ALY ALLEN | THE BLOG

you guys, i'm a sucker for dessert. it's really my worst quality, my sweet tooth. luckily i'm not too picky, and i can enjoy fake desserts, too! i wanted to share two of my absolute favorites with you. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •  first up is " cookie dough dip ". and you guys, if you love cookie dough, and always barely have enough leftover to actually bake the cookies, you will love this. it's meant to be eaten "raw", and filled with great ingredients like garbanzo beans... yes, i know. plus almond butter and agave as a sweetener. but don't be intimidated, you can use peanut butter and brown sugar if you want. i could eat an entire batch in one sitting, and knowing what's in it [or what's not in it, more like] makes it that much more tempting! find the full recipe on Chocolate Covered Katie • • • • • • • • • •...

do you know about coconut oil ? it's useful for so many reasons , i probably could never list them all. but i'll tell you what i use it for regularly: i use in on my face. every single day after i wash my face, this is my moisturizer. dead serious. all its own, this is what i use. its in solid form most of the time, almost looks like wax, but i just grab a tiny little chunk and it melts with my body temperature as soon as i start spreading it on my face. it really works, and i know you're thinking you'll break out? but i have some of the worst skin there is, and it actually stopped me from having breakouts. using something completely natural, just one ingredient, as opposed to a commercial product filled with all kinds of yucky chemicals did the trick for me. i use it to "butter" our toast. for real. for me and for my kids. there are a million reasons why coconut is an amazing food, so i figure if i can get a good portion in us every day or so, that...

'tis the season for sickness and germs. i guess you've gathered, if you've been around for very long, that i don't really do traditional medicine? special occasions do call for it, but most of the time i prefer natural remedies and vitamins, and i honestly believe they work better. people ask me all the time what i do when i'm sick. well, here it is: 1. gargle with half hydrogen peroxide/ half water as soon as i feel it coming on. about 4 or 5 times a day or until the sore throat eases away, which is usually within a day, if i catch it soon enough. i think it just kills all those germs that are waiting to attack you. [photo credit] 2. bombard my system with vitamin D and vitamin C .  vitamin D is a miracle, i believe. it comes right from the sun, just the way God designed it... but if you think about it, flu season is always during the winter months when there's not a lot of sun to be had. so, i take it in softgel form daily. but if i feel i'm g...

i don't know if you remember this post ? where i outlined my natural lifestyle and all the crazy things i do/don't do? i also mentioned how for me, everything is a gradual process. i can't change my entire life all at once or it won't stick. so i take on a few changes at a time until they become habit and then add on something else until that sticks. i had a few goals at the end of that post. some things i wanted to try or switch over to, and one of those was deodorant   a sweet gal commented that she had tried making her own deodorant and she emailed me  the link to the recipe . there's even a video. i promptly made some and i store it in this little jar and i use it every day. so i know you're thinking it totally doesn't work, right? and i'll admit i was very skeptical at first. i'm naturally a sweater, and since this isn't "anti-perspirant" i assumed i'd be sweating non-stop. more than usual, anyway. the truth is, i h...

i talk about natural living a lot here. i've mentioned the 80/20 rule a few times, too. you know, eat really healthy 80% of the time, and then not-so-healthy the other 20% confession: the holidays completely kicked my butt. i would say on a good day i was doing 50/50 and on more days i was doing 20/80. yuck. and i was absolutely floored when i stepped on the scale last night and weighed about 10 pounds more than i was expecting. and i had already figured i was about 15 pounds over my healthy weight. i know you're thinking, 10 pounds? what's the big deal? but add that to 15, and you've got 25 pounds. and for all of us normal women, we know how hard it is to get rid of 25 pounds. enter: #alittletoofluffy my friend Danielle is awesome. and she and a group of gals were already planning to shed some of their extra fluff this new year, and asked if anyone else wanted to join in. well i did, obviously. the best part? we each put in $10 and the winner [highest percent...

if you follow me on instagram , you've seen this a few times: looks yummy, right? well those are sardines mixed with avocado and black bean, served on toast with spinach, tomato and mustard. seriously good. and crazy good for you. sardines are a superfood, basically. they pack a crazy amount of omega-3s that we barely get enough of in our american diet, but they don't have all that mercury that's a danger in pretty much every other fish. that's because they aren't alive long enough to soak it all up. add in the fact that they can be stored for years in those little tins, and you've got yourself an amazing food. now i know what everyone is thinking: sardines are gross. and sure, they look a little strange when you open up the tin. they might smell fishy, it's true. but it's really a mind-over-matter kinda thing, until you get everything mixed up. if it's your first time, just start small. use 1/3 of the tin with a whole avocado. ...

