Simple Lives Thursday #50

Simple Lives Thursday Blog Hop

Today is Simple Lives Thursday... A fun blog hop dedicated to anything and everything about simple living. Please share with us how are you living your life simply... we all want to know!

There is so much to learn about living simply these days... making lacto-ferments, raising animals, living off-grid, cooking with real food, gardening, raising family, homeschooling, homemade body products, natural cleaners, frugal ways, creating art with recycled materials, homesteading, homeopathy, growing herbs for health and much more!

Simply hosted by:

• Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS
• Diana @ A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
• Annette @ Sustainable Eats
• Alicia @ Culinary Bliss
• And me... the Noisy Mama  :o)

The New "Featured Post" Badge!
Did you know that it will be one year of Simple Lives in 2 weeks?! Even though I've only been a part of this group for a few months... It has been fun to see how much it has grown and we’d like to thank all of you that come week after week to share what you have been doing to live a Simple Life.


I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve personally learned from all of you especially when it comes to green living. I have been inspired by many of you and have bookmarked many pages on things I’d like to learn and do such as soap making, sewing, making cheese and more.


Now that we feature 5 posts every week, we’d like to thank those by offering a cool new badge you can display on your blog.

If you’re a featured post for the week, we will email you the direct link to post this on your blog or website. Does it look simply lovely?!  (P.S. we will be emailing all of the past featured posts bloggers to send you your badge!)


Exciting News!!!
In order to commemorate one year of SLT, the hosts of Simple Lives Thursday are going to be leading a twitter chat!!! A time to chat about all that we’ve been doing and to reminisce on our favorite posts that have been submitted during the first year of SLT! Our hashtag for the event will be #simplelives.


So tune in as next week we’ll announce via our blogs the date and time for our chat!


For those participating in the chat, we’ll also have giveaways!!! So make sure and stop by as we’d love to meet all of you who have inspired us throughout this past year!


In the meantime make sure to follow the hosts of Simple Lives on Twitter to stay in the loop!


Alicia – @culinarybliss
Annette – @SustainableEat
Diana- @dianabauman
Mare – @marebeard
Wardeh – @WardehHarmon


After our Twitter Chat, the hosts of SLT will be dedicated to one giveaway a month to our featured posts bloggers! So link up and continue to inspire us for another year to come!

Please Read & Follow the Rules

Since Simple Lives Thursday is growing, as a group, the five hosts have decided to set some ground rules in order to keep the integrity of the blog hop. Don't stop here... keep reading and find out who the Top Fives are this week!

1. If linking real, traditional and simple recipes, please make sure all ingredients used are whole. Such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes, meats, even sugar. In order to keep the integrity of "nourishing" food, we will delete any recipes that utilize processed, boxed foods. We are definitely not going to be ingredient policeman, however, please note that this is a hop hosted by advocates of the real, local and sustainable food movements.

2. Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Simple Lives Thursday community by sending your readers to all of the other participants posts. We all end up sharing and learning from each other.

Top Five Featured Posts!

We really enjoyed going through last week's SLT submitted posts and look forward to doing this every week. Hope you will enjoy the top five picks just as much as we did! Thank you everybody for the awesome submissions... the posts that caught our attentions last week are:

1. A Pallet Turned Herb Garden With Video by Seattle Seedling.
So simple and great for those who have small backyards and it's another way to repurpose a pallet.

2. For the Love of Coriander by Urban Homestead South Africa.
Wendy, blogging from South Africa, shares her love of coriander-cilantro along with a delicious peanut butter chicken dish.

3. Sprouting by Simply Loving Home.
We love this idea especially for micro-greens during the Winter time.

4. GrowinKitchen At Bandung Berkebun by GrowinKitchen.
A lack of yard didn’t defeat this determined gardener. She found a community garden where she could pursue her dream of a kitchen garden.

5. Chamomile For Swelling by Home Shalom.
This blogger demonstrates the medicinal properties of chamomile. Quite Amazing!!

Be Simple and Share Your Post!

