August Favourites

Here we are again 

Another month has flown by in what seems like record time and I've once again compiled a list of things I found myself using more often than not. 

So without further ado...

Little Chicken Charlie's August Favourites

Can I just say that dry shampoo has been my life saver the last few months. Remember the time before kids when you had time to take care of yourself? You showered every day, shaved your legs, did your hair and took 20 minutes to half an hour to precisely apply your makeup. Well, with an energetic toddler on my hands right now, I'm lucky if I can find time to use the bathroom (and even when I do, guess who's right behind me banging on the door). I'm not going to sugar coat it, I've gone through 2 of these bad boys this month.  I mean it's not like I never shower - I do have some standards - but I have always had extremely oily hair. I'm not exaggerating when I say this, I can shower on a thursday night and by friday morning my hair is starting to get that wonderful oily film. Usually I'll just leave it until I find time to shower next, but If I have to venture out the door and be seen in public, you better believe I'm using dry shampoo. Another useful tidbit I've recently discovered about this stuff, if you have freshly washed hair and need to heat style it, spray some dry shampoo on the areas you're styling and it will help hold the curl longer. 

A bit of a funny story behind this bottle of vegan worcestershire sauce. So I've been wanting to make the Oh She Glows Maple Baked Beans on Toast for a while now, but the only place I could find vegan worcestershire sauce was on amazon. The guy selling it must have had a few loose screws because he was charging $80 for it. Is there something spectacular about this sauce that I don't know about? Fast forward a week to when we took a family trip up north to visit Andrew's Oma. Myself, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law took a drive in to town and stopped in the health food store. I remembered the beans I've been wanting to try, but couldn't for the life of me think of the one ingredient I still needed to get. I kept telling them "Guys, It starts with a "T" and it's something you usually have in your pantry." First of all it's never been in my pantry so I don't know where I got that from...and "T"?? Come on Christina. Anyways, I finally got to try the beans (which of course were great - I did tweak a few things at the end to suit my taste) and this is something that will get a lot of use in the future. 

You guys may remember a week or two ago when I posted my recipe for a blueberry matcha smoothie. I've been using this stuff up like crazy this month, either in the smoothie or just as a straight green tea. If you don't know what matcha is, it's a powdered Japanese green tea that is made by drying and then stone grinding whole tea leaves. It has a slew of health benefits and I always feel energized and awake after a cup. Unfortunately, it is not the cheapest tea I've ever had ($20 for 50g at David's Tea) but it is something I will continue to add in to my diet. If you want to try the Blueberry Matcha Smoothie you can find the recipe here along with a bit more information on the benefits of this green tea

I have a love-hate relationship with this mascara. I LOVE the mascara...I hate the price. This is a sample size that was in my august Ipsy bag and from the moment I put it on, I was in love. Hello baby doll lashes!! I have never had a mascara give me the length that this one did - and all with no clumps (a huge plus). This is the second Urban Decay product I've gotten in an Ipsy bag and I have to say, I'm kind of loving this brand. Being a girl that usually frequents drug stores to purchase her makeup, the $22 price tag on this mascara kind of sent me in to cardiac arrest. But, alas, I bit the bullet and bought the full sized version online from Sephora. It does come with a a separate last primer as well (as if that makes what I spent hurt any less). If you are looking for a new awesome mascara and you don't mind spending a small fortune on it, you can find it here.

So I'm just going to say it, I have no talent for diy nail art. Never have and I recon I never will. I just don't have a steady enough hand I guess. So, I'm a girl that relies on nail stickers if I want something a little different. I saw these at Shoppers Drug Mart a few weeks ago and I'm a sucker for bright colours and packaging, so I was pretty much sold before I even really knew what they were. They're exactly what they sound like. Remember those water transfer tattoos you used to cover yourself in as a kid? Yea, exactly like that but for your nails. I loved the design of these and for $4 with two applications worth (plus a few extra because we all know there's that one nail that just will not co-operate no matter what you do) I didn't feel so bad about picking up three packs. My first attempt was on clear nails, but you can use a coloured nail polish as the base before putting on the tattoo. I will mention that I had to apply a clear coat on top every few days because I did start to notice some peeling. But for what I put my nails through every day they did pretty a pretty good job staying on. 

Last but certainly not least, Mary's Organic Crackers. I bought these on a whim at Target one day. I had a craving for cheese and crackers, but I wanted something a bit healthier than a Triscuit. I'm so glad I picked these up. At first, it was a bit strange biting in to a cracker where I could see almost every ingredient and it took a while for me to get used to the taste (it's not bad but different from the usual salty crackers), but man oh man the crunch. These crackers have an awesome crunch factor. They are wheat free, gluten free, non-gmo, vegan, dairy free, organic, whole grain, etc, etc, etc. These crackers are now a must in my pantry. The only problem with these crackers is how fragile they are. Although most of the crackers in the box were whole, there were a lot of broken pieces at the bottom of the bag. Still won't stop me from buying another box...or two.

