Muji Aroma Diffuser Unboxing Review with Study Music HD

Aroma therapy using Muji diffuser, surrogate with Juniper Ridge forest aroma. This is an amazing relaxing experience replacing the typical orange and mint with California forest scents.

Better Food Packaging - Organic Compostable Packaging

 It sounds high tech but it is such a simple attainable concept. Many cuisines offer organic compostable packaging: taco shell for tacos, wraps for sandwiches, leaves for tomales, banana leaf wrapped fruits in Thailand, fancy sushi served on precisely-cut banana leaf, lotus leaf wrapped rice in China, fried tofu skin wrapped seafood in Japan. Turns out using organic packaging to wrap, store and transport food has always been a valid, great idea. 

Recent innovations include using beeswax wrap to pack sandwiches. Use canvas, cotton grocery bags to pack vegetables and fruits. Oprah Winfrey and Katy Perry invested in a startup called Apeel, a food science startup, to develop organic coating that help grocery have longer shelf life in supermarkets.

How do you use organic food packaging?

Edible Garden - Organic Home Garden Tips

We got inspired to finally have an edible garden on the balcony after watching Million Dollar Homes. We realized that all the expensive homes have a chef’s garden. We realized that we can afford the garden without a fancy home. We started to plant all kinds of forgiving, easy to grow, highly abundant (which gives you extra joy at harvest) herbs including : Oregano, Parsley, Rosemary (requires more space than others), Mint (for acid reflux and digestion), Italian Basil (for sweet pesto), Thai Basil for Vietnamese Pho, Japanese Spring Onions (scallions). It’s truly a home chef’s joy to have fresh herbs readily available on the balcony, ready for harvesting seconds before cookin. 

Build a favorable environment for the seeds to sprout. Ample light. Consider DIY a small balcony green house or keep artificial indoors to help plants when they are still growing roots.

Some natural fertilizers include: honey, milk

Be sure to dilute natural fertilizer with lots of water. Soil and plants can be sensitive

Adding a touch of magic to your garden by including a small figurine: a Bambi or a Totoro. Totoro always make my plants look magical.

I re use one time chopsticks from takeout orders, secure my plants to them, so plants grow extra straight and upward towards the light. 

Running out of space in the urban jungle? Consider having a vertical garden, or a moss garden in the water jar. 

Instead of buying everything for your garden, you can make your own small hooks and fixture using a 3Doodler pen with your child. Making a green twirl for humming birds to perch for example. 

Natural flower pots

For edible gardens, recycled plastics are not the healthy choice for flower pots. Use traditional terracotta pots (brownish red earthy tone) instead.  In fact, there's much modern aesthetic and graph design influenced by this beautiful soft toned reddish brown color. 

Share your garden with the world : using the right hashtags #ediblegarden #homegarden 

Best Instagram Hashtags for Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine

 herbalifenutrition 5.4MM Posts, #herb 3 million posts, herbalife 18.8M posts, #herbalgarden #organic #homegarden, #ediblegarden #herbalmedicine #herbs

Hashtags related to healthy living:

#healthyfood #healthyrecipe #nature #healthychoices #healthgoals #lifestyle, #inspiration #selfcare #loveyourself #healthyeating  #fitness #weightloss #healthy #fit #healthylifestyle #weightlossjourney #love #workout #healthyliving #exercise #motivation #healthyheart #healthyforlife #health #selflove #healthylifestyle #bodybuilding #fitnessmotivation 

#naturalhealthytips

Hashtags related to zen living:

#zen #namaste #

Growth hacking tips:

for those who love organic food and herbal medicine

Supposedly the max hashtag per photo is 30. Even way before reaching 30 the meaning of the hashtag greatly diminish. And supposedly instagram focuses on the first few hashtags and give them more weight. 

Twitter hashtag tip : "use consistent hashtags in your campaigns to make it easier for your audience to find you on Twitter"

Daily Ritual to Enrich and Enable - productivity hacks

Here are some simple steps to help with your morning routine, daily routine, to arrive at a more productive, meaningful life. Having proven, repeating routine can help save time, improve your productivity and even make you happier - improve wellness. Morning routine helps simplify your life choices. Reduces stress. And make you more productivity by getting inspired by highly effective people. e.g. FB founder Mark Zuckerberg famously worn the same outfit each day to avoid choices

Morning Routines

Morning Prayer

Find a poetic morning prayer to start your day with goals, inspirations, encouragement and all kinds of peace and zen generating positivity. An example is the Waldorf school's morning verse by Rudolf Steiner. 

