salt

DIY Salad Dressing- Easy and Tasty!

Abby H.

Making Salad Dressing is so easy, and for so long I had no idea.

I love cooking, and I have limited experience making salad dressings.

But with the cost of food rising, I thought I’d give it a shot.

Below is my “template” for making a quick salad dressing, and a few ideas for some tasty dressings.

This recipe makes enough to dress a few salads, but not as much as a full mass-produced bottle. With no preservatives, these sauces will last 7-10 days- if they don’t get eaten sooner.

  • 1/4 cup Olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons neutral oil (Vegetable or canola)
  • 6 tablespoons acid- Citrus juice, vinegar (red wine, champagne, balsamic, rice wine, and apple cider are good choices)
  • 2 tablespoon tablespoons honey or other sweetener (agave, maple)
  • 1 teaspoon emulsifier (Stone ground or Dijon mustard or mayonnaise) 
  • Salt and pepper as needed 
  • Herbs or seasoning as desire

Here are a few of my favorite combinations:

  • Lemon juice, 2 Tablespoons lemon zest, 2 t. powdered ginger, honey, Dijon mustard
  • Red Wine Vinegar, honey, stone ground mustard, 2T. Italian seasoning, 1t. granulated garlic
  • Apple Cider Vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, 1t. granulated garlic

Remember to store these in the fridge after you make them and shake them well before using them!

And if you are looking for some of my favorite salads, here is a great round-up of salad recipes.

Penzey’s: Great Spice Sale!

Abby H.

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I love Penzeys. They have an amazing selection of herbs and spices. And this weekend through March 8, 2020, you can score Joy of Cinnamon pack or the Salt & Pepper time packs for just $5 each, either online or in-store!

In addition to the Regularly $4.69 Arizona Dreaming for only $2 and $2.95 Cracked Rosemary for $1 each they are offering two gift boxes great for introducing new customers to Penzeys for just $5 each! Arizona Dreaming is great on meat, roasted veggies, or in chili.

The regularly $18.95 Joy of Cinnamon Gift Box is fun and is an awesome way to show the difference really good Cinnamons make to life. And the regularly $22.95 Salt & Pepper Time Gift Box  makes a great addition to any kitchen!

And because Penzeys is all about giving back, for every Jar of Penzeys Pepper they sell, even in a discounted offer like this one, another is given to those who feed those in need.

We have a pretty good selection of Penzeys herbs and spices in our cupboard, but I am always adding more when they have deals like these.

 

Talk Back: What are your go-to seasonings?

DIY Tutorial: Bathbombs!

Abby H.
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They turned out pretty good!

In my goodie bag from Wow Summit a few months ago, we all received CBD oil balm from +CBDOil, and I wasn’t really sure what to do with it. It has a coconut oil base, so for me it was too greasy to use as a topical pain relief (I hate having greasy skin, and stuff like Tiger Balm and Ben Gay make my skin crawl). I had been using it as lip balm, but really, I didn’t need that much lip balm.

 

I have a few books on making your own beauty products, so I looked for a recipe for bath balms, as I seemed to recall that they called for oil to bind the other ingredients. I also did a quick internet search. I took 5 recipes and sort of Frankensteined together a really good recipe.

Most of these ingredients you have in your pantry already. Citric Acid (also called sour salt) can be purchased at Sprouts or whole foods in the bulk section, or in a grocery store with a large Jewish Food section. Or, of course… There is Amazon.

I weighed my dry ingredients using a food scale, so these measurements are by weight.

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Ingredients:

  • 4 ounces (by weight) Baking Soda
  • 2 ounces (by weight) Corn Starch
  • 2 ounces (by weight)  Citric Acid
  • 2 ounces (by weight) Salt (You can use Epsom salt, table salt, or Kosher salt)
  • 2 T. Water (more or less make be needed depending on the weather conditions at the time you make the bath bombs)
  • 1 T. +CBDOil Balm (it has peppermint oil in it, so I opted to add no additional essential oil)
  • Optional (but fun): natural food coloring. I used Watkins. Start with a few drops and add more until you get the color you want.

 

Directions:

  1. In a glass bowl, mix all dry ingredients together.
  2. Add balm, and stir until it starts to clump.
  3. Slowly add water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
  4. Add food coloring and stir.
  5. You can either use bath bomb molds like these, but I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup. I packed the cup, let it sit for a few minutes, invert, and gently tap the bottom of the cup until the bomb releases.
  6. Let them sit overnight before using.
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The Finished product, waiting to cure overnight. 

This recipe makes 4-6 bath bombs, depending on how big you make them.

If you don’t want to use CBD Oil, you can substitute coconut oil, and add in 10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil.

A few of my favorite Essential Oil Combinations include:

  • Lavender and Vanilla
  • Orange and Clove
  • Rose and Almond

Talk Back: Have you ever made bath bombs? Did you like it?