggie Chips
• Cheese Crisps - Melting Romano
• Wind & Willow - Pear & Pomegranate Mix
• LaraBar- UBER Bananas Foster
• 3 Granolas - Maple Pecan, Strawberry & Almond
• Sanders Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel
• 2 packets of individual Cocoa Roast Almonds
• Pop! Gourmet Popcorn - White Truffle Bliss

I love that she sent me an awesome recipe to make roasted chickpeas (with her own seasoning blend) - I've never made these before! I've tried dried, flavored chickpeas and they were pretty awesome. But imagine - warm, crunchy, seasoned snackies? Oh yes, this is happening.... and soon. I'll post pictures once I make them.

Sander's Dark Chocolate Caramel was SOOO good. I love salty sweet combos and this was dead on. I shared the small piece with my husband because I wanted him to see how delicious it was. We are both hooked and now have another favorite chocolate (along with See's, Godiva, Chuao, etc). We appreciate great chocolate and this was just that. I checked their website to see what other varieties they have - OMG they have chocolate covered potato chips! I love these, but they are hard to find. I've already made it clear that I'd like a small box of chocolates and the potato chips for Christmas :)

OMG I love truffle ANYTHING!! I'm not sure how she knew... but she knew. I got a lovely container of truffled sea salt for Christmas from a great friend, and I sprinkle it on everything as a finishing salt. I especially use it when I make microwave popcorn bags (made simply with a brown paper bag, popcorn kernels and a little coconut oil). I can't wait to try this! Maybe I'll make it a movie night - watch a cheesy movie and munch on some tasty popcorn.

I'm so pleased to have gotten such an awesome assortment of goodies! If you are interested in participating, just click on the Foodie Pen Pal icon. It's a monthly program that gives you the chance to connect with others and try new foods. 

I hope everyone has a lovely Labor Day Weekend! My brother is arriving from New York tomorrow with his wife. It's going to be a fun up-coming week with the family! Tons of sight-seeing, hanging out at the beach and eating at our favorite restaurants. I plan to post a few pictures.  Enjoy the long weekend!

Another LOVELY award :)

Thank you so much to Ellen @ Ellen B Cookery for this awesome award! She's a great friend and one of my recent Guest Bloggers. She is always cooking up something delicious and inspiring me, so check her out!!

The rules are:

1. Link back whoever nominated you.
2. Write 11 random facts about yourself
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers

11 Random Facts about Laurie:

1. I love word games (scrabble, crosswords, etc.)
2. I wish I could speak German & French fluently - I'm currently very basic in both. 
3. I have the hots for Robert  Downey Jr.
4. One of my favorite movies is "P.S. I Love You" - sob fest!
5. My adorable pup is named Scooters 
6. I'm a Capricorn 
7. I have "Call me Maybe" stuck in my head, on repeat (Ahhh!!!! Kill me!)
8. I'm always early or on time - I get anxious if I even think I may be late going somewhere. 
9. I love earth tones
10. Part of my vacations are planned around the food/restaurants visited. I love to try local favorites. 
11. One of my most cherished possessions is a wooden sculpture of a woman's body. It is absolute gorgeous.

The Nominees for this award are......

Angie's Recipes
Skinny and Delicious
Curry and Comfort
Jolynn Toma Blog
Zoe's Lunchbox
Mom What's for Dinner
Eating Dinner with My Family
The Real Food Runner
Just For Cooking
Skinny Simple Recipes
Vintage Kitchen Notes

Congrats everyone!! <3

You did what with your Placenta?!

I know this isn't my normal kind of post, but I wanted to share some information and my experience with ingesting my placenta after birth. In some cultures this is completely normal and others it is taboo. The placenta is seen, in some cultures, as a nutritional powerhouse, medicine or a sacred organ. Living in a culture where this is seen as taboo, weird, disgusting and off-the-wall, I was open to the idea that other cultures may be on to something. Even animals eat their placenta after birth. I am a big believer in trying everything once and also taking into consideration others experiences with different things.

