A few of my Favorite Things: Xmas ideas and 5 of my Favorites

I have had a few very nice emails of readers asking me to tell them more about myself and make my site more personal. As many of you know, I started this off as a personal blog, but due to one rather derogatory comment, I stopped blogging about my life and daily happenings, and instead stuck to reviews, recipes, articles, editorials etc. I realized that one comment should affect me at all. For now, I will start a series of "A Few of My Favorite Things", which will be items (food, household, gadgets etc) that I absolutely love and cannot live with out. I figured that with Black Friday and Christmas around the corner, now would be the perfect time to recommend some items that I use regularly, stand behind and love! I, personally, appreciate when I have 'real people' feed-back, as opposed to advertising. I hope this helps and gives you guys some great ideas!

1. My Salter Mini Electronic Scale!
It is small and fits into my purse/gym bag. It is so convenient for when I am measuring out protein powder, Fibersmart, oatmeal etc. Great to take to restaurants, on vacation, to class etc. It is portable, discreet and weighs in 0.05g increments!! This is my 'baby' and I am attached to this more than I'd like to admit!

2. My Salter Nutritional Scale:

I use this daily in my kitchen, whenever I am baking/cooking. It's fun to see how off certain food counts are (packaged food serving sizes) and it is invaluable for baking, cooking or just weighing food portions. It calculates the calories as well. It weighs up to 3kg, and has tons of pre programmed foods in it. You can also program your own foods.
This is invaluable for people with Diabetes, Hypertension (tracks sodium as well!), pre-contest fitness athletes and athletes in general. This is the old-school model. They have the update which is sleeker and you can get it HERE>. It has about 1450 pre-stored Nutritional Values for foods, and you can enter about 100 of your own foods (protein powder, kabocha etc) 10yr warranty, comes with batteries, and even tracks GI loads!

3.  I ADORE and highly recommend THE NINJA Master Prep Pro. It works just like the infomercial says it does (for once they didn't exaggerate) and really chops ice into snow! High quality, fast, effective- the perfect gift for ANYONE. College student, kid, teen, family, parent's, friends etc. It has 6 blades (3 on the top and 3 on the bottom base) so it doesn't leave anything un-blended, chopped, mixed etc. It doubles as a powerful food processor, chopper and ice crusher (that really delivers results)! This truly has been one of my best purchases and I highly recommend it! It makes everything- from chicken to salad! The Master Prep Pro has 2x the speed of the original, is more powerful, chops evenly and doesn't turn your salsa into mush! The BEST GIFT!

For those of you who want a simpler easy blender only, they also have THE NINJA original (which is FANTASTIC) and blends/mixes/crushes everything!

4. Magic Bullet! or if you really want a more powerful version, try the Magic Bullet Platinum Pro!
The Platinum Pro has 100 extra Watts and they really make a difference! Food doesn't get stuck, and it works way better than the original! I realize this seems along the same vein as #3, but options are good! The cups are blender itself are MUCH sturdier than the original, and crushes ice into snow really well (unlike the old, original Magic Bullet). They also make the Bullet Express Food Processor/juicer, which makes chopping apples, tomatoes, cucumbers etc a breeze! It's a bigger machine, because it is a food processor primarily. Personally, I'd stick to the Platinum Pro.

5. VITAMIX!!! Love this!!!! This my friends, is the Bentley, Maserati, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Ashton Martin and Rolls Royce of Blender/Mixers. It does everything- makes ice cream, heats and makes soup (through friction, not heat which destroys enzymes), grinds flours (oat flour, wheat, coconut, garbanzo etc), makes Soy and Almond Milk, makes Nut Butters (peanut, almond, walnut, pecan, tahini etc- saves you so much money), smoothies, batters etc. It will pulverize anything! This is the ULTIMATE GIFT! They come in different models, and different versions (professional CIA, 4500 , red, black, platinum etc).

I own the Platinum one. It really is one of those things that is 'too good to be true' but actually is even better than advertised. This supersedes all expectations! Perfect for anyone on any diet! Great for Raw Vegans, because it doesn't use heat in the conventional sense. All the enzymes are left intact, along with all the nutrients. You do not core/peel/chop anything. Just dump the fruit (ex apple) into it whole. Saves so much time! Great for baby food etc.
GET THIS! IT IS LIFE CHANGING!

I realize these have all been Kitchen Gadgets and appliances thus far.
Next post I will delve into different categories, price points, and various other items!

What about you guys? What are some gadgets you LOVE and cannot live without, or have come to depend on?

CLA RECOMMENDATIONS and Reader Questions Answered!

Thank you for all the feed back on my Supplement Spotlight CLA POST. I had a number of you email and enquire whether I recommend a specific CLA. I will add them to "MY STORE" (so check the link above). Thank you so much for the comments! As for a specific brand, there are many! The main thing is to make sure the proper purity, standardization, and Isomers are included. Allmax has a good Clarinol CLA 90, and they also have a "woman's" version called CLA80 Femme (CLA 80 Femme ), and ALLMAX has a good CLARINOL version: ALLMAX

What you are really looking for is the term TONALIN. Some substandard brands on the marketplace obtain their Conjugated linoleic acid from Sunflower oil instead of Safflower oil. Safflower Oil consists of 80% CLA while Sunflower Oil only provides 40% of active Conjugated linoleic acid.
Click here: TONALIN
 
Here is a link for CLARINOL CLA: CLARINOL
 
REMEMBER- it is the DOSAGE and certain ISOMERS THAT MAKE IT WORK: 4 per day! If the product is 80%, and each pill is 1000mg of CLA, than you are only getting 800mg of the active ingredient. Remember that for fat loss, all the tests were done at 3.4-3.6+ grams. Therefore you need to take at least 4 pills!

Here is a link to CLA in general- I was shocked at how many good sales and deals they have! I know the retail prices of these, and these are about 40-60% less than what I've seen/bought them for!
CLA

Click HERE to read the post about CLA.