Fresh Veggies

OK, so maybe I'm a bit nerdy but I truly get excited on produce pick up days.  I belong to a Florida Fields to Forks co-op and every Thursday I pick up my produce share. This week's share included fresh organic kale, red-leaf lettuce, red chard, rainbow carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, avocados, cauliflower, and mangos.  

It takes a few days to get through all of the produce so I try to make sure it is properly stored so it remains fresh.  I discovered a great trick to keep lettuce fresh for over a week (seriously!)  Just wash it, spin it dry and store it, wrapped in paper towels, in an airtight container.  A week later, you'll still have fresh lettuce - no that slimy, funky smelling stuff that it usually turns into after a week.

I travel next week, so I will cook most of these veggies over the weekend so my family can enjoy fresh side dishes in my absence.  More on that later...

Making Natural Hair Products

Over the past couple of years, I have really worked to simplify both my hair routine and the products that I use in my (and my daughter’s) hair. The more I learned about products, the more I realized that many of the brands I purchased were not contributing to the overall health of my hair. I threw out everything containing sulfates, mineral oil, and lists of chemicals that I could not identify.

As I transitioned to natural ingredients, I purchased from many companies - big and small – and probably spent more money than I care to think about. So, I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to learn how to create hair products for myself. Last weekend, my daughter and I attended a Natural Hair Lab (hosted by Karen of the Peace and Beauty Project) and made organic shampoo, hair butter, and hair oil. We had a great time learning about the benefits of natural products on our hair and skin.

It was great to be able to work with ingredients that we could pronounce like the castile soap, black cocoa butter, cocoa absolute and mint in the yummy shampoo.

And the jojoba, rosemary, and mint in the soothing scalp oil.

And also the almond butter, lemongrass oil, and coconut oil in the amazing lemongrass hair butter.

My daughter and I learned so much. Maybe too much – she came home and told her Dad that his chemical-laden shower gel was poison! LOL!

Good times…..