Something that can be slightly difficult for someone who doesn't handle dairy products well is the overcoming urge to have ice cream every now and again. I personally love "oh so delicious" brand of coconut milk (dairy free) ice cream. One night I was faced with the situation that my husband and I couldn't find it anywhere in our general area. This got me thinking it can't be that hard! After messing around a bit I came up with this recipe! Enjoy!

Start by opening up a can of organic full fat coconut milk. When you open it you want to pull out the top white part. This is the cream!

Mine took about half a can - and then it leaves the milky looking consistency thin is the coconut milk. Save this part it's great in smoothies!

Next add about a teaspoon of organic vanilla extract. This is the Healthy By Choice brand :)

Next add about a tablespoon of pure maple syrup.

Start to mix on about 2-3 speed

When you are done mixing out it in a glass bowl with a lid- put it in the freezer for about 2 hours and enjoy! Enjoy with some toasted coconut on top- yum!

If you let it sit overnight you will have to let it sit on the counter for about 20 minutes to let it thaw a little! It is amazing mixed with yogurt as well!

Leave me some comments & let me know what you think! I love hearing from you :)

Facebook.com/healthybychoice2012

I am always trying to come up with new ways to come up with sweet treats that are healthy for my husband and I to eat. We both enjoy our desserts-- so why not make them healthy??

I'm big on eating lots of fats! And coconut is one of my favorite things in the universe. I like coconut everything! 

I usually make no-bakes for my husband and I to munch on but this time I thought I would try to come up with something different. 

I bought some organic, virgin coconut oil- (which I hadn't had in a very long time... there was a mix up with my supplier and they send me the RBG kind (YUCK!)) and I completely loved the smell and the taste. It was intoxicating! 

So here is my recipe for coconut maple bars!


Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons of Organic Virgin Coconut Oil find it here)
1 Cup of Unsweetened Dried Coconut flakes (find it here)
3 Tablespoons of Pure Maple Syrup 
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon-Vanilla Extract (find the kind I use here)

Directions:

1- Put all the ingredients in a food processor or nutribullet
2- Process until smooth
3- Put them into a container or pan with parchment paper. I used muffin tins! Little muffin cups make things much easier to travel with!


Enjoyyyy!! 

~Until next time~

~~Jes~~

WARNING: If you read through this whole post you will find pictures of the gallstones I passed! If you do not want to see them don't read this entire post... but you have to admit.. you're a little interested right?

Okay so lately I haven't been feeling 100%. I wasn't too sure why, my heart has been doing pretty good. I've only had about 10 episodes since I moved to Virginia in February. (Compared to my 10 episodes or more a day that is awesome!) 

I was feeling nauseous for no good reason. Having a stitch or pain in my side. I was not feeling hungry. I was antsy for no reason and having a lot of mid back pain. So after dealing with this for a couple of months, I decided I was going to be my own client. As a student in Naturopathy, we are taught how to assess symptoms to figure out what the actual problem might be. After looking over my note cards (I keep note cards with symptoms for things as a quick go to), I realized I needed to have a gallbladder flush or cleanse. 

So this is MY experience, everyone's experience may be different!

This is how I started: 

-2 days prior to the actual flush, I would drink 2 ounces of olive oil with 2 ounces of FRESH squeezed lemon juice on an empty stomach. I would go and lay on my right side for about 20 minutes to a half hour. Then I went about my day.

-Also I started drinking unfiltered organic apple juice. I drank about 4 or 5  8 ounce glasses each day. This is to help the stones soften up. This is because of the malic acid.

-I passed about 20 stones a little bit smaller than the size of a pea on the day before the big flush and 2 decent sized ones.

-The night before the flush, I gave myself an enema so that I wouldn't have horrible diarrhea the entire day. This part is optional. 

-The day of the flush I woke up at about 10 am. A lot of people do the actual flush at nighttime because they fast for 12 hours before doing the cleanse. Since my husband is on 3rd shift right now I decided to start this around noon. I went to the grocery store and bought some organic beets and organic pineapples. I came home and juiced the beets and the pineapples. I got 2 quarts of juice. 

-At noon I started the big flush. I would drink 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tbsp of fresh squeezed lemon juice. You can also add a couple ounces of fresh pineapple juice to make this easier. I would drink this every 20 minutes until I got a pint down. I will admit I could not get the last 2 concoctions down because I thought I was going to vomit. 

-Once I got it all down I went and laid on my right side and watched some movies. It was about 2 by this time. 

-At about 3:30 I felt like I had to GO but I waited. I was nauseous but not terrible. At this point the worst part was the burping that tasted like olive oil.

-At 4:30 I really had to go so I went.  I had not passed any stones at that point.

-About 6:30 I started to regret everything in my life. I felt HORRIBLE. This was when my husband took the picture of me above. I regretted everything leading up to that point in my life. Yes a little dramatic I would say but I did not feel right. My heart started acting a little funky and a little bit more rapid. I had started sweating on my neck but felt really cold at the same time.  

-At 7:30 I felt fine. It was like nothing had happened. I got up out of bed and made my husband his lunch for work. I was up for a bit and started to feel a little weak so I started to drink an 8 ounce glass of the beet and pineapple juice. I had to drink this slowly because my nausea was pretty bad. I also took 2 food enzyme capsules. You can find the type I take here. (On a side note I usually only take Nature's Sunshine vitamins and supplements.)

