Homemade Lotion/Moisturizer

I am a lotion snob. There are so many lotions and moisturizers out there that just don't meet my standards. My hands get really dry and so I like my hand lotion to make them feel...well...NOT DRY! I can't believe how many just leave my hands feeling yucky after all the lotion has soaked in.

And almost every lotion on store shelves contain harmful, unhealthy ingredients. Even natural or organic products can contain less than desirable stuff. If you wouldn't eat it, then you really shouldn't be putting it on your skin.

A couple years ago I found a recipe of sorts somewhere online. I'm not sure where I found it or who came up with it. It's so simple!

4 parts aloe vera gel
1 part vegetable glycerin

That's it!


I get both of these ingredients from Vitacost for about $8 plus shipping. If you're trying to avoid chemicals and other nasty stuff in your skin products then you know how stinking expensive decent lotions can be! In the last couple of years I think I've only had to buy both these ingredients twice. And I use this stuff liberally every day. So, $16 plus shipping for 2 years worth of chemical free hand lotion makes sense to me!

You can also add in essential oils to give it some fragrance.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays over at Food Renegade.

Hooray for Summer!!

I'm on a mission this summer to eat as healthfully and as organically as possible for as little money as possible. So, when opportunities like this come around, I go for it! My friend sent me a text one Saturday and said that the strawberries in her garden needed to be picked that day or they would go bad! It made me sad to think of all these sweet berries going to waste, so I loaded up my giant bowl and headed over. I was able to fill this in about a half hour. I was so excited to have some strawberries for free!! I usually pay $2.50 for a 10 oz bag of organic berries. These filled 3 gallon ziplocs.



We use strawberries pretty much every day in our smoothies. I think the kids would agree that the ultimate, best, yummiest smoothie ever has to have bananas and strawberries. Nothing beats that combination. We also add kefir, coconut oil, egg yolks and honey. Viola, breakfast!

Earth Clinic and Apple Cider Vinegar

If you haven't checked out Earth Clinic yet, you really should! It's a huge database of home remedies. If you have a health issue that you're wanting a home remedy for, just put it in the search box. What you will get are real people's experiences with different remedies for that specific malady.

One home remedy that seems to be in each search I try is Apple Cider Vinegar. It seems to be a cure for whatever ails you. It can be used to remove moles! It's good for headaches, including migraines. It's amazing at calming nausea and an upset stomach. This is my go to recipe when I or one of my family has a tummy ache.

8oz water
1-2 tsps apple cider vinegar (or more if it's a really bad tummy ache)
1-2 tsps raw honey

It usually works within a 1/2 hour or so.

It's also WONDERFUL for heartburn! When you experience heartburn you are actually not producing enough stomach acid. So if you take Tums, it's just exacerbating your problem in the long run. Tums suppresses stomach acid. So instead of reaching for them when you have some heartburn after a heavy meal, reach for the ACV instead! Not only is it more effective and healthy for you, it's cheaper! One large bottle of Bragg's Organic ACV is about $5-6.

This is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop. Hop on over to see more blog posts about using real food!

Fabulous book

I just purchased an e-book called Real Food on a Real Budget and so far it is proving very helpful. I'm only about half way through but it's already given me lots of ideas to work with. It will help with sticking to a grocery budget and with my goal to start feeding Rob real food too.

Here's the link

It's well worth the investment if you're wanting to cut down on a real food grocery budget.

Sometimes you just have to let go

My 6 year old and I recently took a 600 mile road trip. I packed some healthy snacks such as bananas, cheese and almonds but we had to stop at a rest stop for lunch. The Ohio rest stops are like the Taj Mahal of rest stops. They are big, bright, airy and wonderful for children who need to run off pent up energy. But their food choices leave something to be desired. Our choices on this particular trip were The Great American Potato Company, Burger King, some pizza place and Panera Bread. Looking over the menu at Panera I realized that this restaurant is at least making an effort to have a somewhat healthy selection. They offer organic apple juice and their kids mac n cheese is made with organic processed cheese (what?). So this is where we ate. I had a panini (which was delicious, by the way and came with chips made with sunflower oil and sea salt) and Matthew had a PBJ with a yogurt thing that he squirted out of a tube. I figure that while on vacation, what are you gonna do? It may have been healthier to just go hungry and forgo the sugar in the jelly and the probable trans fat in the peanut butter. Not to mention the soy that was most likely in the bread.

