the results may intrigue you...

It has been another crazy couple of weeks here! It seems that life will never slow down again but I have gotten used to going, going, going. I'm not sure if I'd know what to do anymore if I wasn't busy. 

The past two weeks have been jam packed with making products and I have been pleasantly surprised by every. single. product. Every single one of the recipes below have outperformed store-bought products at a fraction of the cost. I sat down and added up the actual numbers for all of the products I have made - after shipping and handling costs. I was surprised at the numbers - they were less than I had anticipated originally. I also got to put my hours of research on essential oils this week, creating a blend that helped when my sweet fell ill last week and has helped in the pain management of arthritis in some friends and coworkers of mine. I learned about a new method of making soap, wrote a recipe and used the method to make it. The results - again, fabulous. It is my best batch so far. Speaking of batches of soap, I got to teach a friend how to make soap this past week and it turned out beautifully as well. 

I must admit, it has been a difficult month for our family. We have been struggling financially with all of the health problems my husband has had and the work that he has missed because of them. We currently are unsure if he will still have a job soon because the specialist that we had been waiting to see refused to treat my husband because we don't have insurance and he wouldn't sign the medical leave paperwork because he was not going to be my husband's doctor. It is incredibly discouraging but I am thankful that his infusions are going to be covered for the next 6 months through the same charity that covered all of our hospital bills. We have also been blessed with gifts of money and food by family members, which has been quite humbling. My point of this is - we have become QUITE creative in what we do to save money! And you know what? It's working! Here are a few things we have been doing:

Keeping the house around 64 degrees - my parents did this growing up and I complained about it then... and I will complain about it now. I HATE BEING COLD! We walk around in layers of layers and to be honest, sometimes a girl wants to feel sexy. Oh well, our bill went down significantly from doing this and it is a nice treat to have evenings together by the fire.

Switching to a tankless water heater - my husband searched and searched last summer for a cheap tankless water heater for our home and after several weeks, he found one. This was when we much better off so we were able to pay the $450 then and bring it home. He has not had the time over the past several months to install it and as he has been taking it easy here at home, he was able to finally install it. It takes a minute for water to heat up but I am already in love with it! I can't wait for the money it will save us.

Using less light - if it is day time, our curtains are open and our lights are off (with exception to cloudy days). At night we only have on the lights that we are actively using. This has contributed to our electric bill dropping nearly $100 in the past month. 

Driving only when totally necessary - I must admit that my darling is much better about this than me. I hate the cold! I don't like to walk when it is freezing out, I get too cold. However, with only driving when we have to, we are saving a bit on gas. Not a whole lot, but every little bit helps. 

eBay-ing - my hubby took a couple days and went through a lot of things that we had around the house and put all of it - even down to the most mundane - on eBay. ALL of it has sold and he has made almost $1000 for us from this. It is kind of addicting. I am always looking for things that he could sell nowadays. 

Eating cheap - if it isn't necessary, we don't eat it. We have made a pretty strict menu and it is quite healthy and pretty cheap. Now that we don't eat dairy, we save around $15 a week on groceries. I learned how to make almond milk which saves around $5 a week. I make our own bread which saves around $5 a week. We are no longer buying lunch meat which saves around $6 a week. That is just a portion of what we have changed and it already adds up to $31 a week... $31!!! For easy changes!!! I can hardly believe it. 

Making our own products - ok, this is an old one but I have started making every basic health/beauty product that we use in the past couple weeks. I feel like it has made a difference but I don't think that my hubby agrees... it is hard to see the prices of buying things in bulk, but as I get to show him how far these products are going, I think he comes more to terms with it. He is incredibly supportive regardless of the cost, and has been doing little things (like the dishes!) to help with the time I have been dedicating to researching and making things.

Getting rid of our smart phones - I loved my smart phone and I definitely miss it - but not enough to want to go back to paying that $170/month bill. We lowered our plan to the bare minimum and sold our smartphones and bought used $20. It's really not so bad, but there are a lot of times that I miss it. 

Cutting down on cable - we still have Dish, but I believe that it is a contract. (I may be mistaken but he takes care of all of that!) We have gone down to the lowest package that we can and have quit ordering our beloved UFC's. I do miss G4 and National Geographic, HBO, Showtime... but not enough to pay that bill again!

We have been dedicated to paying off debt, and in the future we are going to be buying an older car (with our taxes) and selling our Acura. We are planning some smaller improvements to our house to make it more marketable. I am glad to see us making some progress and I am certainly looking forward to being debt free and financially stable. 

Over the past month we have made some drastic diet changes. Gone is almost all red meat and our occasional drink or two. We start the day with a glass of water and a superfood smoothie - a variety of fruit, banana, goji juice, orange juice, spirulina and superfood powder. For lunch we usually eat a salad and either a chicken breast or canned fish (I know, I know, BPA, but we are doing the best that we can...). For dinner, I like to make lean meat, vegetables and salad. We have made a couple variations of sprouted bread and they have been different, but tasty. I made a dehydrated savory version that is wonderful for dipping in salsa. I want to try it with hummus! I also made a sweet version that reminds us of a carrot cake. I made an almond milk/yogurt icing for it, it is reminiscent of carrot cake. Mmmm! I believe that I have finally bested the dairy monster, with the exception of a pound of butter that we are slowly working through. I want to research ghee and maybe try to make a batch of it. I definitely miss milk and cheese and ice cream, but I do not miss the stinky breath, bloat, acne, stuffy nose, stomachache, or headaches that I used to get from them. 


