Finding a Safe Shampoo

In many personal care products and cosmetics, several chemicals on government watch lists have been added typically as preservatives, or fragrances, or stabilizers. In recent years companies have come under fire as laboratory studies show toxic results of using these products. States are beginning to restrict the chemicals allowed in personal care products, particularly in children's products.

Many of the ingredients listed in popular shampoos, such as Garnier Fructis, Suave, and Head & Shoulders are toxic. So, what are we as consumers supposed to do?

One substance, 1,4-dioxane, a solvent linked with cancer, is harder to avoid. It is an unintentional impurity in cosmetics, detergents and shampoos, manufacturers say. Johnson & Johnson claims it has reformulated about 70 percent of its baby products with new formulations that reduce 1,4-dioxane, and has pressured suppliers to reduce the compound in materials while it is searching for technologies that will eliminate it altogether, according to its website.

Sodium Laureth Sulfate is found in almost every popular brand of shampoo and body wash.  This chemical, while not itself cancer-causing, is associated with probable carcinogens in some products. Coincidentally, it is also the major component of the actual hair-cleansing part of shampoo (the detergent). It is known to cause skin and eye irritation, though it varies widely, which can exacerbate exposure to other chemicals.

Methylchloroisothiazolinone  is a preservative – it keeps other stuff fresh. There’s good evidence that it harms the skin, and may contribute to immune system problems. The United States, Canada, and Japan have restricted its use in cosmetics, though it’s still present in many “wash-off” chemicals. This ingredient is often found in lots of shampoos.

Ammonium Chloride can be harmful if swallowed and can cause serious eye irritation. It may also be harmful if inhaled.

Propylene Glycol, which is used to moisturize, is a skin irritant, and has been linked to increased risk of developing numerous respiratory and immune disorders in children.

Strong Fragrance or Parfum is a label often used as a catch-all on ingredient labels for many different chemicals. As a result, they can vary widely. Many are a risk for allergic reaction; some may be more dangerous.

This is like a bad case of alphabet soup!

One "the green life on line" reader asked why Garnier was singled out as a particularly harmful brand of shampoo. Garnier was used as an example of poor government testing, mostly because the brand sells and markets shampoos in which only 9 out of 22 ingredients have been assessed for safe use. To make matters worse, in one type of Garnier Fructis shampoo, six ingredients were labeled “health concerns” and three were labeled “violations, restrictions, and warnings.”

For additional information visit;

http://site.thegreenlifeonline.org/2012/04/30/finding-a-safe-shampoo-and-what-ingredients-to-avoid/

There is hope as once again U.S. Congress has a bill being introduced to restrict harmful chemicals in personal care products. Lets hope it passes. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of being a guinea pig for big business and their profits.

Soooooo Tired

Soooooo Tired. I feel like I need to try a six pack of 5 hour energy drink, or get the wife to order my vitamins. Maybe I’m just getting older? Or is this the let down after our daughter moved out and took the little monster with her, namely George. Doubtful. Or because our youngest son is still in basic training with the U. S. Army? An out of state trip to Minnesota. We were able to attend annual convention in Minneapolis, and got to visit my side of the family. Buying a different vehicle? Mowing the yard, during and after the heat wave? Cooking? Shopping? Getting ready for two more out of state trips? Helping family’s earn some extra income. Where does all the time disappear to? Perhaps I need to borrow the little monster once a week, just so I can get riled up at his antics and household destruction.

Then again, I need to find some new recipes. Of course I’ve got to get the oven fixed; it decided to take a permanent nap. However, working from home allows a lot of flexibility to the crazy things life throws at you. Even recipes allow you some flexibility away from the oven.

Here’s one from Rachel Ray’s website.

Raw Corn Salad

Serve this alongside Rachael's Bacon-Wrapped Chicken with Herbs.

Ingredients:

1 Shallot, peeled

2 teaspoons hot sauce

Juice of 3 limes

Salt & Pepper

1/3 cup EVOO

4 ears corn on the cob, kernals scrapped

½ seedless cucumber, chopped

3 Plum tomatoes, chopped

1 small red onion, chopped or 3 or 4 scallions, chopped

1 small red bell pepper, chopped

1 chili pepper, seeded and chopped

www.eveventureconcept.com

What Really Matters

There are days and there are days. I’m babysitting today, and watching Devin, my 1 year old grandson playing with George. They started out playing catch with a plastic ball, then George took off with it and Devin went in pursuit. George is still basically a kitten, and he likes to play, with anything, straws, cups, a piece of paper, whatever. So George stops and waits for Devin to catch up so they can play some more. Pretty soon the ball disappeared and Devin and George started batting a cup around. Then they switched cups, except that this was PJ’s cup of tea that wasn’t empty, so Devin and I went to check the mail after I cleaned up the mess.

