Honey-Ginger-Lemon-ACV-Elderberry tea for Great Health!

Several days a week I make this tea and I really enjoy it!  I started with just lemon and ginger and raw honey because I read how it could help a sore throat.  Then I realized that it made my raw apple cider vinegar much more tolerable and I began adding that (because ACV is truly one of the the most beneficial things you can drink but boy, does it have a strong taste!)  Then my Mom gave me an awesome berry tea for Christmas that contained elderberries and I thought to add those to the mix.  And now I have a super healthy drink that I love! It is so simple to make also!

1.  Set water in teapot to boil
2.  Cut a slice of lemon and place in mug
3.  Cut a slice of fresh ginger and add to mug
4. Place some dried elderberries in a re-usable muslin tea-bag and add to mug
5.  Pour boiling water over lemon, ginger, and elderberries
6.  After cooling a bit, add raw honey and as much apple cider vinegar as you can handle.

Homemade liquid laundry detergent

I was recently given a used but like-new HE washing machine!  Such a blessing!  The only downfall is that HE detergent can be pretty expensive, particularly since I like to buy natural, chemical free detergent.  Now, I still like to use my soap nuts and they work fine in an HE washer.  The only problem is that they need warm or hot water to work well.  With my old washer, I would start the water on hot to get them working and then switch it to cold when I threw in my clothes.  But my new HE washer doesn't work that way.  So I like to have an alternative for when I wash a cold load of laundry.  I found this recipe and was pretty pleased with it.  I love that I can use whatever essential oils or scent of castle soap that I want my clothes to smell like!  Also, most recipes contain Borax and I've read many debates on whether that is truly good for you so I liked this particular recipe because it didn't contain Borax.  I ended up using 4 half gallon containers to store it in and it works nicely.  I put my  re-cap for pouring on whichever one I am currently using and it cuts down on spills.  With my family of 6, I have been using up about one of the half gallon jars a week.  This recipe was a bit messy to make, but not expensive and it lasts almost a month.  I highly recommend checking out the original recipe for the first time because she has great pictures and tips.

Ingredients:

• 2 gallon bucket
• 2 gallons water
• 1/2 cup Super Washing Soda (found at any grocery store I believe!)
• 1/2 cup Baking Soda
• 3/4 cup castile soap 
• 30 drops of your favorite essential oils
• Large wooden/plastic spoon to stir (not pictured)
• 2 1-gallon glass containers

First, measure out 1/2 cup of the Super Washing Soda and pour into a 2 gallon bucket.  Add just enough hot tap water to cover the washing soda, and stir well to dissolve.  Measure out and pour 1/2 cup of Baking Soda into the water/washing soda mixture, and stir well to dissolve. Fill up your bucket all the way to the top with hot tap water, only leaving about 1/2 inch of room on top. Make sure you do this BEFORE adding in your castile soap, or you’ll have a bubbly mess! Measure and pour into the bucket 3/4 cup of castile soap.  Pour in 30 drops of your favorite essential oils. Carefully stir everything together until well mixed.  Pour the detergent into jars or bottles
TO USE: 

Pour 1/3 cup of the detergent in with your dirty clothes and wash as normal. Contents might settle to bottom or clump, but just give the bottle a good shake before you use it.

Our Favorite Meals

These are the meals that I regularly cook for my family:

Our top 6 favorites (can you tell we like Mexican?):

Honey Lime Enchiladas

Lime Chicken Tacos

Sweet n Sour Chicken Tacos or over quinoa or rice

Chicken Taquitos

Fried Tacos

Chicken Lazone

Bacon, Potato Beef Pie
Baked Potato Chicken Casserole

Baked Spaghetti
Baked Turkey and Gravy
Baked Ziti
Barbeque Chicken (on rice/Sand/or w/ bacon and cheese)
BarBQ beef cups

