DIY Hair Shampoo and Body Wash Recipe Update

You may or may not know that I am No-Poo and have been since August of 2008.

I make this shampoo/bodywash for E.

Easy Homemade Castile Shampoo/Body-wash Updated, Less Oily Recipe

1.5 cups strong black tea
.5 cup castile soap
2 shots witch hazel
1/2 shot jojoba oil
1 tsp salt
10 drops geranium oil

Boil 4 tea bags in 2 cups water until the tea is very dark.
Let cool slightly and then pour off 1.5 cups into a glass container. I use my big pyrex measuring cup so I can measure the ingredients right into it and mix it up.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the scented oil and stir well. Let cool and pour off into a bottle.
Add scent.

Makes about 2 cups.

This product is thinner than commercial shampoo and it doesn't produce as much suds. The man has been using it as shampoo for about a year now and he says he likes it just fine. It turns a darker color with time, this is natural and will not affect the performance of the shampoo. Separation will occur, shake before using.

I've been tweaking the recipe, he said it was too oily so I doubled the witch hazel and halved the oil in this most recent batch.
I used black tea because I had some that I would never use otherwise. I told E the caffeine would "wake his scalp" and the antioxidants would "anti oxidize his hair".

Hey, it could happen :)

Let me know if you try this and tell me about your DIY beauty tricks and tips.

How do you like the blue?

Todays smoothie was cantaloupe seed milk, cantaloupe and raw nettles. I used the very tops of the plants, the tenderest parts that haven't even made leaves yet and blended them with the milk and some cantaloupe meat.















Tasted just like cantaloupe.


The man is home, he has strained his back and needs to rest it for a day or so. He should be able to go to work tomorrow.

I got my packet from eggindustry.com. They sent me a couple of pamphlets, a go veg magazine, a couple of stickers and a "vegetarian starter kit" which is a magazine type deal with hints, tips and reasons to go veg, along with some nutritional facts. I suggest you go sign up for it, even if you are a vegan, you can still show your support, encourage others to go egg free for a month and Noelle from Compassion Over Killing is Very Nice and sent me a personal email thanking me for sending in my eggless breakfast recipe which was Vegan Benedict.

Yay! for community and sticking together and spreading the word that not only is eating eggs cruel, it's totally unnecessary for good eating and that complete nutrition is possible and delicious without eggs.

Ok, then.

Today I made a recipe that came out of one of the vegetarian starter kit. It was for eggplant manicotti (no irony intended). I changed the recipe of course. It's in the oven now















Thinly sliced eggplant with a filling made from nettles and onions and some seitan sausage, baked in a cheese sauce. I didn't use any nuts but there are sunflower seeds in it.
howI will let you know how it comes out and post the recipe later :)


The topsy turvy tomato plant has two small tomatoes on it.


















Squeeee!!!















Can you see them?

















Does anyone know what these plants are called?















Or these















How about...












I'm wondering if any of them are edible. The last one, lacy with white flowers smells like carrot or parsely when crushed.


I know what these are and cannot wait to see and smell them...














I cut some large leaves off of the nettle plants and I'm steaming them for the tea to make my home made shampoo/body wash. The man uses it. I'm tryna wean him off the commercial stuff. I will have to find the recipe and I will post that here later today or tomorrow.

How do you like the blue? I was tired of the dark color and wanted to lighten it up a bit.

Green Smoothie Likes to Do Vegan Laundry and Carrot Tortillas Juice Pulp Recipe

Smoothy is
1 ripe banana
1 roma tomato
about 10 grapes
1 kiwi
1 kale leaf
1 handfull baby greens
1 tbs Renew me
1 tbs AFA
2 tbs flax
Water



That is my pile of cloth napkins. Well, part of it. I get them at goodwill. I wash them in laundry soap that I make myself.

I use soap ends that I buy at the natural foods store in town and borax. 1 part soap, 2 parts borax. Grate the soap and mix in the borax. I store mine in a lidded trash can by the washer and use a tablespoon of the stuff per load. I can't remember how much it costs but it's at least as cheap as commercial laundry soap and it doesn't contain bleach or harsh perfumes.

I made a video about it that you can see here!

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What do you do with all that pulp from Juicing? I am always looking for new recipes and trying to find something delicious to do with the leftover vege and fruit pulp when I juice. I compost some of it but it seems like sort of a waste, I know there must be more nutrition in that stuff!
Last night, in a fit of inspiration I made some carrot tortillas with juicing pulp.














Carrot Tortillas

1/2 cup or so of vegetable juice pulp. I used carrot and cucumber.
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 + 1/8 cup warm water

put in Food Processor with dough blade and process until the dough cleans the bowl.

Pull the dough out and knead with flour until "earlobe" soft. Then break it into eight equal pieces, flour the pieces and put them in a bowl let them rest for an hour or so. I left mine all day and they were quite easy to roll when I finally got around to it.