I wanted to share a dinner that I made that has become a favorite for us. It is healthy (there are a few things I would like to tweak to make it healthier, but in time that will come), whole, filling and energizing. Just writing about it makes me want it! ;)


Garlic Orange Salmon

2 4 oz. salmon filets
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 orange, juiced
1 oz. orange marmalade
sprinkle of ginger or 1/2 tsp. grated ginger
broiler pan

Preheat broiler to high. 
In a saucepan, saute garlic in olive oil over medium heat for a minute or two. Add the orange juice and stir it into the garlic and oil. Add marmalade and ginger and allow to thicken a little bit, stirring often.
Set thawed salmon on oiled broiler pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and brush with half of marmalade mixture. 
Broil for 6 minutes. Brush with remainder of "sauce" and broil for 2 more minutes. Enjoy!

Super Awesome Mashed Potatoes

1 large sweet potato, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
4 medium white potatoes, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups organic beef broth
water to cover potatoes
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbsp. butter
1/8 cup greek yogurt or sour cream 

Combine potatoes, broth, garlic, salt, pepper and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil on high for 20 - 25 minutes, or until potatoes can be pierced with ease. 
Drain. Return to pot. 
Add butter and yogurt or sour cream to potatoes. Mash together and serve. 

Sauteed Vegetables

this is usually green beans with garlic and sliced almonds or bell peppers and onions with garlic. You can use whatever you want though! 

 If you are feeling especially adventurous - 

Sprouted Sweet Cake

9 cups sprouted wheat berries
4 oz. water
4 oz. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 
In a food processor, process all of the above ingredients together. You might want to start out with 6 cups of grain and then add the remaining 3 cups one cup at a time. 
Pour batter into a greased large pan. You want to aim for a thin layer rather than a thick cake, which will take longer to bake. 
Bake for 35 minutes with a oven safe bowl of water on the rack under it. It took about an hour to cook my batch but my pan ended up being smaller than I thought. 
Once cool, put into a airtight container and store in the fridge. 

Icing - 

1/3 cup butter
1/8 cup greek yogurt or sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sucanat or sucanat with honey (or powdered sugar)
3-4 tbsp. almond milk, to be added 1 tbsp. at a time. 

Melt butter and vanilla together in a saucepan over medium heat. Once butter is melted, turn heat down to low and add yogurt or sour cream. Whisk together until well combined. 
Add 2 cups of powdered sweetener and continue to whisk. Once well combined, add almond milk 1 tbsp at a time until you reach your desired consistency. I went for a glaze consistency at 3 1/2 tbsp almond milk. Then I poured the hot mixture over the top of the cold bread cake and served it. It was amazing!   



Now for the exciting stuff! I have made a couple new products and they are absolutely fabulous. I have been making my own for a little over 2 months now. It has been a gradual journey and so far, is not as time consuming or overwhelming as I originally anticipated it to be. It has also turned out to be significantly cheaper than I originally calculated. And... with the exception of shampoo and dish soap, every product has pleasantly surprised me and outperformed the more expensive store bought products. [note - the dish soap is a great recipe, but we have had a hard time adjusting to the lack of bubbles. I made a recipe earlier today with a little bit of castile soap and a few essential oils, I haven't gotten to try it yet but it seems more sud-sy than the last batch]
Also, over the past 2 weeks, I have begun taking orders! It has been so exciting to have people believe in these products enough to buy them. I have been sending out sample packs and there are some exciting things on the horizon for 23 and going green...er. I can't wait to share them all with you guys! 
What follows are the recipes for the most recent products I have made - 

Deodorant:
(my version of the recipe found here)
3 tbsp. coconut oil   
2 tbsp. shea butter
3 tbsp. baking soda
2 tbsp. corn starch
1/4 tsp. vitamin e oil 
5 drops each rosemary essential oil, tea tree essential oil, eucalyptus essential oil, frankincense essential oil, and geranium essential oil. 

In a saucepan, melt together coconut oil, shea butter, vitamin e, baking soda and cornstarch over low heat. Once melted, add essential oils and stir well. 
Pour into a sterilized jar, I used a Kerr half pint jar, boiled for 20 minutes. 
Results: THIS PRODUCT IS AMAZING! I will never go back to store bought deodorant ever again. I am kept dry, I don't stink as much, and my sensitive underarms arm happy from the moisturizing shea butter. This is meant to be a deodorant, not an antiperspirant, but it makes me sweat less.  Cost per batch - $3.02.

Skincare:
(my version of the recipes found here and here)

This is a completely different approach to taking care of your face. The thought of using oil on my super greasy skin was scary, but in the past week, my skin has gone from uneven and broken out to even and barely blemished. 

Wash - for oily/acne prone skin (cost per batch - $2.81)
small salt shaker, filled with baking soda
amber or blue glass dropper bottle
3 tbsp. jojoba oil
7 drops tea tree essential oil
5 drops cypress essential oil 
2 drops geranium essential oil
6 drops frankincense essential oil 

Put 3 tbsp. jojoba oil into dropper bottle and add essential oils. Close and shake well. 
To wash, wet face. Sprinkle a quarter-sized amount of baking soda into your hand, add 2-3 drops of oil mixture. Mix together and scrub face. Rinse well. 

Spot treater - for oily, acne prone skin (cost per batch - $0.20)
small glass jar (1 oz)
20 drops tea tree essential oil 
purified water to 1/4 inch from top of jar 

Shake well, apply with a q tip. 

Lotion - for oily/acne prone skin (cost per batch - $2.76)
amber or blue glass dropper bottle
3 tbsp. jojoba oil
10 drops eucalyptus essential oil
10 drops geranium essential oil 
4 drops rosemary essential oil 

Put 3 tbsp. jojoba into dropper bottle and add essential oils. Close and shake well. 
To moisturize, apply 2 drops to face. 

