Health Benefits of Rosemary Oil

check out this link for some interesting facts

Health Benefits Of Rosemary Oil | Natural Essential Oils | Organic Oils

rosemary

Spring is here, some of my seeds have been started and garden planning is in full gear! I found hope and inspiration while enjoying a coffee, waiting for my car repair. Just outside the cafe window I spotted a rosemary bush that has survived a few seasons in our climate. "Hope" and "inspiration," strong word to use for rosemary? Not if you have tried season after season to find a varietal that can survive our temps.

http://www.sclydeweaver.com/home.aspx

I love rosemary. I blend it's essential oils with others and almond oil using it as a moisturizer. It is fabulous for cooking and I may experiment with rosemary in baking this season (when I am off this detox and can eat what I bake). The scent of rosemary also reminds me of my parents and their home cooking. There is another post I'm sharing that you should check out if you are interested in the scoop on rosemary. I also encourage you to check out one of the blogs I follow, http://cloverleafherbs.blogspot.com/
Long and short, I spoke with the store manager about his rosemary tree (okay, it was not that big but it all depends on your perspective). Before she rang him, the barista assured me that he loves talking about his plantings. She was not wrong, the gentleman was gracious with his time and knowledge. He shared that his varietal is a Rosemary Officinalis, Hill Hardy but that the Gorizia type is also hardy for this area. I would love a bush this size...imagine the skewers I could use for kabobs!

The manager wrote this information on the back side of scrap paper, that turns out is a recipe card. I'll share that too!

Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

• 1 cup mayonnaise
  
• 3 T milk
• 2 T white wine or lemon juice
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 4 oz blue cheese
  

put all ingredients in a blemder but withhold half of the cheese to crumble into the mixure. Makes 1 1/2 cups

a little something sweet with no added sugar

I have made many posts since birthday dinner at my in-laws...but only in my head. This "no white detox" is going well but pushing me to be a little creative and prepare food in advance because finding time to cook when I'm home at 7 is not easy.


After a long day outside, clearing garden beds, finding a possum in our barn and wrestling with our raspberry bushes I was ready to kickback and enjoy the sunset. Last night I made a veggie curry with organic short grain brown rice. I had dessert on my mind while preparing dinner. Costco has champagne mangoes and mine are ripening slowly. I can't add sugar and the naturally sweet coconut and mango was so yum, sweet and creamy.


coconut creamed mango dessert

3 tablespoons of organic coconut milk

1/4 cup of organic sweet brown rice

1/8 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup chopped mango, chilled



mix all but the mango and gently warm. top with mango and enjoy!!

a dash of cinnamon might be nice

broccoli soup but what's for dessert?

We are planning to visit Dan's family tomorrow night to celebrate a birthday. I got wind of the menu: wiener schnitzel (dan's father makes a beautiful schnitzel), peas, scalloped potatoes, boy's salad (a strawberry and banana jello mold with a layer of sweetened sour cream), and an eclair cake. I am sure there will be freshly baked bread too. So, based on this detox program I can eat the peas... Plan #1 remove my contacts for dinner Plan #2 take food

In preparation for tomorrow, just baked off one of the last spaghetti squash from my garden. I cut the squash in half and before putting it cut side down on the baking tray added garlic cloves, a splash of olive oil, and a dash of oregano. I also steamed some french beans and made a batch of broccoli soup.

The broccoli soup was simple and is quite tasty. I caramelized onions, added pressed garlic then broccoli pieces and broth. After about 15 minutes on medium heat, I used an immersion blender to smooth the soup. A few last additions included: quinoa, a splash of unsweetened soy milk, salt, white pepper and grated Parmesan cheese.

Lastly, I prepared a baked portabella and eggplant parmesan. Alton Brown shared a neat trick to substitute eggplant for pasta, like a fettuccine. He thinly slice the eggplant lengthwise, added a tad bit of salt, placed on a paper towel in a sieve and let it loose it's water while in the fridge. Presto, a healthy non-pasta. Anyway, I grilled some portabella (that was coated in pressed garlic), put it in a baking pan, topped it with ricotta cheese (mixed with minced garlic, oregano and mozzarella), the eggplant shreds, sauce, and finally a mix of mozzarella and smoked mozzarella.

not your mom's dieter soup...

