Moving to Wordpress.... mostly

I migrated my professional blog worthy stuff to a new Wordpress blog at www.wellroundedhippie.com on Friday. I will be maintaining this for purely personal stuff. Any posts that are on the new site will eventually be removed from this site and vice versa.

The migration to Wordpress was surprisingly easy. So now I just have some housecleaning to do.

Please follow my new stuff at www.wellroundedhippie.com but be sure to keep an eye on this one for occasional stuff about our personal lives.

Amazing program/app - Evernote

I have a list a mile long of things I want to blog about. And I get more ideas all the time. But I had to scratch all that and talk about an app that I really just fully understood - Evernote.

I downloaded the app on my EVO shortly after I got it last June but never really took the time to figure it out. But tonight, Teresa at organize.com shared this link about Evernote on Facebook that caught my eye. I knew I had the app on my phone and wanted to like it so it piqued my interest.

Let's just say I was super impressed. I immediately downloaded the program and the Google Chrome and Firefox extensions so I could clip webpages (yes, I use different browsers for different things) to my different Evernote notebooks (folders). I have a bad habit of emailing myself links, videos, etc. and crowding up my inbox with reminders of things I want to read or do. This could totally help ixnay that bad habit! And I can organize them however I want. So I have one for my blog, for me, the twins, etc.

Currently, I keep most things in Dropbox so I can access them at home, at work, and on my phone - recipes,  blog ideas, resume, etc, but they have to be a document. With Evernote, you can save webpages, pictures, and notes to yourself! I see this totally replacing my Dropbox. Except for maybe sharing? I use DropBox to share docs with my sister and other special people and I don't see that as an option in Evernote.

 Can't wait to get started!

Au Natural Deodorant

I've been reading about homemade deodorant for awhile. But like so many other things, I tuck it away in the back of mind for some day down the road when I have a little more spare time than I do right now. I was interested out of curiosity to see if it really worked.

I'm not a heavy sweater so when using conventional deodorant, I can apply every other day after my shower. A couple deodorant containers ago, I started using Naturally Fresh Deodorant Crystal. I decided to switch to Naturally Fresh because it was paraben and fragrance free and it only had six ingredients. Plus, I was happy with how it scored on the cosmetic database. I think it's unrealistic to avoid every chemical that's bad for you. The only difference that I noticed when switching from my Degree to the Naturally Fresh was that I had to apply it everyday. I can handle that.

I also tried Kiss My Face Active Enzyme deodorant and it did not work for me. I was bummed because I did the like the scent.

A couple weeks ago, I went to a Nourishing Connections meeting (our local chapter of the Weston A Price Foundation). After the initial presentation, someone talked about green cleaning products, the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Safety Database and homemade deodorant! The best part? She had samples in small baby food bottles for $2! I was thrilled to be able to buy a small sample to see what I thought before buying the ingredients and mixing it up myself!

Recipe:
6-8 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot
Mix together in a blender or food processor. I also think you could add a drop or two of the essential oil of your choice.

Does it work? Yes. Just like the other, I have to apply it everyday but I have no noticeable body odor. It has a barely noticeable hint of coconut smell which is nice. I just use my finger to rub it in but I have read about people who take the time to put it in an old deodorant container for ease of application.

I have not worn it with any delicate fabrics yet but I have worn it with several of my black shirts and have not noticed any oil stains. Also, it hasn't gotten very hot out. DH did wear it one day to work and was pleased with it in this cool weather. I want to have him test it out when it gets HOT (he's Hungarian and a gardener). I've never met anyone who sweats as much as he does!

Would I recommend it? I won't be harassing family members to ditch their deodorant for this fabulous concoction, but I would definitely suggest it for people who are trying to save money or lessen their exposure to chemicals.

Menu Plan Monday - April 4, 2011

I’m linking up with Laura at orgjunkie.com for Menu Planning Monday.

• Salads and baked salmon – we got more corn salad in our Happy Box so we’re excited for more salads.
• Zesty Italian Sausage Pasta - Sean had some of this sausage and wanted to make a dish with it. We’re using spinach instead of broccoli and adding peppers (orange or red)
• Vegetable calzones with alfredo sauce – we have a bunch of leftover veggies from a vegetable lasagna we made a couple weeks ago that we froze for later use. We bought some French bread crust and are going to experiment with the veggies and sauce making a calzone of sorts. Sean is adding chicken to his.
• Shredded chicken with kale and lentils (April Everyday Food p. 60) and baked sweet potatoes
• Vegetable Jalfrezi – this is an awesome Jamie Oliver recipe. It makes a LOT and that’s one of the many reasons we love it. We can have it as leftovers later in the week. And we like to add a dollop of plain Greek yogurt on top.
• Lentil carrot burgers – I want to make these for the babies. We’ll see if I get around to it.
• Coleslaw – we have some cabbage that arrived in our Happy Box that I forgot to incorporate into our meals so we’ll be making some coleslaw for Sean to have for lunch and maybe for the babies to eat. 