That's it folks! All of my favourite things from the month of August. I hope you enjoyed.

Until next time

Green Juice, Little Chicken Style

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you've probably noticed that I've gotten back in to juicing...in a big way. 

Some of you may remember when I decided to put my sanity to the test and attempt to complete a 10 day juice cleanse. There were several times during the first 3 days that I actually thought I was going crazy. Who in their right mind would want to do this to themselves? The headaches, the crazy mood swings, being in a constant fog and wanting to eat anything...and I mean ANYTHING that crossed your path. I swear at one point my cat started to look like a ham sandwich. But I kept telling myself over and over again what good I was doing for my body and my health and that it would get easier - and it did. By day 4 I was a pro. I no longer had insane cravings for solid food, the headaches were gone, my energy levels were through the roof and (thankfully for my husband) my mood was better than ever (not to mention I ended up losing 18lbs after it was over). I finished my 10 days and continued adding juice in to my diet for a few weeks after.

That was back in March.

Between then and now there have been a countless number of times that I wanted to get back in to juicing, but for one reason or another, I never did. Until now

I had to get myself back in to the mentality that I'm the only one that can change myself. Nobody was going to force me or baby me back in to juicing - I just had to do it. So once again, to pump myself up for it and re-educate myself, I watched the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead." It did the trick and the next day I dusted off my poor, neglected juicer and started juicing. The first juice I made was my old favourite...green juice! Oh the smell...it instantly brought me back to the last few days of my juice cleanse when I felt the best I had felt in a long long time.

Since I wish that everyone could feel that amazing, I'm going to share with you my go-to recipe for green juice.

Green Juice, Little Chicken Style

Ingredients:

• 3 granny smith apples (seeds removed)
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 cucumber (I have used both field and english and both are equally delicious)
• 4-6 kale leaves (I use more if the leaves are smaller and I keep stems attached)
• 4-5 dandelion leaves
• 1 slice of lemon (Cut lemon in half, then cut one half in to 3 slices)
• 1 slice of ginger (See note below) 

This will make me roughly 27-30 oz of juice (depending on the size of all the produce). I usually start with my leafy greens and then work my way to the apples. It was trial and error for me in the beginning to get the right amount of each ingredient so that the juice didn't taste awful. This has quickly become my favourite juice and I try to have one at least every other day.

  

Note: When I first started making green juice I made the mistake of putting in A LOT of ginger. After that fiasco I started with a very small piece of ginger and gradually increased the amount to what I use now, which is roughly the size of dried apricot.

Moving on from green to pink

Every saturday in the summer right after swimming lessons, Little Chicken, myself and my husband go to our local Farmers Market. This past Saturday we stocked up. One thing about juicing is that you go through an insane amount of produce. We got almost everything I need for my green juice and then a few extras to try out some new juice recipes. 

Since it seems we've finally been getting some hot summer weather here (right in time for kids to go back to school) and that baby watermelon from the market was taking up so much room in our fridge, I decided to turn it into delightfully pink, refreshing juice. I just love the colour of watermelon juice. It's so girly. 

I saved about 2 cups of the watermelon juice to make a delicious watermelon, strawberry smoothie. 

So simple and so refreshing. 

I added about 1 1/2 cups of fresh market strawberries, 2 cups of watermelon juice and 3 ice cubes to my Nutribullet and blended. 

The perfect drink to help hold on to those last summer days

Enjoy

Like A Big Pizza Pie

Has anyone looked outside recently? It's yellow. It's 8pm as I write this and I'm sitting at my desk looking out the window...and it's yellow outside. Weird.

Anyways

Last week when I roasted tomatoes to make the Oh She Glows Creamy Roasted Tomato, Garlic & Onion Coconut Soup , I roasted extra tomatoes so I could try out her recipe for tomato basil pesto. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with it at the time, but I figured something would come up eventually. Fast forward to a relatively empty pantry and a fridge desperately in need of a re-stock. I was raiding our cupboards trying to think of something I could throw together for a lunch for me and Chicken when I spotted the last two whole wheat tortilla shells. Perfect opportunity to try the tomato basil pesto. I gathered what few veggies we had in our crisper and quickly threw together a veggie tortilla pizza.

Used the Tomato Basil Pesto as the base 

Added a few veggies and some shredded cheese

Voila! Delicious pizza

From start to finish this probably took about 30 minutes and I loved the basil pesto as a sauce for this pizza - it was so full of flavour. 

I've reserved the rest of the sauce to use in a pasta dish for dinner later this week, which I'm sure will be delicious.

If you want to try out this really simple pesto recipe for yourself, you can find it here.

Enjoy