5 best multi-purpose products

These are my top 5 Go-To products that are essential in my house. These items are cheap, chemical-free and best of all multi-purpose! Thanks to these 5 items I am on my way to saving money on homemade products that are a healthier alternative for me and my family, and surprisingly easy to make!

1. Baking Soda- I swear I use baking soda a million times a day! Okay, maybe not quite a million, but Wow is it awesome. I pick up boxes of it at the dollar store and if you regularly follow my blog you know that I use it to make cleaning products, beauty products, and even for healthcare.

2. Vinegar- Of course you should always have raw, organic, unfiltered apple cider vinegar on hand for its multitude of health benefits. But in this particular post I am referring to just plain, white vinegar. I also get bottles of this at the Dollar Tree because it is a must have for homemade cleaning products and works wonderfully.

3. Hydrogen Peroxide- Another dollar store gem. This is great to use in a homemade toothpaste recipe or to whiten teeth yourself. It can also be used in cleaning products as a safe alternative to bleach.

4. Epsom Salts- Okay, last dollar store item on the list! Epsom salts are great for making a scrub, or making bath salts (not the kind that make you want to eat another's face!) It's also great for a detox bath and helps to replenish the body of magnesium.

5. Lemons- Hopefully you are lucky enough to have some growing in your own backyard, or at least know someone. Otherwise these are cheap and accessible at any grocery store. I love drinking lemon water to start my day and it offers many health benefits. Lemons can be used as a natural bleach alternative for skin, is great at removing blackheads and can be used to make homemade cleaning products.

A few of my past posts have been written using these products and are linked throughout this post. Be on the look out for future posts as I am making new things each and every week!
 
I would love to hear about your top 5 essentials or any ways that you use the above list!

Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

Homemade Mustard Recipe

It's Fermentation Friday!! Who am I kidding, I've always got something going! But this week I tried something new. Homemade Dijon Mustard. It was so easy and came out delicious. With grocery prices increasing a bottle of dijon mustard is typically $2.99-$12.00 but you can make 3 times the amount for less than $5. Plus, it's fermented which includes health benefits that cannot be found in store bought mustard.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of brown mustard seeds
1/4 cup of yellow mustard seeds
2 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup of filtered water
2 tablespoons of organic apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of whey (click here for homemade whey recipe)
Juice of a small lemon

I let the seeds soak overnight and then drained them. Soaking seeds, nuts and grains before cooking allows for the production of numerous beneficial enzymes which contain many vitamins. The soaking process also breaks down difficult to digest proteins into simpler components which are easier for the body to absorb.

Add all the ingredients into the food processor or blender and blend. Pour the mixture into a bottle, and cover with paper towel or cheesecloth and a rubber band. Let it sit on your counter for 3 days. You will begin to see bubbles in the mixture and will see a yellowish liquid at the bottom of the mixture within 24 hours. Give yourself a high-five! Your mustard is making beneficial probiotics to boost the immune system and balance the body! After the 3rd day you can remove the paper towel/cheesecloth and mixup  the mustard, place in the fridge and -Viola! You have homemade dijon mustard! So simple!

I would love to hear if you try this recipe and your comments on it!

Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

Ridiculously Easy Homemade Cream Cheese

Okay, so I realize that this blog is quickly becoming a How-to-make-your-own-food blog! I promise after my next two posts, I will share something non-food related!

This week I have been doing inventory of what we are running out of and researching new food projects I can make myself. I wanted to make some new fermentation recipes and decided that I was going to try my hand at making my own whey, a common ingredient in many ferments. I learned that it was very easy, and a great way to make your own cream cheese as well! A twofer! Who doesn't love that!!

I really wish I had more presence of mind to take pictures for the blog during this process, but I was just so excited (and distracted with the kids) that I didn't. BOO! I promise pictures in my next post! Making your own cream cheese is so easy that my 3 1/2 year old could have done it herself- and that is not a lie!

First you need yogurt, you can use store bought, or make your own using my homemade yogurt recipe. You need a fine mesh strainer, or if you don't have that, you can use a regular strainer, some cheesecloth and a wooden spoon. You want to put the desired amount into the fine strainer, or place a piece of cheesecloth in a regular strainer and place over a bowl. If using the cheesecloth tie the corners together over the wooden spoon and hang over a bowl to collect the whey and separate the cheese. Let it sit for anywhere up to 12 hours and you've got your own, delicious cream cheese! YAY!

You can keep the whey in a jar in the fridge and use it if you are into fermenting, or just discard. You can add some salt or herbs to the cheese or even some fruits and use to spread on crackers or breads. Enjoy!

I would love to hear about any recipes you have tried and your experiences!

Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

Homemade Laundry Soap

It seems like it's been so long since my last post! We had a couple weeks of the dreaded flu and instead of writing my blog during the evenings I took advantage of going to bed early to help fight off this horrible infection! I may have been skimping out on actually writing, but I still kept up with some of my homesteading projects and am back, in full effect, to share them with you!

This post will share with you the recipe for homemade laundry detergent. Now I have to warn you, this is kind of time consuming, but I thought it worked great. In fact, I felt that this detergent took out stains better than some of the alternative detergents I have been using. For a couple of years I have used detergents without all the yucky petrochemicals in it, but feel that I had to sacrifice getting out some stains. This homemade detergent is good to use, and gets the stains out pretty well. I felt like my whites were brighter than they have been for awhile.

The recipe is easy, and much more cost effective than buying your own laundry soap. My main complaint, is the grating of the laundry soap. I despise this step, but since I only have to do it once every two weeks or so, I can deal with it. Just be warned, the grating is not fun.

