Castile Soap

Recently got together with some friends to make some soap. Yet another avenue to being more natural. We don't (and haven't for some time) even have store bought bar soap in the house. All we use is the Castile soap bars I make. It is fun to experiment with putting stuff in the soap, I have added coffee ground, millet & calendula petals. I have made several different scents, mango, peach, coffee, cucumber melon, tea tree and lavender, lavender and lemon, peppermint & apple. So experiment away! Soap makes a great gift too.


Castile Soap

74 oz of olive oil (by weight)
14 oz of coconut oil (by weight)
24 oz cold water (by weight)
12 oz of lye crystals (by weight)

Measure the lye into a glass container (no plastic or metal!!!) add the water to this. Do this outside!!! Vinegar neutralizes lye if you get any on you wash with vinegar asap. Stir with a wooden spoon. The lye will destroy anything it touches over time, so use a spoon you don't like. Once you combine these two it will get very hot. You want to bring the temp down to 120-110. I do this by bringing it inside and placing it in a sink of cold water.

At the same time combine the oils (I use the cheapest quality oils available) heat them to 110-120 degrees as well. The trick is getting them both at the same temp at the same time. The oil will heat up fairly quickly, but takes forever to cool down, will continue to get hotter ever after the heat is turned off as well. The lye you cannot reheat. So that is the one you watch closer. If it starts getting close to the desired temp. Pull it out of the cold water and let it sit on the counter until the oil is at the right temp. Combine. Using a stick blender (if plastic never use on food again, if metal it will be ok) only use the actual power on the stick blender for about 5-10 seconds with a 30 second break in between or you will burn out the motor. In between just use the stick blender like a stirring spoon. Do this until it gets thicker and when you pull the blender up the drippings stay on top. Make sense? at this point add any herbs, scents, and or colors you like. Immediately pour into molds. If you use crayons as color add those to the oils when heating them. The color will change as it drys. Let it sit in the molds for about 24 hours then pop in the freezer and pop out of the mold. Let sit and cure for at least 6 weeks. The longer it cures the longer it will last and the harder the soap will be.

Shanda

Chia Drinks For Summer

I have had chia seeds in my cupboard for a long long time, I know they are super good for you etc. But other than tossing them in a smoothie I never really used them much. Well that changed a while back when I stumbled upon a recipe for a drink with chia seeds in it. Sounded interesting so I gave it a try and perfected my own recipe. It's very similar to the drink you can buy Mamma Chia, which is like $4+ for a 10oz bottle. My recipe is like maybe a dollar for 32oz. :)

 Chia Drink Recipe
1/3 cup of chia seeds
2 cups of filtered water

place in a 1 quart jar and put lid on tightly, place in fridge for 12 hours or overnight. In the morning or whenever you decide to use it fill the jar the rest of the way with the juice of your choice.  :)

Something interesting I have also uncovered is chia seeds should really only be consumed when re-hydrated, even in smoothies etc. When consumed dry they are very dehydrating to the body.

This drink tastes great any time, but is best consumed on a hot day while relaxing on the deck :)

 

Shanda

Coffee Creamer, Lemon Juice, Limoncello & Apple Sauce

I am not by any means addicted to coffee, I have probably 3-5 cups per week on a good week. Some weeks I don't get any. Anyways, I am not a black coffee drinker. I am a sissy when it comes to coffee I guess. I enjoy  a healthy dose of half and half with some stevia or sugar. If I am really getting spoiled I enjoy a store bought creamer. Usually avoid these as I don't like the ingredients in them, although you can buy ones with pretty clean ingredients, most are full of hydrogenated oils (future post on that I promise). Ok so I decided the other day to make my own coffee creamer. My favorite store bought creamer flavor is of course a seasonal one as well, Peppermint Mocha. It is heavenly tasting. So I made my own the other day and it is so good!

Peppermint Mocha Coffee Creamer

2 cups of half and half
6 Tbsp of sugar (I used pure can sugar, you can also use pure maple syrup)
3 Tbsp of cocoa powder (unsweetened for baking)
3-5 drops of peppermint essential oil (make sure it is one that is safe for consumption. Most are not. I used Young Living brand, if you want more info about their oils etc message me). If you want you can try using 1 tsp of peppermint extract, I just prefer the purity of just 5 drops of essential oil.

Over medium heat combine first 3 ingredients and blend together well and dissolve sugar. Turn off heat add the essential oil and put in a jar or container of some sort and put it in the fridge. It is really that easy.  :)

This recipe of course can be messed with and made tons of different ways. If you don't like peppermint mocha try removing the cocoa powder and peppermint essential oil and add some vanilla.

On my grocery trip run to get half and half (to make coffee creamer), I got a bunch of lemons for super cheap (15 cents each!). Well upon returning home with them I realized when going to put them in the fridge I have some sort of lemon addiction I guess, there were already like some 15-20 lemons in my fridge. :) So I decided I would zest and juice 20 or so of them to prevent them from going to waste. I zest them and keep the zest in the freezer (labeled of course) for all sorts of uses, mainly a super yummy lemon cheesecake I make that my family and friends love. The juice I use in cooking etc. I recently learned that store bought lemon juice is not really pure lemon juice, mostly water. So I just juice my own and put it in a jar, lasts a long time. It also makes great lemonade. So I got all the lemons zested and juiced, and I had of ton of each. I ended up freezing 2/3 of the lemon juice, and half of the lemon zest. and had so much lemon zest left I decided to make Limoncello, something I have been wanting to make for some time now. The recipe I used is-http://allrecipes.com/recipe/limoncello/

My next adventure was discovering all the apples in the crisper with the lemons, they had been there awhile so I decided it was time to use them. I decided after some debating with myself to make applesauce. I peeled and cored about 20 apples and threw them in a big pot with a little water, let it simmer for about 30 mins then stuck my stick blender in it and blended them until smooth. I didn't add anything to the apples except maybe 1/2 cup of water and that was just to keep them from burning while they got soft. It is so yummy.

