DIY Homemade Hand Sanitiser

So, hand sanitiser.

Do you use any? Do you use it on your kids?

I remember always having a little green bottle of it stashed in my nappy bag when my eldest was a baby. And it was certainly handy if you had to change a nappy and there was nowhere to wash your hands. Yuck!!

I never felt quite comfortable with it though, which is why it really was for emergency use only.

It seems that was a good thing because it doesn't take much research to see that hand sanitiser has some very questionable ingredients.

One of those ingredients is triclosan.

Triclosan is a chemical used for its antibacterial and antifungal properties in products like soap, toothpaste and hand sanitiser. Have a read of this article on Nourished Life for more info about triclosan and why we should avoid it.

Bottom line, it's no more effective than washing your hands with plain old soap and water PLUS it has some potential serious health implications. The FDA in America has banned triclosan from being used in antibacterial soap products (read here) but there has been no similar move here in Australia unfortunately.

Last term my 8 year old came home with a note saying all children in the class were required to bring in a bottle of hand sanitiser to use in the classroom. Because apparently it takes too long for everyone to wash their hands at the sink that is literally next to their door.

I checked with his teacher and unfortunately our homemade one wasn't going to be acceptable because it's in a glass bottle (and you never keep essential oils in plastic). There is a great guide to natural hand sanitiser here on Nourished Life (I went with the Squeakie for Mr 8 to take to school).

Bottom line - it is best wash your hands with soap and water rather than anything marketed as 'antibacterial', and on those occasions where you can't, choose a natural hand sanitiser without triclosan. My stance on all these types of products is to go as natural as possible.

If you would prefer to make your own hand sanitiser (and given the price of the natural ones you can purchase, you might want to consider it!) this is the recipe I've been making since January.

It has some powerful ingredients, feels nice on your skin, no nasties and it smells amazing.

I use doTERRA's On Guard essential oil blend in this because the ingredients are exactly what I'm looking for. It is a blend of clove, cinnamon, wild orange, eucalyptus and rosemary essential oils which together are protective against environmental threats and have cleansing and purifying properties.

The aloe vera gel is moisturising and the witch hazel has astringent, antioxidant and soothing properties perfect for your skin.

Homemade Hand Sanitiser

3 tsp aloe vera gel
1 tsp witch hazel
20 drops On Guard essential oil

Place all ingredients into a 60ml glass bottle* with a spray top. Top up with filtered water and shake before use.

I keep this bottle in a zip lock bag in my handbag so it's with us whenever we're out and about.

When the kids jump back in the car after school, daycare, playing at the park or doing the shopping I give their hands a spray with this and I have to say, we seem to have avoided most of the bugs going around this year.

On Guard is one of our most used essential oils. We have a roller bottle made up with On Guard and Frankincense which we get on our bodies everyday and if anyone has the sniffles or the start of a cough it goes in the diffuser to cleanse the air and support healthy immune function.

Love, love, LOVE our On Guard.

If you haven't yet introduced doTERRA essential oils into your home click on over here to read more.

So are you up for making your own hand sanitiser?

* I get all my glass bottles from au.aromatools.com (there are some available on ebay but people have had issues with quality and breakages so I don't recommend those)

The BEST wholemeal spelt bread

Hello dear readers!

I've been taking some time away from the computer these past few weeks and am now refreshed and ready to jump back into things.

My big boys have just finished their first week back at school (in grades 1 and 3) and my priority at the moment is keeping their lunchboxes packed with nourishing and tasty food.

I don't know about your kids, but mine are always STARVING on the holidays and tend to graze a lot more. So it's always a bit of a shock to their systems to have nothing between breakfast and 11.10am when lunch starts!

I actually don't mind the boys having sandwiches for lunch as long as they are made with good quality bread and decent fillings.

For me, the ingredients on a loaf of bread should read flour, water, yeast and salt, with maybe some honey for sweetness and a high quality oil for a soft crumb.

If you haven't actually read the label on the bread you purchase you are probably in for a shock - most of them have numbers galore, vegetable oils, unpronounceable preservatives and additives to keep it fresh on the shelf for way longer than it should be.

I Quit Sugar did a post on the 5 healthiest breads at the supermarket but even those contained canola oil and a few other sneaky ingredients.

Baking your own is definitely the best option and my wholemeal spelt bread is the one I make for the kids that always gets eaten.

It's easy and pretty forgiving (my husband can make it on his own!) and it freezes well. I make a loaf most weekends, slicing and freezing it as soon as it has cooled.

If you have a Thermomix and haven't made your own bread yet, what are you waiting for?

The aroma of freshly baked bread is one the best smells in the world and the taste is better than anything you can buy. It's also far cheaper as a loaf of spelt bread will typically set you back at least $6.

I buy my spelt flour in bulk 12.5kg bags through my co-op and store it in the freezer.

The best wholemeal spelt bread that kids actually like

420g water
2 ts instant dried yeast
2 ts honey
600g wholemeal spelt flour
2 ts salt
2 ts apple cider vinegar
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

Place the water, yeast and honey into the Thermomix and heat for 2 minutes / 37 degrees / SP 2.

Add the flour, salt, vinegar and oil and mix for 10 seconds / SP 3.

Lock lid and knead for 8 minutes.

Leave in the bowl for 20 minutes to rest.

Turn out onto an oiled surface, punch down and shape into an oblong.

Place dough into a large/jumbo/900g bread tin.

Cover and place in a warm, moist place to prove until it rises to the top of the tin (I do mine in the just emptied dishwasher!)

While the dough is proving, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius / 180 degrees fan-forced.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped underneath.

Remove from tin immediately and leave on a wire rack to cool.

Do you bake your own bread?

Susan

Top 10 things I make from scratch (and no longer have to buy) now I have a Thermomix

So unless you've been living under a rock you will have noticed a LOT of publicity lately regarding the Thermomix and some safety issues.

Without getting into that at all (although I will state for the record I have had mine for nearly 2 years without any problems) I thought I would share my experiences with a Thermomix.

First of all there have been very few days in the past 2 years that we haven't used it. On a typical day we use it for our breakfast (either porridge or a smoothie), perhaps make a batch of dough for bread, whip up a soup, mix something up for afternoon tea and make dinner with it.

Our record was the first Christmas we had when it and made 11 different things in a day including a sponge cake, jelly, lemon curd, custard, coconut cream, mayonnaise, gravy and quinoa!

I've heard a lot of people say it and it's totally true - if you want to get away from processed food and start avoiding additives, having a Thermomix will help you make food from scratch quicker and easier.

While I have always made a lot of things from scratch, having a Thermomix has allowed me to completely stop buying a number of products that I always just took for granted as being things that 'you just buy'.

Well not any more!

Top 10 Things I Make From Scratch 

(and No Longer Have To Buy) Now I Have a Thermomix

1. Bread

This is the biggie. After years of dabbling with bread making  I have finally made the switch and 100% of our bread is homemade. Sandwich loaves, wraps, focaccia, rolls, scrolls and pizza. You name it, I make it. The Thermomix does amazing dough and it is quick and mess-free. Not only that though I feel 100% happy about the ingredients. No nasty vegetable oil or preservatives here.

2. Nut milk

We've been dealing with dairy intolerances for years now and whichever way you look at it, nut milk is expensive. There are some brands that I like but really it is so easy to make your own and for a fraction of the cost. We buy nuts (usually almonds) in bulk and make a few litres of nut milk at a time. Fresh, delicious and cheap. Gotta love that.

3. Soup

Ok so you don't need a Thermomix to make soup. I've been doing it for years without one, but I like smooth soups and it was always a bit of a palaver to tip hot soup into a blender or risk a soup-cano with a stick blender.

Previously if there were some boxes of soup on special at the supermarket I would always grab a couple to stash in the pantry for a quick lunch, but not anymore. While I always chose ones with ingredients that looked good (no numbers), it was still a really long time since those vegetable were in the ground.

Being able to chop, cook and then puree all in one and have soup ready on the table in about 20 minutes is brilliant. I make at least 1 batch a week all year round (even in summer) and love that I'm getting so many veggies into all of us. 

4. Stock

Just like with soup, it was so easy to grab a box of liquid stock to have on hand. I always made my own chicken stock with leftover chicken bones but there was never enough to have in the freezer.

The very first thing you make with your consultant when the Thermomix is delivered is a vegetable stock paste, and it has become a staple at our place. Loaded with veggies and herbs, I always have a batch on hand in the freezer. It provides not only flavour but seasoning as well, and with its salt content it never freezes hard - perfect for scooping out a spoonful to add to soups, curries and casseroles.