Roll very thin and cook them about 3 minutes on each side on a really hot skillet or grill. Don't cook them too long or they will get crispy.

Lined with a collard leaf, some leftover beans and sauerkraut.















Wrap it up and eat it.














Tasty!

Tell me, what do you do with your juicing pulp?

Supreme!

It's a happy Saturday morning. My kitchen is a disaster and I need to go food shopping but for now I present to you the...

Acme Supreme Juicerator













I have a juicer. Yay. No more blender juicing.





I found this at goodwill. I don't know how much it cost. It was at the As-Is store and they just look at your pile and give you a number. I got out for $13 with the juicerator, a full body massage pad, the kind you lay on, and a bunch of other junk.
















I managed to keep it raw all day except a sampling of the melon jelly on some toast. the man's father came over last night, Dil. He is eating all raw too, so I was able to feed him and it was nice to have someone raw around. The guys ate leftovers, there was plenty of falafel and quinoa left from last night.
Red leaf lettuce made a great wrapper for some raw tahini, tomato, cucumber, sauerkraut and raw vegan sprinkle.

Wrap, eat, repeat!













I got my herb garden planted, all the starts are in.
Sage, basil, chives, parsley.














All my starts are in pots now. Rainbow blend cherry tomatoes and yellow & green squash. I'm waiting for the bumper crop. I put them out on the screened in porch, my garden porch.














It's not much but it's my first attempt at growing anything edible aside from sprouts and I am hopeful.

There is mint and other edibles growing out in the yard, I think I will forage today when it gets a little warmer outside. The other day I made a smoothie from the meat and juice of one young coconut, banana, red lettuce and mint I picked from the yard. It was fantastic.

This thing



















Sorry for the blurry photo. It's a shower caddy shaped like a cat. I think I paid more for this than the juicer and massage mat combined. But, my man had to have it and what Baby wants, Baby gets :) Anyway, you can see, there is no shampoo in there. There is a bottle of oil, a bottle of homemade shampoo/body wash, a bar of E3Live soap, a scrubby mitt, a comb and a brush with pumice stone. Why we needed a bigger shower caddy that, I don't know, but it is a cat and that's pretty cool.

Minnie is doing just fine. She ate a little more than a teaspoon of food and took her pill and now she is sleeping under the bed. I was holding her on my lap after the pill giving, petting her and telling her how wonderful she is and she climbed up and sat on my shoulder. AWWWW!! She stayed there for a couple of minutes and then went under the bed for her mid morning nap.

Oh, I was just reminded of what else we bought yesterday. A microphone. It plugs into the amp and makes your voice very loud. The boy is beat boxing on it right now. We need a drumset and the drive and we could start our own band. Talent is optional, right?

I had a dream about making raw beer. I will wait and see how the batch I put up the other day comes out and I think the next one I will try to make raw. We'll see.

A long ramble about a bunch of different things

Mickey loves the new screened in porch he can play outside and still be safe.














Did I tell you that I am making beer? I am. I got some hops on sale at Nightfire, boiled them up added some nutritional yeast and a couple of tbs of sugar and put it in an old wine bottle with the cap loose. That was a few days ago. I'm not sure when it will be ready but I will let you know.

2 liters to freedom














I have been trying to get photos of my hair for the No Poo entry but I can't get them by myself, no timer on my camera. I keep forgetting to ask the man to take some.

my ugly mug with freshly rinsed hair. No 'poo since Aug 2008













wow, there is a lot of grey in there.

Me in a pretty dress.





I got this at Community Thrift in San Francisco last year. It's a size 20 which fit me perfectly when I bought it. It has a tie so I can make it tight at the waist and it has a lot of skirt. I will shorten up the straps and it then the bust will fit perfectly. I don't know what dress size I wear now but a junior 13 pants fits me perfect at this point. Sometimes a 10 will fit but it's snug. I wore a size 20 and was considering a size 22 this time last year.






I got up this morning, did 30 minutes of yoga, stretching mostly and some balance poses. Then I blended the seeds and strings of the melon that the boy ate last night. I blended it with some water, seeds and all and then strained it. Poured it in a glass and drank it up. Cantaloupe is such a treat. Creamy and yummy, but I have to take melon all alone or not at all. I get serious gastrointestinal difficulties if I try to eat melon with anything.

it's the seeds I'm after













Last night I made jelly with some of the melon. Just a half a mason jar full. I boiled the melon with water, sugar and some agar flakes, reduced it by about a half, until it started to get that melted candy feeling. I don't know how to describe it. Then I poured that in a clean mason jar, let it cool on the counter and then put it in the fridge. It's jelled up real good. It should be eaten soon, I don't know how long it will keep.

