As an Ex South African I grew up with Biltong(Dried Meat/Jerky) and Droewors(Dried Sausage). We simply could not get enough of it. It is normally made by hanging strips of meat and/or sausages on hooks in a cool room for some days. The process can be sped up by directing an electric fan at the meat. The room does however need to be fly proof. Since I do not have a dedicated pantry at my disposal, I decided that the dehydrator will have to do. We have a cheap 8 tray Luvelo dehydrator that has not been used much. I found that it is one of those appliances that promise the world, and end up being a little disappointing in the real world. The main problem is that with a large family like ours, anything dehydrated just does not go far enough and takes ages to make. I realised that it would be perfect to dry meat. I decided to use cheap mince meat from Coles Supermarkets. It is $5.00 per kilogram and has about 17% fat if I remember correctly. Fat is not bad for you, and remember that if you remove fat from food it tastes like cardboard. To make low fat food palatable, you will see that food producers normally add sugar. So do not worry about high fat. The low fat recommendation is based on flawed junk science produced to favour recommending grain and sugar laden processed foods. Coles mince is not grass fed etc.etc. but it is cheap and supposedly hormone free.

The other worry I had was that as I was making a skinless sausage that it will not stick together. My normal beef patty/meat ball recipe uses egg to bind it all together. As this is dried and not cooked, the use of eggs is not possible. Doing so risks the possibility of poisoning us all.
So I found a Droewors recipe on the net. In true South African style it was for making 7 kilograms of sausage. I was only using 1kg of mince, so I had to reduce quantities. My other issue was that the recipe uses volume measurements for the ingredients and not weight. As someone who makes personal care products, I hate using volumetric measurements as it is not accurate. The original recipe can be found here http://www.watertandresepteviroudenjonk.com/biltong–droeumlwors-resepte.html under the heading PLAAS DROëWORS & TRADISIONELE DROëWORS.
The following is my recipe as converted and improvised. I used Honey in stead of sugar as we do not have or use sugar, and though honey is still sugar, I felt that I needed something to bind the mince.
Ingredients:
1kg mince
¼ teaspoon ground Black pepper
¼ teaspoon ground Cloves
½ teaspoon ground Nutmeg
1-2 tablespoon whole Coriander
2 ¼ teaspoons of fine Salt
2 Tablespoons of Honey(Nothing scientific. Just dipped normal dessert spoon in honey twice)
¼ cup of Apple Cider Vinegar.
Method:
Dry Fry the Coriander seeds for a few minutes to make it fragrant and crush till reasonably fine.
Add the dry ingredients to the mince and mix in.
Add the Apple Cider Vinegar and mix in.
I rolled small portions of mince in to sausage shaped pieces and placed them on the dehydrator tray. Not too thick as the trays are not very high and the thicker the longer it takes to dry. I used 4 of my 8 dehydrator trays, so next time I will use 2kg of mince.
Switch on the dehydrator and leave for 8 to 10 hours. I like my dried meat more moist and would prefer 8 hours. This batch was done 9 hours and is just dry enough for those that have never eaten dried meat.
It tasted great. Just like the Droewors that I grew up with. Just DO NOT SHAPE THE MEAT BY HAND LIKE I DID!!!
We are currently toilet training a puppy, and this morning we have had an incident with puppy poo. When my second eldest saw me opening the dehydrator he started making mock choking/vomiting actions exclaiming how disgusting my sausages looked. In the process my 4 year old heard this and refused to try some. After a few stern words everyone tried some and loved it. The 1kg of skinless dried sausage did not last long. In the future I will roll the mince flat and cut in to strips. This will make the shape acceptable (Especially for school snacks). The way I did it was not great as I perfectly re created dog poo which would no doubt leave my kids wide open to bullying in the schoolyard. So we learn…
After removing from the dehydrator let it cool down and keep in a container in a grocery cupboard. It needs to be kept dry, so keeping it in the refrigerator will not work.
Please feel free to share and comment.

The post Skinless Paleo Dried Sausages(Droewors) appeared first on BlueMoonDreaming.

This is a really important video to watch. If you are obese or have chronic illness then this is a must watch.

Are you slowly killing your kids?

The post Sugar-Addictive Toxin appeared first on BlueMoonDreaming.

Known as the oil of a 1000 virtues, Argan oil is produced from the kernels of the Argan tree (Argania Spinosa). Argan oil is made up of:

Argan oil contains tocopherols (vitamin E), phenols, carotenes, squalene, and fatty acids, (80% unsaturated fatty acids) The main natural phenols in argan oil are caffeic acid, oleuropein, vanillic acid, tyrosol, catechol, resorcinol, (-)-epicatechin and (+)-catechin.

Argan oil has many benefits when used in hair care and skincare products, but it just gets better and better.

Marocco is a poor country on the edge of the mighty Sahara desert in North Africa. Woman have few prospects and are generally not that well off. This is where the Argan tree comes in. Extracting Argan oil from the kernels of the Argan tree is a laborious process that cannot be mechanized. This work is done by Moroccan woman, and as Argan oil is expensive, it has become a valuable source of income. Cooperatives have sprung up that are owned by woman, and has done a great deal to empower Moroccan woman. And it gets even better. The Argan tree is a valuable resource, and being adapted to an arid climate is a very hardy tree. Large Argan plantations have been established and are continually expanded to cope with growing demand for Argan oil. This is actually helping to stop the ever expanding Sahara desert. The trees with their strong root systems stopping soil erosion and providing shade as well as food for animals and livestock.

So when you are buying a product containing Moroccan Argan oil you are not only buying a product with amazing properties to rejuvenate your hair and skin. You are also buying a product that is organic, and is socially uplifting for the woman of Morocco as well as supporting the environment as native Argan trees are planted.

