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Celebrate National Toast Day!

Post author:Melanie
Post published:February 20, 2019
Post category:Gluten-Free / Product Reviews / Restaurants
Post comments:2 Comments

For those of you who have been following with me for a long time, you know about my history with ulcerative colitis. When I was diagnosed at the age of 12, we (thanks, mama) began experimenting with diets to help with my symptoms, noting my trigger foods and also enlisting the help of naturopaths and other medical professionals. This, along with some other factors, swayed my decision to become a Registered Dietitian. I have been practicing as a RD since 2011.

Throughout the experimentation process, I learned a WHOLE LOT about myself and the foods/ingredients/etc. that triggered my symptoms to flare. When I was younger, it was harder for me to have the willpower or desire to manage these symptoms by eliminating certain foods from my diet, but now, it’s pretty much a no-brainer. I’ve learned that for me, my biggest trigger is gluten, followed by dairy and processed sugar. I know that if my gut is beginning to feel “off” that I need to really cut these foods back or out for a while until I get back on track. Sometimes I can eat these foods and feel perfectly fine, other times not so much.

I generally follow a low-gluten, low-dairy diet. My sweet tooth loves it’s chocolate but I am incredibly mindful when I am eating my sweet treats (which I do daily). I also work with a naturopath and take a variety of natural supplements.

I could go into this whole ordeal in full detail but this post would completely derail from the main intention of this post, so I’ll have to save it for another day.

Little Northern Bakehouse and National Toast Day

Recently, I was approached by Little Northern Bakehouse, a bakery that proudly uses non-GMO, whole-food, quality ingredients, to create delicious, certified gluten-free and vegan bread loaves. They asked me if I would want to help them celebrate National Toast Day on on February 23rd and offered me the chance to try their bread. Um….HECK YES!

I have fond memories of my mom making me toast with melty peanut butter and honey drizzled, or cinnamon sugar sprinkled over the top. MMMMMmmm. Even today I still love that snack and so do my kids.

Little Northern Bakehouse sent me two of their loaf varieties to try: Whole Grain and Cinnamon & Raisin.

Other products they offer: White Wide Slice Loaf, Millet & Chia Loaf, Seeds & Grain Loaf, Millet & Chia Hot Dog Buns, the Millet & Chia Buns and just recently added Sprouted Honey Oat Bread and Sprouted 7 Grain Bread (I REALLY want to try those ones). Learn more about their products on their website!

Cinnamon and Raisin Loaf

I jumped on the first chance I had to get that cinnamon raisin bread toasted up for myself and the kids. In about three minutes, I had the bread toasted up, and slathered with peanut butter. I gave the boys the option of banana slices as well, which Bode (now 4 years old) happily accepted. He adorned his with a single blueberry too, because why not?!

You could top this beauty with chia seeds, coconut flakes, nut butter of your choice, or vegan cream cheese and grapes (or full dairy cream cheese if you’re not vegan). My family is not vegan, so I am hoping to use some of this bread for French toast in the near future or a sweet and savory toasted egg sandwich?! YUM.

Whole Grain Wide Slice Loaf

Next, it was time to experiment with the whole grain bread. I gravitate towards the peanut butter always, but wanted to branch out and be more creative, so I grabbed myself a container of vegan cream cheese and got busy…

The delightful end-product included a heavy slather of cream cheese, English cucumber slices and everything but the bagel seasoning to finish it off. I cut it into four triangles before crunching into it because triangles are THE BEST way to eat bread. The creaminess of the cream cheese coupled with the crunch of the bread and the coolness of the cucumbers…absolutely perfect. I would love to use this toasted bread as a dunker for soup too. Tis’ the season for soup after all. Just kidding, any time of the year is soup season for me; my favorite!

I am always happy to find gluten-free products that I can enjoy without sacrificing flavor or texture. I am thankful that I was able to give these products a go and give my approval too!

Try it!

If you want to try some for yourself, you can use their handy “store locator” on their website to find out where to buy: Little Northern Bakehouse

Also, follow @BeautifullyNutty and @LittleNorthernBakehouse on Instagram to enter the sweepstakes for an opportunity to win a $1,000 gift card for “Brunch for a Year”!

