Hippy Trick: Vinegar Bath

Alright, so it's not a great picture, it's from my crummy cell phone, but bear with me here.  If you've found this post, you have internet and that means you have to have heard of using white vinegar for cleaning.

But did you know how easy it can be?

I hate very few things in this word, but one of the is mineral build up, on everything, because I have city water.  The tub faucet, the shower head, the kitchen sink sprayer, even my big stock pots I use for waterbath canning.

Easy fix?  White vinegar!

The picture above is my sink sprayer soaking in a glass of white vinegar.  I don't have a pic, but upstairs, the shower head is wrapped in a plastic baggie full of vinegar.

Let it soak a couple hours, good as new!

As for the stockpot?  2 Tablespoons of white vinegar every time I waterbath.  No more build up!

Miracle Max's Death Pill

1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Flax Meal
1/2 cup Hull Hempseeds
2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
1/2 Tbsp Hawaiian Spirulina

Optional: Baking chocolate or candy melts for coating (about 9 oz.)

Mix everything but the chocolate until it's an even consistency and weird green color!

Roll into balls and dip in melted chocolate (follow instructions on the package for melting)

Makes about 20.

Keep refrigerated because of the flax meal and hempseeds.

Enjoy!

How-To: Soda Bottle Drainage System

This is my second How-To Video, although the first one for THIS blog.

You'll need a soda bottle, a flower pot and sharp knife.  And of course, potting soil and the plant you want to pot.

Please be careful with the knife, I don't pretend I practiced good knife safety in the video, but you should anyway!  It's tough to cut something elevated enough to be in frame and also facing away from you.

Enjoy!

Hanging Gardens of My Kitchen

I've always wanted an window garden in my kitchen.  Grow a few herbs (this was before I realized I'm apparently incapable of growing herbs indoors) or maybe some tiny little succulents like aloe or hen and chicks.

THE PROBLEM:

I have one window with a good sill in my kitchen, and I have cats.  Who love the window sill.  Desperately.  And who are about as graceful as a dumptruck.

I figured my window garden was doomed.  Years ago, I had some plants on a little tray table in my apartment, and I was constantly picking the pots up from the floor.  I assumed this would be, if anything, even worse.

Then I saw a friend link to this list on Buzzfeed.com and the wheels starting turning.  It's all about small space and container gardens for not a lot of money.

THE SOLUTION:

Hanging window garden!

I don't have the plants yet, because apparently I'm crazy and you can't buy succulents at Lowe's in January, but otherwise I'm ready to go.

Total cost out of pocket = $16

• painted tin buckets - $4 at Target ($1 each)
• 7/8" dowel rod - $2.50 at Michaels
• curtain rod brackets - $6 at Bed Bath and Beyond (clearanced for $2.99 each)
• cactus soil - $3 at Lowe's (markdown for torn open bag)
• jute twine - was already laying around the house

Just need the valance/cafe curtains on the window and the plants for my buckets and I finally have my kitchen garden!

Laundry Day!

So everybody and their brother has a trick to keep your whites whiter,  and we all know, some of the work and some of them don't.  There's bleach, which works, but doesn't smell that great (unless you're my mom) and an assortment of whitener/brightners that work to varying degrees.  The Rit one pretty well, but it can be hard to find sometimes.

But what about your blacks?  How do you keep your blacks blacker?

Ooh!  I know!

More Rit Dye!  This is all you need:

1 pack Black Rit Dye
1/2 your usual amount of detergent
1 cup of white vinegar
a pile of faded black clothes.

Add your laundry and detergent the way you always do.  Then add the whole pack of dye and the cup of vinegar to the washtub.   Run through on a regular wash cycle, plus an extra rinse to get the excess dye out of your clothes and any residue out of your washing machine.

If any dye residue still remains in the washing machine, run a load with bleach, but no actual laundry, but I've only had this happen once, and it was when our old washer was acting up.

This can also be used for adding blue back into fading jeans or for re-dying and changing the color of items.  Changing a color altogether may take twice through with dye, but it depends on how dramatic a change you're going for.

Enjoy!

Herb Cubes

One of my favorite Hippy Tricks!

I love to cook with fresh herbs, I love to grow herbs.  However, I have terrible luck growing them indoors and it's worse in the winter!  So I buy them when I need them.  But at $2 or more a bunch, I hate to just use the little I need and then... what?  They don't last that long.  Especially once you've started chopping and tearing them to pieces.

So, this.  Chop your herbs finely (or not, depending on your preference) and portion them out in an ice cube tray.  Top them off with water and freeze.  Yes, they don't hold up that well in terms of appearance, but any juices and oils that they lose just end up in the water.

Once they're frozen solid, you can liberate your ice cube tray by just transferring them to a zipper bag.  Don't forget to label though!  You don't want a freeze full of unidentified green stuff in baggies.

This is also a great trick to help the cooking impaired in your house!  Premeasure the spices/seasonings for their favorite dished into ice cube trays, and notate how many cubes they need to add to the pot!  Perfect every time!

Food Processor, Flatouts and Flaxmeal.

So, yet again, it's been almost a month since I posted. (I really need to get better about that.) But now that the Christmas Crazies and inventory madness are done at my store, I've been helping out with other projects (both in and out of our store) that didn't fair so well through the holiday season. I've also been playing catch up at home.

I'm slowly but surely getting my craft room organized. The other day I spent most of the afternoon building a rack to house my totes of yarn, so that I can stack them higher without having to fight to get to the stuff on the bottom of the stack. With the craft room shaping up, it means less clutter in the living room, because my yarn (along with everything else) is starting to be where it belongs.

