Home Remedies for Seasonal Allergies

Here in San Francisco spring is in full bloom.  All around the city, folks are having outdoor picnics while soaking in the sunshine and enjoying everything this delightful season has to offer.  Unfortunately for some, spring is a lot more than sunshine and flowers. The American Association of Allergies, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) reports that 36 million people in the US sneeze at the scent of blossoms and tear up at the sight of a flowering weeds all due to seasonal allergies.  But have no fear allergy sufferers, Peas of Mind is here to help reduce these symptoms with some simple home remedies.

 First things first, make sure your home is a sanctuary from your allergies by dusting and vacuuming every single surface in your house (don't forget about your drapes and curtains which can easily collect pollen and other allergy-causing culprits). If you live in an especially humid area, you may want to get a dehumidifier. This will remove mold causing moisture from the air (but be sure to change the filters once a month). 

Now that you’ve ensured that your house is allergen-free, it’s important to keep it that way.  Keep your windows closed, especially between the hours of 5am and 10am when pollen tends to be at it’s worst and when it’s windy outside.  If you shower in the morning, you may want to switch to nighttime showers to remove any pollen from your hair and body before you crawl into bed.  With that being said, it’s also a good idea to change your sheets once a week to ensure that the coziest place in your house doesn’t cause you to sniffle and sneeze all night.

Educate yourself on your allergies by visiting the AAAAI's website.   This website has daily pollen and mold reports which will allow you to prepare for your day according to the pollen and mold levels.  Also if you don't know what's causing your allergies, these reports may help you narrow down the trees, weeds or types of mold that could be the culprits.

When it comes to severe allergies, it’s always best to consult your doctor but if you're just suffering from some annoying sniffles and sneezes, there are many at home remedies hiding in your kitchen cupboard:  

• Peppermint tea not only helps clear your sinuses, it also acts as an anti-inflammatory and a mild anti-bacterial.  Make the tea extra strong by using both a tea bag and fresh mint.
• A teaspoon of raw, local, unfiltered honey everyday has been known to act as a vaccine by building your immune system's defense against the allergens in your environment.  Check out your local farmers market and make sure that the honey is from your city. This ensures that you're ingesting the same pollen that's causing your allergies.
• Stinging nettle tea does not only aid in feeling better from allergy symptoms, it’s also been known to help stop the symptoms before they even start.   Stinging nettles contain natural anti-histamines and are power-packed with nutrients which can boost your immune system.  It’s important to make the tea EXTRA strong (steep the tea bag until it's dark green) and drink it daily (it will work even better if you start drinking it a month or two before allergy season begins).
• Cucumber slices on your eyes are no longer just for the spa. These cold, cooling veggies are known to reduce the redness and puffiness around your eyes caused by hay fever.
• If you're up for it, wasabi and horseradish is another delicious decongestant. Not only will these spicy root vegetables clear your sinuses they also have anti-inflammatory properties.  So go get some lunchtime sushi, add a heap of wasabi, take a deep breath and enjoy nature’s tasty remedy.

Shocking Sugary Stats

We all know that too much sugar is a bad thing.  We know that processed sugar is just empty calories that can lead to obesity, tooth decay and other major and minor health problems.  But did you know that according to the USDA economic research service, the average child under twelve eats 49 POUNDS of sugar every year?  This means that there are five and six-year-olds out there eating their weight in sugar each year!  Here at Peas of Mind, we want to help you ensure that your child is not within this statistic. Check out these three easy tips that will help you and your family drastically lower your daily sugar intake.

