Salad Dressing Solved

Okay, so we all know that salad dressings can be a salad's demise. We can build a super healthy salad with all the freshest ingredients... and then smother it with a high-fat salad dressing, laden with highly processed oils and mega preservatives. Do you wonder how it can last that long on the shelf?


But are the low-fat varieties a good choice? Unfortunately, they are also full of highly-processed oils and the same mega preservatives. They may have less fat, but they don't have any beneficial nutrition. The oils in them will still harm our bodies. And yet our bodies need the right oils for healthy skin, hair and hormones. As a bonus, these healthy oils actually help our bodies to use the abundant nutrients found in salad vegetables.


You can find some Extra Virgin Olive Oil based dressings in the nutrition section of larger grocery stores and at health food stores. But, unless you find these on sale with coupons, frequent salad eaters will carve a big hole in their grocery budgets.


Here is the good news: you can make a healthy, tasty salad dressing with just a few pantry items. And the better news: it's quick and easy! Switching to a healthier salad dressing is a simple change that will really make a difference. This is my old standby recipe for a salad that serves four adults (or two adults, two big appetite kids and two small appetite kids).


Easy Balsamic Vinaigrette:

In the bowl you plan on using to toss your salad in, whisk together

• 1 tsp. brown mustard, which will help to emulsify the vinegar and oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• a dash of salt and a dash of pepper

Then, slowly whisk in 1/4 c. of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Voila! I load my greens and veggies on top and then toss it all right in the same bowl. Less mess makes me happy.


You can try all sorts of variations for this recipe.

• Using half EVOO and half sesame or walnut oil will give this a nuttier flavor.
• Adding some freshly chopped herbs will give it some extra complexity.
• Adding a minced garlic clove or two will give it some punch.
• Trading out the balsamic vinegar for red wine vinegar will change the entire aroma and mood.
• Or, substituting lemon or lime juice for the vinegar gives a fruitier flavor.

You can also double or triple this recipe to keep it on hand in the fridge if that suits your family better. Mix the dressing in a separate lidded container, and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. Just remember to pull the dressing out as you are making the salad so that the oil comes to room temperature. (Olive oil will harden in the fridge.) Shake well before dressing your salad.


For my salad tips, read this previous post.

For more Works For Me Wednesday tips, visit www.WeAreThatFamily.com.

Taco Salad -- A Hearty and Fresh Summer Meal

One of our very favorite summer meals is Taco Salad. We often serve this meal when we have company as well, since it can be individually constructed according to personal preferences. It is fresh, but still hearty. This is one of my wonderful husband's very favorites.

There are several ways to make a taco salad, but here is how we do it:

I start by browning a pound of grass-fed beef. Usually I add in half of a diced onion. Once the meat is fully cooked, I stir in

• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. garlic powder

Next, I mix in some beans. Usually I have some soaked and cooked dried beans on hand, but this last time, I used canned beans that I found on sale at my local Kroger. Everyone in our family likes beans, but these could be layered separately if there needed to be a choice.

While the meat is cooking, I wash and dry my lettuce, then chop vegetables and avocados.

To build our salads, we start with non-GMO corn chips. We layer on lettuce, then beef and bean mixture. This photo is my husband's salad with tomotoes, avocados and cheese. These are what I consider the Taco Salad Essentials. We often add on diced colored peppers, sliced olives and green onions. For something new, try jicama as well!

I am the only one in our clan who adds salsa, and none of us add extra dressing. But, here is a tip from my mom for those of you who like a creamy dressing on your taco salad. This one is low fat and healthy too! My mom mixes plain yogurt with her salsa and uses this as a tangy, creamy dressing. She actually uses it on all her salads, but it would go especially well with taco salad. (Thanks, mom!)

For more recipe ideas today, check out Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and Blessed With Grace.

Infertility

I have been asked to share what I know about infertility. I've been turning the questions over in my mind for about a month. This is such a tender subject. I know that most women who are enduring the trial of infertility are doing absolutely everything they know to do. If you are such a woman reading this blog, my earnest prayer is that God would bless you with conception and a healthy pregnancy.


I share these thoughts just in case there is something you haven't tried yet... just in case one of these thoughts is eye-opening. Yet I post them knowing that in all probability, you have read and tried most of these ideas.

• First, I would like to mention that not all vitamins are created equal. I know from experience that some vitamins are expensive and ineffective. If you are experiencing infertility, your body is in need of substantial nourishment. I would suggest trying these vitamins since I know that they are tested specifically for purity, efficacy and performance. You would not be wasting your money. You could be confident that you were providing your body with everything that it needed to regain health and balance. This product pack includes the Vitamin E, Selenium, Zinc, B Complex, and Vitamin C that are known to support a healthy female reproductive system.


