GreenOrganicMama

Eczema, Autoimmunity, and a New Book from Sarah, the Paleo Mom!

2013-02-05T21:33:00.002-05:00

Thank you to those of you who have been following this blog here, on Pinterest, Twitter, and on Facebook! You've been so supportive, with sharing the recipes, and reporting your amazing results of living greener, and incorporating a Paleo lifestyle. Over the past year and a half, I've seen first-hand how a shift to a whole-foods diet, without grains, has healed my family, and put us back on the path of good health, lots of energy, and much more freedom from chronic pain and allergies.

Recently, I had the honor of sharing some of my story with a guest post on the wonderful blog of Sarah, aka The Paleo Mom. Please click here to visit Sarah's blog, and read about Healing the Skin From Within - Paleo, Gut Health, and Eczema. Like many eczema sufferers, I sought relief over the years by trying out cream after cream, lotion after lotion, balm after balm, to no end. As you'll read in my guest post, battling eczema goes much further than just trying to heal the skin. It has to start from within.

Sarah herself also knows first-hand what it's like to suffer from an autoimmune condition. This savvy PhD is my number-one source for all things autoimmune-related. I've regularly sent friends to her site, to read up on Sarah's explanations of leaky gut, and how to customize a Paleo approach to healing, using the Autoimmune Protocol. Sarah is a gifted writer and scientist, and as a fellow busy mom, I love that she presents solutions in a practical way. She makes it totally do-able for all of us, to incorporate healthy, autoimmune-friendly foods in our diets, decipher our own individual food sensitivities and tailor to our needs, and still enjoy awesome-tasting, family-friendly dishes; everything from main courses to desserts.

On that note, I am so excited that Sarah has announced her next project. Be sure to pre-order Sarah's new book, "The Paleo Approach", due out later this year! From the science behind autoimmunity, to planning AIP meals on a budget, this book is going to be a cornerstone for all of us.

Don't forget to check out Sarah's official announcement on her blog, which includes a very special giveaway with five special prizes, including an advance copy of this book!

Thank you, Sarah, for your wonderful contributions in helping us all heal and manage our autoimmunity. We are all excited, and can't wait to get our hands on your new book :)

Faye

Instant 2-Ingredient Paleo Pancakes

2013-02-03T15:38:00.001-05:00

It's inevitable: tucked away in the corner of the kitchen, the overripe bananas, wasting away, that nobody wants to eat. Like me, you buy them firm and bright yellow, with such good intentions, as a super easy, grab-and-go healthy snack for your family. Yet before you know it, one day you pass through the kitchen, and spot the browning, neglected mass, that's now way too sweet to eat. What's a parent to do?

First, I have to thank Pinterest for a great tip: wrap the top of the banana stems with plastic wrap or foil. Somehow, that slows the ripening process. What I do is peel off the "ORGANIC BANANAS" tape that comes wrapped around my bunches of bananas, and wrap that around the top of the bunch, once I get them home. Great way to repurpose that tape, that would otherwise go in the trash, and it buys the bananas a little more time. Win-win ;)

Source: buzzfeed.com via GreenOrganicMama.com on Pinterest

My Pinterest followers know I love my smoothies, too! One of my favorite tricks for saving those overripe bananas is to peel them and break them up into chunks, and then store them in the freezer in a zip-top bag. I then grab a few frozen pieces and toss them in the blender, along with my other smoothie ingredients. Very convenient for adding a little natural sweetness, thickening the smoothie, and helping chill it, too, without watering it down with ice.

Today, we have to thank Just Eat Real Food for sharing The Domestic Man's super simple recipe for another easy and delicious way to use up those overripe bananas: Two-Ingredient Pancakes. What a great departure from our usual bacon/sausage/scrambled eggs, with this healthy breakfast addition. This dish is on the table in no time flat! No sweeteners needed, either. My daughter gobbled up the pancakes, faster than I could fry them up! We'll definitely be making these again. Got bananas? Got eggs? That's all you need for this very easy recipe. Here's how we made ours.

Two-Ingredient Paleo Pancakes

Makes three servings

Ingredients:

4 organic eggs

2 overripe bananas

Directions:

Preheat skillet on medium-low.

Combine eggs and banana in a blender on low speed (or mash and blend thoroughly with a fork).

Grease skillet with bacon grease (substitute with coconut oil/butter/ghee).

Fry each pancake until golden brown (about two minutes per side).

These pancakes have a really nice light texture; a nice departure from the denser versions made with coconut and/or almond flour. Just pure, simple, straightforward goodness :)

Faye

Organic Skin Care Sale! Free $21 Moisturizer with $30 order!

2013-01-21T16:47:00.000-05:00

NYR Organic Orange Flower Daily Moisturizer

Hi Everyone! Hope you're having a great MLK weekend.

It's been a fantastic month for me, as a new consultant for NYR Organic skin care and cosmetics. I am loving my new job! Who doesn't love trying on and sharing beauty products; especially ones that are all-natural, paraben-free, and made with organic ingredients? ;)

I'm truly in love with this incredible line from Neal's Yard Remedies. Based in the UK, this carbon-neutral, eco-conscious, family-owned company has been in the business of organic skin care and natural remedies for over 30 years. It's so great to find a company with such solid core values, behind these unmatched products.

Today, I'm here to introduce to you their Nourishing Orange Flower Daily Moisture. This lovely neroli-scented lotion is now my go-to daily moisturizer for my face. While it's made to nourish dry skin, I find it's been just right for my combination skin, and absorbs right in, with no greasy film. Unlike other brands of moisturizers I've tried over the years, I've had no issues with any of the Neal's Yard Remedies moisturizers under my makeup. In fact, I find they absorb even faster than other brands, and I don't even have to wait, before starting my makeup application. I love, too, that like all Neal's Yard Remedies products, this is free of artificial fragrances, has no petroleum products, it's phthalate-free, and not tested on animals. All of their products are carefully hand-crafted in the UK, and are full of high-quality, concentrated, natural ingredients. Just a little goes a long way, to provide just the perfect amount of moisture, that lasts all day.

To welcome in the New Year, all $30+ orders placed before 1-31-13 will include a free tube of this Orange Flower Daily Moisture; a $21 value! My friends and family have been loving this moisturizer, along with their other NYR Organic goodies.

Don't forget to check out the other specials this month, with many favorites from 15-20% off, including our Organic Essential Oils Trio collection.

Organic Essential Oils Trio

Please check out the incredible deals, and hope you'll take advantage of this fantastic sale! Please contact me with any questions about these products, for special shipping deals, and to learn how to become an NYR Organic consultant yourself!

I am an independent consultant for NYR Organic US.

Links within the post are to my online store.

This is a review of personal purchases.

Simple & Delicious: Oven-Roasted Cabbage

2013-01-06T16:20:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season!

Christmas is always a special time for our family, but after all the holiday treats (and food cheats) it's always a relief to get back to our normal routine afterwards. Last night, we enjoyed some comfort food: oven-roasted chicken, and a very simple, yet delicious side of roasted cabbage. This was so easy to put together, very budget-friendly, at less than a dollar for a whole head of cabbage, and an excellent way to get some more cruciferous vegetables in our diet, too. You can easily add and roast extra heads; enough to feed a larger crowd. It's also a convenient dish, that can roast right alongside with your main course that's already in the oven; a real time-saver.

Simple & Delicious Oven-Roasted Cabbage

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 head cabbage, outer leaves removed

Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

1/2 tsp sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Halve cabbage head, and cut out stem.

Cut halves into thirds.

Arrange cabbage wedges in a parchment paper-lined baking dish.

Drizzle cabbage with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper.

Roast uncovered for about 25 minutes.

The cabbage came out really tender, juicy, and mild. A great accompaniment to our chicken, and many more dishes to come!

Enjoy :)

Faye

Paleo Pressure Cooker Beef & Sausage Stew & Product Review: Cuisinart CPC-600 1000-Watt 6-Quart Electric Pressure Cooker

2012-12-07T20:38:00.000-05:00

It's stew night in the Green Organic household :)

Feeding a Paleo family can be challenging, but we try to make it easier by shopping smart and planning meals ahead of time. One of the best things we've invested in, in recent years, is a deep freezer, to take advantage of sales on meat. It's also a great place to store bulk packages of our Paleo baking supplies, like coconut and almond flour. Buying in bulk and freezing is definitely important for staying on budget. We regularly stroll the meat section for sales, and stock up on whole chickens, and tougher cuts, like pork shoulders and beef roasts, then break up bulk packages, and freeze them for later use. But what to do with all those big, tough cuts that need long, slow, moist cooking, when you're a busy family with two working parents?

I used to rely on my slow cooker/crock pot for things like stews and braises, but the results were never to my husband's liking; coming out overly mushy most of the time. Then there was the concern with leaving a cooking appliance on all day while we weren't home. That meant we could only slow-cook on the weekends, and had to turn to faster-cooking, more expensive cuts of meat during the week. Lucky for us, there was a solution: an electric counter-top pressure cooker.

Growing up, my Chinese parents always had a stove-top pressure cooker pot around for making traditional soups; one of those old-fashioned, super heavy pots, that would hiss and spew the whole time they cooked, which always rather intimidated me. Thankfully, pressure cookers have come a long way since, with new automated functions and safety features built in. After further research, and finding out just how fast these things can cook, I was ready to dive in. It's hard to believe it's been a year and a half since we first got our Cuisinart electric pressure cooker. Between making bone broths, simmering stews, and braising meats until they're fork-tender and delicious, we use our pressure cooker at least once, if not twice every week! A friend followed suit and purchased the same model, which she uses to make homemade apple sauce for her kids. It's proven to be a very handy cooking device!

