a recycled post, gearing up for 2010, & homemade recipes!

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Hiya RYD readers!! How are ya? Hope you had a wonderful holiday.

Here’s a post I wrote about last year… if you need any ideas for what to do with your X-Mas cards!

Donate Your Christmas Cards

I’ve been looking at last year’s Green Vision’s and thinking about what some will be in 2010…

My vision board is a work in progress as I find pictures and words to summarize my goals and future!

Lately, I’ve been doing my best to meditate and visual what it is I truly want and what makes me happy. I also focus some time on my boys’ and our future together as unschooler’s. It’s going to be a great journey. I can only hope  we make it the greatest experience.

{Anywho}

I mentioned in an earlier post; I was going to make homemade gifts/goods for Christmas and that’s exactly what I did. ( I didn’t get any pictures of the green cleaning supplies; but I promise I made them.) I bought 2 new squirt bottles and reused and old one. I filled them up with…

1/2 cup of vinegar

1/4 cup of baking soda

10-20 drops of peppermint essential oil

put contents into a glass pitcher and add 1/2 gallon (2 liters) H20!

That’s it! You’re ready to go clean as it is an all purpose solution!

I put the squirt bottles in a reused gift bag along with a sample of Dr. Bronner’s Almond scented soap,  a glass mason jar filled with baking soda and a coconut scrub brush. The Dr. Bronner’s and baking soda make a good soft scrub in case you didn’t know. Something I’ve been doing for years.  I HEART Dr. Bronner’s soap. I highly recommend buying some- you can even find it at Target. A little goes a long way… it’s an all purpose soap. It’s amazing. 2 squirts to 2 gallons… is the recipe on their bottle.

Since my bro didn’t get any Dr. Bronner’s soap; I reused a baking soda can added in more baking soda, put in about 10-20 drops of Tangerine essential oil and sealed it with it’s lid. Poked holes in the top- voila’ it’s an instant carpet deodorizer! He’s always complaining about smells in his house… he’s a bachelor with roommates… so you know what I mean. LOL!

I also made a salt scrub for a close friend of the family. She loved the one I made for her on Mother’s Day so I decided to whip up a winter batch she would like!

Here’s what I did…

Bath Salt Scrub

1 cup of sea salt – fine works best… if you have course you can blend it down into fine using your blender or food processor.

1 cup of epsom salts

1/2 -3/4’s of oat powder (oats put into the blender and pulverized)

20 drops of essential oil of your choice … I chose peppermint for the holidays!

1/3 cup of organic EVOO

Stir all ingredients in a stainless steel or glass bowl for 2min’s or more then put into a glass mason jar! Or whatever dish suits your fancy.

For mother’s day I added in a lot more EVOO… you can do more or less depending on how slick you like to feel when you get out of the shower.

Enjoy!

P.S.

I will attempt to post a Meatless Monday recipe today! We’ll see…

Green Your Cup of Cocoa This Winter

Photo credit: stevendepolo via flickr

Winter bring lots of goodies and treats including the infamous cup of Hot Cocoa! Lately, it seems my little guy and I can’t get enough of it. It can get to be pretty expensive if you’re having a cup of hot cocoa each afternoon. Especially, if you’re buying them in packets (which I haven’t done in years!). I stopped buying the packets when I discovered Ovaltine…and stopped buying Ovaltine to start making my own. In the long run, making your own will save you some money. In a homemade recipe you have the opportunity to tweak with the ingredients and use quality ingredients such as organic.

The cast of Christmas spirit….

Nativa’s Raw Cacao Powder Suzanne’ s Ricemellow Pure Fun Organic Candy Cane’s

** You can make this recipe dairy free by replacing cow’s milk with almond, coconut, rice, or soy milk.

Just remember that to GREEN your cup of hot cocoa – you’ll want to look for ingredients that are organic, have NO High Fructose Corn Syrup, no artificial colors or favor and no JUNK period. Chemical and preservative free, if at possible. Most companies who make all natural and organic products are conscience about the planet. Besides, keeping the planet healthy the consumer’s health is also kept in mind. On top of it all, most eco companies donate certain percentages to environmental causes. So, by supporting them you’re more than likely supporting a wonderful cause and helping to SAVE THE PLANET!