Breathing Exercises

What does yoga and taichi have in common? Breathing exercises, which calms the mind, aids recovery and extends and stretches muscles beyond normal ranges.

Mini Outdoor Moment

Spend at least 5 minutes outdoors for a mini outdoor session. This will reduce a lot of stress and get your day started right. 

Digital Routines

Motivational Passwords

Founder of Sprig and Udemy has used motivational passwords such as Hustlexxxx Growthxxxx to motivate and inspire and found his startup. If he sets a goal for his startup, he would use it as his password. Through the act of entering the password over and over again, he reinforces his goal and motivation to achieve it.

Zen Quotes

Print out an inspirational quote from the Japanese zen masters or the new zen masters of the new world and pin it on the wall for a daily dose of zen. Or sometimes from an unexpected pop star such as Pink: kindness is an act of rebellion.

Build a Habit by Starting a Routine

Habits are not built in one day. To start a habit and let it grow roots, try to make the new habit a part of your daily ritual for 30 days plus. A Stanford professor devised a plan called TinyHabits, which goes somewhat like this do x after y. X is the new habit you are building, y is something you already do. For example, do 10 pushups after using the bathroom. A quick google search yields 4-10 times is the average person's daily bathroom use, so that's 40 to 100 pushups a day! Because this daunting task is broken down to attainable pieces of 10 per bathroom break, it becomes more achievable.

Zen Playlist

Gather a music playlist that inspires and calms the mind. 

Follow us for more digital zen, zen wellness news and productivity lifehacks. 

Zero Waste Cooking Recipes - recipes that battle food waste

Americans throw away a lot of food each year. Here are some simple ways to be more effective at conserving and prevent waste. Here are some recipes to help battle food waste. They can use up bulk of the ingredient before they expire. 

How not to waste food: 

• EGGS
• Too many eggs? Eggs expiring soon? Make deviled eggs. These are great, cooked then chilled finger food. Great for parties.
• Mix in a bit of truffle oil and sauce into the cooked egg yolk + mustard and mayonnaise mash to create truffle deviled eggs. Sprinkle tajin or cajun spice on top for a popping color. 
• Some believe eggs are good fertilizers, can enrich the soil if washed and cleaned. Some believe it is not good for warm bins. 
• BEEF
• Trimming off steak that is not a perfect? Preparing a new york strip, or fillet mignon, the imperfections are still perfectly premium meat great for beef stews. 
• POTATOES, SWEET POTATOES, YAM
• Too much starch left? Cook it, mash it up using the back of fork, have some perfect purple yam mash.
• FRUITS
• Too many fruits that are overripe or looking sad? Juice it. It will have the perfect sweetness and tartness.
• WINE
• Aerate the wine for a tad too long? Make red wine sauce. The extra acidity will complement well. 
• GINGER
• Ginger + brown sugar can be a great immuno shot boost. Make candied ginger snacks. 
• MINT
• Mint goes bad quickly. Gently wash it and snippet it, then shake well with cold brewed coffee. Chill in fridge and then enjoy - it is like Philz Coffee. 
• BASIL
• Excess basil leaves? Fresh herbs go back quickly. Fresh basil leaves, tasty olive oil, pine nuts make a great homemade pesto sauce. Heat and spread over fresh cooked pasta to enjoy. 
• BREAD
• Use day old bread,  which lost its chewiness or moisture, as garlic toast, or dip in Swiss cheese fondue to lend it extra moisture.
• MISO SOUP PASTE: unless you consume miso soup every day, it is hard to finish the fresh miso soup paste before it expires. Make NOBU style miso marinated cod. We also tested the same recipe on chilean sea bass and it works!
• Vegetable scraps : regrow vegetables from kitchen scraps.  did you know you can grow vegetables from kitchen scraps? Cut the green part of green onions and put the white part in a water jar to grow instantly. Change water once each day, till roots are well developed. Then plant. 
• Si Gua Loofah : this is a popular veggie in Asia. Dried loofah makes a perfect shower scrub and it is organic and biodegradable. Would you buy natural loofah scrubs from shops? Let us know in the comments. 
• Slightly expired food: viable food that is recently past expiration, may not be safe  for humans to consume may still be perfect fertilizer for plants. Example use of honey: add tiny quantity to a large glass of water to dilute, use as fertilizer for plants. It is natural, nutritious. Similarly you can do this with milk, tea, even left over tea bags. It is important to dilute a lot, only add micro quantities, else you will get mold and imbalanced soil quality. 
• Pepper : harvested too many chili pepper? Pickle them. When sautéing spicy Sichuanese food, add finely chopped pepper rings. Important note: try boil water and clean all mason jars and lids thoroughly. Do not touch sanitized instruments with fingers. This way you can avoid bad bacteria.  
• Water for rinsing rice, excess starch makes natural fertilizer as well. 淘米水 
• Check out this Japanese video for unusual helpers in the kitchen, hint beautiful carps. 
• SOBA NOODLES:
• Use Soba noodle as a coffee stir. Use a trio if needed. Bundle them together for strength. They are strong, and they are 100% compostable.
• PASTA
• Slightly stale pasta can be rinsed and used as a stir for coffee
• There are also straws made out of pasta, gluten free ones too! Yay no more plastic straws. Plus you won't have to clean it. 
• Organic straws are great alternatives
• Parchment paper | brown lunch bags:
• Unlike other food package, wrapping, paper products and bags, though not great for deforestation, is much more compostable and environmental friendly than any plastic counter parts, even biodegradable plastic bags. Biodegradable plastic bags sometimes require special chemicals / addictive to kickstart the degrading process and may not be biodegrade alone. 
• Costume tips: cotton candy clouds make great santa's beard, no need to buy artificial fiber. 
• Freeze food before they go bad. If expiration dates are looming, it's possible to freeze food before they go bad. Some ingredients tastes really great frozen. For example: shrimps freeze well, orange juice, lemon and lime slices, tofu (it completely changes texture. some recipes call for frozen tofu). 

