D.I.Y. Makeup: Mineral Veil

I have been finding  a bunch of  DIY  mineral veil recipes all  around the internet  on a lot of different blogs. Some recipes call for  a bit of talc oxide powder (which is used in baby powders) to help it last longer, since talc isn’t good for you I didn’t want to use it.  I just changed it up  a bit.

My mineral veil recipe:   2 tsp. cornstarch 

1/16 of a tsp. zinc oxide (which is used in sunscreen and just helps it stay on a little bit better) (optional)

2 drops EO (optional) (makes it smell good and make more of a powder

Mix all the ingredients together in a little jar or old Mineral Veil container and your done! Use just a little bit like you would a store-bought mineral veil!

Great healthy substitutes for sugar

Sugar is a big problem for everyone, what are you suppose you instead, that isn’t even worse for you? Not artificial sweeteners that’s for sure and honey is so expensive and won’t work for everything, in the end it’s enough to keep a person from trying other sweeteners. Here’s the list of things I use instead of sugar, although if you research it you can probably find more.

 1. Stevia, don’t buy it grow it! You can buy stevia plants from you local nursery or even Lowe’s, than dry the leaves and make your own extract (recipe coming soon).Stevia is about 300 times sweeter than sugar so you only need a fraction of the amount, you can find conversion charts just google stevia conversion charts. I use it in drinks, baked goods, and overnight oatmeal. You can’t use stevia in everything it does have a different taste an if you use too much it will end up tasting bitter.

2. Prunes, dates, and other dried fruits. This is going to sound strange, but prunes are really healthy for you and I use them in baking all the time (and no one notices!), of course my family makes fun of me but they eat them too. Just puree the prunes in you food processor and use in place of sugar. I have personally never used dates, they’re somewhat expensive, but use them the same way. I use prunes for any recipes calling for dates.

3. Honey. Everyone knows about honey, but I’ll say it anyway, honey is a great substitute for sugar. Use 3/4 cup of honey for every one cup of sugar called for. Of course honey can’t be used in everything.

4. Sucanat. Another thing I have never used but have heard of, and really want to try! Sucanant is basically ground sugar cane, while sugar is ground sugar with the molasses, the nutrients, removed. Use like you would sugar (can be found in health food stores). I am trying to figure out if I could grow sugar cane where I live, which would be awesome but I’m kinda doubting it! (Brown sugar is not the same thing at all)

5. molasses. molasses is very strong and can be used in some baking. Buy organic  blackstrep molasses. Like I said before molasses if basically the healthy nutrients from the sugar cane.Also good source of iron.

6. Fruit juices. Great for teas, and drinks, but not real useful for most things.

Those are all the substitutes I suggest and use. It’s great to have a variety of sweeteners because you can’t use any of them in everything! This will also make it a lot easier to stay away from sugar. And thanks to these natural sweeteners my mom and I basically go sugar-free 4 days a week (whenever my dad isn’t home!)

Bean Free cookie dough balls (vegan and gluten free)!

Oh my goodness, these are amazing!  I’m starting to get the impression that my family would eat almost anything if I  covered in chocolate! These are amazing though and I think some of them are going to be made into homemade vegan cookie dough ice cream tonight, yum! If it works out I’ll share the recipe with you tomorrow! We never really have chick peas, so when I saw that one lady used mashed potatoes (which I hate) I had to try them (my mom has been asking me to make her more cookie dough balls for that last couple days!). This was adapted from this recipe , I didn’t like the texture, it was too smooth and not quite like cookie dough, so I add a few things for texture and it was amazing! Perfect snack with a glass of homemade coconut milk and a side of fresh blackberries!

