Yo Baby Organics

My life is no secret. No secrets on my blog, Twitter, Facebook; I profess my love and adoration for all things green. No…not the fungus among us but you know. Going green. USDA Certified Organic. I am a crunchy green mama and I love it. I feel that a lot of consumers are misinformed on what foods mean to be “organic” and most importantly certified organic. By the basic definition everything is organic, we are from the Earth, carbon based, I will spare you the specifics in science.

However, I will tell you that I FIRMLY believe that organics will save our planet, our families, and help prevent disease. Now I am no doctor, but my belief is that foods that are not certified organic are chock full of the harmful chemicals that we have been told are “perfectly safe for consumption” and furthermore my belief is that when you genetically modify a food…the nature of the food is destroyed. I look at genetically modifying something as inbreeding…the chromosomes and DNA is just not right.

So with my crusade to stuff my kids full of as much organics as possible I was THRILLED tohave the opportunity to review the “Yo Baby” line of yogurt meals from Stonyfield Farm. My kids love yogurt and finding an organic brand can be like hunting down an heirloom tomato in a potato farm. Stonyfield is fabulous!

Not because I reviewed their yogurts silly, but the flavor is true, mild, rich, and tasty. Most yogurts have that sweetened, half Jello taste to them. Almost like a pudding. Stonyfield is creamy with no sugary taste and not thick and like Jello. I also love that you can read the ingredients:

Cultured pasteurized organic nonfat milk, naturally milled organic sugar, organic cocoa, organic natural vanilla flavor, pectin, vitamin D3

Easy as pie! Others I am left calling my friend who has an environmental science degree and can help me decipher the names of the ingredients…but generally when I have to resort to those measures I just avoid buying the stuff. But Yo Baby and Stonyfield are much more than just organic. The Yo Baby line offers a product that helps your baby grow, provides key nutrients to a healthy diet, and the active cultures to keep their digestive track healthy and happy. Just look at this happy face!

Actually I had one of Little Bitty licking the table where she dribbled her yogurt….but I thought I might be accused of being a suck up.

Anyway, I want to share all the goodness of organic and baby loving that the Stonyfield family of foods offers by offering you this Stonyfield Yo Baby Organics prize pack:

1 Yobaby travel bowl with lid
1 Yobaby organic cotton bib
1 Eric Carle growth chart
3 free Yobaby Meals coupons

Here is how you can win Yo Baby for your baby!

Tell me in a comment for each of these but first tell me: Yo Baby I want some!

Entry options (including multiple entry options for blogging, etc.) But here are some:

Let’s be friends on Google Friend Connect or tell me we already are!
Subscribe to my feed (3 entries for resubscribing and new subscriptions)
Tweet this giveaway with unlimited entries as long as you have no double entries for tweets: Yo Baby I want to win some @Stonyfield from @KariewithaK Â http://bit.ly/c0zgSE Ends 3/27
Fan Stonyfield, YoBaby, and Oikos on Facebook and receive an entry for each fan…don’t forget to fan The Fish too!

CONTEST ENDS MARCH 27 @ 11:59PM

February 4, 2010May 8, 2019

In Love with Monave

Another heartfelt holiday season is upon us and while most think that Valentine’s is just a Hallmark holiday, the rest of us like to take the day to truly celebrate love. So our friends at Monave have a very special giveaway to offer:

Think of a special woman in your life: mother, daughter, sister, granddaughter. Do you think you could guess which Monave products she would enjoy? Would you like to surprise her with a lovely gift-wrapped set of whatever Monave products you think she’d enjoy, for Valentine’s Day? If you are game, and want to take the plunge, please email Monave via information@monave.com , and describe a meaningful experience that you’ve had with this special someone. There’s no limit to how much you say. They will pick three winners, based on content, and the winner will choose up to $50.00 worth of Monave products that they think their special someone would love!

Your last day to enter is February 9th so be sure to get our submissions in just in time for Valentine’s Day!

January 7, 2010March 2, 2020

Monave: Beautiful New Year Giveaway

Welcome to a New Year and a new you right? Exactly!

