It’s Not Quite Greek to Me

Having been to Greece and having also eaten at Greek restaurants where the owners and cooks were Greek, I have to say that this recipe for chicken wraps and tzatziki sauce isn’t quite authentic… But the good news is that it’s still extremely tasty. I’m OK with something not being authentic as long as it’s healthy and tasty, so let’s just say that this meal was “Greek-inspired” and leave it at that. After all, “true Greek food” is a VERY high standard! Anyway, here’s the recipe for the main tzatziki sauce:

• 1.5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1 Tbsp white vinegar
• a pinch of garlic powder
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of white pepper
• 1/2 C plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 C sour cream
• 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
• a few drops of dill essential oil (see specific instructions below)

Mix olive oil, vinegar, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and one drop of dill essential oil. Add yogurt and sour cream, mixing well. Mix in cucumber and add more dill oil to taste. Refrigerate for about an hour (or more) prior to serving. While waiting for the sauce to chill, continue with the lettuce wraps:

• 1 Tbsp EVOO
• 2 to 3 boneless chicken breasts sliced into strips or small pieces
• 1/4 C balsamic vinegar or a combination of red-wine vinegar and lemon juice
• 2 drops of basil essential oil
• 2 drops oregano essential oil
• 2 drops of rosemary essential oil
• 1 drop black pepper essential oil
• salt to taste
• butter lettuce or iceberg lettuce leaves
• grape tomatoes, halved
• feta cheese (crumbled)
• red onion sliced thin or diced
• kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

Heat EVOO in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add chicken. In a glass or ceramic dish combine the balsamic vinegar, essential oils, and salt and mix well. Pour this mixture over the chicken as evenly as possible and stir the chicken so that all of it gets some sauce. Cook chicken thoroughly, stirring every minute or two. Prepare the rest of the toppings as the chicken cooks. Cook the onions until caramelized, if you want, or leave the onion raw. If you want to know how to get the lettuce nice and crispy, just ask in the comments. Use the lettuce to make lettuce wraps filled with all of the other toppings. Don’t forget to get your tzatziki sauce out of the fridge! The combination of flavors was amazing, even if, as I mentioned above, it wasn’t 100% truly Greek. It was still pretty impressive, if I do say so myself, though I might try pita bread instead of lettuce wraps next time.

I also made some healthy lemon bars for dessert. Well, they were at least a bit healthier than regular lemon bars because I used coconut sugar and whole wheat flour. Using these non-white ingredients caused the lemon bars to have a brown color instead of the yellow color that you would expect for lemon bars. But I’m not racist against brown lemon bars, so it’s all good. Seriously, though, I’ll sacrifice presentation for health any day. Anyway, the recipe is divided into two parts, the crust and the filling.

Crust:

• 2 C flour
• 1/2 C coconut sugar
• a dash of salt
• 1 C butter

Filling:

• 4 eggs
• 6 Tbsp flour
• 1.5 C coconut sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 C lemon juice (about 2-3 lemons)
• 1/2 C water
• 3 drops of lemon essential oil
• 1 Tbsp powdered sugar (optional)
• lemon zest

Note: I actually cooked this first (prior to the main course) because it takes longer. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Begin with the crust by mixing the flour, coconut sugar, and salt. Cut in the butter until the dough reaches a uniform consistency. This is much easier if you cut the butter into very small pieces as you add it. Press the dough into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes. While the crust is baking, make the filling. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. In a separate dish, stir together flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to eggs and still until smooth. Gradually stir in lemon juice, water, and lemon essential oil. Once the crust is done, pour this mixture over the crust as evenly as possible and return to oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool completely and then add powdered sugar and zest. Cut into pieces, making sure that some are bigger than others so that you can take the big ones for yourself when serving.

It may not look like conventional lemon bars, but it tastes just as good, if not better, and it’s definitely better for you. Enjoy!

Presto Pesto

I’ve never made homemade pesto before, but this was a very healthy, easy recipe:

• pasta
• chicken
• 1/2 C olive oil
• about 3 C or 5 oz of fresh spinach
• 1/2 C pine nuts (you can substitute walnuts or almonds)
• about 3 Tbsp lemon juice (one lemon’s worth)
• 1 to 2 drops of lemon essential oil
• 1 drop basil essential oil
• 2/3 to 1 C finely shredded cheese, such as Parmesan or Swiss
• salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta and chicken. The chicken should be cut into fairly small pieces. Season the chicken however you want (I’m focusing on the pesto here). Pack the spinach into the bottom of your blender, add pine nuts, olive oil, lemon juice, and high quality essential oils. Blend the ingredients; you may need to scrape the sides once or twice. Add cheese (I used Swiss), salt, and pepper, and blend until smooth. That’s it! Now you’ve got some restaurant-quality pesto and a nice meal to put it on. I also fried some okra, and I felt that it went very well with this.

In addition to the above, I also made some stuffing.

• 8 slices of bread (I actually used 4 large slices of sourdough bread)
• 1 stalk of celery
• 6 Tbsp butter
• 1 C chicken or beef broth
• salt to taste (probably about 1/2 tsp)
• a bit of pepper
• dried sage to taste
• 1 drop rosemary essential oil
• 1 drop thyme essential oil
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (I actually made the stuffing before the items listed above because it takes a little longer). Use a serrated knife to cut bread into small cubes. Spread bread cubes evenly on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, stirring once, or until lightly golden. Chop celery very finely. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and then add the celery (you can add half an onion, too, if you like). Saute until barely tender, stirring frequently. Add broth (I used beef), salt, pepper, and sage. Remove from heat and stir in essential oils. Add the toasted bread cubes and stir until coated evenly. Stir in two eggs, and then place everything into a greased casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until the eggs are cooked and the stuffing has a rich, golden color to it.

Lastly, I also made some strawberry lemonade.

• 4 C strawberries
• 4 to 5 C cold water
• juice from one lemon
• 4 drops of lemon essential oil
• healthy sweetener to taste

Puree strawberries in a blender (this may be easier if you dice them first). Adding a tablespoon of water may also facilitate blending. Pour the water into a large pitcher, then add the puree, lemon juice, and lemon essential oil. Add sweetener as desired. I used a couple teaspoons of stevia. Mix well.

So how did it all turn out? Amazing! The pesto was wonderful, the stuffing was quite honestly the best stuffing I’ve ever had, and the strawberry lemonade was extremely refreshing. Not bad for my first try at all of these things…

The Cheese Ball of Destiny

So I made a humongous cheese ball the other day. This represents my first attempt ever at making a cheese ball, and it’s massive! Here’s the recipe:

• 2 packages (8 oz each) of cream cheese
• 1.5 C finely grated cheese (I used Swiss, but use whatever you like)
• 2 drops of high quality essential oil of lemon
• 2 Tbsp sour cream
• 1 C pineapple, very finely chopped (I chopped mine by hand, but I might use a blender next time)
• 1.5 to 2 C chopped pecans

Let the cream cheese thaw a bit. I let mine warm up to room temperature, and it was a bit too gooey, so next time I’ll try letting it thaw for just a bit (maybe 15-20 minutes). Then combine the cream cheese, sour cream, grated cheese, and lemon essential oil in a large bowl. Stir until as homogenous as possible. Then stir in pineapple. Form the mass into a ball and roll in pecans until it’s covered evenly. Wrap the ball in plastic (cling wrap) and refrigerate for 2 to 8 hours. Serve with your choice of crackers, obviously.

There you go! An awesome cheese ball. As you can see in the picture above, it looked so yummy that my two-year-old wanted to just grab the whole thing!

Strawberry Sorbet: Very Easy and Very Yummy

Before I jump into the sorbet, I just want to briefly mention the meal that came right before it, since I did use a bit of essential oil for that, too. We had corn tortillas, chorizo cooked in onion and red cabbage, black beans with cumin essential oil, pinto beans, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, sour cream, guacamole with lemon essential oil in it (the lemon not only enhances the flavor but also helps it stay good longer), shredded swiss cheese, rice, and jalapeño slices. Black beans tend to be rather plain, so I think the cumin was a nice touch. Anyway, that was our little Central American-style feast.

