Spring Cleaning e-Books

Who doesn't love a good cleaning book? I like reading when I can get useful tips on ways I can effectively clean my house and keep it in order.  Clean Mama just shared an e-book deal that I couldn't pass up.  You will receive 5 cleaning e-books for $7.40. If you need a cleaning pick me up for Spring, you may want to check these out.  I just purchased them and think they will be a good read. Happy Cleaning!

*This deal is only good until Monday at 8am EST.

31 Days to Clean by Sarah Mae
Part cleaning handbook, part devotional, this ebook is not just about the how of cleaning, but about the why. In 31 Days to Clean, Sarah Mae provides you with two challenges each day — a Mary challenge to encourage and engage your heart and a Martha challenge with a specific cleaning task. At the end of 31 days, your house will be clean, and you’ll have a new perspective on housekeeping as well!

Simple Living by Lorilee Lippincott
Deal with tangible and intangible clutter in just 30 days with Simple Living, which will help you have a simpler and cleaner home…and keep it that way. Tackle thirty different clutter areas in under an hour a day and create drastic and permanent changes.

A Simply Homemade Clean by Lisa Barthuly
Rid your home of commercial, toxic products without the high price of all natural, organic products that line the shelf. Learn to make everything from your own laundry soap, to homemade dryer sheets, antibacterial spray cleaners, potpourri blends and fabric softeners!

Project Organize Your Entire Life by Stephanie Morgan
With a simple and customizable approach, Project Organize Your Entire Life helps you walk through your daily habits and weekly routines to conquer some of the biggest obstacles to living the simplified life you’re yearning for: decluttering, cleaning, organizing, meal planning and more.

Pulling Yourself Together by Becky of Clean Mama
In Pulling Yourself Together, Becky provides you with the tools to declutter and organize your home in the midst of a busy life, implement a cleaning routine that really works and strategies to continue with the perfected plan!

Smoothie Time!

As part of our clean eating lifestyle change, we fell in love with my parent's VitaMix.  They were nice enough to get us one of our own! I'm learning all about the new healthy recipes I can make with it.  One thing that I find especially great in the mornings is a smoothie! I LOVE the VitaMix compared to our Jack LaLanne Juicer because the clean up is MUCH easier and all the nutrients are kept in the smoothie. You can also add other great things like yogurt, water, milk, chia seeds, unsweetened coconut, etc. I've recently discovered Simple Green Smoothies. They give great tips on smoothies, nutrients and recipes. In April they are doing the 30-day Green Smoothie Challenge. They have an e-book you can purchase or you can sign up for their emails with tips and recipes as well.

I like fruits more than veggies so it's great to make a fruit smoothie but throw in greens that I won't even be able to taste but still get the benefit of it.

Below is the recipe I used Friday morning:

8-10 Strawberries
1 Banana
1 Orange
5-6 Romaine Leaves
1 Tbsp Chia Seeds
1/2 cup Water

It was great and made enough for breakfast and snack.

Clean Eating

Since my daughter was born, 2 years ago, I have started to research ways I can feed her the most nutritious foods. Before that, it never occured to me that there is sugar added to almost anything made and how processed our foods our with chemicals. I kept her on breast milk until she was 14 months old, when she started solids I made everything from scratch so she wouldn't have anything out of jars. As she began to get older it started to get easier but I also started to slack a little. I always made sure her dairy products were organic. All in all I would say her diet was around 80% unprocessed. My husband and I on the other hand majorly slacked off in our food choices. About 3 weeks ago I discovered 100 Days of Real Food. Everything changed at that moment. I remembered what my goal was and not only do we need to eat healthy, but we do not need to eat many, if any processed foods. I've also purchased In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. I haven't gotten far into it yet, but I think it will have some interesting facts that will keep me motivated to eat the best quality food available. We are about 85% clean eaters now. Clean Eating is not eating any processed foods. You only eat fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, local organic meats, etc. We have also switched our dairy products to a great home delivery service from a local farm, Lakeview Farms.  Every Friday morning they deliver us fresh milk, eggs and cheese.  It takes time to switch over to clean eating, but I feel so much better. It is great when my daughter's favorite meal is a boiled egg, avocado, cheese, strawberries and hummus on a whole wheat pita!

I suggest starting with 100 Days of Real Food to find out more.  As I begin to read and research more, I will post my findings here so you can keep your family healthy! It's not just about how our bodies feel now, but how we will fight off disease and sickness later!