Homemade Sunbutter

We've been avoiding peanuts and tree nuts in our house for almost 2 years since finding out about our son's allergy. The one thing that I was the saddest to part with was peanut butter.

An easy replacement for peanut butter is sunbutter (it does taste different...so it's not an exact replacement). The jars at the store are expensive, so for awhile now I've been making my own.

Even if you don't have a peanut allergy in the house, I'd still encourage you to try making this. It's a delicious addition to a snack. It goes well with apples, bananas, celery, crackers, toast (with or without jelly), and of course a sunbutter and jelly sandwich.

When I make a batch of this, it doesn't last long because my kids just eat it up!

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When I first started making this, I was going off of this recipe. I've adapted the proportions a bit, so I'm going to re-post it according to how I make it.

I buy my sunflower seeds from our local shop that sells mostly dried goods (The Pantry Shoppe). I buy them shelled and unsalted.

Also, all the recipes I've come across use a food processor for making sunbutter. If you make it in a blender and it works, comment and let us know.

Sunbutter

2 cups sunflower seeds (shelled and unsalted)
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp honey
4 Tbsp olive oil

Toast the seeds:

Spread the sunflower seeds out onto a large baking sheet. Bake them in the oven at 275 for 20-25 minutes (you don't want them too toasted, or they will dry out too much). Let the seeds cool completely.

10 Minutes in the Food Processor:

Combine the seeds and salt in the food processor. Let it run for about 5 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides down as needed.

At this point, the oils in the seeds have started to come out and it gets thicker and moister. Now add in the honey.

Let it go longer, continuing to stop and mix it up if it builds up on the sides. After about 7 to 9 minutes from when you started, add in the olive oil. Let it run for another 2 or 3 minutes. It should be really creamy.

Store in a container in the fridge. It will thicken a little, but it shouldn't get completely solid (should still be spreadable).

DIY: Vanilla Extract

A few years ago, my sister-in-law, Nicole, gave us a kit for making our own vanilla extract. It was fun to do and tasted really good.

We wanted to see about doing it again since pure vanilla extract from the store is so expensive, and imitation vanilla has corn syrup and artificial flavors added to it.

So we bought some whole vanilla beans from amazon. We already had some rum (you can use rum or vodka) and an extra jar, so we were good to go!

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Here were my sources for figuring out what to do (you may want to read for more info on the process):

Taste for Adventure: How to Make Vanilla Extract

Simply Recipes: How to Make Vanilla Extract

Also, here's a write-up on the different vanilla bean varieties.

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Vanilla Extract

1. Sterilize your glass jar and lid in boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Use 3 vanilla beans per 8oz of alcohol (in my 12oz jar shown to the left, I used 4 beans).

3. Slice the beans down the center to exposes the insides.

4. Place beans in the jar and cover with alcohol (rum and vodka are the most popular...use at least 80 proof)

5. Keep it stored in a dark cabinet for about 2 months. Shake it up about once a week.

***

Other ways to use your beans:

Scrape the inside of a bean and use that in place of vanilla extract. Use one bean per 2 tsp of extract.

Make vanilla sugar. Cut open a bean and place in one to two cups of white sugar. Let it sit for about 2 weeks. Use in a recipe where you want vanilla flavoring, or use in coffee.

Find a dessert recipe that calls for real vanilla bean (like these).

Homemade Dish Soap

Okay, so I've talked about what to use in your dishwasher that is natural (and not full of petroleum-based chemicals). For me, that combination is still working equally as well as the store-bought cheapie stuff we used to buy.

Now lets move on to dish soap. I've been making my own for a few months now, and I am very happy with it. It works well and it's simple to mix up. I just pour it into an old dish soap bottle and I'm good to go for a few weeks. It doesn't suds up as much as store-bought (since it's lacking that horrible sodium lauryl sulfate), but after about a week of using it, I was used to it and haven't looked back.

My recipe is based off of this one, but I have tweaked it a little. So here's what I do:

Homemade Dish Soap

2 cups water
1/4 cup liquid castile soap (or castile bar soap shavings)
2 Tbsp white distilled vinegar
1-2 Tbsp washing soda**

Heat water over medium heat (do not bring to a boil). Add soap, vinegar and washing soda. Stir until washing soda is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool completely.

Pour into a dish soap container (24 fl.oz. bottle is good).

It will be watery at first. After several hours it will solidify. Just shake it up. If it's too thick for you, add some water.

**The washing soda is what affects the thickness. So if you'd like it thinner, use less washing soda.

***
 

Proof that it's more gentle on your skin

Between diaper changes, preparing food, going to the bathroom, washing the dishes, wiping up messes with a wet rag, and bathing the kids, it seems like my hands are always getting wet. And I never remember to put lotion on.

During the warmer months, it's not a problem. But at the beginning of the cold season, my hands always get really dry, and even red and cracked around my knuckles (and I still forget to use lotion most of the time).

I changed over to my homemade dish soap just about the same time that I stopped using the store-bought hand soap (just using castile soap diluted with water, instead). And within days of making this change, my dry, cracked hands were as soft as ever.

So this is further proof to me that all these synthetic chemicals are just too harsh for us - in many ways.

DIY: Lemon Juice (Preservative Free!)

