What is Natural?

When you think of the word natural, what images come to mind? Go ahead, think about it for a minute. What do you think about when you read, hear, or think about natural?

I think about canoeing in the pristine waters of northern Minnesota, freshly washed sheets snapping in the breeze, hiking through the woods, inhaling that early morning outside scent, the smell of wood burning...things like that.

Merriam-Webster lists 15 definitions for the adjective natural, and 4 more for the noun natural. This word can mean a lot of different things! Recently, I've been discovering just how much people's perceived notions of this word vary. Manufacturers totally know this, and they use this ambiguous word to rope us into buying healthier foods that actually...aren't.

We've all seen the claims on boxed, bagged, and canned foods sold everywhere. Remember this 7Up commercial?

So, what are the 100% all natural ingredients in 7Up? According to their own website, 7Up's fresh, all natural ingredients consist of: carbonated filtered water, high fructose corn syrup or sugar, natural flavors, citric acid, potassium citrate, calcium disodium EDTA.

I'm not trying to attack 7Up--you can certainly find a lot worse ingredients in a soda. My point here is that manufacturers throw around the word natural quite a bit, not as a substantiated fact, but as a marketing technique.

Check out these examples:

I could go on, but you get the point. A lot of products make "all natural" claims, but what exactly does that mean?

Unfortunately, it means absolutely nothing. There are currently no standards, no regulations, no rules about the use of the word "natural." It's all marketing. When people see those words, all natural, they immediately think the food, makeup, or other product is better for them, when in actuality, the product may or may not be any more natural than any other product on the shelf.

Kashi recently got some bad press for this. When an independent lab tested the soy in their Go Lean! product line, it was found to be 100% GMO (genetically modified), and this made people really mad. Our family buys Kashi's shredded wheat cereal, which is certified 100% organic, but the Go Lean! products do not have a particular label. They don't even claim to be all natural. However, because of Kashi's reputation, commercials, and natural looking boxes, people assume that all of the ingredients are natural, which is exactly what they want you to do.

Don't be fooled by natural looking boxes, foods shelved in the "natural" section of the grocery store, or even bright yellow stars that claim food is all natural. Turn to the side or the back and read the list of ingredients for yourself. You might be surprised at what you discover when you read the ingredients. In fact, this was one of the tactics I used on myself (and still do sometimes!) when I was at the grocery store and really tempted to buy food that looked so delicious. Once I actually started reading the ingredients, putting the uhealthy choice back on the shelf got a lot easier.

You even need to read the ingredients on foods labeled organic, 100% organic, or non-GMO verified. These labels are great, but they don't give an across the board promise. Even though the ingredients may be organic or non-GMO, you still need to be informed as to what those organic ingredients are! Just because they're not genetically modified or pesticide-laden doesn't make them automtically good for you.  As Dr. Ben Lerner says, organic sugar is still sugar.

Be an informed consumer. When you go to the store, try to ignore the giant marketing claims on the front of the product, and instead, examine the ingredients. Know what's in the things you put in and on your body.

Fresh Baked Bread

http://www.flickr.com/, photo by avlxyz

Whenever I smell fresh bread baking, I think back to my grandma's kitchen. On summer mornings, she'd have the windows open and the breeze would waft through, and she'd let me help her knead bread, watch it rise, punch it down, and bake it. Ah, the glorious smell of that fresh bread baking. I can still remember what it tasted like.

I felt a little bit of that joy when I discovered Great Harvest Bakery bread. It tasted so real, so different from the sugar filled processed bread at the grocery store. We're continually trying to pare down the grocery budget, though, and their bread is about $5.00 a loaf. Our family loves it, but I wondered if I could bake my own and save a little bit of cash.

For some reason, I felt like this would be way too hard to do--I'm not sure why, especially after watching and helping Grandma so many times--and my first attempt seemed to prove my fears. It was awful. Then I found a decent recipe. This morning, my 9 year old made it, with only a little help and direction from me. 

This really isn't very hard to do at all. It takes just a few minutes to add all of the ingredients and knead, and then the dough spends most of its time unattended while it rises, requiring only a couple of small steps along the way.  

If you have a bread machine, you may want to try Lisa Leake's recipe for whole wheat bread, but my recipe is for those of us who have to knead it ourselves. I adapted a recipe from The Bread Beckers, Inc. It isn't too complicated, it makes our entire house smell just like grandma's used to, and it tastes amazing. I know we have to limit our grains, but there's just about nothing better than a warm, fresh slice of homemade bread with some melting butter slathered all over it.

Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups very warm water
3 and 1/2 tsp. quick rise yeast
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
5 cups whole wheat flour*
2 tsp. sea salt

*I don't use the white whole wheat flour for this recipe. The regular, 100% whole wheat flour tastes the best (to me, anyway).

Directions:
Drop the yeast into the water and briefly whisk. Let it rest for a few minutes until it foams up a little bit, then whisk in the oil, honey, and egg. Add all of the salt and about half the flour and mix thoroughly, then add the remaining flour and knead until smooth and elastic. (You may have to add a little extra flour if the dough is too sticky.) Place in a large greased bowl, cover with a towel, and let it rise until double.

Knead again, then shape into loaves (makes 2) and place loaves into greased loaf pans. Some people don't cover the pans while they rise--I usually throw a towel over them, but I'm not sure how critical that is. When the loaves have risen about double again, put them in a preheated oven and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Uncommon Results

I've been exercising in my garage using the Max T3 videos, with Dr. Fred Roberto. In the middle of one of the videos, when my muscles are begging me to stop, he reminds me, "Uncommon effort produces uncommon results." Actually, he kind of shouts it. I want to smack him. But I push harder.

I love that phrase: Uncommon effort produces uncommon results. So true. I can think of a number of movies, like Rocky or Iron Will (okay, evidently I can think of old movies!), that illustrate this concept. The character that pushes harder and makes more sacrifices is the one who comes out the biggest winner, who gets those uncommon results.

The other day, as I was rolling out dough for a recipe, I thought to myself, This is so much work! I wish I had more time to do other things. Yes, gasp, I have those thoughts. But they don't last. The results have been more than worth it, even on days when it's hard.

I don't have to roll out my own dough, but I'm still looking for ways to make this work on a tight budget. Sometimes, I have to let pre-made healthy foods go because I can make them myself for a fraction of the price. Other times, I have to let certain recipes go because they take too much time. It's a balancing act, and just like a tightrope walker, I often find myself leaning too much one way, then the other, then back again the other way, but slowly, I'm getting the hang of it and finding my happy medium.

It is hard work sometimes, eating unprocessed foods. One thing I've realized, though, is that Dr. Fred Roberto is right. To achieve the uncommon results we're all hoping for takes uncommon effort. You might be putting forth some uncommon effort right now, and wondering if it will ever pay off, or perhaps you've been just playing around with the idea of giving up the overprocessed lifestyle that's making Americans so sick, but you're not sure you want to put forth that much effort. You're busy, your budget is already tight enough, and it just looks too hard.

If you want to do this, your mind is going to have to be convinced that it's worth it, or you'll quit when it gets hard. You'll give up.

This won't always be such a steep uphill climb. You will find shortcuts along the way to make it easier, but it won't ever be easy.

Then again, nothing that's really worth it ever is.

Why I Still Buy Fritos..Occasioally

http://www.flickr.com/, photo by anokarina

I bought a giant bag of Fritos at Wal Mart yesterday. I had already been to three other stores, including Whole Foods and the Nature's Market section at Kroger looking for some healthy chips to take with us on our upcoming vacation. I spent quite a while reading the labels on all of the "healthy" chips. I don't know why I took the time. I'd done it before, and I already knew what the labels would say, but I guess I was just hoping to find something different this time. I didn't.

Every single bag of chips, no matter how healthy the front of the bag claimed to be, no matter how expensive the price or trendy the brand, was made with damaged oils. Most of them also had a long list of ingredients, many of which I couldn't pronounce.

In previous posts, I have recommended tortilla chips made with sunflower oil. I've since read mixed reviews on sunflower oil, so I try to buy products made with it in very limited quatities, but I will choose it over safflower, vegetable, or canola oil any day. I really like the organic blue corn chips at Target, with whole flax seeds baked right in. They are made with sunflower oil, and we do eat them, but not all the time. We probably get 1 bag a month.

Yesterday, I wasn't looking for tortilla chips, though. I wanted to get a bag of chips that I could serve with sandwiches on our trip. I know, I know, I should serve fruit with the sandwiches, and most of the time, I do, but did I mention we're going on vacation??? We are bringing all of our own food instead of eating out. I think bringing one bag of chips is pretty good, all things considered.

