Post & all images by contributing writer, Dea Daniels

Green grass! Warm rain! Sunshine!

After a winter which seemed endless, there is sweet relief in the mild beauty of June.

With the sunshine and gardens, however, come the dreaded and maddeningly tenacious dandelions! Popping up as fast as one can dig them, and spreading quickly germinating seeds as fast as a toddler’s puckered wish, the sunny-headed flowers have become the bane of urban sod.

What’s a grass-dweller to do when confronted with such a hardy adversary? How can one cultivate nourishing and vitamin-rich home greens when there are vermin in the soil?

How can one succeed in bringing fresh produce to the table when there the hungry children might chance upon…a weed?!

Well…if you can’t beat ‘em….

The Medicinal & Nutritional Value of Dandelions?

It turns out that the dandelion (taraxacum officinale) didn’t begin in North America as a weed at all! In fact, it was lovingly brought across the sea as a valued medicinal plant to be cultivated and administered for liver and kidney care, while enjoyed on the table as an early-spring salad green.

With as much iron as spinach, the highest levels of vitamin A out of all the cultivated greens, and high levels of Vitamin C, early gardeners weeded out their grass to make room for the dandelions!

Think about it:

• A vegetable hardy enough to withstand the harsh climate of the new world (and today’s constantly changing urban landscape).
• A cultivar with almost no waste products: the heads are brimming with choline and lecithin for liver and kidney health and can be enjoyed fresh, fried, or fermented; the iron-rich leaves are a zippy addition to salads and stir-frys; and the roots can be harvested (dug, dried, ground) as a nourishing substitute to coffee.
• A plant which supports the soil through aeration, prevents erosion, and draws up calcium from deep within the earth for use by the rest of the garden.
• A flower which provides exceptional support to bees. As one of the earliest flowers in the spring and late blooming into the fall, the bees of the nation rely on {spray free!!} dandelions to create your honey and to support your community crops.

How to Make Dandelion Fritters

With this inspiring knowledge and with a spring yard simply brimming with cheery yellow flowers, I gathered my younglings and a bowl and set to work. We started with dandelion smoothies, played with dandelion frittatas, and soon had our minds set on dandelion fritters (or as my eldest calls them, Dandelion Doughnuts). So fun! So healthy! So tasty!

When Doughnut Day finally arrived, gathering the flower heads kept little hands (and mamas!) busy while chatting in the sun. Next, the big boys were invited to mix the batter {I had prepped the dry ingredients beforehand} and to dip the heads {I made two batters, one savory and one sweet}. Then, I tackled pan-frying the battered balls in the waiting coconut oil. Crispy and hot, we loaded the morsels onto a tray with tiny jars of kombucha and feasted under the apple tree. How lovely to say, “Sure sweetie, you can have some more!”

The fritters were a huge hit and my boys have been asking for them every day! I highly recommend trying them out. They’re not only tasty and nutritious but there is just something fun about dining on dandies! Make it an event with friends and enjoy the summer sun while you’re at it! Just be sure you know that you’re picking in a spray-free area and that they are indeed true dandelions (one flower per stalk, no coarse hair on the leaves).

Dandelion Fritters

Print recipe

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Ingredients

• 1 cup Flour (Whatever flour you like! We used fresh organic wheat, but many have had success with rice or a blend with half cornmeal for a bit more crispiness)
• 1 cup Milk (Any kind)
• 1 Egg
• 1 teaspoon Baking powder
• Lots of heat-tolerant oil for frying (Our favourite is cold-pressed coconut oil)
• 1 cup Freshly washed and picked dandelion flower heads (If you pick them and store them in the fridge the flowers will close up. Also, my first attempt was a bit bitter. If you’re new to wild crafting take time to remove the bracts [the little downward leaf-looking things at the base of the flower head, where it joins the stem]. My boys are fine with them, but we found that the fritters are tastier without)

Directions

Step 1	Whisk all ingredients together, except for the dandelion heads, including flavour option add-in (see below)
Step 2	Dip the dandelions
Step 3	Fry in hot oil, flower side down (be careful!)
Step 4	Flip and fry some more
Step 5	Drain on a towel and serve hot

Note

Flavour add-ins:

Savory: (salt, 1 tsp herb blend such as Italian, rosemary, or a masala mix. Dipping sauce if you like such as sweet chili or guacamole)

Sweet: (2 tbsp sugar/honey, 1 tsp vanilla, ½ tsp cinnamon. Granulated sugar to roll hot fritters in).

I’d LOVE to hear if you try these out! What other flavor combinations could you try? What about serving them with a side salad of fresh baby dandelion leaves? Finish the meal with dandelion tea or wine? The opportunities are endless!

Have you ever used dandelions for medicinal or food purposes?

DeaDaniels

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

Written by Emily McClements of Live Renewed

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

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

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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There is a sweet little trick I discovered a few years ago. I don’t remember where I first learned it. Somewhere in internet land, I’m sure. It’s a brilliant idea that carries magical powers to increase the excitement over healthy snacks by at least 74.3 percent. Minimum. It’s true – I’ve tested it. The secret? It’s called a Snack Tray, and here is the complicated magical potion:

Step 1) Get a muffin tin out of your cupboard.

Step 2) Fill it with a variety of healthy snack foods.

Step 3) Present it to your children

Step 4) Go prepare your acceptance speech for your Mother-of-the-Year award.

Sounds tough, eh? Don’t worry, I have confidence in you. I have confidence in sunshine, I have confidence in rain. I have confidence that spring will come again! BESIDES WHAT YOU SEE I HAVE CONFIDENCE IN MEEEEEEE! (<—name that movie).

Whew, this idea really inspires me with excitement, can you tell?

Honestly though – I am not exaggerating when I say that my kids *literally* cheer when I mention A Snack Tray. They are 74.3 percent more likely to eat everything in it than if I served it on a regular ol’ plate. I don’t pretend to understand it. Sometimes you just gotta believe in the magic.

I’ve done a ginormous variety of Snack Tray fillers over the years. Here are our usual favourites:

• Banana, apple, orange, kiwi, grapes, melon…
• Nuts (cashews are the fave around here)
• Dried fruit
• Crackers & cheese
• Air-popped popcorn (with butter and sea salt, of course)
• Carrot sticks (my kids actually love raw carrots – they eat them every day)
• Cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas
• Ants on a log (PB & raisins on celery sticks)
• Small hunks of cold cooked meat
• Jerky (we made our own once before and it was amaaaaazing)
• Hummus (beside the crackers)
• Berries, frozen or fresh
• Frozen peas (my weird kids love ‘em!)
• Hard-boiled eggs cut into halves

It can get pretty darn creative, but to be honest our snack trays most often consist of a quarter or a half filled with popcorn, and the rest with fruits and veggies. If I have cold cooked meat (meatballs, chicken breast, deli meat, etc), I’ll throw that in too, since I like to have lots of protein and healthy fats in our diet as much as possible.

PS. A decently filled snack tray TOTALLY can count as lunch. Just sayin’.

What would you put in your snack tray?

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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I have an announcement: I hate this diet. I am struggling big time.

Here’s the thing… it’s honestly not just about junk food cravings. Allow me to explain?

BEFORE Whole 30

We ate pretty decently before and had a few minor health issues but nothing huge (sometimes tummy rumblings, ahem, bathroom stuff, ahem… fatigue, maybe some aches and pains, especially after eating sugar – stuff like that). We weren’t eating perfectly… and in fact while we had embraced the “80-20 Rule” (where you eat super healthy 80% of the time and try not to worry about the other 20%, within reason of course), we had really started sliding down that slippery slope of making way too many exceptions to what we knew was best for our bodies.

DURING Whole 30

Now we are feeling decently healthy… but kind of the same as before. You’re not supposed to weigh yourself during the 30 days, but my rebel husband has been doing it anyway. He has lost 12 pounds so far, at 15 days in! Much is probably water weight from the infamous carb/sugar bloating that most people carry around, but not all of it. And I don’t remember what I weighed at the beginning but I think I’ve lost a bit because I’m down a jean size (which was welcomed).

