Kefir Anyone?

do you see this happy child- my PICKY Moochie drinking this smoothie?! It's a Kefir smoothie. More on this in a minute..

Over the past year and a half, I noticed that my stomach had developed its own personality. Quite literally, it would speak. I didn't really notice at first what triggered the 'talking' especially because it didn't hurt. At first it was amusing. Then embarrassing. Especially when people would accuse me of not eating to cause my stomach to growl that loudly.

Case in point. My YouTube video:



Around my birthday I finally brought it up to my dr. It was more because I wanted to get my insurance dollars worth of my visit so I had a list of possible questions/topics we could tackle in the situation that my Dr. wanted to skip out of our check up after 3 minutes.

my list:
-my hair...
-my toes, specifically my big toe
-his son (went to culinary school)
-his wife (how does she put up with living w/ a chef?)
-my loud stomach

I have priorities, ok?

Anyhow. After I gave him a plate of chocolate chip cookies and the shadowing intern kept asking me questions about my eyebrows (not kidding), I said in an offhand way- "So, my stomach is really loud. It is sometimes embarrassing. I'm not sure what the trigger is, except to say it's after I eat. Not before."

In his authoritative dr. way says "it's the dairy. Stop eating cheese, yogurt and drinking milk for two weeks. See what that does for you." He ate a cookie and we spent another 10 minutes talking about them. I tell you these cookies could bring peace to the modern world! BUY SOME from my Etsy shop! (www.etsy.com/shop/sweetsandyb)

I was heartbroken. Or heart bruised at least. I LOVE milk. I'm a pastry person- I put butter in EVERYTHING. and cheese. sweet cheese- brie, blue, munster, aged cheddar, monterrey jack, colby... feta and goat, gruyere and absolutely anything in between. I LOVE cheese. I lamented my break up with dairy and was given a life raft in the form of Natalie Slater.... She suggested I try out some Lifeway products.

New Year, new ideas. Why not, right? I'm taking baby steps into this so I decided to try out a fruit smoothie first. And have my kids go along for the adventure. Plus we were having a playdate and you know how kids are like pack animals. One tries it, they all try it.
Here is what we did:

Helios Organic Gluten Free Kefir in Raspberry (Helios and Lifeway = same), raspberry sorbet (no dairy), Lifeway frozen strawberry Kefir, and frozen strawberries

into the smoothie blender it goes and...


Bottoms UP!




The kids KILLED the smoothies.

Confession. I kept taste testing the smoothie as it was blending and by nature, Kefir is a bit tart and tangy. I really enjoy that. I know my little monsters do not have the tart/tangy thing going on in their little monster palates, yet. So, I added some honey to get some sweetness, without adding pure sugar.

It was the perfect introduction to Kefir- so search some out in your local grocery store. I would say that was my largest issue- hunting down different Lifeway products. Four grocery stores later and who would have THOUGHT, my local smallville grocery store had a few options. Maybe it's not so bad here, after all (try telling that to my boyfriend though....)
Check out their website- www.kefir.com or better yet- like them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/lifewaykefir

while you are at it- you can like MY fan page- www.facebook.com/Sweet-Sandy-B

A greener Sweet Sandy B

My carbon footprint is Shrek sized. Or Sasquatch sized, if you believe in such things.
For the past 3 1/2 years I've driven 65 miles EACH WAY to work. I hate it, the car hates it, my kiddies hate it. It just sucks. Yet another reason why I'm looking forward to next Friday.

Anyhow, even though I have begged and pleaded- on literal bended knee- to work from home the answer has always been the same.... NO. and quit asking.

Due to guilt, I've really tried hard to not think about the awfulness my commute has been causing the environment. (stay with me here, this does involve food and not preaching). I thought about buying carbon offsets or planting trees or what not- but I would kill the tree and really, I'm broke (see Livin' La Vida Divorced)

A couple of months back I found this website- www.reusablebags.com
I found it because Natalie (of Bake and Destroy) works there and she does an amazing job of promoting the site and their products. When I was at the TNT party a couple of weeks back there was a brief discussion about reusable bags in general (because Natalie brought along the CUTEST cupcake bag). I sat back quietly listening...somewhat ashamed because I do use plastic bags from the grocery store- I re-use them A LOT and even when I get paper bags, I re-use those too! I do own some reusable bags but because I get so much use out of the plastic/paper bags, I don't use them all the time. :( Sweet Sandy B = sheepish.

Well, as a parting gift from that weekend Lisa (@thebutcherbaker) gave me a Platypus. Not the duckbilled mammal (talk about crazy town animal man... check them out!) but a reusable water bottle that rolls up/smashes flat when you are done. I loved it and used it daily until some dingbat at work threw it away because it was empty and they thought it was garbage. grrrrr

Natalie and Reusable Bags to the rescue!!!

In Mondays Mail I got the following:





Notice ALL the items stuffed into this one envelope! That was the VERY FIRST thing that struck me- how little packaging was used for these products. It was GREEN primarily, but also instant gratification. I opened the envelope and BAM, I could play with the contents w/o having to open various other bags. (FYI- there was also a platypus and another Wrap N Mat inside, but I forgot to put them in the pic)



These are snack bags. They are similar in size to regular baggie 'snack' bags and hold about the same amount of... snacks! ha. and, cute pattern!!