Disclosure: I received free products from Little Northern Bakehouse for review. The review and opinions of the products are solely my own.

How are YOU going to celebrate National Toast Day?

Hello, it’s me!

Post author:Melanie
Post published:March 1, 2016
Post category:Dinners / Home Life / Product Reviews
Post comments:0 Comments

Hello, it’s me!

Whoaaaa I’ve got the itch. The itch to write a post on good ol’ Beautifully Nutty! It has been sooooo long! How have you all been? Great over here! We are starting to feel settled into our beautiful new home. Bode is now 16 months and is a little ham. He started swim lessons again and is doing pretty well with those! He is going through a bit of a picky eating phase but I know it’s just that, a phase. He loves eggs, hummus, fruit and veggie pouches, fruit, and bean and cheese quesadillas. He eats other foods too but these are ones he will rarely say no to. He isn’t speaking English per say except for a few words, but he sure is babbling a lot! He makes me laugh everyday. I love him to pieces.

Jazzy pup is doing well! We did decide to keep Jasmine’s name but we mostly like to call her Jazz or Jazzy. She is a good little girl but definitely can use a little training. She is timid in random situations and she likes to chase after cars. We will start training in May. Bode is obsessed with her and loves throwing balls for her, resting his head on her back, and pulling her tail. When she’s not around he looks all around the room and puts his hands up wondering where she is. It’s just adorable.

So since you all know I love food and talking about food, I actually thought it would be fun to post a “What I’ve Been Eating” post since I’ve been eating some DELICIOUS things and trying to remember to take pictures. You ready for some? Unfortunately, I haven’t been writing down recipes, I definitely need to work on this again!

HERE.WE.GO.

Homemade pizza with quinoa crust. This was my first time making quinoa crust and I was totally a fan! It tasted like quinoa a little bit which I didn’t mind and the texture was great! I could even hold it in my hand without it collapsing! Win.

Quinoa sushi rolls on Valentine’s day!

Chickpea tacos smothered with guacamole! I just season the chickpeas like I season ground turkey, chicken, or ground beef and serve them up in hard taco shells. So so yum!

Boulder Organic Tomato Basil Soup. This soup is legit! Organic, gluten-free, non-GMO, no crazy ingredients and so delicious! Plus it’s based out of Boulder and LOVE Boulder. If I would have been more ambitious I would have made a grilled cheese or cheese quesadilla to dip in this soup but I had cheesy crackers and that was great too!

Ants on a log. Celery, peanut butter, and raisins. Suddenly I am five years old again.

Pork carnitas in the slow cooker. I’m having a heck of a time trying to rotate this picture for some reason so please do me a favor and cock your head to the left to see the beauty of this meal. I am really into pork carnitas. I topped them with lime juice, cilantro, avocado, tomato, and devoured.

How’s that for a taste of what I’ve been up to and what I’ve been eating? Gosh I sure hope I start writing on here again more often. It feels good!

Happy day to you, to you! Muah!

(Healthier) Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 26, 2015
Post category:Breakfast / Product Reviews / Snacks / Sweet Treats
Post comments:0 Comments

Oh, hey!

The weekend is drawing to a close, it’s hotter than hot these days, so how about a quick and easy recipe to kick off the week and cool you off? It’s a no-brainer. Of course you want to keep reading…

This is a simplified version of my favorite chocolate peanut butter smoothie that includes only 5 ingredients and is a bit more decadent thanks to chocolate Almond Breeze.

This concoction is peanut buttery and chocolatey, and in my opinion, that’s really all you need :wink:. I’m calling it a healthier chocolate peanut butter shake. Super creative, I’m fully aware.

(Healthier) Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake

1 medium/large frozen banana
3/4 cup frozen kale
1/2 cup chocolate almond milk*
1 cup almond milk
2 tablespoons peanut butter or powdered peanut butter

Blend all ingredients together until fully smooth and combined; there should be no lumps and it will be thick! Add more milk if necessary. Drink through straw and enjoy!

*You can always substitute unsweetened vanilla almond milk plus a little bit (or a lot!) of cocoa powder if you don’t have chocolate almond milk on hand!

