Healthy Shopping at Walmart

You heard me right.  As demand for healthy and organic food increases, even Walmart's shelves have been rapidly changing to reflect this.  They even have little "Organic" signs hanging off some of the shelves to help you locate the products.  I found a lot more organic food than I expected to during this shopping trip, and I would predict this trend will continue.

In a perfect world I would never shop at Walmart.  I have problems with how they do business as well as how their demand for cheap products fosters a culture of "sweatshop" labor in underdeveloped nations.

However, in the real world the Walmart Supercenter is the closest grocery store to my house.  Sometimes I am running late and I'm out of options, so Walmart is where I end up.  I also realize that a lot of people shop at Walmart and I wanted to showcase the good things that can be found there!  (Remember from my previous post that I am shopping for products without table salt, sugar, corn, or potato.)

Walmart Shopping List   (in order of how it appears at my Walmart Supercenter)
organic lettuce, spinach*, salad
organic baby carrots
grass fed beef
Krema peanut butter
organic tea
Wild Oats organic beans
Muir Glen organic tomatoes*
Muir Glen tomato sauce
Truvia sweetener
Prairie Gold White Whole Wheat Flour
Red Star Yeast
Rumsford Baking Powder 
**optional products, see below
Cascadian Farm organic strawberries*
organic eggs

Step by Step Guide 

organic lettuce, spinach*, salad

organic baby carrots

grass fed beef

this surprised me!  It's not organic, but I was excited about it!

Krema peanut butter

no salt, no sugar

organic tea
{no photo}

Wild Oats organic beans

Muir Glen organic tomatoes* (several varieties)

Muir Glen tomato sauce*

(remember at Whole Foods how the pizza sauce was the only sauce I could find without sugar and with sea salt?  Well, here's another one for much cheaper!)

Truvia sweetener

(I have heard opinions about whether these refined Stevia products are really "healthy" but if you want to try some Stevia this is the only one on the shelf, and there are several, that does not have added dextrose.)

Prairie Gold White Whole Wheat Flour

(this is not organic, but it's non-GMO and I like cooking with white whole wheat flour.  I get the nutrition of whole wheat with the appearance of white.  Since I bake a lot I get the 10 lb. bag.)

Red Star Yeast 

(the only yeast that does not contain potato)

Rumsford Baking Powder (the only baking powder without potato)
{no photo}

**If baking bread is too much of a chore and you want to buy bread, I did see this one that seemed to be "legal"; however, at $4.88/loaf, I would much rather spend $1 to bake my own!

**If you are wanting something different to drink, I did find this one Vitaminwater drink which is sweetened without sugar and appears to be fine, ingredient wise.  But only this flavor- acai blueberry pomegranate.  Sorry the picture is so blurry, I was trying to get a close up of the ingredients!  I bought one and it did give me a headache for some reason though...

The best water alternative I would recommend is to buy some sparkling mineral water at any other grocery store (I've never found it at Walmart), and mix it in equal parts with 100% juice.  Healthy soda!

**Amy's Burritos- only the organic beans & rice, non-dairy variety

If you need to have a convenience food on hand, this one is acceptable.  I do cringe a bit at the price though!

Cascadian Farm Organic strawberries*

*starred items are on the "Dirty Dozen" list of produce with heavy pesticide amounts, get organic!

organic eggs

wow!  Walmart's offerings have changed a lot lately, it wasn't that long ago that I could never find any good eggs here, and now there are several brands to choose from.

Now you may think you can buy organic milk at Walmart, but let me tell you the only kind they have is ultra-pasteurized, which is a heat treatment that is so high it actually changes the protein structure of the milk and it is not good for you.  Alpenrose has a pasteurized organic milk (not ultra-pasteurized), and the whole milk does not have any added vitamin A palmitate (a potato derivative).  I have found this at QFC so far.

I prefer the milk found in the glass jars at Whole Foods and Chuck's, but my family does not always appreciate it's rustic "cream on top" appearance.

Where will we shop next?  Costco!

Enjoy!
Lisa

Whole Foods Shopping Trip

I went shopping tonight & decided to take pictures of what I found. This is for my friend who recently found out she needs to avoid sugars, corn, as well as table salt, and certain other items, and is wondering what she can eat!  Whole Foods can be an expensive store, but if you shop for store brand items (365 Organic) their prices can be quite reasonable.