i try to buy as many one-ingredient things as possible. that's a good gauge for me, as to whether i'm sticking to this natural eating thing or not. this means that i shy away from super processed foods and pre-made meals. we do eat them, just not for the bulk of our meals. in general, less is more when it comes to the ingredients. here's a typical grocery list. this week's list, actually.  i like having the menu in front of me when i'm at the store, just in case i realize i forgot to put something on my list,  or maybe they're out of something and i need to improvise a bit. it's just handy.  you can see how i write everything out, and then put the little estimation of the price right next to it. this helps me stay in my budget. if i have to cut things out, i will. sometimes there's an item that i'm almost out of, but could maybe move it to next week if i'm over my budget for this week. for example, i had coconut oil on the list this we...

i get really overwhelmed easily. i'm not sure what it is about me, but i have a million things swirling in my head at all times. to prevent from feeling overwhelmed, i have become a serial list maker. i have lists for everything. if it's not written on a list somewhere? i won't remember to do it. this has only gotten worse post-motherhood. if an event isn't written on my calender, i will not be there. i have to have my life and thoughts organized on paper or i'll get to feeling like i might implode.  in light of this, every single week i write out a meal plan and grocery list. if i don't know what's for dinner ahead of time, i will start panicking by dinnertime. i'm not an improviser. i get stressed easily. and we all know about "the witching hour". that's no time to be unprepared.  because i sit down on sunday evening to plan the week, all i have to do is look at the calendar and know what i'm making, and know that i'll ha...

remember how i told you i'm sort of an all-natural gal? how i don't take medicine or use sunscreen or eat certain foods? well, since half of you think i'm crazy, and the other half showed tons of interest, i figured i'd expand on a few things this week. i'll mostly be talking about food. i'm not a complete fanatic when it comes to food, but i do [very loosely] follow an 80/20 rule. basically, this just means that i make sure 80% of what i do and what i eat is one-ingredient, healthy, not processed, and super good for me, and the other 20% is free game. since i went on that cold turkey sugar fast a few months back, i don't have the sugar addiction i once had, but i do definitely indulge every now and then. 20% of the time, roughly. why 80/20? why not 100% all-the-time completely and totally healthy? because i'm not sure there's any cause in life, besides Christ, that's worth 1)straining your relationships or 2)sacrificing your sanity. i...

we're gonna talk   " fir st world problems" today. you know, the kind that really don't matter in the scheme of life, but we can't help ourselves? i snapped this screen shot of the #redcup hash tag on instagram last week. if you don't know what i'm talking about you're obviously new around here. and when i say "here", i mean 21st-century America. the iconic starbucks red cup for the holiday season that comes out the day after halloween? it's lovely this year. but i'll tell you why i'm sad. because i haven't walked into a starbucks for anything except one unsweetened black iced tea in over a month. and i'm a girl who frequented starbucks, and had a special addiction to chai lattes in the fall. sadly, i think i drank three total chai lattes before i decided to give them up. and i know you're wondering why, so i won't drag this on any longer. i'm lactose intolerant. not horribly, but when i drink some...

i mentioned it last week , that you could call me "crunchy". not in every single area, but there are a lot of things i do [and don't do] that would classify me as such... although for the record, i hate that term . i'd call it "natural" instead. i usually don't talk about this facet of my life because i feel like it's kind of weird, and also i just like to do what i do and not pressure anyone else to do the same. if someone asks, i'm more than excited to talk about it but i rarely bring it up. i buy organic. if it's available organic, i'll buy it. however, i don't buy organic meat, even though i'd tell you that's one of the most important things. i just can't afford it right now. but, overall, if they sell it organic, i buy it organic. i read labels.  some of the things i avoid are: - high fructose corn syrup [mostly because it is made with GMO corn ] - MSG [confusing, because they can call it anything they want on ...

hi, my name is aly. and i'm an addict. there i said it. that makes me feel better. and i'm dead serious, though some of you may giggle, roll your eyes, scoff, or even feel relieved when i tell you that: i'm addicted to sugar. those of you who will scoff and roll your eyes are either addicted yourself [but you're not ready to face it yet], or think that i'm making a big deal out of nothing. alcoholism, eating disorders, pornography... those are real vices. come on Aly, stop trying to make yourself out to be someone who struggles with some huge secret sin when you don't. i get it, i understand what you're saying, and i would agree with you except that you're not inside my head. you have no idea the grip this has on me. the ones who feel relieved, it's because you think, oh good at least it's not anything serious. and i understand what you're saying too. and i think because a sugar addiction and really food addiction of any kind doesn...

my daughter has her second cold of her life. [not bad, considering she's almost two].  i hate when she's sick. not because she wakes up in the middle of the night, or because she wants me to hold her more during the day. i know the time is coming quickly when i won't be able to hold her at all and i'll long for these days again. so i don't begrudge it, i love it. anyway, i hate when she's sick because i can't do my usual cold regimen with her. there are a few things i can do, but most of them, i can't. she's just too little: 1. gargle with half hydrogen peroxide/ half water as soon as i feel it coming on. about 4 or 5 times a day or until the sore throat eases away, which is usually within a day, if i catch it soon enough. i think it just kills all those germs that are waiting to attack you. [not sure she understands the concept of gargling yet?] [photo credit] 2. bombard my system with vitamin D and vitamin C.  vitamin D is a miracle, i believe. i...