THIS bag is a small reusable Q Tote/lunch bag/gift bag. It's called "yum" (duh). And, it is the perfect size for lunch... as you will see shortly. It's made out of recycled materials and is really REALLY sturdy.





The Wrap N' Mat. I was most excited for these. I pack a lunch every day for work- always have, always will. It has endlessly bothered me that I use a different baggy every day. I started to use the same baggy for an entire week, but even still, I wanted a better option (I thought about Bento boxes for a while too).
But this little piece of magic was perfect. It wraps up around the sandwich and you just wipe it off, wash it off, whatever and then use it again the next day. And, what do you know, it also serves as a placemat when opened. Genius. I will DEFINITELY be buying more in different colors. (and yes, I HEART mustard. the more the better I say.)

So, here is my Greened up lunch:



And yes, Plastic Bags do indeed, BLOW


Please do me a favor and check out Reusablebags.com They have specials ALL the time and different discounts available. Become a fan on FB and you will be hip to what's new on their site and also get MORE discounts!!!
(I also am the proud owner of the cupcake Q reusable tote... I couldn't wait and ordered it as soon as they were available on their site- pix to come!!!)

and the hits keep coming...

The following ladies are just ONE reason why my weekend rocked



Just wanted to let you know that my dreams are coming true right in front of my eyes.
This weekend I had plans to go to Chicago for an old college roommates 30th birthday party and since I was going to be there, I made a thousand plans to do other things in the span of 48 hours.
Usually, this never works and you barely even get to do the FIRST thing you had planned to do.

But, apparently I have super human strengths (even though the cloning hasn't yet worked and damn, the teletransporting is not quite up to speed yet) and I was able to do IT ALL.
Some things I can't talk about yet because it's still super secret.
Other things… well, Yeah I'm gonna share because I brain dump on here and it involves sugar and bakeries and I have to tell you everything.

(BTW, I promise I'm putting up a new recipe here shortly.. and this might be short because I'm doing this after driving home for 4.5 hours)

Agenda:
Friday- lisa, Lisa and MORE LISA. food.
Saturday- meet a guy named Aaron for some secret stuff, go on a bakery tour, bake cookies, EAT dinner and talk shop at the first annual Tits N Tats Sweet and Savory Jamboree and meet new friends, Alissa's bday party, crash
Sunday- EAT, toy store, meet Aaron again, new shoes, home.

So, Friday- I meet Lisa (@thebutcherbaker… my NY friend- you know her, I talk about her) for dinner. She is a night owl to the 10th degree... I am a mom therefore AM NOT. I tried to rally and stay up with her but passed out (I gave it a good go- I think I was up 'til like TWO. I know, I party hard. But first we watched Cupcake Wars which features Natalie (@bakeanddestroy), the lady that owns Sweet Lady Janes and the woman that owns Sprinkles. I knew I was going to meet Natalie and taste one of her confections the next night and I had already tasted the goods of the other two women, so I was feeling pretty awesome. Like- dude, check me out- hobnobbing w/ the 'big people'.
and guess what. Lis has a TON of these:



(these are mine actually. well, mine because she GIFTED all but 2 of them to me. she loves me. but i think it's because I give her cookies)

Then Saturday. I wake up to have a true-to-life LEGIT BOMBSHELL , dark haired Jessica Rabbit walking in my living room. My hair is a mess, I have morning breath and here is Shannon (@slashanddine) looking every bit as glamorous as she does on the internet, with PILES OF FOOD. By piles I mean tray after tray AFTER TRAY of bite sized appetizers. WTF? dude, I was just planning on doing cookies for that nights festivities. I felt inept. I felt mom-ish. I needed to brush my teeth.

fast forward to the bakery tour..
Here is a little taste- one of the places I visited...THREE TIMES



At this point in the day I believe I'm super human and also find out that I'm slightly awesome. To at least one person. UNA LAMARCHE. ok, ok… not me, my cookies. But whatever- I made them so that makes me kind of awesome too. (BTW, I'm doing the Chicago bakery tour on another post, so hold your horses. Like you care, really. just wait a day or so. I love you)

GO HERE NOW and read:
http://volcanicensemble.blogspot.com/2010/05/punky-reviewster-sweet-sandy-b.html

I stopped in the middle of a street GIGGLING like a certified insane asylum escapee. I'd like to say I stopped traffic with my good looks, but really cars were honking at me because I wouldn't move. I was transfixed on my Crackberry in my hands reading her blog in teeny tiny print (yes, I got a new Crackberry on Friday because the other one officially died).

When I realized I was in a death like situation, I showed them THIS and they stopped honking, because I get respect:


(this is my brass knuckes zipper pull thing from KidRobot I spoke about before. isn't this awesome? told you you would want one)

My day continued to get better, as did my night.. Here is me eating totally vegetarian food and ENJOYING it. I had 'not chicken and waffles'. I had fakin' wrapped figs. I had PRETZEL M&M's. (side note- if you knew about these delightful candies and you didn't tell me about them, we aren't friends as of Saturday night).



as did TODAY. Great weekend.
I even had time to buy THESE



and I feel so official...