An Easy Way To Eat Your Greens

Hey ladies! 

So Ive been trying to get more greens into my son. He is pretty good, he will munch on cucumbers and loves his sautéed veggies but if the lettuce isn’t crunchy he doesn’t really want it. So I am gonna talk about first the benefits of dark green veggies (spinach, kale collard greens and so on) why we need them and how much of them we need daily. Also, how to get our little munchkins to eat them with out complaints but actually get them begging for more. You’ll get my full resources and even some cute pics! 

Dark Greens:

You have your lettuces which include Romain, green leaf, butterhead, arugula. Then we go into Kale, Mustard greens, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, collard greens, Swiss chard and edible green leaves.

 At this link you will find a quick view on how these vegetables are usually prepared http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/list-dark-green-leafy-vegetables-1647.html 

Dark green vegetables contain tons of vitamins such as: A, C, E, K and B. In dark greens you’ll get benefits of antioxidants that can protect your cells. And they also contain high levels of fiber, iron, magnesium, potassium and calcium. 

 If you would like to continue your study follow this link https://www.ars.usda.gov/plains-area/gfnd/gfhnrc/docs/news-2013/dark-green-leafy-vegetables/

Now, like I said my son won’t just sit there and munch on some spinach (and usually my husband complains if I only put that on his salad 🙄 men 🤦‍♀️ smh) so I had to get creative. Jr lovvvvves fruit smoothies. So I decided to just blend the stuff up! He will drink two to three sippie cups full and his tummy will be happy, And I will be happy because he will be in taking his greens and not just having apple juice all day. See the problem with just juice from the store is that you get that sugar content with out any fiber and when there is no fiber it only take moments for the sugar to get sucked up. Where as the fiber will help your body slowly process sugars. So even though in the smoothie it’s still all liquified you still get all that great fiber! So real mom talk here... your child will not have a sugar high and he will have super awesome poops 💩!! 

Side note: store bought juice is also all heated up so you’re getting straight sugar and no benefits from the juice. If you still want to give your child juice I suggest to water it down. They will barely know the difference if at all. 

If you juice at home try to do less apples and sweet fruits and more veg like carrots, beets and greens. 

So my secret to getting jr to intake good greens is to make a smoothie pretty much every day. I’ve gotten to the point where I just leave the blender on my counter (which has freed up some much needed cabinet space) and when I am done blending all I do is rinse the blender real quick. If you don’t let it sit in the sink all day it is crazy easy to rinse or give a light washing and it’s clean for the next use. 

His smoothie contains: 

Frozen fruit

As much spinach that I can stuff into the blender

Small handful of arugula (this does have a strong taste)

Two or three spoonfuls of whole milk yogurt
Chia seeds 

Children vitamins added (this is completely optional) 

Spirulina powder

You could add in more veg too or different powder blends that meet your own family’s needs. 

“According to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, you should consume between five and 13 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. This is equivalent to about 2 1/2 to 6 1/2 cups daily, depending on the amount of calories you need to consume for your weight and level of activity.”

Now, I know a lot of moms that are like, “if the smoothie doesn’t look pink or beautiful my family won’t touch it!” Well, I get that, and trust me these smoothies will either look brown or green. But if you can get them past the color the taste is amazing they won’t care about the looks. Just don’t put it in a clear glass and they won’t even care! Or for my son I call it his green goblin smoothie  or the hulks juice and I make it into a silly thing and he thinks it’s fun and hilarious. 

- Rachel 

DIY Makeup Remover Wipes

You come home from work, or school, or a night out and what's the last thing you want to do? Sit there and wash your face to get all your makeup off. How do I know? Cause I'm with you. Sure you can buy a pack of makeup wipes but lets face it who knows what's in them and they aren't cheap! Let's think of it this way, say you buy a pack once every month (typically there's 25 in a pack). It's about $6.00 for the Neutrogena makeup removing wipes, that's an extra $72.00 a year you're spending on a wipe.
 For me that puts a lot of things in perspective, especially when makeup removing wipes are so easy to make with things you may have at home, and if you don't already have them at home the products used have lots of other household uses. Today I'm gonna show you how I make my own makeup removing wipes!

Here's what you'll need:

- a jar ( I used an old tea tree wipe container)
- Cotton Rounds
- 1 tsp of Castille Soap
- 1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp of Jojoba or Coconut Oil
- Water
- Essential Oils ( I forwent the oils because I used scented castille soap.)

Directions:

1. Mix up the castille soap and either coconut or jojoba oil.

2. Place cotton rounds in jar. Pour soap and oil mixture over top making sure to press down so the rounds absorb the mixture.

3. Pour in just enough water to dampen the rounds. Give a good shake.

That's it! Takes all of about 10 min. Your total investment if you don't have the supplies? It's about $23.00. If only using these products for the wipes thats $23.00 a year vs $72.00 a year. However, the castille soap makes for a great household cleaner and you can check out our article on Coconut oil here to see its many uses as well.

So if you want a great makeup remover thats easy, affordable, and you know what's in it; try this out and let us know what you think in the comments below.