I got new rubber boots. Big black ones like Christopher Robin. Mine are the same breand as those but only $12 at Ross. Totally Ross-some!!
I wore them to the bus stop every day this week. We have been bringing the umbrella every day but only used it on Monday. Tues, Weds and Thurs, it has only started pouring after it warms up a little. Just like I remember when I was a kid, it would start to pour as soon as I got to school.

It's definitely spring, even if it was snowing this morning.

















Minnie is doing much better.














I got the pills down her real easy, two at a time, she didn't fight at all. Then just held her for about 30 minutes. She laid in my arms purring while I tried to think healing thoughts. Then I brushed her and petted her for a while. She doesn't clean herself anymore so she has some matting. I try to brush her out every day but those mattes sneak in. She also played with her toy, a couple of twisty ties. My cats love them. If there is a twisty on the floor, look out, claws will be flying.
I gave her 1 tbs of the new Vet food and she ate














This much. Maybe half.














I am going to leave the rest out for her, she might eat later. I left some out last night and she ate it. Around 4AM I heard licking. I thought, who is licking what? Then I remembered, Minnie! She's eating! I turned on the light which made the man scream AAAHH! but Minnie kept eating and I turned the light back off. Yay for nocturnal feeding patterns!
I'm still waiting for poop. The kittehs, that is. I don't want to think about it too much. It's sort of dread and anticipation all at the same time. I'm just really glad that she is eating and playing. She is still very yellow. I can't believe I didn't notice it until Vet pointed it out. She's bright yellow.


In other news, Victoria's Secret sent me an online coupon for $20. So I bought 5/$25 panties. That's $5 for 5 pair of Victoria's Secret Pink® Cotton Hipsters in various colors. Woot, I say. Woot! Ahem. Ok, sorry. I also got two Body by Victoria® racerback bras, with Infintiy Edge, they were on sale 2/$40. None of my old bras fit anymore. I literally swim in them. It's like church bells in my shirt. I've been wearing sports bras that I bought at the goodwill. But now, I will have bras.
I can go without shampoo, but I am still heavily addicted to Victoria's Secret racerback bras. Hey, I quit coffee 2008, heroin 2001, cigarettes May 2008, almost a year! AND lip balm!

That's right. I have been without lip balm since I don't even know when. December, I think. It's nice. It was the last cosmetic to go. Now it's just oil. Coconut, olive and jojoba.
Sometimes my shins get ashy and I like to grease up my face, neck and chest once in a while. I like to rub coconut oil on my stretch marks. It makes me feel all tropical.
I use some olive oil that is scented with orange oil in the shower and sometimes on my hair, but thats it. Oh, I still use toothpaste and on special occasions I will use some Tom's of Maine calendula scent deodorant. Roll on or stick, I have both. Both have propolyne glycol and I try to use them as little as possible.
I guess I'm lucky, the man doesn't use deodorant or cologne of any kind. I made him some shampoo/body wash out of castile soap, witch hazel, jojoba oil, a tsp of salt and rosemary oil and now he smells wonderful all the time. He was using a shampoo with a heavy perfume before. I am slightly allergic to perfume. It gives me a headache, feels like my throat is closing, sometimes I will start coughing or sneezing. It's hard to go out in public sometimes because of people's perfumes. I can't go to the boys karate dojo because of the air freshener they use.

Ok, I am done rambling, loading photos and editing. I have to get some tomato plants repotted and I don't think its going to get any sunnier than it is, which isn't very. I'm glad it's not raining.

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments, they mean a lot to me. Have a happy, healthy Friday, one and all!

"No Poo" A Non-Toxic, DIY, Off the Grid Way to Stick it to the Man by not Using Commercial Cosmetics or Shampoo with Toxic Chemicals!

As soon as I heard of the "No Poo" system I knew it was for me.
Just use baking soda to wash and vinegar to condition. Simple. Perfect.
Four obvious reasons off the top of my head to go "No Poo"

• No bottles in the landfill
• No toxic ingredients down the drain and into the water
• No potentially hazardous substances rubbed into my body
• No money spent on "beauty" products that don't really have any effect other than making you buy more cosmetics.

I never had any reservations, I dove head first into No Poo. Pun intended. If I won't put it in my mouth, I don't want to put it on my skin, basically, and I don't want to put sodium laurel sulfate in my mouth or on my body.

I loved it the first time I tried it. My scalp felt clean, my hair was shiny and bouncy. Now, over a year later, the color is deeper, my hair is softer and my scalp itches less than it did when I used shampoo. My hair doesn't get any greasier than when I used shampoo and it looks, feels and smells clean, fresh and healthy with no perfume smell.

This system takes a little getting used to because it isn't the foaming or sudsing shampoo method that you are used to.

This is how I clean my hair.

