Reduce, reuse, recycle your clothes

The official start of summer coincided with a heat wave that brought temperatures of over 90 degrees along the East coast. It was also fitting that I, a huge procrastinator in every aspect of my life, finally finished spring cleaning of my closet. Most of the clothing that I weeded out were items that have not and will not get much wear - for example, a baby blue sweater vest with ruffle detailing that was given to me as a gift from my aunt, and a longer black and white chevron striped skirt in a jersey material, purchased from The Garment District. Even though I have worn the black and white striped skirt in the past, as both a skirt and a strapless dress or beach coverup, I don't see the potential of a revival in my wardrobe. (I had thought about turning it into an eternity scarf, however, the material is just too slinky.) 

For all those items of clothing that no longer receive any love, luckily there are many options for reusing and recycling that could also earn you some cash. 

Healthy Dessert: Quinoa Coconut Pudding

Holidays such as Father's Day (today) always give me the opportunity to concoct scrumptious desserts. With limited ingredients in my kitchen this time, I decided to experiment with a quinoa dessert. I bought two bags of truRoots organic quinoa at 2/$7 from Whole Foods a while back, when I was looking for a carb substance to replace my run-of-the-mill pasta that I had been bringing to work. Since then, I have been discovering as well as creating different recipes using quinoa, including portobello stuffed quinoa and curry quinoa. I also learned that this versatile superfood can be used to make dessert puddings! 

Back in the fall, I made a delicious rice pudding. I figured I would base this quinoa pudding off that recipe and essentially substitute quinoa for the rice. This recipe yields roughly 6 servings and takes about 40 minutes. 

Homemade Pizza with Trader Joe's Dough featuring Fresh Basil

Homemade pizza has always been a go-to meal for me and my boyfriend. In the past, we have created pizzas using store bought items including Boboli crust, pizza sauce, and frozen chicken appetizers. Since my meat-consuming days, we still enjoy tossing ingredients onto a pizza crust for a meal that allows great flexibility - his half, the omnivore's delight, doused in extra parmesan cheese and mine with fresh veggies.

Lately, we have been purchasing the $1 pizza dough from (you guessed it) my favorite store Trader Joe's. Of the three varieties of dough (regular, wheat and garlic & herb), we have been getting the garlic & herb flavor. The instruction says to allow the dough to sit in room temperature for about 20 minutes before kneading and stretching it out on a floured surface. And it only needs 8-10 minutes of cooking at 450 degrees! 

Oil Cleansing Method Beauty Experiment - Part II

Inspired by all the resources I found online and oil cleanser samples from my coworker, I made my own personalized oil facial cleanser. This process of researching and gathering supplies took about two weeks, but it was well worth the wait! 


Supplies:
*make sure all your containers are completely dry - otherwise the polysorbate-80 will react

• 1 clean glass jar (in a previous life, it was a jam jar) 
• small plastic containers with caps
• medicine droppers 
• (measuring spoons - 1/2 teaspoon and/or 1 tsp) 
• Jojoba oil (8.44 fl oz) from The Jojoba Company, purchased from Whole Foods - $13.49
• Castor Oil (8 fl oz) from the HomeHealth brand, purchased from Whole Foods - $5.99
• Polysorbate-80 (4oz by weight) purchased from Etsy seller CountrySoapShack - $4.95 + $2.50 shipping
• CountrySoapShack also sells other oils, waxes, dyes, and raw materials for making beauty/body products

Note: There are also companies from which you can order materials online 

Lotioncrafter carries polysorbate-80

Mountain Rose Herbs has a wide selection of oils, as well as essential oils that add lovely scents

Oil Cleansing Method 101 - Part I

Yes, I realize that I just raved about the Trader Joe's nourishing facial cleanser in a post a few weeks ago. And while I still stand by the product and use it in my routine (more on that later), I feel compelled to share this exciting and radical facial cleansing method - well, radical to me at least. Using samples of an oil cleanser and moisturizer that my coworker (the same one who introduced me to ginger chews) made, starting three weeks ago, I began trying the oil cleansing method, or OCM for short. 

Like many, I was skeptical at first. The thought of using oil to clean seemed so counter-intuitive, until I realized that the beauty industry brainwashes consumers to believe that any amount of oil on your face = bad. From oil-free cleansers that leave your face dry and tight to oil sheets that soak up oil from the T-zone, the broad spectrum of products that claim to keep your face free of excess oil sends the message that oil doesn't belong on your face, let alone in any products you wash with. But for thousands of years, people have used oils (such as olive oil) as cleansers and moisturizers on their hair and body. From a quick search on Google, it seems that the oil cleansing method remains popular as a natural alternative to drugstore cleansers containing various chemicals. 

Mother's Day Strawberry Scones

In celebration of Mother's Day, I whipped up some strawberry scones using this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite cooking blogs. The recipe is for meyer lemon and fresh cranberry scones, but since we have no cranberries and a lot of fresh strawberries in my house right now, my adapted recipe is for a meyer lemon and strawberry scones/biscuit hybrid! 

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (from about 2 lemons; preferably Meyer)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (+more for the flour-covered surface)
1/2 cup sugar plus 3 tablespoons additional if using fresh cranberries (strawberries!) 
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries, chopped coarse, or 1 1/4 cups dried cranberries, if you insist  (strawberries!) 
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup heavy cream (I only had 2% milk in my house) 

Preheat oven to 400°F. I baked the first batch directly on a baking sheet and formed them into triangles, and the second batch in a muffin tin so they turned out more like biscuits. 

Using a knife, I scraped the insides of 1.5 lemons to remove the zest while careful to avoid seeds. 

In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and zest until mixture resembles coarse meal. 

Dice up 5-6 strawberries to fill about 1 1/2 cup, add 1.5 tablespoons of sugar and stir into flour mixture.

In a small bowl, beat egg and stir in milk. Adding about 1/2 cup of the mixture is enough because there is enough liquid content from the lemon zest and fresh strawberries.

On a well-floured surface, pat dough into a 2-inch thick ball. To evenly distribute the flour, I played "hot potato" with the ball. I shaped the ball into a triangle once on the baking sheet. 

** for my second batch, I just dropped the balls into a greased muffin tin without further shaping (you can say that I got lazy by this point...) 

Bake for 15 minutes or so, or until light golden. 

Finished biscuits! (second batch)

Enjoy! 

Chew on This

I was never fond of ginger - fresh ginger, cooked ginger, even the pickled pink ginger slices that grace delicious sushi rolls. Despite all the known benefits of ginger, for example, in aiding digestion and suppressing nausea, I just never enjoyed the distinct taste of this spice... until I discovered the Ginger Chew in my coworker's candy bowl. Being the adventurous eater that I am, I tried the candy and to my pleasant surprise, loved the ginger flavor in this chewy candy form!