KJ Gracie

Real Food Jelly

2013-06-13T01:05:00.000-07:00

Jelly is so simple to make and so versatile it's a wonder that we ever buy those sugar and chemical laden packets in the supermarket, but believe it or not I use to get through several a week. I'd like to say my son had most of them, but it wouldn't be true. I used to just melt a few squares in hot water and drink it like tea!

Thank goodness Whittards introduced me to real fruit teas!!

Since changing my sugar consuming habits, we haven't had any jelly in the house, in fact, when I made this yesterday my nearly three year old didn't know what it was and eyed it up suspiciously!

It's so simple to make, and you can change up the fruit to whatever you have to had to make endlessly exciting combinations. There are a few fruits that don't work (pineapple for instance) because of their high enzyme content, but mostly you should be okay.

Jelly is a great way to get gelatin into your kids too, especially if they are so great at drinking bone broths. Why would you want to? Click here to find out, otherwise just move on and accept that it's good for you :o)

Take two cups of water and rind of eight oranges and simmer in a pan for 5 minutes to release the oils. Try to avoid the bitter white parts.

Whilst it's simmering juice the oranges that you took the rind from.

Remove from the heat, strain the liquid and stir in 6 tbsp of grass fed gelatin.

This is the correct time to add sweetener if you are going to. I recommend acacia honey. Since we switched to this from blended honey I can use less than half the amount I used to in each recipe because it is so sweet - great bit of knowledge from my friendly neighborhood beekeeper.

Just stir it in whilst it's warm and test for sweetness.

Next add in the juice that you just squeezed and pour into a jelly mold.

I didn't have a jelly mold, so I just used a big bowl. It works fine though.
Refrigerate until set.

Yum!

Just in time too, because my littlest one is going to be three soon(!) and what is a kids party without jelly, right?

Child Friendly GAPS Legal Butter Chicken!

2013-06-12T02:36:00.000-07:00

I had to write this down before I forgot the recipe because it is AMAZING.

I started with a recipe from BBC food and just tweaked it a little, so if your children are less fussy than mine, or you aren't on a restrictive diet, feel free to just use their version, although I'm telling you, in the most humble way possible, mine is fantastic. You could add some chilli if you like, but my family are not fans of hot food, so the ginger was plenty heat for us.

You will need:

3 chicken breasts cut up (or equivalent weight in any chicken pieces)

1 whole pack of butter (raw if you have it)
100 ml plain yoghurt (bonus points for making your own)

200ml cream (raw if you can)

100g tomato puree (how to make your own)
2 whole limes, juiced

1 onion grated
1 small bulb of garlic, chopped up
3 inches of fresh root ginger, grated
3 tbsp of ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp paprika
a generous amount of salt (I use smoked)

a good amount of ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Deep fry the chicken pieces in the butter. Yeah, you heard that right. Do it.

2. Once the chicken is starting to brown, throw in the garlic and onions to cook for a bit.

3. Stir in everything else that is not dairy.

4. Remove from the heat and stir in the dairy slowly so that the cream doesn't split.

You can serve this with rice if you are a normal person. We served it with a watercress salad and vegetable crisps, along with my cheese and chive dipping sauce.

I also threw in a load of peas because my children are obsessed with them right now. You do not have to do this if you don't like them :o)

Cheese and Chives

2013-06-07T01:03:00.000-07:00

Did anyone else love primula's cheese and chive spread as a kid?

It was amazing, and with an abundance of chives in my garden I decided it was time to create the real food version.

Happy to experiment a little, it actually turned out to be super simple! My version is a little runny and probably more of a dip than a spread, but that works well seeing as how I don't have any bread to spread it on anyway. Think if it as a veggie dip, and if you are super organised you could dehydrate veggie crisps to dip in it :0)

Here's the recipe:

150g cream cheese (bonus points if you make your own)

1/4 cup of raw milk

A pinch of good quality sea salt

A handful of fresh chives

Snip up the chives, whisk into all the other ingredients.

Easy peasy.

Intentionally Slowing Down

2013-06-03T08:28:00.001-07:00

I like to take life slowly, as do my children. It's amazing to see the difference in their temperaments when we just "hang out" together, reading a book, cooking a meal, doing laundry vs me trying to find something to "entertain them" whilst I get stuff done or dragging them from fun activity to play date.

I have calm, intelligent, thoughtful children - when I don't over stretch them.

But I think part of that is how I react to them when I'm feeling over-stretched. At the park this half term I asked Matt to go watch the kids in the play area and let me walk the dog. He pointed out that the dog had already been on a long walk and I had to openly admit that I was just feeling overwhelmed. Half term in an adventure park is crazy - especially when you are used to only visiting that kind of stuff in school hours where you and a couple of other homeschooled friends can have it to yourselves!

Maybe the kids are just picking up on my tension, because I'm feeling overwhelmed.

This weekend my little boy has been struggling. He caught hand foot and mouth disease from somewhere. Although he's feeling much better, thank goodness, this is not a time to test his limits. To be honest, mine are being tested too with a broken dishwasher (again) and a child who wants to be cuddled all day but is too heavy to be worn in a sling and get anything done.

That's when I decided we just need to slow it down. Obviously washing dishes is taking forever (little counter space and I don't have many dish cloths, because I have a dishwasher) but I also grated cheese by hand (the processor was dirty) and Lila got to help me. She loved it.

