Natural Twist

Veggie Beds – How we got Started

Charlotte — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:30:00 +0000

When we bought our house. my husband and I knew we wanted to start growing our own vegetables. Due to the way our backyard is set up, it made more sense for us to build our vegetable beds in the front yard. However, putting beds in the front meant we wanted to make sure they looked really nice too. After a lot of measuring and discussing we decided to create 3 beds, each 4 ft wide by 10ft long. We also had to prepare our yard by first removing the grass in the area and then re-routing some water pipes to approximately where the middle of the veggies beds would lay.Then it came time to start the beds. We bought several long redwood boards, cut them to size, then drilled them together to create the beds. Next we staples chicken wire across the beds to prevent underground rodents from sneaking in. Then we turned over all the beds to place them in there final resting place. We were finally ready to start filling in beds with dirt!

We went to the local dump where you can buy a trailer full of compost for cheap. To fill the beds we mixed the compost and some of the dirt out of our yard. Lastly we were able to put in the watering system. (I am one of those people that can kill anything, luckily my husband is the gardener out of the two of us. One thing he taught me is that I can even keep things alive if you put in a good watering system on a timer, duh!) The best part was then getting to plant all three beds with delicious soon to be veggies! It has been 2 years since we put the beds in and since then we have had great seasons and some not so good, but we are learning what we need to do to get the best veggies we can, every time we plant. I have to say, that there is nothing quite like being able to go out in the front yard and pick vegetables to make a tasty salad, quick stir fry or my husbands go to green juice after a long run! I know this may sound like a long process, but it was actually very easy as long as you are willing to put the labor in and man was it worth it!

Do you grow any of your own vegetables?

My Food Allergy Story – The Long Version!

Charlotte — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:24:41 +0000

As many of my friends and family know, I am pretty long winded and it has taken me years to get this story down to a version my husband would consider short. However, I felt that it was important to share with you all the full story of how I found out I had food allergies, since it is not in your run of the mill way.

Back in 2009, my husband and I started seriously thinking of taking about a year off to travel, backpack and rock climb around the United States. So we started figuring out all we needed to do, which included getting outdoors and hiking. After several months of hiking and backpacking I got a pain in my foot. It almost felt like a bone popped out of joint. At the time I was a manager at a coffee shop and one of our regular customers was a chiropractor that gave all of us on staff a discount. I stopped in to see her for my back and had her check out my foot. It turns out that the bone on the bottom of my foot, near my first toe had popped out of it joint! She easily put it back in and I was on my way. Needless to say, working on my feet 40+ hours a week, cycling to and from work and still hiking did not help matters. A week later the bone was back out and I was in more pain. I got a suggestion for a podiatrist, however since they could not see me for 3 weeks, I found a different one to see. This doctor felt I had a certain problem, gave me a cortisone shot in my foot and told me to rest a few days and go back to life as normal. Not even 2 weeks later I had to take leave from my job because it hurt to walk or stand. I decided to give the other podiatrist a try and found out that I actually had a tear in the ligament of my toe, which could have been caused my the shot numbing my pain. I needed to stay off my feet and rest to allow it time to heal. He also determined that all of this was caused due to my calf getting so tight that it actually pulled my bone out of joint and continuing to work/walk on it while it was out lead to the tear.

After 3 months sitting on the couch, I was no where near healed. I took steroids, twice, and even got a walking boot to help me get around yet stay off my foot. The doctor was stumped, I should have been healed by now, so he sent me to another doctor (a Rheumatologist) to see if I had arthritis. After more x-rays, blood tests and a MRI, she felt that I had symptoms of Psoriatic Arthritis. I was devastated, to say the least. She started me on a strong anti-inflammatory and said that depending on how I did I would have to go on arthritis medication (which some scary stuff). Less than a month later I began to have severe heartburn and panic attacks. Not only was my husband on travel for work, but I had never experienced panic attacks before, man was that not fun! It took 2 doctor appointments and calling my pharmacy to realize that the anti-inflammatory could be causing the problems. I quickly stopped taking them and went back to my Rheumatologist. I was told to take Prolosic for the heartburn and stay on the same medication, try out another one (that contained something I am allergic to, sulfa) or go on the arthritis medications. At this point I did not know what to do.