5. Dishwasher powder

Yep that's right, we use the thermie for more than just food! The dishwasher powder is actually a recent addition to our repertoire, but we haven't purchased dishwasher tablets for 6 months now.

At first the difficulty was locating a cheap source of citric acid (the key ingredient in lots of natural homemade cleaning products).

You may know citric acid from those little containers in the baking aisle at the supermarket? Buying it that way will send you broke in no time, as it works out at about $34/kg. With some research I found a supplier selling 10kg buckets on ebay which works out at only $7/kg. Much better!

6. Washing powder

I've been making our own washing powder for about 3 years now, using a food processor to grate up the soap. The Thermomix of course does it better and faster! I like Dr Bronners soap bars and yes, our clothes are all perfectly clean with no chemicals!

7. Mayonnaise

Back onto food, this was another big one. Even though I knew the ingredients were less than ideal and it was a pain to make, I found it really hard to give up bought mayonnaise! That is until I discovered a cooked egg mayonnaise recipe on the recipe community site. Quick, easy and no stress about raw eggs.

8. Jam

Since going sugar free (or more accurately low-no fructose) back in 2012 we very rarely have jam. Mostly I will make a sweetener free chia jam but I do batches of 'real' jam sometimes as gifts and we always keep a little for ourselves. Making your own jam lets you control the amount of sugar and the quality of the ingredients. Get a great deal on a box of organic berries? Why not make some jam or a berry sauce for pancakes. Yum!

9. Nut butter

Have you seen the price of some nut butters at the shops? Outrageous! So much cheaper and healthier to just buy some organic nuts, roast them and grind them up. Smooth or chunky? You decide!

10. Curry

We love our curry in this house! The Thermomix is brilliant for preparing curry pastes in bulk which you can store in the freezer, and for simmering a curry for dinner even on a weeknight. Healthy and delicious and, as with just about everything you make in a Thermomix, I love that you aren't tied to the stove. You can walk away and do something else while dinner is cooking, confident that it won't burn or stick to the bottom of the pan. Love, love, love!

So that's it. My top 10 things I now make from scratch in my Thermomix.

Do you make any of these from scratch? Is there something from the supermarket you just can't give up?

If you are on the fence about getting a thermal cooker (and it doesn't have to be a Thermomix, there are a number of other brands available) and have some other questions please let me know either in the comments below or shoot me off an email! mywholefoodfamilyblog {at} gmail {dot} com.

I would love to hear from you!

No Knead, Overnight Artisan Bread

I'm a huge fan of making bread these days, but it hasn't always been that way!

Not too many years ago I was terrified of using yeast. It just seemed all too hard and that there was so much that could go wrong.

My first step to making homemade bread was with a breadmaker and bread mix. All the hard work was done for us, there was no kneading, no shaping and no worrying about getting the oven temperature right. Plus I loved the convenience of being able to set it the night before and wake up to fresh bread first thing in the morning. Is there anything better than the smell of fresh bread??

We then moved on to just mixing and kneading the dough in the breadmaker but shaping and baking the dough ourselves. This meant we could make proper sandwich loaves and cob loaves rather than just the squat oblongs you can make in a breadmaker.

After lots of use our breadmaker finally gave up and died and we went back to buying supermarket and bakery bread, which was not ideal for a number of reasons - it's more expensive, it's not as fresh, and there are lots of questionable ingredients like preservatives, emulsifiers and vegetable oils to name a few.

But before we could fully commit to making all our own bread from scratch we took one important step - we cut back on the amount of bread we were eating.

Yep, that's right. 

I've dabbled with a Paleo style of eating and while going completely grain free is never going to work for my family, reducing grains (and especially wheat) can only be a positive step for our health.

I now make just 1 loaf of spelt and grain sandwich bread every week and that does sandwiches and toast for all of us for the week. I often also make one other type of bread, such as cheese and olive scrolls for lunchboxes or a focaccia to have with soup.

A few weeks ago we had friends around for breakfast and wanted to serve some fresh bread. I could have made an extra loaf the day before but it wouldn't have been as fresh, and as it was a public holiday there was no chance of nipping down to the bakery and grabbing a loaf that morning.