-At 8:00 I had to GO and passed about 20 pea sized stones. They were small but not super bright green like I had heard about from my other peers. 

-At 9:00 I got sick. Straight up threw up. It was rough, I won't lie. I threw up some oil and the beet juice. Once I threw up I felt better though haha! 

-At about 11:00pm the nausea set in and some cramping on my right side. My back was hurting pretty bad as well. I decided to move from my side and to lay on my back to get some heat. I decided to watch another movie.

-At around 1:00 am I decided to eat a piece of homemade sprouted wheat bread to help soak up whatever else might be in my stomach. I also took 2 food enzyme capsules. 

-The rest of the night went fine. I was feeling pretty good and figured I was done with this cleanse. I felt a little bit down because I didn't pass a ton of stones that were big or bright green. I ended up watching tv shows the rest of the night until my husband came home. 

-I went to sleep around 4 am and got up around 10 am. I woke up feeling pretty good. I did an intense 30 minute workout and then did some cool down yoga. Then suddenly it hit me.. I really had to GO. I was a little surprised thinking everything had gone through me the night before. I went and then looked (I mean come on who doesn't look?) and oh my...

--- to the left you will see the a few gallstones that I fished out of the toilet with a plastic spoon. I told myself I wouldn't be one of those people that saved the stones, but I had to say I was shocked as to how big these were. 

* As a side note.. the reddish color isn't blood that is from the beet juice! 

--I had about 25 in the toilet that looked just like this ranging from the size of a large soy bean to double that size. I actually have these in a mason jar now in water so I can show my clients.  I must say that today I don't feel nauseous, tired, or blah. I was hungry for the first time in a while. I don't have a headache or anything today either and have tons of energy!



When and if I do this again, I will probably do a few things differently. I would probably just do liquids the day before the flush. I would also either make or buy some hard candies that are made with ginger and honey to help with the nausea and to keep me from getting dry mouth. I also felt a little dehydrated today. I think I would make sure I drank some more water if I could keep it down. 


Good luck if everyone tries this! I would much rather go through a day or 2 of discomfort than to have to have my gallbladder removed like my mom did! 

Hello everyone! I mentioned on my Healthy By Choice Facebook page today that I am doing a liver/gallbladder cleanse. I will go over the cleanse and my experience more in detail in another post. 

Today I decided to make pineapple beet juice. Beets are wonderful for cleansing the liver, getting your stomach acid to the proper acidity, adding proper sodium into the body and alkalizing your body (if you are acidic). I like to do mine with 3 medium beets and 1 whole pineapple. I have both organic of course. I did 2 pineapples and 6 beets. It gave me 2 quarts of luscious juice! 

Now I know that many people say that juicing is not good because your body needs the whole fruit and vegetable. Which is true. Sometimes I prefer to have some fresh juice instead of eating a bunch of fruits and veggies.

Here is the thing though, I am an armature homesteader (I guess you could say that or wannabe homesteader). My husband and I aren't in the position to have a farm yet, although he has promised me one when he retires from the navy. For now we have to settle for a small garden, trading, line drying, recycling, reusing, and not wasting. It always has bothered me that the pulp is wasted when I juice. I used to make muffins- but I decided today to make fruit leathers. I accidentally cooked mine too long and ended up with fruit chips-- which I actually prefer over the leathers! 

<<<<----- Here is what my fruit chips now look like! 

Here is what I did:

Turned my oven as low as it would go, for me that was 170.

I took the pineapple and beet pulp and put it through my food processor just to be sure it was properly mixed and pureed. 

Take 2 cookie sheets and put parchment paper down. Put the puree mixture on each sheet and spread it as thinly as possible. 

Let it cook for about 6-7 hours for leathers, but for chips (which I now prefer and recommend especially if you have children or like to crunch) leave it in for about 8-9 hours. Check it though!

I was lucky enough to buy my beets with the greens still attached! You can imagine my excitement! I find the greens, at times, to be the best part!

I cut off the stalks and put them in with a bone broth recipe that I made today. I took the greens and put them in the freezer. My husband and I will put them in our smoothies since we are out of spinach until we get our CSA in May. 

Another way to prepare the greens is to sautee them in coconut oil (or butter), onions, and garlic. They are very yummy that way!

The last thing I had left to use was the skin of the pineapple. I remembered reading on pinterest about making vinegar from pineapple skins. 

So I went and found it and decided to give it a try! We will see how it turns out!

You can find the recipe here.

The last thing I did, which is not pictured, was try to grow a pineapple plant from the top of the pineapple! 

You can find out how to do this here.

And there you have it! I used everything instead of throwing stuff away! It is a step in the right direction to becoming more green, homesteading, and just saving money! 

Leave your comments below! I love to hear from you!

A sign. It could be nothing but a simple heart shaped rock. Could I be looking into this too far? Maybe. Do I think so? Nope!

What did the ocean teach me today? The ocean blew my mind. The beauty in something that so many people take for granted. The soft sand that is also abrasive. That is life for us! Life can be easy at times but sometimes without even knowing it can be abrasive. The ocean coming in so quickly and rushing over my feet, taught me not to give into my fears. To jump in a let myself overcome them. 

Maybe my trip to the ocean wasn't mind blowing to other people. But to me... I'm sure it will be something that I will be thinking about for days. A beautiful experience. 30 minutes can change your life !

Until next time

~~Jes