1. Steer clear of the empty calories of sugary drinks by making your own homemade soda's, juices and spritzers.  Water is always the best liquid but we know this may not be what your child is craving.  Instead of juice from concentrate, freshly squeeze oranges or if you have a high powered blender, combine your favorite fruits and veggies and strain using a cheese cloth (much less expensive then buying a juicer).  Make a homemade soda by combining seltzer water with a dash of fresh squeezed OJ or a squeeze of lemon and a dollop of agave.  If your child has a major sweet tooth, make the spritzer to their sweetness liking then lower the amount of agave or OJ you put in the seltzer every day which will eventually change his pallet.
2. Making homemade desserts may sound like a large task but why not spend an hour on Sunday baking with the kids and getting them involved with their food?  You can easily lower the amount of sugar in a recipe by replacing the processed sugar with natural sweeteners like beet puree, applesauce and mashed sweet potatoes.  This will not only give the dessert the desired sweetness your kids crave, you’ll be infusing the sweet-treat with an extra dose of vitamins and minerals!  Check out our delicious, quick and veggie infused corn muffin recipea or our sweet potato cinnamon rolls recipea.
3. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again.  Read labels! Children should be eating between 12-16 grams of refined sugar per day so take that into account when buying packaged foods.  If the granola bar that you’re about to buy has 12 grams of sugar in a serving, put it down because that’s almost a days worth of sugar in one bar.  Here at Peas of Mind, we believe that it’s up to YOU, the parent, as to how much sugar/salt goes into your child’s food.  This means that we add very little to our products, allowing you to make the decision on how much sugar your child eats. Our Peas of Pie, Veggie Wedgies and Nuggets all have less sugar then leading brands so fill your freezer up with these delicious meals and give yourself some Peas of mind when it comes to your child’s sugar intake.  
   

Garden Grown Nuggets

Did you hear the good news?  Peas of Mind is now offering a NEW product! We have added Garden Grown Nuggets to our delicious and nutritious line of frozen food for kids.  Here at Peas of Mind, we reinvent the classics! We take those unhealthy dishes kids love and make a nutritious version the whole family will enjoy. 

This time last year we thought to ourselves: what are we missing in our line of frozen snacks and meals for kids? We have our Peas of Pie pizza which is loaded with veggies (that are unseen to the veggie-phobic eye.)  We turned nutrient rich vegetables (like carrots, broccoli and cauliflower) into guilt-free French fries. And we have even infused fresh baked pull-a-part bread with a full dose of veggies.  What classic kid food are we missing?  

Then it hit us like a ton of broccoli florets: NUGGETS!  I’m sure you can attest that your kids LOVE nuggets and we have realized that those darn things just aren’t going away.  So we started the process of reinventing this fried, saturated fat-filled chicken nugget by turning it into a garden-grown nugget that both moms AND kids will love.

We spent hours in the test kitchens whipping up different versions of our all-natural nugget until we had a version that truly gave us Peas of Mind.  This perfectly peas-full nugget is loaded with broccoli, carrots, tofu and brown rice, making it both vegetarian and gluten-free.  We then decided to give our customers more choices and came up with three flavors: Original, BBQ (which are both VEGAN) and Cheesy!  One serving of our Garden Grown Nuggets is:

• packed with vitamins and minerals
• has less sodium then the leading brands
• contains one FULL serving of veggies 
• includes 7 grams of complete protein 
• gluten free
• lower in fat than the leading brands

So get ready to devour the first gluten-free and vegan nugget! They will be on shelves of Super Target in May, in Sprouts Farmers Market in June and on their way to a shelf near you soon! (Find them in the freezer section)

Peas of Mind's complete product line

Another week-end, another FORT FRYDAY!

It's Friday so let's all shout, TGIFF; Thank goodness it's FORT FRYDAY!  As you know, we're celebrating that Peas of Mind's Veggie Wedgies are now in military commissaries by featuring the spouse of a someone in the military.  This week our hometown hero is Erin, the amazing blogger behind Deployment Diatribes, a blog that chronicles the ups and downs of military life.

More from this week's hometown hero, Erin:

What branch of the military is your spouse in?
"My husband is in the Navy."

How long have you been a military wife?
"17+ years."

Do you have kids? If so, what are their ages?
"I have four boys, ages 5, 9, 12 and 14." 

Why did you start your blog and what can you tell us about it?
"I started The Deployment Diatribes on November of 2010, a few weeks before my husband left for a long deployment.  I write about the trials and tribulations of being a military wife and ups and downs of military family life, as well as no nonsense parenting issues. Sometimes, during deployment, knowing I could write about what was happening and make it a little funny got me through tough days."

What is the best thing about base life?
"The best thing about base life, and what I miss from not living on one, is being surrounded by people who understand what it is like to be part of the military."

What is your favorite food to prepare for your family?
"Homemade bread, I make it every week."

You are on a deserted island and can only bring one thing...Go!
 "A very long book."

 Is Military wife life what you thought it would be?

"I don't think anyone can know what military life is like if they haven't lived it.  A military wife has to be independent, able to do pretty much anything at any time, but also supportive of her husband in his career.  I had no idea what it would be like, but I wouldn't trade the past years for anything."

Chick of the sea sandwich sushi!

