Hair today...gone tomorrow

So, as in my previous blog about my hair, the saga continues. I had to forgo trying to find an alternative to shampoo and conditioner. It was just not working for me. I used Dr. Bonner's lavender shampoo and my regular conditioner, but my hair was still not silky soft as before. I decided to try V05, yep folks you read that right, V05. Because I'm a frugal momma, I've been using cheap shampoo as soap for years. It's way cheaper than purchasing a $4.00 bottle of body wash. I usually used Suave because it was cheap; well V05 is way cheaper now. It normally runs about .85 a bottle. When Kroger has it on sale, it's like .74 a bottle. So the other day, Baby Girl and I were at Kroger and there was a sale on V05 so I started grabbing a bunch for our body wash. Then it dawned on me: why not try some for my hair? I mean what could it hurt in this stage of the game? They have some tea series shampoos and conditioners so I grabbed blackberry and sage tea shampoo and conditioner. It is marvelous! My hair is back to it's silky soft self! I love it and it is cheap! SCORE!!

Now to the coloring of my hair. If I did not color my hair, it would be white. The last couple of times I colored my hair with synthetic dyes, I had horrible irritation to my scalp. I made the decision to try a more natural approach. This was about 8-10 weeks ago.

I started off with trying to use tea for two weeks to bring some color back. All I got was a drippy mess and nothing else. It didn't change the color one bit.

I finally get sage and rosemary and some henna powder. This is a whole different story. I had ordered some sage and rosemary from a crappy online site. For three weeks I have nothing, nada, not a thing. I email inquiring where my purchase was at and she tells me it will be shipped the next week. So I patiently wait and at the end of the week I still did not have my herbs. I emailed again to let her know that if the order had not been shipped to please cancel the order and refund me my 39 bucks. She refunded me and then proceeded to berate me for canceling the order after waiting for almost a month. I kindly replied to her email  letting her know that a well established business would not berate a first time buyer for inquiring about their order. That seemed to shut her up. So I decided to purchase my herbs from another online vendor that I've used before. I know what you're thinking, "why didn't you use them in the first place?" To that question my answer is, " I don't know." lol. Anyway, while I was adding my sage (I actually got lucky and got some rosemary at the State Farmer's Market when we went a few weeks ago) I noticed she had henna powder so I ordered that as well. It was cheaper than what I found at Henna for hair. And now I know why; the henna powder was old and did not do anything. While the sage and rosemary made my hair feel yummy, all it did to my white hair was to make it whiter and not darker. So back to the drawing board.

my hair in overhead lighting after using henna

my hair in natural lighting after dying with henna

So I finally purchased some henna from Henna for Hair. I should have done that from the very get-go. You live and learn. Where it took me almost 8 weeks to get my other herbs and henna I'd tried, it took me less than a week to get this henna. So, you go Henna for Hair, you go! Last night (which happened to be my 25th anniversary. Happy anniversary, Bear. Love you!) Bear helped apply the henna to my hair. I slept on it, not very well mind you. I was so excited about seeing the color. I woke up extremely early; I don't think it was even 6:00 yet. I rinsed out the color and was shocked to see that my white now looked like Ronald McDonald red. I dried it and decided it didn't look "that" bad. I'm still disappointed only because I let my roots get so long it looks the same as it did before just with red instead of white. So, I've ordered some indigo to put on top of the henna. I'm hoping that will get me to my dark brown color. I'll just upkeep it with indigo and henna.

In the end, I'm glad I went the natural route. My scalp is so thanking me for it. Eventually, I'll just let my white hair fly but until then, I'll use henna and indigo. Happy hair day!

Crock pot dinners

Ole Betsy

Since I get home late on Mon., Tues., and Thurs., due to kickboxing, I have turned to my crock pot to feed us so we don't have to go out and eat or starve to death waiting for dinner to get done.

So far I've made four meals in the crock pot. Some were fantastic and some were okay. Let's start with the fantastic meals...

