Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Long before I ever got all crunchy I used to notice the film that was occasionally left on dishes washed in a dishwasher and wonder if it was safe to consume.

You see, in Africa where I grew up we didn't have a dishwasher (well, actually, we had several...their names were John-Mark, Melodie, Nathan...) so all our dishes were washed by hand and rinsed in clean hot water. In the States grandma had an automatic dishwasher and when we visited we'd marvel at the inventions of modern man. Yet there was sometimes a little detergent residue stuck to the dishes...

Turns out normal dishwashing detergent isn't really that safe after all. Here's a list of harmful chemicals found in most dishwasher detergents (sourced from this website):

• Chlorine bleach; a common respiratory tract irritant that also finds its way into the environment and forms toxic compounds stored in the fatty tissue of animals. 
• Sodium hydroxide; a severe skin irritant that can cause blindness if it comes into contact with your eyes, but is commonly added to dishwasher detergent as a degreaser.
• Sodium lauryl sulfate; might be one of the most common detergents found in the home and is prevalent in shampoo and hand soap, making worrying about it in your dishwashing detergent seem a little pointless. According to the Journal of the American College of Toxicology, laboratories around the world use it as a skin irritant.
• Propylene glycol; might help soften baked-on foods and allow the other chemicals in your dishwasher detergent to do their jobs. But it's also a carcinogen that alters skin structure, helping those same chemicals to penetrate your skin and find their way into your bloodstream.
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While you might think these chemicals aren't affecting you because you're not touching them, even the best dishwasher leaves a thin film of residue on your dishes, so you might be exposing  yourself to more than you think when you eat from them.

This isn't healthy for anyone, but especially little babies.

Additionally, if you google the dangers of dishwasher detergent, you will find countless reports of children ingesting this substance. The cute little individual packs are the most tempting for a little kid to pop into his or her mouth. 

Part of my reasoning in moving towards more natural cleaning products is to not have these dangerous cleaning products around at all, as I have a very curious one year old. During my time as a missionary in Liberia I worked with some children who had accidentally swallowed caustic substances and were near death due to the horrific consequences of this. Thankfully we were able to help many of them, but every one of these children will face lifelong medical issues because of these injuries. 

Completely natural dishwashing detergent kept in a locked cupboard is one step I can take to keep my little boy safe, from when I serve him food, to when he wonders into the kitchen alone.

Making homemade dishwashing detergent was my second DIY natural home care product after my laundry detergent. This recipe comes from my friend Ashley from college. She has a lovely blog where she shares her journey into a more natural life and celebrates the growth of her children. Those looking for more DIY natural home and body care products should definitely check out her blog!

Ashley did all the work to test this one out, I just followed her instructions. I'm happy to say this recipe has been great and I have no complaints! And there is no residue either, not even on the glasses.

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

2 cups washing soda

1 cup borax

1 cup baking soda

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. You may want to sift it through a sieve to remove any lumps. Store in a large container with a lid. Keep a one tablespoon measuring spoon inside the container. You will need 2 tablespoons of detergent for every load.

Some people may need a rinsing agent depending on their water types. I do not, but I wanted to share a rinsing tip I've heard others use.

Note: Washing soda, borax, and bulk packages of baking soda can all be found in the laundry detergent section of Wal-Mart and most grocery stores.

Rinse Agent: Place 1/4 cup white vinegar in a small shallow container on the top wrack of the dishwasher. Run the load as usual. Do NOT put the vinegar in the compartment in the door designed for store-bought rinse agents. The plastic is not made for vinegar and you can damage your washing machine by using it in this way.

For other great homemade dishwasher detergent recipes check out this website here.

{This post is linked up at Homemade Mondays, Living Green Tuesdays, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Fabulously Frugal Thursday,  Thank Your Body Thursday, and Small Footprint Friday.}

Do you make your own dishwashing detergent? How does your recipe compare to mine?

Real Food Around The World

Traditional food advocates love talking about the nourishing foods of traditional cultures around the world. But what do you actually know about any of these foods? Chances are you've heard that the Polynesians consume coconut oil, and "tribal peoples" eat organ meats. But there is so much more to learn!

Join me as I explore real food around the world!

Liberian children selling snacks: raw peanuts in the shell and farm fresh cucumbers.
 A little different than the average American snack, huh?