Anyway, the bags of chips that listed sunflower oil as an ingredient said something like: sunflower and/or safflower oil. Every time. So, I could've potentially spent a lot more money for  trendy looking chips that are supposedly made from all sorts of root vegetables, but what's the point? Most of them, no matter how healthy their packaging claimed they were, had a list of ingredients that ran down half the length of the bag and always, always, always, included damaged fats.

So, I came back to Fritos. 3 ingredients, all of which I could easily pronounce. Yep, one of them was corn oil. Damaged fat. Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, yet in comparison, I think it was the safest pick for our special occasion.

When purchasing food, always read the list of ingredients. Yes, they can get very long and confusing. I've been duped on many occasions. I've come home with what I thought was pure Stevia (at a fantastic price!) but had more dextrose and maltodextrin in it than anything. I've picked up cashews only to later discover they'd been processed with rancid oils, and the list goes on.

Lisa Leake's rule of thumb is that if a food has more than 5 ingredients, it's too processed and she won't buy it. I'm not quite that picky, but if I turn the box/bag over and the list is mind numbingly long, I do just put it back. Anything with that many long words in it is probably not good for us.  

Bottom line: Don't "buy" the clever labeling on the package. No matter how healthy a food promises to be, look at the ingredients! More often than not, you will be surprised at what you find.

Patient Appreciation Day at 180 Chiro!

http://www.flickr.com/, photo by Supernan

If you're already a patient at 180 Chiro, they would like to show you some love and appreciation today for being a loyal patient. If you live in the middle Tennessee area and are interested in Maximized Living or chiropractic care, stop in anytime during office hours to learn more!

Contact 180 Chiropractic and Wellness for more information:

615-595-9063 or info@180chiro.com

4091 Mallory Lane, Suite 114
Franklin, TN 37067

Office Hours:
Mon: 7:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Tues: 3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Wed: 7:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Thurs: 3:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Fri: 7:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Sat: 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.

Walk-ins accepted!

Save the Sweets

http://www.flickr.com/, photo by Mihoda

If a regular Oreo has 53 calories, and a low fat Oreo has 50 calories, which one will you eat? What if you discovered that the "healthy" ice cream you've been forcing down has just as much added sugar as the really good stuff--which one would you eat? I'd definitely choose the less healthy option!
Our family tries to get in a good cheat about once a week, where we slurp down a giant bowl of Sweet Cece's frozen yogurt, throw down on dessert at a birthday party, or load up our plates at a church potluck. We say no most of the time to sugary, processed, junk food, so it's fun to actually say yes on those planned occasions.

http://www.flickr.com/, photo by tsakshaug

Here's the thing: foods like Oreos, ice cream, and candy should only be consumed on a very limited basis, no matter what their clever manufacturers lead you to believe. They're processed--they're full of damaged fats, refined sugars, and a bunch of additional ingredients none of us can pronouce. They taste fabulous, but they really need to be saved for a special treat. Even if they're low fat. Even if they're labeled "100 calories." Eating foods like these too often has gotten our nation into terrible health.

It's so easy to fall into the trap of trying to eat healthy and depriving yourself of foods that taste great, and yet still eat foods that are terrible for you. Let me give an example. After not darkening the door of a fast food restaurant for months, our family decided to eat lunch at Chick fil-A one afternoon. We had eaten healthy all week, so I ordered the chicken nugget meal with waffle fries. It was a complete cheat.

My husband, on the other hand, decided he was not going to cheat. He really wanted to stick with healthy eating, so he ordered a salad. With croutons. And dressing. His croutons were made out of white bread, and his dressing? Don't even get me started. Full, full, full of stuff way worse than what was in my meal. I walked out of there completely satisfied with my splurge, while he walked out, well, probably wishing he had splurged! His body got all the refined flour and damaged fats he would have gotten from a cheat, yet he didn't get to enjoy the pleasure of one.

Please don't hear me saying that you shouldn't bother to order a salad if you eat out. A salad can be a great option, provided you carefully watch what you put into it. Drowning it with dressing is going to present a problem, along with adding processed bacon bits or croutons. Another option is to just choose a burger or chicken breast wrapped in a large romaine lettuce leaf with fruit on the side.

