A little toothpaste experiment

We ran out of the natural toothpaste we were using so I decided to experiment with making something myself to clean out teeth with. It's super fun to try out new things especially with ingredients that I have in my own kitchen! We haven't used store bought toothpaste for ages because of the things it contains like flouride, sodium lauryl sulphite (which is found in most commercial soaps and things!) and artificial sweeteners. So far we have been ordering natural toothpaste from iherb.com online. So until I get around to buying some new toothpaste I'm excited to see how this one I made myself goes.

So here is what I did: I mixed equal parts of coconut oil baking soda together and then added some peppermint oil. Simple! Coconut is amazing for so many things and especially in a toothpaste it works great because it is antibacterial. I put the ready toothpaste in a little jar (which I have a lot of in my house for all my little projects) and brushed my teeth with some. My teeth were nice and squeaky clean. It was very refreshing due to the peppermint oil and was a little salty due to the baking soda. Maybe for someone who is used to store brought sweet toothpaste it might take a little getting used to. But as for me, I'll give my toothpaste a big thumbs up! :)

For the love of eggs

This was my lunch today: a boiled egg mixed with homemade mayonnaise and honey mustard on top of some toasted sourdough bread. I baked a whole batch of carrot sourdough bread the other week and freezed it all for lunch moments like this. I added a little homemade sauerkraut on the top of the bread too for a boost of enzymes. It was one tasty sandwich. And any egg mixture that was left over was great with some celery sticks. Eggs rule. I wish I had my own chickens.. :)

Peppermint chocolate fudge

              Cacao butter, cacao powder and peppermint chocolate fudge!

Medjool dates

If you do anything this week make sure you try this peppermint chocolate fudge. Oh my. It is so good. I'm eating some now as I write. If you like mint and chocolate this one is for you. I don't know why you would want to buy chocolate from the store any more when this raw fudge is so good. Every week I think of something healthy and sweet to make so that when I feel like something sweet I have made something ready for that moment. Being prepared is the key. This is how I never need to buy sugar filled lollies and chocolate from the shops. And I don't even even crave them because I think the things I make myself are better. Hih.

What makes this fudge divine is the raw cacao butter. Cacao butter is cold pressed from cacao beans and has this lovely chocolate smell. It adds a great flavour to any chocolate dessert and is more solid in room temperature compared to coconut oil so it hardens up chocolate more. It can be a bit pricey so I usually only use a little at a time.

Peppermint chocolate fudge
50g raw cacao butter
1 tbls coconut oil
12 soft dates
2 tbls raw cacao powder
Peppermint essential oil

Put the cacao butter and coconut oil in a bowl and melt them by adding a bowl of hot water underneath. This way it will melt slowly and not reach too high of a temperature. If your cacao butter pieces are big you can grate them beforehand to get them to melt faster. Add raw cacao powder to melted cacao butter and coconut oil and a drop or two of peppermint oil. Take the pits out of the dates and begin with you hands or a fork to mush them. Add the dates to the mixture and start to mix/knead/squeeze through hands until the dates are combined. It should become like a soft ball of dough. Then press into a container and put in the fridge or freezer until it hardens up. Cut up into pieces then enjoy!

(This recipe makes a small batch and I store it in my freezer. I usually add 2 drops of peppermint essential oil to my fudge. You can add less or more depending on what you like. I also think you could make this in a food processor. I haven't tried yet, so far I've just used my hands and gotten messy.)

Time for some butter

Butter is good for you! Lets all eat some butter today:)

Organic hairdressers

An organic salon. Does this even exist? You bet! Last week I went to the hairdresser and came out so happy. I had forgotten what nice hair looked like! Going to the hairdressers is such a luxury at this time in my life and the last time I had done anything to my hair was last Christmas.. 8 months ago. And that was when my mum was here and she cut my hair. (Love having a hairdresser mum.)  I am so happy that I found a really really good hairdressers here in Sydney. Last year I searched on google for natural organic hairdressers in Sydney. I search google for different things often and call lots of places looking for better alternatives to all things in health. It's too easy to go mainstream and follow the crowds without thinking ;) There are few natural salons around Sydney and as this is such a big city I was so lucky one happened to be quite close. It's called Salon Dimensions and it's in Terry Hills. The salon is beautiful and they use all natural and organic products. I love looking at all their organic shampoos and styling products and they have natural makeup too. The best thing is that their hair colours don't contain toxic chemicals like ammonia. It smells nice in the salon without all the toxic fumes you usually associate with hairdressers. And best of all the prices are very very competitive! I paid less that what I see advertised in most other salons. Oh yeah and they even had a natural beauty magazine that I could read too while my hair was getting done:) Perfect for me! I think its a good idea to spend a little time sourcing out a good toxic free hairdressers. One that doesn't have a bad effective on the environment due to the chemicals they use and one that is safe for you too. Your body absorbs whatever is put it and for me it's a great feeling to know I'm treating body with love and respect.