Working from home requires the same attitude which is best said in this quote from writer Shirley Lord; “What really matters is what you do with what you have.” Success does depend on your effort, so be creative with what you have. Find a home business that’s accredited with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to be sure everything is legit. Then partner up with good people for the journey to success. You get good training and mentoring so you can achieve your goals. Never accept someone telling you that there is no training and there is no mentoring. That should tell you right away that they don’t care if you succeed or not. Find a home business where your success is directly tied to your mentor or your partner. Remember that being successful in anything, including working from home, depends on your effort. Don’t expect to sit back in the shade with an umbrella drink and let others do all the work for you. Even the boss of a large company has to supply effort or their company will fail. So find a good company to partner with and then enjoy a movie once in awhile, an old John Wayne movie for me, or better yet, make a treat for the family. I found this one from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Berry Brown Betty

The old-fashioned dessert known as “Brown Betty” is a great way to showcase sweet ripe berries, which are sugared, lightly spiced with nutmeg, and baked into a pudding cake.

Ingredients

3 cups fresh raspberries, red and golden if available

1 ½ teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

5 tablespoons unsalted butted, melted

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 cups fresh brioche breadcrumbs (about 6 ounces)

1/3 packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg

Sweetened whipped cream, for serving

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix all but ¼ cup berries with lemon juice and set aside to macerate. Brush four 6 ounce ramekins (small glass or porcelain single serving bowls) with tablespoon of butter; coat the inside of each with granulated sugar, and set aside.

2.    In a small bowl, combine breadcrumbs with remaining 4 tablespoons of butter, and set aside. Sprinkle brown sugar, flour and nutmeg over the raspberries, and gently toss to combine. Divide 1/3 of breadcrumbs evenly among ramekins. Top with half the berries, and then with another 1/3 of breadcrumbs. Repeat with remaining berries and breadcrumbs. Gently press down the layers.

3.    Bake until the crumbs are golden and berry juice is bubbling, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

4.    invert ramekins onto serving plates. Remove ramekins, and top each dessert with whipped cream and garnish with reserved berries.

www.eveventureconcept.com

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July to all, and Happy Birthday to the wife. As she like’s to tell us, she’s a rocket baby and we all celebrate her birthday. The youngest grandson, Devin turned the big “1” on July 2^nd, and we’re still picking up after his party. Chas is away at basic training for the army, and Samantha is in and out, so mom and dad get stuck with the herd of animals. Then it’s hot everywhere, like record breaking temperature in Arizona two days ago. Officially 116 degrees in Phoenix where we still have children and grandchildren and a host of other family members. When it’s that hot, even the swimming pools are hot.

So in honor of the heat that we’re all trying to get away from, and as working from home let’s us take all holidays off, here’s a terrific thirst quencher to try.

Watermelon Agua Fresca

This delicious drink is served by roadside vendors all over Mexico. Not too much fruit, not too much sugar, just a terrific thirst quencher.

Ingredients

8 cups cubed seeded watermelon (about 6 pounds with the rind)

1 cup water

1/3 cup sugar

¼ fresh lime juice

1 club soda or seltzer water, well chilled

Lime slices for garnish

Directions

Combine half the watermelon, half the water and half the sugar in a blender; puree. Pour through a coarse strainer into a large container. Repeat with the remaining watermelon, water and sugar. Stir in lime juice. Refrigerate until well chilled, about 4 hours.

To serve, stir in club soda (or seltzer) and garnish with lime.

http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/watermelon-agua-fresca-recipe-5567

Beginning to Win

Between getting this computer working again and the heat, not to mention our youngest heading off to basic training, this week has my schedule off kilter. Then there’s the feline ping pong ball called George. When he’s not bouncing off the walls and furniture, he’s pouncing on Elisha the adult cat or the dogs. I watched George sneak up on one of the dogs, then pounce on Ebony. The result was that George got the dog’s blanket and Ebony ran off. In between the havoc George creates, we’re trying to get ready for our youngest grandson’s 1^st birthday party. So I still get to mow the yard and clean up the remains of the fireworks the kids shot off before Chas left for basic. The only good thing is that working from home I’m able to adjust my schedule any way I need to.

