Nature Walk Soap

Jayden and I went for a hike up on Burnaby Mountain today. Along the way, I collected some ferns, leaves flowers and pinecones. So I decided to make some more soap!

Pure vegetable glycerin with citrus and vanilla extract

Setting in the molds

Curing

I made a variety of shapes this time around

I was pleased with the way they turned out!

they will make great little gifts!

Tzatziki

I first tried this recipe when I was at Kits Beach about a month ago with my cousins. Their friends had brought a nice picnic spread and this was one of the delicious items up for grabs. I was raving about it for the rest of the day and have been making it once a week ever since. It's healthier and cheaper than buying prepared tzatziki and there's only four ingredients!

Ingredients:
3 cups plain organic yogurt
5 cloves garlic, diced and crushed
1/2 english cucumber, peeled and julienned
1 tsp. salt

slice the cucumber really thin into matchstick sized pieces

place the cucumber on a paper towel to soak up some of the moisture

dice and crush the garlic

combine ingredients in a bowl and mix well

return the yogurt back into the container and refrigerate. Best if served after a few hours.

Honey Herb Bread

This recipe is adapted from the deep fried bread served at P2B Bistro. It was incredible and I couldn't wait to get home and try baking a loaf just as tasty without having to deep fry it.  The rolls were dusted with fresh parmesan cheese and served with warm tomato chutney, amazing. Fortunately I was provided with a rough estimate of ingredients and after converting everything from grams to cups and tablespoons, I was ready to start my experiment. I used the same method of preparing the dough and baking it with steam as mentioned in a previous post for homemade artisan bread. This recipe will make 2-3 loaves, depending on how large you make them.

Ingredients: 

450ml warm water (about 100F)

1 1/2 tsp. dry yeast

3 cups organic, unsifted all-purpose white flour (or 1 1/2 cups white flour, 1 1/2 cups spelt flour)

3/4 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. organic sugar

1 tbsp. raw honey

50ml extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tsp. fresh organic thyme, finely chopped

1 tsp. fresh organic rosemary, finely chopped

Directions:

Add yeast and warm water together to ferment and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and herbs. Mix honey with EVOO. Add yeast mixture to flour and mix well. Add honey and olive oil last and knead for a minute or two right in the bowl. Dough should be very wet but uniform. Cover mixing bowl with a cloth and let rise for 3 hours, the dough should double in volume. Refrigerate overnight in a lidded (but not airtight) container. I use my crock pot and glass lid, it works great.

On Baking Day you will need:

Wooden cutting board or pizza peel

Baking stone

Serrated knife

Corn meal and flour

Baking sheet for steam

1 cup hot tap water

wire cooling rack

parmesan cheese

Arrange the oven racks on the two lowest settings. Place the baking stone on the top rack and the broiler tray at the bottom. Prepare your wooden cutting board or pizza peel by dusting with a liberal coating of flour and then cornmeal on top to prevent sticking when sliding the loaf into the oven. 

Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1 pound (grapefruit sized) piece using a serrated knife. Hold the mass in your hands and use a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Don’t knead, just “cloak” and shape a loaf by gently stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off, it is not intended to be worked into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should not take more than 30-60 seconds.

Rest the loaf and let it rise for about 40 minutes on the flour/cornmeal covered pizza peel or wooden cutting board. It does not need to be covered during the rest period.

Twenty minutes before baking preheat the oven to 450F. 

Dust and slash: Dust your loaf liberally with flour which will allow the slashing knife to pass without sticking. Slash a ¼ inch deep cross, scallop or tic tac toe pattern into the top using a serrated knife.

After a 20 minute preheat, you’re ready to bake. With a quick forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly, but carefully pour about one cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes (I baked mine for 32) or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Because you’ve used wet dough, there is little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing. Serve with oil and vinegar for dipping or tzatziki and hummus, enjoy!

DIY Glycerin Soap

Today I tried soap making for the first time and it was much easier than I thought and so much fun! I started with a 2 pound block of pure vegetable glycerin soap and melted it down in a pot. Once the glycerin was completely melted I added some grapefruit and lemon oil to add a nice scent.

The first ones I made were for Jayden so I put some of his bath buddies in the molds and waited for them to set. After about 30 minutes they were ready to remove and came out of the molds easily.

Jayden's bath time buddies setting in the molds

The finished product!

For the next batch I wanted to make some graphic soap so I cut rectangles from scrap-booking paper to serve as my soap inserts.

As the soap sets try to keep the paper in the middle of the mold using a wooden skewer

I was really happy with they way they turned out!

2 pounds of glycerin made 9 bars of soap - smaller molds would be great too

Finally, I packaged them in waxed paper for great little gifts for friends and family :)

Antioxidant Smoothie

Too rushed to make yourself a healthy breakfast before work? Try blending up a tasty morning smoothie. It's quick and easy and you can take it with you on the go. You can use any type of frozen fruit you like, I used blueberries, blackberries raspberries and strawberries.

I also recommend picking up some carob powder from your local natural food store. Carob is a natural vegan protein source and also contains magnesium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium manganese and vitamins A, B, B2, B3, D.

Ingredients:

1 cup almond milk

1 cup frozen fruit

1 frozen banana

1 tbsp. raw honey

1 tbsp. carob powder

Directions:

Blend until smooth and enjoy!