Nordic Naturals Gummy Worms Review

Omega 3 Fatty acids are essential nutrients (meaning our bodies cannot make them and must obtain them from food). There are two ways to get your Omega 3's: 

~In the form of EPA and DHA from fatty fish.

 

~In the form of ALA from some vegetable oils, flaxseed, walnuts, and some green vegetables (broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts, salad greens). ALA is partially converted to EPA and DHA in the body. 

Recent studies have shown the Omega 3's to be very important nutrients in our diet. It is recommended that we eat at least one form of Omega 3 each day. Why do we need these fatty acids?? To answer that I am going to quote Dr. Frank Sachs, Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health:

"We need omega-3 fatty acids for numerous normal body functions, such as controlling blood clotting and building cell membranes in the brain, and since our bodies cannot make omega-3 fats, we must get them through food. Omega-3 fatty acids are also associated with many health benefits, including protection against heart disease and possibly stroke. New studies are identifying potential benefits for a wide range of conditions including cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and other autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis."

Pretty amazing stuff right?? We should all be watching how much Omegas we get into our diet. But, what about our children?!? How easy it is for you to get your child to eat FISH or BRUSSEL SPROUTS daily???? Lucky for us, Nordic Naturals has made Omega 3 Gummy Worms in a strawberry flavor. :-) My munchkin eats them and loves them!! 

I am a big fan of Nordic Naturals. I love that they are a environmentally responsible company (they developed an entire website dedicated to outlining their enviromental practices HERE) and that when it comes to testing their products they give 110%. According to their website, there are currently no standards for testing Fish oil products in the United States (and considering the MERCURY levels that come from certain fish there really should be) so Nordic Naturals adheres to and surpasses the International Pharmaceutical Standards for fish oil quality. They show no dectectable heavy metals when tested down to 0.01 PPM (which is ten times below that of the Norwegian Medical Standard). 

Can't you see that I LOVE Nordic Naturals?? Try them, I know you will too.

I received product for the purpose of a review. All opinions in this article or entirely my own and I stand behind them!!

Marbleized Paper

I posted this for the 1st time almost a year ago....right when I was beginning to blog and hadn't much a clue how to do it. But, in the busyness of the holiday season this year I have not had much time to make a new post so I thought I would feature an oldie of mine.

I first saw some marbelized paper craft on one of my favorite blogs Skip To My Lou and I was immediately intent on doing it. So, I did.

The Basic Recipe:

1. Alum
2. Liquid starch
3. Paper
   
4. Casserole sized pan
5. Acrylic paint
   

Turns out, Alum isn't the greatest thing in the world for you, so bear that in mind if you've got some little ones running around the house. You won't want them sniffing/playing with it....it is something that is used in making pickles and Big Macs, but the jury is still out on whether is is okay for regular consumption (because pickles and big macs are irregular consumption....right?? **fingers crossed**). You can find it in your local Hannaford's spice aisle. The liquid starch (also NOT FOR KIDDO'S) was by far the hardest thing to locate on the list. I spent a lot of time zipping up and down the detergent section with no luck. I ended up making some of my own from cornstarch and hot water and it did some FUNKY stuff to the results. A few days after I tried the homemade starch, I found the liquid starch at our Renys store in town. The paper I got at A.C. Moore (it was a set of 50 ivory colored blank cards and envelopes). I buy those sets religiously every Christmas to make my cards. I found a cheap aluminum casserole pan at the grocery store at well. The acrylic paint was already at the house in great quantity.

The FUNKY Starch Recipe:

  

1. 1/2 cup Cornstarch
2. 1/2 cup cold water
3. 2 cups boiling water

I mixed it all really well and added 2 tsps of alum, mixing it again. This was then poured into the disposable casserole dish.  The acrylic paint, I had read in many places, should be watered down or it will sink to the bottom of the starch mixture.  So I watered it down and put several different colors each into their own small bowl. To get the paint onto the surface of the starch I just used a large paintbrush and tapped it high over the mixture to get some little droplets to fall down. Once I had all the colors I needed, I used some toothpicks to swirl the paint on the surface and make the marbelized design. But, I hit a snag. Somehow my homemade mixture didn't want to work the way that I had intended it to. The paint wouldn't swirl....it just stayed chunky and congealed on the surface. I decided to try putting the paper on it anyway and I actually really liked how it turned out!!

 

Here is an image of one of the cards from the basic recipe made with liquid starch:

When placing the paper on mix, you put the side you want marbelized down and let it float on top for a minute or so. Then you rinse off the excess paint quickly (and easily) under the faucet. Lay it on some newspaper to dry and when it is completely dry you can flatten each folded card and pile them together and lay something heavy over them to "iron" it out. Or, you could do the real thing and actually iron. (I know....people DO THAT?!?!?)

I used these for some very funky holiday cards this season....and I was thrilled with the results. It's a fun, messy, marvelous project for those of you who like to get your hands a little dirty.

I shared this link at these fantastic parties!!

Three or More Tuesday
Frugalicious Friday

Molasses Spice Christmas Cookies

Guest post written by Roberta Stiles

The holiday office party is coming up and I'm just really relieved that I don't have to do all the planning for it like I did last year. Sometimes I kind of wish that our office parties were as exciting on the ones as "The Office" but I am glad that they don't have nearly as much drama as the ones on TV.

But I do have to bring some kind of food to the Christmas party, so I was online a few nights ago looking up recipes for what I could make. When I was doing that I randomly came across the website clearwirelessinternet4g.com and after looking through it some, decided to order an internet package from it.

the recipe that I'm pretty sure I'm going to make is this molasses spice cookie recipe. It sounds pretty neat and I think it would be much better than plain old sugar cookies or brownies, which I'm sure someone else will definitely bring. I don't want to be remembered until next year as the person who brought duplicate desserts to the Christmas party.