Next we had to do some "garden chores" (what my kids call gardening - although they love it, so I'm not sure why it's a chore...) So whilst I pulled up weeds, she spent a long time carefully carrying them one by one on a scooter to the compost bin. Realising that the compost bin could use some shredded paper, we had the option of opening the paper shredder - but in the spirit of doing things slowly I convinced her to sit down with me and shred a whole newspaper by hand, whilst we had a lovely conversation which I think was about pretty flowers, but it's hard to know because her consonant sounds aren't so great yet.

So today certainly hasn't been productive in the traditional sense, but Will and I finished reading a book together (four chapters!) and Lila has enjoyed the garden and I can always do the laundry and dishes once they've gone to bed.

These are my favourite days.

Save the Children

2013-05-28T01:10:00.000-07:00

Children's early literacy is something I'm excited about. I'm sure I annoyed all my mummy friends going on about it when my son was a baby, because I was so excited about the research I was reading and giving him, what I considered to be, the best start in life.

I've relaxed a bit since having a second child; as in I've stopped being so evangelical about it, I'm still actively teaching her to read!

But what's heart breaking is reading reports from save the children which show that poor nutrition (something I'm also passionate about) between the ages of 0-5 is not only damaging to children's physical health, it retards the brains ability to learn specific skills such as literacy, leading to generations of children who can't learn to read properly, no matter how hard they or their teachers try.

Kasturi is the younger sister of Sangeeta.

Photograph by save the children

Whilst she was small her family were struck by poverty and she had little to eat. In fact, the families nutrition was so poor that her twin sister died as their mother was unable to produce enough milk to feed them both.

Kasturi's teacher, Chandra, says this:

"I've been Kasturi's teacher for two years now. Her learning is very slow and there has been no major improvement. She has difficulty writing, but can identify alphabets and pictures.

Even though she is in class 3 now, Kasturi still struggles with words and maths. She can't even keep up with the class two students.

Sangeeta was one of our bright students... ...she was very active and still is... ...a lack of proper food usually hampers children's ability to grasp things and slows down the pace of learning. There are a lot of children like Kasturi."

85% of brain growth occurs in the first five years of life, so it is critical that children receive proper nutrition during this period. Every year 2.3 million children die of malnutrition, but millions more are stunted both physically and educationally by it, leading to a cycle of poverty where the generation after them too will suffer the same.

This is Ngouth:

It's hard to believe he is 12 years old, but lack of food as stunted his growth.

Photographs by Helen Mould/Save The Children

He has had to move back two years in school because he and his family regularly don't have enough food. The area where he lives in the south Sudan has been named one of the world's hungriest places according to the UN.

In his own words:

"I was five years old when I started school. Sometimes I had to stop coming because I was hungry. For two years I dropped out because I had to go to the river to fish and to the bush to collect wild fruits for my family."

This is why school feeding schemes, such as Compassion's child survival and child sponsorship programmes and Save the Children's work, are so important. When a child receives a meal at school, they are not only able to attend, but able to learn.

There is enough food for everyone, but 1 in 8 people go to bed hungry every night. With a child dying every 15 seconds from hunger, this is the silent scandal and injustice of our age. On June 17th, David Cameron and other G8 leaders have a chance to tackle the causes of hunger and save millions of lives.

Please sign the petition to make sure that the G8 leaders know we think this is unacceptable.

Resurrection Year Book Review

2013-05-27T22:37:00.001-07:00

Sheridan Voysey's 'Resurrection Year' launches today and I highly recommended it.

The first part is hard to read, as Sheridan and his wife struggle through infertility and failed adoption process for ten years, you read journal extracts and its heart wrenching. I know I've said it before, but this book really brings home again the fact that children are a blessing, not a right and as much as we hope to adopt in the future, there are no guarantees.

However the whole point of the book is that we serve a God of resurrection, One who was dead but now is alive, and that when our dreams and our visions for our lives die, He can bring new things from the ashes.

Sheridan and his wife embark on a 'resurrection year' journey, and reading through as they wrestle with the 'whys' of God letting their dream for a family go unfulfilled is thought provoking, but ultimately leads back to the same answer you always start with - I don't know, but God is in control and I trust Him.

Go get the book, it's a great read and I'm sure you'll love it!

Resurrection Year Countdown

2013-05-22T00:36:00.001-07:00

I was lucky enough to get on Sheridan Voysey's 'Resurrection Year' launch team, which means I got to read his book before it was released :0)

I can't write a full review yet, because it isn't launched until the 28th of this month, but in the meantime you can still enjoy joining in some fun competitions on his blog.

Every day until launch he is going to post a photo from a chapter of his book and you get to caption it or tell him what you think it means in the comments section. You won't get to find out if you are right or wrong, but the most creative answer wins a copy of his book (in PDF).

Here is todays photo:

...but you need to go to Sheridan's site to comment (at least you do if you want to stand a chance of winning!) and remember to bookmark it so that you can come back and join in every day.

Here's the book trailer video to whet your appetites.

No Free Food For Cooper

2013-05-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

This is our puppy, Cooper (at the front), playing with his friend Clover. He is just a ball of energy and several times over our weekend together one or both dogs had to be put in a crate to give the other a rest.

Puppies have so much energy, but you can't walk them miles to exhaust them. Apparently it's bad for them. This is where the 'no free food' method comes in - you make them work mentally for their food and they find it exhausting; much more so than a long walk.