BarBQ Chicken Soup
Beef Tenderloin (only on special occasions :)
Beefaroni
Bierocks
Breakfast Casserole
Brian's Chicken Casserole
Broccoli Chowder with Monte Cristo Sandwiches
Burgers
Caramelized Easy Chicken
Cheesy Chicken Nuggets
Chicken Alfredo
Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta
Chicken Bacon Wild Rice Soup
Chicken Cordon Blue
Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole
Chicken Divane Soup

Chicken Lazone

Chicken, grilled, with lime and cilantro
Chicken Parmesan

Chicken/Turkey Pot Pie
Chicken Salad
Chicken Mexican Crockpot Dinner
Chicken Taquitos
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Chicken Divane
Chicken-Apple-Cheese Bake
Chili -- over spaghetti, chips, or potatoes
Corn and Cheese Chowder with grilled ham and cheese sand.
Cranberry Chicken
Creamy Chicken Spinach Pasta
Cream Cheese Chicken Chili
Crockpot Roast with veggies
Enchiladas
Grilled Chicken Salad with strawberries/grapes/almonds/whatever in fridge :)

Farmer's Market sausage skillet
Fried Tacos
Feta Salmon
Grilled Cheese (The Best Ever!)
Ground Beef Pie Topped with Bacon Twice Baked Potatoes
Ham Biscuits
Hawaiian Chicken Pile Up
Homemade Pizza
Italian Chicken with cream sauce
Italian Cream Cheese Chicken Casserole
Kielbasa and Potatoes
Lasagna
Lime Chicken Tacos
Mandarin Chicken Salad
Mango Salsa Crockpot Chicken
Manicotti
Meatballs (barbq, Sweetn-Sour, or Swedish over rice/quinoa
Meatball Subs
Meatloaf

Pinwheel chicken
Pizza with Home-made crust
Pizza Pasta
Pesto Chicken
Pollo Fundido
Poppyseed Chicken
Potato Soup and grilled cheese
Pumpkin Chili
Pumpkin Soup and turkey, apple, cheese panini
Quesadillas -- taco, pizza, chicken-bacon-ranch, turkey and cheese, etc
Quinoa, Beans, and chicken
Sausage-Tomato Cream Pasta
Salmon Pesto Pasta
Salmon Cream Pasta

Sausage Presto Pasta

Shepherd's Pie
Sloppy Joes
Stirfry w/ onions, peppers, and other veggies-- chicken or beef
Spaghetti Squash Casserole
Smothered Cheesy Roasted Club Sandwich
Stromboli (just using my pizza dough)
Steak Fajitas
Stuffed Mexican Peppers
Sweet Chicken Tacos or over quinoa or rice
Sweet N Sour Chicken
Taco Bake
Amazing Taco Salad
Taco Soup

Tomato Soup

2 recipes for laboring and post-partum moms:

1.  Laborade -- This is a great drink not only for moms in labor, but for anyone who does sports activities or works out.  I drank this after each contraction and also the first week of nursing when I am ever so thirsty.  I got the idea from THIS original recipe, but added it to coconut water instead of plain water for extra electrolytes and potassium.  It was very easy to throw together... Mark made it for me in just minutes at 3am while we were waiting for his parents to get to our house to stay with the girls so we could go on to the birth center!  I don't love coconut water by itself because it is a little too sweet for me, but the lemons added a nice sour flavor that made this drink the perfect "labor-ade" for me.


Ingredients:
3-4 lemons
1/4 cup raw honey
1/2 tsp real sea salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Coconut water or just filtered water 

Directions:  Mix well; can keep in fridge and add to 1/2 gallon of coconut water when needed.  Or just add a couple of Tbs to a cup of coconut water.  I'll be honest, we didn't really measure and I think we added more than that.  But it was good and really worked!


2.  Home-made Frozen Witch-Hazel Pads for Postpartum Healing -- My friend gave me this recipe and these are awesome and really help promote healing.


For 4 Pads:4 Tablespoons of witch hazel1 tsp. teaspoon of aloe vera liquid12 drops of lavender oil. 