• Second, protein is essential in the production of balanced, healthy hormones. If you are not already supplementing your diet with a bioavailable, complete protein, I would suggest adding this protein. It is the only soy protein I would recommend.


• Third, heavy metal toxicity can sometimes interfere with hormone production and prevent conception. You might want to consider a hair analysis test to determine if you have any alarming levels of heavy metals.


• Fourth, environmental toxins can have the same detrimental effect on hormone regulation and production. Switch to safe cleaning and laundry products, BPA-free or glass food storage containers, non-teflon cookware, and wear clothing that does not need to be dry cleaned. There are many more changes that can be made in this area. For further information, I recommend the book Green Goes With Everything: Simple Steps to a Healthier Life and a Cleaner Planet by Sloan Barnett.


• Use non-toxic personal care products. Check the toxicity levels of the hair, skin and cosmetic products you currently use here. Then, check the list for products do not contain harmful chemicals.


• Avoid all Genetically Modified Foods. While these are still legal in the United States, they have been shown to cause infertility in numerous animal studies. As I mentioned before, there have, for some unknown reason, been no published human studies on these questionable "foods." My previous post on GMO foods has a link to a very useful non-GMO shopping guide.


• Avoid all hydrogenated fats, trans fats, fried foods and most fast food. All of these fats are detrimental to hormone regulation. Instead, replace them with natural, healthy fats that support the female reproductive system. Women do need fat in their diets!


• Avoid dairy products with estrogens, antibiotics and growth hormones. In fact, it would be preferable to eat only organic foods and thereby avoid all other food chemicals as well.


• Take a close look at medications and over the counter drugs. Some of them have side effects like infertility or lowered female hormone production.


• Consider taking an pure Omega Three Fatty Acid supplement that includes a wide spectrum of beneficial fatty acids.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. And, as I mentioned at the outset, most women trying to conceive are very thorough in investigating possible nutritional factors. I humbly offer this list in hopes that it may be a benefit to someone. Keep hoping. God is able.

Kitchen Bloopers

I am starting a new label today! I am thinking that sharing my kitchen bloopers will help all of us keep perspective. It will help us see that pursuing health is an adventure that has to be enjoyed if we are going to persevere. Would it help you to hear about the disasters we experience here in our kitchen? Would it give you a refreshing take on "being healthy?"

Well, our most recent fiasco took place yesterday afternoon. But let me back up first. Two weeks ago I took my children to play at a friend's house. She served me homemade honey lemonade and it put a stop to my queasiness for the entire afternoon. I had heard that sour things can soothe morning sickness, but this was my first experience with it. Since that beautiful day, I have been craving limeade.

Actually, I have been craving Cherry Limeade. You know, like the kind from Sonic. That was not an option, so I decided the kids and I would make our own. I bought a bag of limes and we got started. We did everything right... starting with rolling the limes on the counter to release all the juices.

I even boiled a cup of water to melt my honey so that it would be fully incorporated into the limeade.

As this was cooling, I squeezed. And I squeezed. And I squeezed. Getting all the juice out was a long process considering the simple tool I was using.

We mixed the lime, honey syrup mixture and fresh cold water. Then, for the final touch, I added 3/4 tsp. of natural cherry flavoring. I had this on hand from some cakes and muffins I made in the past. Sounds delicious, huh?

WELL, I did not consider that the natural cherry flavor was in an oil solution. This is fine for baking, but it DID NOT mix with the limeade. Not at all. Instead we had an oily film over the top of the limeade. And when we drank some of our fantastically refreshing treat, we got an oily upper lip. Like I said, Fiasco. Can you see the oily layer? Can you see it on the side of the glass behind the lime?

We couldn't waste all those wonderful limes or all that pricey raw honey. And I certainly didn't want to waste the time it took to squeeze all those limes!!! So, we got inventive. We let all the oil drift back up to the surface and we soaked it off the top with paper towels. The towels took with them all but the faintest hint of cherry. But at least we saved the limeade!

If you want to try this treat at home, here's what I used sans cherry flavoring:

• 1 cup of boiling water
• 1/2-3/4 cup of raw honey, depending on how tart you like it
• juice from 10-12 limes
• fresh, cold water to fill your pitcher up to 2 quarts

Hope yours works out better than mine!

Why I'm Thankful For My Hair

I know this seems like an odd topic for a post. But, let me tell you, I'm thankful for my hair. It can get rather frizzy. And a surprising amount of grey is sprouting. But I know how it feels to look in the mirror and have the horrifying thought that I may not have hair in a few months.