It is quite a challenging task to find items that do not contain either sugar or table salt.  But I did find some!

Whole Foods Shopping List   (in order of the store layout, at least I tried to do it that way!)
Produce:  salad dressing
Meat Counter: sausages, any meats on sale for a good price
Dairy/Refrigerated Case:  organic unsalted butter, organic eggs, organic whole milk plain yogurt, (all store brand: 365 Organic), Emerald Valley salsa
Middle Aisles:  Maple Syrup (grade B has more minerals, so try it out), organic pizza sauce, organic pasta, organic beans
Cheese:  Rumiano cheese
Frozen Section: store brand frozen organic berries (for smoothies?)


Produce:  If you're going to buy organic produce go to the Farmer's Market or Chuck's!
If you need a salad dressing, I did find a few there for 2.99 that have sea salt in them & no sugar.

However, my favorite easy & cheap salad dressing is equal parts salsa (look for the one I found below) and sour cream (either Daisy brand or Tillamook Natural contain no added ingredients, find them at most stores)

Meat Counter:  If you want to have sausage they have some very good chicken or pork sausages that are made with sea salt.

Sometimes you can also find other organic meats on sale for a good price here too.

Dairy/Refrigerated Case:  
organic unsalted butter (365 Organic),
organic eggs (365 Organic),
organic plain whole milk yogurt (365 Organic or buy Total if you prefer Greek yogurt, just not the 0% or 2%:  add maple syrup, vanilla and cinnamon to flavor it, or coconut, raisins, or fresh or canned fruit), 
organic Emerald Valley salsa

Middle Aisles:
Maple Syrup (365 Organic: grade B has more minerals, so try it out), 
Muir Glen organic pizza sauce,

It has been impossible for me to find a pasta sauce that does not have sugar, and/or is made with sea salt, this is the closest I could find.  We had it tonight as a pasta sauce, and it had a bit too much tomato flavor for me.  I think it would taste good if you cooked up the sausage or meat ahead of time with extra Italian seasoning and garlic, and then let them simmer together to meld flavors.

organic pasta (365 Organic),

organic beans (365 Organic)

Cheese:
I bought Rumiano cheese here, because it is the ONLY cheese made with sea salt that I can find.  The kicker is the cost!  6.99 for 8 oz.!  I have bought the same or similar cheese at Chuck's, and it may be a little cheaper there, so I will have to see.  (If you're making a trip to Trader Joe's they have a store brand Monterrey Jack cheese made with sea salt that is much cheaper.) 
Don't let the kids touch this cheese, it is for you only!  

Now you have at least two easy meal nights: pasta night, and taco night (get organic ground beef and/or chicken at Costco- just don't use those taco seasoning packets: use salsa in your meat or make your own taco seasoning, make some rice to have it "bowl" style- I haven't found "legal" tortillas yet).  Add your vegetables and you're ready to roll!

Enjoy!
Lisa

How My Skin Tag Disappeared Using Tea Tree Oil

A long time ago I shared with you that after coconut oil made a wart on my leg go away, then I would try it on the skin tag on my neck (it didn't do anything).  I have had a small skin tag on my neck for many, many years.  It was an annoyance, but not severe enough to merit going to the doctor about it.  Recently I had been hearing that there were ways of getting rid of skin tags naturally, so I decided to do a little internet research.

The first method I settled on involved taking a piece of dental floss & tying a tight knot around the skin tag.  The point is to cut off circulation until the tag dies and falls off.  I had my husband do the honors of tying, but I don't think it was as tight as it needed to be because I started to feel pain & so he stopped short of making it as tight as possible.  The knot either slipped or loosened, because after a few days I noticed that the floss was actually half way up the skin tag, not at the base of it like it should be.  I didn't think much about it & after a week or so part of the skin tag did fall off.  However, the rest of it was still there.

It was sensitive to the touch, and I figured it should be disinfected.  Since I had also heard that people use tea tree oil to remove skin tags I decided to use tea tree oil daily, applied with a swab, to keep it disinfected.  I was using a 100% pure tea tree oil I had ordered through Melaleuca years ago.  I didn't expect anything else to happen, but it did.

