Chaga Mushrooms

What are Chaga mushrooms.  If you already knew what they were, you're a step ahead of me. Me, on the other hand, was 100% clueless, until I got the chance to review them.  At that point, I had to do some quick research to see what they were an how do you even use them?

Chaga

Luckily,  if you purchase these Chaga mushrooms through this specific Amazon vendor, they send you a useful E-Book, with some background information and recipes.


Chaga is a fungus that grows on Birch trees.  It is rich in antioxidants and immune system boosters.  It essentially feeds off of the Birch tree and takes its disease fighting ingredients from the tree. Pay attention when you're purchasing Chaga.  They can be grown in labs, which means they will not be packed with the nutrients as nature grown Chaga mushrooms.  You can read up on the mushrooms to see some of the health benefits.  It is said that it can help lower blood pressure and even assist your body with fighting off cancer. 

A Chunk of Chaga

Chaga  is best used as a tea.  To make the tea, you steep about 2 medium chunks of Chaga in about 2 quarts of simmering water.  I threw mine into a slow cooker and let them steep for about 12 hours.  Make sure you do not boil the Chaga.  This will make it loose some of its potency.  When I woke up the next day, I had some rich, dark brown Chaga tea ready to enjoy.  Once the tea has steeped for about 8 hours, strain out the chunks and enjoy your tea.  It has an earthy, woodsy flavor to it, that it is actually quite enjoyable. 

Chaga Steeping

The best part about Chaga is that you can reuse the pieces about 4-5 times before they are no longer usable.  They do lose some potency after each use, but you will still be getting the benefits from the Chaga.  Once you've used them up, you can break off little pieces and use them as incense.  They actually smell amazing.  It's a clean, earthy scent.  I had to test this out to see how well it works.

12 Hours later

I wish I had more time to get into further depth about the uses of Chaga, but working 3 jobs and having a son in Cub Scouts has kept me away for a while.  I hope you get a chance to try these odd mushrooms.  I'm sure you'll enjoy them if you're into Nature's cures.






Check them out on Amazon:  Chaga Mushrooms

Garnier Fructis CrowdTap Mission: Deep Burgundy

I was recently selected by Garnier Fructis to try their latest line of hair dye; Nutrisse Nourishing Color Creme-Deep Burgundy.  I was selected through CrowdTap.  I love CrowdTap.

The first time I saw this color on their website, I was I was in love with it and knew I was going to eventually dye my hair that color.  It was even better that they selected me for a free sample.

My hair is naturally a dark brown color.  It's just drab and blah.  I've always been this color.  Over the years the gray hairs have been taking over, so within the last 7 months or so, I had started dying my hair full time. I did have to cut off approximately 6 inches of my hair just to make sure one box of hair dye would cover my hair.  I typically use two.  When I received the box of hair dye in the mail, it was about time to dye my hair again.  I wasted no time.

I mixed up the dye, covered my hair and waited patiently for 25 minutes.  I actually waited about 28, just to make sure it took.

The outcome?

I love this color.  It's a dark purply color, but it's really only noticeable when the light hits my hair just right.  That's what I love.  I have a job where I need to maintain a professional appearance.  I love that under normal lights it just appears a dark brown, but when the sunlight hits it, it has that beautiful burgundy tone to it.

Crunchies: Freeze Dried Fruits

I have recently received a sample of some Crunchies freeze dried fruit in the mail.  I actually had to email the company to request it, because I had seen someone else with them and I was super curious.

As a busy mom, I try to keep healthy snack options in my house.  I've raised my Monster to love and appreciate his fruits and vegetables.  I often times buy fruits in bulk and either freeze or dehydrate what's left of them.

Freeze drying would be PERFECT.  It makes an amazing snack.  But I'll leave that to the makers of the Crunchies.  They seem to have this art perfected.

I had received a package of Strawberry Banana crunchies.  My son and I ate them during our Pinewood Derby Race, for Cub Scouts.  They were gone in a matter of minutes.

Here's the link to their website: https://www.crunchiesfood.com/

These are a tasty snack.  They are literally just freeze dried fruits.  No added ingredients or artificial flavors.  I could come up with a lot of ways to use this stuff.  Once the fruit was all gone, there was some freeze dried powder in the bottom of the bag.  I seriously had to lick my finger and get every last bit of the powder out.  It was THAT tasty. I could see crunching the whole bag up and using it as a dusting powder on some baked goods like cakes and cookies.  I feel that with these crunchies the possibilities are endless for healthy snacking.



I've also posted the Amazon links below.

#Crunchies

Reynolds Cookie Baking Sheets

As a single Mom, who doesn't love items that make your life easier?

I've pretty much used parchment paper to bake on, for almost as long as I've been baking. I heard about it pretty early on in my baking career.  They eliminate scrubbing cookie sheets and they eliminate having to grease the cookie sheets.  Reynolds has taken the parchment paper a step further.

They have pre-cut, cookie baking sheets.  Just grab a cookie sheet out of the box, throw it onto the baking sheet, bake your cookies.  Throw the sheet away, wash/rinse the baking sheet and you're done.  I have been able to get a box of these free for review, through Crowdtap.  (The link for Crowdtap is posted in my blog).

I plan on baking more cookies tonight, but here's just a quick view of what went down, so that I could write my initial review.

From the picture, you can see that the cookies on the parchment paper cooked more evenly, whereas the ones not on the parchment paper are darker around the edges and look less cooked in the middle.  I've lost a bunch of pictures on my phone.  If I can locate them, I'll them to my blog as well.

Grinderland Manual Coffee Grinder

I had received this coffee grinder at a discounted rate in exchange for my honest review.

I will start by saying it's so easy my 8 year old could figure it out.  He took it all apart and filled it with coffee beans, put it back together and started cranking away.  Within a matter of minutes he had already ground up two rounds of coffee beans. 

There's the top section where you put the beans, the bottom canister, the grinding wheel can be opened or closed depending on how big or fine you want the coffee beans ground up, a handle, and a cap.  Seriously, there isn't much to it.

This is great to keep on hand if you prefer the fresh ground coffee, but don't necessarily drink coffee often.  I have a Keurig and kind of drink coffee every now and then.  So this is perfect for my household.