 Recipe: 5 potatoes (peeled and cut into quarters)

                2 tsp. vanilla extract

              2 Tbsp. nut butter

             1/4 cup oatmeal

            1 1/4 cup chocolate chips

          2 Tbsp. maple syrup

         4 Tbsp. honey

        4 prunes

        1 Tbsp. milk (I used coconut)

        Throw the potatoes in a pot and boil for about 20-30 minutes or until soft ( like for mashed potatoes), while the potatoes are boiling thow the vanilla extract, nut butter, prunes, honey, maple syrup,  and oats in your food processor. Strain the potatoes and immediately add to the food processor and blend until smooth. Scrape into a bowl and throw in the fridge for about 1/2 hour to cool down.After it’s cool  add 1/4 cup  chocolate chips and shape into balls and throw in the freezer for about an hour (or eat as a dip). When the hour is almost over melt 2/3 cup of the chocolate chips with the Tbsp. of milk in a sauce pan over medium heat, after it’s melted add the other 1/3 cup of chocolate chips and stir until melted. Take the balls out of the freezer and dip in the chocolate one at a time, or if your lazy like me just spread the chocolate on top of the cookie dough balls), then throw back in the freezer until you’re ready to eat them. Trust me they aren’t gonna last long!

Make your own coconut milk!

Yet another thing that I’ve seen all over! This is really easy though and much cheaper than buying coconut milk, this is like the refrigerated not canned coconut milk. Perfect for smoothies, homemade ice cream, granola, or really anything that calls for milk. I  also love the fact that after you make three batches of milk you can use the ground flakes in anything that calls for coconut flakes so you’re not wasting anything! If you want vanilla coconut milk just add a little honey and vanilla extract.

 Recipe adapted from crunchybetty: 1/2 cup coconut flakes

                                                                           1 cup water

 Combine the water and coconut flakes in a blender or food processor and blend for about a minute. Using a strainer or cheesecloth strain the milk into a jar and store in the fridge. Repeat the process 2 more times and then use the ground up flakes in a recipe!

 

Want to win a digital kitchen scale?

A few days ago Sue from Slimkicker emailed me wondering if I would be willing to do a giveaway for them on skye’s life  offering one of you this gorgeous digital scale kitchen scale (worth about $30)! Being that SlimKicker is a great healthy fitness website and the fact that I love giveaways, I automatically said yes. So first a bit about SlimKicker. SlimKicker is a great website that helps motivate you to be stay healthy by turning your diet and fitness goals into a game with points, rewards, and challenges. They also offer great  tools such as a calorie tracker and an iPhone app to help you stay on track!

Now the really fun part! This contest is really easy to enter all  you have to do is leave a comment on this post with a fun and creative fitness or diet challenge. Please leave it short about 1-2 sentences. The people from SlimKicker will pick their favorite entry and that person will be the winner of the scale. Because of shipping costs continental US residents only please! The contest ends Sunday June 3 and the winner will be announced around  June 10, 2012. Good luck!

D.I.Y Makeup Friday: Foundation

I decided for the next few Fridays I’m going to be doing a post on how to D.I.Y a makeup item, first up foundation. Ever hear the saying “if you can’t eat it don’t put it on your skin”? We all  need to follow that saying since anything you put on our skin will end up in your  bloodstream. I’ve also been seeing a lot of articles on a bunch of  different blogs and read a book called No more dirty looks the truth behind your beauty products  and realized how easy and necessary it is to make my own makeup!  Of course I love eyeshadow and nail polish so I will be buying some natural ones, but everything else I’m pretty sure can be made at home lived without. I mean if you can make sunscreen how hard can makeup be? fortunately it only takes a few minutes and a couple of cheap ingredients; 

 You only need three ingredients cornstarch or arrowroot powder,cocoa powder, and a few drops of essential oil. Mix the arrowroot powder or cornstarch with a little bit of cocoa powder at a time testing regularly  until you reach the color of your skin tone,and than add a few drops of essential oil to help it stay on better. See how easy and cheap it is? You use  a little bit over primer just like you would Bare Minerals or any other powder foundation.