Variations:

These are some variations on old recipes I have made. 

Dish soap:
2 cups water
1/4 cup soap shavings
1/4 cup castile soap
1 tsp. vinegar 
1 mL tea tree essential oil
15 drops each rosemary essential oil, peppermint essential oil, and frankincense essential oil. 

In a saucepan, over low heat, melt soap shavings into water, do not allow to boil. 
Add castile soap and whisk. Set aside and allow to cool for a little bit. 
Pour into old soap bottle and add 1 tsp. vinegar, shake well. 
Add essential oils and shake well. Allow to sit overnight. 
  
Toothpaste:
2 tbsp. coconut oil 
3 tbsp. baking soda
20 drops peppermint essential oil 
15 drops tea tree essential oil 
8 drops myrrh essential oil 

Mix all of the above ingredients together in a bowl with a fork. Use right away and enjoy your healthy gums and fresher breath! :)


Well, it has taken a couple of days to get this finished, I hope that everything has flowed well and I apologize if I have repeated myself at all. I am thankful for you guys and for all of you who continue to read this. Please keep it up and let me know your feedback! 

Be well.  

foodstuffs

Oh my, two posts in one day? I am beginning to think that hell has frozen over. ;)

I decided to make this a post of it's own because it is food recipes that I have found and used over the past week - and they are all worth trying! We are trying to get to the point that 51% of our food is raw. It is hard to reach that point, but we are trying! 

We are also eliminating dairy and considering trying sprouted bread. Sprouted bread was considered a form of blasphemy to me for many years but at this point, we are trying everything. A majority of Crohn's patients have hidden sensitivities to gluten and dairy, soaked grains tend to be easier to digest. I have my doubts about eliminating grain entirely and will (hopefully) have a future post about making whole grain, home made bread. I am doing research and I encourage all of you, in this instance, to do the research for yourself and experiment - see what works for you and your families. 

We have been starting the day with a water bottle full of water, then we make a smoothie with spirulina, banana, orange juice, and whatever frozen fruit we have on hand. It is a delicious and nutritious start to the day! We have been trying to snack more on nuts, seeds, and fruit throughout the day and then at night I try to make a nice, cooked dinner. I have been eliminating most of our starchy sides (the exception being potatoes because we have a lot of them on hand right now) and replacing it with a salad. Baby steps in the right direction. 

Now for the fun stuff... 

Kombucha

I want to start out with a picture, then I want to share with you all about this wonderful brew. 

 You are probably asking yourself what that is and how it could possibly be good for you. Well... it is kombucha. Kombucha translates to "godly tea", "yeast tea", "tea mold" and "tea mushroom". All of that sounds disgusting and let me tell you, the close up of this stuff doesn't look so great either. Personally, I think it is the coolest to have grown this but my hubby feels completely different. He asked the other day if I would make him drink it, I said no, but allow me to tell all of you why you should consider it! 
Kombucha is a SCOBY - Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. (FUN FACT - a kombucha SCOBY can be used to make artificial leather... how cool is that?!?)  It is a fermented tea with incredible health benefits. It contains acetic acid, B-vitamins, gluconic acid, malic acid, and more. Drinking kombucha leads to a Herxheimer Reaction - a dying off of pathogenic bacteria and yeast. Gluconic acid helps with liver detoxification and makes the liver function more efficiently. It has also been proven successful in helping with cancer treatment, it can help prevent the toxicity of some chemo. Kombucha can also be applied topically to heal leg ulcers and toe fungus. 
Making kombucha is simple, the hardest part is finding a mother. You can find mothers online, make sure you are ordering from a legitimate business though as this is not something to mess with. For the most part, the drink is acidic enough to keep germs out but you still want to be careful as it is a living thing and can get sick. If your mother is sick, you will know. It won't have the distinct kombucha smell and you will see mold or pests growing on the mushroom (distinct kombucha smell = vinegar-y smell). We had an old bottle of kombucha in our fridge that had grown a baby SCOBY, I used that to start this batch. I don't necessarily recommend that for liability's sake, but I do not feel that this batch will be dangerous or make me sick. But back to making kombucha - you make tea, 2-5 tea bags for every 3 quarts of water. Boil your water and steep your tea, I used 4 bags and steeped it for 15 minutes. Then add 1 cup of sugar, brown sugar, molasses or evaporated cane juice. It is important not to use honey, stevia or xylitol to make kombucha as they can kill your mother. Once the tea cools, transfer it to a sterilized jar (I used an old pickle jar, sterilized in the oven for 25 minutes at 190 degrees), and add your starter. Most kombucha kits will come with everything you need and instructions on what to do, follow those instructions if that is the route that you go. I want to remind you all again that this is simply what I did, the batch is not done yet so I don't know if it was successful but it appears to be coming along nicely. Once my tea was cool, I added the entire bottle of old kombucha and waited. And waited, and waited. It has been nearly a month and I now have a solid mother. I am waiting for it to get a little bit bigger then I will harvest this batch and start the next one. 
When I harvest this batch, I will take pictures and walk you all through it step by step. It is important to note that homemade kombucha is not recommended for the immunosuppressed, but if you keep the brew between 2.5 and 3.2 pH, it should be safe. It can also cause lactic acidosis in people with existing conditions. However, for a healthy individual, cultivating at home should be no problem. 
A final note about kombucha - it contains alcohol. I have never gotten drunk off of kombucha as it contains less than 0.5% alcohol, too low of a percentage to be considered alcoholic. But it does contain alcohol for any readers that would be concerned about that. Otherwise, this is a wonderfully healthy drink that can help you reach optimum health. 

