Make Your Own Turmeric Latte Mix!

If you haven't heard, turmeric lattes are the next big thing. They taste similar to chai lattes, but are super super good for you. The compound curcumin found within turmeric is widely known to fight cancer and inflammation and all kinds of bad stuff. I'm not a scientist nor a medical professional, and don't want to give mis-information, so. . .Google it!

Anyways, it can be kind of time consuming to make a real turmeric latte as it requires heating nut milk on the stove and using a hand-held blender to foam it.

When processes are that involved, let's be honest, we AREN'T going to do them every day.

So, here is a scaled-down easier method that you can do every morning in lieu of or in accordance with your morning coffee!

First of all, you will need at LEAST the following spices: turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon. All three of those spices can be found at Aldi or Big Lots for $1.00-2.00. (I suggest buying them soon as once big corporations find out that their low-cost items are now considered "health foods," they go and jack up the prices.)

I also added a tiny bit of cardamom, but that is because I have it. Be warned, though. Cardamom is like. . .upwards of $16 a bottle at Wal-Mart! It's really good for you, though, so if you have it, add it.

The ratio I have found on other blog posts and online recipes seems to be something like: 1 part turmeric to 1 (or less) part ginger to 1/3 part cinnamon. But if you like one of these spices more than the others, feel free to tweak. (You could also add pumpkin pie spices like nutmeg and clove if you want.) The important thing is to keep turmeric as the biggest part. I added a 3.75oz. bottle of turmeric, two 1.5oz. bottles of ginger, about 1oz. of cinnamon, and about a tablespoon of cardamom to this mason jar cup. (If you don't have a mason jar, an old washed out pasta sauce jar will work equally as well.)

Then, I shook it all together.

So now on to how to make the latte.

You can add as much of your powder to your nut milk (almond, coconut, etc.) as you want. I do a heaping tablespoon, and I add it to just a little bit of milk to start.

I stir that together for a few seconds. I do this because sometimes if you add the powder to a full glass of milk, it causes annoying lumps. If you stir a little milk with the powder to make a paste, the powder breaks down more evenly. (This trick is helpful with any powder-to-drink mix.)

Then, I filled the mug with milk. . .

. . .and added a little honey. I do highly recommend honey or some other sweetener as the spices can be kind of bitter/harsh on their own. But don't add very much! It doesn't take but a little bit of sweetener to counteract the bitterness. 

Don't cancel out the healthfulness with sugar! (You KNOW that is what the big corporations are going to do once these lattes catch on. They will create their own "ready made" mix and it will promise to be all healthy, meanwhile it will be LOADED with sugar. Happens every time!)

You can also add a tablespoon of coconut oil or ghee butter (if you real real fancy!) and heat it all together. That's what you are supposed to do, actually, but. . .anyways. . .I was running late this morning, so I didn't.

Then, I put the mug in the microwave for two to three minutes.

To make a really foamy latte, you can put this mixture in a separate microwave safe container, heat it for a minute, shake the container, heat it for another minute, shake it, etc., until you get a nice thick foam--you know, like a regular latte. Anyways, I didn't have time for that mess, so I just heated it up and sprinkled some cinnamon on top. My drink still had a little layer of foam on the top, so it wasn't like I was missing out on the latte experience or anything! 

So, there you have it! For a couple of dollars, you can have a ready made nice cozy spicy drink mix on hand for the whole winter (that ISN'T loaded with sugar)! You can also use the mix for other things besides lattes. You can add it to coffee, or like. . .muffin mixes. . .or wherever you feel appropriate.

(P.S. these jars make great gifts!. . .You're welcome!)

Simplified Directions:

Drink Mix:

1 part turmeric

1 (or less) part ginger

1/3 part cinnamon

(other spices - optional)

1 glass jar

Latte:

1 tablespoon of mix to a cup of nut milk

A bit of honey

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

Heat for 2-3 minutes

Enjoy!

One last note!!! Swallow a few peppercorns before drinking and your body will absorb the nutrients more fully! (Or you can add pepper to the mix, if you want.)

The End!

Make Your Own SPF Body Lotion!

UPDATE: This recipe I used lasted 3.5 months. It kept very well during that time.

First off, I need to explain that my recipe for body lotion is not FDA approved, and I make no claims that it will prevent skin cancer.

That said, I use two types of sun "blocking" ingredients: zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide--both in powder form. I use these because after researching, it seems that both of these ingredients are less harmful than other sunscreens out there. Anyways, I had them on hand from another project for which I bought them, so. . .into my lotion they would go.

If you want to make your own lotion, you don't have to use all the ingredients that I used. I just had them in my supply from my soap making and other little projects. Basically, if you want to make lotion, you need to have some kind of solid oil or butter and some liquid oil. Make sure to use about two to three times as much liquid as you use solid. You could even use different ingredients from what I used, so don't be afraid to experiment. Just keep in mind that if your ingredients need to be refrigerated or will likely spoil, your lotion won't hold up very long.

I am the kind of person who goes through lotion (SPF especially as I wear it every day) way too quickly, so this is why I decided to make my own. I just bought this five cup glass jar at a yard sale, so I could make lotion that would last me several weeks.