Luckily I went by the Chiropractor to get adjusted and she suggested taking a food allergy test before trying more medication. I was willing to try almost anything before going back on more drugs. She gave me her discount to get the Elisa/Act test, which is a blood test. I got tested for over 300 things and found out I have some very random allergies, which includes 2 coloring agents, cherries, guar gum, black pepper, cow dairy, sheep dairy and 4 other random things. I took them all out of my diet and did not go back to the Rheumatologist. Within in a month my foot was dramatically better and it took about 6 months for the heartburn to finally go away.

There was a lot of changes that took place in our house to get accustom to our new way of eating, but to this day neither my husband or I feel it is a big deal. We both are so thankful that I could get better simply by changing my diet. In 2011 we were even able to go on a 2 week backpacking trip, hiking over 250 miles and another 3 week trip to Europe to rock climb and hike.

I learned so much for this experience and would never have considered before what an impact taking out food allergies, which I never knew I had, could have made on my life.

St Patties Day Treat

Charlotte — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:07:40 +0000

We have for you another tasty recipe that you can make with our cookie dough! This is a delicious fun colored treat for the upcoming Saint Patrick’s day!

Mint “Ice Cream” Cookie Sandwich

Bake off 4 + of your favorite Natural Twist Cookies, following the directions on the box.

Next prepare the Mint “Ice Cream” filling

In a food processor or high powered blender place in the following ingredients:

1/2 a frozen Banana
1/4 teaspoon of Mint extract
1/2 cup spinach leaves
1/8 cup milk alternative (I used Coconut milk)
1 Tablespoon chocolate chips (optional)

Process or blend until smooth, should be thick. Add more “milk” as needed. You can double this recipe and store or eat the extra ice cream.

Place scoop of ice cream between 2 cookies and eat immediately. You can also wrap individually and place in freezer until ready to serve.

Enjoy this yummy treat!

Special Valentine’s Day Treat

Charlotte — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:04:09 +0000

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we wanted to give you a fun way to take your Natural Twist Cookie dough and make it into something extra special. Whether you are celebrating with a loved one, family, friends or by yourself, this will sure make a great end to the day.

Chocolate Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwich

First follow the instructions on the box and bake off 4 cookies

Next prepare the ice cream filling

In a food processor or high powered blender place in the following ingredients

One sliced frozen banana
1/4 Almond Milk (or favorite milk alternative)
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1 Tablespoon Almond butter (optional)

Process or blend until smooth. Should be very thick. Add more “milk” if needed.

Place scoop of ice cream between two cookie and eat immediately. (You can also wrap individually and place in freezer until ready to serve.)

You can easily increase the ice cream portion of this recipe depending on how many sandwiches you are making.

*To make these extra fancy. Melt some dark chocolate. Take cookie sandwich from freezer and dip half in the chocolate. Place on a piece of parchment/wax paper while it chills.

Delicious Smoothie for the New Year

Charlotte — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:59:36 +0000

Most of us start the New Years off with grand goals to lose weight, eat better, help others, better ourselves or etc. Well I find that for me that you succeed the best by making small daily changes to reach those goals. Usually this helps me not feel like I am changing my world and then proceed to give up before the end of January. Now that the month is pretty much over lets keep up some good habits with a tasty treat.

A few years ago I read about and started making green smoothies. I found that not only do they taste great (my husband agrees), but they are a fantastic way to add more veggies into your diet. I have to say that sense then I have been known to add veggies to many odd things, including pancakes (that was not the best idea), however you can not go wrong with a smoothie!

Here is one of my favorite go to smoothies recipes!

Yummy Basic Green Smoothie

1 frozen banana
1 large handful (or 2 cups) of spinach*
1 cup Almond Milk (or milk of your choice)
1/2 cup frozen pineapple (can use favorite frozen fruit)
1 tablespoon Almond Butter

Blend it all until smooth and there are no “pieces” of spinach noticeable. Fill up a pint glass and enjoy. If you are like me and want something to chew, add a few tablespoons of your favorite granola on top.

*If you have a high power blender or have used spinach and like it, try kale instead! Just blend it with the milk first then add the rest of the ingredients to make sure it blends up all the way.

Sampling Like Crazy!

admin — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:45:23 +0000

After a few production set backs we are up and running at full speed again! All of our locations will be fully stocked this week.

