I love to eat. I do not, however, like the calories in a bagel, the sugar in cereal or taking the time to cook my own breakfast unless it involves the microwave. I love oatmeal packets, but there is so much sugar that over time I stopped using them. I started buying quick cooking oats and adding my own dried and fresh fruit or nuts and spices. I did notice that I wasn’t feeling full for very long and after a while the texture got pretty boring. Then, as I was shopping around in my local grocery store, I saw Raw, a multi-grain hot cereal. It looked healthy, in that I recognized all of the ingredents and it didn’t have a load of sugar added to it. I also like that it’s plain so I can flavor it myslef based on my mood. Even better, the packaging was pretty a convenient size/shape. You can almost never go wrong by picking things based on good design, it’s a sign that they care about quality. Luckily for me it was buy one get one free, so I stocked up on four boxes. Here’s some information from the website that I found intriguing:
Bare
- Probiotics
- Polyphenols
- B Vitamins
- Vitamin C
- Organic enzymes
- Vital amino acids
- Organic acids
Spring Cleaning Time Again: DIY Natural All-Purpose Cleaner Recipes
This weekend is spring cleaning time again around my house. As you may have read in previous posts I try to use inexpensive, effective and natural cleaners wherever possible. I swear by vinegar for cleaning counter tops, stainless steel and cutting boards, but when it comes to all purpose cleaners for bathrooms, floors, etc. I have a new recipe:
All-Purpose Cleaner
1/2 Gallon of Water
2 tsp Borax
1/2 C vinegar
As for everything in the bathroom, when in doubt, just use borax. It’s abrasive and natural and leaves everything clean, shiny and fresh. I sprinkle some around inside my toilet and let it sit while I clean, then I just use my little scrubby brush and voila! It’s clean and fresh! Essentially, some mixture of vinegar, borax and water can clean anything in your house. If you have stains and you need some abrasive, just add the borax. For dusting, cleaning wood floors and furniture polish though I recommend buying. I use Method’s Wood for Good because it removes scratches and leaves everything smelling almondy and rich, but there are lots of healhty and natural options out there. You can even use a bit of olive oil and lemon juice to make a good wood cleaner/polisher if you want. I don’t have to use it enough to be concerned about the economic impact of my wood cleaner because I use mostly all-purpose cleaner around my home. What about you? What natural and/or DIY cleaners do you use around your home? Do you have any great recipes to share? If so, leave them in the comments below. Happy Cleaning!
The Verdict is In: The ‘Buch is Good!
If you have been kind enough to read my blog prior to this entry, you may know that I love kombucha. I enjoy the flavor and the wonderful health benefits, but purchasing ready made can be pretty pricey. So, I have decided to take matters into my own hands and brew my own batch. I bottled it on Sunday and then allowed it to complete a second ferment. My little SCOBY friend was fed a bit of peach puree to feast on during this week. I grabbed my bottles and took them to share with my friends at work and my temple and sent a bottle home with my parents too. So far, everyone seems to really enjoy it. It turned out a bit sweet as you can imagine with peach puree and while it did get that pungent vinegar flavor that I’ve grown to love, it did not get very bubbly. All in all though I’m very happy with my results. It was easy to make and it’s already paid for itself. My next batch is brewing now and I’m hoping to enjoy it soon. I’ll have to figure out how to start brewing more than one gallon at a time though. I’m blessed with many friends and family and I want to ensure that I have enough for everyone so I think that I’ll start up a second fermenting jar with the baby SCOBY growing now. So now that peach is out of the way, what flavor should I try next?
The ‘Buch is in the Bottle!
Good news! As a follow-up to my previous post “The ‘Buch is On!” I can say that it appears to have been a successful experiment. I finally had a thin, white, filmy pancake looking SCOBY grow on top of my tea brew. It looked like kombucha, it smelled like kombucha, so I called it done. I removed the new SCOBY that grew on top and placed it into a glass jar with a cup of the kombucha to sit while I brewed, sweetened and cooled a new gallon tea. Once the tea cooled to room temperature, I plopped in the SCOBY and juice and recovered my jar with cheesecloth, a rubber band and returned it to it’s special place to await another fermentation cycle. The completed batch I bottled in four growler’s that I had set aside after my last visit to the Pub Dog. The to-go bottles from Pub Dog are the perfect size if you want to make mutliple flavors or share your batch with friends. To each bottle I added a bit of pureed peaches and lightly capped. I’ve left them out to complete a second fermentation over the next few days to allow the flavors to marry and to make my sweet nectar a bit fizzy. I’ll post the results of the taste test once I crack it open for drinking this weekend.
