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.

Toothpaste: Synthetic Chemicals vs. Natural Ingredients

A couple of months ago, my husband and I stopped using toothpaste.

Well, we still clean our teeth, just not with the store-bought stuff that we have all used since we were about 2 years old.

Even though we don't swallow it, the ingredients in our toothpaste still get absorbed through our mouths. And with 1 1/2 to 2 minutes twice a day for a lifetime, that will sure add up.

Do you have any idea what's in your toothpaste besides fluoride? I took my old tube of AIM Cavity Protection Ultra Mint Gel and did some research on the ingredients.

Aside from Sodium Fluoride, everything in there is either for sweetening, thickening, emulsifying, lathering or coloring. And two of them (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and PEG-8) could possibly be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, which is a carcinogenic by-product made during the manufacturing process.

Here are two others who have written about common toothpaste ingredients:

What's in Toothpaste?
Do you know what's in your Toothpaste?

If you want to look up your own brand and its overall safety, you can look on either goodguide.com or cosmeticdatabase.com

***

Fluoride

Before continuing, I want to note that I am going to do a separate post about fluoride. In doing my research on toothpaste, I discovered that fluoride is a huge topic and quite controversial.

I have learned a lot about fluoride that I didn't know before, and have concluded that I want nothing to do with it (unfortunately, I have no choice that it's in my tap water). For anyone to leave fluoride behind in their dental care, it needs to be done as an informed decision.

But I will move forward with this post with the understanding that fluoride is NOT essential in dental care.

***

Going Natural

Because of all the synthetic chemicals in toothpaste - some more harmful than others - we decided to ditch the tube and make our own.

There are many ways to make your own - including using coconut oil - but we settled on baking soda and sea salt (with peppermint for flavor).

How are these ingredients effective?

Baking Soda: Make Your Own Natural Fluoride-Free Toothpaste

Baking soda is used for two reasons. First, it's a mild abrasive that provides a gentle cleansing. Second, it's alkaline. Being alkaline, baking soda can neutralize acids in your mouth that are often at the root of tooth decay. Baking soda also absorbs odors and helps produce sweet breath.

Sea Salt: Is Your Toothpaste Toxic?

According to Dentist Robert Nara, in his book, How to Become Dentally Self Sufficient, using real sea salt in your oral hygiene routine can treat or prevent most tooth and gum issues. Real sea salt contains a lot of trace minerals, many of which your teeth need to stay strong. Direct application of these minerals can benefit teeth and gums. Regular table salt does not work in the same manner and is not recommended for brushing.

When we first started using our homemade toothpaste, it took me several days to get used to the saltiness. We even reduced the salt in our second batch, but realized that it wasn't working as effectively. So we knew the salt was necessary.

After switching to the baking soda/salt, my mouth has felt fresher and cleaner after brushing. My teeth also feel smoother and the fresh breath seems to last longer. I certainly prefer this method to commercial toothpaste. I don't ever see going back.

Originally, I worked off of this recipe, but I have tweaked each batch until I got it how we like it. So of course, you may do some tweaking as well.

Cookie Monster fork used for scooping out our homemade toothpaste.

Homemade Toothpaste

1/3 cup baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-2 tsp peppermint extract (or peppermint essential oil, but only a few drops)
4-5 tsp water

Mix ingredients and put into a container with a lid (a small glass jar/container would be ideal). Use some sort of utensil/stick to scoop it out and apply to your toothbrush.

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!

***

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).

The FDA and Triclosan

Back in February, I wrote a blog post about hand soap. It was a long post, describing in detail the toxic ingredients contained in most hand soaps, one of which is triclosan.

Triclosan is used for its antibacterial properties. But it also has harmful effects on the human body, mainly that it's an endocrine disruptor.

According to Wikipedia, endocrine disruptors "are chemicals that at certain doses, can interfere with the endocrine (or hormone system) in mammals. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. Any system in the body controlled by hormones, can be derailed by hormone disruptors.