Normally, Sean and I don't use lemon juice very often. It's needed for the occasional recipe, or when you need to keep cut-up apples from browning too quickly. So like most of us, we have kept a store-bought bottle of preservative-filled lemon juice in the fridge which sits there for months in its plastic container, which further leaches chemicals into it. Yum.

Well now that we're making our own bread on a regular basis - which calls for lemon juice - we decided to ditch the bottle and make our own. It couldn't be simpler:

fresh-squeezed lemon juice ice cubes

(this obviously requires that you own a citrus juicer...we got ours from my in-laws and it's an old dinosaur, but works wonderfully)

1. Buy a bag of fresh lemons

2. Juice them and strain the seeds and pulp

3. Take an ice cube tray and fill each compartment (mine fits 2 tablespoons each)

4. Keep frozen until you need some!

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Why bother making your own?

The simple reason for making your own is to avoid preservatives.

I think we too easily dismiss preservatives as being okay for us, making them an acceptable part of eating processed food (especially since the FDA says they are safe in small amounts). But how many of us have looked at what these preservatives really are? How are they made, what are the made from, and which ones are truly harmful and should be avoided? Ultimately, do we want to be consuming them on a daily basis?

Okay, so I looked on foodfacts.com and searched for "lemon juice." It came up with about 16 products, all receiving a grade of C or D (the organics got a B). They got these grades mostly because of their "controversial ingredients" and that they have added sugar.

They all had very similar ingredients, particularly two preservatives: Sodium Bisulfite and Sodium Benzoate (these are the controversial ingredients).

Should we accept that these preservatives are safe for us because the FDA says they are? Or should we learn more and make our own decision?

Sodium Bisulfite

This is a chemical preservative used to prevent discoloration and bacterial growth.

From what I have read, Sodium Bisulfite was unregulated until the 1980's. It was used in processed foods, but also on fresh vegetables - like greens on a salad bar - to prevent browning. Many people had severe allergic reactions to it when they came in contact with concentrated amounts. There were even 13 deaths. After this was realized, the FDA put restrictions and limits on its use, but it is still widely used.

Health Risks of Sodium Bisulfite:

Sodium bisulfite may cause a potentially serious allergic reaction in some individuals.

Some people may lack the enzyme that is necessary to break down sulfites in the body after they are ingested. . .According to the Food and Drug Administration, about half a percent of the U.S. population, or approximately 1 million people, lack the enzyme that prevents a sulfite allergy.

Depending on the severity of your allergy and the amount of sulfites you have ingested, these symptoms can range from mild to severe. In rare cases, sulfites can cause your throat to swell to the point where your airway is blocked, causing asphyxiation and death.

The Dangers of Sodium Bisulfite:

Sodium bisulfite is safe for many people when consumed in small quantities that are used in processed foods. . .Today manufacturers that sell products that contain sulfites must declare the preservative and amount on the food label. Nonetheless, you can develop sensitivities to sulfites at any time during your life, even if you never had any problem consuming these substances before.

So it seems that as long as you don't have an allergy to sulfites, this won't be harmful to you. But as that last quote says, you can develop a sensitivity to it at any time in your life. For you, is this preservative an acceptable risk to take?

Sodium Benzoate

This is a chemical preservative used to help prevent the growth of bacteria and fungus in acidic products.

How is Sodium Benzoate Used in Food?:

Sodium benzoate, when combined with vitamin C, forms benzene. Benzene is a carcinogen and is known to contribute to the formation of many different types of cancer. However, the Food and Drug Administration states that food products that contain both vitamin C and sodium benzoate express benzene levels that are below the dangerous limit.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to consume ANYTHING that has the potential of giving me cancer. I don't care what the FDA says about it being within safe limits.

An article on naturalnews.com has more to say about this "safe" preservative.

Sodium benzoate is a preservative that promotes cancer and kills healthy cells:

(Sodium benzoate) has the ability to deprive the cells of oxygen, break down the immune system and cause cancer.

Sodium benzoate chokes out your body's nutrients at the DNA cellular level by depriving mitochondria cells of oxygen, sometimes completely shutting them down. 

The FDA says it's safe because the amount used to preserve foods is very low, but don't ever combine it with vitamin C or E, as this causes benzene to be formed. This is dangerous. Benzene is a known carcinogen, which means it causes cancer.

So now why is it put in food? It's the cheapest mold inhibiter on the market, so it's all about the money. Acidic foods tend to grow bacteria, mold and yeast more easily than non-acidic foods, so the sodium benzoate extends the shelf life, while it shortens human life.

Cancer is all about the cumulative effect. When the human body is exposed repeatedly to any level of this carcinogen, which rears its ugly head in thousands of products, the immune system, over time, is depleted to the point that one acquires an immune deficiency. Then the body does not have enough essential nutrients to detoxify, and this occurs at the cellular level. Parkinson's, neuro-degenerative diseases, and premature aging have all been attributed to this infamous preservative.

***

I'm not taking any chances with the health of my family. We will not be consuming anymore bottled lemon juice, or anything else with Sodium Benzoate it (oh, and it's also in soda to enhance the flavor of the high fructose corn syrup).

Be smart about your food choices. Educate yourself on what you buy from the store!

What to use in your dishwasher that is safe and natural

Of all my new ways to go toxic-free around the house, figuring out what to use in the dishwasher was the toughest one. I searched through tons of posted recipes and read all sorts of comments from people who either had really good results or really bad results.

