Hi all
Do you think of soft drink as just another delicious way to quench your
thirst, boost your energy and satisfy your taste buds? Maybe you already
know that soft drinks aren't the best for you, maybe you don't. Either way,
keep reading to find you what these tasty refreshers really are and don't
forget to try the cool experiments at the end!! So lets have a quick look at
what is in this stuff.
Aspartame
Used as a sugar substitute in many soft drinks, this artificial sweetener
can cause brain tumors, birth defects, epilepsy, diabetes and emotional
disorders. This product is often marketed separately as a powdered sugar
substitute. Also works well as ant killer.
Sugar
The high levels of sugar in soft drinks is one of the oldest lines in the book.
For the soft drinks that use sugar as the sweetener, it can be one of the
safest ingredients in the whole drink. In reality, many of the soft drinks
these days don't even have sugar. Instead, they use sweeteners like corn
syrup and aspartame. These substitute sugars are much more dangerous
that sugar itself. Corn syrup in itself isn't artificial like aspartame, but the
effects can still be disastrous. The high fructose levels in corn syrup can
lead to rapid weight gain and obesity by impairing your body's appetite
sensors, so that your body no longer knows when to stop taking in sugar. Think 'beer belly'!
Citric Acid
Although the original citric acid was a natural product made from citrus fruit and was used to give the drinks their zing, the "citric acid" used in soft drink today in actually a compound made from fermented crude sugars. This new acid can lead to severe illness.
Bromine
Bromine is added to soft drinks to spread out the citric acid. One of the characteristics of bromine is its ability to solidify oils. When bromine is stirred into a bowl of oil, the liquid oil will slowly become so solid that you aren’t able to move the spoon. Just think of what would happen when this substance comes in to contact with your body's fat stores. We're talking permanent fat.
Cool Experiments With Soft Drinks!!!
Take your favorite soft drink and try these out. Some form of cola works best.(I do not guarantee that these will work)
- Toilet Cleaner
Pour a can of soft drink into your toilet bowl and leave for an hour. The citric acid will eat away the stains. No scrubbing, no effort.
- Rusty Bolt Remover
Apply a rag soaked in soft drink to the rusty bolt for a few minutes. This should eat away the rust and help loosen the bolt.
- Grease Stain Remover
Add a can of cola to a load of greasy clothes, add detergent and run through your regular cycle.
- Anti-Corrosion Aid
Pour a can of soft drink over your corroded car battery terminals and let the corrosion bubble away.
- Nail Solvent
Drop some metal nails that you no longer want into a bottle of cola. In a few days your unwanted nails should be gone.
- 2 in 1 - Fly Killer and Concrete Scrub
Spill some on a concrete surface that you want cleaned and watch what happens when a fly takes a drink. Also notice how clean your concrete gets!
- Paint Remover
If you're game, spill some on your car and watch what happens to your paintwork. There goes that resale value.
So far it's lookin' like a bug killing, rust removing, paint stripping, nail dissolving, toilet cleaner wrapped up in a pretty can and refrigerated for your enjoyment. I don't think so!
Now that you don't want to touch soft drink ever again, here is a refreshing alternative....
Home-made Lemonade
8 cups water 1/2 cup honey
Juice of 6 lemons Ice
Warm up some of the water on the stove and melt the honey into it. Add the rest of the water and chill. When cold, mix in strained lemon juice.Pour over ice and serve!
Written by Sabrina
Hi all
Today I'd like to share one of our family's favourite recipes: whole wheat pancakes. These pancakes are easy, filling and delicious! Personally, we prefer them a little thinner, so we tend to make the batter a bit runnier. Hope you like them!
Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat flour 1 egg
¼ tsp bicarbonate soda 1 large tbsp honey
½ tsp cream of tartar Milk or water
Method:
In a bowl mix together flour, bicarbonate soda and cream of tartar.Add egg and honey, do not stir until you have added the milk or water.The amount of liquid depends on your taste, if you want thicker pancakes,use less liquid; if you want thinner pancakes, add more liquid. Once you have added the liquid and mixed it in, let the mixture sit for awhile to let it bubble.The mixture is now ready to cook in a fry pan or on the BBQ in your
preferred style.
Serving suggestion: Top pancakes with butter, maple syrup, fresh or frozen berries and whipped cream.
Serving suggestion: Top pancakes with butter, maple syrup, fresh or frozen berries and whipped cream.
You might be thinking why my title says homemade custard and
gravy,
well it’s because today I'm going to share with you a
little family
secret to making both from scratch.
I hope this post will help you not only
save money buying pre packed food,
but also keep out all the nasty ingredients
that sometimes come with them.
Declaimer: I am a big fan of using a recipe as a general guide
so the ingredients are general
and you will need to see what you have in your
cupboard and decide for yourself
some of the ingredient quantities. Also, this
recipe is for making custard and gravy
from scratch, no premixed ingredients
needed and you will be able to say
with a smile to all who try it, I made it
myself!
