Organic Spa Treatment

All right. Today marks the first day of “What to Make Mom for Mother’s Day”. Like I said yesterday, all week I will be giving recipes and directions to food and crafts. You can pick one or all of them for Sunday (which is Mother’s Day). And the best part? You don’t have to use this just for one specific holiday. These will be good for birthdays, christmas, easter, or if you end up in the dog house.

So, to start off easy, let us start with a do-it-yourself body scrub.

Lemon Brown Sugar Scrub

Ingredients:

1/4 cup coarse brown sugar (to gently exfoliate without drying)

1 cup grapeseed oil* (to moisturize)

1/4 cup grated lemon peel (to invigorate your senses)

Directions:

Mix together and put in a jar. Tie a bow around it and hand over the gift to the lucky woman (or I guess, man?)

See? Super easy. You can find grapeseed oil at any co-op (organic store) or a specialty Indian store.

Homemade Strawberry Sherbet

Another fantastic day.

Wow.

And it’s not technically spring yet.

Considering it feels like spring and summer is just around the corner, I bet that most of you (ladies) are a bit worried. Worried about swimsuit season.

I don’t know about you, but I have been pushing off on the whole “Excercising, tanning, and eating raw veggies before summer” thing. Big mistake. Now I have a little pudge leftover from Thanksgiving, my skin is the color of white frosting, and my stomach is dying for some veggies that don’t come from cities I cannot pronounce. Ugh.

Making and eating veggies is easy. Especially during great weather, you can just throw them on the grill (or use your stovetop). Because it is so easy (in my opinion), I’ll give you a recipe for a sweet treat.

Now why would I give a recipe for something that will make people gain more weight…after I just went on about losing holiday weight?

This recipe is not really fattening and I am showing it to you because I know that it is so hard to resist a cool, creamy dessert on a hot day. So introducing, Homemade Strawberry Sherbet.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped fresh or frozen (not thawed) strawberries ,  (about 10 ounces), divided
• 1/2 cup sugar (I would substitute with Raw Sugar, or Honey, or a natural sweetner)
• 2 1/2  cups nonfat or low-fat buttermilk
• 1/2 cup half-and-half (vanilla)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Directions:

• Combine 1 cup berries and sugar (honey) in a small bowl and let sit, stirring occasionally until the sugar has begun to dissolve, about 10 minutes. Transfer the berry mixture to a food processor or blender and process until smooth.
• Meanwhile, combine buttermilk, half-and-half, lemon juice, vanilla and salt in a medium bowl. Press the strawberry mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into the bowl. Stir, cover and chill for at least 2 hours or up to 1 day.
• Whisk the sherbet mixture and pour into the canister of an ice cream maker. Freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. During the last 5 minutes of freezing, add the remaining 1 cup chopped berries. If necessary, place the sherbet in the freezer to firm up before serving. (If the sherbet becomes very hard in the freezer, soften it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before scooping.)

*This makes 8 servings and each serving has 110 calories and 2 grams of fat.

**If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it by hand but I have no idea how to even attept to do that so…your on your own.

What is your favorite summer treat?

Strawberry Spinach Salad

This morning I was woken up by nature’s alarm clock…a bird.

Last night I kept my window open thinking that I could get some fresh air while I slept. It was a fantastic idea until 5 am this morning. When a little bird decided to perch on my windowsill and “tweet”.

Now, some birds are very nice to listen to. They sing songs and do some kind of fluttering chirp. The bird that was at my window, it really needs some singing lessons.

Let me try to explain how it sounded. Like an alarm clock that doesn’t have a snooze button. And fortunatly, the sound he made was not a “Beep”. It was not a “Chirp” or a “Tweet”. It was something along the lines of “Twaaacktchrip. Teet.”

I was pretty annoyed at first, I mean who wants to wake up at 5 am? But then I got to thinking…”It is spring.” Even though that bird needed to be taken out, he was enjoying and celebrating the change of season. I mean, today is a fantastic day outside. If I was even remotly similar to Snow White, I would probably start singing too.

Because it really does feel like spring today (at least where I live), how about a recipe for a crisp salad?

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
•  1 tablespoon poppy seeds
•  1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced onion
• 10 ounces fresh spinach – rinsed, dried and torn into bite-size pieces
• 1 quart strawberries – cleaned, hulled and sliced
• 1/4 cup almonds, blanched and slivered

Directions:

-In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, paprika, Worcestershire sauce and onion. Cover, and chill for one hour.

-In a large bowl, combine the spinach, strawberries and almonds. Pour dressing over salad, and toss. Refrigerate 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

*Add avacado for an extra health burst. Instead of sugar you can use 1/4 cup of honey. You can use purple onions or white…and you can even add blueberries and other fruit if you dare.

(This makes 4 servings of salad)

So there you have it. If you didn’t know what to make for lunch today…you certainly do now.