1st Anniversary

Today is my blogs First Birthday!

Courtesy

It is hard to believe that is has been 12 months since I first put pen to paper.

Do you know what my first reaction after re-reading my first post was? Disbelief! 
A couple of years ago I started to make some changes in my life, I wanted to slow down and regain focus of who I am and what is important in my life. I achieved most of it and I consider it a great accomplishment. 
What I was not able to do is slow down.  Perhaps I best give up on that idea. I have even more responsibilities, more ideas and great plans for the future. And I enrolled in college. Yes, college, my friends. There are now 2 college students in my household. I may be asking my kid to help me with homework.

This blog started as an outlet for me to share all the little things that I have learned, that may be helpful to others. Writing it actually helped me to stay focused, continue to learn and have fun doing it.

I still cannot take a decent picture but I am not giving up.

It has been a wonderful year, full of learning, growing and making new friends.

Thank you to all of you that have visited and commented. 

Agnes

How to Easily Organize Your Paris Trip 

As I was trying to organize my internet bookmarks I came across the folder titled “Paris”. I was about to delete it but thought that I will share my trip planning tips with you. After all, I have spent many hours trying to plan as much as possible before hitting the French soil. Perhaps this will save you some time.

I went to Paris with my family a couple years ago. The trip was basically a 3 day stop over before going elsewhere.  My kids are far apart in age so I was faced with a difficult task of choosing places to see that would hold an interest of adults and kids alike.

I am very glad to say that it was a success and the fact that I have planned the itinerary and purchased some tickets pre-trip allowed us to enjoy Paris so much more.

I used hotels.com for my accommodation. The earlier you book, the better prices you will get, even for the summer there were quite good deals at around 140 euros per night for a hotel room.

Paris is divided into Arrondissements and the rule of the thumb is (at least that is what I heard), the lower the number of Arrondissement the closer to the main points of interest you are. If you stay closer to the Periferique the cheaper the accommodation will be. I enjoy late evening stroll after dinner or having an ice cream so taking metro very late in the evening to go to outer limits of the city never appealed to me. For that reason, I try to stay as close to the center as possible. In Paris though it seems the center is everywhereJ). We stayed near Rome station just a few minutes away from Champs Elysees.

One of the attractions that I did not get tickets for was Eiffel Tower. And I am glad I did not as on the day I have planned to go the weather was not the greatest, cloudy with occasional drizzle. 
Had we purchased out date and time designated tickets I do not think the experience would be the same. We went the following day just before an opening of the Ticket Booths. The wait was about 45 min to buy tickets and another 30 min for the second elevator to go all the way to the top.

Not bad at all since we went in August.

http://www.tour-eiffel.fr/en/preparing-your-visit/buying-your-tickets.html 

Get your tickets to Louvre:

http://www.louvre.fr/en/homepage Enter via Passage Richelieu to avoid line ups.

If your time is limited and only plan on spending 1 day in Louvre, have a look at exhibits and choose 3 or 4 of an interest to you. Getting from one to another will take you through others anyway.

Check the floor plans here

http://www.louvre.fr/en/plan

We have visited Medieval Louvre,  Greek and Roman Antiquities, Egyptian Antiquities and Napoleon’s Apartments.

Here are some websites that I had a look at while planning my trip. Some offer the same passes, but it is worth to have a comparison.

Consider getting Paris Pass – it includes a use of public transportation. Does NOT include Eiffel Tower admission to 3^rd level and up.

http://www.viator.com/tours/Paris/Paris-Pass/d479-2036PARIS

This website gives a great breakdown of admission prices and transportation costs, so you can determine if it is worth buying for you.

http://www.priceoftravel.com/623/is-the-paris-pass-worth-it-we-break-down-the-prices-and-value-here/

When purchasing transportation tickets or passes in Paris, the distance you go (or the zones within which you travel) can make a big difference in price. If you have a pretty firm idea of what areas are you going to be you can save up quite a bit. I actually used single tickets as we traveled to furthest destination and walked between attractions.

As for transportation, I bought all my transportation tickets + visite pass cards - at the train station at the airport. There is RER B train (walk 3 min from terminal) and you can get tickets from the machines or there are cashiers - which I preferred to use. There is a weekly pass, that goes from Mon- Sun, but they only sell it till Wednesday for a current week, it is the best option financially. You need a small photo 3cm x2.5 to affix to the card - if you choose this option, bring photos with you. http://parisbytrain.com/paris-train-metro-week-pass-navigo-decouverte/

http://subway.umka.org/map-paris.html this is a very handy map to have, I had no other and found my way around Paris without difficulty. They give free maps at the station, but too small for my eyes. Print this one instead.

