Month: July 2012

Make You Own Wood Cleaner

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As I walk down the cleaning isle in any store but a health food store the smells and chemicals give me a headache right away and I try not to breathe. Now I’m supposed to buy this stuff to clean my house right? And yet I feel sick standing with the unopened containers of all these “household cleaners” wondering which is the lesser evil. I know there are more environmentally friendly cleaning products and even those have me wondering if maybe I can do something myself. So I decided to launch my workshop series Healthy Homes Heal,  which takes us to a deeper level of evaluating all that is going into our daily health including the products we use to keep our homes clean.

I think one of the best ways to change our lifestyle is one step at a time. If we have too many things to change all at once it is overwhelming and it is hard to know what exactly is helping with making you feel better. Lets start comfortably with one simple new healthy non-toxic product and remove the old more toxic one! Sounds easy enough to me and so that is the goal for the first of this series.

Home Remedies are things I love because its like chemistry class at your kitchen table and you get to choose what to make. When you start to embrace YOUR POWER and realize the things your put in your body (by feeding or simply through absorption or inhalation) have an impact in how you feel, only then can you control your health with simple things like eating organic foods, using less toxic cleaning supplies and avoiding toxicity like hanging out while your friends smoke cigarettes. Image

Ok now onto making your own Wood Dressing and watch your wood become alive!  What you’ll need is an empty clean spray bottle I used a 32oz. one and used every drop throughout the next two days feeding and cleaning any wood in site. I used it on my beautiful antique dressers, my floors, my mahogany doors and jambs and even my untreated outdoor wood furniture! My furniture and floors look different two days later, they are richer in color and feel smooth and satiated I guess could be the word!

Wood Dressing:

1 32 oz. empty spray bottle

2 cups Olive Oil preferably produced in the USA

2 cups white vinegar

80 drops doTerra Wild Orange Oil or Lemon (I cannot attest for the purity of any other essential oil on the marketplace nor would I recommend using on your furniture)

Put all ingredients together in bottle and shake well. Be warned you will want to feed everything in sight! Shake bottle before each spray as the oils and vinegar will separate.

Another note once you apply this to your wood floors let it seep into the grain, wipe off excess if you feel you must . The floor can be slippery for about a half hour until it is absorbed please be careful not to slip while it dries. Use soft clean cloth for your furniture and the same principle applies here if there is excess wipe off with a clean cloth although you will find that most of your wood is starving and will drink in all this pure food!

As with all things in life love what you are doing NOW!

EAT….HEAL…..LIVE!

10 Ways to save money and eat healthy organic foods!

/ organic urban farmgirl / 2 Comments

1) Go with home-made.  Americans today spend 49% of their food budget on eating out at restaurants.  When you make it yourself, you know what’s in it – and you can save a lot of money, too.

2) Use bulk bins. Buying beans, whole grains, and other non-perishables from bulk bins will save you an average of 56% over buying the same items pre-packaged.

3) Cook in quantity.  Whether you live alone or are part of a big family, making big sauces, pots of soup, casseroles and other meals saves time in the long run.  You can freeze extras for convenient instant meals, or create meal-sharing arrangements with friends or co-workers.

4) Grow food. It takes time, but gardening is the most economical way to enjoy the freshest possible food.  In urban neighborhoods, community gardens are a great way to grow food and build community at the same time.  There are an estimated 18,000 community gardens in the US and Canada.   For resources to help you start one, visit this the American Community Gardening Association.

5) Buy direct from farmers.  When you join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), you enter into a direct win-win partnership with local farmers.  Farmer’s Markets are a fantastic way to support farmers while enjoying fresh food straight from the source.  In the US, the number of farmer’s markets has more than doubled in the last decade.  Click here for more info on Farmer’s Market and CSA opportunities near you.

6) Use what’s in season, economical and nutritious.  Some of the most budget-conscious starches include beans, whole grains, and potatoes.  Some of the most affordable and nutritionally potent vegetables often include cabbage, carrots, and onions.

7) Use – and stick with – shopping lists.  Maintain an ongoing shopping list.  Conduct a quick inventory of your kitchen before you shop to see if you’re missing anything important.  By thinking your shopping through in advance, you’re more likely to get what you actually need, and less likely to waste money on impulse buying that you’ll later regret.

8) Cut down on animal products.  As Dr. John McDougall has pointed out, approximately one-third of the calories consumed by people living in developed nations are from animal sources.  Animal foods — like meat, poultry, fish, milk, and cheese, are usually an expensive source of protein and nutrients.

9) Eat before shopping.  Grocery stores know the power of delectable smells. Everything looks good when our stomachs are screaming, “feed me!”, and that can lead to more impulse buying.

10) Join Green Polka Dot Box.  This is a natural and organic buyers collective that makes healthy ad GMO-free foods available for great prices, delivered straight to your door, anywhere in the United States.  Find out more and sign up here.

