Homemade Gifts: Natural Lemon and Orange Body Scrub

 

Have you ever had a body scrub that was purchased at a store, and was very waxy, sticky, or hard to get off your skin? I have to say that 9 out of 10 body scrubs I have used possess at least one of these qualities, and the 1 out of 10 that don’t are far too expensive. As another homemade Christmas gift this year, I made a lemon body scrub that is completely natural, leaves no residue, and will rid you of rough, rigid, dead skin. It is inexpensive, and very easy to make. You need 4 ingredients, and the batch will be enough to fill 2 – 4 small jars.

You will need:

- 1 cup sea salt

-1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil, but if you have it, almond oil, coconut oil, or even vegetable oil will suffice)

- 1 tsp of grated lemon rind/ lemon juice

- 1 tsp of grated orange rind

 

 

 

Mix the sea salt and oil together in a mixing bowl, then add the lemon and orange. if the consistency is watery, you may want to consider adding a bit more sea salt. The biggest thing I noticed with the scrub was that the olive oil and the salt separated. This can be easily solved by shaking the jar.

Also, the scrub should last a few months without going bad because it is oil-based, so do not worry about the lemon or orange going mouldy.

 

Cream Cheese Icing

For my friends Birthday tonight, I decided to make her a classic batch of pink cupcakes. Recently, with the surge of cupcake shops, I have discovered how much I do not appreciate the overly-sweet, and overdone icing that is so commonly found. This is why I prefer cream cheese icing. It has a much more savoury taste, and doesn’t leave you with that sugary aftertaste that lingers in your mouth, much like after eating a “fun-dip” like we always did as kids; it’s a taste that you can only appreciate until you are about 10. Anyways, here is the super simple recipe for cream cheese icing! The “pink” tinge is optional, but if it interests you, it is simply the addition of a couple drops of red food colouring.

- 1 1/4 sticks butter

- 250 g cream cheese

- 2.5 cups icing sugar

- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Just simply mix it all together, preferably with an electric mixer, and enjoy!

Shitake Soba Noodles

Alright, to be honest, the reason why I chose this recipe was to use the new bowl that I bought to make Asian noodles with. It is the one in the picture. However, I was very happy with how this meal turned out, and I have since made it various time. It’s always a hit. The only down side of it is that it must be served cold (which may be a bright side in that you don’t have to re-heat it), and it must cool down before you can eat it. Therefore, the hunger that builds up while you are preparing it must be even more grueling than you might have hoped!

You will need:

250g Soba Noodles (For those of you who live in the Surrey/Langley area, check out H-mart on Fraser Highway… For those of you that live in the Victoria area, check out any Fairway Market)

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 gloves of minced garlic

300 g shitake mushrooms

375 g pea shoots

1/4 cup light mayo

1/4 cup soy sauce (I like the sodium-reduced one)

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp hot sauce

1 cup Cashews (optional)

You will have to:

Add the soba noodles to boiling water, and cook for about 5 minutes, or until they are tender (don’t overcook!)

At this point, you will want to drain them, and to help them start cooling faster (and prevent unnecessary hunger!) run them under cold water.

While the noodles are boiling, you want to saute the garlic with half of the sesame oil, and half of the vegetable oil, only for about 15 seconds. Add the cut up mushrooms, and saute them until they are tender (shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes). Transfer the mushrooms to the same bowl as the noodle mixture.

In the wok, add the other half of the oils, and stir-fry pea-shoots until they are very wilted. I know when you first put them in you willbe overwhelmed and think there are too many, but trust me they wilt down to nearly nothing. When these are finished add them to the bowl with the mushrooms and noodles as well.

Mix the mayo, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and hot sauce together, then pour it over the noodle mixture. Toss the noodles until they are fully covered, adding a tiny bit more rice vinegar if necessary. Put the mixture in the fridge and wait for it to cool!

If you please, you can add the preferred amount cashews on top of the mixture. I load it up.

Sweet Potato and Chick Pea Tagine

Like any average student, there were a few ingredients that I did not have when making this recipe, so substitutions needed to be made! I will include the ingredients I used, as well as the ones that the original recipe I used called for.

For this recipe you will need:

1 medium onion (Original recipe called for 2 cups pearl onions)

1 large sweet potato

2 cups cauliflower florets

1 cup frozen peas

1 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 tsp curry powder (original recipe called for 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 can (about 2 1/2 cups) chick peas

2 cups vegetable broth

Directions: Chop onion, then in a large pot, pour olive oil and onion. Let fry on medium heat for 5 minutes.

Add a splash of the vegetable broth, as well as minced garlic, curry powder, ginger and salt&pepper to taste. Stir for 1 minute. Add cubed pieces of sweet potato (about 1/2 – 1 inch thick), chickpeas, and the rest of the broth. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 5 minutes.

Add cauliflower, and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. When the cauliflower is fairly tender, add the peas, and simmer for under 5 minutes. If you have any, sprinkle the finished product with coriander.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

For this recipe you will need:

3 red bell peppers

1 large sweet potato, peeled (the original recipe I used called for 2, but it was way too overpowering for me).

