Raw Vibrance

What do you think of when you heard the word "juice"?
Sugary syrup? Synthetic chemicals? Cavities? Danger, Will Robinson?
What about vibrance? Health? Raw vitamins?
Today, I'm going to change the way you think about juice.
When juicing a vegetable or fruit, it's broken down to its pure liquid existence. That color? That beautiful vibrance? That raw taste? This is the vegetable's essence. Juicing vegetable or fruits creates concentrated nutrients - like drinking vitamins. A lot of natural healing centers utilize fresh vegetable juice to heal the body from degenerative diseases because the juices are pure nourishment. All those nutrients help to detoxify the body on a cellular level.
They're also easy to consume. Just try chowing down on a pound of carrots. How far did you get? Thought so.
Of course, this doesn't mean you should only eat your vegetables and fruits through juicing because fiber is lost in the juicing process. Fiber is needed to help get things moving, if you know what I mean.
Where can you get a juicer? Try supporting your local health food store and asking if they would sell you one. You can also look on amazon. There are great review on Champion juicers.
Every juicer is a little different. Read your manual and look at online reviews to help get a feel for yours. Some juicers need you to switch feeding it dense and watery produce while others need solely dense then watery produce.
I hope you enjoy these recipes!
March to the Beet
1 Large Beet
2 Carrots
1 Apple
I think this is my favorite. Beets are so vibrant. Just look at that color! What delicious antioxidants! Spa Juice 2.0
1 Cucumber
1 in piece of ginger
1 apple
2 Lemons
This brings Spa Water to a whole new level. It's got the right of amoung of zing to liven up your day. Cucumber juice is great for quenching thirst. Lemons are full of Vitamin C. Don't you Carrot all?
4 Large Carrots
1-2 cloves garlic
Carrots offer a wide range of vitamins and are SWEET to boot! Throwing a clove of garlic in will aid your immune system. I think you will definitely care for this one. The Green Monster
2 cups baby kale or 1 bunch large kale
1 apple
10 sprigs parsley or a small handful
1 carrot
This Green Monster is going to turn your world upside down. Kale is full of calcium and parsley is a great antioxidant. Bottoms up!

Amaressa enjoying her delicious juice! She hopes your get your raw vibrance!

Grapefruit Dry Scrub

A New Year means a chance for a New You. It's the time for rebirth. It's time to revitalize yourself, a great time to detox. It is a great time to scrub out all those toxins.
Usually Detox starts from the inside. Today we are going to start on the outside - the body's largest organ: Your Skin.
Everyday your skin triumphs over obstacles. It's a barrier to the harms of the outside world. It attempts to purify your body, shedding harmful waste products most of which we induce. However your pores can get blocked. Drybrushing (or dry scrubbing) can help aid your skin's detoxification. It helps to open pores and increase your circulation. It sheds dead skin layers. It can also help reduce cellulite and improve cell renewal.
What is dryscrubbing? Instead of using a wooden bristle brush, a dry salt scrub is used. A dry scrub includes clays, herbs, salts, and a few essential oils to aid your body's detox. All ingredients can be found at a local health food store or from Mountain Rose Herbs.
Complete a dry scrub before you hop in the shower or bath. Adding water will only aid your skin's elasticity and will not have the same effect. After scrubbing down, don't wash it off and just hop in the bath. This will help draw the toxins.
The herbs are known anti-inflammatories. Frankincense is an ancient healer. Though in a pinch, they can be omitted. Also, pregnant women should stay clear of Juniper Essential Oil.

Grapefruit and Juniper Berry EO Salt Scrub
1/4 c Salts (I chose a combo of epsom and Dead Sea salt)
2 tb French Green Clay
1 tsp Frankincense Powder
1 tsp Orris Root Powder
5 drops Grapefruit Essential Oil
3 drops Juniper Berry Essential Oil
Directions
1. Combine all dry ingredients and mix until combined.
2. Add Essential Oils while mixing thoroughly.



How to Dry Scrub:
1. Always brush towards heart center. This means from toes upward, from fingers inward.
2. Start scrubbing at the soul of your feet and move upward.
3. Scrub your abdomen counter-clockwise circles.
4. Lightly scrub chest. Do NOT scrub nipples.
5. Hop in hot bath or shower.
6. End with a cold rinse to continue aiding circulation.

Now go take a load off!

