Natural Air Filtration

 

I have mild asthma so look for ways to filter out the things in the air around me that can cause my lungs to close up or collect congestion. I used to have an electric air filter that ran by my chair but I got tired of buying and changing the filter, at over $20 each! So, I switched to natural air filtration. 

Sansevieria

Did you know that this plant, a sansevieria, (also called snake, tongue plant) can remove benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene and toluene, and it was even shown that one plant per 100 square feet was enough to efficiently clean the air in a space station! It was one of the plants tested by NASA in a study to find safe ways to filter the air in a space station. They don't need much water or sunlight so can be neglected and still do well. Sadly, they are toxic to pets so keep that in mind if you have one and are looking for a good place to put it. If you have one you need to find a new home for, keep me in mind. I don't have any pets or small children and keep one on the table by my chair.  :) 

Fiddle Leaf Ficus

According to studies based on NASA research, Ficus plants are among the best for improving indoor air quality. I have a small fiddle leaf ficus, (Ficus lyrata). They are recognized for improving indoor air quality by filtering toxins like formaldehyde, benzene, and ammonia. Their large, broad leaves and high transpiration rates, which draw air into the root system, make them efficient at breaking down pollutants. 

 

 

Heart Leaf Philodendron

Philodendrons, all kinds including Elephant Ear, are excellent at filtering formaldehyde, a common toxin found in household materials, paints, and particle board. They are known for absorbing CO2 and releasing oxygen at night, making them ideal for bedrooms. I love my philodendrons! They need so little light, but do need regular watering. i have a few different kinds of philodendrons. I also have a pothos, also called devil's ivy (I hate that name). It's not a philodendron at all. It's an entirely different plant. (Please stop calling it a philodendron.)

Spider Plant

Key plants identified for high filtration rates include the peace lily, English ivy, spider plant and dracaena. I have a huge spider plant. They don't need a lot of light but do appreciate regular watering. Cats love them. Back when I had two cats, they would always eat the spider plant to the ground and eat all the babies. It's best to hang those up, out of reach. I also have a variegated dracaena. 

 

Seed Oils vs Animal Fats

 

Looking at switching to a healthier diet and lifestyle? One big first step that will make a huge difference, is ditching the seed oils and switching to animal fats for cooking. Heating these oils, as in cooking and frying, releases toxins into your food, like the hexane solvent used to release the oil from the seed. It's deemed as "safe" in Canada but is going through some testing by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) now. Traces of it are left in the oils. It's a neurotoxin. Need I say more? Seed oils have been linked to inflammation (like arthritis, eczema, and worse).

Seed oils are usually: canola, corn, cottonseed oil, rice bran oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil and also palm oil because of how it's processed. Coconut oil is not a seed oil, but is over 80% saturated fats with no omega 3's.

The hexane is a health problem and heating the seed oils breaks down polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) to create toxins like
aldehydes (e.g., HNE, formaldehyde), lipid peroxides, and trans fats. These harmful compounds are associated with oxidative stress, inflammation, and potential cardiovascular damage. So, if you still want to use oils in your kitchen, look for organic and cold pressed oils. Keep these in the fridge to stop them from getting rancid. Read the label to make sure it's not cut with a cheaper oil.

You can spend a fortune buying organic cold pressed oils for all your cooking or ... you can use tallow, lard and butter instead. Animal fats contain omega 3's. Any animal fat is so much better for you than any oil. I don't have oils in my kitchen anymore. I kept a little bit, for awhile, to oil my cast iron cookware, but even that's gone now. I do have olive oil for making my own skin/hair care products but I don't cook with it. I use tallow, lard and butter instead. Lard is the cheapest of the three animal fats I use. If you have your own meat or hunt, you will have your own fat to cook with. Veg shortening (ie Crisco) is palm oil.

Another problem with using oils is the omega 6 vs omega 3 problem. All of these oils are omega 6 heavy with no omega 3's. Because they share receptor (GPR120) and enzymes, high consumption of omega-6 can interfere with the metabolism and effectiveness of omega-3. Omega-6 is generally converted into pro-inflammatory mediators, while omega-3 is converted into anti-inflammatory compounds. They often compete and cancel each other out. So... it's very important to limit your omega 6 intake, if you want to stop inflammation, as in arthritis. Animal fats have omega 3. Grass fed is higher in omega 3 but is a lot more expensive. Even less expensive grain fed animal fats have plenty of omega 3, but also some omega 6, since they are fed grain. "You are what you eat." that goes for animals too. Humans eating bread and grains and using plant oils, get more omega 6 than they need, far more, and not enough omega 3. Another reason to switch to animal fats for cooking.