I know that when using metro one does not see as much as on surface routes, however due to shortness of our stay, this was the fastest way to get around.

When using single tickets make sure to keep them safe, as you will need them to get out of the metro and train station.

There is an app now that you can use for finding your way http://www.routeplanapp.com/

A very useful site to help navigate around Paris on public transportation

http://www.ratp.fr/en/ratp/c_21879/visiting-paris/

http://www.parismetro.com/

On Trip Advisor you will find great tips on how to get from the airport to your hotel.

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Travel-g187147-c58647/Paris:France:Tips.On.How.To.Travel.To.Hotel.From.Cdg.html

There are many tours worth considering, depending on your budget and availability of time. I have used Viator for other destinations and was happy with services received.

http://www.viator.com/Paris/d479

https://www.justring.com/europe/france/paris

http://www.city-discovery.com/paris/tour.php?id=957

Love locks 

My itinerary included:

• Montmartre and Basilique du Sacré-Coeur – free entrance and a wonderful walk in the hilly neighborhood, full of little stores and cafes.
• Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees – free if you decide not to get to the top of the Arc and can resist very many shops on the boulevardJ)
• Eiffel Tower – pre-book if you are not an early bird. Lines are very long later in the day min 2 hours. Have your lunch there and enjoy the amazing view.
• Notre Dame Cathedral – pre-book
• River Seine - http://www.batobus.com/en/stations.html Taking the boat was really enjoyable experience after a long day.
• Louvre – pre-book
• Paris Sewer Museum – o yeah! Better believe it.
• We also spent one evening strolling around Montparnasse and had dinner there.

Enjoying the boat ride

Looking back I am amazed how much we have managed to cram in and there was no mutiny.

Top 3 according to kids:

Eiffel Tower,

Louvre

Arc de Triomphe

Personally, I found Sewer Museum fascinating.

Hope this helps. We did not have enough time for a hop on/off bus, but it looked like a great thing to do.

Have a lovely trip.

7 Step Plan to Successful Diet Change

Overcoming years of habit is the hardest part of making any kind of change. The key to success is making an easy to follow, step by step plan. It is also very important to remember WHY you are making the change.

First:

Remove temptation. Sorry, that bag of chips from the pantry has to go.

Second:

Make sure to make a list of replacement foods, to the ones you will be giving up. For instance, replace white potatoes with quinoa, wild rice or sweet potatoes.

When finished, go shopping.

Third:

Plan a menu for the whole week, including snacks, as they are vital to your success!

Fourth:

On Sunday prepare snacks - hard-boil some eggs for a quick bite. Wash and chop peppers, celery stalks, carrots.  Pre cook quinoa, lentils or rice for weeknight dinner.

Fifth:

If you have family to feed, talk to them and introduce the new menu. I did it and they all survived.

Sixth:

Prepare an emergency kit to carry with you – small bag of almonds, apple and/or good quality protein bar are your best friends for when the hunger comes and all there is available are cinnamon buns!

Seventh:

Simple is better. At least until you firmly establish new eating habits.

Here is what I eat at work. Breakfast, snacks and lunch. It took me 2 weeks to get used to new food routine and 11 months later I am still doing it.

For breakfast I alter between green or berry protein shakes – I started with berry shakes first than tried making green ones. Remember they are super healthy but more time consuming to prepare.

For lunch I have a salad. 

My snacks usually are apples, protein bars, hummus with veggies, hard-boiled eggs or rice crackers. 

Whatever the reason that you want to change your eating habits you may want to learn more about Alkaline Diet principle.

Below is a simple list of foods to avoid, at least in the first 4 weeks to help clean the body from accumulated toxins. Once we are rid of toxins, the body can function better, digest faster and the nutrient absorption increases.  How this process works and why it is vital to our health is very well explained in the book by Dr. Junger that I reviewed here.

AVOID DAIRY GLUTEN SOY PEANUTS & PEANUT BUTTER SUGAR ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS COFFEE ALCOHOL FRUIT HIGH IN SUGAR EXCEPT LEMONS & LIMES, FARM-RAISED FISH WHITE POTATOES CORN

REPLACE ALMOND, COCONUT & FLAX MILK BROWN RICE, QUINOA RAW ALMONDS ALMOND BUTTER COCONUT SUGAR, STEVIA GREEN & HERB TEAS NON-STARCHY VEGETABLES ORGANIC GREEN ("GRANNY SMITH") APPLES, ALL BERRIES WILD-CAUGHT COLDWATER FISH FREE-RANGE CHICKEN & TURKEY GRASS-FED BEEF SWEET POTATOES, YAMS, LEGUMES AVOCADO OLIVE OIL, GRAPESEED OIL, COCONUT AND FLAXSEED OILS

Happy Healthy Spring!