So just how fast does a pressure cooker cook? First, factor in the built-in browning feature of this counter-top model. I couldn't do that with my old crock pot! That saves having to heat up and brown meats in a separate pan, and the transferring of the meat to the cooking vessel. Who doesn't love less mess to clean up? Then it's a matter of calculating the cooking time for your dish:

Bone broths (3.5 lbs bones and meat): 90 minutes
Pork half picnic shoulder (4 lbs): 90 minutes
Beef stew (sirloin, chuck, 2 lbs): 30 minutes
Corned beef brisket (2 lbs): 30 minutes
Whole chicken: 30 minutes
Chicken thighs (2 lbs): 20 minutes
Soups: 20 minutes
Vegetables (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc): 5 minutes

I love that when I open the pot, all the meat and vegetables are still intact! The meat is tender, but hasn't separated and displaced itself from the bones, and the veggies retain their shape. I regularly toss in whole garlic cloves in my pressure cooker, and even though they're completely soft, they're still whole at the end of cooking. Definitely no more mushy mystery meat for us! Pressure cookers also use less liquid, and retain a lot of moisture when cooking. That's something to keep in mind, if you're converting any old slow cooker recipes. You can also get away with less seasoning, as the pressure actually helps infuse the food as it cooks. Be sure to read the manual that comes with your pressure cooker to guide you along.

As an added bonus, the pressure cooker has no problems tackling frozen meat. My husband and my daughter both love corned beef brisket, which I regularly buy already brined and seasoned. Those can go straight from the deep freezer into the pressure cooker, frozen to done in 40 minutes, and with no thawing. Very convenient on work nights, freeing up my hands, and giving us plenty of time to settle in and get the side dishes going, and have the entree done in very little time.

This Cuisinart model is very easy to operate, with just three buttons: Menu, Temperature, and Start. For pressurized cooking, there are two simple options: low and high. Low is what I use when I've got the pot filled to the maximum (2/3 full for all pressure cookers), which is usually when I'm making bone broth. High pressure is for all other times, like when cooking meats. The menu button cycles through Low Pressure, High Pressure,then various decreasing increments of heating the cooking pot itself (Browning, Sauté, Simmer), and finally, a very handy, automatic Keep Warm stage. As I mentioned, I love the browning feature, and the non-stick insert makes cooking and cleaning up very simple. The lid locks on very securely, and there's no need to second-guess if it's on right. A little red indicator/safety valve pops up along the top of the lid, to let you know when the pot has fully pressurized. There's also very little noise, compared to my parents' old stove-top pressure cooker pot. That was a pleasant surprise. I also like the silicone gasket that fits under the lid. It's very secure, easy to put on and remove, and much less hassle than the old-fashioned rubber gaskets my parents always fought with. All in all, this pressure cooker has a very simple design, and it's very easy to use. If you can operate a crock pot, you can operate a pressure cooker. It's definitely paid for itself in shortened cooking time, and being able to use those cheaper, tougher cuts of meat on more of a regular basis.

Tonight, we're enjoying a hearty Beef & Sausage Stew, Paleo-style, from our pressure cooker. Stews are such a convenient way to feed lots of veggies to the family, and use up what you might have in the fridge. Frozen vegetables work great in this dish, too; just wait until the end of cooking to add those in. The base for this stew is just simply a package of frozen squash purée, adding some extra vitamins, sweetness, and body, and also making it Autoimmune Protocol-friendly, for those who don't eat tomatoes. This, of course, can also be prepared on the stove-top in a dutch oven, or slow cooker, cooking low and slow, until your meat and veggies are tender. Just be sure to add a little more liquid, if you're using something other than a pressure cooker.

Paleo Pressure Cooker Beef & Sausage Stew
Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef (sirloin, chuck, etc), cubed

1 lb bulk Italian pork sausage

1 package frozen squash purée (12-ounce) (can substitute for 1 can of tomatoes)

2 onions, diced

5 carrots, peeled and diced

3 ribs celery, diced

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup frozen cut leaf spinach

1 cup water or bone broth/stock

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp Real Salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp dried rosemary

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1 bay leaf

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

Set pressure cooker on "browning" mode.

Add sausage, and cook until some of the fat has rendered.

Add the beef and continue to brown the meat.

Add onions and celery, and allow to sweat.

Mix in water, carrots, and remaining spices and herbs.

Distribute the stew ingredients evenly in the pot. Set block of frozen squash purée on top (does not have to be fully submerged).

Lock on the lid, set for low-pressure, and set timer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, let pressure fall naturally.

Remove the lid and set back on "browning" mode, to bring back to a gentle boil.

Add frozen peas and spinach, and cook through.

Season with fresh ground black pepper to taste.

This stew makes for great leftovers, too. Remember that non-stick, removable insert? It's so handy to lift that out of the pressure cooker, and set into a sink of ice water, to quickly cool leftovers to prep for the fridge. This is one of our top favorite kitchen must-haves. Hope you'll consider picking one up for yourself or a loved one :)

Faye

Paleo Apple Cider Donut Holes

2012-12-05T23:55:00.002-05:00

Seasons greetings, everyone!

It's that beautiful time of year again. Our family is certainly getting into the Christmas spirit here, breaking out the decorations, and enjoying some holiday baking together. We're delighted with all the amazing, gluten-free Paleo recipes that are being shared, and hope to try as many as we can!

Last week, I shared with you a review of our newest toy: a Nostalgia Electrics Cake Pop and Donut Hole Maker. This really is a nifty little kitchen gadget, that turns out amazingly good baked treats that are totally Paleo-compliant, with virtually no mess, in very little time, and without the need to fire up the oven. For those still shopping, this would make a great gift for under $25, for anybody who loves to cook. Aside from sweet treats, I managed to create this very easy and tasty recipe for savory Sweet Potato Mini Crab Cakes. They turned out wonderfully, and will definitely be on the regular recipe rotation in our household. I couldn't believe how fast the cake pop maker turned these out; taking only seven minutes to completely cook through to light, fluffy, golden-brown deliciousness. I wish I had picked up one of these machines sooner!

Once again, I have to thank Lea over at PaleoSpirit.com for inspiring this whole cake pop/donut hole adventure, with her recipe for Paleo Apple Cider Donuts. Lea has an actual mini donut maker, but her recipe worked perfectly in our cake pop maker, too. We have a couple takes on Lea's recipe now. The first couple times I made these, I didn't have any apple cider in the house, so I substituted the same amount in orange juice. That transformed the recipe into wonderful, moist, little orange spice cakes, and I highly recommend giving that version a try, too.

Here's now our cake pop/donut hole version of Lea's original recipe, which my daughter also helped decorate for the holidays. Not to worry if you don't have a cake pop maker or donut machine: a fan from Facebook has successfully made this recipe in her mini muffin pan, baked at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. I've also included our recipe for the optional glaze, which is easily made corn- and dairy-free, by making your own homemade powdered sugar, and substituting coconut oil for butter. Simply combine a cup of granulated cane sugar in your food processor with a tablespoon of arrowroot starch, and pulse, to make a good Paleo substitute for powdered sugar. Kids of course love any kind of sprinkles and decorations (not exactly Paleo, but more for the presentation and fun-factor). Still, my favorite was topping these off with cinnamon and sugar. That really helped the flavors shine through. Experiment and be creative!

Paleo Apple Cider Donut Holes
Makes 12 large cake pops/donut holes

Ingredients:

For the cake pops:

2 eggs (room temperature)

1/2 cup apple cider (room temperature)

2 tbsp raw honey

2 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice blend

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp Real Salt

*optional decorating sprinkles and candy toppings

For the optional cinnamon sugar coating:

1/2 cup granulated organic cane sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

For the glaze:

2 tbsp grassfed butter/coconut oil/ghee (softened and spreadable)

2 tbsp powdered sugar

1 tsp water

Directions:

Preheat donut hole maker. (Alternate: bake in mini muffin pan/donut pan in the oven at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes)

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, coconut oil, and honey.

In a separate bowl, combine the coconut flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt, breaking up any lumps.

Mix dry ingredients into the wet.

Add apple cider, and stir until evenly combined.

Using a cookie dough scoop or small ice cream scoop, fill a heaping mound of batter into the compartments of the donut hole maker.

Close the lid, careful to latch tightly, and set your timer for four minutes.

As the machine is very hot, using oven mitts, carefully pick up the donut hole maker and flip it over onto its front side, onto a heat-safe surface. This is the secret to having nice, uniform, evenly round and browned results.

After four minutes, unplug the donut hole maker, and flip it back over onto its back. Let it continue to cook for three more minutes. There is enough residual heat to continue the cooking process, without over-browning the outside edges.

After three minutes, carefully open the machine, and transfer the donut holes to a cooling rack. Allow to cool fully before attempting to frost and decorate.

While donut holes are cooling, prepare the glaze and toppings.

To make the glaze, in a small bowl, combine butter/coconut oil/ghee with powdered sugar, incorporating half a tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time, mixing thoroughly.

Add water incrementally, to form a smooth, slightly runny paste.

Dip cooled donut holes in glaze and decorate with sprinkles and/or cinnamon-sugar blend.

Our first batch of these holiday donut holes turned out great, and we can't wait to make more to share with our friends and family. We certainly hope you will, too!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Faye

Paleo Sweet Potato Mini Crab Cakes & Product Review: Nostalgia Electrics Cake Pop/Donut Hole Maker

2012-11-30T23:03:00.001-05:00

Many thanks to Lea over at PaleoSpirit.com for sharing an awesome recipe that inspired this treat; her special Apple Cider Paleo Donuts, that she made in a counter-top electric mini donut maker! Delectable, sweet, cakey donuts were certainly something I'd thought I'd never eat again, once going Paleo. Glad Lea was here to prove me wrong ;) As fate would have it, while at my local grocery store, I looked down and saw this adorable little cake pop/donut hole maker, and it was even a few dollars cheaper than Amazon! I couldn't wait to get home and try Lea's recipe. It was so quick and easy mix together, and seven minutes later, we were enjoying Paleo-compliant, gluten-free, yummy little donut holes. Definitely a new family favorite.

This is a great little machine. Right out of the box, it's very non-stick, and I didn't have to apply any extra grease, before cooking. Just do be careful, as the machine does get very hot on the outside. Wear your oven mitts! I also set the machine on top of a trivet, to protect my counter top. There are red and green indicator lights, to let you know when the machine is properly heated, and I love the locking latch. More on the importance of this latch later. This particular model produces seven ping-pong-ball-sized cake pops/donut holes, and works best with denser batters, like you'd use for muffins or cupcakes. A cookie dough scoop makes it easy to measure out a good heaping dollop of batter into each compartment. Then just snap on the lid, and let the baking begin!