DIY Shampoo

 

I ditched poisonous shampoo! Most commercial shampoos contain SLS (Sodium Laurel,-eth Sulphate) or Parabens and formaldehyde agents, even so called organic shampoos contain betaine and decyl glucoside. Are these things really necessary? No, they are not. 

After doing a lot of research into how to wash my hair without shampoo, I settled on baking soda scalp scrub and apple cider leave-in rinse. It worked great! It is 2 tablespoons of baking soda in a cup of water. The vinegar rinse is 2 tablespoons of vinegar in a cup of water. If you have long hair, do not rub the baking soda into it, just let it hang. Put the baking soda wash on your scalp and finger massage it in. Then rinse very thoroughly. Pour on the vinegar, coating all the strands of your hair. You can use 4 tablespoons of vinegar in 2 cups of water if your hair is very long. Don't rinse again, just leave the vinegar rinse in your hair.

The smell is not there when it is dry. Wrap in a towel to wring out the water, then style as usual. The vinegar smell will disappear when it dries. My hair is clean, not the least bit oily. It's soft without that straw feel it would have if I put just baking soda on it or washed it with my handmade soap bars. Soap is too alkaline for human hair, as is baking soda, so the vinegar rinse, left in, is necessary to fix that. If you don't use the vinegar rinse, your hair will feel like straw. I have thick, dry, coarse and gray hair and I'm completely happy with this. My hair is even better, it's straighter, calmer, not so flyaway. If this works with baking soda, which is extremely alkaline, it should work with my handmade soap too. I'll try that next time, I'll wash with my handmade herbal soap and use the leave in apple cider vinegar rinse! Either way, the shampoo is gone and no conditioner needed either! If nothing else, it's certainly cheaper! I like it and I'm sticking with it. One more chemical laden poison gone from my house!!

My Standard Carnivore Bacon Meat Loaf

 

Carnivore Meatloaf! One pound of ground beef, 1/2 package of bacon (500g package), and four eggs. No salt needed with the bacon. Mix well and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes. I put a tray underneath to catch any overflow. When it's done, let it sit and cool before cutting or removing from the pan. It will absorb all that juice and melted fat as it cools and be one solid piece. Then remove it. It's best to put parchment or waxed paper under it to get it out of the pan. It sticks in there pretty good.

I cut it into individual serving pieces and freeze. It's just like freshly made when thawed and reheated!

Making Tallow Body Balm

 

In my journey to rid myself of all things poisonous, I have found a great moisturizer body balm, tallow! Tallow is beef fat that has been rendered. To use it for body balm, it has to be rendered at least 2 times, 3 times is even better. The cleaner it is, the longer it will last at room temperature. It's important that all meat and other substances in the fat have been removed. The tallow has to be cleaned pure fat. You can get this tallow, rendered several times until it's light and clean, from Vera at the local Farmer's Market. You can also make it yourself from beef fat, but it's a long and tedious process to get it clean enough to use for body butter.  

This tallow based body balm is a sustainable, chemical-free alternative to synthetic, chemical laden, petroleum-based moisturizers. The only ingredients in it are tallow and olive oil. I added a few drops of my favourite peppermint essential oil, just enough to give it a light scent. 

If using essential oils in something like this, that sits on your skin and soaks in, make sure you are using something that's actually naturally steam distilled and edible. The USDA has a list of acceptable, edible essential oils from specific suppliers. It's called the GRAS list (Generally Regarded As Safe). Some of these are produced by the NOW brand. I am not getting paid to say this, I love the NOW essential oils! They are clean, pure, naturally distilled, some are safely edible and they are so strong!! You can get them on Amazon, or if you are in Fort Nelson, you can buy them at the "Down To Earth" Health Food Store. A particular favourite of mine is their peppermint. It's on the GRAS list, as is their rosemary, lemon and orange. 