For a kibble-fed dog it's easy. You simply measure out his daily food ration and use it for training (instead of expensive dog treats) and any excess is stuffed in a kong or other such treat dispensing toy.

For a raw fed dog it's not quite so easy. We do dehydrate meat and offal to make little training treats, but the majority of his meals are fed in their raw state.

I have however, come up with a cunning technique for meals that don't have bone (I feel like a rabbit carcass or chicken back provides quite the workout anyway as he negotiates how to crunch through those bones).

Meet the Holee Roller at £4 it's my favourite, budget friendly, dog accessory:

Actually this is a Holee Roller with a cheap squeaky ball from pets at home in it. They had squeaky balls very cheap, and Cooper loves them, but he gets the squeaker out very quickly. Stuff it in the holee roller though, and we have hours of entertainment as he tries to get it out. The roller squishes easily, so standing on it still allows him to make it squeak, but the holes are too small for a puppy nose to get right in and grab the ball out.

Back to food though, so today Cooper was having some chicken that didn't have any bones. I sliced it into chunks and wrapped it in two different fabrics (fleece and jersey - just scraps from my sewing projects, but nice because they are easily washable/replaceable). The textures add an extra sensory interest.

Then stuff all those little 'parcels' in the roller with the squeaky ball...

and it's time to let the puppy play!

It's very difficult to get a shot that isn't blurred because he loves it so much. In this picture he is literally pouncing with joy on the parcel he managed to get out.

Average feed time for one chicken breast < 1 minute
Time in the Holee Roller 15 minutes
Time puppy until puppy slept after meal 10 minutes

Success!

Happy GAPSy Holidays!

2013-05-15T02:22:00.001-07:00

Festivals on GAPS are hard work - well, not really, it's just that I had got my routine of how we celebrate and now it's all change.

For Shavuot, one of our traditions has been to eat lots of sweet and dairy treats - something I obviously no longer encourage - but I do still want the day to be memorable and special for the family.

We will continue the tradition of reading from the book of Ruth >Click here for why< and my son has enjoyed making a book to teach his cousins about the festival, but I needed to find something other than candy to remind my children that God's word is sweet and nourishing. Obviously the answer is right there in the bible (it is a biblical festival after all!) so we went straight for milk and honey.

photo credit

Proverbs 24:13 says 'My son, eat honey, because it is good and the honeycomb because it is sweet to your taste.' and we have even had a memory verse from psalm 119 recently 'How sweet Your word is to my taste, sweeter than honey in my mouth', so today's menu will be strongly honey themed, just as a one off.

For breakfast my kids had Shavuot Cinnamon Treat (named by them) which is basically an adaptation of my baked custard to make an extra special once-a-year breakfast.

The recipe goes like this:

5 pastured eggs
1 cup of raw milk
1 cup of raw cream
1/2 cup of honey
2 pods of vanilla
lots of cinnamon

Warm the milk and cream with the vanilla in a pan.
Blend together eggs and honey.
With the blender still running, pour in the warm cream mixture.
Pour into ramekins and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Place in a baking tray of water and pop in the oven at 180c for about 1 hour.

This is massively sweet, but also very nourishing, so... as a one off I think it's okay.

Happy holidays!

Peanut Butter Cups

2013-04-30T01:32:00.001-07:00

photo credit

I was craving chocolate pretty badly this morning and I wanted to be able to eat it without my children judging me.
Enter real food 'peanut butter cups'.

These are nothing like reeses peanut butter cups - although there are some great GAPS legal recipes for those out there too. You should check out my Pinterest boards.

These are something more like a Rolo desert and Reeses love child.

I just made it up, but according to a poll of two it makes me the best mum ever. They might not be the healthiest breakfast ever, but they are quick to make, satisfying and definitely still better than the sugar and grain laden cereals that Kellogg's and other food giants try to push on my children as 'healthy'.

First up you need to make some ganache.
I do this by melting 1/2 a pack of butter with 100g honey and whisking in 1/3 cup of cocoa powder. Remove from the heat and slowly stir in 150ml of double cream (raw if available).

Set that to one side.

Next, whisk together 1/2 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup of honey and 1/4 cup of melted coconut oil.

Spoon the peanut butter mixture into ramekins and pour the ganache over the top. Refrigerate if you have time and then serve.

Here's the quick list:
Ganache:
125g butter (grass fed)
1/3 cup cocoa (organic)
100g honey (Raw or cold pressed if possible)
150ml cream (raw is best, otherwise organic)

Filling:
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter (bonus points for making your own with soaked, dehydrated nuts)
1/4 cup coconut oil (organic)

I Love Spring

2013-04-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

There's some exciting things going on in my garden right now:

Apple blossoms are blooming all over the place

My chocolate peppermint is starting to peep through the mulch...

And best of all I see blackcurrants forming!

I love spring.

Small Change: Cleaning with Enzymes

2013-04-22T03:48:00.002-07:00

Being fairly new to owning a dog (we had one whilst I was growing up, but realistically I didn't take care of it at all) I'm researching EVERYTHING, from training to feeding, grooming to cleaning.

Furminator

The grooming part is pretty easy, we use a furminator and I made a calming spray with essential oils (calming because getting groomed is not Cooper's favourite time of day).

It's 20 drops lavender oil, 10 drops chamomile and 5 drops of sweet majoram topped up with water, in case you were wondering.

