Last summer, I received a copy of the No-S Diet book for review on a blog. The diet’s premise was simple enough: No snacks, no sweets, and no seconds except on days that start with an S.
At first, I scoffed. How could I make it through the day without my afternoon snack? Without my almost nightly dose of dessert? But I was stuck working at a desk most of the day, and like a lot of people in that position, had seen my weight begin to creep up. Plus, the concept seemed so simple–with no measuring, no counting, and no meal plans that forced me to run out to the store to buy a hundred different ingredients, I figured, why shouldn’t I give this a try?
I’m not a fan of most conventional medications. No matter how bad an occasional headache might get, you’ll never find me reaching for a bottle of Excedrin. The same goes for an upset stomach–I’d rather just ride it out than chug Pepto Bismol or chew those chalky tablets. Chest cold? Call me Superwoman, but I’ll pass on those harsh, syrupy cough suppressants. Instead, I turn to peppermint.
While you might keep it around for a batch of homemade thin mints or a pint of fresh mint chocolate chip ice cream, peppermint works wonders on a host of common ailments. Recognized for centuries as a cure-all, peppermint was a favorite medicine among the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. While the leaves were probably the most commonly-used form back then, today peppermint essential oil is widely available, inexpensive, and in my opinion, much more potent. You can pick up a bottle at your local health food store for instant relief from:
In the face of a late winter storm here in the Northeast, my friend Stephanie blogged about using what you already have to make snow day meals, as opposed to making a mad dash to the store to pick up the usual staples out of the fear of being snowed in for days. Now, the Washington Post’s “A Mighty Appetite” blog is busy spreading the word on its Eating Down the Fridge Challenge, taking place the week of March 9. It sounds easy enough–avoid grocery shopping for a week, instead turning to all the items that have been languishing in your pantries, cellars, fridges, and freezers since God knows when for all your eating needs.
Always up for a food-based challenge, I started thinking about what sorts of items that were tucked away deep in the corners of my own kitchen. I’m vegan, so there’s tons of dried (and canned, you got me) beans, every nut, seed, and grain you can imagine, near-expired packages of tofu, frozen berries, frozen spinach… even some frozen carrot bran muffins from Trader Joe’s. With these items in mind, I created a list of ten meals that I’ll likely be preparing this upcoming week. Given the recent news that even grass-fed beef isn’t so hot for the environment, I’ll take this as an opportunity to say that all sustainable eaters should be looking to lower their consumption of animal products.
Drippy. Itchy. Stuffy. Groggy. Sound familiar? If you regularly suffer from springtime allergies, the answer is probably yes. While loading up on the Claritins, Benadryls, or Zyrtecs is one option, you can also try some local honey.
When bees ingest the nectar from flowers, they’re also ingesting some of the plants’ pollen. This nectar is later regurgitated by the bees and stored in their honeycombs. After the bees use their wings to evaporate some of the water from the nectar, honey is created.