When you eliminate ALL traces of junk and sugar and other foods your body doesn’t like, it can often cause die-off. The bad bacteria in your gut start dying off and making you feel like crud. People can feel woozy, flu-like, headachy, “hangover-ish”. I felt a bit of that, especially exhaustion and a general sense of woozy/fuzzyness that I couldn’t shake. It didn’t go away until one day at the suggestion of a friend in a Whole 30 facebook group, I diced up a sweet potato and fried it in coconut oil and had it with my eggs for breakfast. Carbs.

Bam! It was an immediate and obvious change. I felt vitalized and awake and energetic that day, and continued to crave sweet potatoes regularly. Hmm. Other than being up multiple times a night with a teething baby, I am feeling pretty energized. Of course, that could be due to the Paleo-ish-ness of this thing, or it could be due to the 100% cutting out sugar and vegetable oils and such.

Why I Suspect Whole 30 Isn’t Working For Me

So. Here’s the thing. Have you ever heard of nutritional typing? Dr. Mercola may be kinda kooky in a lot of ways (sensationalistic, self-promoting and aggressive marketer), but his research is usually pretty solid. A few years ago I read an article of his talking about how some people are “protein types”, some are “carb types”, and some are “mixed types”.

These Paleo people are advocating a diet of mostly meat and vegetables (and healthy fats). The main way they differ from the WAPF (Weston A. Price Foundation) folks as far as I can see is how they approach grains. WAPF advocates eating grains (soaked, sprouted, or sourdough – we are NOT talking Wonderbread here, people) along with healthy meats and fats, veg, etc. But Paleo advocates cutting out grains entirely. At this point in the game, I’m just not so convinced. I really, really think I’m a Mixed Type – I don’t function best on cutting out grains altogether. I had the same cravings when our family did the GAPS Diet for 4 months. I craved homemade bread slathered with butter like nobody’s business.

(Oh, and side note: there are lots of veggies that are a good source of carbs. It’s not just the typical bread and pasta. I’ve often heard people criticize the Paleo Diet for “cutting out an entire food group” and how that’s so unhealthy… but in reality the government’s food guide is total garbage produced by politicians to further the bottom-lines of various processed food industries. What we need to focus on including in any healthy diet are the three essential macronutrients: fat, protein, and carbohydrates).

Here’s the thing: I can’t give a final verdict just yet. I’m just barely halfway through, and according to the timeline, I am just starting the awesomeness phase. Here’s what they have to say about what will happen on Day 16-28 (we are on day 16):

“Goodbye cravings, hello Tiger Blood! This must be what everyone is talking about! You’ve hit the downhill slope of your Whole30 and life is beautiful. Your energy is through the roof, you’ve kicked the cravings, you’re experimenting with new, delicious food, and you’ve finally got the time to notice that your clothes fit better, your workouts are stronger, and you are generally more awesome. There’s not much more to say about this phase – go and enjoy it!”

Two weeks from now will be quite telling, I imagine. One last note of concern for me is that I am beginning to suspect my milk supply has dropped, but I’m not sure how to tell for sure. I’m trying to make sure I eat lots of sweet potatoes and squash for the extra carbs, but I really do not enjoy the taste of sweet potatoes, and can only eat so many before getting so sick of them. It is possible I’m not eating enough calories, with the stress of trying to prepare so much from scratch on a limited diet.

Why I Still Want My Friends and Family to Try the Whole 30

I can’t say for sure yet, but I suspect I’m going to go back to WAPF ways after this experiment (the Whole 30 authors, Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, call it a 30-day self-experiment) and continue eating moderate amounts of non-processed starchy carbs, like rice, potatoes, etc.

HOWEVER… if I had much more obvious health concerns (like many of my friends and family do! Like extra weight, fatigue, unhealthy hair and skin, serious bowel issues, brain fog, aches and pains, seasonal allergies, headaches, diabetes, arthritis, chronic infections/inflammation, colds, etc) then I’d be ALL OVER this diet. I wish I could convince people to just try it. And if not this, then WAPF. To cut out the junky processed stuff that is making our society sick (plus common triggers for so many people like dairy and grains), and just see what would happen. For those who suffer from these kinds of health issues and have never tried changing their diet: Whole 30 could be jaw-droppingly life-changing. For reals. I think this diet is really more for those kinds of people.

This post has already gotten pretty long, but there is one more reason why I am really struggling with this diet. I will talk more about that in my next post. It’s more of a philosophical sort of discussion, less science-y.

What are your thoughts? Have you ever tried changing your diet to alleviate health concerns?

Also, I’m curious: do you identify with Paleo, WAPF, or any other particular nutritional philosophy?

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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Post by contributor, Dea’ Daniels.

Once upon a time, I lived and worked on pristine mountain ranch. The property was breath-taking, the work was challenging, and the houses could have graced the cover of any high-end home magazine. It was nice!

One of my responsibilities was to tend The Big House (we lived in “The Cabin”). I scrubbed the floors with blends of natural soaps and oils. I kept the windows clear with vinegar. I sanitized with mint and citrus and tea tree. I freshened rooms with lavender. It was the perfect venue to hone my natural cleaning skills in a variety of spaces. 

The cleaning days were fresh and fun…until I came to the {beautiful and expensive!} leather furniture. These pieces were a deep burgundy nail-head collection. Gorgeous! They were also in a high traffic area with guests, pets, food, and frolic. The answer? A matching high-end, highly-toxic, furniture cleansing and conditioning kit. 

Each month’s deep cleaning session found me carefully cleaning and conditioning the gorgeous natural fiber. I tried not to think of the petro-chemicals seeping into my skin or the synthetic fragrance hovering in the air. The furniture needed to look good, and look good it did.

But was it actually good?

Good in the sense that I was alright with my baby’s bare skin on the newly cleaned couch?
Good in the sense that it was safe for a guest to nap with their face on the newly cleaned arm rest?

Nope!

Most furniture cleaning products, although created for natural fibers, are neither good nor safe for living skin. Sure, it made dead-cow-skin furniture look healthy, but I valued my true health more than the dead cow I was sitting on. 

The solution?

A beautifully simple, surprisingly affordable, and incredibly effective furniture conditioner!

Bonus? It not only conditions and protects leather, it also does amazing things for wood {cutting boards, counter tops, chairs…}, and is shockingly lovely on cuticles, feet, and even wounds! It’s pretty much the ultimate multi-purpose home balm your home can have in stock.

Spero Naturals’ All-Over Home Balm

Ingredients:
3 weighed ounces bees wax (If possible, use the real stuff; raw hunks of wax that actually smell like honey. Check your local honey farm! Grate it, or chop it into small chunks for easier melting)
12 weighed ounces liquid oil (as simple as olive oil or grapeseed. Liquid. Organic if possible. )
10 drops pure essential oil, depending on primary purpose
{If using for wood or leather, or just keeping one main jar for everyone, I recommend lemon or sweet orange. If making a batch for skin and wellness, try a bit of rosemary, lavender, and tea tree. If making for the mister’s rough work hands, try some pine. Your lips? A bit of spearmint is fun!}

Directions:
- Heat the oil on the stove pot
- Add grated beeswax
- Keep on stove top until incorporated fully, stirring occasionally
(do not simply melt the beeswax and pour into unheated oil. The beeswax will solidify immediately and you’ll have a lumpy concoction. Also, stir with a wooden stick or something disposable like a shish-kabob branch is handy as you can toss it when you’re done.)
- Remove from heat. Add essential oils. Stir thoroughly.
- Pour directly into wide mouth jar, or several smaller jars (This should make about two or more cups.)
- Let cool.
- Keep in a central part of your home for regular use by all family members!

Notes for Use:

Use directly on all natural fibers…including your skin!

Leather

Clean surfaces first with warm water and a bit of natural soap and vinegar. Follow with the Balm, applying somewhat heavily. Allow to absorb. Buff with clean dry cloth. Use monthly and enjoy the soft natural fragrance and gorgeous sheen! (Always do a test patch first, just to be sure)

Raw wood

Apply heavily. Allow to absorb for two hours or overnight. Re-apply. Buff with clean dry cloth. Food safe! Excellent on cutting boards, salad bowls, counter tops…. Best if re-applied at the start of every season or after heavy use.

