Naturally Me

Comparing milk

2011-11-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

So, October 29 was supposed to be my next entry for the whole NoBloWriMo thing. I missed it. I don’t have a huge super duper excuse, just lots of other things going on & trying to catch up after the in-law visit & being not so well.

The other day I saw that Organic coconut milk was on sale at my local favorite grocer. Now, I already use organic rice milk in place of creamer in my coffee. I like it pretty well, even tho half & half is richer. But, this is much more cost effective. Anyway, I have always wanted to try coconut milk. I know its supposed to be good for you & a great alternative to cow milk. I bought one carton of regular & one unsweetened. Set them in the fridge to chill.

Once nice & cold, I poured a little of each for me & the man to try. Huh. Not bad. Not what we know as milk, but not bad. Maybe I could get used to this in my cereal, I thought. The man said it was okay. Not really sure what that meant, since he didn’t divulge more info.

This morning, I poured the regular version in my bowl of Kashi cereal. Umm. I don’t think I’ll do that again. Drinking it from a glass, in just a small quantity, was one thing. But it just was not the same & actually tasted kinda funny in my cereal.

I also tried the unsweetened version in my coffee. Now this was kinda nice. It’s thicker than the rice milk so it made the coffee seem a little richer. The flavor was the same. Not bad. I could see me using this in coffee on a regular basis. Well, maybe after I use up all the rice milk I’ve stockpiled! LOL After all, I can get the organic rice milk from my Costco for a decent price, by the case.

So I just thought I’d put this out there for others to compare. My new experience with Organic Coconut milk.

Allowing the body to recharge

2011-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

I’m writing this on the 28^th & back dating. Shhh… don’t tell. We had a great visit with hubby’s dad & step mom over the weekend. Sunday we ended up going on an awesome hike. It was also the day the hubby began to feel better from the crud stuff he had, & I began to feel the crud coming on. Lovely. So I spent the past few days doing not much of anything, knowing I was getting behind on everything. But when you have sinus pressure, can’t breathe all too well & feel drained, what else can you do?

I drank lots of herbal teas. I really loved the Traditional Medicinal’s Breathe Easy tea. Awesome flavor & it seemed to help. I also sucked on many Vitamin C chews I had picked up from the clearance bin at Wal-Mart not long ago. So combine all that with plenty of rest & working up a sweat on food bank day… & I finally feel almost all better. Still have a bit of the sniffles & a slight cough but otherwise feel very renewed.

Playing tour guide still

2011-10-22T21:37:00.001-07:00

Today is the last day of us being able to visit with hubby’s dad & step mom. We’ve had a blast so far. Hoping today’s weather is a repeat of yesterday so we can enjoy some fun outdoor time! More next time!

Get moving

2011-10-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

There is a topic going on in the Zibbet Community talking about getting healthy. We all know how tough it is. I also know, doing it on your own can be even tougher. If you are anything like me, you read all kinds of stuff, from everywhere, about everything health related.

I try to eat right. Well, okay, I try to eat … better. I have my weaknesses. But, we all do. Whether or not we admit it, is another thing. For me, eating better seems to come in waves. There are times when it’s so easy to eat good & not snack on junk. Other times, it’s all I can do to not fill my day with junk. Part of this is the hormone fluctuation I still have on a monthly basis. The other part is just … lack of motivation. And I think a lot of that stems from the fact I’m home alone all day, every day. My day out is spent at the local food bank, volunteering. That day I do pretty good. I get exercise, I’m away from snacking & have something to occupy my mind.

The rest of the week, I’m home. I spend (admittedly) probably too much time in front of this computer. I have things I can do away from here, but again, it’s the motivation that hinders me.

Today hubby’s dad & step mom are in town for a short visit (from FL). We’ll be playing tour guide & generally visiting until Sunday night. This should help out in the snacking & eating dept. I hope. Well, maybe the snack part at least. We’ll see about the eating thing which will depend on where we eat while they are here.

So once they are on their way back home I will look into all of the eating better & exercising thing again. I will also be talking to our landlady (hopefully) about letting us have a dog. She should be alright with it since she said we could talk about it when we first moved in. We’ve proven to be good tenants over the past year so…

I really feel having a doggie again will help to motivate me to at least get out & walk more. So until then … keep thinking positive ….

More on GMO

2011-10-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

So, I mentioned I would find more info on the whole GMO thing as far as who uses them & who does not. Wow. What a list! You can download a guide here to help you when you are in the store.

Then check out this stuff for some eye opening info:

Current estimates of GMO products include the following:

91% of soybeans grown in the United States are GMOs.

88% of cotton is genetically modified.

75% of corn has been genetically modified.

These items are often highly processed and added to many different convenience foods in forms like:

Canola (rapeseed) oil

Corn oil

Cottonseed oil

High fructose corn syrup

Soybean oil

Soy protein

Because of the prevalence of these ingredients in common foods, it is estimated that 70% or more of the convenience foods contain GMOs. Currently, the USDA does not require that GMOs be labeled. Unless you are buying 100% organic items, you may never know if your food contains GMOs.

Animal Products

GMOs are used in the feed of various animals and farm raised fish. Always try to choose grass fed or wild caught meat products, certified organic, or products that are labeled non-GMO.

Meat

Dairy

Fish

Eggs

High Risk Products

There are thousands of GMO ingredients. It takes longer to list which foods have GMOs than to list those that don't. This should be considered an abbreviated list.

Aspartame

Baking powder

Canola oil

Cornmeal

Corn oil

Corn starch

Corn syrup

Cottonseed oil

Dextrose

Fructose

Glucose

Isoflavone

Lecithin

MSG

Soy meal

Soy protein isolate

Tempeh

Tofu

Vegetable oil

Vitamin B-12

Vitamin E

Xanthan gum

Companies That Use GMO Ingredients

Knowing which companies use GMO ingredients can help you to stay away from them. Even some "natural foods" companies make foods with genetically modified ingredients. Not surprisingly, most of the large corporations routinely use these products. Since these corporations often buy up smaller companies, you may not always recognize them. Some of the many companies that use GMOs in their products are:

Aunt Jamima

Beech-nut

Betty Crocker

Blue Sky

Boca

Campbells

Coca Cola

Crisco

Dannon

Duncan Hines

Eggo

Enfamil

Frito Lay

Good Start

Hansen

Heinz

Hershey

Hormel

Hostess

Isomil

Keebler

Kellogg

Kraft

Land o Lakes

Libby’s

Lifesavers

Marie Callender

Morning Star Farms

Nabisco

Nature Valley

Nestle

Ocean Spray

Pepperidge Farm

Peter Pan

Pillsbury

Procter and Gamble

Progresso

Quaker

Similac

Skippy

Smuckers

Stouffers

Yoplait

And on the brighter side, here’s at least partial list of companies who do use GMO free ingredients (edited & alphabetized from online)…

Amy’s Kitchen: canned soups, chilies, boxed & frozen meals.

Annie’s Naturals: BBQ sauce, salad dressings & other condiments

Arrowhead Mills: baking mixes & flours found in both natural health food stores & regular supermarkets.

Barbara’s Bakery: cookies

Bearitos: snack foods & dips

Bob’s Red Mill: baking mixes and specialty flours.