Bottom line, I think the type of water you have - how soft or hard - will determine a lot as to what will work for you when it comes to the homemade stuff. Also, different things work well for different dishwashers. So there are some variables to work out. Not everything will work the same for everyone.

One combination of ingredients that I was seeing posted quite frequently was Borax, Washing Soda, Kosher salt and Citric Acid. I don't want to use Borax, and citric acid seems too expensive from what I could find.

I started searching for recipes that are Borax-free. I found one that I wanted to try and used it for about a week: Natural Homemade Dishwasher Detergent. Ingredients: water, vinegar, liquid castile soap, pure lemon juice, salt and washing soda.
 
I loved it for about 3 or 4 days, until my glasses all started coming out cloudy. So I kept searching for another one that didn't contain Borax or citric acid, and didn't have too high of a proportion of castile soap (making it too expensive).

Then I remembered a blog post I had bookmarked a while ago that had very useful information in it. 10 Things You Should Know Before Making Homemade Dishwasher Detergent. She concludes that you may only need washing soda to wash your dishes, or maybe also add a little soap.
 
So I thought about all I had read and learned (including using less soap to get better results), and I tried a combination using my best educated guess: 1 tablespoon washing soda and 1 teaspoon castile soap. I also used vinegar as my rinse aid (see below for more on that). Everything came out perfect and sparkly clean! I continued it for a few days getting nearly perfect results every time.

I wasn't sure if it was the castile soap or vinegar (or both) that was doing such a great job, so for about 2 weeks I experimented with each load (I kept the washing soda constant because I knew I wanted to use that as my base). I tried varying amounts of vinegar and castile soap, even leaving each of them out completely.

What I found out was that I definitely needed the vinegar to rinse all the food particles away and get all the glasses shiny and clean. I thought that I might get away with not needing the castile soap, but without it, I have had several things come out with food stuck to them. So, looks like I need both in addition to the washing soda.

So here's what I'm using in my dishwasher: 

1 Tablespoon washing soda
1/2 teaspoon castile soap
1/4 cup vinegar as the rinse aid

Simple and toxic free :)

(I still might get one or two things that come out dirty, but that usually happened with the store-bought stuff too. Overall, I am very happy with these results)

***

Rinse Aid

We had been using Jet Dry for quite some time, but obviously we wanted to ditch that too. I have read all over the place to use vinegar as a rinse aid.

HOWEVER, most people suggest putting it into the rinse aid compartment. I read on a blog post that "the acid in the vinegar can damage the rubber components in the rinse aid compartment." And that came straight from the dishwasher repairman.

So an alternative is to use a small bowl that can sit right-side-up in the top rack and put some white vinegar in it. This will slowly slosh it around as it goes through the cycle.

And as I said above, this is working very well for me.

***

Cost comparison 

I wanted to see where my three ingredients fit into the spectrum of store-bought detergents. Here's what I calculated, listing the least expensive first:

Great Value (Walmart brand) powder detergent, 75oz box
$3.22 (price from their website) / $.04 per ounce

My homemade option
Washing soda + soap + vinegar = 2.13oz per load = $.11 per load
$.05 per ounce

Cascade powder detergent, 75oz box
$6.90 (priced from Walmart's website) / $.09 per ounce

Seventh Generation (all natural) powder detergent, 75oz box
$7.49 (priced from amazon, shipping not included) / $.10 per ounce

I may not have beaten Walmart in price (who can?), but I'm sure I beat them in safety of ingredients (they don't even disclose their ingredient list...what are they hiding?).

How safe is your hand soap?

(note: this got quite long, but I found out some interesting things that you might want to be aware of. The way to make your own hand soap is at the bottom.)

In switching over to toxic-free homemade products around my house, another really easy, no-brainer was the hand soap.

I thought about simply posting the two-ingredient "recipe" for hand soap, but I want to do just a little bit more. It's easy to say we're replacing the store-bought stuff because of all these chemicals we keep talking about. But why specifically should we avoid it? What exactly is in that stuff and do we (ever) want to use it on our hands?

So I did two things. I looked at the labels on the bottles of store-bought hand soap that I have in the house (which are now the old bottles refilled with the good stuff) and I did a google search - "what is bad about hand soap."

I want to start with what I learned doing the google search. A lot of the links on the first page talked about why antibacterial soap isn't so great (this one says "residue-producing antibacterial soap may kill normal healthy bacteria on the skin as well as unhealthy bacteria, allowing resistant bacteria to take its place"), one was a great article worth reading called The Benefits of Using Real, Natural Soap, and two talked about an ingredient called Triclosan.

***

Triclosan

The Benefits of Using Real, Natural Soap:

"Antibacterial and antimicrobial soaps often contain triclosan. Triclosan is a toxic chemical that is known to cause cancer. According to the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides (NCAMP), manufacturers of a number of triclosan-containing products claim that the active ingredient continues to work for as long as 12 hours after use. Consumers are, therefore, exposed to triclosan for much longer than the 20 seconds it takes to wash their hands or face."

Triclosan, A Chemical Used in Antibacterial Soaps, is Found to Impair Muscle Function:

In recent years, research has shed light on a number of problems with employing triclosan so widely. Studies have shown that the chemical can disrupt the endocrine systems of several different animals. Additionally, triclosan penetrates the skin and enters the bloodstream more easily than previously thought, and has turned up everywhere from aquatic environments to human breast milk in troubling quantities.

