Health Tip Of The Week: How To Cure Dry Skin

Do you know that there are some harmful ingredients that can irritate and cause allergic reactions and actually make your dry skin worse? The fact is there are dangerous toxins amongst many makeup and skincare solutions.

For example there are parabens used that can prolong the shelf-life of a product. But unfortunately, paraben is a major cause of cancer in later years of your life.

There are many other bad ingredients in most skin care (just try and read the labels and see how many of them aren’t chemicals!) but instead of listing them all here are some options:

I would strongly recommend you opt only for natural ingredients such as those that come from plant roots, herbs, flowers, trees or seeds in them.

Some examples of the best pure, botanical oils include almond, camphor, lime, avocado, olive and juniper oil. Research has shown that these powerful plants extracts can help to make your skin become smoother, younger and fresh looking.

Some sites with good options:
www.burtsbees.ca

http://ca.loccitane.com

www.bio-oil.com

Tips: If you want wanting to up the moisture in your skin but putting on lotions isn’t enough try taking a bath but put a bite of olive oil or almond oil in the water with you!

Baking Goal: Pink Lemonade Cheesecake

Oh my gosh! Wow! I love pink and I love desserts! So, this is the best of two things I love!

Check out the recipe at Dee Dee's Delights! I wish I could be eating this right now!

Baking My Way: Pillsbury Brown Sugar Shortbread Puffs

This recipe is super easy but can't say that I love the cookies. They're a nice change from the white sugar shortbread but I don't love them. I'm trying all the recipes in the book; that is the point after all, so I was sure I would come to something at some point in baking my way through this book that I didn't love and I guess this is one of those times. 



1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg yolk
2 1/4 cups flour


Heat oven to 350.



In a large bowl combine sugar and butter; beat until light and fluffy. 


Add vanilla and egg yolk; blend well. 


Add flour; stir until mixture forms a smooth dough. 

Drop dough in round teaspoonfuls 2inches apart on  ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until light golden brown and set.

Savory Sunday

Wow, yum! You all are coming up with some seriously good recipes! And it's all about summer, I can tell by what you've been making!

Here are my picks for this week!

Focaccia Bread from My Hobbie Lobbie

Steak Marinade from The Kitchen Cookie

Pizza Pockets from Artsy-Fartsy Mama

Lime Bar from Brandy's Baking

BBQ Potato Chips from Shugary Sweets

Now to the party!!

Here's how it will work:

1) Link up to the link below (link as many as you want but try to link something savory if you can)
2) Grab the Savory Sunday button and put it in the post you are sharing
3) Leave a comment after you post
4) I'd love for you to become a follower if you're not but it's not a requirement :)

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Health Tip Of The Week: Benefits of Tea Part 2

With all the information on tea being so good for you here are some tips to figure out which teas are really the ones that carry the health benefits.


Tea: Black, Green, White or Oolong?
Green tea and white tea are the least processed tea. They are simply steamed quickly. Regardless of the processing method, black, green, white and oolong teas all contain polyphenols. In fact, tea ranks as high as or higher than many fruits and vegetables in the ORAC score, a score that measures antioxidant potential of plant-based foods.

What about Herbal Tea and Red Rooibos Tea?
Herbal tea is not derived from the leaves of the Camellia plant and so does not have the particular health-promoting properties. Indeed, most herbal teas in the market are NOT tea at all. They are only infusions made with herbs, flowers, roots, spices or other parts of some plants. The proper term for this type of beverage is "tisane."
The recently popular South African red Rooibos tea also falls within the herbal tea or tisane category. Red Rooibos tea is not really tea as it is not derived from the Camellia plant. No scientific evidence has yet shown the health benefits of red Rooibos tea.

Although tisane does not contain as any polyphenols, it does promote other various health qualities such as relaxation and calming effects.

Tea Caffeine content
According to the American Dietetic Association, a cup of tea contains an average of 40 mg of caffeine, compared to 85 mg as found in a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

What about Decaf Tea?
We do not know whether decaf teas have the same polyphenols, and thus the same health benefits. It is not yet known if removing caffeine also removes polyphenols in the decaffeinating process.

Baking Goal: Oreo Cheesecake Pretzel Bites

These look so good! Grinded up Oreos and cream cheese in the middle, with pretzels dipped in chocolate? How much more decident could you get?

Check out the recipe at Making Memories

Baking My Way: Pillsbury Coconut Macaroons

This was my first go at macaroons of any kind and I think they turned out great! They're not too sweet but very coconuty which I love! They also have a Festive Coconut Macaroon recipe that is the same but with candied cherries which sounds good.

INGREDIENTS

2 egg whites

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Dash salt

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups coconut

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 325°F. Grease and lightly flour cookie sheets. In large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Beat in sugar, flour, salt and almond extract until well blended.

Stir in coconut and candied cherries. Drop dough by scant tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.

Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until set and lightly browned. Immediately remove from cookie sheets.