Cascadian Farms: frozen entrees, fruits & veggies, juices, yogurt, cereal, granola bars & other foods.

Chaffin FamilyOrchards: sells an assortment of goods including olive oil.

Clif: energy bars

Cultures forHealth: All starters and products sold at Cultures for Health are GMO-free.

Earth’s Best: Baby food manufacturer uses non-GMO ingredients.

Eden Foods: canned goods, noodles, tamari, miso, vinegar & Asian foodstuffs.

Fantastic Foods: hummus, falafel, risotto couscous, soup & other mixes

French MeadowBakery: bread & baked goods

Garden of Eatin: chips, salsas & other snack foods.

Genisoy: Uses only certified GMO-free soybeans for their many soy products.

Grindstone Bakery: wheat- and gluten-free bread.

Healthy Times: Baby food manufacturer uses non-gmo ingredients.

Imagine Foods: soy and rice milk as well as broth and other foods.

Kettle Chips: potato and tortilla chips.

Lundberg FamilyFarms: rice & wild rice foods including raw rice, soups & convenience foods.

Muir Glen: canned goods & vegetable juices & other foods.

Natural ChoiceFoods: frozen dessert products.

Nature’s Path: cereals & snack bars

Pamela’s Products: gluten-free baking mixes sources non-GMO ingredients.

Pure Indian Foods: grass-fed ghee.

Purity Foods: spelt-based noodles, snacks & other goodies.

Que Pasa: tortilla chips & other Mexican foods

Rapunzel: chocolate company. They also sell specialty oils.

Spectrum Oils: specialty oils, cooking oils, salad oils & natural shortening.

San J: soy sauce, shoyu and tamari.

Thai Kitchen: coconut milks & Asian ingredients.

To Your Health: sprouted breads & sprouted flours.

Tradition Miso: miso pastes

US Wellness Meats: pasture- and grass-fed meats free of GMO supplemental feed.

Vitasoy: soy-based foods

Walkers: shortbread cookies & other sweet treats.

White Wave: soy products including tofu & tempeh

Whole Foods StoreBrands: Whole foods has made the commitment to sourcing its ingredients from GMO-free sources.

Wisconsin HealthyGrown Potatoes: potatoes.

Zukay: live cultured condiments & salsa

GMO's

2011-10-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

I was really at a loss as to what to write about today. I had several ideas, but just didn’t feel like going into any of them! My funk has spread beyond just my creativity.

So I got to looking at this …

Learning more about GMO’s is on my list all the time. I don’t like what I read. It scares me. I really don’t want people messing with my food just to make it more resistant to pests or something. Leave it alone. I grew my garden this year without any help from pesticides or un-natural things. I used natural things to fertilize. I used organic seeds or plant starts. Everything grew fine when it was given the right growing conditions. Now, I understand in some areas there are more bugs, or whatever… but everything has built up a resistance… because we keep using all this poisonous crap.

When I shop, I try to buy organic as much as I can. The GMO issue is among the reasons for this. Knowing what is likely to be GMO & what isn’t, helps me to see what I need to buy organic & what I can get conventional if need be.

One of the things mentioned is soy. I don’t like it to begin with because of things I’ve read in the past, but if I buy it or see it as an ingredient in something, it will be organic.

There is a list out there that tells you what ingredients & companies you can trust to use non GMO stuff. I’ll have to find it. For today, take a look at this picture, & give some thought to what you eat ….

Life without… as many processed foods

2011-10-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year I kind of did a few posts about what it’s like to live without some basic things I used to take for granted. Off theshelf soda, store bought rolls, a microwave…

Another thing we (hubby & I) have been living without is an over-abundance of processed foods & ready-made stuff. You know... things like Hamburger (or any of the others) Helper, frozen meals, frozen hash browns, snack cakes, etc.

Not all that many years ago, we used to buy Hamburger Helper on a regular basis. It was cheap & made a decent tasting meal for two. It was among the first things to go when we began reading labels. Wow, what a list that crap had! Several varieties even had the dreaded HFCS, although I have no idea why. All of them have MSG. And lots of other questionable ingredients.

homemade Sweet & Sour shrimp dish

It’s actually been kinda fun making our own homemade versions. And for the amounts you get, it really is cheaper this way. One of the best things was learning that I could make my own sweet & sour sauce! Yes! For real! And, it tastes way better than anything out of a store bottle or jar or packet.

Oh, another BIG thing we used to buy was frozen hash brown potatoes. Or frozen O’Brian potatoes. Another thing that changed when we looked at the label. All that stuff, just to make it last on the shelf.

So, one weekend morning, we took a couple real potatoes & shredded them. Put a little oil in the pan, added the potatoes, a little no salt seasoning & paprika, plop the lid on & cook. Amazing. All it took was once. We have never bought frozen potatoes again.

Another fun thing we tried (& I need to try a few more recipes for) was from scratch cinnamon rolls. They didn’t come out prefect, but we knew (& could pronounce) what every ingredient in them was!

I just wanted you to see that its not incredibly hard to eat better… It’s fun & pretty easy.

Making growing containers

2011-10-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hello again … time kinda slipped away from me. I was wondering how long that would take. Up until this post, I had been making my posts to my various blogs ahead of time & using the schedule feature to post them on the correct day. Oops. Gotta love time.

So anyways, I mentioned I would share how we made the cool container for gardening. I first saw this on the wonderful Instructableswebsite a couple years ago. Showed it to my hubby & we agreed it would be a fun idea to try. It was fairly simple, & up here in Washington, it worked great. I mention that because the first try was when we were in Florida for a summer. It didn’t work out so well down there. Didn’t really explore the reasons why very much since we knew we’d be back here.

this is how it will all fit together

Obviously, to make this easy, I’m sharing a lot of pictures. You can see that we built a matching set. We got 2 deep totes (w/lids, needed, but I left em outa the pictures), 2 shallow totes, 2 pond plant baskets, 4 small metal rods (not pictured, oops) & a length of PVC pipe to be cut to size. Then all you need is something to cut holes in the lids & bottoms. It’s pretty easy to see how it goes together looking at the pictures.

The small hole about half way down on the one end is the drain hole. It should be located just as where the bottom of the shallow tote sits when nestled together. This is located on the same end as the PVC fill pipe. The fill pipe has a slanted bottom so it fills without backing up. The height is up to you really, as long as it comes thru the lid. We opted for 5 holes in each lid. You can do less if you like depending on what you plan to plant.

PVC pipe hole & basket cutout

To write out all the directions would make this so long. If the pictures don’t explain enough, feel free to email me (HerbsnChocolate@Gmail.com) & I’ll happily explain any part!

drain/overflow hole

Once you have all the cuts made & everything assembled, you want to fill the basket with dirt. Then keep filling until you are just below the top. Be sure you have the fill pipe in place!!! Now the website I got this from had several people saying to use only a specific blend of soil. I kinda followed that the first time, in FL. We did not have wonderful results. Up here in WA I used just good store bought soil along with some soil amendment mix stuff. It worked great. I think the key is keeping it watered, and sunlight!

So if you try this, I’d love to know what your results are like … Ours were great this year & we plan to use both containers next year along with maybe one or two more!

Basket in place, PVC fill pipe in place.

