Paleo Taco Sauce

     As a (mostly) paleo household, we allow ourselves a few non-paleo meals per week. Three meals, to be exact. I am always looking for ways to paleo-fy those meals if possible, or at least as much as I can. Every Tuesday is "Taco Tuesday". We go back and forth on whether we have tacos or fajitas or enchiladas, you get the idea. Sometimes we go full on pigfest with cheddar cheese, corn tortilla chips, flour tortillas, crunchy corn taco shells, etc. Sometimes, we behave ourselves and have taco salad or use lettuce for taco shells. Even if we eat the non-paleo stuff, we still try to eat whole/clean foods. Our last regular grocery store holdout was Ortega taco sauce. We ate half an 8 oz bottle between the three of us, once a week! 

     My husband and I were both raised on the Standard American Diet and Ortega taco sauce was a household staple of my childhood. The three of us can't have taco night without it. Sadly, the third ingredient listed on the label is corn syrup. Corn syrup is a major no-no when it comes to eating clean. It also contains cornstarch which is not caveman approved. So I set out to come up with a recipe for taco sauce that tastes as good as (and similar to) Ortega taco sauce but is made from natural ingredients.

Behold! Here it is.

 Start with organic tomato paste plus 3 cans water (18 oz)

Add salt, dehydrated minced onion, chili powder, cumin, paprika and garlic powder.

Next, whisk in white vinegar and honey. Add crushed red pepper flake or cayenne pepper to taste. Bring to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover and reduce to medium-low heat and cook for 15 minutes.

Cool and pour into jar to be stored in fridge.

This is actually what was left after tonight's taco feast!

Paleo Taco Sauce

6oz can organic tomato paste

18 oz water

2 teaspoons minced dehydrated onion

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon mild honey (local is best)

1/8 teaspoon (pinch) crushed red pepper flake or cayenne pepper

Whisk together all ingredients. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to medium-low heat and cover. Cook 15 minutes. Cool before storing in a glass container in fridge. Makes about 16 ounces.

*Feel free to add more or less of anything to taste, but be sure to maintain the cooking time to reduce the sauce and marry the flavors.

Turn Bootcut Jeans Into Straight Leg Jeans

     Remember my post on hemming jeans? Well I got some really cute Coach driving mocs for Christmas and I decided to alter my jeans again to go with them. I don't know about you, but I just feel like wider leg pants look good only with heavier shoes. I feel like for a daintier shoe, like ballet flats and driving moccasins, you need a narrower leg pant. Rather than break in a new pair, I thought I'd just alter my current faves.
     I had to take off my hems for this alteration and put them back on, so I'll cover that too.

Step 1: Turn jeans inside out and measure the length.
Lay your jeans perfectly flat with the outside seam flat. The inside seam (the one usually sewn to look like your hem) should kind of roll over, meaning the front of the leg was made from a narrower piece of fabric than the back of the leg.
*I already took off the hems in this picture. If you're hemming your jeans for the first time, now is the time to measure your length and cut them off.

Step 2: Measure the width of the legs.
Next you need to measure the width of your jeans starting at the knee. I used a Sharpie in a bright color to mark the jeans all the way down, the same width as the knee.

 

The first marks that're unpinned were my first attempts

I put in a few safety pins along my marks and tried them on to make sure they weren't too tight in the calves.





Step 3: Mark the line for your new seam.
Measure across the bottom on each side. Measure the same distance up each leg to where it starts to taper in for the knee. I marked the ruler and used it to make a diagonal line on each pant leg.


























Step 4: Sew along the line you just marked.

It was hard to see the stitches on top of the Sharpie line
so I flipped it over so you could see both sides.

Step 5: Trim off excess and serge or zigzag stitch your raw edge.

Sharpie side

Non Sharpie side

Step 6: Line up seams and sew down hem. 
*If you missed my tutorial on how to hem jeans you need to read this first before going any further so you know what's going on. This hem will be a little different because we will have to take out some of the width.

Start sewing at the seam that you just made.

Make sure the seams match. This is the inside seam. Leave intact!

Sew as close to the edge as possible.