So I went searching and came across a basic recipe for a no knead, overnight artisan bread. This recipe seemed to pop up everywhere! With that many reviews I knew it had to be good and it was just what we were looking for.

If you're a novice bread-baker this recipe could be just the thing to help you fall in love with baking bread. Why?

1. It uses plain flour NOT baker's flour which you may not have at home
2. You don't have to knead it
3. You don't need a bread tin, just a large heavy oven safe pot with a lid

Just mix, rest and bake. Easy!

This made a fantastic loaf of bread - crackly crusty exterior with a chewy texture reminiscent of sourdough. Totally delicious and perfect for our breakfast of eggs, bacon, grilled tomatoes and homemade tomato sauce. Yum!

 
No Knead, Overnight Artisan Bread
Recipe from Don't Waste The Crumbs

3 cups plain flour
2 ts salt
1 ts instant yeast
1 1/2 cups water, at room temperature

Stir together the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Pour in the water and mix well to form a rough and shaggy dough (it will not be smooth).

Cover with plastic wrap and leave on the bench for 8-18 hours, or just overnight. It will be light and bubbly.

When you are ready to bake, flour your hands and a sheet of baking paper and tip out the dough. Gently shape into a ball, without kneading, and leave on the baking paper covered with a tea towel for one hour.

When the dough has rested for 30 minutes, place a large heavy oven-safe pot (like a Dutch oven) into the oven and preheat to 230 degrees Celsius.

After the dough has rested for an hour, remove the pot from the oven and carefully place the dough inside, still on the baking paper.

Put the lid on the pot and place back into the oven to bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and then bake for a further 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place on a rack to cool completely for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Our Easter Round-up

This year our Easter was the closest to 100% homemade as we've gotten!

For the first time ever we didn't buy a single hot cross bun from the shops, instead I baked up a storm for nearly the whole of March, trying and refining hot cross bun recipes to find the one that we love. Which we did - using white spelt flour, rice malt syrup, loads of spice and a good handful of organic sultanas. Delicious!

If you've ever looked at the ingredients on supermarket hot cross buns you were likely as horrified as I was - vegetable oil, loads of sugar, emuslifiers and preservatives. Let me tell you it does not have to be that way! Making your own hot cross buns is easier than you might think and a great activity to get the kids involved with (my recipe is scrawled in a notebook but I will get it on the blog when I can, hopefully sometime before next Easter!).

The Easter Bunny brought our boys some lovely winter pyjamas and a single dark chocolate Lindt Bunny. This was the only commercial chocolate the boys received as we had requested non-choc gifts from relatives. Everyone awesomely obliged and boys were gifted board games, books and some rabbit ornaments. We also did an Easter Egg hunt this morning with the boys searching for plastic eggs with little chickens inside and I love that they loved the experience of the hunt so much they didn't notice there was no chocolate involved!

Our junk food philosophy can be summed up as 'party food is for parties' (borrowed from Sweet Poison by David Gillespie) meaning we don't stop the boys eating anything but we clearly treat it as sometimes food and we don't have it in the pantry.

The boys all wanted to eat their chocolate for breakfast but unlike the other two, Mr 5 scoffed the lot before 7am and then felt so sick for most of the day that he has refused all other chocolate and can't even stand the smell of it. He usually doesn't have an off-switch when it comes to sweets so perhaps this has been an effective lesson for him! I'm interested to see how long the aversion will last and whether it will affect how much chocolate he eats on other occasions.

We also didn't purchase any chocolates for each other or for family but instead experimented with some homemade treats. Our homemade chocolates were made using Quirky Jo's dairy-free raw chocolate, Alexx Stuart's real marshmallow and Against All Grain's mandarin truffles. This was my first time using cacao butter to make real wholefood chocolate and I was so impressed with how easy it was to use and how delicious the results were. The marshmallow was out of this world and although obviously it contains sugar (rice malt syrup) it's so much cleaner than the bought stuff. I will be playing around with different flavours and ingredients for Christmas gifts too.

I have such fond memories of making chocolates with praline, nougat, marshmallow and cream fillings for Easter and Christmas with my mum. I still have all these moulds and loved digging them out to use with my boys. Making memories and delicious food like this really is at the heart of what My Wholefood Family is all about.

I hope you and your family have enjoyed a wonderful Easter. What are your traditions - do you go camping? enjoy a seafood feast? what special treats did you bake, make or create? Let me know below ...