Rods get pushed thru the basket holes so the baskets stay in place better. Lip of the basket is on the inside, rest of basket & rods, underneath. Only cut the square big enough for the basket to fit thru, not the lip of the basket.

Hole drilled in lid for PVC pipe. Holes drilled for plants to grow thru. I dont suggest more than 5 unless you are growing something that is really small/compact, or trails off onto the ground.

with the lid on, we made indents to match the holes. take lid off, plant plants. carefully put lid back on, pulling plants thru holes as needed.

this was the FL planting. a varied crop.

The planted version, in Florida 2010. You can see the WA 2011 version in the last post.

Talking about gardening ...

2011-10-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Now that I’m back to blogging here for this NaBloWriMo thing… I better come up with something other than an introduction or recap huh?

Today I want to talk about our garden. Well, what there was of it anyway. We began with the best of intentions, with the limited knowledge & money that we had. We figured planting in the ground, along our fence would be a great start & easy to keep up with since everything would be easily accessible. We waited until frost had passed & began to put organic & heirloom plants in the ground. Before the plants came lots of tilling by hand & a few added bags of help.Thru the whole season, we used only natural & organic things to help our efforts. No chemicals!<!-- more -->

We were excited. Took pictures of everything all newly planted & waited. And waited. Even with proper watering & fertilizing, things were beyond slow to grow. Come to find out later on, we were not the only ones having a lack of growth. The cooler spring weather made the Earth warm much slower. And even tho air temps were fine, ground temps were less than ideal for growth. Eventually, we did get growth for at least the tomato plants. All the peppers, carrots, radishes, lettuce & chives died. Go figure.

So we learned that growing in either raised beds or containers would be the way to go. Not only could we ensure more sun for the plants in containers, but their root systems would get more warmth for sure! Along the edge of our patio area, we placed a couple of containers. In one we put 4 rescued, clearance priced tomato plants. In the other we put 5 clearance priced pepper plants. What’s the worst that could happen? We get green but no fruit? Well, far from it! Both containers have shown awesome growth & lots of fruit!

Our ground tomatoes did provide a decent harvest as well, just not nearly what could have been. We’re already so excited about next season, when we’ll have multiple containers along the patio edge.

The one thing that seemed to do fin in the ground was all the herbs we planted. And since they are all perennial, they will stay & hopefully come back next year even bigger. I’m looking at snipping a bunch here shortly to dry.

I think next time I’ll share how we made the Rubbermaid container for the peppers. All the images today are of the awesome progress of the container plants. Look for that one the 8^th!

Beginning again ... with a challenge

2011-10-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, its been quite some time since I blogged here. I always have the best of intentions, & lots of ideas, but because this just sits here, quietly, it gets pushed aside.

So this October I am joining in on what is called NaBloWriMo. It stands for National Blog Writing Month. Kinda cool. Something I could participate in since there is no way I could write a novel, which is the other big October writing thing. Since I actually have 3 blogs I try to write in, I decided to enter all 3. I’ll make at least one post every 3rd day in each blog. I’ve had this thing about keeping different areas of my life, separate. I have this one, a Spiritual one & a business one. I don’t wanna put everything in one since not everything may appeal to the same type of people.

Ya know … like those who read about me on this particular journey might not be at all interested in the spiritual/pagan side of me. Or the business side. And the same goes for each blog. So, they remain (at least for now) each in their own space.

I don’t know what to write about yet exactly. But I will get a list of things together so the next post is not endless dribble, like this one! I’m hoping that this month of blogging somewhere everyday will get me back into the habit of making time for these things.

Tea Bags - what to do with used ones ...

2011-03-23T17:01:00.000-07:00

So I was making more iced tea today & left the 2 large tea bags in the sink, to dry. I've been saving the tea bags... because not too long ago I had seen something online about what they are good for, after being used. Well of course hubby asked & I had no answer! I told him i'd have to go look for that link & tell him later. Now, normally me looking for a link I've saved is a huge undertaking since I'm so bad about organizing my saved links (but thats another story). Today, I found it pretty easy! I was happy.

So here is the link... 25 ways re-use tea bags

All of the ideas they give are pretty cool. Some of my favorites are ...

If you have a bruise, sunburn, bee sting, mosquito bite, or cold sore put a cool, damp tea bag on the affected area and use like a compress. The tea will bring comforting relief, reduce inflammation, and promote healing.
Warm or cold, tea bags help revitalize tired, achy, or puffy eyes. So lie back with brewed, refrigerated tea bags over your eyes and the tannins in the tealeaves will stimulate blood circulation and diminish the bags and dark circles under your eyes.
Rinse your hands with water and a brewed tea bag to remove food odors, especially onions and fish.
Warm up a brewed tea bag, take the leaves out of it, roll them in a scrap of fabric, and use as a compress for a painful toothache, canker sore, or fat lip.
Cook an incredibly moist turkey by adding a brewed tea bag and a cup of water to the pan. The tannin in the tea is a natural meat tenderizer and adds a unique, delicious flavor.
You don't have to buy a box of baking soda just to get rid of the odors in your fridge. A brewed tea bag will do the same thing and can easily be replaced.
Deodorize stuffy rooms by pouring one quart twice-brewed tea and four tablespoons lemon juice or your favorite essential oil in a spray bottle.
If you're a smoker or have an ashtray out for guests, put a wet tea bag or the leaves from a wet tea bag into the ashtray. When you or your guests ash in the tray, the wet leaves will hold the ash and absorb some of the smell from the smoke.
The antibacterial contents of tea bags will help neutralize the odor in your litter box, as well. Just sprinkle the dried out contents of a brewed tea bag into the kitty litter.
Wipe cast-iron pots and pans with a brewed tea bag to remove and prevent rust.
Make your mirrors sparkle and shine by using cooled, twice-brewed tea as a cleaner. Just dip a soft cloth in the tea and use it to wipe away dirt and grime, and then buff dry.
Tear open a brewed tea bag and work the contents into the dirt of acid-loving plants like ferns and roses. The tannic acid and other nutrients will be released when you water the plants, spurring their growth. If these plants are ailing, watering them with cooled, twice-brewed tea will set them on the path to recovery!
And for healthier potted plants, place a few brewed tea bags over the drainage hole at the bottom of the planter before potting. The tea bags will retain water and leach nutrients to the soil.
Speed the decomposition process and enrich your compost pile by pouring a few cups of strong, twice-brewed tea into the heap. The liquid tea will hasten decomposition and draw acid-producing bacteria that will create acid-rich compost. Oh, and you can compost any of the used tea bags you can't find use for, as long as you remove the staples first.

So there ya go! Not bad huh? There are a few ideas that I'd like more info on so I'll have to do a bit of research on them. I'd love to hear if anyone has other ideas for used tea bags.

Normally we drink herbal tea made into iced tea. And that is mostly loose leaf. But over the winter we just got a taste for plain old black tea. I don't make my iced tea with any sugar anymore. Occasionally I will brew it with about a teaspoon of Stevia leaf, but most of the time its straight & unsweetened. Amazing what you develop a taste for!

I see that the site mentioned above has a Facebook page too. I'm thinking between the site & FB page, I'll be doing a bit more reading!!