Skin Deep's Cosmetic Database gives triclosan a score of 7 (10 being the worst). Reasons given for the score are that it's an irritant, an endocrine disruptor, and has organ system toxicity. But to top it all off, when triclosan is mixed with the chlorine in tap water, it forms chloroform gas. The Cosmetic Database gives chloroform a score of 10 and it's "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen."

You can read more about triclosan here: PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS: Triclosan Comes under Scrutiny

Bottom line: DON'T USE ANY PRODUCTS CONTAINING TRICLOSAN

***

The FDA

Most Americans are probably under the assumption that all products and ingredients on the store shelves have been thoroughly tested for safety and given a seal of approval by the FDA. Because they are certainly watching our for our health, right?

Well, yesterday I came across an article on the home page of naturalnews.com:

FDA finally gets around to conducting safety review on toxic antibacterial chemical triclosan, already in consumer products for four decades

I encourage you to read the whole article, but I will take a few excerpts from it:

After more than 40 years of complete inaction in evaluating the potential side effects of the antibacterial chemical triclosan, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is finally getting around to conducting a review of this pervasive chemical additive, which is now found in more than 75 percent of all conventional hand soaps. 

A 2007 (University of Michigan) review found that, based on independent data compiled from 30 different academic sources, triclosan is no more effective at preventing illness or reducing bacteria on hands than plain hand soap. "At this point, it's just looking like a superfluous chemical."

...the FDA never actually approved the chemical for use in consumer products. In fact, a draft review compiled by the agency back in 1978 stated that triclosan was "not generally recognized as safe and effective."

Even though it lacked the proper safety data to do so, the FDA did, in fact, approve the use of triclosan in Colgate Total toothpaste back in 1997. But to this day, the agency has never shown that triclosan actually works as claimed, and its website even admits that the chemical still has not been shown to work in soap as an effective sanitizer.

Going back again to the Cosmetic Database, triclosan is in 91 of their products. Good guide has it in over 450 products, including in hand soap, hand sanitizer, body wash, facial cleanser, bar soap, toothpaste, moisturizer, dish soap, lipstick, eye shadow and many others.

Thanks for keeping us safe, FDA. Keep up the good work.

Homemade Alfredo Sauce

Our kids love noodles. And when we need a break from the red sauce or our butternut squash pasta sauce, we go for the Alfredo.

Until now, we've always relied on the jar. But we finally decided to make our own and it was delicious. Sean worked from a recipe on allrecipes.com:

Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce

I'll let you get the recipe from there. We had only two minor changes, listed below.

Homemade Alfredo sauce with sauteed onion and zucchini

The recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of butter. To make it healthier, we substituted olive oil (about 2 tablespoons).

Also, from our local farm stand, we are able to sometimes get white sweet potatoes. We baked one, pureed it and added it to the sauce. It gets hidden in there pretty well, and it gives the kids a little extra nutrition. 

Partially Hydrogenated Oils

When you're looking through an ingredient list on food packaging, you may shrug off any vegetable oils as being fine, like soybean oil. But when it has the words "partially hydrogenated" in front of it, you need to put it back on the shelf.

What is a hydrogenated oil?

Any oil can be hydrogenated, either partially or fully. A majority of the time in processed foods, they use soybean oil (which most likely is genetically engineered).

The process of hydrogenation is to take these oils in their natural state and raise them to very high temperatures and then force hydrogen gas into them at high pressure.

This changes the consistency from liquid to solid or semi-solid.

Why hydrogenate?

Companies prefer this type of oil for a few reasons.

First, it's cheap (and that always wins). It also prolongs the shelf life of the product, enhances the flavor, and creates a desirable texture in baked goods.

Why should you avoid it?

One of the main reasons to avoid this type of oil is that once it goes through this process, it now contains trans fats.

We have all heard that trans fats are bad, but do we specifically know why?