Prep time: 10 mins or less
Custard
Ingredients:
- Eggs (Approx 2 - 6 )
- Regular Flour
- Sugar
- Milk
- Vanilla
- Cocoa Powder if you like chocolate custard, or instant coffee as well for mocha=D
First grab a pan, fill it with as much milk as you would
like custard
and heat it up on the cook top.
Crack your eggs into the heating milk,
(crack your eggs into a glass first
if you have them fresh from a farm and you aren't sure how old they are to make sure
they’re still fresh). Add vanilla and sugar
to taste and whisk until it’s mixed well
(add cocoa powder now if you want
chocolate custard).
Take approx. 2 tablespoons of flour and whisk with enough
milk so that you have a watery batter texture. Note: make sure you whisk your heating milk often so it does not burn or boil over. Once
your heating milk is at boiling point or just before, take it off the heat and
whisk in your flour and milk mixture.
Allow it to cool and thicken,
if you want your custard thicker just
put it back on the heat and mix up some
more flour and milk mixture.
And there you have it, home-made custard from
scratch that’s super yummy.
Gravy
Ingredients:
- Cooked Meat Juices, Also known as stock. ( You can use just about any meat juice to make gravy.)
- Water
- Regular Flour
- Salt
Making gravy it nearly exactly the same as custard except
you heat up the meat juices
(you can add some water to make it go further).
Add
some salt to taste and when your juices are at boiling point whisk in
your
flour and water mix to thicken it.
I hope that you are blessed by
this blog post and that your
families can look forward to lots of yummy custard and gravy
that you have made from
scratch just for them!
Written by
Anita
Hi Everyone,
Today I’d like to share with you how you can make your own
natural Mascara, YES MASCARA!
Not long ago, (when I finished my bought mascara) I decided
to see if I could make my own mascara from natural ingredients. I searched the Internet for recipes and ideas and after combining a few different recipes together
and trying it out I have come up with my own recipe that I'm loving. All the
ingredients are easy to find and it’s definitely a very cost effective way to have make-up that’s not going to harm your body and skin.
{Declaimer} Before I go on, I just want to share that, though I
love my DIY healthy mascara, it is not exactly the same as designer label shop
bought stuff. It is not water proof and does not last quite as long but remember
that is a whole lot healthier for your body and the only reason these other
mascara’s do the fancy things they do is usually because they are full of nasty
stuff.
You will need:
1. ½-2 Tspn of Natural Bees Wax,
the more bees wax the stiffer your mascara will be
and if you live in a warmer places it’s good to add a bit
more also.
You can find this at a health food shop.
2. 2 Tspn Coconut Oil
You can also buy this at a health food shop or sometimes a
normal food shop in the health food section.
3. 4 Tspn Aloe Vera Gel
I used some natural aloe vera sun-repair gel that I have
lying around but I'm sure it’s easy enough to buy 100% aloe vera gel from a
health food shop or grow it yourself and use your own aloe vera.
4. 1-2 capsules of Activated Charcoal Powder OR a 1/3 of a tspn of loose powder.
This may prove a little harder to get hold of but if you
jump on the
Internet of shop around.
OR
Cocoa Powder
OR
Cocoa Powder
If you want a browner
mascara, add a little cocoa to the recipe
or just put cocoa powder in for a brown mascara, and yes I mean normal 100% cocoa
powder that you buy in the shop.
5. A plastic zip lock bag, or funnel you don’t mind getting
a little black and dirty.
6. A cleaned out mascara tube or you can shop around for a
new unused mascara tube.
( some people add shea butter but I did not have any and
left it out and my seems to work great still)
Okay, first off you will need to grate your bees wax so
it melts quickly.
Then put the first 3 ingredients into a saucepan and melt
them down (you may want to line the inside of your pan for this recipe).
![]() |
| Grated Bees Wax |
![]() |
| Melted Ingredients |
Once everything is liquid add your charcoal powder and/or cocoa powder.
Pour your warm mixture into a zip lock bag and let it cool
just a
little but not so it gets too hard.
Move the mixture to one corner of the bag and then cut a small
hole in the corner of the bag. Squeeze the mixture gently out of the bag and
into your clean mascara tube.
![]() |
| Zip Lock Bag |
There you have it, it’s that easy.
![]() |
| DIY Mascara is on the left eye |
![]() |
P.S Remember that this recipe is natural so it wont last as
long as shop bought stuff but I've had mine for 2 months now and it’s just
fine. And, when you reuse an old mascara tube make sure you take the seal out
of the top before you fill it, otherwise your mixture will go everywhere but
in the tube and you will also not be able to clean it out properly.
God Bless,
Anita













