After I read about the health benefits of sprouting, I started to sprout my grains and beans before using them.  It is SO EASY!

Here’s how to sprout dried beans:

* Sort your dried beans, removing all stones and shriveled beans

*Rinse the beans. Put the beans into a bowl and cover with water until the beans are about 3 inches under the water.  Cover and soak overnight or 8-10 hours.

*After soaking, drain the beans in a colander and rinse.  Leave the beans in the colander and rinse at least twice a day. The beans will sprout in about 1-3 days.

*When the beans have a very small sprout you can store them in the fridge for a few days or cook right away.  These cook up faster than un-soaked beans and are much more nutritious.  You can use them for your favorite recipes, our family likes them in chili.

Stephanie at Keeper of the Home has a great post about freezing all those beans you just made!

Check out Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade to see more food tips.

Do you have any good recipes including beans?

I got this recipe for crock pot yogurt at Nourishing Days.  If you are interested in nourishing foods and wondering how they will fit into your life, this is the blog for you!  Shannon makes healthy cooking easy and has great recipes.

Here is how my yogurt turned out:

It was thinner than store bought yogurt because it’s without any extra thickeners.  I usually sweeten it with unsulfered molasses, pure maple syrup and pure vanilla extract.  I also add a little water in it and we drink it like keiffer.  I used these sweeteners because of their high iron and calcium content.

We only use cultured dairy and a little organic cheese.  I just buy organic, lightly pasteurized milk at the store and make our own yogurt.  I’d rather be using raw milk, but the culturing process adds back most of the enzymes and vitamins lost in the pasteurization process.

This is SO easy! You’ll have a lot of fun making this.  I’ve made about 4 batches and it’s turned out great every time!

This is the time schedule that works well for us:

3:30 pm- pour the milk into the crock pot and cook it on low

6:00pm- turn off the heat and let it sit covered with the lid

9:00pm- stir in the 1/2 cup of yogurt and cover with towels

9:00am (the following morning)- take out 1/2 cup of yogurt to use next time, stir and and enjoy!

I also made yogurt cheese with one batch. It was so good that the kids and I dipped our veggies in it. Yum!

I laid a piece of cheesecloth over a mesh colander, put the colander into a large bowl and poured the yogurt over it.  The whey drained out in a few hours and I was left with the yogurt cheese…so easy!

For more yogurt info be sure to stop by Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s blog. She just did a great post on yogurt and the comments people left were very informative and helpful.

If you’d like to learn more healthy recipes go to Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade.

If you try making your own yogurt or have some tips to share, please comment below. I’d really like to hear what works for you!

When I started learning about nourishing food, I was really excited.  But, there was one thing I was dreading….my grocery bill.  Because everyone knows that healthy food costs more, right? Well it can, but it doesn’t have to.

When I first started buying healthy food, I was shocked when I left the store.  I left with only a few bags to take home and a short receipt in my hand. My grocery budget was shot.  Something had to change!

I’ve learned a few things that have helped me feed our family healthy food on a budget. I believe these tips will help you too!

First, having a menu plan will make the greatest difference in the amount you spend at the grocery.  But, remember that a menu plan only works if you actually USE the menu you’ve written down!

Start prepping your evening meal in the morning; so you won’t be too tired to cook that night. (If you’re too tired to cook, fast food is very tempting! Ask me how I know!)

Organic and Thrifty sums this up nicely: “Remember, the way to eat nourishing without spending a bunch of money is to look for the deals on meat, poultry, and seafood as well as produce and build your menu on those things. Then, round out your meals with whatever you have on hand. And remember, you don’t need lots and lots of meat per meal; only about the size of a deck of cards!”

Stay tuned for part 2 on Wednesday.  I’ll be showing you what I bought on my last grocery trip and how I saved almost $30 in a regular grocery store!

Well, here’s what you’ve been waiting for: Sugar-Free, Healthy Birthday Cake!

When I say sugar-free, I’m not talking about using some nasty artificial sweetener. I’m talking about using natural sweeteners and ditching the white sugar.

I found a wonderful place for desert recipes at Elana’s Pantry where I got the recipe for this carrot cake. I just used what I had (wheat flour instead of almond flour) and adjusted the sweeteners to taste.

Here’s how I made the cream cheese icing: 2 sticks of butter, 3 packages of cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of  natural vanilla extract  &  1/4 cup of pure maple syrup. Soften the butter and cream cheese using the whisk attachment on your mixer, whipping them together. Add in the rest of the ingredients. If it’s too thick, you can add some organic half and half or milk. Spread it on the cake after it’s cooled off. It tastes great!

To make our birthday cake as healthy as possible, I didn’t want to use food coloring. We tried to use natural food coloring last year, but the cake looked awful! So…this year we tried something new. I baked and iced the cake like usual then put a layer of plastic wrap over the top.

Next I put down a layer of blue icing (I saved some of the icing and colored it with food coloring) and then put the Legos on top. When it was time to serve the cake, I just peeled off the plastic and put the Legos in a mesh strainer to wash them off.

So we enjoyed a decorated cake and stayed healthy, too!

I have been learning as much as possible about natural living and cooking. My family feels better, the children act better and we keep from getting sick if we eat natural, healthy foods. It is so worth it!

My son was so excited to have this cake. He said ” Now my stomach won’t hurt after my party!”.  Isn’t that pitiful?! I feel so bad for being ignorant of what was healthy for us to eat for so long. I’m glad to be changing!

The Archeo Copper Bathtub

I promised that I’d give you more spa recipes in my last Works For Me Wednesday post, so here they are!

(Be sure to stop by Rocks In My Dryer for more tips by awesome women!)

There are few things as nice a sinking into a nice hot tub on a cold winter day. I like to use natural products and I work hard to keep my spending low, so homemade bath products are perfect for me!

Last week I told you about the bath salts I use, so this week I’ll share some favorites and some recipes I’d like to try.

Brown Sugar Scrub

1 cup almond meal or ground up oatmeal

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup of melted coconut oil, almond oil or light vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients together and use about 1/4 cup every time you scrub. When you are in the shower just take a small handful of the mixture and add a little water to make a paste. Apply to wet skin and scrub gently. Rinse off and your skin will be soft and smooth! This scrub smells good enough to eat (and you could, but I don’t recommend it)!

Here are a few recipes that I’d like to try:

Bath Bombs

Milk and Honey Bath

Bedtime Bath

Come back tomorrow to find out about 5 minute makeup!

In keeping with my recent post about staying well, I thought I’d share how we get things clean around my house.

Our story begins a few years ago…

Once upon a time there was a young homemaker that wanted a clean, germ free, lemon fresh, sparkling home.  So, she went to the store and bought the best new cleaner on the market.  You know, the one that the TV ads said would make her home the most beautiful, the cleanest, the best smelling…

Our little homemaker couldn’t wait to try out her new cleaning products!

The first room to clean was the bathroom.  “If these handy dandy products work in here, they will work anywhere!” she said.
She sprayed and scrubbed, from the toilet to the tub.   But by the time she got to the shower a strange thing started happening.

After spraying the shower with some kind of chemical cocktail our heroine started to cough, sneeze and wheeze.  Her hands and eyes felt like they were on fire!  Something must be wrong!!!

When she was finally feeling better, she began to try to understand why those nice people on TV were saying those cleaners were so wonderful.

Why did she feel like she had been poisoned, gassed and burned with acid?  All she wanted was a nice clean, germ free, lemon fresh home!

She stared to read and ask questions.  The things she learned shocked her!

All those chemicals were actually dangerous to her health and the health of her family!

Something had to be done.

Stay tuned tomorrow to find out what happens to our little homemaker!