Quinoa with Roasted Veggies

Quinoa with Roasted Veggies, with a side of cucumber/tomato salad

1 cup quinoa (how to cook quinoa)
2 cups broth or stock (or water)
1-2 zucchini and 1 onion, cut into medium-large chunks
2-3 Tbs salted butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 Tbs Dijon or stone-ground mustard

toppings:
dried cranberries
chopped almonds


Preheat the oven to 500.

Cook the quinoa in the broth. Coat the zucchini and onion with oil, salt to taste, and roast at 500 for 10 minutes.

In a small pot, sauté the garlic in butter until browned, then remove from heat and stir in mustard.

When the quinoa is finished cooking, stir the mustard sauce into the quinoa. Serve topped with roasted veggies, almonds and cranberries.

Optional: a dollop of plain yogurt on top

Maybe skip the bagged ice

My husband forwarded me a link to a blog post that I thought was worth sharing.

The blog is Confessions of a Community College Dean, and the post is about summer jobs. He goes into some detail about the time when he worked for an ice factory (he makes note of the fact that "different brands of bagged ice come out of the same vat").

Here's an interesting detail you may want to be aware of:

Disgruntled workers have ways of Sticking It To The Man. Among these ways is peeing in the ice vat. There’s a reason I don’t buy bags of ice. If you do, first, hold the bag up to the light. If the ice isn’t perfectly clear, don’t buy it. Trust me on this one. Seriously.

Next time you have a party, maybe make your own ice for the drinks, and keep the bagged ice for the cooler...

Petition against Tyson

I get emails from change.org, a place where people can start petitions for pretty much anything. Most of them I end up signing. I got one this morning that is worth sharing. It's against Tyson chicken.

The petition was started by a poultry inspector at one the their plants. She has worked there for 16 years, but has come down with many health problems since they started washing down all the chicken with a chemical called peracetic acid.

On its wikipedia page under Safety, it says "Exposure to peracetic acid can cause irritation to the skin, eyes and respiratory system and higher or long-term exposure can cause permanent lung damage. In addition, there have been cases of occupational asthma caused by peracetic acid."

Here is a little taken from the petition:

I want Tyson to be an industry leader and stop using these chemicals, especially peracetic acid, which is poured all over these carcasses.

Currently, I'm suffering from health problems, including asthma attacks, sinus problems, and even organ damage. My failing health has seriously impacted my lifestyle and may have ended my 16-year career as an inspector. As highlighted in a recent Washington Post article, chemical problems seem to be cropping up in plants all over the country.

As of the moment I am writing this, the USDA has not done any formal evaluation of how these chemicals affect workers' health. Additionally, there have been no studies of how these dangerous chemicals, directly applied to the carcasses in processing, affect humans' health other than directly from the very companies that profit from their sale.

My doctors told me they have witnessed an increasing amount of patients coming from the Tyson plant with similar symptoms, including respiratory infections, eye irritation, and the development of serious allergies.

You can check out the petition, and for as long as it's active, I encourage you to sign it.

A Look into Sunscreen

Wear your sunscreen.

We hear this advice all the time. If you're going to be out in the sun, wear your sunscreen.

Let's look at two aspects of this advice that we may often overlook: our need for Vitamin D and the chemicals in most sunscreens that may do a lot more harm than good.

Vitamin D

When considering whether to put on sunscreen or not, remember that our body produces Vitamin D when we're exposed to sunlight. This can't happen if we coat ourselves with sunscreen every time we step out of our front door. We all need a certain amount of sun exposure to stay healthy.

Here's more about Vitamin D from the article Lack of Sunshine Causes One Million Deaths a Year:

Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is different from other vitamins in that it influences your entire body -- receptors that respond to the vitamin have been found in almost every type of human cell, from your brain to your bones.

Optimizing your vitamin D levels could help you to prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancers.

On the MedlinePlus website, they give quite a detailed list of things that Vitamin D is good for.