Almond Milk

Nuts are good! Nut milk is even better! I found a simple recipe on TLC.com and another similar recipe on a raw foods site (along with some simple variations). My first batch was so easy to make and tastes great, it doesn't taste exactly the same as store bought almond milk but it is pretty darn close. The recipe is as follows:

1 cup raw almonds
4 cups filtered water
pinch sea salt
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. raw honey or agave

Put almonds into a big bowl and cover with water. Soak for anywhere from 1 - 12 hours (I soaked mine for 12 hours). At least once while almonds are soaking, drain and rinse them. 
When almonds are done soaking, drain and put into a regular or high speed blender. Add 4 cups of water and blend until nuts are broken down. You will want to watch your blender so that it doesn't overheat, if it gets warm, take a 10 minute break in blending. 
Once nuts are broken down, strain mixture through cheesecloth (or nutmilk bag), add extra ingredients and stir well. 

 Straining the milk - the leftover almond "paste" can be used in baking or as a spread on a sandwich. 

Almond milk variations:
Substitute -
 Cashews for a neutral taste
 Hemp for a protein rich drink
 Macademias or pecans
Additives - 
 For chocolate almond milk, add to the above recipe 2 tbsp. of ground cacao nibs or unsweetened cocoa. 
 For chai almond milk, add to the above recipe 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. garam masala, and 1/2 tsp. nutmeg. 
 For sugar-free almond milk, substitute stevia for the sweetener. 

For my batch, I used 1 cup of almonds, 4 cups of water, a pinch of sea salt, 2 tsp. vanilla extract and 2 tbsp. raw honey. It is a little grainy but has an overall smooth consistency, I want to look into a nutmilk bag for future batches but until then, cheesecloth works fine. And I have to say it again - it is delicious! A wonderful substitute for cow milk. 

The finished product. Creamy, smooth and delicious!


Japanese Steakhouse Ginger Salad Dressing

We are big sushi fans here and I always look forward to eating a house salad with sushi because of the delicious salad dressing they use. I did some digging online and found a simple recipe that tastes better than the original. I found this on allrecipes.com. 

1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 lemon, juiced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. fresh minced ginger root
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tsp. honey
Pepper to taste

Mix together everything but the olive oil (I used a food processor and it worked great). 
Once everything is mixed together well, add your olive oil steadily until it is incorporated. I recommend whisking this step, the liquid can make a mess if it splashes out of the processor. 
Pour into a jar, shake well before use. Made about 3/4 of a Newman's Own dressing bottle.

In the future I will substitute stevia for the honey, as the honey coagulated in the bottom of the bowl and left the dressing rather tart. It was still good but I like it a little sweeter. Not only is this dressing simple, it is great on the stomach. Ginger and garlic are proven to calm digestion. It works! :)

Greek Tzatziki Sauce

When we were on our honeymoon, we ate a LOT of great food. It was wonderful, but fattening. We both came home with some extra pounds. On our last day in Savannah, we finally ate at a restaurant that almost every server we had recommended to us - Zunzi's. We had been told that it was a Greek/South African hybrid restaurant and we were expecting something wild. What we found was a small, hole in the wall with one of the most amazing meals I have ever eaten. I can't remember the name of the combo, but it was a bed of mashed potatoes with grilled chicken and vegetables on top, with a side salad, and all of it was covered in a South African sauce and tzatziki sauce. Have I mentioned how wonderful it was yet? 
The other night I felt courageous and made our version of Zunzi's, which will now be a family meal of ours. I made garlic mashed potatoes (skins still on), baked some chicken with garlic and ginger, sliced it and served it over the potatoes. I then splashed on some balsamic vinegar and covered it with this homemade tzatziki. It was wonderful! We went to bed happy and satiated and belly ache free. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com (again):

8 oz. container plain yogurt
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/4 lemon, juiced
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 tsp. chopped dill
2 cloves garlic

Combine everything in a food processor and process until well-combined. 
Let chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Recipe serves 4, but we have used it many times since this meal and still have a good bit left.

Spicy Lentils and Barley

The other night we had fajitas, refried beans, and lentils and barley in lieu of rice. It was a wonderful combination, my sweetie told me to remember to write it down so I would remember it for the future. *blush*
I took an old recipe and altered it, as I do with most recipes. Here is my version, you could alter this and serve it as a side with pretty much anything. It is verstatile, healthy and delicious!

1/4 cup lentils
1/4 cup barley
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
red cayenne pepper to taste

Boil lentils and barley in chicken broth until they reach desired done-ness. I boiled mine on high for 35 minutes and they were perfect. This served us both decent servings with a little left over.  
 

Well, again I want to thank you all for reading. I am working my way through The Paleo Diet these next few weeks then I expect to return to researching with full force. If anyone ever has any questions, I would be delighted to answer them or try to point them in the right direction. 

Be well, all of you. Thank you for reading! :) 

 

and the results are in...

Hello readers! You can see what day I started this entry on... it has been a busy week! I am sorry for the wait!


Hello everybody! I am not sure if you know this but it's Valentine's Day - the perfect time to sit with your sweetie and read about homemade stuff! ;)

I jest, I jest. I am thankful for all of you who have kept reading and for those who are just beginning to read this! I love seeing that the hard work is worth it. So keep reading and keep spreading the word and keep giving me input - I love hearing what works, what doesn't, what you like, what you don't like, etc. :)

We have continued to stay really busy here, which is why it has been so long since my last entry. My work schedule has pretty much doubled the past week and for the upcoming couple of weeks. I am thankful for the hours but I hate not having my quiet time to research and blog like I used to. I am committed to keeping up with this for as long as y'all will keep reading though! 

