Baking Soda and Baking Powder

I had no idea, a couple of years ago, how amazing baking soda truly is.  I am serious. 

I have eliminated all known harmful or carcinogenic chemicals from my household; so, I went "back to basics" (really, why did we ever stray?).  I mostly use hydrogen peroxide, vinegar and baking soda to effectively clean and disinfect my home.  Baking soda is my "go to" cleaner for my stove top and oven, for scouring my porcelain sink, and for cleaning the bathtub. I also use it to get burned-on gunk out of (or off of) my stainless steel pots and pans.  For most of these applications, I make a "paste" (baking soda with a bit of water); but for burned on gunk, it sometimes helps to just boil water with baking soda.  It is, by far, the most effective cleaner I have ever used.

It is also, thankfully, a "clean" additive in baking!  As I have stated, my family is eating gluten-free and dairy-free; and, we recently found out that my youngest is very sensitive to corn.  That is a very hard thing to avoid!

So, baking soda is actually sodium bicarbonate.  And, I unfortunately assumed that "baking powder" was something along those lines.  I did not know baking powder had ingredients! (one of them is also sodium bicarbonate).  A few months ago, I found out that most baking powder has aluminum in it (something we definitely try to avoid!).  So we found one without aluminum (Rumford); then, we found out about this corn sensitivity.  And, I only recently discovered that baking powder also has cornstarch in it (the one in the Rumford brand is non-GMO if you are OK with corn); so, I FINALLY found a baking powder with no corn (Hain Foods).  Corn is in SO MANY THINGS.  My poor son.  I hope that we can keep his tummy calm and continue to find "hidden" corn!  I just have to look at the ingredients in everything!