Thursday, June 25, 2009

Recipes for your face!

A lot of the ingredients in skincare products come from foods. Right in your own kitchen, you probably have the makings of the freshest, most bioactive facial masks, eye treatments, and exfoliators.

Fruit acids are wonderful at gently removing dead skin and brightening skin. Oatmeal calms, yogurt tightens pores, and cucumbers soothe eyes.

Stick with organics to avoid pesticides, and peel fruits and vegetables anyway -- even organics are allowed to have natural waxes.

Some ideas:

- For oily skin, grated apple and honey, or a puree of cucumber and yogurt;

- For exfoliation, wheat germ and warm honey; sea salt and extra virgin olive oil; or a simple paste of oatmeal and water;

- Avocado, honey, and almond flour make a moisturizing mask;

- Mashed peach and extra virgin olive oil work for dry skin;

- Cool, wet tea bags or cucumber slices de-puff eyes;

- Seaweed detoxifies;

- For enzymatic exfoliation, mix strawberries, papaya, honey, and oatmeal.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Recipe: Quick Cinnamon-Chocolate Mousse (vegan!)

We had some friends over for watercress and radish salad (dressed with verjus and extra virgin olive oil and topped with sliced boiled egg), fish tacos, and Mexican corn.  I made this quick (and vegan!) cinnamon-chocolate mousse the day before so we'd have a little chocolatey bite for afterwards!


Quick Cinnamon-Chocolate Mousse for 4

1 ¼ cups chilled MimicCreme
1/8 teaspoon (generous) ground cinnamon
4 ounces bittersweet dark chocolate (at least 65% cocoa content), chopped

Combine ¼ cup MimicCreme and cinnamon in small saucepan; bring to boil. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer chocolate mixture to large bowl and add remaining MimicCreme. Using electric mixer, beat until chocolate is completely incorporated. Divide mousse among 4 glasses / bowls / ramekins and cover with plastic wrap. Chill until set, about 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead.)