Herbal Remedies

Unsurprisingly, when you react to chemicals and man-made ingredients (like artificial preservatives) a lot, it doesn't matter where they are. In our food, our clothing, our beauty products, or very importantly, our medications.

This has proved to impact me quite a bit in the last few years. I grew up with chicken soup and taking extra vitamin C, sure, but otherwise, there was cold medicine, Tylenol, neosporin, and all those good, everyday kinds of drugs that make getting sick or injured a little more bearable.

Old drug ampoules look like the aftermath of a frat party, eh? (source)

They're all gone now. It's been 4 years now since I had an over-the-counter med, and the last one was benadryl that I was taking to try and stop an allergic reaction, which instead made it even worse.

So what the heck do you do when you have grown up in a culture that primarily uses over-the-counter medication for everyday ailments?

Sudsy Soapcakes

I have a product recommendation: Sudsy Soapcakes soaps.

Organic olive oil or coconut oil soaps

I don't often do this, but I really like this company, and I wouldn't mind sending them more business.

I was very happy with these when I was using them (unfortunately, I'm reacting to olive oil lately so haven't been able to for a while). The soap worked well, it smelled nice, and they are...honest, is I guess the word I'd use.

When you react allergically to chemicals, within minutes of exposure, you get to know very quickly what products are not practicing truth in advertising. These guys? I did great with their soap. No reactions (well, until olive oil became an issue).

I also really like that while they have some scented varieties, they also have a couple of very plain, unscented soaps. That can be hard to find for people who react even to some essential oils.

Their most basic soap has this as the only ingredient: Saponified premium organic first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. Back when I could still use olive oil, I'd tried olive oil soaps before with no luck. This is the only one where I didn't have a reaction to something in the soap that was clearly not olive oil.

If you are looking for a soap and haven't been able to find a good one, you might want to check these guys out.

Onion and Garlic Substitutes

I can't have onion and garlic, but I used to be able to. Which means that my tastes and recipes were set down at a time when onion and garlic were possible, so I miss them.

And that pining for my lost aromatics has resulted in this collection of various onion and garlic substitutions that I've come across or used. These are substitutions where the goal is more to help a dish 'not suck' as opposed to mimicking the exact flavor of onions or garlic.

Aromatics and spices, yeaaa!

Baked Apple Sorbet

I utterly love this stuff.

Baked Apple Sorbet

We cooked chopped gala apples (seeds removed but with peels still on) in a solar oven all day a few days ago. You could use a crock pot with a little added water, as well. They were nearly mush by the time they were done. We let them cool and then blended them all together until smooth, and then a little more. I blended until they looked almost a little frothy.

Artichoke Dipping Sauce

I was lucky enough to have a friend donate some artichokes from her garden to my table the recently, and was trying to figure out what in the world I had that could go with it.

No mayo dips, no vinegar, what was I going to use? Yup, lemons it is