Covenant Natural Health Care

How to Make Homemade Vanilla Extract

Last year, I came across a recipe for homemade vanilla extract. Much to my surprise, it contained two ingredients, a few minutes to make and about 1-2 months to sit on a shelf before using. It's one of the easiest and best things I've learned how to make. Store-bought imitation, organic brands are watered down, really expensive and just don't compare to the quality and taste of making it at home. Saving $3-$5 per bottle is well worth the five minutes it takes to whip up a few bottles.

Homemade vanilla extract also makes a thoughtful, inexpensive gift/stocking stuffer for a co-worker, teacher, hostess, friend, neighbor, etc. If you make them now, they'll be ready to give right around Christmas.

Shopping List:
• 1 bottle vodka (good quality)
• Organic vanilla beans (I buy mine from Mountain Rose Herbs)
• Glass jars (I bought my last set of jars from Mountain Rose Herbs, but you may be able to find them for less money locally or online.

Directions: Take a paring knife and cut one vanilla bean in 4 pieces, then cut each piece lengthwise. Put beans into a 4oz. glass jar and fill with vodka. You can also make a larger, mason jar full of vanilla extract if you're making it for yourself. Use 3 beans per cup of vodka. Let sit in a dark place for 1-2 months. The longer it sits, the stronger the vanilla flavor will be.

Uses:
• Baking
• Add to plain, cream top yogurt
• Add to protein shakes
• Add to a small jar of epsom salt or dead sea salt for a vanilla-scented bath salt
• Use the vanilla beans to make homemade, vanilla bean ice cream

save time & money: meal planning 101

When my husband lost his job in January 2009, our income was split in half. I was forced to do two things immediately—cut back our food budget and find a way to stick to it. It was extremely hard to do at first and I struggled to find a solution for several weeks.

While Luke was home during the day, he would contact me at 4pm almost every day and ask, What would you like fore dinner? So my solution came out of frustration of late day planning —I decided to start planning out our meals weekly and the budget solution naturally followed.

Every Saturday I spend about an hour planning out the meals for a week. I set up a spreadsheet document for the plan in Google Docs so that I can share it with Luke and update it, if necessary. This is what it looks like:

Now, this doesn't include snacks (and it definitely doesn't mean that this is all we can have), but rather just the main course so that it takes the guess work out of each meal. Sundays we plan on eating any leftovers from the week before we stock it with new groceries.

The spreadsheet also includes, next to the menu item, page numbers and the abbreviation of the cookbook the recipe comes from. I also include any notes, since Luke helps out with dinner. I can also link to websites with the recipe, too. This method of meal planning has saved a lot of stress and really made it easy for Luke to fix stuff if I don't have time. But, the best benefit of this plan is that it helps me buy exactly what I need for each meal. No more, no less so that I don't waste anything on our shelves. As I search for recipes, I'll write down the ingredients on a pad of paper so that I don't miss anything.

Before menu planning I used to just pick stuff up off the shelf when getting groceries. I thought about meals while shopping and think oh, this sounds good, but forget by the end of the week and the ingredient go bad. I was wasting money and time. No more impulse buys and stress-free planning/cooking have become my best friends as I battle a busy schedule.

Get input from your family to help fill in the spreadsheet. Everyone gets input on what they'd like to have for the week = happy family. Saving money and decreasing stress and wonderful, but cooking and sharing a meal with the family is priceless!

Save money—buy local!

Last Friday, I participated in the local challenge mentioned in this blog post.

It was our first visit to Gorman Heritage Farm. The people were really nice and there was a good selection of organic produce. We bought some local raw honey, organic okra (LOVE), and a vegetable we rarely eat—baby eggplant.

Check out this delicious (my favorite) okra recipe.

I have such mixed feelings about eggplant. Maybe it's because I haven't really found a recipe that I really like. But, regardless of my feelings I bought it in hope of challenging myself to branch out and find a recipe that I like. I searched the internet for recipes and I either didn't have all the ingredients or the recipe just didn't sound good. So, I combined recipes into something that I had ingredients for and sounded good.

The result? Baby eggplant stuffed with caramelized onions, fresh garlic, and goat cheese.

The photo just doesn't do the dish much justice, but I thought it was really yummy. All I did to make it was:

1. Scoop out the eggplant with a tomato corer 2. Add butter to a saute pan and cook onion and garlic until onions are really soft and a little brown then add the eggplant and cook for a bit longer. Add salt and pepper at this point. 3. Spoon mixture into eggplant shells and then finish cooking them on the grill (or skillet).

My other great find while shopping local (Gorman Heritage Farm) is antibiotic/hormone free chicken for $3/pound. I was excited when I  realized a savings of $2-$3/pound on chicken by just buying it local. That's a savings of $6-$10/week for us. The only thing about this farm is that they only sell the chicken whole. Which is fine, but it does take a little more preparation time. 

Yesterday I mentioned that you can put vegetable ends and peelings to good use to get more bang for your buck. Over the course of a week and a half I saved all my vegetable peels and scraps to make a vegetable stock. This allows me to make use of every part of the vegetable and not waste anything. Plus it saves me about $12 a week in buying stock for soups.

