Monday’s Guests- Treats for body and soul

Fresh Ginger Blood Orange

This Monday, we are sharing some excellent tips for summer that are brought to you by Strawberry Hedgehog. I came across this blog, Strawberry Hedgehog: Musings of a Vegan Crafter, a few weeks ago and can’t stop going back to get more recipes, DIY projects and soap!

Tracy Perkins, is the owner of her own little bath and body company in Arizona. What makes her products special is that they are plant based and free of the toxins commonly found in the mainstream counterpart. She writes about her ingredients, why she selects them and how to use them. She also gives recipes of the some best looking vegan treats I have ever seen. In fact, I had trouble just picking one to post for you! Lucky for us, we can go to Strawberry Hedgehog and check out her many posts on her beautifully crafted vegan soap and tasty vegan recipes!
Below are two posts from Tracy that we think you will enjoy: Frozen Chocolate Peanut Butter Bites and 3 Uses for Coffee that Your Skin Will Love. Both are really quick and easy for that perfect pick me up. For more information or to order soap, please check out her online shop.

Reposted with permission from http://strawberryhedgehog.com/

frozen chocolate-peanut butter banana bites

March 22 2009

If you read this blog or know me at all you know I am a fiend for chocolate with peanut butter. I constantly check the Newman’s Own dark chocolate peanut butter cups ingredients to see if they’ve finally come to their senses and omitted dairy from their recipe. I adore Uncle Eddie’s chocolate chip peanut butter cookies and I cannot get enough of the dark chocolate peanut butter by Peanut Butter and Co. My wonderful friend, Kelly, and my super awesome brother in law, Aron, came over today to help us out (thanks, guys!!). They worked hard helping us pull weeds and get our yard in shape and to repay them I made them lunch. After lunch Kelly suggested we make one of our friend, Beth’s, excellent easy recipes. I just so happened to have the simple three ingredients necessary and so we made frozen chocolate-peanut butter banana bites for dessert! Perfect for a warm day working in the yard or really any time at all!

frozen chocolate-peanut butter banana bites
2 bananas
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
chunky natural peanut butter

Put some tinfoil or wax paper out on a plate. Microwave the chocolate in a pyrex cup for about a minute and stir vigorously until smooth (or you can use a double boiler). Slice the bananas into ~1 inch slices, put a dollup of peanut butter on top to cover the top of the banana slice and then drizzle, or if you like more chocolate like I do, glop some chocolate on top. Put them in the freezer for a while, they are great when they are just cold if you are impatient as the chocolate firms up almost immediately but they are also wonderful completely frozen. Beth has the best ideas! Hooray for brilliant friends who love food as much as I do.

thursday, september 25, 2008



3 uses for coffee your skin will love

Thursday, september 25, 2008

It’s not just for drinking, folks! Whether you’re a coffee drinker or not you can benefit from the healthful (that’s right, healthful!) perks of coffee. For years coffee had a bad rep for having negative health effects but those days are gone! Now we recognize that the delicious flavor and caffeine buzz are not all bad and that in moderation it can do us loads of good.

“Coffee appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout, but it increases the risk of acid reflux and associated diseases. Some health effects of coffee are due to its caffeine content, as the benefits are only observed in those who drink caffeinated coffee, while others appear to be due to other components. For example, the antioxidants in coffee prevent free radicals from causing cell damage.” from wikipedia

Coffee has made its way into cosmetics in the recent years for its hefty caffeine content. Caffeine is purported to have all sorts of advantageous effects on the skin from tightening, increasing circulation, and defeating every woman’s arch nemesis, cellulite. The three ways you can pep up your morning with coffee, without drinking a drop are by using them on your skin!

1. Perk up the AM shower with coffee infused soap.

Coffee grounds are amazing at removing stubborn scents like garlic or onion on your hands where nothing else will work. They are also an amazing natural exfoliant making these bars super scrubby and leaving your skin soft and rejuvenated. Plus the scents of vanilla, chocolate, hazlenut, and coffee in the tan colored mochaccino will bring you comfort while the uplifting scents of citrus and mint along with coffee in the mintaccino will brighten your mood and boost your energy.
The set is no longer available but mintaccino is sold year round atstrawberryhedgehog.com..

2. Make your own coffee scrub to exfoliate, soften, and improve circulation.


homemade coffee scrub

1 part coffee grounds (freshly ground or immediately after brewing)
1 part raw sugar
1 part vegetable based oil
* optional essential oil or extract

Mix the coffee grounds with the raw turbinado sugar to create the coarse base for your scrub then add enough oil to saturate your mix. You can use any type of vegetable based oil you have on hand. Once blended together you can use this in the shower on damp skin by applying it in circular motions toward the heart, focusing particularly on cellulite or rough patches. This is ridiculously good fun but it makes quite a mess so be prepared to do a serious rinse of your shower when you’re done and laughing maniacally while you rub coffee all over your body is good for the spirit. :c) Rinse completely and pat dry.

3. Make your own coffee-cocoa face mask.

coffee-cocoa face mask

1 part finely ground coffee
1 part cocoa powder
1 part ground oats
2 parts almond milk

Tighten pores, soften skin, and boost circulation with a simple coffee mask. Put the cocoa, ground coffee, and oats in the coffee grinder until as fine as possible. In a bowl mix the powders with the almond milk. Apply it to clean skin on your face and allow it to sit for 10-15 minutes. Rinse off with warm water and a wash cloth. This will stain your clothing and towels so be careful. :c)

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