I say new you because so often with a new year many men and women resolve to make the year a mulligan of sorts, start over, start fresh. Well I like to say that a new year and a new you means that you are reinventing yourself. So if you are reinventing yourself why not do so with a new look?

The wonderful team at Monave was so gracious to let me review the New York gift set, which includes the powder blush, foundation, eye shadows and corresponding brushes. I also reviewed the lip glosses if you recall correctly. I found Monave on my quest to find a better, healthier cosmetic line for my already “going green” reinvention of myself last year. As most of you know, I am a skeptic. I am always wanting to see the proof in the pudding with products; marketing is always great and sounds great, but I am a results driven individual. I want to see how the product really works for myself first hand to share with you, how well (or not so well) the product stands up past marketing.

If you read my gloss post you know how wonderfully rich and luscious the products are for women. Well the mineral line is just as fabulous. Honest! What I have found in using mineral products is that they tend to be cakey looking, albeit they make you look older, MUCH older, because the mineral powders settle into your fine lines and wrinkles. Especially if you use too much powder and your face is not properly hydrated and or moisturized. Not to mention that the coverage is not all that fantastic with some mineral powders; again the problem of too much or too little and a non-even look.

What I have thoroughly enjoyed about Monave mineral cosmetics is the amount of coverage with such little powder. This product is truly the swirl and tap that other powders claim to be. I have used everything too from Bare Minerals, Sheer Cover, Pure Minerals, Arbonne, you name it, I bought it and used it and was never satisfied. With Monave, my skin and make-up looks natural, bold, daring, or subtle if I want it to just based on application. But the bottom line is that the mineral foundation does not sink into my fine smile lines (yes I do have some even though I am in my 30s…the downfall of being a former smoker) around my eyes the powder does not look cakey and best of all, the tone is totally natural, totally true to the color of my skin.

Have you noticed that makeups have a pink hue? Um, the only person I know with pink skin is generally plastic and is branded with a toy name of sorts. Our skin has a yellow base, we all do, not pink, and the Monave line has wonderful products that are true to the tone of a woman’s skin no matter how fair or how dark.

Do you want to win this beautiful mini set? Oh you do? Well I am happy to say that THREE, yes you got it!

3 LUCKY ladies (well men too if I don’t want to be discriminatory here) can win this wonderful set of cosmetics from Monave!

December 24, 2009May 8, 2019

Pizza for You and Pizza for Me: zpizza

Who in the world does not enjoy a good slice of pie? I for one thoroughly enjoy a good piece (or two) of a pizza pie from a great pizza joint. Especially this year! Why this year?

I have hosted THREE, yes, I said THREE major holidays this year of which two are the biggest, Thanksgiving and Christmas. For each one, I fail to cook the night before because let’s face the facts; who wants to cook a dinner when the next day you spend the ENTIRE day cooking dinner for an army. Plus the baking, the cleaning, the humanity!

Pizza is a big fave in The Fish home and we also enjoy a good bout of organic goodies, I try to shop and buy as much as I possibly can because of all the benefits of going organic which you can read about here. Imagine my surprise when I heard of a pizza joint that has certified organic ingredients I was in heaven!

Seriously though even The Chad thought oxymoron, “Pizza” and “Organic” together? Not possible. Possible.

Well, until he tried zpizza with me and the kids.

Now zpizza is not just about pizza, but salads, sandwiches, and more. zpizza offers a healthy and lighter alternative to some of your favorite foods. The ingredients are some of the finest, exotic, and freshest. 100% certified organic tomato sauce and flour coupled with MSG-free pepperoni for a truly amazing dining experience.

The Fish family received certificates to enjoy a pizza (or other dining options) from zpizza in the last week and I tell you what, seriously some of the most filling, flavorful, tasty, mouth watering, no other pizza can whet your appetite like zpizza. No lie, hands down, some of the best pizza and not because we received certificates to try out the pizza on behalf of zpizza.

I have had a sampling of zpizza before but not like this night, it was HOT, fresh, and OH. SO. GOOD! We ordered locally here in Arizona at the Midtown Phoenix location of 53 W. Thomas Road. I love midtown, downtown Phoenix, lots of up and coming businesses, a very hip and modern area revived in the midtown, downtown area.