Basically, it's important for your overall health. Certainly some amount of sun exposure is healthy and necessary!

Sunscreen

But okay, there definitely are times when you'll be out in the sun for long periods and need to protect your skin. Can you just grab any old bottle and assume it's safe and effective?

One big thing to look for is to make sure it protects against UVA rays as well as UVB (not all protect against both). UVB is what helps to produce Vitamin D, but UVA penetrates deep in our skin and causes damage. So don't just look at SPF, but make sure it covers both types of rays.

Another consideration is whether or not there are harmful chemicals in the product that will defeat the purpose if you're trying to keep yourself healthy and cancer free.

We certainly can't rely on label claims that the product is "natural," "safe," "organic," or anything else along those lines, because what they claim can be completely false (there is no regulation on using those terms).

Since most of us can't look at a long list of ingredients in a commercial product and be able to identify every single one as either safe or harmful, then we should turn to those who can.

I often go to the Cosmetic Database when I need to look up information on a product or ingredient. This database was put together by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Today, I came across their sunscreen guide:

2013 Guide to Sunscreens

They give lots of wonderful information, including 9 Surprising Facts About Sunscreen, and also a list of "184 beach & sport sunscreens (that) meet EWG's criteria" for safety and effectiveness.

Another one of my main go-to sources, Dr. Mercola's website, has many articles about sunscreen and its damaging affects (the sunscreen itself and the Vitamin D deficiencies it leads to).

In one of his articles, Four Out of Five Sunscreens May be Hazardous to your Health, he gives a list of the common harmful ingredients in sunscreens. This is a good list to have when looking at your current bottle of sunscreen at home and when you (most likely) need to purchase a new one.

Examining My Family's Sunscreen

After deciding to write on this topic, naturally I was going to pick up my own family's bottle that we've been using for a couple years and research its safety.

Our bottle at home.
(Don't buy this.)

I looked up our NO-AD Spf 60 Sunblock Lotion (recommended by the Skin Cancer Foundation as it says on the label) on the cosmetic database to find out it has a score of 7.

That's 7 out of 10...10 being the worst.

Here are the specific rating it gives:

Overall Hazard: moderate to high

Cancer: low to moderate

Developmental and reproductive toxicity: high

Of the ingredient list, five of them enhance skin absorption (so all the chemicals get absorbed really well) and six of the ingredients have a score of 7 or 8 (remember that 10 is the worst).

Of these six ingredients with bad scores, three of them are parabens (preservatives) that are endocrine disruptors, one is the generic ingredient fragrance (which is a blanket term for plastic chemicals that smell good), one is the active ingredient oxybenzone (which "absorbs through the skin in significant amounts," can cause cellular level changes and is an endocrine disruptor), and one is Retinyl Palmitate (which "when exposed to UV light, retinol compounds break down and produce toxic free radicals that can damage DNA and cause gene mutations, a precursor to cancer"*).

I also looked up my bottle of sunscreen on Good Guide. It gets a health score of ZERO...(0 out of 10, zero is the worst).

* This ingredient seems to have some controversy over it. Some sources say that the EWG is wrong about this claim, but those saying that seem to be tied to the sunscreen industry. You just have to decide who you will believe.

***

After finding all of this out about our only bottle of sunscreen in the house (and being quite horrified by it), I realized that I needed to replace it immediately.

I went out that evening to two stores and scanned the backs of all the sunscreen bottles. I couldn't buy anything out of probably 40 products. They all had basically the same nasty ingredients.

I can only assume that most other drug stores, grocery stores and big box stores will all be the same way. So I'm forced to search for the needle in the haystack (which sadly, most Americans won't bother doing...or even know that it's necessary in the first place). It shouldn't be that way. We should have better choices readily available.

There are healthier sunscreens out there, you just have to know which ones they are. Here are a few places to start looking:

EWG's Guide to Sunscreens

Good Guide's Best Sunscreen Ratings

SafeMama's Safer Sunscreen Cheat Sheet

Be smart about the sun, but also about what you put on your skin.