Crock pot Lasagna. Yep, you read that right...crock pot Lasagna. So easy and so yummy. I want to preface this by saying I have an old crock pot. I don't even know how old it is; that's how old it is. Easily over 12 years old. So all I have is low and high on my pot. Not the newly added warm function. I so wish I did have that, but I don't. Maybe I'll get a new pot in the near future with the warm feature, but for right now "Ole  Betsy" will have to do. So the lasagna recipe is easy enough. You brown your meat (I use ground chuck or sirloin)and drain the fat. Add a jar of Ragu (or homemade sauce or your favorite spaghetti sauce. I love Ragu traditional so that is what I always use). Get a box of lasagna noodles. It can be a regular box; it doesn't have to be the no boil kind, but you can use those as well. Take about 3-4 cups of mozzarella cheese, a container of ricotta cheese and about 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese and mix them together. You could substitute cottage cheese for the ricotta, but I like the authentic taste of ricotta. Spray your pot with a non-stick spray. Add about 1/3 of your meat mixture to the pot. Add a layer of noodles. I break mine in half to get them in the pot. Now, don't think the meat has to be perfectly covered (this was a little frustrating to me at first, but I slowly realized it wasn't going to happen in the pot). Just cover as best as you can. Then add a layer of cheese mixture. Add another layer of noodles. Another layer of meat mixture. Another layer of noodles. Another layer of cheese mixture. Another layer of noodles and the rest of the meat mixture. Now, this is when I wish I had the newer crock pot model with the warm setting. If you are going to be away all day...you have to have the warm setting or your lasagna will just dry to blech. The first time I made this, I went to the park and was gone for probably 4-5 hours (maybe longer)with it on low. When I got home, the lasagna was DRY. It was still edible but it was, well, dry. The second time I made it I was only gone for about 2-3 hours, again using low. It turned out PERFECT. You can add some mozzarella cheese at the end if you want some on top. Just add it about 10 minutes before serving.

Salsa Chicken. OMG!! This is to DIE for! This by far has been one of the best tasting meals I've ever made...in a crock pot or not! It is so easy and soooo yummy. My mouth is literally watering thinking about it and I just had left overs for lunch! You can use thighs or whatever chicken you have. I never buy thighs, only boneless, skinless chicken breast, so that is what I had. I had three, not over-sized, chicken breast. I sprayed Ole Betsy and added the chicken. Then I opened up a can of whoop ass black beans, rinsed and added to the pot. I open a jar of Pace "original style" picante mild sauce (16 oz) added it to the pot. Then I added a can of drained corn. I also picked some cilantro from my garden and added. If you're using thighs you probably won't need as much sauce but breast will dry out so you need more sauce. Put Ole Betsy on low and let it cook for about 6 hours. The chicken just fell apart in the pot when I stirred it. It was wonderful! I served it with yellow rice (because I don't like the prepackaged mexican rice). I also had Bear stop and get some chips and salsa from our favorite Mexican restaurant. I had cheese dip that I purchased from Wally world. So we made nachos with it. It was so freaking good! For lunch I just had the rice and chicken...still so yummy!

Now for the okay meals. And they were only okay because they were either undercooked or overcooked. Once I get the timing down, they will be fantastic too!

I don't even know what to call this. It's my own recipe that I modified from a couple of recipes. I use eye of round steak (cause that's what my local butcher has) but you can use any steak. I cut it into bite size pieces and brown before putting it into Ole Betsy. Spray the pot first then add tomatoes (canned or fresh). Then slice an onion and add. I also added cut carrots and celery. Then add the beef. I also added garlic but sometimes I don't. Cook on low for about 3 hours. The first time I made this I only let it cook for about 2 1/2 hours. The veggies were still crispy and that didn't go over well with Bear, so next time I'll cook for 3-3 1/2 hours. I made mashed potatoes before I left, put them in the fridge and warmed them up when I got home. Simple, yummy meal!

Philly chicken cheese sandwiches. No, you're eyes are not going wonky on you! I made the filling for the sandwiches in Ole Betsy. I cut the chicken in bite size pieces then salt and pepper them. I sliced some onion. Sprayed the pot and then added the onion and the chicken. That's it! Turn on low.  When I cooked this the first time, I cooked it for way too long (about 6-7 hours). The chicken tasted okay but had the texture of saw dust.  Being new to cooking with a crock pot I have no idea how long things will take to cook and with it being chicken, I didn't want to get food poisoning so I over cooked it. So next time, I'll cook it for about 4-5 hours on low. Put the filling on a bun, add your favorite cheese (white american here) and put it in the oven until toasted and cheese is melted. So yummy and fast.

