Many Paths, One Journey to Health

So, I can not believe that I haven't flipped through this book sooner. The Holistic Moms Network has had a cookbook out for a few years and just recently published a second one. Well, on Wednesday Mary brought both with her to our leaders meeting to help give me some ideas for my topic of "Living Green on a Budget" at the next meeting. So once nap time finally rolled around that afternoon I sat down and flipped through both of the books and all I have to say is WOW!!! I think these books are going to be the most useful of all of my cookbooks (and trust me there are many). First of all they aren't just about one way of cooking, the are almost all inclusive with vegan and vegetarian, raw, macrobiotic and even an awesome section on fermented foods. Not only does this book contain many, many yummy looking recipes (even many that I think my kids would even eat) but there is also an entire section for remedies and other recipes.

Seriously, I had never even thought to make my own Elderberry Syrup. If you have never heard of this, it is a great immune boosting syrup that I give to my entire family religiously through the fall and winter. Well, at about $13 per 4oz. bottle of Sambucol passed out to a family 6 (well, only 5 take it) equals not lasting long and costing A LOT of money. The money that is going to be saved this fall/winter will be great.

Well anyway, I have been watching "Julie & Julia" a lot on one of the movie channels the past few weeks and this has given me an idea...I am going to work my way through the second HMN cookbook "Many Paths, One Journey to Health" and write about how it tasted or worked for my family.

The first item on the list was window cleaner. I was out of my natural brand of cleaner and was just thinking about googling a homemade batch when this book fell into my hands.

The ingredients are water, vinegar and a drop of dish soap (or Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap), I mixed it up in a spray bottle (I just rinsed out the empty one I had from the natural brand) and went about spraying the windows. This window cleaner gets an A+ in my book!!!! I sprayed and wiped down the windows with a micro fiber cloth and my windows have never been cleaner. I have sliding glass doors by my kitchen table that seem to always have toddler hand prints all over them. This stuff cut right through those nasty prints and left my windows clearer than ever. They might have even been perfectly crystal clear if I had some old crumpled news paper to wipe them with, but oh well we do not get one.

All I can say is that "window cleaner" will never be on my grocery list ever again.

No Pooing

Seriously, this has nothing to do with being constipated! You can give up your shampoo and conditioner and not have to have dreadlocks to do it. Have you ever taken a look at the ingredients on a conventional bottle of shampoo or conditioner? How many of those words were you able to pronounce? If you are already educated in how terrible these ingredients are for your health then I am sure that you have shopped for the really expensive "natural" hair products.

Guess what, there is another, more affordable and much healthier way to clean your hair. All you need is baking soda and apple cider vinegar.

You can google "no poo" and you will find many links to applying and mixing, but here is what I have found works for me:

I do have short hair so I only use about a half of a tablespoon of the baking soda in a small cup. To this I add a little water to make a paste that is applied to wet hair. I rub this into my scalp for a minute or two, some days longer when I am really stressed and a good head massage feels so good. Then rinse. After this I squirt my premixed 1 part apple cider vinegar to 4 parts water making sure to saturate my hair and rub it all through. I let this sit for a minute or so before rinsing. I find that I do not need to wash my hair everyday with the baking soda (and yes I do use hair products) but I do use a daily rinse of the apple cider vinegar. I just dry and style as I normally would. Some people have stated that there is an adjustment period for their hair, but I have never really noticed this. My only issue is that when I have found myself in a position of not having my "no pooing" supplies and I needed to wash my hair with regular shampoo my hair looks awful!!! I feel it takes me about 3 washings with "no poo" to get all of that residue out of my hair.

Give it a try, I love it and I use it on all of the kids (well those that have hair). I am still working on converting Perry, but now the our local grocery store has stopped carrying his favorite $8 bottle of shampoo I may have more luck. It is a comforting thought knowing the 2 ingredients that I am putting on my head on a daily basis.