Fav New Product! Beeswax Food Wrap

I have found a new product that I am completely in LOVE with! So of course I have to share.

Using plastic wrap in my house is just not an option. It is totally bad for the environment since it really isn't recylclable and will sit in a landfill forever, on top of which I am not ok with that plastic sitting on top of my food.  I have and use glass storage containers for almost everything, but there are times when they just don't fit.  It drove me crazy that I didn't have anything to fit what my food was on that would work and was safe.  Well, that just changed!

I found Abeego reusable beeswax food wrap.  They are amazing! They wrap around and adhere to anything!  They are natural, breathable, and when they are used up.....compostable!

They are made of beeswax, tree resin, and jojoba oil infused with hemp and organic cotton cloth. All ingredients that are safe.

They come with 3 sheets, a small, med, and large.

Now here is the cool part.  Take them out and decide which size works best for your storage needs, place it over your container and hold your hands on it and as your hands warm up the material it adheres to the shape and stays! Once your done using it gently remove it and wash with gentle dish soap and dry.

Here is another fantastic part, its breathable.  The other night I made a big salad and ended up with leftovers.  I have in the past put it into a glass container with a lid.  Well, because of the airtight lid the salad would get limp.  I used the Abeego beeswax wrap over the salad bowl and because it is breathable the salad was still super fresh two days later! Amazing

Give this one a shot! You will love them

Available at Reuseit.com

Till Next Blog...........

Used Coffee Grounds Cellulite Scrub!

My husband drinks a lot of coffee! Which is awesome for all the used coffee grounds.  I use them for everything!

Ants coming in the house, coffee grounds where they are coming from and they leave.  Fertilize the plants, bushes and lawn naturally with a mix of used coffee grounds and Epsom salt.  Blueberry bushes love them and I get the biggest, sweetest fruit.  My worms in the worm bin, love them and they make the prettiest soil after devouring it.   LOVE used coffee grounds!!

If you look at any of the store cellulite scrubs, yep ladies it just happens, they almost all contain caffeine.  It helps to demise the bumps on the upper thigh that we love oh so much!  However, they also contain ingredients that I'm not sure what they are and for me that means it could be toxic.  I don't like the idea of a hot shower opening up your pores and adding chemicals.  Seems to me like that is just asking for trouble.

Sooooo, as I was about to go outside with them when it hit me.  Make a scrub for cellulite.

I took the grounds from the day before, about a cup, and about a tablespoon of course pink Himalayan salt for a little extra oomph, a few melted tablespoons of organic coconut oil and mixed.  I added a little more coffee to get a consistency I liked.  Tada!

Now I am a big fan of dry brushing, have been doing it for years.  So I did my dry brushing and then took a small amount of the mixture and scrubbed, then rinsed and showered as usual.  It was very invigorating!  I've been using it a couple times a week and I love it.

I would caution to only use a small amount as coconut oil in large amounts can plug a drain!  But once a week I put some baking soda and vinegar in the drain to keep it clear.

There you have it!  Three ingredients, no crazy chemicals!

Give it a shot!

Till Next Blog..............Happy Scrubbing

Ridiculously Good Peach Jam!

It is one of my favorite times of year in our backyard, Peaches on our tree! There is something so wonderful about going outside and picking a soft ripe peach and eating it.  They taste so different than one that was picked way before its time to be shipped to the store to ripen.

We eat a lot of them straight off the tree, but then you need to use them for other things.  I have made pies and ice creams but decided this time to make some jam.  I have made jam with blueberries and strawberries but this was my first time using peaches.

I used 9 good sized peaches.  Put them in a pot of simmering water for about two minutes, then transferred them to an ice bath to make the skin easy to peel off.  Once peeled i pitted them and cut them up.  I put two tablespoons of lemon juice on them and let them sit.  In the meantime I put 1/2 cup water with 3 cups of sugar on medium in a pot until the sugar was dissolved.  I put the peaches in a food processor and pulsed it, but left some small chunks since we like our jam like that.  Then mixed the peach mixture into the sugar water mix, cooking it until it thickened.  I always put a plate in the freezer while making jam to test its doneness.  If you take the plate out and put a little jam on the cold plate and hold it sideways you can tell how thick it is.  Then proceeded them in my canning jars.

EASY, AND SO YUMMY!

This could be one of my favorite jams I have made yet.

I will be trying it with agave nectar for my diabetic grandfather next week.  Hopefully it turns out as good as the strawberry and blueberry did with it.

Give this one a shot while peaches are ready, you won't be sorry!

Till next blog.......

Delicious Jam Without Sugar

I love making jam! I have got it down.  This is the time of year in FL that we go strawberry picking, organic of course, and I start making our years supply of jam.  I love the way the house smells of strawberry for a week while I am getting all the jam made.

I make my jam pretty simply, fruit, lemon juice and sugar.  But I have a 96 year old grandfather who cannot have sugar and he wanted me to send him some strawberry jam.  Now he is a sneaky guy who would certainly eat my regular jam, but it wouldn't be in his best interest health wise so I had to do some research to see if I could make it work for him.

I am completely against using artificial sweeteners with chemicals in them.  I wanted to find something more natural that would work in the jam.  I discovered that I could use organic agave nectar.  It is a low glycemic sweetener made from the juice of the agave plant.

