School lunch with a side of food

Cardboard crust with ketchup and plastic coating disguised as cheese. Maybe a few discolored green beans. The side “vegetable” was the closest thing to food on my plastic tray. This pretty much describes the pizza, and unbalanced meal I was served in middle school. Remember school lunch? Maybe you have kids, and it’s easy to recall just what a “school lunch” is.

I am a parent. My husband’s 13 year old son, Joey keeps us in the loop with what’s going on in public school lunchrooms. As of two years ago, he left the private school; where we prepared his vegetarian, sugar-free lunch each day. Even in the prestigious, cutting edge, Los Altos, Blue Ribbon School system, we’re witnessing discord. Joey’s back in public school where he’s questioning ethics in the lunch room.…

Fireworks in your mouth

fourthof JUly

For a while when I was in high school, and in my early college years, I was an activist obsessive. I wanted to take a stand on, well, everything. I wasn’t happy about fireworks and their effect on the environment. I’ve matured now and have learned that appreciation is a better emotion than anger. I’ll just appreciate the beauty of this spectacular day than be angry and fight against it. I’ve found even more ways to love Independance Day, which means that I am incorporating the holiday spirit into my meals. I truly believe that everyday should include a an explosion of tasty fireworks on the palette, but in honor of the fourth of July-we have a recipe to share with a little red, white and blue (and of course green too)!…

7 reasons the sugar ring pop sucks

Have you seen the trailer for the animated film Inside Out? I thought it was hilarious. I have referred to the “voices in my head” countless times. Haven’t you? I saw the trailer for this film just one day before boarding a flight to Philadelphia from San Francisco. My husband, Joe and son Joey and I are visiting New Jersey together for the first time in four years. I miss our life in New Jersey and reminisce frequently, and I figured it was about time to remind myself why we moved to the other side of the country. My first reminder came on the flight over.

My internal dialogue or voices in my head can be very loud and intense sometimes.

Marijuana juice for a happy marriage

I don’t smoke pot, and I really wanted to write about the amazing the couple’s Sensual Food event that my husband Joe and I hosted last week. But all I can think about is pot, so that’s what I’m ready to divulge.  As for smoking, I don’t think it’s wrong, I’m actually all about it. I am just not a happy person when I’m high. Do I think you should smoke pot (weed, refer, ganja, mary jane, marijuana)? Sure, but why not juice it?! Okay, so this may not be for everyone, but I have to share what I’m excited about, and I listened to a podcast today with Dr. William Courtney. This amazing man has been researching cannabis for decade, and is focused on the dietary uses of the non-psychoactive compounds of the plant (in other words the part that doesn’t get you high).…

Collecting spring water for better sex

I could actually title everything on LanaShay.com “x” for better sex. Ninety-percent of everything I eat and drink contributes to a healthy love life. This is certainly not an ego-trip, it’s fact. I’m preaching because I want you to feel good and experience sensual bliss too. If that’s alright with you, then read on.

This is a continuation from last week, when I ranted about drinking plastic flavored water. It was a sad moment when I ran out of water when I reached the top of North America’s tallest waterfall, because it was contaminated by my low-quality plastic hydration pack.

My husband Joe and I collect our water from a natural spring. We used to have an Aquasana filter on our sink, but learned after a year of using it, that it wasn’t delivering us the best source of pure water.…

Plastic flavored water, anyone?

Hiking uphill in 85° weather for eight miles delayed this article. Have you ever visited Yosemite National Park? I visited for the first time last week and it was mind blowing. I can’t believe I’ve lived only 3 hours away from this park for over four years. I would have gone once a month, if I had known how I would feel basking in the sun next to North America’s tallest waterfall.

 

Joe and I headed out with our good friends from Argentina, and a close friend of theirs who was visiting from Buenos Aires. There were five of us ready to conquer the trail at 8am on Monday morning. We packed veggie burgers, apples, nuts and raw cacao macaroons.…

Tongue scraping and 2 tools for sensuality

I used to wake up in the morning with bad breath. It’s embarrassing, actually. Because now, I realize that this is easily remedied. My dad has a very ridiculous sense of humor that not everyone understands. Keep in mind while you read on, that I share this bizarre sense of humor. When I was in high school, I lived with my dad, and he’d be up singing and being the bubbliest person alive at 5am. I’d wake up to get ready for school around 6am to him belting out Mary J. Blige or Seal (he loved soulful tunes). I was always entertained to say the least. Even though, at 16 years old everything pissed me off in the morning. I’d go into the bathroom, where I spent an hour before school, putting my hair in some elaborate up-do.…

Relationship advice from Grandma

What did your grandma tell you about the opposite sex? What about relationships and marriage? My grandma taught me a lot of things that I need to unlearn to be quite honest. Yet, there’s so many things that my parents, and grandparents taught me that I believe was so important. There’s always a deeper meaning if you care to dive deeper into their words. As humans, we continue to evolve, grow and expand, but I know one thing for sure made sense; and my husband’s grandmother told him on the phone when he spoke to her on this past mother’s day.

[Tweet “Grandma said: healthy relationships are built around the kitchen”]

For me, this has held true. Maybe it’s my connection to the Italian traditions and the emphasis on family.…

Werewolves and Chocolate Sauce

When was the last time you were invited over to a friend’s place for dinner? Did they cook?

For a few years, I was really missing breaking bread with friends. Yes, Joe and I are invited to friend’s home a few times each month for dinner. I’m not complaining (and thank you to the friends who are reading this now). We truly love it so much, we decided we want ALL of our friends to join us. Of course we couldn’t host-everyone, but just the right number happened to accept the invite. It was perfect. I was in awe of how much good energy was flowing in our little humble abode-and the incredible dynamic between all of us.  

werewolves party

For such a long time-4 years to be exact-I’ve had total kitchen shame.…

Sexting for foodies

There isn’t much ambiguity in the title, right? Sexting is just text messages with sexually explicit content-photos, videos, or simply just sexual text; if for some reason you didn’t already know. I may have been years behind when I first learned this word, since I’d been doing it without a label for years.  Who doesn’t send sexy photos to their lover? I think it’s a mandatory piece of any healthy relationship.  If your opinion differs, I’d love to hear about it. This topic always sparks my interest. This article isn’t really about how I sext my husband. It’s more about how our sexting has evolved and some unique elements of it.

This idea came to my attention the other night when Joe, my husband and I were at CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies) the other night for a presentation on psychedelics.…