Here at Peas of Mind, our mission is to get kids to eat their veggies.  We always say that we reinvent the classics! We take those unhealthy dishes kids love to eat, like pizza and fries, and infuse them with veggies for a nutritious meal the entire family will enjoy. Studies show that kids are more likely to eat foods that they had a hand in making; so instead of the regular ole sandwich format, we’re making Sandwich Sushi for the lunchbox. Not only is this a healthy reci-pea but a fun project your kids will enjoy preparing with you!

We reinvented the classic tuna fish sandwich using chickpeas instead of tuna. Did you know that chickpeas have almost as much calcium as a glass of milk plus loads of fiber and protein? So grab your kids, a rolling pin and enjoy some quality kitchen time together making chick of the sea sandwich sushi!

Ingredients:

-2-3 slices of whole wheat bread

-1 ½ cups of drained chickpeas

-1 small apple, diced

-½ medium onion, diced

-1 celery stalk, diced

-3 kosher dill spears, diced

-6 sheets of seaweed, torn up into small pieces

-1/4 cup reduced fat mayonnaise

-Squeeze of lemon

Pour chickpeas into a food processor and pulse until lightly ground.  Add mayonnaise, a squeeze of lemon and seaweed and pulse a few more times until the texture resembles tuna. Spoon mixture into a mixing bowl and add remaining ingredients, stirring until thoroughly mixed.

Cut the crust off the sandwich bread and flatten each slice with a rolling pin. Top with filling. Cut into 1” slices and eat like sushi!

Other sushi sandwich options:

For breakfast: top flattened bread with bananas and peanut butter.

For a snack: top flattened bread with hummus, avocado and julienned veggies.

Spring Clean YOU!

If you read last week's PeasPerspective, hopefully you were inspired to spring clean and give your kitchen a makeover!  Now that your cupboards are organized, your pantry is filled with pure, clean food and your fridge is stocked with fresh spring produce - it’s time to spring clean YOU!  This is the perfect time of year to clean out your body and re-set your metabolism by utilizing all the amazing seasonal produce that naturally helps your body spring clean.

A spring cleanse can be whatever you want it to be; some people juice, some make smoothies, some eat nothing but grapefruit, some go vegan. There are no rules when it comes to a cleanse, it’s just important to listen to your body and do what works for you.  Here at Peas of Mind, we’re doing a simple weeklong spring cleanse that consists of adding in purifying produce into our usual diet and eliminating sugar.  It's time to clean up all of the mess from the past year so that we can shed our winter skin and enjoy the new season!

Here is an example of a day on our Spring Cleanse:

Spring in your step morning smoothie: 

• 1 grapefruit peeled (Cleanses the body of heavy metals, viruses and cholesterol. Detoxifies the liver, blood and intestines.)
• 1 apple cored (Helps eliminate toxic build up.)
• 4 kale leaves (Powerful antioxidants rids the body of harmful substances.)
• ½ cup of blueberries (Acts as an antibiotic and helps protect your brain.)
• squeeze of lemon (Detoxifies the liver.)
• ½ cup of ice
• ½ cup of almond milk 

Salad of Champions (We recommend making a HUGE salad of all your favorite produce but here are a few of our favorite foods that help with cleansing):

• watercress (Eliminate carcinogens from the body.)
• legumes (Regulates blood sugar, cleanses the intestines and has anti-cancer properties.)
• celery (Detoxifies the body of free radicals and helps alkalize the body.)
• beets (Detoxifies intestines and liver.)
• seaweed...we prefer dried nori, sprinkled on the top of the salad. (Eliminate Radio active waste and heavy metals from the body.)

Dressing of Champions (Again, these are just some great additions to help boost the health properties of your dressing):

• flaxseed oil (An amazing source of Omega-3 fatty acid which is an incredible full body cleaner.)
• lemon
• turmeric (Comes in a powder form, cleanses the body of viruses and antioxidants has cancer and arthritis fighting properties; detoxifies the liver.)

Garlic Fries (A great side dish while cleansing to alleviate any feelings of deprivation):

• Cauliflower Veggie Wedgies (fat-free and vegan and contain one serving of veggies)
• garlic (Cleanses respiratory tract as well as eliminates bacteria and parasites from the blood and intestines. In)
• parsley (Cleanses the kidneys and boosts the immune system)
• olive oil (Controls inflammation and boosts the immune system)