Woohoo! Congrats to those five! Alright, now it is your turn! Make your "Simple Lives Thursday" post on your blog and come back here. Below you will find the Linky box where you can post your simple ideas, tips & recipes. Please add a link to this post at the end of your blog post entry and share with your readers that it is part of this week's Simple Lives Thursday. Feel free to download the badge above and upload it to your post!

Also, when you link here... your post will appear on all five blogs!

For those who don't have blogs... Please share your ideas, tips and recipes about simple living below in my noisy comments area. Don't get left out!

Everybody, take the time to visit the linked blogs. Sharing your favorites on Facebook or Tweet would be awesome! Spread the wealth of simple living!

Before you head down to put in your link... Please take a few minutes to read through the rules above, if you haven't yet. We wrote them up to help you understand what Simple Lives Thursday is all about and how we can unify in the right direction.

Have a great week  :o)

Hugs!

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GNOWFGLINS Lacto-Fermentation eCourse

Have I Told You All How Much I Love GNOWFGLINS eCourses?


Right now I am going through the Sourdough eCourse and LOVE it. I've already made several treats using my homemade Honduran sourdough starter. I am so much more confident now baking with sourdough that I look back and laugh at myself for being so nervous about it! The eCourse is so easy and simple to follow... totally not like some of the websites I tried to learn from and failed. I highly recommend you joining the Sourdough eCourse, but you can just purchase the Sourdough A to Z eBook and skip the eCourse. The eBook has the entire sourdough eCourse in written form and a lifetime of updates whenever a new recipe is shared. Yeah, its a sweet deal!


Anyway, the focus here is the newly launched Lacto-Fermentation eCourse. I know I shared about this lacto-fermentation class a while back, but I now have decided that GNOWFGLINS eCourse is much simpler, easier and costs less.


For only $8 a month you have access to video demonstrations and print downloads to help you master the art of lacto-fermentation like I have! The Lacto-Fermentation eCourse offers simple lessons and tasty, nutritious recipes for pickles, chutneys, relishes, condiments, pickled fish and meats, sourdough, simple cheeses, beverages, and more! The weekly video demonstrations give you multiple opportunities to practice the principles of lacto-fermentation in limitless ways.


I LOVE LOVE lacto-fermentation... it was the first thing I learned to do when I starting to learn more about real & traditional food. I learned quickly how to make my own kombucha and kefir. I fell in love with the Cortido (Latin American Kraut) and still have it almost everyday 4 years later! Since then, I've made all kinds of stuff and almost every one of them have come out delicious and left my gut dancing for joy.

What You’ll Be Learning And Doing

• The history of lacto-fermentation
• The science of fermenting foods
• Why fermented foods are supremely digestible and nutritious — the best kind of food for your gut!
• How fermented foods help you embrace the harvest
• Save your appliances, resources and energy by going low-tech with traditional fermentation methods
• How to ferment fruits into delicious relishes, chutneys, jams and beverages
• How to turn vegetables into fantastic pickles, relishes and krauts
• Culture dairy into tasty and nutritious butter, sour cream, yogurt, kefir, cheese and more
• Use traditional methods of sourdough to prepare your baked goods and pastries for the best nutrition and digestion
• Pickle and preserve meats in traditional methods
• Ferment beans to make dips, spreads, and pastes the old-fashioned way
• Learn how to give your homemade condiments a probiotic boost
• Master making the most delicious and refreshing natural sodas and other probiotic beverages
• Learn formulas and rules for making up your own ferments to use up your seasonal produce
• Put fermented foods into your daily diet with our meal and menu planning helps

Join Now!
So, what do you think? You up to the challenge of making ferments? Honestly, it really isn't hard... once you do it... you will be amazed at how easy it is. Just recently I was chatting with a long-time friend on Facebook and she shared that she had just started making lacto-ferments. She went on to share that she was shocked by how easy it was to make them, amazed that her family loves it and notices improvements in her family's overall health when eating ferments. Now, she only wishes she had started sooner, but was too overwhelmed at the thought of trying something so foreign... so different!

If you are in the same position as my friend was, my advise to you is to join the Lacto-Fermentation eCourse. Don't think about it... don't put it off... don't even pick your nose! Just do it and you will be so glad you did! LOL!