The hubs was raving, the kids were cheering, well they weren’t really because they were too busy scarfing down the pizza but you catch my drift. We ordered the American, a wonderful blend of fresh veggies, meat, comparable to a “Supreme” at other pizza places but this one is FULL flavor.

The crust was more of a light bread of sorts, not doughy, not too thick, not too crunchy, the true essence of a brick oven pizza if you have ever had brick oven pizza. The cheese was mild, not salty like traditional pizzas, the sauce was light and enough to add flavor to the pizza without taking over the pie and not dripping off the slices. The toppings. OH, the toppings were out of this world! Fresh! Cooked even, and still fresh. Large helpings of toppings that were full of taste, crispness, and color. If you recall “traditional” pizza the toppings are meek, pitiful, lack in color and taste and most often are soggy from the loads of grease. These toppings literally POPPED from our pie.

Big G wasn’t too hip on the toppings so The Chad and I gladly ate his veggie toppings, savoring, every. Last. Bite. Now “traditional” pizzas leave you full and dissatisfied with yourself, like a glutton, pure swine after you eat it, and even after we had our slices, we were pleasantly full. Not overstuffed like a turkey at holiday or the need to slip into sweat pants, but satisfied on more than several levels.

So does this pizza option sound tempting enough for you?

Is your mouth watering for this tasty delicacy so aptly misnamed as “pizza?”

GOOD! Here is how you can win a $20 certificate to zpizza and avoid cooking for one night!

Mandatory entry: Tell me where the nearest zpizza is to your home and which creation (pizza or otherwise) you would order in your home to chow on?

Extra entries:

Follow zpizza on Twitter and get all the “dish”
Follow my blog
Follow me on Twitter
Tweet this giveaway (daily RT’s available): Enter this giveaway for $20 GC for @zpizza with @KariewithaK Ends Jan 5 http://tiny.cc/l1bE3
Blog this giveaway
Leave a substantial comment on a non-giveaway post (can’t just say Oh Hey saying HI, share the love for Pete’s sake) Worth 5 entries
Fan The Fish on Facebook
Enter one of my other giveaways and tell me you did (worth 1 entry per giveaway entry, this could be significant depending on the number of current giveaways)

CONTEST ENDS JANUARY 5th 2010

@ 11:59PM ARIZONA TIME

Best of Luck!!

December 20, 2009May 8, 2019

Going Green Into the New Year ecostore Giveaway

Finding a way to clean your home in an eco-friendly manner is tough considering the marketplace is FILLED with chemically laden and enhanced products. Ammonia based, alcohol based, harsh chemicals that linger and fumigate your home. I have two toddlers and my six year old and believe me, nothing I do not like more than to have harsh, dangerous chemicals in my home and around my children.

My cleaning is pretty unorthodox. I use cans of Coca-Cola to clean my toilet bowls (yes, just the way it eats at the porcelain at your teeth, it can acid wash your NASTY toilet too) so they are sparkling white, hot salt water and half lemons to clean my cutting boards, and cream of tartar to degrease. Need a bleaching? Lemon juice and the sun. What? You thought that combo was only for the nasty blond dye jobs? Think again.

I was asked by ecostore USA to review a few of the products in their line. I received Front Loader Laundry Powder and the Citrus Spray Cleaner to try in my home (in exchange for this review…*Hi FTC).

A bit of back information on ecostore USA:

Founded by Melanie and Malcolm Rands of New Zealand. The eco couple in their eco-village “shared a commitment to organic growing and healthy living, making this an ideal environment in which a young, environmentally conscious business could thrive. Each household in the village was responsible for their own waste water, which quickly highlighted the problems caused by using regular supermarket cleaning products that relied heavily on cheap, petroleum-based, synthetic ingredients” (ecostoreusa.com, 2009).

15 years later their idea to better the world with better and eco-friendly products now have them exporting into the United Kingdom, the USA, and Australia. How are the products better? How are they more eco-friendly? Well because the products are all plant based. Citrus, coconuts, palms, essential oils for fragrance, and minerals (like salt). The ingredients are not based on the creation in a “lab” but derived from nature

The Front Loader Laundry Powder:
I was highly skeptical of this product. The scooper was small, and when you have been accustomed to commercial laundry soap for many years the change is drastic. I was even leery of the scent, however, after my first few loads I was impressed. I was truly blown away, I know by soap? But seriously if you have a front loader you know the “funk” you can get from time to time. I actually lost an trace of “funk” in my Frigidaire front loader when using this product. I even enjoyed the clean scent where the clothes actually smelled clean and not perfumy clean.