Skin

Apply as needed to dry, cracked areas in need of care and hydration.

I would LOVE to hear how this works for you and your home! Enjoy!

{One final note: I am inviting you to use and share this original Spero recipe! I’m not currently selling this balm but do ask that you make note of Dea’ of Spero Naturals if you choose to share the recipe. Sharing and loving—beautifully alive!}

Dea’ Daniels is a mom, wife, student, freelancer, and Seeker way out in Three Hills Alberta. Her days are filled with the color and energy of her three wildling boys, her pre-midwifery studies, and her paramedic husband. Dea’ writes weekly  Life reflections at wholedei.com, as well as sharing research and information on natural living atsperonaturals.wordpress.com.

DeaDaniels

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It’s no surprise that when you commit to preparing healthier food for your family, you also commit to spending at least a little more time in the kitchen. And if you’re following this series on Raising Healthy Families, you’re probably doing it with kids.

Stephani from The Cheapskate Cook is no stranger to making dinner with a toddler clinging to her shin. However, over the years she’s learned a few simple but intentional ways to take the fight out of kids versus kitchens, and she tells all in her post, Peace on Purpose: Managing Kids & Cooking. Click on over to check it out!

This is part of the Raising Healthy Families Series; for more info, click here.

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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Written by Hilary Kimes Bernstein of Accidentally Green

Welcome back to the Raising Healthy Families series!

Unfortunately, many commercial cleaning products are toxic. But the great news is that you can make your own effective, safe cleaners. Before you start your spring cleaning routine this year, choose your supplies carefully.

Please check out Accidentally Green’s Detoxing Your Cleaning Supplies to learn more about toxic cleaning supplies and non-toxic, homemade options.

Pssst! Also be sure to check out an article here at Red & Honey called How to Clean Your Whole House Without Nasty Chemicals.

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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original image credit

I have always been a dreamer. I major on grand ideas and enthusiastic starts, and I minor in follow-through and completion. The amount of projects around here that are half-done is embarrassing. My husband knows this about me, and yet he loves me still. It’s probably why he rolls his eyes every time I tell him my latest and greatest plan for awesomeness, but I digress…

Here’s the thing: I’ve been trying to get myself into the habit of exercising with Fit2B Studio to heal my diastasis recti (AKA my wrecked abdominal muscles from growing three human beings). As much as I wish I were a highly disciplined person, I sadly am not.

BUT now that I’m approaching 30 years old (this July, baby!), I am learning more about myself than ever before. And you know what? Do you know what works for me to get stuff done?

Competition and peer pressure, that’s what. Oh yeah. Intrinsic motivation for self-betterment? The reward of a job well done? Nope and nope. Just some good ol’ fashioned potential embarrassment for being a failure in the eyes of the world.

*Shrug* Hey, whatever works, right?

A Challenge to Myself

So. Here’s the plan: In April I am challenging myself to spend 30 minutes for 30 days on a couple of habits that I want to cement in my life. I will be focusing on two things:

1) A daily quiet time with the Bible (whether it’s 1 verse or 1 chapter or more)

2) Exercising with Fit2B Studio videos

30 minutes a day, minimum, and it has to include both of those things.

Wanna Join Me?

I am inviting you to join me! Pick your own goal, and commit to spending 30 minutes for 30 days working on it. If there’s enough interest, I will make a blog button for y’all to use and we can make a link-up happen.

What goals do you have? Organize your home? Exercise? Bible reading? Cooking healthy snacks? A crafty project? Gosh, it could be just about anything, really.

Let’s do it!

And a Whole30 Bonus…

Hubby and I have decided to do Whole 30 for the month of April! It fits in nicely with my little theme, right? I’m turning 30, we’re doing Whole 30, the 30 for 30 challenge. Serendipitous, n’est ce pas?

So, Whole 30. I had my friend Paula guest post about her experience here at R&H a while back, which you can read here and here. It’s a major undertaking, and I will be blogging about it along the way. If there’s anyone who is interested in doing Whole30 for April as well and wants to join an support group on facebook with us, let me know – I’ll send you the link.

So… Who’s In?

………………………………………………….

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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

This week’s post is written by Stacy of A Delightful Home.

The fact that we live in a world full of chemicals, pesticides, and other harmful substances can’t be denied.

Sure, we strive to eat good food and use natural cleaners, but what do we do about the unclean air and the unhealthy things that have already made their way into our homes and bodies?

Today Stacy shares 5 simple ways to detoxify your home and body so you and your family can live the healthiest life possible (and they are not as crazy as you might think)!

Check it out over at her blog and be sure to leave a comment. Are you enjoying this series? Lots of great posts yet to come!

Also: I will be posting a fun little announcement here at Red & Honey later today, so stay tuned for that!

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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You may be thinking that you eat pretty healthy and you don’t need supplements. Or perhaps your diet isn’t all that great. What would be a great way to help your body become healthy (besides actually eating healthier)?

Today, you can learn what supplements you should be taking by Clarinda over at A Jewel In The Making in this third post of the Raising Healthy Families series.

Image courtesy of YaiSirichai/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What supplements are recommended and why should you take them? This is a question that natural health proponents have been asking for ages. No supplements? Maybe just a particular one? Maybe a whole shelf full? It can be tough to know the best way.

Included in today’s post are Clarinda’s quality brand recommendations, and her thoughts on supplements in a world of not-so-great nutrition.

Head on over to her blog to learn more in Do You Take These Supplements? If Not, You Should!

Disclaimer: I am partnering with these bloggers to bring you a wide and varied body of knowledge and information about natural living. I am affiliated with them professionally, however there may be bloggers on this list with vastly different theologies and opinions than mine on some very important topics. The rest of their blog posts (other than the ones in this series) do not necessarily reflect my own views. The bottom line is that I love and respect them all, and appreciate their partnership in this series!

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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This is pretty well heresy for me.

I mean, I have amazing memories from my childhood of tromping through the snow to gather sap buckets from trees in the woods with my grandfather, hauling them in our toboggan. Whole days spent at up at the maple sugar camp with just an old hay barn, a sled and snowsuit, an outhouse, and a couple of sugar shacks with their steam puffing out from the roof, curling into the crisp blue cloudless sky. Oh, it was bliss.

I have absolutely nothing against 100% real maple syrup, except that the grocery store charges me $10.99 for a litre (that’s the best price I can find in my area). Between baking, pancake making, and random other things, we can easily go through a couple of litres of month (though we try to conserve it as much as we can!).

Did you know that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make just ONE gallon of maple syrup? No wonder the danged stuff is so expensive.

It occurred to me recently that perhaps I could try to make my own. I had heard of other people doing it, and figured I could save a boatload of money, so I started googling. Sadly, all I could find were recipes with added sugars and other ingredients. I wanted mine to still be real maple syrup – I just wanted to stretch it a little further for frugality’s sake. Kind of like adding more water to the pot of soup.

So, I experimented, and it turned out great! It tastes a little different. More like sap from the tree (only not that watery), but still maple-ish yumminess. My kids can’t tell the difference, especially on pancakes. I suggest also serving it with a berry sauce if you’re putting it on pancakes. If you did that, I bet even adults wouldn’t even notice the difference.

Beth’s Frugal Real Maple Syrup Recipe

1/4 cup 100% real maple syrup
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup water (separate)
1/2 tablespoon potato starch

In a small pot on the stovetop, stir together maple syrup and 1/2 cup water. Heat on low. In a mason jar (or an airtight jar with a lid) add 1/4 cup water and the potato starch. Shake to combine, making sure there are no lumps. Pour starch and water mixture into pot with maple syrup and water, and stir together. Heat on medium-low until the mixture thickens a bit, then store in the fridge, covered (or serve warm immediately).

For a simple berry pancake topper sauce, heat frozen raspberries in a pot on the stovetop, add a tablespoon or two of water, and stir. Use a fork to mash the berries a bit, then spoon over pancakes! For a special occasion finish with real whipped cream.

