When I asked my sweet friends for questions on my YouTube community channel, I was pleasantly surprised at how many I received. In part 1 of my Your Questions Answered series, I started answering these questions, and in today’s part 2 video, I dive into the rest of the questions, covering home remedies, the Prepper Pantry, and the many personal questions I received. Plus, I have a special guest who visits me during the video!
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Table of Contents
What’s in Part 2?
In addition to answering your personal questions in part 2, I also address traditional foods questions, covering:
- What to keep out of your traditional foods kitchen
- Herbal and home remedies
- Prepper Pantry
- Vinegar
- Sourdough
- Oats and More
This blog post touches on some of the questions from today’s part 2 of my video series. My extended video goes into a lot more detail, especially with questions about my personal and family life. If I didn’t get a chance to answer your question in these two videos, I’ll try to address them in future videos.
Personal Questions
Over the 500 or so videos that I’ve published on my YouTube channel, I enjoy talking about traditional foods with you and sharing how to make recipes. However, I know many of you also have questions about how I started with my YouTube channel and about my personal and family life.
Here are some of the questions you’ve asked:
- How did I start my YouTube channel?
- What’s the favorite place that I’ve lived in?
- Can you share your beauty routine?
- What’s something you never knew about me?
I’ve lived in different places in my life. I grew up in New York and pursued my bachelor’s degree in Boston. Afterward, I continued my higher education and worked in New York City, Washington DC, and northern Virginia before moving to Texas.
In my video, I talk about my favorite place to live, and I also tackle a hard question: What’s something you never knew about me?
- Note: To jump directly to the section in my video where I answer questions on my personal and family life, just open up the description section for my YouTube video, and you’ll see a list of timestamps. Click on a timestamp to jump to the section you want to watch in the video.
My Beauty Routine
A viewer asked about my beauty routine, and I said I really don’t have much of one. However, when I prepare for filming or a date out with my husband, I share the commercial or homemade products I like to use.
Commercial Beauty Products
From the days when I was single and working outside the home, such as when I lived in New York City and northern Virginia, I liked to use Lancome beauty products. Nowadays, I still keep Lancome mascara and lipstick handy for those special occasions.
I also like to use Boom products from Cindy Joseph. Her products are made for older ladies, and their Boomstick color offering makes a lovely cheek rouge.
Homemade Beauty Products
I also use homemade beauty products made from tallow, as I show you in the following videos. It’s amazing how much tallow, made from beef suet, can help to moisturize your skin.
My Husband and Son
In today’s video, I also share more about my husband and son. And in case you haven’t seen some of the previous videos I made with them, here are two where my husband Ted and I talk about some of the board games we enjoy and where my son Ben and I talk about his homeschooling journey.
Homeschooling was especially helpful to our son Ben since he had challenges with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. We look the Charlotte Mason approach for his early education, and we continued to homeschool him until he started his secondary education at a local Catholic high school.
By homeschooling our son, we could spend more time helping him with the basics, as well as pursue subjects that interested him. For example, he enjoyed making nature videos about battling invasive plant species as Commander Ben, and we especially love his take on the Christmas Carol story, called An Invasive Carol. It’s the perfect video for this time of year!
Old Fashioned Oats versus Instant Oats
A viewer asked me what I thought about old-fashioned oats versus instant oats, as well as what my opinion was on steel-cut oats versus old-fashioned oats.
I always like the least processed foods, and out of all the oat selections, oat groats are always my first choice. If you store them properly in your extended or Prepper Pantry, your oat groats will last for many years.
Oat groats look like wheat berries, and as I show you in my recipe video, you can turn oat groats into a nutritious soaked oatmeal.
If you can’t find oat groats in your local supermarket, you may have better luck at Whole Foods or Natural Grocers since they offer more bulk grain options.
Here’s the list of oats I prefer from least processed to the most processed:
- Oat groats
- Steel cut oats
- Old-fashioned rolled oats
- Instant oats
Because of the way that old-fashioned rolled oats and instant oats are prepared, you’ll lose some of the oats’ nutrition. Also, instant oats have too much processing, so that’s my least favorite choice.
