Procrastination can be very bad for your health!

Hi all! Happy Friend's Day, Valentine's Day & Family Day! What a weekend! My 1 year anniversary with my boyfriend also fell on this weekend so we're celebrating today by going to Niagra Falls (woohoo!).

Anyhow, I haven't been posting on my blogs for so many reasons, but it really comes down to one thing - procrastination!

As I've posted before, I'm taking a course for the first time in a couple of years so I'm quite rusty on my studying mentality. I've also been busy with work, health related issues/queries/research, writing in a journal again, trying to adjust my schedule to fit stretching & yoga sessions in the mornings, & so on.

My time management has not always been a strong point. It really behaves like a roller coaster. I suppose that due to all of the changes I've been making lately, some of my hobbies have fallen to the wayside (such as blogging, cross-stitching, having a social life, etc!). They'll be back though!

I'm really excited to share the new discoveries & experiences that have been so positive for me!

Just remember, procrastination only causes stress & chaos!!! Get things done when they need to get done, & you will be a much happier, peaceful person. I'm working on it, & I'll see you soon! :)

Recipe of the week ~ Avocado Sandwich, Grilled Balsamic Portabella Mushroom Burger & Garlic Press Review!

2 recipes this week! One is pretty close to the standard sandwich so it's not really a new recipe...but its the most delicious kind of sandwich that I've ever sunk my teeth into!

The main recipe is the Grilled Balsamic Portabella Mushroom Burger. The sandwich & the burger sort of tie in together at the end and make a great combination if you really like trying new things.

Avocado Sandwich

Avocados are absolutely full of healthy nutrients & healthy fats. They are not only good for our bodies, but it is said that they can help ease ailments such as depression.

I personally love to have pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, cucumbers, olives & mustard on mine (it makes a pretty big sandwich). All of these ingredients go great with avocado. Unfortunately I forgot to buy the olives, the grocery store didn't have alfalfa (I searched in the vegetable section 4 times!) & I couldn't open the bottle of pickels (whoops). At home I used my hamburger buns instead of sliced bread (it's all the same). This is how it turned out:

YUM. I ate TWO for lunch :)

Grilled Balsamic Portabella Mushroom Burger

When I feel like eating a burger, I usually crave vegetarian burgers. Throw in my favourite kind of mushroom & I'm a happy camper :)

You can see the full recipe here.

Ingredients

4 large portabella mushrooms, 5 inches in diameter

1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Raw portabello mushrooms

Directions

1. Clean mushrooms with a damp cloth and remove their stems. Place in a glass dish, stem (gill) side up.

2. To prepare the marinade, in a small bowl whisk together the vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, cayenne pepper and olive oil. Drizzle the marinade over the mushrooms. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, turning mushrooms once.

Marinade pic with flash: reflects the olive oil

Marinade pic without flash: shows garlic

One of the mushrooms bottom-down on marinade, ready to be put in the fridge for 1 hour. The stem is cut off the bottom for maximum soakage, but I saved it (as you can see below). The only dish I had that was large enough to place all four mushrooms was much too large, so I opted for one shallow soup dish per mushroom.

3. Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill or heat a gas grill or broiler. Away from the heat source, lightly coat the grill rack or broiler pan with cooking spray. Position the cooking rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source.

4. Grill or broil the mushrooms on medium heat, turning often, until tender, about 5 minutes on each side. Baste with marinade to keep from drying out. Using tongs, transfer the mushrooms to a plate and serve immediately.

My Notes: I broiled the mushrooms in the stove & although it is a good alternative to grilling, I think grilling would be the best choice. You can use this as a side or as a burger as I did:

To tie to two recipes together, I threw some sliced avocado in the mushroom burger & voila!


This was DELICIOUS. The only problem I had was keeping it all from falling out of the bun!

P.S. ~ I always find that good garlic presses are hard to find. I bought this President's Choice garlic press at the Superstore. I think it costed somewhere between $8.00 & $12.00 & was worth every penny. It makes garlic mincing effortless.

I hope you'll enjoy these yummies as much as I did!

P.S.S ~ I totally didn't purposely make links for some of the ingredients above. I tested them & each ingredient leads to a detailed definition ... ? I would love to know how this happened, but it works for me.

Products I would not purchase again (but they aren't necessarily bad!)

I was inspired to make this post by juicystar07's Products I Regret Buying video blog. I can't honestly say that I regret buying these products, but I just know I would not buy them again for various reasons (explanations below!). In no particular order:

1. Bathtub Tea Bags

This is one of the products that I actually really liked, but was a little dissapointed in. I was actually planning to do a review on these alone, because I thought the idea was so neat! I experimented with hanging these in the shower & also putting them right in the bath.

I got Clarity Bathtub Tea, Refresh Bathtub Tea & Love Bathtub Tea.

