A couple of weeks into it

Eating no processed foods is easier than expected.  Yes, its hard when you have been eating processed, canned, and not homemade foods for most of your life.  But, it has been easier than we all expected.

Yes, my two year old still asks for crackers, and cookies, and yes he still has his sweet tooth.  But, he is eating more, and asking less......

Have been gathering recipes for crackers and cookies with Stevia.  So cooking is about to commence.....will post photos and more in a bit.

Overall, we are feeling quite good, lots of energy, and vitality.

Sugar cookie anyone?

OK, so my first attempt to baking with Stevia instead of sugar.  
Sugar Cookies for Halloween.
Recipe...
So this recipe calls for 3 cups of white flour since we are avoiding white flour I used 3 cups of whole wheat flour.
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup of sugar (OK, so this is wear it gets good you only need 1/2 tsp of powdered stevia but you also need to add something for the bulk of the recipe.  I used applesauce so a cup of applesauce.
1 egg
1 tbsp milk

Cream butter, sugar, applesauce and egg together, then add dry ingredients, to make a dough.  Chill dough in refrigerator for a couple of hours.   Then roll out dough and cut out cookies, I found that if you let it warm up a little it was easier to use, add more flour for stickiness.

They taste great and some where more crumbly than others? but not bad for first try.  And yeah we cheated a little with the sprinkles....and they were sweet enough.

Laundry anyone?

So laundry in my house is really a dirty word.  I despise laundry, and folding, and sorting, and well you know.  But, I also despise buying laundry detergent and then throwing the container away each month.   So since I am going homemade I decided to make my own.   YEP.

Here are some simple recipes for homemade cleaning supplies:

Window cleaner:  1/4 cup white vinegar to 1 quart water put into a spray bottle.  I like to add some essential oil for scent. (some of my favorites are lemon, lavender, peppermint, tea tree)

Castile spray cleaner -  1 tsp washing soda, 2 tsp borax, 1/2 tsp liquid castile soap, 2 cups hot water, and 10 drops of essential oil I use 5 drops Tea Tree and 5 drops Bitter Orange.  Put into a spray bottle.

Easy Vinegar cleaner-  1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup water...easy one here

For the bathroom you can use plan old Baking Soda as a scrubbing cleanser.

Laundry Soap  1 4-5oz bar of soap, 1 cup of borax, 1 cup of washing soda, 1 gallon+1 quart of water.  Washing soda is sodium carbonate and if you can't find it you can leave it out.
Chop or grate the soap into small pieces, boil the quart of water and reduce to simmer add the grated soap, stirring it so no clumps form cook for about 20-30 mins until dissolve.  Add to the soupy mixture the washing soda and borax mixing and it will turn into a smooth .  Pour into a large container and slowly add the gallon of hot water, mix all together.  After it cools (next day) it will look kind of like yogurt or cheese, just mix it up or shake it up and put into a smaller container to use.  I use the big gallon jars.

Ok, so start making.......its simple and easy

How is this going to work

So I have lots of ideas in my head (don't we all) and I want to get started with them, but how?   OK, that is the question I had to ask myself, when I wanted to change our eating habits.

So first it was looking into the cabinets reading the box's, reading all ingredients.  The first rule of thumb is if you can't pronounce it or if you don't know what it is......GET RID of it.  Growing little bodies need all natural, foods, snacks, and drinks.

Now, taking it slow works best so if you are on a budget (like me) don't just throw everything away all at once.  Get rid of a couple of things today, and use up some of stuff too......I just wasn't going to purchase them anymore.  I have a few simple rules:
Rule one- Don't buy junk (anything processed, boxed food, canned food)  The reason I listed canned food is because they add sodium to these foods for the preservation and we don't need extra sodium.
Rule two- Only buy fresh or frozen and organic vegetables, organic and free range meats, and real butter.  (I will explain more as we go on this one)
Rule three-eliminate sugars (now I have a sweet tooth as does my son) So I decided to start cooking with Stevia instead and the recipes I post here will be trial and error in this process.

Those were my rules and so we begin.

Welcome

Welcome to heavenly homemade and devilishly simple.  Being a mother of a picky two year old I have started to notice that eating habits start when we are young.  My son is currently that toddler that runs around all day and just wants to snack.  Which isn't always a bad thing except he only wants to snack on cookies, crackers, cereal and the occasional piece of cheese.  I have struggled with my weight my entire life, and starting to think that all my habits were made young also.

So the last few months, I have made a direct change in all our lives.  We have eliminated junk foods (ok, we are still doing that), we are making everything we can HOMEMADE, and I am sharing this experience.

It is going to be fun, so stay in touch, keep coming back and look for great recipes, simple choices, and fast and easy tips.....As I learn so will you.