Healthy food is a fundamental building block to a healthy life.  It’s an investment worth making.  And in many cases, we can even save money in the process.

And most importantly and always love life, yourself and remember

EAT……HEAL…….LIVE!

 

 

Healing my husband from C Difficile

/ organic urban farmgirl / 16 Comments

Each day before 6:30 a.m. I have already cooked breakfast and lunch for my husband Michael to take to work. As he leaves each morning loaded with a smoothie full of super foods to sip on as he drives to work; breakfast with some form of gluten-free cereal with fruit and almond milk or a brown rice breakfast quesadilla and a lunch with an amazing salad loaded with new exciting and alive foods; I thank my lucky stars he looks so good and has a smile on his face.

You see in January 2011 when Michael was walking out the door to work I turned around to say goodbye and the next second he was down on the floor in extreme pain with a ruptured colon. We did not know it at the time but had I not gotten him to the hospital right away he would have died from this. Michael had some serious life threatening health issues ahead of him that we could never have foreseen and looking back now I have learned and grown so much but as we were in the middle of such a catastrophic health issue I was foggy, scared, looking for answers and found very few from the medical community. What I really needed was someone to help me sort through finding alternative options for healing.  I believe there is always a way to change the outcome and I was not ready to have my husband end up with a permanent colostomy without searching high and low and scouring the internet for answers. To this day he is here because we changed our diet, our lifestyle choices and became consistent with very supportive supplements.

I won’t go into the gruesome details of the next 6 months but they were the scariest times in both our lives and are still fresh enough that we check in with each other many times throughout the day and give thanks for being alive! So with a ruptured colon comes infection in your sterile abdominal cavity. The only way to get rid of infection is with mass doses of hard-core antibiotics. Mass doses of antibiotics for extended periods of time can lead to a host of new problems and within 3 months he endured 3 surgeries with 3 hospital stints each visit lead to more antibiotics……his system was shocked and completely void of any good bacteria that could help him heal and left him open to contracting a host of new problems. This lead to contracting the nasty and antibiotic resistant super bacteria called C Difficile

Now put yourself in a hospital where C Difficile is commonplace, it is easily spread from one patient to the next by the nursing staff or from simply touching a counter top or door knob with the bacteria and your immune system is compromised you are at great risk for contracting different strains of this antibiotic resistant beast and they can take over your body quickly. A new report from the CDC (Center for Disease Control)  shows that the rates of infection for this bacteria are at historic highs.

Almost all C Difficile infections are connected to getting medical care! GASP!! Can you believe that!

Its a very lonely and scary place to be because the doctors have limited tools and many of those tools are what lead to this problem in the first place. I think that most of our physicians thought we would sue them and they backed away from us as soon as we were released from the hospital. I’m writing this because as we were going through our battle I could not find any information to help us and I felt like it was Michael and me against the world huddled in our little house trying to find something that would fix him.

There is GREAT news out there and on the other side of our struggle we found success!!!!! We changed our diet immediately once we knew what could help, became a totally bonded couple and found a new way to live our life with products that help your body battle this monster. We also found an environmental physician who I call our Goddess Doctor. She was instrumental in our healing and recover process and is our primary physician for ever more.

Here are links to the products that had a significant impact with combating C Difficile that helped us along with completely removing all gluten, sugar, dairy, most grains even the non gluten ones and paying attention to and removing  anything that caused discomfort after eating.

Dr. Ohhira’s Probiotics

Saccharomyces-Boulardii-MOS

EcoNugenics Digestive Enzymes 

Biocidin

On Guard from dōTERRA®

There is so much more to this story. Part two will be our diet shift and foods that help you heal as you go through this journey. You should know that Michael is doing much better a year and 1 month off all antibiotics and he is still healing. This is some pretty tough stuff to battle and had I known how many people die from this annually I think I would have been more scared. The good news is that we are proof of going against the grain and working outside of your “primary care physician” with new ways of healing really has its benefits.

As with all posts be well and if this strikes a chord within and you have issues please send me a message I am here to help. Jennifer

Eat….Heal…..Live!

Chill the Office Chinchilla

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Ok I do not like the thought of caging animals. Therefore I am against any store selling animals in general and selling animals like bunnies, chinchillas, mice, rats and well birds and reptiles too. Most often these guys end up in the shelter when the kids get tired of cleaning the cages. So if you are thinking it would be a good experience and responsibility for your child to care for a pet please go to your local animals shelter and find the already discarded ones or get in touch with a species specific rescue, there are TONS!Image

So anyway no to rant on that touchy subject I have a chinchilla from some idiot girl who felt the need to breed more animals that have no business in a cage. I thought I would be able to keep him in the barn with my odd family consisting of 2 rescue bunnies, 1 guinea pig and a cockatiel because he could climb all over but Chinchillas cannot tolerate heat over 80 degrees! Therefore this adorable little guy now lives in my office. I have a pretty big 3 story cage and each day for the most part I let him run all over the place while I am in here working.

