Malleable Reality

Here are the homemade toothpaste/tooth powder recipes I’ve promised from last week’s Back to Basics post, regarding why store-bought toothpaste is not as beneficial as you may think it is.

Remember, you want to steer clear of harmful store-bought toothpastes that contain: Fluoride, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS), Saccharin, glycerin, and any artificial colors (such as: FD&C Blue 1, FD&C Red 3, FD&C Red 40, FD&C Red 33, and Yellow 10 Lake), and any other chemical ingredient. Research the ingredients in your hygiene products! 

First, let’s look at the ingredients I choose to use to make homemade toothpaste & why:

• Baking soda:  Cleans teeth, whitens teeth, and freshens breath. Going “back to basics”, baking soda has been used as a teeth cleaning agent for years, and is still used in today’s commercial toothpastes.  Baking soda is also alkaline and will neutralize the acids that are lingering in your mouth & on your teeth from consuming acidic foods/drinks.  Acidity can erode enamel & causes cavities.
• Sea Salt: Natural anti-septic, used for years.  Kills bacteria that cause plaque, and cleanses teeth & gums.
• Xylitol:  A natural, non-fermentable sugar that not only sweetens the toothpaste, but protects against cavities as well. Xylitol has the opposite effect of traditional sugar.  While sugar helps bacteria grow & thrive by creating an acidic environment, Xylitol cannot be fermented, and therefore protects against the growth of bacteria and helps to prevent cavities, helps with the re-mineralization of teeth, & eliminates plaque.
• White Kaolin Clay: Earth’s clay has been used for years by our ancestors for various cosmetic and healing purposes.  Clay has been known to cleanse & purify the skin by pulling toxins and pollutants from the skin when used as a mask, and have also been used in toothpastes and mouthwashes for the same purpose.  When clay is used in the mouth, it purifies, cleanses and rids the mouth of bad bacteria. Kaolin clay is also known to polish the tooth’s surface, while gently removing surface stains and plaque.
• Eggshells: Probably the best natural source of calcium, since eggshells are calcium & other trace minerals.  The composition of eggshells are very similar to our bones & teeth.  Eggshells are easily absorbable.  Finely ground eggshells make calcium powder.  However, only use organic, pastured-eggs, not store bought (factory farmed) eggs.  Factory farmed/store bought eggs are not very nutritious…if the chicken does not get proper nutrients, the eggshells will not be filled with all of the nutrients we need, and instead will be weak & easily breakable (therefore, have less calcium).  If you don’t have healthy eggshells available, use calcium powder instead.
• Coconut oil: Great for the gums and is anti-bacterial.  Coconut oil kills bacteria that causes tooth decay and gum disease.
• Aloe Vera gel (in it’s pure, liquid form): Aloe has been used for centuries as a home remedy.  For toothpaste purpose, it cleanses and soothes teeth and gums, as it is also anti-bacterial.
• Myrrh Essential Oil:  Great for the mouth & gums!  This oil has been used for cleaning and purifying since ancient times and is known to keep gums healthy & eliminate mouth sores/infections. It is antiseptic by nature, and also stimulates circulation, which is great for the mouth and gums.
• Peppermint Essential Oil:  Anti-bacterial and provides a minty fresh scent to breath, and a minty taste to homemade toothpaste.

After much research and thought, here is the toothpaste recipe I like to use: (you can feel free to add or remove ingredients based off of your own research, and change measurements as you see fit.  I use measurements of my own based off of research and personal wants/needs, and personal opinion).

1/2 cup baking soda (finely ground*)
1/4 cup finely ground* sea salt
1/4 cup finely ground* xylitol
2 tablespoons Kaolin clay
2 tbs finely ground* eggshells (organic, pastured-eggs from a farm.  I wouldn’t do this with factory farmed, store bought eggs.  You can replace the eggshells with calcium powder if necessary).
Essential oils (I use myrrh & peppermint)

To use as a toothpowder, use recipe above and sprinkle onto toothbrush & brush gently.  If you’d rather have more of a paste consistency like I do, use the following:
A few tablespoons coconut oil (I used 2 tbs)
1-2 tsp aloe vera (pure aloe vera, in it’s liquid form/aloe vera juice)

Store in small glass jar or bowl if you made paste (the wet Kaolin clay CANNOT be stored in plastic, as it will absorb the toxins from the plastic.  As a tooth powder (in dry form), it can be stored in plastic).

*For ingredients marked “finely ground”, I literally grind these ingredients (in small portions) into a fine powder in a small coffee grinder (Krups Electric Coffee Grinder, $19.00).  It works fabulously.  The reason for grinding these ingredients is simple:  They’d be too abrasive on the tooth’s enamel otherwise.  Although some people do use baking soda whole and brush strictly with baking soda alone, I feel that it is too abrasive to use on a daily basis (in it’s whole, un-ground form).  Some dentists say it’s fine and good for your teeth, others say it’s okay to use, but maybe only once a week instead of daily, while other’s disagree completely and say it is too abrasive. Well, to be safe, I grind all of my “too abrasive” ingredients, including baking soda, to a fine grind.