Eating healthy is totally worth it. However, when it comes to "cheat" foods, rather than trying to go low-fat, low-cal, low-taste, so you can eat them all the time, try eating non-processed foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, local meat (preferably grass fed, if you can get it), and good fats most of the time, then reward yourself later with a full-out cheat that you will really enjoy.

Spring Skillet Cooking

This is my son's favorite time of year because he can run around in the backyard barefoot! I love spring, too. Activities seem to migrate outside, and we find ourselves hanging out on the patio instead of in the living room. The colors seem brighter, and the world seems happier, but cooking in the kitchen definitely seems like more of a chore. We don't feel like eating hot, heavy meals, and I certainly don't enjoy heating up the house via the oven.

I love my slow cooker, but even the meals from that seem too hot and heavy for this weather, so lately, I've been preparing a lot more skillet and stir fry type meals. The other night, I was "punting," and I stumbled across a delicious stir fry. It reminded me of those frozen Chicken Voila meals I used to make regularly. They were easy, and because we got nice big chunks of chicken and vegetables in one meal, I assumed I was feeding my family a healthy supper.

Here's the problem. Check out the list of ingredients in Chicken Voila's Garlic Chicken:

Vegetable(s), Broccoli, Corn, Carrot(s), Macaroni Product Enriched, Water, Semolina, Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Folic Acid (Vitamin aB), Chicken Breast with Rib Meat, Seasoning, Chicken, Soy Protein Isolated, Sugar, Garlic, Cheese Romano Dehydrated, Milk Pasteurized Cow's, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzyme(s), Onion(s) Dehydrated, Salt, Sodium Phosphate, Flavoring Natural, Yeast Extract Autolyzed, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Calcium Sulphate (Sulfate), Caramel Color, Corn Flour, Corn Flour, Cream, Dipotassium Phosphate, Paprika Extractives, Garlic Powder, Lactose, Maltodextrin, Milk Non-Fat Dry, Paprika, Soybean(s) Oil Partially Hydrogenated, Sodium Alginate, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Sodium Caseinate, Spice(s), Wheat Flour, Flavor(s) Natural & Artificial, Corn Starch, Corn Starch, Soy Flour Defatted, Calcium Acid Phosphate

I could point out any number of problem ingredients here, but what I especially want you to notice is the soybean oil partially hydrogenated on the third line from the bottom. Any time you see a partially hydrogenated oil in the list of ingredients, the product contains trans fats.

Okay, so I'm not going to tell you that if you cook my recipe below that it will taste just like Chicken Voila's Garlic Chicken, but it does taste somewhat similar (without sauce) and is basically just as easy to make. The only added steps were to cut up the chicken and sprinkle on some spices.


This is a very inexact recipe, but it's also pretty foolproof. I literally just threw it together, with no planning (or measuring), and it tasted delicious!

Garlic Herb Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
15-20 oz. frozen vegetables, your choice
Salt and pepper, to taste
Mrs. Dash's Garlic & Herb Seasoning Blend, to taste
Oil*
Noodles (optional)**
Cheese (optional)

Directions:
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cut the chicken up into small, square pieces. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper, then toss it into the skillet and stir fry for a few minutes, until no pink remains on the outside of the chicken. Toss in the vegetables, add a little more oil if needed, then sprinkle the garlic & herb seasoning over everything.

Stir fry for a few more minutes, until the chicken is lightly browned and the vegetables are tender. Taste, and add a little more seasoning blend, if needed. Feel free to toss a little cheese into the mixture, if you desire. I didn't add any cheese, and it tasted fine that way, too.

If you want noodles with your dish, cook 1-2 cups of them in a saucepan, substituting chicken broth for water while you stir fry the chicken a nd vegetables, then stir everything together at the end.

*I don't recommend olive oil in stir fry recipes unless you're keeping your temperature at medium-low or low. If your olive oil starts to smoke, it has turned rancid. It's no longer the good, healthy fat you need. Grapeseed oil has a higher smoke point, but coconut oil is even better. You can pretty much cook coconut oil on a high temperature and avoid smoking.

**Try your favorite 100% whole wheat or brown rice noodles.

I've got quite a list of stir fry dishes to try in the coming weeks as we transition into increasingly warmer weather, and I'll be sharing some of them on here with you. I hope you enjoy these flavorful ways of cooking vegetables and chicken. One of my favorite things about these one-skillet wonders is how seamlessly you can leave out the pastas and starches for a super healthy meal.