When the pancake batter is mixed up and the syrup, berries, and cream are all ready, give me a call and I’ll be right over!

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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(Hold on to your hats, kids – this is a long one!)

How many hours of your life do you spend in your bed?

(Well, you take the number of children you have, divide it by the square root of fussy teething nights, subtract the nightmares, the bedwetting and the stomach flu, then you divide by eleventy billion. So you have like eight and a half whole minutes in your bed every night. Oh wait…)

If you get an average amount of sleep, you spend around 8 hours in bed each night. 56 hours a week. That’s around one third of your entire life.

That’s a lot.

Logic would dictate that we would desire a healthy and toxin-free spot to rest our weary heads each night, but unfortunately that can be difficult to find.

Our family recently took steps to make our sleeping environments safer. In my quest to figure out the very best and safest mattress and bedding set-up possible, I waded through a ton and a half of heavy research and was left with a zillion questions. Eventually, I began to slowly get a handle on the issues. Here is a summary of my thoughts on the issue, and the solutions we put into place in our family.

Part 1: What’s the Problem?

Conventional mattresses are pretty much full of nasty, toxic chemicals and made of materials that are linked to a huge list of serious health complications including SIDS, asthma, allergies, reproductive toxicity, respiratory problems, skin irritations, cancer, and more.

Here’s a list of some of the worst materials used in conventional mattresses:

• Polyurethane foam (petroleum-based material that emits VOC’s)
• Formaldehyde (linked to asthma, allergies, and lung cancer)
• Flame retardants (linked to cancer and nervous system disorders) such as PBDE’s, which were very recently banned in many countries. Unfortunately that’s not much help since other equally toxic chemicals are easily used instead, without any real regulation for health hazards.
• Boric Acid (roach killer)

One article I read states: “In 2005, Walter Bader, owner of the “green mattress” company Lifekind and author of the book Toxic Bedrooms, sent several mattresses to an Atlanta-based lab. A memory-foam model was found to emit 61 chemicals, including the carcinogens benzene and naphthalene.” (source)

(image source)

Despite what some believe, it’s not a crazy hippie conspiracy theory and its not a load of unfounded, unproven claims, either.

The same governments that enacted mandatory flame-retardant laws in the sixties are now passing new laws banning the use of PBDE’s (polybrominated diphenyl ethers) in mattresses, and they are being phased out of other products as well (they are in lots of things like electronics, furniture, textiles, etc).

This article states that “growing evidence shows that PBDE compounds are escaping from the products they protect and making their way into the products’ users. Moreover, the chemicals may disrupt human thyroid hormone functioning and cause other health effects, prompting many nations to ban or suspend their use in new consumer goods.” (source)

The problem is that this newfound “revelation” by the government (it was about time!) is that it has only been in the last five years or so. Unless you have a mattress newer than that, it most likely contains PBDE’s.

So if I buy a new mattress, I’m in the clear then? Unfortunately not. That would be way too easy, right? It’s not like the new flame-retardants are going to be any better. There’s a reason they won’t give you a straight answer at the local conventional mattress store when you ask about what kinds of flame retardants they use. All they know is that they pass the flammability tests. They don’t necessarily care how.

Whether you’re sick now or whether you won’t feel the effects for another decade, the fact is that mattresses are made with horribly noxious materials that have been proven to negatively affect human health. In my mind this is perhaps the greatest natural health issue we face today.

Part 2: Are Flame-Retardants Legally Required?

In the sixties, the government passed into law that all mattresses must pass a flammability test for safety reasons in case of fire in the home. Good intentions, perhaps, but the method for carrying this out has presented an unacceptable level of danger in itself. These flame-retardants are the biggest source of concern to me.

Companies use a variety of toxic harmful substances to pass these flammability tests. All involve dangerous chemicals that have been directly linked with a host of serious health complications, such as were described above. What good is saving your house from burning down if you’re breathing in toxic chemicals every night as you sleep?!

Banning certain toxic chemicals is great, but that doesn’t help the countless products already in peoples’ homes, emitting toxic gasses. The flame-retardant law still stands, and companies must figure out how to meet the requirements.

(Fortunately, there are a few different ways that naturally-minded companies meet this requirement, which I will discuss further below.)

(image source)

There are a few voices of reason amidst the clamour (although they are sadly not the ones in charge!). Arlene Blum, a biophysical chemist and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley says:

“Instead of adding new fire retardant chemicals that ultimately may be shown to cause health problems, we should be asking whether we need to use these chemicals or if there are other ways to achieve equivalent fire safety. So many of the chemicals we have banned in the past were flame retardants—think about asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, polybrominated biphenyls, tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate, PBDEs—[and] they all ended up in the environment and in people. We need to think carefully about adding these sorts of chemicals to consumer products before there is adequate health information.” (source)

Part 3: Healthy Options Do Exist!

I don’t know about you, but as a mama bear to three beautiful little people, this whole issue makes me angry. Why should mattress companies (and other product manufacturers too!) be allowed to make and sell things with terribly harmful materials?

Why did it take me hours and hours of wading through medical journals and online research to figure out how to give my kids a safe place to pay their heads at night?

This is just not right.

The only real solution I can see is to opt out. As far as finances will allow, choose to opt out of the system in which consumers are taken advantage of and deceived. Choose to buy from companies that you trust to use natural, non-toxic materials that won’t harm the environment or you. Choose to be educated on the issue, and if money is tight, then do the best you can with what you have.

Beware of companies that throw around the words “natural” and “organic” without explaining and defending those claims. A company worth your business will be able to tell you exactly where the materials came from (and what the materials are), what happened to them before they reached the factory, and how the mattress was made.

A mattress can legally be called organic if it contains any organic component such as an organic cotton filling or even just an organic cotton surface fabric. Some organic mattresses have organic cotton filling with a vinyl covering. These may be called organic mattresses, but because of the vinyl covering and chemical fire retardants, these mattresses are obviously not all that healthy.

There are companies that sell mattresses that are completely natural and toxin-free. Organic wool has natural fire-resistant properties and is a natural material that is used successfully in mattresses to pass the flammability tests.

(image source)

The other materials in the mattress are important too. Organic cotton is important, as cotton in one of the most heavily-sprayed crops. A good company will be upfront about the materials they used.

If the mattress is all natural and organic, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will loudly proclaiming it! Ask questions. Ask how they pass the flame-retardant test, ask where they get their materials. Ask anything and everything, and expect honesty and forthcoming answers. Anything less? Walk away.

Part 4: Our Family’s Solution (A More Frugal Option)

Firstly, I ordered several items from The Good Planet Co. in British Columbia, Canada. They ship their mattresses for free in North America, and they have absolutely incredible products and equally amazing service. There are other online retailers that may be equally as great – this is just the one with which I personally have experience.

When I called them with my many questions, Alain (a co-founder of the company) told me that one of the sources for their organic wool is Texel Island, Netherlands, where it is simply washed with a vegetable-based soap after shearing, before being sent to the factory in Ottawa, Canada, where the mattresses are made. There are no secret treatments or chemicals added at any point in the process. No toxic chemicals emitting fumes inches from your nose as you sleep. Just pure, natural materials packaged together in a quality mattress.

(Alain told me that their factory is so strictly anti-toxins that their workers are not even allowed to wear scented deodorant! Impressive, I’d say!)

When presented with a financial gift last year we made the decision to take steps to detox our family’s sleeping environments. We bought an organic crib mattress for the baby, who was 4 months old at the time. He’ll sleep on that until toddlerhood.

Since we could not actually afford to buy ourselves a full organic mattress as well, we decided to go with a more affordable option that we’d heard about from a friend: mattress wrapping. I researched it and was convinced that it is a solid option for those who don’t necessarily have thousands of dollars to spend on a queen-sized organic mattress, but are desiring to not breathe in the toxic chemicals all night long. The basic idea is to wrap your conventional mattress in high-grade non-toxic polyethelene plastic, which is impermeable to gasses, thus preventing you from breathing them in.

