Chemical Free Laundry and Dishwasher Soap

Thomas and I have been trying to find replacements for all the chemicals (shampoo, conditioner, bar soap, laundry, and dish washing soap) we have been using. But at the same time, we are already making all of our own food and quite frankly I do not have the time to make our cleaning products as well. So far I have found a laundry soap alternative that I don't have to make. 

They are called soap nuts. They are my new best friend.

Well they would be if I did laundry. 

So really, they are Thomas' new best friend.

You use about 4 shells in a bag for 5-6 loads until they turn grey and then you compost them!

From Naturoli's website

"Very simply, soap nuts are the dried shells (or husks) from the soapberry (or soap berry nut). These berries are the fruit from a quite unique tree species. These shells contain a substance called saponin that produces a soaping effect. Saponin is a 100% natural alternative to chemical laundry detergent and cleansers. It can replace many chemical detergents such as those containing sodium laureth sulphate (SLS) that are becoming well known by consumers for being a skin irritant and health hazard."

If you want to try them out, I would suggest getting the trial size for just $5. 

Simply go to the website here.

And they will send you enough for 15-20  loads with a little muslin bag.

No I am not getting paid. I just love them.

I mean really? I get to wash my clothes without chemicals and I get to compost the little buggers as well? Dream come true in the Kucera house.

Of course I had to buy them in bulk and make a fun little bag to store them in.

The second thing we ran out of so I had to come up with a replacement quickly, was dish washing detergent. I could not find a one to one replacement like the soap nuts, but I did find a relatively simple recipe. I already had the Borax from a desire to make things naturally years ago, and I also already had the kosher salt from Thomas' bacon making days. The Washing Soda (yes, it is different from baking soda) I found at Winco, but I believe you can also find it at Walmart. The only thing I could not find in a store was Citric Acid, so I made sure I bought food grade Citric Acid online. I figure if I can eat it, it will be find on my dishes.

So here you are. Simple.

Dishwasher Soap

1 Cup Washing Soda

1 Cup Borax

½ Cup Citric Acid

½ Cup Kosher Salt

Use 1 Tablespoon per load.

Approximately 48 loads worth

So I made a double batch so I don't have to think about it for ages now.

2 less chemical inducing items in my house.

Love it.

Do you have a favorite homemade recipe you make? 

I would love to hear about it!

Buying Hiatus 3 Month Update

December...

January....

February....

And now we are into March. We have successfully gone 3 full months without buying anything....

Except. 

I feel like there is always an except. 

Ours comes in the form of new food storage. I had really been wanting more glassware lately to swap out my plastic ware, but I am on this thing called a buying hiatus. So of course I can't buy anything.

Except....

I made up these rules that say I can switch things out that break.

And I feel as though switching out plastic (which really isn't amazing for you when it gets microwaved every day with lunches in it) for glass is a smart healthy move. And we didn't buy more then we already had.

Our very well used plastic ware. Clearly orange from spaghetti.

My new glass ware!!!

I bought a set of snap top glassware from Costco a few years ago and loved it. And then over the years I have bought a few lunch sized pieces of the non snap tops and realized that not only do they break, but they also are a lot harder to get off of frozen food.

So many different sizes!!!!

The Costco by my house has not carried these for quite some time now. So 2 weeks ago while Thomas and I were killing time before his flight to Vegas, we went to the Costco by the airport and low and behold... we found these. We also found that Ikea has individual ones perfect for lunches! I love this big pack because I needed larger sizes for general food storage, but yay! All different sizes!

So that is my rationalization. Yes I switched out 1 for 1. Yes it is for our health. And now that I have shared it with you, I don't feel guilty. :)

I still haven't bought anything else though! 

I am interested in what I am going to where to 2 weddings in the next few months. I might just have to borrow dresses from friends!

And finally, a friend of mine sent me a great article. This women decided to not buy her children anything new for a year. And in the middle of that year she became pregnant and give birth.

And she still managed to not buy anything. Well almost.

Check out her story here.

Inspiring.

5k Is Finished!

And we did it!

Another check off of the Bucket List.

After weeks and weeks of "training" we did a little 5k running action. 

My training consisted of running a total of 6 times over 5 weeks, a 5 mile hike, 4 over 3 mile walks, a 2 mile bike ride, and tons of little 1 mile walks. The training schedule that Emily made for me did not happen. The moral is I didn't really train. But I had committed, so I ran.

This is our motley crew.

Emily, Nick, Me, Erin, Larry, Thomas, and DJ

 The starting line was right behind all of us. The first half of the race is down hill, which naturally means that the second half of the race is all up hill.

