Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Thursday, November 21, 2019

The versatility of powdered fruits, vegetables, and more

It all began with Wildtree… Almost 20 years ago, I met a representative (consultant) from the company at a Home Show that I was regularly tagging along on or working with my in-law's bathroom remodeling business.
They are a mostly organic (before organic was a thing), touting the advantages of Grapeseed Oil, as well as season mixes for easy to make dinners.
Well, I purchased a couple of those seasoning mixes and the grapeseed oil every year I saw her, until I learned that could do it on my own for much cheaper. So from then on, I bought herbs and spices in bulk and made my own blends.
The one thing that I continued to purchase all these years, was the "Cheesecake" blends, which are basically powdered freeze dried fruit blends. After they stopped using consultants at the beginning of the year to sell their products, I thought all was lost. I stocked up on what I could afford, since the 1.8 oz glass jars were $10 each plus shipping! Our kids use these blends to make flavors in their yogurt, so that I can purchase the large Stonyfield Whole Milk Vanilla or Brown Cow Maple containers and not have a huge expense buying the single flavored kinds.
Well, as I always do, when we are just about out and have no where to purchase what we want, I hit the Google search. Low and behold, a company that I had seen start up years ago, Nuts.com, had expanded since the last time (YEARS) I had graced their website. They now have a plethora of fruit powders, more than I could even imagine, right on their website and for a fraction of the cost I was paying for those tiny jars. I'm thinking a lot of people use these for their workout protien smoothies and such, as they have every component of powdered herb, vegetable, etc to make you own protein mix to tailor to what you want instead of the premixed containers touted by every company under the sun.
So, last night, I purchased the basics, as well as some other powders that intrigued me. For the kids' yogurt, I got Strawberry, Blueberry, and Raspberry. For me, I got Coconut Water, Lemon, Lime, VitaCherry, and Acerola Cherry.
To my amazement, it arrived on my doorstep less than 24 hours after I ordered!
As I write this, I am sipping on a “fruit tea”. I used 4 oz boiling water, 1 tbsp of the Strawberry powder, 1 tbsp of Raspberry powder, and a tsp of honey. It is so good that my littlest boys had to have a mug of their own. This is definitely something I can feel good about giving my children, especially during the winter when we are missing the fresh berries of our favorite seasons. This morning, as soon as I ripped open the box, I made a coconut water and cherry drink that I sipped throughout the day. I used 8 oz of Reverse Osmosis water, 2 tbsp of coconut water powder, 1/4 tsp Acerola Cherry powder, 1 tsp VitaCherry powder, and 2 drops of liquid Stevia that I use pretty much daily anyway. I also made my daily citrus water with the lemon and lime powders (1tsp of each) and 4 drop of Stevia in my Ball Jar glass that I carry around with a silicone straw to keep my water intake up.
Before dinner, the children and I made the Mixed Berry mix for them to use for yogurt. We tried a small bit and we are ecstatic that it tastes even better than the Wildtree brand. The recipe I used for that was 2 tbsp each Strawberry, Raspberry, and Blueberry powder and 1 tbsp of the VitaCherry. The Wildtree brand adds sugar to theirs and I am liking that there won’t be anymore added sugar now, than what is already in the yogurt.
I am so excited to see how many combinations we will be able to come up with. My next order, I am excited to try making bubble teas. Nuts.com sells the black tapioca pearls and a variety of tea mixes, even a watermelon mix!
The other thing I am contemplating, is the protein powders that they have. They have grass-fed whey as well as brown rice protein powder.

I hope this helps you, like it is helping me and my family. I will try my best to keep a log of what kinds of powders we get and what we do with them. I just had to let my readers know about this wonderful discovery I made.


I am in no way paid by Nuts.com. I purchased these on my own account.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Homemade Laundry Room

After years of using Charlie's Soap, I am finally going to start making our laundry detergent too. I am planning on only making small batches, as large batches are hard to mix thoroughly and need a cool place to store. All my cool storage space is for food...

I am going to use the following recipe

  • 1 bar (or 4 1/2 oz) of grated bar soap (homemade basic bar soap, Dr. Bronner’s, Ivory, ZOTE, or Fels-Naptha) I will be using my own homemade soap.
  • 1 cup of borax
  • 1 cup of washing soda
  • 1/2 cup baking soda (buy in bulk and save big!)
Thoroughly stir together and use 1 tbsp for small loads and 2 tbsp for large/heavy duty loads. Yes, this is safe for HE washers.

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I also came across homemade fabric softener.  I haven't used any for a long time, much to my husband's dismay. So I will start, so his clothes can "smell clean". It's amazing what the laundry industry has done to us. Making us think our clothes have to reek of smell to be considered clean!

You can either add 1/4 cup of white vinegar and 6 drops of essential oil (lemon, sweet orange, tea tree, or lavender) or you can mix 1 cup Epsom salt and 10 drops of essential oil and add 1 tbsp in the softener spot.

I will try out both versions and let you know which I prefer. One may be better for hard water, but we will see.

