Tattoo Ink Toxic

July 17, 2012 By

 

 

 

Is Tattoo Ink Toxic?

I like tattoos. I’ve been intrigued by them for years, and I toyed around with getting one for a good 15 years or so. My husband and I have talked about them a lot, trying to imagine what we would want as a tattoo should we ever decide to get one. But for some reason neither of us have ever gone through with it. I know it isn’t because we are chicken, I had my navel pierced for a while and that was darn painful, but I did it.  I always feared I would have some sort of allergic reaction to the ink, since I have sensitive skin and many allergies. And an allergic reaction to something injected under your skin which can’t really be removed just sounds terrible. And since Murphy and I are close friends, I’m guessing his Law would surface in this situation! I just never wanted to take the chance.

But of course last week two of my friends started posting pictures and starting discussions on Facebook about tattoos, and my interest was piqued again. This time I decided to do a little research on tattoo ink and what I found out really precludes me from ever getting one. The FDA does not regulate tattoo ink and does not require the ingredients to be disclosed as it is considered proprietary and a trade secret. That is bothersome to me since it means ink manufacturers are not required to tell us what is in their pigments. According to Tattooinfo.net some inks contain antimony, arsenic, beryllium, cobalt, lead, nickel, and selenium, all heavy metals. According to Natural News the carrier solutions may contain denatured alcohol, methanol, rubbing alcohol, antifreeze, and formaldehyde. To me, the most disturbing fact is that red pigment cinnabar is derived from mercury, one of the most toxic substances known to mankind. And here we are electively injecting it into our skin!

Natural News also reported that some pigments are plastic based to create more richly hued inks. These plastic-based inks have lead to polymerization under the skin, where the tattoo pigment particles converged into one solid mass under the skin. That is truly disturbing.

I will not choose to have a tattoo because I do not want to increase my toxic burden by injecting these chemicals and heavy metals under my skin where they will continue to expose me daily. So although I find some of them to be exotic and beautiful, I can not increase my total toxic load by getting one. Stay Well.

Post to Twitter

Cook’n Recipe Organizer Software Review and Giveaway

July 12, 2012 By

Cook'n Recipe Organizer

AND THE WINNER IS … Author: Sarah Yurga

 

 

I love food. As a youngster I remember watching Julia Child on PBS, and later Michael Lomonaco’s show. My parents and I would write down the recipes and then we would venture into the kitchen to work a little recipe magic. Cooking is in my blood and now that I have my own family I am always getting a chance to dream up something delicious. But with Matthew’s dietary restrictions I can’t always rely on my favorite cookbooks, and instead I spend a lot of time surfing the web looking for a good gluten free, casein free, soy free, sugar free…yada, yada, yada free recipe.

I have tons of recipes and websites bookmarked, but more often than not I forget to hit the bookmark key and then I have to remember my query term and what website the recipe was on. (yeah, I lose more recipes than I get.) Often I just forget that I used to make this killer flourless chocolate cake, and then the recipe is lost for years until someone reminds me how much they loved it, and then the search for that elusive recipe begins.

While I was at Brandcation I received a copy of Cook’n Recipe Organizer software. This is a super cool recipe organizer that allows you to pull recipes right off the web. It will parse the recipe and then store it in your recipe book you create in Cook’n. You can also enter your own recipes so you don’t have to keep reams and reams of paper recipes on hand. I love it because I want to start sorting through all my recipes and get them in some sort of order. I want to get all my GF recipes in one place, but I don’t want to lose any of my family recipes from my childhood (one day I pray my kids will be able to enjoy my mom’s Christmas cookies.)

Cook’n doesn’t stop there, it will take your recipes and give your the nutritional content based on the ingredients and number of servings! I think that is awesome, since it makes homemade foods easier to use on diets. I often found that when I needed to calorie count or when I was on Weight Watchers I relied on processed foods more since the calories, fiber and fat were already on the package. With Cook’n I can simply click a button and I get all that information from my favorite recipes! Cook’n also has a menu feature where you can set up your menus for the week and then ask it to print you a shopping list, this way you won’t forget the baking soda or the ginger. It will even organize your list by isle/department so that you won’t be walking back and forth throughout the store.

Folks new to gluten free living often ask me for my favorite recipes and Cook’n allows you to email your recipes to friends and family. I love sharing my recipes, but I HATE to have to type them out when emailing them. Cook’n makes it simple to share your recipes. It also allows you to print family recipe books. I think this is a great idea for Christmas or other holidays. It would also make a fantastic bridal shower gift.