On to dessert! Here is the recipe:

• 2 C water
• 1 C agave syrup or maple syrup
• 5.5 C sliced strawberries
• 1 C orange juice
• 4 drops fruit essential oil, such as orange or tangerine

I think 1 C was a bit too much sweetener. I’ll try less next time. Agave isn’t the unhealthiest sweetener out there, but it isn’t the best, either, and a whole cup of high quality maple syrup is pretty expensive. So I might try substituting stevia or coconut sugar next time. I used tangerine oil for this batch. Anyway, stir the water and sweetener together in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Then take it off the heat, allow it to cool to room temperature, and then chill it in the fridge for about an hour. Then combine sliced strawberries, orange juice, and essential oil in a blender. You may need to do this in two batches if your blender isn’t big enough (don’t forget to cut all the quantities in half if you do it this way!). Puree until smooth. With the blender running, gradually add the chilled syrup and process until well blended. Transfer mixture to a large glass dish and place in the freezer. Stir every 30 minutes for the next 4 hours, or until the middle is hard. Serve and enjoy!

Lime and More Lime

I recently cooked two different things with essential oil of lime in them. The first was popcorn. It was pretty much the same as the other popcorn recipe that I blogged about here, except that instead of the immune system booster oil, I used lime essential oil. I really liked the flavor, and so did my kids and a few of their friends!

The second lime-themed recipe was limeade.

• 1 C lime juice (about 8 limes)
• 1/2 C stevia
• 4 drops of high quality essential oil of lime
• cold filtered water

I mixed the lime juice, lime oil, and stevia in a very large pitcher. Then I added water to taste and kept stirring. I ended up nearly filling a very large pitcher, and the flavor was still very powerful. I used this at a fairly large dinner group, and there was still enough for everyone to have seconds.

My recipe book says you can use sparkling water or club soda to make it a bit more like soda. I might try that next time…

Dad the Impaler

A few nights ago my wife went on a girls’ night out with several of her friends. To facilitate this, I made dinner for the kids and myself. I decided to try a shish kebab recipe, and I have to say, it turned out great! Here’s the recipe:

• 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 C lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
• 1/4 C white distilled vinegar
• 2 tsp minced garlic clove (about 2 cloves)
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 2 drops of high quality marjoram essential oil
• 2 drops of high quality essential oil of thyme
• 3 drops of high quality rosemary essential oil
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• about 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 zucchini
• 1 red onion
• 12 cherry tomatoes (you can substitute grape tomatoes if need be)
• 12 medium-sized mushrooms
• plenty of wooden skewers

In a large zip-top bag (I used a 1G bag) combine olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic, cumin, essential oils, salt, and pepper. Then cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes and put the cubes into the bag. Seal and then shake that bad boy so that the chicken is evenly coated, then refrigerate for at least two hours.

Slice zucchini and cut the onion into chunks. In order to get the onion to cook evenly, I cut my onion in half, then cut those halves into quarters, and then separated those quarters such that no single chunk was more than four layers thick. Using a slotted spoon, scoop the chicken out of the bag and place it on a plate or in a bowl. Either discard the marinade or cook it thoroughly and use it as a sauce. Then impale all of the food onto the skewers. For optimal presentation points, put a mix of foods on each skewer. However, for ease of cooking, to make sure that one type of food doesn’t get overcooked while another still isn’t done, segregate the food items onto their own skewers. As you can see from the photo above, I chose the latter option. The chicken will take a little longer to cook than the other items. Sprinkle the veggies with salt if you want to. Then place the skewers on a heated grill or place in the oven at 450. Cook until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is cooked all the way through. I cooked mine in the oven and it only took about 15-20 minutes.

It ended up looking great and tasting even better. The spices and oils gave the chicken a very exotic flavor; it was pretty close to restaurant quality flavoring. And even though I don’t like raw red onion, it tasted great cooked. The kids liked this meal, too. In fact, my four-year-old said, “Daddy, I like everything you made!” Another benefit of using the segregated skewer method was that the kids could pick whatever they wanted more easily (after Daddy encouraged them to eat at least one of each item first, of course).

The shish kebabs were tasty, but after dinner my work was not yet complete. I decided to make parfaits for dessert. Here’s the ingredient list:

• berries
• plain Greek yogurt
• 1 toothpick of high quality lemon essential oil (per serving)
• granola

Put some berries in the bottom of a cup, preferably glass. Depending on how sweet you want the parfait to be, you can put either a shallow or deep layer of berries. Then put about half a cup of yogurt on top, or a bit more, if you like. Swirl the toothpick with the oil on it around in the yogurt, then discard the toothpick and top with a bit of granola. Yet another dish that looks and tastes great! Even though this is far less sweet than many store-bought or restaurant parfaits, my little kids had no complaints.

So there you go, shish kebabs for dinner with parfaits for dessert!

A Fun, Easy-to-Make Essential Oil Snack

Before I jump into the main subject of this post, I just want to say that I might be posting about cooking with essential oils even more frequently (as opposed to the one out of every three posts I’ve been trying to do so far). I’ve set a goal for myself to write at least one non-cooking post about essential oils and one non-essential oils related healthy living post per week. On top of that, I’ll post one cooking related post every time I cook something new with essential oils.

So what is that mysterious pudding-like substance in the bowl? That’s a healthy fruit dip. Here’s the recipe:

• 1 package of cream cheese (8 oz), softened
• 1 C (8 oz) sour cream
• 1/3 C coconut sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 4 drops of lemon essential oil

As always, use only safe, high quality essential oils for cooking. Start by letting the cream cheese thaw for about 30-60 minutes. It will mix much more easily that way. Then mix all the ingredients with an electric mixer until it gets as homogenous as possible. Then serve with your choice of fruits. I cored and quartered apples, broke an orange into segments, and cut a banana in half width-wise. The kids enjoyed dipping these fruits into their own small bowls of fruit dip. And, of course, everyone begged for the privilege of getting to lick the mixers and scrape the remnants out of the mixing bowl!

No More Crazy Juice

In some of my first posts, published over two years ago, I talked a bit about cane sugar and high fructose corn corn poison, oops. I mean, corn syrup, as well as other sweeteners. Basically, artificial or highly processed sweeteners are very bad for you on a number of levels. One of the most common products to contain these unhealthy sweeteners is soda. Practically zero percent of commercially available sodas are free of unhealthy sweeteners. And what’s worse is that many people don’t just drink soda on special occasions: a lot of folks have several servings per day. At that point you really are poisoning your body. I often tell people that the two best changes they can make to their diet are giving up (or at least minimizing) boxed breakfast cereals and giving up soda. If you’d like to understand why, read my older posts or do your own research; I’m not going to repeat myself in this post.

Now I have to confess to drinking the occasional root beer, but when I say occasional, I mean about once every month or two. But in basic terms, I’ve given up soda. One question I often get when I mention this fact is, “So what do you drink?” In this post I’m going to cover some healthy alternatives to soda, starting with the most basic options and working up to more complicated concoctions.

First of all, there’s water. Hey, I warned you that I was going to start off basic. Believe it or not, water should be your default, go-to drink most of the time. I would definitely recommend filtered water. I filter my own water at home, and when going out, I take some of my home-filtered water with me. This is because I don’t trust the water bottling companies, and in any case, their products are overpriced and create wasteful plastic garbage. If you get bored of plain water, here are some suggestions. First, keep a pitcher of water in the fridge during spring, summer, and fall. It’s amazing how much better water tastes when it’s cold, unless it’s freezing outside. Secondly, try putting a drop of high quality essential oils into a glass of water. Not all essential oils can be drank, but I would recommend peppermint, lemon, lime, wild orange, and lavender. If you absolutely have to have something sweet, then once a day try adding a bit of stevia or local, raw honey to your essential oil drink.

Raw milk is another drink that many people can enjoy. I love the taste of raw milk on its own, but you can spice things up with a bit of cinnamon, pure powdered chocolate, or just a bit of honey. Raw milk is, unfortunately, illegal in some places. Now, I’m not going to tell you to break the law, but I will simply observe that even in places where raw milk is illegal, enforcement of anti-milk laws are often very lax. Again, I’m not encouraging you to break the law, because, after all, politicians never ever make mistakes, and sending armed men to throw someone in a cage for deciding put raw milk into his or her body is a completely appropriate, ethical response. Those of you with the inability to detect sarcasm may wish to reread that last sentence in a crazy, cooky voice.

Fruit juice can also be a healthy drink if it’s pure fruit juice and hasn’t had any sweeteners added to it. Preference should be given to juice that isn’t from concentrate. However, fruit juice is high in fructose, so even though it’s natural, it’s not a good idea to drink a lot of it every day. That being said, making your own fruit juice is often doable, if time-consuming.

Occasionally, I would say no more than a few times a week, a healthy smoothie can be a good choice. See some of my other posts for smoothie recipes. Again, because they’re so sweet, you’ll probably want to limit these.

During cold weather, hot chocolate can be a healthy treat if you use a healthy sweetener instead of sugar. Some healthy options include stevia, coconut/palm sugar, pure maple syrup, and raw honey. Ditch the marshmallows.

If you’re willing to buy some specialized tools, you can make healthy homemade soda. You can use either concentrated juice or a natural sweetener plus essential oils (ginger oil is an excellent choice) instead of your typical flavoring packets.

Lastly, I would recommend herbal teas as a very healthy beverage. The healthiest teas are the ones you make from scratch. I suggest buying one or more of the following dried herbs: peppermint, jasmine, chamomile, or comfrey. These herbs actually have therapeutic properties, so let me know in the comments if you’d like to know about the properties of a specific herb. To make tea from scratch, you basically just put the herbs in a pot, add water, wait a bit, and then heat it up. This is the best way to get the herbs to release their nutrients and flavors into the water. Then you have to decide whether you want hot or iced tea. For hot tea, pour the tea into a cup being sure to filter out the herbs, let it cool down a bit, and then add a natural sweetener. I recommend either raw honey or stevia, though some people do drink their tea without any sweetener. For iced tea, let the tea cool down to room temperature, filter out the herbs, then add a natural sweetener, and refrigerate it.

Do you have any other ideas for healthy beverage alternatives to soda? If so, please mention it in the comments!

Better than a Chill Pill

Lavender is one of my favorite essential oils. It’s powerful, yet gentle, has a whole host of uses, and is among the cheapest essential oils. However, before I go into more detail about lavender, I would like to point out, as always, that my comments about lavender are in reference to the very highest quality lavender essential oil. Low quality oils will have few, if any, of the therapeutic effects that I mention in this post. The same goes for all future posts about essential oils: get the good stuff if you want the good effects.

Lavender is one of the gentlest essential oils. It can be used topically, even on infants, with no dilution (i.e., “neat”). It’s almost impossible to hurt yourself with lavender. I love the fact that it’s very safe, doesn’t need to be diluted, and can be used on children. In fact, sometimes I let my six-year-old apply lavender on herself, albeit with supervision. I think this is a great way to teach her to take charge of her own health at a young age. Also, lavender smells great. For all of the above reasons, my kids love lavender and will often come to me begging to have some lavender.

Essential oil of lavender is famous for its calming effects. One example of this is the fact that lavender can help people fall asleep faster and get deeper, more restful sleep once they do fall asleep. This especially great for kids, who often struggle to fall asleep, although there are, of course, many adults who suffer from sleep deficiency issues, as well. Some of the best ways to apply lavender to encourage sleep include: putting a drop or two in a glass of water and then drinking it, putting two to four drops in a capsule and then taking the capsule about an hour before you go to bed, putting a drop or two on you pillow, putting a few drops in your bath shortly before going to bed, putting two to six drops in a diffuser and then running it in your bedroom when you go to bed, or rubbing a few drops on your temples, neck, or the soles of your feet.

Another great thing about lavender is that it can soothe occasional skin irritations. For example, for whatever reason, my daughter seems to be a real mosquito magnet (I tell her it’s because she’s so sweet), so whenever she gets a mosquito bite, we apply a bit of lavender and it doesn’t feel as itchy (plus the bump goes away faster). It’s also good for providing minor pain relief for other types of insect bites and stings. (However, as far as I know, it does NOT neutralize poison, so if you get bitten by a black widow or other poisonous insect, please seek medical attention ASAP.) Likewise, lavender can provide relief for very minor cuts and burns. I’m talking about the type that is skin deep. If you’ve just had an unfortunate encounter with a chainsaw, you’re going to need more than lavender oil. To reiterate, I’m just talking about occasional skin irritations here. I would say that minor sunburns could also be described as a type of occasional skin irritation, so let me go ahead and recommend lavender for them, as well. Obviously, topical application is recommended for skin issues, though you could also put several drops of lavender in a spray bottle with water and spray it onto the affected area.

According to the FDA, I’m not allowed to tell you that lavender is good for head aches, so I definitely will not tell you that lavender is good for relieving head aches. Instead, I will tell you that it’s good for relieving feelings of tension, although, realistically, this also applies in a broader sense to emotional tension. If you’re feeling stressed out aggravated, anxious, annoyed, or frustrated, lavender can help you feel centered and peaceful. I would recommend internal or aromatic use of lavender in these cases. As I mentioned earlier, lavender smells great, so putting it in a diffuser is a wonderful way to make your home smell fresh and welcoming.