I wouldn't use an EO that's made from something toxic, i.e. cedarwood, etc. for this, since it's going to soak into your skin. Make sure it's something on the afore mentioned USDA list, like peppermint or rosemary. I also have NOW lemon and orange EO, but this tallow body balm is for my own use and I didn't want anything astringent, like citrus. If you have oily skin, you might consider using a citrus essential oil. 

You can use some fresh herbs, if you want to dry them and infuse them into the olive oil before using it. This would take time and you would have to strain it very well before using it. I didn't want to take the time this would take, so I stuck with an EO that I had on hand, the NOW peppermint. 

Because the fatty acids in tallow resemble human sebum, it absorbs easily, locking in moisture and reinforcing the skin's natural barrier. It contains vitamins A (skin regeneration), D (anti-inflammatory), E (antioxidant), and K, as well as linoleic acid (CLA), which can reduce inflammation. This anti-inflammatory nature makes it effective for soothing eczema, psoriasis, and intense dry skin. 

My recipe for body butter is 6 parts tallow to 2 parts oil. I used olive oil for it's anti-inflammatory and healing properties, but you can use any light oil that you want in your body balm. 

 

You will need a double boiler, or something like it. I use my trusty glass Pyrex measuring cup in a pot of water with a canning jar ring under it on the bottom of the pot. It worked perfectly! I use this 8 cup Pyrex measuring cup for so many things, and it can go in the microwave too! 

 

 

 

 

 

Before doing anything with the tallow, you should sterilize all equipment and jars. I boiled everything in the pot of water I planned to melt the tallow in, using the same boiling water for everything. I boiled all utensils, including the mixer beaters, silicone spatula, spoon, jars, seals, lids and rings and set on a clean towel for later use. Only after I had all these things sterilized did I start measuring the tallow and olive oil, so the jars have time to cool down before I put the body butter in them. 

A digital scale is handy for measuring anything in the kitchen. When you are ready to start and have your recipe ready to go, measure out the 6 parts tallow to 2 parts olive oil, by weight, into the double boiler method you are using. Melt slowly, stirring constantly until all the tallow is melted. Don't let it get too hot. It should not be smoking or anywhere near a burning temperature. You need it just hot enough to melt the tallow. Once it's almost completely melted, remove it from the heat and continue stirring until all the tallow bits are gone and it all liquid. 

Let it sit and cool until it's cool enough to put your clean finger in it, then add the essential oil you are using. I had approx 300g of tallow and I added 10 drops of peppermint essential oil. This is just a guide for you to go by, you can add as much or as little as you want, or none at all if you like it plain and unscented. The tallow and olive oil will both have their own fatty, oily scent but it's very light. Now that it's finished and I have used it, I realize that I could have used half that much peppermint EO and it would have been fine. The NOW brands are very strong! 

When it has cooled to the point that it's opaque but is still very soft to the touch, it's time to whip it with an electric mixer. If you go away and let it get too hard, you can always heat it up again, for a short burst to soften it. 

When it's cooled enough, beat it with the mixer for a few minutes until it's the consistency you are looking for. This could take a few minutes. It should whip up into a soft but firm butter feel. When it's done and you are happy with the texture, use the sterile silicone spatula to put it into the sterile jars with sterile lids. I used the silicone spatula to clean out the large, glass mixing cup and to clean off the mixer beaters. I wiped off the spatula and the inside of the beaters with my hand and immediately put the body butter on my feet! It's such marvellous stuff!  

It does have a very light, slight bit of a grit to the feel at first touch, but this disappears as soon as you put it on your skin. It just melts away into your skin, no grit, no greasy feel, leaving your skin soft, moisturized and protected. It feels amazing! 

I have put away all the chemical, paraben laden body lotions I have stashed around the house and replaced them all with my new tallow body butter. I love it!  

My next job will be to replace the commercial, SLS containing shampoo!. SLS stands for sodium laurel,- eth sulphate. It's a definite no-no for a healthy body and mind. In truth, this journey into healthier alternatives is as much to regain and hold onto my memory and mind as long as I possibly can, now that I'm entering that "70's" stage where my mental faculties all seem to disappear. I also want to stay strong and healthy physically, and keep my endurance too, of course. Both are important.

 

I dropped the commercial mind robbing, aluminum deodorant a couple of years ago and have not regretted it. I can make my own natural deodorant, but it's available in many forms commercially now.  