A bonus about this eCourse is the enrollment is always open, unlike other online classes, so you can enroll any time.


If money is an issue... I encourage you to start thinking about how you can save money. You can start saving $8 a week and in 12 weeks you will have a whole year paid for! If you are thinking there's no way to save $8 a week... what about skipping that weekly cup of java from the coffee shop or that movie rental or stay home more & saving that gas money... there are so many ways you can cut out things that are pleasures (luxuries, really) that can be lived without for several weeks. You never know, by the time you save up the money... you might realized you don't even need those things anymore! That's the beauty of learning to live simply and fully.


Now, go sign up for the Lacto-Fermentation eCourse and... I promise... you will love it!

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Make It Yourself: Homemade "Perpetual" Vanilla Extract

Finally, I made my own "perpetual" vanilla extract about 2 months ago and can't believe how EASY and CHEAP it was to make it! Really, I can't believe I waited this long to make my own vanilla. Crazy!


I'm sure most of you already know how to make your own vanilla extract. I knew how to do, but never tried to do it till 2 months ago. For a long time I was using up a big bottle of vanilla extract that I bought from Mexico when we lived there for a couple years. Then for the past 3 years, I've been asking mostly my mother-in-law to bring me pure vanilla extract from Trader Joe's whenever they visit.


Not anymore! Why pay more for store-bought vanilla extract when you can make your own for way less? All you need is 2 ingredients: vanilla beans and alcohol.

Yes, you will save a lot of money making your own vanilla extract. First, you can find good quality, organic vanilla beans for less than $2 at Mountain Rose Herb (use my link on the right sidebar, thanks!) or here on Amazon for a fantastic price! Second, you can get good, cheap alcohol from Trader Joe's or your local grocery store. Third, you need a jar or bottle to mix those two together for their "perpetual" marriage. I am using a flip-top bottle from IKEA that my mother-in-law got me a couple years ago, thanks MIL!


If you start now, you will have delicious homemade vanilla extract ready to go by the time Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year roll around. You can even pour your homemade vanilla into cute little bottles and give them away as gifts to your friends and families, but don't stop there!


When I say "perpetual"... I mean forever, continuous, long-lasting and so on. When you are getting low, just pour more alcohol into the jar or bottle of vanilla beans and give a it a shake. The alcohol basically preserves the vanilla beans, making it last longer. The flavor will be just as intense. Whenever you use up a vanilla bean for something. Clean it up, add it into your bottle or jar of vanilla extract and top it off with more alcohol if needed! You can look around and remove any old, mushy ones whenever you put in a new bean, if needed.


Now,  here's a few things you should know before you head out to buy your vanilla beans and alcohol... The three most common types of vanilla are Mexican, Bourbon (or Bourbon-Madagascar) and Tahitian. Each has its own unique smell and flavor… Mexican is strong & spicy, Bourbon is bold & floral and Tahitian is lively & fruity


I bought my vanilla from Mountain Rose Herbs (link on the right sidebar) and love it! It doesn't say what kind, but it came from India... so my guess, it is most likely Bourbon. It smells and tastes so different from the pure mexican vanilla extract that I've used for so long.


Anyway, you can use non-organic vanilla beans, but I don't know if they are sprayed with chemicals or not. I would be safe and go with organic because you will be soaking it in alcohol which its design to draw out everything from the vanilla beans... so, using non-organic vanilla beans would not be wise because you don't want to be drawing out any lingering chemicals that might be on them. BUT if you are able to find research showing that non-organic vanilla beans are clean... sent it my way, please!

With the alcohol, the higher the proof, the better. I wouldn't purchase cheap, cheap vodka because it will taste cheap. I go for the mid-price ones. I like Absolute or Skyy... I also want to try making vanilla extract with rum, which they make here with sugar cane. 

NEW TIP: I learned a great tip from one of my readers that has proven to be extremely helpful. She shared that adding water will help extract some of the flavors that alcohol alone can't do. So, I've changed the recipe a bit and also increased it to give you measurements for a quart.