The Citrus Spray Cleaner:
The cleaner was effective. I used it everywhere around my house; bathrooms, kitchen, dining table, high chairs, anywhere that was goopy, nasty, and needed a good thorough cleansing. However, I was not thrilled with the scent. The scent was rough, harsh, even though vegan, the scent did emit a harsh chemical smell and air to it and I had to be sure to use it in open areas with windows open. But the scent was truly citrus and possibly the scent could have been the mixture with old nasty chemicals in the rooms. All in all though the cleaner was effective.

Now here is how you can win some of these great green and eco-friendly products to use in and around your home. Choose up to $25 worth of products with a giftcard, here’s how:

Mandatory entry:

Check out the ecostore USA and tell me what two products you would like to have in your home (aside from the two mentioned above).

Extra entries:

Sign up for the ecostore USA newsletter (worth 5 entries)
Follow my blog
Fan The Fish
Follow me on Twitter
Follow ecostoreusa on Twitter
Tweet this giveaway (Daily tweets available!!) : I’m going green with this giveaway from @KariewithaK and @ecostoreusa http://tiny.cc/nqOon
Blog this giveaway (worth 5 entries)

CONTEST ENDS JANUARY 1ST 2010

@ 11:59PM ARIZONA TIME

Best of luck!

December 8, 2009August 2, 2015

Graine de Vie SEED Body Care & Giveaway

Some of you may know I am very particular about my body care. I truly like products that I can read and understand the name of the ingredients, not some laboratory name that requires a kindergarten phonetic to pronounce the words. I recently had the opportunity to review SEED Body Care courtesy of Buzz Cooperative.

Graine de Vie SEED Body Care is co-founded by Rebecca Gournay in an effort to find a detoxifying and healthy alternative lifestyle when she was on her quest to conceive a child. During her research she and her husband began discussing the health benefits of wine and of course grape seeds. One day Rebecca came upon a spa product made with grape seed and the rest is history. Grape seed isÂ packed with powerful antioxidants, Vitamin E, and beneficial essential fatty acids, ingredients shown to promote healthy skin and help prevent premature aging.

The full size products I reviewed were the grape seed enriched conditioning hair shampoo bar, grape seed enriched moisturizing body soap and the grape seed enriched moisturizing body lotion. When I received the products I immediately tore into all of them, I wanted to know how they smelled. I have a thing for the way items smell. I was in heaven. The body soap and lotion each have a wonderful citrus scent, very true to the smell of grape seed oil and or grapefruit. The shampoo bar had a tinge of scent even though it was the unscented bar.

I showered with each of the cleansing products and overall here is how they stacked up for me:

Shampoo Bar
I can honestly say that I was overly excited about the shampoo bar until I finished using it the first time. My hair felt almost stripped and very unmanageable. I chalked up the results as just the products initial use and that after styling and drying my hair would be easier to manage. I was highly disappointed that the result was not to my liking and my hair still felt brittle, dry, unmanageable, and I quite literally had an afro after the initial use. I even made sure to use when I was on my four day stretch of no wash days to ensure maximum results. I firmly believe in washing your hair only once or twice a week, so I was disappointed. However, the shampoo bar is wonderful for my son and husband who each have very short hair. I will say that the lather and bubbly are fantastic, a smooth creamy lather and not too bubbly but enough for my personal liking. The conditioning quality was less than I had expected, but again, could be the product was not jiving with my hair as I have very fine, thick, dry hair.

Body Bar
I love the body bar and the exfoliating seeds. I quite literally used this bar until only a smidge was left. Again the creamy, bubbly, and lather are excellent, but the bar is a bit drying. I noticed the primary ingredient is sodium palmate and sodium cocoate which is a palm and coconut based oil which tends to be on the drying side however, palm is EXCELLENT for lather and cleansing and coconut is excellent for creating a nice hard bar of soap. So all in all I felt wonderfully clean but a bit dry.