We'll look at foods native to particular regions, like rich red palm oil in West Africa, ethnic recipes, like Thai coconut curry and Middle Eastern Mujadarrah, and traditional food preparation styles, like fufu in Liberia.

Since I grew up in West Africa and lived in Liberia several years as an adult, my focus is going to be Africa. But I plan to do justice to the delicious recipes and wealth of information from other regions of the world as well.

Africa:

Ivorian Aloco - Fried Plantain in Palm Oil
Brown Rice and Rice Preparation in Liberia
Liberian Groundpea Soup and Rice
Liberian Greens and Rice

South Asia:
Any Day Coconut Curry

Other regions and more posts continuously in the works!

What have you learned about real food around the world? What would you like to know more about? 

Leave me a comment; I can always use more ideas!

Your Guide to Real Food Shopping at Aldi

Aldi; that discount grocery store you keep hearing about.

The Aldi right beside where we live.

Those of you who aren't familiar with Aldi probably picture a really dumpy store with very limited items available, must of which are highly processed.

Those of you who already shop at Aldi probably think it's the best grocery store on the planet and cringe when you have to purchase any item for a few cents more at Wal-Mart.

Aldi is an organized, clean, well-stocked grocery store with a big variety of grocery and every-day household items. It is indeed cheaper than your average grocery store, but the quality of their items is comparable to even the most expensive foods I've purchased at the high-end markets.

Whether or not you've ever been to Aldi, you might not know that you can indeed eat a healthy, real food diet while purchasing a big percentage of your groceries from this store. The bottom line is, if you are not buying organic, the the products at Aldi are identical to those you would get at your local grocery store, only much cheaper.

Here's a visual example of some of the groceries I get at Aldi. 

Knowing which items to buy at Aldi and which ones to avoid may not come naturally to you, especially if you are new to the real/traditional foods concept. I hope this list will be helpful for you as you seek to eat real food on a very tight budget.

Note: This post is specifically dedicated to Aldi shopping. For my complete post on finding affordable healthy food see Real Food on a Very Tight Budget.

Also, this post is not meant to discourage people from buying local items like produce and meat, when possible, or organic, when affordable.

Oh, and Aldi is not giving me anything to write this post. Aldi doesn't even know I exist!

Real Food From Aldi

Aldi logistics:

Bring a quarter to unlock your cart. You get the quarter back when you return the cart. This is Aldi's rather ingenious way to keep the parking lot clean and free of stray shopping carts. And it works! I have to laugh; all this to save a quarter.

Bring your own shopping bags, ideally reusable ones. You can also purchase shopping bags for a few cents (a paper bag) to a dollar (reusable cloth sack) at the check-out. This is another method Aldi uses to cut back costs.

Timing is key; shop between the hours of 9 and 5, and on weekdays (Aldi hours are 9-7). Once people get off work the lines at check-out are long and sometimes there is not as much produce available.

Dry Goods (shelf-stable items):
Nuts
Dried fruit
Real maple syrup
Honey
Natural peanut butter
Quick cooking oats (Not the instant oat packets!)
Rolled oats
Steel cut oats
Real fruit spread (Not the jams and jellies; Those contain high fructose corn syrup!)
Coffee
Sugar (To use in moderation with baked goods.)
White flour  (To use in moderation with baked goods.)
Spices (Can't beat these prices anywhere!)
Stevia (Yay! Aldi now has stevia packets!)
The chicken, beef, and vegetable broth cartons are all fine to use, but they are not very economical due to cost. You really should be making your own broth with the bones of the whole chickens Aldi has for super cheep.
Extra virgin olive oil
Vinegar

Mexican section:
Masa corn flour. This is actually a very healthy item as it has already been soaked in lyme (a traditional preparation) to enhance the nutrient content. Chili, and cornbread using this flour can make a very nutritious and economical meal from Aldi.
Pinto beans. Learn to cook your own beans at home to save quite a bit of money. (See my recipe here.)
Green chilis and other hot peppers, dried and canned.
Tomatoes and green chilies
Corn tortillas. The flour ones contain hydrogenated oil, so they are a no-no.

Diary:
Eggs
Whole milk
Sour cream
Heavy whipping cream
Butter
4% cottage cheese
Cheese. Get the blocks. The pre-shredded cheese has anti-caking and anti-fungal ingredients added (This is true no matter where you get pre-shredded cheese).
Feta Cheese
Blue Cheese

Aldi usually has a selection of specialty deli items like hummus and cheeses that have fairly healthy ingredients. If your budget allows, these are OK to get. But $3.50 for 6 ounces of goat cheese is not worth it to me.

Meat:
Ground turkey. Always get the fresh if possible. It is superior in taste and texture to the frozen but very similar in price.
Ground chicken
Whole chickens (The best prices anywhere! Just $0.85 a pound for the frozen birds. Roast a chicken, then use the bones to make healthy bone broth).
Chicken in pieces
Boneless skinless chicken breast for recipes like my Any Day Coconut Curry.
Beef; The ground beef and stew meat have the best prices.
Pork chops

Instead of the pork sausage I used to get here (stopped getting it due to the MSG) I now, when possible, get the fresh ground turkey and make my own homemade turkey sausage. You could also use beef, but I found the fresh turkey had a texture most similar to bulk pork sausage.

The one processed meat I do get here is the polish sausage. I know, I know...it's a processed meat with artificial ingredients. But I have one meal  I use it for (just  twice a month) and have not been able to find a good substitute.

Produce:

Any and all the produce. I am able to get all the produce I use here except fresh herbs, beets, and some other root veggies we use.

Carrots. To save a dollar buy the 2 pound bag of whole carrot and peal and cut your own carrot sticks or baby carrots (I also am skeptical about how the baby carrots stay fresh. There is a rumor that all baby carrots are soaked in bleach, though I don't know if this is true.)

They have the best price anywhere on sweet potatoes and white potatoes.  Both of these are good filler foods for those in the family with higher metabolisms (like dads and growing kids).

Avocados! Because of the excellent prices ($0.89 each) I now eat these regularly. I use them in salads, guacamole and even desserts! My baby loves them, which is a good thing, because they are super healthy for him.

Canned goods:

Canned goods should never be relied on for a significant portion of your vegetable intake.

Tomato products. All your canned tomato products can be purchased here. Canned tomatoes are the healthiest canned vegetables as they are canned at the very peak of ripeness.

Beans. Canned beans are okay to get occasional, but they are not soaked (traditionally prepared). It is of course most economical to make your own beans from dried beans. 

Corn. Probably zero nutritional value (it kinda goes right through you...) but my husband really likes it so I add it to chili and casseroles. Canned corn should not be considered a healthy vegetable side dish!

Mushrooms

Packaged snack items:

Aldi has a few snack items that I feel are okay to consume every once in awhile. While they would not necessarily be considered "healthy" they are not too unhealthy. For those times when you are craving a crunchy snack I wanted you to know what the better choices are.

Microwave popcorn. If you are OK with the microwave and non-organic popcorn, this is a cheap snack. Aldi popcorn has palm oil in - a healthy oil - and no hydrogenated oils like other popcorn brands.

Pita chips. The plain kind is made with white flour, palm oil and sea salt.

Sweet potato chips

Root vegetable chips

Frozen items:

Frozen fruit. Great for smoothies and fruit based desserts.

Frozen vegetables

Aldi's frozen fruit bars have fairly natural ingredients (they even contain real fruit - shocker!), as does one of their brands of ice cream. If you are going to indulge, these are the better choices.

Aldi now has a line of organic foods! Though not all the items could be classified as "real" food, I am very excited they are making efforts to offer more nutritious foods. The spaghetti sauce is the one thing I noticed that is a good deal and would be worth getting.

These are psuedo-healthy, non-real-food items to avoid:

Any of the boxed cereals, even the granola
Granola bars and prepackaged snacks

All the bread items

All their jams besides the "Real Fruit" spread. They contain high fructose corn syrup.

Any peanut butter besides that listed as "natural."They contain hydrogenated oils.

Any low-fat dairy items.

All their yogurt. It's all low-fat and most of it is filled with a long list of artificial ingredients and sweeteners. Read the labels the next time you go in. Real food yogurt should only have about 2-3 ingredients like "milk and active and live cultures". I make my own yogurt because it is so hard to find full fat yogurt. One quart of store-bought yogurt typically costs as much as a whole gallon of milk. For one gallon of milk I an make four quarts of yogurt at home!

All the salad dressings. Learn to make your own from the olive oil and vinegar you can get at Aldi.

Any juice items

Any of the boxed, canned  or frozen meals

With rare exception, all of the Fit and Active brand products. Their products are almost all low fat and filled with tons of artifical sweeteners, preservatives and generally unhealthy ingredients (ironically!).

