Homemade Almond Nut Milk - Simple, easy, inexpensive, healthy! :)

I've heard of people making nut milk before but I thought it would be a time consuming, tricky process that I couldn't be bothered with. Was I wrong! It was simple, it tastes great and it saves so much money! Next, I will use it to make yogurt in my crock pot. :) Another, easy, inexpensive, healthy treat! :) I'll post that recipe later.

Nut Milk:







Take a cup of your favourite nuts, soak them overnite.
Put those nuts in the blender with 4 and 1/2 cups of water (according to raw-food-living.com, “The soak water will contain the enzyme inhibitors which is very acidic to the body so make sure to rinse your nuts and seeds well.” ) and blend til smooth.

Run the nuts/milk combo thru a nut bag or cheesecloth into a container. I didn't have either so I used a coffee filter and a sieve, but got impatient with waiting so, dumped the filter and ran it thru the sieve.

I then returned the milk back to the blender, reserving the nuts to use in my latest dog food recipe, found on this site, and added to the blender 1tsp of vanilla and 2 tsp of agave syrup. Blended. Tastes great!!!

Will invest in a nut bag or cheesecloth though because it was kinda grainy at the bottom, but worth it! :) Going out to buy more nuts! :)

I would say this might have cost me a $1 to make. Awesome!

It worked great!!

Homemade SAFE dishwasher soap

1c borax
1c washing soda

Use vinegar in rinse if you have hard water

Pour borax and soda into mason jar, cover, shake, store.

Use 2tsp per load! :)

Keep in mind this costs only pennies to make! 20 Mule Team Borax comes in a 76oz box at $3.12 at Meijer in Michigan and Arm & Hammer Washing Soda was $2.79 for 55 oz at Meijer. Both were in the laundry detergent aisle.

I understand you can also get them at Hardware stores or have them shipped to you via Amazon.com links herein.

Homemade Laundry Soap :)

So, I finally did it. I studied, and researched and decided to finally, just do it! I made laundry soap.

The best part?  It cleaned my clothes - without using an additional bar of Ivory soap, Castile soap, or anything that contains or ever contained lye. I use cold water to wash my clothes and don't have to worry about the grated soap pieces with other recipes not dissolving in my laundry.

Here's the recipe:

1 cup of 20 Mule Team Borax (76oz $3.12)
1 cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (55oz $2.79)














20 drops of Essential Oil (I used Peppermint EO, $6) Great for a fresh, clean scent! (Might use less EO if I combined it with other EOs.)

I bought the Borax and Washing Soda at Meijer and had a 4oz bottle of Essential Peppermint Oil at home that I purchased at The Better Health Market. (I had a 1/2oz bottle of Tea Tree Oil that lasted me over a year...)

If I had Tea Tree Oil, I'd add 10-15 drops of that too, it is Anti-bacterial, Anti-fungal, Anti Microbial, Anti Septic, It's an Insecticide (wards off Mosquitos!)  and does many other beneficial things for your health and well being.















I would also add 10-15 drops of Lavender to round out the Peppermint and Tea Tree if I had it on hand! :) It also has anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties which will aid in eradicating rashes, scabies, etc.

Side Note: Essential Oils are great for many things, look it up! I'd much rather have them rubbing against my skin all day then the toxins that are normally present on clothing with regular laundry detergent. 


Another side Note: Think of how "The Patch" works for those quitting smoking and how virtually everything that touches your skin is eventually absorbed into your bloodstream...

I put the ingredients in a tall canning jar (consider getting with BPA Free Canning lids when canning food) and just shook it up! I use just 1-2 tsp per load. You may want to use 1 - 2 cups for heavily soiled loads, but my husband finishes drywall and 2 tsp was enough to get his clothes clean.















So, for  pennies you get well over 250 loads of laundry. Works great, smells great, no more big plastic jugs going to the landfill.

Try it out, let me know what you think! :)

Toilet Roll Seed-Starter from YOU GROW GIRL.com

Totally stealing someone else's idea for planting - but I'll give her credit for it! Check out here blog:
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/    Great blog on gardening! :)

See the entire post here, with her pictures:
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/2007/04/13/toilet-roll-seed-starter/

Part of the info...

Through the magic of online photo-sharing I have been catching a peak at little seedlings coming up all over the Northern Hemisphere. I’ve also been enjoying the smell of tomato plants sprouting fresh leaves right in my own home grow-op. The promise of spring smells good! And yet one thing disturbs me — ya’ll are too in love with those horrible peat pellets! Because I am so eager to get you off that dope I’ve come up with another seed-starting option that is mega-cheap and easy.

It’s so simple I almost feel like I’m talking down to you by providing directions. Simply get yourself a bag of seed-starting mix or mix up a batch yourself. I purchased a 10L bag for $3.99 CDN at my friendly local hardware store. I have seen seed-starting soil for a lower price however this mix is organic, chemical-free, and features compost and “sustainably harvested peat”. [Note: I am not listing the product because while I like it I am still looking into what "sustainably harvested peat" really means.] Regardless, 10L is more than enough to tackle Phase One of my frighteningly large and ever-growing list of seeds and should take me straight through to upsizing my wee seedlings from the starter and into transplant containers. If you’ve got too much save it for next year or use it to root cuttings. The fact of the matter is that you will need to replant into larger containers at some point in the seed-starting process regardless of whether or not you start in those horrible peat pellets or not so you might as well just save the dough, buy a bag, and forego the pellets altogether.