The ingredients are easy and cheap, you buy a box of Borax, a box of Super Washing Soda (not baking soda) and a bar of laundry bar soap. I used Fels Naptha. All you have to do is mix a cup of Borax, a cup of Super Washing Soda and up to 1/2 the bar of Fels Naptha. I actually used about 1/3 for the two batching of detergent I made, just because I got so tired of grating, and still think the mixture works great!

I ordered the ingredients off of Amazon, but you can find them at most stores as well. You can also use the Borax to make your own dish washing detergent, which I will try once we run out of these little tablets.

Have you tried making your own laundry soap? I would love for you to share your recipes and/or your experiences. 

Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

Oh-So-Easy Homemade Butter

On my quest of homesteading and making everything I can, I decided to try to make my own butter. I couldn't believe how easy it was! It only took about 30 minutes and my daughter was able to help. It was so much fun! This post will share with you how you can make your own homemade whipped butter.


Ingredients:
Whipping Cream (organic preferred)
Sea Salt
Mason Jar & Lid

Pull the whipping cream out of the fridge and let it warm to room temperature. Pour the milk into the mason jar add a little salt and put the lid on. Now shake shake shake! You will get an arm workout and this is where you can have someone else help out. The milk will begin to get thick, there will still be some liquid. This is the buttermilk. Keep shaking the jar until the milk turns into butter. You can open the top and check if you need to. Once the consistency looks right you can strain out the liquid and save it for buttermilk (make your own ranch, or use it as you would normal buttermilk) and keep the butter by placing it into a jar, tupperware, or even put it in wax paper and make it the generic butter cube shape.

That's it! So easy right? And how fulfilling is it to create your own healthy butter!?!  And it comes out delicious! I love it! And you can create lots of different flavors, add some herbs, or even some cinnamon. I can't wait to create more butter with lots of different tastes!


I would love for you to share your stories or recipes for your favorite butter!










Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

The Real Deal La Victoria!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE me a good verde sauce, especially over enchiladas. In my quest to make all things homemade, I decided to attempt making my own tomatillo sauce for chicken enchiladas (with some leftover meat from my roasted whole chicken) I couldn't believe how easy and yummy it was! I will never buy canned enchilada sauce again.

Ingredients:

8-10 tomatillos- husks removed and quartered
1/2 white onion- chopped
Garlic-chopped (You can determine how much garlic you like, I used 5 cloves because I love garlic!)
Cilantro- chopped
Jalepeno pepper- seeded and chopped
Lime- zest and juice
Water
Salt & Pepper
Cumin
Olive Oil

Warm up a large saucepan to medium and add some olive oil. Sautee up garlic and onions until onions are translucent. Add tomatillos and jalepeno. Season with salt & pepper and cumin. Add lime zest, lime juice and some water to thin out the sauce, and let sauce simmer for 20 minutes-1 hour. Season to taste. You can pour the sauce into a blender to make it into liquid, or you can leave it chunky-Your choice! I kept mine chunky because my blender broke this week while making hummus. It came out delicious and I can't wait to make it again and bottle it as it would be great on tacos, chicken, or with chips. Enjoy!

Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

Not Yo Mama's Yogurt!

Those of you that have been following my blog know that I have been experimenting with fermenting for months now. Im hooked. I love being able to create my own probiotic, healthy foods for me and my family. One of my New Year's resolutions is to have my fridge and pantry at least 85% all homemade goods by the end of the year. I have learned how to brew my own Kombucha and make yummy Sauerkraut and am even trying to create different vinegars. My latest experiment was homemade yogurt, and I couldn't believe how easy it was! This post will share with you just how easy, and cost effective it is to make your own yogurt. Yogurt can be expensive and with grocery prices going up, I have been looking for ways to reduce spending and making my own food is a great way to do that. Not only do fermented foods have tremendous health benefits but it is a simple and rewarding way for me to take control of my family's well-being.

You can make yogurt with most any type of milk. Raw milk, goats milk, almond, coconut or soy. I made my first batch with organic, grass-fed non-homoginized milk. You also want to use a culture from a yogurt you like. I used our favorite Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt. You only need a couple of tablespoons of the store bought yogurt, after that you can just use your homemade version for the subsequent batches.

The process was very easy! Pour 32 ounces of milk into a large saucepan and bring to a boil stirring often. Once it comes to a boil turn the heat off and remove from the heat. When the milk cools you can pour into a large glass container and allow it to cool to room temperature. After it has cooled you can mix in a couple of tablespoons of yogurt mixing until smooth. Cover (cheesecloth, tea towel, paper towel, etc.) and let it sit on the counter for 24-48 hours (the warmer it is the faster it will process). You want to keep it as warm as possible and can wrap a towel, or some sort of insulator to keep it warm. Once the mixture gets thick and begins to pull away from the container when you tilt it, or when you can stir it and it is the consistency you like it's finished.  You can continue making batch after batch just by adding a few tablespoons of your previous culture! It's best to do a batch about once a week. The yogurt can be used for smoothies, salad dressing, to make your own cheese (which is definitely on my To Do list!) The yogurt itself won't be sweet when using cow's milk. I added a bit of local honey and cinnamon and some fruit. You can use any additives you like, granola, nuts, etc.

That's it! It was so simple and came out beautifully and my daughter LOVED it (she is on her second bowl as I type!) This is definitely something I will be doing more often and experimenting with different types of milks (checkout this coconut milk yogurt recipe by The Holistic Mama!). The homemade method costs less than half of what I was spending on yogurt before- I am so excited to always have yogurt on hand and as a natural foodie it excites me that it was made by me!!

I will keep you updated on other types of yogurt I make and would love to hear about your experiments as well!

Disclaimer:  Please note: I am not a medical professional. Please use your careful discernment and double check with your naturopath or doctor before taking any vitamins or supplements

PAID ENDORSEMENT DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.