High Protein Blueberry Cobbler

http://www.flickr.com/, photo by La Grande Farmers' Market

When I was a kid, my mom had a large garden and strawberry patch. I don't remember really loving fruits and vegetables in general as a child, but I do remember eating raw peas right in the garden and having the luxury of plucking all the strawberries and plums I could eat. I have better memories of those fresh foods than any dessert I've ever eaten.

We're a little more limited in space than my mom was, so my kids' picking won't be unlimited, but I do want them to enjoy the taste and experience of growing some of their own food, picking it, and eating it right in the back yard.

One of the summer fruits our family really enjoys picking is blueberries. Bringing home buckets and buckets of them, it's so much fun to plan what we will make and how we will use them. This year, we planted our own blueberry bush. I can't wait to enjoy the harvest that future years will bring.

We have always loved making pies and other baked goodies with blueberries, but this year, I thought we might be out of luck. That is, until Dale sent me a recipe for Dr. Axe's blueberry cobbler. Technically, this is a dessert, but when I looked at the ingredients, it seemed like a very appropriate high protein breakfast. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure it would also be a very tasty breakfast. I've made a couple of other recipes using some of the ingredients that promised to be a great alternative, and they were disgusting.

I'm happy to report, however, as I sit here with my super stuffed belly, that the blueberry cobbler was not disgusting. It was delicious! It made a fantastic breakfast, but I can also see why Dr. Axe labels it as a dessert. Paired with some homemade ice cream, it would be the perfect finish to a meal.

Blueberry Cobbler

Ingredients:
3 cups washed blueberries
2 cups almond flour*
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup butter, softened
drop of almond extract (I used a few drops. I like almond extract a lot.)
3 Tbsp. flax meal, mixed together with 9 Tbsp. warm water, and allowed to plump for 5 minutes
1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (added at the end)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 baking dish with olive oil or coconut oil. Pour the blueberries into the pan, then whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, honey, and almond extract, then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together. Add the flax meal mixture and mix again. Finally, add the vinegar, quickly mix, and pour over the blueberries, making sure to spread the topping all the way to the edge. Bake for 40 minutes or until the batter is set. Cool for a few minutes, then serve.

*I buy my almond flour at Trader Joe's. It's a lot cheaper there than anywhere else. You can also toss some almonds in a food processor and grind them up yourself instead of buying flour.

Hint: If you want a little more of a traditional cobbler taste, consider substituting just a little white whole wheat flour for part of the almond flour. I substituted about 1/4 cup.

The Fitness Solution

http://www.flickr.com/, photo by Marshall Astor

Exercise is critical for everyone's health, yet millions of people suffer needlessly from chronic illnesses that can be prevented or improved through regular physical fitness. The time for change is now. Thanks to the latest scientific research in fitness, exercise can be completed in less time and with more results than ever. Maximized Living's Advanced Talk on The Fitness Solution will introduce you to MaxT3, their scientific fitness program that has proven results.

Our sponsor, 180 Chiropractic and Wellness, will be hosting a FREE informational talk on the importance of fitness and how to use surge training to get fit in just minutes a day.

Learn:

• - How to get the body you want in only 12 minutes a day
• - The benefits of exercise, including mental health
• - How athletes get into peak physical condition
• - The health risks associated with poor physical fitness.
  

This free talk will be held at 180 Chiro on Monday, May 14, at 6:00 p.m.

4091 Mallory Lane
Suite 114
Franklin, TN 37067

For more information or to sign up, contact 180 Chiro at 595-9063 or info@180chiro.com

Are You Rubbing Metal Under Your Arms?

http://www.flickr.com/, photo by greggoconnell

As temperatures start to rise and summer nears, we want to make sure we've got some decent deodorant. We don't want to be sweaty and stinky during the hottest months of the year. Unfortunately, for many of us, those super powerful, pore clogging wonders also contain some unsavory ingredients. In short, they're toxic.

Before we delve into the toxicity of some deodorants, let's stop for a moment and define our underarm warriors. Hopefully, you already know this, but I had never really thought about these definitions until someone told me. Deodorants and anti-perspirants usually come together in one product, but they actually do two totally different things and can be purchased separately. Anti-perspirants stop you from sweating. Deodorants stop you from stinking. So, if you want a product that stops both sweat and stink, you'll get an anti-perspirant/deodorant combo.