Plenty of grooming, and a lovely spray, is supposed to keep the doggy smells out of your home, but what about those inevitable accidents?

We are doing 'errorless' house training with Cooper, but there have been 'errors' - mostly after his vaccinations when he was very unwell :0(

It's important to deal with these accidents quickly and mask the smell of vomit or urine to ensure that the dog doesn't decide this is a suitable place to use as a toilet. We have been scrubbing with hot water and bleach, but I've recently be reading up on something even better.

Enzymatic cleaners.

" Enzymes are proteins which exist in all living organisms including humans. Their main function is to speed up chemical processes. Therefore, enzymes can give very satisfying results when used to clean stubborn stains... For pet owners, enzymes can do a marvelous job of eliminating stains and odors that emanate from pet urine. The enzyme cleaners utilize oxidation processes to remove urine stains together with the associated odors. Enzymes are primarily catalysts that only enhance chemical processes without wearing on fabrics. For this reason, you can trust them to be non-caustic and non-corrosive as they remove stains from your furniture, carpets, floor and other surfaces...

...When it comes to use of chemicals for cleaning, no matter how effective they are, people always question their safety. However, enzyme cleaners are naturally green solutions and safe to use at home, at work or in the workshop. Cleaners that come from enzymes are harmless to both the environment and their direct users. They are non-toxic, non-corrosive and compatible with persons prone to allergic reactions. As such, if your target surface can be cleaned with water then enzyme cleaning solutions will suffice. Once you complete your cleaning, you will not need to worry about disposal of the dirty water. The catalysts blend will well with the natural environment."

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6789915

Seriously, how great does that sound? The best part is that it's non-toxic to my kids, so I don't have to worry about cleaning it all up after I've mopped the floor with it, everything just naturally breaks down into natural components and gets recycled by the planet.

I'm converted, but where can I buy it?

Turns out, unless you are a hospital or a restaurant it's not that easy. You can order some from the states on ebay, but the postage is horrific.

So I found a recipe to make my own.

The bad news is it takes three months to make, the good news is I made it yesterday so only 11 weeks and 6 days to wait until I can tell you my results!

Here's how it goes if you want to join me in this little experiment:

7/8 cup of brown sugar

2.5 cups citrus scraps (I used orange peels and the skin and core of a pineapple we just ate)

4 cups of water

Shake these all together in a large jar that is sealed tightly and leave it somewhere dark for 3 months. You will need to burp the jar regularly, unless you use my DIY Pickl-it tutorial.

That's it, super easy. Let's hope it works...

For more on the science behind enzyme cleaners, you can >click here<.

FREE Organic Vegetable Box

2013-04-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

A little while ago we stopped using Abel & Cole. I was convinced that I could do shopping cheaper from Waitrose.

The things is, I couldn't.

In fact, our grocery bills shot up by nearly £170 a month!!!

I don't think the food at Waitrose is more expensive, it's just that I don't have the self-discipline to shop frugally. It's better for us if food arrives in a set quantity each week.

Interestingly, when we use a box scheme, my children will eat pretty much anything. I tell them it's what came in the box and I don't have anything else to offer them. They won't accept this answer when we've been to the shops.

So we are back getting our veggie box scheme, and we've joined a meat box scheme with well hung meat (this works out really well as they send us free offal, "pet mince" and bones for Cooper!)

Now, here's the freebie -
The first three people to contact me with their email address, will be sent a code for a FREE fruit, veg or fruit and veg box from Abel & Cole.

You can test run it, with no obligation to buy afterwards and see if having a veg box is something that you're family would like.

The only catch is you must be a new customer who had never used Abel and cole before.

So send me a message and start enjoying your fresh, seasonal, organic veg :0)

Feeding the birds

2013-04-18T03:47:00.001-07:00

Along my creation care theme, my son recently made a bird feeder at boys brigade. They talked about how the winter had been very long and hard for the birds, so they wanted to help them out a little with some food.

Our bird feeder fell apart the first time there was a breeze.

Undeterred, my son was desperate to see some birds so we picked up a window bird feeder like this one:

photo credit

We filled it with three different kinds of seeds and we even named it the 'bird cafe', but for weeks it saw no bird customers.

Then we got Cooper.

I'm sure part of the appeal is that the neighbourhood cats now stay out of garden, but the birds don't seem to be coming for the seed. Every time I groom Cooper I am left with massive amounts of black fluffy hair, which we put in the bird cafe so that the birds could line their nests for extra warmth. Well, I can groom that dog several times a day, but within 10 minutes of filling that cafe, the birds have emptied it again.

Turns out the dog hair is more popular than the bird seed.

Who knew?

I don't blame the birds, though - it has been very cold and as an added bonus their nests will smell of dog and hopefully keep the cats away!!

Added bonus for us - more birds in the garden to keep the pests down, meaning we grow more organic food efficiently... providing Cooper doesn't eat or trample it first!

photo credit

Creation Care

2013-04-17T02:04:00.004-07:00

Creation care ministry is something I got convicted about a long time ago. I was always very 'people' focused, but I was leading an alpha group when one lady's husband talked about how she had rescued a plant she found by the side of the road and nursed it back to health. He told me that they believed 'god' was nature and mother earth and that although they didn't believe in Jesus they would be going to heaven because of the way they cared for every living thing.

photo credit

Ouch.

