Sick and Tired

How many times have you heard someone say, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired!"?  Have you ever stopped to think about what that really means? 

I don't know about other parts of the country, but down in The South, "sick and tired" is something of a cliche.  We use it to describe a level of frustration as in, "I'm sick and tired of cleaning up this mess!"  Or, "I'm sick and tired of those raccoons stealing my cantaloupes!"  (That has been a very real problem at the Hillbilly Homestead this summer, for the record...*sigh*).

We hear someone say they are "sick and tired" and don't think all that much about it.  But being sick and tired of being sick and tired?  That is something worth thinking about.  What it really means is, "I have dealt with being sick, feeling terrible for so long I just can't tolerate it anymore!  I don't know why I'm so exhausted all the time, but I don't think I can take it anymore!"  Think about it.  How many times have you heard that?  How many times have you said it yourself?

But, what if there was something you could do about it?  What if the way you are eating is contributing to feeling "sick and tired"?  What if your food is what is making you sick in the first place?  It sounds off the wall at first, doesn't it?  Americans have access to more food choices than any country in the world.  You don't have to think about getting your vitamins and minerals in our great country - the food companies add them to all sorts of things:  enriched this, fortified that...and it's all so very easy.  Plus, we have government agencies that regulate the food companies to make sure that the foods we are eating are safe.  But are the foods really safe?  Not in my opinion.  I'm not talking about meat inspections here.  I'm talking about the stuff that is in the processed foods that fill the shelves of America's supermarkets - and most of her pantry shelves.

Many of you know that I have been on a "real food" adventure for the past year or so.  I had no idea what I was doing.  As DH would attest, I've never been much of a cook, I was the Queen of Boxed Meals!  I never thought about what was IN the boxed meal, or how the "little glove guy" managed to create a creamy sauce just by mixing a tiny envelop of powdered stuff with water.  I just wanted to get dinner on the table and on to the next thing on a busy mom's to-do list.

Last summer I started learning about the effects of the industrialization of our food and the chemicals that are in all this food.  The more I learned the more horrified I became.  Genetically modified foods, chemically processed food, chemically treated foods, irradiated foods.  All of these things that are done to food that literally strip all of the nature right out of them.  Then we have all of this "dead food" that has to be further treated to put back IN the nutrients that have been processed out, so synthetic vitamins and minerals are added foods are fortified with vitamins and minerals.  Flavor has been obliterated, so neurotoxic chemicals like monosodium glutamate are added food producers use flavor enhancers.


What if all these chemicals are what is making everyone so sick and tired?  In one of my earliest posts, I talked about some of the foods that concern me most.  If you are new here, I encourage you to take a look at Food for Thought.  At that time I had done very little research into MSG (monosodium glutamate), but I have now (expect a future post on this topic) and have since eliminated it from our diets.  I am convinced that it is poison. 

I am not an organic purist.  We do what we can.  The truth of the matter is that we can't afford to buy everything organic - I'd have to drive 65 miles away to buy organic produce every week and that's not going to happen right now.  I can't drop $5 on 8 oz. of organic corn starch when I can buy a huge container at Sam's for half that cost.  It is too much right now.  If it is more financially realistic in the future, that would be great, but we do the best we can.  I can tell a such difference in our health and energy levels just by eliminating the processed foods, even though the "real food" ingredients are not organic.  No one around here is "sick and tired" and we haven't been since we changed our diet away from industrialized, genetically modified, shelf stable, additive-laden foods.

It is difficult not to share this new-found knowledge with everyone I meet.  I tend to come off as the "crazy, crunchy lady" and I sometimes worry that people will think I am judging their food choices, even though I'm not.  I try not to dole out unsolicited advice, but it's so HARD not to say to someone that IS sick and tired of being sick and tired, "You need to change your diet, you'll feel incredible!"  Fortunately, I have this blog and I can rant on about it here to all who will listen ;)

I'd love to hear your thoughts, opinions, questions.

"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food." - Hippocrates

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Have you ever read the ingredients on a bottle of salad dressing?  I have - and they freak me out!  I understand the concept of "shelf stable" but I can't stand the idea of pouring a whole bunch of chemicals (and GMO canola oil) out on top of my oh-so-healthy salad!  I quit buying salad dressing months ago but hadn't worked real hard on finding a replacement.  Most of my family prefers Ranch dressing.  I tried out a recipe a few months ago that my absolute favorite blogger came up with over at Heavenly Homemakers.  Her recipe was a bit too salty for my family, so I whipped up a batch last night with less salt.  This is the recipe I used:

5 Tablespoons Minced Onion
7 Teaspoons Dried Parsley Flakes
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

Mix thoroughly and use 2 Tablespoons mix as you would an envelope of Ranch Dressing Mix - for Dressing, mix with 1 cup mayo and 1 cup buttermilk.  For dip, mix with 2 cups sour cream.