Today, I decided to experiment with a savory recipe. While at the grocery store, I also got a great deal on canned wild-caught crab meat. That sparked an idea for Paleo sweet potato crab cakes, but without the splattering mess of trying to pan-fry them. This recipe works great in this counter top donut hole maker, but you can easily adapt this for use in the oven, and bake into little muffins. Fifteen minutes at 400 degrees F should do it, or as soon as they're golden brown. On to the recipe!

Paleo Mini Sweet Potato Crab Cakes

Makes 21 mini crab cakes

2 six-ounce cans of crab meat, drained
2 room-temperature eggs
3 tbsp melted grease (bacon grease, coconut oil, butter, or ghee)
1/2 cup roasted sweet potato, mashed
1/3 cup coconut milk
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tsp Real Salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried herbs (Herbs de Provence, oregano, etc)
1/4 tsp paprika
2-3 grinds fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat your donut hole maker.

Combine crab meat, eggs, grease, sweet potato, green onions, and coconut milk, and blend thoroughly.

Combine remaining dry ingredients, breaking up any lumps in the coconut flour.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix well.

Using a cookie dough scoop or small ice cream scoop, fill a heaping mound of batter into the compartments of the donut hole maker.

Close the lid, careful to latch tightly, and set your timer for four minutes.

As the machine is very hot, using oven mitts, carefully pick up the donut hole maker and flip it over onto its front side, onto a heat-safe surface. This is the secret to having nice, uniform, evenly round and browned results.

After four minutes, unplug the donut hole maker, and flip it back over onto its back. Let it continue to cook for three more minutes. There is enough residual heat to continue the cooking process, without over-browning the outside edges.

After three minutes, carefully open the machine, and transfer the donut holes to a cooling rack.

Serve warm with a nice organic side salad.

It was so much fun putting these together, and I love that there was so little to clean up. No splattering mess from trying to fry anything on the stove top, and once the donut maker had cooled a bit, it was easy to wipe clean with a damp paper towel.

Next time, I think we'll add a little zing, and try making a little dipping sauce to go with these. Maybe something with avocado, or dill and lemon. They're still really good just by themselves, too ;)

Enjoy!

Faye

Me vs. Candida - An Epic Battle

2012-11-10T16:43:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! It's great to be back and blogging again, after a rather stressful, painful, and frustrating period of several months of illness. It was quite a journey, trying to figure out what was going on with me, and I'm glad to report I'm finally on the mend.

All this began late in the summer, when I started breaking out in horrific rashes, from what I thought was eczema from a leaky gut. Life was being extra hectic, and while I was (and still am) eating a grain-free/gluten-free/dairy-free Paleo diet, I wasn't taking the best care of myself. Nights of five- and six-hours of sleep were becoming the norm, meals were rushed, and I was taking little to no time for myself to rest, exercise, or de-stress. I was seriously pushing my body beyond its limits.

It wasn't long before I started breaking out in rashes. Having suffered through eczema as a teen, that's what I assumed was going on with me, so I went about my old ways of cortisone creams. Soon, a few spots here and there on a couple fingers had spread to large, angry, red patches that were hot to the touch on my forearms. Then my chest began flaring up. My doctors quickly shot me up full of steroids and put me on rounds of pills to try to calm the effects. In hindsight, this was a huge mistake. Rashes like eczema don't crop up because our bodies are starved of steroids; it's your body telling you that something else is wrong.

So, in the meantime, I also assumed I was having some kind of autoimmune issues from a leaky gut. I found a great friend in Sarah Ballantyne, better known as The Paleo Mom, with her fantastic write-ups on how to modify the Paleo diet for autoimmune conditions. Sarah herself suffers from an autoimmune condition, and has to avoid/limit certain foods, to keep her symptoms at bay, and also takes certain supplements to help her body heal. I began restricting foods, and started taking fermented cod liver oil for extra Omega-3's, L-glutamine to heal what I thought was a leaky gut, and a slew of other supplements. Unfortunately for me, the end of each round of steroids brought my rashes back, angrier and more inflamed than before, and spreading to areas like my face. I started getting blisters on my palms, and later, the back of my hands would crack and weep. Sarah was extremely supportive and helped reassure me that I was on the right track with my eating, with plenty of bone broths, fermented foods, and sticking with the Autoimmune Protocol, but the painful rashes continued. I was at my wits end. No amount of creams or supplements or a change of diet were helping. A final call to one doctor ended with her washing her hands of me, and telling me to go see a dermatologist. There's conventional medicine for you: clearly what was wrong with me was just manifesting in my skin, and not the skin itself. Even I knew that. I've been to dermatologists my whole life for my prior eczema problems. All they do is push creams and pills on you. None of them ever stopped to help me find the root cause. This doctor clearly wasn't going to help me find the root cause of my rashes, either. It was then that I decided to seek out help from a functional medicine practitioner.

If you've never been to a functional medicine practitioner, I highly recommend it. These specialists are here to help treat the whole body and restore balance without the use of drugs. Drugs are "band-aid" solutions to symptoms, but they never fully address the root causes. I was fortunate to have found a chiropractor in town who uses the nutrition teachings of Weston A. Price, the late expert on the downfalls of the modern Western diet on our health, and the importance of traditional foods for well-being. I was thoroughly impressed just with this doctor's intake paperwork, which asked for everything, including eight pages of not just medical history, but eating habits, elimination patterns, and a host of possible symptoms, from head to toe. In all my life, I had never seen such a comprehensive questionnaire. It's stuff I wished all of my conventionally-trained doctors had asked (and should have), but never did.

It was wonderful to sit down with a health professional who not only knew what Paleo was, but actually implements it in his practice. We geeked out over supplements for a while, and I was off for some extensive blood work. Thankfully, the results came back relatively normal, with no signs of anything serious, like Hashimoto's thyroiditis. My thyroid levels were low, but not at the point of hypothyroidism. My liver was also congested. What surprised me the most was that my Vitamin D levels were extremely low, and I happen to live in the Sunshine State. I should mention that the blood work was done in my regular doctor's office, as the nurse who gave me my annual check-up had no idea what Paleo was, and wanted me to have my fasting blood sugar tested. This was based on the fact that I had gestational diabetes when pregnant with my daughter. Nevermind that it was seven years ago, way before I went Paleo. This woman not only didn't know what Paleo was; she was also rushing through my appointment, couldn't get me out of the office fast enough, and obviously couldn't care less. I wasn't about to waste my time on deaf ears, explaining how an ancestral-type diet reverses insulin resistance. Here, however, was the proof in black and white when my lab work came back: my fasting insulin level was that of an Amazonian hunter-gatherer. Paleo for the win ;)

Back at the chiropractor's office with test results, I was told to continue with the Paleo diet, and we added on a few more supplements. Unfortunately, the flare-ups continued. Soon after that, the chiropractor suspected the rashes were actually coming from what's called a healing crisis. Also called a Herxheimer reaction or die-off, a wide range of symptoms can manifest in the body from brain fog to skin conditions from the toxins released by an overgrowth of bacteria or yeast. In my case, it appears I've been ravaged by a Candida infection this whole time. Candida is a yeast that normally resides in the gut, but can become rampant for a number of reasons, including stress and not making enough hydrochloric acid for digestion. Unfortunately, when Candida go wild, and especially when they die, they release up to 79 various toxins. That would explain why my liver was on overdrive, trying to detox. Unfortunately, one of these toxins isn't readily removed by the liver: acetaldehyde. This particular toxin stays in the body, and isn't purged like the others. Acetaldehyde is serious trouble: it's a neurotoxin that can damage brain cells, and wreak havoc on the immune, respiratory, and endocrine systems. That probably explains my low thyroid numbers, too.

Before knowing acetaldehyde was the problem, the toxins continued to build up under my skin. They especially liked to accumulate near my joints, which for me, was on the backs of my hands, and on my wrists, forearms, and elbows. At one point, I was wrapping my elbows and backs of my hands with gauze, to soak up all the fluid that was seeping out and forming blisters. The fluid coming out was also burning, and it was in fact the acetaldehyde accumulating in my tissues, swelling them up with nowhere else to go. My skin was hot to the touch, and at one point, my face was so swollen, I couldn't even fully open my eyes. My energy level had plummeted, and I was walking around in an exhausted brain fog. I also developed post-nasal drip and a lot of phlegm. Here I thought I was catching a little cold, and didn't think anything of it at the time, but it turns out these are more symptoms of a Candida infection, too, with the toxins invading the lung cells, and the body trying to expel them.

Thankfully, at this point, I was already exploring the GAPS diet, and had cut out sugar, including fruits and even Paleo-friendly carbs, like sweet potatoes and winter squash. That cut off the food source to the sugar-loving Candida yeast in my gut. I had also stumbled across the wonderful detox benefits of Bentonite clay. Human beings throughout history have relied on clay internally and externally for its healing properties. Modern scientific analysis now reveals why it's so beneficial: Bentonite clay is negatively charged and attracts and holds onto positively charged toxins in the body, so they can be eliminated. With the thumbs-up of my chiropractor, I began soaking my feet in hot water and clay at night, and drinking a few teaspoons of dry clay in water, several times a day. Clay isn't absorbed by the body, but it does a great job neutralizing toxins in the gut, and it also literally pulls Candida right off intestinal walls. That took care of the Candida overgrowth in my gut, but there was still the matter of dealing with the accumulated acetaldehyde in my swollen tissues.

Here's what motivated me to write this post: many people have written about Candida, but not many address the issue of the acetaldehyde. In all my Candida research, there's plenty of advice on how to deal with cutting out Candida's food source (sugar), how to purge Candida overgrowth from the gut, how to meal plan, and eat properly to minimize future flare-ups. However, like I said before, that nasty by-product of Candida, acetaldehyde, that was poisoning me is stubborn, and likes to stick around, despite all detox efforts. My gut was healing, but I couldn't deal with any more burning fluid seeping out of my skin. It took a lot of research before I came across something that directly addressed the overload of acetaldehyde swelling my body, and how to get rid of it: molybdenum.

