National Blueberry Month

Do you like blueberries? I sure do, but there’s more to them than just their yummy, sweet taste. They have a lot of history too. Back when Native Americans lived in this country, they used blueberries as dye to color their materials. They were also mixed with meat to make nutritious jerky as well as medicine.

I also learned that they contain antioxidants. That is a fancy word that means they are good for your body. Scientists say they help your heart, eyes, brain, and even prevent cancer.

I think blueberries are delicious. I love to eat them with pancakes and smoothies. They are also good to eat them by themselves. I like to have fun with them and try to catch them in my mouth by tossing them up.

This July is National Blueberry Month. I encourage you to enjoy them just as much as I do because they are a great summer treat!

Healthy Steps

My mother and I have decided to eat healthier and it has helped us to keep each other accountable. We both eat 100% whole wheat grains, Fat free milk, Splenda in her coffee, honey instead of sugar in our cereal, and sugar free candy when we have a craving. We also try to cook as much as possible instead of going out to dinner at a restaurant or fast food place. Help your mother with meal planning so as not to take up to much time deciding on what to make. Also, try preparing the meal ahead of time and freezing it so that all you would have to do is defrost and heat up. That is a great idea if you know that you will be extra busy that week and you will not have time to prepare an entire meal.

After dinner sometimes, we try to go out for a walk together. You can help your mom get the dishes done so that you can go out on a walk. Sometimes after we are finished with our school work, we will go to the park and walk around a bit. Working along with mom in healthy living helps bring more to your relationship. Have fun making healthy steps, one day at a time.

Growing an Indoor Herb Garden

You can grow almost any herb on a windowsill. Not only will it give a delicious, flavourful smell, but also adorn your kitchen in a pretty green and delicate flowers. I myself love to grow things. I am planning on starting some herbs plants for our kitchen. We have one herb plant, rosemary, that is good for meats, in our kitchen. Let me tell you some of the benefits of having an indoor herb garden.

For one, you can always go and snip off a flavourful herb to cook with. You will be able to have fresh herbs for flavouring anything, from your favourite drinks to baking and cooking. Another thing is that your kitchen will look very pretty with these plants sitting here and there. Some of them, such as lavender and German chamomile, are extremely pretty. Lavender is also a soothing herb, and makes good saches. Planting them in some pretty pots would make your kitchen look good also. I would recommend you use clay, ceramic or glass pots, not plastic ones. You would not want the chemicals in the plastic to seep into your plants. You could paint your clay pots if you want. Do whatever design you want. That would be a fun thing for kids to do.

Another great thing about doing an indoor herb garden instead of an outdoor one is that you have fresh herbs all year round. You can clip off some in the winter to flavour your favourite soups. Plant a tomato plant or two indoors for fresh tomatoes all year round. You can just start a seedling, as you would for your outside garden or plant a plant. As it grows, put it into a bigger pot. We have not yet done this, but this year I will be keeping one or two of my tomato plants indoors. It can greatly benefit instead of buying tomatoes from a store. You can make a bowl of salsa anytime, fresh from your plant. You can also keep a pepper plant indoors for fresh peppers.
If you have outdoor herb plants, and want to bring them in the house for fresh herbs, you can just simply dig up one of your healthiest herb plant and bring it inside and put it into a pretty pot.

You can go here for some special tips for getting your outdoor plants to be indoor plants: Herb Indoors. If you follow the tips from Healthy Indoor Herbs to keep your indoor plants healthy and fresh, you can get tips to prevent your herbs' roots from rotting if you want productive plants. OrganicGardening.com has a lot of information on it where you can find out all about the herbs and things like rooting a cutting, transition to indoors, water, light, and temperature and pest prevention. It is vital to know these types of things when starting any type of garden.

Here are some good herbs you can put into your kitchen garden:
Basil
Chervil Chives
Oregano Parsley
Rosemary Sage
Tarragon Thyme
Lemongrass Lavendar

German chamomile

We buy a lot of our organic seeds from Seeds of Change. At their website you can find out a lot of information about Heirloom Seeds. But I bet you are asking, what are Heirloom Seeds? Well, Heirloom Seeds are the seeds that have been passed down from generation to generation. You can trace seeds back to as long ago as the 17th or 18th centuries. They are the original, non-altered seeds. These are better than the chemically-enginered seeds. Also, when choosing seeds, choose organic. There is a page on the Seeds of Change website called Professional Grower Landing Page where you can find information on why 100% organic seed is 'better seed':

"Planting organic seed is the best choice for you, your farm, and the environment we all share, because the seed is produced without the use of pesticides and fertilizers. The outcome of organic seed production is an inherently Better Seed, which performs better in an organic or low-input farm in comparison to conventionally grown seeds. Organic seed allows you to utilize germplasm actually grown on organic farms and selected for several generations for adaptability to organic growing conditions. A 100% organic farm is the key to a healthy soil, a healthy ecosystem and sustainable agriculture—and nothing performs better than 100% organic seeds."
"Heirloom Time-tested, open-pollinated varieties of primarily European descent, hat have been passed down for at least three generations. For many reasons, including flavor, vigor, local hardiness and dependability, these have become favorites. Often, heirloom seeds are the repository of unusual genes that can help to preserve genetic diversity."

This link also has some more information about why Organic Seeds are best. Check them out and consider 'going organic'. :) We use only organic seeds for our garden. You can order online or from a catalog of one of the companies. We have also found organic seeds at our local Lowe's Home Improvement Center. You may just need to kind of look around in places. Just always remember that organic is best.

I hope you find the idea of planting a kitchen herb garden interesting and will try one for your own kitchen. I know you will be pleasantly surprised and happy with how easy and fun it is to do.

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Healthy Steps

Now that the spring time is coming soon that means that the fruits will be in season. So, I thought that I would name some fruits and say what benefits they provide. Therefore:

Vitamin A- Peaches, apples, apricots, and lemons.
Vitamin B- Bananas.
Vitamin C- Citrus fruits, strawberries, and honey dew melons.
Vitamin D- Orange juice.
Vitamin E- Kiwi and mangoes.
Vitamin K- Kiwifruit, plums, blueberries, apricots, grapes, peaches, and cantaloupe melon.
Vitamin P- Acerola cherries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, grapes, and the pulp of the citrus fruits.

You can also freeze the fruits and use them later in a fruit smoothie.
If you decide to freeze the washed fruit before you use it try putting each individual piece of fruit on a piece of wax paper on a cookie tray and place it in the freezer. Then, once frozen, take each piece and put it in the bag so that it is easier to take the fruit out once you finish. Also, when placing the fruit in the bag, be sure that, once the bag is filled, that you release as much air out of the bag as possible for easier storage.

So I have come up with some tasty fruit smoothie recipes and have decided to share them with you all.

Strawberry Delite
1 cup strawberries, hulled
1 banana, broken into chunks
1 peaches
1/4 cup orange-peach-mango juice
1/2 cup ice

Jess's Fruit Medley Smoothie
2 one inch chunks of pineapple
2 small slices of mango
3 two inch chunks of bananas
7 strawberries, hulled
1 ½ cups of orange juice
½ cup of lemonade
1 cup of ice
1 apple
2 handfuls of Concord Grapes
2 tablespoon of raspberries
2 one inch chunks of cantaloupe
2 one inch chunks of honeydew Mellon
2 slices of kiwi (long ways)

Blend ‘till thick. If it turns out too thick, add more juice. If it turns out to watery, add more ice.

I hope you enjoyed this article and that you will try the recipes. They are very good!

Dental Hygiene

We just recently visited the dentist. I was SO relieved to find that I only had some small cavities that could be fixed just by brushing and flossing more. I was thinking about this as I was thinking about what to write about this month and decided on dental hygiene. Sometimes people today think that problems can be solved by using expensive toothbrushes and toothpaste. But the reality of it is, that you just need to know how to take proper care of your teeth and do it on a regular basis. Here are some tips to good dental hygiene.


1. Brush you teeth at least twice a day. Brushing helps to get rid of plaque from the tooth's surface. It would be even better if you can brush your teeth after every meal. Each time, devote around three to five minutes to brushing.

2. Use toothpaste approved by your parents.

3. For more reach, use floss to get to that tiny space in between your teeth.

4. Use mouthwash every night after you brush and floss your teeth. It can get rid of the bacteria left even behind after brushing.

5. Visit your dentist every six months or so for checking and professional cleaning of your teeth.

6. Soft drinks and coffee are likely to stain your teeth and erode your teeth's enamel. If you can't seem to let go of your favorite drinks, one way to work around the problem is to drink them through a straw.

7. When taking in something sweet, remember to drink water while eating it. Drinking, in this case, act like dental floss, the water will reach in between the spaces of your teeth and stops the sugar from doing too much damage.

8. Drink as much water as you can each day; if possible, add fluoride into the water you drink.

9. Eat fruits like apple everyday. They say an apple a day keeps the dentist away, and indeed this is true. Fruits like apple help in fighting tooth decay. In addition, it makes a better snack, then say, a chocolate bar. Avoid eating snacks between short time intervals. This does not give your saliva enough time to repair the damage done by the last snacks you consumed. If you really crave for something, grab an apple.

10. Buy a toothbrush that has the ADA (American Dental Association) stamp of approval. Also make sure it is soft and has round bristles. Besides that, replace your toothbrush every three months or after getting over the flu or a cold.



Here are some tips to keep a whiter looking smile.



1. Strawberries and tomatoes contain good vitamin C content. These can be directly applied on the teeth. Vitamin C helps in removing the plaque on the teeth and makes them whiter.

2. Rub the white part of an orange peel on the teeth every night before going to sleep. The vitamin C of the orange peel will combat with the microorganisms all through the night, after a while, resulting in white teeth.

3. Baking soda brushed on your teeth with a little water will brighten your smile without you having to buy all of those expensive toothpastes on the market now-a-days.



Hope these help you to keep a nice bright and beautiful smile!

Healthy Steps

I feel that the world today is so overwhelmed with diets and counting calories, but all you really need to do to stay healthy is to eat healthier products. There are some steps you could take to living a healthier life. For example, you could try eating organic foods that are not packed full with preservatives and artificial flavors.

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You can get foods that are organic at a local farmers’ market. Some stores specialize in selling organic foods, such as Trader Joes’. We have one in our city, and they sell all sorts of good things. You can also try to grow your own food if you live in a place that has lots of room to be able to grow food. I don’t have room to be able to grow big products like corn, but I can grow herbs in a flower box.

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Did you know that if you go to a restaurant, they are required by law to give you a list of the nutritional information if you ask for it? If you go to jambajuice.com and click on nutrition, it will give you a listing of the nutritional facts in general, or according to a specific diet. Also, be sure to pick up the chalk and draw with it while the pages are loading, it's lots of fun! ;O)

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'Dieting' as defined in the world today is a way to lose weight, but the word 'diet' basically means the specific foods that you decide to eat. So, saying that "I am on a diet" doesn't really make any sense. If you always eat at McDonald's, you are on the McDonald's diet. I just choose to eat healthy food. It's good AND good for you. Ba da ba ba baaaaa "I'm lovin' it!"

Are there foods that you eat that your body would say, "Thank you" if you stopped eating it?

1 Corinthians 6:19, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"