DIY all the cleaning and body things

It seem SO strange to back in this space! I have no idea if anyone is still subscribed so I'm perhaps/hopefully writing to myself, which is exactly my intent. An enormous amount has happened in the past four plus years since I published a post. We no longer live on a farm or have a garden or chickens and we eat an embarrassing amount of unhealthy food in this very busy season of life, but that's not why I'm here. I just need a digital notebook that I can't lose to record some diy bath and body/cleaning recipes I hope to tweak into perfection. So bear with me, or ignore me, or whatever. ;)

As a tiny little introduction, I was recently very saddened to be deceived by the company I had invested a lot of time and money into. I thought I was purchasing the best of the best non-toxic organic personal care products for my family and... I wasn't. As a result, my skepticism is on overdrive and rather than seek out new products that may or may not be what they claim to be, I'm setting out to make my own. Here's where I'll wrestle with those recipes coming back to edit as I change things up.

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Dishwasher detergent has been a battle for us. When we moved into our new house a couple years ago I went through so many different "safe" dishwasher detergents trying to find something that worked well. The water here is nothing like the farm water I was used to. We finally found one that worked, but it was from that company that I no longer trust, so I pulled up the pinterest and got to searching. I wanted something that was truly non-toxic(no-borax) and crazy easy to make. Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! I'm going to link each product to where I purchased it. Perhaps it will be helpful to someone, but really it's just so I can remember.

DISHWASHER DETERGENT
1 1/2 C citric acid
1 1/2 C washing soda
1/2 C baking soda
1/2 C sea salt 

Just dump it all in a jar and shake it up to mix. Use 1T per load. If you have hard water, you may need to use some vinegar in the rinse agent dispenser, but the salt does act as a natural softener. 

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We seem to go through quite a bit of lotion. My favorite lotion is from a local to me company called Root that makes the most amaaaazing organic/non-toxic makeup and beauty products. However, at $16 for a little 1.75oz jar I'm a little stingy with sharing it, I need something that the rest of my people can slather all over their selves. Plus, I wanted a way to sneak some magnesium into our bodies. This one is a work in progress, it's a tad on the greasy side when you first put it on, so I'm going to keep tweaking the oils/butters to try to remedy that little issue. It soaks in quickly, so not a deal breaker, I just think I can do better.

MAGNESIUM LOTION/BODY BUTTER
1/2 C shea butter
2T cocoa butter
2T oil(I used 1T each avocado and jojoba because it's what I had, sweet almond would work well)
1T magnesium oil(just dissolve magnesium flakes in an equal amount of boiled water to make oil)
20 drops essential oil(I used 10 grapefruit and 10 lavender)

Melt everything but the essential oils together in a double boiler, then put in the fridge(or freezer if you're impatient like me) until it just begins to firm up. Add your essential oils and mix it all up with your immersion blender until it turns to lotion.  

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Deodorant. Super necessary, but gosh it seems to be difficult to find one that has totally non-toxic ingredients AND works. Because what's the point if you're still going to smell like a boy's locker room? To make things more pesky I'm really sensitive to baking soda in my deodorant, which is what a lot of recipes use. We actually found a deodorant that we super love, from a fantastic little company called Primally Pure, but it's not cheap and with kids getting older we have four deo users and I'm hoping to find something more cost effective. After much pinteresting I found this recipe which I used pretty much exactly for my first try. I'm going to tweak it a bit next time(I'll edit this post when I do to show the changes made). The consistency seems very similar to the Primally Pure we've been using and a lot of the ingredients are the same, so I'm hopeful it will work well!

SENSITIVE(baking soda free) DEODORANT

2T beeswax pastilles(or grated beeswax)

2T shea butter

2T cocoa butter

1T & 1t magnesium powder(grind magnesium flakes in a coffee grinder) 

1T kaolin clay

24 drops essential oil(I used lemongrass and lavender)

Melt everything but the essential oils together in a double boiler, let cool for a few minutes, add essential oils, then pour into an old deodorant tube.

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That's it for now. I'll add more as I make them. If you're reading this and you diy your personal care products, feel free to tell me about them in the comments. :)

No, I'm not dead. ;)

Wow, I haven't posted on here for over four months!! No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. ;)  Our family has simply entered a new season of life. This past summer, for various reasons, we decided to send our older two children to public school come fall. That definitely was a decision that was very difficult to make and many tears were shed. Once the decision was made, I felt such a peace about it though. It was hard, but we knew that it would be okay and were open to whatever God had waiting around the corner.