According to the article Soybean Oil: One of the Most Harmful Ingredients in Processed Foods, these unnatural, man-made trans fats are linked to:

• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Decreased Immune Function
• Reproductive Problems
• Chronic health problems such as obesity, asthma, auto-immune disease, and bone degeneration
• Heart disease
• Increasing "bad" cholesterol, while lowering "good" cholesterol

A list like that makes me want to stay far away from it. This type of oil is widely used in processed foods, which makes getting large doses quite easy for the typical American.

Watch out for the loop-hole.

Since 2006, the FDA has required trans fats to be listed on the label. But they also allowed any product with up to a half a gram to be rounded down to zero trans fats.

So what some companies have done is to get their serving size down small enough that it is half a gram or less.

If you see a serving size of 5 chips, or 1 cookie, then you know they're probably hiding something.

***

With hydrogenated oils having so many benefits to the manufactures, they have been used in thousands of food products. Don't let them bully you into eating them. Pick products without these oils...or better yet, grab a carrot :)

For more reading:

The health dangers of trans fats have been known for decades, yet food companies still poison customers with hydrogenated oils

What in the world are we eating?

It's an obvious statement to say that in general, Americans have a diet consisting mostly of highly processed foods. We hear all the time about things that are bad for us: high fructose corn syrup, genetically modified or engineered ingredients, trans fats, preservatives, pesticides. We hear about so many things causing cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, etc.

We hear all this, but we're still eating tons of processed foods without much thought behind it. Some people may truly not care what they put in their bodies, while others pay a great deal of attention to it and only eat "real" food.

A majority will fall in the middle somewhere: caring about their health, but at the same time probably fooled by the food industry, causing them to make poor food choices.

Advertising and food labels can be terribly misleading, even downright lying. Most of the options laid out in front of us in the supermarkets are "foods" boxed up with a list of 25 ingredients, leading people to believe that eating this way is our only option. We also have a false sense of security believing that the FDA is looking out for our health (I don't believe they are) and that if it passes the test and is on the shelf, then it can't possibly harm us.

I think that the general public is vastly uninformed about what they are eating. I have only begun in the past few years to pay very close attention to what I eat, and I'm upset that it took me this long to care.

The message has seemed to get out that we need to always check the ingredient list before buying something. The problem is, even when you glance over the list, you're probably only going to know what a handful of the ingredients actually are. So you recognize a few things, ignore the unpronounceables and put it in your cart anyway.

Not many of us take the time to learn what these ingredients are: what they are made from, how they are made, and what health affects they can have.

What I'm going to do (maybe weekly?) is take a common ingredient that I - and probably most people - don't know a thing about and elaborate on it. I want to learn right along with you. And even if you don't remember all the details of what I write, maybe the next time you see it listed, you'll know that it's generally a bad thing and needs to be avoided.

First up will be Partially Hydrogenated Oils...

*note: the ultimate goal should be to stop buying processed foods altogether. But I realize cutting them out 100% is a hard thing to do. I haven't even gotten there yet, so let's at least be educated on what's out there.

Going Shampoo-Free

I've talked a lot about ways to clean around the house using non-toxic ingredients, but I haven't gotten too much into personal care products. Today I want to get into the topic of shampoo.

When I started making things for myself about 4 or 5 months ago, I knew I would get around to shampoo eventually. I was more focused on replacing my cleaners and detergents. But one night in mid-February, I sat down with my shampoo bottle - a brand I've used for years - and looked up some of the unrecognizable ingredients. I was horrified and stopped using it immediately.

Shampoo is in no way an exception to all the toxic chemicals that the personal care product industry uses. These synthetic chemicals coat our hair to make it look "shiny and beautiful," but at the expense of allowing these harmful ingredients to enter our bodies.