...Triclosan impairs muscle function in both animals and humans...The chemical hinders human muscle contractions at the cellular level...

“Triclosan is found in virtually everyone’s home and is pervasive in the environment,” said lead author Isaac Pessah. “These findings provide strong evidence that the chemical is of concern to both human and environmental health.”

According to Triclosan's Wikipedia article, "Two reports . . . suggest that triclosan can combine with chlorine in tap water to form chloroform, which the United States Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a probable human carcinogen, meaning it likely causes cancer.

***

Is it actual soap?

I'm looking at my 64 fl.oz. refill bottle of Image Essentials Aquarium Liquid Hand Soap that I bought at Target awhile back. I'm wondering what these ingredients are and if this is actually real soap or just a bunch of synthetic chemicals.

(information comes from the Cosmetics Database)

Water

Sodium Laureth Sulfate (foaming agent...may be contaminated with potentially toxic manufacturing impurities such as 1,4-dioxane* and ethylene oxide**)

Cocamidopropyl Betaine (a synthetic surfactant. It was named 2004 Allergen of the Year).

Decyl Glucoside (a glucose-based surfactant)

Sodium Chloride (an inorganic salt)

Fragrance

DMDM Hydantoin (an antimicrobial formaldehyde-releaser preservative. Strong evidence of human skin toxicant or allergen. Contamination concern of formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogenic.)

PEG-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate (a surfactant and emulsifier, used as a thickener. There are contamination concerns of 1,4-dioxane* and ethylene oxide**)

Tetrasodium EDTA (a chelating agent, used to sequester and decrease the reactivity of metal ions that may be present in a product. Classified as expected to be toxic or harmful. Enhances skin absorption.)

Sodium Sulfate (an inorganic salt)

Polyquaternium-7 (a synthetic polymer. Classified as expected to be toxic or harmful. Suspected to be an environmental toxin.)

Citric Acid (in this case, it's used as an acidity adjuster)

Poloxamer 124 (a synthetic surfactant)

PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate (This synthetic polymer is based on PEG (polyethylene glycol) and fatty acids derived from coconut oil. Due to the presence of PEG, this ingredient may contain potentially toxic manufacturing impurities such as 1,4-dioxane* and ethylene oxide**)

Red 33 (a synthetic dye produced from petroleum or coal tar sources. Widely used FD&C and D&C colors are coaltar (bituminous coal) derivatives that are continuously tested on animals due to their carcinogenic properties.)

Blue 1 (blue dye)

*The carcinogen 1,4-dioxane contaminates up to 46% of personal care products tested. The chemical is an unwanted byproduct of an ingredient processing method called ethoxylation used to reduce the risk of skin irritation for petroleum-based ingredients. Though 1,4-dioxane can easily be removed from products before they are sold, its widespread presence in products indicates that many manufacturers fail to take this simple step.

**Ethylene Oxide is a known human carcinogen and a known human respiratory toxicant. It's a flammable toxic gas used as an intermediate and fumigant.

Wow. I'm officially disgusted. So this hand soap that my family used directly on their skin for months, contains 2 ingredients that may be toxic or harmful, and 4 ingredients that might produce carcinogenic by-products, including formaldehyde.

***

Carcinogenic By-products

Okay, so I just learned a lot by researching the ingredients on the back of my refill hand soap. I didn't have the first clue as to what these ingredients were, let alone their toxicity levels. And the most disturbing part to me are these two by-products that are known carcinogens (1,4-dioxane and ethylene oxide). So I did some more reading on them.

I found two write-ups about this on the ATTITUDE boutique website: FAQ Body Care and We think you should know (good to read for more of the whole story). Here's a good summary of what they tell us:

To save money, manufacturers use ethoxylated ingredients contaminated with 1,4-dioxane and ethylene oxide by-products, which are classified as carcinogens (groups 1 and 2), according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. These industrial pollutants are not identified on the label, so it’s very difficult for the consumer to know whether a product contains them or not. Because these by-products appear in low concentrations, industry and the governments ignore them, hiding behind the age-old principle that it’s the amount that kills, thus tolerating these contaminants.

So the manufacturers and the government think that because these cancer-causing toxins are present in tiny amounts, that it's all okay for us? Are they serious? Oh, I guess it's just like how high fructose corn syrup is "okay in moderation"...although it's in everything. We are not a country of moderation!

On the 1,4-dioxane page of the Cosmetic Database website, you can see all "Ingredients potentially containing the impurity 1,4-dioxane." This takes you to a list of 1,813 ingredients. Of those, 649 are listed in products within their database (some of those ingredients at the bottom of the list are only in one product that is labeled as an "old product." But that doesn't mean it's not sitting on someone's shelf still being used).

And the top two ingredient winners are:

Polysorbate-20, contained in 4,750 products (within the database)
Sodium Laureth Sulfate, contained in 3,822 products

There are a lot of "polysorbates," "PEGs," and -reths" (laureth, steareth, etc.) at the top.