Balm for the Holidays

 Originally I posted this on my old photography blog as a week of love activity but today I'm using it for some Christmas gifts.
This is the originally post:

Day Two
I know there is more than just one "loved one." I wanted to find a way to appreciate the women dear to me by making them a little something to remind them that they are loved and adored this week - lip balm (and/or hand salve recipe).
These winter months can be damaging to our skin. Lips and hands need a little love this week - pamper them with this recipe.
Clockwise from top left: Jojoba oil, coconut oil, castor oil, and beeswax pellets.
I chose castor oil for its penetrating qualites, jojoba for its absorption and molecular stability (longer shelf life), coconut oil for its delicious smell and moisturizing properties, and beeswax to solidify the balm. For essential oils, I added clove EO, orange EO, rosemary EO, and carrot seed EO (wonderful skin-nourishment in carrotseed). These essential oils are immune-boosting, perfect for getting through flu season. Some other delicious blends would be mint and lavender or lemon and rose. If this is for the man in your life (great for chapped, hard-working hands), clove and black pepper are wonderful as well.
All these ingredients can be found at your local health store (although you may have to grate the beeswax) or you can buy them at Mountain Rose Herbs.

Lip Balm.
Ingredients
2 rounded tblspn coconut oil
1 tblspn jojoba oil
1 tblspn castor oil
1 tblspn beeswax
10 drops Essential Oil (optional)
Melt all ingredients except for essential oil in double boiler. Once completely melted and clear, remove from heat, add essential oil, and stir. Pour into clean tins.
Also if you are making this in summer months, add another tspn of beeswax otherwise the product may melt due to its softness.

Cinnamon Hibiscus Tea for the Holidays

 

The holiday season can frankly be a drag. It's not hard to get overwhelmed planning, shopping, baking, visiting with family. Even good stress can overwhelm the body and when overwhelmed, this is the perfect tea to savor. It's even pretty enough to serve at your next holiday gathering! 

Both hibiscus and lemon balm are folk remedies to help soothe nerves. Hibiscus is high in Vitamin C and antioxidants (just look at that lovely color), helping ward off colds that we are more susceptible during these wintry days. It also contains hydroxycitric acid (HCA) which scientific studies prove that stops the conversion of carbohydrates in food to body fat and can also discourage appetite. Since holiday season is frequently laiden with cookies, sweet breads, and treats, this is the perfect time to indulge in some herbal tea!

Hibiscus flower tea is usually served cold with tons of sweetener due to its tartness in places like Mexico and Latin America. This summer, I drank my fair share of hibiscus with agave nectar over ice. However in this recipe, I include cinnamon and licorice root as a natural sweetener and forgo any caloric sweetness.

 Lemon Balm is well-known in the herbal world, dating back to ancient times where they used it to treat any disorder of the central nervous system. This herb is extremely calming to the nerves. It has been used to help treat sleeping disorders - I included it in a sleep tea I made for Christmas two years ago. Tincture of Lemon Balm can also be very restorative for those women dealing with post-partum depression.

 Cinnamon Hibiscus Tea
3 heaping tablespoons Hibiscus flowers
1 tablespoon lemon balm
1 cinnamon stick
2 slices of licorice root

Directions:
1. Boil filtered water.
2. Pour over herbs and let steep fifteen minutes for best nourishment and to enjoy all the herbal properties of each plant.
3. Strain and enjoy!

This is delicious iced with or without sparkling water as well as hot.

All herbs can be found at your local health food store. You may already have some in your pantry or growing in your yard during the summer! I harvested lemon balm from my husband's Granny's garden this summer. There is nothing quite like enjoying your own harvested herbs. They always have more flavor.

May you have a Hibiscus Holiday!

Simple Chai

There are very few things that are more wonderful than a delicious cup of spicy Chai on a blustery day.

Besides being absolutely delicious, Chai is also a multi-tasker! The Ginger helps to increase circulation and aid in digestion (great for nausea) as well as being detoxifying. Cloves can help relieve stomach or tooth pain and strengthen the immune system, killing intestinal parasites. Cardamom helps relieve gas and can be soothing for bronchial problems. Black Peppercorns has antibacterial properties. Cinnamon also aids digestion when stagnant and can be great for indigestion and cramping (Nursing Mothers be careful of cinnamon as it can be the culprit for acid reflux in little ones). It is also can help fight fungal, bacterial, and parasitic infections.

Commercial Chai concentrates can contain a lot of sugar, some preservatives, and additives. Creating your own can be easy and so much more beneficial for you. Plus it's super easy and you can tinker the recipe however you like!

