Stir-Fry Sauce, Homemade

♥ Beginner

Since our house has gone dye and preservative free, we've had to learn how to make a lot of things on our own instead of buying the store bought stuff. One of those things is Stir Fry Sauce. We like a good chicken or steak stir-fry from time to time, so I needed one that was comparable to the packets we were used to. I think this one really hit the spot and is worth sharing. If you have a few extra minutes you can make your own too, and it didn't require any ingredients that were out of the norm for our household. You can use this for chicken or steak too.

What you'll need:
2/3 C. Soy Sauce
1/2 C. Chicken Broth
1/3 C. Rice Wine Vinegar
3 1/2 Tbsp. Sugar
1 Tbsp. Sesame Oil
2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1 Tbsp. Garlic, Minced
2 Tbsp. Cornstarch
1/4 C. Water

How it's done:
1. Combine all ingredients except the water and cornstarch.
2. In a small bowl whisk together the cornstarch and water, until thoroughly combined.
3. Add water mixture to other ingredients.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

♥ Beginner

We were starting to see behavioral problems in our four year old recently, and knew that we needed to make some changes. ADD & ADHD run very strongly through my family, and we were begining to notice some traits of it in our daughters behavior. I'm not a fan of diagnoses' like ADD, because sometimes I think it's easier to change the activities or nutrition to see if that can help eliminate the problems we were having without medication.

ADD & ADHD are on the rise in America. We're diagnosing hundreds if not thousands of children a day, some as young as two years old. So I went to work, doing some homework on how to assist my daughter in eliminating the behavior problems.

What I found, was that WAY back in the 1990's there was a study done that equated food dyes and preservatives with increases in ADD symptoms. It's been validated for the past 20+ years by parents all over the country who have followed a plan of eliminating food dyes and preservatives, and have seen ridiculous improvements. So here we are, embracing the elimination of those things in our diet as well. It's not been easy, but we're managing okay. I'm finding it's harder to control their eating habits outside of our home than inside it.

One of the things we are up against, is prepackaged foods like Taco Seasonings. Tacos are a favorite around our house, yet those seasonings are packed with preservatives. I did some research and found that making your own seasonings really isn't that hard. So off to work I went. And the results were fantastic!

What you'll need:

1 Tbsp. Chili Powder
1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp. Onion Powder
1/4 tsp. crushed Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 tsp. dried Oregano
1/2 tsp. Paprika
1 1/2 tsp. ground Cumin
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. Black Pepper

How it's done: 

1. Combine all ingredients in a small container. Cover & label. Instructions: 2 Tbsp. to 1lb Meat!