After about 5 days I noticed that my skin tag was VERY sensitive and bothering me.  This was a Friday.  I also noticed it was a dark red color and when I swabbed it there was blood on the swab.  I applied tea tree oil to a band-aid and covered it.  I was concerned & even called to make an appointment for the next week with the dermatologist to have it removed.  (I didn't realize this was part of the process of the skin tag dying.)

I kept applying a fresh band-aid with tea tree oil morning & night.  On Sunday I noticed that the skin tag looked rather flat.  It looked like a scab.

My skin was also irritated from the band-aids and tea tree oil, so I switched to a tiny band-aid.  That night the skin tag looked completely dry & as I touched it I could see that it was like a dried scab about to fall off. 

 I gave it a little flick with my finger & that's just what it did- completely fell off!

Tea tree oil did it!  This was several months ago & there is no sign of where the skin tag was.  The redness/irritation from the tea tree oil went away within a day.  I decided to post pictures & my story because although I had read that tea tree oil would take care of skin tags I didn't know how it would happen, so hopefully this will help someone else!

Sourdough Bread Tips

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't call this blog the "Sourdough Blog" since a huge majority of my posts seem to have sourdough in them!  That is my life right now though, my sourdough starter is always out on the counter and it gets used almost every single day.  We have 6 people in our family, plus additional workers who eat some meals with us, so I am feeding at least 7 if not 10 people at every meal.  I make two loaves of homemade bread about every other day.  Other days I am  making sourdough pancakes, sourdough crackers, sourdough muffins, sourdough biscuits, sourdough desserts, etc*.  My husband really has noticed a difference in the eczema he has had on his fingers and skin problems with his feet.  He thinks he is sensitive to gluten and sourdough reduces the effect.

If you are making sourdough bread I want to share with you a few tips that may make it a little easier for you.  Start out with my favorite & go-to bread recipe, which you can see on this post here.

*I always include at least 6 hours of "souring" time even if the recipe does not instruct you to do so.  This is the minimum time needed to allow the sourdough starter to do it's job working on the flour.

• Did you know that eggs are a natural dough conditioner?  I always add an egg now to my sourdough bread recipe.  I like it not only for the little bit of added nutrition, but also because it helps condition the dough.

• What's the easiest way to slice a loaf of bread?  Upside down!  First, always allow your loaf to cool completely before slicing.  (Ahem, although I must admit that one of my favorite treats is to cut the end piece off of the still very warm loaf & drag it through some butter.  Mmmm, warm sourdough bread & butter- I love it!)  Next, make sure you use a long serrated knife made for slicing bread (trust me).  When you flip the loaf over you are slicing through the softer side & ending at the crust; instead of trying to force the knife through the crust & smashing your loaf in the process.  Just flip it!

• Ever run out of time to make sourdough?  Making true sourdough bread requires some advance planning since it takes at least 8 hours.  I know that if I don't get my dough started by 2pm that I'm going to be up late at night waiting to bake it, cool it, store it.  You have a couple of options here.  #1 is to add a tiny bit of commercial yeast to your dough, like 1/2 teaspoon, to speed up the rise.  I do not prefer this option, so let me suggest instead option #2.  Skip the first rise of your bread & put your dough directly into greased loaf pans.  Sometimes there still isn't enough time, so what I will do is make my dough right before bed and let it rise in the loaf pans while I'm sleeping.  When I get up in the morning I go right to preheat the oven & then bake the bread while I'm getting ready & making breakfast.  This has worked well for me, if you're kitchen is cooler than mine, or you want a longer rise time, then you'll need to plan accordingly.  Try it out & have some fresh baked bread with your morning eggs!

• How do you keep the bread from sticking to the pan?  Always keep your butter wrappers!  After I use a cube of butter I fold up the wrapper & put it back in the refrigerator.  Next time I need to grease a pan I wipe that wrapper all over the pan & it works great.  I have been using my stainless steel pans & I love them.  When I grease them with butter the loaves just fall right out.  Have you thrown out your non-stick pans yet?  The toxins in non-stick cookware should motivate you to have a goal of replacing any non-stick coated pans as you are able.

Those are some tips I wanted to share with you today.  Do you have any great bread tips you want to share with us?

