May | 2016 | Beauty And The Beard

Adulting is hard. There are some many things you’re supposed to do and often certain things, while well intentioned, fall by the wayside. One of those things for me is remembering to take my vitamins!

There is no worse smell to me than when you open a bottle of vitamins. It’s the most unappetizing thing. It smells fowl and I’m supposed to stick it in my mouth and quickly try and choke it down before I can taste too much of it! Yeah, that’s on the top of my to-do list…So then I tried the gummy vitamins. That’s right, nothing says grown up like fruit shaped sugar.

Then I stumbled across this machine and after doing a lot of research decided to give it a try. Best decision ever! Let me introduce you to my vitamin buddy. Tespo.

Tespo is similar to a Keurig in that it uses a pod to dispense liquid but instead of coffee this is mixing together a vitamin shot. Each disc dispenses thirty-one individual servings; enough for one month. However unlike Keurig, these vitamin discs are recyclable!

While most pills contain vitamins, they also contain unnecessary ingredients such as binding agents, fillers, flow agents, additives, artificial colors and flavors. All things I try to avoid with my clean eating approach and yet was still ingesting with my vitamins. Upon further research I learned that our bodies can only absorb roughly 20% of the vitamins in pill form. You mean I’ve been choking down these things for years only to get a slight benefit? However, in this liquid vitamin form our bodies can absorb upwards of 90%! Talk about bang for your buck!

So how does this baby work? You place the vitamin disc in the front cover. This is a women’s disc, but they also carry men’s, children’s, energy, focus and sleep. The side of the machine also has storage for multiple discs if you wanted to rotate.

Next you fill up the back with water and push the circular button. It will turn green and then tell you how many servings are left in your disc.

It will begin to spin the shot glass as it dispense the shot it’s making in order to mix the ingredients. This little cup is really cool. It has a magnetic bottom so it stays in place and has a mixer in the bottom of the cup to make sure everything is combined.

So what does it look and taste like? The women’s formula is a yellow color and tastes like a mix of tang and flintstone vitamins! Now that is the kind of adulting I can get behind! The little white specs are the vitamins that are not water soluble. They are supposed to do that, and they do not add any sort of gritty texture!

Every morning I let the dog out, walk over and push the button on my Tespo and proceed to make the bed while my vitamin shot is being made. By the time I’m done the dog is barking to come inside, he’s so impatient, and my shot is ready. Easy Peasy! The best part is the vitamin discs are on a subscription basis so my refills automatically come to me each month! I may have a tendency to forget said things if left to my own devices….

While this is great for mornings when I’m home, what about when I’m not? Tespo thought of that too. This month they are launching their Tespo on the Go System. This little baby holds the same vitamin discs but allows you to add water, shake and drink wherever you are. Mine will be covering a lot of miles as we plan to hike up the Red River Gorge, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone this summer. While vitamins are always important, getting enough nutrients while hiking is a must! I will be sending The Beard with one when he hikes the Appalachian Trail in 2017!

I don’t endorse a lot of things, and like you, people drive me crazy trying to sell stuff on social media platforms. I don’t want to attend your online party for leggings, nail stickers, energy patches or cheap jewelry! So I am not doing that! I honestly love this product, it has transformed the vitamin world for me and I wanted to share it! I got a discount code when I purchased the product to give friends and family $40 off. If you want to use it, feel free, and feel free to pass it on if you know someone interested.

Discount Code: Tespo40Jessica

https://gettespo.com

Do you ever have a moment where you just thank God for Netflix? That was me Friday night. Let me set the scene. Sitting in bed sipping tea, dog snuggled up at my hip, attempting to tackle a cross stitch pattern and watching episode after episode of various cooking competitions.

I don’t know about you, but when I watch TV in general it makes me hungry. Everything the characters eat I suddenly crave. Within a 30 minute span I can want tacos, pizza, pancakes etc. That’s also just a typical Tuesday…but you get the point.

So how does this relate to spaghetti? I’m getting there, just hold on a second. One of the baking shows I watched had a competition where they had to make a dessert look like a savory dish. Can you guess what that dish was? Spaghetti! See how I tied that all together? *Brushes off shoulder*

I decided that I would make The Beard & I a delicious plate of pasta on Saturday. However, I didn’t want just any ole jar of sauce! I wanted to make my own! So I started with some tasty ingredients. I like a sauce to be hearty, as in the pasta is there, but the sauce is the real meal. On the cutting board is a red onion, zucchini, eggplant and parsley.

I chopped all that up and began sauteing until slightly soft. It already smelled amazing!

Meanwhile The Beard was cooking up some delicious sage sausage for our sauce.

Next I chopped up some parsley. I was pretty excited when I found these dried oyster mushrooms at the store, so I decided to chop them up and reconstitute them in the sauce!

I added two cans of organic stewed tomatoes to the mix. I know the picture is pretty steamy but this is real time photography folks.

While my sauce was simmering away I added our gluten free spaghetti to the boiling water. We don’t eat a lot of pasta, even the gluten free kind. Following a Paleo diet doesn’t mean you substitute everything gluten free for the items you are trying to avoid. We are also big fans of using a spiralizer, but occasionally we indulge in some GF pasta.

This is where things got weird. The spaghetti was the Simple Truth Brand, which I bought at Kroger. While I have purchased many of their products I have never tried their pasta. After tossing it in the pot the water started to turn a white-ish cream color, like someone had dumped cornstarch in the mix. From there it continued to thicken and the noodles turned into a gelatinous mess! We strained the noodles and the sink filled up with noodle gravy so thick we had to get the sprayer to wash it off. Since I didn’t know what the mystery goop was we opted to forgo the spaghetti noodles! Thankfully there was a box of Penne in the pantry! Pasta party round 2!

While the pasta was boiling once more, I whipped together a chopped salad with cranberries, flax seeds and a pomegranate vinaigrette. So good!

Finally the penne was ready and cooked to perfection, thanks to The Beard, and dinner was ready!

Our hearty, savory and sorta spaghetti was delicious! In the kitchen, just as in life, you gotta roll with the punches and be happy with sorta anything!

Beauty And The Beard

Month: May 2016

Circle of Life

Sorta Spaghetti