Homemade Lotion Bar

My sister and I made some lovely homemade lotion bars as Christmas presents this year. They were so simple that I simply had to share our success. Have you ever looked at the ingredient list on a typical bottle of lotion? That crazy long list of chemicals and additives can't possibly be healthful for the skin and body so in an attempt to create something all natural we went with a really easy recipe. I even think that it is appropriate for male and females.



Our formula included:

• 1 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup cocoa butter
• 1 cup beeswax

Simply melt it all together on low and then pour into muffin cups or other mold device and allow to cool. This particular formula made about 9 little bars in our muffin cups. I was a little worried they would be difficult to get out of the tin, but they just popped right out. You could even adjust the butter and use shea butter if you wanted but I appreciated the slight cocoa smell and it was a bit cheaper than the shea butter. The beeswax creates a bit of a shield on the skin holding in moisture. They can be altered with essential oils of any scent to create something fancier but this is super basic. That's three ingredients folks and I can pronounce all of them. Score.

Posted at Family Table.

Rainbow Bean Dip

Yesterday I made this lovely rainbow bean dip for an evening of appetizers and some friends from high school. It was delightful, the colorful salad and the company.
Into the salad went:

• 1/2 cup dry black beans, properly soaked and cooked
• 1/2 cup dry garbanzo beans, properly soaked and cooked
• 1 large yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 large avocado, sliced into chunks
• 1/4 cup dried tomatoes, I rehydrated them in the following vinegar for about an hour before adding
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup green onion, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons chopped roasted chili peppers, these I had in the freezer
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• juice of one lime
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

I was following somewhat of recipe that I found in a magazine but then altered it drastically to reflect the ingredients that I had on hand. If I was making this during the summer I would obviously use fresh tomatoes, but in the wintertime I refuse to purchase disgusting hothouse tomatoes from the store so instead I used some dried tomatoes that I dehydrated this summer. They added a nice flavor when they re-hydrated a bit in the vinegar. If you don't have roasted chili peppers, a nice fresh jalepeno would be good as well during the growing season.

Make sure to put this salad or dip to eat with tortilla chips together at least 3 hours before you plan to enjoy it. At it sits the flavors meld and create a very tasty salad or dip. It's even better the next day!

Homemade Stock Delight

After just one overnight in the crock-pot my homemade stock is a nice deep golden color and ready for my drinking delight. Typically I would let it go for a longer period of time and then freeze for use in soups and stews but I've decided that it's health benefits need to go into my body right now so I'm going to start drinking it with my breakfast. It is simply delightful with an excellent flavor. After I removed my cup from the pot I filled it up again with fresh water and will leave it to continue extracting beneficial vitamins, minerals, and powerful immune boosting properties from the contents.

Homemade stock

I'm pretty pumped to start sipping on my very own homemade bone broth stock. I've been quite inspired by many posts reflecting on the health benefits of homemade stock and I hope to cash in on some of those benefits. Do you know why chicken noodle soup can be so healing during the common cold? It's the bone broth in the soup that is literally healing to the body. Using free-range healthy animal bones increases the healthful effects gained by slow simmering them with veggie scraps. I've put mine into the crockpot and intend to let it simmer on low for the week. I'll take out my broth and simply add additional water and let it keep going. The slow simmer releases gelatin from the bones as well as all those immunity boosting properties.

In my slow cooker are six pasture raised chicken feet, two chicken necks, one pork-chop bone and my quart size freezer bag of onion peels and celery ends that I keep in the freezer. I added several whole peppercorns and some salt and let it go! Homemade stock can be made with any variety of bones, chicken carcasses, and veggie scraps. Give it a try and feel the health benefits soaking in!

Christmas Kraut

I am very happy when something is fermenting in my kitchen. This past week I purchased two bags of cranberries on sale and decided it was time for another experiment in food fermentation. I chose this recipe as my base and altered it based on what I had available in my kitchen.

Into the food processor I put about 1/2 a head of green cabbage and sliced/shredded it with the attachments. This was salted with sea salt while I chopped up one bag of cranberries, three cups, in the processor by pulsing in the processor as well. I juiced and zested one orange and added it as well as the juice from 1/2 lime. Then a one inch piece of ginger was finely chopped and added to the mixture along with 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Finally 1/2 cup of raw sugar was added to the mixture. 

Packed into my jar and covered with kombucha. I love the idea of using a real live substance like kombucha to serve as the fermentation assistant in my sauerkraut. You want all the solids to be immersed in liquid so that they are not exposed to air that might encourage bad bacteria/yeast/molds to grow. 

Ready for the fermentation cupboard, this receptacle will be out of the way, in a dark place for several days until nice and sour.  The final product's sour factor is determined by how long you allow it to ferment. Longer fermentation will result in more sour flavor or simply stop the fermentation by refrigerating it and eating!

- Posted using BlogPress by Amanda