Two years ago I realized I had a peanut allergy, one that progressed quickly and morphed into a cross allergy for all tree nuts. Since then I have mourned the loss of peanut butter sandwiches and every dessert that has nuts in it.

Other than not being able to eat every dessert and having to interrogate every waitress/waiter about what is in my dish and how they cooked it, it’s been difficult to not have the quick burst of protein from a nut butter.

Image courtesy of Om Sweet Om

Sunflower seed butter was a good option, and so far I’ve been pretty happy with it. It does have a bit of a strong sunflower seed taste, but it also has the same saltiness of most peanut butters and the same texture as all other nut butters. It tastes great on crackers or bread, but it also bakes really well.

With seven grams (some brands have even more) of protein and good omegas, I would even recommend it for people who can eat the alternatives, especially vegans and vegetarians looking to add a little protein to a snack or meal.

I get home from CrossFit workouts completely starving. It’s like I’ve been stranded on an island for weeks without food. In my haste to stuff my face I tend to overfill on things that are satisfying, like chips, but not healthy. This smoothie is a great way for me to get the protein I need along with all of the fruits (and maybe veggies) I should be eating instead of the junk.

I believe in free-form smoothie making where no two are ever quite the same and there isn’t really a recipe. Here’s what I did today:

a little less than 1 cup yogurt (unsweetened is best)
1 three ounce serving of silken tofu
5 blackberries (all I had left)
a handful of blueberries
a handful of raspberries
3 sliced strawberries
(total fruit, about 1.5-2 cups)
5 ice cubes (to thicken it up because I used fresh fruit)

Total yield: about 16-20 ounces (a full cup and a half full of the cup you see in the pictures)

Protein: 12 grams (you can add protein powder for an extra boost if you want)

The yogurt is key to a sweet (but not overly so) and flavorful smoothie. It helps balance the tartness of the fresh berries as well as really help to bring out the berry flavor. Normally I use a banana or frozen fruit to thicken my smoothies, but the bananas were more the color of kale than the desired yellow and I had a lot of fruit that needed to be eaten within the next few days before it went bad. I tend to like thicker smoothies, but with a few ice cubes this really isn’t bad.

Although I may have still had some chips while I was making the smoothie, I’m not sure anything tastes better than a cold, flavorful smoothie after a tough workout.

It’s 9 a.m. and BART is crowded with the morning rush to work. My face is crammed into an incredibly tall man’s armpit as I am being pushed forward by the woman with a huge backpack to my left. When we finally break free and find a seat, the scent of the man’s deodorant wafts from the shoulder of my jacket and the woman’s perfume is hanging in the air across the two rows of seats that separate us.

Every morning for the past week I have settled onto the train and read “Not Just a Pretty Face: the ugly side of the beauty industry” (review coming shortly). This morning as I read about all of the chemicals in cosmetics, I looked up to assess the situation around me. The woman next to me on the bench seat is coating her eyes in a mascara that has been proven to contain lead and other harmful chemicals. The heavily scented individuals that marked me on their way in are wafting phthalates to the detriment of everyone. But above all, I am shocked by how little people know about what they are putting onto their bodies, even after years of research and news stories.

Last night I fell in love with the cookbook/ inspiring how to guide “The Homemade Pantry” by Alana Cherlina. I came home from the most grueling 30 mile bike ride I had ever done, ate everything I could find in the kitchen, and settled down on the couch with this book. Even though part of my new obsession with it is that I was still slightly hungry and all of the pictures feature delicious foods, the pure practicality and usefulness of the cookbook is what really stole my heart.

“The Homemade Pantry” includes 101 foods that most people eat regularly that you can easily make instead of buy. Cherlina’s entire philosophy is to make everything you can because it tastes better, is better for you, cheaper, and decreases the chemicals you ingest and the amount of packaging you consume. But at the same time she insists that you have to be realistic and just do what you can.

I can’t wait to make the delicious pastries on the front of the book, the snacks I can pack in my lunch like homemade granola bars, and replace some of my own staples like instant oatmeal and granola with these tasty recipes.

Record temperatures have been breaking out across the world this summer. As thermometers rise we are seeing the affects through extreme weather and an increase in ice melting. According to an article in the New York Times:

In a scant four days this month, the surface of Greenland’s ice sheet melted to an extent not witnessed in 30 years of satellite observations, NASA reported on Tuesday.

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NASA

The extent of Greenland’s ice sheet surface, in white, on July 8, left, and July 12, right, based on measurements from three satellites, which pass over at different times and whose data are combined and analyzed. The deepest pink areas reflect maximal certainty that the ice has melted.

On average, about half of the surface of the ice sheet melts during the summer. But from July 8 to July 12, the ice melt expanded from 40 percent of the ice sheet to 97 percent, according to scientists who analyzed the data fromsatellites deployed by NASA and India’s space research institute.

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“I started looking at the satellite imagery and saw something that was really unprecedented” since the advent of satellite imaging of the earth’s frozen surface, or cryosphere, said Thomas L. Mote, a climate scientist at the University of Georgia who for 20 years has been studying ice changes on Greenland detected by satellite.

While scientists described it as an “extreme event” not previously recorded from space, they hastened to add that it was normal in a broader historical context.

Although this melting has been seen before, it remains to be seen just how well this ice will return. It is also a great reminder to us that many glaciers and ice sheets have been melting at increased rates, and we need to take action before it is too late. 

Enjoy immediately.

And toss the rest in the freezer to be eaten after every meal for the next few days until none is left.

The “miracle” cleaner: rubbing alcohol

The rag I was using immediately came away completely disgusting with dirt in the perfect shape my hand had been on the other side of it. I used an entire bottle of rubbing alcohol to clean the whole couch as well as 4 rags. But now that it’s clean it all looks like the first patch I did.

Results:

This one definitely works, just be sure to open all of the windows in the room you are cleaning in. Taking a brush (I used a clothes brush that takes off hair and other lint) and rubbing it over the fabric to bring the fibers back up also helps to take out any matting that occurred during the cleaning as well as make your cleaning look more even and less patchy. Overall, it’s cheap, fairly environmentally friendly, easy, and worth trying.

I can’t remember the last time I used a piece of fitness equipment that required electricity. It must have been sometime in the winter when it was too cold and wet to run outside and I attempted to run on a treadmill.

Every morning I walk past gyms crowded with equipment in San Francisco’s Financial District. From the outside it reminds me of staring into a hamster’s cage while it runs around and around on its wheel. I don’t know whether I should be entertained or feel sorry for those people stuck in a tiny space sweating with 20 other strangers on a Tuesday morning.

Less than a mile away is one of the most popular places to go to run, ride a bike, or exercise: the Embarcadero. Whenever runners pass me on the way to the beautiful street that follows the piers and the bay, I instantly want to drop everything and follow them.

I’m not sure I could ever go back to being another hamster on the wheel after so many months of learning to love exercising outdoors or at least in open gyms without any equipment that runs on electricity.