On Halloween Candy

To be honest, I never really loved dressing up. There was so much pressure to have a great costume and I never felt very creative until two years ago when I caught the DIY bug and made an awesome Queen of Hearts costume complete with full face paint. Because do it big or not at all, right? 

Anyway, whatever enthusiasm I couldn't muster for dressing up went into my love for candy. When I was a Spanish teacher, far past my trick-or-treating prime, I used to tell my students to bring me all the candy they didn't like and if they wanted to take pity on a poor old lady (being in your twenties is 'old' to middle school and high school kids, ok?), they could throw me a couple peanut butter cups and I wouldn't be mad at them. :) 

I still have a weakness for any candy that has the magical chocolate and peanut butter combo, but I came across something really disturbing the other day:  

Honestly, I don't want to be a Debbie Downer. But I want to put this out there because I feel like people simply just don't know how dangerous these foods are for our children.

GMOs have been linked to infertility, inflammatory issues, celiac disease, food allergies, eczema, cancerous cysts and tumors in tested mice. They have been banned or restricted in over fifty countries. Fifty! But, in the USA, the FDA does not even require a label to let us know it contains genetically engineered ingredients. We're buying foods that are making us sick, and we don't even know it!

So, what can we do? There's the obvious- simply don't hand out candy. But if you'd like to stick with tradition, don't worry- you don't have to hand out carob chips. Just go organic. It will be more expensive, but honestly it's an investment in our health, and you can't put a price on that. Surprisingly, going organic with your candy isn't as lame as it might sound. There are a lot of options including gummy worms, chocolate skulls, milk chocolate melts, and guess what? I found my beloved peanut butter chocolate cups in their organic form. WIN!

Julienne Peeler

​{Via}

Because I move twice a year, I have a hard time justifying purchases that are large and heavy because I don't want to waste precious weight lugging it across the Atlantic. Sadly, that means food processors are out. ​Just as I was starting to drown in the poor me's, I discovered this fantastic food blog and realized there are smaller cooking tools that yield great results. Like the Julienne peeler. 

The Zyliss Julienne peeler is light weight, costs around 8 bucks and peels a zucchini like nobody's business.​ Really not sure why the amazon reviews weren't great- so in my opinion, pay no attention to the reviews online. This thing works. Exhibit A:

It figures that any time I make a meal I really want to blog about it's usually dinnertime when the lighting is crap and I'm starving so I whip out my phone to snap a blurry pic before I devour said meal and realize the "real" camera would've been marginally better to deal with the poor lighting. But just know that in real ​life this was a very pretty (and delicious) zucchini "pasta" with vegetarian meat-a-balls. A guilt-free, healthy meal? I'll take it. Get your Julienne peeler by clicking below: