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! :)
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! :)
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! :)
