twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 16:31:25 GMT -5
So I am making a lifestyle change for myself and my sons: organic eating and homemade food and household products. I thought to myself, maybe there are others out there that would like to do something similar or already are doing it. I think it would be a great idea to have a thread for people to share ideas, recipes, sales and tips, and any other important information regarding the holistic approach to eating and natural, homemade products. So, I'll begin, I love to bake every now and then, but I HATE artificial colorings (yellow #5 has been linked to neurological problems in kids and is a popular allergen, www.livestrong.com/article/370945-health-effects-of-yellow-5-food-coloring/) So I came across something pretty awesome: homemade, organic food coloring! www.care2.com/greenliving/8-ways-to-make-organic-diy-food-coloring.html
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ilovedolphins
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Post by ilovedolphins on Jan 6, 2013 17:02:45 GMT -5
I have started to make a lot more of my meals from scratch instead of buying prepackaged items. I love the honey wheat bread that I make by hand from scratch but I don't really like all the time it takes. So next time I make it I am going to make a double batch. I made my own spaghetti sauce from the tomatoes in my garden this last summer.
I wanted to try to start making as much as I could from scratch to cut down on the added sugars.
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 17:18:49 GMT -5
I have started to make a lot more of my meals from scratch instead of buying prepackaged items. I love the honey wheat bread that I make by hand from scratch but I don't really like all the time it takes. So next time I make it I am going to make a double batch. I made my own spaghetti sauce from the tomatoes in my garden this last summer. I wanted to try to start making as much as I could from scratch to cut down on the added sugars. Would you mind sharing your honey wheat recipe with me? I have one, but it calls for only 2c of wheat flour and 5c of all-purpose and I want to use as little white flour as possible (its a double loaf recipe)
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ilovedolphins
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Post by ilovedolphins on Jan 6, 2013 17:22:53 GMT -5
It is on the back of a bag of Gold Medal whole wheat flour. Would I just post it here?
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 17:28:15 GMT -5
My flour bag as a wheat cookie recipe o.O
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ilovedolphins
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Post by ilovedolphins on Jan 6, 2013 17:28:57 GMT -5
Is it ok to post it here? Do you just need the ingredients or the whole recipe?
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jan 6, 2013 17:30:59 GMT -5
I don't know if either of you realizes, but there is a recipes board where people have posted quite a bit of stuff. it's totally fine if you post the whole thing, just want to point out that it might already be over on the recipes sub-area.
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ilovedolphins
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Post by ilovedolphins on Jan 6, 2013 17:35:45 GMT -5
Ok, I just didn't know what the rules were. I am just going to post the ingredients but let me know if you need more info: 2 pkgs regular active dry yeast 1/2 cup warm water 1/2 cup honey 1/4 cup butter or margarine 3 teaspoons salt 2 1/2 cups warm water 4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 2 3/4 to 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
I usually put in more whole wheat flour and less white flour. I am interested in the recipes board so I am going to look at them.
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 17:37:00 GMT -5
I don't know if either of you realizes, but there is a recipes board where people have posted quite a bit of stuff. it's totally fine if you post the whole thing, just want to point out that it might already be over on the recipes sub-area. Didn't realize, but I was kinda hoping this place could be useful for budgeting for organic foods and homemade stuff
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ilovedolphins
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Post by ilovedolphins on Jan 6, 2013 17:43:20 GMT -5
The only problem with me and recipes is that I could look all day long and get nothing else done. I love to cook. My daughter loves to bake. To bad we don't live in the same house.
I am going to keep track of how much I spend when I cook from scratch. I think I can save a lot of money. I haven't tried any organic food yet though.
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jan 6, 2013 17:44:12 GMT -5
oh yeah, no worries. I just wanted to point out that there is already a recipe area that you should both check out. you might find some recipes over there that you can plan out (and budget for) over here.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 17:48:34 GMT -5
I'm in, not sure where we're headed, but sounds like my kind of ride....
