Grounds for Grounds: Starbucks' Sustainability Initiative

While sipping on my sophisticated venti, italian roast, ice coffee with soy milk through a green straw, I was surprised at what I found at the Starbucks' entrance. At the base of the door was a tree accompanied with a basket of what looked like very large coffee bags. Initially I thought Starbucks was getting a tad carried away with its product line and loyal customers were slowly becoming borderline candidates for caffeine rehab. I was wrong, look how cool this is: Here's a closer look: : My...

Yoga Pants with a Purpose: the Sweaty Aftermath

I've just returned from hot yoga (still sweaty) and lived to tell the tale; and guess what the first thing was I ate when I got home? Hot soup. Is that weird? I guess the hotness ran its course or I'm some sort of heat freak, but my thoughts about the heated session?...It is a tough work out! I salute the people who complete a yoga session with complete poise and balance, you need a good deal of mental and physical strength and concentration. My arms are pooped out; but, I do feel completely relaxed and at ease in my own skin. Mission accomplished. Before the class,...

Yoga Pants with a Purpose: My Hot Yoga Experience

Finally, I am wearing my yoga pants for the purpose the yoga gods intended! I am partaking in hot yoga tomorrow! Here are my initial thoughts: I'm really looking forward to it, but have never done a hot session before (My first "cool" yoga class was last week and I was incredibly sore). All I know about hot yoga is that it's Bikram yoga in an oven. As of now, I don't think the heat sounds too awful but I'll probably be sweating my words tomorrow at 6pm. I just Googled this because I was clueless, but Bikram yoga is a set of 26 poses and breathing...

Road Biking:Channeling my inner Lance

I make a darn attractive Lance if I do say so myself...work those legs.                         During my freshman year of college, I could easily say that I haven't ridden a bike in at least five years. Well after I started dating my bike-loving boyfriend that year, this part of my life was inevitably going to change. Our first bike outing was a train wreck. I road his old mountain bike which was way too big for me. To make a long story short and less painful,...

Homemade Sweet Pickle Recipe

I love pickles. When my mom and I went grocery shopping at the beginning of the summer, I rushed to the pickle aisle. Upon discovering me, she almost endured a small heart attack before asking "you're not pregnant, are you!?". No Mother, who says I have to be preggo to enjoy a pickle?--what an awful and misunderstood stigma that a Claussen pickle has to be associated with. Pickles are everyone friendly, knocked up or not. Since I'm becoming quite the farmer and living off the land, why not make my own pickles. Plus, my cucumbers are latching...

Bubble Tea...health friend or foe?

Bubble tea always seems to attract the same initial reaction from those who have never experienced it. Here a typical dialogue between an experienced bubble tea drinker and a newbie. Newbie: Uh, what exactly is a bubble tea?  Expert: *Ahem* ..well it's a milk based or flavored, usually fruity, tea that contains tapioca balls--the "bubbles".  Newbie: Okay well, what are tapioca balls? Expert: They look like big, black, slimy fish eggs. Newbie: Ew, no way are those going any where near my mouth. *Walks...

This post is bananas..b-a-n-a-n-a-s

  This is a last minute post, but I came home tonight and witnessed a scene that put me in utter shock: my bananas were over ripened, as if blackened from a big ole ass whoopin'. Sigh, I am embarrassed to admit that I let my organic bananas get that bad. I can hear Gwen Stafani yelling at me already (Ander, this shit is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s...) I'm sorry Gwen, I don't know what I was thinking especially when there are starving gorillas in Africa. So, as the mantra goes, when life gives you lemons make lemonade; or, in...

It's All Greek to Me: Greek Yogurt & Why Its Good For You

Feeling a little bland? Did you wake up this morning with the desire to get a little crazy, live on the edge even? Well, no passport required for this cultural experience. Greek yogurt is the filling answer to spice up your life. Contrary to popular yogurt belief, Greek yogurt is not indigenous solely to Greece. The same yummy recipe is made the same way in Greece, Lebanon, Turkey, and even Israel. So technically, Greek yogurt could be called Turkish yogurt or even Lebanese yogurt--it's a yogurt of many nationalities! So,...