Here's an article from naturalnews.com:

Popular Shampoos contain toxic chemicals linked to nerve damage

...it may surprise you to learn that manufacturers can put practically any chemical they want into shampoos, even if it is a hazardous chemical listed in the RTECS database of toxicity and even if it is considered a toxic waste chemical by the EPA. The FDA allows all sorts of chemicals to be used in these products, including chemicals that are known carcinogens and that contribute to liver failure and nervous system disorders. How's that for protecting public health?

 I found another article about shampoo at mercola.com:

Do You Know What's in Your Shampoo?

When you put shampoo or conditioner onto your scalp, the 20 blood vessels, 650 sweat glands, and 1,000 nerve endings soak in the toxins.

...when toxins are absorbed through your skin, they bypass your liver and enter your bloodstream and tissues -- with absolutely no protection whatsoever.

The article also lists 5 common - and toxic - shampoo ingredients. See if your bottle contains these.

For me, knowing that the chemicals in my shampoo bottle are doing some definite harm, I had no problem turning to a natural homemade solution...

***

What to use instead?

*First I want to note that any time you transition from commercial shampoo to anything natural/homemade, your hair will have to adjust. Shampoo over-strips your hair of its oils, so your scalp has to compensate. Now you have to train your scalp to slow down the oil production. The transition time is different for everyone, but for me, it took 3 to 4 weeks.

For the first month after ditching the bottle, I used a recipe I found online that used 6 natural ingredients. It worked okay, but I wasn't in love with it. It also wasn't as inexpensive as I wanted, so I looked for something different.

I started reading about the "no-poo" movement (as in no shampoo). I'm not sure when this got started, but the basic idea is to clean your hair without any commercial products. Mostly, this involves using baking soda to clean your hair and apple cider vinegar as a "conditioning" rinse.

Here are some others who have written about it:

Info: Shampoo Free

Shampoo-Free: Why and How

Going no-'poo?

So I've been using diluted baking soda followed by diluted apple cider vinegar for about a month and it's working quite well. I have tweaked my proportions a few times, but I think I'm settled on what's working best for me.

I recently found the article listed above (Info: Shampoo Free) that helped me clarify what proportions I should be using and why using too much baking soda - which I was - was not giving me great results (too much can dry your hair out and make it frizzy).

The article also gives some info about the history of shampoo, along with tips if the baking soda/ACV rinse isn't working very well. It's worth a read through.

So here's one way to go 'poo free:

Baking Soda "Shampoo"

1 cup water
1 Tbsp baking soda

Mix into a squeeze bottle. Shake up before each use. After applying to hair, let it sit for about a minute before rinsing off.

Apple Cider Vinegar Conditioning Rinse

8oz water
2 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar

I prefer to mix this in a small spray bottle (can also be kept in any kind of container that pours or squirts).

Use minimally. Too much can leave your hair greasy. When rinsed, your hair should not smell like vinegar.

***

Everyone's hair is different, so I am not convinced that this will work well for every single person. But there are many suggestions out there as to how to make your own shampoo so that you can quit buying from the store. A simple Google search should give you many, many options (one being to use castile soap: Use Natural Liquid Castile Soap for Safe and Wonderful Homemade Shampoos)

Just find what works for you. Happy hair cleaning :)

Corn Salad

We had this as part of our dinner a couple nights ago. It was Erin's idea, but unfortunately the picky eater that she is, she ended up not liking it. But I thought it was delicious.

It's a great side dish for a summer meal, especially next to something off the grill...

***

Corn Salad

Veggies:

Corn
Peas
Grape Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Cellery

Dressing:

1-2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1-2 Tbs olive oil

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1-2 tsp dried basil

 

Mix up and serve cold.

Glass Cooktop Cleaner (Natural)

Back in February, our whole family was sick with one or more of the following: a cold, an ear infection, pink eye, bronchitis, or strep throat. So when we had all gotten better, it was time to clean and disinfect the whole house.

When we got to the kitchen stove (glass top), I wanted to find an alternative to our Cerama Bryte Cooktop Cleaner.

