Lately I have been talking a lot about what is going into your food. We are eating organic in this house and cutting way back on processed food. The question is, are we doing enough?

I read an article recently that listed the things you need to take out of your home to become greener. Can you guess what was number 1 on their list?

If you thought non-stick cook and bake ware you are right!

For years I loved the stuff, everything I had was coated with the miracle non-stick stuff. Now we are finding out all of that stuff that it gives off is not healthy for us. It is not safe over a certain temperature. That temp being much lower than than the high setting on most stove tops. This is just down right scary. There are enough chemicals surrounding us, then to think we are adding more with what we prepare our food in.

Alternatives?

Several years I switched over to stainless steel. Does my food stick? I have become a better cook over the years, but yes on occasions those silly little pancakes do stick. You have to learn to adjust the temperature. If you do that and use the correct oil you shouldn’t have a problem.

Hard anodized aluminum cookware. I do not have any of these pieces but have heard they work just as well as the Teflon and are much safer.

I like to tell people that making soap from scratch is where it all started for me. But in reality that isn’t where living green started, but we are just going to save that for another article. Today we are going to start with making soap from scratch.

My passion is making soap from scratch. What does this involve? Well soon I will be able to direct you to my site Soap of Course, but for right now I am just going to give you a short version.

Soap is actual a chemical reaction between an acid and a base. That would be the science geek in my by the way.

You find your oils. These can range from the grocery store variety of olive, soybean and canola to the type you have to get at your health food store such as coconut and palm oils. These are the basic oils, but then you can add such things as cocoa butter and bees wax.  You can get really into soap making and get things such as grapeseed, apricot, sweet almond oil and butters such as mango and shea.

But no matter what oils that you use you have to have the right combination. These oils and butters are measured out by weight and put into a formula.

The temperatures are starting to drop here in Wisconsin. That means that our heating bills are going up. We have to keep warm so the price we pay is a trade off.

There are some tips on how to keep warm and still keep change in our pockets. Finding ways to save on our heating cost can benefit both our wallets and our environment.

Getting your heating system cleaned and serviced once a year is recommended. This will keep your furnace in optimum running condition. The person who comes in to do the maintenance for you can also alert you to any potential problems. A clean heating system works more efficiently as well.

If your heating system uses filters, be sure to change them out as your maintenance will recommend to you. This does vary with your households. If you have animals that shed, you will need to change these filters out more often. If you have a family member that has allergies it is also a wise idea to change these more frequently.

The next thing you can do to save on your heating bill is to use that programmable thermostat. If you don’t have one that is programmable these are a good investment. You can turn down your heat by a few degrees for the hours you are not at home. You can also set your thermostat to 5 or 10 degrees for the hours you are sleeping.