Molybdenum is an essential trace mineral. When it comes to Candida, molybdenum has the amazing ability of being able to go straight to the liver, and help it turn that acetaldehyde toxin into something that can be readily excreted by the kidneys: acetic acid. Back to my original healing protocol of thinking I was healing eczema from a leaky gut, I was already taking NOW Foods NAC supplement, which contains some molybdenum, at 50 mcg per capsule, for a total of 100 mcg for the day. However, when tackling acetaldehyde poisoning, upwards of 250 mcg three times a day may be necessary. Based on my NOW Foods NAC supplement, that amounts to fifteen capsules a day. I can tell you, within an hour of increasing my intake of one capsule to five, I was already feeling tremendously better. The hot, red, inflamed areas started feeling a little cooler to the touch, and I could feel the swelling lessen. The next day, I awoke with a much clearer mind, and a definite improvement in all my symptoms; the first time in ages. It's a slow-going process, but very reassuring to see and feel the difference, and know I'm on the right track of healing.

Here's hoping none of you have to experience what I went through. I'm going to do my best not to fall into those traps again, with continued good, clean, healthy eating, probiotics, plenty of rest, those awesome chiropractic adjustments, and taking time for myself.

Here's to your good health!

Faye

Candida source image courtesy of GreaterImmunity.com

Getting Crafty: Amigurumi Crochet Animals!

2012-03-24T19:25:00.000-04:00

Pig by GreenOrganicMama - Inspired by the Chipotle "Back to the Start" Pigs

About two months ago, I was inspired! My friends already know I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, and I just happened to be looking at Gryffindor house scarves. They are really cool, but I thought to myself, "These look pretty easy to make." That's what prompted me to pick up crochet again.

I have to thank my third-grade teacher, who first taught me, and my entire class, how to do many crafts, including crochet. I hadn't really made anything since that potholder for my mom, but a few Google searches later, I was in love with all the amazing patterns, and the HUGE variety of crafts that can be made.

I still have every intention to make that Harry Potter scarf using this free pattern. I've got the yarn and everything! However, I've been side-tracked, making little animals instead, which the Japanese call Amigurumi. Google Amigurumi, and you'll find pages and pages, devoted to this art of making adorable little crochet toys. They are also super easy and inexpensive to make. Crochet, and its sister, knitting, are both re-surging as popular and cool crafts. We're not talking grandma's doilies here; with a little time, patience, and imagination, you can make some truly awesome things. Come see for yourself on my Pinterest Crochet board.

The nice thing about crochet is that it's very inexpensive to get started, and the materials are cheap, and very easy to find. You can take your hooks and yarn with you pretty much anywhere, and you can do as much or as little as you want, in one sitting. It's really quite relaxing! As for the hooks, I've already tried a few different types and brands of hooks, but I certainly have a favorite. Check out Clover Soft Touch which are available individually, or in a great value pack of eight popular sizes (C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J). My value pack also came with a great travel case to store all the hooks.

Yarn is super easy to find practically anywhere, online and offline. Still, it's nice to be able to walk through a store, and touch and feel, and match up colors. Most Amigurumi patterns call for "worsted weight" yarn, which is clearly marked on yarn labels. While you're at the store, pick up some safety doll eyes, and a bag of polyester fiber-fill. Maybe a good pair of scissors, too.

You'll probably need one more thing, which is a set of stitch markers. Now, you can certainly buy a small pack for less than $2 at the craft store, but if you're like me, you probably already have a cheaper alternative at home: plastic-coated paper clips. I don't know why I haven't seen any other crocheters mention using paper clips; I think they're much easier to find, and way cheaper than even safety pins.

Getting started is super easy. There are plenty of great books out there, but I found the best tool was actually YouTube. Nerdigurumi is a great resource, with an entire series of how-to's:

Once you have the basics, the hardest part is choosing just one pattern to start with. There are thousands of free patterns, as well as those available for sale on Etsy, and in traditional books.

Here are a few of my recent projects, which have been so much fun to do. This is Timmy, from the awesome British cartoon series, Timmy Time, which was a spin-off of Shaun the Sheep (which was a spin-off of Wallace & Grommit) ;) My Timmy was based on this adorable free pattern, with a few of my own modifications:

And here's another picture of my little pig, inspired by the "Back to the Start" Chipotle commercial:

I've already been asked to make another pig, so I'll have the pattern available ASAP :)

Happy crafting!

Faye

No promotional consideration was paid for this post.
Images copyright GreenOrganicMama.com.

Homemade Lip Balm & Solid Hand Lotion

2012-02-18T15:10:00.001-05:00

Did everyone catch that awesome Chipotle commercial that aired during the Grammy's last weekend? If you didn't, here it is:

We've been living green, organic, and now paleo/primal for some time now, so this commercial really hit home for us. Thank you to Willie Nelson for his fantastic work with Farm Aid, and his moving vocals on this wonderful cover of The Scientist. There's a lot to be said for going back to our roots, and acknowledging that progress does come with a price. Everything we eat, buy, and use, has some kind of hidden cost. That being said, we definitely strive to live more simply, and reduce our impact on the environment.

I've shared with my Pinterest friends a couple recent awesome finds for super frugal, all-natural, homemade lip balm and solid lotion bars, as posted by fellow mom blogger, Sarah at Frugal By Choice. I love Sarah's insistence on "normal" (a.k.a. easy to find) ingredients, when formulating her blends. Eczema and dry lips are common-place in my family, and I'm reaching for lip balms and moisturizers all day long. Natural or not, beauty products are expensive. I couldn't wait to use Sarah's recipes, and have my own all-natural products to care for my dry lips and frequently chapped hands.

First thing first, I had to locate beeswax. Being from the Sunshine State, with lots of local farms, I was on a mission to find locally-produced beeswax. That's when Christina at Southern Wholesale Division on eBay came to the rescue! This local beekeeper also carried cute little metal tins, for which Christina graciously provided combined shipping. I opened my mailbox with glee this morning, and couldn't wait to churn out my first batches of homemade lip balms and solid lotions. I've tweaked Sarah's recipes to make them a little easier; you can skip the double-boiler, and do everything in your microwave.

Just a few notes on beeswax:

LIVESTRONG has some great info about this amazing, naturally-produced, anti-inflammatory skin protectant. Per Wikipedia, the colors of beeswax can vary widely, depending on the age of the bees and the hive, and the type of plant that the pollen is coming from. Beeswax is typically divided into two categories: raw and refined. Refined is usually more white, with little, if any, honey smell, and that's what candle makers usually go for. For our purposes, raw works just fine, and it's also cheaper, and easier to find. My shipment of raw beeswax smells absolutely amazing, and I'm sure I will be back for more.

Beeswax also comes in all sorts of shapes and varieties; from pellets to huge blocks, to everything in between. Mine came conveniently shaped in 0.5 oz/1 tablespoon blocks, which made them super easy to measure out, to conform with Sarah's recipes.

*** Update: 1-22-2013 - I am now a consultant for NYR Organic/Neal's Yard Remedies, and I absolutely love our line of organic essential oils and base oils. Please click here to visit my online shop. Orders ship UPS from our MA headquarters to your door. ***

Homemade Lip Balm & Solid Hand Lotion

Equipment:
1 one-cup Pyrex measuring cup
1 silicone spatula
2 silicone trivets
4 one-ounce metal tins (for the lip balm)
2 two-ounce metal tins (for the solid lotion)

Lip balm ingredients:
1 tbsp (0.5 oz) filtered, raw beeswax
4 tbsp Tropical Traditions expeller-pressed (a.k.a. unscented) coconut oil
10 drops bergamot essential oil (optional)

To make the lip balm:

Add the coconut oil and beeswax to the glass measuring cup. Microwave on 30-second intervals until beeswax is just melted.

Very carefully, remove the measuring cup from the microwave and set on a trivet. (Use extra caution: we're talking molten wax and hot oil here.)

Arrange your lip balm tins on your other trivet.

Add bergamot (or your favorite) essential oil to the mixture, and stir carefully.

Pour very slowly and carefully into your lip balm tins. Allow to cool and set at room temperature.

Solid lotion ingredients:
2 tbsp (1 oz) filtered, raw beeswax
2 tbsp Tropical Traditions expeller-pressed coconut oil
2 tbsp sweet almond oil
10 drops of your favorite organic essential oil(s) (optional)

To make the solid lotion:

Add the beeswax and both oils to the glass measuring cup. Microwave on 30-second intervals until beeswax is just melted.

As with above, very carefully, remove the measuring cup from the microwave and set on a trivet.

Arrange your lotion tins on your other trivet.

Add your favorite essential oil to the mixture, and stir carefully.

Pour very slowly and carefully into your metal tins. Allow to cool and set at room temperature.

I am so pleased with the finished products! The lip balm is rich and creamy, with incredible staying power, without being thick or heavy. The lotion is definitely solid, but doesn't take much effort to soften on my skin. It does a great job, soothing those really irritated, cracked dry spots, and providing a comfortable, non-greasy, invisible, protective layer. Let's not forget the savings, too. My go-to lip balms were about $3 a tube. That works out to about $20 an ounce! This homemade version? We're talking $0.42 per ounce. Looks like we've found two winners today. Sorry, cosmetic industry. Here are two more products I won't be buying from you anymore ;)

As Sarah stated in her blog comments, it's just a matter of tweaking the amount of beeswax, if you want something a little softer, or a little firmer. I'm quite happy with how mine turned out, and I plan to make some extra batches, come gift-giving season ;)

One of my favorite Paleo authors, Mark Sisson, has a fantastic recent post about handicraft. There is truly something genuinely satisfying about making something with your own two hands. Here's hoping you'll give this project a try!