I actually like my mix to resemble the powdery mix that you buy at the grocery store so I run mine through my food processor before I put it in my jar for storage.  I had the presence of mind (for once) to realize that I would need less of the powdered mix, so I used my trusty digital scale and weighed out 2 Tablespoons before processing into powder so I could figure out the proper measurement of the equivalent weight after.  (The weight is 16 grams if you were interested.)  Now I know that I need 4 Teaspoons of my powdered mix for the same ratios of mayo/buttermilk or sour cream.

I mixed up Dressing this time as I planned to have salads with tonight's dinner.  DH, knowing there was Ranch in the fridge again, sneaked in and sampled some this afternoon with some carrots.  (Hey, a girl can't complain about her man eating carrots for a snack!)  The verdict?  He said it was too runny.  Ummm...it's dressing - NOT dip!  I have used the brand name dry mix with mayo/buttermilk in the past and it was about the same consistency - slightly less thick than the pre-made stuff in the plastic bottle.

The best review came from our son, the 5 year old Mr. Picky Pants, "Mom, this salad stuff you made?  It tastes JUST LIKE the kind you buy at the store!"  And he's absolutely right - it tastes exactly the same.  No monosodium glutamate, xanthan gum, disodium phosphate, disodium inosinate or disodium guanylate required.

Homemade Potato Chips

Last night I decided to try my hand at homemade potato chips.  We were having hamburgers for dinner and I decided that potato chips might be a fun change.  DH would normally make french fries for us, but potato chips have been off the "approved foods" grocery list for quite a while now and I think we all miss them.  I'm excited to share how to make them with you, because they were wonderful - light, crispy and delicious - everything a potato chip should be, without any yucky hydrogenated fats or added chemicals.  I normally like to use a lot of pictures, but I didn't think about it until I was almost finished.  Besides, I'm pretty sure y'all don't need a picture of a pile of potato slices to know what one should look like ;0)

Ingredients:

Potatoes
Oil for frying (I use Peanut)
Sea Salt

• Peel potatoes, if desired.  I left the skins on mine and no one complained.
• Slice potatoes thinly using mandolin slicer - unless you are a knife magician and can slice your potatoes both thinly (is thinly a word?) and uniformly, which I cannot do.  (Well, maybe I could with some practice, but I have a mandolin, so what would be the point?)
• Plop the potato slices into a bowl of cold water as you go and allow them to soak in cold water for 30 minutes prior to frying.  This step draws the starch from the potatoes and they fry up crispier.
• Heat about an inch of oil in frying pan.  Some of the recipes I saw say to heat the oil to 375 degrees.  None of my thermometers go up that high, so I do the toothpick test.  (Stick a toothpick in the oil, touching the bottom of pan - if bubbles form around the toothpick your oil is hot enough.)  I prefer the toothpick test to the "drop of water in the oil" test, which is also effective.
• While oil is heating, lay out paper towels on the counter, arrange your potato slices individually and cover with another sheet of paper towels, blotting to dry.  Leave the potatoes covered until ready to fry.
• Gently slide each potato slice into the oil and fry until golden brown.  I try to turn them, but don't worry if you miss some, they seem to turn out fine.
• Remove from oil using a slotted spoon, place on clean, dry paper towels and sprinkle with sea salt immediately.  (This is probably NOT the recipe to try if you are running low on paper towels!)
• Continue the process until you are finished.  (It goes faster if you solicit an extra set of hands to add more potato slices to the hot oil as you are removing and salting them.)

I put each batch into paper towel-lined bowls in the warm oven to keep them warm and crispy until they were all finished.

That is all there is to it.  Kind of.  The truth is, this potato chip thing turned into a two day adventure for me.  You see, I sliced up too many potatoes.  My general rule of thumb for potatoes (mashed, scalloped, etc.) is to cook 1 for each family member.  That is WAY too many potatoes if you only intend to make enough to go along with hamburgers for dinner.  By the time I got all of the potatoes in the bowls above finished I was well and truly sick of frying potato chips.  I had read that you can soak the potato slices in vinegar to make salt and vinegar chips, which DH happens to LOVE.  So I thought, I'll just pour vinegar over the rest of the uncooked slices, let them soak until tomorrow and make a snack that will make my man fall in love with me all over again.  (I'm convinced that my cooking has that power, after all...)