{This post is linked up at Titus 2 Tuesday, Teach Me Tuesday,  Family Table Tuesday, Wild Crafting Wednesday, and Whole Foods Wednesday.}

Do you shop at Aldi? What real-food shopping tips have you found helpful? 

Let me know and I'll update this post!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

In my journey to a frugal healthier lifestyle, I've started making a certain number of home and personal care products that are not only healthier than store-bought versions, but cheaper. 

All over the web you can find tons of recipes for home and body care products, but many call for ingredients that are expensive or hard to find. One recipe I saw for a natural cleaning product had about 5 different kinds of essential oils. While I'm sure it cleans well, for folks like me who nearly have a heart attack at the purchase of one tiny bottle of tea tree oil for $8 or $9, these items are just not worth it for use in my home products. Tea tree oil and peppermint oil are the only two essential oils I use for my home and body care products. Every other ingredient you can get easily at regular-people stores.

Laundry detergent is the first DIY home or body care product I started making about a year ago. My primary motivation was to cut back on the high cost of most laundry detergents.  This was even before I started considering the potentially dangerous additives found in most normal laundry detergents, which include phenols, surfactants, and optical brighteners, to name a few.

"Think about it: clothing is in constant contact with your skin. The skin is exceptionally permeable; it quickly absorbs outside substances directly into the blood stream. Many experts recommend: if you wouldn`t eat it or drink it, you shouldn`t be letting it come into contact with your skin. Ditch the commercial laundry detergents and seek out more natural ways to clean your clothes." (Click here to read the rest of this health report.)

Natural laundry detergent is certainly not my primary concern when it comes to healthy living. I am most concerned about the things we put directly into our bodies. But I found this detergent considerably cheaper than store-bought detergent, easy to make, long lasting because you use way less than you think you would need, and it happens to be healthier. That's just an added bonus!

Laundry Detergent

1 bar Fels Naptha soap, or 2 bars Kirk's Castile soap (This is the more natural option.)
2 cups washing soda
2 cups borax

Shred the soap using the fine side of a cheese grater. I had the ingenious idea to use the smallest grater on my Kitchen Aid. This saved tons of time. 

Note; some recipes will suggest grinding the soap in a food processor, or, if you're like me, you'll come up with that on your own. I'm not pointing any fingers, but someone in my house may have thrown her dying food processor over the edge by trying this. So yeah, the soap is too hard on the machine. 

Mix the shredded soap with the washing soda and borax. If there are lumps in the powdered ingredients you will want to sift them through a sieve before mixing them with the soap.

Now, at this point most recipes will tell you to mix the powder with a ton of water to make liquid soap. I didn't realize I was supposed to do this at the beginning of my detergent making career, so I was just using the powder by itself. Guess what? It works fine! The soap shreds have no problem disolving. Plus it takes up less room in my laundry room/closet and it saves a big inconvenient step.

Store in a container with a lid. An empty coffee container is perfect, or get a clear plastic container specifically for this purpose. I prefer a clear container so I can see when I am getting low.

 Keep a quarter cup (1/4) scoop in the container. You'll need one to three tablespoons depending on the size of the load. Yes, that's all you need! This soap even works for my husband's dirty work clothes (he's a construction superintendent). Sometimes I'll use four tablespoons if the clothes are particularly dirty, but this soap really works amazingly well. Plus it is suitable for high efficiency machines.

I usually end up making a double batch so it will last twice as long. 

That's it! Easy, natural, and cheap. What's not to like?

Update: Borax, washing soda and Fels Naptha soap can all be found in the detergent section at Wal-Mart. They should also be available in most major grocery stores.

DIY laundry detergent funny; 

"Why are there weevils in your laundry detergent?" 

My sister was visiting and throwing in a load of laundry and didn't know what the yellow soap shreds were hanging out in the detergent!

{This post is linked up at Natural Living Monday, Modest Monday, Wild Crafting Wednesday, Thank Your Body Thursday, Tasty Traditions, and Small Footprint Fridays.}

Do you make your own laundry detergent? How does your recipe compare to mine?

Book Review; The Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread

In my journey to finding affordable and practical traditional nutrition, this book has been my all-time favorite read;

The Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread; 

Unlocking the Mysteries of Grains, Gluten, and Yeast.