Starting on Friday we will be demoing like crazy at almost all our locations in town! Natural Twist Bakery will be working with Toovaloo (Allergen free pizza crust) to reach as many locations as we can and this way you can get a cookie and pizza sample in one stop!

Here is our current demo schedule:

11/16 – Friday

Albertsons on Balboa from 3-6pm
Albertsons in Del Mar from 3-6pm

11/17 – Saturday

Albertsons on Del Sur and 56 from 11-2pm
Albertsons in La Costa from 11-2pm

11/18 – Sunday

Albertsons on Melrose in Vista from 11-2pm
Albertsons in Carlsbad Village from 11-2pm

11/19 – Monday

Windmill Farms in Del Cerro from 11-2pm
Albertsons in Del Mar fom 2-5pm
Keil’s in San Carlos from 2:30-5:30pm

11/20 – Tuesday

Albertsons in Penasquitos from 11-2pm
Albertsons in La Costa from 11-2pm

Gluten Free Allergen Free Cooking Demo

Charlotte — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 22:20:23 +0000

In the next two months, Natural Twist and Toovaloo will be doing cooking demonstrations at local Albertsons. Natural Twist We will be discussing the basics on a gluten and allergen free diet along with showing you some quick and delicious ways to cook pizza, pasta and cookies for you and your family. Come check us out! Our first one is this Thursday at 6:30pm!

What We are Doing this ‘Mo’vember

Charlotte — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:20:08 +0000

Some of you may have already heard about Movember, but it is new to us. A friend brought this cause to our attention and here at Natural Twist we wanted to find a way to help out.

During the month of 'Mo'vember men around the world grow mustaches to raise fund and awareness about Men's heath, specifically prostate caner and other cancer's that affect men.

Did you know:

1 in every 6 men will get prostate cancer at some point in their lives.
Prostate cancer is the seconding leading cause of death of male cancer related deaths in the U.S.
There are no noticeable symptoms of prostate cancer in the early stages.
Every man over 45 should be tested annually, it only takes 10 minutes.

It is so important that we help raise money and awareness to keep our favorite men healthy and safe.

Here is what Natural Twist is doing to make a difference

We are donating a basket of goodies worth $50 to a Movember Party Raffle.
Signs and a donation box will be placed at our Farmer's Market Booths for the rest of the month.
For EVERY online order from now until December 1st, Natural Twist will be donating 15% of our profits!

Every dollar donated, every person made aware, and every mustache grown for this cause makes a difference and gets us one step closer to keep our family, friends and loved ones in our lives.

For more information check out the Movember website.

*All prostate cancer statistics are 2009 estimates reported by the American Cancer Society.

What We Are Up To

admin — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:13:25 +0000

Here at Natural Twist back from some amazing vacations and in the kitchen excited to pump it up for the holidays and spread word about our delicious products.

You may have read, but we are happy to share again that we have recently began 3 Farmer’s Markets in the San Diego Area. We are thrilled to be at these markets to get the opportunity to talk to our customers, get feed back, spread the word about food sensitivities and share with others how tasty allergen free products can be. As of now you can find us:

Monday at the Lawerence Welk Market from 1pm-5pm

Wednesday at the San Marcos Market from 1pm-5pm

Sunday at the Solana Beach Market from 1pm-5pm (replacing the Mt Carmel Market from last weekend)

During the pass few weeks we have been working hard in the kitchen coming up with new products and holiday treats.

We have added 3 quick bread dry mixes (Banana, Pumpkin Spice and Apple Spice), 2 new cookies (Gingersnap and Chocolate) and as of today Brownies! We have also been experimenting with exchanging the palm oil shortening to grapeseed oil in our cookies. So far we have had success with our Snickerdoodles and are slowly working on the others. And finally we should have 3 dry mixes of cookies available soon. We feel that it is really important that you have the ability to make your favorite treats at home whenever you want and eat them fresh from the oven. So many exciting things are happening and we look forward to sharing them with you.

First Farmer’s Market This Sunday!

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:11:50 +0000

We are excited to say we are going to be found in 3 San Diego Farmer’s Markets. Our first market is going to be the Mt. Carmel this Sunday, October 30th. The market is from 11am – 3pm at the Mt Carmel High School. We will be selling cookies, quick bread (baked and dry mixes), granola and granola bars. We will have samples of all of our goodies for everyone to try. Stop by and check us out! Also keep an eye out for what other Farmer’s Markets we will be in.