This “shake” can be considered a breakfast, a snack, a dessert, whatever you wish. It literally is all whipped together in about 2 minutes thanks to the help of the blender. It’s a great way to sneak in another dose of veggies too!

I have to be totoally honest here…it is VERY rare that I ever measure out ingredients, so if you need to add more or less of any of these 5 ingredients, by all means, DO! My shake comes out just a tad bit different everytime, but always tastes fabulous.

What are you waiting for? Get shakin’!

This “Easy as Breeze” post is sponsored by Almond Breeze Almondmilk. For more “Easy As Breeze” recipes made with five ingredients or less, visit Almond Breeze on Facebook (http://facebook.com/almondbreeze), Twitter (http://twitter.com/almondbreeze), Instagram (http://instagram.com/almondbreezeus) and Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/almondbreeze).

FriYAY Catch Up!

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 3, 2015
Post category:Fav Products / Friends / Gluten-Free / Product Reviews / Travel
Post comments:0 Comments

It’s FriYAYYYYY!

Let’s catch up on this past week, huh?

Did you know I was in Vegas last weekend celebrating with my little bachelorette, Betsy?! This was my first time in Vegas and unfortunately I got hit with a nasty cold on Friday (the day I got there) but I sucked it up and had an AWESOME time! I only lost $10. I’m too frugal to play anything but the penny slots! Hit a button, lose money, hit a button, lose money, etc. It was 114º F or something crazy like that while we were there but it was a dry heat so it didn’t feel so bad, especially when we were in the pool all day. 🙂

Considering the heat, and the fact that I didn’t feel well, my appetite was way off. I managed to have two bigger meals over the weekend though at the hotel’s buffet. This is far from a pretty food photo but the food was really good! Check out my breakfast plate. It included: a fluffy pancake with a caramel buttery banana syrup, lots of bacon, fruit, pastries (took one bite and decided I could do better) and a crab leg! Yom yom yom.

I’m one of those people who has a realllllly hard time sleeping in no matter how late I stay up. Vegas is two hours ahead of MN, so can you guess what time I was awake on both Saturday and Sunday? Ok, I’ll tell ya…6:15 am. Lucky me, right? On Sunday morning, I knew no one else would be up for a while, so I got up, pumped, walked to breakfast (above), and then took a long stroll on the strip. I didn’t get to all of the hotels on the strip because there are a lot, but I made it to quite a few! My favorite was the Paris hotel and the Wynn. I was reliving my Paris trip like crazy. I definitely want to go back to Vegas again when it is a little cooler and spend more time looking at all of the hotels. They are beautiful.

I managed to pump, eat breakfast, walk the strip, and go to the pool all before the other girls woke up. Do I wish I could have slept in a bit longer? Of course. But since I couldn’t, I’m glad I made the most of being awake!

Such a fun weekend with the girls and so many more fun wedding festivities to come! Love you bride-to-be!!

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I feel like I have been getting so spoiled lately. Applegate and Sir Kensington’s hooked me up with major swag (giveaway winner announced at the bottom of this post!), and recently, Steve’s Paleo Goods sent me a SUPER awesome goodie bag!

‘

Steve’s Paleo Goods makes on-the-go clean eating snacks and OMG I am impressed. In the kit he sent to me was the paleo sampler which includes:

Apple PaleoKit
Ketchup
Cinnamon PaleoKrunch Cereal
Original PaleoKrunch Bar
Grass-Fed PaleoJerky (2.5oz)
PaleoJerky
Dried Strawberries

So far I’ve sampled the apple paleokit and the dried strawberries and holy cow you guys, this stuff is good.

I’m so inspired by this guy. If you have a second, read his story: https://www.stevespaleogoods.com/the-first-paleokit-s/1834.htm We need more people like this in our world! Thanks for the delicious samples, Steve!!!

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Switching gears….can you believe it’s the 4th of July weekend already?! I just don’t understand how that is possible already. We are having a fairly low-key weekend full of lots of family and relaxation. I need it. Ever since Bode has started daycare we have all been sick, so pretty much the whole entire month of June. Oh well.

