Archives for May 2013

Raising Real Food Kids {Raising Healthy Families}

May 31, 2013 By Anne Simpson

Raising Healthy Families series

Welcome back to the Raising Healthy Families series - a fun and informative series designed to help you and your family thrive! Join us each Friday as we take a look at different ways to keep your family healthy and vibrant in a not-so-healthy world!

raising real food kids

Written by Emily McClements of Live Renewed

As you push your child in a cart down the aisles of the grocery store, they are bombarded by brightly colored packages and more choices then they would ever know what to do with. The produce department is a full rainbow of fruits and veggies from around in the world, all looking like they’re at the peak of ripeness. And the cereal aisle is a rainbow full of sugar, artificial vitamins and minerals, and toxic dyes that are meant to attract your child’s attention.

So how do we teach our kids what real, seasonal, and local food actually is? Emily McClements of Live Renewed gives us easy ideas to help us teach our kids what’s on their plates, and where their food really comes from.

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Homemade Tea Recipes {Raising Healthy Families}

May 24, 2013 By Anne Simpson

Over the last 50 years, we’ve had a major shift in the American diet. We’re now consuming more of our calories by drinking them. In fact, the average American is now drinking approximately 400 calories per day!

Soda, fruit juice, energy drinks and sports drinks. My kids ask for them, do yours?

Reach for a healthier alternative: tea. Full of potent antioxidants, studies have proven tea is good for your health. Can any soda say that? Plus, with so many flavorful recipes, you’ll have no problem convincing your family to drink more healthy tea.

Andrea Green from The Greenbacks Gal shares her Homemade Tea Recipes that are sure to become family favorites.

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How to Clean Your Shower Fixtures Easily!

May 23, 2013 By Anne Simpson

You know how I love it when I discover the simplest way to accomplish a task. It’s even better when the simplest method is the most effective! And what really puts the cherry on top is when it also happens to be an all-natural, chemical-free solution.

Well, my friends, here’s one of those things that is all of the above: a simple, effective, all natural way to clean your shower head! I’m giving you the precise details on how to clean your shower head today over at Home Made Simple.

1 Comment Filed Under: At Home, Household Tagged With: cleaning

Natural Living in a Regular Family {Raising Healthy Families}

May 17, 2013 By Anne Simpson

Welcome back to the Raising Health Families series, join us each week as we take a look at different ways to keep your family healthy and vibrant in a not-so-healthy world.

read more about positively real media here

Written by Sara from Your Thriving Family

Many of us are trying to eat real food and get back to natural products, for what we believe to be the best for our families. The wall we sometimes hit, unfortunately, can be our well-meaning and loving extended family.

How do you continue along your journey and keep the peace with the extended family? Natural Living in a Regular Family, is about finding the balance and putting relationships first. Click on over for finding the grace in what goes in and on your family.

Next week is learn about the power of tea and some great homemade recipes.

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The BEST Homemade Dishwasher Detergent {In My Humble Opinion}

May 12, 2013 By Anne Simpson

OK folks. First of all, before we get to the good stuff (i.e., the dishwasher detergent recipe… if you want to call it that), I have a disclaimer. Actually two.

Disclaimer #1: Those are not my dishes in the above picture. That is not actually my picture. The reason being that my kitchen has absolutely NO natural light and the only pictures I could take of my dishwasher were dull, lifeless and dark. Not a pretty start to the blog post, so I borrowed a photo from a gentleman named David Locke. Thanks, David!

Disclaimer #2: Just because *I* think it is the best dishwasher detergent recipe EH-VEHR does not necessarily mean that you will agree. You will just have to try it and see!

Now… on to the good stuff. This post has actually been a long time coming; in fact, I think I’ve been tweaking my dishwasher routine for as long as 2 years! This is what I’ve settled on and it works the best of any concoction I have tried. This homemade dishwasher detergent even works better than store-bought natural detergents I have tried (the one exception being Ecover)!

I was originally inspired by Jillee of One Good Thing’s “Dishwasher Triple Threat”. The simplicity of her system and the fact that there was no mixing, stirring, clumping, or any other difficulties involved in the procedure totally appealed to me! However, I wanted something that was totally chemical-free, so I took her basic recipe and started tweaking.

What I eventually came up with was this:

See the terrible pictures I get in my kitchen?!

Super Simple Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Ingredients

1 tsp. oxygen bleach
1/8-1/4 tsp liquid castile soap
3-5 drops lemon essential oil

Instructions

Place the ingredients in the main detergent cavity of your machine. Operate the dishwasher as usual.

A few notes:

Do not use either too much oxygen bleach or too much liquid castile soap. The one will leave your glasses cloudy, and the other will gunk up your plastic. (Don’t ask me how I know.)
Make sure your oxygen bleach does not have any added chemicals to it. I’ve personally been using Tropical Traditions Oxygen Bleach.
Dr. Bronner’s Citrus Orange liquid castile soap is a great choice for this!
Do thoroughly rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.
You can try adding vinegar as a rinse aid for even better results. I’ve heard mixed reviews about whether or not this is actually helpful, and I haven’t actually tried it myself because the rinse aid dispenser on my previous machine didn’t work (and I haven’t tried it with my current one yet).
I do use Lemi-Shine in conjunction with this recipe on occasion (no rhyme or reason really, just when I feel like it!). It’s particularly good if you have hard water.
Lemon essential oil is truly the best oil to use. I’ve tried others - even other citrus oils - and they just don’t cut it like the lemon does.
I don’t even measure anymore, I just eyeball everything. I’m just careful not to put too much of any one ingredient in there.

The million-dollar question is, of course, does this concoction really work?! My short answer is “Yes!”.

These are my dishes, and this is my dishwasher.

My long answer is this:

Like I said, if I use too much oxygen bleach or castile soap, either the glass or the plastic gets cloudy and filmy. And to be perfectly honest, certain types of glass can end up cloudy in any case (which is why I occasionally use Lemi-Shine, which helps). My Pyrex bowls and measuring cups always come out sparkling clean, but my drinking glasses (especially one particular kind) can get cloudy. I’m not sure if the reason is because of their cylindrical shape (making them more difficult to rinse out thoroughly, perhaps?) or the type of glass they are made with, but I will admit that I occasionally just wash them by hand. However, I will also say that with the exception of Ecover (of which I’ve only used samples), which I mentioned earlier, all the natural dishwasher detergents I have tried have left my dishes with the same exact cloudy residue (and were stinkin’ expensive to boot!).

In my experience, if you consistently want dishes that have absolutely no residue on them, you will have to compromise with some chemicals. Here are some options that may or may not be better than just plain old Finish or Cascade:

The oxygen bleach at The Dollar Tree (LA’s Totally Awesome Oxygen) works perfectly, even by itself. However, it smells like chemicals and I couldn’t find out exactly what they added to the oxygen bleach, so I stopped using it. If you’re comfortable with mystery chemicals that may or may not have been approved even by the FDA for dishwasher use, then go for it (keeping in mind that the FDA has outlawed certain chemicals for use in dishwasher detergents).
Dawn (or presumably other mainstream dishwashing liquid) works very well in place of the liquid castile soap and doesn’t leave behind any residue.

For myself, I’ve been very pleased with this recipe, and have been using it consistently for 6 months or more. Dealing with some cloudiness on certain types of dishes, or occasionally re-washing dishes by hand, is totally worth it to me since I am satisfied that our dishes have been cleaned without the use of any potentially harmful chemicals. It’s a trade-off, and one I’m personally willing to make. If you’re mostly interested in saving money rather than reducing chemical exposure, then I recommend going with options I mentioned above. But if reducing chemical exposure is important to you, I think you will be excited to give this dishwasher detergent a try!

The other burning question on your mind is, “Is it cost effective?”. A valid question! Here’s what I figure:

I pay about $10 locally for a 16oz bottle of Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap, which has approximately 384 uses with this recipe. That means it’s about $0.03/use.
Tropical Traditions oxygen bleach currently costs $16.75 for 6 lbs, which comes out to 576 uses, once again about $0.03/use.
Using Young Living Essential Oils Lemon Oil at the distributor price of $11.25 ranges anywhere from $0.08-$0.17/use, depending on how many drops in the bottle and how many drops you use each time. (And, of course, you can use the health store lemon essential oil which is cheaper. I’ve used both, and I can see a significant difference with the YLEO! The dishes get much cleaner, and one or two drops usually suffice.)
Bottom line: It comes down to a maximum of $0.23/use. That’s figuring on the high end with the essential oils, when in all likelihood, the total figure is probably closer to $0.15/use. Compare that to Ecover, which is currently available on Amazon.com for $0.27/use. If you use your dishwasher once a day, then that’s a savings of at least $15/year (or as much as $45!), and it doesn’t take any more time or effort.

If you’re interested in a super simple, cost-effective, all-natural way to clean your dishes in the dishwasher, then you should definitely try this method! And when you do - let me know! Did it work for you?

12 Comments Filed Under: At Home, Household

Stock Your Natural First Aid Kit for the Summer! {Raising Healthy Families}

May 10, 2013 By Anne Simpson

Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan and Stuff {Secret Recipe Club}

May 6, 2013 By Anne Simpson

I love broccoli. I mean, I looooovvvveee broccoli. Steam it, drown it in butter, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, and MMMMmmmmMMMM! That’s pretty much as close to heavenly as a vegetable can get.

So I was super excited (probably more than one should be regarding cruciferous vegetables) to see that my Secret Recipe Club assignment for the month, Life of a Modern Housewife, had a delicious recipe for broccoli! Um, yes, please! Heavenly vegetables? How could I resist!

If you, too, like roasted vegetables, The Modern Housewife has a great roasted carrots recipe as well. I absolutely love Chinese dumplings, so I’m definitely going to be trying her Steamed Chinese Dumplings recipe because she makes it look awfully easy (and way cute). If you’re more into desserts, try her Lemon Meringue Cupcake!

But back to the broccoli. What I love about this recipe is that it’s a sprinkle-this-and-drizzle-that kind of recipe. Totally my favorite way to cook! Honestly, there are so many recipes I come up with at home that I never blog about because I never take the time to sit down and measure them, and I know you all get tired of my ambiguous directions. But really, this recipe is so simple, and you can start with a whole pile of broccoli, or just a handful, and go from there with a sprinkle and a drizzle. I will say - for the inquiring minds that want to know - that I had a little less than a pound of broccoli florets, and I used 2 cloves of garlic. Other than that it was seriously just drizzling and sprinkling.

Roasted Broccoli with Parmesan and Stuff

Ingredients

Broccoli Florets
Garlic Cloves, Sliced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Lemon Juice and Zest
Grated Parmesan
Pine Nuts (or Sunflower Seeds, or Sliced Almonds)

Instructions

Place the broccoli florets on a rimmed baking sheet. (I used my cast iron pizza pan.)
Sprinkle them with the sliced garlic cloves (as many or as few as you want!)
Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast for about 20 minutes in a 425F oven. Remove from the pan into a bowl, and drizzle with a little bit more olive oil and a splash of lemon juice. Stir in some lemon zest and pine nuts, and top with Parmesan cheese before serving.