Speaking of using lavender in a diffuser, I’ve heard that some retail stores have tested the idea of diffusing lavender near the cash registers and have found that people are less agitated about having to wait in line when breathing in the sweet aroma of lavender. In any case, if you’re on the fence about essential oils or don’t know where to begin, lavender is an excellent choice for your first essential oil. Please contact me in the comments if you’d like to know my suggestion for where to get top quality lavender oil.

Essential Meal (warning: Epic Post!)

OK, so I know this is my third post in a row about cooking with essential oils, so let me go ahead and promise that my next post will be a non-cooking post. Anyway, I decided to make a whole meal with a little bit of essential oil in everything. I started the night before by making some spiced apple cider. Here’s the recipe for the apple cider:

• 10 red apples
• 1 cup coconut/palm sugar
• 1 Tbsp ground allspice
• 4 drops cassia essential oil

Wash apples and remove the cores. I highly recommend that you get an apple corer for this. Some devices will remove the core and slice the apple all at once, but in my experience they break very easily, so I prefer the simple kind that just removes the core. Slice apples into quarters. Then put the apples in a large stock pot and add the allspice and coconut sugar. In retrospect, I think 1 C of coconut sugar may have been too much. If I try this recipe again, I will probably substitute half a cup (or less) of real maple syrup or a bit of stevia. Add water. My recipe book says, “Add enough water to the pot to cover the apples by 3-4 inches,” but the problem is that apples float(!), and because stock pots vary in diameter, this ends up being a very vague indication of how much water you actually need. The amount of water is important because if you put too much, it will be too watery and the flavor will be weak. So next time I try to make apple cider, I will measure the water and let you know if it was too much or too little. Anyway, boil the apples, uncovered, for one hour, stirring from time to time. Then reduce heat to simmer for two hours. Put the cider through a sieve to separate out the apple chunks. There will be some dregs at the bottom unless you have a very fine sieve (a coffee filter might work… I haven’t tried it yet). Then stir in the cassia oil. You could also substitute cinnamon essential oil. At this point you can either serve the cider hot or let it cool down and then refrigerate it. If you opt to serve the cider cold (like I did), just keep in mind that it’s going to take a while to cool down. Makes enough cider for about 7-8 people to have two cups worth.

The day before the big meal I also tried to make some frozen yogurt bites. Here is the recipe:

• 1 C fruit (I used pineapple)
• 1 C plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 C orange juice
• 2 drops of citrus essential oil (I used wild orange)
• 2 envelopes of unflavored gelatin (approximately 1 Tbsp)

Prepare a small cookie sheet or large plate by placing parchment paper on it. This is going to end up going in the freezer, so unless you have a huge freezer, you’re probably going to need to use a plate. You can halve the recipe if the amount above makes too much. Place your chosen fruit in a blender or food processor and blend until you feel joy in your heart. Then mix the fruit, yogurt, and essential oil in a small bowl. Pour the orange juice into a sauce pan and sprinkle gelatin in. Place saucepan over low heat and stir non-stop for 3 minutes or until gelatin is all dissolved. Then immediately whisk the orange juice into the fruit and yogurt mix. My recipe says to pour the mixture into a plastic bag and then cut a small piece off of the bag so you can pour onto the cookie sheet in bite-sized bits. However, I found that my mixture was far too runny at this point (next time I will probably double the gelatin), so I had to improvise. I decided to pour the mixture into ice cube trays; I ended up filling about 20 cubes worth. I then put the trays in the freezer. If you just put a tiny bit in each cubicle, it might end up being bite-sized, but that would require several ice cube trays. If you fill the cubicles near to the top like I did, then it’s no longer a bite-sized snack. So what I did was I decided that I would instead use them as “flavor cubes” to put into the apple cider. The pineapple-orange flavor went quite well with the apple cider, and the kids were very curious about the mysterious fruit cube in their drinks!

The last thing that I prepared the day ahead of time was the dressing for the salad (see below). Here is the recipe for this “creamy lemon basil dressing”:

• 3 Tbsp lemon juice (1 lemon should do the trick)
• 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 0.5 C plain yogurt (you can substitute sour cream)
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder (you can substitute a clove of minced garlic)
• 1 toothpick of black pepper essential oil (you can substitute 0.25 tsp black pepper)
• 2 drops of basil essential oil

Mix all ingredients together with a whisk or blender. Allow to cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Makes about a dozen servings of dressing. If you’re wondering what “1 toothpick of oil” means, allow me to explain. Take a toothpick, dip it in the oil bottle, and then swirl the toothpick around in the mixture of the other ingredients. The reason for doing this is that black pepper is VERY strong, and if you pour the oil in and accidentally put three or four drops in, your dressing is going to become unpalatable.