The mental clarity I get from eating only meats and eggs now is amazing! I should have dropped carbohydrates from my diet years ago, too! 

 

Making Kefir

I have begun drinking kefir, for the probiotics. From my research I have learned that kefir contains a more diverse range of probiotics (often 10-30+ strains) and beneficial yeasts, while yogurt typically contains only 2-5 bacteria strains. It's recommended by the "Steak & Butter Gal" and many other high profile carnivore diet fans, so I'm giving it a try. I'm a fan of yogurt, so I'm hoping I will like kefir, as well. 

I bought dried kefir starter yesterday and put it into the recommended amount of whole milk (about 2 cups) in a clean jar. If I had more cream, I would have added cream to it for the extra fat content. It's not necessary to heat the milk first, as it is with yogurt, and it makes at room temperature. Both of these make it much easier to make than yogurt. I set it on the counter, in a clean jar with paper towel on top. I poked a few little holes in the paper towel, so it could get even more air. It needs to breathe. I set it out of the way, to make for 12-14 hours. Some people that like it extremely tart, leave it for 36 hours but I don't think I will do that. Not until I get used to the taste, anyway. I think I'll start at 12 hours when it is developed but still mild tasting, just to give me and my gut time to adjust to it.  

Kefir develops "grains" with time, that are used to make more kefir. They get strained out of the finished product before use and kept in a little milk in the fridge. (It is recommended to use a plastic strainer, as metal will degrade the kefir strength over time.) These are used as starter for the next one. Apparently these grains grow with time and can be given away to friends who want to start their own kefir at home. 

I'm looking forward to tasting it tonight, after 12 hours, when it should be ready. I might leave it a bit longer, as it's very cold in the house in the winter mornings. I'll see how it goes. 

 

Freezing Cooked Salmon

 

 

 

I cooked a very long salmon for dinner. It was huge, several meals worth of salmon! I had to cook the entire thing, as it had been frozen. I thawed it then baked it. I added salt and pepper and lots of butter, then I wrapped the entire thing in foil. I baked it for about 40 minutes at 400F. 

 

It was cooked through, flaky and perfect! It's important to cook salmon, and all fish, completely to avoid getting parasites. Fish is opaque, white and no longer slimy when it's done. It should be all firm and flaky. This was perfect! 

 

I cut it into serving size pieces, wrapped each one separately and froze them. It's an experiment to see if the cooked salmon will be just as good after freezing as it is freshly cooked. 

 

Follow up a few days later: I thawed a piece for tonight's dinner earlier on the counter. I reheated it for dinner and it was delicious! I could not tell the difference between this one, cooked then frozen, from the freshly baked one a few days ago. I couldn't be happier with it! 

 

  

Carnivore Ground Beef & Egg

 

I found this recipe in several places on the internet while looking for ground beef carnivore recipes. I'm trying to clean out the freezer bottom and I have a lot of ground beef to use up. 

I cooked the ground beef in the skillet, with lots of added tallow, salt, pepper and a light dusting of my own mix of herbs. I can't handle onion, so I make my own spice mix. 

It's "lean" ground beef, bought before I was eating carnivore, so I added lots of extra fat to it. 

When it was fully cooked, I put half of it in the bottom of my little cast iron skillet. I love this little skillet. It fits into my toaster oven for baking and is the perfect size for single serving, stove top frying. I usually make a lot of servings at one time in the big skillet so I have food already cooked int he fridge. I needed the little one for the toaster oven for this recipe. I use the little toaster oven whenever possible to save on energy use. 

In another bowl I mixed together two eggs and a dollop of sour cream. The original recipes I found said to use cream, but I love sour cream, so I used that instead. I blended the egg and cream together well and poured over the top of the cooked meat. It then went into the oven. 

I baked it at 350F for about 25 minutes, until the center egg was cooked. After I took it out of the oven, I topped it with grated cheddar and parmesan and returned to the oven for another 5 minutes.  

It looks pretty good! Cheesy!

I let it sit for about 15 minutes to cool and also so all the juices and fats get re-absorbed. It's important to let meat sit after cooking. If you wait about 15 minutes before eating meat, it will absorb a lot of the juices and fats back into the meat.

 

This is the finished product. It was very good. 

I ate the serving with sour cream on top, then I heated up a left over bowl of fried and salted beef fat pieces and ate those. They are delicious! I was disappointed when the bowl was empty, so I ate some left over pork roast too. It was also delicious! 