The theology was totally wrong, Jesus is the only way to heaven, and yet something nagged at me. If God created the world (John 1:3) and he charged us with stewardship of it (The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15) You shall not pollute the land in which you live.... You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the Israelites. (Numbers 35:33-34)) then I had to admit that these guys who didn't believe in Jesus were doing a better job than I was.

It's been a long road of ebbs and flows, but I've recently become convicted again. There are companies like Monsanto who I avoid because of their ethics regarding health and liberty of human beings, and we started buying organic, pastured meat and eggs because of their nutritional values for my family, I was recently convicted again by the 'back to Eden' gardening video. I was watching and thinking 'great, this will really increase the food yield in my garden next year' and then a sentence caught me at the end of the video. The guy says that even if you aren't planning to do some gardening, you should chuck down a load of wood chips, because you don't know who might need that soil in 10 years time.

It wasn't just about making the land more productive for himself. It was about creation care that benefits generations to come. Knowing that we are moving house this summer means nothing. I should be preparing the ground in the garden with live in, not only as a gift for the people who move in after us, but simply because it's part of what God has asked me to do - care for His creation, take responsibility for the small amount of earth that has been entrusted into my care.

On Facebook I've seen several horrific videos recently about how disgustingly animals are treated in the mass farming industry, and the answer people seem to be pushing is that we all need to convert to veganism.

I refuse to accept that this is the solution. For a start, it's not healthy for us, and I believe God created us and the world to live in balance and in a healthy way. Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride, of GAPS diet fame, goes as far as to say it's child abuse to raise vegetarian kids, claiming it is the leading cause of anorexia - although i'm most people raise their children vegetarian because they don't know better, rather than from a malicious intent!
Eat meat people. It's biblical (genesis 9:3).

The back to Eden gardening principles tie in with what Allan Savory shares in his TED talk about the desertification of land.

The problem, Allan points out, is not animals. The land is turning to desert because we don't drive animals over it in vast herds, something that will only get worse if we convert to veganism! Farming crops without animals is a massive strain on the land, requiring topsoil to be replaced regularly and contributing to climate change at a dramatic rate, and Allan claims, that the depletion of grasslands through lack of animal herding are an immediate cause of poverty, social breakdown, violence and cultural genocide.

So I'm a firm believer in meat eating. It's good for you, it's good for the planet - but we need to be sensible about it. Choose to support small scale, local, farmers that continue humane safe farming practices. Know where your food comes from and help keep those making ethical choices in business. Choose real food, which doesn't need to spend millions on advertising campaigns.

Grow whatever you can, it will keep your costs down and allow you to spend a little more of your budget on making good choices, for you, your family, the workers who produce the food and ultimately the whole planet, right now and for years to come.

7 Reasons I Love Dr Bronner

2013-04-14T00:42:00.002-07:00

I love the Dr Bronner company! It's so rare to find a product that I love and feel good about buying, but Dr Bronner products are not only excellent, they are one of a very few truly ethical companies around.

Here are just some of the reasons I love them:

1. They are made from fairly traded ingredients, hopefully it should be fairly obvious why this is a plus.

2. The ingredients are organic and contains no synthetic ingredients - so it fits in with my attempts to cut down on the number of chemicals used in our household.

3. They are generous - all profits that aren't needed to reinvested into the company (at least one third) are donated to charity.

4. They treat their employees fairly - executive compensation is capped at 5:1 meaning that no one within the company can earn more than 5x what anyone else is earning. If some big executive wants to increase his salary, he has to raise everyone else's as well.
I like that in this economy, where too often the rich get richer off the backs of their poorer employees.

5. It smells amazing - so far we've used the citrus castile soap, the rose castile soap and the citrus hair rinse. They have all been incredible.

6. It works - for so many things! From shampoo to washing liquid, dishwasher detergent and dog shampoo to toothpaste(!) this stuff is great.
Since we got Cooper I find myself washing my hands a lot more (he's just so darn licky) and I started to get sore around my knuckles. I think it's contact dermatitis, I used to get it when I worked in a salon. I switched from using out normal soap to dr bronner's rose Castile soap and the first wash they felt soothed, less dry and much happier hands.
Plus they smell lovely.

7. It's good for the planet - apart from being fairly traded and organic, they also come in fully biodegradable bottles and cleverly concentrated, so that there is less packaging waste. For example, the hair rinse should be diluted one capful (approx 15ml?) to 1 cup (250ml) of water. This means less household rubbish and less energy wasted processing it.

I'm not affiliated with the company in anyway, I just love them, and I wanted to share. We buy their products off amazon (because I'm a prime customer and I get free next day delivery) but you can buy them other places too.
Just be sure to buy the big bottles.
It works out cheaper.

And once you have tried it you'll be addicted!

Raw feeding Cooper

2013-04-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty obsessed with our new dog right now. He is so freaking cute!

Sorry if you are friends with me and you are already sick of my Facebook updates.

We bought Cooper home on last Monday, and on Tuesday I took him to the vet for a check up and was told that he had a fever. Nothing too serious, but he needed antibiotics :0(

Being a GAPS family, I don't like antibiotics, but sometimes they are necessary - and I'm told you don't mess around with a puppy who has a temperature.

So along with the antibiotics, we gave Coop some homemade probiotics - raw milk kefir.

The result?

One happy puppy.

Some people have been surprised to hear that I fed our dog Kefir. I understand. Before we started our real food journey my family had a dog who was fed on kibble - but that's not how we feed Cooper.

