You've probably seen pins and blog posts about washing your fruit with vinegar...I'm just posting this to say, I've been doing this and it's pretty cool! I was afraid the vinegar flavor would seep in (especially with the grapes, since they're skins are so thin), but it totally doesn't.
And it's cool to not worry *quite* as much about pesticide residue on our food.
I just soak them in a mix of vinegar and water when I bring them home from the grocery store.
Cover and soak for about 20 minutes. Then rinse! Easy peasy!
I found a solution for my daughter's de-tangling spray! Yay!
She has long, red, super curly hair. We usually just wash her hair once a week or so, and in between, we rinse her hair in the shower and condition. I did try baking soda/vinegar rinses, and that might be another option to try when she's older and can manage her own hair, but it just isn't feasible at present.
I used the recipe I found on Frugally Sustainable for a marshmallow root de-tangling spray. It was really easy to make, and it works great!! (Click HERE to visit and view the recipe.)
We got our marshmallow root at Mama Jean's, and for about $1.68, we have enough to make two batches---which is awesome, since we were buying the regular chemically de-tangler spray for over $2 per bottle + we get to avoid throwing yet another bottle out in the trash. Win/win/win!
| I can finally say, I did it! It's been nearly two months since I've used shampoo or conditioner. I've been using baking soda and vinegar rinses. I'm not exactly thrilled with my hair, but it's manageable, and I'll live. I've read a LOT on the topic, so I know it could take a full year (EEK!) for my hair to really get with the program.
So far my hair has been going through mood swings. Some days it's JUST RIGHT, and I love it. Some days it's too dry, some days it's too oily. But honestly, I'm the kinda girl who doesn't really care. I have long straight hair. I wear it up in a clip or in a pony tail, or I pull it back with a barrette, or I wear it straight (most common and easiest). I don't use sprays or spritzes or anything, so this is probably a much easier switch for me than for someone who meticulously styles their hair every day. Meticulous, I am not.
My favorite part of all this is my newly discovered white streak! I'm only 33, but I've been dying away little grey hairs for many years already. My mom went grey early, so this was totally expected. But since I've been trying to go more organic and get rid of chemicals in my house and body, I haven't dyed my hair in..goodness..six months? I don't have bangs, but I always brush the front of my hair a bit forward, so I hadn't noticed the little bits of white sneaking in. I've actually always wanted long white hair, so this is as good a time as any to just join the club and let it be--it is what it is!
 White. It's white. It's not even grey, it's white. White streaks on my 33-year-old head. I like it.
So here's a list of things I've noticed since switching:
| Cheaper. So much cheaper. And if you're switching from organic shampoo and conditioner to baking soda and vinegar, it's even cheaper.
My shower is super clean! I've switched my household cleaners to baking soda and vinegar anyway, but now my tub/shower is getting cleaned all the time without any scrubbing. WIN. And my long hair isn't clogging up the drain anymore. Go figure!
Vinegar smells super gross. I haven't gotten used to it, but I don't hate it so much that I'll switch back. After my hair is dry (and I DO use a blow dryer) I can't smell the vinegar, but if it gets damp or wet again, I do smell a hint of vinegar. Not enough to worry about though.
I tried apple cider vinegar, but I like the white better. It's not as clingy or sticky after using the white. But if ACV works for you, more power to ya.
If I ever hop into a higher income bracket, I can imagine I'll find an organic alternative to Great Value, but for now these suit me just fine.
| I'm not including DIY instructions, cuz you can already find eight million of them online. I've been trying different methods. My biggest tip would just be to keep trying it. It's not going to be awesome at first, and if it is, then AWESOME. It just seems like a great idea to me. Save the environment from all those plastic bottles and chemicals. Be kinder to my skin and scalp.
Win. Win. Win.
| |
This kid loves the sun.
And swimming.
And building forts.
And riding her bike.
Summer here we come!
Now that I'm all "green" and "hippie-like" with our food and cosmetics, etc., it's time to tackle the topic of suncare! But thankfully, I didn't have to go further than my trusty Internet to find some great options to try out for healthy sun-living and protection.
Below are some great links from Holistic Squid and Mommypotamus that give great details about how to avoid the wrong kind of sun and chemical exposure when summer, i.e., pool-time comes around. And I've got a pale little red-headed mermaid on my hands, so I'm excited to try these out!
Just a little reminder...
STRAWBERRY CINNAMON GREEN SMOOTHIE
...that your body...
WATER WATER WATER
...needs lots of liquids...
STRAWBERRY GREEN SMOOTHIE
...to function...
APPLE CINNAMON GREEN SMOOTHIE
...properly!
ARE YOU A HEAVY DRINKER?
I love the taste and simplicity of Larabars, but I've never been able to eat them--most are sweetened with dates, and they're glycemic index is over the moon! Zzzzzzzz. No sugar for me!