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For dryer sheets, I have 2 alternatives. I have made/bought wool dryer balls. You can add a drop or 2 of essential oil on it and toss it in with your laundry. The other is to dampen a cloth square (my cloth
diaper wipes) and add a drop or 2 of essential oil on to that and toss it in with the clothes.

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Lastly, I have been using a natural alternative to bleach. There is a recipe here, but I just squirt a little lemon juice (bought in bulk at Sam's) and a squirt of hydrogen peroxide (also at Sam's) in the bleach spot.

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Here is an alternative to Oxyclean that I have not tried out yet. If you do try it, please leave a comment.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Let's do this!

If you read my blog regularly, you probably remember a post about going no-poo.

Well, as of tonight, after reading a free e-book from Amazon called How to Grow Long Hair. I decided it was time to try this again.
 
If this all works out, I would like to do as the other blog did and document how this all goes. I am not guaranteeing anything.

Here are my goals:
1. To go no-poo for at least 4 weeks.
2. Try to continue for 4 more weeks.
3. Go no-poo forever!

I will be using the Amazon e-book as a guide to help me get the best results with my type of hair (thick, wavy, and long). I used the yogurt and baking soda recipe tonight and will hopefully get pictures up tomorrow with what my hair looks like. I did not do the ACV rinse like I wanted to since we don't have any at this moment (I will be buying some from our co-op this month though), but I will from now on out. I pray I do not regret not using a rinse in the morning.

I am also planning on making the oatmeal mask with jojoba instead of the almond oil before my next wash. I will also try to do a hot oil treatment, but don't hold your breath for me. With 3 kids, I am blessed to be able to be able to just have a few minutes to sit and write on my blog when I do.

What I am expecting is a very greasy mess. For one, the last time I washed my hair with my usual Wen was 2 1/2 weeks ago.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Pear sauce day

Today is pear sauce day. You've definitely heard of apple sauce, but pear sauce?

3 years ago, I started making and canning pear sauce, since you can not seem to find it anywhere in the stores besides in the baby food aisle, which would cost me a small fortune! My kids prefer pears to apples any day. Maybe someday I'll have to try making plum sauce too...

I bought a bushel of pears from a local orchard last Saturday ( they actually delivered it to the Canton Farmer's Market for me!). They have been on my kitchen counter ever since, and today, the majority are ripe, so here we are today.

I use these instructions from start to finish. I use Bartlett pears, FYI.

Pears are locally in season right now, so if you would like to try this, get to your nearest pear orchard ASAP.

I am praying, that in the next few years I will have pears in my own back yard and will never have to source pears again, same with peaches also.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Let's retry this... Homemade Liquid Soap

Over a year ago, I tried making liquid "castile" soap and utterly failed. Why? Probably because I did not follow the directions. I did not want to give up a crock pot, so I tried to do it my way on the stove top. Big mistake! So, here I am again, now that my gallon of Dr. Bronner's is down to the last 16 oz, with a surrendered crock pot and a recipe I made with the soap calculator, so I could use up various bits of my soaping oil stash and the basics are rolled from the original blog post that started this challenge.

I used Silver Firs Farm's basics to make my own recipe. Also, as I said, you must surrender a crock pot for only liquid soap making, since you are using potash (also known as KOH or potassium hydroxide). If everything doesn't go as she says ( have no idea how she says it will be done in 3-4 hours...), be patient. It took from the start, 90+ minutes to get it thick, even with my hand blender, off and on, so I didn't burn the motor up. Then I needed to stir until extremely thick, which was again, on and off for an hour or so, then I stirred every 20-30 minutes on low for 4 hours, then turned it back up to high until bed time, which was 6 hours, stirring every 15 minutes, then turned it off until we got back up this morning and stirred every 15-20 minutes on high for 4 hours. It is finally done! I added the boiling water straight to the crock pot instead of needing to clean another thing. Now I just have to wait until it is dissolved to bottle it in a recycled apple cider jug and cure it for the next 4 weeks. After that, I plan on giving each member of the family their own personal bottle with a scent they want. I will use .5 oz per 16 oz of soap, in case anyone is wondering. I get soap scents from EBay and MMS.
Dissolving...

Friday, August 9, 2013

Thinking of the future. A green burial

I just happened to come across "Green Burials" last night. I had heard about them a few years ago, but didn't really look into it. Now, since many family members this year have passed, I thought I should start thinking about what we want.

This type really appeals to me, since it is really the kind of burial Jesus had.

I am posting link that I came across last night in my mini research time before I fell asleep.

I am pretty happy that the cemetery down the street has started to offer a site for green burials in the past year.



http://www.rodale.com/green-funerals-0?page=0%2C0

Sunday, July 21, 2013

TOD 7/21/13

 
You can also use wintergreen essential oil and xylitol. I am planning on using this for our first homemade toothpaste and put it in a cleaned out tube of toothpaste with the crimped end cut off and then put one of those tube squeezers on the end.