...because it is lacking the ranch dressing flavor packet. Does anyone else remember this soup? Made of cabbage, a can of diced tomatoes, string beans, potatoes (maybe) and a packet of dry ranch dressing. Is it weird that I thought it was quite tasty? I feel this is more an early sign of my love of veggies rather than love of dieters . . . anything.

I raided the fridge last week to make something that followed this new 6 week detox. I'm calling it a detox because it sounds chic and it is more of a detox than a diet, whatever! Back to my fridge raid, I found the cabbage and collard greens, ginger and lemons. Soups on! Use any veggie you find as the yum is in the lemony, ginger broth.

I sauteed shallots and finely diced ginger then added the sliced cabbage and collards. The chicken stock was next followed by some quinoa. At the very last, I added slices of lemon. Lemon juice makes the best secret ingredient to most soups! Lastly some leftover cilantro. I enjoyed the simplicity of this soup.

Funny story(if you know Dan), I packed a hearty serving of soup for my lunch. The following day, when I was ready to head to work I could not find my soup. I called Dan to warm him he took my healthy soup in error. Now, he might have been spinning the truth but that night he said he, "actually enjoyed the soup"

phoebe vs. the tastykake kandy kake

if you live outside of the north eastern region of the US you may have never had a Tastykake. It is true what they say, "nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake." When I went off to college it was Tastykake and a great pizza that I missed the most (in terms of food). Growing up we were never indulged with goodies and this may be were my sugar fix is rooted.

As part of a challenge from my boss (a healthy chiropractor), we are removing sugar from our diets. She may have more willpower than I, I tried to have some Jif with my apple this evening. I have trained Dan too well, he knew Jif is junk and has loads of sugar in it. I actually enjoyed the almond butter instead.

I'd rather master my cravings than have them master me! So what masters you? How much healthier would you be if you cut it out of your diet?

juz' sayn...

samosa lasagna - part 2

I think it turned out quite tasty; however, I would do a few things differently...

• maybe add some ginger and shallots to the butter/oil used for the bechamel sauce. I did use garlic powder and would do that again...or use fresh garlic.
  
• keep the ricotta in but not add pre-blended garlic seasoning mix ... it had oregano in it, blah!
• a dollop of cool yogurt may have been a nice way to serve it (yogurt thickened by "straining it in a coffee filter) ... maybe some fresh cilantro on top?
  

butternut squash lasagna meets samosas

a photo later...

I was going to make a quick lasagna for dinner tonight, short on time and needed an excuse to use some of the dozens of jars of homemade sauce we put up this summer. Thought I had a small bit of samosa filling that was from a test batch a bit ago but it turned out to be more like 3 cups of this tasty ground turkey, pea, and sweet potato filling. It was too much to have the Indian flavor lost in the tomato sauce. Yuck, what was I thinking...that Dan would not notice a bit of Indian meat in the tomato sauce? yup. So a new recipe idea began to form in my bitty mind. I have a feeling that Dan might at least try it...if I starve him.

I made a bechamel sauce and just as it neared thinning added 2 cups of squash puree (buttercup squash from the garden). I mixed 1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese with a garlic seasoning mix and some shredded cheddar. I know this sounds a bit gross but the scent wafting from the oven is tempting. This may be one of my MacGyver fridge moves that will either bomb or pleasantly surprise.

So, a layer of the squash bechamel sauce in a greased pan, whole wheat lasagna, samosa with ricotta, sauce and so on. Listen, if people can find pleasure from eating Hamburger Helper then this really deserves a chance. I used real, unprocessed healthy food!

We shall see tomorrow!

penzeys spices

hello, thank you to the lovely person that gifted me a Penzyes gift card for Christmas. My goodies arrived today! That's all... I am just wrapping up my prepared lunch for tomorrows delivery. The croutons just came out of the oven and the un-quiche smells divine!

