Let me just say that I’m not a fan of tooth brushing or anything that goes along with it.  I’m just not.  The sounds and smells are all just too much.  And I’m not even pregnant!  I do it, yes, but it’s not something I’m enthusiastic about.  Those people frighten me actually so if you fall in that category please, keep it to yourself.  All this is to say that I do what I need to do to get the job done–I’m not a toothpaste connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination.

So I busted out the tube and brushed-brushed-brushed away.  It felt a wee bit grainy but hey, it’s au naturale so I just figured I was brushing like the pioneers minus a bark toothbrush.  I carried on.  All was fine and good in the morning but then throughout the day my mouth felt gross.  Like I hadn’t even taken the time and mental willpower to actually BRUSH my teeth.  Seriously, by 3:00 I felt exactly like I do when I wake up in the morning and it was annoying.  I wanted to scrape my teeth with a paper towel or something they felt so fuzzy.

I wanted to give it a try for a week so I continued to use it.  About three days in I developed a painful sensitivity in one of my teeth.  Cold water made me jump three feet out of my chair, and I won’t even go into detail about what happened when I had ice cream.  This was totally unlike me and I wondered if I suddenly had a cavity, even though I visit the dentist regularly.  The only thing new in my routine was the toothpaste so I switched back to my old brand and a few days later the sensitivity was gone.

I can’t say what could have caused it based on the ingredients and perhaps this is an isolated incident.  But it’s not something I’m willing to continue to use when everything I had been doing before was working well.  I am incredibly disappointed as I was excited to add more eco friendly products into my home, and hope Burt’s Bees will tweak whatever it’s got going on in there to knock this one out of the park.

Sadly, my mouth and I give it two thumbs down.  If you try it though please, let me know what you think!

Burt’s Bees Natural Multicare Toothpaste, $5.00 for a 4 oz tube. Can be found at your local drugstores.

But my secret weapon is this: Coppertone Waterbabies Sunscreen Stick.  I bet right now some of you are thinking: my mom used that thing on me when I was a kid!  And mine did too! That’s how I know about it!  This recommendation comes on the strength of more than 25 years experience with the product.  That’s pretty high praise, yeah?

Basically, it’s sunscreen in a solid formula, so it spreads on places where you really don’t want to get burned, like your face and your ears, and then stays put.  If you sweat, it doesn’t leak into your eyes.  If you go swimming, it doesn’t wash off.  Because it’s a solid format, you don’t have to include it in your ziploc bag of 3oz size liquids (a plus for those of us who try to travel without checking luggage.) It’s great for use on the back of the neck and back of the ears during a run.

Now, if you have super-duper sensitive skin, I can’t guarantee that it will love the thickness of the solid formula.  But it’s made for babies, so it’s dye free, scent free, and generally formulated for sensitive skin.  I slathered it all over my face and neck last week with nary a pimple as a result.  So for my sensitive-but-not-impossible skin, it works great.

If you have kids, this is way better than wrangling with them as they try to prevent you from spreading sunscreen liquid on their precious cheeks.  But even if you don’t have kids- don’t make the mistake of thinking this is just for them.  It’s small, compact, and cheap, and it protects your skin against dangerous rays.  What’s not to love?

Coppertone Waterbabies Sunscreen Stick SPF 55, $4.99 at drugstore.com (also available as an SPF 30, so be sure you’re getting the high SPF for maximum protection- and fyi, I got mine for more like $3 at Target.)

Bodyglide is an anti-chafing product.  It provides a thin layer of smooth slickness any place where you might get chafing. (Um, this description isn’t really making it sound any less naughty, is it?)  It was originally designed for athletes, to help with chafing from straps, shirt cuffs, thighs, that sort of thing.  It’s a solid stick, like a deodorant, so it’s easy and non-messy to apply.   And in honor of the half marathon I’m running this week, I thought it was time to share it with you- I’ve been using it to eliminate chafing from seams on the sleeves of my running shirts, and it’s made a HUGE difference.

But I’ve owned BodyGlide for YEARS, even though I just started running.  Why?  Because it is a miracle foot blister preventing stick.  Forget those teensy tiny foot care sticks Johnson and Johnson sells - this works better, and is a better value.  When I want to wear cute flats and heels without wearing horrid sweat-inducing pantyhose, a rub of BodyGlide all over my feet keeps them blister-free.  This is a minor miracle, particularly in the spring and summer when warm swollen feet seem to sprout blisters just by LOOKING at high heels.  When I was working at a law firm and I had to wear heels every day, I kept Bodyglide in my desk drawer at work.  True story.