Life Without ... soda

2011-03-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

Wow... soda... I am not ready to let go of this treat from my life completely, yet. Awhile back I did a post about Mountain Dew Throwback. I have not had any, probably since I wrote that. Well, maybe one or two since its been a year. But still, after one, I feel like crap inside. My body definitely lets me know nowadays when it doesn't like what I'm giving it.

I still drink soda. Almost everyday. Never more than approximately 12 ounces. But, I drink it.

My soda of choice these days is mostly Blue Sky. And of the ones they offer that we can find here, the Jamaican Ginger Ale is my favorite. Mostly that is because my body tolerates it just fine.
Room temperature... and sometimes even flat! Mostly the flat part is because it takes me awhile to drink it.

I loved Natural Brew Outrageous Ginger Ale, but my body didn't like as much as I did, so I switched. I also tried Hansens, but they only offered the ginger ale in diet. Yuck. I gave up diet sodas a long long time ago!

I remember when I used to drink 2 or 3 regular sodas a day & thought nothing of it. All that HFCS in my system & no clue. I now know soda is not really good for me at all. Not even this stuff. There is tons of info out there on the why's. Why not to drink it. How bad it is. How bad the containers even are. So why can't I let go?

I'll tell you why. I love the fizz. Yup, the carbonation. Sometimes I can go days without one. Even weeks. But then I get this ... need for the taste of the sweetness & the fizz. Just one can. Or one bottle.

As I continue to learn more about commercial sodas, I kind of want them less but I still want the fizz. Perhaps, just as people who love beer, & wine, learn to make their own, I too can learn to make my own ... soda?

Are you like me? Do you love soda even tho you know how bad it is? Have you given up soda? How do you cope? I'd love to hear from you....

Life without ... store bought rolls & biscuits

2011-02-23T12:17:00.000-08:00

Today I want to talk about making your own biscuits. And I don't mean anything fancy. I'm talking simple drop biscuits.

Before the label reading began, I used to buy all kinds of rolls & biscuits from the stores. Pillsbury & store brands could almost always be found in our fridge. Another thing we always had in house was Bisquick. So between those tubes & that box, we always had the ability to have some bread with dinner, handy. how could one ever give that up? Easy....

First to go were those tubes of rolls. While not that expensive really, they had extra ingredients in them that we didn't need. I moved first to using the fresh baked rolls from Costco & drop biscuits with Bisquick. Then I left the rolls behind altogether for just the biscuits. Then I left Bisquick behind.

So what do I do now? I use a simple recipe from my old trusty cook book. Very simple drop biscuits that taste better than any roll from a tube or store & even better than the ones made with Bisquick.

Here is the recipe I use now:

Baking Powder Biscuits (drop biscuit variation used)
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
For drop biscuits increase milk to 1 cup

heat oven to 450
cut butter into flour, sugar, baking powder & salt in medium bowl, using a pastry blender (my fav) or criss-crossing knives until mixture looks like fine crumbs.
Stir in milk until dough leaves sides of bowl. (next was the actual biscuit rolling out stuff)
Drop dough by 12 spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove immediately from baking sheet.

Now ... I have a non stick sheet & I have not used anything on it & they come off fine. I also use real butter (organic if I have it), non aluminum baking powder, sea salt, organic sugar & organic milk.

They come out so light, & so good....

... that I have no real reason to ever buy them from a store again or waste my money with a box of Bisquick. I now know exactly what is in my food. It doesn't take long when you have a decent pastry cutter & the taste is so worth it!!!

I must note that with the Bisquick I used to make cheesy garlic drop biscuits which were heavenly. I have not yet made those without the Bisquick. I will find a good recipe tho, & try them soon. For now, hubby & I are enjoying the taste of these.

Life without ... a microwave

2011-02-10T22:56:00.000-08:00

I've not had a microwave now since mid October of last year. Amid the downsizing we did last year one of the many things that went was our microwave. I just figured once we were settled, we'd look at getting a new one.

Our kitchen here is rather small with limited counter space. I looked around for a small microwave for awhile. But the money we had was going quick & I could not decide on whether to spend the money or not, so I didn't. The more I thought about it & the more I talked with my hubby, the more we decided that we really could do without one.

I have heard & read about micro waves & what they can do. They are not exactly good for us to be exposed to. They cant be all that good for the food either. Besides, we lived without them before...

So here we are, living happily without one. People wonder how do we heat up leftovers? Well, either in a skillet or in the oven. Simple. And I have to say, everything tastes so much better than when it was just reheated in the microwave. And once you get used to it, it really doesn't take that long. What about popcorn? We bought a hot air popper. I love the taste. Melt a little butter to drizzle over it with some sea salt & you have a fabulous dessert or snack. Yes, real butter. And salt. It's all about moderation!

I used to eat Kashi frozen meals for lunches. Well, without a microwave, that would take forever to heat in the oven so ... I just don't eat that anymore. And I don't buy things anymore that are meant to be heated in the microwave. Simple as that.

Now, there have been a few occasions where we have said it would have been nice to have one. I heat water in a kettle on the stove for hot drinks. We don't have leftover coffee to reheat so that is a none issue. If there was any left, I would just turn the coffee maker back on & let it reheat that way. Or, I could put it in a pot on the stove & heat it. I know, coffee connoisseurs are gagging at those thoughts. But I'm not one of them. Mostly we just don't have coffee left over!

There ya go .. you can live life without a microwave. And you can enjoy it! Honestly. In certain aspects of daily life you have to make adjustments for this. But, it's not a big deal. It all comes down to a choice we make. Will we ever have one again? Maybe. But I honestly think all it would get used for is a clock, maybe a timer & to have a way to heat up heat packs.

Can you live without one?

Eye opening info about fragrance

2010-02-10T10:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, I read this & it pretty much made me want to discard any of the Avon Goddess perfume I have left. I don't use it all day everyday, but still. I do use it. And hubby uses a few colognes too. Since it is not a normal thing for us to wear the stuff daily, perhaps it will be worth it to find natural alternatives. Read on for some good info.

We are enamored of fragrances, and virtually every aspect of our lives is touched by a fragranced product. But is it a touch too much? Pat Thomas reports.

A quick account of all the perfumed body care products we use is sobering: soaps, creams and body lotions, ointments, talcs and bubble baths, shampoos and sunscreens – just to name a few.

In an overcrowded market, where there is often little to differentiate the performance of one product over another, a product’s scent is its unique signature and is often given greater prominence in advertising than performance.

Our love affair with the way things smell has given manufacturers free reign to manipulate our purchasing behavior by linking the scent of a product with a desired quality such as love, sexiness, freshness, innocence and a wild, independent spirit. It’s a tactic used in the marketing of all body care products, but which is used to particularly great effect in fine perfumes – witness how many are named after emotions.

Once upon a time, perfumes were derived from natural plant and animal ingredients. But these can be expensive and subject to the variations of season and availability. As science progressed, manufacturers found ways of producing chemicals with ‘nature identical’ smells, which could be produced in high volumes without the need for worrying about the availability of natural resources. Today, nearly all fragrance chemicals are synthesized almost entirely from petrochemicals, and while they can be made more cheaply and the scent may linger longer than that of naturally derived scents, they are problematical for human health.