The problem with putting these in the shower is that the smell, although very nice, is so subtle that any other scent from a shampoo or body wash will easily overtake it.

Hanging from my shower caddy

The problem with putting these in the bath is that again, the smell was really subtle if you like to squish the tea bag like me (I'm like a kid, yes), it will eventually break. Just make sure you have one of those drain strainers to catch everything as you drain your bath water.

I might not have good a sense of smell as other people, so if you want to try it, you can find them at http://www.hydrasoap.com/. Otherwise, I'm not sure where you can buy them as I bought them in a small privately owned store in a tiny little town!

2. Crest Whitening Expressions Cinnamon Rush Paste

I bought this toothpaste because it was on sale, and it was something new. Although it's a pretty red, sparkly toothpaste, I just feel like it might be made more to motivate kids into brushing than anything. I guess you can call me old fashioned, but I like good old fashioned tooth paste. This one doesn't lather up on my teeth like other pastes do, & it tastes a bit like candy. I don't have that clean & fresh feeling that I enjoy after using other types of paste. So, I have no problem with crest tooth pastes, I just don't like the new fancy pastes that all companies have been making lately.

3. Victoria's Secret Body 3-In-1 Wash for Shower, Bubble Bath & Hair

As you can see, I'm almost finished with the Juiced Berry. I'm excited to move on to the Coconut Craze because a) the scents are fabulous & b) I can't wait to move on to a body wash product that seems worthwhile. Am I contradicting myself? Perhaps.

Again, I am glad I tried these out because they are really fun colours, really nice scents & in nice packages. I won't buy them again because I strongly prefer more natural and exfoliating products to wash my skin, which just goes to show how personal product reviews can be! As for hair cleansing, it left my hair really dry. That is one thing I will not use this for.

I think almost anyone would really like this, but not everyone would continue to use them because they have so much stuff in them & don't seem to have any positive effects on the skin (besides making it temporarily smell good). Now I'm starting to sound like a tree hugger :) haha

4. Atmosphere Tea Tree Oil Facial Wash

Why do I feel so sad as I add this product to the list? Well, it promotes health, is made in Canada & is not tested on animals (I'm not sure if the other products are tested on animals - how can one find out?).

I don't know about how other's skin would react to this, but mine did not do well. This is what I started using right before I started to break out so badly. Is this the cause of my acne explosion? I may never know. All I know is that it did not help the situation!

I have combination skin. I get really really oily in the T-Zone, & although I can get slightly oily in other areas, it tends to dry and flake quite easily. While I was using this, the oiliness and flakiness just skyrocketed. However, it could just be a skin sensitivity.

I think that this product might work for you if you have very oily skin. I also would probably use it every other day instead of every single day.

I'm definitely still interested in this company though. They might just have something that works for me!

If you have any products that you would not use again, I would love to know in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

Rice Water Skin Toner

Hello everyone, how was your week? I hope it was fun & that you had a great weekend! Mine mainly consisted of working, studying & catching up on some Zzz's.

So I really really wanted to introduce this cool skin care idea a long time ago because it is a totally natural & free thing to do. Not to mention the fact that it is so easy.

I got this idea from MichellePhan a.k.a RiceBunny's Rice Water for Healthy Skin video. If you're interested in this idea, please watch!

When I tried it on my own, it just took a few short minutes to do it all. Unfortunately, the bag of rice that I had was once in a little bit of water due to a leak. My mom kindly scooped out the "good" rice from the top of the bag & I discovered that even this rice was not good any more. Because of that, I don't have the best pictures.

When I mixed the rice in the water, I got cloudy water like this:


Then I used a strainer to drain the water into a glass (the darkness of the water will depend on the type of rice you use):

You can use a cotton pad or paper towel like Michelle Phan does to soak up the rice water. I decided to try a cotton ball to see if that would work as well & it definitely worked.

I cleaned the skin on my entire face & neck with the soaked cotton balls, & it felt more fresh and clean after (not to mention the fact that I saw quite a bit of dirt on the used cotton balls!).

Although Michelle explains how to contain the excess rice water, she doesn't explain how to store it. I would suggest putting it in the refrigerator & only keeping it for up to one week (this is just what I would do). If you use it every day, it should get used up pretty fast.

Since I realized that my rice was not the freshest anymore, I threw the rest of it out along with the excess water. I'll be doing it again with my new batch of organic rice. Please remember to do this with organic rice, as it is so much better for your skin.

If you try it out, please let me know what you think.

P.S. ~ I found out how to upload videos on youtube! It is so easy :) I experimented uploading an old video I took from my camera a couple of years ago of my cats. I don't have them any more (I had to give them away) but I do think about them a lot! You can see the 3 second video here.

I wanted to know how to upload videos because I have a posting idea that might be easier to demonstrate on video.

Thanks for reading!