Lots of excitement today!
Beth C. was the Vita-mix winner.
Sisters Erin + Kelli celebrated the opening to Great Harvest Nashua, NH and sent me a photo to prove it!
Hi Kath – Here is a photo of my sister Erin (loyal blog reader) with her first GH purchase! We bought a loaf of Honey Wheat and OH MY YUM Cinnamon Chip! Can’t wait for breakfast! Met Jeremy and told him you said hi. 🙂 His wife is now a Kath Eat’s follower as well. Very nice people.
I got some mega work done with my laptop on the couch this afternoon. I think being comfy was the key to concentration!
And then I touched out the house with my Shaklee goods because Mrs. Clean herself came over to meet me!
Since joining as a distributor a few weeks ago, Becky has been my go-to resource for all things Shaklee. She’s been selling the products for 16 years and knows everything there is to know about the Get Clean line! She and her husband, Mike, have a lake house near Cville, so she came over to meet me and go out to dinner on their way to the lake.
The more I hear about Shaklee, the more I like it. It’s a lot like Great Harvest! A network of people passionate about making the earth a better place in their own special ways. Gwyneth Paltrow actually just teamed with the company’s Shaklee Cares foundation to donate a portion of sales from her cookbook, My Father’s Daughter, to disaster relief in Japan. See the video here.
Becky came with gifts! A few samples of the products I have yet to test out – including the laundry detergent!! I’m excited : ) ‘Cause we all know that I’m really about just getting clean + green!
I have a blog post in the works about the Nature Bright [Laundry Booster & Stain Remover] and was again wowed with the results!!! No need for bleach in this house –
Becky also told me that the company is doing an Earth Day promotion: Those who spend over $30 get a FREE membership – which means you instantly save 15% on all products and have nothing to lose. More here if you’re interested.
After talking for a while, we walked down to Fry’s Spring Station for pizza!
It was a chilly evening, but we sat outside for the lovely spring ambiance.
Matt got a beer –
But I stuck to water. That lunchtime beer was still lingering in the form of a headache 🙁
I had the beautiful + large greek salad – no onions please.
It was huge and very crunchy!
Matt started with a hummus plate, which he thought was going to be tiny. It ended up being massive! He shared with all of us : )
Huummmmmus!
And lastly, Matt and I shared a BYO pizza – Sundried Maters, Jalapenos and Shrooms. I had two incredibly delicious slices!
We’re back in our warm, cozy house and are preparing ingredients for a big event we’re attending tomorrow night – The Men Who Cook! Matt’s one of the men!
Can’t wait to start a new book tonight! Don’t know which one it will be. I’m going to read the first paragraph of a few in my stack to see what I’m in the mood for!
That Greek salad looks incredible, honestly. And Shaklee sounds like a great company! I will have to check them out.
Love finding eco-friendly cleaning products that help keep toxins away! The pizza you had for dinner looks delicious!
I never noticed your green kitchen before. I love it! And that hummus plate looks absolutely amazing.
Ah, nothing like a new book. I love when you suddenly hit a spot where you get completely sucked in!
First Matt picks out that amazing plate of nachos and now the hummus platter! I sure wish he had chosen my food for me today.
I’m glad you’ve found another company that you can stand behind!
I love how many green things there are in this post!
It’s so great that you get to meet so many other entrepreneurs! Very cool 🙂
That pizza looks soo cheesily delicious! 🙂 Have a great weekend!
Shaklee is great! I have literally been taking Shaklee vitamins forever. As a child, I would just chew the Alfalfa tablets rather than swallow them whole. I have just recently started using their vanilla protein powder. I honestly don’t remember life without Shaklee.
oh the greek salad is screaming at me. it wants me to eat it. oh yummo.
How did I miss a Vita-mix giveaway! That Earth Day promo at Shaklee is mighty tempting….
Those cleaning products sound really great. Oh that pizza and hummus plate look sooooo good.
