Giveaway winner!

You wouldn't think it would be that hard to get to the computer, enter some numbers in at random.org and choose a winner for the Organic Manifesto Book Giveaway! But somehow, it's taken me a week to actually do it! Life has been busy around here, but I have finally chosen a winner...

Entry #11: Alex from A Moderate Life

Alex, I'll need your contact information to send you this great book. I hope you enjoy it!

More posts coming up soon...

Book Review and Giveaway: Organic Manifesto

I'll admit it. When I am making food choices for my family, I am much more concerned about our health than about the greater good. The more I read, and the more I learn, the more I realize that they are linked. People can't be healthy if the environment isn't. We are all connected. This book helped me see the bigger picture-- what organic means for the earth.

I buy a lot of organic IF. I buy organic IF it's not too much more money. I buy organic IF it's in the budget. I buy organic IF the produce I'm buying is on the dirty dozen list. I'd love to say this book made me see the error of my ways and I will only buy organic from here on out. The truth is, we are on a budget, and there have to be some "ifs" if I am going to stick to it. But I think reading this book and better undertanding the consequences of chemical farming will cause me to think even more about getting that chemically raised food. Maybe if I can't afford it from now on I'll just skip it.

I want to get the message out about organics, so I am giving away a copy of Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale.

Any of the following are good for one entry:

1. Follow or subscribe to this blog via email and let me know that you do in a comment below.
2. Leave a comment telling why you want to learn more about gong organic.
3. Share this giveaway with a friend on email, facebook, twitter or a blog; each good for one entry.

I'll choose the winner at random at midnight on July 7th. This giveaway is only open to residents of the continental U.S. Good luck!

This post is part of Tasty Tuesday Parade, Tempt my Tummy Tuesdays, Delicious Dishes and Two For Tuesday.

Giveaway winner announced

Congratulations Tiffany!

You are the winner of $25 of jewelry from Sontina's creations.

(The winner was picked at random from random.org.)

I will contact you with details.

For those of you who didn't win, check out her website and great prices so that you can order your own beautiful jewelry creation!

$25 of gorgeous jewelry--giveaway!!

Drum roll please....

I am excited to announce a great jewelry giveaway.

Sontina of Sontina's Creations has graciously agreed to giveaway $25 worth of her gorgeous jewelry!

This is one of a kind, hand crafted, wearable art.

Her jewelry is affordable, so even if you don't win this giveaway, if you're in need of some jewelry (or a gift) be sure to support this small business owner and spread the word about her new business!

Ways to enter:
(There are a total of 5 possible entries.)

1. Visit the website and then come back here and tell us what you like.
2. Subscribe via email or follow this blog (or tell me that you already do).
3. Email 3 friends about the giveaway.
4. If you have a blog or a website, post about the giveaway and link back to this post.
5. Click the "Share this" button at the bottom of the post and share the giveaway.

Please let me know what you did, and use a separate comment for each entry.
This giveaway ends at midnight on March 31st. It is only open to residents of the continental U.S.

Good things all over the blogosphere

Today I want to use this post to point your attention to all kinds of great giveaways and other great things happening online.

A giveaway and a challenge

The nourishing gourmet is having a spring cleaning challenge. This week's challenge is to clean your pantry. I am lucky enough to have a large walk in pantry, and 'cause it's so big, it stays pretty organized. There were a few things I needed to do to spruce it up. When you participate in the spring cleaning challenge and leave a comment, you are entered in the giveaway. That's great motivation for getting things clean!

I do lots of canning, as you can see in the picture above. But not all of that is actually canned. Some of those are old peanut butter or spaghetti jars that I've reused for storage of bulk items. Using glass jars makes things look neat and organized, and bonus!- they are free and help you save the planet when you reuse old jars.

Giveaways

The Nourished Kitchen is having a giveaway for organic, grass-fed ghee. Not familiar with ghee? (pronounced gee with a hard g) It's clarified butter and can be used to cook or saute foods. Ghee can be heated to a higher temperature than butter and will last longer-- in fact, it doesn't even need to be refrigerated.

Katie at Kitchen Stewardship is having a giveaway for 3 bread pans from Urban Homemakers. They look great, and are made from tinware, something I had never heard of before. If you're the lucky winner, you can use them to make this delicious soaked bread recipe. 

Emily at Not so idle hands is having a Mikarose giveaway. Mikarose is a modest clothing company. They have lots of cute dresses. The giveaway is for a $60 gift certificate for clothing of your choice.