I make this recipe, which allows me to have more than I need for one small jar (think baby-food jar), which is probably about 2-3 tablespoons of the tooth powder (dry) mixture.  Then I mix about equal amounts of coconut oil, and 1-2 teaspoons of aloe vera to form a paste.  I store the extra dry ingredients that are already mixed together in a zip lock bag so when I run out of toothpaste in the future, I just have to mix together a few tablespoons or so the dry ingredients with the coconut oil and aloe vera, and I’ll have a new jar of toothpaste.  Quick & easy.  I could also always use the dry ingredients as a powder, of course, but for now, I’m sticking with the paste.

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*I obviously am not a dentist or a professional of any kind, & all of the information I have is based off of my own research & opinion and is not meant for treating or curing any hygiene disease.  I simply make homemade products for my own personal use, and I’m offering the recipe for my homemade toothpaste for those who would like to make and use their own all natural toothpaste.  That doesn’t mean you will be cavity-free!

I’ve been cooking a lot of chickens lately and I love it.  So this Back to Basics post will be dedicated to the process I take to make a delicious chicken and what I do with the leftovers!

To start:

We have a chicken that came from Clover Patch Farm via the 4 Season Harvest Buying Club (which I’ve previously blogged about here).  This was somewhat of a smaller chicken than what we were used to, but it still had lots of meat!  This, and all of the chickens we get from the farm, are Freedom Rangers (by choice).

Freedom Rangers are free range, and raised on pasture.  They grow slower than the Cornish Cross breed and have bigger legs/thighs due to the exercise they get during their lives by being free range. (Hah, that was my very brief explanation).

*ABOVE: I’m not sure why the chicken looks dark in some areas like in the wings & towards the top of the chicken (right hand side) — it wasn’t this color in person, it must have just been the lighting.*

First step was to cut off the neck, which comes attached!  This time I did this part all by myself, without the help of my boyfriend who is usually the neck-cutter. I was very proud of myself!

Next, rinse the chicken thoroughly in cold water and pat dry.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. 

Drizzle oil onto the bottom of pan to start, then place chicken in the pan. 

Season the chicken by rubbing with oil of choice (just don’t use those rancid vegetable oils!) and adding spices/herbs of choice.  This could include any combination that you like.  I tend to use any of the following: Basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and salt & pepper.  I rub the chicken with these seasonings on all sides.  I also juice a lemon and pour the fresh squeezed lemon juice over the chicken, but that is optional.  I put half of the lemon (sliced up) in the cavity, along with some farm fresh/grass-fed butter, about a quarter of an onion (chopped), and all of the seasonings that I used for the skin of the chicken.

 At this point, I chop up the rest of the onion to place in the pan, around the chicken, along with any vegetables I want to add for dinner that night.  I like: red potatoes, zucchini, carrots, celery (mix & match).  Other vegetables also work fine, just use whatever you like!

Oh, back to the farm fresh/grass-fed butter! I put about a 1/2 tablespoon to 1 tablespoon of butter under the skin of the chicken, just between the meat and skin at all 4 corners of the breast (at the top and the bottom end of each breast).  you’ll have to separate the skin from the breast a bit with your fingers but it’s not a big deal…just slide your fingers under the skin.

Roast the chicken at 475 degrees, uncovered, for about 45 minutes.  (It could need more or less time depending on the size of the chicken).  This step is to brown the skin a bit and to get it to be a little crisp.

Remove pan from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.  Add 1 cup of water to the pan (maybe 2 if needed — personal opinion).  *Picture below*

Cover pan and place back into oven for an additional hour and a half, depending on the size of the chicken.  Sometimes I leave it in a bit longer.  I use a meat thermometer to double check to make sure it’s completely done.

Next, I take the chicken out of the oven and allow it to sit for about 10 minutes.  This allows the juices to settle within the chicken. 

And without ever basting, you will have the most tender, moist, and delicious chicken ever.  It is seriously. so. good. 

The first time I made a freedom ranger chicken (this exact same way), I made homemade gravy to go with it, and we ended up not even using the gravy because the meat was so good alone.

At the bottom of the pan will be the delicious juice that came from the chicken (obviously cooked with the vegetables and all of the seasonings used to cook the chicken).  DO NOT WASTE THIS!  It is so, so good.  I put this in a container to be used when making other chicken meals (leftovers from the chicken we just made), add it to soups, rice, mashed potatoes.  ANYTHING that you want to add some extra flavor to (in an easy and healthy way…throw out the boxed, processed stuff.  You don’t need it when your cooking with the drippings from the chicken!)

This small container lasts longer than I originally thought it would because I only need to use about a tablespoon at a time/per meal.  It solidifies and becomes gelatinous/jell-like (rather than the liquid that’s pictured here.  This picture was from before it was refrigerated), due to the gelatin from the chicken.  This is the good stuff.

As far as the left over meat:  We’ve gotten anywhere from 6 to 9 meals out of any given chicken. Just look at how much chicken is here after I took all of the meat of of the bones (I tried to separate the dark meat from the white meat):

And this is after we’ve already eaten our dinner for that night!