Thoughts about last week’s menu

• Red Lentil Dal and Saag with brown rice – I like my Indian food spicier and hotter, this was too cardamom-y? I dunno. I added a lot of Sriracha.
• Butternut Squash Soup and turkey burgers – this has been my favorite butternut squash soup so far! The turkey burgers were fab too. We made a little of our chipotle peppers in adobo sauce mayo for them. Perfect!
• Layered Lasagna casserole (family recipe) and salads
• Split Pea Soup and salads – the soup was really good. We’ll definitely make it again.

Halfway through shampoo detox

I got a haircut last week and they used shampoo (it was stinky Aveda stuff - am I the only person who doesn't like the way Aveda products smell?). What could I do? Pull out my baking soda/water solution and ask them to use that? They'd think I was crazy! Besides, I was secretly jonesin' for a shampoo. The only way I can describe how my hair feels during this transition is how your hair feels when you've had an updo done and they used a LOT of product and you've taken your hair down but still haven't washed it. It doesn't look greasy but it doesn't feel like I'm used to it feeling, that's for sure!

So using shampoo basically put me back in square one and yesterday was my second one-week mark. I did do a quick internet search to see if maybe I should use a little more baking soda. But I think what I'm experiencing is normal. I did find this site that has a LOT of information.

I've still only gotten a comment from one person that my hair looks flatter than normal. It was funny because I was actually in the middle of explaining to him that I think it was my scarves making my hair look fuller when another coworker came by and commented about how great my hair looked! Ha, take that!

I'm hoping that my hair is feeling halfway normal by Saturday.

Whole Foods Rocks

I was in Columbus today and didn't have to be back to Dayton right away. What else wa there to do besides go to Whole Foods, right? Part of me just wanted to get home because there's plenty that needs done there, but I decided that I don't often get the opportunity to go to Whole Foods.

The parking lot was insane but what can you expect for a Saturday afternoon at the best grocery store on earth (next to Jungle Jim's)? But I don't let crazy people stand in my way!

I don't even think I can pick a favorite thing about Whole Foods. I love it all! I was blown away by the local products they have (one being my favorite Fabulous Ferments and even tea from Athens!). I can't get enough Fab Ferments' lacto-fermented sauerkraut. I got Sean the hot kimchi. I looked all over hoping they had their Kombucha too but no luck.

I didn't get too crazy but managed to leave with this:

• Fab Ferments Hot Kimchi
• Pepperjack cheese cubes
• Artichoke Spinach Hummus
• CoCo multigrain popcakes
• Smoked salmon
• A Quotable Cards magnet

And this is what my magnet says:

finish each day and be done with it. you have done what you could. some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. tomorrow is a new day. you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

-emerson

Menu Plan Monday - March 28, 2011

I’m linking up with Laura at orgjunkie.com for Menu Planning Monday. We have never made Indian but we like it. So I’m excited to be trying some Indian recipes this week. These were inspired by a KERF post.

• Red Lentil Dal and Saag with brown rice
• Butternut Squash Soup with a Kick  and Spicy Turkey Burgers - both new recipes for things we make often so I'm excited to try them both! 
• Layered Lasagna casserole (family recipe) and salads
• Split Pea Soup and Salads

Salad ingredients

• Corn salad (new green from our Happy Box)/spinach/lettuce
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Avocado
• Red, yellow or orange pepper
• Carrot
• Green onion
• Beets

Recap from a few of last week’s menu items
Azuki Bean Casserole - I ended up making this by myself. This isn’t really a big deal but I HATE chopping things and I was home by myself w/the babies. This is a real challenge right now b/c Mr. Emery is obsessed with climbing on the chairs and STANDING and doing all sorts of dangerous things. We did not buy the dried mushrooms and tomatoes and I realized as I was making this that she chose them so that you can make a broth of sorts from soaking them in water.
I made a few other changes out of necessity (for the pumpkin I had defrosted in the microwave) but was BLOWN AWAY by how good this was. I made some red quinoa as a side. It was fabulous and the babies can eat this. It made enough that I was able to freeze some for later. WINNING!

Roasted Cabbage - This was the second time we made this and this time we used more lemon. It would’ve been perfect but Chef Sean took them out of the oven a bit early. They were still yummy.


Greek Salad Sandwich from the March 2011 Everyday Food (p. 95) – this sandwich was FABULOUS! It was super easy and tasty.


I would also like to take a minute to rave about how much I love Everyday Food. We used to get Cooking Light. And while I like it, we’d been through the rotation after two consecutive years subscribing, and some of the recipes are pretty in depth or call for obscure ingredients. I bought Everyday Food on a whim from a friend’s son’s school fundraiser and what a FIND! I love it. I tell everyone about it. They have easy recipes made out of normal ingredients that don’t take forever to make – perfect for school nights!