Some good things I've read lately

Elizabeth at the Nourished Life wrote a great post about yoga and weight loss. I used to teach aerobics and yoga, back before my son got banned from the gyms daycare. I can't say that I fully "got it" back then, but I've definitely grown to love yoga and plan to teach again soon.

This post is about a woman who traveled to Kenya and had a touching but inspiring experience. Some of the things she saw and experienced are really heartbreaking, but it makes you think: what can I do to help those who are less fortunate?

Enjoy your reading and good luck on the giveaways!

Food Rules & giveaway winner!

The winner of Michael Pollan's new book

 Food Rules, An Eaters Manual

 is............

TheWilliamsFamily

Congrats! I'll get in touch with you!

(The winner was chosen by random.org

For those who didn't win, I'll share a few of my favorite rules from the book, how I put them into practice, and share some of my own rules too!

Michael Pollan's Food Rules:

Rule #3: Avoid food products that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.

I don't know about you, but I don't stock my pantry with any maltodextrin, red dye #5, hydrogenated soybean oil or many of the other ingredients  you see on labels. This rule helps you know what you are eating. It also means that before you eat (or buy) anything, you read the label. For years, I was a diligent label reader. I would scour that "nutrition facts" section for important information- How many calories? How many grams of fat? Now, I don't even look at that part. I just skip right down to the ingredients with one question in mind: what is this? and usually, when I read through that list, I put it right back on the shelf, because it's full of ingredients that are nothing I want in my kitchen or in my food.

Rule #15 Get out of the supermarket whenever you can.

As I've started to change the way I eat, I change the way I shop too. Every Saturday, we pick up locally grown, organic produce from our CSA group. Our beef was raised about 35 minutes away- on pasture- and slaughtered in a local meat shop where I went to pick it up. Our eggs are from happy, truly free range chickens that live outside on a local farm. The local beekeeper was able to tell me what the bees were eating when they produced our honey. There are still many things I buy at the grocery store, and I probably will never totally get away from that, but often healthier, more environmentally friendly choices can be found in other places.

Rule #33 Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacteria or fungi.

Sourdough bread, buttermilk and yogurt count! And someday I may be brave enough to try fermented vegetables.


Rule #39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
Just last night we had a treat. It was homemade lemon pudding. I made it with 3 egg yolks, whole milk, cornstarch, sugar and a lemon. It was creamy and rich and delicious- and guilt free. I reduced the sugar, and the fats were from whole milk and those happy chickens I talked about earlier.  Preparing foods yourself not only means you control what goes in, but in all likelihood means that you'll eat it less often. And even though I make treats, I never make "junk."

My own rules:

Eat as healthfully as you can... but make sure it tastes good.

I learned to make sourdough bread a while back, because I'd read that it's good for you. But the truth is, I've never liked sourdough bread, and even though my husband does, he wasn't a big fan of my sourdough bread;)  So, after a few attempts, I realized: it may be healthy, but it doesn't do us any good if no one will eat it! If you've read my thoughts on sugar, you know that I don't think that's a good-for-you food... but it does make things taste good. I continually try to cut back, but honestly, I'll probably never eliminate it altogether because it is important to me that things taste good!

Eat food the way God intended it to be eaten.

I'm pretty sure corn was meant to be eaten as... corn. Or maybe ground into corn flour or corn meal. That's a lot different than the chemical process involved to make something like high fructose corn syrup or maltodextrin. I eat the whole egg, not just the white. Whole milk instead of skim. Wheat flour instead of white flour. As much as possible, I eat foods whole, because that is how God made them.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday and Pennywise Platter Thursday.

My first giveaway!

Food Rules 
An Eater's Manual
by Michael Pollan

Product Description from Amazon:
A pocket compendium of food wisdom-from the author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food 

Michael Pollan, our nation's most trusted resource for food-related issues, offers this indispensible guide for anyone concerned about health and food. Simple, sensible, and easy to use, Food Rules is a set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat-buffet, this handy, pocket-size resource is the perfect guide for anyone who would like to become more mindful of the food we eat. 


This is the book that Michael Pollan talked about when he was on Oprah recently. Below is a clip from the show. Michael Pollan talks with Oprah about a few of the rules in the book, and the Western Diet.





Here's how to enter to win a copy of Food Rules. You get one entry for each of the following, for a total of up to 3 entries:


1. Subscribe in a reader or via email to Simply Real (or tell me if you already do).
2. If you have a blog or website, post about this giveaway linking back to this post.
3. Make a comment on any previous post on Simply Real.


Be sure to post a comment below telling me everything you did.  I'll choose a winner on February 23rd, so be sure to have your entries in by midnight on February 22nd. This giveaway is only open to residents of the continental U.S.