Both of these are ways to use up fruit that is on the down hill slope. I hate throwing food away and rarely do, as I either dehydrate it or use it in another way.

Shanda

Kombucha

This post is probably going to be a bit unsettling to my less "crunchy" readers, but stay with me :) I have been making this drink for a long time as well as several of my family members and friends. It is super good for you, full of probiotics etc. You can actually buy this stuff bottled at places like Whole Foods, but it costs a pretty penny. It is super cheap and easy to make so I make it myself.

Kombucha

1 gallon of water (distilled not tap)
3/4 cup sugar (raw is best, but white will do)
4-8 tea bags (any variety, I use green tea)
1/2 to 1 cup of kombucha
1 kombucha mother or scoby (this is the culture)

Dissolve sugar in water over low to medium heat, add tea bags and steep to desired strength, remove tea bags. Totally cool then add kombucha and scoby (from a previous batch or get some from a friend if this is your first batch). Place in a large glass container or jar. I cut this recipe in half a lot, as we just don't go through it quickly enough.

Cover with a tea towel and let sit for 5-10 days on the counter. The longer it sits the stronger it gets. I prefer mine around day 5. All you do is pour off 90% of the liquid through a strainer and put it in the fridge. Saving the remaining 10%  of liquid and the scoby to start another batch. If you don't want to start another batch right away it can sit (as long as there is enough liquid left) for a long time.

Couple things to take note of :)
*even though it has been put in the fridge the kombucha will start to form mini scoby's after time and become stronger or more vinegary tasting. Not bad by any means you just want to strain it before drinking and may not like the flavor as it gets stronger.
*the mother scoby will continue to form "daughter" scoby's. They kind of look like pancakes stacked on each other. They start off thin but get thicker. These you can either leave in the jar or take out with some of the kombucha to give to a friend so they can start their own. :) Although these look delicate they are NOT, it takes a knife to cut them in half.  So no need to be delicate with them :)

*if your scoby starts to mold it is garbage. I have never had mine mold (only dry out after being left alone for many months) but if it does get mold on it toss it and you need another one. The scoby's will gets stains on them from the tea not to be confused with mold.

I understand this looks very gross to most people, but it does taste yummy, we love to grate some fresh ginger into ours, tastes like ginger ale. It is a carbonated drink also, so it can take the place of pop for those who love pop/soda.

If you would like to obtain a scoby and some kombucha to start your own batch, let me know and I can get it to you :)

Shanda

Cleaning the oven...ick

I hate cleaning the oven. I have never had any luck with "natural" cleaners either store bought or homemade. So I usually wait until it really needs it and then I open windows and spray the nasty chemical laden stuff in it and clean it. Well since that is so easy to do in freezing cold weather with  a toddler *wink* I just don't do it. So needless to say my oven was nothing to brag about.

That was working fine for me until the other night, we were having company over for dinner. Dinner was focaccia bread, lasagna, and chocolate cake from scratch. So the bread was in the oven baking, with time were it was as soon as it was done I needed to pop the lasagna in, and then as soon as that was done the cake. So the oven had a couple solid hours of work ahead of it. Time was going to be tight but I was pretty sure I could get it all baked in time. At least the bread and lasagna, the cake would bake while we ate dinner. Just seconds after I had this thought the olive oil that the focaccia bread bakes in boiled over (all over) and started smoking. This was of course about 10 mins before Dan was to get home from work. By the time he got home the smoke alarms were going off despite several windows being open. Needless to say plans had to change. I finished baking the bread and as soon as it was done and shut the oven off, left it open to cool, and threw a cold soaked towel on the bottom of the oven to help it cool faster. I needed it to cool down enough for me to clean it enough so I could bake the lasagna without it smoking up the house the entire time. I ran downstairs to get some oven cleaner. Thankfully I had a partial can. I ran back upstairs and the oven was cooled enough to start cleaning it. Started to spray the oven cleaner and it would not come out. Although there was still some in the can there was no air left in the can to push it out. I was at my wits end. I thought back to some "natural" homemade recipes I had read online and decided to make my own quickly and try to get it just clean enough to were the smoke alarms wouldn't be going off when cooking the lasagna. So I threw together some baking soda, water, and dish soap. Grabbed my toughest green scratch pad and dove into cleaning the stove, not expecting much. I was blown away by how well it worked. :) I was able to not only clean the olive oil mess but some much older messes in less than 10 mins. Took some elbow grease but it looked awesome and the lasagna cooked (and was done in time) without smoking the whole time. :)

So today I decided to make my little recipe again (this time measuring) and clean the oven really really well, as I did a just good enough job the first time. It worked great again! My oven is sparkling clean! I would say if your oven is super duper bad maybe use the store bough chemical can, but if it's not too bad just use this and avoid the $$ and the chemicals. :) I am pretty clean cook, so my oven wasn't horrendous. I will be using this and only this from now on out.

Shanda's Oven Cleaner~
1/2 cup baking soda
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp Dawn Dish soap

Mix together and use a very rough dry green scratch pad to apply it all over the oven. It really doesn't need to sit long if at all. Start scrubbing the spots in the oven, scrub until the spot is gone. Then wash with a wet rag and that's it. :)

Shanda