Faye

No promotional consideration was paid for this post. Photo copyright GreenOrganicmama.com

Coconut Oil: For a Healthy Body; Inside & Out

2012-01-28T17:57:00.001-05:00

I'm very happy to report that our family is still enjoying all the benefits of living the Paleo lifestyle. For those who aren't familiar, last summer, we took our healthy eating a step further, and cut out all processed foods, including grain products. It's actually been much easier than we thought it would be, and it really helps that there is a huge, supportive online Paleo community out there, providing tremendous resources, useful hints, and always a patient, listening ear. The result? Mysterious rashes have cleared up, mom and dad are leaning out, the little one is happy, energetic, and growing like a weed, and we're not suffering through repeated bouts of respiratory infections like we used to. Sounds like we've found a winner ;)

In perusing all the mouth-watering primal recipes out there, many Paleo bloggers rely on coconut oil as their primary cooking oil. Coconut oil has now taken the spotlight as the reigning healthy fat among the "super foods". Healthy fat, you say? Yes, not all fat is bad. This great post by Hybrid Rasta Mama spells out 160 ways that coconut oil is good for us; using this naturally anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, shelf-stable, and delicious food for everything from cooking, baking, hair treatments, bug repellent, you name it! I know we've only seen the tip of the iceberg in our household. That five-gallon drum that we just ordered is going to get a lot of use!

A huge thank you to both George at Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations, and Esther at Paleo on Main Street, for introducing me to the Tropical Traditions brand of coconut oils. Not all coconut oil is made the same way, and not all of it tastes the same, either. Tropical Traditions has a great FAQ. When buying coconut oil, just be sure that yours is coming from a reputable source. Some manufacturers source their oil from multiple locations. The jar you see on the grocery store shelf could be a blend of oils from several different countries in itself. Tropical Traditions was born in the Philippines, and all their oil is made with care by local community farming families.

Coconut oil has a host of benefits, including aiding metabolism. This is now our primary cooking oil for everything from scrambled eggs to sauteing vegetables. For these savory dishes, we use Tropical Traditions' Expeller-Pressed Coconut Oil. Processed this way, expeller-pressed coconut oil doesn't have that distinct coconutty flavor or taste, making it a better choice for regular cooking. This is different from virgin coconut oil, which is fantastic for baking; adding hints of sweet, nutty flavor to your favorite recipes.

My ultimate favorite use for coconut oil is actually not for eating. A big shout-out to Liz Wolfe at Cave Girl Eats for changing my entire beauty routine; making it simpler, pure, free of chemical additives, and not to mention, frugal! I don't know what to do with all of my stockpiled face washes, creams, lotions, and potions, because it's now coconut oil to the rescue! I've always had issues with very sensitive, combination skin, with plenty of clogged pores, and a random painful zit. Toss in the occasional bout of eczema, from some kind of allergy cross-contamination (always resulting from eating out), and dealing with my skin has definitely not been easy. That is, until now. Liz, if you're reading this, you are my hero ;)

Every morning, I reach for a jar containing a mix of 2/3 coconut oil, and 1/3 castor oil. Castor oil is another super oil, with great anti-inflammatory properties (perfect for my eczema). Just don't eat the stuff ;) As I wait for the tankless hot water heater to kick in, I massage a bit of this mixture on my face, making sure to get it into those problem T-zone areas. Once the hot water is flowing, I gently wipe my face with a steamy hot wash cloth, which really does take off all the excess oil. Coconut oil is considered to be a "dry oil", as it is readily absorbed into your skin. By the time we're finished a quick breakfast, the oil has absorbed, and I'm ready to apply my makeup.

This same jar works to remove my makeup at the end of the day, too. I massage this onto my face, before stepping into the shower, and I take it a step further, by massaging with the Olay Professional Pro-X rotating brush. Call it the Clairsonic for us broke girls. LOL ;) Just a little bit of mild bar soap goes on the brush head. At the end of my shower, I apply a few dabs of another homemade blend of half coconut oil, half jojoba oil. Thank you again to Liz for suggesting the jojoba oil, which she points out is very similar to our skin's own sebum. I noticed a difference within just a few days. My pores are shrinking, the trouble spots are clearing up, and I don't have that aggravating, dry, tightness, immediately after washing my face anymore. My skin is definitely much softer now, too. As a bonus? No more having to read labels to find "natural" skin care products. You can't get much more triclosan/SLS/fragrance/paraben-free than pure plant oils.

If you want to give this a try, but don't have the other oils on hand, that's okay. Some people use straight coconut oil. Give that a try first, and see how you like this cleansing method. I'm pretty sure you're going to be hooked when you see and feel the results ;)

Faye

No promotional consideration was paid for this post. Review based on personal purchases.

Coconut & coconut oil image courtesy of Care2.com.
Spa facial image courtesy of Carlabelladayspa.com,

100 Days of Paleo: Our Cave-Family's Update

2011-10-04T15:56:00.000-04:00

What a perfect time to check in, and report our family's progress. We're now on Day #100 of eating Paleo; life without grains and the plethora of processed junk, advertisers and manufacturers continually try to convince us is food.

Just to recap, our family has grown, since we started following the Paleo way of eating. In addition to Cave Mom (that's me), Cave Dad, and Cave Girl, we added an extra saber-tooth kitty (read: shelter cat), for a total of three, in addition to our two wolves (read: rescued dogs). Our newest cat came to us as a huge chunky monkey (twenty-two and a half pounds of cat; more than our other two cats put together), and I'm happy to report that he's slimming down well, while enjoying plenty of organic beef liver and grain-free food. I'm glad we got to him and were able to provide him with a healthy home, before any onset of diabetes, or other weight-related illnesses.

So how is our human family faring? Even with much resistance from Cave Hubby, we've made it! We're healthier, much fitter, and nobody has gone screaming out the door, in search of chocolate cake. I, myself, battled with post-baby weight for what seemed like forever, and have now finally lost those inches. I treated myself to a new wardrobe, just after my first month of Paleo, and even those clothes are now hanging loose. My skin is clearer, I'm sleeping better, no more late-day digestive issues, and the midday afternoon slumps are gone, too. Did I mention my pants are loose? Woohoo!! No beating myself up at the gym, or exhaustive cardio: it's amazing what cutting out grains can do for you.

As I've blogged about before, Paleo dinners are especially easy to prepare, making meal-planning and prep work much easier for this full-time working Cave Mom. Many others are joining the ranks of Paleo eating, and there are numerous blogs, Facebook groups, and even more recently-released cookbooks, too, with an endless array of tasty and easy recipes. We may have cut out grains, but we certainly don't leave the dinner table still hungry. Even our six-year-old has adapted, and gets to enjoy whipping up a batch of grain-free muffins with mom, from time to time. Paleo is certainly family-friendly, and can be integrated into even the busiest schedules. We're definitely not going back to our former bad eating habits.

Just last night, I got caught up on the "I, Caveman" Curiosity series on Discovery Channel. Lo and behold, my favorite Paleo author, Robb Wolf, was one of the ten participants in this "Survivor-esque" series, about going back to our caveman roots. There is an ever-growing interest in our human origins, and of course, my mom friends and I are always talking about diet. A few want to make the leap to going Paleo, but they're not quite sure. Things are definitely going to change, when switching to primal eating, and there are some key things to remember:

We, as a society, have been effectively brain-washed. Everything you learned in school, from pyramids, nutritionists, and the health industry, about grains being healthy and necessary is WRONG.
Big Pharma, Big Agri, and especially the politicians, are all in it together. They don't want us to break out of this highly-profitable, vicious cycle: the more cheap, grain-based, nutrient-poor junk they trick us into consuming, the unhealthier we become, and the more we rely on drugs to get through life. You'll never see a fortified stem of broccoli. Why is it then that we're constantly bombarded with messages to eat artificially-fortified grain products? Nutritionally, grains can't hold a candle to the meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables, seeds and nuts we were born to eat.
Weight gain, allergies, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chronic aches and pains, and taking daily medication to deal with those things IS NOT the norm. Our bodies are like machines; operating best on the proper type of fuel. If we continue to fuel ourselves with the wrong foods, we're bound to start breaking down.
You will not starve. I'm a 5'2" Asian, my husband is 6' and All-American, our growing daughter continues to be one of the tallest and brightest in her classes, our dogs and cats are healthy and content, and none of us are wasting away. It doesn't matter how big or small you are, how young or old, or your species: eat what nature intended you to eat.
This is the one diet that makes sense, it truly works, and you'll stick with it. Give it a full 30 days. At the end of it all, your grocery store manager will be waiting, with open arms, to lead you back to the cereal and bread aisles, any time you want. Once you have that first cheat meal, your body will definitely tell you what's right and wrong for you.

Here's hoping more of you will give Paleo a short 30-days of your time, and with any luck, a lifetime after that. You'll be healthier for it. I know we are ;)

No promotional consideration was paid for this post.

The information presented in this website is in no way intended as medical advice or as a substitute for medical counseling. The information should be used in conjunction with the guidance and care of your physician. Your physician should be aware of all medical conditions that you may have, as well as the medications or supplements you may be taking.

All Natural Homemade Automatic Dishwasher Detergent

2011-09-10T14:22:00.000-04:00

We're on a roll, with our adventures in making our own homemade cleaning products. We started a couple weeks ago, by making our own super easy, super frugal, homemade laundry soap, and it was a hit! It's cheap, it's effective, and better for the environment. I won't be going back to the store-bought stuff anymore!

Next on the list of homemade cleaner recipes: automatic dishwasher detergent. First, a little background: it is so incredibly difficult to find a good dishwasher detergent that doesn't contain chlorine. My mother, especially, is very chemically-sensitive, and it was a lot of trial and error, before I started using Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwasher detergent for my own family. It cleans thoroughly, especially with our hard water, it's phosphate-free, and doesn't produce noxious chlorine fumes. Still, that came at a price; almost five dollars a box at my local grocery store. Lucky for us, after having made our own laundry soap, we had almost everything already on hand, to churn out our first batch of homemade detergent for the dishwasher.