7/19/13 UPDATE: After making my perpetual vanilla extract for 2 years now I do not think there is much of a difference when you add water. I no longer add water to my vanilla extract and still enjoy it very much. PLUS, my vanilla beans are still going strong and they are the same beans I put in from this post!

Homemade "Perpetual" Vanilla Extract

10-12 vanilla beans
2 1/2 cups vodka, rum or bourbon
*3/4 cup pure, filtered water
1 quart glass jar or bottle


Slit the vanilla beans lengthwise, scoop out the bean goop and add them to the glass jar or bottle. Pour in your choice of alcohol & water, cover with lid and shake well. Place the jar or bottle in a cool, dark place for at least 2 months and shake it whenever you think of it. As time goes on the liquid will become darker and the smell & flavor will grow stronger.

Make sure to keep those vanilla beans covered at all times or they might get moldy.

When the vanilla extract is ready… use it like normal when baking. When your vanilla gets down to about half full, top it off with more alcohol and shake it up.


Yep, that’s all you gotta do! Just keep doing that and you will never run out of vanilla extract. Maybe once or twice a year, if needed, you can replace a couple of the beans when they are looking soggy and old.

Yep, that's all... told you it was easy and cheap! Now, go & get yourself some vanilla beans, cheap booze and you will be glad you finally did it... like me!

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Simple Lives Thursday #49

Please Read & Follow the Rules

Since Simple Lives Thursday is growing, as a group, the five hosts have decided to set some ground rules in order to keep the integrity of the blog hop. Don't stop here... keep reading and find out who the Top Fives are this week!

1. If linking real, traditional and simple recipes, please make sure all ingredients used are whole. Such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes, meats, even sugar. In order to keep the integrity of "nourishing" food, we will delete any recipes that utilize processed, boxed foods. We are definitely not going to be ingredient policeman, however, please note that this is a hop hosted by advocates of the real, local and sustainable food movements.

2. Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Simple Lives Thursday community by sending your readers to all of the other participants posts. We all end up sharing and learning from each other.

Top Five Featured Posts!

We really enjoyed going through last week's SLT submitted posts and look forward to doing this every week. Hope you will enjoy the top five picks just as much as we did! Thank you everybody for the awesome submissions... the posts that caught our attentions last week are:

1. Cherry Lemon Tart by Like A Bubbling Brook. Guest blogger Kelly shares a tart to use her family's favorite summer fruit: cherries. "Cherries are an incredibly delicious and nutritious superfood packed with vital nutrients that improve health and well being, such as beta carotene, vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, iron, fiber and folate."



2. Food Studies Emerge in Higher Education by Zomppa. We love seeing consciousness about food in higher education; it is well worth academic attention!



3. Medieval Cookery: Browning Chicken and Making Soft Cheese by Tea Time with Annie Kate. Traditional food cooked in traditional ways connects us with our past –- which was often the most sustainable way to live.



4. Just For Women by Mexican Wildflower. Simple and natural ways to help you along during "that time of the month."



5. Mint Lamb Sausage by Hounds in the Kitchen. Not only are we impressed that this family makes a batch of sausage in 30 minutes flat, but the combination of lamb and mint is absolutely tantalizing.

Simple Lives Thursday Blog Hop

Woohoo! Congrats to those five! So, today is Simple Lives Thursday... A fun blog hop dedicated to anything and everything about simple living. Please share with us how are you living your life simply... we all want to know!

There is so much to learn about living simply these days... making lacto-ferments, raising animals, living off-grid, cooking with real food, gardening, raising family, homeschooling, homemade body products, natural cleaners, frugal ways, creating art with recycled materials, homesteading, homeopathy, growing herbs for health and much more!

Simply hosted by:

• Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS
• Diana @ A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
• Annette @ Sustainable Eats
• Alicia @ Culinary Bliss
• And me... the Noisy Mama  :o)

Be Simple and Share Your Post!

Make your "Simple Lives Thursday" post on your blog and come back here. Below you will find the Linky box where you can post your simple ideas, tips & recipes. Please add a link to this post at the end of your blog post entry and share with your readers that it is part of this week's Simple Lives Thursday. Feel free to download the badge above and upload it to your post!