Please share if you found this post helpful.

Spring Cleaning with Natural and Homemade Cleaners 

The sun is shining and unfortunately the grime on the windows reminds me that if I want to see the outside it is time to do some window washing. Once I start with the windows the whole spring cleaning fever starts.

I love when we can finally open the windows and let the fresh air in. Getting rid of dust from all the nooks and crannies, washing anything washable and dusting couches may not be the most fun but the end of the day when I can sit down with a cup of tea and take in the newly polished furniture and dust free air, it makes me feel good.

I like using cleaning products that are not only safe for my family but also for the environment. There are known carcinogens, hormone disruptors and substances that contribute to asthma and lung inflammation contained in the most popular household productsWhen buying cleaners please check the labels for any harmful chemicals like: phosphates, triclosan, SLS. For the full list of toxic ingredients commonly found in household cleaners check out David Suzuki’s website http://davidsuzuki.org/issues/health/science/toxics/the-dirt-on-toxic-chemicals-in-household-cleaning-products/

For every day cleaning of sinks or the stove, I use baking soda. Any other surfaces like tiles or windows, the vinegar and water solution works very well. It is all very basic.

Glass Cleaner – ¼ cup of vinegar, 4 cups of water, 1 tsp of lemon EO. Add to spray bottle and shake well before use.

Stovetop Cleaner – 1/3 cup of baking soda, enough water to create a paste, 5 drops of lemon essential oil, 5 drops of rosemary essential oil.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner – ¼ cup of baking soda, 1 cup of vinegar, 20 drops of tea tree essential oil. Pour around sides of bowl and let sit for 15 minutes. Scrub and flush.

You could even drink this one

• Here you can find all the uses for baking soda, vinegar and lemon: cleaning with household items
• For nice smelling spray cleaner (my favorite is lavender and sage!) check this post.
• How to clean with lemons.
• For the list of household items that are great for cleaning go here.

Please share this post if you found it helpful.

Happy Spring cleaning!

Homemade Lentil Soup with Smoked Bacon (also in vegan version)

We are a family of soup eaters. Even in the summer my kids demand soup. The longest we ever went without was perhaps two weeks. And that was during a heat wave. We have our favorites so it seems to me like I keep making the same couple of soups over and over. 

Well this is one of those that only gets made in the winter, and no matter how big a batch I make it never seems enough.

I have altered this recipe a bit so it can easily be prepared as a vegan dish. The choice is yours.

Lentil Soup with Smoked Bacon

 Prep time 10 min Cooking time 60 min Servings 8

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

2 tblsp. Olive oil

3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp. of Himalayan salt

6 cups of water (if you are cooking with bacon) or 4 cups vegetable broth and 2 cups water or 4 cups of water (you do not want your soup watery!)

6 thick slices (about 0.5 cm or 1/4” thick) of smoked bacon Or 1 cube of organic vegetable stock

1 tsp. marjoram

1 cup of picked, rinsed split lentils (yellow, green, mixed – your choice)

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add onions, carrots and celery. Cook on medium heat for 5-8 minutes until onion is translucent. Stir occasionally. Add garlic. Cook for 2 minutes. Add salt and marjoram. Stir. Add water.

Bring to boil. Add lentils. Turn heat down to medium-low. Simmer for 40 min. Cooking times will vary depending on pea size.

Put bacon in the soup about 15 min after the peas.

I like to use mixed lentils

When the soup is ready take the bacon out and slice thinly. Use for garnish.

Anyone else shares the soup love?

Homemade Lemon Curd

I have never made it before now. I have never made lemon meringue pie. I cannot believe it since I absolutely love everything lemon. 

start wit Meyer's Lemons

I first came across recipe for lemon curd a few years ago, on one of my long time favorite blog  Pigtown-Design. 

When I have recently picked up a bag of Meyer’s lemons I immediately thought that they would be great for making some kind of preserve instead of juicing like usual. Meyer’s lemons are sweeter than regular lemons. 

zest and juice them

I quickly looked up Meg’s recipe and here is my first ever, most delicious Lemon Curd. I will use it as a filling for little tattletales. After all, the evenings are long and cold and a cup of tea deserves some company.

and there you have it!

Ingredients

Yield 750 ml of curd

3 tablespoons of lemon zest (you will need about 6 lemons)

¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

11/3 cup of sugar

4 large eggs

1 ¾ sticks of butter

1/8 teaspoon salt

Beat the sugar and butter in a bowl using hand mixer. Add eggs one by one. Mix in between adding the eggs. Add lemon juice and zest. The mixture will look curdled at this point.