And 3.1 miles later....

 The finish line.

Everyone was an awesome help.

At work I would have conversations with Emily and DJ about when we would work out. 

Thomas and Erin ran with me and pushed me by talking and keeping me distracted the whole time I ran although it literately hurt Thomas to run as slow as I do.

After crossing the finish line, the first thing I said was...

"Yeah, I am never doing this again."

Although I enjoyed the experience, maybe if I had different events through out the run I would be more encouraged. However just plain running is not my thing.

I was never inspired by the "race" and all the "hype" of the day. 

After mile 2, it never got fun.

I am not "hooked" and have not already signed up for my next 5k. 

Although a few positive things did happen. I am excited to be back in shape some what. At least to be working out multiple days a week. 

I know that I love walking and can walk 3-4 miles without a moment of hesitation. In fact I do that twice a week. I don't need to run to prove anything.

I am thankful that although Thomas loves running, he could care less about races. Less money we spend on that.

Post race with Courtney who ran the 5k before us.

And now I need to figure out what I am going to check off of my bucket list next.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

I just read the most beautiful blog post about a woman’s struggle with her body after having twins.

It is here if you want to read it also. So beautifully written.
http://www.stevewiens.com/2013/03/06/these-are-the-lines-of-a-story/

Whenever I read beautifully expressed story my thoughts fester until I get them out. So here you are.

The reality is we all relate because we are all getting older.  I honestly have loved getting older, within reason of course. I don’t mind the wrinkles around my eyes or the soreness that comes from getting out of bed in the morning (thanks to many years of athletics). And yes, the little hairs where you don’t want them and the spots on my skin are slightly annoying. But really? I can handle it.

I am not 16 or even 20 anymore. I have to eat differently, but I also know that is because I am not playing basketball for 2 hours every day. If I were, I may not be as conscious, but I am not. And my body has changed because of it or maybe just because I am older.

I saw a woman who had beautiful arms days ago and asked Thomas if my arms looked like hers. His honest reply, “They used to.” That didn’t hurt my feelings because I realized I am not investing time in my life to lift and work out like I used to. So I am softer looking. And I am Ok with that. If I want to look like her, I have to invest the time. Maybe I will at some point.

Every time I go to So Cal, I am about 50 shades lighter than anyone in my family. I am a ghost from WA, but hey I will have way less chances of getting skin cancer in my life time (sorry family!!!) And I might also be vitamin D deficient, but hey we can’t have it all now can we? I live where it is beautiful, so I give up the little things. And I soak up as much sun as I can every time it comes out.

I like what my body has become over time. Granted I have not been pregnant yet. I have not had the privilege of carrying my little one and all the body changes that accompany them. Yes, it terrifies me a little bit. Similar to Mary’s story in the blog, being an athlete will make a not so perfect stomach a little hard to accept. I know that I will travel that road soon. And when I do, I will come to grips with it.

At work just the other day we had a similar conversation about aging. A gal who is in her 40’s responded to my comment about liking aging with, “To a point!” So far I have to agree. I have liked to age up until now. But I imagine when I am in my 40’s and can’t see quite so well, and I have grey in my hair, and I have way more wrinkles than I want, and I have all the marks of carrying a child, that will be my point. And what will I do? 

Well I just don’t know yet. But if it is anything like what I do now, I will love that the life I have lived has been full. I will walk more to keep my heart healthy and lift my children to keep my muscles strong. Because that is what is important. 

And like Mary, I will adapt as each year goes by. And love every moment I live because I am still strong, healthy, and wonderfully made.

Diet for Healthy Sake

So Thomas and I started The Makers Diet on February 18th. It definitely is a first for us and I definitely feel the need every time it comes up to clarify that this is not a "lose weight diet', it is a "get healthy and see if there are any allergies" diet. As if that helps. It is still restricting our food intake.

The quick over view of the diet is that we could eat any meat and veggies we wanted, but the carbs and the sugars were cut completely out and then added in slowly to see if there were any allergies. Thus far, none have been identified.

But we have both learned some things about our bodies and what they like and don't like. The best part was the discovery of cooking different things, especially the gluten free cooking we have been doing. So here are a few of the recipes we have tried over the past 4 weeks.


I know there isn't a recipe here for the Zucchini Pasta , but I simply grated the zucchini with my handy dandy food processor, into strips and then sauteed them for about a minute, but not enough to make them squishy!
Resolution 21 of 52. Check.

The mashed cauliflower was amazing and I have actually made it 2 times since!
Resolution 22 of 52. Check.