On the actual day of the feast, I made the entree, which was empanadas. They tasted great, but it was my first time making empanadas, and it was a lot of work. Here is the list of ingredients for the dough:

• 2 to 3 tsp salt
• 4.5 to 5 C flour (I used 4.5 and it wasn’t quite enough)
• 1 C butter (that’s a whole stick), cold
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 C ice water
• 2 Tbsp white distilled vinegar

And here’s the ingredient list for the filling:

• 1/2 C yellow onion, diced (I just used one small onion rather than measuring 1/2 C)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 C ground beef (about 1/2 lb), cooked
• 1 C beef broth
• 2 tsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 2 drops marjoram essential oil
• 2 toothpicks of black pepper essential oil
• salt to taste
• one small can of black olives (about 18 olives), diced
• 6 hardboiled eggs (optional), peeled and sliced into three pieces each

To make the dough, stir the flour and salt together in a very large bowl. Then cut the butter into very small chunks/slices and work it into the flour mixture. The fastest way is probably just to use your hands, so prepare to get sticky and messy! You want to avoid having any big lumps of butter in the flour. Lick and then wash your fingers. Then, in a separate bowl use a whisk to mix the eggs, ice water, and white vinegar. Pour this second bowl of ingredients into the first bowl and mix well. It’s very important that you don’t have any loose lumps of dry flour. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface (you’re going to need some space for this) and knead it a few times. Then form the dough into a flat circle, wrap it with plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge for an hour. While you’re waiting, be sure to cook the ground beef. It only needs to be just barely cooked. Next, pour the olive oil into a large frying pan and add the diced onion. Saute over medium heat until the onion starts to become translucent. Then add the ground beef, beef broth, and garlic to the frying pan with the onion in it. Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for a couple of minutes. While simmering, add the essential oils (in this case, for the black pepper, swirl the two toothpicks around in the liquid).

You need to either simmer off most of the liquid or remove the excess liquid by pouring it out/straining the meat mixture. Then remove this frying pan from the heat. Once the dough has chilled, remove it from the fridge and preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Divide the dough into 18 equal balls and roll each ball as thin as you can (a rolling pin may prove useful) in the shape of a circle. Place some of the meat mixture on one half of the dough circle, then add a bit of olive and optional egg slice. Then dip your finger in water (it’s handy to have a small bowl of water nearby!) and run it along the edge of the dough circle to help the empanada seal shut. I found that this step wasn’t really necessary, but if you’re having trouble keeping your empanadas shut, give it a try. Next, fold the dough over to make a half circle and use your fingers to crimp the edge over to get a nice, tight seal. Obviously, repeat for all of the empanadas. Place the empanadas on a greased baking sheet (I used butter), and bake them for about 10 minutes or until they just barely start to turn brown on bottom. Let them cool for a few minutes and serve plain or with a dipping sauce, such as the dressing mentioned above, or salsa. Makes 18 empanadas, obviously. Ironically, while the empanadas were the main course, they were the one thing I didn’t get a good photo of. Sorry! You’ll have to make do with this slightly fuzzy shot.

While I was waiting for the dough to chill I made a rainbow salad. I had a heck of a time stuffing a rainbow into my blender. OK, I’ll stop. Seriously, though, I think you’ll be impressed with how this one looks. Here is the ingredient list:

• Half a box of grape tomatoes (about ten grape tomatoes)
• 2 Carrots, sliced
• Half a yellow bell pepper, diced
• Cheddar cheese, grated
• Lettuce (optional)
• 1 cucumber, diced
• Broccoli (optional), cut into small florets
• About 1/3 of a red cabbage, sliced thinly
• 1/2 C quinoa
• 1 C water
• 2 drops of lemon essential oil

Pour the water and quinoa into a small pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for about 5 minutes, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 more minutes. Add lemon oil, stir well, and cook until the quinoa has absorbed all the water (about 5 minutes). Cut the vegetables while the quinoa cooks, then stack the ingredients like so:

It’s almost too beautiful to eat… Aw, who am I kidding? Scarf it down!

My next post will discuss the uses of one of my favorite essential oils.