Homemade natural cleaning

I am always looking for ways to save money and live more naturally. One great way to do this is by making your own soap, toothpaste, etc. This is also a great way to start going plastic-free as well! I have listed a few recipes that I like to use, and I hope you like them as well!

Mouthwash:

2 ounce water

1/4 tsp (or more) baking soda (aluminum-free only)

1 drop peppermint oil

1 drop tea tree oil

Hand soap:

3 c. distilled water (plain or with a green tea bag)

1 bar grated hand soap (Castile is best)

Boil water. Once it is boiling add grated soap and take off the burner. Let it sit for 15 min until dissolved. Add your choice of essential oils. Let sit until cool. Blending in blender may help to solidify your soap more. If you don't mind it in a more liquefied form, then leave it as is. It serves it's purpose.

Laundry Detergent:

1 c. grated soap (Ivory or Castile)

1/2 c. washing soda (or aluminum-free baking soda)

1/2 c. borax

essential oils

Use 2 TBSP per large load.

Toothpaste:

Baking soda (aluminum-free)Dip wet brush into soda and brush! Easy enough.

Multi-surface Cleaner:

1 Part water

to

1 Part vinegar

Pour in spray bottle & keep on hand for kitchen cleaning especially.

Choose to Reuse

Over the past few months, I have been in the process of getting rid of everything disposable and replacing it with something reusable. Now a days, it's considered almost weird to have reusable stuff. People still look at me weird with my reusable shopping bags. What do you think that they used back in the days before they had reusable plastic bags? They used paper bags! Do you know how many plastic shopping bags the US goes through annually? The number is approximately 100 billion! How crazy is that?! Now, some of those bags get recycled when thrown away, but only about 5.2% of them. Sad number huh? All the rest of them will most likely end up in your local landfill. Also, plastics are not biodegradable. They will eventually, if left out in the sun, photo-degrade. Plastic bags can also be burnt. This process is also bad for the environment though. Basically, bottom line is that disposable plastic bags are very bad for the environment. We can relpace a lot of daily things with reusable products like the following:

Plastic shopping bags: Now this one is an easy change. Plus many stores will give you a small credit for using them! Bonus! There are many sites that sell them and actually most grocery stores sell them now as well. You can check out Reusable Bags. They have a bunch of cool stuff on there.

Paper towels & paper napkins: Cloth towels and napkins just make so much more sense! I do know that using paper towels can be addictive. I would use them every time I cleaned my kitchen counters. Just think of how much better it is for the environment though. If you chose to replace your paper towels and napkins with cloth, then just use up whatever you have left of your paper ones. *If you have a compost heap or worm compost, then you can throw your used paper towels in there after use as well.* There are so many cute cloth napkins too! I like these ones on Etsy.

Disposable feminine products: I say organic cotton or hemp pads are the way to go! I just talked about this in my last post, so I will make this short. A lot of people say, "Gross! That is so dirty and unsanitary!" Um, no not really. Do a little research and look into what all is in a tampon. You will be suprised. Products I recommend are the Diva Cup & Moonpads.

Disposable diapers: Now, I am not a mom yet, but I plan on using these when I am. I have lots of friends and relatives who have used cloth diapers. They also have a lot cuter designs now then they did back when I was a baby according to my mom. You can read more about cloth diapers here.


Disposable plastic sandwich bags & plastic tupperwear: These are definitally adding to land fills more and more every year! Here is a good site on how to make reusable sandwich bags.You can also buy glass tupperwear instead of plastic.

Toilet paper: Using reusable toilet paper is the most controversial in this list. I am still trying to convince my husband on this one. I think that at first I will just have the cloth toilet paper in my bathroom and then slowly work on getting him to switch over. He is going to get a baday for his bathroom, which I am happy about. Basically for reusable toilet paper there are dry and wet wipes. I like the idea of putting the wet wipes in a wipe warmer with a soap and oil solution. You have two separate bags for the wipes. The dry wipes go in the "wet bag" and the wet wipes go in a bucket with a lid. It is a good idea to have a solution in the bucket as well such as Bac-Out and water. A lot of people worry that it is not sanitary. It is plenty sanitary so long as you take care in washing them well. I say to wash them in hot water with a natural detergent and some baking soda. You can also add vinigar to your rinse cycle. You can read more on cloth wipes at WallyPop.

