A More Natural Nail Polish

Just in time for summer pedicures, I found a more natural nail polish my local grocery store, which has an awesome health and beauty section chock full of all natural body products, such as paraben-free lotions and sunscreens, and great vitamins (I haven't had a cold in 2 months!).

They also had Zoya, a nail polish without toluene, formaldehyde, and DPB (a.k.a. the nasty stuff in your everyday nail polish). It was a little pricier than the cheap-o stuff I usually buy ($5.99) so I decided to come home first and do some research and find out if it's worth the extra dough.

I checked out their website and found out they're doing an awesome exchange for Earth Day - you send in your old nail polish (any brand, used, old, whatever) and they'll send you a brand new Zoya polish (in your chosen color) for free! You have to pay shipping & handling, which is $3 per bottle, so it comes out to 50% off each nail polish. There's a minimum of 6 bottles but no maximum. I just put in an order for 10 and I just need to get to my local post office to send in my old bottles.

I'll post when I receive my new polishes (can't wait!) but till then check it out for yourself and let me know if you participate as well!

Brinner: Meal of Champions

My current favorite meal is brinner. What is brinner? Brinner is a beautiful combination of breakfast and dinner; in other words, eating delicious breakfast foods at dinner time.

Recently, organic blueberries were on sale at my local grocery store. Somehow I ended up with 4 boxes, which I probably could've eaten straight up (blueberries are one of my favorite fruits) but instead, I was inspired: blueberry pancakes! I declared it brinner night and texted Russ to bring potatoes home for his world-famous hashbrowns.

I wanted to make something a bit healthier so I found a whole-wheat blueberry pancake recipe at Cooks.com:

1 1/3 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/3 c. 2% milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. sugar
1 c. fresh blueberries (use smaller ones if possible)

Heat to 350 degrees a pancake griddle or skillet with a nonstick surface. Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. Beat milk, egg, oil and sugar together. Add liquid mixture to flour mixture. Add blueberries. Stir gently just until flour is moistened. Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto hot griddle. Cook until covered with bubbles, flip and brown other side.

The pancakes turned out great. I tried adding chocolate chips in place of blueberries another time and they were delicious as well.

My one big tip about making pancakes is letting the pan heat up on medium heat (maybe even med-high) for several minutes before pouring the batter on, and lots of patience between turning them. The first batch or 2 takes more time as the pan, especially if the pan hasn't had a chance to heat up properly.