I read on the interwebs (here and here) that they're now owned by General Mills..and although they still claim they're GMO-free, their parent company supports the effort to keep GMO labeling off their products...so no General Mills products in my house! I even gave up my beloved Smuckers peanut butter for the same reason. *pout*
In comes experiment time! I've seen lots of "Larabar" type recipes floating around the interwebs lately, so I decided to try my own.
This isn't a recipe--you can easily find those elsewhere. I just wanted to share that they're pretty easy to make and you can make them without dates. I ended up sweetening mine with Stevia and using just a bit of water or cream to make them stick together. I drink tart cherry juice at night (for inflammation) and that works great too. FUN EXPERIMENTATION TIME.
Chia Seeds! Use whole or grind them up.
I decided I like them ground. My little coffee grinder works perfectly.
Raw almonds!
Almonds ground in my mini food chopper.
Almonds ground in my coffee grinder. I think I like them super fine.
Raw pumpkin seeds.
Ground pumpkin seeds in my mini food chopper.
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate. If I use this, it doesn't need stevia to sweeten.
After you mix it all up, dump it out on a plate.
Use your hands or a piece of plastic wrap to shape into bars or balls or just eat it with a spoon!
Child approved.
I hope you try it! Happy mixing!
I love to experiment--especially when the amount of leftovers awaiting us in the fridge and freezer gets to critical mass. Or something like that.
I don't eat out anymore, and so the hubs and kiddo don't get to very often either, and we ALL really miss good ol' Springfield "Chinese" Cashew Chicken. Alas, that's a huge no-no for me anymore.
So after several days of leftover pork, chicken, and beef dishes, I figured my little family would like something new. So I fried up some cauliflower rice and made a pretty convincing "cashew sauce" (Sans cashews--just cuz I didn't have any), and I made these yummy little fried...things.
I threw all the meat and veggies from the fridge together and added eggs and fresh-ground almond flour. It took a little experimenting to get the right thickness so they wouldn't fall apart when I fried them, but we were all quite pleased with the turnout!
Sorry, no pics of the entire meal...I've been trying to NOT take pics at the table lately. Celia glares at me when I do. :)
 Batter made with leftover meat and veggies + eggs + almond flour. |  Fried fritters in my little shallow skillet with peanut oil. YUMMY YUMMY FRIED THINGS. |
Here's a peek into my kitchen...
This is what my counter top looks like just about every weekday morning these days.
Celia's smoothie, Jon's smoothie, and my breakfast and lunch/afternoon snack smoothies.
You'll notice J & C's smoothies are a bit more brown--which means they have more strawberries in theirs, and I have more greens in mine. One of the great things about getting off sugar, as it turns out, is that the less sweets you consume, the less you crave them, and the yummier "real" food tastes.
It's a perk. A happy green perk. :)
So why am I so in love with my green smoothies? Here's one of the many, many reasons: You need raw chlorophyll in your life. Lots of it. Lots and lots. This convenient blog post will tell you why, since I'm not a nutritionist.
I like to get mine via the strawberry + spinach smoothie. Why? Because as much as I like a lovely green salad, I don't want it for breakfast (and although, throwing some spinach in with your scrambled eggs is yummy, it's so much better for you when it's raw).
People who say a strawberry + spinach smoothie is gross either a) don't like strawberries to begin with (and are therefore not my friends), or b) have never had a strawberry + spinach smoothie.
My friend (who likes strawberries as much as I do), let me introduce you to the blissful combination of health and yumminess. YOU NEED GREENS IN YOUR BODY. STRAWBERRIES TASTE GOOD. (Seriously, I probably get too excited about healthy food, but I'm okay with that.)
If you're a green smoothie newbie, just add a little bit of greens at a time. Throw some frozen strawberries, a bit of water (oh, let's say a cup of each), and some stevia (to taste) in the blender. Blend until smooth. Okay. Taste it. Yummy? Okay. Throw in a few leaves of spinach. Blend that puppy until you no longer see the green bits. Taste it. Yummy? Okay. Throw in a few more leaves. Repeat this process until you've added up to a cup of spinach. It's still yummy. Am I right? I'm totally right.
Seriously. Start just a little at a time. Yummy, yummy chlorophyll!
Note: this works with just about any fruit that will blend in said blender--I just happen to like strawberries and can handle the glycemic index of sugars they have--unlike sweeter fruits, which I have to avoid. If you're diabetic, you'll probably want to talk to your doctor (even though they probably don't know what they're talking about, because they have to do what the insurance companies say, and they just want to sell you medication, but I digress). I'm not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. This is a recipe and smartness.Additional note: Someone mentioned this to me recently, so I thought I'd say something bout it here... although I would love all my produce and every morsel in my kitchen to be organic, they are sadly, not all organic. Let's be honest, I couldn't afford it if I tried! One day I hope to have my own garden and be able to grow my own foods, and buy more organic, but at current prices, please don't feel like I'm judging you if you're not buying organic either--baby steps!