More environment friendly tips : Take a quit single-use water bottle pledge. Pledge to stop using plastic water bottles. You can always regrow vegetables from kitchen scraps such as spring onions and fresh mints. 

Disclaimer: all above is for entertainment purpose only. These statements have not been carefully checked. We cannot guarantee accuracy. The above is not considered advice. Please consult professionals. 

Sweet Honey Cracker Snack Recipe by Marriott SPG Starwood St. Regis San Francisco

Modern honey snack recipe inspired by St. Regis San Francisco welcome bite. This recipe can also be called the honey crackling or honey crackles. It has a cereal like sweet and delicious taste but is completely natural and much healthier! Upon entering San Francisco St. Regis Hotel (previously a Starwood SPG hotel now a top Marriott), guests are offered these homemade sweet honey crackers, which are very airy not dense at all, mildly sweet, sprinkled with delicious black and white sesame seeds. See our modern infographics recipe below. The secret "sauce" is definitely the beehives kept on the lower floor rooftops. That's what makes the ingredient homemade and organic.

View this post on Instagram

Recipe from travel @stregissf #beehive project created these amazing #honeycomb #snacks #crackers with #sesame #recipe #instatravel #cooking #homecook #masterchefjunior #healthyliving #healthyfood #vegetarian #vegetarianrecipes #instafood #foodie #infographics #illustration we will be publishing more unique travel inspired and yelp inspired recipes on our blog soon! FOLLOW US 🖐 #graphics

A post shared by Silicon Foodie (@siliconfoodie) on Jun 13, 2019 at 4:27pm PDT

Benefits of Honey Snacks

Honey is definitely in the category of healthy food. There's no need for preservatives to store honey safely! That is no saturated fat. Watch out for added sugar though, FDA has something to say about that (source 2). 

"Honey is low in water and high in sugar, so bacteria cannot grow on it. it also contains small amount of hydrogen peroxide, inhibiting the growth of microbes" (CNN source 1)

This particular honey snack is airy, filled with little air bubbles. It is very light, very delicious and has less added sugar. It is like a light weight honey cracker bark, but not dense at all. 

St. Regis San Francisco Keeps Beehives as a Fresh Food Source for Ingredients

St. Regis San Francisco and restaurant Grill is keeping beehives on its lower floor roof to harvest and generate local, fresh ingredients for the restaurant - fresh, delicious, sustainable honey!

Alternative Honey Recipes

Looking for a party-version of this healthy recipe? For a sweeter and more intense honey snack, use the Honey Joy recipe from  (source 3). It's hard to avoid the cereal and added sugar for that crunchy, delicious and a bit sticky texture. 

Sources: 

1. The proven health benefits of honey retrieved June 2019 https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/15/health/honey-health-benefits/index.html
2. FDA Guidance for Industry: Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products FEBRUARY 2018 retrieved June 2019  https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/guidance-industry-proper-labeling-honey-and-honey-products
3. https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/honey-crackles-51435

Meme from Imgur