Directions: open the pad up and then pour the mixture on along pretty much the whole length of the pad. Fold, wrap individually in aluminum foil, put in a ziploc bag, and stick in the freezer.  Use one every couple of hours. The comforting sensation/healing lasts for a good half hour or more with each one

High Mineral Sports Drink and Coconut Milk Tonic

I promised that I would post the recipes that my holistic doctor gave me for Karlie. I am still collecting the ingredients for them, so I don't know yet if she likes them but I will update eventually. Also, she was just spouting off ingredients from memory and I was frantically writing them down as I tried to keep the pen away from Abbi, who was bored and strapped to my chest in the Beco. So I am hoping that she didn't forget anything and that I wrote down everything correctly and I will update as I refine the recipes :)

High Mineral Sports Drink: My doctor told me that as long as you get the best quality mineral salt (she actually recommends Redmond Real Salt over sea salt ), this drink is more effective than most mineral supplements that are super expensive. Thankfully, this drink does not cost much to make. She said that it would be good for all of us and Mark would especially like it after playing sports. It is also very healing to the gut because it contains aloe vera juice, apple cider vinegar, and a pinch of baking soda.

The first thing you have to do is make a "sole" (a super-saturated saline solution). She said that you boil water, pour it in a pint jar, and then add heaping spoonfuls of high-mineral salt, stirring and adding more and more until the water is so saturated that the salt will no longer dissolve and it starts sinking to the bottom of the jar. Even if you don't make the "high mineral sports drink," it would still be very good for anyone to make the sole and put 5 to 8 drops in a water bottle each day.

Ingredients for the HMSD:

Fill a 16 ounce jar with:

1 Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar

a pinch of baking soda

a serving of Aloe Vera Juice

a capful of Sole (super saturated saline solution)

3 oz. strong Concord grape juice (not plain, not from concentrate, not Juicy Juicy! This is the real deal and will be considerably more expensive than regular grape juice but you only need a tiny bit so it will last a while)

fill the rest of the jar with good quality filtered water (no fluoride or other chemicals!)

Coconut milk Tonic -- Here is the basic recipe for the coconut milk tonic. My doctor recommended making a simple chocolate syrup (from cacao powder, a natural sweetener, salt, and vanilla) to get Karlie to like it more. She also wants me to add in an egg yolk from a farmer I trust to increase the protein count. I would also like to add in probiotics to help heal her gut and eventually cut down on the water to give her more fat.

Ingredients:

1 can whole coconut milk

2 1/4 cups water or coconut water

2 Tbs maple syrup, a pinch of stevia, or other natural sweetener

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tsp. dolomite powder (for calcium)

Directions: Heat on stovetop on warm and powder is dissolved. Cool before serving

Super Easy 2-Ingredient Shampoo

I've been searching for the perfect natural shampoo for quite a while now. I started out dong the simple baking soda technique and it worked fine for a while. But during the winter, my scalp got a little too dry and I decided I needed something that would do a better job of moisturizing. So I reverted back to buying a more natural shampoo and really liked Hugo Naturals Smoothing Shampoo (only $8 at vitacost). But I still wanted to be able to make my own. I saw this super easy recipe on Pinterest and knew I'd like it. Just coconut milk and castile soap, two things I use regularly anyways. I used an old dish soap bottle and poured in 1 part coconut milk (I use Native Forest brand because it is the only one I know that is BPA free) to 2 parts liquid castile soap (I use Dr. Bronner's). It took barely a minute and about 4 dollars and I have enough shampoo to last me at least 3 months and probably more.

I've been using this shampoo for about 3 weeks now and I've been really pleased with it. It is very moisturizing and I haven't even taken the time to make the recommended ACV rinse to go with it. The only downer is that I have had to wash my hair every 2 days instead of every 3 like I used to, but I think that is just my scalp getting used to the lack of chemicals and eventually I will go back to every 3 days. I've had the same issue each time I have transitioned to a natural version of a product and it usually resolves itself after my body gets used to the lack of chemicals. The fun thing about using the castile soap is that there are several scents you can choose from. I started out with peppermint because I had bought a bunch to clean with back in the summer when we had an ant problem (supposedly ants don't like peppermint smell), but I am looking forward to trying lavender the next time. I just thought I would share!

