Today, Princess Know It All is shopping at the Turnip Truck

More than ever I am paying attention to what I actually put on my skin and scalp – our skin and scalp are our largest organs – pores are holes that lead to ones blood stream, our scalp is itched and scratched at least once a day – these scratches leave little tiny cuts – throw on some chemicals and guess what? A straight shot to our BRAINS!  On a vanity point sulfates and parabens thin the hair, study’s have shown that in men there is an even more rapid rate of thinning – hence leading to BALDNESS!!  For Mee I break out in a giant rash as the sulfates irritate my skin.

What’s really got me in a tizzy are the effects of OXYBENZONE & VITAMIN A in sunblocks – what these two ingredients do when placed on the skin and then sat in the hot sun is yes, keep the skin from burning however under the skin they are cooking up some serious cancer cells at an intense rate – that’s right Oxybenzone is a KNOWN carcinogen and found in almost EVERY commercial child’s sunblock.  Vitamin A is usually found in beauty products that boost anti- aging properties, this is true it does seem to slow down the aging process however what it does when placed in sunblock products and that cover sun bathing or sun exposed skin – is cook up cancer cells underneath!  I have been a HUGE fan of mineral make- ups and I still am however MOST of them have SPF mixed with Vitamin A – so what I’ve done is changed my sunblocks and my mineral product is not used at the beach or for periods of time outside.  The hope is that there are plenty of chemical free blocks that work – we just spent the week at the beach with the kids and used a great product (click on link for more info) with these products it takes a bit of effort ’cause one must reply every two hours or after swimming.  Good luck my friends and happy label reading — remember keeping our BLOOD clean keeps us healthy!

Today, Princess Know It All is cooking fried Rice with Jack!

Yahoo fo’ Basil Stir Fried Rice, Jack came to town and I learned to get down with my Thai food! So here is what you do:

Heat your skillet, add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil & 1 tablespoon of Sesame Oil.  Once the oil is heated up add your onions, garlic & ginger; once the onions are translucent add your red & green peppers, followed by your carrots – you can steam your carrots if need be in advance.  If not give the carrots a few minutes by covering the pan.  If your digestion is strong then eat ‘em slightly crunchy!  Move all the veggies to the side, in the empty space add your steamed tofu and break it up into crumbles.  Get the seasoning of the pan all over the tofu!  Once it’s heated blend it into your veggies – you can use an egg in the same way.  Allow your veggies and tofu to cook together for a few minutes, meanwhile add your TUMERIC.  Now that your veggies are soft add your shitake mushrooms, mixing them in.  The best part -time for the THAI BASIL – I like TONS of it, gosh I LOVE this flavor – if you can’t find Thai Basil use regular basil it’s just as good fo’you!

Now toss in some cilantro – optional but the combo of the two herbs is BANGIN!  Now that the veggies & Tofu are cooked add in your leftover brown rice (you can use any type of rice or Quinoa).  Add Tamari (soy sauce) and Fish Sauce, spritz some fresh lime juice and add fresh cherry tomatoes if you like and get down and grub!

Download and print the shopping list here!

Today, Princess Know It All is cooking a colorful meal!

It’s Spring and this equals COLOR to Mee, I want to see COLOR everywhere – starting with my dinner plate!

I used to eat only brown, beige and white food with an occasional pop of green, this green was from a can of peas or a piece of broccoli!  Now that I’m learning all about what I didn’t know, I’m able to judge a plate of food by how colorful it is.  This is an easy meal and one that everyone will love….give it a shot and know that you can’t make everything better for everyone but that you are at least serving up food that serves a purpose.

INSTRUCTIONS:

First make your marinate. What I DIDN’T KNOW when I made this video is to plop all of my ingredients into a food processor so that means the garlic, onions, ginger, Mirin, Tamari and a bit of sesame oil.  I blend it up and then pour it over the fish, soaking the salmon is a sauce!  Add a bit of water or more Mirin and Soy if your doing it this way.  I then place the Marinated Salmon in the fridge and when I return home in the afternoon I either put the entire glass dish into a hot oven 350 degrees and cook it until it’s 160 in temp. (use a meat thermometer).
If you choose to cook your Salmon in a skillet like me, it takes about 10 minutes.

One small piece of ginger grated or crushed, once again add more if you like it spicy
4 cloves of garlic chopped or crushed – the garlic takes the fishy flavor away and adds a nice kick, you can use more or less
One tablespoon of Mirin
One tablespoon of Tamari or Shoyu Soy Sauce
A half of chopped red or yellow onion (once again more depending on your taste buds)
2 tablespoons of Sesame Oil

Be sure to add your broccoli to the skillet the last 5 minutes of cooking!

Salmon: Wild Caught Salmon is the best, as opposed to farm raised, here I used a medium sized filet.  This amount usually feeds my family of 4 easily, remember we want our plates to be full of veggies and our fish or meat fills only a quarter of the space on our plates.

The Purple Sweet Potatoes are cake, wash them off really good by using a veggie scrub brush and then add them to a full pot of water, let them cook until they are soft all the way through. Once you’ve peeled the skin add them to a bowl with your coconut milk and sweetener, bust your mixing wand and mash away! Kids love these because of the color!!

Download and print the shopping list here!

Check out the video: PKIA IN A NUTSHELL
To find the video, click on the box in the left navigation bar or go to PKIA VIDEOS and click on the button at the top.

Princess Know It All and the Peach!

It’s so fantastic to watch this clip and actually hear myself recapitulate my journey, this past Thanksgiving Lee and I passed a used car down to my nephew Tylor.  I felt great pride being able to give him a set of wheels that would roll him along his own personal path of Independence.  We named this ‘96 Mazda “The Green Bean”. Like Tylor, I had no idea where the Peach was going to take me; however I knew that it was up to me to become Mee.
Peeping this clip reminds me that it’s still up to me to become my greatest self.