Keep on baking!

Lisa

Thinking About Coconut Oil...

Wow, I have been so quiet on this blog!  I feel I owe you an explanation, even if it is a little weak.  Most of my day is scheduled with homeschooling my two oldest children in high school classes.  Once I cook dinner and we eat, I am just too tired to blog much of the time!  Not to mention the fact that we have slow internet here which sometimes is just impossible to use.  But I am still here!

I have been thinking about posting about coconut oil.  Many of you may have heard of coconut oil and may know about it for cooking (if you don't, it is so good for you)!  When I placed my first order from Tropical Traditions they sent me a book that is full of testimonies about the health benefits of coconut oil.  It is amazing!

Now I have my own testimony to share with you.  For a long time I had something on my leg- either a skin tag or a wart, I don't know.  But every time I would shave I would nick it & it would get bigger.  Eventually it was nearly the size of a small pencil eraser & dark in color.  Sometime last year I started using coconut oil exclusively as my lotion for my skin.  Time went by and then one day I realized something- my bump on my leg was getting smaller!  It continued to get smaller and now I can tell you that bump on my leg is completely gone without a trace & I am sure it was the coconut oil.  If it was a wart maybe it was the antiviral properties of the coconut oil, I really don't know, but I wanted to share this testimony with you.

Now I just realized I have two skin tags on my neck (which I hate) so I am going to start applying coconut oil to them & see if they don't pack their bags & git!  I'll let you know!

Here are a couple of other websites that I recently saw talking about using coconut oil:
Cooking Traditional Foods
160 uses for coconut oil (found this post in the comments of the previous post)

Enjoy!
Lisa

Cultural Experiences

I thought this post title was a cute play on words, considering we are living in Rwanda and having so many different cultural experiences, but what I am talking about is yogurt cultures.  I would subtitle this post: "The easiest way ever to make yogurt.  Why make it complicated when you don't have to?"  And when I say easiest, I mean EASIEST. 

I have made yogurt in the past, tried to warm the milk to the right temperature, add the right amount of culture, keep it at the right temperature for the right amount of time, and so on.  My results?  Epic failures!  My last batch of yogurt (I used raw milk & tried to keep it "raw") was so bad that my daughter made me promise to never make yogurt again.  Honestly, it tasted horrible, like mold.

I had heard about the two kinds of yogurt: thermophilic (making yogurt by cooking) and mesophilic (made at room temperature).  I had heard that Cultures for Health has a mesophilic yogurt culture called Viili that is mild & had a nice texture.  But I hadn't been ready to try it until we were preparing to leave the US for Rwanda.  I've lived here before & I know I don't like the yogurt they make here.  I ordered some Viili and put the little packet of dried yogurt starter in my suitcase.

There is no complicated formula for making Viili, I said it was the EASIEST, remember?  You mix it with one cup milk, let it sit for 24 hours, voila, yogurt!  Want more?  Just mix one tablespoon from your batch for every one cup of milk & you can make as much as you want.  You just keep using some of the last batch to make the next batch & that's it.  Subsequent batches don't take 24 hours, usually half that.

This is one of my batches of Viili yogurt.  Why would anyone want to make yogurt any other way?  I don't know, I love it!  And just like everything else that I make homemade, I love knowing exactly what is in it.

If you want to try some of this yourself, you can click on the Cultures for Health banner on the right side of my blog.  I would recommend their products to you no matter what, but if you click through my blog then I get credit for referring you.  Cultures for Health is also where I got my Kefir grains from (I dehydrated those grains & brought them to Rwanda too, but their demise is a sad story.  The house helper saw the little paper packet & thought it was trash.  Out it went... sigh!)  If you've been intrigued by all my talk about sourdough but haven't made your own starter, you can find sourdough starter there as well. 

I am not trying to sell you anything, but I love to share with others when I find something great, and making yogurt this easy had to be shared. 

Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Monday Mania and Fight Back Fridays

Going "No 'Poo"

Before you get any other ideas, when I say "no poo" I'm using the term that refers to washing your hair without using shampoo= no 'poo!  Why would I want to do that?  Well, you can understand why if you read in Dr. Mercola's newsletter talking about some of the chemicals in shampoo, have you seen this article?