First and foremost, many of these chemicals are considered hazardous waste. As far back as 1986, the US National Academy of Sciences identified fragrance ingredients as one of six categories of neurotoxic chemicals that should be thoroughly investigated so that we might better understand any potential harm to human health. This placed these chemicals right up there with insecticides, heavy metals, solvents and food additives as primary causes of disease in humans. But government and industry have been slow to demand or fund such research.

The word ‘parfum’ is used to denote fragrance in a body care product. Parfum is made up of dozens of chemicals containing solvents similar to those used in adhesives, as well as benzene derivatives, aldehydes and many other known toxins capable of causing cancer, birth defects, and central nervous system disorders.

Inhaled fragrance chemicals can cause sore throat, runny nose, sinus congestion, wheezing, shortness of breath, nausea and muscle pain. They are also a major trigger for asthmatic episodes. Once in the body, they easily breach the blood brain barrier – the protective membrane designed to keep toxins away from sensitive brain cells – and produce symptoms resonant with central nervous system (CNS) disruption - headache, mental confusion, listlessness, inability to concentrate, irritability, seizures, restlessness, agitation, depression, sleepiness.

Many body care products are heavily perfumed, and at least one study has demonstrated links between heavy perfume exposure during pregnancy, and learning disabilities and behaviour disorders in children. Studies have also shown that inhaling fragrance chemicals can cause circulatory changes in the brain.

In addition to being inhaled, fragrances can be absorbed through the skin – especially through children’s skin, which is thinner than that of adults. The greater the emollient quality of the product you are using (think skin creams, roll on deodorants, etc) the greater the absorbency. While fragrance chemicals can be quick to saturate the blood, they are slow to clear from the body. When they penetrate the skin they can cause discoloration of internal organs. They can also be toxic to the liver and kidneys. Still others accumulate in fatty tissue and leech slowly back into the system, or are passed on to our children through breast milk.

Fragrances add little to the function of the product. They are unlikely to provide the ‘aromatherapy’ experience promised, especially if they are synthetic. Yet we are obsessed with them. While it’s an unhealthy obsession, it’s not an inevitable one. Each of us has the power to reduce the number of synthetic fragrances we come into contact with on a daily basis. Start by reading the label.

Labeling rules have changed in the last couple of years and manufacturers of cosmetics – and household cleaners – must list any of the 24 fragrances that the EU’s Scientific Committee on Cosmetic Products and Non-Food Products (SCCNFP) has identified as common contact allergies.

So now it’s easy enough to avoid these. But the fragrances not listed on the label are still potentially powerful enough to trigger more subtle emotional symptoms or longer-term health problems. Even some natural essences can cause allergic reactions in some individuals, though these are rare because natural essences are derived from the whole plant, and are believed to contain a variety of naturally occurring chemicals that mitigate any potential allergic reactions. If in doubt, or if you are very sensitive, you may wish to avoid scented products entirely.

This article first appeared in the Ecologist September 2006

Throwback Mountain dew & soda thoughts

2010-02-07T13:51:00.000-08:00

Back here I mentioned a little about the taste difference between the real sugar Dew & the HFCS Dew.

Seems Mountain dew is reviving the Throwback Dew for another limited time. nice. I know that soda is bad for you no matter if it has HFCS or real sugar but its nice to see the sugar stuff back again, even if only for a limited time. They even have a Fan Page on Facebook this go-round, which I think is cool & shows just how popular the new old version is. Heck they have almost 5800 fans!

I'm guessing my body is not happy with even the Throwback version on any kind of regular basis tho. I find I can enjoy one, once in awhile, but more often & my insides tell me that's enough.

I do enjoy soda still, just not more than one 12 ounce serving a day. Some days I dont have any. Some days, I find myself wanting a few. But I try, for my health, to stick to my one a day rule. And my beverage of choice is still the Natural Brew Outrageous Ginger Ale. Well, that & maybe the Dry Soda Lavender flavor stuff. That's a nice treat.

media hype

2009-11-17T14:18:00.001-08:00

Longer lashes, more lashes, thicker lashes …. Why? Just because the TV commercials say that is what we should have? Because stars all have long thick lashes?

I know someone who is using the stuff to grow more eyelashes. Why? Because they think what they have is not enough. Because there is something that can give them more. If the product were not available, we’d be happy with what we have. If the longer, thicker mascara stuff were not out there, we’d again be happy with what we have. Why then do we feel the need to buy these things?

Granted, I am not a regular makeup wearer. I own some, & I have worn it. But I do not on any sort of regular basis put the stuff on my skin. Why? Because I don’t feel the need to live up to what society says we should be doing. Why can we not accept the natural beauty of all women? Why do we hide behind the layers & layers of makeup, including those lovely eyelashes?

My personal opinion is that we should all learn to love the natural beauty we have been given. I feel we should give our skin the chance to breathe. I feel we should be cleansing it with natural things; allowing the natural glow & beauty to come thru. I feel that if we all paid more attention to our diets & lifestyles, we would see that we really don’t need to hide behind the chemicals of mascara & makeup.

And if you keep your mascara for too long, it grows bacteria. Which, are then put where? Right there by your eyes, giving them quick & easy entry to your body. Why would we subject ourselves to this? Thanks Hollywood! Thanks to all the stars out there who are always wearing the newest mascara & makeup, & telling us about it. Encouraging us to go out & try it so we can all look as glamorous as them. But we don’t. We don’t look like them because we are not them. We are everyday women. We have everyday lives & everyday bodies. Wearing the mascara or makeup they get paid to promote will not change us. Yet we continue to buy it.

I know I’m on my soapbox here & that many will disagree with me. That’s fine… we are all entitled to our opinions, which is exactly what all my words are here … my opinion.

Back when I worked as a photographer for a company, they wanted me to dress a certain way & wear makeup. We compromised with some of the clothes & most of the makeup. And it worked out fine for all involved. I did my job well … even if I was not dressed up or in full makeup. My skills as a photographer were not connected to what I wore, either on my face or my body.

Society has such a huge impact on all aspects of our lives. We as a whole don’t think for ourselves, but go by what advertising, TV, peers, you name it … tell us. Obviously this all goes way beyond makeup.

Ok anyway ... there, I got it off my mind & out there.

HFCS in Mountain Dew

2009-11-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

This past summer Mt Dew came out with a Throwback Dew that was made with real sugar instead of the HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). The taste was fantastic & the more my daughter brought home & we bought, the more we were hooked. Well, when it was gone, I drank no more Dew. I was kinda sad since I had really enjoyed the new formula & back in the day I enjoyed the Dew too.

The other day when the kids & I went out, I grabbed a Mt Dew. Yeah ... with the old HFCS. After just a few swigs, I had a icky feeling in my tummy. I enjoyed the taste ... but only kind of. It just wasn't the same as the Throwback formula. It took me 2 days to finish it.

Why is it so hard to just go natural & use real sugar? I found out that in Canada they wont accept HFCS in their ketchup so Heinz makes it for them with sugar. Why not make it that way all over? The only ketchup I can find without it is Organic.

In many ways, we have gone natural & dont think twice about it & will not switch back. I wish people would demand more of it so more companies would have to make it that way.

Maybe one day ....

Making your own deodorant

2009-11-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

Sounds crazy huh? Well, I guess for some it would sound way too hippie like. To me, it is a natural next step.

