Category Archives: blog

liquid garam masala

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So I love the flavors of curry, but can’t take the heat with most pre-made sauces. With the allergies here we have to make everything from scratch anyway, so I’ve developed a quick and easy way (NOTE:: not claiming it is authentic) to make a yummy curry dish here at home with whatever we have at the time… and use our amazing doTERRA oils to flavor it!
liquid garam masala
Here is my loose ‘recipe’ that you can follow and modify at will:

MEAT & VEGGIES:

  • about 2 lbs of bite sized chopped meat (beef or chicken)
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 head cauliflower, chopped (we’ve also added potatoes before)
  • several carrots, chopped
  • 1 small carton of grape or cherry tomatoes
  • 1 jar of Majestic Garlic curried garlic (this stuff is not easy to find, but is AMAZING). I apologize if most of you can’t get this bc IMO it really makes the dish. If you can’t get it, any whole pickled garlic cloves may also be a good substitute. I put in a LOT.

SAUCE:

  • 1 can of organic fire roasted diced tomatoes
  • 3 small cans of organic coconut cream
  • a few TBSP of dairy free butter

SEASONING:

  • several TBSP of mild curry powder
  • about 2 TBSP of cumin
  • a few drops of doTERRA lime essential oil
  • 1 drop each of doTERRA Cardamom, Coriander, Ginger, Cinnamon, Clove Bud, Black Pepper essential oils  (if you don’t have these yet, msg me and I can get them to you)
  • a dash of sugar to balance out the tomatoes
  • more cinnamon powder if needed
  • salt to taste

This week I started with some beef pieces cut into small bite-sized portions and marinated them ahead of time in some olive oil, salt and a can of coconut cream (we usually use chicken).

Heat some olive oil in a pot (I like to use my enamel coated cast iron dutch oven) and cook up some chopped onion until tender. Add in the cauliflower, carrots and meat until meat is browned and veggies are tender.

Add in 1 can diced tomatoes, 2-3 cans of coconut cream (less if using the full sized cans, but mine were the really small cans) and butter. Throw in the grape tomatoes, garlic cloves and all seasonings and let it simmer until flavors are well blended. This one really requires you to customize the flavors to your liking, but that is what I love about making this dish!

Serve over brown jasmine rice. YUM!

Rosemary & Thyme Roasted Veggies

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roasted veggiesThese are SO good. I never thought I’d get this excited about veggies, but seriously these are really that good….and easy.

1) Take whatever veggies you have in the fridge. I often like to use carrots, celery, tiny potatoes, grape tomatoes, onion, red peppers, okra, broccoli, etc etc. Remember: eat the rainbow! The more color and variety the better!

2) Chop them into bite sized pieces.

3) Spread them out in a large baking dish (the flatter the better) and coat them with my all time favorite rosemary & thyme infused olive oil. Toss them around until they are coated and lightly salt them with sea salt.

4) Bake at 400 for about an hour or until they are slightly toasted and crispy. You’ll want to shake them up and make sure they get really well cooked (I like them slightly burnt). Drizzle a tiny bit more of the rosemary & thyme oil on at the end and salt to taste. ENJOY!

Even the kiddos gobble these up. They’re the perfect way for anyone to devour a pan full of veggies, even if they supposedly don’t like veggies 🙂

the airstream:: in the beginning

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Some people have asked how we decided to randomly buy and renovate an airstream and travel the country. Short answer is….we didn’t. Now that we have been through counseling and I am hopeful that our marriage will no longer dissolve over this issue, I’ll post a bit of the back story…

Have you ever had one of those ‘maybe one day’ conversations with your spouse that you casually mention dreams or ideas that might be cool to do at some time in the way distant future, but isn’t even on your radar or in the scope of reasonable possibility at the time? So I thought we were having one of those the day Erin said, ‘Oh I saw an old airstream for sale on ebay.’ Fast forward (I’m omitting the part where I snapped back and said, HECK no) and by summer 2013 we were the new owners of a 1973 piece of rolling aluminum that came complete with the hantavirus.

Lesson here: not everything advertised on ebay is as it seems. picking it up

Fast forward a few more weeks and we were now the new owners of a Toyota Sequoia because our previous vehicle was not even able to tow the aforementioned ebay purchase. OH MY!!!!! Once we got the new ‘find’ home I was told I could actually not step foot in it for health and safety reasons (I was super preggo with baby 3) and even from a distance I knew why. GROSS {insert several weeks of marriage counseling over the disagreements on making this ‘investment’ at a time in our life where I was a frazzled mom with soon to be 3 kids 3 and under who was lucky if I got a shower once a week and CERTAINLY had no time or energy for a renovation project}.

So after much counseling and debate, I finally caught a glimpse of the vision that E had for a longer term dream he had for our family. With his love for adventure, activity and desire for our boys to grow up experiencing the outdoors as much as he did as a kid, he knew something like a camper could come in handy (not to mention we had to move 9 times in 5 years and this would have been super convenient in those transitions). I fully agreed, though the means by which we got to the end would have been very different if I’d had my way. But we were at where we were at, so we agreed to keep the crazy thing….rats and all.

Life threw many curves at us just a few short months later and we found ourselves in the midst of a lot of changes. Our 3rd child was born in October, we moved to a new house across the neighborhood in November, and by January learned we were making an unexpected move to the middle of nowhere, CA. Thing were a bit busy to say the least. 10 months after we had purchased it, once I was no longer carrying a little human inside me and could get away long enough to actually shower afterward, I was allowed to set foot inside our airstream (with hazmat gear, of course). April 2014 E and I ripped out all of the old ‘insides’ in about a day and it was NOT pretty. These are the first publicly released images of what we saw:

 

{DIY} laundry detergent

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About the time I had started using essential oils, I came across a killer deal on a super green cloth diaper friendly laundry detergent, so I bought a TON of it. I was so proud of myself for scoring that deal. Since then I have wanted to try making my own several times, but just had no need for it! I FINALLY (after almost 2 years) have run out of my stash, so this was my project! My first attempt I followed a traditional recipe that used borax and that was a big NO GO on my little ones sensitive skin. I made a massive batch, and had to give most of it away!
laundry_detergentMy REVISED detergent is now borax FREE and it seems to be working quite well so far. Here are the ingredients that I have switched to for our homemade laundry detergent

  • 2 cups washing soda
  • 1 cup baking soda
  • 1/2 cup of course sea salt or epsom salt
  • 1/2 cup of Biokleen oxygen bleach
  • 1 bar of castille soap finely grated (a cuisinart with a finer grater attachment works great to do this quickly)
  • 10 – 20 drops each of lavender and wild orange essential oils (I’ll change this up each time just for fun)

Dump it all into a container, mix it up, add in the essential oils, and there you go! Use about 1-2 Tbsp with each load, add in white vinegar with 2 drops of essential oil as the liquid fabric softener and run the load!