Herbs are powerful , as we well know.
When you open your dried herbs as home, you immediately notice their scent and each is unique.
Oregano smells pungent and crisp.
Clove smells spicy and warm.
Thyme smells herbaceous and bright.
What you are smelling and what you are tasting are the lifeblood of the plants that have hung around in the leaves. 
These are the constituents that act as healers in the plants themselves!
Dried herbs have just a small selection of those constituents left lingering in their leaves, and even those small amounts can be powerful!
Ever had a cup of chamomile tea to help you wind down for bed, or had a cup of peppermint tea when you were feeling stuffy?
If you have, you know how helpful even those small amounts of healing constituents can be.
The downside is that in this form, you’re getting only a fraction of what the original plant had to offer.
This is why our family uses herbs in a very special way- a way that carefully collects all of constituents in the herb, preserves their efficacy through super selective processes, and then bottles them for our simple use.
An herbal UPGRADE, if you will!
The constituents in the plants that I’m talking about are, of course, Essential Oils.
Their potency is unmatched-one drop contains approximately 40 million-trillion molecules.
To compare, one drop of true premium peppermint essential oil has the constituent equivalent of 26 cups of dried peppermint tea.
You’ll notice when smelling premium essential oils that they smell much more robust than their lower-quality oil or dried herb counterparts - it's a beautiful scent orchestra!
And the orchestra of constituents you smell creates a symphony of effective action in your body!
How? 
The class of molecules in essential oils are incredible tiny-small enough to cross the blood brain barrier and enter into cells and even act on and inside cells.
They have MANY different functions to support the body. While they can create conditions where unfriendly viruses and bacteria cannot live. the most important function is performed by phenylpropanoids.
They clean the receptor sites on the cells. Without clean receptor sites, cells cannot communicate, and the body malfunctions, resulting in sickness.
The constituents of essential oils have been used as far back as we can trace, even in the Egyptian times where crude distillery machinery and tools have been found in tombs, as well as viable essential oils that still maintained some benefits.
They’ve been used by the German and French for hundreds of years.
In this video, the first one in a class I teach once a year called Oils of The Bible, I briefly introduce the concept of essential oils from a biblical perspective.
If you would like to keep learning on this topic, you can join the class and peruse at your convenience here.
Numerous studies and tests have been done proving the efficacy of essential oils.
Clove, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Lemon, Lavender and Frankincense are some of the ones that have the most testing and studies available.
In order for them to work like this, they must be the highest premium quality.
It’s sort of like going to MacDonalds vs going to BurgerFi...I really don’t need to explain the differences to you such as price, ingredient quality, experience, body benefits, etc.
You get it. 
In over ten years of walking alongside families, there’s never been one that I haven’t been able to help with the right premium essential oils.
And in our own family, we’ve dealt with sick days, chronic illness, chronic pain, short term injuries, chronic conditions and more…with premium essential oils by our side supporting us.
We have even reversed chronic diagnosis in our family.
Here is the short list of things we have conquered in our own home:
Asthma
Eczema
Migraines
Anxiety / Anxiety Attacks
Seasonal Allergies
Ear Infections
Bronchitis
Measles
RSV
Strep Throat
Boo Boos
Bug Bites / Stings (even a jelly fish sting once…ouch!)
I firmly believe the reason we have had such outrageous success using plants this way in our home is because of two things:
- We are using the most premium quality available, so each drop is powerful and effective
- We have community support when we need it to guide and encourage us
We’ve found herbs in this form are incredibly powerful when used intentionally.
And they’re really so easy to use, too. Since they are so tiny, they jump right into your body and go where they need to go.
It’s a breeze to use them on children, and especially a blessing for those kids who are adverse to taking things orally.
Give them a little foot rub with some supportive oil and they’re ready without tears!
I'm so thankful a fellow mom told me about these when my first child was 6 weeks old. I can't imagine having faced everything we have without these upgraded herbal helpers.
Are you ready for an herbal upgrade?
I could talk a long time about a LOT of things, but few things more than the importance of adequate mineral intake.
And one of my favorites to park at and chat about is: Magnesium.
Now magnesium is ESSENTIAL. It’s one of the seven essential minerals that your body must have.
Linus Pauling, double Nobel Prize winning chemist, famously said, “You can trace every sickness, every disease, and every ailment to a mineral deficiency.”
Our children are often deficient and we often don’t even realize it!
What are some of the signs? They include (but aren’t limited to):
- Grumpiness/Irritability
- “Growing Pains” or cramps
- Anxiety/Stress
Are you kids experiencing any of these?
As they hit major growth spurts, childrens’ bodies gets really depleted of magnesium which can lead to growing pains, night terrors and trouble settling down at night in general.