Body Lotion
Now, the lotion is F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!!! I love the smooth, creamy, almost silky feel to the lotion. Very nice when applied after the use of the body bar, they definitely compliment one another if your skin is a bit on the dry side after use. The fragrance is a light citrus, invigorating, awakens your sense of smell and is just a wonderful feeling on your skin.

All of the SEED Body Care products are paraben free, preservative free, and contain no artificial colors or animal products, a truly vegan experience.

You now have the opportunity to experience SEED for yourself here is how:

Mandatory entry:
Go to the SEED website and tell me which products you would like to try because you are getting THREE full size products to win yourself!

Â Extra entries:

Fan SEED on Facebook
Fan The Fish on Facebook (to your right)
Follow my blog and tell me you do (again, stage right)
Follow me on Twitter, tell me you do
Tweet this giveaway using @KariewithaK & #seedbody so I can see your Tweets and give you credit

CONTEST ENDS DECEMBER 17THÂ

@ 3:00PM ARIZONA TIME.Â

November 13, 2009February 24, 2020

Wear Organic: Monave Cosmetics Lip Gloss

*Five Fish always blog ethically and with transparency.
Ladies do you have a hard time finding the right cosmetics? I know I have. I always have. Just when I think I have found my right color, my right blend, my right ingredients, I find something horribly wrong with either the product, the way the product reacts with my skin, or the company is not as they seemed. I went on a quest to find a vegan, if not organic, cosmetics company. Because really what woman does not enjoy the gift of cosmetics, especially quality cosmetics.

Some of you may know I make my own soap. I love it. This way I know what is in my soap that is used on my family, not some fancy chemicals and perfumes. Honest to goodness vegan products. So I wanted a cosmetics company to do the same. Offer rich wholesome products that I knew the ingredients and I knew they were fabulous.

I found Monave and I researched everything they have in inventory as best as I could. What I saw I loved. The company is owned by a woman. PLUS! She formerly worked in cosmetics and knew what women loved in a mineral, vegan, and natural cosmetics line. PLUS! The owner also supports other women owned businesses and entrepreneurs. PLUS! The name is even derived as an acronym for “Modern,” “Natural,” “Versatile.” Needless to say I was head over heels when they told me I could begin by sampling and reviewing their liquid lip gloss line.

Who doesn’t love lip gloss. Girls and women of all ages love lip gloss. But as long as the lip gloss is not goopy, sticky, messy, all the troubles we run into with lip gloss. I personally used to be a HUGE, die hard fan of Victoria’s Secret Beauty Rush lip line. LOVED them. Until I tried Monave. From now on I will be shopping with Monave, I am brand loyal when I find a fabulous product. I mean Victoria has gone with me to San Francisco and back, so sad that I have to retire her.

I personally LOVE the way the glosses feel. They are smooth, silky, no sticky feeling, no build up, no curdling like some glosses do as they dry up and wear away, leaving those nasty chunks in the corners of your lips. Ladies you know what I am talking about. Often a result of a petroleum based product. Just ick!

The lip glosses are fabulous because they deposit a minimal amount of sheer color that enhance your lips without being a lipstick and without being too sheer for a standard gloss. Plus with the majority of the glosses are almost all vegan, I felt the product truly moisturized my lips as opposed to standard glosses that truly just glossed over and never moisturized. I say almost all vegan because some do have beeswax in them, however, I was assured by the ladies at Monave that the beeswax is from a fourth generation apiary that ethically harvests and sun bleaches as opposed to chemical bleaching which is HUGE considering most cosmetics are made of nasty fillers and chemicals.

I tried out these fabulous colors:

Merlot
Divine
Cool Maple
Neutral
Autumn Leaves

What I really enjoyed about all of these colors is that they are versatile enough for any skin tone, make-up blend, and of course they are smooth, silky, and long lasting. I want to be able to wear make-up without looking like I am wearing make-up, I want a fresh natural look, where my make-up enhances my beauty, not where I have to wear it to make me look beautiful.Â As I said these glosses are silky, not sticky or drying like standard glosses because these have fabulous vegan products, not petroleum which causes stickiness and curdling and dryness.