Today I wanted to update all of you on the products I've made so far and the results of using them. Let us begin!

Simple Soap

My first batch of soap is officially cured! It has been 3 1/2 weeks since I made it and I couldn't wait any longer. A normal cure is 3 - 6 weeks, for this soap she recommended a 3 - 4 week cure. It actually turned out better than I thought it would, it is slightly over-saponified but it reminds me of Ivory soap with the consistency and texture. The smell has faded quite a bit but it still smells wonderful to me. I used to to make dish detergent last night and have used it to wash our dog. It grates into a fine powder which makes it even more fabulous for making laundry, hand washing, and dish washing soaps. 

 Results: This soap is wonderful. I already love it. I can't wait to see what a properly saponified batch looks, smells and feels like. When I used it to wash our incredibly stinky dog, it deodorized her and made her coat shinier and softer than typical pet wash did. It didn't irritate her skin either. She also loved that I used a bar because she got rubbed down more. Something to keep in mind with this soap is that there is no lather. In modern soap, lather is produced by harsh chemicals. In natural soap, lather comes from using coconut and castor oils. In the future I will try to make a batch with coconut oil and vegetable shortening as my fat to see what comes of it. Bubbles or not, however, I am happy with my creation. The recipe can be found here, in my post about soap. Cost per bar is around $0.90.

Laundry Detergent

I have talked about laundry detergent a couple of times and for redundancy's sake, I am not going to go into a lot of details about it. It was easy, fast, and cheap. I am anxious to see what a batch with our soap will look like. 
Results: Fabulous. This detergent is amazing. 1 tablespoon will remove the toughest stains and odors. We have washed dirty clothes, linens, the dog's bed, her blankets, our couch blankets, coats, and towels with cat pee on them. 1 tbsp. is all that it took for things to come out clean, bright, white, and odorless. We have also been using apple cider vinegar as a fabric softener and it has also been amazing. Our clothes don't come out smelling like vinegar. They have less static and feel softer. An added bonus - we are now spending pennies per load to wash our clothes. Hooray! Cost for this batch ended up being around $8, but in the future, using my homemade soap, it should be $3.

Tea Tree Products

Tea Tree Oil (or Melaleuca Oil) is an amazing product, my mom used to put it on everything. Scrapes, burns, whatever ailed you, tea tree oil cleared it up fast. It has a very strong smell and is really powerful, so a little goes a long way. It can be used on athlete's foot, acne, dandruff, cold sores, for colds, migraines, warts, ringworm, chicken pox, insect bites, teeth/gum care, to fight pests, for detox, and for cleaning. It is important to remember to not take the oil orally, but you can use it in your mouth if you be sure to spit it all out. It has also been found that tea tree may be feminizing in young boys as it mimics estrogen, but in adults it has not been found to have those effects. It should also be noted that tea tree oil can be sensitizing to some, if you find that it is too harsh for you straight, dilute it in a carrier oil. I used the oil in several small projects this past week. I made an acne "zapper" - 5% tea tree oil to water, dabbed on once or twice a day - that works as well as the benzoyl peroxide cream I was using. I also made a pest control/disinfecting spray for our home - 2 tsp. tea tree oil + 30 mL eucalyptus to 2 cups of water. I have used it in our bathrooms and they look wonderful, it removed soap scum better than the cleaner we were using. Plus, tea tree and eucalyptus oils are antiseptic and anti-fungal, so they fight grout mildew. I am thrilled at this cheap and healthy answer to cleaning our home and keeping away pests! Both of these products cost pennies to make.

Toothpaste

I made our first batch of toothpaste last week using a recipe I found here. In her article, Tammy (I presume) raises questions about using baking soda as a toothpaste, being that it is so abrasive. I do have some concerns about long term use of baking soda but I also see it as a tried and true "remedy". I plan to alternate between bentonite clay and baking soda with each batch I make, just to be safe. I don't really like to follow recipes exactly, the exception being with soap where exact measurements are so important, so here is my tweaked version of toothpaste:

1 tbsp. coconut oil
2 tbsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
15 drops tea tree essential oil

Mix it all together, put it in a jar, use it and smile. 


Coconut oil remains a solid until 76 degrees Fahrenheit. I was in a rush so I melted the oil in the microwave for a few seconds which was not the best idea, it solidified into a hard cake that we have to dig into to use. 
Results: Despite the inconvenience of mining for toothpaste, this recipe is amazing. It leaves very little taste in your mouth so you can eat something after using it. It leaves your teeth feeling clean and I have noticed that my breath is less nasty in the morning. My hunny loves the taste and feel of it as well. The only thing to be careful of is swallowing it - it contains tea tree which should not be eaten. So if you were thinking of making some for kids, use spearmint, peppermint or cinnamon alone, omit the tea tree.

 I know, I know, I really shouldn't have gone all out with the backdrop. ;)

The only new cost we had for this product was the coconut oil (non-organic, I know, but we had to do what we could afford) - $5.98 for 31.5 oz. 


Conditioner

Ok, for technicality's sake, this is a rinse, but I call it conditioner. It is also a completely different approach to hair care, one that has been a much easier adjustment than I anticipated. I consider washing and rinsing my hair to be kicking it old school, circa 1860. I wash my hair with the store bought shampoo that we still have (they seem to be the longest lasting bottles of shampoo I have ever had), making sure that I don't tangle the ends of my hair. This is the key - not tangling the hair. You learn to be more delicate with how you handle your hair because you don't have anything to detangle it anymore, you now have something to refresh your scalp and add shine to your hair. Then I rinse it with the follow recipe (I forget where I found it, this is my adjusted version):


2 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 peppermint tea bag

Put hot water into a (repurposed!) bottle. Add vinegar, rosemary and tea bag to water, let sit for 20 minutes. Shake before use. 