Granted, there’s just two of us (my boyfriend & myself), but it still impresses me!  This chicken was the smallest chicken we’ve had thus far, at 3.75 pounds, and it still made 9 meals.  NINE MEALS FOR TWO PEOPLE!  At $4.39 per pound, this particular chicken cost us $16.46.  That’s $1.82 per meal (for the chicken, not including vegetables or any sides I make), which comes to only $0.91 per person, per meal of chicken.  Awesome?? YES!

I separate the meat into smaller portions (enough for a meal for two) and wrap them up separately.  I put the individual packages into the freezer and have quick, easy, and delicious meals ready to be taken out of the freezer, defrosted and heated up for dinner again.  I do all kinds of things with the left over meat, but our favorites have been: Chicken over mashed potatoes (with sides of vegetables that we choose at the time) along with some of the drippings from the chicken that was saved as well, or a stir-fry with either rice, noodles, and/or vegetables of choice.  We love it.

And lastly, because we don’t like to waste any of this awesome chicken, I do not throw out the bones!!  I use those to make chicken stock for soups.  If I do not make the stock right away, I freeze the bones to be used for stock at a later time.  I’ll post about making stock in a future Back to Basics post! (This is important part of the chicken process!)

That’s all for now, but I hope this post inspired someone, anyone, to go out and get a farm fresh, Freedom Ranger and try this!

Due to Wednesday’s SWAT team raid of Rawsome, the seller of raw milk in California, this week’s Back to Basics post will be in regards to raw (unpasteurized) milk, and why it is better for you than conventional/pasteurized milk that all of us buy at the grocery store.  And yes, raw milk actually goes back to basics  — our ancestors drank only raw, unpasteurized milk at one point…actually, for years!

In my quest for a healthier lifestyle, I’ve been introduced to “real foods”/”traditional foods” — the concept of eating truly healthy and nutrient dense foods, healthy fats & oils, and leaving refined sugars and processed foods out of the picture.  (I’ll save the details of other Real Foods in future Back to Basics posts).  To begin, however, I’ll focus on nutrient dense Raw Milk  (also known as: “Real Milk”).

Pasteurized milk was once raw milk that was heated to such a high degree that it kills off all of the “harmful” bacteria…meanwhile, it also completely destroys all of the GOOD bacteria (that our stomachs love & thrive of off), and kills all of the nutrients that raw milk is filled with. Raw milk only becomes a problem when the cows are not raised properly (producing unhealthy cows) or when the milk is mishandled.  With healthy, pastured cows, the beneficial bacteria in raw milk flourishes. Raw milk from grass-fed, free roaming cows is safe (when handled properly), whereas raw milk from factory farmed, confined, feed-lot fed cows is not.  Pastured cows eat a natural diet of foods that they are supposed to eat/food that they would eat in nature.  Given their natural diet, pastured cows have a balanced pH in their stomachs which becomes present in their milk supply. 

The milk that is sold in conventional grocery stores mostly comes from factory farms where cows get practically no sunlight, are shoved into small stalls where there movement is limited, and they stand on concrete filled with their own feces. They do not get to roam around on pasture like they are supposed to, and definitely are not fed a good, natural diet that they are supposed to be fed. Also, from living in the conditions that they are forced to live in, the cows often become sick and are given antibiotics to allow them to keep producing milk.  THIS kind of milk MUST be pasteurized because of how disgustingly MESSED up the milk is to begin with (filled with pus from udder infections, etc). A healthy cow, who is pastured, is allowed to roam around in natural sunlight, and eat a healthy diet since they eat the grass that they live on (how nature intended cows to live & eat).  These healthy, happy cows produce healthy, nutrient dense milk filled with beneficial bacteria, minerals, and enzymes.

Of course, there’s a very small risk in drinking raw milk (as with any food, really), but the risk here has been proven to be so small that you’d have a greater chance of getting sick or some kind of disease from mishandled meats, or other foods (think of the E.coli outbreak with that bagged spinach, or any other food recalls you can think of) — it can happen with anything, any time (people even get sick from pasteurized milk!)   So you take a risk with everything you eat.  What’s important is to do the research and make informed decisions, weighing out the pros & cons.  To me, it seems that the small risk involved with consuming raw milk is worth it, considering that it’s better for you and the cows the milk comes from are HEALTHY cows.  After looking into it, processed, antibiotic filled pasteurized milk seems pointless even. Adding chemicals and killing off all of the nutrients…what’s the point of drinking it?

In any situation, raw milk should be purchased only from a trusted farm/farmer.  It is important to find out their animal-raising methods and how their milk is obtained and handled. At some farms, farmers go above and beyond to make sure their raw milk is safe for consumption by performing extra tests on their milk supply.  Of course, people with compromised immune systems should be extra careful and stay away from anything unpasteurized (in my opinion, unless the issue is properly researched).

I’ll post more info on “real food” diets in future Back to Basics posts (to document & share everything I’m learning/doing to lead a healthier lifestyle). Meanwhile, do your research & support local & organic farming whenever you can! (I’m trying, and transitioning!)  Feel free to message/ask any questions you have  :)