Category: Healthy Living

After additional research, I decided to purchase the Zojirushi SL-XCE20HG Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Tiffin Box. It cost me $62.59.

Instead of one spill proof container, that is available in the Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Steel Lunch Jar, it offers three! Which makes it perfect for including delicious chowder, soup, egg rolls, rice, bean dishes and a whole host of other delicious hot foods that can be included into my daughters Zojirushi bento lunch box without me having to worry about spills.

The Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Tiffin Box is perfect for holding hot or cold meals, especially suited for places where refrigerators and microwaves may not be available. The outer body is constructed out of durable stainless steel and has excellent heat retention. 4 Non-microwaveable inner bowls including 3 soup bowls are ideal for holding curry and other soups. All containers are BPA free. Also includes an easy to carry tote bag.

Unlike the Zojirushi Lunch Jar the containers included with the Zojirushi Tiffin Box are not microwaveable and I’m fine with that. My daughter can’t use the microwave at school and we rarely use it at home.

A few of the people that wrote negative reviews about the Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Steel Lunch Jar (the one I was going to originally purchase) complained that some of the jars leaked so they weren’t spill proof. The description states only one container is spill proof, so clearly they did not read the info before packing some of those containers. As I already mentioned, that’s why I decided to upgrade to the Zojirushi Tiffin Box since it has three spill proof containers.

The above pictures is the Zojirushi  Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Tiffin Box. I showed my daughter the above picture and the YouTube demo I’d shared in my last post and she’s really excited about receiving hot home cooked meals when she’s away at school. As she told me, it’ll make her school days a little bit more special since she receives a delicious and nutritious meal at school.

If you think about it, these are perfect for those working outside the home also. If you eat out a lot when you’re at work, something like a Zojirushi bento box will pay for itself very quickly. And it would be a much better option, for me anyway, than purchasing food when I could simply bring in delicious and healthy leftovers from home. I work out of the home, but all my meals are inside the home, so there’s no need for me to purchase this for myself.

I’ll be sure to ask my daughter what she thinks of her zojirushi bento box and perhaps she’ll write a review here on Celebrate Life. Based on the reviews that I’ve read this will last my daughter for several years.

Earlier today, I placed a bid on a Griswold vintage meat grinder. I hope I win this grinder.

It looks a lot like the one that my mother used when I was a child. She’d clamp it to the side of the table, and my mother, brother and I took turns turning that crank to make our sausages. Sausage making was a lot of work, and my brother and I weren’t always thrilled to keep feeding the meat into the grinder. However we knew better than to complain, and it was one of our chores; grinding the sausage and stuffing them into casings. You know, if I think about it, I can still taste those sausages? I must say it tasted better than any of the prepackaged sausage that I’d purchase in the store during my pre-veggie days! The pig killed was one that we raised and was not pumped with all sorts chemicals.

One of my mothers favorite ways to prepare sausages was smothering them with homemade gravy. She usually cooked sausages for our Sunday morning breakfast. Sunday breakfast was early so we’d have time to change and go to church.  My mother showed me how awesome it is to be self-sufficient and I took it to a higher level not only with the meals I prepare, but in other aspects of my life also.

 

But back to the meat grinder…

A meat grinder grinds more than meat. I’ve seen them used for grinding wheat grass and some grains too. I’m sure, when I receive my vintage meat grinder that I’ll have  a lot of fun experimenting with the different items that I can grind and of course, I’ll be making homemade sausage for my daughter.

The past few days, with my posts about meat, one might not think that I was vegan. I am, but I do make non-vegan meals for loved ones. Before my daughter was born, the only foods I cooked, after switching to vegetarianism was vegan. That continued to until my daughter was about six years old. She wanted to try animal products… and I let her. She still mainly eats a vegetarian diet, but does supplement it with animals, and I’m fine with that.

Of course, when I saw the manufactures name (Griswold) for the vintage meat grinder I immediately thought of ‘The Griswolds’ from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I included two of my favorite scenes from the movie. I haven’t watched that in years.

 

In my twenties, I thought about purchasing a food/meat slicer. As appealing at they were to me, at the time, it wasn’t really feasible since it was just myself and I honestly could not justify purchasing that item. Also, as a vegan, there really wasn’t a need for the slicer even though I loved what it did.

Fast forward to today, I’m still vegan, but my ten year old daughter isn’t. During the school year, I prepare the majority of her lunches. Processed foods aren’t in those lunches, since I’ve make the majority of her lunches.  Her lunches contain a variety of foods;   salads, eggrolls, soups, lunch meats, fruit smoothies and a whole host of other delicious foods.

Deli sandwiches come in handy, since those lunches are quick to prepare but making the slices ‘deli thin’ can be challenging at times. Because of this, I rarely put ‘deli style’ sandwiches in her lunch. But since I know my daughter loves those types of sandwiches, I’m finally warming up to the idea of acquiring my own meat slicer. I love the thought that preparing and slicing my own deli meats puts me in control of the entire process since I’ll know how the meat was prepared; I’d be cooking the meat myself. Additionally, my homemade deli meats won’t be loaded with all sorts of unnecessary junk (such as nitrates) that are common in many deli meats.

During my research, finding a ‘manual gravity fed meat slicer’, similar to the ones I see at my local deli was top priority. I found several reviews on forums, blogs and even stumbled upon an old vintage meat slicer on Chicky Chikita’s website. I saw a few of the vintage slicers she has on Ebay. I visited Chickita’s site for a little while. She’s vegan, a sewist, and does sewing machine embroidery and applique. It sure sounds like we have a few things in common.

Anyway… after hours of research, I do believe I found the perfect slicer for our home. It’s the Avantco 10″ Manual Gravity Feed Meat Slicer.

Some features of the Avantco 10″ Manual Gravity Feed Meat Slicer are…

• Built-in sharpener
• Easy cleanup
• ETL Sanitation and ETL Listed

Within the next few weeks, I’ll purchase the meat slicer. It won’t take long for the meat slicer to pay for itself. Also, a meat slicer slices more than meats so I’m sure I’ll be using it to slice cheese and it’ll come in handy when slicing veggies for our homemade pizzas. Oh, and I know I’ll be purchasing raw beef-ribeye so I can thinly slice it to make Philly cheese steaks without the Cheez whiz. My daughter loves Philly Cheese steaks.

The Avantco,  is not as expensive as a Berkel or Hobart meat slicer, but it works similar to them, and the reviews for the Avantco are positive. Once I’ve purchased and used it, I’ll be sure to post my review about the product.

 

Of course… when I started thinking about meat slicers I could not help but remember the above Seinfeld episode.

 

Resource:

1. Environmental Protection Agency: Nitrates and Nitrites
2. World Cancer Research Foundation:  Red and Processed Meats and Cancer Prevention
3. World Cancer Research Foundation: Red and Processed Meat: Finding the Balance for Cancer Prevention
4. The Institute for Natural Healing: Processed Meats Declared too Dangerous for Human Consumption

 

 

Several years ago, I started looking for alternatives to disposable tampons.

I really got tired of purchasing them, and wanted a reusable “menstrual alternative” to tampons. If you think about it, over time menstruating women can spend a lot of money on a product that’s used on a monthly basis.

If you check out The Keeper’s website, you can see how much a woman would most likely spend purchasing tampons over a ten year period. Uhm, no thanks!  I was also, looking for ways to reduce the amount of disposable items I leave in our environment. After a bit of online research, I stumbled upon The Keeper.

 

The Keeper does not function exactly like a tampon. It does not absorb menstrual fluid. Instead it gathers the fluid in the Keeper. The Keeper is made out of natural latex rubber and holds one ounce of menstrual fluid. Most women produce about two – four ounces of menstrual fluid during their menstrual cycle. I usually dump out the contents after three hours, wash out the Keeper, and reinsert again. Of course, I wash my hands during the process. I must say that I was fascinated, when I first learned about them but I wondered how easy it would be?