Magnesium is one of 60+ minerals that I, and my children, take every single day.
In my opinion, it’s more important (and beneficial) than a multivitamin; it’s essential for hundreds of biochemical pathways!
And what about safety? Great news. It’s water soluble, and easy to spot when you’ve had enough (your stools will be loose).
The known benefits of Magnesium are too bountiful to even list in their entirety, but I’ll share a few.
- Fights depression (better than drugs in many cases)
- Balances mood
- Supports bone growth and health
- Relieves anxiety
- Support healthy bowels
- Improves sleep
- Stops headaches
- Relaxes muscles
- Brain support
Basically…you want magnesium and you want enough of it-for you and your family.
When sick, it’s invaluable.
Amazingly, a protocol of magnesium has even shown effectiveness against viral illness.
If you or your child is very deficient, it can take a few days, weeks or even months to replenish. Give yourself time to see the benefits. You deserve it!
So how can we get some?
Pumpkin seeds are super high in it, followed by almonds and spinach.
Choose sprouted raw seeds/nuts when possible!
An ionic supplement will also get you all you need, and my favorite is Young Living. In my opinion, it's the best one on the market-it’s blended with 60 naturally occurring and derived trace minerals (like selenium, copper and ZINC) plus herbs that help with absorption. It's called Mineral Essence.
It even assists with hydration of cells, making your water-drinking more efficient!
To be honest, it doesn’t taste great (although all of my children take it without struggle, so it must not be SO bad).
I bribe them with a Lily’s chocolate chip.
Dark Chocolate
Avocados
Pumpkin Seeds
Chia Seeds
Flax Seeds
Legumes
Fatty Fish (like salmon)
Bananas
Greens
Want a recipe to make your kids super happy, and give them lots of magnesium to boot?
How about two recipes?
Keep reading!
This Chocolate Pudding packs tons of magnesium in each bite (but the kids won’t be able to tell!).
- Magic Chocolate Pudding
1 cup avocado (the less “ripe” the less avocado taste)
1 ripe banana (the riper, the better)
4 Tbs raw cacao powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs Maple Syrup
Place ingredients at room temperature into a high speed blender. Blend until completely smooth and combined.
Chill for a minimum of 30 minutes before serving.
- The riper, the better on the banana
- The less ripe your avocado is, the less avocado taste
- If your produce is more firm, you may add up to 3 tbs of liquid water or your milk of choice
- You may sub any sweetener for the Maple Syrup
- A little almond extract is also yummy-it's strong so just a couple drops!
- Add a drop of Young Living Orange Vitality oil or Young Living Peppermint Vitality oil for a variation
- Top with any fruit/seeds you like! Chia seeds, crushed pistachios + sea salt, berries, and grain free granola are some of our favorites!
If you liked this recipe, head over to my post for my super cozy and convenient Pumpkin Mag Muffins to delight everyone in your house.
Before being “crunchy,” I baked all the time and was known for it.
Anytime I went to an event, friends would ask me to bring one of my elaborate cakes.
But when a health crisis hit our home and we started cleaning up our nutrition to get well, the sugar and white flour had to go.
One of the things I made often that was always a hit was a delicious pumpkin loaf.
Friends asked me to make it even in the summer….in Florida!
Seems sort of wrong to eat pumpkin when it's 102 degree heat index outside, but here we are.
Living our best peninsula life, and eating autumn squash with reckless abandon.
When I went to clean eating, I didn’t want to give up my favorite treat, so I found a great recipe for a grain-free, refined-sugar free pumpkin goodness.
Then enter kids, and we needed quick, easy snacks that would nourish their bodies, so muffins became a thing.
If you have been around little ones, you know sometimes getting enough nutrients in them can be a challenge.
Their varying appetites, growth spurts, moods and preferences can affect their nutrient intake greatly.
Sometimes they only wanted a microscopic few bites at dinner. I felt like they were living on air!
So, my goal became finding nutrient dense foods that bite-for-bite were going to provide solid fuel for growing brains and bones and all the rest.
The idea of nutrient dense food isn’t unique to me-many families are realizing the importance of making each bite count, especially for children!
We soon discovered that muffins are pretty much magic kid food.
They’re perfectly sized and portioned (little ones can hold one with two hands…meanwhile my oldest son grabs 3 at a time!), fairly un-messy, easy to transport, freeze well for make-ahead, and come in every variety you can dream up.
That’s why I have tried many ways to pack even more nutrients into the muffins that come out of my kitchen.
Chia seeds, ground flax seed and grassfed beef collagen often find their way into my mixing bowl, just to name a few.
My love for pumpkin loaf and desire to make nutrient dense foods for my children that they’d enjoy is how we arrived at these muffins.
