Chicken or Chickpea Salad - no gluten, no soy, no dairy

I found this on foodbabe.com. It is suppose to be served as a sandwich in a wheat tortilla. It does say for gluten-free to use a brown rice tortilla. I have been gluten free and I guess I could have gotten the brown rice tortillas. My husband enjoys them. I just don't gravitate toward tortillas --- and I love salads. So I made the recipe but put it on a bed of mixed greens. I had some fresh garden tomatoes that I put on the side. It was delicious. Really loved it. And no soy, no gluten, no dairy. It does call for 1/4 cup organic yogurt -- and it does say you could use almond or coconut plain yogurt. I used the coconut yogurt but it was vanilla. I sent my husband for the plain and they didn't have it --- and vanilla is close. It was actually very good. Really loved it. Here is the link to the recipe. Click here. 

I was impressed with how quick and easy it was to make -- and how delicious it tasted. 

The Dance by Dan Walsh & Gary Smalley

This is the first book in the Restoration series. The premise is that with God's help all things are possible even the healing and restoration of a marriage that is on the brink of divorce. I enjoyed this book. Gary Smalley wrote a book called The DNA of Relationships and many of the principles he discusses in that book he teaches the characters in The Dance. In The Dance he uses his storytelling ability to show how the concepts would play out - what would they look like in practice. Neat way to get the concepts across. For some this book would be more enjoyable to read then a relationship manual type of book. Highly enjoyable.  

Go Fresh A Heart-Healthy Cookbook with shopping and storage tips

I got this book because I love going fresh. I did find recipes that were wonderful that I can't wait to try. On the other hand, I do have to say I disagree with some of the book's comments or assumptions. 

This is a quote from page 8. "If you're looking to move away from heavily processed foods that rely on preservatives, salt, and sugar and to take advantage of nature's bounty of flavor and nutrition, this is the book for you. We'll show you how to easily combine fresh ingredients with fast cooking techniques to create delicious and healthy meals." Okay I completely agree with eating from 'nature's bounty' and to not eat as many processed foods. Excellent idea for good health. I do think more should be eaten RAW and not cooked. Further, on page 17 they recommend microwaving. They say that "because this method requires no added oils and very little, if any, liquid to keep food from drying out, it is a healthy way to prepare food." I completely disagree that microwaves are healthy at all. Further on page 19 they recommend avoiding saturated and trans fats. Time Magazine just had a cover story on this --- and the new research shows that refined carbs, sugar and processed foods are the real enemy -- and not saturated fats found in foods such as butter or eggs. Here is a link to an article covering this. Click here

Even though I don't agree with their take on what truly constitutes healthy eating -- I still think there are some wonderful recipes that I can't wait to try. For those cold winter nights that we get --- Chicken and Red Lentil Soup sounds amazing. Yummm.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for a honest review.

The Auschwitz Escape by Joel C. Rosenberg

The Auschwitz Escape is a very, very good book but it is not light reading though. It is a heavy subject. At times I just had to put the book down because it is just intense and sad. When Jacob Weisz's parents are killed by the Nazis, he flees and joins the resistance movement. While attempting to stop a train load of Jews heading for a concentration camp, Jacob is apprehended. He winds up at Auschwitz. The book details life at Auschwitz -- the brutal conditions, lack of food, starvation and all the ways people can die at that camp. The underground resistance is alive within the camp, and Jacob becomes a member. Their goal is to get several teams to escape and so that news of what is actually happening at Auschwitz will be told to the allies. They hope the Allies will then either free the camp or bomb it completely so its ovens can no longer be used for mass exterminations. While those in the camp would all die it would ultimately save lives to not have the camp available. The book is fiction but the author did extensive research. Much of what he put into the book is based on things he found to have really happened. The escapes he wrote about were based on real life escapes from Auschwitz. The town of Le Chambon is a real town in France that was recognized by the State of Israel for its exceptional efforts as they "offered shelter in private homes, in hotels, on farms and in schools. They forged identification and ration cards for the refugees and in some cases guided them across the border to neutral Switzerland." Le Chambon is the town that the author has Jean-Luc Leclerc, the person Jacob escapes the camp with, as an assistant pastor. He also winds up in Auschwitz for helping the Jewish people to hide from the Nazis. I really like this quote from the book, "Evil, unchecked, is prelude to genocide." I think that is something we need to never forget. 

Here are a few other quotes I think worth remembering. 

p 179 - "I guess Heine was right. Who? Heinrich Heine. The poet? Yes. ... So what did Heine say? Where books are burned, they will, in the end, burn people, too..... He really wrote that? He did. When? I don't know - 1821, '22, something like that. Maybe he was a prophet..... Maybe he was."

p 456 "..... in the end, evil did not triumph. It tried, but it did not succeed. Evil was defeated because good people rose to the challenge and refused to surrender." 

The Blender Girl by Tess Masters

The Blender Girl by Tess Masters has 100 gluten free, vegan recipes. The Blender Girl is so much more than just recipes though. In the first couple of chapters, she explains a little bit about blenders and how to use them to their fullest. Chapter 2 has lots of really great information on live enzymes, cleansing, the importance of raw foods, super foods that are packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. She also talks about how soaking improves digestion. She speaks to sprouting and milking. Some of these techniques I have already incorporated in my diet but some are new to me. I  have not tried making my own milks. I really want to have the time and energy to do so but it also seems so much easier to by almond milk from the store. 

I love her information and explanations. Many of her recipes are wonderfully easy but some of them are fairly involved. I want to get to the point where I find eating the way she speaks about easy --- sometimes it seems like alot of work. That is when I just opt for a simple salad that incorporates all the raw vegetables, seeds and nuts. It seems easier then blending it all up. I want to be a blender girl more often than I am. I am hoping these recipes will inspire me to pull out my blender every day.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for an honest review. 

What odd looking lettuce!

We have had a very cool spring and start to the summer. Cooler than normal. And my lettuce seems to love it. I grow lettuce in a pot on a table on the back porch. This way the bunnies don't get to enjoy all my lettuce. This year I just can't eat it fast enough --- it keeps growing and growing.

It looks like a small bush - doesn't it. It is extremely tasty. Kids keep teasing me that my lettuce is out of control. They say it is starting to look like a small tree - I think it looks more like a small bush. Odd for lettuce, don't you think?

Hand Vacuum for pet hair

We have a dog - a wonderful beautiful Siberia Husky - tan in color with some black. We also have a darker green couch and love seat. The cream color hair shows up so well. When the dog is in full shed as he is now - my couches just get covered in hair -- it is so bad that people don't really want to sit on them. And yes I know - we could try to get the dog to not be on the couches but my animals are part of the family. I love when they cuddle up next to me. I love the dog and cat far more than I care about furniture. 

Still there are times when I like to clean up the furniture and make it presentable. We have really struggled for years with various different vacuum cleaners. They really do the floors well but have an inability to get the dog hair off the furniture. Plus they always seem cumbersome and difficult to use on furniture. My husband (when I was complaining that the new vacuum we just bought being the absolute worst at getting the dog hair off) suggested getting one of these ---

All I can say is WOW! Love it! I am totally sold. It was not expensive at all. We got it Walmart. And WOW - it works wonderfully. It is easy to use and more importantly it actually gets the hair up. I am sooooooo impressed. Why didn't anyone tell me about these before! So I am blogging about it. If you have issues with pet hair on your furniture --- I highly recommend one of these bad boys - a Shark Hand Vacuum Model #V15Z. Works amazingly well.