We all made pandemic discoveries – like learning we didn’t miss eating out as much as we thought we would – and one of ours was finally ditching bottled shampoo and conditioner. Did you know 552 million plastic shampoo bottles end up in landfills every year in America? For perspective, that’s enough to fill 1,164 football fields.
We thought we’d shelved Clean Made after we were unable to scale our national events the way we’d planned to in 2018 and 2019. Then a pandemic hit and I did a thing and made a gluten and dairy free birthday cake for my husband, Mr Beer. I usually bake bundt or sheet cakes (I’ve never met a bundt I didn’t love) but we had a few strange months here following his unexpected cancer diagnosis (and said pandemic and the loss of another business) and I found myself watching random cake making videos when I needed a mental distraction because that was a hell of a lot better than doom scrolling.
If you do British Christmas, you do British Christmas Cake. Its most akin to what we’d call a fruitcake here, but I wouldn’t want to malign this delicious, boozy tradition with that association. It’s taken some time to nail my gluten free method with homemade refined sugar free marzipan and a good fondant, but now that I’m happy with the results, I’m playing around with a new marshmallow fondant recipe, and fondant snowflake decorations for shippable cakes to send to family and friends. These cakes are typically made many weeks in advance, fed booze regularly, and then enrobed in a layer of marzipan and fondant and then decorated simply so that they can be stored on a cool countertop to be enjoyed throughout the season, but…
A million and one Mediterranean diet studies don’t lie. High quality extra virgin olive oil packs in more phytonutrients and health benefits than any other plant based oil out there, but it seems to have taken a back seat to coconut oil, avocado oil and lard as of late, especially when it comes to higher heat cooking.
Everything has its season and reason and sometimes the most productive thing we can do is take a break and reflect.
We created Clean Made in 2017 as a response to finding ourselves developing food sensitivities, dealing with our own health issues and autoimmune disease and wondering what the heck we should be doing to take care of ourselves and this planet we all call home. On that journey, we found it harder and harder to define what wellness, not to mention sustainability, really meant today. Everything from navigating menus when eating out and rethinking our favorite comfort food recipes, to understanding supplements to what the latest “research” on the topics that were important to us actually meant added up to more questions than answers.
As soon as the calendar shifted from August to September, we have to admit there’s a little longing for our old lives… including that oh so familiar Pumpkin Spice Latte. But the reality is, we don’t need it, and once we found out what was in it, we decided to kiss it good-bye for good. In our quest to recreate our very ‘basic bitch’ Fall beverage of choice, we found loads of recipes for paleo pumpkin spice lattes filled with real ingredients that we don’t feel the least bit concerned about drinking.
Ever wondered how a brand came to be? Wondered about the person or people behind the brand? Us too. Welcome to Behind the Brand, a new series giving you the chance to get to know the people behind some of our favorite clean brands.
There was a time when we thought we’d never have another caramel anything, let alone a caramel apple. Thanks to our friends at Sweet Laurel, we’re enjoying the caramel apples from our childhood once more!
You're in the midst of pulling together a meal and low and behold, you realize that the crucial piece of your meal has a few spots of mold on it. Whatever. You just cut around it right? We've all done it at one point or another and figured it's probably fine. But the reality may be a little surprising...
Revered by Native populations, the scorn of farmers and cattle ranchers, and then later commercialized for use in BBQ– Mesquite has remained an underutilized plant, but that may not be for much longer. Inspired by it's versatility, availability, and nutrient and flavor-rich profile one Texas baker thinks there's more to mesquite than meets the eye and gives us plenty of inspiration to give Mesquite Flour a try.
Ah… Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes (or PSLs for those in the know)– the first sign of Fall! And for many with even the most discerning nutritional habits, they’re a yearly indulgence that conjures images of cozy sweaters, leaves changing colors, pumpkin pie… what’s not to love? It turns out, a lot. Read on for the full rundown…
It’s been a week, hasn’t it? We’re feeling tired, worn out, and a bit emotional. So while in some ways self-care has become a bit cliché and a brand unto itself we recognize the virtue of regularly stopping and carving out some time to slow down, reconnect with ourselves, and take some time for renewal.
We’ve found baths to be the perfect, low-cost way to create a little ‘relaxation cave’ and slow the heck down. We don’t need any special equipment, and most of the ingredients we’ve found to create the most lux baths have actually come straight out of our pantry or bathroom closet.
So read on, and we hope you’re inspired to create a little me-time this week. (Oh who are we kidding… Do it today.)
Apple Butter in an hour? We’re so in.
We fell in love with this recipe from My Heart Beets for Instant Pot Apple Butter, and with a few small tweaks are enjoying the spoils of our yearly apple picking excursion to Oak Glen with this Instant Pot Apple Butter along with AIP / Paleo Apple Cider Doughnuts and a simple Mulled Cider. Find our recipes for AIP and Paleo Apple Cider Doughnuts, Mulled Cider and our rundown of the best Oak Glen apple picking spots HERE
Is there anything more Fall than apple picking?
Maybe that fundamental moment of coming home and realizing that a 1/2 bushel is in fact a lot of apples, and digging in to make some spectacular dishes with that incredible autumn bounty. This year, we put our apple harvest to work making some pretty killer AIP apple cider doughnuts, mulled cider, and a simple instant pot apple butter.
You want, no you need a ‘detox’; you want to eat healthier, feel better and decrease the toxins you are exposed to. Your first step, you might think, is to embark on a clean food regime- an organic, colorful, superfood filled diet. But, hold on there. In order to have a truly clean meal you need to take a look at where your meal is prepared: the kitchen. Does your kitchen support you in your non-toxic living journey? If it doesn’t , your kitchen and the items you use to prepare your meals, could essentially be contaminating your healthy food and exposing you to harmful chemicals. This is why detoxing your kitchen is just as important as detoxing your diet.
Let’s get real for a second. One of the most difficult things to overcome in our clean food journeys has been forgetting to pack snacks or adequately plan meals when leaving the house for the day. The results have been (*ahem*) trying, to say the least. We’ve found ourselves staring sadly at one another in desperation, reading every label, praying for a damn piece of fruit more times than we can count.
We finally bit the bullet and jumped on the Instant Pot bandwagon, and somewhere between clicking ‘add to cart’ and actually receiving it, it was like we lost all of the recipes and ideas we’d once had for what to do with the darn thing. We went from crazy excited to baffled in no time at all and this shiny new treasure was starting to feel more like a massive countertop paperweight. While the Instant Pot seemed to be everywhere, we also noticed something… we weren’t the only ones feeling overwhelmed and (tbh) a bit scared– dozens of Facebook groups later and we noticed a common theme– no one knew where to start and people posted constantly about watching 6 months go by without even opening the box!
Purslane, a fairly ubiquitous weed, has recently been heralded as one of the most nutrient dense greens on the planet. Incredibly high in omega 3s, iron, and beta carotene, it’s a powerhouse of a plant that– wait for it– actually tastes good.
When you’re health-conscious and socially conscious, concerned about what goes into your body, and how our food is made…but you also have an incurable sweet tooth, what do you do?