Check out this fun and festive food post I put together a couple of years ago:

Independence Day Food!

*****************

(UPDATED July 14th)

FINAL new giveaway winner announced because my 2nd winner never responded either! This is it folks.

The new winner of the Applegate and Sir Kensington’s giveaway is:

NATE E.!

Happy 4th of July to you all! What are your plans for the weekend?

I’m definitely hooking up with Katie today for Friday Favs!

My New Favorite BBQ Sauce {GIVEAWAY!}

Post author:Melanie
Post published:May 25, 2015
Post category:Dinners / Fav Products / Giveaway / Product Reviews
Post comments:20 Comments

Happy Memorial Day to you all! We remember all of the heroes who have served and who are actively serving for our country. They are the reason we are free. God bless each and every one of them and their loved ones. Their bravery should never go unnoticed.

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Switching gears….

Did you know that May is National Barbecue Month?! Austin, Texas-based Stubb’s Legendary Bar-B-Q reached out to me to see if I would like to help them celebrate the kickoff of BBQ season. Of course I would! We are all about BBQ’ing all year round over here.

Craft-made Stubb’s, the leader in authentic BBQ sauces, rubs and marinades, is the only nationally available BBQ sauce brand (available in 85% grocery stores) to carry the Gluten-Free Organization Certification seal and contain no high fructose corn syrup (the first ingredient in most national BBQ sauce brands.) The company is also working with the Non-GMO Project to verify its line!

I have seen Stubb’s sauce on the shelves but have always reached for the brands I recognize, not even minding the label very often which is something I normally read! After buying the Stubb’s sauce and comparing the labels between the two, my mind was blown. I am convinced I will never buy any other brand. Besides the above mentioned nutritional details, Stubb’s BBQ sauce also has HALF of the sugar grams in their sauce! I mean comparing 16 grams to 8 grams! That’s a lot!

Stubb’s offers a variety of bar-b-q sauces, marinades, liquid smokes, rubs, cooking sauces, anytime sauces, and more.

So far I’ve only tried three of their products, but I am THRILLED to have learned about this brand and can’t wait to try more!

Along with providing coupons for me to try out their products, Stubb’s also sent me a bunch of great recipes to try! I decided to try their Cowboy Burger recipe first which included Stubb’s Smokey Mesquite BBQ sauce, their Beef Marinated, Mesquite Liquid Smoke, and Beef Rub.

Here is the recipe!

Stubb’s Cowboy Burger

Ingredients

2.5 lbs ground beef
1/4 cup Stubb’s Smokey Mesquite Bar-B-Q Sauce
2 Tbsp. Stubb’s Beef Marinade
1/4 tsp. Stubb’s Mesquite Liquid Smoke (optional)
1 tsp Stubb’s Beef Rub
1 large yellow onion, cut into slices
Shredded cheddar cheese
Bacon slices, cooked crisp
Onion Rolls or Hamburger Buns
Toppings of your choice

Cooking Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, Bar-B-Q sauce, Stubb’s Beef Marinade, liquid smoke (optional) and Stubb’s Beef Spice Rub. Use your hands to mix well. Once combined, separate the mixture to make six patties. Make a slight indent with your thumb in middle of each patty to keep it from swelling while on the grill.

Prepare your grill for direct medium-heat cooking. Lightly oil the grates and place your burger on the grill, indent side up. Cook burgers for 12-14 minutes or until preferred doneness (160°F) turning once during cooking. While burgers are cooking, add the onion slices to the grill and cook until lightly charred and soft, turning once. Also toast the buns.

To serve, top burgers with Bar-B-Q sauce, bacon, grilled onion and shredded cheese. Add additional toppings to your liking.

TIP: To cook the bacon for this burger, line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lay bacon on top. Cook in a preheated oven at 375°F for 15-20 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate to cool.

K, so I forgot the bacon but would you believe that I hardly even missed it?! This burger packs SO much flavor! I was so excited about it I repeatedly said to Dana, “omg this is so good” and snuck in bites of extra burger once I was done with mine.