It is strange to think of putting tea, vinegar and rosemary into your hair but...
Results: It works! Rosemary is a member of the mint and evergreen families and is wonderful for hair and skin care. It is also useful for muscle aches, arthritis, exhaustion, gout, neuralgia, poor circulation, depression, mood swings, and memory. It improves the shelf life of omega-3's and is high in iron, calcium, and B6. Rosemary got it's start as an herbal rub for meat because it was so good for preservation. Rosemary is NOT good for those who are pregnant, have epilepsy or high blood pressure. Vinegar is clarifying. Peppermint is invigorating and smells delicious. My hubby smells my hair after every shower and the only time he caught a trace of vinegar smell was the day that I rushed rinsing my hair. 
Back to the new old school routine for haircare - after rinsing my hair with vinegar, I rinse it with water, again being careful to not tangle my hair. I wring my hair out and wrap it in a towel, which I leave on for several minutes. When I finally take the towel off, I don't rub my hair to dry it anymore, I now pat it and wring it carefully for a few more minutes. Now comes the fun part - I brush with a boar bristle brush - a LOT. Brushing with a boar bristle brush moves your natural oils from your scalp and roots to your ends, it can get monotonous and get static-y, but stick with it. My hair falls out a lot less and has more shine and volume. My ends stay pretty dry, so I usually dip the tip of my finger in olive oil (mixed with a few drops of peppermint oil) and spread it through the ends to smooth them. 

 The only ingredient we didn't have on hand was the rosemary... I had enough left over to make an infused oil and have some left over for another batch of conditioner. :)


I can't find the receipt for the exact cost of the rosemary but if I remember correctly, it was $5 - $6. 


Dish Soap

We also ran out of dish detergent this week so I was finally able to make a homemade batch. It was easy! I used Hillbilly Housewife's recipe:

1/4 cup soap shavings
2 cups water
1 tsp. lemon juice or vinegar

Over medium heat, melt the soap into the water. Be careful to NOT let it boil. Once soap is melted into water, remove from heat and let cool for a bit. Add lemon juice or vinegar, stir, and allow to cool completely before pouring into bottle.  

The recipe took a while to cool and it stayed super liquid-y for several hours, I poured it into our old dish detergent container before it was completely cool and the next morning it was a thick gel. It reminds me of silly putty but the consistency is great! It makes it easy to not use too much and if you are really bored, it is fun to "swish" it from side to side in the container. ;) I also got to use my homemade soap to make the soap which made it that much cheaper and sweeter - we did not have to buy a single item to make it! I grated half of a small nugget of soap and it was 1/4 cup... the bars are going to last! 
Results: It is so weird to use a dish soap without a lather, but it works wonderfully. Our glasses shine once they are dry and my husband has no complaints about using it either, beside the lack of bubbles being strange. In the future, I will add a few drops of essential oil to the mixture to give it a bit more of a scent, but the current smell, although mild, is wonderful.

The amount of shaved soap used in the recipe was less than a quarter of the pictured bar of soap.  

This batch was "free", but my calculations (using my homemade soap) are $0.88/batch and (using the castile soap recipe) $10.88/batch (this looks like a lot but breaks down to $0.27/load of dishes vs. $0.37/load for store bought brands). 


I feel like there has been a re-occurring theme of "oh my gosh, this works!" throughout this post but... oh my gosh. People. DIY is easy, cheap, and healthy. It is less harmful and stressful to your body and the environment. You reuse your old containers. You have to use your mind to think of new ways to work old recipes. It is fun to get inventive in the kitchen and see your results be successful. The hardest part is the research, which I am trying my hardest to do for you, to help you all get started in your journeys toward cheaper, greener, healthier lives. 

I am thinking about taking orders for products, if anyone would be interested in that... let me know! I would love to discuss this aspect with potential clients to see if there is a future in this for me, if not, I am happy to just blog about it all and hopefully inspire all of you to do what you can. 

I am thankful for your patience and beg all of you to stay with me. Life will slow down again and I will be able to focus on this like I would like to once that happens. As I mentioned before, I am always anxious to hear feedback and would love to hear about your experiences with all of this! 

Be well, readers. You all are a blessing to me! :) 

 
 

 

    
 

a, b, c's part 2

Well, it has certainly been an interesting week in the Swatek house! I can safely say that both my dear one and myself are utterly exhausted. I am excited to finally be finishing this post though! 

Copaiba Oil - I began to talk about this wonderful oil last week and had to stop before I was finished. Let's pick up where we left off! Copaiba, if you recall, is from the family Copaifera in the Amazon Basin. The oleoresin is tapped from the tree, much like how a maple tree is tapped for syrup. The resin is steam distilled and the oil is the result. Now let me blow your mind... Copaiba Essential oil contains the highest amount of beta caryophyllene of any essential oil (55%). Beta caryophyllene is the first FDA approved dietary cannabinoid. Wait, what? Cannabinoid? You mean like... cannabis cannabinoid? YES. Beta caroyophyllene binds to cannabinoid receptor type-2 which reduces inflammation. It does not bind to cannabinoid receptor type-1, so it won't get you high. So we have an incredibly powerful, natural, anti-inflammatory. HOW COOL IS THAT?!? More properties of Copaiba that might interest you all -  it is antibacterial, disinfectant, diuretic, expectorant and a stimulant. It is good for bronchitis, bruises, burns, chills, colds, cuts, cystitis, intestinal infections, stress, urinary issues, cracked skin, and eczema. It has also been proven effective against basal cell carcinoma. Copaiba should be avoided if you are pregnant. We have not tried it ourselves yet but I am looking forward to using this (hopefully) magic oil. 

