By Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife
Wow, it was nearly 6 years ago that I mentioned stevia on this blog. At the time, the ingredient was not well known, whereas now, it’s found on all grocery store shelves. Though it is all natural, pure stevia has its detractors. It has a bitter aftertaste which doesn’t make it a good option to sprinkle on foods. Personally, I still enjoy it in already bitter or sour drinks such as coffee, tea or lemonade. Not so good on oatmeal.
The new kid on the block of the all-natural, no calorie sweeteners is the Monk Fruit (also known [...]

The Succulent Wives are taking a little (very little) time off this summer. While we are still actively working on bringing you new content and ideas every week, we have also decided to bring back some of our favorite posts from the archives, those that are still timely, relevant, useful and that deserve to be revisited. Thanks for allowing us to recharge. We promise that we will be coming back with more new ideas and recommendations for cool stuff than you’ll know what to do with…
By Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife
I previously wrote about these fantastic, almost-better-than-bakery-bought chocolate croissants by Trader [...]

The Succulent Wives are taking a little (very little) time off this summer. While we are still actively working on bringing you new content and ideas every week, we have also decided to bring back some of our favorite posts from the archives, those that are still timely, relevant, useful and that deserve to be revisited. Thanks for allowing us to recharge. We promise that we will be coming back with more new ideas and recommendations for cool stuff than you’ll know what to do with…
We may have been a little ahead of our time when we first wrote about Chia [...]

By Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife

I was reviewing photos for Audrey’s piece on Rancho La Puerta (published just last week), when I came across a photo of one our delicious meals taken there one evening. All dishes were adorned with fresh and colorful sprouts, herbs and… flowers. Of the edible, organic kind, bien sûr. That got me thinking that I  could be doing this at home too, to dress up meals – and cocktails – for more festive occasions. We’ve all seen flower adornments on food & drink at many a chichi catered event, but now it’s easier than ever to DIY [...]

By Anne-Marie Kovacs, Chief Wife
Big salad eater? Like to watch what you eat and like to choose the healthy and lowest calorie alternatives? That’s me. If you’re anything like me on those fronts, I think you’re going to like this: the flavor-infused oils by Dean Jacobs. What’s so special about these? Oh, where to start?
First, let’s talk about the properties of the grape seed oil, which the company uses in its flavor infused sprays. You may have noticed that grape seed oil is the new “It” oil. For good reasons: grape seed oil has a light, neutral taste which won’t [...]

By Margaret Plouff – Contributor, Natural Wellness

Essential Fatty Acids are essential because your body absolutely needs these healthy nutrients, omega 3-6-9’s. We’ll all turned off by the word “Fat” but let’s take a closer look. The brain is made up of healthy fats, and we need to feed it essential fatty acids for clarity, focus, and improved mood. The cells are surrounded by essential fatty acids and if there is a lack of the good fats, the bad fats take over that job.
The joints function smoothly and pain-free when they are lubricated properly. The skin shows a healthy glow when [...]

Sure, we try hard to be as health conscious as possible, but when Audrey and I get together, cocktails abound (thankfully, Audrey is 2000 miles away, so our martini abuse is not so frequent). And, Audrey will be here next week. Martini glasses are sure to be put in use. Unfortunately for us, now that we are both trying to fit our not-so-young bodies into little bathing suits, caloric intake counts. It’s painful to admit, but a regular mojito will cost us about 200 calories, a margarita about 325 calories and an appletini about 175 calories. With zero nutritional value, [...]

Always on the lookout for interesting “indie” brands in all categories, we thought it would be fun to pay tribute to another type of art, that is, the art of fine booze-making. Micro-distilleries, like micro-breweries have become more and more popular in the last decade. With reason. Many of these micro-distilleries make award-winning vodkas, far superior in taste and quality to the commercial brands. But, since award-winning in the vodka world pretty much means colorless, odorless and –we mean this as a compliment – tasteless, we want instead to turn our attention to the new and exotic flavor-ways of vodkas. [...]

By Mrs/Dr. T, Snarky PhD Scientist and Guest Contributor
The media has done a pretty good job making sure EVERYONE knows that chocolate might be good for you. It’s hard to find a women’s magazine that hasn’t promoted this message, particularly this time of year when Valentine’s Day sends chocolate sales through the roof. Of course, we all want chocolate to be good for us, right? But is it really believable that chocolate, a member of the candy and other-naughty-foods category, is a health food?
Cocoa wasn’t really on the “good-for-you” radar until scientists stumbled upon an island off the coast of [...]

Now that the holidays (and food-related excesses) are behind us, it’s time to focus on our health. More than a few of us have an “Eating Clean” resolution on our agenda this year. Which is why it’s completely apropos to introduce you to Einkorn wheat, an ancient species of hulled wheat. Einkorn, which ISN’T corn (translates precisely to “single grain” from German) is man’s first form of cultivated wheat, grown by farmers over 10,000 years ago. Historically, we know that Einkorn has been forgotten and has been passed over for higher yielding and more glutinous (for bread-making) wheat crops.
But today, [...]