Quick & Easy Gifts From My Kitchen....

I love to make pampering gifts like my body butter for my friends. With all the cold weather outside and heaters working overtime inside a little bit of pampering can go a long way to keeping your skin healthy. This is a perfect time of year to spend a little bit of time to make personalized gifts for those special friends in your life.

Thanks to the wisdom of Cheryl Harris, I realize that I also need to take a little time for me so that I can be there for the people I love.

Cheryl hosts a December Sanity Retreat on her blog. My dear blogger friend Shirley of Gluten Free Easily introduced me to Cheryl's blog a couple of years ago. I did a post about it at the time. Please  check out Cheryl's blog, she's switching things up a bit this year with guest bloggers and has links to previous years' posts, I bet there will be something that speaks to your heart.

Taking a quiet afternoon to make with a hot cup of tea and happy noise in the background (and then actually setting aside a jar or two for myself) made the time feel indulgent, rather than stressful. How much more relaxing does that sound than running to a mall and running all over trying to find things your loved ones may or may not be able to use?

My goal these last few days before Christmas is to be mindful to avoid stress and find time to relax while caring for the people I love. Each day between now and Christmas is a little more booked than the last so I need to find time in each day for the things that count. For me that means Bible devotional time, getting moving and eating wisely to stay healthy. I have a great devotional app and am enjoying Advent messages through She Reads Truth. Moving is easy when you live with a dog so I'm trying to up our walks. Being outside is always good for me and the weather has been cooperating more days than not. Eating wisely is just that - no diets or deprivation at all. Just making good choices so I don't get glutened or get too much sugar which also causes issues for me.

So now to our gifts, since the ingredients overlap, it's easy to get everything out and make all three recipes, if you want to, in less than two hours including computer time for the labels.

Avery Labels are a great, easy and economical way to dress up your gift. Avery.com has lots of cute designs you can personalize with your own text. It took just a couple of minutes to find the cute bee design and customize each version. I bought my labels years ago and just print up a sheet with a different label with each batch.

I like to use four ounce ball jars for the scrubs and body butter. It's a nice size to give and a handy size to reuse. However, for those gifts I ship I have been using plastic. The PET plastic bottles and jars are easy to find online or at most any health food store that stocks essential oils. This time I used a couple of sturdy Rubbermaid containers for shipping that I had purchased for my last batch. I'm switching over to glass and PET as I go.

My beauty/body care supplies and tools are kept separate from my other pans and immersion blender. Getting melted beeswax and oil scented with lavender off can be a struggle. Having inexpensive doubles and keeping everything in a box together makes making so much easier.

There are a lot of quality essential oils to choose from. My own box of oils has Young Living, Plant Therapy and Florihana. You can use whichever you enjoy but for these projects Florihana was my choice. I buy them through Tropical Traditions, my favorite coconut company. Florihana's Bergamot is Bergapten free, meaning it isn't photo toxic. Most citrus oils are photo toxic, meaning you shouldn't use them on skin that is exposed to the sun, you may get patchy brown splotches. Citrus oils are a great choice for a hand cleanser/sanitizer making Florihana's Bergamot my first choice.

This is a great gift for a friend with littles to throw in their diaper bag. It literally takes five minutes to put this together, including attaching your labels. The recipe below is safe for young children but can be used by adults. If you aren't using it for small ones, go ahead and add up to double the essential oils.

Bergamot and Lavender Hand Cleanser/Sanitizer

1 2 ounce Pet Bottle with dispenser top

Aloe Vera Gel
9 drops Bergamot Essential Oil
1 drop  Lavender Essential Oil

Pour Aloe Vera Gel into clean Pet Bottle almost to the top, leaving room for your oils. Add the essential oils drop by drop right into the bottle.

Make a cute label and attach. I like to use clear packing tape over the label on these bottles to keep it attached and looking good.

I like to use mine (double strength) after leaving a store before getting into my car or in a public restroom that has awful soap (pink soap with scents and dye cause reactions for me). In that case I rinse and scrub my hands in hot water, dry and then rub in a squirt of my hand cleanser.

