Why try Gluten Free?

Earlier I wrote a post about doing a gluten free trial and some of my thoughts as well as a few things I have read about gluten from various sources that all had a very similar message.  Cut the wheat to improve your health.  It will allow your body to do what it was built to do which is to heal itself when things go wrong with it.  I told you I would discuss with you the reasons for our gluten free trial later this week, so here it is.

We actually have many contributing factors that I think reflect much of what is going on in the rest of America as well.  Brain fog, inability to loose weight, joint pain, hypothyroidism, prediabetic, IBS, low energy levels, bladder issues, ADD, headaches, acid reflux, depression, I could go on and on.

I have been trying to lose weight for years, but I haven't successfully been able to do so since 13 years ago before my daughter was born.  Did I suddenly forget how to exercise and eat healthy?  Well, if you listen to the medical community that is the obvious fact.  I have been told to quit eating so many cookies, to be more active, eat healthier foods, and on and on.  I don't know about you, but I hate being lectured about things I already know.  It's even worse when you are trying to do these things but no one believes you and judges you to be a fat, lazy slob.  They have looked at my food journals and basically said I was lying and I must have forgotten to write down a bunch of food.  Seriously.  Then the medical community wonders why WE have so little faith in THEM?

My son has been a 3 sport athlete for 4 years.  At first the weight just fell off.  Being so active and lifting weights brought about a bit transformation in him.  But he totally stalled out when it came to weight loss for wrestling season this year.  None of our prior weight loss ideas has helped him a bit this year either.  What happened?

I could go on and on giving the back stories behind all of the symptoms listed above, but I think you get the point here.  I have been thinking and thinking about this and it just doesn't add up.  Is it the chemicals and preservatives in processed foods?  Overuse of prescription medications?  What gives?

Several years ago I began by cutting out the ready to eat processed foods that we used to buy from the store.  I began canning, dehydrating, and freezing foods that I grew myself or bought on sale and in season from farmers and grocery stores alike.  It does make more work for me, but it has helped some with things like ADD, but it hasn't completely solved all of our issues.  I continued to search for answers to our health dilemmas.

While studying natural remedies to replace some of the prescription and OTC medications we have been taking I kept coming up with the same information.  Our bodies have natural abilities to heal themselves.  Not that we will ever be able to stop everything completely, but it is a nice goal to wish for.  I began to wonder though, what was stopping my body from reaching it's full potential to heal itself?  The search continued.  I began seeing a chiropractor which has helped to increase my energy levels and clear the brain fog, but I still haven't been able to achieve much in the way of weight loss.

Now comes in the gluten free option.  I read the book Wheat Belly which I saw both on Dr. Oz and a few of my friends were trying it and seeing great results.  That book dealt with EVERYTHING on our list, plus others that weren't even on there.  Wow.  I think it's worth a try.  I mean, after examining our regular diet I noticed that we ate ALL of the no-no foods on a regular basis.  ESPECIALLY wheat.  Really.  Wow.  I never imagined that could cause so many issues, but it really does make sense.  When you overload so much on one particular category of foods, I suppose that is what you get.  I just can't help but wonder why wheat is in everything we eat.  I guess I'll be making MORE of our own stuff.

So, what did we like to eat before going gluten free?  Well, some of our favorite meals include burgers, chicken dumpling soup with a loaf of bread, grilled cheese and tomato soup, spaghetti, pizza, brats, breaded chicken baked in the oven, battered fish, ...  Notice what they all have in common?  Yup.  Wheat in every item there.  Guess who's in for a total meal make over?  Yup.  That's my next post.  So far we have tried a few items that I want to share with you.  I did manage to lose a couple of pounds so far so things are moving in the right direction for me.  Once I can get the rest of the family to jump on the bandwagon it won't be so hard to resist the temptations they keep presenting.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

Making your own Extracts

Last fall I made some killer vanilla extract.  Not only was it easy, but way cheaper than the pure vanilla extract.  $9.08 for 2 oz of Watkins pure vanilla extract?  Are you kidding me?

I know what you're saying, the materials needed costs more than the extract does, but really it's just barely more expensive.  My bottle of vodka was $9.99.  Those materials can be used to make so many things as well, like more extracts.  As an added bonus, I knew what was in it too.

After my easy success how could I not try to make other extracts?  After all, I already had the vodka and so many other ones can be made with stuff you already have in your home.  Some of which most people even consider trash!

I did several different experiments using this so called garbage.  I used lemon peels to make lemon extract, grapefruit peels to make grapefruit extract, orange peels to make orange extract, and the pineapple skin to make pineapple extract.  I also made walnut and coconut extracts.  Following are the procedures I used to make them.

For my citrus extracts I placed about 1/4 cup of peels (minus the bitter white pith) into a half pint canning jar.  Added a 1/2 cup of 80 proof vodka and let sit in a dark place (in my kitchen cabinet) for a couple of months.  Don't forget to shake daily.

I had WAY more pineapple than I needed so I just filled the jar loosely with pineapple skin scraps and topped with vodka and followed the same procedure.

The nuts I used 1/4 cup of nuts cut finely chopped and 1/2 cup vodka.  Same procedure as above.

I think my next experiments are going to be almond and mint extract!

My friends have also asked me how I use these extracts.  I use them mostly in baked goods such as pies, cakes, pudding, flavoring frosting and ice cream, etc.  I bet they would also be great in a drink like coffee, tea, cocoa, or home made soda or in jellies.

Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

Home Made Lip Care Recipes

Ingredients assembled

      Have you ever been annoyed by the high prices of organic products?  Why not make your own?  It just takes a little time and some products many of us already have in our kitchen!
      I will talk about products you can use to take care of your lips first since many of us are suffering with chapped lips in this cold, dry season we call winter.  I found several different recipes on the Internet from lip balm to salve, to chap stick.  I even found some recipes for lip glosses and lip color, though this post will focus on taking care of you lips not making them pretty.  Well, unless you think they are pretty when they are smooth and supple with no added colors and no red skin surrounding them.
       I found many variations of recipes out there, many of them contained several key ingredients: Sweet almond oil, beeswax, honey, aloe vera gel, coconut oil, and olive oil.  These each have their own health benefits so knowing their properties will help you to decide which one to use in your own products.

Wax Melting in Hot Oil

       I can discuss a few of them briefly here, but please do not rely on one source to get all of your information.  Sweet almond oil is, of course, made from almonds so do not use it if you have an allergy to them.  Another note of caution, if you have a condition that involves low blood sugar levels please consult your doctor prior to trying any product containing sao because it is known to help lower blood sugar levels.  It lubricates the skin without giving it a greasy feel, acts as an emulsifier (which binds oil and water together when they normally do not like to be mixed together), and is readily absorbed into the skin.  For more information please google sweet almond oil.  This is a good starting point.  Beeswax is used in place of petroleum products in order to thicken the healthy oils you are using, but it does help the skin to absorb them more readily has some anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, and helps wounds to heal more quickly.  Honey helps skin to heal more quickly and helps to protect skin among other things.  Aloe Vera gel has a great many benefits  as well, but for our purposes here I will just say that it will relieve dry itchy skin.  I can't say enough about the benefits of coconut oil, in fact I REALLY need to remember to use it much more frequently but for skin care purposes used outside the body it is known to help with inflammation.  Olive oil was know to the ancient Greeks as liquid gold, and for good reason apparently.  It has a greasy feel to it though, but it is moisturizing, cleansing, and protects from sun damage.

Added Ingredients
Once Waxes Were Melted

                              Lip Balm
      The first recipe I have to share with you is a wonderful lip balm that makes over a cup, though it would be easy to cut this recipe in half.  It made enough to fill 3 half jelly jars full of lip balm.  I know it's a lot, but lip balm can be used all year round so I am sure it will get used.  You can infuse the oil with beneficial herbs or flower petals prior to using it in this recipe if desired.  If you don't like the tingly feeling of the stronger store brands of lip balms, this is a great one to try.

Ingredients:1 cup of sweet almond oil, 2 Tablespoons of beeswax, 1 Tablespoon of food quality paraffin wax (optional, the original recipe says 2-3 T beeswax I just got tired of trying to chisel pieces of beeswax off my block), 1 teaspoon of honey, 1 teaspoon of vitamin e oil, and 2 teaspoons full of aloe vera gel.  Flavoring or essential oils if desired such as vanilla extract or mint.

Finished Lip Balm

Procedure:   Heat oil, I used a small crock pot that will be reserved for this purpose.  You don't have this, use a non-reactive pan that is large enough to accommodate all of the ingredients and still leaves room to vigorously stir it all together.  If using a stove as your heat source please make sure to monitor your lip balm and keep the temperatures on the lower end of the heating scale.   Add small chunks of beeswax to the oil once it is heated.  (Word to the wise, if anyplace around you sells it is pellet or small chunks you may want to invest in those rather than a large chunks because they tend to like to fly all over the place and it's hardness makes it difficult to shave just a few shreds off).  Okay, really I only threw in the paraffin wax was because it came off the block much easier and I wanted to add more wax to make sure the final product was pretty solid.
     Once the wax is completely melted, remove from heat and stir in the remaining ingredients quickly, then pour into containers to cool.  Cover once it is completely cooled down.
     In retrospect I am wondering if I should have tried pouring some of this mixture into some old chap stick tubes or an old Carmex jar to make a more portable lip balm.  It doesn't add a lot of gloss or glamour but your lips will thank you.

Note:  Make sure to label the containers clearly, I bet you would just hate to put your home make vapor rub on your lips.

Chapped Lips Salve

      Okay, so I called this salve on the container that I put it in though upon reflection it is really more of a gel.  It works great and adds some shine, well, provided you don't lick it off.  The aloe makes it taste not so great though so that shouldn't be a huge problem.   This one is super easy and doesn't require any heat or equipment really, um mm, other than the jar you are storing it in and something to stir it with...  In fact, you just put some aloe gel into the container, add a tiny bit of honey and mix.  You may add a couple of drops of vitamin E oil to act as a preservative if you wish.  Alright, I mixed mine in a measuring cup because I wanted enough to fill one little "pot" for each bathroom then I poured it out into the containers once they were equally full.

Home Made Vaseline

      Vaseline aka petroleum jelly is wonderful to soothe dry lips, but who wants an oil byproduct on your lips?  I haven't technically made this yet; but judging by the ingredients in it, I would say that it should turn out exactly like the lip balm listed first following the same procedure of melting wax in heated oil.
      Use 1/2 c of oil and 1 ounce beeswax.  The recipes I saw online suggested olive oil though I would guess you can use others as well such as jojoba, coconut, flax seed, olive, or sweet almond oil.

Chap stick

    You can bet I plan on making some of these as well, but I've got a busy day ahead so I thought I'd just talk about proportions here.  I believe these will be a stiffer blend than the balm above since the online sources seem to recommend a 1 to 1 ratio of oil to wax for this type of recipe.  I'm thinking these may be a better candidate for my portable home made blends in the old chap stick tubes?
     Use 1 T oil to 1 T wax, melt wax in hot oil.  Once wax is melted remove from heat and add scents if desired.  1-2 drops should do it, there are many great essential oils out there to try.









Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy