Saturday, May 15, 2010

Home-made sun-screen and Bon Ami.

The experiments with replacing portions of ground beef with cooked, mashed, brown lentils and cooked bulgur were totally successful. Em didn't notice any change in taste at all either in hamburger patties or his beloved hamburger helper. I should mention, however, that I season pretty much everything these days with Montreal Steak Seasoning. There was a sale at Kroger one day and I got about 8 of these. I use it on pretty much everything because it's got pretty much everything in it. I sprinkle it on vegetables, too!

My dandruff is back ... with a vengeance, so I'm gonna need to go through the whole routine I went through before to get it to go away again. PITA, but at least I'm getting a feel for how long I can go between "treatments" to keep my scalp healthy.

So, here we go with today's topic:

Like most envirowackos, I'm interested in ways to make non-toxic products that actually work like the toxic ones. I haven't yet tested these two, but now that I have a teensy granddaughter, I've been thinking about the impact of the world around her. To take her outside for any length of time, she's gonna need some sun screen. She's a pale-face like her dad.

Sun Screen:



I've never purchased products like Bon Ami. Em takes a more gentle approach to everything in life, so HE has, but I'm more the "shotgun it" type, not wanting to take any more time on cleaning than is truly necessary to get the job done and get away from it. If I make something, though, I have an investment in it so I'm more inclined to use it and make it work. We've got baking soda all over the place, for instance, because it's SO helpful in keeping our kitchen stain-free. Em had some problems with digestion for a while that seems to have been resolved with daily yo-chs (a combination of yogurt, cottage cheese and frozen berries). Berries love to stain anything in which they come in contact, so it's baking soda to the rescue.

Non-toxic cleaners:



Finishing up with a pic of the world's cutest baby (in MY opinion, of course):
Photobucket

4 comments:

Aydan said...

Of course my first thought was, "Is there BPA in the can he's mixing the sunscreen in?"

However, this looks very interesting and I'll have to try it when I'm working outside this summer!

Rob said...

In the cleaning-product video, you used a powdered detergent in the window cleaner and liquid detergent in the "soft scrubber" and the all-purpose cleaner.

What KIND of detergents are they? Dish detergents? Laundry detergents? Does it matter?

Thanks!

Oldnovice said...

I've not yet made the cleaning agents, Rob, but replaying the video showed the person with an obvious "lid" from a laundry detergent bottle.

Don't know if it matters or not.

Thanks for stopping by.

Rob said...

Thank you, Oldnovice. Not so obvious where I live: no bottles that look like that here. Well, maybe an import store would have something like that, were I to look, but not the usual, local or regional products.

So, that answers the question about the liquid. That leaves the question about the powder.

Since my apartment doesn't have a washing machine and I have my laundry done by a laundromat that picks up and delivers (for a lot less than a washer would cost me), I don't have any laundry detergents and, since I don't have a dishwasher, either, I don't have powdered dish detergent - just the liquid.

It may not make any difference at all, but it would be helpful if the video were more specific (without naming brands, of course). I may just have to experiment.

Thank you for your reply.