Here's the problem: Sweating is one of the primary ways your body rids itself of toxins. When you use an anti-perspirant to plug up all of the sweat glands under your arms, you're actually preventing your body from doing what God created it to do--sweat out those toxins. I know, I know, none of us want huge pit stains on our shirts on the hottest day in July. Just hang with me here.

It's actually best for you to just use deodorant that doesn't also contain anti-perspirant. Not only is there the whole "need to sweat" thing, but most anti-perspirants use an aluminum compound to plug up those sweat glands. That's right--you're rubbing metal under your arms.

So? Who cares? It gets the job done, right? Well, leaching metals into your body every single day can potentially cause some problems, like breast cancer and Alzheimer's. Check out the cautionary article at Natural News for more information.

Not everyone is convinced of this danger, however. The National Cancer Institute disagrees that the aluminum in anti-perspirants can cause breast cancer because the research provides "conflicting results." Read up on this debate for yourself and decide what you want to do. As for my family, we'd rather be safe than sorry.

Here's the next problem: Last summer, we decided that as we ran out of products, we would replace each one with a toxin-free (or as close to it as we could get) alternative. So, when we started running low on deodorant, we scanned the shelves at our local stores. Aside from the already mentioned issue of aluminum in nearly every one, most deodorants also contained one or more of the toxins we were trying to avoid. (Watch especially for parabens in deodorant. These ingredients will end with "paraben," such as methylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben.)

Trying to find an aluminum-free and toxin-free deodorant was nearly impossible. We weren't going to spend $13 for a stick of deodorant. We needed to eat, too! Fortunately, there are some alternatives, and they won't break the bank.

Crytal Deodorant: The owner of Alternative Health Products in Spring Hill introduced me to this amazing stuff. According to Crystal. com, "Crystal® is the world's leading all-natural mineral salt deodorant for a reason. It works to prevent odor while other products attempt to mask it or plug pores with aluminum chlorohydrate or aluminum zirconium. Crystal is safe, healthy and totally effective. That's why millions around the world use it every day."
My husband bought the deodorant stick almost a year ago. He uses it every day and still hasn't had to replace it. Supposedly, it lasts about a year, but I know of another man who has been using it for 2 years and still isn't out. The price is around $6.
I use the Crystal roll-on. It actually costs less than the toxin laden deodorant I used to buy, and lasts the same amount of time. I think I paid about $3.65 for my last bottle. It's very available, too. You can buy it right off their website, or from most stores. Locally, I know that Walgreen's, Kroger, and Whole Foods all carry it.

Baking Soda and Cornstarch: According to Mother Nature Network (MNN), you can combine baking soda with just a tiny bit of water and rub under your arms, or combine it with cornstarch to combat odor and wetness.

Lemon Juice: MNN also claims that some people swipe a fresh lemon under their arms each day. (Just don't do it right after shaving!)

Rubbing alcohol: You can also add some essential oils for a fresh scent (MNN.com). Try other astringents, such as witch hazel as well. Astringents work by evaporating moisture and constricting the pores (care2.com).

Milk of Magnesia: Dab some of this under your arms with a cotton ball.

Homemade: Check out Mother Nature Network for a couple of great DIY recipes.

What deodorant alternatives have you tried? Feel free to add them in the comments below.

Lastly, back to the issue of sweat. Honestly, since I switched to the Crystal deodorant, I really haven't noticed much of a difference. There have been a couple of situations where I felt a lot of stress and I started to sweat, but I think that would've happened no matter what deodorant I was wearing. I used it all summer long last year and didn't struggle with "pit stains" at all.

Of course, you'll need to decide for yourself what works and what you're comfortable with, but hopefully this information will help you find the deodorant that's best for you!

Muffin Monday: Orange Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins

I've blogged before that every Monday, we eat muffins for breakfast. It's a great way to start off that dreaded day, and it gets my kids up and helping in the kitchen. I love the conversations we have while we measure and stir, as well as the excited looks on their faces when their creations come out of the oven.

They're creatures of habit, and they'd eat the exact same muffins every week, but I've been trying to use some different recipes to give us more variety. I really want to look forward to pumpkin muffins in October instead of being sick of them because we ate them all summer long!

Anyway, we recently tried these orange sour cream chocolate chip muffins, and they were very good, and quite different from the ones we typically eat. I hope you like them as well. I adapted this recipe from Evil Shenanigans.

