DIY - Challenge #2

So I have been pretty successful making normally store bought items myself. The peanut butter recipes are ridiculously easy to do and don't see why someone would want to buy this product with all the added ingredients or more importantly why manufacturers would add so many ingredients.

Onto my second personal challenge to live simpler (ie more naturally).
Do it yourself home products.
Now I have admittedly tried many of the products throughout the last few months but am now on a search to broaden my horizons. I post all the homemade products and ideas in hopes that if someone browses this blog, they may try one or two out - IT REALLY IS VERY SIMPLE.

I think convenience has gotten in the way of useful. At some point, way before I was a consumer, one sought the convenience of getting a cleanser from the store maybe because they didn't want to search for the ingredients or maybe because they came in a nifty container that made using simpler. Then (or maybe from the beginning) these products were compromised with additional ingredients and were no longer the "stuff grandma used to make". Maybe no one noticed and when they did the convenience was still there and really you can't make it at home - look at all these words I can't pronounce. I am trying to see if indeed you can.

This week I am making the following:
Powdered laundry detergent
Glass Cleaner
General Surface Cleanser
Shampoo

Additionally I am going to look up some "home remedies" which actually should just be called plain old natural ways of doing things such as the use of lemon juice while dusting or as a stain remover (along with the sun).

At the end of this week I will report on the success rate of these endeavors.

DIY - One week challenge

One thing I am noticing is that people are going for the quick and easy solution for seemingly everything dealing with food. This shouldn't be a surprised based on the fast food industry's success, but quick and easy usually does not translate to healthy and natural. Nothing bothers me more than to look at a label and see unnecessary ingredients in foods.
My husband once gave up High Fructose Corn Syrup for Lent as a kick start to give it up entirely one day. Some very basic items such a ketchup, barbeque sauce, pickle relish, etc, contained this ingredient. Salt and its various preservative counterparts are another battle I seem to face. As someone who VERY rarely cooks with salt, our family gets by fine without it. Don't even get me started on Partially Hydrogenated anything.
This infiltration into nearly all convenience foods is why I have taken to seeing what I can make easily and with minimal ingredients. I am going to make from scratch (or relatively so) seven items that do not have to be store bought with a little effort.
Hummus
Peanut Butter (or other nut butter)
Butter
Tortillas from Masa
Tortilla chips from ready made Corn Tortillas
Guacamole
Guinness Bread

I also am setting out to make a money saver treat for the hubby - Chocolate Guinness Cheesecake

Shopping Success and Going Organic - Somewhat

As someone who is trying to change the way her family views food and meals, I am opening up many possibilities for us. We have been very successful with keeping up with a $200 budget per month. Admittedly, we have a cache of pasta, rice and instant potatoes so are saving on most of our starch options but those items bought in large quantities would not add more than $25 a month to your budget. I have been keeping with my goal of spending about $30 or more per week on vegetables/fruits. One of the greatest things about this is it lending itself to one instant meal a week. At the end of the week (a day or two prior to shopping day) I make a large stir fry with all the vegetables that I didn't use during the week. This is preventing the waste of good intention shopping that didn't quite pan out. We have been have some wonderful combos - bamboo shoots, broccoli, squash, onion, peppers, ANYTHING we have that I am not using on the next night's dinner. PLUS, as a family that eats leftovers, there is often more than enough for at least one more meal.

This week's meals - Fish with Balsamic Spinach, Pasta with Broccoli Alfredo Sauce, Beef Patties with Yogurt and Fruit Plate, Chicken with Orange Marmalade in Slow Cooker with Sweet Potato and Corn (one lb of meat will get us two meals), Vegetable Stir Fry (again two meals).

As I am a sucker for documentaries. I totally buy into the information as I figure, now that I know; there is no claiming ignorance. After watching one recently, I decided to see about going organic or natural or whatever, especially for chicken and dairy. I am still doing research to decide what the difference is for the various grocery items and what that entails. I have determined that dairy products were going to be our first transition to this arena, choosing milk and dairy without rBST or BST hormones. I was delighted to be able to stick to the budget even with the increase cost associated with this choice.

Funny thing is you can REALLY take the difference between the organic dairy and regular. The milk is the least noticable - kind of like switching from 2% to 1%, after a week or two you don't notice as much. The cheese on the other hand was a major difference. I had to check the label after eating my first piece to make sure that I bought American. It tasted sharper, like a sharp white cheddar or irish cheddar rather than american. The yogurt also takes some getting used to but honestly I think it is all for the best. We could all probably benefit from a little less cheese. I fell into a habit (picking it up from my hubby) of adding a slice to my sandwiches a few days a week. Prior to this I went my entire life without adding cheese on sandwiches (of course unless it was a grilled cheese). I really had the mindset that everything tastes better with cheese. I am drinking more water instead of milk but hitting my daily dairy needs.

Tonight with our beef patties I am trying my first organic beef experience. We will see how it goes. Again, spending more on the meats is okay because I foresee it encouraging us to eat more vegetables and fruits and less meat.