Magnesium is one of the most important minerals to your body for so many things.
I am constantly talking about the benefits of Magnesium.
So I pumped up these muffins to make them magnesium-packed as well…..hence the name Pumpkin Mag Muffins!
Each muffin has 100 mg of magnesium in it-how about that!
The recipe uses a variety of food sources that are known for being full of magnesium, along with other powerful nutrients like omegas - chia seeds, flax seeds, and almond flour to name a few.
If you want to use a boxed mix, like my favorite one from Simple Mills, you can add up to ½ cup of magnesium rich seeds like chia and flax, and even substitute some of the liquid in the recipe for pureed pumpkin to do a semi-homemade version.
This recipe originally appeared in and has been adapted from Paleo Running Mama.
3 large eggs
1 cup organic pumpkin puree
1/3 cup organic coconut milk (The fattier the better! Full fat coconut or raw cow are my faves)
1/3 cup organic coconut sugar
2 Tbsp pure maple syrup or honey
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups blanched almond flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour or arrowroot
3 tbs whole chia seeds
2 tbs ground flax seed
1 Tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
½ -1 tsp cinnamon
small pinch of salt
- Preheat oven to 350 and line a muffin pan with parchment liners
- Whisk wet ingredients and sugar until very smooth
- Add dry ingredients to the wet and beat by hand until very smooth and blended
- Fill each cupcake liner ¾ of the way with batter. *sometimes I like to put a couple of pumpkin seeds on top to decorate them!*
- Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, checking with a toothpick for doneness.
These muffins store wonderfully in the freezer for grab-and-go breakfasts or travel, and they’re great “help yourself” snacks for bigger kids (and grown-ups!).
Do you like having baked goods on hand for quick snacks? What’s your favorite thing to make? I would love some more ideas!
Without a doubt, both “crunchy” people and mainstream experts agree that hand washing is crucial for us all!
But sometimes we just can’t, so what do we do then?
And how do we cut down on the germs covering public surfaces we have to use, like shopping carts and toilet seats?
Enter sanitizers.
Problem solved!
Well, almost.
See, we have two major issues with hand sanitizers (but don’t worry-keep reading for my easy solutions!).
- The FDA has over 100 sanitizers listed that "don't even "work."
- Most on the market are full of toxins that hurt us (even affecting fertility!)
We know we can pretty effectively kill lots of junk with 60% alcohol (like some strong 160 proof spirits).
But…other than carrying around a bottle of vodka to soak our hands in...what's a person to do!?
- Preferably, wash your hands. Even with just water, it's the most effective way to remove germs.
- When you can't wash them, choose a sanitizer that is safe and effective
There is now a small selection of better brands to choose from, or you can even make your own!
I do both of the above, cause why not switch it up?
To save you time and money, I’ll share here my two favorite choices for both options:
DIY and Ready-to-use!
DIY
The alcohol in this recipe must be at least 120 proof (60% alcohol) in order to “officially” kill germs according to mainstream guidelines.
My recipe uses the power of essential oils to add a broad range of ick-busting power, benefits and super pleasant scent that doesn’t affect your hormones and lungs!
Blend all the ingredients together in a glass container, then pour into spray bottles.
I like these glass spray bottles- I use them to make many recipes including plant spray for my veggie garden and houseplants, and coop spray to keep my chickens’ home fresh!
I wish I could tell you why I chose the essential oils above. I'm not allowed to (thanks, FDA).
So the best I can do is let you know that I researched extensively which ones would be the most powerful for this recipe, and these are what I confidently choose.
Ready-To-Use
When I don’t want to play apothecary in my kitchen and gather all the supplies, I get these items that are ready and waiting or me to grab and go.
They check off all the boxes for what I want, and the essential oil scent is absolutely incredible!
I am always asked “what are you using it smells so good!?” when I’m sanitizing while out and about.
Thieves Hand Sanitizer
Kills 99.9% of germs and eliminates common, harmful bacteria
Formulated with powerful essential oils and plant-based ingredients
Lightly moisturizes with aloe vera and vegetable glycerin
Perfect for on-the-go
Leaves no chemical residue behind
Contains no petrochemicals, mineral oil, parabens, sulfates, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, dyes, preservatives, or toxic ingredients
Thieves Spray
Contains naturally derived, plant-based ingredients
Doesn’t require rinsing after use and has no harsh fumes
Easy to throw in a backpack, purse, or luggage with its on-the-go size
Cleans many different surfaces, such as counters, sinks, toilets, and door handles
Safe to use around the whole family, including children and pets
Whatever you choose, remember to use enough to thoroughly wet your hands, and scrub until they’re completely dry.
Which did you pick? I’d love to hear.