Easily Turn Whole Grain into Flakes
Also, If you have oat groats or any other type of grain, it’s easy to turn them into flakes with the Flake Lover’s Flaker from Mockmill. Watch the following video to see the Flaker action, and if you decide it would be a helpful addition to your traditional foods kitchen, be sure to use my special 5% discount code.
Keep These Items Out of Your Traditional Foods Kitchen
Another viewer asked what items I recommended that we not keep in our traditional foods kitchen. Although we can’t always be perfect in our choices at the grocery store, I try to stay away from processed foods that contain:
- Vegetable oils, such as corn or soybean oil
- High fructose corn syrup
These ingredients create damaged foods, especially those with highly processed oils that are unhealthy for your body.
Read the Ingredient List
You want foods with the most real ingredients, so the first step in keeping damaged foods out of your kitchen and four corners pantry is to become an avid reader of the ingredients list on packaged foods.
When you get an item off your supermarket shelves, flip it over to scan the ingredients list. Check out the number of ingredients. Remember that the ingredients are ordered predominantly, with the greatest amounts listed first.
As you read the ingredient list, ask yourself:
- Do some of the ingredients look unusual, and are they something you want to avoid?
- Are there just a few ingredients with names that you recognize?
Are there some exceptions? Yes. Sometimes you may need to buy items with less than optimal ingredients, especially if you need to store the items for your emergency food supply or for the long term in your extended or Prepper Pantry. However, for everyday eating, do your best to be mindful of the ingredients in your food.
What About Non-Organic Foods?
Note that I didn’t say you have to have all organic foods. Yes. Organic foods are nice, but they are usually more expensive than non-organic foods, and if your budget is tight, you should concentrate on getting real foods with minimal processing.
For example, if you can’t afford an organic whole chicken, choose any whole chicken over chicken that’s already been cut up. Your whole chicken will typically be cheaper than the chicken parts, and you can typically get more than one meal from a roasted whole chicken.
But if you have to choose between a package of cut-up chicken over a fast-food or microwavable meal, cooking up the raw chicken parts is better than a quick meal with minimal nutrition, empty calories, and questionable ingredients.
Just do the best you can where you are currently at. As you journey from a processed foods kitchen to a traditional foods kitchen, it’ll become easier for you to recognize those foods that lack the nutrition your body needs to be healthy. In fact, you’ll start to crave homemade foods over prepackaged foods because they’ll taste better, and you’ll feel better too!
More Questions and Answers
For all the questions and answers I discuss, be sure to watch my video for part 2 of my Your Questions Answered series. You can watch it before or after part 1, which covers bone broth, cultured, dairy, ferments, and more. In part 1, I even talk about that question most parents have: How do you deal with picky eaters?
Stay in Touch with Mary’s Nest
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- Order The Modern Pioneer Cookbook (Optional Paid) - Get a printed book of Mary's nourishing recipes from a Traditional Foods Kitchen. This bestselling cookbook is published by Penguin Random House with their DK imprint.
I look forward to having you join me in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen!
Shop for items used in this blog post or video
Favorite Kitchen Supplies
- Favorite Aprons
- Spice Grinder
- Countertop Burner (On my kitchen island in many recipe videos.)
- Handheld Vacuum Sealing System
- Vacuum Lids
- Whisk
- Silica Gel Packets (Helps keep moisture from building up in your mix)
- Cast Iron Dutch Oven
- 8-Quart Slow-Cooker
- Fat Separator (Clever kitchen device to help you decant bone broth)
- Flour Sack Towels
- pH Strips (Helps you check on the acidity of your vinegar)
Amazon Shop and Shopping Guide
- Visit Mary’s Nest Amazon Shop
- Visit my Shopping Guide page
Get up to 15% off for stocking your Traditional Foods Pantry and equipping your Modern Pioneer Kitchen, including discounts from US Wellness Meats, Farmhouse Teas, Lehman's, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, Redmond Real Salt, Plan to Eat, and More!
