Lavender Lemonade Popsicles

Lavender Lemonade Popsicles - Healing and Eating

Happy 4th of July! I thought popsicles would be fun today, since it’s so hot. Can you see them melting, crazy fast in the background? My apartment way too hot right now to be taking pictures of frozen dessert. Since I bought a ton of  lavender that I dried awhile back,  and never got around to using, I decided lavender lemonade in a popsicle had awesome dessert potential. Or you could just drink the lemonade instead … whatever makes you happy.

Lavender Lemonade Popsicles
 
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Serves: 10 popsicles
Ingredients
  • handful of dried lavender leaves
  • 1 cup of honey (Creamy Wildflower Honey by Pacifica)
  • 2 cups of water
  • 1¼ cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
  1. Lightly simmer lavender leaves and honey in water for a couple minutes, like tea.
  2. When honey is dissolved, strain out lavender. Then refrigerate.
  3. Squeeze lemons, and set aside.
  4. When lavender simple syrup is cool, add lemon juice.
  5. Then pour into popsicle molds are freeze overnight.
  6. To thaw, run hot water over molds and gently pull them out.
Notes
freeze overnight.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4-6

Carrot and Beet Flax Crackers

Carrot and Beet Flax Crackers - Healing and Eating

I was looking for a way to use my juice pulp, from the beet, carrot, and cucumber juice I made, so I thought a raw flax crackers would be fun to try to make.  I’ve only used flax meal before, so using the whole flax seed, was a different but good. They came out more crispy then just the ground flax meal. I tried to ground the flax in the food processor, but that didn’t work well. For the juice, I used 4-5 beets, a half a bag of carrots and two cucumbers. I’d say that yields me about 4 cups of pulp. In the future I might add more seasoning to the crackers, but for now I’ll plan to eat it with some delicious dip.

Carrot and Beet Flax Crackers
 
Prep time
Cook time
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Serves: 2 sheets
Ingredients
  • 4 cups of juice pulp (carrot, beet, & cucumber)
  • 1.5 cups of golden flax seeds
  • 1 tbsp sea salt
Instructions
  1. Mix pulp and flax seeds in a bowl
  2. Line dehydrator with parchment paper, on two levels for each clean up.
  3. Spread mixture over parchment paper.
  4. Sprinkle with sea salt.
  5. Let turn dehydrator on to 105 degrees fahrenheit, and let it run until it's completely dry, preferably overnight.
  6. Then cut apart crackers with a kitchen scissors.
Notes
Feel free to experiment with spices and/or fresh herbs.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 4-6

Honeymoon Part 1: Monterey

I wanted to share with everyone some of the fun and healthy tourist stuff Shameer and I did on our honeymoon. We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway, and stopped in Santa Barbara for breakfast, then we continued on to Monterey Bay. When we were there, we went to the Aquarium, and did the Jellyfish tour.

Jellyfish - Healing and Eating

The food court at the aquarium had some healthy options. I got a vegan salad from their salad bar and a bunless grass-fed burger, then I put the burger on top of the salad. I also got my own container of water, that was packaged like a small milk carton, instead of plastic, which I thought was pretty cool.

Then on Cannery Row, located right next to the aquarium, we went to Monterey’s Tasty Olive Bar, where you can sample different olive oils and balsamic vinegars infused with herbs. We got a garlic infused olive oil for easy salad dressings and an organic olive oil that tastes like butter. There’s no dairy in it, it’s just herbs, and since I miss butter, I was crazy excited about this. You can buy their stuff online if you like. I think it would make a nice gift for a fellow foodie.

Olive Oil Tasting - Healing and Eating

When we were staying in Monterey, we stayed at a cute B&B called the Old St. Angela Inn. They were very accommodating about my dairy allergy, and made a different breakfast for me in the morning. Plus, it was walking distance to the stores and restaurants down the street.

While we were in Monterey, we drove up to Carmel Valley to taste to the organic wine from Heller Estate.

Heller Estate Tasting - Healing and Eating

Then, we stopped at the Earthbound Farms Organic Farm Stand for lunch. They were small, but they had a lot of good specialty food items, fresh produce, and plenty of outdoor seating.

Earthbound Farm Stand - Healing and Eating

To be continued …