I need to come to Cville and restaurant hop! lol 🙂 Everything looks so good!
Aaaah that hummus plate is making me huuuuungry!
Becky totally looks familiar….like an actress though – I can’t place it though…ugh – that’s annoying! Sigourney Weaver? No…I’ll have to think about it.
I’m jealous you get to sit outside to eat!
Dang! I literally broke my blender today..[shattered into a billion pieces] so I was being positive for the vita mixer! Oh well, congrats Becky C!
Just enjoyed margarita pizza and salad for dinner as well. 🙂
I am excited to hear about this “men who cook” event!
I am definitely going to have to check out these eco-friendly cleaning products. i HATE the smell of bleach, and what it can do to clothes. And how you smell like it for weeks after using it if you get it on your hands.
And like Morgan, I want to hear about the “men who cook” even too!
I should really start thinking of being more GREEN haha. I mean, i’m not terrible. but it would be nice 🙂
Writing from my tiny Blackberry. Internet not working at the lake. Loved meeting you and Matt! We could have visited for hours. Shaklee brings good folks together. You’re the best!
Why does Great Harvest have plastic bags?! That is the biggest antithesis to going green! Paper or re-usable is the way to go.
Well said!
Hope Great Harvest will drop the plastic bags asap!Hopefully some
of their stores have already done this?
Love the blog Kath, just not a fan of feeling being sold a product
(Shaklee,Garlic Gold, etc!)
We use plastic bags because the bread would dry out and go stale in a matter of hours without them. Hard-crusted artisinal breads can do with just a paper bag, but our soft sandwich breads cannot. I don’t like plastic either but I’m not sure what else could be used. Do you have a suggestion?
Plus plastic bags can be reused for many things!
True, I mean they will eventually end up in the trash someday but I reuse mine to separate my sweaty yoga gear from other things in my gym bag.
Here are two sites that talks about how awful plastic can be.
http://www.squidoo.com/plasticbags
http://www.cleangreenbags.com/alternative.html
While plastic bags can be re-used, very little actually are. Most end up in our trash and eventually our oceans (land fills have set up huge nets to try to catch these flying bags- next time you drive down the highway, count how many plastic bags you see. That is what changed me point of view). Plastic is scary because it does not break down and decompose in the natural cycle of life. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic and ends up in our ocean and are known as mermaid tears that are ingested at a high rate by sea life.
Kath – here is a link to an alternative bag that has the same function of plastic to hold in moisture (as I believe you are saying you need from the plastic) but is made from plant based, bio-degradable material.
http://www.biobagusa.com/plastic-shopping-bag.html
Thanks for the great question Kath. I hope you understand that I’m not trying to be an annoying critic, I’m just a big fan who has a life goal to rid our world of harmful plastics that affect all of our health either directly or indirectly.
You’re preaching to the choir here – I don’t love plastic bags!
It just occurred to me you might be talking about bags to carry things out with – which we won’t use in our store – verses the bags that the bread is put in after it’s cool.
In any event, I’d like to have all recycled and/or compostable materials in our store. But that would mean sourcing the bags, logoing the bags, and paying a premium for the bags, all ourselves. That’s a goal we can work towards, but we have so much on our plates right now [to and to pay for] that I think it would be pretty hard for us to just turn our noses up at the logoed stuff ready for us to use and spend hours building our own kind.
But like I said, a longer term goal for sure.
Maybe you could encourage customers to bring their own (re-used) bags. That could at least help with just out of the oven breads. I know you would still have to bag breads that you intend to shelf for sale.
We recently removed these temporary blinds that were STUCK on our windows and they left an ugly sticky yellow residue. I told my we needed CHERRY PITS!
Haha – you do need them!
Hmm, I am more and more intrigued by these products! I’ll have to look into them. 🙂
I’m pretty curious about what you do to make a living. Well, you’re a registered dietitian, but I’m sure you don’t work in the hospital or something.