Now the doubters need only check out the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and see how a company is rated to see that it’s not a scam. As a retired police officer, the first thing I would tell people to look at is, if you’re paying money, are you getting something in return? Just remember, paying for a membership is getting something in return for your money, and it’s perfectly legal. It’s no different than paying for a Sam’s Club membership. Now as my wife’s great uncle finally understood after being told repeatedly that it was a scam, is you don’t have to front money to get money from a bank trying to collect one of those you have the same last name and we’ll pretend you’re the heir and we’ll split the money, but first you need to pay $30,000 in bank fees. Hello! You’re being suckered into taking make believe money from a bank that’s not yours. Illegal! The FBI calls this one the Nigerian scam because that’s where the scammers are located, and that’s where the money goes. It’s the national occupation over there, have computer will scam dumb Americans out of money. People, all you need to do is check the BBB or call the bank or business from a phone number you found, not one that was given to you, and find out if they’re a real company.

Now if you check the BBB and find a business is accredited and been in business for over 25 years, you can be assured it’s not a scam. Of course you’ll always find people who say, it’s a scam, I didn’t make any money at it. Did you work? Or did you just sit there and expect someone else to do the work for you? Or did you just think money would come flooding into your lap? If the work from home concept is legit, you’re going to have to work. To be successful at working from home, just remember the saying, “winning starts with beginning” Robert H. Schuller an American author. If you begin doing nothing, you’ll get nothing in return. So start working from home the smart way, and enjoy your spare time.

Here’s a snack to share with company, or not, that I found at http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=1431 submitted by Uncle Bill Anatooskin.

Uncle Bill’s Stuffed Dill Pickles

1 jar dill pickles (48 ounces), preferably home made, or use kosher garlic dill pickles, 4 ½ to 5 inches in length.

1 package cream cheese (8 ounces), softened

1 medium onion or 2 small shallots, very finely chopped

3 large garlic cloves, finely minced

¾ teaspoon red hot sauce, such as Tabasco brand

Preparation

Cut off both ends of the dill pickles to form a flat area.

Using a thin potato peeler, a small sharp knife or Uncle Bill’s Dilly Core (a dill pickle corer), core each pickle; save the cores for another use, such as a salad.

Stand the cored pickles on end on a paper towel and let them drain for about 20 minutes. After draining, roll a paper towel and push it through the cored pickles to absorb as much moisture as possible.

Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, cream the cheese. Add the onion, garlic and hot sauce, and using a fork, mix the ingredients until well blended. Using a cake decorator, a piping bag or small spoon, stuff each cored pickle with the creamed mixture.

Wrap the filled pickles in batches in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours, or until the cheese filling is firm.

Just before serving, cut the pickles into ¾ inch slices and place on a serving tray and serve. Refrigerate any unused pickles.

You can also add some finely chopped smoked salmon into the filling, or finely chopped cooked ham of your choice. You can use pimento cream cheese instead of the regular kind.

And if you don’t like dill pickles, try stuffed carrots. Peel and partially boil large carrots until just tender. Slice the carrots about ½ inch thick, core the slices, and fill with the cream cheese filling.

You can find the Dilly Core at www.unclebillskitchen.com

Or visit me at:

www.eveventureconcept.com

Small Things

The hard drive on my lap top went to the land of OZ, you know, the Outer Zone. It developed a terminal case of black screen almost two weeks ago. So after finally ordering a new hard drive and installing it, I now get to the fun part. I get to reinstall all of the software, and try to get it to work correctly. Luckily I had most of my files backed up on an external hard drive. The bad part, the backup software isn’t perfect at installing everything, so I get to copy and paste a lot. Then there are the “issues” of things still not working the way they’re supposed to.  Even George the kitten and his commando attacks on Elisha the adult cat didn’t do much for my humor. George even lacks decent fear of the Dutch, the big dog. Tonight he was hanging on Dutch’s ear with his claws and biting it. Poor, good natured Dutch just sat there.

Work from home has something in common with reinstalling software on a computer, a series of small things. Vincent Van Gogh said it best; “Great things are not done by impulse, but a series of small things brought together.” Just the way you make a home business function, a series of small things. You know, check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Is the business concept or opportunity accredited? It better be! Have there been any complaints? After more than thirty years as a police officer, I think it’s terrific that there is an agency that does all of the investigating for you. Does the business opportunity provide training for you? How about free websites? Are you getting the idea? A home business is more than having a computer and a telephone.

There are lots of scams out there. One of the things to watch out for is, are the asking for money for nothing in return? Now I don’t mean paying for a membership, that’s legal. On-line shopping is also legal. However, if they ask for money up front so they can send you more money later on? The red flag should go up on that one. One of the most common of these has been named by the FBI as the Nigerian scam. There are lots of variations of this one, but it usually starts by someone with the same last name as you dying in another country and having a lot of money. Someone in that country, usually claiming to be with a bank, wants to keep the government from getting all of the money, and want your help. Send them ten or twenty thousand dollars for the bank fees, and they’ll let you claim to be the heir to millions of dollars. Except there isn’t a fortune waiting for you, and any money you sent to them is already in another country. So remember the BBB, and check out the home business.