I'm really enjoying my crock pot and all it offers me. I love cooking but some days, the easier the better. I'll blog later about the new recipes I tried earlier this week. We're desperately trying to save money and our eating out budget was the first to be reduced. I'm trying to make new, interesting meals so it won't feel like we're missing anything. Stayed tuned for that blog.

Happy cooking and eating!

Let's Knit!

I got the cutest pattern for some dish clothes from Lily-Sugar N Cream. I tried to pin it to my Pinterest knitting board but the picture wouldn't show so I'm circumventing the board and putting in my blog which is also on Pinterest. Sneaky...I know. lol. Can't wait to knit a few of these. They look adorable.

Happy knitting!

What a Hairy situation

I'd like preface this by saying that I LOVE my hair (vain to say, I know, but it's the truth). It has always been soft and silky. I can remember my grandmother couldn't french braid my hair because it was "alive" as she said. It would just crawl out of the braids. But after much dyeing of my hair, after all if I didn't I'd be white headed, I've irritated my scalp horribly. I decided to start looking for a more natural way to wash my hair so it would ease the irritation.

My friend suggested the baking soda "no poo" shampoo. It's quite simple: 1 tablespoon of baking soda to a cup of water. That's it. You shampoo with it about 2-3 times a week to clean your scalp. The best method I found is to spray my hair with the solution and massage it into my scalp. I followed it up with her first suggestion of Apple Cider Vinegar conditioner: 1 tablespoon of ACV and a cup of water. Well my hair was a dried, crazy mess!

I decided to google some recipes online and found this website with a gob of information on natural hair care (even dying w/out chemicals..yipppeee).

So I made up the conditioner that called for 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, 1/2 cup water and 2 tbs of honey. I didn't like the thought of putting vegetable oil in my hair so I used all olive oil. Man, was my hair greasy and disgusting feeling! I went and bought some Dr. Bonner's Lavendar castile soap to wash my hair. I washed my hair with the castile soap and with the baking soda "shampoo" and I retried the conditioner by using my friend's recipe (2 oz honey, 12 oz boiling water, mix, then add 2 oz olive oil, in her case she used sunflower oil w/added vitamin E). My hair wasn't as greasy, but it still was too greasy for me. The next day it was horrible, but I managed to get through it.

So today I created yet another conditioner..this time NO oil. I mixed 2 tbls of honey with 2 cups of boiling water. I washed my hair with castile soap and used the new conditioner. My hair is much better...not as near as greasy as the last few days. The next time I will use the castile soap and baking soda "shampoo" with the no-oil conditioner to see if my hair will be soft and silky like it was when I was using the chemical filled shampoos and conditioners. As you can see from the above picture...it's got some fly-aways but thank goodness it's not greasy looking/feeling. I'm also sure it will take my hair a few days to weeks to adjust.

I can't wait to try the no chemical hair dyes. I'm just waiting on my herbs to get here to do that. I also need to order some henna and indigo. If I can't find a natural way to dye my hair, I'm afraid I'm Paula Deen bound.

What's for dinner 3/5/2012

Something so freaking yummy! I kind of played on a few things to make this meal.

First I had some Eye of Round Steak that is sooo delicious. I cut it into bite size pieces. I sliced a sweet onion. If I would of had some fresh garlic, I would have minced it...but I didn't so I used garlic powder.

I sauteed the onion first. Once I had it transparent, I put it on a plate to get it out of the way (but not for long). I then browned the meat. I added salt, pepper and the garlic powder. You know, just to taste. After the meat was browned, I put the onions back in the pan. Speaking of pans, I bought a non-stick green pan. That was one reasons why I sauteed the onions first, to give it more flavor. I then added a can of petite diced tomatoes (again, only cause I didn't have fresh tomatoes). That was it. I let it simmer for about 10 minutes with the lid on. After that, I took the lid off and simmered for 20 minutes while my potatoes were cooking for the mashed potatoes that I made to go along with the meal. After 20 minutes, I added some frozen spinach (again, cause I didn't have fresh). I also added some Parmesan cheese.

I served the meat mixture on top of the mashed potatoes and had rolls with it too. Such an easy, fast and yummy meal. I've made this before w/ Rotel tomatoes and yellow rice for a Mexican flavor. Amanda didn't like that...too spicy. This meal though, she ate it up!

So grab a pan, some steak, onion and tomatoes and eat!