Numi Blooming Tea

Numi Flowering Tea- Flower Jewel's tender white tea is crowned by a bright.......READ MORE.

herbal honey candy/cough drops

We made herbal candy (medicinal drops) for the first time last week. Little bit challenging I must admit, but fun and tasty! Our candy was basically a peppermint candy with a bit of beebalm, thyme, and sage added for a cold fighting punch......READ MORE for the recipe.

vegetarian tortilla soup

Another soup to open up those sinuses. For the recipe- READ MORE.

Homemade Popsicles

We have been obsessed with homemade popsicles this summer. We are experimenting with every herb/juice combination possible. We don't have any of those fancy popsicle molds so we made do with what we had- good ol' ice cube trays, parchment paper and craft sticks. The set up is pretty self-explanatory.

Here are some of our favorite flavors:

Strawberry Lemonade Lavender: strawberry lemonade and a sprinkle of lavender buds per pop then freeze.

Orange mint: orange juice with 1 peppermint leaf per pop. These have a lovely refreshing taste (my favorite).

Super Healthy Smoothy: equal parts soy milk and orange juice, 1 T nutritional yeast, 2 T flax seeds, 2 T wheat bran, 2 C soy yogurt (plain), 1 bag mixed frozen berries, and a banana. Blend together then put in pop trays and freeze. These pops are the Little Ladies' favorite!

Watermelon Raspberry: 2 C watermelon, 1/2 C raspberries, 1 C orange juice; blend, then freeze.

Sparkling Lavender: 2 cups sparkling water and 1/3 cup lavender (or other flavored) syrup. Mix, stir until syrup dissolves in the water and freeze.

Lavender Lemonade Elderflower: 2 cups water, 1/4 cup lavender syrup (or honey), juice of 3 small lemons, elderflowers. Mix, stir until syrup dissolves and freeze, sprinkle elderflowers on top of each pop before freezing.

Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey: 2 C soy milk, 1 C peanut butter, 1/3 C honey and 1 banana; blend, then freeze.

Rootbeer Float: 1 bottle of rootbeer and 1 C vanilla soy ice cream; blend, then freeze.

Coffee Pops: For the mommies like myself that need a refreshing cool boost; Fauna actually suggested this pop idea! My favorite is Bali Blue Moon coffee and soy milk, mix, then freeze. YUM!!!! Visit MUS, from the Netherlands; she made some beautiful flowery pops. Enjoy!!!!

Easy Dandelion Cookies

Dandelion flowers, as well as the greens, are extremely nutritious and have none of the bitterness of dandelion leaves if you pinch off the green bracts at the base of the flower cluster. Visit Wildman Steve Brill to learn all about the nutritional facts of dandelions (and other wild edibles).


Tips for Removing Florets:

For this recipe you need to remove the florets from their base. Hold the florets with one hand and pinch the green flower base very hard with the other, give a little twist and that should do it.

Dandelion Flower Cookies

1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup dry oatmeal
1/2 cup dandelion florets

Preheat oven to 375°F. Blend oil and honey and beat in the two eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, oatmeal and dandelion florets. Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes. Let cool and eat. Yum and so easy to make!


For more dandelion goodness visit dandelion syrup, dandelion prints and beautiful pollinators.

Beautiful Blogging Friends

The girls and I had been studying dandelions today and was I going to post all about it until....(1)the mail came and (2)I read a comment from the Wild Violet Tea post. I have such warm feelings in my heart that I chose to blog all about some great blogging friends that I really ADORE!!!!

First, I received this comment today from Artistmama at Chocolate Eyes, "I posted some pics of the felt mobile & wall hanging I made for the baby. Thanks so much for the inspiration! It was so fun." I went to her site and found this ADORABLE mobile and BEAUTIFUL wall hanging; she made them for her baby boy which she is expecting at the end of June. I am really in love with how she took something which inspired her and made it her own. I especially love the hedgehog in the mobile!

Photos by Artistmama at Chocolate Eyes

Then, as I mentioned before, the postman delivered us two LOVELY packages. One package was a complete surprise. Sunny J from Sunny's little blog made us a beautiful little felt flower. What a very kind, generous and sweet little girl. She did a beautiful job on the flower!


With the flower we also received 3:15 pm Milk Tea and All Natural Sun Drops from Sunny J, Prime and Dong Dong ( Adventure of J and Prime). Dong Dong had mentioned that her children loved milk tea, I didn't even know what that was, until today!


We had to make some straight away! The 3:15 Milk Tea has a very different taste for us. Its ingredients include black tea, non-dairy creamer and rosehip extract. It has a sweet, rosey smell and taste. You make it exactly like you would make a cup of tea.