Hospitality at our House

In a previous post, I explained how my family began a weekly routine of having others to dinner each week. Today I thought I would share a couple tips for preparing dinner for a crowd (with 3 littles running around) and some of our guests' favorite recipes.

-- Without a doubt, my biggest piece of advice is to do as much as possible ahead of time! If I have to spend an hour fixing dinner right before our company comes, my sweet little ones will inevitably choose that hour to make a big mess, get in an argument, and/or have a random accident and require Mommy's attention. It never fails. So I almost always choose meals that I can prepare ahead of time. And most of the time, I have prepped the meat a couple of weeks ago and can just pull it from the freezer. I usually get around 6 pounds of ground beef at the Farmer's market at one time. The next day I brown it all at once and season it according to my monthly meal plan. I usually make around 2 pounds of taco meat, 2 pounds of sloppy joe meat, and 2 pounds of seasoned ground beef all ready to use in my recipes. Last week we had taco night for our company and all I had to do was warm up the meat and tortillas! So easy! Our guests had offered to bring the toppings and we ended up with a fun and delicious meal that was not the least bit stressful for me.

-- Don't be afraid to ask guests to bring something. It helps with the cost of having people over each week and usually our friends truly want to do something to help. I often end up with favorite new recipes as well! Last week my friend Mandie made this awesome black bean salsa that I can't wait incorporate into our regular meal plan. Even the single college guys that I cook for often pick up things at the store that we need like buns for sloppy joes or sour cream for tacos.

My favorite recipes for feeding a crowd:

Lime Chicken Tacos -- this is hands down my favorite recipe that never fails to please! I think it originally came from this blog, but I've changed it slightly. The recipe is very forgiving and I just add more beans, corn, salsa, etc to feed more people.

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts

3 Tbs lime juice

1 Tbs. chili powder

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup chunky salsa (we love mango salsa the best!)

1 can diced pineapples, drained

1 can black beans

12 flour tortillas, warmed

sour cream, lettuce, shredded cheese, avocado, cilantro and any other toppings you like



Place the chicken in a 3-qt. slow cooker. Combine lime juice and chili powder; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until chicken is tender.
Remove chicken; cool slightly. Shred and return to the slow cooker. Stir in corn, beans, pineapple tidbits, and salsa. Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes or until heated through.
Serve in tortillas with toppings
The Best Sloppy Joes Ever -- This recipe comes from my friend Beth. Each time I make these I get rave reviews and people ask what is different about them... the cinnamon totally kicks it up a notch!
Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
2 T. chopped onion
2 T. green pepper
2 T. celery
¼ tsp. garlic salt
½ cup ketchup
1 tsp. prepared mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2-3 T. lemon juice
1 T. vinegar
2-3 T. Italian dressing
2-3 T. brown sugar
sprinkled cinnamon

Directions: In a medium skillet, combine beef, onion, green pepper, celery, and garlic salt; Cook and stir until meat is brown and veggies are tender. Drain fat. Stir together rest of ingredients – Spread over meat and cook until heated through.
Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos -- the sauce on these taquitos is utterly delicious and the mixture can easily be made the day before! I often double the sauce because I love i t so much and pair them with this quinoa and black beans recipe.
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup green salsa
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice (juice from half a lime)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp sliced green onions
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Mexican flavored cheese
small flour or corn tortillas
kosher salt
cooking spray

Preheat your oven to 425˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, ground cumin, chili powder, onion powder and garlic. Once combined, stir in the cilantro and green onions. Add the chicken and cheese; mix thoroughly.

(If you decided to prep this in advance, refrigerate the mixture at this point until ready to continue.)

Working with a few tortillas at a time, heat them in the microwave between two paper towels until they are soft enough to roll (about 20 – 30 seconds).

