http://www.pcta.org/test-contest

Homemade Doggie Treats--Keep in Freezer!

 These  are not super recipe specific, in fact I don't think I used even a measuring cup for any of this. I realize that this will make the recipe semi- hard to follow so I'm adding lots of pictures to get you through it.

Don't Panic--every batch of these that I made have come out great and my dogs drool over them every time!

 KEEP THESE IN THE FREEZER!


THEY WILL MOLD IF LEFT ON THE COUNTER BECAUSE THERE ARE NO PRESERVATIVES!


Here is a good time for my disclaimer: I am not a vet, I am not an animal expert, your pet may have allergies to some of these ingredients and your pet may get diarrhea from these--its a new food and it could happen! Before you try this recipe or add in other ingredients to "switch it up a bit"--research it and make sure it's not going to poisonous for your pet!



But listed above are the ingredients that I used:

• CREAMY peanut butter
• Rolled Oats-can be quick or not, just plain and no added ingredients to them!
• Whole Wheat Flour
• Flax seed meal
• Bananas-I wait to make these until my bananas are a little brown, but you could also use them perfectly yellow as well. I just like using recipes like this instead of throwing them out :)
• Egg
• Chopped up carrots (or sweet potatoes) I like cutting up a whole bunch and then freezing them, this way when my bananas are ready for this recipe and I just pull them out and use them

 So for this batch I used 3 bananas and smashed them up really good like in the picture below...

 Next comes the Flaxseed meal...this isn't precise so this is a palm of it, it could PROBABLY equal out to be about a 1 tablespoon-2 tablespoons worth

 This is my frozen bag of carrots, I also do the same thing with sweet potatoes (which the puppies also love!)

 Again, not exact..just use a hand full. You can also chop these up a lot finer than I did, I just did a quick chop chop on some baby carrots

 I added an egg at this point then used about a 1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter, or just about this much

 Next is the rolled oats, again about a handful.  The picture on the middle below is all of the ingredients except for the flour....

 So here is the tricky part....cover all of the listed above ingredients with flour :) That's pretty exact and to the point huh. Don't worry....you got this!!

 So I like mixing things with my hands, but this gets a little sticky so I throw on one of my medical gloves I keep in the kitchen at all times (comes in handy when I have to cut things like jalapenos!)

 See what I mean.....STICKY!!!! So here is where you keep adding more flour until it looks like the picture below or when you can stick your finger in it and it isn't sticky anymore.

 Now take it out and roll it so it's about 1/4"-1/2" thick with a rolling pin. I splurged one day and bought some actual doggie biscuit cookie cutters. Here is what they will look like.

If you don't have these, you know those Christmas cookie cutters you only use once a year....ya, go get em and they will be PERFECT for this! Trust me, your beloved pet won't care.
If you don't have a cookie cutter, get one of our cups (the ones you drink out of) turn it around and use it as a round cut out :)

 Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha I totally tricked you into looking at my adorable puppies with this recipe! :) The left is Bella and the right is Harley (my spoiled babies both waiting for treats!)

Ok now that you have cut out all of your dough, SPRAY a pan with PAM. Then put on your treats, they can be pretty close because they don't expand!

 Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes....or until you turn them upside down and they are light brown.

LET THEM COOL before you put them in a jar, this is a LARGE pickle jar that I re-purposed for my treats and this is 1 batch of this recipe. Makes a bunch and SO much cheaper than buying treats at the store and you know EXACTLY what goes in it. :)

Backyard Party: a mesh of design ideas

I have been obsessing about throwing a backyard vintage style picnic party the last week or so (SO glad my semester is done and I can do what I want for the summer!). So here is the place I'm going to post a bunch of links for craft ideas for this party I will hopefully get planned and put together by the end of May.

While I was on Pinterest I came across these lovely homemade paper bag flowers
http://alotlikemartha.blogspot.com/2011/03/hanging-paper-flowers.html
http://blog.hwtm.com/2011/07/diy-tutorial-brown-paper-bag-stars/

As for a table (I have chairs, but no table yet) I want to make this lovely piece of furniture:

Don't worry that this is the end of this post so far...I'm looking for more goodies to post on here so I can better organize my ideas and thoughts :)

Did you know you can OPT OUT of getting the YELLOW PAGES??

I was totally excited when I came across another blog that told me that I could opt out of receiving the yellow pages, not only do most of these phones books go unused but they usually don't get recycled which is a total waste!

So here is the run down of this website opt out business:
  1. you have to create a quick account (name, address, e-mail)
  2. check your e-mail and log back into site as a registered user
  3. Choose which books you would like to continue receiving or opt out of all of them.

It took me about 5 minutes and was pretty harmless and makes me excited knowing I won't have these sitting on my porch anymore waiting to be shredded for RSL celebrations or thrown back into the recycling bin.

Here is the website:  https://www.yellowpagesoptout.com/     

What essential oil should I use??

Ever wonder which essential oils to use for what? Here is a small breakdown of a list I put together when I was in Massage Therapy school that I have found pretty helpful over the years. 