Coconut oil: How I use it

Coconut oil is one of my most precious and loved foods in the kitchen. It has just so many health benefits and I use it for so many things. It is one of natures amazing natural gifts to us that our bodies just love and thrive on. Coconut oil is a tropical oil and consists mostly of saturated fat. We have been bombarded for years that a low fat diet is healthy and saturated fat is bad for you. BUT there is lots of research that says the exact opposite. Saturated fat is essential to our health and our body needs it to grow and function properly! Things like coconut oil, butter and fats from grass fed animals is what cultures around the world have traditionally been eating.

I first got into coconut oil when I was a teenager and our family changed our diet to a more healthy one. One of the things we started eating was coconut oil. My mum used to always have organic extra virgin coconut oil at home which we used for cooking and baking. Good quality coconut oil is processed in a way that doesn't alter it's health properties and keeps it raw, which means it has not been processed with high temperatures.

Here are the ways I use coconut oil in my home. You can be creative and come up with different ways to add it into your food and life <3

Cooking 
Coconut oil can be used in cooking to replace other oils. Coconut oil one of the best oils to cook because it can stand high temperatures and doesn't go bad when heated. I use it in frying, to saute vegetables and in baking. Cookies and cakes taste great with it.
Smoothies
Add a tablespoon to your favourite smoothie in the blender. Mmmmm. I like to add a good fat like coconut oil to a fruit smoothie to balance out the sugars in the fruit.
Raw chocolate and desserts
Use it to make raw desserts and chocolates. For example: Coconut oil, avocado, banana, honey and cacao powder blended together makes a wonderful healthy chocolate mousse. Or by mixing coconut oil, honey and cacao powder you can make an lovely sweet chocolate frosting for cakes and other things!
Body and face moisturiser
I use it all the time on my skin as a moisturiser. A little bit goes a long was and your skin will love it. Plus coconut oil is naturally anti bacterial!
Makeup removal
Coconut oil is perfect for this and it nourishes you skin at the same time too. With some cotton it wipes off eye makeup and anything other makeup real easy. Who needs chemical makeup removers anyways?
Skin cleansing
Without writing a whole post on this, you can use coconut oil to cleanse your skin. Google 'Oil cleansing method' if you want more info. Basically because oil dissolves oil, coconut oil can be used to cleanse and draw out impurities in the skin. Massage some coconut oil all over skin or face for a few minutes and put a warm towel over and leave for a minute. Then wipe off coconut oil and rinse skin with water.
Hair treatment 
I put a tiny bit into the ends of my hair after a shower. Nourishes the hair and makes it nice and soft. Definitely a great way to use coconut oil.
Straight from the jar
And last of all.. I just eat it off the spoon! Coconut oil is a great source of quick energy.

Check out this link for some more info on the benefits of coconut oil:
http://wellnessmama.com/2072/the-many-benefits-of-coconut-oil/

Lunch with the girls

The other week I had two gorgeus girls come over to make some yummy and healthy food. It was so fun we will have to do it again. Nothing like real food and real beautiful friends. We made a quinoa tuna salad and a banana coconut smoothie. I only recently discovered young coconuts and am in love with them at the moment and usually buy one every week. I have to get my hubby to open them for me because they are pretty hard to open. The young coconuts have lovely sweet water in them which is supposed to be really good for you. So to make a smoothie we just blended the coconut water and the flesh that we scraped out from the coconut in a blender with a banana. As for the quinoa salad it was really easy and I have made this salad again heaps of times since having the girls here. We used white quinoa but black and red work great too or a mix of them all. We just added the things I had in the kitchen at the time like lettuce, cucumber and tomato but basically you can put whatever you want in the salad. A roasted pumpkin and rucola version is super good. Oh yeah and the yoghurt makes it all nice and creamy!!

Quinoa salad
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup natural yoghurt
125g tuna
Juice of half a lemon
Lettuce, cucumber, tomato, avacado
Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste