 Keeping chickens is practically a real-foodie-requirement in these parts. As a permaculture enthusiast and avid gardener I’d always wanted chickens, so when I finally had the right yard and got around to converting part of our garage to a coop, we brought home a dozen or so.
Fresh, homegrown eggs
We loved so many things about having our own chickens. Being able to control what feed they got became important when we realized I did best with eggs from soy and corn-free hens. Most of our kitchen scraps and yard debris went to our hens, definitely a higher use … Continue reading Goodbye, Chickens
 I may not be able to follow a recipe to save my life, but transforming leftovers into something totally new is a special talent of mine. When the family saw what I was about to turn into lunch I heard groans and moans.
Leftover Beef Pot Pie with Cranberry Sauce
about a third of a cooked steak with about 1/4 cup caramelized onions and a few slices of mushrooms soup bones that were turning to powder and the meat and soft tissues that had come off them while making the stock – amounting to about a cup of meat. … Continue reading Transforming Leftovers: Beef Pot Pie Filling
Herbal Dryer Sachets from Soft and Cozy
For years now I’ve watched Jasie stitch together these sweet dryer sachets from vintage fabrics at the Oregon Homeschoolers’ Chautauqua.
Little did I know, she had a whole etsy store full of non-toxic, handmade products. Well, the secret is out and I want to share her dryer sachets with you!
I hope you’ll enter to win, then scroll down and read more! We’ll tell you why we love Soft & Cozy, and why it’s so important to use naturally scented products! a Rafflecopter giveaway
Hand-stitched Dryer Sachets from Soft & Cozy
… Continue reading Soft & Cozy Non-toxic Dryer Sachet Giveaway
 I would like to preface this post by saying that I am not an Earth Mama. I don’t own any hemp. I don’t use essential oils as perfume. I pay for haircuts. I say this not to disparage Earth Mamas, who are some of my favorite people, but to make it clear that you don’t have to be an Earth Mama to cut the nasty chemicals out of your life and save money doing it!
Kelsy’s Hair, Just Washed
We went completely fragrance free two years ago when I purchased a bottle of Earth Science Shampoo, Fragrance Free 12 oz. … Continue reading Cost-Benefit Analysis & Troubleshooting: Do You No ‘Poo
 I hate soggy lettuce, but could never justify spending the money on or losing cabinet space to a salad spinner. Instead, I sort of shook it dry into the sink after washing and just sort of dealt with soggy lettuce.
Things changed, though, when reading through my copy of Nourishing Traditions. Sally Fallon recommends putting your greens in a pillowcase and running them through the spin cycle on your washing machine. I thought it kind of odd to use all that electricity on a few greens when I have a decent source of free labor perfectly capable of whirling a … Continue reading Poor Man’s Salad Spinner
My shoes
My friend, Millie, over at Real Food For Less Money has a great series, Someone Else’s Shoes, where she interviews other real food bloggers about a day in their lives. I’m honored to have been a part of it!
I hope you will go on over to Real Food for Less Money and check out what it’s like to spend a day in my shoes as a GAPS style, landscaper, blogger, wellness coach, self-employed, homeschooling mom!
I’d also love it if you would comment and let me know what a day in YOUR life is like!
… Continue reading A Day In My Shoes
 Our friend Angela at Salt of the Earth Urban Farm recently posted on Facebook about ways to trim fat from an already lean budget. She got a lot of really good responses, from thrifting to making your own laundry soap to offer to barter services for food at the farmer’s market. These are all things I’ve thought about doing, as our own budget has gotten leaner and leaner and leaner over the past few years while the cost of living and gone up and up and up.
But the problem with things that save money is that they very nearly … Continue reading Time is Money
 We realized too late that there were no cupcake liners in the house for Kodiak’s birthday cupcakes. Rather than running to the store for bleached, colored, pre-folded liners, Kelsy made some out of unbleached parchment paper. They turned out gorgeous! Here’s how to do it, in pictures!
Cut a piece of parchment paper and trace a 5 inch circle on it.
Cut out a 5 inch circle of parchment and find two measuring cups that nest snugly. We used 1/4 cup measures.
Place the parchment in your muffin tin or the larger measuring cup, and press the … Continue reading Parchment Cupcake Liners
 Lately people in the GAPS/Paleo/Real Food/WAPF world have been buzzing about how nearly everyone should eat grains. They say that once you “heal and seal” your gut, “properly prepared” grains will be worth eating.
People whose intolerances continue or who simply don’t want to take the risk of eating foods that have hurt them in the past are told over and over that they didn’t do their healing protocols correctly or give it enough time. Even more alarming, on the basis of a couple very small, short term studies and anecdotal evidence, celiacs are being told that if you just … Continue reading Top 10 Reasons to Eat Grains
Beef & Broccoli Leftovers Transformed
I am all about leftovers. Even if they don’t look like much or I’m tired of a dish or didn’t like it much the first time, I save them. They can be transformed!
This time, we had rosemary pot roast leftovers. Now that was a delicious dish to start with, but by the time we were finished with it the first time all that was left was the onion gravy, some carrots, and a tiny bit of the meat, some bones and cartilage. It was really mushy and hardly a meal in it’s own right. … Continue reading Transforming Leftovers: Beef & Broccoli
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Contact Me joy@theliberatedkitchenpdx.com
503-913-0923
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