Indian flatbread

Found a new recipe for an Indian flatbread in a food magazine. The process and ingredients seemed very simple. I enjoy the naan bread recipe that I blogged about a year ago.

This recipe was pretty much 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt 1/2 cup warm water knead it 5 minutes, let it sit 30 minutes, divide into 6 pieces, roll out to about 9 inches and cook 1-2 minutes each side on a flat grill pan. Easy enough, right?

The first few flats of bread were kind of crunchy, it took a few tries before I got the hang of it. I must say I prefer the other recipe that did require more time though this one was tasty. I added some fresh rosemary and thyme.

In the small print of this post, I need to make a confession. We have friends from visiting from out of town. Every year we get together a tradition has developed, Shady Maple for the breakfast buffet. Today I had a bit of .... well, that is not important. What is important is the company for friends... over an oreo cookies 'n cream filled doughnut or maybe or the comfort in knowing though I ate loads of stuff my body does not need I did not eat a sampling of everything.

phoebe's snowed in vegan raspberry scones

this is what summer looked like...

• make hot tea
• laundry
• clean tub
• fill tub in case of power outage
• SCONES!!!!

I made only 3 batches of scones. Two recipes were a twist on Ina's maple oat scone and strawberry scones(made mine black cherry & almond). The 3rd batch were vegan raspberry scones (olive oil & agave). Here is the real mystery, when the scones were mounded and cooling on the kitchen island Dan came in and tried a warm one. Of all the scones he had to choose from, he had the vegan raspberry scone. All of the scones looked beautiful but he chose the scone made with whole wheat flour and agave. I made it very clear that the other treats were made with good ol' fashioned butter, eggs, and white flour (I lied about the flour), his usual preference. The raspberries are from his glorious raspberry patch...this might explain his selection.

• 2 cups spelt or whole grain white, unbleached flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/4 c rolled oats
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 c oil (I used extra virgin olive)
• 1/3 c agave
• 1/3 c hot water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c fresh or frozen raspberries
• optional: vanilla bean, seeded and white chocolate chips

preheat oven to 375 degrees

whisk the dry ingredients and add the wet stir until just combined and stir in the raspberries

use a 1/3 c ice cream scooper for ease. bake for 15-20 minutes.

dirty risotto...comfort food oolala

I have a great, fool-proof recipe that I use for risotto from a Todd English book, The Figs Table. This is a perfect comfort food and this week's weather begged for a pot! My version is fudged from the original. My aunt-in-law went to Myrtle Beach for the month of February and dropped off some things that she could not pack and did not want to spoil...okay guys, down there in MB your loss!

I was gifted garlic, red onion, fresh herbs for soup, a sweet potato, and a butternut squash. I already used the herbs and garlic for a simple tomato garlic soup with chick peas and orzo. The red onion was next to be used. Typically a basic risotto is creamy white and to use the red onion would alter that color, I further fudged it up by using dried mushrooms and the broth they were reconstituted in. Instead of the traditional white wine, I used red to further dirty my rice and lastly I found whole grain risotto!!! No photo for this post, it was dirty rice.

If you like Italian sausage (not passing judgment...being as some people keep pigs as pets is all) it might be nice in this mix, maybe with a bit of sage and thyme.

Four-Onion Risotto
this is Todd's recipe ** my alternations are in blue

serves 6-8

2 T butter **extra virgin olive oil
2 c leeks, thinly sliced **red onion
1 spanish onion, diced
5-6 shallots, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (or pressed)
1 cup dried mushrooms, reconstituted
2 cups arborio rice **brown arborio
1/2 c white wine **red wine
6 cups chicken broth **organic beef broth
2 T thyme, fresh or 1 T dry
1/2 goat cheese **grated parm

Place a large stainless steel/non-reactive pot over medium heat and add the oil. Add the onions, shallots and cook until tender and translucent, about 7-10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Add the rice and stir to coat. Add the wine and cook until it is absorbed.

Add the broth, one cup at a time, stirring with each addition, until it is absorbed, about 20 minutes. DON'T leave unattended! Add the herbs and cheese and serve while still creamy.