I've gotten into the habit of drinking much more coffee than I should the last two months or so, but I've been slowly replacing that with tea instead, so that's an improvement on several fronts, not the least of which is that I rarely use sugar in my tea, but always do in coffee. I've gotten a better handle on my dairy-free, largely by discovering "cheats" like goat's milk cheese which I can actually enjoy without suffering. But the biggest thing is the 9 pounds I've shed simply by having the time to actually eat meals, rather than surviving on fast food and baked goods.

The biggest hurdle we're still working our way around is balancing Carl's low-carb eating with my hypoglycemic need for carbs. He's been shedding a lot of excess weight simply by avoiding carbs wherever possible, however, I need to eat a pretty even split of carbs and protein.

I bought a food processor with a gift card from my Dad (Thanks, Dad!) which I think will be a big help with finding that balance because among other things, I can make my own "breadcrumbs" now. We made a batch this morning that I will probably use for dinner tomorrow that's about 50-50 Whole Grain Cheezits and Flaxmeal. The Flaxmeal added a lot of bulk to the crumbs, but because it's nearly 100% fiber, it doesn't add any net carbs.

We've both started using the Multi + Flax Flatouts (Thanks, Lisa!) for sandwiches and things because again, the addition of flaxmeal adds bulks, but lowers the net carb count. It's great for him to be able to have a burger than's only got 12 carbs in the "bun" versus things like Kaiser rolls which can rack up to almost 50 carbs. It's good for me because it's not low carb in an artificial way like a like of the "Atkins Approved" snacks that were everywhere a few years ago.

We're enjoying the foods so far, because we're being creative and I think as long as we can keep coming up with new ideas, I think that we won't have any trouble sticking with it!

A few thoughts on Getting Healthy!

The Daily Challenge at MeYou Health is built around this idea. Health.com slideshows devoted to it. I was doing it by myself because the bigger goals seemed to intimidating. What am I talking about?

Small Actions. Baby Steps. Mini-goals.

Call them whatever you want, but time and time again, it's been found that this is the best way to make a big change in your life. With weight loss, they may not give you the most immediate results, but they're going to be the things that you stick with.

Swaps are the easiest baby step to take. Here are some that have worked really well for us.

• Iced Tea instead of Diet Coke (Carl)
• Whole Grain/Whole Wheat/High Protein Pasta instead of Semolina Pasta
• Pita Chips instead of Potato Chips (mine)
• Edy's Fruit Bars instead of Ice Cream
• Seltzer/Homemade Sodas instead of Mass Produced Soda
• Trail Mix instead of Junk Food
• Jayone Rice Rolls or Ryvita Fruit and Nut instead of Cookies
• Kashi Cereals instead of High Carb/Low Protein Options (mine)
• Almond Milk instead of Cow's Milk (mine)

Little stuff. When we crave crispy, we eat crispy. When we want pasta we eat pasta. If I want milk, I drink milk. We just make the smarter choice.

Carl is walking and doing more and more of the really nearby (within a few blocks) errands. I'm riding my bike to do the ones that are a little further (Up to 5 mile round trip). We drive if it's too far to walk/ride or if it involves hauling something home, like the case of seltzer I bought last night.

We've both opted to completely ignore the numbers. I look out of curiosity and because Lyam is diabetic and I like to have an idea of carb counts for him, and because I need to make sure I get enough protein at breakfast, but that's it. The only number we're concerning ourselves with is our respective pants sizes.

We don't count carbs. We don't count calories, points or fat. We don't weigh ourselves. We don't even own a scale. We promised not to drive if we don't need to. We promised that every time we light the grill, we're going to add a vegetable too. We promised to support each other and to help each other make smarter eating decisions. And he promised to let me buy new bras and underwear if I can get below 200 lbs.

I'm beginning to see that he's losing weight (in fact, he just told me he's wearing shorts he couldn't fit in 2 weeks ago!). When my Grandma wanted me to weigh myself the other day, I discovered that along with a pants size, I had dropped 16 lbs!

And the best part is, by making swaps instead of sacrifices, the only thing I miss is cheese, and since I've become quite lactose intolerant, there's not a lot I can do with that one, except have 1 or 2 slices of swiss on a sandwich when I can't take the craving anymore. If I have more dairy than that or anything and creamier, I get too sick and it's not worth it.

Screw the numbers. Start small. Eat Smart. Do more. Lose weight. Get happy.

Don't dwell on the numbers. If you do the right thing, the numbers will follow.

Make little changes. Don't say, I'm never going to have pasta again. Instead, say "I'll have pasta less often and when I do it will be whole grain (or veggie pasta, whatever works for you)"

Make smarter food choices. If you have a fast food craving, don't make yourself suffer, get the kids meal. 20 years ago, that was the value meal anyway at most places. Plus, you get free toy!

Get off your ass! Park a row further from the building at work. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk the long way around the building. All that little stuff adds up!

The inches/pounds/sizes will come off. Have faith in that. It may take a little longer before you see results, but you won't give up before you see them like you would on a crazy diet.

The happy happens all by itself. And it multiplies every time someone says you look thinner. Or that what you're doing must be so hard (and you know it isn't!)

One more time!

Screw the numbers. Start small. Eat Smart. Do more. Lose weight. Get happy.

Hippy Tricks! Nair for a Slow Drain.

I heard this from a plumber over the summer, and I tried it today, and it really works really, really well.

Our bathroom drain gets slow from time to time. We live in an old house and shit happens. So I poured a big blog of Nair, yes, NAIR, down the drain and ran some hot water. And it was awesome.

Here's why it works:

The bulk of the clog is hair. And Nair basically dissolves hair. Ta-da! Cleared Drain!

It also works pretty well in the kitchen, too, because a lot of the material that clogs your kitchen drain is protein, and hair is protein.

Weird, right?