Okay, so what to do about it. The article Contaminants in Bath Products, which talks about 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde, gives us a few tips:

1. Avoid using products that list ingredients that may be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, including:

• sodium myreth sulfate
• PEG compounds
• chemicals that include the clauses "xynol," "ceteareth" and "oleth"

2. Avoid products that contain formaldehye-releasing preservatives, including:

• quaternium-15
• DMDM hydantoin
• imidazolidinyl urea
• diazolidinyl urea
• sodium hydroxymethylglycinate
• 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3 diol (Bronopol)

That is certainly excellent advice. But when you're standing in the store, looking at the back of a label, are you going to remember which of the unpronounceable ingredients are the really bad ones? 

My advice: MAKE YOUR OWN.

***

Homemade Liquid Hand Soap

I didn't intend on this post getting so long. But the more I learn about all this, the more it just infuriates me that this is going on without most of the general public knowing about it (including me for years). I want to help spread the word. This stuff will kill you.

So, as I said in one of my previous posts, castile soap is an awesome natural soap that is plant-based. It is toxic free and not at all synthetic. It's REAL soap. I'm using it in my laundry soap, my dishwasher, my dish soap, as my hand soap, and will soon be using it in my homemade shampoo.

This is the proportion of how I like to make it (you may like it thicker or waterier):

In a soap dispenser, put in one part liquid castile soap, two parts water. Shake it up.

That's it, end of story.

Toxic Free: Cleaning the Bathroom

Going for toxic free cleaning in the bathroom is so super easy, there's no excuse not to do it. There are no recipes to search for or things to try and try again.

You need two things to clean your bathroom: Vinegar and Baking Soda.

For your sink, counter, shower and tub, mix a spray bottle with equal parts white vinegar and water. This will disinfect and get rid of any mold and mildew.

I tried it a while ago in our hard-to-clean-because-it's-so-tiny shower and it seems like it's taking longer for the pink stuff to return than from when I used Tilex.

For the toilets, just sprinkling some baking soda, spray some vinegar and scrub with the brush. This also has seemed to keep the visible yuckiness away for longer. 

I also mixed up some glass/mirror cleaner using this recipe I found. It works great. (update: my friend Amy just left a comment about using the vinegar/water mixture on the mirror too. I tried it and it works perfectly...no streaks! Yay for simplifying.)

The water/vinegar mix is a good all-purpose cleaner, not just for the bathroom.

These small and easy changes will be better for your lungs and easier on your wallet.

Toxic Free: The Laundry

Ah, the never-ending job (along with the dishes).

If you have any interest in "going green" with anything in your house, I would say ditching your laundry detergent is a must (switching to laundry soap instead).

According to this article on eHow, "detergent is made from petroleum products. It contains many preservatives and antibacterial agents, which do not have an agreeable smell. As a result, detergents usually contain heavy perfumes to counteract the odor."

Detergents contain surfactants, which help to reduce surface tension in water, thus allowing dirt to be removed. They can either be plant-based or petroleum-based. Surfactants are not a bad thing (soap is a surfactant), it's just that most detergents use petroleum-based surfactants.

The companies that make these detergents are not required to list their ingredients on the label. So there's no way of really knowing what's in there.

All this matters because detergents leave residue on our clothes and some gets absorbed through our skin from the constant contact. Read "The Truth About Detergent" (it's a bit heavy on the drama, but it gives you something to think about).

***

So anyway. After trying a couple laundry soap recipes and not liking them (because of the ingredients they used, not because of how well they worked) and doing a lot of searching around trying to find the perfect recipe...I decided to make my own. Here's how I picked my ingredients:

1. Castile Soap. Bottom line, what do we need to clean our clothes with? SOAP. And I want one that's 100% pure and natural.

2. Washing Soda. One of its main purposes is to be a laundry booster. It's used in many homemade laundry soap recipes and I want to include it for a little extra kick.

3. Vinegar. Under the "laundry" tab on the 1001 Uses for Distilled White Vinegar, it lists 20 reasons to use it in the laundry (removes stains and odors, reduces static cling, prevents yellowing, attacks mildew, acts as a fabric softener, brings out bright colors, etc.). Seems like a good thing to include.

So here's my recipe (and yes, it's getting my clothes clean):

Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap

1 cup liquid castile soap
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup white vinegar

Heat 2 cups of water on the stove over medium heat. Add washing soda and vinegar and stir until dissolved.

When it has cooled, funnel into a one gallon container (like a milk jug) and add castile soap. Fill the rest of the way with cold tap water.

Use 1/4 to 1/2 cup per load.

***

This costs less than half of what we were paying for our detergent (and we always bought the cheapest we could find).

DIY: Homemade Crackers

As I further my quest to rid my family of highly processed foods kept around the house, I finally decided to tackle a staple around here: crackers. My children love crackers.

I went searching for something super easy to throw together that I wouldn't mind making about once a week (or however long a batch would last). I came across this recipe at allrecipes.com. I followed it exactly, but there were 2 major issues with it: they were bland and since the crackers are cut apart after baking, the outside ones get crispy but the inside ones stay soft.

After making some tweaks with each batch, I finally got them right on my fourth try. They are mild in flavor, so there is plenty of room to spice them up when we need to. But they do taste great, and my kids love them.

Whole Wheat Garlic Parmesan Crackers

1 3/4 cup whole wheat four
1 1/2 cup all-purpose four
2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add olive oil and water. Ball up the dough.