We also initially wrapped a conventional crib mattress for Canaan before ordering him an organic one. We got our crib mattress wrap from this website from New Zealand for a cost of $40, including shipping. Way cheaper than an organic mattress for sure, and a much safer option than throwing your hands up in frustration and doing nothing.

For the older two kids (aged 2 and 4) we purchased mattress wraps from the same site as ours, and topped them with a Happy Lamb Fleece Topper for comfort (available at Good Planet Co by phone order – not currently listed on their site).

We also bought organic pillows for each of us in a variety of styles according to preference. I love my kapok pillow!

A Final Word

Our solution was a mix of various options. We tried our best to spend the money where it mattered most, and I think we did a pretty decent job. If we hadn’t been blessed with a financial gift, we most likely would have simply figured out a way to purchase the mattress wraps for all of us and been content with that.

Making your sleeping environment safer doesn’t have to break the bank. Sure, organic everything would be nice, but not many of us can afford that. Perhaps there’s a different solution that might work for you too.

Have you considering detoxing your sleeping environment? 

This post is Week Two of the Raising Healthy Families series in which I am participating. This was my week. If you’re not a usual reader around here, welcome! Take a second to like Red & Honey on facebook, or subscribe using the options in the sidebar. I’d love to see you again!

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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Now that we’ve talked about the crazy glory that is Whole 30 let’s talk about life AFTER Whole 30. I’ll share my experience and then give you some pointers on how you can continue down a successful path after your 30 days are up.

Ooh, la, y’all! Life after Whole 30 for me has been quite the ride. The day that Whole 30 ended we headed to the Melting Pot and celebrated with some very un-whole-thirty foods.

This ain’t Whole 30.

Other than that my initial reaction was to just stay on the program and not stop. After all, I felt great, had tons of energy and was losing weight every single day.

However, I saw Thanksgiving and Christmas looming on the calendar and questioned my ability to be so strict. So, I decided to  accept that I was done.

The basic idea of life post 30 is this: 80% of the time eat Paleo, 20% of the time eat what you want. I wanted to do that.

Thanksgiving came and went and then December.

In December I really saw some of my old habits start creeping back in. So by January, I was super ready to do another Whole 30. It felt great to get back into healthy foods that made me feel good. January came and went and another Whole 30 was in the books!

So… How can you be successful after Whole 30?

Pretty much the same way you were successful DURING Whole 30.

1) EVALUATE!

Yes, the program is called Whole 30 but for some people 30 days just isn’t enough to reprogram and detox your body from years of bad habits. This was me to a T and I wish I’d just gone on and done a Whole 60 or even a Whole 100. The forums are full of people doing just that.

So, know thyself! Are you good with a Whole 30 or do you need to gird up and keep going?

2) PLANNING, PLANNING, PLANNING!

Getting to eat how you want 20% of the time sounds marvelous, right? However, when you do the math it only turns out to be…er…(People why are y’all makin’ me do math!) four meals a week or something like that.

So, just like you planned your little self to death in Whole 30 you have to do the same after it. Make your meal plan. Decide in advance what those four meals are going to be!

Otherwise it will be Tuesday and you will have already used up your four meals and won’t be able to have the Thanksgiving Sandwich on Thursday at Moe’s BBQ (For real kids, it’s turkey, cranberry dressing, red and white sauce, and stuffing on a toasted bun – believe me, use one of the meals for it!)

Me and Billy and our minions

3) KEEP UP YOUR SUPPORT!

Stay active in the Whole 30 forums – they have a section for people that are done with Whole 30 but still want to maintain. You are still on a meal plan – it’s called ‘The Rest of Your Life’ meal plan!

4) SET GOALS

I’m running my first 5K in April! 

It has been a real eye opener to see how much easier it is to exercise when you eat right. I always heard ‘well, if you exercise you can eat whatever you want.’ People, this simply is not true. At least, it wasn’t for me.

When I put the right things in my body, my body works like the machine God made it to be! 

***

Even though I’m not on a strict Whole 30 regime right now I still make my yummy meals I came to love on Whole 30. One of these meals is the famous, in our circle anyway, Claire’s Chili! And with that I give you a picture of my friend Claire holding the best dang chili ever! Trust me on this chili, kids. Make it, eat it, freeze it, love it.

CLAIRE’S Whole30 CHILI

4 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 jalapeños (one halved, one seeded and diced, one sliced)*
2 large green peppers, diced
1 15 oz. can pineapple tidbits
Large handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
4 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp onion powder
3 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp fresh ground pepper
Cayenne pepper to taste
2 14oz cans diced tomatoes
2 lbs ground beef/chuck/pork/whatever you want!

Coat bottom of large pot with olive oil. Add onion, garlic, jalapenos, green pepper, pineapple, cilantro, and all spices. Cook until onions and peppers are tender. Add tomatoes and simmer another 15 min. While simmering, brown 2 lbs of meat in a separate pan. Drain juices and add to large pot. Turn heat on low and simmer for about 2 hours, stirring often. Enjoy!

*I seed and dice all the jalapeños because I’m a big baby when it comes to spices. Most people do not find it too spicy her way, though!

Have you considered Whole 30 in your family?

A Note from Beth: I have been so inspired by Paula’s story (plus I’ve been hearing all about Whole 30 from a bajillion different places on the interweb as of late) so hubs and I have decided to give it a whirl ourselves. We did the GAPS Diet for 4 months as a family, and loved it, so hopefully we’ll rock this challenge too. I’ll keep y’all updated when we finally dive in!

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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This is a guest post from my a lovely lady that sat beside me at a writer’s conference, wrote some things about me and my snoring baby, made me cry in public, and inspires me with her newfound healthy eating street cred. Please welcome Paula, y’all! (P.S. That was southern for “you guys”). This is the inspiring story of her experience with Whole 30.

***

Alright, Red and Honey readers! Who is ready to learn about Whole 30?

‘Me! Me! Me! Oooh! Oooh! I am!’ 

Great, because I’m sure ready to talk about it!!!

You may have heard of Whole 30 before but if not let’s just start off with a little definition of what Whole 30 is.

Whole 30 is a program in which you eliminate all alcohol, grains, dairy, legumes and sugar from your diet for 30 days.

THIRTY DAYS!!! But wait, you say, grains are healthy! Red wine is healthy! Beans are healthy. Why eliminate those things? The short answer is, while some of those things can be good for you there are other things that are better for you.

So, if you can’t eat those things what do you eat? Well, basically you eat REAL food as direct from the source as possible: meat, seafood, vegetables, healthy fats and fruit.

When I first heard about the program I thought ‘Yeah, right. That’s just something that super disciplined people could do. I could never do that! Why would I even want to do that!?” However, the more I heard people talking about it the more I became interested in it simply because the people that had done it felt so good afterwards.

While I didn’t particularly feel bad, I did need to lose a significant amount of weight. So much so that for my husband’s birthday he sat me down and said ‘I’m concerned about you. For my birthday I’d like us to do Whole 30 for a month.’ Now before you say ‘Wow! Your husband is so mean!’ let’s just take a step back and think about it. Obesity can be deadly. If I had a treatable disease he’d be crazy for not encouraging me to treat it, right? Obesity is treatable. He isn’t a big jerk, I promise. The fact was that I was killing myself with what I was eating!

So I looked at the program and could only say ‘well, I’ll try’ to which he replied ‘it’s like Yoda says: there is no try, only do or do not.’

Having said that I went into Whole 30 with a very negative attitude. I had never been able to stick with any eating program over a couple weeks – how could I go 30 days with no cheating what so ever? Y’all, I’m from Alabama! I need my sweet tea. You have to understand at this point I was literally having a dessert after lunch and dinner EVERY DAY! No wonder my husband was worried!

So, I blogged about it. I read the book. I cruised through the Whole 9 Life website. And I got ready to cook, clean, and plan more than I ever had in my life.

One month later I had lost 25 pounds and felt absolutely amazing. I popped awake at 5:30 every morning with no alarm clock and had a ton of energy all day. Headaches that I had always struggled with were non-existent. In short, I felt amazing.

So, how in the world was I, a complete diet failure in the past, successful at Whole 30?

