August 10, 2012

10 Real Food Salad Dressing Recipes

ranch dressing

Written by Rachel, Contributing Writer In almost every fridge there are common items; the dairy, the veggies, the fruits, the meats, and there are a lot of sauces, jelly's and always a couple bottles of salad dressings which are in the doors usually, those items are overloaded with all kinds of fake food ingredients. Here's a list of ingredients from a typical bottle of ranch dressing: Vegetable oil, water, egg yolk, salt, sugar, cultured nonfat buttermilk, natural flavors, spices, dried garlic, dried onion, vinegar, phosphoric [...]

Filed Under: Do it yourself, Real, whole food, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , , 40 Comments
July 13, 2012

Homemade Lemon Citrus Produce Wash {Natural, Fast, & Easy}

Fresh Fruit

Written by Rachel, Contributing Writer It's berry picking season and that means strawberry shortcakes, blueberry banana smoothies and berry jams & crisps but if you are like me, you make sure your fruits (and your veggies) get washed before you ever eat or make anything with them. Did you know that simply rinsing them under water does not get all of the contaminants like pesticides, bacteria or even other toxic chemicals off of your produce? You might as well not even rinsed them. In my opinion, I think produce should be washed in the [...]

Filed Under: Do it yourself, Going green, In the kitchen, Natural living Tagged With: , , , , , , 34 Comments
May 15, 2012

Applecado Smoothie

Ask Dr Jake2 (1)

My 4 year old son's favorite fruit is an apple, he literally eats one every day.  Apples are easy for snacks by themselves or even with a dollop of peanut butter. It never occurred to me to put an apple in a smoothie until recently, so I decided to add 2 ingredients I had never added before into this recipe, an apple and avocado. Avocados are good for your heart, are a great healthy fat, and are anti-inflammatory so adding these to smoothies are great [...]

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April 13, 2012

Fake Food: Removing Food Toxins

603618_florence_fruit_and_vege

Written by Rachel, Contributing Writer This month at Keeper of the Home, we are all focusing on Spring Cleaning the Toxins. This is something my family has been working on over the past several years. Late last year, I wrote this post about 9 toxins to remove from your life, they are everywhere so we really have to be mindful if we want to raise healthy families and kids! Most people think about the environment, household cleaners, personal care products, upholstery and carpet and even [...]

Filed Under: Living healthy, Nutrition, Spring Clean the Toxins Tagged With: , , , , , 19 Comments
March 9, 2012

Waiting on God

For months I've had just the title of this post in my drafts but a blank canvas so to speak. I wanted what I write to be God breathed because in fact we have been waiting on God. We are all waiting on God at different times in our lives. For you, it could be that baby you have been longing to hold in your arms, an illness to be healed, a family member or friend to come to the Lord, a break-through in your marriage or finances, to [...]

Filed Under: Faith and encouragement Tagged With: , , , , 64 Comments
February 10, 2012

Secret Ingredient Brownies

  Written by Rachel, Contributing Writer Everyone loves brownies or at least everyone that I know. There is something about that rich, chocolate-y, fudge-y taste. Most brownies are about 400+ calories per serving, loaded with unhealthy fats and are carb rich most of the time. For a while, I have been wanting to try black bean brownies but I was skeptical that they would actually taste good. After looking through several recipes, I decided to make my own batch. While making them and smelling the [...]

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January 14, 2012

12 Steps to a Healthier Life in 2012, Part 2

Find the first 6 steps in yesterday's post... Written by Rachel, Contributing Writer 7. Have a Quiet Time with Gratitude and Prayer We are wives, we are mothers, we are always serving others and sometimes we forget to serve or spend time with the Lord. Having a quiet time helps us to understand the grace He has given us so we can extend that grace to others including our little ones. We're also able to pour our concerns on Him and we begin to have a healthier positive mindset [...]

Filed Under: Baby Steps, Family life, Living healthy, Natural living Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments
January 13, 2012

12 Steps to a Healthier Life in 2012

woman's-shoe-on-grass

Written by Rachel, Contributing Writer It's January, so we all know what that means... New Year's Resolutions. Did you know that according to Time Magazine, most of these so-called resolutions fail after 9-10 days? So, if your wrote any you probably already stopped or quit one or more of them. Dictionary.com defines resolution as a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something. A couple of reasons why we fail at resolutions are we're too busy and we're too broad. What we need [...]

Filed Under: Baby Steps, Getting organized, Living healthy, Natural living Tagged With: , , , , , , , , 36 Comments