(I tried to find out what the ingredients are in this, but most of it is "trade secret." What they do disclose are harmless ingredients - but what are they hiding with the rest of it? At the end of this data sheet, they classified it as "toxic material.")

In my online search, I found different suggestions for cleaning with natural ingredients, including baking soda, vinegar, dish soap and a combination of them. I've been experimenting with different variations and have found what works best, at least for me.

Note: I have found that it's much easier to clean up recent stains than to work on something that's been there a while. Even the Cerama Bryte didn't work very well on old stains. So it's best to get things up as soon as you can.

Natural Glass Cooktop Cleaner

My first step is to get up all the loose crumbs and wipe it as clean as possible with a wet rag.

Then I sprinkle some baking soda and work on the dark stains with the rag. This usually gets up most of it (again, not so well on old stains).

When you need a little extra cleaning power, put down a little liquid castile soap (I assume dish soap would work too) along with the baking soda. The two together seem to work a little better than just the baking soda alone.

Wiped with a wet rag.

Cleaned with baking soda.

Beer Can Chicken

This past weekend, we had beer can chicken as our main meat dish for our Easter dinner. I took pictures so that I could write about it, in case any of my readers didn't know how to make the most tender chicken you've ever had.

It's not complicated at all. It does help to have a stand (pictured to the right), but it's not necessary. The first one or two times we made it, we didn't have our stand yet.

Aside from that, you just need a whole chicken, a can of beer and some spice rub.

Beer Can Chicken

The can of beer. You can use any beer you want. Better beer doesn't make better tasting chicken, so use the cheap stuff (we used Miller Highlife this time).

You only need the can half full, so either dump out half or drink it. Poke a few holes in the top half of the can. Put some of the spice rub (whatever you're using) into the can.

The chicken. Take the whole chicken and get it onto the stand. Rub it down with olive oil and then the spice rub.

Bake it. Preheat oven to 350. Bake it for an hour and fifteen to an hour and forty-five (depending on how big and how cold...). 

Ready for the spice rub (or a puppet show)

Bake em'

All done!

Tender, juicy, delicious chicken!

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!

***

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.

***

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).

Mashed Cauliflower with Sauted Mushrooms

The other day, dinner didn't look like it was going to make enough for all of us. So Sean improvised and came up with a SPECTACULAR side dish. He can't take all the credit, though, as part of the idea came out of our Nutrition Action newsletter (the mushroom part).

I don't care for mushrooms too much, but both of us were amazed at the flavor of this. Definitely a repeat side dish.

Mashed Cauliflower with Sauted Mushrooms

1 16oz. bag of frozen cauliflower
1 medium chopped potato (peeled or not)
2 Tbsp butter
1-2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

10-12 sliced mushrooms
2 Tbsp balsalmic vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce

Cauliflower

Boil the potato until it's starting to get soft. Add the cauliflower and bring back up to a boil. Cook until both are soft enough to puree. Puree with an immersion blender, food processor or blender. Add butter, garlic powder and salt.

Mushrooms

Saute mushrooms in olive oil over medium heat until well browned. Add balsalmic vinegar and soy sauce and stir until most of the liquid has evaporated.

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.

Cleaning Metal Pots

Bar Keepers Friend

For a long time, Sean and I have used Bar Keepers Friend to polish up our copper bottom pots. It's a cleaner and polisher that can be used on stainless steel, chrome, porcelain, ceramic cooktops, brass, tile and copper. It removes rust too. It works very, very well.

I was using it the other day, and I thought about the fact that I didn't know anything about this product; what it contains or whether it has toxic chemicals in it or not (there is no ingredient information on the label).

I searched around the internet and found out that the active ingredient is oxalic acid. Here's what I've gathered about it: it's a toxic chemical, harmful if inhaled, can be absorbed through the skin, can irritate the skin, eyes and lungs, and can cause kidney damage.

Here's a report on oxalic acid, and here's an article on eHow Health - Oxalic Acid Dangers.