I’ve heard it used for lots of other purposes, too- to prevent chafing between the thighs when wearing skirts in hot weather, on the palms of hands if you’re doing garden work or kayaking or anything else that can cause blisters, even to lessen the itching/rubbing from a particularly itchy tag inside your clothing.

It sounds a little weird, and people might look at you funny if they find it in your desk drawer at work, but this is one product I highly recommend, for athletes and stiletto-wearers and everyone in between.

Bodyglide, $7.95 (also available in travel size) at REI.com

I first discovered the joy of epsom salts when I got an incredibly gnarly ingrown toenail.  After paying a doctor an absurd amount of money to hack it out (with what I later realized were $5 ingrown toenail scissors), I asked him if there was anything I could do to make it hurt less and to keep it from happening again.

“Well,” he said, “obviously you’ll want to use epsom salts.”

Huh.  That would not have occurred to me.  Advil? Sure. Neosporin? Absolutely. Some sort of prescription-issue painkilling ointment? Bring it.  But little crystals of magesium sulfate that you dissolve in water and then soak your foot in?  Sounds old fashioned and silly.

Well it may be old fashioned, but it ain’t silly.  Magnesium sulfate has anti-inflammatory properties, so it’s excellent for soaking sore feet, and it made that toenail feel waaay better.  My husband, who is prone to sprained ankles, dissolved two cups of the stuff in a bucket of warm water and reported a dramatic improvement in ankle pain and swelling.  And since I’ve been training for a half marathon, I’ve started taking epsom salt baths after particularly grueling long runs and my hips, which are prone to soreness, feel WAY better.  Miraculous.

It’s got other uses too- tofu binding agent (not kidding), natural laxative, broken-lava-lamp reviver (apparently it makes things more buoyant and can help merge the flecks of wax in a lava lamp that’s been shaken back into a cohesive mass).  Really, you should check out the wikipedia page.  Fascinating. In short, it’s a pretty screaming deal for a couple bucks.

Epsom Salts, available for $6.99 for a 4-pound box on drugstore.com, and substantially cheaper at your local drugstore.

***

At this time of year, I always feel ready to scale it back a little, food-wise.  I try to eat more fresh food to make up for the holiday gorging on cookies and candy (this year I made approximately 842 salted caramels, of which I gave away approximately 300 and ate approximately 542).

But let’s be honest, shall we?  While there are days when I want to lovingly chop hand-selected organic vegetables for a brown rice and tofu stir fry, there are other nights when I get home and I really want to order a pizza.

For those nights, I find it’s good to have a few shortcuts and tricks at the ready.  I’m not talking Sandra Lee’s semi homemade (shudder) – just some pantry staples that make it possible for me to step away from the takeout menus and make something relatively healthy.

This is one of my best weapons:

This is Frontera Tomatillo Salsa, and it is insanely delicious.  It tastes bright and acidic and almost citrusy, with a gentle bit of heat.  I get it in the “international foods” aisle of my supermarket.  (Frontera is a well-known Mexican restaurant in Chicago run by Iron Chef Master Rick Bayless, so it’s possible this is easier to find in the Chicago area.  But if you can find it, I highly recommend you buy it immediately.)

Allow me to share with you its ingredient list:

Ingredients: Tomatillos, tomatoes, filtered water, onions, serrano chiles, cilantro, garlic, salt, evaporated cane juice, spices.

Look at that! I can pronounce all of those things! I could buy them all individually and make this myself! Except I don’t have to, because Rick Bayless has done it for me!

I use this salsa a zillion ways.  One of my favorites is to stir it in at the last minute to a bunch of scrambled eggs, then serve with tortillas (or wheat toast) for a quick Mexican breakfast-for-dinner.  Or I sautee an onion and carrot and celery, add a can of drained black beans and 4 cups of water, simmer it for 45 minutes or so, then swirl in a huge dollop of this stuff.  Voila! Soup!  I’ve even been known to spread it on sandwiches with cheese and avocado and tomato and pop it in the panini press for a super delicious twist on grilled cheese.  Or I whisk together a dollop of this with a dollop of fat free greek yogurt or sour cream to make an awesome salad dressing for a taco-style salad.

Sometimes, I like to make my own salsa.  For dipping chips, there’s nothing better, in my mind, than a freshly-chopped pico de gallo.  But for a super-versatile, delicious, and healthy way to season foods quickly, this salsa is well worth checking out.