I will admit I wasn't sure how it would turn out, after all I have making jam down to a science with my sugar and I wasn't sure how this would process.  I did have to adjust the amount as 1/2 cup of agave is equal to 1 cup of sugar in sweetness.  So I went for it.

I mashed up 4 cups of strawberries (trimmed and hulled), added 1/4 cup lemon juice, and 2 cups of agave (instead of my usual 4 cups sugar).  I used golden light as it has a lighter flavor and wouldn't effect the final flavor of the jam.  I brought it to a gentle boil and continued boiling until it reached a temperature of 220 on my candy thermometer and took it off the heat to rest.

Now came the test.  Knowing that I am too much of a critic of my own cooking sometimes I had my husband taste it without telling him it was the agave.  He said it was delicious and when I told him he said he couldn't tell the difference!  Yesssssss

So I processed them as usual in a water bath and now they are ready to go to my grandfather!

I am so happy I discovered this!  If your have someone on a sugar restrictive diet maybe it would work for you too!

Give it a shot!

Till Next Blog.......

My Repurposed Soap!

I purchase Dr. Bronners unscented bar soap for our house and have for years.  I love it, but it isn't the cheapest soap out there.

My husband will use a bar of soap until it gets thin and then he is done with it.  It leaves behind a decent amount of soap, and it drives me crazy.

I decided to put a jar in our bathroom and have been putting the pieces of the never to be used again soap into it thinking that I will find a way to use them again.

Well, it happened.  I was looking it at it and thought that there had to be enough in there that I could melt it down and make bars of soap with it.  And, with my husband shaking his head......again, I started the soap repurposing!

I took all of my pieces and put them into a pot and covered them with filtered water and let them sit over night.

 In the morning I added a teaspoon of olive oil and began to slowly melt the mixture.  It becomes soap soup.  I stirred it regularly until it became all melted and bubbly.  Then I put the soapy mixture into my mini bread pan tins that were sprayed with cooking spray and let them sit for about a day and a half to cool and set.

When I popped them out I had 3 new, repurposed, bars of soap!!  I was thrilled. (And maybe danced around my kitchen)

I will try next time to maybe put some wax paper under them as they still did stick a little to the pan.

This has made me so happy to have been able to make those slivers useful again.  And yes the jar returned to the bathroom to my husband shaking his head.

Give it a shot! Super easy and money saving.

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My Own Version of Lemi-Shine

I decided to create my own Lemi-shine! I will admit have purchased the actual product in the past as it doesn't contain phosphates and says environmentally friendly, but it doesn't actually list the ingredients.  That is concerning to me.  Even when I went on the internet to see if they list them I still didn't find what they actually put in it.  That didn't work for me!  So of course I had to try making my own.

I started by purchasing food grade Citric Acid.  I purchased mine from dudadiesel.com.  It is Organic/Non-GMO source.  I also purchased some organic orange essential oil.  I decided to go with that instead of the lemon.

The basic idea to this is to add 1 teaspoon of essential oil to 1 cup of citric acid.  I put mine in the food processor and let it blend together well.

Here is my tip!  Let it sit for a couple minutes before you decide to open the lid of the food processor!!  If you don't there will be a blast of powder come your way and its not friendly, haha.

That is it!!  Really that's all there is to it.

I put mine in one of my re-purposed glass food jars with a chalkboard label marked proudly.  It works amazing!  My glasses are sparkly AND I know what is in it.  Oh and it turns out to be much cheaper to do it my way then to purchase it.

Give it a shot.

I will admit I felt very much like a scientist using the citric acid!

Till Next Blog....................

My Homemade Liquid Laundry Detergent

I decided recently to try changing my laundry detergent formula.  I had been making my own powder detergent but it didn't seem like it was working as well as I would like it too.  So I decided to try a liquid.

I messed around with some different variations of mostly the same ingredients as the powder version and what I came up with has been amazing! And it is super cost effective as well!

I took a bar of Fels Naptha soap and grated it with a cheese grater.  Put the grated soap into a pot with 4 cups of hot water and put it on medium heat on the stove.  Kept stiring until the soap was completely melted.  I then filled a 5 gallon bucket, from Home Depot with a lid, halfway with hot water.  This I did in the tub.  Then poured the melted soap into the bucket and added 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda and stirred.  Then filled the bucket the rest of the way with warm water, gave it a good stir and done!

I waited until it cooled to put the lid on and had my husband carry it to the garage!

I took an empty gallon vinegar container to keep it in for the laundry room.

Now let me tell you how it cleans, it's amazing!  Honestly it cleans better than anything I've ever used.  Other than the Fels Naptha soap being used instead of Castile it is all the same ingredients as the powder version, minus the water, but something about it being liquid just works so much better.  It even took off my husbands ring around the collar!

I thought it was cost effective making powder detergent, well it just got cheaper now that I make 5 gallons of liquid with the same items!

If you want to add an essential oil for scent you can do so before filling the bucket all the way up.

Liquid Laundry Detergent:

1 bar Fels Naptha soap
1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
5 gallon bucket, with lid
Essential oil if you want

It will be a little goopy so give it a good shake before using.  I use about 1/4 cup per load with apple cider vinegar for fabric softener.

Give it a shot and see how great it works!

Till next blog......