1 medium onion

3 cloves of garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dried basil

1 liter vegetable broth

Salt & pepper to taste.

If you would like, you can also add a dollop of plain balkan-style yogurt to the finished product.

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 425°F

Chop the red pepper, sweet potato, onion and garlic up into fairly small pieces. In a roasting pan, place the chopped ingredients, oil, basil, and salt & pepper, then spread them out evenly. Roast in the oven for one hour, and stir once half way through.

We used the magic bullet to puree the vegetables and seasoning with the broth, so we had to do it in separate batches; however, if you have a blender or food processor that it big enough, so you can do it all at once.

You can either strain the mix into a saucepan (if you don’t like the chunks), or you can just pour it directly into a saucepan. If need be, you can mix in a cup of water, but in the multiple times I have made this soup, this was not necessary. Bring the soup to a boil, and reduce heat to a simmer for 5 minutes.

Once the soup is in a bowl, place a dollop of the balkan style yogurt on top.

Remove Red Wine Stains With… More Wine?

Although you could interpret the title of this post as a suggestion to continue to drink and pretend the spill never happened, which may very well be the best solution for some, the fact is that red wine stains can easily be removed with none other than white wine. I discovered this remedy after spilling red wine all over not only my leggings, but my Aunt’s carpet as well. The white wine remedy save both fabrics. All you need to do is pour some white wine onto the stain, let it sit for a few minutes, and blot the stain with a towel. If the stain is really bad, or on a very white carpet, you may also want to mix a little bit of water with baking soda, and spread it out on top of the white wine.

Other methods to remove red wine stains include club soda, salt, VODKA, or milk. For all of these methods, blot the red wine stain (make sure you do not rub it in), and pour a layer or the substance over the stain. Let it sit for about ten minutes, and blot the stain again.

Although alcohol is obviously not the most health-conscious choice, red wine lowers your cholesterol, and helps your heart, so don’t let the fear of spilling it stop you from drinking it!

Simple, One Ingredient, Natural Hair Masks

My hair is consistently exposed to heat, as I blow-dry and straighten it often. Usually when I am working full-time in the summer I can afford expensive shampoo and conditioner, but when that runs out a couple of months into the school year, I am stuck using cheap, and often ineffective hair products. A lot of the time these products cannot moisturize my hair enough to prevent breakage and split-ends, so I look elsewhere for solutions. Again, all-natural remedies are the way to go!  Here are some simple hair-masks that only require one ingredient, and they work fantastic!

1.) Avocado Hair Mask: The fatty acids in avocados improve the texture of your hair, and the Vitamin E and Vitamin C help to nourish and improve circulation in the scalp, which in turn promotes hair growth. Furthermore, the antioxidants provide protection for future damage. Simply mash the avocado up and massage it over wet hair. If necessary, wrap your hair in saran wrap and let it sit for 15 – 20 minutes.

2.) Banana Hair Mask: Again, the banana provides vitamins that provide nourishment and shine. They also tend to thicken the hair. Like the avocado, all you have to do is mash the banana up, massage it into your hair, and leave for 15-20 minutes. I would recommend using a blender or a food processor though, and the little pieces tend to stick in your hair when trying to wash them out. It would be best if you had a high-pressure shower head.

3.) Egg Hair Mask: Whisk up 2 – 3 free-range eggs in a bowl and massage them onto scalp (leave for 15-20 minutes). The protein in the eggs provide your hair with strength, shine and silkiness. This is a good one because, as a student, sometimes it is hard to go through a dozen eggs before they go bad. A test to see if the egg has gone bad is to place it in a bowl of water, and if it floats, it is expired, but still usable for a hair mask!

4.) Beer Hair Rinse: Beer contains proteins that help thicken hair, and give you volume and fullness. Just pour a can of beer over wet hair, and rinse. It is a perfect hair mask if you are one to throw parties, particularly because when you wake up in the morning to clean up, it is inevitable that someone took two sips of a beer and totally wasted it. Use it to volumize your hair!

If you would like to jazz up any of these masks and provide extra moisture, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Just make sure you wash your hair twice afterward, because it makes your hair pretty greasy. Do not do it on a night you are going out! The olive oil will strengthen, moisturize and fight frizz.

The Wonderful Things One Can Do With…. Coffee Grounds?

My roommate is studying herbal medicine, and thus has a natural solution to many health concerns; however, we have been having serious problems with the drain in our shower. Our drain was so clogged, that two rounds of drain-o did barely anything to help the problem, and we could not afford to buy a third round. So when she told me the other day that she was using a new exfoliant – coffee grounds – I was less than impressed, as I believed the coffee grounds would be the final tipping point for our shower to be completely un-drainable. As it turns out, when I went to use the shower an hour later, not only was it draining a whole lot better, but the soap scum build up on the side of the tub (from SUCH slow draining the past few weeks) was almost gone! The coffee grounds had in fact cleaned the bathtub and fixed the clogged drain after just one use! We later found out that the acidity in the coffee grounds caused a break-down of the soap scum.

