Kitchen Appliances for Living off the Grid

Living off the grid and reducing our everything footprint has led us to going manual in the kitchen. We had to look at the appliances that we have and use almost daily and find replacements that would do as good a job, or better. What I have in my kitchen is these:

These four appliances have served me for the past 6 to 11 years. They all carry rather a hefty price tag (which you can see if you click on the photos) and, in total, cost about $1,000.

When I looked for manual appliances, I found that they actually did more than my electric machines and produced a higher quality of food. The ones used the most are the stand mixer and the blender.

My stand mixer will be replaced by my hand, a whisk, and stainless steel hand beaters. I have already made it virtually obsolete. I spent last summer manually mixing and kneading in these stainless steel bowls. The sizes range from about 8 inches in diameter to about 18 inches.
  I realized that the stand mixer was not only unnecessary, but also had capacity limitations. I now have 4 bowls of varying sizes to prepare various things at the same time, rather than one fixed size bowl. I have also learned that spending the 5 minutes or so to knead the bread by hand produces better results.

As for the blender, this hand-crank blender is on the shopping list for this summer. At less than 1/3 the price of my existing blender we can do everything, including crushing ice and making smoothies.

However, because I grind flour, other grains, and make nut butters in my existing blender, I also got this mill for all our grinding needs. It stone grinds flour and grains and has steel burrs to make far superior nut butters without losing the nutrients from heat that the blender generates.

Both of these appliances together cost less than my existing blender and do more, with superior nutrient retention.

The centrifugal juicer was never the best of options because masticating juicers provide a higher quality juice with more nutrients in tact. This is my manual replacement for our juicer...a better juicer at around the same price, or less.

  
My food processor will be replaced with the stainless steel food mill...no more plastic and my food doesn't just get pureed, mashed, riced, but also skinned, cored, and seeded...a BIG plus.

Al hamdu l'Illah, the replacement manual appliances cost just half of the existing appliances and are built to last a lifetime.I may even be able to sell the existing appliances and totally cover the cost of the manual ones inshaa Allah. The deal closer on all this is the free workout and fit, firm upper arms we will have, inshaa Allah. No flabby upper arms at Healing Earth Ranch, inshaa Allah!

What we're reading in January 2014

Each month, we will share with you what we are reading, inshaa Allah. Each post will include books read by all our family members for expanding our knowledge for homesteading, health and nutrition, learning new skills, self-help, school, and beneficial enjoyment.You will notice that a couple may be classified as fiction books, but they have been carefully chosen to meet our criteria, which means they are based on true stories and experiences with names and minor details changed for anonymity. As with all things, we take the good from these books and align or enhance them with Islamic legislation, and discard the rest. You can click on a book cover to find out more about it.

 

 

Homemade Salves

Bism Illah.

For the past few months we have been making our own salves. It takes about 10 minutes to melt the oils with the beeswax and pour it into the jars. It is child's play; after one try you may well wonder why you didn't do it before...and feel like you want to make salve for all your loved ones!

In general, you will find that the Camp Wander website is a good resource for learning about essential oils for your daily needs. There are many other wonderful recipes on there for homemade personal care, however for now I am just giving links to the salves that I made.

- Homemade All-Purpose Healing Salve
We use this for everything from moisturizing to first aid for cuts and scrapes to rashes to hair pomade! You name it, we slap some on and call it "Mother's Love!"

- Anti-Aging and Eye-Health Salve
This has the same ingredients recommended to stroke around your eyes for better eye health and anti aging properties for your skin. Smells great and makes great gifts if put into nice little pots. Inshaa Allah, I will take a photo of my salve in jars and in little gift pots and add it to this post.

Emulating our Pious Predecessors in our Food

Bism Illah.

 

Okay, I'm a die hard extremist. A fundamentalist to the roots. But here it is, my "issue of the day" for all those who care to chew on it. (Pardon the pun, lol!)

Have you ever considered what the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahabah ate? Have you ever considered that emulating the life of the Prophet ﷺ should include food? For me, it is all part and parcel of my Islam, so here is what I have to put on the table. (Oh, I'm just too punny today!)

Did bleached sugar exist during the time of the Prophet ﷺ?
Did bleached rice exist during the time of the Prophet ﷺ?
Did bleached or white flour exist during the time of the Prophet ﷺ?
Come to think of it, did bleach exist during the time of the Prophet ﷺ?
Did they have freezers and cupboards full of canned goods?
Did they have out of season vegetables irradiated and flown across the world so that that they could enjoy blueberries in December?
Did they have hydrogenation plants at the time of the Prophet ﷺ to process our oil to within a molecule of plastic?
What about chemical pesticides? Chemical preservatives? Artificial coloring? Artificial flavoring? Artificial anything?

If you all are in the "know", and answered "no", then perhaps you are getting the drift... that foods during the time of the Prophet ﷺ were what we now term "organic". They were whole, unprocessed, natural.... and nutrient rich.

Why didn't issues about whether mono and di-glycerides being halal come up then? Because all that never existed! And where did all the disease of modern day come from... processed foods, chemicals, preservatives, pesticides.

What is the first thing the doctor tells you if you are diabetic? Eat whole grains, whole wheat bread and pasta, brown rice, cut out the refined sugars. Masha'Allah, the doctor is advising you to follow the Sunnah!

So to all who say they are striving to emulate the life and times of the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahabah, please think about the food.They were the Original Islamic Green Movement... self-sufficient, organic, natural, whole grain, with seasonal and locally grown foods. I see many of us eating highly processed foods. Does the Sunnah end where the stomach, and sadly our lust for food, begins?

Want to make some lifestyle changes to bring it closer to the Sunnah? Don't know where to start? Just ask! We can work on it together, insha'Allah.