Argan Oil can truly be described as liquid gold…

The post Magical Argan Oil appeared first on BlueMoonDreaming.

Wow! What a full on week we’ve had. If you follow my post you’d know that my little kids have been sick, well that theme has continued this week and sleep is becoming a distant memory! However, on the plus side, Johan and I made the decision to make a major life style change for our family – namely, STOPPING our consumption of sugar! I am amazed at the increase in my energy levels and overall feeling of well-being (although possibly I am just hyperactive from lack of sleep)

“What!” I hear you say, “that’s a little radical.” and yes a month ago I thought the same, but then we got our hands on a copy of Sweet Poison by David Gillespie, and everything changed.  His premise is that sugar (most specifically fructose or fruit sugar) is killing us. Our bodies just don’t handle it.  According to David…

“Sugar makes you fat. It is converted directly to fat by your liver and it destroys your appetite control so that you want to eat more of everything.” from The Sweet Poison Quit Plan  by David Gillespie

Furthermore, he says, it has a whole host of side effects including Type II diabetes, clogging your arteries, and Alzheimer’s disease. For more information check out his website.

That was enough for me, I decided right then that we were going to change our lives, but I didn’t really know how to. Last week Johan brought home the second book – The Sweet Poison Quit Plan  by David Gillespie and so here we are a week into our lives without sugar.

To say the kids were not impressed would be an understatement! They were in shock…no more cakes, no more lollies, no more chocolate…how would they survive? Were we serious?  Not ever?  Yes, we explained, we no longer wanted to expose them to the poison known as sugar.  That was fine, said Kieran (my son from first marriage), “I’ll just ask Dad to buy it for me!” No, we said,  it’s a toxic chemical just like the ones in some shampoos (the kids understand this as we have a small business producing non toxic personal care products)

So the first step was to get rid of all the high sugar breakfast cereals. As each box was finished, we didn’t replace it, same with the sugar, until we had just Weet Bix and rolled oats left.

Step Two was to sell the idea to the kids. I knew that if Caelan (12) was all for it, Kieran would come on board pretty quick because he hero worships Caelan. And as for Conor and Selene, at their age it’s my responsibility and if they aren’t exposed to it, they don’t miss it.  We explained to Caelan (while Kieran was at his Dad’s) why we were making this choice and that we didn’t hate him, want to starve him etc but rather that because we love him we need to make the right food choices for him and help him choose for himself when he is old enough.  I encouraged him to read the intro to the book.

Then, and most importantly I think, I tried to make the no sugar choice as attractive as I could by revamping our breakfast menu.  “Breakfast cereal is not the only choice,” I said, and so this week the kids have had…

• Monday – amnesty day….last opportunity to eat foods with lots of sugar
• Tuesday – Scrambled eggs on toast (made by Caelan)
• Wednesday – French toast
• Thursday -  Pikelets (using dextrose instead of cane sugar)
• Friday – Fried egg and toast

The kids have been heard to comment that “the standard of breakfasts has really improved around here” (Mr 12)  With difficulty I restrained myself from clocking him one – lol.

I have also made a huge effort to make the school snacks appealing, exploring the range of savoury options including home-made sausage rolls, vegetable scones and home-made crackers. We also tried the jaffa cookies from the recipe section of The Sweet Poison Quit Plan.

This afternoon Caelan and I cleared the pantry and fridge of all items containing too much sugar. Things we got rid of included tomato sauce, jams, peanut butter (but not before I made a sugar-free version in the Thermomix), golden syrup, honey, dried fruit and imitation vanilla essence).  We had a whole garbage bag full in the end…because that’s the problem, EVERYTHING contains sugar and our bodies can only cope with a small amount, like maybe in 1 or 2 pieces of fruit a day, but with all of our processed foods the cumulative effect of ALL that sugar means we are eating masses of it. AND it is addictive so we just want more.

So far we seem not to have too many withdrawal symptoms and are coping OK, although I did glance longingly at the fruit juices in Coles today, and I know the kids have been cheating…but that’s ok,  it takes time to kick a habit.  Have you tried it?  Please share your comments if you have.

Blessings

Larissa

The post Kicking the sugar habit!…or stopping with the “Sweet Poison” Week #1 appeared first on BlueMoonDreaming.

We are a family operated company manufacturing safe, non-toxic personal products.

All our products are free fom SLS and paraben preservatives. We are constantly researching the latest information in order to provide superior, non-toxic products to sell, and also for our own use.

We live in Modern World. A world that is supposed to be so much better than that of the past.

I do not want to sound negative, but instead of a better world, we are now faced with a world of increasing toxicity. Besides the damage we are doing to the environment, modern technology is exposing us to more and more toxic chemicals. They are in the air, food, water, homes we live in, cosmetics, soap etc.

We now live in a world with increasing rates of chronic illness like diabetes. Rates of cancers are soaring with each passing year. Pharmaceutical companies are Not our friends. They will do anything to protect the billions of dollars they make each year. It is in their best interest to keep us all sick.

Our purpose with this site is to play a role in educating people, and to provide safe creams, soaps and other products that are NOT laced with harmful chemicals.

It is also our goal to provide there products at a decent price. Currently only the rich can afford to be healthy and eat organic food etc. A toxic body wash might cost $2.00 and a smaller non-toxic one $10.00. Healthy grains like Quinoa is $15.00 per kilogram and rice costs 10times less.

The time has come for us to take better care of ourselves and our children. Become more aware of the world around you. All the brainwashing we are subjected to on the television.

I wish you well, and hope you find our site useful.

Any comments are welcome.

Kind Regards

Johan

The post Welcome to our site. appeared first on BlueMoonDreaming.