Raw feeding just makes sense. Dogs are designed to eat raw, meaty, bones and organ meats. They're carnivores. As I've discovered that I don't want to feed my (omnivore) children grains, I have no intention of feeding them to my (carnivore) dog. He just wasn't designed to eat that. Interestingly, I know a friend who has worked extensively with 'problem' dogs and he is convinced a lot of the difficult behaviours are diet related. You don't feed a kid with ADHD a tonne of e-numbers, but most people wouldn't think twice about giving that hyperactive puppy whatever comes in the packet!

You can check the ingredients on any commercial dog food, there's barely any meat, and it's not lamb, it's 'lamb meal' - mechanically stripped, processed and heated until there is no nutrition left in what was the only nutritious part of the dogs food!

By its not just a nutritional ideal that made me want to feed Cooper raw.
Here are just a few of the benefits that raw feeding your dog provides:

* improved teeth, oral health and breath - avoiding 'doggy breath' is nearly enough to convince me on its own!
* improved digestion
* improved skin and coat (raw fed dogs don't get eczema!)
* less poop! The dog uses more of the food so there is less waste, and it doesn't smell so bad
* it's stimulating - working the neck and jaw muscles hard to strip meat from a bone keeps a bored puppy from finding furniture to chew...
* reduced vet bills as the dog is less likely to get sick
* improved temperament

Just a word of advice, vets don't love this diet. Well, doctors often don't like GAPS.

I learned very early on in my family's journey toward health that if something has to be advertised, it's not real food. Pet food companies market their food at veterinary clinics, I don't consider my vet to be unbiased in this matter.

***

Amendment: we saw the same vet a week after we started feeding Cooper raw food. He had put on 25% of his body weight in 7 days (he was underweight before) and was fit and healthy for his vaccinations! I did tell the vet about raw feeding and his response?

Whatever you are doing, keep doing it. This puppy is thriving on it!'

***

As a general rule, a dog should eat 2-3% of his ideal adult body weight in raw food - a puppy needs this split into four small meals, but an adult can eat it in one go in the morning. We try to base Cooper's diet on proportions that would be available to him in nature, so cutting up an entire rabbit carcass to feed him over two days, using organ meats for treats etc... (thank goodness for my dehydrator!)

There are tonnes of great websites that can help you learn more about raw feeding. Here are just a few:

Raw Food Vets
RawMeatyBones.com
UK Raw Meaty Bones
Raw Fed

God speaks, even in the chaos

2013-04-07T05:52:00.001-07:00

This morning I was part of our church worship team, and to be honest, there was some chaos.

That's not the team's fault, it's totally mine. Rehearsal went really smoothly, but part way through the first song I realised that despite being on silent, my phone still flashes a light when someone rings, and I was blinding the front row.

The caller, I have no idea who it was because they blocked their number, proceeded to ring me repeatedly until I turned my phone off (it was nearly three songs before I got the opportunity).

We'd prayed for everyone to get really stuck into the worship, and they did - but the dancing meant that my water bottle was tipped off the music stand and onto the keyboard I was playing - which is very expensive and doesn't belong to me.

I managed to keep playing one handed whilst madly mopping up water with my sleeve, but in the chaos I was finding it hard to connect with God myself.

I've been mildly unwell, just a cold, for a few weeks now, my head was pounding and I felt like I was going to struggle to stay awake in the sermon, so I prayed they wouldn't call us up again at the end.

Actually, our pastor brought an amazing sermon, and suddenly I felt like God was speaking to me again (I know, theologically speaking He never stopped, but it's how I felt).

We were called up to play again at the end. It was chaotic, and unplanned, and we couldn't find the right key... But it was fine and instead of feeling alone and incompetent, God was with me, and my band mates were too.

In fact, some random stranger even came and found me after the service, to tell me that God was wanting to speak to me today, and girl from my small group told me Jesus was speaking to me before the service. She was actually joking about something else that had happened, but looking back I guess God was repeating Himself all along, louder and louder, until I listened.

Hot Cinnamon Smoothie!

2013-04-03T02:15:00.000-07:00

My family LOVE the luscious juice bar in town. It's one of the few places a GAPS family can always find something good to eat. Getting a cold fruit juice or smoothie on a hot summers day is such a treat, but the Juice bar has gone a step further - hot juices and smoothies. As this seems to be some kind of eternal winter period we have got stuck in (it's April! Why is there still snow in my yard?!!) hot juices and smoothies have become one of our favourite treats.

Will enjoys a 'Cinnamon Twist' which is a pear and apple smoothie, with cinnamon (obviously), heated up by the milk frother on their fancy coffee machine.
My personal favourite is the 'cure for all' which is hot apple and lemon juice with cloves.

Imagine our disappointment then, when my sister and I sent our husbands out to bring home juices, only to find that the juice bar was closed for building works :0(

Not willing to miss out on a hot smoothie now that I had the idea in my brain, we set to work creating one, which went really well! I don't have a fancy coffee machine, but it turns out you can just heat it in a saucepan.

Here's our latest recipe:

50% Mango
30% Blackcurrants
20% Banana
10% Kefir
a pinch of cinnamon and a drizzle of honey

Warm it in a pan (not too hot, it will damage the kefir's probiotic benefits).
Delicious.

New addition to the Gracie family...

2013-03-26T00:27:00.000-07:00

We are picking him up on Monday... But we still don't have a name!