(a) Durable tree (Frankincense) - Frankincense (Boswellia carterii), also known as olibanum, is another resin that is steam distilled into an oil. The resin chunks are called tears and the tree itself is incredibly resilient. It can grow out of a rock face! The charred coal of Frankincense is also known as kohl, an ingredient in our makeups, ladies. Frankincense is well known from the Bible, it was one of the gifts presented to Jesus by the Magi. The tears are edible, you just chew them like gum. Frankincense repels mosquitoes and can be taken internally for osteoarthritis, frankincense oil also suppresses cancer cell viability. In 2008 Johns Hopkins did a study about frankincense and found it's smoke to be an effective antidepressant (FASEB Journal, May 2008). Frankincense is also good as an analgesic, anti-neurologic, anti-rheumatic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, antiviral, bactericidal, deodorant, diuretic, expectorant, prophylactic, and stimulant. This also means that it is effective in helping to treat Crohn's. It is another oil that I look forward to using in the near future. 

Eucalyptus Oil - Eucalyptus has always been one of my favorite smells. I love it. Something about how clean your lungs feel after you smell it has always appealed to me. It's main ingredient is cineole, which has been proven effective in controlling airway mucous hyper-secretion and asthma, rhinosinusitis, reducing inflammation and pain (when applied topically), and in killing leukemia cells. It is an effective bug repellant and it is also antimicrobial and antiseptic. You can use is neat to clean your stainless steel, inhale a few drops on a tissue for headaches, add it to massage oil for sore muscles, shampoo your pets with it to clean them and get rid of bugs, spray it diluted onto plants to repel bugs, use it in your laundry... it is also effective when applied externally in reducing fevers from infectious disease. I am so excited that I used this oil in my first batch of soap, which will be used to wash the dog, wash our clothes, make hand soap and wash our dishes... speaking of the soap, it appears to be curing nicely. It should be ready in about 1 more week, it has been so hard to be patient in letting it finish! 

Fels Naptha - Fels Naptha is a naptha-based soap that is used for laundry. It is the soap that I used to make our first batch of laundry detergent. I feel the need to defend myself for a moment about this choice - the recipe for detergent was found on a site for a woman who is vegan and makes all of her own soaps, lotions, etc. I did a bit of research about it before using it because I figured that it was probably not the best soap to have around, but I also figured that 1 batch of detergent made with it would not kill us. And so far it hasn't. I can almost guarantee that our homemade detergent is several times healthier than the cheap store brand we were using. I used Fels Naptha for our first batch of detergent because I did not yet have our first batch of soap made and we needed to do laundry. With that said, I have absolutely no conclusive evidence about whether this soap is truly dangerous or not. There are many discussion boards that I read tirelessly and I will list for you to read yourself. As with the borax, it is a personal decision that you need to make. I probably will not use it again, but that is because it will be $3 cheaper per batch of laundry if I make it with my homemade soap, plus I like making things. I would not bathe in it or use it to wash my hair, but I am not opposed to the minimal amount that we have used to wash our clothes. Here are the sites for you: Green Living, Palos Chiropractic, and Live Strong.


Well, there you have it! I have quite a laundry list of research to do in the upcoming days (or weeks). We have made the decision to treat my darling's Crohn's with drugs for now, while slowing implementing as much of a raw food/vitamin therapy/natural remedy lifestyle as we can. We already eat pretty healthy but we are learning new things constantly and making changes (and experimenting) with those new things. 

Here is a list of the things that we are doing:
- beginning to make our own lunchmeat. We will be smoking a whole turkey, slicing and freezing it. This will eliminate a majority of nitrites from our diet which are proven to be carcinogenic and a gastrointestinal tract irritant. 
- trying sprouted breads. I was always a skeptic and I have a beautiful mill that I adore. How can I go to the dark side?!? Well... desperation. Maybe this will be better for my sweet honey's belly. If it isn't, we will go back to what I know - milling fresh flour. 
- trying to eat more than 51% raw foods in a day. Some information we have found supports the idea that the body has an immune response against a diet containing more than 51% cooked foods. 
- eating spirulina. At 60 - 63% pure protein, this blue green algae is a superfood. It has it's moments of being utterly disgusting, but mixed into a smoothie it tastes great and gives us both so much more healthy energy. 
- trying to find a doctor that will work with us. This one speaks for itself and may be the most difficult of all of these steps. We want to find a doctor who is more focused on healing the patient than lining their pockets. This is hard! The drugs that they have my husband on have terrible side effects and we did not want to start them, but when you are desperate, you are desperate. My hope is to reach a place where we marry a healthy lifestyle with whatever medications may be necessary to keep my sweet one out of pain and out of the hospital. 

Other exciting things to look forward to - 
1. THE KOMBUCHA STARTED!!! I can't wait for it to be ready so I can write a detailed post about it, growing it and harvesting it. 
2. Our seeds sprouted! We also received our new seeds today. We had a back stock of seeds that we sprouted to begin with, then we went online an ordered what we needed to fill the holes. A few REALLY COOL things that arrived today were Lemon Cucumbers, Atomic Red Carrots, Red Bull F1 Onions, and Romanesco Cauliflower, to name a few. We also have a variety of peppers and radishes. I am so excited! 
3. I will be making my first batches of toothpaste and conditioner this week. I am looking forward to seeing how they turn out. 

