Homemaker Gone Natural

…live life naturally!


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Whole Wheat Banana Bread

 

    Whole Wheat Banana Bread

  • 3  bananas
  • 1 3/4 c  whole wheat flour (I milled hard white)
  • 3/4 c  raw cane sugar
  • 1/4 c  raw honey
  • 1  egg, beaten
  • 5 1/4 TBS  real butter
  • 1 tsp  organic vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp  baking soda
  • Pinch of salt

First, stir honey and sugar together in small bowl and sit aside.

In a bowl, mash the peeled bananas. Melt butter, then add to bananas and mix well. Add sugar and honey mixture, beaten egg and vanilla to mixture then stir well. Add the salt and baking soda, stir. Add flour, stir. Pour batter into a buttered bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.


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Natural Bleach Alternative

 

Natural Bleach Alternative

  • 1  1/2  cup Hydrogen Peroxide
  • 1/2  cup Lemon Juice (you can use vinegar just add 4 drops lemon eo)
  • water

Combine ingredients. Put in Gallon sized container and finish filling with water.  Add 1 cup per load using as a color safe bleach alternative 🙂


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Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies w/ Whole Wheat and Oatmeal

  • 2  1/4 c of flour (soft white, milled on pastry setting)
  • 1 c oats (old fashioned)
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 1 t sea salt
  • 1 c softened butter
  • 1  1/2 c sugar (raw cane, evaporated cane juice etc)
  • 1/4 c raw honey
  • 2 lg eggs (free-range)
  • 1 T vanilla
  • 12 oz chocolate chips (I used enjoy life)
  • 1 c coconut, shredded

Preheat oven to 350. Mix sugar and honey in a bowl and sit aside. Put flour, oats, baking soda and salt into a food processor or blender and blend about 30 secs. In your mixing bowl beat butter until creamed or until lighter in color. Add your sugar and honey mixture, eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Mix in flour mixture and then finally add in the coconut and chocolate chips.

Shape cookie dough into 1″ balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake 10-11 min. Let cookies cool slightly before moving them from the cookie sheet to a cooling rack.


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Diatomaceous Earth

Some of my family members have been taking Diatomaceous Earth (DE) internally for years now.  I have used this several times throughout the years as a detox, or cleanse.  My father drinks it with acv and water almost daily.  My sister gives it to her family in smoothies fairly regularly.  I have an uncle who has been drinking it several times a week.  So, what is Diatomaceous Earth and why add it to my diet?

What it is:

Basically, it is fossilized diatoms, or algae. It has a talc like consistency and doesn’t dissolve in liquid, nor is it fully digested or absorbed into your body, however some of the trace minerals with it are. There are different grades of DE, in this post I will generally be referring to food grade. DE was discovered in the 1830s, by a peasant thinking he had found a lime deposit.

Uses:

There are many uses for DE.  It has been used as an health aid, a mild abrasive, a filter medium, an insecticide, an absorption medium, a thermal insulator, DNA purification, an anti-caking agent, a hydroponic growing medium and more. DE should not be inhaled.

There are many claims to what DE can do for you when taken internally. From what I’ve read about it, DE works physically (not chemically) by actually moving through your system attracting bacteria, viruses, etc and exiting your body with them.  There are lots of sites with information about DE if you care to look into it to see if it is right for you as an added supplement to your diet. Here are some of the health benefits people have claimed came from adding DE to their diet:

Lower blood pressure

Lower cholesterol

Removal of intestinal parasites

Laxative

Detox

Weight loss accelerator

Anti-Aging

Joint pain relief

Slows tissue degeneration

Cough suppressant

Menopausal symptom relief

Disclaimer for FDA:

This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Discussion of Diatomaceous Earth health benefits is based solely on personal experience and testimony shared by individual DE users and this company cannot market or label DE as a human health supplement with specific medical claims.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

References:

^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth

^http://www.earthworkshealth.com/human-use.php

^http://diatomaceous.org/

^http://howtousediatomaceousearth.com/


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Homemade Mouthwash

   

      Homemade Mouthwash

  • 1 c distilled water
  • 1 c vodka
  • 10 drops mint essential oil of your choice (peppermint, spearmint etc)
  • 10 drops Lemon Essential Oil

Combine all ingredients in a mason jar or glass jar of your choice.  Shake before each use, gargle and swish like normal mouthwash.  


