Author Archive | Jennie Lyon

Breakfast Bounty: Creating Tasty & Green Morning Meals

It’s no secret that breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. You won’t get very far through your day without the chance to first eat something, and the type of food you eat will always impact the way you feel for hours yet to come. Of course, for many people, a slice of toast or a quick bowl of cereal is enough, though this doesn’t exactly create a thrilling breakfast experience. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring a range of healthy, delicious, and easy to prepare breakfast dishes for you to enjoy.

Everything Oats

Oats are one of the healthiest grains grown by humans in the modern world. They are gluten-free, along with being packed with essential vitamins and nutrients that will keep your body running smoothly. Studies have even shown that regular consumption of oats can lower your chances of suffering from heart conditions in the future, while also lowering your blood sugar and helping you to lose weight. Of course, though, how exactly should you be eating your oats?

  • Oatmeal

Oatmeal has long been one of the most popular breakfast options in the world, with loads of people across the globe using this food source to fuel their days. You can learn more about oatmeal and gluten intolerance online, with loads of resources giving you the chance to soak up information about the type of food.

  • Overnight Oats

Similar to oatmeal, overnight oats will usually come in the form of a range of ingredients that have been allowed to mingle with oats for a long period (usually overnight). This enables you to create rich flavors and complex meals with barely any work, all while benefiting from the health aspects of oats.

  • Oatcakes

Similar to pancakes in their form, oatcakes offer a great alternative to this traditional breakfast treat. You can buy ready-made oatcakes, though they are also nice and easy to make for yourself if you’d prefer. You can treat these exactly how you’d treat pancakes, though it’s worth choosing things like fruit over sugar and chocolate.

Not only are oats really healthy, but they are also good for the environment. Unlike other crops, oats can be grown year in year out, all without harming the quality of the soil they are grown in. This means that farmers can continue to grow oats in fields that would otherwise have to take long breaks.

Fruity Fruity

Fruits have been on the menu for humans for their entire existence, and it’s no wonder that we like them so much; they’re an excellent natural source of vitamins and nutrients. This makes fruit great for breakfast, though most people will find it a little unsatisfying to eat raw fruit on its own. Let’s take a look at some of the best breakfast options available for those who love fruit.

  • Fruit & Yogurt: Yogurt is an excellent source of calcium, along with loads of other vitamins and minerals that your body needs. Plain Greek yogurt is the best of the bunch, but it will be a little boring without some fruit to liven things up. Chopped fruit in yogurt is a great way to start your day.
  • Smoothies: Making fruit into a drink can be a great way to improve the way that it tastes, while also giving you the chance to enjoy an easy breakfast that can be taken anywhere. Smoothies have long been a popular choice for health enthusiasts, providing you with a way to enjoy loads of fruit and veg without having to eat it raw.
  • Fruit Salads: Mixing chopped fruit with a little bit of fruit juice sounds nice and easy, right? Fruit salads provide an excellent breakfast option for those with limited time on their hands. Pre-made fruit salads tend to be very sugary, but you can check the pack to make sure that you’re not eating something bad here.

As you probably know, fruits come from plants, and plants are largely made from carbon. This carbon is drawn from carbon dioxide in the air; one of the primary components of climate change. With more and more fruit trees being planted, the impact of human activity could be drastically reduced.

Cereals

It can be all too easy to assume that something like cereal will be too boring for your morning meal. In reality, though, there are loads of different cereal options out there, and you need only find one that you like to enjoy a healthy and green breakfast each day. Granola is a great place to start with this, with options like muesli also appealing to a lot of people. When looking for cereals, you should always avoid those that come in colorful packets that are designed for children.

While not every cereal manufacturer is green, it’s easy to find examples that reflect your passion for the environment when you’re looking at healthier cereals. It’s always worth doing some research before you buy products like this, with companies like Nestle doing a good job to make their products look ethical and green, but the reality of these products being really quite different.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to kickstart a life of better breakfasts. It can be hard to make sure that your morning meals tick all of the boxes, but there are loads of options on the market that can help with this. From oatmeal to cereal, you’ve never had a wider range of breakfast options available, and this makes it easy to find options that you like and are good for your body.

Your Green Festive Look, But In Red!

Have you already started the countdown to the festive season? 

Most of us have! There are only a few weeks left to get your Christmas plans ready. However, with about 6 weeks before Christmas, you can still make it count and create a sustainable festive look. It’s easy to panic and choose easy solutions. But before you turn to the high street brands, here are some ideas to embrace the Christmas colors while going green. 

It’s hard to think of the festive season without thinking of Santa’s costume, Rudolph’s nose, and the yummy candy canes. Red is the color of Christmas, and that could be your festive look this year. Are you ready for a red Christmas that is green? 