Chinchillas I think are a combination of a bunny and a squirrel they are not cuddly and really should not be someones pet, especially a child who wants to hold them. They are rodents, they chew and will bite if you do not let go of them. They are not mean, they just want to jump and run and be an animal who is not kept in those awfully small cages. I’m just curious what sick, mean person designed cages for these little guys that are 24″ x 24″……Oy I could start a new rant about that too.

I’m not really sure why this was my morning topic; I guess I thought sharing some of my life could give you a little bigger understanding of what impacts my day and how I have been able to incorporate all my rescue animals, manage my holistic health coaching business, cook all our organic gluten-free meals and keep sane!

Enjoy your day, treat your pets with the utmost respect they deserve and as always

EAT……HEAL…….LIVE!            

Jennifer

Quick Gluten-Free Vegan Pizza

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This is a quick and easy way to make use of what you have in your garden or your fridge. Pizzas are the most forgiving thing because most things taste great heated together with a bit of cheese (Diaya not dairy) and bread! When I’m in a pinch and do not feel like making everything from scratch I use Almond Glory pizza crust. They are in the frozen gluten-free section at my local whole foods. What I like most about these crusts they can handle some serious weight and you cook them in the little black plates they come in so clean up is very easy.

On this pizza I put a bit of organic marinara sauce and then two flavors of Diaya Cheese (Mozzarella and Pepper-jack shreds) Then from my garden I cut up a sweet onion and a hippy looking heirloom roma tomato that is green and red and from my fridge some crimini mushrooms. That’s all! Prep time 5 minutes 10 if you have to pick your veggies from out back.

Toss this little baby in the oven at 425 for 20 – 30 minutes depending how crispy you like your crust and viola gluten-free vegan goodness! While in the oven you have time to whip up a little salad and dinner is delish, healthy and no animals products were used!As with all things in life go easy on yourself, the planet and don’t forget my mantra

Eat, Heal, Live!

Scrummy Organic Quinoa Burgers

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Healthy and awesome lunch

 

This recipe can definitely make most people re-think vegan burgers because it is really satisfying and has so many delicious things you don’t miss the meat! Great for entertaining and you can cook a big batch and eat them cold the next day too.

Organic Ingredients:

  • 1 cup cooked quinoa (2 cups water and 1 cup quinoa= extra quinoa for salad tomorrow, bring to boil and simmer for about 15 minutes until all liquid is absorbed. Fluff with fork )
  • 2 large sweet potatoes or yams cubed and cooked ( 3 cups cooked is what you want)
  • 1 can no salt added black beans drained and rinsed
  • 1/3 (heaping) cup quinoa flour or other gluten-free flour like garbanzo bean or almond
  • 1 ear of fresh corn cut from cob
  • 1/2 large red onion finely chopped
  • 1 tsp. cumin
  • 1 tsp. oregano
  • 1/4 tsp. cayenne (or more if you like it hot!)
  • Salt and Pepper to your liking

Preparation:

  1. Peel and cube your sweet potatoes or yams and place gently in large pot of boiling water. Cook until tender (about 20 minutes) Drain and put in a bowl to let cool.
  2. Cook your quinoa next so they can cool together.
  3. While those are cooking preheat your over to 400 – 425 (adjust according to your oven) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. ( I used oil and they do stick so choose your non stick weapon of choice)
  4. In a large bowl put 1/2 can of beans and mash those puppies with a fork.
  5. When the potatoes have cooled, roughly mash them with a fork.
  6. Add potatoes, quinoa, corn, the rest of the beans, flour, onion and spices. Stir together until just combined. (If your mixture seems too moist I adjust with a little more flour)
  7. This mixture makes between 10 – 14 burgers depending on the size you make. Gather handfuls of the “burger” mix and shape into patties. Place directly on baking sheet.
  8. Cook each side for 20-25 minutes. They can be tricky to turn because they do not have gluten (glue) to hold them together, do not let this discourage you! If they are too squishy leave them in for another 10 minutes per side.
  9. I broil mine for the last few minutes to give them a little crispy edge on both sides and find this really helps with the end result.

Notes:

These burgers are wonderful on gluten-free buns with lettuce, red onion and a bit of veganaise/aioli and mustard! They are also great cold the next day with a salad and no bun.

Gluten free cooking is tricky and often frustrating. You are not alone when you go to flip the burgers and they are mushy and lose their shape! Don’t worry they are completely re-shape-able and the longer they cook, the more manageable they become and you will have a quinoa burger that you can proudly serve to your friends and family!

Hope you enjoy them and remember…….EAT…..HEAL…..LIVE