What I used: beeswax, cocoa butter, shea butter, coconut oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil, pure aloe gel, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, and one bottle of Bath and Body Works lotion (I'll explain why).

Whatever oils and butters you use, make sure to melt the hardest ones first. I cut up about a bar and a half of beeswax and melted it in the microwave for two minutes.

I cut up some cocoa butter and added it to the beeswax and melted it for another two minutes.

I had an already open jar of coconut oil, and I added some shea butter to it. I melted those together for about a minute.

You can see my two jars here. I forgot to mention: I wanted the jar to be big enough I could fit my hand into it. Also, I wanted it to be big enough so that I could actually make the lotion in it. This would cut down on cleaning and also cut down on product loss. The coconut oil jar I just ended up throwing away, so I didn't have to clean that one either.

Then, I added the coconut oil/shea butter to the bigger jar.

Then, using the now empty coconut oil jar, I added about 5T of zinc oxide and 5T of titanium dioxide. (I read that a good ratio for SPF is to add about 1-2T of either z.o. or t.d. to 8oz. of lotion. Since this jar is 5 cups, and 1 cup is 8oz., that is why I added 10T of the powder.)

I then filled the jar with grapeseed oil and avocado oil and stirred it up.

The jar is not quite full yet!

Okay,...this is not DIY, but I get lotion every Christmas and I hate to waste it. . .so I added the rest of an already opened bottle of Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion from B&BW. In my mind, maybe there are preservatives in this lotion that will help my DIY lotion not to go bad? I dunno. It smells good at least.

Waste not, want not.

The container still wasn't full, so I topped it off with organic aloe gel.

Then, I got out my immersion blender and blended it all up right in the jar!

The finished jar. Because it is squarish, it fits in my bathroom drawer quite nicely. I wanted to keep it out of direct sunlight, just so it keeps better.

It feels so great. It's a little greasy at first, but after about an hour it really absorbs into the skin and my skin feels super soft all day. Even my hands still feel soft. . .and I wash them like every five minutes!

The End!

Oil Dying - When Other Oil Stain Removal Methods Don't Work

So, remember when I blogged about how coconut oil is the best thing for your hair ever? Well, it is. . .however if you try to put it in your hair after getting dressed, it can stain your clothes. See pics below. 

I was particularly mad about this shirt because it's Ralph Lauren, and I hadn't even gotten the chance to wear it yet!!! Grrr...

The culprit:

So, I tried many things to get the stains out. I tried rubbing Oxy into the stains, letting them sit, and then washing them and hanging them to dry. Didn't work. I tried lemon juice and vinegar too. Nothing worked. Those pictures above are actually taken AFTER all of these mentioned methods, so you can see for yourself that they didn't work. I was going to donate the ruined clothes to Goodwill, but I was super mad because I wear those blue pants all the time. . .

Then, I got the idea, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." 

I took my half used jar of coconut oil, some boiling water and a plastic tub and went to work.

First, I put the boiling water and oil into the tub and stirred it up till the oil was all melted.

Then, I added my shirt and pants and kneaded them and flipped and kneaded and flipped until they were fully saturated.

I waited a few minutes and then wrung them out as much as I could and threw them into the wash (on cold).

I hung both to dry. . .and I'm pleased to say that the pants look GREAT! I feel like the color is actually even more vibrant than before and the stains are completely gone.

However. . .the green shirt was completely ruined. The original stains were still there, and all I had accomplished was making new ones...

Oh well. You win some, you lose some! At least the pants were saved!

The End!

Make 32oz of Your Own Liquid Castile Soap for $1.00...Apologies to Dr. Bronner

Here's another thing I did over the holidays. I read about how to do this on another blog, so I'm kind of a poser on this one, but in case you haven't read this blog, I'll tell you how I did it myself. I did it more quickly and my result is more concentrated (i.e. the same consistency as Dr. Bronner's) than hers.

The key ingredient is Kirk's Original Coco Castile Soap (or any castile soap for that matter, Kirk's is just the cheapest I've seen). I found this at the Walmart in Central, SC in a three-pack for $3.00. (For people in Seneca, it's not at our Walmart, I checked.) You could also check Big Lots periodically, as they get organic/natural stuff from time to time.

Sorry, Blogger put my picture in sideways:

As you can see, there are no harmful sulfates or weird-to-pronounce ingredients:

I know it's not as exotically ingredient-ed as Dr. Bronner's. In other words, if jojoba oil was the selling point to you of Dr. Bronner's then...buy Dr. Bronner's. Otherwise, if you are all about the saving of money, continue reading...

With a Dollar Tree grater, I grated the entire bar of soap and shoved it into an old 32oz. empty bottle of Dr. Bronner's.

Then I boiled 32oz. of water and poured the boiling water into the bottle. In a few minutes it was all dissolved. (Learn from my mistake: Maybe don't shove the soap shavings into the bottle. Maybe just dissolve the 32oz. of water in a separate non-melty container and let it cool before pouring into the bottle...Because look what I did to my bottle!)

Oh well, even though the bottle is warped, the formula works just like Dr. Bronner's! You can use it in place of Dr. Bronner's in any of the homemade soaps and shampoos on my or other people's blogs.

The End