Frontera Tomatillo Salsa, $4.95 for 16 oz, at grocery stores and at FronteraKitchens.com

Well, at BlogHer, Sam and I met a really nice woman who worked with McDonald’s.  Because Sam is a schmoozer extraordinaire, she told this nice lady all about this site, and our premise that one can have little fun everyday luxuries without pulling in a six-figure paycheck.  Well, turns out McDonald’s is all about trying to lure in new customers with a very similar “everyday luxury” kind of premise, so they asked if we wanted to review their Premium Salads and McCafe lines to tell our readers about.

And then?  They offered TWENTY-FIVE coupon sets to allow TWENTY-FIVE readers to try a premium salad and McCafe drink for free.  We said yes.

Since I am our resident kitchen and food and health person, it fell to me to taste these items and give you a review. And oh my god, y’all, did I ever drag my feet on this.  Every day I would say I was going to hit up Mickey-Ds for lunch, and yet I kept….not going.

I just don’t go to McDonald’s that often, and if I do?  Dammit, I want some fries and a caramel sundae.  The idea of “healthy” food from a fast food restaurant just holds very little appeal for me.

But I said I’d try it, and try it I did.

I tried the Southwest Chicken Salad with grilled chicken.  It’s a mixed green salad with a “southwest veggie blend” (some shredded carrots and peppers with a few black beans, and some suspiciously blackened corn that they called “grilled” but looked more like “blowtorched”), shredded cheese, a “cilantro-lime glaze”, and chili-lime tortilla strips.

According to McDonald’s website, the salad (without dressing) has 320 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 3 grams of saturated fat.  That’s not so bad- in fact, it’s substantially fewer calories than I would typically eat with lunch.  But oh, the SALT.  Dear god, the salt.  Apparently fast food restaurants, in an effort to impart “flavor” to their healthier items, positively BATHE them in salt.  The chicken breast alone has 710 milligrams of sodium, and the glaze they paint on the chicken has another 105 milligrams.  That, my friends, is a LOT of sodium.  I could practically feel my fingers starting to swell as I ate it.

So how did it taste?  Well, to be honest, it was hard to taste anything besides the salt.  I’d picked up a packet of Newman’s Own light Balsamic dressing (one of several Newman’s Own dressings McDonald’s offers, in an interesting, if odd, partnership between wildly different companies) but found that the glaze and juice from the chicken was already making the salad a little soggy so the last thing it needed was more dressing.

And I can’t really avoid talking about the chicken.  I’m pretty new to meat after 10+ years as a vegetarian, and the grilled chicken breast on this salad was everything I dislike and fear about meat.  It looked and tasted suspiciously like chicken breast parts that had been mixed with salt water and fillers and pressed into a chicken breast shape.  I made it about two bites before I had to take it off the salad entirely.  But: I am not the target market for a chicken breast.  Even a free range organic grilled chicken breast from a chicken that was lovingly sung lullabies every night before going to bed in a box full of fresh straw would not be my cup of tea.  So for those for whom a salad with a grilled chicken breast sounds like the perfect lunch, it may not be such a problem.  If I had it to do over again, I think I’d order the crispy chicken breast- it seems less likely to get soggy and more like something McDonald’s might excel at (though it would add some fat and calories).

It was not all bad- I was happily surprised to see that the lettuce blend was actually mixed greens, not shriveled, browning iceberg as I would usually expect with a fast food salad.   The Newman’s Own dressings, though I did not eat them, are a nice touch.  And while I am lucky to work within a two block walk of about three dozen restaurants, I realize that many people are not so fortunate and have limited food choices near their homes and offices, and it’s good to know that there are some options at McDonald’s that won’t cause you to eat your entire recommended daily allowance of calories and fat in one sitting.  If I were, say, on a cross country road trip where there were not a lot of choices, I’d order it again- just maybe without the chicken breast.  And I’d have a caramel sundae on the side.

Want to try a McDonald’s premium salad AND a McCafe beverage for free?  Leave a comment here by 10pm CST on Friday, November 13.  If more than 25 people comment, we’ll do a random drawing for 25 names.  The odds are good, everyone!  Get cracking!

Traveling to Denver involves packing. I am usually an exemplary packer (I can do a full week out of a tiny check-on duffel bag NO PROBLEM) but I have an embarrassing blind spot when it comes to packing: I often forget a toothbrush.

I know. Gross.

But see, I always pack the night before, but I leave out my toothbrush so I can use it in the morning.  And then, in the hurry of getting to the airport, I forget to stick it in my bag.