Not to mention, not great for the environment.

Monave launched a fabulous holiday theme that every woman (and man for his wife or girlfriend) could appreciate! The theme is “Give the Gift of Healthy Beauty” where you my faithful and beautiful readers are able to enjoy. For every purchase that is made at Monave a matching sample product for a friend is delivered; their choice of color, FREE with any purchase of a full size product from our website. How fabulous is that. So if your husband is out shopping for you, he could kill two birds with one stone by buying for you and sending the full size free gift to say his mother or sister. Or ladies you could do the same if doing any personal shopping for yourself! So go now, go “Give the Gift of Healthy Beauty” with Monave.

Don’t forget to DOWNLOAD your Copy of the catalog HERE and all the fabulous participants, savings, and giveaways!

November 12, 2009March 2, 2020

Organic Clothing for Kids: Kushies

Sometimes infant and toddler items just seem to be a never ending sea of brands. However, some do stand out from the rest. While on my quest to find excellent kids gifts I came upon Kushies. I found them when doing a search for organic clothing. As you know The Five Fish strive to leave a smaller carbon footprint to preserve this wonderful world we live for generations to come.

What else I found about Kushies is not only their organic offering but their rich history as an innovative and ecological cloth diaper manufacturer. Through the years Kushies has evolved into a high quality manufacturer of childrens toys, clothing, and accesories. They even have their very own site to display the knockoffs, how everyone wants a piece of Kushies.

Although my kids are in diapers (and slowly trying to get them out of them) I decided I would ask to review the clothing line. The organics were not available in my kids’ size because hey, my kids are beasts, but I did find a really great outfit for my Seth to try out. I was thoroughly impressed with the simple and eco-friendly packaging plus I was even more impressed with the feel of the outfit from Kushies.

Kushiesonline.com, thefivefish.com, Kushies, Karie Herring

Seth and I reviewed the Kushies Long Johns from the Everyday Layette Line and let me tell you. FABULOUS. I am not a big clothes fan, they are not made right for babies, infants, children. The sizes are either too big, too small, too tight, and I mean I am breeding an offensive line here, my boys are big, tall, strapping boys. Not some scrawny kid. The long johns fit Seth perfect. He loves them. When he got them he rubbed them on his face because the fabric is so child friendly. Kushies has even taken comfort to the next level with your little one with the tag-free design. My kids all have problems with tags so the tag-free design is a huge plus when buying clothes for them.

Quality is also a huge factor. Will the fabric shrink? Will the fabric fade? Pill? Does the elastic bunch or turn?

In all of these instances NO, in my experience, and my boy loves his clothes from Kushies, especially with the cooler evenings and days he could just lounge in this outfit all day.

But Kushies offers so much more than just clothes. They offer their flagship of the diapering, bedding, bibs, blankets, travel, accesories, toys (seen below L to R Cha Cha Barbells, Ha Ha Ringo, and Fuzzi Nubbinz ), travel and bags, and now their organic line!

What to know where to shop? Just visit Kushies Online to shop for all your infant, baby, and toddler needs. To boot The Five Fish can offer you some major savings on Kushies by entering ffish10 at checkout for a 10% discount on your order! How great is that. Now get some of that shopping done.Visit Kushies Online.

Don’t forget to DOWNLOAD your Copy of the catalog HERE and all the fabulous participants, savings, and giveaways!

Â Â *Five Fish always blog ethically and with transparency.

October 14, 2009September 13, 2015

Vodka Spaghetti Sauce recipe

If you watched my Mingle on Monday you saw that I had a billow of steam behind me. Some quite literally thought I might torch my kitchen, behold…..the power of the Fish! Okay, so I am kidding, but the steam was much, probably from the fact I had the hood on trying to suck all of that steam away.