And another confession, when I thawed out the ground beef from the freezer, I accidentally grabbed one pack of ground chicken and one pack of ground beef. I realized it once I was pouring the sauces on the meat. I made sure to cook the burgers to well-done because of this.

It’s okay though because they turned out GREAT. The burgers just shrunk more than usual. They started off the size of this sandwich bun, and ended up like this…

I savored every bite of this baby.

YUM! I’m not kidding I am CRAZY about this flavor! No more boring burgers this summer!!!

Do you want to try Stubb’s sauce for your next BBQ?! Here’s your chance to win some coupons for free Stubb’s products!

To enter to win, write a comment on this post telling me your favorite summer BBQ foods. Bonus points if you share this post on Facebook or Twitter (make sure and comment on this post if you do so to get an extra entry!).

Giveaway will close Thursday, May 28th at 9 pm central time. I will choose one winner on Friday May 29th!

Let’s hear it!

Spread the Kindness & Giveaway WINNER!

Post author:Melanie
Post published:February 6, 2015
Post category:Giveaway / Product Reviews
Post comments:2 Comments

Random acts of kindness day is coming up on February 17th, but you don’t have to wait until then to do something nice! Here are some ideas of how you can spread the kindness around everyday…

Smile and say hello to a stranger
Pay it forward
Bring treats to friends
Send flowers to a friend
Send a relative a hand-written note

Here are some more ideas! http://greatist.com/discover/february-challenge-kindness-2015 #28daysofkind

WINNER WINNER

Thank you all for playing along in the KIND bar giveaway! Random.org (random number generator) randomly selected….

Barbara Montag!

Congrats to you, Barbara! Please email me at beautifullynutty@gmail.com with your address by next Friday, February 13th so that we can get your Kind bars shipped out to you!

Happy weekend to you all! Do something KIND today!

Friday Favs: 1 2 3

Post author:Melanie
Post published:January 23, 2015
Post category:Baby / Fav Products / Product Reviews / Snacks / Young Living
Post comments:2 Comments

HAPPY Friday! Today I’m playing along with Katie’s Friday Favorites! The date is 1/23 hence my post title. #nerd

FAVS

1. I’m noticing a trend in my phone photos in that they are 98% all of Bode. Not surprising right? He is my #1 favorite this week and every week. He is now officially in the crib and is a total rockstar! More sleep for mama makes for one happy lady. He is growing so quickly and changing every day. He amazes me.

2. Healthy meals. I am thrilled to have gotten out of my post-partum no-cook slump. This may go hand in hand with the fact that I am getting more sleep?!

3. The crock pot. The glorious crock pot. We were friends before but now we are BEST friends. I made a pork roast the other day and it couldn’t have been more easy thanks to my buddy.

4. Bridesmaid dress shopping for this beautiful girl’s wedding! I am insanely excited for this wedding and for the events leading up to it!

5. Rose ointment from Young Living. Unfortunately I have been dealing with dermatitis on my face and not only is it terribly embarrassing but it’s just annoying. My skin is so darn dry. This rose ointment has helped tremendously with that. And the smell, oh the smell is beautiful. Young Living in general is a Friday Favorite. This company rocks my socks.

6. I am limiting my gluten and dairy intake not only for my own health but to experiment with the little man and his reaction to my milk. This cream cheese is surprisingly delicious. It tastes darn near close to normal cream cheese and tastes great on almond crackers!

I hope you all have a super weekend! Relax and enjoy!

xoxo

Honey Nut Banana Oat Muffins (w/ Blue Diamond Almonds)

Post author:Melanie
Post published:August 19, 2014
Post category:Breakfast / Product Reviews / Recipes
Post comments:5 Comments

If you’ve been reading my blog over the past couple of months or so, you have learned that I am already into the hardcore “nesting” mode. I am wanting to organize everything in sight, I can’t stop thinking about the baby room and projects I want to tackle to decorate, I clean the house on Friday nights….yea that’s what’s happening.

Another part of nesting is food prep. I plan to make a handful of freezer meals to have on hand for when baby arrives. I’ve got a little list going of meals I want to prep in the next month or two (I will share this with you hopefully!).