I arrived in Denver on Sunday after an inhumanely early morning flight, wanting nothing more than to shower and brush my teeth before we hit the town for the day.  I got to my friend’s house, showered, and began rooting around in my bag for my toothbrush when I realized…I didn’t bring it.

So a trip to Walgreens was in order.  I dashed into the store, grabbed the cheapest toothbrush I saw, and was about to make my way to the checkout when something caught my eye:

This is a Colgate Wisp, a ”mini toothbrush” that doesn’t require water and can be used on the go.  It has three main features: a mini brush head, a bead of breath-freshener nestled inside the mini-brush, and a soft pick on the opposite end that you can use to get between teeth.

Given the kind of dire state of my breath at the time, and the fact that we were headed out for the day so I knew I wouldn’t be able to brush with toothpaste and water for at least a few hours, I decided on a whim to try the Wisp.

I unwrapped it (happy surprise: though it comes in a plastic clamshell, a type of packaging that typically makes me want to poke my eyes out, this one was super easy to open) and gave it a whirl.  It felt a little weird-the texture of the bristles felt strange, and the handle is way shorter than a normal toothbrush so it took some getting used to how to maneuver it- but I kept at it.  And you know what? It did the job about one million percent better than a stick of gum (my previous go-to strategy for breath emergencies).  The little flavor bead burst with a nice rush of breath-freshening mint, and the pick thing actually felt like it was getting any food or plaque out from between my teeth.  I even used it to brush my tongue.

Did I feel a little strange, brushing my teeth without water in the parking lot? Yes.  But my teeth actually felt CLEAN afterward- smooth and fresh.  (It’s gross, but you all know what I’m talking about when I say that there’s nothing worse than the rough fuzzy feeling of teeth in need of brushing, and this product totally addressed that.)

The Colgate commercial for the Wisp is absurdly over the top: it features attractive men and women dancing to thumping music in a club, and a woman excusing herself to go Wisp before making out with a hot stranger on the dance floor.  I don’t really see that particular use of this product in my future.  But for an emergency like mine, or if you’re traveling on a long flight and want a way to brush your teeth without stashing a damp brush in your purse, or for keeping in your desk for particularly garlic-filled lunches, I’d say its an excellent buy.

Colgate Wisp, $2.39 for 4, at drugstores (in the oral care aisle).

Hm. We seem to have veered off course there.

To be a little more serious for a second, healthy eating has been a priority in my family for a long time. Since I was six, to be specific. Wen I was six my father, at the ripe old age of 45, had a stroke, It was caused, in part, by high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Nothing says “hey kids, learn how to be healthy ASAP!” like riding in a car to the ER at three in the morning with your unresponsive father passed out in the front seat.

My dad is (thank god) totally healthy now. From that day forward, my mom eliminated virtually all salt from our diet, and we were ahead of the curve on whole grains, low saturated fat, etc. And I’m mostly really grateful for that. As an adult, I don’t eat as restrictively as we did in those early years after my dad got sick, (I keep salt in the house, for example, something my mother hasn’t done for over 20 years,) but it’s a lot easier for me to eat healthy because I don’t have a lifetime of bad habits to break.

But my mom, god love her, does not love flavor. So we ate a lot of healthy food, but it was also often really bland. And I am a food nut. I love food. I love the taste of food. I love the social experience of food. I cannot live a life where every day for lunch I eat the same salad and every day for dinner I have a broiled salmon fillet with steamed broccoli. (My mom can, god love her. I would just be bored to TEARS.)

So as an adult, when I learned to cook, part of my goal was to replicate some of the flavors I’ve come to love in healthier dishes that I felt okay eating every day, instead of just as a special treat. This has involved reading a LOT of cookbooks and magazines. One thing I’ve noticed, reading “healthy” and “light” cookbooks, is how many of them suck. Too many use recipes that just don’t taste good. Or they call for lots of fakey chemical- and additive-laden ingredients that just skeeve me out. (Fat free cheese? No thanks!) I’d rather eat a small portion of the real thing than a large portion of something fake and weird that doesn’t taste nearly as good. (Sorry, Hungry Girl.)

My go-to cooking magazine is Cooks Illustrated, which I trust entirely. They’ve never steered me wrong. So when I learned that Cooks Illustrated had put out a light cookbook, I broke my own “no new cookbooks” rule and bought it.

I am so glad that I did. This book is full of recipes for delicious, normally deadly foods like chicken pot pie and spaghetti and meatballs. And get this- they all taste good! The editors say in the book that they couldn’t find a low-fat recipe for yellow cake that tasted good enough- so they didn’t include one! How’s that for novel? If it tastes like crap, it’s not worth it, healthy or not.