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Tyler’s Mexican Pizzas

My oldest son, Tyler has decided to start making some of the meals and has graciously offered to allow me to blog his meals as well.  Tonight he begins his journey with Mexican Pizzas and boy, they are DELICIOUS!!!!

     Tyler’s Mexican Pizzas

Fry onion & beef together in a skillet, drain.  Add refried beans and taco seasoning and simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes.  In a skillet, fry your tortilla shells in oil on med-hi heat, flipping to cook evenly on both sides until golden in color (about 30 seconds each side). Tyler used Avocado oil for frying pouring enough in to put about 1/4 inch in skillet.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lay 6 fried tortillas out on a cookie sheet (we were working with a small cookie sheet, so only two fit at a time) then spread 1/6 of meat mixture onto them.  Top meat mixture with another fried tortilla and top that with about a spoonful of the taco sauce and a handful of cheddar cheese.

Bake in oven until cheese is melted, approximately 3-5 min.  We topped ours with lettuce, tomato, black olives and Greek yogurt.


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Homemade All-Natural Taco Sauce

Taco Sauce

  • 1 3/4 cup   Tomato Sauce
  • 1 1/2 TBS   Vinegar
  • 1 TBS   Honey
  • 1 TBS   Cumin
  • 1/2 TBS   Cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp   Chili powder
  • 1 tsp   Cayenne
  • 1/2 tsp   Garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp   Oregano
  • 1/4 tsp   Turmeric powder
  • salt & pepper to taste (dash)

Combine ingredients together in a pot and heat on low until it begins to bubble and is thoroughly incorporated.  Serve on tacos, nachos, Mexican pizzas or whatever you wish 🙂

 


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Beer Baked Chicken w/ Peppers ‘n Onions

 

 

Beer Baked Chicken with Peppers and Onions

  • 1 1/2 lbs Chicken ( I used breast tenders )
  • 1 c Beer of choice
  • 1 med Onion sliced
  • 1/2 c Bell peppers, sliced
  • 1/4 c Honey
  • 2 T Worcestershire
  • 1 t Garlic, crushd
  • 1 t Chili Powder
  • 1 t Turmeric
  • Pepper to taste

Lay Chicken out in a 9×13 baking dish.  Lay the slices of peppers and onions out over the chicken meat.  Sprinkle with garlic, chili powder, turmeric and pepper.  Pour beer and Worcestershire sauce over top of that. Drizzle with honey.  Bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 min.  We ate this over brown jasmine rice but it is delicious on its own or even atop a bed of spinach or lettuce.


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BBQ Bean Chili

Don’t you love those days when you haven’t made it to the grocery store yet and your inventory is running kinda low.  You go to the pantry to see what you have the ingredients to make and of course you need 1-2 more ingredients to make ANYTHING that you normally fix.  Although, some may see this as a perfect excuse to get creative and wing it.  For some reason *cough cough*, this happens to us a lot (ok, the real reason is ….I hate strongly dislike grocery shopping)

BBQ Bean Chili (no, it isn’t your imagination, you DO see the word BBQ on my blog a lot)

For frying beef:

Add all above ingredients to a deep skillet or other large pot and cook on medium heat until meat is thoroughly cooked, lightly drain and return to skillet or pot. (if you aren’t eating clean grass fed meat, drain completely)

 For the rest:

Add second list of ingredients, stir until combined, cover and simmer on low for 1 hour stirring occasionally

serves 4-5


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Spicy Southern BBQ Chicken

This recipe I used to make years ago.  I came across the recipe recently and decided to give it a try using organic ingredients instead of  *cough* what I used to make it with. Here is what I did and it turned out quite nicely, definitely a repeater.

     Spicey Southern BBQ Chicken

  • 2 lbs Chicken pieces (I like to use strips of breast meat)
  • 1 med Onion, sliced
  • 1 c  Chicken broth
  • 2 T  Vinegar
  • 2 T  Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 T  Chili powder
  • 2-3 T  Honey, Maple syrup or other natural sweetener of your choice
  • 2 t  Hot pepper flakes
  • Black pepper to taste
  • dash or two of turmeric

Place chicken in a 9×13, then place onion slices over top of the chicken.  In separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients and stir well. Pour mixture over chicken and bake at 350 for 1 hour or until cooked thoroughly, basting with mixture occasionally.