After this discovery, I was curious to see what other functions coffee grounds can serve. On the “ehow with food” website, I found that there are quite a few uses for the grounds. Here are a few that I learned of:

1.) As said before, the original use of these coffee grounds was an exfoliant. Not only will they help smooth your skin, but the caffeine that they contain will help regenerate skin with new skin-cell growth.

2.) Also as stated above, they can be used to unclog the drain. I would recommend using fine coffee grounds in order to make the initial draining an easier process.

3.) Rub coffee grounds on your hands to remove undesirable scents from your hands after cooking, such as garlic or onion.

4.) Re-darken your darkest brown and black clothes by steeping about 3/4 of a cup of coffee grounds into a gallon of water. Add the mixture into the water in the washing machine right before you add your clothes, and wash them on gentle. Then rewash the clothes in clean water. Remember not to add any clothes that are not dark brown or black, as they will get stained.

5.) By mixing coffee grounds with vitamin E lotion, you can create a mixture that will reduce the look of cellulite on your skin. Massage the mixture onto the areas of skin where cellulite exists 2 or 3 times while in the shower. Apparently, the diuretic effect of the caffeine will help to dehydrate fat cells.

6.) Use coffee grounds in your garden to provide plants with vitamins and nutrients, as well as to keep the slugs away!

I do not actually drink coffee; in fact we do not even own a coffee machine in our house. However, since I used to work at Starbucks, I know that they sometimes wrap up their coffee grounds and give them away to customers for free. So if you are interested in trying out any of these nifty techniques, I suggest you try there, or another local coffee shop, as I am sure they have plenty to spare as well. Imagine how much money you can save with the free coffee grounds!

Homemade Split-pea and Broccoli Soup

Just another vegetarian-friendly recipe.

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 cups dried split peas

- 1 large onion

- 1 – 2 medium broccoli crowns

- 1L vegetable broth

- salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Chop up the onions into fairly small pieces, and fry them in a sauce pan with olive oil on medium-high for 5 minutes.

Add the vegetable broth and split peas (after they have been rinsed and sorted). Bring the broth to a boil, then reduce heat to low-medium and simmer for 35-45 minutes (taste the peas to see if they are cooked. When I did this, I found that i needed to add a cup of water part way through because the peas soaked up too much liquid).

Chop the broccoli up, and add it in after about 20 minutes of simmering.

When the peas have softened, turn the heat off and pour the soup into a blender. Blend the soup into a puree, and add salt and pepper to taste.

If the soup turns out very thick, that’s ok. Just stir in some water as needed when the soup has been portioned into a bowl.

Homemade Teriyaki Salmon Sushi!

Since I was visiting home for the weekend, my friend and I decided to attempt to make some homemade sushi! The first attempt did not go very well, as we put the seaweed on the outside rather than the inside, but the second time we tried using the rice as the outer layer, and it worked a lot better.

First of all, you need to buy a bamboo sushi roller (we found one for $1.50 at “Chan’s Market”).

Ingredients: (4 rolls)

2 cups of dry brown rice

1/2 avocado

1/2 cucumber

1 slab of wild salmon (about 4 inches squared)

1 package dried seaweed

2 tbsp teriyaki sauce

Rice Dressing:

- 5 tsp rice vinegar

- 2 tsp sugar

- 1 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Brown rice takes a while to cook, so keep this in mind when you are preparing this dish. You can use white rice, but the benefits of brown rice outweigh it because of its fiber content, its digestive ease, and its mineral content for nails, bones, and teeth.

Put 3 cups of water and the rice into a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 20 – 25 minutes, then turn the heat off and let the rice sit covered for another ten minutes.

Mix the rice with the sushi dressing.

Chop the avocado and cucumber  into thin, long slices.

Put the salmon in the microwave for about five minutes, adding dressing to it if available. Or you can cook it in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Cut the salmon into thin, long slices.

Lay out the bamboo sushi roller, and get a piece of saran wrap that is the same size as the sushi roller. Wet the saran wrap with a brush (to keep the rice from sticking to it) and lay it on top of the roller. Spread a square layer of rice over  the saran wrap, pushing it down with a fork so it sticks together. Take a sheet of seaweed, and press it firmly into the rice.

About an inch away from the edge of the seaweed, lay out the  salmon, avocado, and cucumber.

Add the teriyaki dressing to taste.

Roll the sushi using the roller, and make sure you are pressing firmly as you do it. You also have to make sure you are not rolling the saran wrap along with the sushi. If necessary, you may have to push the ingredients in with a knife to keep them from falling out. When you have completed the roll, squeeze it tightly with the bamboo roller still wrapped around it.

Let the roll sit for about ten minutes before you try to cut it into pieces. This will allow for the rice to stick together, and the seaweed to soften.