Which scents do you like best? I'm definitely a citrus lover :) 

 

Immune System

*Anti-viral- bergamot, black pepper, eucalyptus, grapefruit, lavender, rosemary, tea tree

*Anti-fungal- cedar wood, pine, tea tree

*Anti-Bacterial-bergamot, black pepper, eucalyptus, geranium, juniper, lavender, lemon, marjoram, rosemary and tea tree

*Detoxifying- lemon, grapefruit, juniper, marjoram, orange, rosemary

*Expectorant- black pepper, eucalyptus, ginger, juniper, pine, rosemary, tea tree

*Immuno-Stimulant- eucalyptus, lavender, lemon, tea tree, vetiver

*Respiratory- cedarwood, cypress, eucalyptus, pine, rosemary

Sports/Athletes

*Analgesic- black pepper, ginger, lavender, marjoram, rosemary, tea tree

*Anti-inflammatory- clary sage, lavender, tea tree

*Clear mind/Stimulate Mental Activity- ginger, grapefruit, rosemary

*Scar tissue- cypress, lemon, lavender

*Muscle Tone- black pepper, juniper, rosemary

*Muscle Relaxant-clary sage, lavender, marjoram, pine, vetiver

*Vasoconstrictor (POST event) constricts blood vessels- cypress

*Vasodilator (PRE or during event) dilates blood vessels- marjoram

*Stimulate body/increase energy- black pepper, ginger, pine, rosemary, eucalyptus, cedar wood

Well Being and Stress Relief

*Anti-depressant- bergamot, clary sage, geranium, grapefruit, lavender, lemon, orange

*Calmative-bergamot, cypress, grapefruit, lavender, lemon, orange

*Emotional Crisis Calmative-bergamot, clary sage, cypress, geranium, lavender

*Stress/Anxiety Reducer- black pepper, clary sage, marjoram, vetiver

*Stimulate adrenal glands-geranium, pine, rosemary

Head Aches

*Analgesic- black pepper, ginger, lavender, marjoram, rosemary, tea tree

*Calmative- bergamot, cypress, grapefruit, lavender, lemon, orange

*Clear mind/Stimulate Mental- ginger, grapefruit, rosemary

*Detox- lemon, grapefruit, juniper, marjoram, orange, rosemary

*Stress/Anxiety Reducer- black pepper

Homemade Orange Vinegar Cleaner

This post gets the extra big photo because it made me utterly and completely gitty with joy!

My dad was sent home with a box of oranges from my grandma, most of them were pretty soft. So I offered my dad to juice them for him (he was feeling sick at the time and needed a little boost of Vitamin C anyway). 

Upon arriving home it dawned on me how much use I could get out of these little orange jems, so I peel all the oranges, putting the peels in some empty mason jars I had to which I would later add vinegar to and make an all-purpose cleaner. Then the juice went to my dad and of course I had to steal some because it was so yummy. Then the compost from the juicing went out into the garden.

I was so excited that I could be so eco-friendly with just a box of soft oranges that most people would of just thrown away. ahhhhh, I love this!

How do you go about making the cleaner, it's SUPER simple. Peel oranges (lemons will work too), put peels in a container, cover completely with plain ordinary white vinegar (you can use apple-cider if you want) then put a lid on and let it sit for 4-6 weeks.

After that, pour it into a spray bottle (I got mine at the Dollar Store) then fill the rest with water. Simple, easy peasy, all-purpose, no harsh chemical cleaner :)   

Ezema and Psorosis Cream

 I came across this recipe through Facebook and actually have all of the iningredients to make it at home with week after my finals are all done. 
I got this recipe from "Lovely Greens", check out the website here:
http://www.lovelygreens.com/2012/05/handmade-healing-cream-for-eczema-and.html 

Here is the recipe---looks like you will want a scale for this! 

Neem Cream
Makes one 110g pot

10g* /0.35oz* Neem oil (raw and cold-pressed)
40g /1.41oz Shea Butter
30g /1.06oz Cocoa Butter
20g /0.70oz Castor oil
10g /0.35oz Sweet Almond oil
5 drops of Tea Tree essential oil (optional)
5 drops of Lavender essential oil (optional)

*Note - 10g of Neem oil will result in quite a strong smelling and acting lotion. If you'd prefer, you can reduce the amount by half to 5g to mask the smell and create a gentler cream. It's also possible to add more than 10g of Neem oil to this recipe but please test your cream on a small part of your infected skin before using it all over. Neem can be quite strong and if it's placed on the skin undiluted it's possible that it can cause contact dermatitis.1. Take all the ingredients except for the essential oils and place them into a double-boiler. You can also place them in a plastic bowl which can be floated in a pan of hot water. The point is that you want to heat the oils evenly and through an indirect heat source.2. Melt the oils over a medium heat until they are completely liquid. Stir well and place the bowl in the freezer for five minutes.

3. Take the bowl out and beat it with a whisk, adding the essential oils in at this time if you've opted to have them in. These fragrances will help mask the scent of the Neem and are both ingredients that will help inflamed skin. Lavender essential oil is extremely soothing and anti-inflammatory and Tea Tree essential oil is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-microbial as well as having a soothing medicinal scent.

4. Make sure to scrape any oil that's hardened along the edge of the bowl back down into the liquid oils then place the bowl back in the freezer for another five minutes - then take it out and beat it again. Repeat this process until the oils appear opaque and creamy then spoon it into a container which is fitted with a lid. You can use the cream after it's set for about a day.