Here are five things that are absolutely vital to anyone’s success at completing a Whole 30:

***

1) YOU HAVE TO READ THE BOOK. 

It Starts with Food is by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig and it’s a must read for anyone wanting to complete a Whole 30. The reason for this is because this is a hard diet to buy into at first glance. I mean, come on, what could possibly be wrong with oatmeal, right?  The book explains the science behind their food philosophy.

2) FIND A SUPPORT SYSTEM

I joined a Facebook group of people that were starting a Whole 30 round in October. That was so incredibly important.You can also go to whole9life.com and join the forums there. Pinterest has lots of Whole 30 boards out there too. Whatever you do don’t try to go it alone.

Why was support so important? One week into my Whole 30 journey my best friend got married. That meant lingerie shower, bridesmaid luncheon, rehearsal dinner, and wedding all rolled into one four day extravaganza of petit fours and chocolate fountains. People thought I was absolutely crazy for trying to avoid unhealthy foods during this time.

People I loved looked at me point blank and said ‘You’ll never be able to do it.’

That’s why a support group that told me ‘you CAN do it’ was so important. Actually, I think what they actually said was something along the lines of ‘if you cheat this weekend I’m coming over there and beating you.’ So kind…so gentle…well, so effective anyway. 

The thing is…there will always be reasons not to eat healthy.

Weddings, parties, birthdays, stress etc. If you’re looking for reasons you can find them. Just know that what you put into your body has a direct impact on your body. Scary, huh?!

3) PLAN, PLAN, AND THEN PLAN SOME MORE

I can not emphasize enough how important planning is on a Whole 30. That’s because you can’t just get a Whole 30 approved meal anywhere. There’s no running through the drive thru for a Whole 30 anything.

We sat down on Sundays and planned out every single meal for the rest of the week.

This is where ye olde Internet comes in super handy. There are lots of Whole 30 meal plans already ready and waiting out there for you. This was a really new concept for me.

Sadly, I used to be the type of person that would think ‘well, it’s 4 pm, what should we have for dinner tonight? Dominoes Pizza or some sort of frozen pre-made meal from the freezer (Y’all, for real, no wonder I weighed 200 pounds!) 

Whole 30 absolutely broke me of that foolishness. Ya know what, though? That planning, which seemed like such a pain at the time, actually gave me a tremendous amount of freedom because I wasn’t constantly thinking ‘oh, what can I feed everyone tonight?’

4) GET READY TO BUDGET

A lot of people complain about how expensive it is to eat real food. Whole 30 really wants you to eat organic, grass fed, no hormones added etc. food as much as you can. This is most definitely more expensive.

It didn’t hit me personally quite as hard because we were used to eating out as a family of five most nights. (Sheesh, how wasteful was I! Embarrassing and a total waste of resources!) Eating at home, even with the more expensive ingredients wasn’t a huge dent in our wallets.

5) SHARPEN THOSE COOKING SKILLS

You can do Whole 30 without eating at home every meal but the fact is that it’s just easier to control exactly what is going in your food when you are at home! I’ve never been a great cook but thankfully Whole 30 really sharpened my skills.

I’ve always enjoyed veggies and it was really fun to learn all these crazy ways to prepare them. I learned how to cook with healthy fats like ghee and coconut oil.

“Hello, Ghee!”

I could not believe the amount of dishes I had to wash on a daily basis.

“Hey Minions! Wash those dishes!”

So, what did I learn on Whole 30?

1) I learned that just because I’ve never succeeded in the past doesn’t mean I can’t succeed now. The great thing about Whole 30 (and the thing that puts people off of it) is that you are absolutely not allowed to cheat.

To me that was actually helpful because it took the guess work away. There was no calorie counting, no writing down what I ate and no points to budget – if it wasn’t approved I didn’t eat it. The great thing about discipline is that it’s like a muscle; the more you use it the bigger it gets! I promise you, if I could do it, truly anyone could!

2) I learned to like new foods. Before Whole 30 I didn’t even know what a spaghetti squash was. Now I absolutely love them and can’t believe I never knew they were out there.

3) I learned that cooking can really be fun. Homemade Mayo? I’m on it! It’s fun to cook things you love. Also, I loved knowing my husband and I were eating fresh veggies and meats that were acting like medicine on our bodies. It felt great to know that what we were doing was having a positive impact on us.

So, Red and Honey fans, thanks for letting me yammer on about something I love, Whole 30!

Come back tomorrow to hear a little more about “Life after Whole 30″, along with my favorite Whole-30-approved chili recipe! Now published here: “Life After Whole 30 (Tips for Continued Success & a Chili Recipe)”

***

Have you ever considered doing Whole 30 or something similar? Do you think you’d have the self-discipline to make it through?

***

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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Today is the kick-off post in our Raising Healthy Families Series, a compilation of posts from a variety of bloggers on the topic of healthy living.

This will be a regular feature every Friday from now until June, and there will be a free ebook offered at the end of the series! (Woohoo!)

Each Friday I’ll be directing you to a fellow blogger who will be writing on a specific topic, and one of those weeks will be my turn to post an article and have the others link to me (next week is mine, actually).

Today’s post is on Avoiding the Flu Shot, by Paula Miller of Whole Intentions. I love this because I haven’t gotten a flu shot since university days (I just about choked when I figured out how many years ago that was…) and I don’t think I’ve gotten the flu either! I also have a spicy gargle remedy for when I get sore throats that’s crazy effective, so I totally believe this works.

If your household gets hit with the flu, you should definitely be trying it. If you’re brave enough, that is.

Read what Paula has to say about it below…

The FLU.

For the past few years no other word has struck as much fear during the winter months as this one. According to the media, the flu is right up there with the Black Plague of Death! Avoid Unsafe Flu Shots with Pepper Juice is Whole Intentions time-tested home remedy to taking back our health and turning up the heat.

Click on over to Whole Intentions to check it out! 

Do you get the flu shot? What are you go-to remedies for when the flu hits your house?

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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This is a guest post from my dear and lovely friend Dea’ Daniels.

Coffee filters, egg shells, banana peels, cardboard! Dryer lint, apple cores, dog hair, tea bags!
Grimy bits and peels and scraps…

Garbage, right? Nope! Not at all! These grubby morsels are actually food for food!

Much of the waste found in the home, particularly in the kitchen, holds a wealth of nourishment for our gardens and, in turn, our families! It’s likely that 50% (or more!) of your household ‘garbage’ can be redirected towards a much more nourishing and fruitful end.

Less waste and more food? Yes please!

With the gardening season sprouting over the horizon, now is the time to begin thinking of a composting system that will work for your family.

First, a bit of a disclaimer: There is a wealth of information, ideas, and opinions on composting. Soak it up! Read and research and experiment and discover what works for your household. Until then, use this post as a summary and starting point as you dig into your own home ecosystem. 

The Basics:

A balanced and thriving compost system is much more than a pile of rotting produce. Instead, it’s a living micro-system filled with teeny living organisms, busily breaking down all that ‘garbage’ into easily accessible minerals and nutrients for your plants to take back up and prepare for your food use.

A well-composted garden is going to grow more vigorously while producing food with much higher levels of nutrients for your family.

The Key Ingredients:

Dry and wet matter (green/brown organic waste)
Oxygen (cuz the little microbes need to breathe, otherwise things get stinky)
Moisture (from water you add as well as natural humidity of the material)
Heat (from the sun as well as the energy of the decomposition)
Space (in the home and yard)

The Inside Setup

Choose an interior container and location.

Much of your composting material originates in the home. Choose a location near your main food prep’ area to encourage regular use.

In our home, we have a simple bucket with a lid. It’s kept under the kitchen sink, next to the trash can. Some families with a smaller volume of organic waste keep their container on the counter. Old clay crocks or pots are often an aesthetically pleasing option. Be sure that your container can be easily transported to your exterior site and rinsed out to avoid odours.

What do you put into it?

All plant and simple-paper waste, including: vegetable/fruit peels, eggs shells, coffee grounds/filters, hair, lint, newspaper, and on and on and…

What should you NOT put into it?

Meat and fat (fish bones/innards are alright!)