Ingredients:
5-6 slices of fresh ginger
3 Cinnamon sticks
16 pods of cardamom, popped
12-20 black peppercorns (more peppercorns = more spicy)
14 Cloves
1 tbspn looseleaf black tea or 2 black tea bags (or green tea or roiboos tea for no caffeine)
8 cups water

Optional:
Honey
Milk (or Dairy-free milk)

Directions:
1. In saucepan, boil water with all ingredients except black tea then simmer for 15-30 minutes, depending on strength desired.
2. Take off stove and steep black tea for 3-5 minutes.
3. Drain through fine-mesh seive. Enjoy! Add milk and honey to taste.

VOILA! You have now created your very own delicious chai! Enjoy it's delicious spicy depths!

Some very fun ingredients to add can be allspices berries, star anise, rose petals, white or pink peppercorns, fennel, licorice root, and nutmeg. You have full creative license to create your own blend of scrumptious chai.

Alisa Lewis and I are bringing you a week of delicious drinks starting over at her blog Alisa's Garden! Check them out and don't forget to comment and look back tomorrow for another recipe!

Teatime with Gingersnaps

I've debated whether to establish this blog at all. I came upon Resistance (read the book The War of Art). I took my time choosing a name that I liked and that would be appropiate. I took even longer to create a blog. I dilly-dallied this whole way through. Not that I didn't have anything else to do; I have other ventures including being a wife to a fantastic guy and mother to a smart and beautiful one-year-old. I'm also a photographer.

But I have a deep desire to learn and to better myself and this magnetism to the wondrous world of herbs and spices. And I wanted this to be a place where I could share my knowledge and learn from my readers. This is a journey. As that little girl in the movie Up declares, "Adventure is out there!" And I want a piece.

There was a moment very much cherished this summer... Walking through Granny's garden this summer. The smell of overabundant mint. The fuzzy leaves of lemon balm. Delicate roses and their thorny bushes tangled around the old wooden swing. Hearing Amaressa's soft giggle as she crawled through the wet grass. God's creations continue to strike awe in me.
That moment was a definite "Aha!". God has given me this wonder for everything natural and herbal and I wanted to pursue that, I needed to pursue that.
"Where there's tea, there's hope."
      -Arthur W. Pinero

I couldn't have said it better.

So as an introduction to this journey, I have two recipes including one of my most favorite herbs (it also happens to be a ROOT): ginger.
This baby I've known since childhood. Dad always gave us a piece of crystallized if we had stomach issues and there was never a shortage of gingersnaps around. Oh, those thin,lacy whisps of spicy ginger that crunched perfectly in the mouth or just melted in a cup of milk? I'm sallivating now.
Due to a change in my diet (almost a year), I've almost completely given up dairy and when I can, shorten my exchange with gluten. Those storebought whisps, although perfect in moderation, seem like empty calories to me so I've created a grain-free, dairy-free, and optionally refined sugar-free version that is full of Omega 3 and some truly warming spices. I call these Gingersnaps 2.0 (okay, not really). Oh, these are mighty good!
I've made several cashew cheesecakes with almond-date crust. My Aunt Mary Beth suggested I try pecans with the dates, stating that it tastes like graham crackers. So I decide to make these cookies with pecans (for that richer taste) and walnuts (for the great Omegas).

Pecan Gingersnaps
1 cp Pecans
1/2 cp Walnuts
6 Dates
1 tblspn unsulphured Molasses
1 tblspn olive oil
1 inch cube of peeled ginger root, grated
1 tsp ginger root powder
5 1-in pieces of crystallized ginger (omit for sugar-free and double fresh ginger root)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
Pinch of Salt
Grate of Nutmeg

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Process nuts in a food processor until coursely ground.
3. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until ball starts to form.
4. Place tablespoonfuls on a tray lined with baking paper. Flatten slightly with a fork.
5. Bake 6 - 10 minutes.
6. Let cool. These will harden once cool.

Makes 12 cookies
And because I couldn't start this blog without some tea recipe...

Frothy Matcha Milk
1 cp Almond Milk (unsweetened or use sweetened and omit agave)
1 tsp agave
1/2 tsp matcha green tea powder (if you like more of a green tea flavor, add 1 tsp)

Directions
1. Warm milk on low heat.
2. Whisk in agave and green tea powder.
3. Serve. (Froth dies down so serve immediately)

You can find matcha at your local health food store or online at Mountain Rose Herbs, amazon has two great sources Rishi Tea Organic Green Tea' Matcha Super Green, 1.76-Ounce and DoMatcha Green Tea, Organic Matcha, 1.0-Ounce Tin, and Vitacost (here's a $10 gift certificate). I bought mine from Mountain Rose Herbs.

Happy Herbing!!!