Pour it into thick bottomed pan and heat up over low-medium heat stirring occasionally until it becomes smooth. Do not let it boil. Increase heat to medium and cook stirring constantly for about 15 minutes until mixture thickens.

Remove from heat. Strain into jars. One large one in my case. Cover immediately to prevent skin from forming. Curd will thicken further as it cools. Refrigerate for up to a week after opening.

Enjoy!

Corn Decoded

I meant to write about corn for a while but a recent comment from a blogger made me finally do it. The comment was absolutely innocent, simply stating that the author does not eat corn product. That is fine. I personally do not eat a whole lot of it but cannot say that go out of my way to avoid it. However I try to buy Organic corn or products, like chips, made with organically grown corn. The reason is that organically grown corn is GMO Roundup Ready  free. At least it should be. That also means that it does not get heavily sprayed with pesticides.

Source

When I was looking into GMO free corn products I came across research stating that only about 4% of corn is actually of GMO variety. It mostly is types of corn used for oil and feed for farm animals and pets but also being added to various processed foods. Which means that is added to almost anything and there is no escaping GMO corn, unless you cook and bake absolutely everything from scratch, which I do not.

I like the grilled corn in the late summer, tortilla chips and popcorn to snack on and I wonder how much that affects my health. Not every single cob or chip I ate had organic origins and considering the abundance of corn byproducts in everything does it really make sense to go organic route?

Corn is an ingredient in more than 3,000 grocery products according to this website.

The more I read about corn and especially it’s GMO variety the less I knew. Some people claim that corn is not rich in nutrients but when you look at mineral content it has magnesium, selenium, manganese and iron in 25 -50 % range of RDV  I think it is quite good actually. It is also rich in fibre. Mind you, one serving is a cup.

Corn is not rich in protein, carbohydrates and vitamins and has high glycemic index. When a diet is mostly grain based that means that our bodies are deficient in many essential microelements and omega-6 fatty acids. That can lead to health complications like cancer, depression, obesity, allergies, autoimmune diseases such as lupus and arthritis, diabetes or asthma. Also farm animals raised with corn and soy meals (also GMO) are lacking in minerals. Consuming their meat means not getting enough nutrients from that source either. 

Corn is also a host to 22 different types of fungi, some of them give out dangerous, potentially lethal, mycotoxins. You can find a lot of interesting information on both corn and effect it has on corn fed animals, here:

https://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/grass-fed-meat-education/corn-its-whats-bad-you

As to avoiding corn altogether, see to what lengths the author of this post had to go to succeed http://www.commondreams.org/views/2013/07/28/bad-seed-health-risks-genetically-modified-corn

 I will give you a little expert on where she found corn based products:

“Back in 2011, though, I was desperate enough that I was willing to try the diet Mansmann recommended. After all, how hard could it be to give up corn? The answer was: way harder than I imagined. Corn was my Waldo, popping up everywhere: in tea bags, juice, and cheese culture; it lined my “to go” coffee cups and plastic bags of frozen vegetables; it coated my store-bought apples and was on the bottom of restaurant pizza—almost everything my family used, no matter how piously natural and organic, had corn in it. It came under the guise of dozens of names like “xanthan gum,” “natural flavors,” “free-flowing agents,” “vitamin E,” “ascorbic acid,” “citric acid,” and “cellulose,” to name a few. Almost daily, I’d find a new culprit. “Damn, this toothpaste is full of corn!” Then: “Wait, our dish soap is made from corn!” Or: “Oh my God, iodized salt has dextrose in it!”

Not to mention the corn that is fed to animals whose meat and eggs I ate, whose milk I drank. “

There is a lot of conflicting information out there so it is entirely up to us, the consumers to do as much research as possible and draw our own conclusions. I find it quite hard to do, not being a biologist or geneticist or even an MD. Rats!

Photo Source

So I am sticking to organic when possible and will pay more attention to what products are made with corn flour and contain corn derived additives (since they most likely come from GM corn). 

At the end of the day it all comes back to BALANCE. As long as we are aware of what’s on our plates, where it came from and making sure that grains and grain product do not make a base for every meal I think we should be fine.

Even super grains like Chia should not be eaten in large quantities on regular basis.

Non GMO shopping in Canada

http://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/search-participating-products/

Non GMO shopping in USA

http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/

Source of information on GMO’s

http://responsibletechnology.org/gmo-education/health-risks/

What are your thoughts on GMO Roundup Ready corn?