Sugar Body Scrub

It's getting toward late November and thoroughly feels like winter here in DC. For me, that means my skin gets super dry! It kind of feels like someone squeezed all of the moisture out of my skin the moment the air starts to get dry. Beautiful image, I know.

I've made this sugar body scrub a couple of times before, but this winter it really sunk in how easy, cheap, and effective this is. Plus, it is all natural, so you don't have to worry about what chemicals might be in it, and there's less waste because you can reuse the canister. Earlier this winter, I bought a body scrub at the drug store, and I think paid almost $10, and it was just okay. This will cost you only the cost of sugar and olive oil (or another carrier oil), and, in my opinion, is much more effective than store-bought scrubs. The secret seems to be that sugar is a really effective exfoliant, and olive oil seems to coat your skin and keeps moisture in. 

I haven't used this as a facial scrub - that could be too oily for a lot of people, but it's great for arms and legs. Also, I think it's probably best to use in the shower so that you can wash off any extra oil so that your arms/legs aren't too greasy.

Sugar Body Scrub
2 C sugar
1 C carrier oil (this can be olive oil, grape seed oil, or coconut oil*)
optional: 6-8 drops of essential oil (I like peppermint or lavender)
canister (such as a plastic jar with a lid or a Mason jar)

Add sugar to canister first, and then add carrier oil while stirring. Add carrier oil until scrub reaches desired consistency. Add essential oil drops if you want the scrub to be scented.

*if using coconut oil, melt in the microwave for 30 seconds or until it becomes liquid

Make your own cold-brewed iced coffee

You might be thinking "an iced coffee recipe? What is there to explain?"

And on the part of the ingredients, you'd be right. Obviously iced coffee is... cold coffee and ice, and whatever else you want to add to it.

But I recently bought a cold press coffee maker, and it has been a definite win-win situation: better iced coffee, one, and also cheaper and more environmentally friendly (compared to buying iced coffee at a coffee shop).

It's hot in DC all summer long, and this week was our first hot, in-the-90's, gross week. At times like this, I end up buying coffee from coffee shops a lot more than during the winter, both because I don't like the iced coffee that I made at home as much, and also because the way I was doing it before (cooling down hot coffee by putting it in the refrigerator) took longer to do every day than buying it somewhere.

Process

I bought the Toddy T2N Cold Brew System for about $35 on Amazon. It's an interesting process to do the first few times: you put what seems like a lot of coffee (12 ounces with several cups of water) into the top chamber, which has a filter and a plug at the base, and let is sit for at least 12 hours at room temperature. After 12 hours, you take the plug out of the bottom of the chamber, and the water filters through into a glass carafe. That part takes a bit of planning ahead, but what is produced is actually a concentrate that you later add water to. You should be able to use the amount from one batch for at least a week, and it keeps for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. (I'm not going to write super specific directions for the process, since it comes with instructions, and if you buy a different brand the process is probably slightly different.)

After that, you have a carafe of the concentrate that you can keep in the refrigerator and make iced coffee all week, which is great. When I made mine, I mixed about 1/3 C of the concentrate with enough ice, water, and milk to fill a large pint-sized glass. I like a lot of milk in it without sugar, but you can add whatever you want to it!

The coffee itself is delicious. I think that iced coffee made from cooled-down hot coffee turns out fairly bitter tasting, and with the cold press it seems to be much smoother tasting.

Cost & Environmental Factors

The first time I did this, I wasn't sure if making iced coffee this way was going to be cost effective, because you use more beans per cup than you would for hot coffee. But after seeing how many cups you can get out of the concentrate, and shopping around for some cheaper coffee, I think that the cost is actually really reasonable, especially considering that I think it tastes better. I found a couple of packages of 12-ounce coffee for five to seven dollars that was still pretty good quality, and got around seven servings out the concentrate that that produced. (I didn't include the cost of the cold press in the calculation, but you can see how it would be pretty quickly recovered.)

Cost: About $4

Cost: $0.70 to $1.00 (plus milk/sugar if added)

Lastly, there is an environmental reason to make your own iced coffee: if you've been buying your iced coffee from a coffee shop, you have to throw away the cup after each one. By making it yourself, you're skipping out on the waste that comes from the cup! You can even find a travel re-useable iced coffee glass with a straw at a lot of places - I bought the one in the picture at the top of the post at Target last summer. As I wrote about in a previous post, avoiding using food packing as much as possible has multiple environmental advantages.

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup

It's been really cold in DC the last couple of days, and so I had a craving to make a huge pot of soup. This soup turned out really well - it's comforting and filling, and the addition of the feta adds a very crucial salty component. I also thought that this recipe was interesting because it's a recipe with pumpkin, but that doesn't have the typical spices that usually go with it, like cinnamon or nutmeg.

(By the way, I'm going to take a break from monthly theme idea that I've been doing so far this year. I have a little writer's block with idea, and also, it's fall, one the best food times of the year, so there is no shortage of recipes to try.)

And a reminder from a prior post (the most blog's most viewed/found from Google post!): the more bean recipes you like, the better, since beans are such an efficient source of energy compared to meat.  