Much like the laundry detergent, this recipe calls for borax and washing (not baking) soda. Both are readily available in grocery store and big box store laundry aisles, at a couple dollars a box. The one ingredient I had to buy was citric acid. It comes in a white powder form, and should be available where you buy your vitamins and supplements. I ordered a huge five-pound tub from Amazon. The rest of the ingredients are just pantry staples: kosher salt, and a little bit of uncooked rice (a great tip, from DIY Natural, for keeping the powder from clumping).

No soap grating in this recipe: just mix the various dry ingredients together, in a container with a tight-fitting lid, label, and you're done!

Equipment:
1-cup measure
Storage container with tight-fitting lid
An old 1-oz. plastic scoop

Ingredients:
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda
1 cup citric acid
0.5 cup kosher salt
1 tbsp dry, uncooked rice

Add all of the ingredients to your storage container, close lid tightly, and shake until thoroughly mixed.

Use 0.5 oz (1 tbsp) per load.

I just ran a load of plates, flatware, glasses, mugs, and even a stoneware baking dish. Everything is squeaky clean! Vinegar also magically makes a reappearance in the kitchen. Last month, we introduced it as a fabric softener for your washing machine. Now, it goes in your rinse agent dispenser, to get sparkly, clean dishes, without the hefty price tag of store-bought rinse agent.

Happy frugal cleaning :)

Grain-Free, Paleo "No Corn" Corn Muffins with Bacon & Ham

2011-09-04T15:32:00.001-04:00

A huge thank you to Kara over at The Primal Home, for sharing this awesome, mouthwateringly-delicious recipe for the paleo equivalent of a grain-free corn muffin! One of my girlfriends has already replicated the recipe, and my freshly-baked batch is being devoured before my eyes.

These are totally gluten-free, and made with just a few basic, healthy ingredients, including the miracle that is coconut flour. Coconut flour is just ground-up, dried coconut. Surprisingly, the coconut flavor is not overpowering, and the muffins came out with a great, fluffy, moist texture. If you don't tell your friends they're grain-free, they probably wouldn't even notice.

I made a few tweaks, including substituting the cooked bacon for diced deli ham. Just like Marie Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond, I keep a "jar of fat" in the fridge, so the bacon grease was already on hand. That saved a little prep time, but you can always follow Kara's method and render three strips of bacon. Here's how I just created our batch of these awesome little muffins:

Ingredients:

3 tbsp bacon grease
5 slices deli ham, diced very small
6 eggs
1/3 cup local, raw, organic honey
1/2 cup organic coconut flour
1 tsp fresh Italian herbs, chopped fine (optional)
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line your muffin tin with nine paper liners.

Melt bacon grease in a large Pyrex mixing bowl, in the microwave. Heat until mostly melted (do not overheat).

Whisk in honey with the melted bacon grease.

Add the six eggs and Italian herbs, and continue to whisk. Add the ham.

Add the coconut flour, and mix thoroughly, breaking up any lumps.

Once blended, whisk in the baking soda. Immediately scoop the batter into muffin tin, filling 3/4 of the way, and bake for 15 minutes.

Transfer muffins to a cooling rack.

These came out so delicious, even my reluctant-caveman husband went back for seconds! I'm trying to keep myself from going back for a third. This is going to be a regular baked-good item in our Paleo household ;)

All-Natural Homemade Laundry Powder Detergent

2011-08-16T22:20:00.004-04:00

A big thank you to my dear friend, and Super Mom, Nance, for introducing our gang of mommy friends to the wonders of homemade laundry soap!

Now, why would anybody want to make their own laundry detergent, when every grocery store, drug store, big box store, and even the corner convenience store carry the ready-made stuff? First, it's frugal! I finally have the HE (high-efficiency), front-loading washing machine that I was salivating over for years, and I love that it uses so little soap per load. Still, that soap doesn't come cheap. Whereas some detergents can run upwards of twenty cents a load, homemade laundry soap works out to mere pennies.

Our go-to brand of all-natural powder detergent does list all of its ingredients, but many popular brands do not. Just like cooking your own meals at home, making your own laundry detergent also means you know exactly what went into it. [Note: please don't eat your soap.]

Many of our friends have family members with sensitivities to perfumes and chemical additives. This is definitely one way to get around those issues. Avoiding those nasty chemicals also means that they're not being released into the environment, every time you do a load of wash. Basic ingredients go into this recipe, which works out better for everyone.

This is also going to be one of the simplest DIY projects you could do. A quick detour down the laundry aisle at my grocery store was all it took to locate a box of borax, and washing soda (not to be confused with baking soda). Please don't try to substitute baking soda for washing soda; it's a totally different animal. Besides, both boxes were a mere couple of dollars each. For the final ingredient: choose one bar of your favorite soap (preferably petroleum-free, like castile, glycerine, coconut-based, or olive-oil based like what I used). That's it! Here's how I assembled my stash of homemade laundry powder, in about 20 minutes, while standing in the kitchen, catching up on HGTV:

Equipment:
Box grater with non-slip base
Flexible, non-slip cutting board
Mixing bowl
Mixing spoon
1-cup measure
Storage container with tight-fitting lid
An old 1-oz. plastic scoop
*optional - food processor

Ingredients:
1 bar of soap
1 cup of borax
1 cup of washing soda

Place the box grater on top of your flexible cutting board, and grate the entire bar of soap (finer is better). Use the flexible cutting board to pour the grated soap flakes into your mixing bowl as you go.

After grating, if your soap flakes are still a bit large, you may optionally pulse them in your food processor.

Add the borax and washing soda to the soap flakes in the mixing bowl, and blend thoroughly.

Store in lidded container, and use 0.5 oz (1 tbsp) per load.

We have a quilt that we keep on our bed, for the sole purpose of keeping the rest of the bedding clean, from our beloved cats (and sometimes the dogs) who think we don't know that they steal up there to nap when we're not around. That quilt was the Level 5 test subject for this newly-minted batch of soap. It passed with flying colors! I have another friend to thank, Jill, for reminding me to use a bit of plain, white vinegar in place of fabric softener. Even with no dryer sheet, the quilt came out fresher, cleaner, and softer than ever! No lingering vinegar smell; I promise! :)

Thank you, ladies, for your fabulous, eco-frugal laundry tips!

Happy wash day :)

Faye

Paleo Lemon Bars (Gluten-Free)

2011-06-13T22:30:00.001-04:00

Thank you to George over at Civilized Caveman Cooking for turning me on to these awesome lemon bars, made Paleo style. I'm now on Week 3 of primal (i.e. grain-free) eating, losing weight, firming up, and feeling great! It's nice to know that even cavemen and cavewomen can still enjoy some baked goods, once a while. These lemon bars hit the spot! My reluctant caveman husband just "Mmm... mmm... mmm"ed his way through a slice. I'm savoring some myself, while sharing my tweaks to this recipe with you.

Due to shipping delays, I had to make do with ingredients on hand, and made a few substitutions. I thought the crust was looking a little wet, so I added 1/3 cup of organic coconut flour (essentially, ground up dried coconut). That worked like a charm! I also started the lemon topping the night before, and let it set in the fridge overnight, and made the crust the next day. Here's how I made our super-lemony lemon bars:

For the lemon topping:

6 organic eggs

1 cup freshly-squeezed organic lemon juice (about seven lemons)

1/2 cup local honey

1/2 cup coconut oil (measured in solid state)

For the crust:

1 cup raw whole almonds

1 cup raw whole pecans

1/3 cup organic coconut flour

1/2 cup melted coconut oil (or butter, or ghee)

1/4 cup local honey

2 organic eggs

To make the filling:

Slow and steady warming, and continued whisking -- that's the key here for a thick, smooth, silky topping, and not lemon-flavored scrambled eggs.

- Whisk the eggs, honey, and lemon juice in a cold sauce pan

- Turn heat on medium, and continue to whisk

- As mixture warms, add the coconut oil

- Continue to whisk, allowing mixture to reduce and thicken

- When the mixture starts to bubble, turn the heat down to low, and whisk for two more minutes

- Remove from heat, and allow to cool to room temperature, before transferring to a lidded container, to chill in the refrigerator. Lemon topping can be made a day in advance.

To make the crust:

To get that nice crumbly texture, pulse the nuts in your food processor, to ensure some chunks and pieces.

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (I used 375 degrees F in a convection oven)

- In a small mixing bowl, combine the honey, melted coconut oil, and eggs

- Chop the nuts in a food processor on pulse setting, to achieve a crumbly, mealy texture (not powder)

- Add the chopped nuts and coconut flour to the wet ingredients

- Grease a 9"x9" baking dish with light layer of coconut oil

- Spread an even layer of the nut mixture in the baking dish

- Bake for 12-15 minutes, until nuts are golden brown, and edges are crisp

- Allow crust to cool to room temperature before layering on lemon topping

- Serve chilled

These are seriously delicious! Our first flourless dessert is a success! Seriously, you won't even notice those missing whole (and not so whole) grains. I plan to make a few different versions of this delectable treat; raspberry and lemon, cranberry and lemon, and I can't be a resident of the Florida Keys without making a Key Lime flavor sometime ;)

Enjoy!

Faye

Easy Last-Minute Paleo Dinner: Garlicky Steamed Mussels

2011-06-10T21:22:00.002-04:00

Ah, I love seafood. I also love quick, easy, healthy meals. After a busy week, and a quick run through the grocery store on the way home, I came home with two pounds of delicious, fresh mussels!

It took a few minutes, but I finally convinced the lady at the seafood counter that yes, I wanted the plastic bag open. She looked at me like I was crazy, but it's important to remember that unlike a lot of the seafood in that chilled case, mussels are alive, and they need to breathe. Mussels can live out of sea water for a short period of time, and they can survive in the fridge, but they do need air. An experienced seafood monger will pick through bulk shipments of mussels, and throw out any with broken shells, or ones that are sealed shut. Live, happy mussels have their shells open. When touched/jostled, they will close up to protect themselves. It's the live ones that open back up. They should also have a clean, briny smell. Those are the ones you want to enjoy.