Suggestions welcome...

I know he looks a little bit brown in these picture, but he is actually a black labrador crossed with a Bernese Mountain Dog.

Basil and Raspberry Yoghurt

2013-03-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

This is my kids latest obsession and its so, so, simple.

It was born out of my passion for mixing fruits and herbs and it truly is amazing. I knew that peach and basil together were delicious, and raspberry and peach is such a great combo, so why not basil and raspberry?

I took one punnet of raspberries,
100g of basil,
3 tbsp of honey,
And blended them together, then stirred into 700g of yoghurt.

Most delicious snack ever (according to my son.

I bet I could make all kinds of flavoured yoghurts like this. Why on earth have I not done this before...

The Safety of Cosmetics

2013-03-18T09:52:00.002-07:00

I know it's american, and a few years old, but I don't know that much has changed! I found this video today and even my kids enjoyed watching it with me.

The lack of choices in safe cosmetics available to us is still incredibly frustrating. Even 'natural' companies like 'Lush Cosmetics' are still unable to offer me a shampoo that doesn't contain sodium lauryl sulfate.

The obvious and frugal answer to the problem is to make your own cosmetics wherever possible, but there are some companies out there offering really good, truly safe cosmetics, but they aren't on the high street and you have to be willing to search them out, HandmadeNaturals and Dr Bronner for example produce lots of chemical free products that I would be happy to use on my family.

In the meantime, for those of us on a budget, here are some great tutorial links for how to make your own cheap and safe cosmetics. It's not exhaustive, but it's a good start to help you cut back on your families toxic load. You'll notice many of the products use the same ingredients in different ratios. This is great news, because you can bulk buy a few ingredients and they go really far!

photo credit

Body Butter
Cleansers
Conditioners
Deodorant
Diaper Cream
Exfoliators
Moisturiser
no 'poo'
Pore Strips
Shampoos
Shaving foam
Sun lotion
Toner
Toothpaste

Don't overwhelm yourself. Just pick one thing to change. Once you've formed a habit, try something new!

If you are anything like me you will have a lot of fun experimenting with different recipes and finding what works for your body.

Freedom Jewellery Competition

2013-03-15T02:29:00.000-07:00

Quick! You only have 24 hours!!

If you click on this link and 'like' Freedom Jewellery on your facebook page and then share this link on your page you have a chance of winning a piece of jewellery of your choice from Debbie's collection.

Not only are there some beautiful pieces of jewellery (this blue necklace is my favourite) but all the proceeds go to a really good cause. The profits from selling each piece go towards funding the rescue and rehabilitation of women (some as young as nine years old) who have been involved in the human trafficking sex trade, and helping them reintegrate into society.

If you are interested in learning more about human trafficking and the impact you can have, please consider attending the free training event on the 10th of April at The Kings Arms Church. You can choose between morning and evening sessions and if you register here they will even throw in a free coffee/tea/cake and homemade cake from the amazing Ground Floor Coffee shop :0)

And just to whet your appetite, here are a few more pieces of Freedom Jewellery for you to have a look at.

Healthy Life Summit - FREE!

2013-03-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of questions about why we drive over 20 miles to see a dentist when there are three on the street we live on. It's a reasonable question.

The reason is that I wanted to see a holistic dentist.

I think I've probably already lost some readers with that last sentence.

That's fine. I'm really happy to see a dentist who understands where we are at with GAPS, why we are doing it, and wants to support our oral health and overall health in the best way he can.

It all came about after I listened to the HealThy Mouth Summit talks a few months ago. There was so much information to take in, but here's the main changes I committed myself to:

1) We started including Fermented Cod liver oil in our diets. I'd previously thought it was 'going the extra mile' on GAPS and probably not something I wanted to spend extra money on. However, knowing now what I do about remineralising teeth I think it's much more important.

2) I will not be weaning my children off milk. In fact, I've probably started drinking more myself. Keeping calcium and phosphorous in balance in the body is extremely important for tooth health, and milk (particularly raw) is an excellent source of it. We ordered some cultures to make kefir, so we don't need to worry about over consumption of milk sugars, and I throw cultured milk in smoothies, salad dressings, sauces and making regular ice cream desserts!

3) We've ditched toothpaste all together. I know. We sound like crazy hippies.
I've been concerned about the ingredients in toothpaste for a long time, my children use a fluoride-free organic toothpaste, but it still contains glycerin. I've not used toothpaste for nearly a year and my teeth are much less sensitive for it.
Now that I am confident it's not doing me any harm, I'm ready to take that step with my kids.

4) We'll probably never go back to eating grains.
Even soaked.
Even after GAPS.

Yes, my kids will be allowed to eat the odd bit of wheat at a friends house, but we will not be including it regularly in our diet at home.

It's disappointing, because I really enjoyed making sourdough loaves and pancakes and donuts and muffins and... I digress. The thing is the evidence suggests that modern grains just aren't good for us, unless prepared in very labour intensive ways that I just don't have the time or energy for. It's not worth it to me whilst my children are so small.

Maybe when they are more self sufficient if I find myself with more time on my hands (which seems unlikely)!

5) I will be attempting to remove vegetable oils in our diet.
Even raw in a salad dressing.