1/2 cup of baking soda in a 12 oz jar.
Wet hair in the shower
Fill the baking soda jar about half full of water and dump it over head.
Work it in with fingers and let it set for a minute.
Rinse well.

This is how I condition

Method one.
1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar in 12 oz jar.
Mix with 2 cups of water and pour over hair.
You may add essential oils if you want it scented.
Let set for a minute
Rinse.
Repeat if necessary.

Method 2. I have thick curly hair. If your hair is thin this will make it oily looking, so be aware.
After baking soda cleansing, still in the shower, take a drop or two of jojoba, olive or coconut oil in the palm of your hand.
Work it into wet hair, starting at the ends.
Use more oil as necessary.
Rinse well with hot water
Comb through and rinse again.




















Do this daily for a week, then every other day, gradually weaning yourself down to 2 or three times a week or less and you will notice your hair getting less greasy between cleanings. As time goes on I find that I get away with just a warm water rinse more and more often. My hair doesn't feel dry or oily. Just clean, fresh and shiny. Honestly, I feel liberated, free and light, no longer a slave to the lies of the cosmetics industry. But the real question is:

Will you try it? Will you tell others?

Will you take the "No Poo" Challenge? Please, give me your opinion about this method and if you have tried it, chime in and tell your story. I will gladly link blogs. We really need to spread the word about No Poo, the system and the benefits. Just like with any change, people are frightened of the unknown, they don't know what would happen if they stopped using shampoo. Let the world know that shampoo is unnecessary and toxic, please tell your story.

Update, February 2010. Still no poo! I took some photos today so you can see my hair is still clean, soft and not stinky in any way since I quit using shampoo over a year ago.

I rarely use baking soda or oil on my hair anymore, just rinse it with warm water in the shower.

Terrible photos, i know. It's still hard to take photos of the back of my head, even with a camera that has a timer.

And now, without further ado, I present to you, My Scalp, circa Feb 2010.

Rambing Vegan Recipes into the Ether... and Vegan Laundry Alternative Adventures

For breakfast Sunday I made a delicious smoothie from the meat and juice of one young coconut, 1 very ripe banana, collard and kale and celery, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and E3live Renew Me.

After that I made a big jar of salsa, put up some sauerkraut, some vegan parm sprinkle, and baked some cornbread since the boy likes it so much.

Corn Bread

1 cup oat milk
2 tbs vinegar
1 tsp salt
mix in a cup and let set while you mix dry ingredients

In a large bowl

2 cups flour
1/4 cup corn meal
3 tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix well with a whisk and add oat milk mixture. Stir all with a spoon or your hands until well mixed, don't over mix.

Put in greased pan. For a loaf pan cook it for 1 hour at 350F or a 9 x 13" pan cook it for 45 minutes, at 350F.

Dinner was a casserole made of white potatoes, sweet potatoes, collard greens and eggplant. All sliced thin and layered then I made a sauce with some seed cheese a tomato, some other spices, I don't remember, water. Blended it all up and poured it over the casserole, baked it at 400F for about three hours. Too long. but it was still pretty good.
















The Money Shot














Red leaf lettuce salad with tomato and pepper salad, apple pear salsa, brine pickle, sweet potato and collard casserole, mashed cauliflower and cornbread on the side. mmm...

Mashed Cauliflower














One head of cauliflower, steamed

Whip it up food processor, or mash by hand, with some of the steaming water, salt and pepper. Put in an oven proof lidded dish and bake for 2 hours or more at 400F. Serve hot with some vegan buttery spread for a real treat.

On the Laundry Front:

I did a bunch of laundry (video linky!) yesterday. I can't decide what I like better, doing little bits every day or letting it all build up and doing it all one or two days a week. They both have their merits. I am still using the laundry soap I mix up here at home, 1 part shredded bar soap and 2 parts Borax, and it's working great! I buy soap ends at Night Fire Natural Foods. The soap is made by a local company and are vegan, no beeswax, except some are made from goat milk. I pick the ends that aren't the color that the goat milk ones are and I feel pretty good about that. I don't think I can get much closer to vegan at this price. $1.69 a pound compared to $3.19 a bar for Dr Bronners. Until I find something better than that, here I am.
I am glad to be off of the commercial laundry soap train and away from the bleach, dyes and fragrances. I quit using fabric softener, too and it seems to be ok. No one is complaining about rough clothes.
If I feel the need for something to be softer or scented, like bath towels, I put about a tablespoon of some cheap 99c store conditioner on an old wash cloth and toss it in the dryer with the wet laundry. It softens fabrics and the scent isn't so strong that it gives me a headache the way commercial fabric softener does. I try to find the ones with very few ingredients, a light scent and of course, no animal products. Right now I'm using White Rain, the smell of which reminds me of high school... White Rain products are cheap and vegan. Not healthy, but cheap and vegan.

I don't wash my hair with shampoo but that is another entry...