Dawn + Vinegar = Soap Scum KILLA So, you might remember this post from a while back. And if you do, you'll remember that I cannot stand soap scum. Like, it actually bothers me. I hate that we have this gorgeous bathroom, and all I can see is the soap scum that threatens to take over. And God help me if hubby and I are in the shower together (hey, we're in a water shortage) and I accidentally touch the walls. Ugh, gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. I've tried it all. So when I saw this post on pinterest, I was a bit skeptical. My oldest daughter asked me if I bought the Dawn just because it had a penguin on it (I collect penguins). So it's pretty simple. Again, that's a one to one ratio of white vinegar to blue Dawn. Do you know how hard it is to take a pic of soap scum? Isn't that gross? I let it sit for 2 hours, came back in with a sponge and some warm water, and wiped it off. Yes, that is an unedited (except for the watermark, obviously) photo of the same area. No, I'm not getting paid to post this.
How to Make Vegan Butter - Regular Vegan Butter - Coconut Oil Base - Recipes, desserts and tips - Veganbaking.net Butter is one of those ingredients that can be so central to baking that as soon as some people hear the term vegan baking they wonder aloud almost in a panic, “what about the butter?!” Many vegan baked items get along great with fats like canola, coconut oil or even olive oil. These types of fats work wonders for cakes, cookies, bars and breads. When designing recipes where we need something to act like butter, things start to get complicated. Solid fats like butter and margarine are integral to things like puff pastry, pie crust, shortbread, croissants, danish dough and certain cakes. Vegan butter options as of this writing are pretty slim. Non-hydrogenated vegan margarines aren't knights in shining buttery armor either. I've never been a huge fan of margarines because I find that they're so packed with chemicals and stabilizers that they frequently remind me of what it would be like to chew on a candle on a hot day. I make Vegan Butter in large batches and store it in my freezer.
How I Stopped Eating Food : Mostly Harmless Food is the fossil fuel of human energy. It is an enormous market full of waste, regulation, and biased allocation with serious geo-political implications. And we’re deeply dependent on it. In some countries people are dying of obesity, others starvation. In my own life I resented the time, money, and effort the purchase, preparation, consumption, and clean-up of food was consuming. I am pretty young, generally in good health, and remain physically and mentally active. I hypothesized that the body doesn’t need food itself, merely the chemicals and elements it contains. I haven’t eaten a bite of food in 30 days, and it’s changed my life. The Experiment There are no meats, fruits, vegetables, or breads here. It was delicious! On day 4 I noticed how much healthier my skin was. My cravings and tastes closely matched with my needs. Week 2 was rough since I started experimenting with the proportions, trying to find the optimum amount of everything. The rest of the month went smoothly. Results
Vegan Baking: The Post Punk Kitchen Shows You How! Post Punk Kitchen Vegan Baking: The Post Punk Kitchen Shows You How! Vegan baking is totally easy. Get rid of the eggs Replacing eggs is the most challenging aspects of vegan baking. Flax SeedsHow to use it: 1 Tablespoon flax seeds plus 3 Tablespoons water replaces one egg. When it works best: Flax seeds have a distinct earthy granola taste. Tips: Always store ground flaxseeds in the freezer because they are highly perishable. Where to get it: Health food stores Silken Tofu How to use it: 1/4 cup blended silken tofu = 1 egg. When it works best: Dense cakes and brownies, and in smaller quantites for lighter cakes and fluffy things (if the recipe calls for 3 eggs only use 2 “tofu” eggs”). Where to get it: Health food store shelves, and in some supermarkets. Ener-G Egg Replacer How to use it: Use according to package directions. Many people swear by this egg replacer. When it works best: It seems to work best in cookies, or things that are supposed to be a little crispy. Lose the milk And a tip.
"You're Welcome" Wednesday: Tons of home remedy tips and tricks I’m sure we’ve all gotten the email before. You know what I’m talking about, the spam email that you actually happened to read. You know, the one with tons of random home remedy tips in it that you think, “Huh…I should remember this….” Yes, that one. the ideas are great and, as it says, worth considering! P.S…see round 2 of amazing random tips HERE. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic, and at the end of the recipe if you want a stronger taste of garlic.Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Reheat Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. Easy Deviled Eggs: Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Broken Glass: Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can’t see easily.