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A sugar scrub is wonderful to get the dry patches off and reveal smoother skin underneath. You can substitute Olive oil for the Avocado oil. An easy way to measure the liquid oil and the solid coconut oil is to pour one cup of the Avocado oil into a two cup measure and scoop enough coconut oil into to reach two cups. Frankincense and Myrrh were an obvious Christmas combination but you can certainly substitute oils you prefer one to one.

Golden Frankincense & Myrrh Sugar Scrub

3 Cups Organic Sugar (or more if you like)
1 Cup Coconut Oil
1 Cup Avocado Oil
1 teaspoonVanilla Bean Powder
30 Drops Frankincense Essential Oil
10 Drops Myrrh Essential Oil
Containers

Pour everything into a glass or metal mixing bowl and combine. If you like a more dry sugar scrub feel free to add a bit more sugar in 1/4 cup increments. Mash up the solid coconut oil with the back of your spoon or with an immersion mixer.

Pour into jars and put the lids on and then label. You will probably get about eight four ounce jars or more depending on how much sugar you added.

They are a admittedly a bit more beige than golden, but humor me so the name works!

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Body butters save my skin this time of year. This one, is one I've been making for ages. I love it and it works well but I wanted a more simple version. One that had fewer ingredients and no whipping required.

Simple Hand and Body Butter

1/2 cup Organic Beeswax Pearls
1 cup Coconut Oil
1 cup Avocado Oil
1 teaspoon Lavender Essential Oil
Containers

Pour everything but your Lavender Essential Oil into your pot and let melt slowly over low heat. While everything is melting I measure the Lavender Essential and pour it into one of the small jars. Stir to mix and once everything is combined turn off heat and pour the Lavender Essential Oil into the mixture. Stir again to combine and pour into your jars. Depending on the sizes you use, you will have about five four ounce jars.

Let cool completely before putting the lids on. Put on your label and you're done! Easy Peasy.

I spent more time at the post office today standing in line to ship some than I did making any one recipe.

When I use the sugar scrub I rinse well at pat dry. Rubbing in a little of the hand and body butter afterwards will keep your skin soft and glowing. Try the combination on your hands at night before bed, you should wake with nice, soft hands.

Wishing you a peaceful and relaxed holiday season so you can focus on what's important to you.

Happily shared on Gluten Free Wednesdays, thanks one last time Shirley! You are the best!!

Friday Find - Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay

Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay is 100% Natural Calcium Bentonite Clay. It's an inexpensive facial that really works for me. My friend Laura blogged about it a while back which reminded me to get back in the routine of using it. While I will never have Laura's amazing complexion, I am noticing a huge difference now that I'm using it regularly. It seems to even help with my Rosacea. A couple of times a week I slather some on and let it dry until I look like Yoda. After rinsing my skin glows. It's another awesome naturally gluten free beauty find.

Laura also uses it for bug bites and while we haven't had an "opportunity" to try it for that use I am hopeful it will work well.

Chris thinks it's hysterical every time I use it and asked for a picture this morning. So, because I have no pride, I am sharing our self portrait with you. You may not be able to tell but I'm smiling as big as I can. =D

Have a wonderful weekend.

Friday Find - The Yellow Stick

After several years of living gluten free I rarely think twice about a lot of the foods we eat and the products I use. I've realized though, that if you're newly gluten free or love someone who is gluten free some of these things may be new to you and it may be helpful to post them.

So I'll start featuring a product each Friday that I love with a quick and simple post. The first one is Cococare's The Yellow Stick. It's a pure cocoa butter stick with nothing added. I've got one next to my nightstand, one in my bag and one on the bathroom counter. You can use it as a lip balm or skin moisturizer - just rub it over your dry skin and it melts right in leaving your skin so soft.  The best part? It smells like like chocolate as you apply it. I worried the cap might come off and make a mess in my bag but after about a year it has never happened.

If you click on the link you'll be taken to The Yellow Stick at iHerb.com which is where I buy many of my supplements. Their prices are great and their service has always been wonderful. (So that makes two tips today!)

Have a great weekend!

All Natural Body Butter

This thick, nourishing body butter is great for dry chapped winter skin. Yes, I know the calendar says autumn has barely begun but we've had a cold snap already.  Between the heater and the dry colder weather my skin is really feeling it

I wanted a nice protective layer of moisture so I used lots of beeswax and I added cocoa butter not only for its shielding quality but for its vitamin e content – it’s a natural anti-oxidant. Coconut oil has so many wonderful qualities and olive oil has long been valued for skin and hair care.  The finished butter will have a faint smell of cocoa butter and beeswax which I like but you can scent it with essential oils.  I used about seven drops of lavender for just a hint of scent.  Lavender is known for being relaxing which is always a good thing for me. 