Last year (or has it been longer now?) I switched to an aluminum free deodorant. It took my body some time to adjust but now it works pretty darn well. I am happy to say that leaving the aluminum behind has been a great move for me.

So I came across this site called The Alternative Consumer which had a post about making your own deodorant here. A friend on Facebook shared it, so I read about it & promptly shared it again!

How much simpler can it get than mixing some Baking Soda, Cornstarch, Coconut Oil & scent? Not much!

I love the idea & plan to try it once my current stick is gone so I have a container to use (as suggested). So what do you think about the idea of making your own personal hygiene products like this?

2009-09-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

It's that time again when Mercury has gone retrograde. I hope to take this time to look over everything ... from several angles even. I have neglected my blogs ... not only this one but my other 2 as well.

I want to see something posted in here more often yet I forget to make time. Same with my other blogs. I think I will try to make time to write something in each blog once a week. 3 entries a week, all on different subjects. Should not be that hard.

Perhaps this endeavor will help me to refocus on various areas of my life. I think I'd like that.

So ... the few of you who are following me ... I hope to give you something to read on a weekly basis... beginning ... next week which is already fast approaching.

No more bags!

2009-07-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

I am one who agrees that all stores across the board should charge for bag usage to encourage people to bring their own. Or, just flat out not offer bags & utilize the boxes products come in off the trucks. Like Costco does.

I would have think of a way tho, that people who can not afford to buy bags could get bags. I'm sure there is enough profit in the bags that they could be given out to those who need.

Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Goes Bag-Free!

Just a general update

2009-05-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

So life is life here in the valley of Washington state. Life is finding us with a tight pocketbook these days as well. I still work to keep my food & all purchasing choices as good as possible.

As any of you who read this know, I strive to remove all HFCS from my diet. I'd love to also remove corn syrup in general but that is quite a bit harder to do than just removing the high fructose corn syrup. I am encouraged tho, that as of late I am seeing more labels telling us consumers that their products are now made without HFCS. Makes me smile!!

Bull's Eye BBQ sauce is now HFCS free. This is fantastic since all the other labels I checked of the big brands have the HFCS as either the first ingredient or pretty close to it.

Another cool thing was finding the no HFCS label on Log Cabin syrup. All the others have it so now we finally have a choice besides buying pure maple syrup which is quite pricey!

Along with the HFCS I am finding myself trying to get rid of so much MSG in my food. Wow, thats a tough one. Not only is there all kinds of salt in so many foods, but the MSG on top of it all.

I was really bummed to see the MSG on all the sausage & keilbasa labels. The fancy funky flavored ones are made with all sorts of good stuff but sometimes i just want plain old sausage or keilbasa. Today I found one that was MSG free. Yes! Ask & you shall receive.

With summer coming I am starting to look at salad dressing labels. Amazing how many of them have the HFCS. Why? Ugh! It just gets so irritating. But, there are a few brands that are free of it.

I'm working on making a "safe list". Mostly for my own benefit, but I will gladly share it here as well. I plan to list products that are HFCS free & MSG free. Granted it will be tailored to what we eat, but it may help out some of you as well. It'll be a work in progress for awhile, but when it's done I'll make an entry for it.

On the non food front ... I'm going to have to do some more looking on laundry cleaners soon. My last bottle of Era is less than half full. Currently, I'm using the smallest amount of that along with baking soda, vinegar & hydrogen peroxide in my loads. I'm pretty happy with the way the hydrogen peroxide works in place of bleach. The vinegar works as a decent softener & along with the baking soda, they remove odors pretty well.

I'm happy with the Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds for my hand dishwashing needs. adding a little vinegar helps cut heavy grease too so thats cool. Baking soda works good as a non abrasive scrub too. I'm not sure what I plan to do to replace my dishwasher tabs tho. I currently use Electrsol 3 in 1. We'll see what I can find to replace that.

A solution of vinegar & water in a spray bottle has worked great on my stove top cooktop as well as on windows & mirrors for cleaning. And all we use is a clean microfiber cloth. No paper towels!

Guess that's it for the moment. Just wanted to get an update on here of real life. As always, all your comments are most welcome!

12 Dangerous food additives

2009-05-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

The Dirty Dozen Food Additives You Really Need to be Aware Of

In the United States, more than 3,000 substances can be added to foods for the purpose of preservation, coloring, texture, increasing flavor and more. While each of these substances is legal to use (at least here in the States), whether or not they are all something you want to be consuming is another story all together.

With any processed food you run the risk of coming across additives, and reading through ingredient labels can be like trying to decode a puzzle.

Of course, eating largely fresh, whole foods is the best way to stay away from unsavory additives, but, assuming you do include some processed foods in your diet, the following additives are ones you surely want to stay away from. Look for them on ingredient labels and if one turns up, take a pass.

Propyl Gallate

This preservative, used to prevent fats and oils from spoiling, might cause cancer. It's used in vegetable oil, meat products, potato sticks, chicken soup base and chewing gum, and is often used with BHA and BHT (see below).

BHA and BHT

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are used similarly to propyl gallate -- to keep fats and oils from going rancid. Used commonly in cereals, chewing gum, vegetable oil and potato chips (and also in some food packaging to preserve freshness), these additives have been found by some studies to cause cancer in rats. If a brand you commonly buy uses these additives, look for a different variety, as not all manufacturers use these preservatives.

Potassium Bromate

This additive is used in breads and rolls to increase the volume and produce a fine crumb structure. Although most bromate breaks down into bromide, which is harmless, the bromate that does remain causes cancer in animals. Bromate has been banned throughout the world, except for in the United States and Japan. In California, a cancer warning would likely be required if it were used, which is why it is rarely used in that state.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

MSG is used as a flavor enhancer in many packaged foods, including soups, salad dressings, sausages, hot dogs, canned tuna, potato chips and many more. According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, an author and neurosurgeon, there is a link between sudden cardiac death, particularly in athletes, and excitotoxic damage caused by food additives like MSG and artificial sweeteners. Excitotoxins are, according to Dr. Blaylock, "A group of excitatory amino acids that can cause sensitive neurons to die."

Many consumers have also personally experienced the ill effects of MSG, which leave them with a headache, nausea or vomiting after eating MSG-containing foods. To find out more about the side effects associated with MSG, as well as a complete list of which foods contain it, see our past article MSG: If it's Safe: Why do They Disguise it on the Labels?

Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet)

This artificial sweetener is found in Equal and NutraSweet, along with products that contain them (diet sodas and other low-cal and diet foods). This sweetener has been found to cause brain tumors in rats as far back as the 1970s, however a more recent study in 2005 found that even small doses increase the incidence of lymphomas and leukemia in rats, along with brain tumors.

People who are sensitive to aspartame may also suffer from headaches, dizziness and hallucinations after consuming it.

Acesulfame-K

Acesulfame-K is an artificial sweetener that's about 200 times sweeter than sugar. It's used in baked goods, chewing gum, gelatin desserts and soft drinks. Two rat studies have found that this substance may cause cancer, and other studies to reliably prove this additive's safety have not been conducted. Acesulfame-K also breaks down into acetoacetamide, which has been found to affect the thyroid in rats, rabbits and dogs.