I could not have been more pleased with this book. It was hard to put down! It appealed to everything I look for in my quest for nourishing foods. Does history support it? Does science support it? Is it practical and easy to make on a regular basis? The answer is YES to sourdough bread! And Jessie Hawkins does an excellent job explaining all that.

Update: Click here to go to my sourdough starter recipe.

I love history and Jessie shares the history of bread, all the way back to biblical times. She explains why bread was nutritious and life giving historically, and what happened to make it a neutral and (for some people) even dangerous food now. (Apparently, the vast majority of store-bought bread has tons of unhealthy - and sometimes scary - additives, that are also not properly labeled. Pig pancreas anyone?) She also shares information on some fascinating studies that have been conducted around bread and gluten. She then provides modern versions of traditional recipes for breads and rolls, plus healthified sourdough versions of pizza crust, donuts, tortillas and other breads that are familiar to us today. There is also a long section dedicated to what gluten is and why it is harmful to people, along with tons of gluten-free recipes.

One of my sourdough loaves.

So why is sourdough bread so nutritious?

Grains (seeds) contain phytates (nutrient blockers) and other substances designed to keep the grain from deteriorating until the optimum conditions are obtained for germination. This is a good thing for the seed, but a bad thing for the human digestive tract. Unless a grain is properly prepared it cannot be digested well and for some individuals can even cause serious harm. (People with celiac disease, for example, a condition caused and exacerbated by gluten). 

Traditionally almost all bread was created with a starter yeast and soured as it slowly rose, a process that dissolves the phytates, predigests the gluten, and makes the vitamins and minerals found in the grain (those being protected so fiercely for germination) bioavailable to our bodies. Souring also makes the bread lower glycemic. When baker's yeast was isolated and marketed to the public it significantly shortened the rising time for bread. This appealed to a lot of people, but especially bakeries. Yet the nutritional consequences of eliminating the sourdough method of preparation were not studied and are becoming more and more well-known today as gluten allergies and sensitivities are popping up all over the place, in addition to health problems (like malnutrition, believe it or not) related to consuming whole grains that are not properly prepared.

Today some people seeking to consume bread in a nutritious way are soaking their breads (the flour is left overnight in an acidic solution), sprouting the grains (the grain is tricked into sprouting, then dehydrated, then ground, then prepared into bread....sounds sooooooo complicated), and using the traditional sourdough method. I have done a lot of soaking (I still soak my baked oatmeal, though I am thinking about figuring out a version that uses my sourdough starter), never done any sprouting, and since reading the VR Guide to Bread book have made a a number of sourdough bread items. And I have happily determined that the sourdough method will work best for me!

History supports it.

Science supports it.

And it's easy. Yes, I have made all sorts of breads in my day, and the sourdough method Jessie Hawkin's outlines is EASY. We have so far enjoyed loaves of bread, rolls, pizza crust, and banana bread (I pretty much ate that baby by myself...sorry hubs...) I've tweaked Jessie's standard bread recipe a bit to our tastes and my unique yeast (which I caught using a little flour and water), but I couldn't have done any of it without this great resource.

My sourdough bread pizza. It turned out great!

The bottom line is bread made the sourdough method is good for you. Bread that is not soured (or soaked, or sprouted) has very little, if any, nutritional benefits (with most store-bought versions being very bad.) For those who need more carbs (like those with higher metabolisms and those doing a lot of physical activity), it is a healthy carb to fill up on. For people like me who pack on the pounds from carbs (and are not running or doing strenuous workouts) it is an acceptable carb in moderation, especially considering it has a lower glycemic index than regular bread. 

 If you are looking for a healthy and easy way to prepare bread for your family, trying to learn more about how gluten effects the human body, or in search of practical sourdough bread recipes including those using gluten-free grains, I suggest getting this book! You won't be disappointed.

{This post is linked up at Fat Tuesday, Traditional Tuesdays, Domestically Devine Tuesday, Whole Foods Wednesday, Real Food Wednesday,  Simple Lives Thursday, Gluten-Free Fridays, and Fight Back Friday.}

I am an Amazon affiliate which means if you purchase this book (or anything on Amazon) after clicking through my site I will get a very small percentage of the profit (4%). I am also an affiliate with the handful of nutrition based ads you see on the right-hand side bar. Every dollar I make through this blog helps my family get closer to our goal of being debt-free.