Also, when you link here... your post will appear on all five blogs!

For those who don't have blogs... Please share your ideas, tips and recipes about simple living below in my noisy comments area. Don't get left out!

Everybody, take the time to visit the linked blogs. Sharing your favorites on Facebook or Tweet would be awesome! Spread the wealth of simple living!

Before you head down to put in your link... Please take a few minutes to read through the rules above, if you haven't yet. We wrote them up to help you understand what Simple Lives Thursday is all about and how we can unify in the right direction.

Have a great week  :o)

Hugs!

Read More

Simple Lives Thursday #48

Please Read & Follow the Rules

Since Simple Lives Thursday is growing, as a group, the five hosts have decided to set some ground rules in order to keep the integrity of the blog hop. Don't stop here... keep reading and find out who the Top Fives are this week!

1. If linking real, traditional and simple recipes, please make sure all ingredients used are whole. Such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes, meats, even sugar. In order to keep the integrity of "nourishing" food, we will delete any recipes that utilize processed, boxed foods. We are definitely not going to be ingredient policeman, however, please note that this is a hop hosted by advocates of the real, local and sustainable food movements.

2. Please link your posts back to one of the hosting blogs. This is a common blog hop courtesy. This link helps build the Simple Lives Thursday community by sending your readers to all of the other participants posts. We all end up sharing and learning from each other.

Top Five Featured Posts!

We really enjoyed going through last week's SLT submitted posts and look forward to doing this every week. Hope you will enjoy the top five picks just as much as we did! Thank you everybody for the awesome submissions... the posts that caught our attentions last week are:

1. How to Remove Hard Water Buildup From Faucets and Waterheads by Common Sense Homesteading.
Very practical and something everyone has in the cupboard already.

2. 30 Steps to Self-Sufficiency by a GOOD and SIMPLE life.
What does self-sufficiency mean to you? Here are 30 steps that can be taken toward self-sufficiency.

3. Soapmaking 101 by Homemade Alaska.
For those of you that have ever thought about making your own soap!

4. Blueberry Kefir Soda by Hecka-Good Recipes.
An incredibly gorgeous flavor idea for water kefir -- the probiotic, natural alternative to soda. Anyone else ready to guzzle?

5. 16 Ways to Use Your Whey by the Prairie Homestead.
Great ideas on what to do with all your extra whey!

Simple Lives Thursday Blog Hop
Woohoo! Congrats to those five! So, today is Simple Lives Thursday... A fun blog hop dedicated to anything and everything about simple living. Please share with us how are you living your life simply... we all want to know!


There is so much to learn about living simply these days... making lacto-ferments, raising animals, living off-grid, cooking with real food, gardening, raising family, homeschooling, homemade body products, natural cleaners, frugal ways, creating art with recycled materials, homesteading, homeopathy, growing herbs for health and much more!


Simply hosted by:

• Wardeh @ GNOWFGLINS
• Diana @ A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
• Annette @ Sustainable Eats
• Alicia @ Culinary Bliss
• And me... the Noisy Mama  :o)

Be Simple and Share Your Post!

Make your "Simple Lives Thursday" post on your blog and come back here. Below you will find the Linky box where you can post your simple ideas, tips & recipes. Please add a link to this post at the end of your blog post entry and share with your readers that it is part of this week's Simple Lives Thursday. Feel free to download the badge above and upload it to your post!

Also, when you link here... your post will appear on all five blogs!

For those who don't have blogs... Please share your ideas, tips and recipes about simple living below in my noisy comments area. Don't get left out!

Everybody, take the time to visit the linked blogs. Sharing your favorites on Facebook or Tweet would be awesome! Spread the wealth of simple living!


Before you head down to put in your link... Please take a few minutes to read through the rules above, if you haven't yet. We wrote them up to help you understand what Simple Lives Thursday is all about and how we can unify in the right direction.


Please take 10 minutes to read up on my new series called "Alternative Laundry 101"... Part 1- "9 Reasons Why Line Drying Really Is the Healthier Option" and Part 2 - "Natural vs. Chemical Laundry Detergents" Thanks!


Have a great week  :o)

Hugs!

Read More