I never could have anticipated that waiting there for me was Courtney Lorenz Photography. It all just kind of happened. And I love it. :)  So, for the past four months, I've been working to build up my business and find my niche. I must say that so far, my favorite clients are the tiniest ones. I am so enjoying channeling my creativity into photography.

So, things will probably be a bit quiet around here for a while. Maybe indefinitely. I just don't know right now. I am still home each day with our youngest two girls. They are almost three and just turned one now and they keep me hopping, for sure.

If you'd like to keep up with what I'm up to now, I'd love to have you 'like' my Facebook page.

Zucchini Crust "Pizza" Recipe

One of my fellow farmer's market vendors was telling me about the zucchini crust pizza he makes, so I had to give it a try. I'm still undecided about it. It looks amazing, and it tastes amazing, but it's the texture that I take issue with. I think if I hadn't had it in my mind that it was pizza I would have given it a big thumbs up. The fact of the matter is, the crust is much too soft to be called pizza, in my opinion. Maybe that was cook's error, though. I got a bit over-zealous and didn't allow it to bake long enough to get crispy. Anyway, enough of the chatter, here's how I made the pizza pictured...

Zucchini Pizza Crust

3 1/2 C grated zucchini
1/3 C whole wheat flour
3 eggs, beaten
2/3 C grated Parmesan
Basil, about 2T fresh chopped or 2t dried
Sea salt

Lightly salt the shredded zucchini and allow it to sit for 10-15min. The salt will draw out the water. Then, squeeze out as much water as possible. Roll the zucchini up in a towel and twist to get it as dry as you can. Once that's done, mix it in with the rest of the ingredients. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake at 350 until dry and lightly browned. I did 20 minutes, but should have gone longer.

Remove from oven and top as desired. I topped mine with the following:

Homemade pizza sauce(recipe coming soon!)
About 1/2lb of cooked ground beef
Fresh picked whole basil leaves
Fresh picked tomato, sliced
Fresh picked green bell pepper, chopped
Shredded raw white cheddar

Once you have it all decorated, pop it back in the oven for about 20 minutes until the cheese starts to brown. Slice and enjoy! :)

Also be sure to try my chocolate zucchini cake recipe! My friend Christy's cheesy zucchini bake looks pretty tasty too! What's your favorite way to enjoy zucchini?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This has been a crazy hot and steamy summer here in Minnesota. In fact they just had a bit on the news tonight about how the dewpoints actually qualify it as being "tropical". Not too often you hear "tropical" and "Minnesota" in one sentence. All the hot and the wet has made for outstanding growing conditions in our garden{and mosquito population}.  Six weeks ago we were just getting things in the ground. Now, it's positively exploding! We've been enjoying lettuce, green beans, and cucumbers. I'm very very excited to enjoy these little beauties...

It's crazy how many tomatoes are on each plant. I'm thinking that we have 20 plants. I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in tomatoes!! This is the second year we've planted Stupice tomatoes. I can't recommend them highly enough.

Well, I had hoped to share more, but the baby just woke up. I hope you are all having a great summer and your garden is also thriving! :)

Mulberry Pie Recipe

A couple years ago we discovered a couple mulberry trees out in our grove. Last year we completely missed getting them picked before the birds got to them. This year, I've been watching the tree like a hawk! When the first few were ripe enough to pick I was right there! We've eaten a lot of them plain, but I also wanted to try my hand at making something. One of my favorite homesteading blogs posted a recipe just in time! I made a couple very teensy little changes, my recipe is as follows:

Whole Wheat Mulberry Pie

Crust:
2 1/2 C whole wheat flour(I used freshly ground soft white wheat)
1/2 t sea salt
10  T butter
8-10 T water

Stir flour and salt together. Cut in butter. Stir in water until you've got a nice ball. This is enough to make a top and bottom crust, so divide in half, roll it out, put the bottom in your pie plan and sit tight with the top for now.

Filling:
4 C mulberries cleaned and destemmed(prepare to get dirty!)
1 C sucanat
1/2 C whole wheat flour

Toss that together, fill your pie crust and place the top crust on. Crimp your edges.
Bake at 400* for 15 minutes, reduce to 350* and bake for an additional 45 minutes.
Allow to cool and enjoy!! As you can see, we ate ours with vanilla bean ice cream. It was delicious. :)