So I promised my winning recipe from these lovely items that I share in my Friday post about how I Heart my CSA. If you did not read, go back, gaze upon the fruits of the Earth! Because I ate almost everything in that photo. Not alone! Dear GAWD NO! I had help. Again, the fruits:

thefivefish.com, Karie Herring, recipes, CSA, organic

Okay quite a bit in this photo, but feast your eyes on those BEAUTIFUL organic tomatoes! YUM! And just to the left of those juicy, perfectly delectable tomatoes is a bushel (not a true metric measurement bushel) of Licorice basil. Just absolutely beautiful as well, the smell is intoxicating, and the taste, OH SO SWEET!

My recipe for some Grrrrrreat sauce:

1/2 c. Vodka (any Vodka will do, set aside a little extra for you with a lime and ice)
4 c. diced tomatoes (if you don’t have enough fresh tomatoes……canned works AWESOME!)
1 can tomato paste (I bought organic since it was as cheap as the regular stuff, but again, any type will do!)
1 T. onion power
3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1/4 Purple bell pepper for a bit of zing
2 basil stalks (my stalks are huge and I love Basil, but use it to your liking an taste)
1/2 t. Oregano
1/2 t. Parsley
Salt/pepper to taste
(For a bit more of a biting sauce, add 1 t. crushed red pepper, I pulverized mine so it mixes well, you can do the same with the back of a spoon and a Ziploc bag)

In a large skillet or deep pot, add tomatoes and dry ingredients (onion powder, oregano, parsley, salt/pepper, basil, bell pepper) bring to a low boil. Slowly add vodka and return to a boil. Add in can of tomato paste and stir, reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for as long as your desired taste and thickness (I simmered mine for most of the day), the vodka brings out a very rich taste in the tomatoes. Be sure to add garlic 20 minutes before serving. This allows the sauce to maintain the garlic flavor and taste, otherwise if you are not a garlic fan, add at the beginning with all dry ingredients.

I also like to add sausage to my sauce, Italian sausage, Jimmy Dean Breakfast sausage, or ground beef all works WONDERFULLY!Â I also LOVE a sweet Italian ground turkey meat as well. YUM!

thefivefish.com, Karie Herring, recipes, spaghetti, tomato sauce, organic

Remove from heat and serve over spaghetti, angel hair, or any desired pasta. VOILA!

BTW – I think you will find there is LESS sugar and LESS calories in this homemade recipe than a standard jar of sauce. Plus, I think it tastes better. But I am a food snob too!

October 9, 2009September 13, 2015

I Heart My CSA

I just have to tell you all again how much I love my CSA. What is a CSA you ask?

Community Supported Agriculture.

Agriculture? As in farm, You got it!

I had never heard of a CSA until one of my twin mommies told me about it and I have to tell you I am hooked! I don’t think I can go back to the standard way of buying my produce and eggs from the store. I did a HUGE post about it some time ago, so you can go read all about the deets there and why CSA’s are important to our community, the environment, and of course….YOUR HEALTH!!

But enough of my soap box….just take a gander at these beauties!Look at all of that!! And that my friends and readers….is just a ONE WEEK basket from a CSA. Let me detail all the wonderful items in that picture for you if you can’t already decipher:

CSA, agriculture, organic, community supported agricutlure, produce

One Dozen Eggs

CSA, agriculture, organic, community supported agricutlure, produce, free range eggs

2 Armenian Cucumbers (which are THE BEST, super crunchy and tasty!)

One watermelon (last of the season and still sweet as sugar!)

Butternut squash, perfect for fall

Licorice Basil (Oh em gee the aroma…my whole fridge smells like it, and just YUMMY), I can’t wait to make my famous Pan Chicken with this and some FABULOUS Organic Marinara Sauce

Now here we have Okra, which I fried up last night in a tablespoon of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, pepper and added some Parmesan and OMG was it to DIE FOR!

Organic Tomatoes, which are JUST again TO DIE FOR!

Organic Pomegranate which I am DYING to dive into today

Did I mention this is all to die for?

Acorn Squash, again PERFECT for fall

Finally, a Purple Bell Pepper which smells divine and cannot wait to use in a recipe.

So let me ask you…..Do you know where your produce and food comes from? If not? You should! Mine is made with lots of love from my fabulous farmer Mike. Learn all about CSA’s and or Food Coop’s and enjoy all the benefits of Organic farming, supporting your local farmers, businesses, and heck the kids will LOVE going to the farm like mine do.