I began my fresh freezer food stash this week.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a package from Blue Diamond which included two new flavors of almonds: Honey Roasted Vanilla and Honey Roasted Chipotle. The honey chipotle ones have been a serious hit for me. I love snacking on them. They are spicy and sweet and my taste buds are very happy with that combo.

The honey roasted vanilla are incredibly tasty too. I had to ration them because I knew I wanted to use them in a baking experiment, and the baking experiment turned out to be a success.

Enter: Honey Nut Banana Oat Muffins with Blue Diamond Almonds. A fully loaded recipe title.

I used the food processor to process oats and Blue Diamond’s honey roasted almonds to use as my flour!

The muffins are sweetened naturally with bananas and honey.

They take very little time to prepare and only 25 minutes to bake!

These babies turned out fabulous. I kept a few out to enjoy now, but froze the rest so I could have a quick and healthy snack to grab from the freezer upon baby’s arrival!

Honey Nut Banana Oat Muffins

Makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

2½ cups oats
¼ cup plus 2-3 Tbsp. ground honey vanilla almonds
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
2 ripe bananas
1 egg
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
¼ cup almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup honey

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use cooking spray to lightly coat a 12 muffin, muffin pan.
In a food processor, process oats into flour consistency. Mine turned out to be a little coarse and that worked out just fine too.
In a medium bowl combine oats, ¼ cup ground almonds, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir; set aside.
In a large bowl beat together remaining ingredients until smooth.
Slowly beat in flour mixture. Beat to combine.
Pour mixture evenly into muffin pan. Sprinkle with remaining 2-3 Tbsp. of ground almonds.
Bake for 23-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into middle of muffin (towards the middle of the pan) comes out clean.
Enjoy as is, with butter, peanut butter, honey. They are a perfect on the go breakfast or snack.

Keep an eye out for these new flavors. They are very palate pleasing!

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds. I was given samples for free, however all opinions expressed on the products are solely my own.

Odds and Ends

Post author:Melanie
Post published:June 30, 2014
Post category:Dinners / Home Improvement / Home Life / Pregnancy / Product Reviews
Post comments:10 Comments

Hola my friends! How was your weekend?

Mine was really truly great however as always went by way too fast.

Our basement is almost finished and it is so exciting to see how it has all come together. We (okay, mostly Dana) spent a good chunk of the weekend continuing to work on the basement and move furniture downstairs. Our guest bedroom is officially moved downstairs which means that we can start working on the nursery upstairs now!

We also teamed up and tackled the weeds in the garden. That was a much-needed job and I am happy to report that all of our plants are doing well! We even had two sugar snap peas; one for each of us. They were crunchy and perfect.

Some other odds and ends…

I caved and bought some more maternity clothes. I tried to go with the basics this time around: dark jeans, shorts, black tee, white tee, long-sleeved grey tee, and I got a few other tops as well! Old Navy and Gap have great maternity wear!

Healing my gut is an ongoing journey, so I made myself another batch of bone broth soup to help soothe and heal. Making bone broth is quite the process in case you didn’t know! I made chicken bone broth but someday I want to make beef bone broth because i think I would enjoy it more (more flavor).

I’ve been trying to be creative with foods again now that I am really into all foods again (no real aversions any more that I can think of). I threw together an old salad staple of mine with some minor adjustments based on what I had in the kitchen: spinach, strawberries, chicken, red onion, parmesan cheese, sliced almonds, and poppy seed dressing. I would have preferred feta cheese but we didn’t have any. And I should have added black beans and avocado. But it was still good.

Dana and I made Saturday night date night and went to Punch pizza for my first time. They serve Neapolitan style pizza and eating their pizza seriously brought me back to our honeymoon in Italy. We got the margherita pizza with olives and mushrooms. We also split a really delicious salad.

The last odd and end:

About the same time I found out I was pregnant, I received a wonderful package from a company called Puro Fairtrade Coffee. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I stopped drinking caffeine. Not to mention, the thought of coffee made me queasy in the first trimester.

So there I was with three delicious bags of coffee beans along with a sweet little mug sitting in my home to review. I felt so bad I wouldn’t be able to review it myself but asked if it were okay that my husband review it instead, and they agreed that would be absolutely a-okay!

About Puro Fairtrade Coffee

Puro Fairtrade Coffee comes from a company Miko, they are based in Belgium and are one of the oldest coffee roasters in the world (since 1801!). All coffee from Puro is Fairtrade, but uniquely, Puro works in partnership with a rainforest charity called World Land Trust and money from each bag of their coffee is used to buy and protect areas of rainforest in coffee producing countries.

Puro coffee sales to date, have funded the protection of more than 10,000 acres of rainforest across 6 countries.

Although I personally wasn’t able to taste-test the coffee as I gave up caffeine when I became pregnant, Dana, my husband was able to taste and review it for me. He just finished up the last of it a week ago. He really enjoyed the earthiness (but not TOO earthy), bold and rich flavor of the coffee. We both love that the company is fairtrade and feel great about supporting a company with so much compassion and heart.

Sustainability

Their roasting plant in Belgium was placed near to Antwerp, the world’s second largest coffee port and its roof is covered with solar panels providing for all electricity needs. Residual heat from the roasting process is re-directed to power underfloor heating throughout the factory and offices. Coffee chaff generated through roasting is given to local organic farmers for fertilizing their fields.

I love this!

Another partnership in the UK combines used coffee grounds from filter and espresso generated at key client sites with food waste, creating compost. Also….Puro’s coffee foils are even upcycled into bags, flower pots and dresses!

Video

Now you can see why this company is so great! To learn more about their story watch their video: http://vimeo.com/fairtradecoffee/our-story

Online Shop

They have an online shop if you are interested in purchasing: https://www.puroathome.com/

Okay, that’s enough randomness for one day. Have a good one! xoxo

Favorites: Sunshine, Weddings, Coconuts

Post author:Melanie
Post published:June 13, 2014
Post category:Events / Family / Fitness / Product Reviews / Wedding
Post comments:3 Comments

It’s Friday the 13th and you bet it’s a Friday Favorites kind of day.

1. Long or short walks outside. I’ve noticed my pace has slowed down a bit (mostly when I go uphill) but I am still getting out for a walk nearly everyday. It is so peaceful.

2. Weddings. It is definitely wedding season! We had the NY wedding last weekend and this weekend we have two (although we can only attend one). I love dancing, I love seeing two people in love being united in front of their friends and family, I love being with friends and family, I love dresses…so basically I love weddings. I love being dressed up for the occasion. I’m glad the laser hair removal miami prices aren’t too steep, or else I’d have had to forfeit my whole wedding season.

3. Sunshine. I mean, is there anything better than basking outside in the sun with a book and a refreshment? Vitamin D oh how I’ve missed you.

4. My anxiety reliever: lavender.

5. Greek feasts out on the patio with my favorite coconuts (crazyforcoconuts.com). This is a group of us essential oils ladies who have joined together to start a business that helps us get the word out about the goodness of essential oils. Check out our website and our blog! They were both recently launched! www.crazyforcoconuts.com

6. And speaking of coconuts, I received a sample of Skinny & Co. Coconut Oil. Their oil is never heated above room temperature and goes through a slow manufacturing process to ensure the highest quality coconut oil. Their oil is 100% raw coconut oil, natural, full of vitamins and minerals and anti-bacterial components.

I use coconut oil as my lotion after showers (often with lavender eo mixed in) and I was thrilled when this company reached out to me. I really can tell the difference with this oil. It has a more subtle coconut fragrance and a smooth feel on the skin. It doesn’t leave me feeling greasy. I really like this stuff and it definitely deserves to be a Friday Fav. For more info: www.skinnycoconutoil.com

Happy Friday my friends! xoxo

P.S. I know I need to get another pregnancy update on here again. I will soon! Our little man is doing great!

What’re some of your Friday favs?

Are you superstitious when it comes to Friday the 13th and full moons?

I would have to say that yes I am superstitious. The kids at work are always crazy hyper during the weeks of a full moon and sure enough, it didn’t fail this week. Friday the 13th—I’m usually lucky. We will see (knock on wood!).

Oh and I’m linking up with Katie for Friday Favorites!!

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