Tis the season! Save $$$ and eat healthy with these great holiday gift ideas!

Not sure what to get your loved ones for the holiday season?  Or perhaps a gift for yourself?  What better gifts to give than these kitchen products from Mealthy (see below).  I really like this company for the simple fact that they make quality products at reasonable prices.  On Amazon, the Mealthy 9-in-1 6 Quarts Multi-pot pressure cooker sells for less than half the price (about $95 on the Mealthy official site) of its equivalent, the Ninja Foodi 6.5 Quarts Multi-pot pressure cooker which sells for about $200.  Also, the Mealthy Multi-pot pressure cooker was #2 on the Best Sellers list on Amazon with 4.6 out of 5 stars.

In addition, Mealthy is focused on easy to prepare, healthy meals that won't cost you a ton of money.  According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, "average American households spend $3000 a year dining out."  https://www.moneyunder30.com/the-true-cost-of-eating-in-restaurants-and-how-to-save  That's significant but not nearly as much as it could be due to the most recent statistics which state "eighty percent of dinners were consumed at home in the United States" https://www.statista.com/statistics/967505/eating-in-or-out-dining-preferences-us/

Mealthy also has a community Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/278823729299475/ to enhance your Mealthy cooking experience.  Mealthy created their community page for people to "share pressure cooking, CrispLid, air fryer recipes, post (pictures are encouraged!) your successes, ask questions about the MultiPot, CrispLid, or AirFry, get tips, and share in the fun of cooking with Mealthy Products!
We can also use this forum to assist each other with tips and tricks, and come together as a community to cook and help each other." Can't get that with the Ninja products!
Below are links to a few Mealthy kitchen products available.  Be sure to visit their official site for a complete catalogue of their product line https://mealthy.com/products/pressure-cooker

Mealthy 9-in-1 Six Quarts Pressure Cooker

Mealthy CrispLid for Pressure Cooker (converts any pressure cooker into an air fryer)

Mealthy CrispLid Cookbook

ZAYN is BACK!

British born singer Zain Javadd Malik aka ZAYN was first introduced to the public as a solo contestant on England's The X Factor in 2010, then went on to join the boy band One Direction before exiting in 2015.

As a solo artist, he released the mega hit Pillow Talk which has 937M YouTube views to date.

ZAYN is back with his latest single, FLAMES, a collaboration with R3HAB and Jungleboi.  FLAMES is a melody driven composition with a soulfully expressive vocal.  Looks like he's got another hit on his hands, so be sure to check it out on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/4XBpczMYDeco0RR5MpJFWt?si=cBXa_D07QUCfiCp2Cou37w
and add it to your playlists.

Better still, follow my GrindnShine Vol 2 playlist on Spotify for all the latest in EDM, pop and indie rock.  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4mt6GesuFBafdRMIc5MJcN?si=kzXxb-yOTgm0BcIxpG5mow

My son's (aka AlBundie) 1st single, Soul Searchin', is all ready a Chart Topper!

I'm always asking my son in a lovingly-joking, but somewhat serious way, "hey son, when you droppin' that new heat?" or "when that new mixtape comin' out, son?"  He normally laughs and walks away.  Well, this was not the case last weekend.  My son came to me, said he had some lyrics ready to go and was wanting to record as soon as possible.  I was like,"WHAT??!!"  He replied, "yeah."  About half an hour later, he found the instrumental or "beat."  We played it as he "spit" his verse, a nice mellow flow with some real emotion in his words.  Some minutes later after playing the beat over a few times, he came up with a catchy "hook" or chorus.  Sometimes it takes days, even weeks, to write a decent hook!  My son did it in just a few minutes.  Within a few more minutes, we were recording his verse and the hook.  Like a real pro, he dropped his verse in only a couple of takes, NO JOKE!  I offered to write a verse, so I wrote one and recorded it the following day.  Just like that, Soul Searchin' feat AlBundie was finished in less than 24 hours!  So proud of what my son had accomplished in such a short time.

After it's release on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019, my son's debut single Soul Searchin' feat AlBundie landed at #45 on the Hypeddit Top 100 Hip Hop Chart https://hypeddit.com/music/genre/hip-hop 
If that's not a sign that he should pursue a recording career, I don't know what is!  He's all ready in the process of writing his next single.

