January DIY

Tinted Make-up Lotion and Tinted Powder

In my quest to cutting out toxins from my daily routine, I am working on finding some options for make up. I have found a recipe on one of my favorite natural DIY blogs, scratchmommy.com that I like fairly well and that I have tweaked just a little to fit my skin. One day, we hope to figure out how to bring this to you pre- packaged at Finnyfarm.com but until then you may be stuck DIY-ing yourself just like me. But fret not, you can contact me for ingredients. I buy everything in bulk, so if you are interested in trying these recipes, send me a quick email and we can work out the details of getting supplies to you!

Here it goes:

1) Tinted Make-up:

ingredients- 

21 g Sweet Almond Oil

14 g organic, unrefined Shea Butter

7 g organic, unrefined Cocoa Butter

1 g Vitamin E oil

7 g non-Nano Zinc Oxide

3/4 T Cacao powder

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

melt almond oil, shea butter, cocoa butter and vitamin e oil in a double boiler. Let cool slightly. Whisk in zinc oxide slowly using a hand blender. Add Cacao powder and cinnamon according to complexion. try out on back of your hand for closest match. 

This makes a 2 oz jar. Option: add a few drops of carrot seed essential oil for additional SPF 

2) Tinted Face Powder;

ingredients:

1 T Arrowroot powder

1/2 tsp non-Nano Zinc Oxide

1/8-1/4 tsp Cacao Powder (don't confuse this with cocoa powder)

1/16-1/8 tsp of Cinnamon (based on your skin tone)

gently mix in a small bowl with a clean whisk. 

Place in an empty powder jar. 

Happy DIY-ing, folks. Let me know how it goes!

~Yvonne

DIY - Goat Milk Soap

Soap making appears to be the "new thing"- there are so many recipes, instructions, books, etc to sift through. When I first started, I wanted a step-by-step tutorial. So now that I've figured it out, here is my tutorial! 

Supplies:

you will need a metal pot, a heat-resistant bowl (metal or glass), a digital scale, a small bowl for measuring lye, an immersion blender, soap molds, a spoon, and a spatula. For safety purposes, you need rubber gloves, long sleeves, a mask, and eye protection. 

Ingredients: 

Here is my favorite go-to recipe for goat milk soap:

2 cups of goat milk (FROZEN!!!)

150 g  lye

120 g unrefined, organic shea butter (moisturizes)

120 g organic coconut oil (provides a nice lather)

240 g palm oil (to harden the bar)

360 g EVOO

360 g avocado oil

Optional: 120 drops of favorite essential oil, 1/4 cup of raw honey, loose leaves or other additives. 

Step-by-Step:

Lye and Goat Milk

(*** a note of caution: lye is EXTREMELY caustic. Work in a well ventilated area and wear protective gear! Keep out of reach of children!!!)

1) freeze your milk. DO it!!! Don't make the same mistake as I did and skip this step! When adding lye to your liquid, it gets very very hot. If your milk is not frozen, it will instantly scald and turn into a brown, stinky mess. 

I freeze my milk in a zip lock bag, but you could also do smaller milk cubes in an ice cube tray for ease. 

2) place bowl in an ice bath,  and add your frozen milk

3) slowly add lye, constantly stirring and breaking up the milk. 

I sprinkle the lye on the milk and start scraping off the melting milk, constantly stirring. keep adding lye. 

4) once all the lye has been added it should be a thick, milky substance. And yes, it appears flaky, but this will resolve once you start blending it with the oils. 

Oils and Fats

1) Measure all your fatty ingredients into a metal pot

2) On low heat melt together and bring to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 

3) place in sink to protect your kitchen from potential splatter

4) begin blending with immersion blender while slowly adding the lye-milk-mixture

5) blend for approximately 5 minutes, alternating between high and low settings, or until you see "trace" (trace is when you drizzle on the surface of your mixture and it lands on top and slowly sinks in, like pudding or yogurt.)

6) If you want to add anything to your soaps, now is the time. Essential oils, colors, honey, flower petals, herbs- now's the time. 

7) pour mixture into molds ( I like silicone molds I purchased on amazon - here)

Drying and Curing

This is cold-process soap. It eventually leads to a hard, longer-lasting bar, but it does take time. This recipe is usually ready to take out of the mold after 48 hrs or so. 

After de-molding, I cut the loaf into 3/4 inch thick slices and place them upright into a box on parchment paper. Here they cure on top of a shelf for about a month. the longer they cure, the harder the bar and the longer-lasting it will be!

Disclaimer:

This is not a comprehensive tutorial. I will post more on calculating your lye, the importance of lye, myths on lye, and other recipes in the future. I simply wanted to take you through my steps when I create our Finny Farm bar soaps!

~Yvonne

Another Cauliflower recipe

My Jonah has a grand dislike for vegetables. In fact, he claims he wishes he were allergic to them, so I would quit making him eat them. Every time I cook veggies of some sort (which is often), I try to incorporate at least one that he will eat without gagging. Cauliflower is NOT one of those. He actually claims to "hate" cauliflower, as in CAN"T STAND IT!!!

Oh buddy, so sorry, but Mom is on a cauli-kick... Now what? 

So I made this sauce, alfredo sauce to be exact, which Jonah actually likes. So I thought maybe I could make it a little healthier and he still like it. Turns out, there is absolutely nothing unhealthy in the sauce, it's not even fattening or anything. I thought it tasted delicious, but I was weary of telling Jonah what was in it. So I didn't (mean, mean Mommy, I know!!!) 

As we sat and watched him enjoy his spaghetti and alfredo sauce, I couldn't help but grin. He gulped down a whole plate in no time flat, asked for seconds, and then announced; "Mom, this is the BEST alfredo sauce I have EVER had!" So I grinned again. And I fessed up. To which he responded: "well, if you can make cauliflower taste like THAT then I will eat it!" 

So here is to every alfredo-loving, veggie-hating little boy out there- and all their mom's who'd like for them to still have some vitamins in their food... :

You will need:

1 head of cauliflower

1 cup of milk (we used unsweetened almond milk, since Finny is lactose-free)

6-8 cloves of garlic, minced

2 TBSP EVOO

1 cup of grated parmesan cheese

1 vegetable buillion cube

Step 1) wash, de-stem and steam cauliflower until tender (~15 minutes)

Step 2) let it cool. After it's cool enough, put it in the blender (or Ninja, or Nutri-Bullet, or whatever gadget you have at the house). It needs to be very creamy. You can use a little of the water with which you steamed the cauli and add it as you blend to keep it moist enough to move around the blender. 

Step 3) Mince 6-8 garlic cloves finely and sautee in EVOO for a couple of minutes. be careful not to let it burn. This step is really fast!

Step 4) add cauliflower and milk to garlic and stir. Add veggie buillon and cheese to taste. You can also experiment with pepper, nutmeg and other spices that might sound yummy to you and add them. 

Step 5) If the sauce is too thick, you can add some more of the cauli-water to thin it a little. 

Make your favorite pasta or spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles, douse it in this yummy sauce and enjoy! 

~ Yvonne