Next week I plan to make carnivore lasagna!

  

Pork Rinds - A Great Carnivore Resource!

 

Pork rinds are made from the skin of the pig, baked or fried crispy. They are very good for you, containing a lot of collagen. They are tasty alone, as a quick snack. Use high fat sour cream as a dip or mix the sour cream half and half with liver pate. Delicious Dip for pork rinds!  

Pork rinds are also useful when adding crispy bulk to other foods. They are good in chaffles and in meatloaf.

  

Ground up, they make a basic crispy coating for anything you want to fry. Dip the meat into egg first, then into the ground pork rinds, then into the hot grease. Both tallow and lard work well for frying. (Never, ever use veg oils of any kind.)  

I consider them to be an important staple for the carnivore diet and always have them ready for use. I buy mine at the store, usually located with the potato chips, but you can make your own. It's more trouble than I consider it worth to make them myself, even if I could get the pig skin from the butcher. They are not necessarily healthier made at home, either. Less salty perhaps, but salt is not a bad thing.  

Cutting Board Safety

One Solid Piece of hardwood

2" hardwood board, no stain

I thought, since this is a blog of a carnivore, that I should cover cutting board safety. Raw meat should always have it's own cutting board and it should be washed with hot soapy water immediately after use. Oiling it after washing will help it to last longer and prevent cracking. You can buy special food grade oil for this or just use olive oil. Rub it in well before putting the board away. 

One solid piece of hardwood

The best boards to use are one solid piece of dense hardwood, no glue. That will make it very expensive, but they do last a long time. You can make these yourself if you have access to larger planks of hardwood and have the tools and time. 

 

Bamboo

Also good is bamboo. It has good antibacterial properties. They are making toothbrushes out of it now. The drawback to bamboo is that it doesn't grow here in North America, and it especially doesn't grow up here in Canada. It probably does grow in the hot regions of the US but they don't seem to be using it to make things there. All of our bamboo things come from china, which makes them not very sustainable. I'd rather get a locally made hardwood board, or make it myself. 

 

The plastic boards are not a good substitute for hardwood cutting boards. They cut and scratch easily and these are hard to disinfect and can harbour bacteria. If you have one, I'd recommend only using it for things like bread. I wouldn't cut raw meat on it. Meat should have it's own bard anyway. 

I have a bamboo cutting board that I like and I plan to get a larger hardwood board in the near future, when I get around to it. I can probably order one form Amazon but I'm happy with my little bamboo board, so haven't felt the need to get a bigger one yet. 

Am I Bored with the diet?

 

Beef fat pieces and rosemary ham

Am I bored? LOL. No. Breakfast today: Poached eggs, crispy fried beef fat pieces, meat loaf with sour cream, fried rosemary ham. Delicious! 

A healthy and interesting plate of carnivore foods, all in one place!  

Meatloaf From The Freezer

 

 

I made meatloaf today from several meats I cleaned out of the freezer. First a pound of ground beef, of course, I added a pound of ground turkey, as well and six eggs. I added about half a pound of grated beef fat trimmings to add fat and compensate for the lean turkey.

 

 

I grated about half a pound of chicken livers and added that to it. This is the first time I've used the chicken livers in anything but we can use the minerals and I had them in the freezer, so in they went. The chicken livers and the beef fat are easily grated when frozen.

I also added five cooked and grated smokies and about 2 cups of grated medium cheddar. I usually use bacon in a meatloaf but I had the smokies I needed to use up, so I grated those and put them in instead of the bacon. They were already cooked. 

 

 

I only added a small pinch of salt. The smokies and cheddar are salty enough for the whole thing. 

 

 

 

After mixing it altogether, I packed it all into a loaf pan large enough to hold it without spilling the juiced over in the oven. I always line the meatloaf pan with parchment sticking up, so I can get it out of the pan in one piece. 

I baked it for around 1.75 hours at 325f with convection, until it was around 175-180f in the center. It's important that it be fully cooked with the eggs and chicken livers in it. 

 

 

It was delicious! The livers were just barely evident in the taste, just adding a bit more flavour. The eggs make it hold together very well. 

I think its a great way to use up things in the freezer! It's the first time I've used livers in meatloaf. I like it! It'll be great hot with sour cream on it!