Be sure to follow my son aka AlBundie on Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/alec-de-la-rosa to get all of his latest music.  Stream the full version of Soul Searchin' at https://soundcloud.com/alec-de-la-rosa/soul-searchin Also, you can get your copy of Soul Searchin' feat AlBundie at the following links:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/soul-searchin-feat-albundie-single/1487381040?app=itunes&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
https://open.spotify.com/track/4RCL61piuQX5V5HLMAk3YE?si=oOo49B3DQq6WPlF3s92R1A
https://www.iheart.com/artist/dl-moreno-488394/albums/soul-searchin-83728101/
https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Dl_Moreno_Soul_Searchin_feat_AlBundie?id=Bi4hqtaeaqi66murgedcbsmelqa
https://www.deezer.com/us/album/118419862
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyAO87ZtvLg
Don't forget to STREAM IT, SHARE IT and ADD IT to your playlists, thanks!

In other news, my single Hourglass feat Breana Marin just hit #43 this week 11-09-2019 on the Digital Radio Tracker Global Top 150 Independent Airplay Chart!  It's available on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/track/7MtbGh6YA7xJ4taIlnpRjU?si=cmVWOVxvQxikLLNSkB4y_w

It's been a very good week for sure.  Have a great rest of the week and weekend, my friends!

What do Drake, Snoop Dogg & Seth Rogen have in common besides being celebrities??

What do Drake, Snoop Dogg and Seth Rogen all have in common besides the obvious?  Yes, they're all celebrities, entertainers, and are all known to be connoisseurs of the cannabis plant aka "weed." FYI they've all partnered with one of the largest cannabis companies in the world based out of Canada, Canopy Growth Corporation https://www.canopygrowth.com with Drake being the most recent investor/partner.  And if you didn't all ready know, multi-millionaire Martha Stewart also partnered with Canopy Growth in a deal Snoop Dogg helped broker.

Here's an excerpt from the Press Release today 11-7-19:
Canopy Growth Corporation (“Canopy Growth” or the “Company”) (Toronto Stock ExchangeTSX:WEED, New York Stock ExchangeNYSE:CGC) and Aubrey Drake Graham (“Drake”) are pleased to announce that they have entered into agreements to launch the More Life Growth CompanyTM, a fully licensed producer of cannabis based in Drake’s hometown of Toronto, Canada.  “When we first began talks with Drake we were extremely inspired by and aligned with his vision to bring best-in-class cannabis products to the world,” said Mark Zekulin, CEO, Canopy Growth Corporation. “Drake’s perspective as a culture leader and entrepreneur combined with Canopy Growth’s breadth of cannabis knowledge will allow our new company to bring an unmatched cannabis experience to global markets.” Drake’s eclectic career includes experience across a wide variety of industries including music, television, film, fashion, sports, brand development, content curation and social and digital media strategy. Having launched numerous successful brands over the past decade, he is uniquely positioned to bring his innovative eye to the recreational cannabis industry. “The opportunity to partner with a world-class company like Canopy Growth on a global scale is really exciting,” shared More Life Growth Company founder, Drake. “The idea of being able to build something special in an industry that is ever growing has been inspiring. More Life and More Blessing.”

I've had an interest in investing in the cannabis market for some time, just wasn't sure where to start. Why?  The global cannabis market is one of the fastest growing markets which some financial analysts project to grow as high as $150 billion within the next 10-15 years.  Uruguay and Canada have legalized cannabis in their countries with Mexico due to legalize it soon.  Here in the US, 33 states have legalized medical cannabis and 11 states, including California, legalized its recreational use.  In addition, the "2018 Farm Bill, which includes language that legalizes hemp across the US, was signed in to law" in late December 2018.  Along with all of the celebrity investors I mentioned, billionaires James Simmons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Simons_(mathematician) and Kenneth Griffin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_C._Griffin have also invested heavily in cannabis stocks.  They all see the writing on the wall!  And just like what happened with alcohol prohibition, cannabis will eventually become legal nationwide.  When that happens, the cannabis industry here and globally will explode!

So why Canopy Growth?  Check out their success story https://www.canopygrowth.com/about/ here. Also, Constellation Brands, a Fortune 500 company who produce the beers Corona and Modelo, invested $4 billion "to build scale in the more than 30 countries currently pursuing federally permissible medical cannabis programs, while establishing the foundation needed to supply new recreational adult-use markets as cannabis becomes legal in markets around the world."  It's for all the reasons above that I decided to buy shares in Canopy Growth (CGC on the NYSE) last month at around $20/share.  The price per share was as high as $50/share but lately has been back and forth between $19-21/share.  That could change as Canopy Growth is set to announce their projected earnings for 2nd quarter 2020 on November 14, 2019.  I also placed a small wager, or "call-option" in stock jargon, that Canopy Growth stock price will rise when they make their announcement.  Hoping for the best!

If you're interested in investing in cannabis stocks, or stocks in general, I recommend opening a Robinhood account https://robinhood.com  It's as easy as opening a checking account, it's free to trade and you don't have to deposit any money in the account to start as with other brokerage accounts.  Good luck!