When Life Gives You Candy Canes… | Plummelo Blog

When Life Gives You Candy Canes… | Plummelo Blog.

…latest find…

there are few things in life i’m obsessed with.

shoes
bags
(i know, surprise, surprise)
kitchen equipment
coffee
(ok, this list is longer than i thought it’d be)
beauty products

i know you all are raising your eyebrows saying, “i can add a few more…” but i’ll stop the list here. these past few months, i’ve been secretly obsessing over shampoos. my HG (holy grail) shampoo has been aveda shampure since 1996.

but i swear, though aveda has denied it, that it has changed on me. the last couple of years it doesn’t smell or feel right. maybe it’s my hair that’s changing, but it doesn’t even lather like it used to! oh, and the price tag… i was happy to shell out $25 for the big bottle but that got harder to justify with bernard going through residency and fellowship and my new position as a stay at home mom.

so since 2005 i’ve been mixing. i’ve gone through costco sized bottles of the good ol’ standby, pantene. then when i wanted to feel special, i’d treat myself to the shampure. i’d get irrationally upset if i noticed that bernard “wasted” my shampure on his 2 minute showers. so for the past few months i’ve been dabbling with new shampoos, reading up on reviews and research. haha. yup, research.

i learned that sulfate is bad bad bad for your hair. specifically sodium lauryl sulfate. it’s harsh for your hair and it’s mainly there to give you that satisfying lather. it’s not really necessary, but most shampoos out there contain this ingredient. so i tried a few economically priced options out there.

trader joe’s nourish shampoo seemed very promising. i loved it, but only for a few weeks. after my sulfur-free nirvana died down, i realized that it left my hair feeling thirsty for something. my permed hair felt un”nourish”ed and though the conditioner is light and airy, my hair needed some more TLC.

but i do think this shampoo is worth a shot, especially given the low price tag ($2something/bottle). if you have normal or normal/oily hair, this would be a great everyday shampoo or at least something you use once a week. (everyone knows the golden rule of switching up shampoos at least once a week, right?)

my hunt continued. i tried tj’s tea tree shampoo. even though the tingly effect was enough to make me laugh out loud in the shower, it didn’t perform like i wanted it to in any other way. it was gimmicky… and with shampoos, that’s not what i’m looking for.

then one day, feeling impulsive like i do whenever i’m at costco, i picked up a surprisingly normal sized bottles of aveeno shampoo and conditioner. i’ve always loved anything from aveeno, minus their skin radiant moisturizer with spf – but totally my fault since my skin breaks out with anything containing chemical sunscreen. anyway, i picked it up and had some hope, but not a lot, that this would make my hair feel full and wonderful again. but no worries, b/c it’s from costco and… i got a husband who doesn’t mind, he could use a bar of golden dial soap on his head and not care!

in the pack is 2 bottles of the nourish shampoo and 1 bottle of the conditioner. PERFECT! i tried it and loved it. it made my curly hair detangle and feel super moisturized. the conditioner made it feel totally protected from all the dry air around here. i mainly air-dry my hair, so i can’t tell you how it would perform with high heat. but i can tell, this is going to be in my bathroom for a long time.

of course, this doesn’t mean that i won’t be tempted to try other shampoos, but i’m glad i finally found another shampoo to fall back on. and it’s something i don’t mind sharing with the husband.

what are some of your HG hair shampoos and products?

…slow cooker beef stew…

straight from the slow cooker

2 lbs beef stew meat
1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 c beef broth
3 potatoes diced into big chunks (red potatoes i just quartered)
4 carrots cut into big chunks (i cut them into 5 pieces)
1 stalk celery cut into big chunks

1. put meat in slow cooker. mix together the flour, salt, and pepper then pour over meat.  stir to coat meat with flour mixture. i actually just used my hands to get the flour on each meat piece.

2. stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.

3. cover, and cook on low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on high setting for 4 to 6 hours. i did low for 2 hours and high for 4 hours. i wanted to make sure that the beef didn’t cook up too fast, i wanted that firm but melt in your mouth beef and that’s exactly what we got!

*** i doubled the recipe and used the beef stew meat from costco. i have a HUGE slow cooker and it barely all fit, so if you’re going to double the recipe, make sure your slow cooker is big enough.