I followed this recipe. And we used the stock tonight to make a black bean soup. You can also do the same thing with chicken bones—this makes buying a whole chicken at $3/pound well worth it. Chicken broth is great for soup, but also a great healing drink for a cold in the winter. I'm buying BPA free ice cube trays to freeze the stock and then I'll store it in freezer safe ziplock bags to use all winter long.

Check out this article on government raids happening on farms and private-supply food clubs. 

Health News Roundup

Here's what's in the news:

• Well, it's the time of year where companies are starting the vaccine push. Already, there are cases of severe reactions from the vaccine in small children. Don't be persuaded by scare tactics when it comes to vaccines—make informed decisions by doing your research. Click here to see a list of vaccines and their ingredients. Before you get injected with toxic chemicals, consider the long-term health risks that may come with vaccinations. As my husband found out the hard way, vaccination residue can hang around in your body for years! His childhood vaccines were one of the first things to show up when we started seeking holistic care for his seizures.
side note: Since starting to eat whole, organic foods, eliminating processed foods from my diet, not eating sugar and getting plenty of rest and exercise—which has been about 2.5 to 3 years ago—I have not had one cold, the flu, or one vaccine. I work in an office, in a cube, surrounded by people who got sick often and I was able to avoid it because I have built up a strong immune system. As summer fades and fall arrives I'll be sharing tips often to help you and your family stay germ-free, but now is the time to start building up your immune system!

• "You can slow down your aging process and help stave off heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. U.S. News & World Report offers some tips on how to do it ..." click here for the article.

• Click here to find out what the most common nutrient deficiency in the world is. Here's another great article on how this nutrient can be more effective at preventing flu infections than a vaccine.

• Butt jobs gone bad: "Officials said the women had been injected with chemicals including petroleum jelly and nonmedical-grade silicone, or 'the same stuff you use to put caulk around the bathtub,' according to Marcus." Read this article to find out why petroleum jelly may not be as safe as you think.

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I'm happy to report that the homemade dishwasher detergent that I mentioned in this post's tip of the day was a success! I can't remember the last time I had cleaner dishes. There was absolutely no residue left on the dishes like commercial detergents leave. I'm so excited to have found a cost-saving cleaning solution that is safe for my family.

Lastly, I want to address a question from a comment under yesterday's post. Q: What time-saving tips and tricks do you have for switching from processed food preparation to a more natural approach? 

A: Here are 5 tips that I found helpful in my transition:
1. Cook food in bigger batches and freeze it in freezer safe containers. Soups, burgers, chicken, etc are all easy to prepare in bulk (plus it saves electricity). I freeze individual containers (enough for 1 meal) that can be easily pulled out the night before for quick prep the next day.

2. Buy easy-to-follow, healthy, simple recipe books. I wish I could cook like Martha Stewart every night, but I can't—so I focus on putting simple, yet delicious and wholesome meals on the table. I recommend Hungry for Health and Eating Your Way to Good Health—both easy for you and the husband to follow with delicious results.

3. Chop up vegetables the day you bring them home from the market. I've found that I am more likely to snack on healthy vegetables and fruit during the week if they are already cut up, because I know that it gets too crazy during the week to take the time. Plus, it's super easy to throw a salad or a delicious vegetable omelet together for breakfast when the veggies are already cut.

4. Be patient. Once you get into a good groove with eating more naturally, you'll get quicker at preparing meals and snacks. There will be a workshop in late September, on a Saturday afternoon, where I will share time-saving tips, and recipes (and food samples) for preparing healthy lunches and snacks. Stay tuned for more info!

5. Experiment: Some of our favorite dishes came out of throwing ingredients together that were leftover in the fridge.

BONUS: Create a meal plan! I'll be touching more on this soon and providing a template. If you take an hour out of your weekend and plan all your meals for the week you can do two things: buy exactly what you need at the store (no more, no less) and take the guess-work out "what's for dinner". It not only saves me time, but also my sanity!

What our clients are saying

Thursday's, here, are a chance for our clients to share their healing stories:

I am a recovering cancer patient. I've been through a decade of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, 4 surgeries, 5 years of chemotherapy, radiation, 2 bone marrow transplants, handfuls of bone marrow biopsies, and months of hospital stays. Most of all, I have been told I have a relapse in my disease five times and less chance of survival each time. I can't remember the last time I had free time to live my own life, not to mention a two foot high stack of medical bills.  Since coming to CNHC, I feel better than I can ever remember. I look better than I ever have, and I have the complete confidence that my body is finally working for itself. I feel like I've jumped from a person with not very long to live to a men's health article in just 90 days. Dr. Blanchard is really onto something here!  I am so thankful I bought into the program and am more proud that I'm doing it. It takes complete discipline! I'm really happy I've had a chance to live and experience what our bodies really need. Nutrition Response Testing is a miracle all by itself! – LS

Are you a current client and have a story to share? If so, e-mail me your story to feature here.

I don't know about you, but I'm on a tight budget and the last thing I want to spend money on is natural, non-toxic cleaning supplies. Today, I found a recipe for 100% natural, homemade dishwasher detergent that costs $0.05-$0.06 per load and lasts for 12-15 loads. Now, I haven't tried the recipe, yet, but after reading through all the comments on the recipe post, most people had good success with it. It sure is worth a try for the cost savings and to avoid harmful chemicals in commercial detergents.