Rhubarb Ginger Coolers

Rhubarb Ginger Cooler

Last year, Candice served these delicious drinks when we toured her beautiful garden during Raja Yoga Summer Camp.  Thanks for sharing the recipe, Candice!   

Rhubarb Ginger Coolers

10 cups chopped rhubarb

2 1/2 cups cold water

1 3/4 cups sugar

3 tablespoons fresh ginger

2 cups sparkling water

- Bring rhubarb, water, sugar and ginger to simmer over moderate heat, uncovered and simmer 1 minute. 

 - Remove from heat and steep 1 hour.

 - Pour through a sieve and chill.  

 - Serve over ice with a splash of sparkling water.

Natural Beauty: DIY Sugar Scrub

My homemade Vanilla Sugar Face and Body Scrub

Ugh, winter skin.  Need I say more?

You can do something about it without a trip to the beach, the spa, or even the mall. 

Creating and customizing your own Lip, Face and Body Scrub is easy and fun.  The main ingredient?  Sugar! 

Yes!  Sugar (when used externally) is alpha-hydroxy rich which promotes healthy glowing skin. 

Sugar scrubs gently clean and exfoliate, promote healthy circulation, moisturize and soften the skin.  They eliminate the need for separate body wash and moisturizer, and are far less dehydrating than salt scrubs. 

Making your own bath and body products from natural, food-based ingredients means no yucky toxins absorbed into the skin or harming the environment.  You'd be surprised how many commonly used cosmetics you can make at home.  Check out these 15 DIY Beauty Recipes from Food-based Ingredients from Care2. 

This Sugar Scrub is safe for all skin types and gentle enough for use on body, face, and even lips. 

What you need:

1/2 cup sugar.  You can use white sugar, raw sugar, brown sugar, whatever you've got.

2 Tbsp. oil.  My favorite is coconut but any will work.

1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional).

You are welcome to use essential oils instead, but I like to use food grade extracts for this recipe.  For one thing, they're less expensive.  After all, you're just going to rub this on your skin and wash it down the drain.  And second, they're edible.. you know... ummm... just in case a little bit of your sweet, yummy smelling lip scrub accidentally gets past your lips...

What to do:

- Mix the sugar, oil and vanilla together with a fork or your fingers. 

- Put it in a non-breakable container.  (No glass or ceramics in the shower please.) 

- Gently scrub all over wet skin a little bit at a time. 

- Rinse off and pat yourself dry.

This recipe makes enough for two full-body scrubs.  Enjoy!

Warming Ayurvedic Tea for Coughs and Colds

Brrrrr!!!  Its a cold, snowy autumn in Alberta.

Here's a Ayurvedic tea that will warm you up and soothe coughs and sore throats like magic!

What you need:

4 cups water
4 cloves
2 pieces of  licorice root (called "mulethi" if you're buying it from your favorite Indian grocer)
2 (or more) slices of raw ginger root

What to do:

Boil the ingredients together or steep in your thermos on the way to work and sip happily.  No need for honey as licorice root is known to contain compounds 30-50 times sweeter than sugar!

Thanks to Rul, my favorite Ayurvedic consultant for this delicious recipe!

Note *Please do not drink this excessively if you are pregnant or have high blood pressure.

More Fruit and Flower Infused Waters

Fruit and Flower Infused Waters

I just couldn't resist sharing today's refreshments.

They're so pretty, frosty cool, and delicious too!

On the left:  Cherry and Marigold (next time I would cut the cherries)

On the right:  Nectarine and Day Lily

What combinations have you come up with?

Sugar Beet Salad

Warm weather and refreshing salads go together like... um... beets and mint!  Lol!

What you need:

• 1 large sugar beet
• 1 large handful of mint
• 1 small handful of sunflower seeds
• 1 small handful of dried cranberries
• Pickled carrots

What to do:

1. Wash and trim the beet and mint.
2. Grate the raw beet.
3. Chop the mint.
4. Cut the pickled carrots into slivers.
5. Add the sunflower seeds and cranberries.
6. Mix together and serve!

Sweet Lime Soda

Summer is here and the hot weather is making me thirsty.

I can't get enough Sweet Lime Sodas! 

 

When travelling in India, lime sodas were my very favorite thirst quencher. 

They were also the first culinary souvenir I recreated for family and friends back home. 

They come in sweet and salty varieties, but the sweet one is most likely to appeal to our western lemonade palates.

 

What you need: 

 

• 1 Tbsp. lime juice or the juice of half a small lime.
• 1-2 Tbsp. raw sugar or simple syrup to taste.
• Club soda or sparkling water.

What to do:

 

1) In a glass mix lime juice and sugar or syrup until dissolved. 
2) Top up with club soda or sparkling water. 

 

Trust me - mix the ingredients in this order!  If you add sugar to the club soda you get something more like a science experiment!  Woosh!! 

Well, you don't really have to trust me... lol! 

After all, in yoga shraddha is all about personal experience, so you're welcome to try it for yourself!

 

Optional - You can add ice, a slice of lime or some mint leaves if you like. 

You can also experiment with flavored sparkling waters.

I made the one on the left with mint sparkling water and presto - Easy Virgin Mojito! 

Yum!

 

Quick and Easy Homemade Pickles

Once upon a time when I worked in a cucumber patch, I had an easy recipe for refrigerator pickles. 

Yesterday I found an even easier and healthier recipe on A Beautiful Mess!

Emma's pickles are low in salt and sugar, take very few steps, require no boiling and are ready for sampling the next day!

So far, I've made four small jars:

1) Carrots with Fennel and Mint
2) Cucumber with Dill and Peppercorns
3) Radishes with Sambar Spices
4) Beets with Mint

By lunch today, the pickles were beautiful, crunchy, delicately infused and delicious,  I'm especially thrilled with the radishes!

Emma says they last up to a month in the fridge, but I'm sure I'll eat them before then.  I'm already looking forward to new combinations and salad dressings with the leftover infused vinegars.

Let me know what flavors you come up with!

Snow Day Cupcakes

A BRUTAL spring storm has me house-bound today. 

Well, except for tons of shovelling that is... 

I've already done two rounds of cement-heavy-snow removal on the driveway, walkways and deck and saw that when things clear up I'll have some broken tree removal too. 

Thankfully, nothing on the roof!

Om Trayambakam to everyone on the road today, and to all the emergency service workers out there looking after everyone!

Can you spot the robin?

Before I venture out for round three,  it's time for a break. 

All these wintery workouts call for cupcakes!

Since I can't actually invite you over to share them, here's the recipe:



Mini Vegan Chocolate Cake for my Mom's birthday



Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt. I'm using Pink Himalayan Salt for added sattva ;-)

Mix together the dry ingredients.

Ha ha ha - ignore the sloppy icing!

In another bowl combine:

6 Tbsps of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 cup of water

Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mix with a fork.  Spoon into a muffin tin.

Bake at 350 F for 18-22 minutes. 

Makes one dozen.

Enjoy!!