Baking Soda Toothpaste Update

Last month I wrote a post about my husband and I switching from store-bought toothpaste to a homemade baking soda/sea salt mixture (followed by a post about fluoride).

I know that some people reading that might be skeptical about its effectiveness or even the overall safety of it on teeth (is baking soda too abrasive?...not according to this Relative Dentin Abrasivity chart).

Well, we have been very happy with it and I surely never see myself going back to the gooey tubes.

But for just a little more reassurance, I wanted to share about the dentist appointment I had yesterday for a standard check-up.

As background, I have very good teeth. I have had a small number of fillings and never had any major teeth or gum problems. I always have wonderful dental check-ups and nobody ever tells me I'm doing anything wrong.

Yesterday's visit went very well, as usual. After the hygienist used her little scraper on my bottom teeth - before doing the cleaning - she said that I only had a tiny amount of tartar and that my teeth looked great.

The dentist came in and took about 20 seconds to look around, made a comment about the warm weather and left.

So after 4 months of using our homemade toothpaste, everything is still in wonderful shape. I hope that says a little about it working just fine.

Roasted Garlic (and dinner idea)

Whenever we have roasted garlic with dinner, I always forget how long and at what temperature to roast it. So I thought I'd just post it here so I always know where to look.

How to Roast Garlic

1. Pre-heat oven to 400.

2. Peel off thin outer layers, but keep the cloves together.

3. Cut off the tips.

4. Drizzle top with olive oil and wrap in foil.

5. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes.

6. When it's cooled enough to touch, squeeze the garlic out of each clove.

Peel thin outer layers.

Cut tops off.

Drizzle with olive oil and wrap in foil.

***

Here's an idea of how to put the roasted garlic to use:

Noodles with Roasted Veggies

Pasta of your choice
Roasted Garlic
Roasted Zucchini (500 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes)
Roasted Tomatoes
Fresh basil

Cook noodles. Coat with olive oil. Add veggies and basil.

Homemade Deodorant

It's time to get a little personal and talk about deodorant.

For years, I have used an antiperspirant, even thought a while back I heard that it wasn't good for you, especially if it contains aluminum (which I assume most do). Every once in a while I have given a natural deodorant a try, but they never work. I have always gone back to my trusty old aluminum.

But after I started making all my changes around the house with my personal care products and cleaning products, I knew my stick of Dove had to go (not only does it have aluminum, but also many other nasty ingredients.)

*For more reading about deodorants, check out these articles:

Beware of aluminum in deodorant products
Top five ingredients to avoid in deodorant

So I had been given a homemade deodorant recipe last fall. I tucked it away for later, and then sometime in November or December I made a batch to give it a try.

I have been using it for about 6 months now and I can say that I love, love, love it and will never return to store-bought.

I waited to blog about it because while it was working just fine during the cold months, I needed to give it some Southern heat before making the final verdict.

And I can say that after a few hot days so far this Spring - which included doing some afternoon yard work - that this absolutely works better than my old stick of Dove. It's quite amazing (even by the following morning, I am still fresh as a rose).

***

Homemade Deodorant

1/3 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup corn starch
optional: a few drops of essential oil for scent

Heat through on the stove. Pour into a container with a lid (ideally a glass container).

With clean hands, scoop out a small amount with your finger and rub it on. 

The consistency will change depending on the season (it will be solid in the winter and much softer in the summer).

***

I'm almost finishing up with my first batch now...and as I said, I started 6 months ago. And I'm definitely saving money this way.

So if you have doubts about the safety of your deodorant, give this a try and see how it works for you. You might be surprised.

Locally Grown Veggies

I just want to brag briefly about my husband.

Since we moved into our house 2 years ago, he has had visions of starting a vegetable garden in our backyard. And with lots of work since earlier this year, we now have a young, but strong garden!

He has put in a lot of time, but now very soon, we'll able to walk right out there and pick what we need for snacks, dinner, or whatever.