On a flat floured surface - I do mine on parchment paper - roll out the dough (I do about a third at a time). Roll it out thin, but not so thin that you can't transfer it to the baking sheet.

Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut the dough into squares.* Try to make them all roughly the same size so they cook evenly.

Transfer the squares to an ungreased baking sheet (they can be placed close together). Sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until they start to get crispy. They will continue to get more crispy as they cool.

* I plan on trying to find a square cookie cutter to see if it makes it easier and faster to cut them out.

DIY: Coffee Creamer

I've never been a huge coffee drinker, but I do drink more now than I used to. At home, Sean and I usually make a couple batches on the weekend mornings, saving some for cold coffee drinks during the week (adding sugar while it's still warm).

In a small glass, I put in some ice, fill it about half full with coffee and add a splash of skim milk. Makes a delicious iced coffee drink with my breakfast.

If we weren't on a budget and could afford premium wonderful-tasting coffee beans, then I'd probably drink it black. But since ours never tastes that great on its own, we normally add sugar and milk. We've recently started buying whole milk regularly for our one year old, so at least we now have that on hand (skim milk just doesn't really cut it).

But even so, I'm a little bored with coffee drinking. I need some more flavor. And since our family is getting better at the do-it-yourself routine, I'm looking for ways to make our own creamer.

Just to be sure I'm making the right decision, I did a little bit of looking at foodfacts.com to see what's in the store brand containers.

***

Store-bought Coffee Creamers

Doing a search for "coffee creamer" on foodfacts.com will bring up 283 products (both liquid and powder). On this website, all products are given a grade from A to F (they call it a "Health Score Report Card"). You can also see the ingredient list along with the nutritional information, and they tell you good and bad things about each product.

Here's the breakdown of how many coffee creamer products there are per grade:

A: 0
B: 1
C or C-: 16
D+, D or D-: 52
F: 214

(of the 43 powders, all but one received an F)

So what's in these products? Let's look at one example (ingredient descriptions come from foodfacts):

Coffee-Mate Original Coffee Creamer

Water

Corn Syrup Solids - sugar produced from cornstarch

Cottonseed Oil - a viscous oil obtained from the seed of the cotton plant

Dipotassium Phosphate - a highly water-soluble salt often used as a fertilizer, food additive and buffering agent

Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil - basically it contains trans-fats (the bad fat)

Sodium Caseinate - a modified protein extracted from milk (considered non-dairy)

Artificial Flavors

Beta Carotene Added for Color

Carrageenan - a thickening agent obtained from seaweed (large amounts have harmed test animals colons; small amounts in food are generally recognized as safe)

Polysorbate 60 - an emulsifying agent that helps stabilize two substances that will not normally mix. It is made of corn, palm oil and petroleum. It does not spoil and sometimes used to replace dairy or fat to extend the products shelf life. Polysorbates are made by combining ethylene oxide, which is a precursor to antifreeze, with a sugar alcohol derivative.

So in summary, this creamer is made of water, sugar, salt, oil, trans fats, artificial flavors and preservatives. Yum.

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Homemade Coffee Creamers

Since I'm new to this idea, I can't offer you a long list of creamer recipes that I have tried and can verify are delicious (I can offer just one, listed below). But I did do some searching online for what others have done, and there are lots of good ideas out there. To give you a starting point, here are two sources of what looks like good recipes to try:

Deliciously Organic: Homemade Coffee Creamer

5 delicious homemade coffee creamers

In my first attempt at this, I wanted to use what I already had in my kitchen. And since you can't go wrong with chocolate, that's what I used. Here's what I put together:

1 cup whole milk

1 Tbsp white sugar

2 tsp baking cocoa

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small pot, combine all ingredients. Stir over medium heat until dissolved. Store in the fridge.

I tried it this morning and it was pretty good. I'm looking forward to continuing to experiment with making my own creamer and to getting some recipes perfected. I'll share with you what I figure out...

Oh, and feel free to comment with any tips or recipes that you use!

DIY: Caesar Dressing

With our pizza last night (topped with pineapple, roasted broccoli and onion), we had a side salad. The dressing I can't take credit for. Sean altered this recipe and came up with his own version of this delicious Caesar dressing.

Homemade Caesar dressing on Romain lettuce,
topped with Parmesan cheese

Caesar Dressing

2-3 tbsp mayonnaise
1-2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1-2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
2-4 cloves of fresh garlic
1-3 tsp lemon juice
up to 1/4 cup olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper

*amounts are approximate because Sean often doesn't measure when he cooks. Use the ranges to add more or less of the flavors that you like.

In a food processor or blender, combine all ingredients except the olive oil. As it's blending, slowly drizzle the olive oil through the hole in the top of the lid.

Baby food (Part II)

As I wrote in a previous post, there are 2 main reasons to make your own baby food: to avoid ingredients that you don't want to give your baby (like preservatives, flour as "fillers," added sugar and salt), and to save money since store-bought jars are way overpriced.

If making your own baby food is a new concept for you, a good place to start is reading this article on babycenter.com: How to make your own baby food. It covers the basics.

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The Equipment

Baby Food Processor

You don't need much to get started making your own baby food. Mostly, you just need some type of gadget to puree the food.

Before our first child was born, we received a baby food processor as a gift. We've used it through three kids and it still works great. It blends up one or two servings at a time and can be thrown in the dishwasher for an easy clean up.

