Recipes, projects & products that don’t suck.

Earlier this month, I turned another year older (and wiser, I hope). Instead of blowing my birthday cash on clothes and shoes, I decided to invest in a juicer. I’ve been on the fence about purchasing one because I didn’t know if I would use it enough. Would I make one batch of juice and be over it? Would it be too complicated, time-consuming and expensive? Is juice really that beneficial? Why is everyone juicing anyway? The best way I’ve heard it explained is this:  When you remove the fiber from fruits/veggies/greens, you’re left with juice, which the body absorbs much quicker. All of those vitamins, minerals nutrients get sucked into the bloodstream right away, boosting overall health. Because your body isn’t using the energy…

We all want to look and feel great. Especially for summer. It is swimsuit season, after all. Less belly fat would be good. So would more energy. And how about a well-functioning digestive system? Who doesn’t want that? Wouldn’t it be great if everything was in balance and running smoothly? That’s what this giveaway is all about. It’s your chance to win free admission to a 15-day course from Prescribe Nutrition called Get Balanced. If you weren’t born with a lucky horseshoe up your rear, fear not. I have something for you, too–a 20% off coupon code for this class:  86lemons20. (Register here.) This isn’t the first time I’ve written about this course, and it probably won’t be the last. I signed up for it…

Today, I thought I’d catch you up on what we’ve been up to lately. This will be a mishmash post full of recent happenings. First of all, a greenhouse update. I’ll let the photos do the talking… So far, so good! I’m hoping to be able to keep the veggies and herbs in the greenhouse all summer since it does get quite a bit of shade in the late afternoons/evenings. But if it gets too hot, I may have to move the plants outside or install sun shades. I didn’t go crazy with plants since this is the first year and it’s all one giant experiment at this point. A month ago, I wrote briefly about our flooring project (installing hardwood maple flooring in our…

A few times a year, Hubs and a few other guys (the so-called “Back 40 Sportsman’s Club”) venture up to the U.P. where they act like idiots for an entire weekend–shooting off guns, playing paintball–you know, real “manly” stuff. If I have time, I make cookies or some sort of snack for him to take along. This year, when I mentioned making a spicy nut mix, he was all about it. In his book, the hotter the better. He told me to make it so hot that no one would be able to eat it. Nice friend, eh? Well it seems that no matter how spicy I make something, it could always be hotter. So I decided to make it so ridiculously hot that even Hubs’…

(Special coupon code for 86 Lemons readers in this post.) Over the weekend, I razzed my mom and cousin-in-law about their coffee addictions. They both drink too much coffee. They admitted to going to bed at night thinking about the coffee they will drink the next morning. I would say that’s a problem. Yes, research has shown there are some benefits to drinking coffee in MODERATION. Research has also shown that too much coffee (or caffeine in general) can cause all kinds of problems, from adrenal exhaustion to blood sugar swings. At least coffee has some benefits, but soda on the other hand has NONE. I want to share two excerpts from the book Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman (yes, there is…