Heavy Metal Vegan Cooking: Rock out with Seitan!
As you may know from reading my blog my mother is a Vegan. She made the switch a few years ago in response to high cholesterol. Rather than take medication daily, she decided to alter her diet and lifestyle. I’ve always dabbled in healthy eating, mixing in both vegan and vegetarian cuisine, but claiming neither fully. While I do only cook vegetarian dishes, and most of those are vegan, I’m not as strict about what I eat when I’m not at home. Most of the time I don’t eat meat, but occasionally I do, and for now I’m o.k. with that. Now, onto the important bit of this post. My vegan mom invited me over for manicotti the other night, which were delicious by the way, and afterward shared a new cooking show that she found on Youtube. The show is named Heavy Metal Vegan Cooking and it’s pretty awesome. The videos feature Tim Hogarth cooking up a delicious vegan meal, as you would expect to see in any normal cooking show, but he adds a dash of hilarity and lots of metal. He weaves comedic plot lines into his food preparation and it’s all set to the heavy metal music you know and love. Artists like Pantera, Slayer and Megadeth are featured in episodes such as Seitan with Satan and Crowbar Cookies. For more information, videos and recipes from the Heavy Metal Vegan Kitchen, check out the website.
The ‘Buch is On!
I love, love, love kombucha. In particular I like GT’s Kombucha because it’s tart, fizzy and a healthy alternative to diet soda (which I also love, but doesn’t love me back). Unfortunately I can only buy it at my local Whole Foods and the convenience store on the bottom floor of my office building. While I am ever grateful that they offer it, I don’t enjoy dropping 5 bucks on it every time I have a hankering for tea. I recall my grandmother and mother making mushroom team when I grew up and decided to sort out how to start doing it myself. Then I found this, the home brew kit offered by Kombucha Brooklyn. Boy, was I stoked; it’s only $30. That means that even if I totally screw this up, and I might, if I only get 6 bottles of kombucha out of this, then it’s still an amazing deal. Even better, if I actually figure out how to make this work without killing it, think of the savings! I could even share my SCOBY (that’s the gooey, live bacteria that makes this tasty tea) with friends and family. While you can purchase just the scoby and use your own containers and tea mixture I was really interested in the kit because I wanted to make it just like they do at least once to get a good feel for the tea. Well, today was my lucky day because my USPS lady dropped it off on my front porch and I went straight to work. I opened the kit and it included 1 large glass container, in which to ferment my kombucha, 1 glass jar with a SCOBY inside, 6 tea bags, and organic cane sugar. The handy instructions were clear and easy to follow, so I brewed up a 1/4 gallon of tea, added the sugar, filled the fermentation jar and dumped in my SCOBY. It says to begin tasting my tea every 4 days and then it should be ready for bottling in 2-3 weeks, then on to the next batch. I’ll post updates as I go, and give my comparison to the commercially bottled versions out there. My first batch is going to be plain, but after that I’m going to start experimenting with additives of dried fruit and seasonings, so wish me luck. I’m off to ‘buch!