Olestra

Olestra is a fat substitute used in crackers and potato chips, marketed under the brand name Olean. This synthetic fat is not absorbed by the body (instead it goes right through it), so it can cause diarrhea, loose stools, abdominal cramps and flatulence, along with other effects. Further, olestra reduces the body's ability to absorb beneficial fat-soluble nutrients, including lycopene, lutein and beta-carotene.

Sodium Nitrite (Sodium Nitrate)

Sodium nitrite (or sodium nitrate) is used as a preservative, coloring and flavoring in bacon, ham, hot dogs, luncheon meats, corned beef, smoked fish and other processed meats. These additives can lead to the formation of cancer-causing chemicals called nitrosamines.

Some studies have found a link between consuming cured meats and nitrite and cancer in humans.

Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil

The process used to make hydrogenated vegetable oil (or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil) creates trans fats, which promote heart disease and diabetes. The Institute of Medicine has advised that consumers should eat as little trans fat as possible. You should avoid anything with these ingredients on the label, which includes some margarine, vegetable shortening, crackers, cookies, baked goods, salad dressings, bread and more. It's used because it reduces cost and increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods.

Blue 1 and Blue 2

Blue 1, used to color candy, beverages and baked goods, may cause cancer. Blue 2, found in pet food, candy and beverages, has caused brain tumors in mice.

Red 3

This food coloring is used in cherries (in fruit cocktails), baked goods and candy. It causes thyroid tumors in rats, and may cause them in humans as well.

Yellow 6

As the third most often used food coloring, yellow 6 is found in many products, including backed goods, candy, gelatin and sausages. It has been found to cause adrenal gland and kidney tumors, and contains small amounts of many carcinogens.

***So where did I find this info? From a site called SixWise.com if you click this link ... HERE ... it will take you directly to the page I got the above info from. Links within the article will take you to other parts of the Six Wise site. I found it interesting & intend to do some more research on some of these additives. Kind of hard to eat normal food if you try to avoid ALL these things. Sigh ... maybe one day we won't have to watch labels so carefully.

Life with changes

2009-04-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile since I wrote. Life with the changes we've made has been good. I dont miss most of the things we removed due to the ingredients. Really. I still have my chocolate, & my chips & other snacks. I've just changed the brand or type. Right now, the one thing I miss is Toaster Strudel. Not sure why, but I deal with it just fine.

It still takes a bit of extra time to go shopping. We still check various labels as we go along, seeing what else has, & doesn't have the things we are avoiding & removing.

My laundry is coming clean too. I still have some Era I'm using as my main detergent, but no bleach or other chemicals. I add vinegar for fabric softener & baking soda to help whiten. In the white loads I also add hydrogen peroxide in the washers bleach reservoir. So far, not bad.

And I really dont miss having to buy all those various cleaners for every little thing. The money I save buying cleaners, I can spend on better food. Granted I'm not a clean freak to begin with, but my home is clean. I dont fret over germs. I know we need them to a degree to be healthy. Some people would disagree with me on that, but that is their choice. We rarely get sick & we believe one reason is that our bodies have good immune systems, build in part ... by germs.

So anyways, the quest goes on, everyday. We make decisions on what to buy based on ingredients & it makes us feel empowered to have that choice. We are taking small steps to a better, healthier us.

Fructose

2009-02-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

I've been reading about High Fructose Corn Syrup & other sugars/refined sugars/sweeteners lately. Anyone who knows me, knows this. I've had a tab open in my browser for sometime now about Fructose. The title reads ... "Is Fructose Dangerous?"

After reading this page a few times, I think this will be on my list of sugar type things to remove from my home. It wont be as easy as removing the HFCS tho, it seems. Ideally, removing sugars in general is the best way to go. But I'm not ready to just let go of all sugars. I will continue to eat real sugar. But if I can remove some or all of the other forms of it, that would be way cool.

Here is the page .... Fructose

Here is a bit from the page ....

***If you consider fructose a safe, natural sugar, think again. You've been had by one of the biggest nutritional bait-and-switch ploys in years.

Fructose & high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) have been aggressively promoted as natural sugars. After all, we've been taught since childhood that fructose is fruit sugar.

The truth is that fructose & HFCS, as large-scale commercial sweeteners, didn't exist 20 years ago. Now, they're almost as common as sucrose-plain old white sugar. HFCS is routinely added to processed foods & beverages including Coca-Cola, Snapple, & many health food products.

"Fructose is not from fruit. It's a commercial, refined sugar," asserted Robin Rogosin, a buyer and research coordinator at Mrs. Gooch's Natural Foods Market in Beverly Hills, Calif.***

That is how the article begins. I encourage you all to take a few minutes to read the page. It's good info to have stored in your brain.

Update time

2009-02-18T22:53:00.000-08:00

Thought I would do a little update on a few of the changes I have made. Right now I am working on just a few ingredients at a time. The ones that are being omitted from my & my family’s diets are artificial sweeteners, MSG & High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). As we read labels if there are other questionable ingredients in the label they tend to not get purchased either. It is taking more time to shop but it has been an eye opening experience to what is in our food. So what have I changed?

Ketchup. I’ve looked at store brands & name brands. They all contain HFCS. My options? Buy organic or make my own. For the time being I have bought one bottle of organic until I see just how expensive making my own will be. My dad’s wife (Neva) has a recipe so I know they are pretty easy to come by.

Mayo. Well, the switch was actually to mayo, from Miracle Whip. That was simple & saves me money since I can get mayo cheaper a lot of the time. I’ll admit the true test will be when I make my potato salad this summer. Or any pasta type salad I was using MW in. But on a sandwich or toast with cheese, it’s no big deal.

Soda. Oh the stuff that’s on some of the labels. . . I was buying whatever was on sale for the hubby to take to work each day. I was buying generic ginger ale for me. I have switched to Natural Brew Outrageous Ginger Ale. More expensive but the taste alone is enough to keep me buying it. I started when it was on sale & fell in love with it. IT worked because I continue to buy it at regular price now. For hubby & daughter, they have discovered making their own soda with seltzer water & DaVinci flavors. The flavors are not totally natural, but contain less crap than regular soda … & no HFCS. Cost? Probably about the same as name brand soda.

OJ. I was buying the half gallons from the refrigerated section. Until I read the label. Now I buy the frozen concentrate. The taste is better & the cost is less at regular prices. If the ½ gallons go on sale, they are cheaper. But I wont buy them.

Granola Bars. All I had to do was switch brands. With all the coupons I get, it doesn’t cost me much more at all. I stock up when they go on sale & it’s all good. The Kashi TLC bars & the Quaker Simple Harvest All Natural are what we buy right now.

Salad Dressings. Wow, this was amazing. I couldn’t believe how many brands & flavors have HFCS. But you can’t go by brand alone. You have to look at the flavors. Not a tough switch to make, just a bit more reading of labels. There are plenty out there that don’t have as much added stuff.

Spaghetti Sauces. The cheaper brands I was buying all have HFCS. Prego & Ragu don’t. Several of the better brands don’t either. So switching here is just a matter of watching for different brands to go on sale & saving coupons for them. I was buying Hunts & Del Monte in the cans which didn’t have coupons much anyways. The house brand can sauces are also off the list.