Turmeric Tea Recipe For a while it felt like someone was sticking a hot poker between my shoulder blades, particularly if I moved my neck in certain directions, like left or right. And the mornings? Ouch. I'm not entirely sure what I did, but I think it might have something to do with lifting sixty pound boxes up stairs. Over and over. One thing - use mildly hot water here, but not boiling - to help preserve the properties of the raw honey. - More Turmeric Recipes - - More Drink Recipes - Turmeric tends to stain anything it comes into contact with, so be careful. 1/3 cup / 80 ml good, raw honey 2 1/2 teaspoons dried turmeric lemon lots of freshly ground black pepper Work the turmeric into the honey until it forms a paste. For each cup of tea, place a heaping teaspoon of the turmeric paste in the bottom of a mug. Prep time: 2 min - Cook time: 3 min Print Recipe
Breaking the Cheese Addiction: Step 1 The Reality Check Cheese is one the most difficult products to give up when adopting a vegan diet. And it’s no wonder—with loads of salt and fat, your palate, like your health, hardly stands a chance. For the next several months, we will provide a step-by-step program to get the cheese out of your diet and your health on track. Step 1: The Reality Check Cheese is the No. 1 source of saturated fat (“bad” fat) in the American diet. Consider that immediately after eating fatty foods… Your triglyceride levels rise Your cholesterol levels rise, contributing to plaque formation Clotting factors in your blood are activated Two hours later… Your triglycerides have increased by 60 percent Your blood flow has decreased by half Three hours later… The lining of your arteries has lost elasticity impeding blood flow Blood vessel function has become abnormal Four and five hours later… Your blood has gotten thicker, flowing even slower than it was two hours ago Your triglyceride levels have now increased by 150 percent
30 Healthy Food Habits To Share With Your Kids Tutorial: Vintage-looking painted sign from salvaged wood Today I have a little tutorial for you. I'm going to show you how to (easily!) make these sweet wooden signs. I promise- they're a cinch, they don't take long at all to make and cost pretty much nothing. You will need: piece of salvaged wood upholstery tacks or short nails (optional) hammer acrylic paint (background color) black acrylic paint (or other color to fill in letters) large paint brush small paint brushink jet printer twine Sharpie Marker or other dull, rounded tool This project started with a pile of cedar fence pieces that we've had sitting in our backyard for ages. I loved how grey and weathered they had become from sitting outside. Next, distress the wood to your liking. Next, choose your paint. (I wasn't really sure if I was going to be doing a tutorial for this or not until I was finished, so I'm afraid I'm missing a few photos for some of the steps. Once you're happy with the paint, put the wood aside to dry and head to your computer. P.S.
Itty Bitty Garlic Pumpkin Knots I think I caught the bread making bug. And I like it. For years, I was scared of baking bread. I had a horrifying experience trying to make 100% whole grain spelt bread that came out flat as a pancake. I didn’t think I would ever recover from that and I assumed that I just wasn’t bread baker material. My next conquest was a Garlic Knot. Repeat after me: I will put my bread making fears aside and give bread baking another chance. Itty Bitty Herbed Garlic Pumpkin Knots with Vegan Parmesan Cheese Adapted from Neverhomemaker. Ingredients: 1/2 cup very warm water2 tsp instant dry yeast1 tablespoon maple syrup1/4 cup canned pumpkin1 tablespoons olive oil3/4 teaspoon kosher salt1 tsp dried herbs (I used mixed basil, oregano, thyme, parsley)1 & 3/4 cups unbleached bread flour Herbed garlic spread w/ Parmesan cheese: 2-3 tbsp Earth Balance, melted2-3 garlic cloves, minced1 tsp dried parsley2 tsp vegan parmesan cheese Place the knots onto the Peel OR onto the baking sheet. My favourite part!
How to Veganize Any Recipe: Sweet Edition Dying to revamp a favorite dessert, but don't know where to start? These expert tips will help you convert any recipe vegan. The old stereotype of vegan baked goods tasting like shredded wheat squares has been replaced with vegan cupcakes dominating Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, dairy-free doughnuts being crowned the best doughnuts in New York City by the NY Daily News, and dairy-free bakeries popping up all over the country. Better Than Butter While commercial vegan margarines and shortenings exist for baking ease, Rivers Samson loves to use unflavored coconut oil (also called coconut butter in cooler climates). Binding AgreementsFor desserts that call for gelatin (a by-product of meat processing), try using agar agar powder or flakes. Dairy Doubles With the wide variety of non-dairy milks on the market, you can easily replace dairy milk in any recipe in a one-to-one ratio. Egg Exchange Replacing eggs in baking can be tricky, but Rivers Samson has some simple guidelines.
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