Giveaway

Want to win your own copy of Cook’n? One winner will receive their own copy of Cook’n. To enter to win you must Like Cook’n on facebook, and leave them a note on their wall. Please come back and leave me a comment with a link to your Facebook comment. Make sure you leave me your email address so I can get in touch with you should you win.

Additional entries:

For each additional entry please leave me a comment with link if appropriate.

Contest is open to those 18 years and older. And the Winner is plugin will be used to randomly choose the winner. Contest will run from 7/12/12 to 11:59:59 7/26/12. Matthew’s Puzzle is not responsible for the contest and does not accept responsibility should Cook’n not fulfill/deliver product. Winner must claim prize within 48 hours of receipt of the email notification or a new winner will be selected.

I received a free copy of the software for review. All opinions are my own.

Post to Twitter

I Scream for Ice Cream

July 10, 2012 By

Ice Cream

I can not resist a good ice cream. No matter how hard I try to eat healthy and “real” food, I always have room for ice cream. My husband is the same way. It is truly our downfall. We have different tastes in ice cream as he likes flavors like banana and butter pecan and I’m more of a cookie dough and mint chocolate chip girl, but we both fell in love with the MAGNUM Double Caramel premium ice cream bars. They are made with scrumptious vanilla ice cream covered in chocolatey coating, caramel and Belgian milk chocolate. They were so good that I only got one from the box! The caramel is soft and rich and made the bar really a treat for adults, although I’m sure kids would love it too(they never got one!). MAGNUM also has Double Chocolate, Classic, Almond, White, Mochaccino, Mint and Dark. I don’t think I could choose which to try next, maybe Dark, no maybe White, argh I don’t know they all look so good. Mint, yeah, Mint!

My husband also has a weakness for Klondike bars. He has had this weakness for as long as I can remember. His favorite has to be the Heath bar, which he promptly bought without giving me a choice. That is OK, I like Heath too. But I think I may have chosen the Caramel Pretzel if given the chance. I love the sweet and salty combination. Klondike also has Rocky Road, Neapolitan (a favorite of the kids), Double Chocolate, Oreo, Reese’s, Dark Chocolate, Krunch, Mint Chocolate Chip and of course Original.

And what blog post about ice cream could be complete without discussing Breyers. Breyers was our ice cream of choice in my home growing up. My father loved their peach during the summer and butter pecan the rest of the year. My mother would make me ice cream sandwiches using their chocolate between two homemade waffles. This was the quintessential summer dessert. Oh the memories! When Matthew’s diet changed and he was allowed ice cream he would choose Breyers Vanilla. I liked that it didn’t have a ton of weird stuff in it.

For a cold treat on the Fourth of July, we decided to let the boys try Dora the Explorer Slow Melt Popsicle treats. I was kind of excited when I read they didn’t have artificial color in them so I grabbed a box even though it contained HFCS. But then I started reading the ingredients and wondered what they meant by “slow melt”. I found they had ice structuring protein, so I did a little research. I found a paper discussing Ice Structuring Protein in Unilever products. It spoke of a genetically modified yeast that is fermented and produces the Ice Structuring Protein. I do not endorse GMO’s and so I opted to not allow the boys to try this product.

The last product we got to try was the Good Humor Reese’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cup. They were really yummy. They tasted just like frozen Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which is a good thing. My middle son saw my husband eating one and has been begging for one non-stop ever since. The magic of chocolate and peanut butter!

I was provided with free boxes of each product for review. All opinions are my own.

Post to Twitter

Snow Capped Bananas – Banana Meringues

July 6, 2012 By

My boys adore bananas and since Matthew is now on an even more restricted diet I’m always searching for delicious treats that aren’t terrible for you. Enter the meringue. Meringues are naturally gluten free and dairy free. They are fairly low in sugar and are very simple to make, yet they turn out an extremely elegant finished product. So the Snow Capped Banana was born (AKA Banana Meringues)

5.0 from 1 reviews
Print
Snow Capped Bananas - Banana Meringues
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Fresh Bananas topped with broiler browned Meringue
Ingredients
  • 4 egg whites
  • ⅓ cup sugar
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • ⅛ tsp cream of tartar
  • ½ tsp of vanilla extract
  • 2 bananas, peeled and cut into large chunks (approx. 5 pieces per banana)
Instructions
  1. In a clean bowl mix egg whites, sugar, salt and cream of tartar.
  2. Beat on medium-high until medium stiff peaks form
  3. Add vanilla and beat to combine.
  4. Be careful not to over beat.
  5. Spoon meringue mixture over tops of banana chunks and place bananas flat side down on baking sheet.
  6. Place under broiler and broil until tops of meringue brown.
  7. Be careful not to burn
Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

Post to Twitter