I had never heard of placenta encapsulation until I moved out to San Diego and had seen an advertisement for a midwife who offered placenta encapsulation, along with a variety of other services. At the time, I was working in a local health foods store and had become much more open to the idea that there are a ton of holistic ways to heal yourself. After seeing that advertisement, I did some research and read a ton on  the perks of consuming your placenta. I was absolutely fascinated with the idea! I have come a very long way from eating only processed foods and taking a handful of pills a day to try to find some balance. In the past 10 years I have gradually changed my lifestyle to incorporate whole foods, no drugs, weight loss and holistic remedies to help eliminate/improve certain ailments. The idea of consuming the placenta postpartum wasn't as crazy as I would have thought in my younger years. Our bodies are amazing and can heal themselves with the right tools/foods/etc. 

Why did I choose to consume my placenta? After a ton of reading and learning about the benefits of consuming my placenta, I decided to give it a try. There are a couple options for consuming your placenta. You can have it made into a tincture, capsules, smoothies, stew or whatever other creative way you can think of. I chose the encapsulation route. 

Some of the benefits include:

• helps increase your energy postpartum
• decreasing the likelihood of the "baby blues" and postpartum depression
• contains a ton of nutrients and hormones
• helps decrease the amount of healing time
• helps increase your milk supply
• can help with menopausal symptoms (in tincture form) 
• helps reduce the amount of bleeding postpartum

How do you encapsulate the placenta? You just dehydrate it, process it to a fine powder and add it to empty capsules. There are at-home kits to encapsulate your own placenta, but I chose to have a specialist prepare mine. I knew I was going to be exhausted, overwhelmed and so engaged in the baby, that I may not have the timed or energy to prepare it myself. It cost me $150 and I truly believe it was money well spent. The specialist came to the hospital, the same day of the birth and returned it encapsulated 2 days later to my home. You can take 2-6 placenta pills a day, depending on your energy levels, depression, etc. I've been taking a steady 2 a day since receiving them. I'm down to my last couple pills and really feel great. Now this is my first child and I don't have any other experience to compare it to, but I feel better than I expected. My mood is great, compared to during my pregnancy (I was really grouchy). It's been almost a month since giving birth to my gorgeous baby boy and I'm truly starting to feel like myself again. 

For more info check out: Placenta Benefits

Have any of you tried placenta encapsulation or something similar? 

Foodie Pen Pal!

This was my 1st month participating in the Foodie Pen Pal Program and it was an absolute delight. What is a Foodie Pen Pal you ask? It's a pen pal program in which you send a package of foodie goodies out to your pen pal and receive one from another pen pal. It's an awesome way to meet other bloggers/readers and try different product you may have not tried or are local to their area. I love the idea of sharing my favorite products with others! My pen pal was Nina, a reader. I sent her some awesome snacks, granola, and aloe juice.


This month I got an awesome package from Sharlene from Main Stream Solar Cooking! Thanks so much for the great basket!! Here's a picture of some of the goodies I received...

• 2 Oven Mitts
• A Pot Holder
• Dried Beef (and some recipes on how to use it from Sharlene)
• Sesame Oil
• French Dip Au Jus
• Anna's Almond Thins
• Got Milk Cookies n' Cream Straws
• A Straw Basket

I'm so happy with my basket of goodies! It was packaged nicely in a straw basket with a few recipes on how to use some of the ingredients. I'm glad I got some sesame oil, as I was running pretty low on mine. My husband already called dibs on the Cookies n' Cream Straws - which he has really enjoyed. I'm really looking forward to using the dried beef and Au Jus. I've never cooked with either. Also I've been in need of some more oven mitts but always put off buying some - well ta-da! I've got new oven mitts!! Excellent package - can't wait to use everything. I'm going to go snack on those almond thins...

It's a BOY!!!

I want to apologize for my absence the past week, but I have a great reason.... I had a baby boy!! Jared Ryu was born Tuesday morning (July 10th) completely healthy and absolutely adorable. We are so blessed!. As he is my first child, my husband and I, are learning the ropes and enjoying being new parents. 


I'm planning on being away for another week or so. Since I have been anticipating the birth of my child for awhile, I planned ahead and scheduled a few guest bloggers to post in my absence. So starting tomorrow, I'll be feature some great recipes and tips from some of my friends. 


I want to thank everyone for understanding and supporting me through such an amazing time in my life. I promise to be back and posting soon! 


-Laurie

Women, Food and God Giveaway!