So, Day 2:

This afternoon I pulled out the vinegar-y potato slices, went through MORE paper towels, reheated my oil and got to frying.  Whoa.  Pungent aroma alert!  When the first batch of chips were fried and salted, it was taste test time.  The verdict?  Not vinegar-y enough.  After the initial stab of disappointment passed, I realized that having soaked the slices in water BEFORE soaking overnight in vinegar probably made the potatoes less absorbent, therefore less vinegar-y.  My plan for next time is to skip the water soak for a portion of the slices and go straight to an overnight vinegar soak. I'll let you know how it goes.

Homemade Laundry Soap

Yesterday I mixed up my first batch of homemade laundry soap.  I had every intention of using the soap a few times before sharing it with all of you.  However, after mentioning the soap on Facebook yesterday I must submit to the will of the people and share the recipe with you now. 

To make laundry soap, you will need: borax, washing powder and bar soap, a few basic kitchen supplies and a bucket or other container for storing laundry soap, preferably with a lid.

THE INGREDIENTS:

Bar soap - what kind to use?  There are plenty of opinions out there on what type of soap to use at the base for laundry soap.  The two most common are Zote and Fels-Naptha.  I bought Zote because that's what they had a Wal-Mart.  After further reading on the topic, the general consensus seems to be that Zote is more gentle on clothes and better at whitening.  Fel-Naptha is more effective on harsh stains and oils, but makes clothes dingy over time.  I have also heard of folks using Ivory Soap or other bar soaps.  You will need one bar of soap if using Zote or Fels-Naptha; I would recommend using two bars of Ivory.

Zote - 96¢ at Wal-mart

20 Mule Team Borax - if there is another brand out there, I've never seen it.  Supposedly borax has a multitude of household uses - this is the first time I've ever bought it.  I'll do more looking into that and let you know what I find.  **CAUTION** While borax is a natural product, it is toxic  - so please keep out of reach of children and pets!  You will need 1/2 cup of borax.  (If using Ivory for sensitive skin, you may want to skip this ingredient.)

20 Mule Team Borax - $2.83 at Wal-Mart

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda - you may have to do some looking for this one!  This is not Arm & Hammer Baking Soda and it is not Arm & Hammer Laundry Soap - it is washing soda.  If your store carries it, you should find it in the same area as the borax.  I went to Wal-Mart and Target before finally locating it at Kroger.  You will need 1 cup of the washing soda.

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda - $2.71 at Kroger

THE PROCESS:

Grate the bar soap.

Next time, I will use a smaller grater - these shreds were a bit large.

Bring 4 cups of water to a gentle simmer.  Gradually add soap shreds, stirring to dissolve.

 

I had to change to a larger pot - don't underestimate the suds!

 

 Once your soap has melted, add 3 gallons of hot water to your bucket or other container. 

I am using a Tidy Cats litter bucket - thanks Kathy!

 

Stir in 1 cup of washing powder and 1/2 cup of borax, followed by the soap/hot water mixture.

 

My handy helper loved to stir it all up!

 

 

 

 

After stirring everything together, you will have a little over three gallons of "soap soup":

My "soup" is pink - yours will depend on the color of soap you use.

 

 

Let the mixture sit, covered, overnight.  In the morning you will have a gelatinous goo that is ready for washing!  Add 1/2 cup of soap to a large load of laundry.

I have a standard, top-load washing machine, from what I understand you will need to reduce the amount for a front-load washer.  If you have the need for an oxygen booster (such as Oxy Clean), consider adding a half cup of standard hydrogen peroxide to the wash.  For those who, like me, are on a well and have iron in the water, add 1/2 cup salt and 1/2 cup white vinegar to whites to prevent rust stains!

There has been mention made of potential soap build-up in the washing machine resulting from the bar soap.  Since I've yet to use the soap I can't say for sure, but I suspect using vinegar and/or peroxide will prevent that to a degree.  

Who Has Time For a Blog, Anyway?

When I first mentioned my idea of doing this blog DH was, as always, supportive.  He did, later, mention a bit of concern that I wouldn't have time for it.  Something like, "How in the world are you going to find time to do that every day?" or maybe it was "When are you going to fit that in?" or "Don't you have enough on your plate already?" - I've heard them all over the years.  Of course, I've never listened before, you can't expect me to start NOW!  I insisted that I'd make time and that it doesn't necessarily HAVE to be something I do every day.  Love that he is, he set off to secure a domain name (www.thehillbillybride.com) in the event that someday I want to move on from Blogger into "my own" web site.  Pretty nice of him, right?  Right.  Oh...speaking of "right"...he was.  As usual.  I really don't have time for this.  (Don't tell Scott!)  If you haven't noticed, this is my first post in a WEEK!  I sat down to write several times last week.  It was a "busier than usual" week and I just couldn't get my thoughts to settle.  I worried that it had been too long and realized that this blog - the thing I am doing because I want to - was stressing me out!  So...I refuse to let it.  I'll post as I can and hope that y'all hang around to see what's going on around here.  For now, I've got to get outside - it's milking time!

Just Try the Fried Pickle Already!

The following conversation, or a similar one, has been had more times than I can count over the years.  It could be regarding food, sports, whatever:

DH:  "Try ___________."
THB: "No, I don't like it."
DH: "Have you ever tried it?"
THB: "No."
DH:  "Then how do you know you don't like it?"

It is difficult to argue with that kind of logic.  Grr.  I used to try.  Hard.  Unfortunately, DH has this way of being ridiculously rational.  He also has a way of keeping at a person until they give in and just try the fried pickle already!

In our early days I spent hours trying to talk my way out of doing things I didn't want to do.  In the end I would give in (frequently just because I knew it was the only way to get any peace about it).  What I've found time and time again, though, is that I like all sorts of things that I thought I didn't.  I've found that I'm so much more capable than I ever thought myself to be.  I've found that it is okay not to be good at everything and that sometimes things are fun even if you aren't all that good at it.  I'm frequently "not that good" at stuff, so you can trust me on that :o)

I'm still a little hesitant from time to time...but I'm much more likely these days to jump right into something new.  I'd love to hear about a time when you were surprised by something you didn't want to try...but ended up loving.  Post in comments!

Yellow Rice - Good, Better, Best

There are two ways to handle avoiding unhealthy foods:

1. Stop eating anything that is not "good for you".
2. Find a way to make the foods you like to eat with ingredients that are "better for you"!

I enjoy playing around with recipes to find  healthier ways to make the foods we enjoy.  I can't always do things the "best" way - but I can do better.  Something is better than nothing.  Baby steps are better than no steps.  When I realized that eating better didn't have to be "all or nothing", I felt liberated!  It seems so simple, so obvious!  We have just stopped buying certain things over time and I am learning to make as much as possible from raw ingredients.  When I can serve a meal and say that everything was made "from scratch" I feel a pride that I can't really explain.  (Wait until I can say we raised all the ingredients here!  WOW!)

My latest item to cross off the grocery list is yellow rice.  I've played around with some recipes and come up with my own replacement that got thumbs up all around the table last night:

The Hillbilly Bride's Yellow Rice

4 T. butter

1 medium onion, diced

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

Saute onions and garlic in butter.

 1 1/2 cups long-grain, white rice

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 tsp. turmeric

dash cayenne pepper

salt/pepper to taste

Stir in rice, spices, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover.

Simmer for 20 minutes, or until water is absorbed.

 
In the interest of full disclosure, let's talk about some of the ingredients in my recipe, shall we?  Let's start with the biggie.  Rice.  I use Uncle Ben's Long Grain White Rice.  Yes, I said white rice.  Should we be eating brown rice?  I'm sure we should!  But look, I just switched from Minute Rice about 2 months ago.  So, I feel like we are doing better.  Is there room for improvement?  Oh YES!  Concerning  chicken broth:  I usually have homemade chicken broth in the freezer.  The problem is that when I need to use it...it is still...in the freezer.  So sometimes water with chicken bouillon cubes or chicken base saves the day.  Chicken base is still kind of yucky, but better than bouillon.  Once I find msg-free bouillon we can eliminate that, but for now...I use what I have.  There is a lot of room for improvising with this recipe.  You can use dehydrated onion and garlic, just increase water to compensate.  Saffron or a saffron/turmeric mix can be used (saffron wasn't in the Hillbilly Budget on grocery day) just use what you have - or can afford.

Some good...some better...some best. 

What are some processed foods you would like to eliminate...or replace?  Remember - baby steps are better than NO steps!