After I got over the fact that I had a reusable menstrual collection device and the slight ick factor, I was completely sold on The Keeper. It sure makes my life much easier, since I don’t have to make sure I have enough disposable tampons available. To clean The Keeper, I soak it in it’s own little jar with witch hazel or vinegar. When not in use, I keep The Keeper stored in a cute little bag hand sewn bag that I made.

I  will say after ten years of use, I have no desire to ever go back to disposable products. My only regret, is not making the switch sooner.

Resources:

The Keeper, Inc.: Usage and Care

The past several months I’ve been researching Water Filters.

In the past, I’ve used a few water filters, but wasn’t too thrilled with them. I’m not pleased with bottled water either, since I know in the long run it would be much cheaper to purchase a good water filtration system.

Once I purchase a water filtration system, I can add my own water to bottles. This way I can carry them along with me when I am out of the home. Another perk is that, it reduces my dependence of plastic/bottled water. I really like that, since it would be a cost savings not having to purchase bottled water again.

During my research for the “perfect water filtration system” for me, I decided to up my price range and look at acquiring a water filtration system that would last me a long time.

Distilled water filtration systems were out, since I don’t want to remove the minerals from the water. Why remove minerals that’s beneficial to my body? That does not make sense to me. The system that currently has my interest is the Big Berkey.

I know a few people that actively use this water filtration system, and they have all loved them.

Purifies up to 3.5 gallons per hour
Filter Life: Up to 3,000 gallons per filter element
Holding Capacity: 2.25 Gallons
Cleanable, Self-Sterilizing purification elements
High Grade 304 Stainless Steel

 

One of the best reviews I read was done by Jeff Pearce at Cooking God’s Way, I’ve included some of his points below…

Filters bacteria to a 99.99999% leve land viruses to a 99.9999% level.
Removes Lead, MTBE’s, and other heavy metals up to 95% levels.
Removes fluoride and arsenic. (see Is Chlorine In Drinking Water Safe?)
Removes chlorine. (see Fluoride In Drinking Water = Poison)
Easy to clean, and maintain unit.
Long lasting filters, (3,000 gal/black berkey filter).
Easy to assemble.
No plumbing needed to install.
Attractive look on counter.
Small footprint about the same as the average coffee maker.
Convenience of getting filtered water in the home.
Affordable price.

The only thing I need to decide is when I want to make the purchase. It’ll definitely be sooner rather than later. Once I do make the purchase, I’ll be sure to post a review about the product. I’m looking forward to this being in our household for a long time.

The past few weeks have been busy as I’ve been rounding up items needed to reopen my natural skin care business.  I had a small natural skin care small business up until the time my daughter was about two years old. It’s something I’ve missed immensely. I did a lot of research and experimentation and created natural skin products that truly made me proud.

Within the next few days, I’ll be experimenting with a few of my old recipes; sunblock and toothpaste. I have plenty of  eager guinea pigs that I know will give me their honest opinion of whatever I grace them with. They’re the same folks I used the first time around.

If you follow me on Facebook, you might have seen my post about  the lip balms. I made some this past weekend. You know what? Lip balm tubes and deodorant tubes are the perfect container to dispense your hard butters. They keep fingers out of the mixture and much less messier (and more sanitary I might add) then dipping your finger into a jar.

Tomorrow I should receive a large order of  unrefined extra virgin coconut oil, zinc (non nano) and a few other goodies. This Friday, my daughter, her best friend and I will be having fun with soap making. I’ll be making several pounds of liquid castile soap. No this isn’t one of the partially prepared soaps since I’ll be making the real thing. I have plenty of sodium hydroxide aka lye available. It’ll be a nice learning experience for my daughters friend and fun time for everyone involved.

It takes about a month for cold processed soap to cure, so this soap won’t be available to use immediately. But the results make it worth the wait. I do believe some of the soap will make it’s way into Christmas gifts.