So I've been VERY anxious to find a non-toxic deodorant. The more items I replace in my kitchen/bathroom/medicine cabinet/LIFE, the more items I want to change. And so far most changes have been pretty easy, so this was next.
Whether the so-called "studies" are conclusive or not, the thought that the chemicals in deodorants could possibly cause breast cancer freaks me out. I won't be posting any links here, you can do your own googling for that information, but don't forget to question the validity of the studies and conclusions and who is being paid to make those claims. I don't care if I'm being a worry wort or not, if I can keep unnecessary chemicals out of my body, I will!
So first I tried this crystal thing from my health store...erm...no thanks? Didn't do a darn thing. I was very smelly by the end of that day. And sad to say, Tom's wasn't any better. (And I'm glad I started trying these out in the winter when I don't even sweat that much--cuz this would be a bad experiment in the summer!)
Deodorant that *didn't* work.
What really amazes me is how easy it is to make things that for years we just assumed we had to buy. Who decided that anyway??
The good news is that homemade deodorant is super easy to make!
Please note the flaky blue Piggy Paint nail polish. :)
I came across a homemade deodorant recipe from the Wellness Mama, and it seemed pretty easy. I've been collecting ingredients over the past few weeks to make my own homemade cosmetics, lotions, lip balms, etc., so I had everything I needed to try it out.
Hmm, what to put it in? I didn't like the idea of applying a paste with my fingers, and I didn't want to use it like a bar of soap either, so I washed out my old deodorant container. As it turned out, washing out the container was the hardest part of this entire venture!
Here's the recipe I kinda sorta used: http://wellnessmama.com/4901/deodorant-bar-recipe/
So if you've read my blog before, you know I'm not so great with following instructions. It's much more fun to experiment!
I got out the ingredients and a simple glass cereal bowl. I just eye-balled the amounts. I melted my coconut oil, cocoa butter, and a tiny bit of beeswax in the microwave--30 seconds at a time. I sprinkled in the dry ingredients a bit at a time and stirred as I went to test out the consistency. I didn't measure, and I just made a small bit to start out with to see if I liked it, since I didn't want to end up wasting any of my o-so-precious ingredients.
I used a bit of peppermint oil for scent (I'll probably even leave that out next time, since a scent is not really even necessary for me.).
After I mixed it up, I set it in the fridge to cool it off and check out how thick the texture was. It ended up a bit too dry, so I melted it again and added a dab more coconut oil. After it cooled back off again it was perfect! (Don't be afraid to go back and forth with it until you get the consistency you want.)
So here are my observations:
- It was super easy to make. Took me maybe 10 minutes.
- I didn't figure out the cost, but it wasn't expensive at all. Definitely cheaper than buying the organic options at the health store.
- It WORKS. It's not an antiperspirant, but at the end of the day I don't smell bad, so that's good enough for me.
- I was afraid it would be too oily, but it's not too oily OR too dry. You can experiment with the amounts of each ingredient to customize the mixture to your own preferences. Super easy.
- It doesn't feel like it permanently adheres to my armpits like the store-bought kind. That stuff always felt so waxy and hard to wash off. This stuff isn't like that at all.
- If it gets on your hands, it's easy to wash off and doesn't leave that horrid chemical smell.
- I COULD EAT IT IF I WAS DESPERATE! Ha! That's my favorite part of all my new homemade cosmetics. Now that's definitely a good thing for your skin!
Yay! Try it!!! :)~KD  Baby steps! Every day I'm challenging myself to upgrade my life, and therefore my health, by removing or replacing at least one household or beauty product, food, habit, etc. Try it!
I'm not really into nail polish. It's fun and cute for about 5 minutes, and then I have to sew something or wash dishes--and these days I do 100% of my own cooking and 99.5% of my own dish-washing, so even with the more expensive polishes my nails never stay "done" so I haven't even tried.
All that aside, I have an 8 year old daughter who needs to have her nails done on occasion. When I started this organic + non-toxic undertaking, I took one look at our collection and piled all our polishes and removers into a bag and donated them...to my sister, who likes toxins apparently. Just kidding. :)
| So our solution... we've been trying out Piggy Paint! It's so cute and "Natural as Mud," which sounds perfect to me. It doesn't smell like ANYTHING. Which is also awesome. Please note, other than purchases made through my Amazon affiliate links no one is paying me to talk about it--we just really love it!
| | Jon even got roped into a manicure (looked amazing too). ;)
I really like the paint pens--so easy for little hands to use, and fun to add polka dots with too, of course.
| So far we have a bottle of glitter polish and a set of the paint pens.
I'm sure we'll be adding more colors to our collection soon--which will be great if spring ever gets here so we can show off our toesies!
~KD
Update!
We just got the glow-in-the-dark, and it's super fun! I'll add photos soon!
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