So here's how I've been "crunchy" so far.

So far they've all been on the health/beauty side rather than culinary attempts. I already modify any recipe, adding whole wheat flour instead of white, flaxseed, unsweetened applesauce instead of oil and other similar changes, so I guess you could say I'm already on the crunchy side culinary-wise.

So without further ado, my crunchy attempts:

#1 Turmeric Tea: It supposedly does a boatload of good stuff for you, including easing aches and pains (which is why I decided to try it). Here's the recipe, which you can find variations of all over the web:

1 C. almond milk
1/2 Tbs. butter
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
dash of cinnamon
very, very small dash of black pepper (apparently it makes turmeric work even better but wow, don't like the taste:)

Heat the almond milk and butter. Mix other ingredients into your cup, add a bit of the heated milk mixture. Stir. Add the rest of the stuff and enjoy. As long as I go easy on the pepper it actually makes a pretty good drink (rather like chai, in my opinion) and did get rid of my aches and pains (I had done a kettlebell/suspension training mixture the previous day). And the little golden capsule next to my mug is my cod oil supplement, which also works wonders and is supposedly best taken with butter fat, which is why I include it in my tea.

#2 Oil Cleansing Method: Google this one as well. You'll find tons of information. Basically like dissolves like and so using oil will dissolve the oil/makeup on your face (I have here reduced pages of scientific-sounding explanations to one sentence:) It's very, very important that you use organic oils, especially with EVOO. Apparently quite a few brands are NOT really extra-virgin and contain all sorts of impurities that will cause you to majorly break-out. Here's a guide to the best oils to use for your skin type and the ratios you can try. I use 2 Tbs. castor oil mixed with 1 Tbs. jojoba oil (it's good for acne-prone skin) with a couple drops of tea tree (again, good for acne-prone skin). Shake it up, massage about 1 Tbs. into your face for a minute. Get your faucet water piping hot and get a clean washcloth wet, put it on your face and let it steam for another minute. Once that's done you can wipe the oil off, rinsing your washcloth as you go (I have heard that you should use downward strokes and not upwards).

So far my skin looks awesome. I did have one, very localized breakout which is apparently normal; your skin is sloughing off all those impurities. I'll let you know if that changes.

#3 Honey: I use this honey to clean my face in the morning. Like the oils for the OCM you need to use a quality honey that's raw. If you can get some from your local farmer's market that's even better. Pour 1 Tbs. onto you hand and start massaging it into your face (which can be either dry or wet, there seems to be conflicting opinions). Massage for a minute and then wash it off (or leave it on for 10-15 minutes as a face mask). If you need to exfoliate you can add brown sugar.

#4 Laundry Detergent: Don't have a picture for this one. Go here if you want to see the original site I looked at for my recipe. Here goes:

2 C. finely grated bar soap (I used Zote). I had to grate 4 C. of the stuff and then blend it in my blender to get 2 C. of the finely shredded stuff.

1 C. Borax

1 C. Washing Soda

Mix all ingredients together and store in an air-tight container. Apparently you only need 2 Tbs. per full load but I haven't had time to test this mixture out. I've been too busy doing all my crunchy projects:)

P.S. I found all these ingredients at Walmart. I think they cost me $9 total and I have loads left (ha! I made a pun)

So that's what I've been doing. Not sure what I'm going to do next, but I think it will involve essential oils. I'm just itching to try them out.