A legit home business concept lets you have time to do other things as well. Like make a tasty snack. You might want to try this one from the Rachel Ray website.

Pies on Sticks

Serves 12

These fruity pies are fast to prepare and fun to serve.

Ingredients:

12 popsicle sticks

1 box pre-made pie crust (2 crusts per box)

flour for dusting

1 egg, beaten with a splash of water

Filling choices:

Any canned pie filling, such as pumpkin

Cherry all-fruit preserves

Strawberry all-fruit preserves

Nutella

1 small ripe banana, combined with 8 ounces cream cheese and

4 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F

Place the popsicle sticks in a shallow dish. Cover with water and soak for 20 minutes.

On a floured surface, roll both pie dough’s out to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut into six wedges.

Place 3 tablespoons of filling on each triangle (wedge). Place a popsicle stick at the wide end of the wedge. Brush the edges with the egg wash and fold over, creating a pie filled wedge. Crimp the sides with a fork and brush the tops with egg wash. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.

www.evprofessionals.com/concept

In Between Time

Hot! Just enough of a rain shower to raise the humidity. Hot! Now I’ve lived in hotter temperatures. The hottest official temperature I lived in was 122 degrees F in Arizona. We were coming back from Sea World in San Diego where it was 65 degrees F. As we picked up radio reception fro Phoenix, we heard the weather report. Needless to say it was a record breaking day in Arizona. But…..if you take 96 degrees F with 50 percent humidity, it isn’t hot, it’s miserable. In fact, it’s hotter here in Northeast Oklahoma than it is in Mesa, Arizona just outside Phoenix. Even Cyclone George, my daughter’s kitten has slowed down. Did I say hot? So how does the grass grow like a mutant weed from Venus? It goes from green to brown and it still needs to be mowed. By now you’re probably thinking that the old guy has finally lost it. Heat stroke, maybe he’s senile, or maybe he’s raised too many children. Here’s the point I’m getting at.

Have you ever thought about working from home? You know, one of those home business opportunities. Now look, after more than three decades in law enforcement I can tell if an opportunity is a scam or not. So when a good thing comes along, why not take advantage. One of the best reasons is that on a hot day, I don’t have to go outside if I don’t want to. I can earn an income while staying at home. Now there are a lot of so called experts out there who will tell you that you can’t do this. If the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has accredited a company, and with decades of law enforcement experience I’ve checked it out and verified the BBB findings, I’m satisfied that I’m smart enough to make a decision. It’s really not hard to see the difference between a legitimate work from home opportunity and a scam. So being able to enjoy staying indoors and earn an income can be a great thing. I like this quote from Cary Grant; “I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.”

The concept of working from home and earning some extra income is a great way to spend that “in between” time Cary mentioned. And making your own schedule is really what it’s all about. This allows you to gain that extra time you want so you no longer miss events the children or grandchildren are doing at school or church. With the right work from home concept, these things are possible. Just think for a moment. Is anyone really going to pay you a residual income for doing absolutely nothing? Probably not! This means that you will have to work your business to make it successful. So now I need to do one of those in between things which I’ll share.

Decadent Dark Chocolate Blueberry Brownies

Thanks to bakedinmaine.com for a delicious treat.

Ingredients:

5 ounces of dark chocolate chips, melted and cooled….. (I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao)
2 sticks of salted butter, softened  (or sub. smart balance)
2 cups sugar (or sweetener of choice)
4 whole large eggs
3 teaspoons of vanilla
1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (buy this at the health-food store)
3/4 cup all-purpose white flour (I use organic)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup nuts (optional)
1 cup blueberries (dry on a towel)

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350* Grease or spray a 9 X 13 pan.

Melt 5 ounces of chocolate chips (use your glass measuring cup) in the microwave ( 30 second intervals) and cool the chocolate completely before using!

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add vanilla.

Turn the mixer on low, and drizzle in the cooled, melted chocolate. Mix until just combined. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder and mix until just combined, scrape the sides of the bowl and mix 5 seconds more.

Add the chocolate chips, blueberries, and nuts (if using) mixing a few seconds more,  until just combined.

Bake for about 30 min. You’ll know when they’re done when your house fills with the aroma of fresh baked brownies and you just can’t stand waitin’ any longer!!! People will start roaming around your kitchen asking “are they ready yet?” Just tease them a little at first and say “oh no, they must cool first!” While you carefully cut a crispy “corner brownie” and hide somewhere to eat that first hot, chocolatey,  gooey piece of heaven! Trust me, these fabulous brownies won’t last long……

www.evprofessionals.com/concept