D.I.Y Mouthwash

  Mouthwash is one of the simplest things to make, but finding  a good recipe is really hard! I had to really search and found all kinds of recipes use all different kinds of ingredients and I had a reason not to try all of them! Finally yesterday I received an email from The Homespun Journal  with a post titled DIY: Homemade Mouth Wash, and at first I thought it probably uses peroxide ( almost all the recipes I found used peroxide!), but as I scrolled down I saw that there was no peroxide, baking soda, vodka, or any of the other ingredients I decided not to use, instead she used apple cider vinegar. Finally a recipe I could use! I made it this afternoon and there was one little problem, it didn’t taste too appealing to me so I changed it up a bit and added stevia extract (which has anti-cavity properties) and 2 drops clove essential oil and it finally tasted ok! Plus apple cider vinegar is very good for you, and whitens your teeth!

    Recipe adapted from the homespun journal:

            1 cup  warm water  (hot water if you’re using honey)

          1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

        1 Tbsp. stevia extract or honey (which is also good for your teeth) (optional)

       2-4 drops essential oil of choice (no more than 4 at the most or it will be way to strong!) (optional)

      Pour all your ingredients into a glass jar (or any other container) and shake to mix it up. Use like you would regular mouth wash.

 

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

I love chicken nuggets, but the chicken nuggets from the store scare me a little, with all the reports  you see  on the computer and news about “pink slime” and whatnot. So why not  make your own, they’re easy, yummy, and I’ve started making  a double batch and freezing half of them to take out, throw on a cookie sheet, and toss in the oven for a few minutes to heat up (jus like store-bought chicken nuggets!). But these are also so much healthier (not to mention the fact that you know exactly what’s in them). Make these with some homemade fries (or sweet potato fries) and mozzarella sticks and you’ve got a healthy meal everyone will love!

   Ingredients:  4 uncooked chicken breasts (defrosted if frozen)

                              1 cup bread crumbs

                              1 cup flour

                             2 eggs

                             1/2 cup water

                             1 tsp. salt, paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and/ or  any other seasonings you might like

   Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Beat the eggs into a bowl and add the water. Pour the bread crumbs and seasonings on one plate and the flour on another plate. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces, and dip the chicken into the flour, the egg mixture, and finally the bread crumbs until you coat all the chicken. Place the chicken on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked

Mint and Coconut Ice Cream {Vegan}

                                 

Lately I’ve been on a homemade ice cream (especially with coconut milk), and with the perfect mixture of coconut and mint makes pure healthy, sugar-free, heaven! If you didn’t know it, you would never guess it was sugar-free.

Recipe inspired by this recipe:  1 2/3 cup coconut milk (homemade works, recipe coming soon!)

1/2 cup stevia extract, honey or any other sweetner

1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped mint leaves

1/4 cup coconut flakes (optional)

any other add-ins (strawberries sound yummy!) and/or a few drops of peppermint extract (optional)

All you do is throw all the ingredients together in your ice cream maker, and process according to your ice cream maker’s directions. Then throw in the freezer until you’re ready to eat it. So easy, yummy, and healthy!

How to make your own vanilla (or any) extract

Making your own vanilla extract is super cheap, easy, and only takes 2 ingredients, but don’t stop there after you make your own vanilla extract you can go on to make any other kind of extract. Lemon, coconut, almond, etc. any kind of extract you would buy at the store can be made at home for much cheaper with only 2 ingredients. We’ve been making our own vanilla extract for months now, so I decided to try coconut and peppermint extract today.

                                                                                                                                               

   The only ingredients you need to make your own extracts are

        1) vanilla beans, peppermint leaves, shredded coconut, almonds, lemon   peels  etc. whatever you want your extract to be.

       2) vodka, the cheapest vodka you can buy, it doesn’t have to be great quality.

 All you have to do is take a glass jar, throw in some peppermint leaves, vanilla beans, whatever you wanted to use. Add enough vodka to cover whatever you’re using. Then let it sit in a dark cabinet for at least two weeks, although the longer you let it sit the stronger the flavor will be, and you use it just like the store-bought stuff (the extracts you buy from the store contain about 90% alcohol, so it’s basically the same thing).