Hand Blender

We also use our hand blender when it's a larger batch of food, or just simply a fork if it's a banana or something really soft. Occasionally I'll use our potato masher.

So you certainly don't need to go out and buy an expensive appliance, just use what you already have.

The food

Starting out. 

When your baby starts eating around 4 to 6 months, you're probably going to be making single-ingredient meals. You'll be using all the basics: bananas, applesauce, peaches, pears, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, etc.

For young babies, you will probably have to take off any fruit skins since you need to get it down to a fine texture. As they get older, you can leave the skins on when you puree it (a lot of the nutrients are in the skin).

(One thing to always consider is if the produce was grown using pesticides and chemicals, in which case you should always remove the skins. But if it's organic or a local pesticide-free farmer, then it would be okay.)

For vegetables, cook them as you would for yourself and then puree. Things like sweet potatoes and butternut squash can be done in the oven, and others can be steamed on the stove-top in water. Be sure not to overcook the vegetables or you will start to lose nutrients. Just get them soft enough to be able to be pureed.

The experienced eater.

Once your baby gets to the 8 to 9 month range, he/she will be ready for some more texture and multi-ingredient meals. Now you get to start using some more creativity in your preparations.

To make a big batch of food, what Sean and I do is pick two or three ingredients to mix together. We usually pick a grain or bean - like brown rice, quinoa, barley, pinto beans, navy beans - and one or two vegetables. Now is also when we start adding in leafy greens which have a lot more texture - kale, collard greens, spinach. So many nutrients! 

Once everything is cooked (often we'll cook all the ingredients in the same pot), we just use our hand blender to blend it up. The older the child gets, the less you need to blend it. We'll keep about 3 days worth in the fridge and freeze the rest.

And of course we still give the fruits as single ingredient meals or snacks. Other foods to add at this age are cottage cheese and yogurt (maybe mixed with fruit).

12 months+

Once you have a one year old, they should be eating a lot of what you make for dinner for the whole family. That's not always possible - like the nights you have pizza - so having the batches of pureed food around is still useful until they have most of their teeth in.

When I can, I take our dinners and either cut them up really small (like with pasta), or put them in the baby food processor (like homemade soup or chili).

Here is what our one year old typically eats: pureed grain/bean/veggie mixtures, adult meals pureed or chopped when possible, plain sweet potato, plain squash, mashed or pureed fruits, cottage cheese, whole wheat bread, and oatmeal (for breakfast).

A tip for storage

This is not my original idea by any means, but use an ice cube tray to store your baby food in the freezer. When you need a meal for that day, take out what you need (my one year old will eat 4 to 5 cubes per meal) and let it defrost for a bit and then microwave it the rest of the way.

***

I just hope to give a little encouragement in trying to make your own food for your little one. If you use a lot of jars, but it seems overwhelming to switch completely over to homemade overnight, then start small. Just try one batch and see what happens. 

Baby Food (Part I)

Erin @ 7 months, eating mango

One of the things Sean and I got better about with each of our kids was making our own baby food. Our first born, Erin, had probably 85 to 90% of her baby food come from jars, and the rest was mashed up fruits from whatever we had.

Noah @ 4 months eating rice cereal

Our second born, Noah, started out with mostly jars, but as he got to the 9 to 12 month range, we started making batches of food at a time (but still had jars).

Luke @ 6 months eating
purple sweet potato

Then came our third, Luke, and I am proud to say that he is 13 months old and has never had a single jar of store-bought baby food.

So which is the better route to go? Of course pre-made meals in a jar are convenient (especially since babies eat so often). Not every mom has the extra time to make her own, especially for those who also work. But from my experience, it's not really that big of a deal to throw some food together and store most of it in the freezer for later. It's quite simple actually.

It's definitely cheaper to make your own, and you know exactly what you're feeding your baby. No preservatives and no added sugar or salt. Just fresh food.

***

I came across an article on the Center for Science in the Public Interest website entitled Cheating Babies: Nutritional Quality and Cost of Commercial Baby Food. It's from 1995, so of course things could have improved within these baby food companies since then. But for the most part, I bet it's mostly the same. The article looks at the nutritional value and cost of commercial baby food within the top 5 companies at the time (one has since gone bankrupt). Here are some statements from the article (it's worth reading the whole thing if you have a baby):

• Gerber and Heinz add substantial amounts of water and thickening agents (flours and chemically modified starches) to more than half of their twenty-five most popular fruits, mixed and creamed vegetables, desserts, and dinners for babies over six months (second- and third-stage foods). Not only are those products a monetary rip-off, they are also nutritionally inferior to similar products made without fillers...Many fewer products made by Beech-Nut and Earth's Best contain starchy fillers.
• The use of starchy thickening agents can mask the addition of a good deal of water. As any cook knows, a little bit of flour or starch can thicken a lot of liquid. The presence in a baby food of one or more fillers, such as rice flour, wheat flour, or modified starch, is a good indicator that the food is a dilute and nutritionally inferior product.
• Gerber and Heinz' cereals with fruit all contain added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. The addition of refined sugars to cereals is unnecessary. The added sugars may encourage a preference for heavily sweetened foods.
• Baby foods are greatly overpriced compared to similar regular foods. Examples include applesauce and fruit juices, as well as diced fruits and vegetables for toddlers. The nutrient content and physical characteristics of those baby foods do not differ significantly from those for adults. However, the baby foods cost up to several times as much per unit weight.
• Four million babies are born in the United States every year. By the time they reach twelve months of age, each of those infants has consumed, smeared around, or spit out an average of 600 jars of baby food.

