Hippiefication

I've started cooking recently, which is big news from someone who's always considered making Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese from the box cooking. It started with bread. I have a friend who told me how she made all her own bread, so I made it my mission to make an edible loaf of honey wheat bread. Admittedly, my first few attempts at actual cooking were more along the lines of Harto than Martha, but after five loaves and LOTS of advice from friends, I succeeded! I couldn't believe it. I went into my kitchen, mixed a bunch of stuff together and ended up with food! YUMMY food!

Since then I started making all kinds of stuff I usually buy. Pizza, cinnamon rolls, brownies, pasta sauces, tortillas, pancakes... sometimes I was successful (brownies!), sometimes I wasn't (tortillas), but it felt oddly satisfying to take these raw ingredients and make them into something my family would try to eat. For the last 3 weeks I've been cooking all of our meals from scratch (with the exception of John's jambalaya that comes from a boxed mix that he loves and doesn't want me messing around with). I've been surprised to find that I'm spending LESS at the grocery store just buying ingredients and my family is eating BETTER than we ever have.

This cooking thing fits in nicely with this underlying shift I've been feeling for a while now. I don't know if it's living in Oregon or frustration with my own health or my desperation to make sure my kids are healthy...I don't know, but I've been slowly moving in a...hippieish...direction as of late. I've recently tossed out the medicated ointments I'd been using for YEARS on Alex's skin in favor of coconut oil with, for me anyway, completely unexpected results. For the last six months Alex's skin has been nearly consumed with eczema breakouts of unknown origin. We'd been treating his skin aggressively with various medicated ointments, steroids, antibiotics, etc... I'd see results, then stop the treatment (most treatments you can only use for 2 weeks at a time because they are so strong) and it would come right back. Frustrated and feeling helpless to help my poor little boy's relentless itching and skin infections, I decided to try coconut oil, having read about it on AndreAnna's blog. It took a while, but it cleared Alex up AND I can use as much of it as I want for as long as I want because it's natural (it's also good in homemade bread!). He still has some patches on his chin and around his nose and mouth that are stubborn, but since I've been using coconut oil, they aren't getting infected and aren't getting worse. They're just dry patches. It's a goddamn miracle!

This coconut oil thing really just blew me away. If the hippies were right about this, what else are they right about??? I watched Food Inc. and Ingrediets and vowed to go to the Farmer's Market every week for all of my produce needs. I've vowed to HAVE produce needs in the future (we aren't really known for our consumption of fruits and veggies). The boys and I grew some dill and basil in little pots on our patio and I am planning to convert their old red wagon into a little herb garden. I told John I wanted to try to make my own laundry detergent, to which he said "You sound like a Pioneer". I decided against making my own soaps (though I have a friend who makes soap and I'm excited to try a batch of his coconut/avocado oil blend soon!) and ordered some hygiene and cleaning products from Melaleuca.

I'm not really a hippie, not by Portland standards anyway. But I am beginning to open my eyes and see the benefit of whole foods, natural products and in general being aware of where things come from.