- G

Mexican Chickpea Wrap

I get bored very easily. As much as I love a good salad, I can only eat so many before I never want to see another salad again. I feel the same way about chicken and beef. I'm also an extremely busy woman. I'm a student, I work, and I also try to make time for my significant other, my family, and friends. Therefore, I don't have time to sit and really think about what I'm gonna make behold my quick, easy, and HEALTHY Mexican Chickpea Wrap!

So here's what you'll need:
- Gluten free wraps
- 1/4 cup Organic Chickpeas
- 1 Tbsp of Taco Seasoning
- Organic Salsa
- Pepper Jack Cheese
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Jalapenos

Directions:

1. Toss chickpeas in taco seasoning and salsa. Microwave for 3 minutes until warm.

2. Put chickpeas, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and jalapenos in wrap and roll it up.

DONE! It's that easy and quick!

Enjoy,

Giuliana

November Guest ❤️Sarah❤️

Hey everyone 👋🏼

My name is Sarah Deck. I’m a 26 year old mom of 2 living the dream in Jacksonville, FL and I’m passionate about health, loving people, emojis, family, and coffee (because, coffee LOL). 

I became a mom almost 3 years ago and I can honestly say that is when my life completely changed. 

Most of my teen and college age years I was lacking confidence in who God created me to be.

I felt lonely, constantly compared myself to others (us girls can be so silly), and believed the lies that says I wasn’t good enough. 

I would talk down to myself for not looking a certain way, punish myself for my eating habits and didn’t believe I could ever be successful. 

It was a terrible time for me because I constantly let those lies define who I was. 

I stopped living life believing I was a beautiful person who was created to do great things. 

I stopped doing things I loved.

I just let the lies own me.

And they owned me in every area of life. Friends, work, family, my marriage and parenthood. 

It kept me from being the woman God called me to be.

When my son was about to turn one, I knew I needed to make a change. I needed to work on changing this mindset that had held me back for so long. 

One day scrolling through Facebook I saw a friend post about how she lost thirty pounds. Then a few days later she’s telling Facebook that she’s paying for her groceries each week being a health coach from home.

At this point I’m saying “well I want to get paid at home AND look great.” 🙋🏻 

So I message her. And she tells me about this cool coaching thing she does and this amazing program and for the first time in such a long time I took a chance. 

I’ll be honest and say I didn’t think I would follow through. I thought I would only stick it out for a few days. 

Guys, I’m still doing it two years later!!! 

Because when I took this leap it wasn’t just to be a certain pant size or look a certain way. 

I wanted to stop believing the lies and be the woman I knew I was created to be. 

And every day I got stronger and stronger! The best part was that as I grew more and more as a person I started to notice I was in the best shape of my life. 

I gained confidence I never had, loved motherhood and as I grew more I was able to step into community and build amazing friendships. 

It wasn’t easy. There were tough days and there still are but every second is worth it. 

I know what your thinking. I’m too busy. I can’t make that change. That feels impossible. 

I know, I was there too.

But it came down to doing a few things every day that made the difference.

1. ENJOY the process. This isn’t a quick fix. It takes work. But don’t forget that is the small victories that bring you to the big ones. So celebrate every little victory. 
2. Uplift yourself everyday. Listen to a podcast, look at yourself in the mirror and instead of seeing the things you don’t like point out what you like about yourself, make a list of the qualities you love most about yourself and brag about them! You spend the most time each day with yourself so treat yourself the way you lovingly treat others! 💕
3. Find accountability. Join a group, find a club, go to a mommy and me outing! Doing life with others who are like minded and uplifting changes everything. Where there’s accountability we focus on success rather than failure. It’s where our goals become a reality! If you need help finding accountability, don’t be afraid to reach out- my tribe and I have room for you ❤️ email me at skaysenesi@gmail if you want! 

So friend. Stop believing those lies. Know you deserve the BEST and go start succeeding. 

The best is yet to come!

Cheering you on,

💕-Sarah 

Banana Sorbet

Recipe:

2 Bananas 

Handful of Strawberries 

                        Chunk of Dark Chocolate (I used 70% organic dark chocolate)

Directions:

Blend up banana until smooth (thick but smooth). 

Add in strawberries and blend. 

Lastly sprinkle in chunked dark chocolate. And blitz, don't smoothly blend. This will create the chocolate chunks or chips. 

Freeze. The shorter you freeze the more of a sorbet it is, the longer you freeze you will get more of an ice cream texture. It's just your preference. 

Enjoy your guilt free delicious snack! 

-Rachel 

Thirsty Thursday Cucumber Juice

Ingredients:

1 Cucumber (not peeled) 

Handful of mint 

Half of a peeled lemon

Juice all together and pour over a few frozen strawberries. Top it off with a sprig of mint and enjoy!

Although a bit bitter, this still refreshing drink gives you a boost of positivity. While the Cucumber heals the skin the lemon is hard at work aiding your digestion and the mint gives your breath a fresh burst.