Thanks to Kombucha Brookly, here’s more information about kombucha tea and it’s benefits:
Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage that is both delicious AND health-supportive. Today, it is known around the world for its detoxifying and energizing effects. This elixir contains:
Yarn Bombing: Getting Cozy with Street Art
I’ve always loved street art. Graffiti, pasteups, sculpture. I’ve always admired the brave soul who climbed a water tower, jumped a train or crawled under a dark overpass in the wee hours. I enjoyed watching living artisitic expression growing on walls at music festivals like Starscape here in Baltimore. I admire the interesting perspective that these artists share with us making socio-political statements and random acts of beauty. However, I don’t agree with the personal property destruction and the permanence of these acts. I’ve always wanted to participate, but I’ve always been more of the law abiding type. I’d just feel bad writing on walls with a Sharpie or painting the side of someone’s fence. Then I saw this, Yarn Bombing. I stumbled across the phenomenon of “guerilla knitting” and was instantly intrigued. This was something I could get behind, something I wouldn’t feel bad about doing. It’s really making the world a warmer, fuzzier, more beautiful place to live. Unfortunatly though, when I found out about the knit graffiti movement that was growing around the world I didn’t have any idea how to slip a single stitch. Now, however I can knit and crochet. I’ve been feeling particularly inspired recently and was reading about it more. Then, last night I finally got around to watching Exit Through the Gift Shop
Get to knittin’!
Update: Sweater to Brimmed Beanie Refashion
I just wanted to let everyone know that I did make a hat according to the Threadbanger video directions in my previous post and it really came out great. I made one in brown and now I’m going to make one in black too. I used the leftover sweater bits to make arm warmers, sweater boots and a scarf. I promise to put up pictures just as soon as I can!
Happy Refashioning!
Elizabeth
Threadbanger Tutorial: How to Refashion a Sweater into a Brimmed Beanie
I’ve been busy crafting for Christmas, so unfortunately I haven’t completed any original tutorials recently. However, here is a really cool one that you can use to make last minute gifts for friends and family. The brimmed beanie is loved by boys and girls of all ages, so head to your closet or the thift store and grab an old baseball cap and a sweater that’s really cook, but you totally won’t wear and get to work.
No Trash Wrap Christmas
Now that halloween is behind us, I’m skipping Thanksgiving temporarily and moving right to Christmas. Yes, I agree that it’s annoying when retailers do this and we should all slow down and enjoy the holidays. Ordinarily I would agree whole-heartedly, but this year, as in previous year, I’m making Christmas presents for friends and family again. I’m stepping up my game this year though and putting my newly found skill for knitting and crochet to work and cranking out gifts for the whole family. Some of these gifts are rather ambitious (omg how long will it take me to crochet 4 balls of yarn for one gift?!?) and we’ve only a few crafting weeks left until the big day. So for this reason, I am already 3 balls of yarn down and in the background of every football game you can hear the needles clicking away I’ll try to post up photos of my achievements as I go.
Unfortunately, all this time spent on gifts means that I can’t spend as much time on my Etsy store. I will however be sure to list some festive christmas gift bags (from recycled fabrics of course) that can be reused and passed among the family members in addition to my recycled paper bows. I hope to have time to list some other goodies, but I think I’d better focus on one task at a time for now. In order to celebrate the concept of a cleaner, greener holiday I am promoting the no trash wrap holiday tradition, which means don’t use throwaway packaging if you can help it; and if you must be sure it’s at least made from recycled materials. Here’s the promotion that I’ll be running in my shop through the end of the year.
SerendipiT’s Shop Announcement
Did You Know? In the U.S., an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. Four million tons of this is wrapping paper and shopping bags. Through the end of January 31, 2011 I will include either one (1) free refashioned t-shirt shopping tote bag or three (3) recycled paper bows with every purchase. Please let me know your preference by sending me a convo at checkout.
The individual members of the Fashion:Remix Team are committed to help fight the trash by offering promotional items tagged “notrashwrap”. Search for each of our unique solutions for a greener holiday season.
SerendipiT sources fabrics from previously loved clothing and recycles these textiles into hand-crafted EcoChic fashion. This eco-friendly process reduces our consumption of raw materials and precious resources. Refashioned clothing and accessories are true sustainable fashion that helps you to reduce your environmental impact on the Earth. I will donate 10% of all proceeds to The Conservation Fund, America’s Partner in Conservation. For the past 25 years, The Conservation Fund has been America’s partner in conservation, protecting more than 6.5 million acres. www.conservationfund.org – $15 donated so far in 2010
*Proud Member of the Fashion: Remix Team (tag: fashionremixteam)
*Proud member of the Recyclers Team Guild (tag: wastenot)
Proud Member of the Etsy Recyclers Guild Team
Visit us at http://www.EtsyRecyclersGuild.blogspot.com
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