May | 2013 | Cornered Tomato

There are so many products that we use around the house and don’t realize they include toxic chemicals and are harmful to our health and our families. This is a recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Wellness Mama, for a natural, chemical free all purpose cleaner. We keep two bottles (of different scents) to use in our kitchen and family room for counters, table tops and floors as well as in the bathroom.

You only need four ingredients and a spray bottle (I reuse an old Method spray bottle):

1 tsp borax
1/2 tsp washing soda/baking soda
1 tsp liquid castille soap
essential oils as preferred for scent – we love peppermint (about 15 -20 drops) and lavender orange (8 drops lavender and 10-12 drops orange)

I boil water on the stove in a teapot and then pour into a non-plastic pitcher and add the above ingredients and stir. I let it sit until it cools and then pour into the spray bottle.

Even though there are only 4 ingredients, some of the ingredients might be foreign to you. Above is a picture of each of the ingredients except for the essential oils (essentials oils can be purchased at Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, health food stores and distributors.) There are different grades of essential oils as well as organic versus non-organic…those are next on my list because I don’t know enough about them to recommend a specific kind.

For castille soap, I use the unscented Dr. Bronner’s because it is an organic soap made from extra virgin coconut, olive, jojoba and hemp oils. It can be purchased online, at Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, etc. We also use it as our laundry detergent, either the almond or lavender scent. Just a capful for a load of laundry since it is a concentrated soap. Normal laundry soap is one of the MOST toxic cleaning items in your home.

Borax, sodium borate, is a mineral that has been used for a long time as a component of detergents and is a natural laundry booster. It can be purchased at your local Target or other large box retailer. The same goes for purchasing baking soda or washing soda.

Not only does this give you a toxic free all purpose cleaner…it provides it at a much lower cost than purchasing already made at the store. Make it once and you will be hooked!

If you want to check the toxicity level of any of your household cleaning products you can do that by going to EWG’s cleaning product database and typing in your products.

Happy cleaning!

Fresh Perspective is a favorite recipe in our household as it allows you to use whatever is “fresh and in season” or straight out of the garden to change up the dish. This is a main dish idea shared originally by a friend and we have altered to make our own.

Before I share the recipe, I thought it was also appropriate to share another “fresh perspective”. Cornered Tomato got a face lift with a new color palette, new logo and new design – a”fresh perspective”. Check it out and if you like what you see, check out the company, Chooba Rue Design, and artist, Holly Beals, behind the new look.

Fresh Perspective Recipe

1 sweet potato
1-2 red potatoes
Aidells pre-cooked chicken apple sausage
1 container of cherry or grape tomatoes – or those out of your garden
a small bundle of spinach
1 can of pineapple or a fresh pineapple
fresh addition ideas for those items in season include squash, artichokes, peppers, broccoli, carrots, kale…the options are endless
Italian seasoning mix (oregano, rosemary, etc), red pepper flakes, spices of your liking

Preheat oven to 350. Cube the sweet potato and red potatoes. Spray olive oil in your casserole dish and place the cut up potatoes in the dish. Cover with Italian spice mix (oregano, rosemary, etc) and red pepper flakes (add based on your desire for spiciness) and then pour a bit more olive oil over the potatoes, stir and cook only the potatoes for 30-45min at 350 (the smaller you cut the potatoes, the less time you need to precook them – if you don’t precook them the potatoes will still be tough when everything else is cooked). While potatoes are cooking cut the chicken apple sausage into thin slices, rinse the tomatoes, cut the pineapple (if necessary), rinse and chop a couple handfuls of fresh spinach and anything else you want to add to the mix.

Potatoes should be starting to get a bit softer at the end of their cooking time. Take the casserole dish out of the oven and add all other ingredients. Stir together and add some more of the same spices listed above and some of the pineapple juice (if using from a can – if fresh pineapple the juice will seep out of the pieces). Return to oven and bake another 30 – 40 minutes or until the little tomatoes start to pop.

Enjoy this “fresh perspective” all year round with a different twist in each season.