Thursday, March 29, 2012

A better butter

The recent horrific news about Cabot's dairy provider last week left me in a quandary at the dairy aisle in 
Publix supermarket last week. Who knows what the rest of the dairy industry is doing to animals if even the brands we thought we could trust are deceiving consumers. Was I going to make even more special trips to Whole Foods for items I could no longer buy anywhere else in good conscience? 

As thoughts of dry toast, milk-less cereal and a life with little cheese drifted through my head, my eyes landed on something new... Earth Balance Buttery Spread. Cruelty free because its dairy free, and even lovelier because it's free of gluten, soy, trans fats and it's GMO-free (not genetically modified). 

Vegans, get excited! 

I wondered what it tasted like and if it was full of chemicals. To my happy surprise as I read on, oils in the ingredient list are expeller pressed (meaning they use machines to get their ingredient oils as opposed to chemical extraction). And the cherry on top is that it tastes great! So far, I've used it on toast, and to make grilled cheese and it even melts like traditional butter. Next up, I'll try Earth Balance baking sticks in my next cake. It's a grand excuse to have cake for no reason, don't you think?

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Detangle Me!

I recently spotted this brush in a magazine being touted as the ultimate detangling brush. My inner skeptic guffawed "pftt, riiiiight". But as I ripped through the tangles in my fine hair the next morning, my mind drifted back to this cute colorful brush and its promise of pain-free grooming. Surveying the product graveyard in my bathroom, I decided the $6 investment to give it a try was no worse than the useless fortune I'd already spent in attempts to easily detangle my mop.

One Amazon visit, $10 (including shipping), and 8 days later, I was delighted to find that the claims about this sweet little bristler weren't exaggerated in the least. If you have fine hair that tangles easily, curls, kids, or heck, even a long haired dog... BUY. THIS. BRUSH. You will not be sorry. The bristles are soft and bendable so when you brush through, magically, there's no pain! The knots somehow seem to dimply fall out. And the little balls on the end of the bristles, which I usually avoid like the plague, don't catch your hair.

Ah, it's the little things.