Obesity Pop! All Natural

image source: natural news

I stumbled across this clip art the other night and found myself cracking up, before you judge my lameness understand what got me...
  1. I totally relate to that mother, with what appears to be a little slobber on the side of her lip and the screaming toddler in the front of the cart.
  2. I have desperately bought those ADHD Flakes, cracked them open and handed them to my screaming monster so I could finish shopping. 
  3. The Obesity Pops- All Natural cracked me up!!
  4. Oddly, when I go down certain aisles I think this about SO many products... simply, we have a whole lot of CRAP choices at fingers length.

Try This: Cleanest Bar in Town: LaraBar


If I had to choose the cleanest bar, hands down the LaraBar wins! They are the cleanest snack bar on the market with a max of 9 ingredients. There are numerous flavors and appeal to a wide range of taste buds and *kid approved

These bars are well suited for special dietary restrictions due to the simple, clean product ingredients. You can find them in the snack aisle or in the supplement section (near the vitamins and protein mixes) of most grocery stores. 


Special Diet Considerations Courtesy LaraBar.com
GLUTEN FREE/CELIACS LÄRABAR®, über® and Jŏcalat® are Gluten Free. They have no gluten-containing ingredients, and we have manufacturing controls in place to ensure that there are no cross-contact concerns. We also periodically verify our practices using Gliadin gluten testing.
NUT ALLERGIES  We make the following products that contain peanuts: LÄRABAR Peanut Butter Cookie, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, and über Roasted Nut Roll. If you have questions regarding specific nut allergies, please call 800-543-2147.
RAW DIET  Many raw foodists enjoy our products as part of their diet.  However, because there is no consistent definition for what can be labeled as “raw,” we have chosen to take the word raw off our label.  LÄRABAR products are made by a simple process in which fruit, nuts, and spices are ground and mixed together. They are not baked or cooked. We use simple ingredients, as close to their natural state as possible.  Practitioners of the Raw Diet should be aware that to ensure the safety of our products some of our nut ingredients are steamed or roasted and our few juice concentrates are pasteurized.
VEGAN/VEGETARIAN  LÄRABAR and Jŏcalat are made entirely from plant-based foods. Though the vast majority of chocolate chips in the world are made with dairy, soy or both, we specifically asked our supplier to provide us with chocolate chips which are Vegan—containing no dairy. While no dairy products are used to make our chocolate chips, they are made on a line which also produces chocolate chips made with dairy products.  Due to the potential for cross-contact between the types of chocolate chips made at the facility, the chips we use may contain trace amounts of dairy from those other chips; thus we cannot claim that our chocolate chip flavor varieties are Vegan. Due to the use of honey, über is not certified as Vegan.
SOY  With the exception of our chocolate chip varieties, LÄRABAR bars do not contain soy or soy derivatives.  We do not claim soy-free on the flavors containing chocolate chips because our chocolate chips are made on a line which also produces chips made with soy.  Due to possible cross-contact, the chips we use may contain trace amounts of soy from other chips made at the facility.

Visit HERE to see all the different bars!

*kid approved = MY kids approve

Redneck Cantaloupe


Here, in Southeast Texas, it is pretty common place to drive passed someone and see them in their yard burning stuff. We Southerner's call this designated spot a burn pile and most people have one in their backyard. Now, what is burned depends on the level of country living you fall into. I have a burn pile but I like to dress it up and refer to it as a fire pit... bricks stacked and formed into a circle, simple. We burn sticks, grass cuttings, yard debris and paper products. Some people burn everything, and I mean EVERYTHING (remember the level of country living I mentioned earlier). 

Which brings me to my latest burn pile discovery. I stopped at my grandma's house and noticed that there were three bags of trash on the porch. I asked her why they were not in her dumpster. She laughed and told me that it wasn't trash and that there were cantaloupe plants that started growing out of the bags! My uncle had went and cleaned my mom's burn pile (removed the excess ashes) and bagged up the ashes to throw away with the upcoming trash day. My mom likes cantaloupe and had tossed her rinds near her burn pile and never gave it another thought. The cantaloupe seeds from the rinds were mixed with the ashes my uncle gathered... add a two day rain shower and poof you've got cantaloupe plants! 

INGREDIENTS:
If you think about it, it is the perfect place for seeds to grow. The ash from this burn pile is predominately wood ash and it is rich in nitrogen which promotes leaf growth. Add a little rain shower and you have an ashy garden. 

I do not recommend anyone grow their garden vegetables or fruits in this setting. Gardening is a science and I do not pretend or claim to be an authority on gardening in any aspect. I am a receiver of master gardeners... they grow it and I eat it! 

In the event that these plants grow what I refer to as Redneck Cantaloupe, I highly doubt I will be one of the taste testers :) But it has been a fun teaching tool with my kids and they have had a fun time checking on the "trash plants" when we go to visit.

Why is it that when I try hard to not kill a plant it dies but a pile of trash on a porch can yield a fruit plant?! 
#nutritionwithnat