Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to sharpen or steel your knives. I have a recent renewed appreciation for sharp knives. If you’ve been following along, you know that for the past five months, I’ve been living with my in-laws while waiting for The House to come along (and we’ve just moved in, […]
Do you believe it is possible to get through the whole cold and flu season without getting a cold at all? Here are some tips to cut off an oncoming cold or deal with coughing and congestion if you do come down with something. Eating for Immunity It’s important to make food choices that will
Beating the Common Cold Naturally & Top 5 Herbs for Cold and Flu Season Read More »
You’re a smart cookie. You know sugar isn’t good for you. You know you could probably stand to skip dessert, but you’d rather indulge that sweet tooth. For the times when you just want something sweet, doggone it – Make a smarter cookie. The goal of Smart Sweets: 30 Desserts to Indulge Your Sweet Tooth
It’s Here! 30 Healthy Desserts Recipes in “Smart Sweets” Read More »
I was thinking about a sausage-stuffed squash recipe for a few weeks. Twitter wouldn’t cough one up for me, and I never got around to a good Google search (or Swagbucks search, actually), so finally I just decided to make one up. It’s rare that I start from square one on a recipe; usually my
Hand sanitizer is becoming more prevalent in our society. I’ve shared the best natural hand sanitizers. Now, let’s explore the safety and effectiveness of hand sanitizers. For kids and adults alike, waterless hand sanitizers have become a simple and often daily alternative to hand washing in our society. It’s so easy, you know? Squirt, rub,
A few thoughts ran simultaneously through my head the first time I read about oil pulling: Yet here I am, trying yet another gross crackpot idea that has to do with food! Oil pulling is the practice of putting unrefined oil in your mouth and swishing it around for 10-20 minutes, then spitting it out.
Will Oil Pulling Fix my Sensitive Teeth…or is it Just a Hoax? Read More »
When your little clowns, pirates, witches and kitty cats are tuckered out and ready to hit the sack next Monday, how will you get their face paint off? For young children especially, a tear-free method, without stingy soaps or sandpaper-esque scrubbing, is a necessity. The first year my little guy wore Halloween makeup, I wasn’t
How to Naturally Get that Halloween Face Paint Off – with No Tears! Read More »
Will I be called a hypocrite for teaching you how to make disposable baby wipes using bleached paper towel? Last week a reader used the term because I freely admitted to using disposable diapers in the same post as I said, “It’s important to know what’s going on baby’s skin.” The mission of Kitchen Stewardship®
Apples may reign supreme in the fall, but this baked apple crisp is a winner any time of year. Simple, real food ingredients make this dessert both delicious and healthy. No white sugar involved! What’s not to love about apple crisp? Warm, baked apples. Crunchy buttery topping. Top it with ice cream and you’re in
Healthy Homemade Baked Apple Crisp Recipe {With A FREE Download!} Read More »
Babywearing can be a great tool for soothing baby, can allow mama to multi-task, and can be that second pair of hands that we all need sometimes. The moby wrap was my favorite when my kids were babies. Here are a few of my tips on breastfeeding in the moby wrap and a couple of
Stitches in human skin are no fun. Stitches on an extremely sensitive area that move and pull every time you sit, stand, walk, talk, cough, sneeze, and use the toilet? Now those are really a barrel of fun, don’t you think? In case you’re single and/or have never given birth, you might want to stop
Natural Remedies (and Natural Products) for Postpartum Pain Read More »
I was the mom in Bradley birth classes furrowing her brow at the stories of nursing toddlers, saying, “When my child is old enough to ask for mama’s milk, that’s when it’s been long enough.” Eighteen months later, I was the mama with the screaming child: “I want milllllllllllllk!!!!” He didn’t wean until two-and-a-half. So
News flash! Kids’ cereal has lots of sugar in it, and – are you ready for this? It may not be good for you. The Environmental Working Group released a study detailing the amounts of sugar in popular children’s cereals, noting that many of them have more sugar than a Twinkie. A Twinkie! Could they
Cereal Is Like a Twinkie for Breakfast – Let’s Do Something About It! Read More »
Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to get the chlorine out of your bath and shower. If you have city water, it’s almost certainly treated with either chlorine (aka bleach) or chloramine for sanitizing purposes. Since I don’t like using bleach as a cleaner in my home, consuming it in drinking water isn’t
A natural sweetener with zero calories and zero aftertaste that doesn’t cause cancer in lab rats? Is that a dream too good to be true? I’m hoping not. I’m talking about sweetening with stevia. Stevia is fast becoming my favorite formerly-unknown sweetener, if only for the mystery surrounding it, the foodie vs. government controversy, and
Back when we talked emergency preparedness, we worked through many different steps to getting your home and family ready for the “in-house” sort of emergencies, such as power outages, snowstorms, or other problems that might cause your family to be stuck in the house without access to the outside world for a while. It seems
I have quite a collection of antibiotic prescriptions that have never been filled. Over the years, I’ve gotten skilled at fighting infections withOUT antibiotics, and in fact, 3 of my 4 children have never taken an antibiotic in their lives. Child number one was apparently my test subject as I learned more about natural health,
“Wait, what is that?” That’s what came out of my mouth, in a nicely polite voice. In my head, I ninja-chopped the nurse’s hand, sending whatever she was trying to feed my 12-hour-old newborn flying across the room, and cried in my fiercest mama bear voice, “Don’t put anything in my baby’s mouth without my
There’s not a speck of sarcasm there. I am very grateful for my current living situation. Pulling back the curtain of one’s life to millions of Internet users (or thousands of blog readers) certainly opens a person up to different kinds of feedback than life in a normal neighborhood. Since we moved in with my
I hate when stores start Christmas preparations as soon as back-to-school stuff is put away. But if you want to make the easiest homemade vanilla extract as a lovely foodie Christmas gift or to use to make your homemade Irish Cream truly from scratch, you’re going to have to start in August! Luckily I have
The Least Expensive Method to Make Homemade Vanilla Extract (& It’s Faster Too!) Read More »