Spoon 2-3 Tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto the lower third of a tortilla. Roll the tortilla as tightly as you can.

Place the rolled tortilla seam side down on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas until the mixture is gone. Make sure the taquitos are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until crisp and golden.

Serve with salsa, sour cream or guacamole.

**To freeze: Before baking, chill the taquitos on the baking sheet in the fridge. Once completely cooled, wrap each taquito individually with plastic wrap. Place in a labeled freezer bag and freeze. To bake a frozen taquito (no need to thaw first): Preheat oven to 425˚F and bake for 20 minutes.
Easy Cheddar Potato Chowder -- my favorite delicious but frugal meal for the fall!

2 cups diced potatoes

½ to 1 cup diced carrots

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped onion

1 ½ tsp. salt 

¼ tsp. pepper

¼ cup margarine

¼ cup flour
2 cups milk

2 cups cheddar cheese

½ lb. Bacon, cooked and crumbled

Directions: Boil two cups of water; add to potatoes, celery, carrots, onion, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Do not drain.Make a white sauce using margarine, flour, and milk. Cook until thickened. Add grated cheddar. Stir until smooth. Add bacon and the undrained vegetables. Simmer (do not boil) until heated through.
Breakfast for dinner! The college guys I cook for always get so excited when I make this egg sausage casserole and french toast casserole.
What do you like to make for company? I'd love to have your favorite recipes!

Snacks and lunches kids will eat

My girls seem to enjoy fingerfood/ snacks more than any other kind of food. They would be perfectly happy eating them for every meal! Since snacks can actually be very healthy (as well as super easy to throw together!), we often eat a combination of them for our lunches whenever we don't have leftovers from last nights dinner. I usually try to have a dairy/protein, a grain/nut, and fruit combination. Cheese chunks, almonds, and sliced apples is a favorite lunch combination, as well as plain yogurt, granola, raisins, and dehydrated coconut. Here are some of our favorite snacks/lunches, and I would love to get some more ideas to add to my list from our POH readers! Please share!

soaked and dehydrated almonds
soaked and dehydrated pecans
cheese chunks, raw if possible!
raisins
grapes, apple slices, banana, and other fruit, often with sunflower or almond butter
frozen blueberries (very messy, though, so not good for the car! But they are my girls' absolute favorite and we always keep some in the freezer for a quick fix for teething and busted lips :)
frozen or cooked peas
home-made granola
Home-made "power bars" 
dehydrated, unsweetened coconut flakes
cut up dates, often with sunflower or almond butter on them
black beans (my girls will eat them cold! But they stain as well, so be careful!)
cooked brown rice pasta (yes, they will eat that cold, as well :)
home-made crackers
mini-muffins
breakfast cookies
applesauce -- if you don't make your own, then please buy the unsweetened kind so you aren't giving your kids HFCS!!! The "original" kind is full of HFCS!
yogurt -- if you don't make your own, then try to get plain (unflavored) full-fat yogurt. It can be hard to find. When we are on the road, we get Fage Greek yogurt for the girls or Organic Stonyfield plain with the cream on top.
Coconut oil chocolate candy with raisins, slivered almonds, and coconut (a great way to get more coconut oil into them!)

Homemade cereal

Care Calendar and some recipes

I just wanted to let you know that I absolutely LOVE these online meal organizers! My favorite part about them is the e-mail reminder that they send to the person bringing the meal. My first experience with planning meals was horrible, because I felt badly about calling to remind people. (Like I was insulting their intelligence or something.... I thought that if they signed up for a date, obviously they would take a meal on that day!) Our church usually offers to bring meals M/W/F for a month after a new baby, so by the end of the month, people were forgetting and my poor friend was left scrambling for food at the last moment. 