The Outside Setup

Choose an exterior dumping/decomposing site.

The primary work of composting occurs outside of your home when the microorganisms present in your local ecosystem interact with (ie. eating and breaking down) the products you provide.

While there are several models of composters you can purchase, save the cash and use something around your yard! Your home composting systems (HCS) is as simple as tying four old wooden pallets together, or making a circular ‘cage’ out of large mesh wire, or adding some vents to an old garbage can, or even just designating a certain corner of the garden.

Points to remember when choosing your exterior site:

• Ease of access. Keep it convenient enough to use; even during inclement weather or busy days when you might feel it’s easier to just ‘trash’ it. 
• Also, be sure you can get to it with a wheelbarrow if you want to add a load of grass or leaves, or if you’re ready to shovel it out for garden application.
• Give it some sunshine and air. While that damp spot behind the garage might be out of sight, it’s not going to give you as much zesty decomposition.

This is the site of your chosen bin. Set it up and you’re ready!

How to Build Your Pile

You have your indoor bucket, your outdoor zone/bin, now begin!

First, layer it!

The simplest approach is to start off with layers of dry and wet {ie. green and brown}. Find as many bags of dry materials (dry leaves, straw, newspaper, brown grass, small branches) and as many bags of green materials (green grass, manure, peels, your indoor bucket contents) and layer them in with each layer about 4 inches deep, soaking each layer with water before adding the next one.

{Note: Nature is far more forgiving then we give her credit for, so work with what you have and retain the principle: green and brown make composting go ‘round!

And don’t be scared to ask the neighbors for their old leaves or grass—they’ll be surprisingly thankful! Just avoid materials which have had chemicals applied as they could harm the living system of decomposition}.

A Tip: One of the best kick-off meals you can give your compost pile (exterior) is a good dose of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium (NPK). 

While there are some great commercial brands out there, mixing some good ol’ blackstrap molasses into a liter of warm water and pouring it deep into the center of your pile works great! For those who are a bit more adventuresome in their composting, human urine (particularly of males) provides the perfect ratio of NPK…just don’t tell the neighbours!

How to Maintain Your Pile

Finally, maintain.

As your indoor bucket fills, dump it on until it looks like a layer, then add some dry materials. If the season is particularly dry, add some water on occasion.

Once a week (give or take), use a garden fork to do some lifting or turning to add some air for  those busy microbes. Depending on the amount of materials, the weather, and the health of your local microbes, you could have beautifully balanced compost within eight weeks!

Note: Depending on space, begin a second pile once the first is about four feet square. By the time the second pile is filled, the first will be ready to apply to your garden!

***

So there you have it: a summary and start for you own personal composting adventure!

Try it out and see what happens! In the end, you’ll have less waste, a richer garden, and greater bounty on the table (not to mention some great science lessons for the kids!)

Do you have a backyard compost at your house?

Dea’ Daniels is a mom, wife, student, freelancer, and Seeker way out in Three Hills Alberta. Her days are filled with the color and energy of her three wildling boys, her pre-midwifery studies, and her paramedic husband. Dea’ writes weekly  Life reflections at wholedei.com, as well as sharing research and information on natural living at speronaturals.wordpress.com. 

DeaDaniels

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Welcome to Raising Healthy Families – a fun and informative series designed to help you and your family thrive!

Disclaimer: I am partnering with these bloggers to bring you a wide and varied body of knowledge and information about natural living. I am affiliated with them professionally, however there may be bloggers on this list with vastly different theologies and opinions than mine on some very important topics. The rest of their blog posts (other than the ones in this series) do not necessarily reflect my own views. The bottom line is that I love and respect them all, and appreciate their partnership in this series!

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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I never used to like salmon. At least, that’s what I thought. Like many people, my tastes have changed over the years and my palate has broadened. I have brussels sprouts sitting in the fridge right now, actually, which is something my younger-self would never have believed. I’m thinking of cooking them with bacon, because, well, why not? Am I right?

These salmon patties are for people who “don’t like salmon”. Seriously. They are so flavourful and savoury. The recipe is adapted from Stephanie at Keeper of the Home’s recipe. I modified it to be grain-free and I tweaked a bit of the flavour too (I have a bit of a garlic addiction). I usually serve them over a steamed veggie as a totally grain-free meal, but you could easily add rice or homemade fries or whatever. They are the best salmon patties ever, as declared by me, because clearly I am an authority on all salmon patties ever in the world. Clearly.

I throw a can of tuna in with them because I had to introduce the taste of salmon gradually to my family. If you want to use all salmon then feel free – you’ll probably need to add an extra little bit of coconut flour to account for the extra moisture (the cans of salmon are bigger than the cans of tuna).

Also – I’m usually a fan of fresh garlic and onions in a recipe, but I used dried/powdered in this recipe in order to keep it super quick and easy. I usually end up making this on those solo parenting nights, or when we’re in a rush.

Ingredients

2 cans of salmon, 1 can of tuna (or any combination – just adjust the coconut flour accordingly to get the right texture)
1/2 cup coconut flour
3 eggs
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspooons minced onion flakes
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons brown mustard
1 tablespoon tamari (wheat-free soy sauce)
1/2 teaspoon real sea salt
a few shakes of pepper
coconut oil for frying

Directions

1. Dump fish into a bowl and smash all together with a fork. (If you’re not used to canned salmon, there are usually small bones included – just mash them with a fork – no need to remove them).

2. Preheat your pan to medium-low (depending greatly on your stovetop of course) with some coconut oil. I use a cast-iron pan and it works amazingly well. Non-stick cookware is toxic and I find stainless steel frying pans make me wanna tear my hair out, so I stick with cast-iron and absolutely love it.

3. Add all ingredients except coconut flour, and stir to combine. I use my fork to whisk the eggs a little before stirring them into the fish.

4. Stir in coconut flour. Let sit for 2 minutes. Coconut flour is extremely absorbant, and the mixture needs to come to the right consistency so you can form it into patties.

5. Use a small scoopy thingie to put blobs into the hot pan, then squish them down a little so they’re more or less in the shape of a little pattie. I think my scoopy thingie might be a melon baller, but don’t quote me on that. I use it as an All-Purpose Magical Scoopy Tool of Wonder.

6. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Make sure you used a generous slathering of coconut oil so they’re nice and fried. Yum.

7. Serve with veggies dripping in butter. And some kinda starchy thing, if that’s what floats your boat. Enjoy!

Take a second to “like” Red and Honey on facebook if you haven’t already, and keep up with the behind-the-scenes of my totally not-at-all glamorous life with 3 small people that make mess faster than I can clean it up. Also? I post links and fun stuff. You’ll love it, or your money back. Ha.

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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I’ve seen many homemade toothpaste recipes floating around internet-land for a few years now.

Most recipes are a baking soda mixture, and while I have serious respect for the power of baking soda (it’s an awesome tub cleaner!), the thought of it in my mouth makes me scrunch up my nose and keep on buying those danged expensive little tubes of all-natural toothpaste from the local health store.

Then, I saw this post on Keeper of the Home where Stephanie makes homemade clay toothpaste. She essentially made her own Redmond Earthpaste – how awesome is that?! I recently got a tube of Earthpaste in the mail from the ebook bundle freebies, and I am loving it.

Being on a every-penny-pinched kind of budget though, I’m not loving the price. I mean, if you’re going to buy an all-natural flouride-free toothpaste (definitely a good idea if you aren’t going to make your own) then Earthpaste is definitely one of the best out there, and fairly priced too.

However, since I needed a more frugal option I opted to attempt to make my own concoction. (I love how the little things can really add up to big savings in the long run!). Woot woot! It turned out fabulously, and I am sharing the recipe below.

How Frugal Is It Compared to Store-Bought?