Four years ago my hair had gotten so thin that my ponytail was the thickness of a pencil. I kept it long so that I could wrap it around the crown of my head to cover up some especially thin areas. Seriously, I looked in the mirror and thought, "If I keep losing my hair at this rate, I won't have any in a few months." It fell out in such quantities that it looked like a rat on the shower floor each time I washed my hair. Sorry for the awful mental picture. It was awful!

I was at a total loss. I was following all the health advice and taking all the right vitamins. Or so I thought. You can read more about what changed here. But, the point of this brief blog post is to say that I am truly thankful for my hair. It's not glamorous, but it is there... and lots of it!


By the way, in case you were wondering, I don't pluck out my grey hair. I am pleased to keep every strand... even the grey, which grows mostly along my hairline in the front so you can't see it in this snapshot.

Stopping the Sting

I was just walking out the door to take some photos of my beautiful back yard lilies. A wasp that had recently made his home near the door stung me on my side and then attached himself to my middle finger. It was quite a sting since my husband and I struggled to get him and his stinger out.


I immediately took ledum palustre, a homeopathic remedy for insect bites. I think it really helped a lot. I have childhood memories of stings swelling like golf balls and baseballs. This time around it was like I had a marble on my knuckle. All in all, I didn't think it was that bad. I had remembered worse.


But then, a few days later, Spiderman walked out the same door. A wasp of the same family stung him on the back of his neck. (Don't worry, super husband has "removed" them all!) Again, I immediately pulled out the ledum palustre. But I wanted to do something more for my son...


I had been reading about Plaintain for insect stings and had noticed that we had a patch growing in our backyard. But my husband had just mowed that morning. I didn't know if I could find it again. Thus began my frantic search for the herb. I did locate it! And I pulled a few half mower-chopped leaves off. All the books say to chew up the leaves. The dessicating releases the active ingredients, I guess. Good thing my husband doesn't use chemicals on our yard!


So I chewed the leaves for about a minute and then spit the pulpy, slimy green stuff out. I placed it on Spiderman's neck. He looked like swamp man as it dripped down. I left it there for about 15 minutes, during which he said it felt better. Better? Mine stung for hours!!!


After cleaning up his neck, I took a look at the sting. Unbelievably, the swelling that had begun as I was searching for Plantain disappeared. I wouldn't have believed he had been stung except for the red dot where the stinger had gone into his skin. I will definitely use this remedy again!


Do you have Plantain growing nearby you? Here is my plantain plant after we let it grow up some more. It's not a really pretty picture... after all, this is just a weed. My photo is of long leaf Plantain. You might have broad leaf Plantain in your yard. You'll notice that both weeds (herbs) have long prominent veins in each leaf. These veins almost look like stripes of the same color. The leaves are also a bit furry. Last, coming up the right-middle of the photo, notice the shoots that grow up with a green, cone-like flower on the top. Look for those three things: long, prominent veins, peach fuzz, and green, cone-like "flowers."





And, just for fun... and because the plantain is so ugly... here are my back yard lilies:

For more Works For Me Wednesday posts, visit http://www.wearethatfamily.com/.

Safe, Healthy Cosmetics

I want to address another question today. Summer, who redesigned my blog, asks "about [EWG's] online cosmetics database... how reliable it is, how the rating system works, what research it is based on etc."

For those of you who haven't heard of this database, I'll mention just a little about it first. This is from their site: "Skin Deep is a safety guide to cosmetics and personal care products brought to you by researchers at the Environmental Working Group. Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 41,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn't require companies to test their own products for safety."

It's really simple. You go to the database and search a product or a brand or an ingredient. Then you get a scored result for how hazardous the product, company or ingredient is. Here are the results for the new baby products we've been using. You'll see that on a scale of 0-10, they receive scores of 1 and 2. Then, if you click on an individual product, you'll see a list of all ingredients and an explanation of how safe each ingredient is. You'll also see the health hazards associated with each ingredient. It's pretty thorough. You'll also see a link to products that have lower scores... useful, huh?

Here is another example. It's the Loreal Springing Curls Mousse that I used for several years. Yikes. It gets a 10! Scary stuff! I wonder if I'm still carrying around some of those chemicals.

In my opinion, EWG and their resources always keep the highest of highest standards. If there is any question about an ingredient's safety, any question at all, it is considered potentially hazardous. So, depending on how much of a purist you are, you may settle for something that gets a low score rather than searching for a zero. But the zeros do exist and they can be found on the database as well.

Here are the specifics on how each product is scored. I consider EWG's database to be very reliable... meticulously driven by volumes of research. If you are at all concerned about your or your children's body burden, I encourage you to spend a little time on this site. It is packed with helpful articles that can guide you as you select products for your family.