The next time I planned meals for a friend, I used Care Calendar (very similar to the other meal-planning websites mentioned) and it worked beautifully! The calendar was filled up almost by the end of the first week and I could tell that my friend was getting a delicious variety of food. Being able to see what everyone else is bringing is probably my second favorite thing about these online meal organizers :) 

Here are some of my favorite recipes for taking to new Moms. I've also included some muffin and breakfast bread recipes because it is always nice to take that along with a dinner so they can have something easy for breakfast! Feel free to leave comments about some of your favorite recipes for taking to friends -- I love to try out new recipes!!!

Freezer friendly options:
Lasagna
Mannicotti
Cheesy Chicken Strips
Chicken Cordon Blue
Harvest Loaf
Zucchini Bread

Other Favorites to share with friends:
Poppyseed Chicken
Potato Soup
Pizza with Home-made crust
Ham Biscuits
Hawaiian Chicken Pile Up
Cranberry Chicken
Chicken Divane
Chicken Parmesan
Baked Ziti
Oatmeal Cranberry Muffins
Healthy Breakfast "cake"
Chocolate Breakfast Cake
Pumpkin Muffins

How I plan meals for our family

I was asked to share about planning meals for my family on the POH blog. And Kelly is doing a "Show us Your life" -- Organization blog fest. So I thought I might as well post about how I organize our meals.

For breakfast, we usually have some kind of eggs and fruit and often some kind of grain (pancakes, waffles, toast, muffins, quinoa, oatmeal, etc.) I know you might think breakfast takes forever if I'm always cooking eggs, but it really only takes a minute to fry or scramble some eggs. And they are just so good for us! Eggs contain every nutrient your body needs except Vitamin C! Needless to say, my little family goes through 3 dozen eggs a week :) We have recently started grinding our own grain so I've been trying to make it all from scratch since its so much healthier. But I always make extra pancakes, waffles, muffins, etc, and freeze them so I really only cook such things once or twice a week. We do not usually does not eat store-bought cereal for breakfast because its processed and not really that good for us. Instead, I make my own cereal and granolato have on hand for quick breakfasts. HERE is a list of our favorite breakfasts.

I don't plan lunches because we usually just eat leftovers or a simple sandwich. We LOVEcoconut oil and it is sooooo incredibly good for us! We use it instead of mayonnaise or Ranch or other spreads on our sandwiches. It is sweet, so I've found that we no longer even need jam with our peanut butter sandwiches or syrup on our pancakes. And it makes the best greasy, healthy grilled cheese sandwich ever :)

Snacks are pretty consistent. We usually has plain, unsweetened, home-made yogurt or unsweetened applesauce with homemade granola, or we eat some fruit and cheese and almonds or pecans. And I make healthy homemade butter crackers and graham crackers that my girls ask for throughout the day when they want to munch. I'm still working on getting my husband to give up his chips and Kudos bars for snacks, but he's slowly giving in to more healthy snacks :) HERE is a list of some of our favorite snacks.

I plan my weekly dinners from an excel spreadsheet that I've made of all our favorite meals. We have over 70 options so that I'm not making the same thing in the same month. However, I usually double the recipe whenever possible and freeze a meal for a busy day, so my family definitely receives some repetition. I also LOVE to try new recipes, so I deviate from my list every so often. But its worth it, because I'm constantly finding new favorites. My goal is to have the following each week: two dinners from the freezer that I made previously, two simple, healthy meals with fresh ingredients, try out one new recipe, CORN night (clean out the refrigerator night) and cook at least one recipe that doubles and freezes well to keep my freezer stocked. Some weeks I manage this and some weeks are crazy :) I have an ongoing list on my fridge that shows what meals I have already made in the freezer so that I don't forget about them. I also have an ongoing word document on my laptop filled with recipes that I want to try. When I am planning my menu for the week, I have all three of my lists before me so its quite simple to make a plan. HERE is a list of my recipes that freeze well.

Some of these meals are more expensive than others, so we definitely don't have them as often as the others. Not all of these meals are super healthy, but I am trying to gradually change them to use more whole foods and natural ingredients. This has been a gradual process for me due to lack of funds and time and most of these recipes haven't been converted to the healthy version yet :) We do try to have fruit with every meal and veggies at least at dinner.