Note: I ended up roasting pie pumpkins instead of using canned pumpkin as the recipe says. I roasted two pie pumpkins (different than carving pumpkins) by the following method: cut pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds; either leave pumpkin cut in half, or cut in smaller pieces to decrease baking time, and lay pumpkin pieces in a large baking dish along with 1/4 inch of water; bake at 350 F for 45-60 minutes, until tender (check with a fork as baking time will depend on pumpkin size). I pureed the cooked pumpkin in a food processor. 

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup
from Gourmet

Makes about 9 cups

Three 15 1/2 ounce cans black beans (about 4 1/2 cups), rinsed and drained
1 cup drained canned tomatoes, chopped
1 1/4 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup minced shallot
4 garlic cloves minced
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 T olive oil
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 16-ounce cans pumpkin puree (or about 3 cups of roasted pureed pumpkin)
3 to 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Garnish: crumbled feta cheese

1. Coarsely puree beans and tomatoes in a food processor.
2. In a large soup kettle, saute the onion, shallot, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper in the olive oil over moderate heat. Stir until the onion is softened and beginning to brown. Stir in bean and tomato puree. Then stir in broth and pumpkin, and simmer for about 25 minutes, until think enough to coat the back of a spoon.
3. Stir in vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with feta cheese.

Slow-Cooked White Bean Gratin

[Belated] January Theme: Making Beans, an Efficient Energy Source, Taste Richer Than They Really Are



Upon ringing in 2011 I had lots of new thoughts about the blog; about new recipes to try, and about how to integrate the recipes better with the food policy ideas... and then somehow the whole month of January went by. Mostly somehow sucked up by work. But, moving on. What I want to try to do is have changing umbrella themes or topics that the recipes fall under, and change it month to month.

So even though January is actually over as of today, I DID actually make something to fit into the new plan this month, I'm just super late in posting it, and so am going to pretend it's not quite February yet.





My idea for January was to do some really simple recipes to go along with the clean-slate feeling of a new year, and also tie this back to a past post about the environmental effects of eating meat by showing some satisfying, interesting recipes with one of the most efficient forms of protein that you can use: beans. Plus, beans seem like a good ingredient to use at the start of a new year, when lots of people are resolving to spend less money, because they are so cheap, but can be really good when played-up.

But beans can seem kind of boring. I tried to get around that with this recipe, which requires slow-cooking the beans to make them tender and more flavorful than usual, and then putting them in a gratin, which makes the white beans taste surprisingly rich, and like a dish in and of themselves.





Slow-Cooked White Bean Gratin
Adapted from Gourmet

1 pound (2.5 C) dried white beans
4 cups onions, chopped
5-6 cloves garlic, peeled
2-3 sprigs rosemary
10 C water
1 bay leaf
1 T salt
2 carrots, diced
1 T olive oil
3 t white wine vinegar
1 T garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to season
1 C bread crumbs (I used whole wheat)
1/2 C Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 C Gruyere cheese, grated

1. Put beans, water, rosemary, bay leaf, and garlic in 5-quart heavy pot. Cover and slowly bring to a simmer over low heat, which will take about one hour. Then simmer beans until tender but not mushy, about 35-45 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool, covered, for about 15 minutes.
2. Drain almost all cooking liquid from beans but while reserving cooking liquid. Discard rosemary sprigs and bay leaf and mash any intact garlic cloves into beans. Add salt.
3. In a saute pan, use 1 T olive oil and saute chopped onions, garlic, and carrots for 10-15 minutes, until tender.
4. Combine 1 C of cooked beans, 1.5 C of left-over cooking liquid, 1 T olive oil, white wine vinegar, and salt to taste in a blender or food processor and puree. In large bowl, stir puree into remaining whole beans, and then add in onions, garlic, and carrot mixture. Pour mixture into 3-quart baking dish or other shallow baking dish.
5. In small bowl, mix together bread crumbs, Gruyere, and Parmesan, and sprinkle over gratin. Bake gratin at 425 degrees F until top is browned, about 20 minutes.

Simple Noodles with Almond Butter

This is a recipe for a very specific type of evening: when you don't have much time to cook, or go to the grocery store, or are having a spur-of-the-moment desire for some really satisfying noodles made with the least effort possible.

I stole the basic idea for this from a co-worker, and it got me thinking about how it's interesting to learn what people who like to cook make when they're pressed for time/energy/money. You can still make some really interesting dishes, and sometimes it's nice to eat something very simple like this.

The ingredients for this dish are (relatively) inexpensive, especially after you make it the first time and have everything on hand. One of the things I'm going to try and write about from time to time are inexpensive recipes that still have a lot of interesting elements and are made out of natural/whole ingredients.

Crucial for its categorization as a last-minute simple dish, this is also a recipe that can be made from entirely non-perishable ingredients (if you use frozen vegetables), so I like to have these ingredients around so I can make it whenever I think of it.

Lastly, it's good either hot or cold!



Simple Noodles with Almond Butter

1/3 C almond butter
2 t soy sauce
8 ounces of soba noodles (whole wheat pasta would also work)
1/3 t chili powder
1/3 t ginger powder
2 C vegetables (I used frozen shelled edamame*, but peas or broccoli would also be good)

1. Boil water and cook the pasta per package instructions. Once tender, drain and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, mix the almond butter, soy sauce, chili powder, and ginger powder. You might have to mash the almond butter a little to get it all to mix together.

3. If using frozen vegetables, microwave or steam them so that they are warm.

4. Mix the noodles, vegetables, and almond butter mixture.

* sold at Whole Foods