Step 7: Finish off the new hem seam.
When you finish sewing down the hem, you'll wind up with this.

Get as close to your starting point as you can. Give yourself about an inch of room to work with. Mark where the pieces should join and give yourself about a half inch extra on each side.

Step 8: Cut off the excess and make new hem seam.

Holding these edges right sides together, mark where they need to meet.

Sew strip of hem along your mark. Trim it and serge or zigzag the raw edge.      

Step 9: Sew down the new seam.
Fold the finished edge to the side and stitch down the last inch of of the hem seam. Make sure you line up the hem seam with the leg seam and get as close to the edge as possible.







Step 10: Trim and finish raw edge.
Trim off as much as you feel comfortable. Serge or zigzag the raw edge. My serger doesn't like thick layers of denim so I serge as much as I can and do the seams with a zigzag.

Here's the sides after serging.

Here's the final edge after finishing all the way around.

Final step: Turn right side out and iron.

Not too shabby, eh? Well worth the time and effort. Altogether I think it took about 2 hours. 

FYI: They've been washed since then and haven't needed to be ironed again.

*This post is related to my previous post, How To Hem Jeans Without Looking Like a Dork.

How to Hem Jeans Without Looking Like a Dork

   

    I've always been the short girl. It's never bothered me. Not once. BUT...there are some disadvantages that after all these years I've been able to find ways to manage. Can't reach what's on the top shelf? No problem, get something to stand on or use kitchen tongs to grab it. Can't wear that fabulous dress/pants/skirt? No problem, hem it. BUT...hem jeans? Yuck! I can't help but be reminded of my---also vertically challenged---senior English teacher. Bless her heart, she was a dork. The day after she went to a George Strait concert, she wore the t-shirt to school...over a silky red blouse with a floppy bow at the neck and a pair of black slacks :( And, worst of all, she hemmed her jeans. On the rare event she wore jeans they always sported a telltale two inch wide hem with navy blue thread. I vowed I'd do without jeans before I'd ever hem.
     Skip ahead about two decades. I can't wear girls sizes anymore. Juniors sizes don't fit in the hips and the styles make me look like a pathetic lady who can't come to terms with aging. I have trouble finding petites that don't look matronly. Old Navy makes my favorite fit of jeans (Sweetheart) and when you get them on sale you can't beat the price. The only problem is they're about an inch or two too long. An inch or two is just enough to get wet in puddles and get filthy in parking lots. It's just enough to start looking raggedy when they start to fray from being stepped on. Sure, I could get them tailored at a drycleaner. It would cost about as much to have my jeans tailored as they cost to begin with, which seems pretty stupid. The best alternative is hemming them myself with the original hem left intact so as not to look dorky.

Here's how I do it, step by step.

Step 1: Mark the length you want and cut.
First of all, until now I'd been wearing them folded up one turn in the back, so I didn't need to mark the length. I unrolled them and cut them straight across at the old fold. Then I did a zigzag stitch across the raw edge of the leg.
*You don't have to cut them off. If you're hesitant about cutting your jeans (especially for the first time, or if they're expensive), you can just fold and pin and start at step 2.

Step 2: Sew back on the old hem.
Get as close as you can to the edge. Make sure you've got the correct hem on each leg and line up your seams so they match exactly. I like to start at the seam. That way if the fabric stretches I can make up for it elsewhere and still get my seams to line up.
*If you chose not to cut, just fold it back so it looks like the pictures below.

Here it is after you finish this step.

Step 3: Trim and Finish Edges.

Trim off as much excess as you feel comfortable. Serge or do a tight zigzag stitch around raw edge.

I did a zigzag along the seams because the fabric was too heavy for my machine.

Step 4: Iron in place.
Fold down the original hem on the right side and iron down. This step is very necessary!

Final Result: Non-dorky jeans that fit!

*One last thing, if you're worried about them flipping wrong side out and exposing the Frankenhem, you can tack down the raw edge on the inside in a few places with navy blue thread. A simple stitch in about 4 places will do and nobody will ever notice it!

*Related post: Turn Bootcut Jeans Into Straight Leg Jeans