The Little Ladies loved the milk tea and the peanuts. Thank you so much Dong Dong, J and Prime for the surprise goodies! It really made our day and it was fun trying something new!



Also, another package in the mail today for us, from Willo at Green Gracious. This super cute panda is made out of bamboo! How cool is that? He is from the My Natural Bamboo Collection and is being sold at Barnes and Nobles. Willo's got a great blog all about being green in easy and practical ways. She has great giveaways you don't want to miss as well! Thank you Willo, we love him (and of course the girls named him Bamboo).

Make a visit to these lovely blogs written by these beautiful people and tell them Lisa sent ya!

Candied Edible Flowers

Today was a very wet and chilly day. We really needed a pick-up and needed to do something springy. We went outside for a little fresh air and noticed our wild violets were in bloom. We picked some to candy.

We also picked Johnny Jump Ups, pansies and geraniums.

To candy your petals you need egg whites (the freshest you can get), fine sugar, edible flowers, parchment paper and paint brushes.

Dip the paint brush in the egg white and coat the flowers.

Dip the flowers in the sugar until they are evenly coated.

Place the flowers on a sheet of parchment paper until they are dry (about an hour). Place the flowers in a container and put in the refrigerator until ready for use.


Fauna likes the candied geraniums the best.

Araina likes the violets.

Make sure you have positively identified the flowers before eating them, many flowers are not meant to be consumed. Also, just because a flower petal is edible, the leaves or roots may not be. For a great resource and list of edible flowers visit What's Cooking America.

14 Things to Do with Orange Peels

I have been noticing lately that the orange peels in the house seem to be multiplying....I find them in practically every room in the house! Here is a pile I found in the kitchen:

And in the family room:

Luckily, I didn't find any in the bathroom!

So, what do we do with all of these orange peels? I am trying to decrease our landfill contribution so we researched and found some clever things to do. We also found that scientists are finding ways to use limonene, the phytochemical found in orange peels. Limonene makes up 95% of the essential oil in all citrus fruits. Scientists are also finding ways to make ethanol from the limonene and are finding that limonene has anti-cancer effects. You can learn more about the benefits of limonene here- http://vickids.tamu.edu/nutrition/phytext.pdf. Another beneficial thing nature has provided us!

Here are some things you can do:

1. Make salad dressing: place orange peels and cranberries in a good qualitly olive oil, close up with a cork and let sit. It should be ready for salad in a few weeks.

2. Throw a few peels down the garbage disposal....it's a great deoderizer. Don't use too much, however, I have broken a disposal this way!

3. Use a zester to produce yummy orange zest. Bottle it up, it keeps in the fridge for about a week, or put it in the freezer to keep longer. Sprinkle it into your favorite sugar cookie recipe or on vanilla ice cream, it's also good in sauces, soups and salads!

4. Dry the orange peels using a food dehydrater, or in a warm sunny spot for a few days, place the peels in a cloth bag and put in your closet and cupboards to keep them smelling fresh.

5. Puree the orange peel in water to make a spray that will discourage ants from crossing.

6. Flies and mosquitos don't like orange either. Small piles of zest will help discourage these pests without the use of pesticides! This could really come in handy on a picnic.

7. Simmer peels in water, add a pinch or two of cloves and a cinnamon stick for a wonderful fragrance for your home. Actually, this will help clean the air from airborne cold and flu germs! I do this through the entire winter season!

8. Dried orange peel makes a great firestarter due to the highly flammable limonene.

9. Candy the orange peels. For the recipe and a beautiful tutorial how click here- http://userealbutter.com/2007/10/09/candied-orange-peels/.

10. Put the peels around your houseplants to keep the kitties out of the dirt.

11. Make orange sugar by placing clean peels in a jar of sugar. This is tasty in a hot cup of tea.

13. Place a peel in your brown sugar to keep it soft.

14. Make your own orange oil extract, which can be used for many homemade cleaning products:

-Put orange peels in a glass jar with grain alcohol (we used vodka)

-Let the peels soak in the vodka for about 3 weeks, shake vigorously for a few minutes every few days.

- Strain out the peel and put the liquid into a dark container, store in a cool place

***Add your homemade orange extract to white vinegar for a great degreaser, window cleaner and countertop cleaner.

Now the little ladies have a special place in the kitchen to put these very useful gifts from nature. Hopefully, I won't be finding them all over the house anymore! =)

Cuties!

My girls cannot resist these scrumptious, juicy bits of sunshine. They eat them like candy and go through a whole container in a couple of days!

All I can say is YUMMY!

Ooh, the simple things in life!