Whilst I have previously believed that heating the oils was not good for us, I hadn't realised quite how they behaved even in their raw state. These vegetable oils not only behave like a toxin, they have the ability to rapidly reproduce in the body, tearing what they need from your good fat supplies, meaning that 'just a little bit' can become a heck of a lot in a matter of minutes without you doing anything. This is going to be particularly hard to avoid because although I'm capable of making my own peanut butter etc... my son has a serious raisin addiction, and they are always stored in... vegetable oil.

Anyhow... The point of this post wasn't to tell you about what you'd missed, but about what's coming up!

I'm super excited about the HealThy Life Summit at the end of March!

It's a free online event, just like the HealThy Mouth Summit, the lectures will be available for 24 hours only, so make sure you sign up to receive the email reminders.

I'm particularly looking forward to hearing:
Sally Fallon (of nourishing traditions) speaking on feeding and caring for children
Brandon Sheard on how to butcher at home (we're hoping to get a deer soon)
Dr Kaayla Daniel on Soy products (we don't eat them, but she is hilariously entertaining)
Mary Cordaro on creating healthy homes
Matt Stone on comfort foods and rest
Jenny McGruther on making real food affordable
and so many more.

For a full list of speakers and their areas of expertise click here.

Experimenting with "no 'poo"

2013-03-09T08:15:00.000-08:00

photo credit

If you follow me on twitter, you'll know that I do a lot of 'kitchen experiments', and it's been said more than once that my kitchen resembles a science lab somewhat. So when I heard that my friend Mickey (who has gorgeous hair by the way) had ditched shampoo and was just using common groceries to wash her hair I couldn't resist bringing my experiments to the bathroom too.

It's been a little trial and error, and there are a tonne of tutorials for the 'no 'poo' method online, but I'm discovering that no one tutorial seems to work for everybody. So I'll cover the basics and hopefully give you enough information from my mistakes that you can start to experiment for yourselves too.

Firstly, why quit using shampoo? Well... it's kind of the next step in going chemical free. I've said before that I felt giving up shampoo was a step too far for me, but seeing how well it suits Mickey, I've changed my mind.

The basic method is to wash your hair with baking soda and condition it with vinegar.

The first time I washed my hair I just scrubbed bicarbonate of soda in and I couldn't get a comb through it after. It honestly took me about 40 minutes to comb my hair.

But I wasn't ready to quit.

Mickey informed that the best technique was to dissolve 1-2 tbsp of bicarb 2 cups of water and pour that through the hair (makes more sense), but I still felt my hair had an unusual texture that I wasn't fond of.

Also, Mickey only uses a small amount of vinegar diluted in water for a hair rinse. This was not enough to detangle my very thick, long (bleached), hair. So I started to look into the science of it a bit and two things became apparent.

1) People with thicker hair seem to use lemon juice instead of vinegar for their rinse.

photo credit

Baking soda cleans the hair because it is incredibly alkaline. It has a pH of around 9. This opens up the hair shaft and helps break down oils. This is also going to cause your hair to revolt and produce a lot of oil to combat the dryness.

Rinsing with an acid helps close the hair shaft so your hair feels less 'sticky' and you get a lovely shine.

Lemon juice (pH 2) is a lot more acidic that vinegar (pH 4-5). It's relevant to understand that the pH scale is logorithmic, so if we said vinegar was pH 4 and lemon was pH 2, we aren't saying lemon juice is twice as acidic, it's actually 1,000 times more acidic.

I wasn't sure I needed a 1,000 times more acid on my hair, but the idea of lowering the pH was simple enough - just increase the concentration of vinegar in the water (waters pH is about 7). I'd previously tried 2 tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar in about 2 cups of water, so I increased this to 1 cup of vinegar in 2 cups of water.

I liked it so much better that I even added a tbsp of lemon juice this time and it was brilliant.

2) The acid rinse is not to help get rid of the bicarbonate of soda

We all remember the experiments at school where you put vinegar and bicarb in your fake volcano and watch the reaction, and that was pretty much what I had assumed the vinegar rinse was for - helping bubble away that bicarb.

In fact, I've seen loads of shampoo recipes on pinterest that include castile soap and vinegar, despite the fact that even Dr Bronner's own website tell you that the two should never be directly mixed, and here's why:

"In great part it’s due to the fact that vinegar is an acid and the castile soap is a base. They will directly react with each other and cancel each other out. So, instead of getting the best of both (the scum cutting ability of the vinegar and the dirt transporting ability of the soap), you’ll be getting the worst of something entirely new. The vinegar “unsaponifies” the soap, by which I mean that the vinegar takes the soap and reduces it back out to its original oils. So you end up with an oily, curdled, whitish mess. And this would be all over whatever it was you were trying to clean – your laundry or counters or dishes or whatever.

So, for cleaning, there is a better way. Use the soap to clean and the vinegar as a rinse agent. "

http://lisa.drbronner.com/?p=292

The important thing to note is the reaction. If we are trying to wash our hair with an alkaline, and condition with an acid, mixing the two is neutralising at best, and at worst leaves a by product on the hair shaft.

I have certainly found that so long as I rinse the bicarbonate of soda really well, then I don't end up with the 'sticky' residue feeling that I was initially getting.

All of this does take time and my showers are noticeably longer than they used to be when I wash my hair, but the good news is that I don't need to wash it every day. Not even close.

And in case you were wandering what my hair looks like after nearly a month of no shampoo?

Not really any different, but apart from saving a lot of money, I feel good about reducing my family's chemical load and saving the planet one little shampoo bottle at a time :o)