Cookies. Well, good bye cheap cookies. For the most part. My switch? I just make them from scratch at home or read some of the cookie dough labels & packaged cookie labels. Not a big deal except for the money. But it’s a price hubby & I are willing to pay. So far, we’ve just eaten a lot less cookies.

So there is a sampling of some of the items I’ve changed. I will continue to go thru everything we eat by reading labels. Once we have omitted these things, we’ll look into what all the other ingredients really are & work on omitting more.

Now I need to say something that might sound odd. I’m beginning to feel different. Is it in my head? I guess it could be. But I choose to believe. One of the side effects of the HFCS is that when it is consumed, the body does not know when it is full, & therefore when to stop eating. Well, it’s been out of probably 98% of my diet for over a month now. I don’t seem to be eating as much. I’m full at dinner without going back for seconds. And no, I’m not having bigger portions. I still snack, but they are good snacks now. I drink better juices, herbs, natural soda & water. Are my baby steps beginning to show? I’d like to think so. It makes me happy to have omitted some artificial things from my diet. I’m happy eating better food. I think I like these changes.

Yogurt

2009-01-28T23:29:00.000-08:00

We made another change that tastes good. Yogurt. Hubby loves yogurt with his lunches. I enjoy it on occasion. More so in the warmer weather. My yogurt of choice is (well now, was) Yoplait. The whips in particular. I like the fact they are a smaller serving size. Hubby likes whatever I get him. He likes a bigger serving size. So typically for him I bought the Fred Meyer brand. 8 ounces & usually on sale. Well, both have stuff I don’t feel comfortable eating anymore or giving to my man to eat.

So I decided to look at the big containers of plain yogurt. Very short ingredient list & no crap. Yay!! Mountain High was the only brand I found that was regular. The other brands were either “light” or “fat free” or they were flavored. Well, we also have plenty of frozen fruit at home right now. I thawed some & mixed it with the yogurt for the hubby. Had him taste it. He added less than half a teaspoon of sugar & was good to go. Not bad. I licked the plain yogurt off the spoon one night while doling out his serving for the next day’s lunch. Hmmm… not bad. I think I can do this too.

This way, I can make the servings the size I want. The cost is a little more. But, I’m willing to pay that little bit extra to have something that much better for us. With the free fruit we have it comes out to less than 10 cents more a serving. That’s only 50 cents more a week. I think that’s reasonable.

High fructose corn syrup

2009-01-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

For me, going natural is more than removing chemicals from cleaning products & toiletries. It is about removing the crap from the food I eat too. It is amazing how much added stuff is in food these days. I’ve been reading ingredient labels lately. I know, bad thing, cuz you’ll never want to eat anything again once you know what that stuff really is. Well, not completely so. It is happening more tho. Making small decisions & changes to work towards a better me. A better us. I look at labels between brands. Less ingredients is better. And if I cannot pronounce them, I don’t buy it. If high fructose corn syrup is on one label but not another, I buy the one without it. Simple things like that.

But doing this comes with a new mindset too. You have to want it. Really. Kind of like walking the walk when you talk the talk. Like over the weekend the hubby & I went to Costco. I had a couple things I wanted to get. Well, one main one got left there. I made a discovery by comparing labels. I had wanted to get some Kraft Miracle Whip from there since I figured it was cheaper to buy the big container vs. the smaller ones in the stores. That part was fine. I put it in the cart. Hubby picked it up & looked at the label. High Fructose Corn Syrup. In MY Mayo!! No way! It couldn’t be. So I walked over to look at the 2 other mayos on the shelves. One was a local brand & one was regular Kraft mayo. No HFCS in either one. Dammit. That ingredient is what kept me buying their product. And oftentimes paying more. I was addicted to the taste.

It took a bit of talking to myself but I put it back. I could make a change. I know I can’t just give up mayo right now. I like it. hubby likes it. I use it for pasta salads, for tuna, & on sandwiches. But I could make a switch to something without the HFCS. It’s no huge thing. It’s a baby step. This journey is full of baby steps. I feel so good tho, each time I take a step.

Dishes & stove tops

2009-01-24T13:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I used the Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds to do the dishes. It works. I have no problem not buying separate dish washing liquid anymore. I also like the real pine smell of it. Not a Pine Sol pine, but real pine, like you smell out in nature.

I also found that my spray bottle of vinegar & water worked great on my cook top. Whenever I would wipe it off with my sponge while doing dishes, I get a cloudy film left behind when it dries. It didn’t matter if I used fresh soapy water, or waited until the end. Usually I end up wiping & wiping & wiping with a clean dry dishcloth to try to get the streaks & film gone. So I tried the vinegar & water bottle. A couple squirts & paper towel left the cook top clean, streak free & with no film. I like it. Nice green alternative for sure! Not to mention super inexpensive. Oh, & for paper towels we buy the select a size ones so it's one small sheet not a whole big one. I'll be switching to a microfiber towel here shortly for that task.

The kitchen

2009-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

The kitchen sink. Well, I did not let go of as much under there as in the bathroom. Not yet. I did let go of several things that were half gone, or old & rarely used. And we have already replaced bathroom cleaners with vinegar & baking soda months ago. So I have no foaming spray stuff for my toilet or shower. No nasty smelling fumes to get the room clean.

In the kitchen I still have my dishwasher Electrosol tabs, multi surface & glass cleaners & Febreeze. I’m working on it. I’m looking into alternatives. Soon as I know I have something that works, the chemicals will go. No matter how much is left. I used to have the mindset that well, I can just use these up, then do better. How is that good? The sooner we stop putting these chemicals into our waters, the sooner the filtration places can stop working so hard.

When I go to wash dishes later, one test will be underway. I used up the last of my dishwashing soap. Now I’ll be using Dr. Bronner’s. I’ll talk about that product in a separate post tho. And you’ll be amazed how good vinegar & baking soda work on many things!!!

Let the cleansing begin

2009-01-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

So as the description says, I’m here to work on getting chemicals out of my life as much as possible. I’m working on moving away from chemicals & replacing things with their natural counterparts. In many ways, it has been easy. Thanks in a big part to my friend Amy.

I started with my bathroom. It was a wonderful feeling to let go of a boxful of toiletries. Yes, a boxful. I pulled out everything from under the bathroom sink & in the cabinet. I only put back less than a quarter of what I started with. I should have taken a picture.

So what’s gone? Lotions, makeup, facial cleansers, scrubs & astringents, colognes, tanning stuff, & other misc chemical crap. All gone. Even my deodorant. I kept my shower gels & shampoo since I had no replacement for them right away.

I’m not a big makeup person to begin with so letting go of that stuff was pretty easy. I kept a few eyeliners & 2 natural mineral makeup type things. The rest, gone. The lotions were a bit harder to let go of, but when you think about the fact you are lathering on the chemicals to be absorbed into your body, it gets a little easier then. There are lotions out there without the bad crap in them. For my deodorant I have found a substitute that has no aluminum. And it seems ot actually work! For the facial stuff, there are easy replacements too.

I just cannot tell you how good it felt to know I will no longer be putting that stuff into or onto my body. I took control. And to think I wont have to spend all that money on that stuff anymore! Sorry manufacturers. No I’m not!

So for anyone who follows me, this is my beginning. My next step was under the kitchen sink.