Warm henna hues for your hair

If you are familiar with home DIY kits for hair dyes, you probably already have found a few trustworthy brands that are good for your hair and the environment. Natural hair dyes are safe for the planet, as they don’t cause any damage when you wash them away in the sink. More importantly, because of their low chemical content, they are gentle on your hair. Brands such as Aveda and Original & Mineral refer to their dye’s formulas as clean and eco-conscious technology. Alternatively, if you prefer a subtle red nuance, you can also try henna for the hair which gives a warm, reddish glow to most hair colors. If you’re new to using henna, be aware that it may take two to three applications to get it right. But the product is safe to use and reuse. 

Warm eyeshadow and blush palette

With plenty of skin-safe and gentle make-up products available, it can be challenging to find the right thing for you. When it comes to your Christmas look, you may want to splurge on the purchase of a vegan eyeshadow palette buy here for a warm look. You can use burgundy or maroon hues for a toned-down look. If you are feeling more adventurous, a trendy pink can turn heads around the Christmas dinner table. 

Your very unique Christmas dress

A little DIY can go a long way to getting your Christmas dress ready. You’ll find plenty of fabrics that have been colored using natural dyes and produced sustainably. Ecological textiles are typically available from specialist shops online. Sewing a simple dress can be a fun Christmas challenge. With a lot of tutorials available, you can rely on free material for guidance. If you are unsure how to proceed, it can be helpful to use one of your dresses as a basic pattern to follow. 

Eco-friendly tights that set the mood

Are tights eco-friendly? Not all tights are sustainably produced, but a lot of brands have green concerns. Swedish stockings recycle used tights from any brands. The brand also cuts down on water use and relies on vegan dyes only. So you can showcase your legs with an elegant design that doesn’t damage the planet. 

Are you ready to make your Christmas look go further? Looking your best for a stylish celebration at home doesn’t have to be damaging for the planet. You can be pretty in red while protecting our green and blue planet.

Sprouted Kitchen’s Peach Creme with Gingersnap Crust

OK, so I have a sweet tooth, it is true. I love a little something sweet each day and today I am in love with the Peach Creme with Gingersnap Crust from one of my favorite blogs Sprouted Kitchen. It is a fab blog created by a lovely gal named Sara who cooks the most amazing recipes using only local and organic foods. Her love, Hugh does all of the fab photography. I will be featuring some of my favorite recipes from Sprouted Kitchen on Sweet Greens for you to enjoy. Please visit Sprouted Kitchen for more amazing recipes and photography.

Ingredients:

The science of this pie is that the lemon reacts with the milk products to help the filling firm up. Be sure to give it ample time to do its thing before serving.

What you will need:

* The Crust

10 oz. Gingersnap Cookies
3 Tbsp. Butter

* The Filling

1 14 oz. Can Organic Sweetened Condensed Milk {low fat optional}
½ Cup Crème Fraiche
ÂĽ Cup Fresh Lemon Juice
1 tbsp. Cinnamon
1 ÂĽ Cup Ripe Peaches, Peeled and Diced

Directions:

1. In a food processor, grind the gingersnap cookies. Add the butter and pulse to combine.
2. Press the cookie mixture evenly into the sides and bottom of a 9’’ glass pie pan. Pop this in the freezer while preparing the filling.
3. In a bowl, whisk the condensed milk, crème fraiche, lemon juice, and cinnamon together. Give the peach pieces a good squeeze in your fist to crush them up a bit, and add to the cream mixture. Whisk together. Add the filling to the chilled cookie crust.
4. Let the pie firm up in the fridge for at LEAST 4 hours. We put ours in the freezer, and then let it sit for a bit before serving.

What do you think?
Enjoy.

Stress Relief Tips You Can Use Today

 

Feeling stressed out? Feel like you need a break, but can’t find the time to take one? Here are some simple green tips to help you let go of the stress you are feeling, relax, and say awwww. I do at least one of these things every day, usually more and it really helps to keep my stress level down and positive energy up.

* Grab a steaming cup of coffee, tea, chai, or cocoa and find somewhere cozy and quiet to enjoy just one cup. I start my day with a nice cup of decaf coffee and then have a cup of tea at the end of my workday and it always relaxes me.

* Spend 30 minutes doing an outside activity that you love. Some of our favorites {Jayson and I}are stopping at the driving range to hit a bucket of balls, going for a bike ride, gardening, or taking a walk by the stream. We try to do at least one of these things every night after dinner.

* Spend at least 20 minutes a day getting some type of exercise. My favorites are aerobics, yoga, cycling, and swimming. I exercise every day because I have found it to be the one thing that has the largest impact on my mental and physical well being.