Well, I hope you all are staying well and less stressed than we have been. We have been both stressed and blessed this past week and things have gotten better with time. I am looking forward to a healthy and happy husband again and the things that we learn along the way to achieving that goal. Be well, all of you and please continue to be patient with me! :)

a, b, c's

Hello everyone! It has been a minute since I've had the time to post - I'm keeping busy with what seems to be never ending research (not that that is a bad thing). We have also been busy with getting our garden sprouted. It's exciting to see all of our future produce sprouting! :)

There is so much that I have learned over the past week that I want to share with y'all, but I am going to try to make it last through a couple of posts so as to not overwhelm you with information. 

Before I go on, I want to say that I am not a medical doctor, nor do I have any training in the medical field. I went to college for two years and would have my associate's degree, except that I failed pilates. Oh yes, pilates. But that is a story for another day. My point - I have a yearning to learn as much as I can about natural health and sustaining life like our ancestors did (and to save money!). I despise the way that many Americans live today, dependent on pharmaceuticals and corporations. I feel that a return to growing our own food, making our own products, and using natural remedies is not only better for our pocketbooks, but also for our society as a whole. Please do not take what I say as absolute truth, I will give links to where I have gleaned the information I have found and I encourage you to research for yourself. My goal is to inspire you to question what is normal and maybe make some of these changes for yourself. I just know how powerful this return to what is natural has been in my own life.     

This post is going to cover some topics that seem to be all over the spectrum but in reality relate to two topics - intestinal health and laundry detergent. Some concerns were raised to me by a friend of a friend about the safety of the laundry detergent that I made, so I have spent many hours researching the products that I used (specifically borax and Fels Naptha). The intestinal health topics relate to the natural steps we are taking to (hopefully) treat my sweet husband's Crohn's flare up. Here we go! 

A, B, C's of Going Greener

Aloe Vera - Aloe Vera is a succulent plant that has been used in natural medicine for thousands of years. The origin is unknown, but is believed to be Northern Africa. I am sure that every one of you have used the green aloe vera gel from the store for sunburn or other burns, but aloe is good for more than that. True aloe vera gel comes from the middle of the plant and has the consistency of snot. It is primarily water, caught in a matrix of... good stuff. I know that that sounds incredibly scientific but you can look aloe up online to find more information about it. Aloe is known for being soothing and healing and eating the gel can be extremely beneficial for Crohn's patients. HOWEVER - and this is important - the JUICE of the aloe leaf can cause diarrhea. It is important to use as fresh as possible aloe vera gel if you will be eating it. We are lucky enough to have a successful aloe plant that I have been harvesting over the past 2 days with great success. It takes a little bit of time and precision but the fact that it seems to be working makes it worth it! I found the directions for harvesting aloe gel here. I can safely say that fresh aloe smells horrible and my husband can attest that it does not taste very good either. The recommended dose of fresh aloe gel for Crohn's is 4 oz. a day. I have been starting small - yesterday with 1/2 oz and today with a full ounce - blended in a blender with a small amount of fruit juice to see what happens. I have been really careful to drain as much of the reddish juice out of the aloe leaf before "fileting" it so we don't get the crappy (ha ha ha... great pun, I know) side effects. 

Borax - Borax is sodium borate or sodium tetraborate and is mined from old sea beds around the world. It is not the most eco pretty compound, however, it is better than the typical chemical pollutants that are used in cleaning supplies and detergents, so it is often considered "green". I spent a couple of hours researching borax before I came across this article by fellow blogger Crunchy Betty. I recommend this article to anyone questioning whether to use borax or not. What follows is a synopsis of that article. Borax is a basic salt, mined from the ground. As with most compounds, scientists have tweaked it to form other compounds, in this case, reacting it with an acid to make boric acid. Borax is NOT the same as boric acid. Boric acid is permeative whereas borax is not. Most studies that have been done on "borax" have actually been done on 'borax or boric acid', no differentiation has been made between the two, so there is not much reliable data on the true safety of pure borax. Borax itself is a mild skin irritant and should not be eaten or inhaled in large quantities, the skin irritation can likely be explained by the fact that it is extremely alkaline. It has been linked to reproductive problems in rats BUT the rats were fed EXTREME amounts of borax. Just as too much salt or baking soda would be toxic to you, too much borax is toxic. However, borax is not accumulative, if a small amount does permeate your skin, it will not be stored in your body and reach toxic levels. It is classified by MSDS as non carcinogenic and a 1 out of 4 for health, meaning that it is a mild chemical. Also, boron, which is related to borax, is an essential mineral. From what you have just read, it is really just a personal choice as to whether you want to use borax or not. I feel that out of all of the chemicals out there, using borax in washing detergent or as an insecticide, or using it to clean my home is the better choice. I will be careful in the future to handle it while using gloves and respirator just to be safe, but overall I am not concerned. 

Copaiba - Copaiba is an oleoresin that is tapped from a group of Copaifera trees in the Amazon basin. Copaiba oil is steam distilled from the resin and is used to relieve pain and digestive discomforts, regulate immune response, and combat inflammation. I am SO excited to get some and start using it for aches and pains and for my hubby's tummy. I have heard nothing but great feedback about it. I will have more information in my next post but alas, it seems that I can't sit still long enough to finish this post between taking care of animals, housework, and my poor sick sweetheart. I apologize for this but hope you all will understand! It is my goal to finish this post tomorrow. 

I wish all of you the best and be well. :)