Mussels are super easy to prepare, and fast! Dinner is on the table in mere minutes. No salt needed: mussels bring their own distinct briny goodness to the dish. Here's how to do it:

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh mussels
1 small sweet onion, diced
1 handful cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup white wine or chicken broth
1 clove crushed garlic
a few grinds of fresh ground black pepper

To prepare:

Preheat a heavy-bottomed lidded pan/dutch oven on medium.

Gently rinse the mussels in a colander under cool water. (Do not submerge these saltwater creatures in fresh water, or they will die.)

Coat the bottom of the pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. Sweat the onions until translucent. Toss in cherry tomatoes, and cook for another minute.

Turn heat up on medium high. Stir in crushed garlic and black pepper.

Add mussels and white wine/broth, and cover tightly with lid.

After two minutes, switch off the heat. After three more minutes, carefully open the lid, and check to see if all the mussels have opened. If not, cover and let sit for a few more minutes, until the majority of the mussels have opened.

Gently toss the mussels, throwing out any that haven't opened, and serve immediately with the broth.

I gently pull the halves of the shell apart, loosen the mussel from the bottom shell, leaving the little inedible stem in place, scoop up a little of the broth, and down the hatch! Have a big plate ready to catch all of your empty shells.

Although we usually prepare extra portions when making dinner, cooked mussels don't work too well as leftovers. Only buy/make as much as you'll eat in one sitting. Enjoy with a nice fresh side salad, for a quick, easy, any-night dinner.

Getting Healthy By Going Grain-Free: The Paleo Solution - Eat Like A Caveman

2011-06-05T11:35:00.003-04:00

In the words of a famous gecko, "it's so simple, even a caveman can do it".

Years ago, we began our organic journey, when we found out we were expecting our little girl. That quickly evolved into making smarter ecological choices for everything we buy and use, and I know we are healthier for it. There are so many helpful resources nowadays, to make it easy going green and choosing organic. Still, I have to thank another source for our family's most recent lifestyle change: my beloved dogs and cats.

After much research, I recently switched our fur babies over to grain-free food. Our pets' wild ancestors certainly did not sit down to meals of ground corn and bowls of wheat, and more and more pet food manufacturers are acknowledging this. While reading into the health reasons for pets to go grain-free, I couldn't help but wonder why we human beings are eating grain, too? That's when I picked up a copy of The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet, the New York Times Bestseller by Robb Wolf.

Once in a while, a book makes your eyes open wide, and makes you question everything you thought you knew. The Paleo Solution certainly did this, and turned my whole view of diet and nutrition upside-down. My friends and family already know how much I detest the food giant Monsanto. I firmly believe evil food conglomerates, the pharmaceutical industry, and crooked politicians are all in cahoots, poisoning our environment and us, taking advantage of hard-working farmers, and squashing those who do try to do things right. I was so pleased to find someone else who feels the same way, in author Robb Wolf.

We've all grown up with the belief that we need to eat grain (whole grain at that) to be healthy. Every little pyramid and diagram that has been put in front of us has included this as a recommended "food group". Robb Wolf, who comes from a bio-chemist background, prior to being a health and fitness consultant, is quick to present data, showing just how little nutrition is in grain. Our ancestors lived for thousands of years without agriculture; living as hunter-gatherers. Our diets consisted of meat, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts. It wasn't until wide-scale farming of grain began, that anthropologists began seeing evidence of health problems in the remains of our ancestors.

Bringing the story up to modern-day, Robb Wolf paints a detailed picture, showing how the ingestion of grain causes chain reactions in our bodies, throwing everything off-kilter, from our cholesterol, insulin levels, and most visibly, our waistlines. I myself have retiree parents, and my mother in particular has been plagued her whole adult life with cholesterol issues, high blood pressure, and in recent years, osteoporosis. The whole time I was reading Robb Wolf's explanations, I kept picturing my own mother. Mom, you and I are going to sit down and have a long chat about Paleo eating, when we come visit. We want you off your medications and with us for a long, long time.

So, it's been a week since I began my Paleo eating shift; focusing my meals on lots of vegetables, roasted meats, broiled wild-caught seafood, and snacking on fresh fruit and nuts. The result? I feel fantastic! No more midday slump at the office, my skin looks clearer, and I can visibly see myself getting leaner! You know where your own "problem spots" are, and I can tell you, mine are shrinking before my eyes! WOOHOO! This switch has honestly been very easy. The meals are surprisingly filling, and keep me full for a longer period of time. I haven't missed the cookies, bread, or pasta. As a bonus: Paleo meals are so incredibly easy to prepare, which is fantastic for this busy working mom. Just steam/roast/sautee some vegetables, while broiling/roasting some meat, and voila! Dinner is served! I could seriously get used to this.

So, my apologies to the grain industry: you've lost a customer. To the pharmaceutial industry: I won't be following in my family's footsteps, and you can keep your high cholesterol/blood-pressure/diabetes medications. I'm off to say hello to a healthy, long life, and my pre-pregnancy clothes ;)

Thank you, Robb Wolf, and the Paleo Solution!

No promotional consideration was paid for this post. This is a review of personal purchases.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com.

Organic is More Than Skin Deep: Pesticides and Herbicides May Be Causing Rapid Animal Population Decline

2011-05-01T10:39:00.002-04:00

A great article from Natural News caught my eye this weekend, drawing a possible correlation between rapidly declining animal populations around the world, to the widespread use of pesticides and herbicides. We've all seen the headlines lately: birds falling dead out of the sky, honeybees threatened with extinction, and countless more. My immediate thought of this was another popular article that was making its rounds once again: "The Dirty Dozen", and its counterpart, "The Clean Fifteen". Both of these guides from the EWG try to summarize for consumers a list of produce that should be purchased organic, and those that aren't so risky, based on the EWG's analysis of how much harmful pesticide residue is on, or getting past, the outer layers of commonly-purchased fruits and vegetables. Not a bad way for those just getting into organics to start, but I firmly believe these guides are misleading: organic is about much more than just not consuming pesticides.

People choose organic for many different reasons. For us, we made the shift when we found out we were expecting. What began as a goal to keep harmful chemicals out of my developing daughter's body, quickly blossomed into considering the impact of these chemicals on our entire household, and our environment. I did a lot of reading into the entire organic life cycle, from "farm to table", as they say. One of my favorite documentaries, Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution, depicts exactly what happens when chemicals are unleashed on the environment, through conventional farming. There's a great scene in this film, shown on the border of two farms, where one side was farmed conventionally, and the other the organic way. The conventionally-farmed soil was like stratified sand, packed hard, and couldn't absorb water or nutrients, if it tried. Right next to that was the organic farm's soil, dark, rich, and full of life; the way soil should look. When farmers devastate their land with chemicals, they aren't just contained just to that area; they leach into the ground water, and into the surrounding air. That's the message Natural News was getting at with their article: choosing organic is about keeping harmful chemicals out of our environment as a whole.

So the next time you're at the market, do consider that you're shopping not just for yourself, but for the planet that we all share.

No promotional consideration was paid for this post.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com.

Adopt A Rescue: Meet Our Newest Furry Child

2011-04-16T23:49:00.001-04:00

It's been an exciting last couple of weeks in the Green Organic household. Please say hello (or woof-woof) to our newest fur baby, the hair ball above with the eyes, nose, and tongue. Under all that fluff is such a sweet, happy boy, who up until recently, was a parasite-infested stray. He came to us through the same rescue group where we adopted the shy Schnauzer mix, peeking into the frame above. They are such a great match, and it didn't take long for them to become BFF's. That now makes four furry children in this household, including two adult shelter cats. There's a lot of furry love under this roof.

Shelter and rescue animals are sadly too numerous. If you and your family are looking to provide a forever home for an animal, please do consider adopting. Not every one of these animals comes from a harmful or neglectful situation. Like our Schnauzer mix and one of our shelter cats, many come from loving homes, but had to leave, due to changes in living arrangements, job loss, passing of an owner, etc. The rescue group where our dogs came from, does a great job, trying to get a good sense of a particular animal's behaviors and personality, to try to match up with a fitting forever home. As long as you have a good understanding of your own family's dynamics, and your expectations, that will better the chances for a good fit, when the right animal comes along.

On that same note, I highly recommend everyone to read Cesar Millan's books, and watch at least some of the Dog Whisperer episodes. We humans have forgotten that while dog is man's best friend, he's still, by nature, a dog. After reading Cesar Millan's books, I firmly believe that if this was required reading material, prior to bringing a dog into a household, we wouldn't see quite so many unwanted animals out there. Understanding breeds, training, and care is just the tip of the iceberg. Millan teaches that it's more important to know yourself.

We feel very fortunate to be able to provide a loving home for at least some of these needy animals, and in turn, they give us unconditional love back. Caring for animals is also a great teaching tool in our household. Early on, my daughter learned how to approach them, and use a gentle touch. She's learned that animals are a lot like us; they eat, they sleep, they play, they, uh ... go potty. ;) She knows they have feelings, too, and she's learned how to respect them. She's watched how they communicate, with each other, and with us. She knows they are her friends and her family. When she's older, we'll be sharing some more pet care duties with her as well; adding to her sense of responsibility. There's a lot to be learned from our furry friends.

For those looking for a new pet, please do consider your local rescue groups and shelters. Here's to more happy tails and forever homes :)

No promotional consideration was paid for this post.

Product Review: Fluffy, Delicious, and Picky-Eater-Approved: Bob's Red Mill Organic 7-Grain Pancake & Waffle Mix

2011-03-05T10:59:00.000-05:00

Ahh, I love Saturdays. It's the one day that we're all off and home together. We always start the weekend with a big, yummy breakfast. On the menu today: homemade whole-grain waffles.

I love my family for having put up with my attempts to feed them healthier. While we had great success with Bob's Red Mill Buckwheat Pancake and Waffle Mix, my husband continually asked for something more traditional-tasting; something lighter, fluffy, and golden-brown. After some research, we turned again to Bob's Red Mill, and ordered a case of their Organic 7-Grain Pancake and Waffle Mix.