Redmond Clay – bought a jar for around $10, used 1/4 cup for a cost of $1.30 (found at a local natural health store)
Organic Virgin Coconut Oil – bought a jar for around $10, used 2 T for a cost of 68 cents.
Xylitol – approximately 25 cents worth (bought at the Bulk Barn, and I don’t honestly remember how much it cost, so this is a guesstimate!)
Peppermint Extract – a small container for around $3, used 2 teaspoons for a cost of 70 cents.
Redmond Real Salt – I only used 1/2 teaspoon of salt, so I didn’t bother calculating it.
Water – free. (OK, so technically I used the water from our Berkey, so maybe it cost a penny or two towards the cost of a new filter in 2-3 years…)

TOTAL COST: $2.93 for 130 ml (I used a little 125ml mason jam jar, and there was a little extra, so we all brushed our teeth and then squished the rest in as best we could!)

Cost of Redmond Earthpaste where I could buy it online (with free shipping in Canada): $6.59 for 113 g.

The bottom line? My homemade version is approximately 60% cheaper!

When you calculate the annual costs for a family of five like ours, brushing our teeth twice a day, you will save approximately $326.50/year!

That’s no small chunk of change, and most definitely worth it in my opinion… especially when you consider the fact that this toothpaste feels and tastes just as good as the regular stuff. I actually find that it makes my teeth and mouth feel smoother and cleaner than ever. I’m guessing that if I were to try and suck it up and use a homemade baking soda kind, I’d likely give up on it eventually.

Why Not Conventional Toothpaste?

The toothpaste brands typically found on store shelves are full of harmful ingredients that you really don’t want to be ingesting; such as sodium lauryl sulfates (SLS), artificial flavours and colourings, parabens, fluoride, glycerin, and more. The EWG (a non-profit information agency) says

“Many people believe that companies are required to test personal care products for safety before they’re sold. It’s not true. While many companies make perfectly safe products, other personal care products that you use every day might be laden with carcinogens or miscellaneous chemicals that no one has ever studied the health effects of.”

SLS’s are one of the worst chemicals found in body care products. It is a chemical foaming agent that has been associated with a host of health issues. Many thousands of scientific medical studies have proven the toxicity of this common chemical, and I for one do not want it anywhere near my family if I can help it. It’s in so many conventional body care products these days!

The safety of using fluoride has also come into serious doubt recently. This article from Cheeseslave has a ton of excellent info, along with recommendations for further reading. The comments are quite helpful too. Interestingly, more and more people are starting to recognize the dangers of fluoride, such as the city of Calgary (an hour from Tiny Town!) which has voted to ban all fluoride in the public water supply.

Another ingredient that is in virtually all store-bought toothpaste (even the natural brands!) that I wanted to avoid is glycerin. This relatively harmless ingredient actually wreaks a lot of havoc by leaving a coating on your teeth, which does not allow them to remineralize on their own, leading to more cavities. The book Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel is the one most commonly cited by other writers on this subject, though I haven’t personally read it yet myself.

The Amazing Power of Clay

The clay is a fabulous starring ingredient in this toothpaste as it is smooth and mostly tasteless on its own. It has incredible medicinal properties as well so that if you accidentally swallow some it’s totally safe (and even potentially beneficial).

There are a number of scientific studies published that show the power of clay to draw out toxins from the body. It is often used for stomach/bowel upsets, and it has even been proven to have a powerful role in the adsorption of radiation. Toxins are attracted to the clay like a magnet and carried out of the body. This process is called adsorption (spelled with a “d”). Clay has been used therapeutically for thousands of years, and is starting to see a resurgence in popularity once again.

Why I Didn’t Use Essential Oils or Baking Soda

I decided to not use any essential oils because I have concerns about the safety of ingesting them, especially on a daily long-term basis. You may think it doesn’t matter since we spit it out, but since my four-year-old son loves to declare that “Toothpaste is my favourite food, Mommy!” whenever he brushes his teeth, I decided that spitting the toothpaste out was not a safe bet.

I also have concerns about having things in my mouth that I’m not comfortable ingesting due to the absorbing nature of the mucous pathways of our bodies (think eye, nose, mouth, etc).

Some claim that ingesting small amounts of certain higher-quality oils is safe, but even that is not on a daily long-term basis. Either way, essential oils are powerful things, and they can make a person quite sick if used incorrectly.

So, I needed something else for the minty flavour and preferably something else with antibacterial properties. I decided to use peppermint extract and xylitol for taste (minty and sweet), and coconut oil for its antibacterial properties.

You could easily sub in stevia for sweetener if you’d like, but I didn’t for a couple of reasons: 1) I didn’t have any on hand 2) The first brand I’ve tried had a yucky aftertaste and I haven’t wanted to drop the money on trying more to find one I like, and 3) there are many studies citing the benefits of xylitol on reducing or healing cavities.

I also decided to avoid baking soda, which is the basis of most homemade toothpaste recipes, for a couple of reasons. First, because the taste is just gross to me. I’ve also heard conflicting reports about using baking soda on your teeth. Many say that it is too abrasive, and too harsh for daily use on teeth and gums.

The Recipe

1/4 cup redmond clay
1/3 cup boiling water
2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 teaspoons xylitol
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix clay and salt in a bowl, then add boiling water. Mix well with a hand mixer, then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix all together well, store in an airtight container, and throw out your colgate.

(Edited to add: I find mine fairly stiff in texture, so feel free to add extra hot water (a tablespoon at a time) to get the consistency you want before putting it in the container).

I have mine in a small mason jar for now, and I plan to keep a little butter knife or spoon with it to use to apply the toothpaste to the brush. Dipping it in won’t work because of the potential contamination of bacteria, and the texture is a bit too thick for that to work well anyway.

I love this toothpaste, my family loves it, and there’s no way I’m ever going back!

Have you ever made your own toothpaste?

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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These fries are incredibly simple, and they taste better than restaurant fries. Name your favourite fast-food french fry. These are better. I know, lofty goal for those of us who have secret loves for fast food fries. I mean, um, did I just say that out loud??

These fries have only 2 ingredients. Well three if you count the salt, which technically is optional, but unsalted fries are totally lame-o. So use the salt, and for pete’s sake use REAL sea salt. I like Redmond’s Salt (they don’t pay me to say that, but if they did I wouldn’t be opposed… I love their stuff!).

These are actually healthy fries, because they are slathered in coconut oil, which is this awesome super-health food that people are raving about. Some people even take it as a health supplement, so these fries definitely have earned the title “good for ya”.

OK, less chatter, more fry-making. Onward and upward.

First, a disclosure: I am the blogger of the family, and generally I’m the cook too. But not in this case. These are all Chris. I got him a french-fry cutter for Christmas, and he is all “let’s make fries!” at random times, and I’m just an innocent bystander. And fry-eater.

Ingredients

Potatoes, peeled and chopped (we use a fry cutter thingie but you could just cut them)
Organic unrefined coconut oil
Real sea salt (optional, but if you don’t add the salt then we can’t be friends)

Directions

1) Heat cast-iron frying pan with a good amount of coconut oil to medium-high (depending on stove). About a quarter-inch coating the bottom of the pan. (We use two pans at once for more fries).
2) Once it’s hot, add fries evenly in one layer in the pan.  There should be enough oil to cover the entire bottom of the pan and cook all of the fries at the same time.  If there isn’t enough oil add some more, but not enough to cover the fries – we aren’t deep frying them.
3) Let them cook for a while, and then flip the fries over – the goal is to have let the fries cook enough to have browned them on one side.
4) let the fries cook again on the other side for a while, and then continue to flip them every 30 seconds or so as they cook.  They should be a golden brown when there done. This process should take around 15-20 minutes or so.
5) Take the fries out and filter through a metal strainer to let all of the excess oil drip off. Save the oil in a mason jar in the fridge to reuse next time.
6) Sprinkle with real sea salt and enjoy!

There are lots of seasoning options for homemade fries out there on the web, but we haven’t tried any because we’re too busy scarfing these down as soon as they’re cool enough to eat. They. Are. Amazing.

Go forth and make them, and let thine tastebuds rejoice. Amen.

Beth

Beth is the creator and editor here at Red & Honey, a lifestyle blog for the naturally-minded homemaker. She recently began a passionate love affair with coffee and her life will never be the same. She has had three babies in less than four years, is a professional laundry-avoider, and loves to stay up way too late making weird stuff from scratch that normal people tend to just buy in a store. Hence, the coffee.

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