In the above photo is the bulk of it. We also have a couple other things planted throughout the backyard, and there is more on either side of the house.

Here's what we will have to enjoy:

Kale
Green Beans
Corn
Turnips
Beets
Bell, Banana and Jalapeno Peppers
Cherry, Grape, and Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes
Zucchini
Butternut Squash
Cucumber
Tomatillos 
Watermelon
Blackberries
Blueberies
Fig Trees
Strawberries
Herbs (Basil, Parsley, Cilantro)
Sweet potatoes (to come soon)

Our son, Luke, going to see what he can get into

Thanks, Sean for all your hard work in trying to feed this family right.

Good-bye Frizz

A few weeks ago, I wrote about going shampoo-free and switching to homemade options. The one I chose was using diluted baking soda, and then a rinse of diluted apple cider vinegar. Seems like a crazy way to clean your hair, but somehow it does seem to work.

In my previous post, I was mostly covering why commercial shampoo can be harmful to you, and then how to make your own instead. But I didn't say much about how it's specifically working for my hair.

(I want to say again that I know not everyone will get the same results when doing things homemade, so all I can speak to is my own personal experience with it.)

For as long as I can remember, I've been fighting against frizzy hair. I also have very thick hair, that is either heavy when worn long, or wavy and doing funny things went short.

6 years ago - used my hair straighener

Around 10 years ago, my sister-in-law gave me a gift of a hair straightener. I loved it and was able to have thinner-looking non-frizzy hair. I did that just about every day for 5 years. Then my daughter was born and I no longer had time to straighten it. So it didn't take long to start putting my hair back in a pony tail every day.

I stopped using my commercial shampoo 3 months ago. It took a good 3 to 4 weeks to get my hair's oil production back down to a normal rate. And since that has leveled off, my hair's texture is a lot better. It seems softer...but most importantly:

NO FRIZZ.

I wanted to break the pony tail cycle, so a few weeks ago I cut it short like I used to wear it in college. Now it's easier to wash with the natural stuff, it dries so much quicker, it doesn't get frizzy, and I can go 2 days between washing.

I truly believe that the store-bought stuff was damaging my hair and creating the frizz, along with the need to wash it every day.

I strongly encourage anyone to throw out their bottle of goopy toxins and try a natural solution (sure, you can buy something natural, but it's so expensive and tricky to find one 100% truly natural -  even "fragrance" is a harmful ingredient).

It may be a slight struggle in the beginning to find something that works for you, but do some experimenting because it's so worth it when you come out on the other side.

Is Fluoride safe?

In the past, I have heard things here and there about fluoride not being safe for us. But until now, I have never looked into it. I now see that there is quite a controversy over this topic, especially whether it should be in our drinking water or not (I must be living under a rock, but I didn't know there could be anything wrong with it in our water supply). But fluoride in our water is a separate issue; so let's just focus on toothpaste.

First of all, the warning on all toothpastes should give us a clue:

Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.

With a warning like that, why is everyone not questioning whether or not this should be in our toothpastes - where swallowing can occur, especially for our children?

As we all know, the purpose of fluoride is to prevent tooth decay. Whether it does this or not (there is evidence that it might not even fight tooth decay very well...see article linked below), we are ignoring the fact that it is toxic for us and can have many negative effects on our health.

A very informative article was written by Dr. Mercola just a few months ago:

You’re Still Told Fluoridation Prevents Tooth Decay, but Science Proves Otherwise

I would recommend reading through it for comprehensive information on this. He goes into great detail about the harmful effects and how the bad vastly outweighs the good.

Towards the bottom of this article, Dr. Mercola posts a video of an interview with Dr. Osmunson, who is a dentist fighting against the use of fluoride. This is a very informative video. Please watch...


I'm only siting from one source, so I encourage you - if you have never researched it - to look further into this. To me, fluoride seems to be something to stay far away from, but it's only from hearing the studies which show that it's not effective on our teeth and that it's harmful to our bodies.