Homemade Underarm Goodness

I highly recommend making your own deodorant- it will be gratifying.

It has been a goal of mine to stop buying mainstream deodorants for AWHILE now. In case you didn’t know, deodorant’s on the market today are known to be harmful and cause certain cancers due to the toxic ingredients being used to make them.  (Ugh!)

After learning about chemical exposure from deodorants (what isn’t toxic anymore) I turned to natural alternatives such as, Tom’s of Maine, Alba, Miessence etc. I’ve pretty much tried them all but those name brands are just a few that kept creeping back onto my dresser.

Eventually, I found that Miessence worked the best and had ZERO toxic exposure. It’s my favorite alternative, for sure. My least favorite part though is having to order it and pay extra for shipping.

Granted, the product is outstanding but my pocketbook is not! I have yet to find any place in my town to carry the Miessence line (but even then $$). I thought what would my grandparents have done?

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Homemade Peanut Butter- Yum to the Tum!

Last week, I did a Make Your Own Mayo recipe-

This week I’d like to share a MYO Peanut Butter recipe…done the old fashioned way!!!

After realizing and mulling over organic peanut butter labels and finding out that it’s more than just peanuts they’re packing..it dawned on me that I could make it. The cost of ORGANIC PB is getting expensive- Especially if you like the MaraNatha!! This stuff is the best Peanut Butter ever in a jar- in my opinion, that is!!!! But, it’s almost $8.00 a jar. At Costco you can get two jars for that price and it’s organic. The Costco PB is always a backup when I don’t feel like eco-splurging on Maranatha! I know I’m paying for “Quality not Quantity” but for crying out loud, I don’t own a home in France, people!!! How about something a little more cost effective than that!? So, my little wheels started to turn and I remembered that our KitchenAid mixer will grind up nuts and make PB, Almond butter- whatever nut butter!

Anyway, over the weekend I had the opportunity to grind some nuts- and remember if you don’t have a KitchenAid Mixer or food processor, you can always grind nuts at your local health food store or a Whole Foods. It’s still going to be cheaper, taste freshier, and yummier…in the long run if done at home!! My total cost was for the peanuts $1.39 a lb.!! Bargain!

Here’s a recipe I found @ KidsHealth -

Ingredients:

www.kidshealth.org/kid/recipes/recipes/peanut_butter.html

Hope you will find this recipe enjoyable! Oh! and we used Coconut Oil instead of Peanut oil…it definitely helped give it some sweetness and a hint of coconut taste…delish! We love our homemade PB! It’s very smooth- just the way we like it and not really too oily!! This summer I hope to make jellies with strawberries and local fruits…so stay tuned for those recipes!!! Those will come from my grandmother’s recipe book!!

We love PB, Honey & Banana sandwiches!!  What’s your favorite kind of Peanut Butter Sandwich…???

Crunchy Tuesday

When Great-Grandma Dorothy died last year, we were given a cookbook she often referred to that was written by women in her hometown of Astoria, Illinois, called The ARGUS-Searchlight Cook Book- Favorite Recipes of Your Family, Friends and Neighbors. It has a collection of recipes from women dating back to the early 30’s. From Hobo Stew, Snickerdoodles, to Homemade Mayonnaise!

Lately, I’ve been on a Make Your Own kick-I thought I’d share an easy homemade Mayo recipe!! (whenever possible, use organic!)

Homemade Mayonnaise

1 cup of sugar

1 tbsp of mustard

1 cup of vinegar

4 whole eggs or 3 yolks and 1 whole egg

1 tsp. salt

1 heaping tbsp. flour

1 cup of water

Sift together dry ingredients. Combine the vinegar and water. Beat eggs, add dry ingredients, then add the vingar and water combination. Cook in double boiler until thick.

Here’s a quick salad dressing recipe using the Mayo-

Homestyle Thousand Island

1 cup of Mayo

2 1/2 tbsp.’s of ketchup

1 tbsp of relish or chopped pickles

1 tsp. of mustard

A little S & P

Mix and Serve

Serve on a crisp green salad or slather on a veggie burger or hotdog. It’s a perfect condiment combination!!!

Enjoy! : )