Each package has simple instructions for turning out the most delicious pancakes or waffles. Waffles were the goal today, so I plugged in our beloved Cuisinart waffle iron, put it on setting #4, and prepared the mix. How easy is this:

1 cup of mix
2 eggs
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup milk (we used almond milk, to keep this dairy-free for me)

Mix it all up, and drop a couple ice-cream scoops of the thick batter onto your preheated, lightly-greased waffle iron. A few minutes later, we were enjoying the most delicious homemade waffles! These came out so big and fluffy. The picky eaters in the house didn't even bat an eyelash at the whole-grain content. Mission accomplished ;) Paired with some turkey bacon, these were a hit! My pickiest eater even asked for seconds. This is definitely another pantry staple :)

No promotional consideration was paid for this post. This is a review of personal purchases.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com.

The Culture of Cola: Take the Caramel Color Ban a Step Further & Ban Soda Completely

2011-02-17T18:39:00.003-05:00

By now, most everyone has heard the call by a consumer group to the FDA to ban caramel color from soda, due to the presence of two cancer-causing chemicals. While the elimination of potential carcinogens is always a good thing, I think this is an even better opportunity to step back and look at the bigger picture: soda itself.

Thinking back to my childhood, soda was everywhere. It was just another one of those everyday items, offered along with your meal, and nobody ever thought twice about it (especially my parents, who worked in the food industry). With the exception of vending machine bans on school property now, not much has changed. Almost every restaurant, food court, gas station, and many households will offer you a sugar- and chemical-laden carbonated cocktail. Even 20,000 feet up in the air, soda has become this inescapable part of daily consumption.

I'm hoping that many will hear about this call for the caramel color ban, and perhaps take this opportunity to ask why so many of us automatically reach for one of these, and even crave them. Soda is nothing but water, high fructose corn syrup, and a mess of other artificial ingredients. It has no nutritional value, and not to mention, we are charged an arm and a leg for this stuff. I've actually been soda-free for several years now, and I won't let my daughter have any, either. I came to the realization that soda is NOT normal; even though the big manufacturers and the media have been telling us otherwise, from the time we were children. What is normal? Water, tea, coffee, juice, and milk (cow's, soy, and almond are our favorites). I think the rise in eco-awareness in recent years, with its onslaught of reusable bottles everywhere, has created more water-drinkers. I know we drink more plain water now, and that is what nature intended. Ever see a deer wander the forest, searching for a stream of brown cola? Maybe on Planet Pepsi :P

So please, raise a glass of clean, pure water with me, and toast to your health! Let's leave soda behind, along with asbestos and lead paint, as another one of humankind's prior mistakes, that we've learned and moved on from.

No promotional consideration was paid for this post.

Image courtesy of news.sympatico.ctv.ca.

Meet my Digital Alter-Ego: Tech blogging @ TechnoMommy.com!

2011-02-04T22:11:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! It's a new year, and I'm venturing into new territory. I'd like to introduce all of you to my newest blog: TechnoMommy.com.

Many of you already know that I'm a computer geek at heart; as evident by my technology-laced posts. Over the past few months, I was shopping for a new cell phone, and was all set to go the iPhone route and leave T-Mobile for Verizon. Wrong! I'm glad I didn't. I've found all the qualities in a great, user-friendly phone that I wanted and more in an Android. That went so well that a friend has followed suit, and ditched her old clamshell Motorola for an Android, too. Please stop by my new blog to check out what went into choosing my Anti-iPhone ;)

Not to worry... GreenOrganicMama.com isn't going anywhere! Being eco-friendly isn't a fad; it's a lifestyle change. That's ingrained in our everyday life. The green posts will continue to come. TechnoMommy.com is another one of those "You know, I really should be writing this stuff down," ideas ;) I've been the go-to tech support person for as long as I can remember, so it's only natural to bring this into web form. Other moms have posted about the latest tech gadgetry, but few actually explain what to do with this stuff, and how to use it, and get the most out of it. That's where TechnoMommy will come in.

So, I hope to see you all over on the tech side! Thanks for being such loyal readers :)

All the best in 2011!!

Store Review: The Key West Toy Factory, Key West, FL

2010-09-25T09:24:00.005-04:00

What do you get when you cross the Rainforest Cafe with a sunken pirate ship, carrying a cargo hold full of eco-friendly and educational toys? In our town, it's the Key West Toy Factory!

Right in the heart of Old Town is the newest family-friendly stop for tourists and locals. Last weekend, after our awesome vegan lunch at Green Republic, my friend Yvonnie and I made our way down to Clinton Square Market; the home of the Key West Toy Factory. We didn't have the kids with us, but that didn't matter; there's something in this store for everybody!

Pictures can't describe the sights in this store. This video comes close ;) The time and effort put into the design of this store is phenomenal, right from the moment that you walk under a rope bridge and through the "jungle" to get inside the store. There are water features and life-like creatures of all types; not to mention the giant sunken pirate ship. Oh yes! This happens to be a toy store. The owner envisioned a place where kids and parents could come and hang out for a while. There are play tables, a reading nook with comfy pillows, to settle in and read a story together, and the best part of all: the Imagineering Workshop. Open to all customers, and even available to book for free (yes, free) for your next birthday party or gathering, this part of the store, with its benches and stools and art supplies, is the place to get creative, with coloring sheets and art projects for kids to do. Don't worry about making a mess; the designers deliberately splattered leftover paint all over the place, so what's another splatter? ;)

Green Organic Girl and I went back together the following day. I paid for two hours at the parking meter, and let me tell you, those two hours flew by fast! We were sprinting back to the car! We had such a great time, playing with stuffed animals, banging on drums and a steel pan, reading books, coloring pictures, and exploring all the educational toys the store had to offer. We loved the atmosphere of this store, that encourages you to stay and play. I was very pleased to see many eco-friendly options, like wooden toys from popular brands like our personal favorite: Melissa & Doug. Despite the obviously huge investment that went into the design and opening of this store, the prices are all very reasonable; much more reasonable, I would say, than the other smaller traditional toy store we have across town.

So what did we take home that day? Green Organic Girl changed her mind a dozen times (like any kid), but finally settled on a "Doodle Sketch" by Etch-A-Sketch. Hours of paperless, tree-free, drawing and stamping fun! Sounds good to me ;)

Oh but that wasn't all! That day we were there, the store staff were giving away free balloons, and with every purchase, a wooden token, good for a free kiddie cone of homemade ice cream, downstairs at the Sweets of Paradise shop, owned by our friends Walt and Lindsey. Walt has figured out the magical formula, as to just how many chocolate chips a giant cookie can hold. We were treated to one, fresh and warm out of the oven! Oh boy! A fun day at a new store, a new toy, a balloon, ice cream, and a giant cookie! We can't wait until our next trip down to the Key West Toy Factory :)

Image courtesy of KeyWestHotLine.com.

YouTube Video courtesy of KeyWestToyFactory.com.

No promotional consideration was paid for this post. This is a review of a personal shopping trip.

Restaurant Review: Green Republic Vegan Restaurant of Key West, FL

2010-09-19T17:27:00.005-04:00

Many thanks to my friend Tracey for sharing a great new place for those of us wanting something other than the usual greasy fare.

My friend Yvonnie of KeyWestBaby.com and I were in dire need of some "me" time. Between work and our families, we barely had time to breathe, or a chance to say more than three words to each other on the phone, before being pulled away by some family member. Nevertheless, we had set aside this past Saturday afternoon as an outing for just the two of us; no children, no husbands, and we could actually have an uninterrupted conversation (what a concept!) ;) As Yvonnie is also into going green and organic, she was also eager to try Green Republic; a new vegan addition to Key West!

We arrived at the restaurant, which is in the heart of downtown, and is just bright, clean, and inviting. The menu items with all of their clever names were all neatly displayed on chalk boards along the walls. There is a wide assortment of delicious options, and it was hard to make up our minds. There are sandwiches, wraps, burgers (vegan, of course), soups, salads, and even rice bowls! The prices are all very reasonable. Yvonnie had a craving for brie, and had the portobello and brie wrap. I decided to give the burgers a try, and went with the Bacon Cheddar. Of course, I advised the gentleman at the counter of my dairy allergy. "No problem," he said, and offered me vegan cheddar instead. That was so nice to have that option. I also chose one of their many fresh-made (i.e. NOT from a mix) smoothies, and enjoyed the mango/pineapple/banana/orange, known as the Maui Mango.

We settled in on one of the platforms, with its comfy cushions, and enjoyed the calm atmosphere of the restaurant, and the quieter side street, while our orders were filled. My smoothie came first, and it was delicious! All of the Green Republic smoothies are dairy-free, and start with soy milk. The smoothie was so refreshing, and just the perfect hint of sweetness. No sugary concoctions added to these drinks. Our food didn't take long, and our taste buds were in for a treat! Everything on the menu is homemade, right down to my vegan burger, which we were told is made from lentils. One bite into my burger, and it clearly did not come off an assembly line. No mass-produced, flash-frozen food here! We both polished off our entire plates, and we were comfortably full, satisfied, but didn't have that icky feeling from eating too much grease.

Now, my friend Tracey had raved about Green Republic's fabulous homemade, organic, vegan cupcakes, complete with vegan icing! So, we weren't about to leave without sampling at least one. There were several flavors to choose from, including Tracey's favorite of Carrot Cake, but we decided to split one chocolate cupcake. We were not disappointed! My first taste of vegan chocolate cake was the birthday cake we ordered for my daughter at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. That one was phenomenal, and in comparison, this cupcake did not disappoint! It even had a fancy swirl of vegan chocolate icing on the top. It was light, airy, and just the perfect touch.

We can't wait to go back to Green Republic again! It's just the perfect place to kick back, relax, and have something delicious and good for you, too!

Do check out Green Republic's website, and they'll even give you a dollar off your pickup/delivery order if you place your order online! We were told to sign up for member-exclusive specials, too.

Hope to see you at Green Republic! More locations are opening up across the U.S. :)

Image courtesy of GreenRepublic.com. No promotional consideration was paid for this post.
This review is based on personal purchases.