Furthermore, how do you manage things so well that you can actually have time to workout as well as preparing healthy meals and to update frequently in your blog, too?! I’m amazed.
I am a professional blogger and writer! I make a living through the ads on my site and all the spin-off freelance work I do, such as my nutrition column at Breathe and articles I write for other publications and websites.
My husband and I are also opening a Great Harvest Bread Co, which will be a part-time job for me.
I have a flexible lifestyle now, so it’s easier to fit in meal preparation and exercise, but things do get crazy. I make both of those a huge priority in my life. Exercise comes before any TV shows or shopping or other more optional activities. But when I did my internship last year – working full-time in a hospital and blogging full-time at night, I still managed to maintain healthy habits. You just have to work at it and make doing them as easy as possible.
I aspire to your disciplined nature Kath-
(but perhaps I should quit “aspiring” and just DO it huh?!)
Seriously, you are one focused individual-powerful!!
Your dinner looks perfect! I love starting with a big fresh salad. It makes me sad when menu’s have limited salad options!!
So great to know there are eco-friendly, safe/healthy products out there! What a great company. I tend to make my cleaners as much as I can, but definitely see the need for these products! 🙂
I keep itching to start another Gloria Naylor book… One of my goals for the coming month is to start reading before bed again. Hope whatever you picked up was a good one!
The laundry products are my favorite part about Shaklee (well, that and the Cherry Pit Scrub – if you don’t have it yet, you have to get it!). I am very sensitive to scents, so the unscented laundry detergent is perfect. And Nature Bright gets ANYTHING out!
Looks like you had a nice evening with Becky and Mike! They’re great people. 🙂
I totally agree with you that the more I learn about Shaklee, the more I like it. I am continually amazed by their quality control process and high quality standards for their supplements and other products. Since dietary supplements aren’t regulated, it’s so important to buy from a reputable company.
I love that you dislike onions. They’re nast!
I just signed up for shaklee. I used it many moons ago but had to redo my budget a few years ago and it just didn’t fit. Well, I have made it fit again!!
Woo!
Love your couch, looks so comfy! I can’t wait to join Shaklee. Going green is important to us as well 🙂
Your meal looks so delicious! My favourite part are the peperoncinis in the salad 😀
That lunchtime beer was still lingering in the form of a headache = Boo!! But daytime drinking ALWAYS results in a headache for me, too. Even when i was younger and in my, ahem, drinking prime 🙂
No onions on salads…me too.
Shaklee…have heard wonderful things about their products!
Fab dinner photos!! Sounds like a great day!! Enjoy the weekend. 🙂
I was at Whole Foods today and saw Moose Drool (new item!)…of coarse I had to buy it! Verdict….SO YUMMY!!!
Lucky!!
Hey you and Becky match! Clever girls 🙂
I am GREEN with envy about that dinner -ha ha 😉
Mmmm…. pizza! Perfect Friday food 🙂
i love a big hummus platter. so pretty on the eyes!
Lovely salad! I ordered salad for dinner the other day and it was so small! 🙁 Just a little pile arugula with feta and almonds and a warm fig for $11. Ridiculous! I would have had to eat at least 5 of those tiny salads to be satisfied. Your salad looks nice and filling though!
Your couch looks so comfortable!
I love the combo of Greek salad with pizza. Delicious!
I know what is SUPPOSED to be in Hommus, but I have my suspicions” they” are not telling it all, as I am almost addicted to the stuff,can eat it anytime, day or night, Yum Yum Yum.
Matt’s plate has me droooooling !
Love the green, white and wood floor kitchen, the colours are awesome together.
i just borrowed “the help” from my mom today and thought of you – looking forward to cracking it open! first, i am determined to finish “are you there vodka, it’s me chelsea.” very disappointing…not at all as funny as i had hoped. what did you choose?!!
i bet you and matt have a blast at Men Can Cook – can’t wait to read about it!