Just a reminder, the "Women, Food and God" giveaway is still on! I will be hosting a raffle for this awesome book once my Facebook page reaches 300 likes. It's only 6 likes away from the drawing... so be sure you get your name in there! Once this giveaway is complete, I will be posting information on the next one (which I'm very excited about!).

Thank you to all my current subscribers and friends, I am very grateful for your support! 


-Laurie

The Addictive Blog Award & Awesome Blogger Award

2 Awards in 1 day... I'm flying high!

I'm fairly new to the blogging world and began as a way to share my recipes and food experiments, but as the blog matures more I am hoping to add more resources that I can use for my clients as well. It started off as a goal to cook/bake at least once week (about 4 years or so ago) and now I practically cook or bake everything I eat! I wanted to stop eating heavily processed foods as my main source of nourishment, and incorporate more whole foods. I'm using this blog as a vehicle to express, experiment and share my experiences.

Thank you so much to Emma @ Food, Fork and Good and Ashlee @ ABpetite for this awesome award! Emma posts some amazing recipes, like her recent Spiced Apple Pie Rolls - oh my! Ashlee's blog features a lot of diet friendly foods that makes eating better super tasty and easy! Check out their blogs for the latest and greatest. 

Rules for this award:

• Thank the person who nominated you
• Share a bit about why you started blogging
• Copy and Paste the award on your blog
• Nominate up to 10 people you think are addicted enough to deserve this award

My nominees for this award are (not including the 2 lovely bloggers who shared with me):

Angie's Recipes

Real Food Runner

Mess Makes Food

Nilla Wan

Just For Cooking 

Go Bake Yourself

Eat Yourself Skinny

Now on to the next award: 

Thanks to Ashlee @ ABpetite for another great award. I think this one really is meant for me - I saw the word awesome WAY too much!

I'd like to share the love with: 

Nish Whips Up A Dish 

Ellen B Cookery

Sugarly Ever After

Turn Up The Eat

On Sugar Mountain

Congrats to everyone!! You all deserve it!

Another Award!!!

Thank you SOOO much Mess Makes Food for my 2nd award! She's got a lot of scrumptious baked treats on her site that make me go gaga... check out the Chunky Chewy Coconut and White Chocolate Chip Cookies (those are on my to make list...)

The rules of this award are:

1. Thank your nominator (and link back!). 
2. Nominate 5 other blogs, with less than 200 followers and post a comment on each blog letting them know they have been given the award. 
3. Copy and paste the award onto your blog.

And the nominees are.....

ABpetite

Ellen B Cookery 

Our Earth Land

Eating Dinner With My Family

Food Fork & Good

Congrats everyone and thank you again for another awesome award! It keeps me motivated to keep up with  blog and providing only the best for you all!

Looking for guest bloggers!

As most of you know, I am expecting my first child in the next couple weeks (I'm 37 ish weeks along) and I would love to have a few guest bloggers lined up for once the baby comes.! I would really like for the posts to follow along the same lines as what I post (healthy, minimally processed and easy to make). I'm open to recipes, articles or whatever you might have in mind. If you are interested, please e-mail me at nourishingmyselftoday@gmail.com. 


Love you guys and thank you for your on-going support. 


-Laurie

Raffle!

I wanted to let you all know that on my facebook page I am raffling off a copy of "Women, Food and God" by Geneen Roth - in hardback. It's such an excellent book, if you haven't read it. I have my own personal copy that I have marked up and highlighted to death. 

To enter, "like" my page and once I reach 300 "likes", I will select a person at random to receive this awesome book. 


I'm about 15 "likes" away from choosing a winner! So get your entry in....


**I will continue to hold different raffles throughout the year for various reasons, so keep your eyes open!

Nutritional Info on all Recipes!

I'm pleased to announce that I will be posting nutritional information on all recipes and over time, editing the previous entries with their nutritional infomation as well. Also I will be labeling all posts, for easy navigation - Cleaning Eating, Gluten-Free, Vegan, etc. 


I will be reducing the amount of posts, as I am expecting a child in the next couple weeks, but I do promise to still deliver the best! 


I welcome all feedback! I want to make the page as easy to read as possible. So if you'd like for me to include certain things or omit certain things, please let me know. Any labels I may be missing or may have used that do not pertain to the post, please let me know as well. 


I'm really excited about the new renovation! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. 


- Laurie