I don't know how much oxalic acid is in Bar Keepers Friend, or if it makes this product unsafe or not, but I have decided to stop using it on my cookware.

**In searching, I couldn't find anything that says Bar Keepers Friend is dangerous to use. But since I am going 100% toxic free in my cleaning, it's my personal decision not to use it since it contains an unknown amount of a toxic chemical.

***

An Alternative

I still want to get my pots clean (often soap and water isn't enough to bring back the shine)...so what do I use now?

Well, a while ago, I came across an awesome blogger, Jillee, who posts all sorts of useful household tips, recipes, etc. While I was looking for some of her homemade cleaners, I came across this post: Kitchen "Miracle" Cleaner.

Basically, mix up a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. I tried it on my everyday silverware and it made them shiny as new. I also cleaned my kitchen faucet with it and again - shiny as could be.

So I thought about trying it out on the copper bottom pots. And it worked wonderfully! Equally as good as the Bar Keeper's Friend.

In the above photo, I cleaned the whole pot the best I could with soap and water - even using a scrub brush. The right side was as clean as I could get it. Then I used the baking soda - peroxide paste on only the left side. Very shiny!

Read more about Hydrogen Peroxide and its uses: Use Hydrogen Peroxide to Heal and Stay Healthy.

Tahini

Our half-used jar of Tahini

Tahini is a paste made from ground sesame seeds, usually found in Middle Eastern dishes. It's very nutritious and can be used in a lot of ways.

From MindBodyGreen, here are
10 Reasons to Eat Tahini:

1. It’s rich in minerals such as phosphorus, lecithin, magnesium, potassium and iron. 
2. It's a good source of Methionine, which aids in liver detoxification. 
3. It’s one of the best sources of calcium out there. 
4. It’s high in vitamin E and vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5 and B15. 
5. Helps to promote healthy cell growth. 
6. Prevent anemia. 
7. Helps to maintain healthy skin and muscle tone. 
8. It has 20% complete protein, making it a higher protein source than most nuts. 
9. It's easy for your body to digest because of its high alkaline mineral content, which is great for assisting in weight loss. 
10. It is high in unsaturated fat (good fat!)

Here's what it says on our bottle of Tahini:

High in protein and other nutrients, it is a flavorful base for appetizer spreads, a topping for pasta or falafel, or an ingredient in soups and salad dressings. Tahini is also ideal for desserts and confections such as halva.

We've been using our jar to make hummus and salad dressing. I thought I'd share these delicious recipes...

(just to be aware, the jar is expensive...around $7. But you'll certainly get a lot of use out of it.)

***

Homemade hummus on a yellow pepper

Hummus

(original recipe is from allrecipes.com: Hummus...this is very well reviewed. We modified it only slightly)

2 cups canned chickpeas (or cooked chickpeas*)
1/3 cup tahini
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1-2 cloves of garlic (or a sprinkle of garlic power)
1 tsp salt
sprinkle of paprika
1/4 cup olive oil 

In a food processor, combine all ingredients except olive oil. As it's mixing, slowly pour in the olive oil until smooth. Keep refrigerated.

*Instead of a can, buy some dried chickpeas (much more cost effective and no added salt). Soak them in water overnight, boil them in water for about 45 minutes. 

Easy Ways to Spice Up Hummus 

Hummus is great with veggies (like carrots, broccoli, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, celery), bread, crackers and chips.

***

Tahini Salad Dressing

(idea based off of a Rachael Ray recipe...but drastically simplified)

1/4 cup tahini
2 Tbsp soy sauce
drizzle of vegetable oil
sprinkle of lemon juice
sprinkle of white sugar

Mix together. Easily double or triple to keep on hand in the fridge.

***

Broccoli and Cabbage Salad

Mix together:

- fresh broccoli
- red cabbage
- sesame seeds

(cashews and/or raisins would also be good)

Top with Tahini Dressing listed above.

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!

***

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!