I have been thinking about going "no 'poo" for a while now, but what really gave me the bravery to try was this video blog posted at Keeper of the Home.  Part of my hesitancy stems from the fact that for a long time now I have had to use a very specific shampoo for my hair: one that addresses greasy roots and dry fly away ends.  This shampoo was working fine for me, but when I ran out of it, I thought it was time to be brave & try going more natural.

Actually, I was afraid to go all "no 'poo" to begin with, so I thought I'd transition first to a shampoo bar (also called solid shampoo).  It's like a bar of soap, but it's supposed to be for your hair.  I bought one on Ebay; however, I was disappointed from the beginning with it.  It was called "rosemary mint" but it only smelled like regular old soap.  (Maybe this Ebay seller was just selling old stuff, knock offs, I don't know.)  As I used it my disappointment only increased.  It felt like I had soap build up on my hair.  Greasy, yucky feeling.  Here's another blogger who went no 'poo & used a shampoo bar too, but she had a good experience with it.  I had heard of a "transition phase" as your hair gets used to not being stripped by shampoo all the time, so I kept pushing through.  Every third or fourth wash I would use regular shampoo just to cut the build up back down.

Finally, I got down to it & made my baking soda mixture.  Using the 1:7 ratio talked about by Keeper of the Home, I mixed 2 cups water with 1/4 cup baking soda.  (Note: since this time I have done more internet research I have found out the usual ratio is 1 Tablespoon baking soda per cup of water, so 2 cups water would only need 2 Tablespoons [1/8 cup] baking soda.).  I also mixed in some rosemary sprigs (hopefully to help with dry scalp).

I was going to use this repurposed spray bottle, but it had a strong odor that would not go away, so I ended up using an empty lemon juice bottle (has a small opening so the mixture doesn't pour out all at once).  I kept the mixture in the shower, would shake it up, and use it to wash my hair (yes, it is cold on my head- but because it comes out slow it's not too bad).

The first time I used it I was amazed!  My hair felt so clean- no more soapy greasy build up!  I usually wash every other day, so two days later I used it again and I thought to myself, "Wow, what was I so afraid of?  Clean hair?!"  After going through the yucky hair days with the solid shampoo, this was awesome.  On the third day after this wash my hair still did not feel greasy, but I thought I should wash it anyways.  That time what I got was a very dry, itchy, flaky, scalp.  Lesson learned: do not wash your hair until it actually "needs" it.

I also learned another lesson: rinse very thoroughly.  One day I was not careful to rinse thoroughly & ended up finding dusty soda residue in my hair- yuck.  Now fast forward another month or so.  I have been using the baking soda mixture for the most part, and only wash my hair about every 3 days.  Sometimes my roots are greasy and my ends are fly-away, but I use a straightening iron on my hair & that helps to even things out.  I'm still dealing with a dry itchy scalp quite often though (maybe it has something to do with my high ratio of baking soda?).  It's time to make another batch & I decide this time I will boil the mixture.  I want to do this so the baking soda will actually dissolve into the water, and also because I have hard water & I've heard this may help.

It has a little different feel on my hair but still works.  However, I'm tired of the itchy dry scalp.  I did some internet searching and decided to add some pure tea tree oil, which I just did a few days ago.  The good news: my scalp is a lot less itchy.  The bad news: it makes my roots more oily (so I'm washing more often) but a very thorough rinse seems to help that some.

This is all still an experiment in process.  I'm curious now to try a mixture with a smaller amount of baking soda to see how my hair will respond.  I'm also curious how it will work in Rwanda (with the extra sweat & dust my hair will be exposed to).  I'm writing this a few days before we leave for Rwanda, but posting will happen after we get there.  That way the blog stays active even whilst I am unpacking & getting situated in our new home!

How about you?  Have you gone 'no poo or thought about it?  Any tips for me?

This post is a part of Fight Back Fridays.

Camping & Palm Plate Review

I was so excited when the UPS man brought my sample of disposable palm plates & bowls from Marx Foods the morning before we left for our camping trip.  Excited because this is the first real product review on my blog, and excited because what better way to test them out than while we were camping?

Every year we go camping with two other families, and we have been doing this for almost a decade now!  We go for 4 days/3 nights and we share the cooking duties.  It works great because each family cooks one breakfast and one dinner, and then we all do lunches on our own.  It is so nice to not have to cook or clean dishes every meal!

