Who's with me?! Okay...maybe I don't mean stripping down to your birthday suit and dancing around, but after making Naked Juice a part of your daily diet, you may want to! (Don't say I didn't warn you.)

Naked Juice is a California-born company, started in 1983. Like all great companies, Naked Juice had a locally-based beginning...Farmers' Markets! The success over the years has been great, with Naked Juice products being found just about anywhere (I can even get it at the little cash-only produce market in my neighborhood).

So, what's so great about Naked Juice? That's easy. It's Naked. Juice. Nothing but 100% pure fruit juices. The ingredient list on the side of the bottle is easy to read (and I guarantee you'll be able to recognize and pronounce every word). I also love the equivalency chart showing the quantity of each of the fruits used to make that particular bottle of delicious juice you just downed. The sweetness of this juice comes from the sweet blend of fruits - no sugars added.

Not only are the juices fantastic, but so are the ethics of this company. To me, there's really nothing better than a great product coming from a great company. That's what really wins my loyalty. If you're familiar with the concept of "cradle to cradle" over "cradle to grave" in terms of production, you'll know that products don't have to end their lives in a landfill. They can be recycle and reborn as new products, never having to spend eternity in that giant pit of pollution. That's the idea behind the new reNEWabottle(TM) Naked Juice has created for its juices. The company also supports The RainForest Alliance and uses some ethically sourced fruits, like bananas.

So what are my favorites? Number one on my list is Green Machine. It's fill of tasty kiwi, apples and pineapple along with those essential greens we tend to lack in our everyday diets. I'm talking broccoli, spinach, chlorella, spirulina, wheat grass and more. You won't believe you're drinking something so healthy. This juice really gives me the boost I need on long days or a substitute for a quick breakfast when I'm in a hurry. I just really, genuinely love the stuff and recommend it to everyone.

As for the rest of the juices, I'll drink any of them. What I typically do is mix a partial serving of the juice with water. This reduces my sugar intake (although naturally occurring in the fruits, I still try not to have too much) and extends the bottle for another day. I'm really excited to pick up a bottle of one of the newest products - 100% coconut water! This is great to use when making your own smoothies at home, or for making Central American dishes like red beans and coconut rice. I find it difficult to locate pure coconut water - other brands I've seen add sugar, taking away some of the health benefits of using coconut water. Nothing is as good as drinking the fresh pipa water straight from a green coconut on a Costa Rican beach, but I'll bet this isn't too shabby of a second place.

My recommendation to you? Try them all! You'll be glad you did. 

Something I look forward to every month in Philadelphia is the release of the next copy of Grid Magazine. This is a relatively new (and FREE!) magazine dedicated to sharing information about all of the incredible sustainable activities happening in and around the city of Philadelphia. Issues of the magazine have covered topics such as gardening guides, recipes, eco-friendly gifts to make or buy, urban bike trails, local farms, beekeeping, home renovations with salvaged items and much more. When I open each month's copy, I jump to the article(s) that I find most interesting, but I always make my way through every single article. That's really hard to say about a lot of magazines. Even when I would buy subscriptions to various publications, sometimes I'd leave more than half the articles unread. I love that the entire magazine focuses on the city where I live. It's an incredible resource for information, and even has a calendar of upcoming events like workshops and festivals.

Now even though Grid is a Philadelphia-based and focused publication, the information contained in each issue of the magazine can be applied all over the country. The topics covered are relevant to all of our lives, as sustainability should be on everyone's mind. If you aren't in the immediate area, check out the digital copies online. There is even a new blog, The Griddle. This is updated more frequently in order to share new information between publication dates. If you are in the Philadelphia area, look for Grid at a number of locations around the city, including co-ops, bookstores, cafes and more.

And one more fun piece of information - Grid Magazine is celebrating its one year anniversary with a party at Yards Brewing Company on Saturday, April 10 from 5-8 p.m.

This is not a sponsored review.    

One of my staple meals this winter has been cream of broccoli soup, and a necessary ingredient for my recipe is vegetable broth or vegetable stock. Glancing over the the canned soup shelf in my tiny co-op, my eyes were falling on every type of broth except vegetable. After asking an employee stocking a nearby produce bin about the broth, he came over to the shelf and picked up a jar of Better Than Bouillon and started raving about it.

This 8-oz. glass jar is filled with a concentrated vegetable past that just gets stirred into hot water to make a broth. To create the equivalent of an 8-oz. can of broth or one bouillon cube, just add one teaspoon (that's it!) of Better Than Bouillon to 8-oz. of hot water. And each jar contains 38 servings, or makes 9.5 quarts of broth! You really can't a better deal for your dollar! The vegetables included in the ingredient list for the Reduce Sodium Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base are carrots, celery, onion, tomato, garlic and potato.

Since purchasing this product, I have used it in the above mentioned cream of broccoli soup as well as a vegetable and rice side dish. I've been making cream of broccoli soup for years, and it has never tasted so good! The flavor from the Better Than Bouillon is so much more substantial than what you get with a vegetable broth, yet isn't the slightest bit overpowering. It blends very well with the broccoli, cream and cheese. My favorite benefit of using this product is that you can alter the concentration. Using a bouillon cube, it is nearly impossible to add just a bit more or a bit less than one full cube without making a mess, and adding more or less broth can cause a problem with the liquid measurements for your recipe. Using Better Than Bouillon gives you the freedom to add more or less flavor without changing the amount of water needed for your recipe. 

The product list from Better Than Bouillon offers your standards like beef, chicken and vegetable, but also has "premium" bases like chili, mushroom, lobster and clam. Also available are Kosher, organic and reduced sodium bases. So far, my experience with this product has been great...so great that I'm ready to never go back to canned broth again!

I am a huge fan of the Amazing Grass Berry Green SuperFood. The neighborhood co-op where I do my grocery shopping sells individual packets and large containers of the Green SuperFood, so after hearing about it from other users and reading reviews online, I finally tried it.

Suggested uses are to mix the powder with water or juice and drink, but it is a little fibrous since it is dried and finely crushed grass products. Instead, I decided to mix it with a bowl of yogurt. Since then, I've begun making fruit smoothies in my food processor and adding a scoop of the berry powder. I much prefer the latter two options to drinking it, and eat the smoothies for breakfast.

Like many other reviews say, it really does provide a sustained level of energy throughout the day. It was most noticeable the first time eating it - I felt an instant perk that stayed with me the rest of the afternoon. Berry Green SuperFood has the most organic greens per gram of any leading Green SuperFood (per Amazing Grass website) and also has enhanced digestive enzymes and pre- and probiotic active culture blend. No doubt, these characteristics will result in changes to the way your digestive system works, but within a week or so my body was fully adjusted.

Why choose Berry Green SuperFood? "Amazing Grass Berry Green SuperFood is a perfect blend of alkalizing greens, antioxidant rich whole food fruits and vegetables, immune boosting support herbs, friendly pre & probiotics all infused with acai and goji berries." It's so easy to mix into something you may already be eating, and additionally, if you are making the effort to positively change your diet with the addition of this one product, there's incentive to do a complete overhaul. For those with chosen dietary restrictions, you'll be happy to know this is a vegan product.

To find local health food stores where you can purchase any of the Amazing Grass products, use their retail locator.