This would be such a great gift wrapped with a pretty ribbon.  I used two wide mouth short mason jars and two repurposed plastic jars that were washed and dried carefully.

The process is really easy. The only trick is pouring everything into your containers before it starts to harden which will happen rather quickly because of the quantity of the beeswax.

You can melt the wax and oils one of three ways.  You can use a microwave but I don’t own one any longer so I can’t give you the timing.  If you choose to use one use very short amounts of time and stir between reheating. You can use a double boiler over low heat if you have one or you can do what I did and use a very heavy bottomed pan over very low heat.

All Natural Body Butter

¼ pound all natural beeswax, chopped

½ cup coconut oil

1 cup olive oil

1 Tablespoon cocoa butter

½ cup water

essential oil, optional

In a heavy bottomed pan over very low heat place the chopped beeswax, coconut oil and olive oil. Stir to combine until wax is just melted.  Remove from heat.  With an immersion blender (or spoon) mix the butter quickly while slowly drizzling in the water. If you don’t have an immersion blender I would recommend warming the water slightly so your mixture doesn’t clump.  If it does, just set it on the warm burner to soften a bit. Add essential oil now, if desired. The mixture will begin to thicken very quickly. 

Use a spatula to scrape down the mixture into your prepared jars and let cool completely before putting the lids on.

Enjoy!

Getting out of the kitchen for a moment. . .

If you are new to gluten free living you are probably much more concerned about eating safely than your current beauty and hygiene products.   And while it is very important to quickly and fully educate yourself about food, I think your personal products are key to successful gluten free living. I also strongly believe that everything that goes in your mouth or on your skin should be additive free and as pure as possible.  It’s taken me a while and I’ve made some mistakes along the way.  Hopefully I can help you avoid doing that.

Remember to always do your own homework to make sure everything you buy is safe.  Recommendations from others are great – you need them – but formulas for can change at any time so read the ingredients every time you purchase a product whether for your kitchen or for personal use.  Many companies now list their ingredients on their websites and you can always call or email to be certain.

Listed below are some of the things I use. I have no ties with any company listed and no doubt there are many other appropriate products available. 

The Basics:  Soap – I use bottles of Dr. Bonner’s Peppermint.  The label is wild but the ingredients are very simple and very pure. 

For skin care beyond soap the easiest gluten free skin care regime may be right in your kitchen.  Baking soda makes a skin softening scrub when mixed with just enough water in the palm of your hand to make a paste.  Massage gently into your skin and rinse well with warm water. Apple cider vinegar diluted with water (50/50 is what I do) is an excellent toner.  Coconut oil makes a great moisturizer.  Just the tiniest bit will do the trick – it works great for my combination skin, too.  It may not be a glamorous spa line but it works well for me.

A dab of olive oil is thicker than coconut oil and relieves chapped hands.  Both coconut and olive oils are great for dry hair as well.  Just a few drops rubbed into the palms of your hands and smoothed through your hair will do the trick.

Toothpaste/Mouthwash – Tom’s of Maine is our favorite brand.  The Tom’s website states that their mouth care items are gluten free.  (Their hand soap and body wash DO contain gluten).  Tom's deodorant is also gf.

Edited 2/21/12 - Because I avoid gluten as well as artificial colors and flavors and lanolin I am especially careful with lip products. I have removed the two products I recommended after reading a listing by the FDA of lipsticks and glosses that contain lead and I can no longer feel confident using them.

When I contacted Honeybee Gardens I found out their entire line of cosmetics with the exception of their hairspray is gluten free.  I recently tried their mascara and love it.

Mineral Fusion is currently my favorite pressed powder – mineral make up has natural sun protection and this brand provides a bit more coverage than most.  I like that I can skip sunscreen when using it as I haven’t found an all natural one I really love yet. According to an email from their customer service department today all their products are gluten free.

So that’s a short list of the few things I use.  If you have any you love please leave a comment.