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ilovedolphins
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Post by ilovedolphins on Jan 6, 2013 17:49:48 GMT -5
I looked over there and there appears to be a lot of great recipes. I need more than me in the household to feed so I can try a bunch of them. I can always freeze them. On my next week of vacation I am going to try a bunch of them and then freeze what I can so when I go back to work I will have food already made.
Thanks chiver.
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ilovedolphins
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Post by ilovedolphins on Jan 6, 2013 17:50:52 GMT -5
Last summer I made bran flakes twice. I could never get them rolled out thin enough but they were good if I could get that mastered.
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 17:50:57 GMT -5
The only problem with me and recipes is that I could look all day long and get nothing else done. I love to cook. My daughter loves to bake. To bad we don't live in the same house. I am going to keep track of how much I spend when I cook from scratch. I think I can save a lot of money. I haven't tried any organic food yet though. I started cooking from scratch -- not organically though. But then I learned of a nasty little thing called genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Monsanto is the main supplier of seeds for our food supply and they use this kind of genetically engineered seeds (since 1997) ever since then, the rise in disease in this country has gone crazy and I decided for my sons and myself, that I would start buying/growing organically so I can avoid this (the most common GMO products used in the USA is soy beans (a lot of processed foods use soy bean oil)canola seeds, and corn. Now imagine all the beef and foods that are made with these ingredients conventionally...that is why I made the switch . Do your own research and see what you find if you are ever interested in it. I really want to do an organic garden and buy meat from a co-op but I have a problem with having a black thumb lol
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 17:52:06 GMT -5
I looked over there and there appears to be a lot of great recipes. I need more than me in the household to feed so I can try a bunch of them. I can always freeze them. On my next week of vacation I am going to try a bunch of them and then freeze what I can so when I go back to work I will have food already made. Thanks chiver. TEACH ME THE WAYS OF BATCH COOKING!!I'm a single mother of twin 4 yr old boys, active duty and time is not here for me!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 17:52:43 GMT -5
I make sure I buy the dirty dozen organic, others it depends, I'll try to go local if possible, if they make the Len list I don't worry...
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 17:53:43 GMT -5
I'm in, not sure where we're headed, but sounds like my kind of ride.... ;D anything related to being more homemade and organic/natural. I figured we have a grocery challenge thread, so this is kind of a sub-board to that because we focus more homemade rather then processed/conventionally made ;D
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ilovedolphins
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Post by ilovedolphins on Jan 6, 2013 17:59:34 GMT -5
The days when I am off work I try to think of things that I can make with the ingredients that I have at my house with only having to buy a minimum of items. I just start in the morning and make one thing, then start on another thing and so on till I either tire or am done.
The next week of vacation I take I want to make a couple loaves of bread, lasagna, maybe pizza by making the dough from scratch. I haven't tried that yet. I want to try and get to the point where I make almost all my food. Although I will have to buy the basics such as milk and eggs.
Then when I am done I will portion them out in containers and freeze them and then I will have food to eat on lunch when I work and only have an hour to make something and for when I get home and I am tired and don't want to cook. Right now in my freezer I have 2 tubs of homemade chicken noodle soup and 2 tubs of pork roast that I want to get eaten up before I make more things so that I have freezer room and they don't get forgotten and not eaten.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 18:17:33 GMT -5
Do any of you use natural food sores? I've found they have a better deal on things like nuts, salt, but not always other things.
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 18:18:47 GMT -5
Do any of you use natural food sores? I've found they have a better deal on things like nuts, salt, but not always other things. sores???
