Minimizing in other ways

This is a thought that isn't new to me.  I seem to often forget, though, that when I start minimizing in one part of my life I find other parts where I would like to minimize as well.  For instance chemicals.  Specifically cleaning chemicals.  We tend to reach for the 409 or Soft Scrub because it is easy, convenient, and probably what we were raised doing.  My grandmother used to clean her entire house with vinegar, bleach, baking soda and Pine-Sol.  I don't ever remember having any fancy store bought chemical sprays. 

Another area where I really want to reduce chemicals in my life is in my food.  We always complain about how busy our lives are and that we don't have time to cook from scratch, but at what cost to our health?  And how much time does it really take to make pancakes or brownies or a cake from scratch?  I'm tired of eating "food" that has ingredients that I cannot pronounce because they are more chemical than vegetable (or animal for that matter). 

I've started a collection of cleaning ideas and recipes that I will be trying out to see which works the best.  We've already started with some and as we use them I will report back as to how well I like them.  I'll start you all off with brown mix.  We love brownies in our house and while we have made homemade brownies in the past we always tend to fall back on boxed mixes.  I came across this recipe and we gave it a go last week.  They turned out some very yummy brownies.  The instructions said to mix all the dry ingredients in a plastic zip bag and when you are ready add the wet ingredients and bake.  I may do that at some time, but I found that the recipe is so easy that one doesn't truly need to waste plastic bags to make brownies.  Just mix them up as you go.

Dry ingredients: 
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. cocoa
1/4t. salt
1/4t. baking powder

(sift those together or just use a whisk to blend them well)

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 t. vanilla

Mix and bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes in an 8"x8" or 9"x9" pan. 

We did find the texture just a tad bit grainy from the sugar and we may reduce that amount next time and increase the flour content just a bit.  I'll let you know what I do and how they turn out.