Lavender Sugar Scrub

Lavender Sugar Scrub

Ingredients 
1 part lavender oil
2 parts lavender sugar (made the same way as vanilla sugar)

Mix ingredients together until a paste forms. You can add more of each ingredient to get the consistency you like. In the shower use the scrub on dry elbows, knees and feet or all over to exfoliate. Rinse and wash as usual. The oil will make your skin super soft!

Gluten free potato pizzas

Vegetarian mini pizzas on potato slices instead of dough.

Slice potato about 2 mm
Add pesto for sauce (basil, olive oil, garlic, nut or seeds if you like. We didn't add seeds today)

Diced tomato
Parsley
Feta
Chopped jalapeno
Spinach leaves
S&p to taste (we added only pepper)
You could add endless amounts of ingredients!

Spread pesto or sauce on sliced potato, add toppings, bake at 350 for 15-25 mins depending on how many toppings. Until potato slices are soft. Gluten free, vegetarian.

How to make Almond Milk

Funnies from the 'net

Vanilla sugar with a hint of Lavender

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
3-4 vanilla beans, sliced and cut up

And beans and sugar into a container with a tight lid. Shake each day, the more you shake the more the beans will come loose. I left it for about a month in the container, then just ran it through the grinder to grind the rest of the beans up. Use in coffee, or make into sugar scrub. Add a few pieces of lavender mmm they go well together! Yummy :) putting it through the grinder will make it more powdery like berry sugar. You can also make other scented sugars this way with things like citrus.

Lavender Infused Oil

Ingredients
2-3 cups lavender 
4 cups olive, or almond oil
Pot of hot water

Put bruised lavender flowers in the jar, and pour the oil over it to cover. (may be more or less than above) place the jar in the water in the pot and heat up to hot but not boiling. Let sit in bath for about 6 hours. Turn off heat and let the jar cool. Strain lavender out of the oil with cheese cloth.

You can use this for cooking or skin product!

Chickpea Chili and Homemade garlic toast (baked garlic bulbs)

Well, I've had my surgery and it's been a week and a half. I'm getting extremely bored but still pretty tender so have been finding short, easy things to do. I can't stay out of the kitchen, so what I can do is attempt to make one pot dishes of delicious food for the family! It's still pretty cold here, so why not make some chili! 
You can add any type of meat you want if you just can't do without it. 


You will need:
1 can chickpeas
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn niblets
1 can diced tomatoes (I used the accents type for this dish)
chili (I used those yummy chipolte chilis again, but only half a can, full can is too spicy for the kids)
Spices to taste - salt, pepper, organic spice mix
teaspoon olive oil
garlic
Optional: cooked hamburger, chicken or turkey

Directions
Warm up oil in frying pan, add garlic and brown
add can of chickpeas, mash slightly with a fork (this gives it the meaty texture)
add can of kidney beans and corn, simmer for a few minutes while you chop up the chilis
add chili and tomatoes, and your spices
simmer on medium low heat stirring occasionally to blend all the flavours


If you like tomato paste you can add that as an extra thickener, I like mine a little bit juicy though. We serve with garlic bread 


To make Roasted garlic: slice top of whole garlic bulb so that the tips are showing, pour on a little olive oil, pinch of salt, pinch of black pepper and bake in the oven wrapped in tin foil at 350 for about an hour, cool, then squish out the garlic into a bowl. Use on bread or add to any of your dishes. To make garlic butter mix it in a dish together until well blended. If you have a lot of bulbs to use up you can store in the freezer until you need the roasted garlic again. Don't leave wrapped in foil! 

Garlic Toast

Nice cut off bread, we have Cobs which we like getting our bread from. They have a flax type which is really good. You can use any you like, and can get french loaves for fairly cheap at your local bakery
Roasted garlic butter
Dill to taste


Butter your bread with the garlic butter, sprinkle on dill and bake in the oven until butter is melted and toast is golden at 350


Serve with a nice side salad of baby greens and you've got yourself a vitamin packed meal!