Natural Cleaning-- Homemade Laundry Soap (dry)

I have been interested in making my own laundry soap for a while now, but it looked like so much work. Grating soap, melting it on the stove, mixing in five gallon buckets. Then I found a recipe for dry soap, its sooooo much easier!! Really its the same recipe but you don't have to melt it on the stove and mix it with gallons of water, you just mix all the ingredients together and scoop it into the wash like any other dry laundry soap. I turn the water to warm, start the cycle, add the soap to the warm running water. Once it is mostly melted (about 30 seconds) I turn the water back to cold if I'm doing colors or leave it on warm for whites. I also add a cup of distilled white vinegar to the water if I am doing whites in place of bleach. Then you add your clothes. I am very happy with this soap. I think it works just as well if not better then the national brand of soap I had been using (that was not "green" at all). It is also much cheaper then buying my old brand, but I'm not going to break it down by cost for you here, if you are interested in the math you can see it here http://www.diynatural.com/simple-easy-fast-effective-jabs-homemade-laundry-detergent/

LAUNDRY SOAP RECIPE
1 bar of soap (Ivory is my favorite but any natural detergent type soap will work for this)
1 cup Borax (found in the laundry isle of just about any grocery store)
1 cup washing soda (not the same as baking soda, also in the laundry isle)
2 T baking soda (optional)

grate the bar of soap (I like to use my grater blade in my food processor) then mix together with the remaining ingredients. *optional, I like to add all the ingredients to my food processor and process it with the regular blade until the soap is all incorporated into the other ingredients, I find this helps it dissolve better in the wash.

You typically use 1-2 T per wash load depending on the size of your washer, how hard your water is, how soiled your clothes are, etc. I've heard of people using up to 1/4 cup (or 4T) per wash load for really soiled clothes. I find 2 T is perfect for us

Yield- 32(2T/load)-64(1T/load) loads

Homemade coconut Milk

Coconut Milk with Fresh Coconuts

Ingredients
2 coconut large coconuts
6-8 cups filtered water (room temp works best)

Equipment
Food Processor or Blender (may need both!)
Nut Milk Bag, Muslin Bag, or Several Layers of Cheese Cloth

Crack coconuts, reserve coconut water. remove flesh and use vegetable pealer to remove any brown husk attached to the flesh. I do not have a fancy blender or food processor, if you do then you can skip the next couple steps. I brake the coconut flesh with my hands to pieces about 1in by 1 in, then drop the pieces one at a time into my food processors chute while the blades are running, I do one coconut and empty the food processors bowl and then do the other. Once all the coconut is shredded I add about 3 cups of the flesh to my blender and an equal amount of water and blend. If it wont blend try adding more water, just enough that it begins to swirl and blend. Then I let is blend for at least 2 minutes. Then I pour into a muslin bag and squeeze as much milk out of the pulp as I can. I repeat batches of water and flesh in the blender and straining until all the flesh is used. I usually glean about 1 1/2- 2 qrts of coconut milk


Coconut Milk with Unsweetened Dessicated (shredded) Coconut- RAW

Ingredients
2 cups Unsweetened Dessicated Coconut
4 cups filtered water (room temp works best)

Equipment
Blender
Nut Milk Bag, Muslin Bag, or Several Layers of Cheese Cloth

Combine coconut milk and water, let sit overnight. Blend mixture in blender for several minutes. Strain through muslin bag and squeeze out as much milk as possible from the pulp. Add water to make 4 cups (1 qrt)

Coconut Milk with Unsweetened Dessicated (shredded) Coconut- Not Raw

Ingredients
2 cups Unsweetened Dessicated Coconut
4 cups HOT water

Equipment
Blender
Nut Milk Bag, Muslin Bag, or Several Layers of Cheese Cloth
Bring water almost to a boil, but NOT boiling. Combine hot water with coconut, cover with a lid, and let sit for at least 2 hours. After the coconut has soaked for at least 2 hours, blend in blender for a couple minutes and strain, getting out as much of the coconut milk as possible. Add water to make 4 cups (1 qrt)

Drying the Coconut Milk Pulp
Place coconut on a cookie sheet and place in a WARM oven (temp set to 150F or less) and dry for 12-24 hrs, or until dry. Grinding this coconut will NOT result in coconut flour. It resembles shredded coconut. I do not grind the dried pulp and I use it in place of shredded coconut in recipes.