I needed pumpkin pie spice for the next recipe and decided to make it from scratch. So simple!
Resolution 23 of 52. Check.


Grain Free Pumpkin Bars - I think I have made these a dozen times in the past 3 weeks. It has become our go to dessert that has only honey for sugar in it! And made from almonds!

Resolution 24 of 52. Check.

Grain free Apple Cinnamon Muffins - good, but I have one other recipe I want to try. 
 Resolution 25 of 52. Check.
Grain Free Raspberry Muffins - Another go to for Thomas and I. We leave out the chocolate chips though. And they are still amazing!

Resolution 26 of 52. Check.

The last freezer cooking I did, required taco seasoning and ranch mixes. So I decided to make my own!
Resolution 27 of 52. Check.
And then Thomas made us pitas. And they reminded me more of thick tortillas. So we made chicken with the taco seasoning and fajitas on the pitas! :)

Resolution 28 of 52. Check.

Breakfasts have been the hardest for us on this diet. Because although you can have meat, you cannot have pork, which of course is 90% of breakfast meats. So we have eggs, and we have been making our own chicken sausage. Thanks Dad for the meat grinder for Christmas! Could not have come at a better time for us.
Resolution 29 of 52. Check.

In the weekend I wanted to get a little creative, so I made both waffles and pancakes. Grain free of course. This paleo waffle recipe calls for both coco powder and chocolate chips, but they are still delicious if you follow this recipe, but leave those 2 items out.
Resolution 30 of 52. Check.

As for the pancakes, these pumpkin pancakes were delicious. Although we cannot have maple syrup yet, so I added a few blue berries to the batter and they were still moist and delicious! I think I will add a few more next time though :)

Resolution 31 of 52. Check.

After 2 weeks, we were craving anything sweet! So I found these almond flour sugar cookies. Surprisingly sweet!

Resolution 32 of 52. Check.

With already eating everything else weird, we decided to try cauliflower pizza. And to make it more fun, I found purple cauliflower. So we had BBQ chicken pizza. It was good, but definitely cannot replace regular pizza. 

Resolution 33 of 52. Check.

Orange and Red Bell Pepper Salsa on fish tacos. Sadly I cannot find the recipe I used, but it was 1 orange, 1 red bell pepper, 2 Roma tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, and onion powder all pureed. Pretty great!

Resolution 34 of 52. Check.

For snacks, we have also been struggling. So I made corn nuts. The first round,  was horrible. The second round, was tolerable. So we will have to see if we can make it the third round perhaps?
Resolution 35 of 52. Check.

I had made beef jerky a few months ago and it was great pepper spicy beef jerky. It was definitely good, but I don't always like spicy, so I wanted to find another recipe I liked. This paleo, diet friendly beef jerky recipe was amazing! I actually left out the liquid smoke, because I didn't have any and it will still great. And I have also found that a london broil is a great piece of meat to use.
Resolution 36 of 52. Check.

And to celebrate our last phase of our diet, we are now allowed to eat some carbs. Brown rice is one of those carbs and so in our community group we had asian food night and I was able to make a garlic chicken fried brown rice recipe that was pretty great!
Resolution 37 of 52. Check. 

Only 15 items left of my pinterest new years challenge!

 

Morning Stretching

In honor of the New Year, I feel the need to share about a work out that I love. Thomas and I have been getting up daily to do the third routine in this DVD.

 

The 10 Minute Solution Pilates DVD, has been use and abused. For the past year and a half we have been stretching every morning (yes at 4:15 am) to the Pilates for Flexibility routine lead by Lara Hudson.

I love it. Now there have been weeks that we get out of routine, but we always go back. The simple reason, we both feel a million times better when we stretch for 10 minutes every morning. It is so stinking easy! I can now, almost do it in my sleep and at 4 am, there are often times my eyes don't really open till about 5 minutes into the routine.

I can swear by it because over Thanksgiving my mother-in-law did the routine with me
and immediately bought it. 

For those of you who want something easy, something that will not make you break a sweat, something that only takes 10 minutes, but will keep you more flexible and doing something active? Get this! It also has 4 other 10 minute routines on it. Really any 10 minute Solution DVD or anything by Lara Hudson is great. I have others, but this is the one I come back to almost every morning. 

And while I am at it, if anyone ever wanted to come over a few times a week to do yoga or pilates with me ( I have tons of videos) I would love it!

Day 7 - Physical Health

 Day 7 - Physical health – I love that I have the ability to take ballet lessons. I love that I have the ability to stretch every single morning with Thomas. I love that I have great health at the moment. I have seen so many people I know struggle and I understand how truly blessed I am to be healthy at this moment in my life.