* Take a soothing bath with a relaxing essential oil such as lavender. I don’t do this nearly as often as I would like, maybe once a month because I worry about wasting so much water, therefore it isn’t relaxing for me.

* Curl up in a nice cozy spot with a good book, journal, or your iPod and unwind. Jayson and I read every night and it is much more relaxing than watching TV.

* Enjoy a nice glass of biodynamic or Organic wine on your patio or outside space. My favorites wines are Jayson’s Homemade Wine, Parducci’s, and Quivira Vineyards.

* Snuggle up with your favorite furry friend or loved one. Olive our French Bulldog is excellent for this, bulldogs think they are lap dogs and love to cuddle, Jayson is pretty good at this as well. 

* Spend 15 minutes meditating. Find somewhere quiet, sit, breath slowing (in and out through your nose) and clear your mind of all of the stresses of the current day, this is excellent for relaxation.

How do you relax and free yourself from stress?
What have you found to be the most relaxing activity that you do?

How To Pick The Right Eco-Friendly Hair Color For You

When you get dressed in the morning, you can pick and choose your outfit based on your mood or how you would like to come across on that day. Your clothes say so much about you, but then so does your hair. Unfortunately with your hair, you are more limited in what you can do it on a daily basis. 

You could curl or straighten your hair. You could dress it up with bows, ribbons, clips, and slides, and you could tie it up in all manner of ways. But there is one thing that you won’t be able to do with your hair very easily, or on a whim, and that is to change its color. 

Of course, you can get box dyes in all manner of colors. Some of these will be permanent, some will be semi-permanent, and some will wash out after just a couple of washes. But, if you want a long-lasting color that looks the part, you’ll need to go to the hairstylist and get your hair done professionally. And, when you do this, your hair is destined to stay this color for a long time yet. 

With all of this in mind, it is essential that you do some research and really think about which hair color is for you. You may really love the look of a certain color that is in style, but before you rush off to find out how to get mushroom brown hair, you’ll need to know that it is going to look great on you. 

In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can pick the right hair color for you. We’ll also be talking about how you can do this in an eco-friendly way. 

Use a Virtual “Try On”

Some hair dye websites will let you do a virtual try-on for your hair color. Through the wonder of technology, it is possible to take a photo or video of your face and using augmented reality to show it with your new hair color in place of your existing hair. This is a handy tool that the likes of Loreal, Garnier, and many more hair dye manufacturers have on their websites. 

Try On A Wig

If you want to see how you would look with a certain color hair, then you could try on a wig and see how that will make you look. Of course, using a wig will only give you an idea as it can be hard to match the exact shade to how your hair will eventually look. 

It is important that you look for an eco-friendly wig. While synthetic hair may be convenient, it is certainly not great for the environment. Synthetic wigs are in no way biodegradable, meaning that when you’re done with them, they’ll stay around landfills forever. Instead of buying synthetic, you could try buying a natural wig. 

Don’t Go Too Far Away From Your Natural Color 

When it comes to your hair, the more natural it looks the better. As a rule of thumb, they say that you shouldn’t stray too far from your own color hair. Two shades lighter or two shades darker should be where you should be looking to go. If you go too dark for your natural skin color that your skin will look washed out, if you go to pale, it will probably also have a similar effect. If you are in doubt, you could dip dye your tips for a more gradual fade to a different color. 

Go For Warm Colors On Warm Skin Tones

One of the most important things that your hair should match is your skin tone. When it comes to picking which hair color is right for you, you should always look at your skin tone. If you have either a pink, red, olive or yellow skin tone, then you will be able to go for warmer skin tones such as luxurious auburn browns or golden blondes. 

If You Have A Cooler Skin Tone Go For A Cooler Color 

If you have a cooler skin tone with a hint of blue to it, then you should go for a cooler color. There is quite a lot that you can go for here, think about going for red hair with a purple tint to it, or even a blue-tinted ash blond. 

Take It Slow

If you are looking for a real departure from your existing color then you should take your time. If you want to go from a darker color to a blonde, then you should try a neutral color first then work up to the lighter shades. 

Go To Town On Your Hair 

Can’t decide on one colour? Why settle for just one? You could have a rainbow in your hair. Why not mix it up and have multicolored hair? Or, you could have an ombre look or a gradual transition from darker to lighter. 

Finding An Eco-Friendly Hair Dye 

Before you dye your hair, you should make sure that the dye that you are using is eco-friendly. This means finding a product that is both sustainable and that has not been tested on animals. 

Think about using natural hair dyes. Use henna to color your hair. Lush make a great zero waste henna hair dye which is available in four shades- this comes in a bar form meaning there is no packaging either. You may also want to check out Hair Mud which is made from herbs, leaf powers, walnut shells, and petals.