There are SO MANY recipes that have become standards in our house from this cookbook- French potato salad, artichoke dip, amazing turkey burgers, the aforementioned pot pie- and they’re all fabulous. Even the cheesecake is to die for. Is it fat free? No. Is it a lot healthier than your standard cheesecake, while still tasting delicious? Yes. That’s a compromise I can live with.

Technically this book costs more than $15 (the lowest I can find it for is $20.99, on Overstock.com,) so I’m going to have to categorize it as “splurge-worthy”. But I can tell you- we save a lot of money every week because I meal plan and cook most of our dinners at home- way cheaper than takeout- and this is our most frequently-used cookbook. So, despite the higher-than-usual pricetag, I recommend it wholeheartedly.

The Best Light Recipe, $20.99 on Overstock.com, also available at Amazon and other bookstores

“What’s that?” I say.  Meanwhile wishing he’d just contend with his son who recently decided I’m chump change and his father is King of All That’s Better Than Mom.

“You should talk about name brand things versus generic!”

(Blank stare from me.)

“You know that deoderant I used earlier in the week?  Well, that was a store brand and I was stinky by 2pm.  The other stuff is fine through the day and I’m not rank.”

And there you have it:  one man’s experience with Old Spice deoderant v. jenky store brand.

I’ve been mulling it over all day and have decided to not do a review today, but simply put it out to the masses for you to tell us what’s been better in your experience:  generic or name brand?

Leave your feedback in the comments section and be sure to mention a specific product and let us know whether you thought the generic or name brand version was better.

• rode a camel
• climbed on a pyramid
• touched ancient hieroglyphs
• caught King Tut’s revenge

Because I am my mother’s daughter, I spend a lot of time before any big trip worrying about things that could go wrong.  This trip was no exception.  Specifically, I was worried about the sun and the heat.  Egypt in August is not known for being temperate.  It is known for being hot as balls.

I do not do well with sun and heat.  I am prone to fainting.  I sunburn easily.  Heat makes me grouchy.  I have yet to find a deodorant that really, truly works when it is very hot, so I sometimes get smelly. With sweat stains. It’s not a pretty picture.

So I started asking around and reading up on recommendations of things to bring for a trip to Egypt during very hot weather. I got a lot of suggestions, read a lot of forums online, and ended up with a rather terrifying list of “absolutely essential” items to bring with me. An excerpt from this list:

• Pepto Bismol (preventative)
• Immodium (for when the pepto doesn’t work)
• Clothing with SPF
• large sun hat
• wet wipes
• wicking underpants
• blister bandaids
• regular bandaids
• Neosporin for the inevitable blisters
• Sunscreen, gallons and gallons
• chap-stick with spf
• neckerchief (really? that is a word?)

Some of these things were really necessary (sunscreen, wicking underpants, wet wipes) others seemed like overkill once I got there (SPF clothing, neosporin, large, floppy, difficult-to-pack sunhat).  But the one thing that was the most indispensible of all, the thing that saved the trip for me and a couple people we were traveling with, was something that didn’t appear on any of the lists, which I was inspired to bring after I got a sample of it in a 5K goodie bag a few weeks ago: Gatorade packets.

These little guys were a lifesaver.  When one of our friends felt a queasy after a night of too much partying on a train, the Gatorade got him back in fighting shape.  When it got to be 113 degrees outside and we couldn’t drink water fast enough to make up for the sweat we were losing, the Gatorade kept me and John feeling a-ok. And when another friend actually collapsed from heat exhaustion (true story), the Gatorade was the only thing he could keep down for a while, and it helped him turn a corner and get on the mend.

Each packet is pre-measured to be mixed  into one large-sized (16.9 ounce) water bottle, (though we used them in liter-sized bottles all week with great results).  They’re light, small, and because they’re not liquid, they’re perfect for your carry-on.  There’s also a G2 version which is even lighter (fake sugar doesn’t weigh much) but those don’t come in my beloved lemon-lime flavor, so I’m sticking with the real stuff.

I realize that conditions were pretty extreme in Egypt, and your next vacation may not be quite so hot (for your sake, I hope it’s not).  But the Gatorade packets are so portable, and so cheap, that I plan on keeping a few around for those times when I might work out harder than usual at the gym, or in case I get sick on vacation, or if we end up going on a hike and overexerting ourselves.  And, for what it’s worth, it’s substantially cheaper than buying Gatorade pre-mixed in the store.

Gatorade Powder Packs, $3.99 for 8 at Amazon and at your local grocery store.