Flavoring Coconut Milk

For 1 qtr of Coconut Milk

Vanilla
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1-2 Tbs honey or maple syrup (optional)
OR
Chocolate
4 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
1tsp cinnamon
1-2 Tbs honey or maple syrup (optional)

After I finish straining the coconut milk through the muslin bag I rinse the blender and pour the strained milk back into the blender and add the ingredients for vanilla or chocolate and blend. If you use honey to sweeten remember that the milk will only be good for 2-3 days, after that the honey with cause the coconut milk to start fermenting.

Homemade Almond Milk, Flavored Almond Milk, and Almond Flour

Almond Milk (makes 1 quart)

   We love Almond milk! We are (mostly) dairy free, so we love that almonds are naturally a good source of calcium. Of course remember that almonds are high in omega 6s so don't go too ape-y crazy on the stuff! Please remember to soak your almonds over night and rinse well before making almond milk. Almonds contain toxic enzyme inhibitors and can cause digestive issues, soaking them mostly eliminates this issue. In addition soaking almonds also makes them taste better, makes them easier to digest, better absorption of nutrition from them, increases enzyme activity, and soaking starts the sprouting process which bumps up their nutritional value considerably. So always soak your nuts!!

    If you wish you may remove the skins from the almonds first. These naked almonds are called "blanched." Its really easy to do after they have been soaked, just pinch the almond between your thumb and forefinger and with a snapping motion the seed pops right out of the skin. I like to do it this way because I think the milk tastes better and I like the flour made from the pulp better with out skins.

2 cups raw almonds, soaked over night (discard soaking water and rinse nuts well)

4 cups filtered water

Place almonds and water in blender. Blend well. I like to leave the blender on for at least a minute. Once the almonds are all blended well strain through a nut milky bag, several layers of cheese cloth, or a muslin cheese making bag (I use a muslin bag). Make sure to squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible. Add filtered water to make 4 cups (I usually have to add about 1/4c)

Flavored Almond Milk

Vanilla-

1-2 Tbs Honey (optional)

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

      
        OR
Chocolate-
1-2 Tbs Honey (optional)

6T unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cinnamon

   After making your fresh Almond milk give yourself a big pat on the back. After your done doing that rinse your blender and pour the almond milk back into the blender. Add desired ingredients and blend. Voila!!

Almond Flour (yields approx 2 cups)

After  straining your almond puree you will be left with "almond pulp". Spread out the pulp on a cookie sheet and place in an oven on its lowest setting (mine says WARM). Leave in the oven for 12-24 hrs until completely dry. Then grind dried pulp in a food processor, coffee grinder, or blender.

Blueberry Coconut Milk Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups homemade coconut milk (or you can use 1 can of canned coconut milk)

1c of thawed frozen blueberries (you can use fresh too)

1-2 TBS of maple syrup to sweeten to taste (yes taste it and add more 1 Tbs at a time till you like it).

1 Gallon size freezer bag, filled 1/2 full of ice cubes

1 cup rock salt

1 quart size freezer bag

Mix frist 3 ingredients in a large bowl and then pour mixture into a quart baggie and seal well, place the quart baggie into a gallon baggie (fill gallon baggie about half way with ice and 1 cup rock salt first) and then shaaaaaaaaaake until the mixture solidifies (about 5 minutes is all it took). Oh and wear your winter gloves because you will look cool because its really cold!

Paleo Apple Crisp with Coconut Milk Whipped Cream

serves 5

Apple filling:

5 Apples (Pears work well too)

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

2 Tbs Honey (optional)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

Crisp Topping:

1 1/2 cups almond meal/flour

1/2 c coconut flakes

2 Tbs honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup melted coconut oil

Whipped Topping:

1 can chilled coconut milk

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350F

peel and slice apples (or pears) and toss with blueberries in a 1 qrt oven save dish

drizzle 2T honey across the fruit and sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

in a separate bowl mix together almond flour, coconut flakes and cinnamon, then add in coconut oil and honey and mix well. Top fruit with crisp mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 30min, uncover and bake an additional 30min until fruit mixture is gooey and bubbling around the edges

While crisp is baking take scoop cream out of the chilled coconut milk. leave the coconut water in the can (you can drink this later, but we will not be using this in the recipe). whip the coconut cream with a whisk or an electric beater until stiff. You may sweeten the whipped cream with a little honey if you wish (and whip again) but I don't think it needs any sweetener. Top each serving with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of Cinnamon and enjoy!