Back to the plates: Marx Foods makes these plates from palm leaves (read how they are made here) and they are both disposable and biodegradable.  They have a wood grain look to them & my first thought was how great they would be for a large function: like a charity dinner, wedding reception, large party, etc.  When we were planning our a banquet for our ministry last year I looked into disposable plates that were supposed to mimic china, but were in fact plastic (and there just was no denying that).  These would look so much better & be a great conversation piece too.  As a matter of fact, even though they are disposable, my daughter liked them so much that she insisted on washing & reusing them (more about that later)!

The first night we had spaghetti for dinner.  Perfect test: spaghetti sauce is one thing that can really soak through a paper plate.

It is amazing how plates just made from baked palm leaves can be so sturdy.  No weakening at all from this dinner.  Afterwards my daughter washed her plate & although the plate was stained from the sauce it was ready for the next meal.

In the morning it was our turn to make breakfast.  I decided making sausage, egg, & cheese breakfast muffins would be easy to make for a group.  I think it makes camping so much easier if you do as much prep & cooking ahead of time as you can.  I found a "natural" pork sausage at the store, but then I realized that plain "natural" ground pork was only .99/lb (a savings of about $3/lb), so I bought several pounds and used this recipe to make my own seasoned sausage (the only thing I changed in the recipe was to reduce the nutmeg).  I then formed them into patties & pre-cooked all of them.  That sausage was so yummy!

The only thing we had to do in the morning was cook the eggs, butter & warm the muffins (I have a camp oven that goes on the cook stove), and warm the sausage.  The other great thing about going with other families is we share our cooking appliances & cookware.  So, while my husband's cooking eggs on one cook stove, I'm warming the muffins on the other, and we use our propane camp grill to reheat the sausage. 

This was a fairly dry breakfast so we washed the plates under running water & reused them for lunch (and those breakfast sandwiches were so good that I reheated a leftover one for lunch).  For dinner that night we were making taco salad.  I cooked the meat & beans before we left, using this recipe, so I only had to reheat it at dinner time.  Chop some veggies while that's heating & dinner was done!  We had all the fixings laid out so everyone could build their salad in their way. 

These stood up so well to heavy and wet foods, washing (not immersing), and being reused, that I thought they must have some kind of resin in them, but it's palm leaves & nothing else.  Pretty cool, huh?  Now, you may be thinking, "When I'm camping I get to just toss my paper plates into the fire, I'm not going to wash them, so how do these work for that?"  Well, I thought you might wonder that, and even if you didn't, here's our fire test.

The plate is just beginning to catch fire & burning like wood: producing heat & not turning all ashy (like paper plates do).  A minute later it really took off:

Woo hoo!  (Your inner pyro delights in this, I know!)  When it was done burning there was some ash left, but it just stayed in the fire pit & incorporated into the wood ash.

Now back at home, I thought we should give the bowls one more test: a bowl of my granola with kefir, honey, and milk.  I even let it sit while I got ready in the morning.

It held up great.  I even rinsed it off so it can be reused.  You may be able to tell in this picture that washing the plates or bowls will make them lose their shape slightly, but once they air dry they can be reused!

A side note:  we made lots of "real food" compromises this weekend.  Like, you'll notice the english muffins are store bought, not the homemade sourdough ones I've made in the past.  My husband told me, in his sweet way, that I could not subject our friends to any "wierd" food.  Which is probably just as well, because I still spent hours in the kitchen getting ready for our trip.

So, after a weekend liberally sprinkled with sweets and preservatives we found ourselves waking up Monday morning totally exhausted & groggy.  Could we blame it all on not sleeping as well while camping?  I don't think so.  I think we've got junk food hangovers.  A few more days of good sleep, kefir & healthy foods, and we should be recovered!

If you would like to find out more about these plates and bowls (they have 10 different styles) you can visit the website for Marx Foods here.  Marx Foods sent me these plates & bowls for free to sample and review, but I was not required or obligated in any way to give them a positive review.  I just think they're super cool, that's all!


Enjoy!
Lisa

This post is a part of Tuesday Twister and Real Food Wednesday.