Assuming all those statements are true, do you think you can do a better job? As long as you're not adding flour, sugar and salt, I think you will be.

Making your own baby food does not require a magic formula. Or if it does, then it's: Cook food. Puree.

To be continued...

Hot Cholcolate

This morning, Erin, Noah and I were the only ones at the park in this 50 degree weather (it wasn't that bad with heavy coats on). Oh, and don't worry, Sean was home with the sleeping little one.

When I noticed that their fingers were turning pink, I decided to lure them home with the promise of hot chocolate.

Once home, I looked in the pantry for my very old box of Swiss Miss. As they were downing the chocolatey goodness, I took a look at the ingredient list:

Sugar, Corn Syrup, Modified Whey, Cocoa (processed with Alkali), Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Nonfat Milk, Calcium Carbonate, Less than 2% of: Salt, Dipotassium Phosphate, Mono- and Diglycerides, Artificial Flavor, Carrageenan.

Not good. Not good at all.

(I looked up Carrageenan. It's a thickening agent obtained from seaweed. Large amounts of it have harmed the colons of animals, according to foodfacts.com)

So from now on, I'll be making my own.

Hot Chocolate

for one serving: 

1 cup milk (skim, 2% or whole)
1 tbsp baking cocoa
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

(maybe try adding cinnamon or nutmeg)

Heat milk in a saucepan on the stove on medium heat. Stir often to not scorch. When hot (but not boiling), dissolve cocoa and sugar. Mix in vanilla.

to make it extra creamy, add a splash of half and half.

Make your own Popcorn

As usual, there are two reasons why making your own popcorn is better than buying microwave popcorn: it's cheaper and healthier.

Sean and I have been making our own for a while now. A post on Facebook prompted us to try it. We will never again go back.

The cost.

Here is a basic cost comparison between the two.

Examples of Microwave popcorn bought from Walmart (prices given on their website):

Orville Reddenbacher's "Movie Theater Butter" 10 pack - $5.18
Act II "Butter Lovers" 12 pack - $3.98

$.52 - .33 per bag

Homemade Popcorn Ingredients (per bag):

Popcorn - $.05
Brown Bag - $.02
Butter - $.13
Salt - $virtually_nothing

$.20 per bag

So not an earth-shattering difference, but cheaper none the less.

The ingredients.

When I went to foodfacts.com to get an ingredient list on microwave popcorn, I was surprised at how few ingredients they actually contain. Here's one example:

Act II "Butter Lover's"
Corn Popping, Palm Oil, Salt, Contains less than 2% of Flavors Natural & Artificial, Colors Added, TBHQ, Citric Acid

The obvious: It contains artificial flavors and colors that you won't get if you make it yourself. And I can almost guarantee you won't put as much salt and butter (well, oil in their case) on it as they do. So right there you're making yours a lot healthier.

The less obvious: What is TBHQ? On the foodfacts website, it's marked as a "controversial" ingredient. I did some minor research and quickly realized this is a preservative that I personally want to stay away from (even though the FDA says it's okay for me to have it in small doses...btw, a large does will kill you).

Article from naturalnews.com:

TBHQ - Why this preservative should be avoided

TBHQ is used in many foods...as well as in cosmetic and baby skincare products, varnish, lacquers and resins. It is used in the stabilization process of explosive compounds. The risks and side-effects of this preservative product far outweigh the benefit of it being used as a highly unsafe preservative ingredient.

Tertiary Butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ...is in fact a chemical preservative which is a form of butane. It is used in foodstuffs to delay the onset of rancidness and greatly extends the storage life of foods.

 A form of BUTANE...no thanks, I'll save that for my lighter fluid. 

Homemade Popcorn

1/4 cup kernels
small amount of vegetable oil
1 brown lunch bag
2 tbsp melted butter
sprinkle of salt

In a small bowl, coat kernels in oil. Put kernels into brown bag and fold top over. Microwave on high for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes (until pops are 2 seconds apart...you know the drill).

Melt butter and pour over popcorn. Salt. Enjoy!

DIY: An alternative to Ranch dressing

I've been thinking the past several days that I need to find an easy make-at-home recipe for dipping sauce. Erin and Noah love cut-up carrots, but they will only eat them with Ranch dressing. And that's also the case with cut-up pieces of chicken, cut-up bean burger patties...basically anything that can be dipped.

So to have something on hand that's less expensive (and probably healthier...I counted 19 ingredients in our Ranch), I did a quick Google search for a creamy dipping sauce. Here's one I found, which I modified slightly:

Creamy Dipping Sauce:

1/2 cup Mayo
2 tsp. Dijon Mustard
1 tbsp. Honey
1 tsp. White Vinegar

***

I tasted it with a carrot, and it's delicious. I could also see this being yummy on a salad. I'm not sure if it's drastically healthier than Ranch - since it still has fat and sugar in it - but at least I've cut back on the number of ingredients (my mayo has 7 and my dijon mustard has 6) and I made it fresh myself!