I have a hard time letting go of this sometimes. I've gotten so passionate about real, healthy, nourishing foods, that I have a difficult time eating something that I know is bad for me. It's even harder for me to give it to my children. But I ultimately trust God for their health and safety and once in a while we eat like the masses. I'll admit, it was fun biting into a sandwich. I have missed them, that's for sure.

Now that we're home from our little trip, we're kind of detoxing from all that vacation food. We ate several meals out and not all of them were of Panera quality. This morning Matthew had a stomach ache and I've been really fatigued. Not good, when I have loads of boxes waiting to be unpacked. But we're back home now and I'm trying to only serve healthful foods. We'll get back on track. Although, Nathan's birthday is in a week and Rob wants to have pizza. "Let the kid have a birthday!" He says...

Here we go again!

Real Food Challenge: Feed Hubby Real Food Too!

For the last 4 (or so) years that I've been transitioning my diet and that of my children to whole foods, my husband has continued to eat how he always has. Junk. Junk. Junk. He works very hard and he works a lot in order to provide for us, so convenience foods were sometimes his only option. He has finally come to the point where he would like to try to eat a healthier diet and I'm thrilled with this of course. But our challenge is in the fact that in order to feed him only whole, real foods and to fill him up, it's going to cost a lot of money, at least at first. You see, as a person switches to a more natural diet and does away with boxed, fake foods, the tastes change and it doesn't take as much food to feel satisfied. Getting Rob to that point will probably take some time and of course some extra money. This is always where we come to a stand still. But things have to change. He had an ordeal that involved his heart and landed him in the ER several years ago, so in order for him to be healthy and, let's face it, alive for years to come, we need to change what he eats.

Game plan

1. Meal Planning

I absolutely MUST start planning our meals again and be consistent. It makes grocery shopping so much easier and it cuts down trips to the store. It also is so nice to just look at the list on the fridge and know what to make for dinner that night!

2. More variety with each meal

The kids and I are used to having maybe a salad with some chicken for dinner. Or just a bowl of soup. That would never fill Rob up. So I'm thinking a main dish with two or three sides of veggies (with lots of filling butter!). This will make the kids happier too, I'm sure.

3. Learn how to make sourdough bread

I would like to learn how to make sourdough and how to soak grains and make bread from those. This would help with Rob's lunches and snacks. For now, I'm kind of at a loss as to what to send with him to work.

3. Discuss joining a CSA and buying meat in bulk once or twice a year

I think we could save quite a bit of money by doing this, it's just really hard for us to come up with a large sum of money at once.


These are the first few things I will work on and I'm hoping to update how it's going. We are moving next week and when I feel a little bit settled I will start right in with the menu planning. If anyone has ideas on whole, real foods that Rob could take with him for lunch and snacks to work, I'd really appreciate a comment!

Real Food

Check out my new banner! I am honored to have the Real Food Media banner displayed on my humble little blog. The Real Food Media Network is a group of bloggers that are dedicated to spreading the word about the importance of real food. What is real food, some may ask? It is food taken straight from nature. It hasn't been through any heavy processing. It hasn't been stripped of its nutrients and had additives and chemicals added just to increase shelf life. It doesn't come in a brightly colored cardboard or plastic package. It's meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc...from nature. You can find it on local farms and at nearby markets.

I've been on a nearly 4 year journey trying painstakingly to get my family to a point where we don't eat processed foods. I'm happy to say that we've pretty much made it that far at least. Our food doesn't have ingredients lists and labels. We still have a ways to go as far as getting all organic, grass fed and non-gmo food, but I'm happy with where we are right now.

I'm hoping to post more about my journey with real food and sharing my passion for dealing with health issues using food and better nutrition. I hope you'll stay tuned!