What's on My Menu & Life Update
life is hard; food doesn't have to be #91 [vol3, 5.4]
Majors’ Menu As of Late
Chef’s Salad - used turkey and ham cold cuts, boiled egg, bacon, cheese, cherry tomatoes and cucumber on a bed of spring mix.
Cheeseburger Bites - kinda a cross between Starbucks Egg Bites and a cheeseburger.
Roasted sweet potatoes with a sausage, onion and kale (or spinach hash) on top. Sprinkled with asiago or parmesan cheese.
Burgers and chicken on the grill with best, easiest, no knead brioche buns. Also this peasant bread is super easy and on repeat.
Clafoutis for breakfast - easy custard and fruit that’s yum cold or hot.
For Memorial Day Weekend, try this 5 ingredient simple salad that’s perfect for a picnic. I’m also making Kate’s Oh Hamish Bars - the oats with butter and sugar remind me a lot of rice crispy treats (better ingredients and easier to digest!) but the peanut butter and chocolate on top are so yum.
Healthy Reminders
At lunch this week with a friend of 21 years, she asked me what supplements I take on a daily basis. Everyone’s health needs are different - and you know your body best. For my body, I take a probiotic and magnesium supplement daily from Plexus. I’m also taking desiccated liver for iron and trace minerals (1 or 2 capsules/day depending on the time of the month). I take a CBD capsule to help balance hormones and for sleep. Use code REFREALFOODJULIE for us both to get $20 credit.
Later she asked via text about my food priorities.
eggs - pastured
raw milk (if you’re in central Arkansas, email ruaballard@gmail.com for details. He has several drop points in LR and I think NLR as well. Plus I’ve heard that Bramble Market is now carrying some.)
highest quality protein I can source
I’m choosing more organic grains these days because of all I’m reading about the negative health effects of pesticides and GMO sprays. I buy organic bread, corn chips, oats and sugar.
Buy the highest quality foods of those things you eat a lot of. That said, we eat a lot of butter and I can’t afford to always buy organic pastured butter. I buy all varieties of butter.
Words I try to avoid in personal products like makeup, shampoo, soap, etc:
phthlates (DBP, DEHP, DEP, others) - used to make products more pliable or for fragrance to stick to the skin. Disrupt hormones and endocrine system. Found in synthetic fragrance, soaps, shampoo, hairspray, nail polish — and biggest offender is plastic packaging. Try to store food in glass and avoid fast food when you can.
parabens (methyl- isobutyl, prophyl- others) - preservative, known hormone disrupter. Five different parabens are banned in Europe because of concern for human use. Found in shampoo, body wash, lotions, cosmetics, shaving products
Chemicals Banned in Cosmetics
We must be educated consumers. The health and beauty industry is largely unregulated. Four words I try to avoid: phthlates, parabens, fragrance, sodium laurel sulfate (SLS).
USA bans 30 ingredients
Canada bans 600 ingredients
Europe bans 1400 ingredients
Beautycounter bans 1800 ingredients
John Isaac Update
He was released from the ENT last week and got the cast off his arm just in time for his senior trip to the beach. How miserable would it be to wear a cast on the beach? He comes home tonight and I’m not surprised I haven’t heard a peep from him all week.
The ophthalmologist said his optic nerve is healing and will take a few more weeks (months?) to know if it will fully heal. We were recommended to a plastic surgeon in Louisville, who specializes in eyes. Possibly he will need one more surgery. Time will tell.
Thank you for all your well wishes and prayers for his healing.
Graduation Party & One Last Farewell
This Sunday from 2-4pm friends are hosting an open house as a graduation party and farewell to Little Rock. We leave for Kentucky bright and early Memorial Day.
If you’re in Little Rock, please stop by 10 Witry Court 72223 Sunday from 2-4pm. Reply to this email for the gate code.
Life is hard, food doesn’t have to be,
Julie