Next, save yourself some toilet rolls. Start a week or two ahead and you’ll have plenty in time. Ask your neighbours and friends! They will not assume that this gardening thing has driven you mad.

With a pair of scissors, cut 1/4″ wide strips all around one end of the toilet roll tube. This is the same method used to wrap a bottle of wine or a poster.

Fold each strip down. The strips should start to overlap each other creating a bottom that will hold soil.

Fill the tube with pre-moistened soil, tap lightly or push the soil down, and add more until there is about a 1/2″ or so left at the top of the roll.

Sow one seed per roll. Watch the sides of the tube for dryness and keep that soil moist!

You’ll need to transplant your tubes into larger containers about 2-4 weeks after your seeds have germinated. The best part is that you don’t have to remove the toilet roll or touch any delicate seedling roots. Just plop the entire thing into a larger container of soil (think 4″ transplant pot). The toilet roll with breakdown into the soil and be overcome by little plant roots in no time.

And since we’re on the topic of toilet rolls, start saving yours now so you’ll be stocked up when it comes time to plant your tomato seedlings out. I am yet to find anything better than a lowly loo roll to protect seedlings from cut worms.

Homemade Granola/Cereal

So, I've searched around on this for a few weeks and finally came up with my own recipe. It turned out pretty good, but don't cook it any longer than 45 minutes or it WILL burn, even if it doesn't look done yet.. :( not with standing, the extra toasty flavour didn't do too much to damage it. :)

Here is the recipe I made:

Dry Ingredients;
3c oats; 1/2 c bran;
1/2 c ground flax (I ground flax seeds in coffee grinder),
 1/2 c sunflower seeds,
1/2 c chopped almonds (don't use the coffee grinder - turns to a flour, try a food processor or blender and pulse, watching closely)
2 tsp cinnamon (I will use more next time)
1 tsp cloves (I will use more next time)
1 tsp ginger (I will use more next time)
1/2 tsp coffee (for mocha flavour)
1 tblsp cocoa powder (for antioxidants, and flavour if you like it)
1/4 c brown sugar (I almost didn't put this in, and I actually could have had more, trying to be careful of this kinda stuff in my diet tho...)

Wet ingredients
1/8 c honey
1/8 c agave
1 tblsp vanilla
1/3c EVOO
1/3c almond milk
1tsp salt (I know, it's not wet)
2 tblsp butter

Fruit suggestions (use about a cup total):
dried cranberries
dried cherries
raisins
dried blueberries
apricots
I only used about 1/2 c raisins  - sugar...

Simmer wet ingredients for a few minutes, then mix with dry until all coated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F; Bake for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes til well toasted in a cookie sheet. I put a sheet of parchment paper on it and I was glad I did, it barely all fit and made it easier to stir.

Remove and cool, stir occasionally (I forgot, it survived)

Add fruit, store in air tight containers.

Let me know if you tried it and how you like it! I'm going to use some when I make my dog food  - for the first time - after I am positive the ingredients won't hurt him. I set some aside for him before I put the raisins in because I know they shouldn't have grapes. Will post when I make the dog food, with or without the granola...

Happy trails to you! :)

So, I am on a quest to make soap without, well, soap

I know, soap without lye does not soap make. Okay, fine. But there has got to be another way to clean, without using soap, that's effective. I mean, come on. Really. We went from soap, to now hand sanitizer, and the germs are just getting bigger and badder - why not, start over? Simplify. I'm determined to figure it out.

I am determined to find a way to use as little resources as necessary, buy as few things as possible, especially for personal care with all those darn chemicals in it. Crazy! Who needs that?? That stuff has come about in the last 100 years or less and how many people do you know that have died of cancer? Ugh, never mind, not going there.

Okay, so the first thing I made was, well, soap. I used the glycerin soap we already had, about 2 or 3 bars, chopped 'em up, even tho the directions said to grate them. I should have. But doesn't matter,  I'm not using something already and rehashing it (or properly - re-batching it) to make something new. I want to make it uniquely my own.

Anyway, I melted down that soap in a mixture of other stuff like brown sugar, olive oil and I don't know honey or whatever and then poured it into containers to use as a scrub. So, the scrub was awesome!!!! Then later, I remixed it with other stuff, some spices and herbs, cinnamon stick and poured it into tin cans, which apparently you shouldn't do if there's lye in the mix somehow. Which there is lye in any soap you buy, unless it has soapnuts in it. I'll talk about that later. In another post maybe.

It turned out, fine, but doesn't hold together well. And, I should have taken it out of the molds after about 48 hours and let it "age" a few weeks, but, well, I needed soap because I used up all the soap bars we had... This newer batch that I let age some is holding up better.

So, next I made this coffee scrub, which was AWESOME and smelled great!!! Mixed with olive oil and stuff, and then I made some shampoo. Thinking, baking soda is the ingredient I need to make it clean stuff, like hair. I think I put the whole kitchen sink into that shampoo. I made it with leftover coffee and a bunch of other stuff like, well, it doesn't matter what. I won't be making it again. Less is more.

So, back to the drawing board for me.

Oh yeah, the shampoo turned out great! I added stuff to it to reduce or eliminate dandruff, greasy hair and to help fine, limp hair, don't even need hairspray per se... but after about a week, the contents were under pressure and almost lost an eye trying to open it, so now I point it away.

Will start to post recipes maybe as things start to work out better, but for now, just sharing my experiences to help people on the same journey know what to avoid!!!

First lesson learned, LESS is MORE! :) Only a few ingredients in these products will go a long way! :)