Moonpads

I finally got my first order of moonpads! I was so excited to try them out, even though all my friends and family think that I have finally lost my mind. Here are the facts on moonpads. They are handmade reusable menstrual pads. They are guaranteed to last 5 years. They are super comfortable and absorbent. It is great on the environment to use moonpads, because women in North America alone throw away 20 billion disposable tampons and pads a year!

Now here is the scary part. There is a chemical called dioxin used in bleaching tampons & pads. Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, reproductive disorders, infertility, depressed immunity and TSS. Rayan is also used in tampons and leaves behind paticles that cause drying, ulceration, which ultimately lead to a breeding ground for bacteria. I knew all this stuff, which is why I stopped using tampons about a year or so ago. I found out about moonpads and thought that it was a brilliant idea! I have only had them for two days, and so far I have no complaints! They are way more comfotable than disposable pads and way more absorbant than I thought.

In short, I am very happy with my moonpads! If you are interested in ordering some you can check out the site I ordered them from: http://www.etsy.com/shop/epicerma .

Fast vegan food is nearly impossible

Who knew that trying to order something vegan at a national fast food restaurant chain would be so hard. Just for those who do not know yet, here are a few things I found out.

What can I get vegan at taco bell?

7 layer burrito (minus the cheese & sour cream)

--remaining layers are rice, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, & guacamole.

Bean burrito (minus the cheese)

--remaining ingredients are red sauce, onions, & beans.

I do not think that McDonalds or Burger King has anything vegan. Burger King does have the veggie burger which may or may not be vegan. The only thing that is vegan at BK is the onion rings I beleive.

What can I eat vegan at Jack in the Box?

Side salad (no cheese)

Hash Brown Sticks

Natural Cut Fries

Potato Wedges

Seasoned Curly Fries

Horrible choices huh?

What can I eat vegan at Dominos?

The crunchy thin crust is vegan, as well as the pizza sause. So you technically could order a thin crust pizza, no cheese, with your choice of veggies :)

It is pretty much impossible to find vegan fast food places in Hawaii. I opt for chinese, thai, vietnamese, or japanese a lot of the time.

Avocado & Hummus Sandwich

Wow, it has been a while. Last night I was looking through my kitchen at my limited ingredients and trying to figure out what to eat. I found garbanzo beans, and decided to try making some hummus. This was my first try, and this is what I used:

1 can organic garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
3-4 Tbsp tahini
1 lemon (just the juice)
3 garlic cloves
water
1 -2 Tbsp coconut oil

It turned out ok, a little plain. I needed some paprika, but did not have any. Parsley would be good as well. So I took my organic wheat bread and toasted it and then slathered it with hummus, a little veganise, sliced onions, and lots of avocado. YUM! It was great! This is such a healthy sandwich to eat. Avocados have 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid. Coconut oil is good for to fight aging, cancer, and is also an anticeptic. Garbanzo beans have high levels of protein & fiber in them. So this was just an all around good sanwich.

Two baby birds

I was driving my dog to the park a few days ago, and I looked over and saw a couple people kicking what looked like a bird nest on the side of the road. So I made a U-turn and told my husband to jump out and check if there were any eggs inside. He came back to the car with two baby birds in a nest. The third bird was already dead with ants all over him :(

I rushed them home and put them on a heating pad. I told my husband to monitor them while I made a run to the pet store to get some baby bird formula. I am happy to say that they are both doing very well! I believe they are finches. Once they learn to fly, I will release them into a nice forest area.

Buttered Hot Apple Cider

Since I live in Hawaii, it pretty much never gets cold. That being said, I just wait until it's "winter" season here and pretend. So my husband, sister, brother-in-law and I all gathered around in my little living room to wrap presents, watch Christmas movies, and drink cider.

Here's the recipe I used as best I can remember. I made it virgin for the sake of the children who were there :)

Buttered Hot Apple Cider

Heat together

7 cups organic apple juice

&

1/3 cup brown sugar (more to taste)

Put these in a tea strainer or cotton tea bag:

Whole Cloves (about 10-15 to taste)

Whole allspice (about 2-3 to taste)

Add 1 cinnamon stick.

Let ingredients simmer until the taste is to your liking. Maybe about 10 minutes. Then add these to each separate mug:

Vegan butter (about 1/2 Tbsp per mug)

Cinnamon stick (1 per mug)

I have this obsession with wanting all the food that I make to be "the best you have ever had". My husband would always talk about how his friend's mom made the best cider ever. So I was determined to top hers. According to my husband, this is now the best he has ever had! Yay, I win!