Your lunch looks fabulous! I ordered a Greek salad last week, but it didn’t look like this. Too much feta, not enough salad…and that really means something, because I’m a major cheese buff. 😉
It’s so great to know the story BEHIND the products, especially when it shows how much effort and passion goes into them! Sounds like a great dinner!
That pizza looks amazing! I’m thinking about buying some Shaklee. What one product would you recommend to start with?
The Basic H is the most versatile – and I love the trio of bottles ($3 more) that you mix it up in different combinations. It’s concentrated and will last forever. But I also highly recommend the Scour Off – the scrub with the cherry pits – because it’s the magical product that will get up any grime, sticky or dirt.
Basic H: http://katheats.myshaklee.com/us/en/products.php?sku=00015
Basic Bottles: http://katheats.myshaklee.com/us/en/products.php?sku=50443
Scour Off: http://katheats.myshaklee.com/us/en/products.php?sku=00430
I try to be eco-friendly in most areas of my life, but cleaning is one area that I haven’t yet greenified. I’m just never sure if the products are as green as they claim they are or if they actually work. These Shaklee products sound great though!
These work really well! The Scour Off especially. And I’m sold on the Nature Bright too – as a bleach replacement.
I love the Scour Off. I think that’s my favorite. I’m looking forward to your Nature Bright review. I’d love a bleach alternative.
Those products look amazing! It’s so great that they are passionate about making the Earth a bit cleaner AND greener HEHE 🙂
Dinner looks yumm-o! Seems like the perfect way to end the week, have fun reading!
In no particular order:
1) OMG the hummus platter looks to die for
2) I missed entering for a Vita Mix? Dang.
3) Between your RD degree and a bakery, and living where there is actually spring– you are embodying my dream life 🙂 Maybe someday….
🙂
I’ve been finding lately that I am much more productive when I work on the couch instead of at my desk. It’s a little bit like when I was in high school and got more of my homework and studying done sitting on my bed than sitting at my desk. Comfort wins.
Looks like a really fun evening! I’ve been in a cleaning mood lately but just haven’t found the time…I’m definitely going to get to it today, though!!
Kath,
Can you believe I found a sample of the basic H from the Healthy Living Summit!? I didn’t have a spray bottle so I diluted it into a bucket and used it on everything! Very impressed…especially as a window cleaner. I’m very interested in the laundry products. Can’t wait to read your review.
Awesome!!
Have had my Shakelee mini-starter kit (ordered from you, of course!) for over a week now, and haven’t had the time to mix the bottles up or get to cleaning. However, that changes today! Woo!
~
Have fuN!!
Dang, all that food looks great!
yummmy I LOVE pizza and hummus plates-good choice 🙂
I love Shaklee,too!! I’ve been using their products for 2 years. Everytime I try something new, I always go back:-)cc
Hi Kath, I read your blog every day and absolutely love it! Do you know whether the shaklee cleaning products are for sale in the UK? Thank you
I actually don’t think so 🙁 There’s a place for Canadian orders that I see, but not international
Hello Clizia,
If you, or someone you know, has an APO or FPO mailing address, Shaklee will ship to those addresses that go overseas. Hope that helps.
Hey! I went to the link but don’t see the info for the free membership w/$30 purchase. I added enough items to my cart to total about $40 but still don’t see it? Is it not happening or not in effect yet?
Hmm. I’m checking with Becky on this for you
Hey Michelle, this is Becky. After you put your items in the shopping cart, and then keep proceeding to the Join – Complete Signup link, you will see when you get to the page that says Payment Method & Billing that you will not be charged for the 19.95 membership. You will just see the total for the products (needs to be a minimum of $30 order to get the free 19.95 membership) plus the tax and shipping, but you won’t see a 19.95 fee added in. Hope that helps. Enjoy!!
Thanks for sharing the info on the free Shaklee membership! I’ve been thinking of trying some products out and this is a great opportunity.