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 18:22:37 GMT -5
Stores... Lol, I'm a poor iPad typist
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chiver78
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Post by chiver78 on Jan 6, 2013 18:24:36 GMT -5
probably a typo, hun. she posts from her phone a lot, like that post was. I'd like to share this recipe I tried out yesterday - www.myrecipes.com/recipe/tuscan-chicken-bean-spinach-soup-10000001882382/using organic produce and chicken, this is all totally clean. it was pretty tasty though! I used a rotisserie chicken* (it was small, it barely shredded to 3c) and homemade chicken stock that I'd made and froze from another roti bird awhile back. the only thing I'd need to check on are the beans, I swear by Goya and don't think that's really all that organic. *I have no clue what the rub is, or how the chickens are raised.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 18:25:56 GMT -5
Good for you twinmama, I applaud your effort. After you figure out where the best sources are for unprocessed food it gets easier. It took me a while to establish a decent organic free range chicken provider, going to the local markets is a good thing as well if you can do it.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 18:28:23 GMT -5
I've been doing much better with local, sustainably raised meat suppliers. It does take a bit to get a network established though, you are right. Look for a local vegetable CSA and they will often have a local provider list, or a natural food store
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 18:29:37 GMT -5
Do any of you use natural food sores? I've found they have a better deal on things like nuts, salt, but not always other things. sores??? Where do you live? I live in California, but I live in a spot that only has Trader Joe's (I wish we had Sprouts and Whole Foods). I get my food from several places:Trader Joe's, Commissary, Von's (Safeway). I don't have a problem with going to other stores, as long as I am in that area any way ;D I recently found an organic coupon of coupons too using www.lozo.com
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 18:38:25 GMT -5
Yeah...I don't know many people..even though I live in the breadbasket of America so to speak (we grow everything here) it just seems like it is difficult to find a good meat provider that isn't completely outrageous. We have some farmers markets once a week, but when I went (this was when I was an avid couponer) it seemed REALLY overpriced to me..I guess the other thing I need to do is give up boneless, skinless chicken breasts and buy whole, organic chickens to save money. Yeah, I ended up with brick wheat bread the last time I made it. I have a recipe that is really good, but it uses 5c of all-purpose flour .... A mill...my dad was trying to get me to mill my own wheat but I have no idea how to obtain a mill or even where to get the grains from, let alone handle it lol Apparently, canned foods can be bad for you to because a lot of the cans are lined with a resin liner that contains BPA.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2013 18:47:27 GMT -5
We are very rural, the nearest whole foods or trader joes is at least 1 hr 15 away. We have several small local places. They are pricier. And meat will be pricier. You are getting what you pay for though. It can help to buy 'in bulk' say half a pig, or a whole lamb... Etc. if you have a freezer. And still shop different suppliers. Pick up brochures at the farm market, and call them bout bulk prices, etc.
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Apple
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Post by Apple on Jan 6, 2013 19:45:42 GMT -5
I don't know how easy it would be to find organic dried beans, but you can buy the dried ones, cook them, then freeze them in 1 cup servings and use them with the same convenience you'd have with canned beans. This is a website where a lady does some batch freezer cooking. She doesn't list a ton of recipes because she follows a certain recipe book and feels it wouldn't be right to put someone else's work out there, but she has links to the book on her website. www.aturtleslifeforme.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.htmlI'm not so worried about organic at this point, but I am trying to get away from most processed foods and do more stuff from scratch.
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twinmama85
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Post by twinmama85 on Jan 6, 2013 20:34:32 GMT -5
We are very rural, the nearest whole foods or trader joes is at least 1 hr 15 away. We have several small local places. They are pricier. And meat will be pricier. You are getting what you pay for though. It can help to buy 'in bulk' say half a pig, or a whole lamb... Etc. if you have a freezer. And still shop different suppliers. Pick up brochures at the farm market, and call them bout bulk prices, etc. I looked up a little deeper and the Village Farmers Market I guess is a real good one for grass fed beef..the problem is I don't have a big enough freezer ...yet lol. So I learned some scary things..everyone is aware of the dangers of BPA in plastic containers like baby bottles and water bottles...but did you know that almost ALL canned foods and aluminum cans (think Pepsi and Coke) contain BPA as a liner for the cans? Scary stuff...we all know its "inconclusive" to scientists right now, but many, many countries have banned BPA use in food containers and even call it toxic to humans...I found a list that contains canned goods WITHOUT BPA in it..enjoy! inspirationgreen.com/bpa-lined-cans.html
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