Orange Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup coconut palm sugar (if you can't find this, use rapadura or another less refined sugar)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. orange zest
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup orange juice
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup dark chocolate chips or carob chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 and spray 12 muffin cups with olive oil.

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix together the orange zest, butter, vanilla, orange juice, sour cream, and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir just until moistened, then fold in the chocolate chips. Scoop batter into the muffin cups and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the muffins spring back when lightly touched.

Enjoy!

Chicken Noodle Casserole



http://www.flickr.com/, photo by Jannie-Jan



I used to survive on the "Helper" meals. Chicken Helper, Tuna Helper, Hamburger Helper... I didn't even buy them because they were cheap. I bought them because I liked them. Okay, I loved them.

Sadly, they were the first thing to go when we said goodbye to refined foods.

I really, really missed those creamy, noodly dishes, but at 560 mg of sodium per serving, not to mention maltodextrin, partially hygrodenated soybean oil (trans fat), artificial coloring, added sugar, and more, that fun little waving glove had to go.

Just a couple of months ago, though, I came across a homemade creamy chicken noodle dish in the "Delicious on a Dollar" section of Better Homes and Gardens (Feb. 2012 issue). The first time I made it, I didn't read the entire recipe through before cooking, so let me give the rest of you a helpful hint: This is not a hard recipe, but it is extremely helpful to know which steps are coming before you start! The recipe's author does a great job of reusing ingredients to keep expenditures low, but doing so involves several steps to make the recipe.

You will likely have some yummy leftovers from this recipe. It makes a pretty big dish. A couple of weeks ago, I doubled it to share meals with friends, and the doubled recipe fed 4 families--and we still had leftovers!

Note: The recipe below calls for celery and onion. My kids wouldn't eat it with those ingredients, so I skipped the celery altogether and substituted onion powder for the chopped onion. Feel free to play around with the ingredients and use ones your family will enjoy. I've also considered adding some vegetables, but for now, I just serve the veggies on the side.

Chicken Noodle Casserole

Ingredients:
(I've substituted a few ingredients to make this recipe less refined)
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 of a chicken or 2 lbs. legs/thighs
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. salt
1 slice Ezekiel bread
1 12 oz. pkg whole wheat egg noodles*
8 oz. sour cream dip**
2 Tbsp. whole wheat flour
Olive oil cooking spray (I use the Misto)
2 Tbsp. parsley

Directions:
Place the chicken in a slow cooker. Add 6 cups of water, 2/3 of the onion and celery, and the salt, pepper, and thyme. Cook until done. (Tip: Put your chicken in the slow cooker first thing in the morning, then pull it out when you're ready to make your supper.) If you can't fit the water in the slow cooker, you can always add it later after you pull the chicken out.

When the chicken finishes cooking, take it out of the slow cooker with a slotted spoon and set it on a plate to cool. While it is cooling, tear the bread into small pieces and toss it in a bowl with the remaining celery and onion. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 375.

Pour the remaining broth from the slow cooker into a very large saucepan and add the egg noodles. Add extra water if necessary to cover the noodles. Boil the noodles until tender.

While the noodles are boiling, whisk together the sour cream dip** and flour in a medium saucepan. When you finish using the broth to cook the noodles, pour 1 cup of the broth into the saucepan and whisk it together with the dip and flour mixture until smooth. Cook and stir over medium heat until it boils.
While it is cooking, pull the meat from 1/2 of the chicken and add to the cooked noodles in a large bowl. Once the sauce boils, add it to the chicken and noodles and stir together. Pour the entire mixture into a large baking dish. Sprinkle the bread/onion/celery mixture over the top, then lightly coat the casserole with the olive oil spray.
Bake, uncovered, for 30-35 minutes until heated through and topping begins to brown. Top with parsley just before serving.

*I had a hard time finding 100% whole wheat egg noodles. Even the Healthy Harvest "whole wheat" egg noodles were only about half whole wheat, half refined. I ended up finding the 100% whole wheat noodles at Wal-Mart. The "Great Value" brand, at $1.00, was the only one that was actually 100% whole wheat!

** To make your own sour cream dip, combine the following:
8 oz. sour cream
1/2 Tbsp. parsley
1/2 Tbsp. onion powder or minced onion
1/2 Tbsp. seasoned salt
1/2 tsp. dill weed
dash of garlic powder