Leg Care

Every year billions of dollars are spent on expensive creams, lotions, ointments and gels in an attempt to get perfect skin and beautiful legs. BUT, this all can be done easily at home by using home products and following few simple tips.

MAKE LEGS SMOOTH and SOFT:

Take hot water in a tub. Put one big spoon baking soda & one small spoon bath oil in it. Dip your legs for 15 minutes in this water, so that hard skin & corns become soft. Take your legs out of water and throw the water away.
 

Now take out the dead skin with the help of skin filer. Mostly the dead skin is on the heel & on the spherical bone. Pumic stone can also be used to remove the dead skin.
 

Now apply moisturiser in legs & massage them properly. After so much cleansing, legs will soke the moisturising lotion easily & the skin of that area will not become hard easily. This moistness will make the skin of legs soft & smooth.

ALMOND OIL:

Massage almond oil into your legs everyday after a shower as a natural moisturizer. Almond oil not only deeply moisturizes your skin, but can work to relieve pain and reduce the swelling of tired legs and feet.

Recipe: Broad Bean and Courgette Bulghur Salad

Keep getting loads of broad beans from Riverford! You'll be expecting another broad bean creation as my next entry actually. Its a veg that I do really like, but I dont tend to actually go out and buy. This is a nice, tasty, healthy and fresh tasting dish- not made with my own courgettes yet, they arent doing so well this year. Only got two plants (3rd one got devoured by slugs!) this time and it's being a bit slower producing nice big juicy fruits! You can boil the broad beans seperately if you want to peel their skins off- but i don't mind the skins. If you get nice fresh broad beans and you dont overcook them their skins never get tough really.

Broad Bean and Courgette Bulghur Salad (serves 4)

110g bulghur wheat
200ml hot vegetable stock (or chicken, depending on whether you want it vegetarian)
250g fresh broad beans
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, diced
1 courgette, halved lengthwise and sliced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Big handful mint, finely chopped (plus extra leaves for garnish)
100g Feta Cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook the bulghur wheat in the vegetable stock for 15 minutes, or until the wheat has soaked up all the liquid and is cooked. 10 minutes before the end of the cooking add the broad beans. Pour broad bean and bulghur mixture into a bowl and set aside.
2. In another pan, fry the red onions for about 5 minutes in the olive oil, until softened, then add to the bulghur mixture. To the same pan add the courgettes and fry for a further 5 minutes, until beginning to brown, then add to the bulghur mixture.
3. Mix in the extra virgin olive oil and fresh mint into the bulghur salad. Season to taste, crumble feta over the top, garnish with a few extra torn mint leaves, and serve!

Recipe: Aloo Sag Pie

This makes rather a lot but it is darn tasty! Our family started getting those Riverford seasonal vegetable boxes again, and I had a load of spinach, spring onions, and some tomatoes left- so I came up with this! Thats one of the things I like about these weekly veg boxes- they make me be a bit more creative with the vegetables that I have. The pie filling is rather nice by itself just as a curry really- but you know me, I like sticking things into pastry! I have served this with a cucumber raita- just some natural yoghurt mixed with grated cucumber, fresh coriander, and a little cumin. It works as a sauce essentially, and stops the dish from being too dry.

Aloo Saag Pies (makes two large pies, serves 8)

1250g potatoes, peeled and diced (about 3cm cubes)
2 tbsp olive oil
8 spring onions, chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
¼ tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp crushed ginger
3 tbsp Pataks Korma Curry Paste
100g diced ripe tomato
300g roughly chopped true spinach (or baby spinach)
2 large sheets ready rolled puff pastry
Salt and pepper to taste
Egg (for egg wash)- optional

1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add a bit of salt and boil the potatoes for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C. In a large frying pan sauté the spring onions in the olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and chilli flakes, and cook for a further two minutes.
3. Add the crushed ginger, curry paste, and diced tomato, and cook for two minutes. Begin to gradually add the spinach, adding more as it continues to wilt. Cooking all the spinach until it wilts and is well combined with the rest of the ingredients usually takes about 10 minutes.
4. Take the spinach mixture off the heat and mix in the potatoes. You want to mash the potatoes a little, but you still want a few chunks of potato here and there. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Lay out the two sheets of puff pastry onto separate baking trays that have been lined with greaseproof paper. Pour half of the mixture onto each pastry sheet, fold the pastry over the topping, and crimp at the edges to seal.
6. Brush with beaten egg and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Serve with a cooling cucumber raita!

Recipe: Mel's Chicken Caeser Salad

This is Caeser salad done the way i like it! I use full fat greek yoghurt instead of mayonnaise- not for any health reasons really, just because I don't like mayo atall and i think you get a better flavour from yoghurt. Sometimes I use chicken breasts with the skin on too- if so, I sear the skin side of the breast in a frying pan before chucking in the oven. Oh, and I know traditionally Caeser salad has anchovies in it, but I can't stand the horrible little things! Used up some home-grown lettuce in this too, a variety called "Buttercrisp". It's kinda like kos or romaine though. Got loads of salad/ lambs lettuce to use- theyve all bolted suddenly all at the same time!

Mel’s Chicken Caeser Salad (serves 2)

The Chicken
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper

The Croutons
1 thick slice white bread, diced
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp dried oregano
Cracked black pepper.

Salad
100g full fat Greek yoghurt
20g finely grated parmesan
15g wholegrain mustard
5 ml Worchester sauce
15ml white wine vinegar
1 crushed garlic clove
15ml extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of sugar, and cracked black pepper
250g torn Kos/Romaine style lettuce
Optional extras: sliced tomato, crispy bacon, anchovies, olives etc.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. In a baking dish roast the chicken in the oven with the olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper for 30 minutes.
2. On a baking tray toss together the diced bread, olive oil, oregano and black pepper (you don’t need any salt in the croutons or the dressing, because the parmesan is salty enough for the entire dish). Bake in the same oven for about 5 minutes, until golden and crispy.
3. Mix together all of the salad ingredients well (except the lettuce), and season to taste. Mix the lettuce into the dressing ingredients. Evenly put the salad mixture onto two plates, top with croutons and the cooked chicken breasts, sliced. Add any extras you wish, and serve!

Herbal Foot Care

HERBAL FOOT CARE

A beautiful and healthy feet is true reflection of your personality. Feet are the part of the body that speaks volumes on a person’s personality.

In the complete human body feet are the mist strained and worked out part, but inspite of this are the most neglected one also. Lack of proper care for feet result in many problems like corns and bunions, cracks, infections and ingrown nails.

You have to regularly take care of your feet. Massaging the feet each night with oil is relaxing and keeps them soft and supple.


Herbal Tips:

Walking barefoot on rough surfaces or excessive exposure of bare feet to the sun, wind or water causes cracks on the heels and soles, which cause dryness and roughness of the feet.

For smelly feet, an alternate day soak in warm water mixed with lavender oil and a pinch of salt, works wonders. It is a nerve relaxant as well.

A few drops of vinegar, mixed with 50 grams of curd, when rubbed thoroughly on heels, between toes and all over the feet, then left to stay for 10 minutes; will cleanse the feet well, removing all dead cells, when washed off.

Use cornstarch as a foot powder to help absorb moisture and reduce friction. Add some ground lavender flowers or orris root powder for scent, if you like.
 

Use a pumice stone on your heels after a footbath to remove dry, dead skin. Wet and rub in a circular motion.
 

Give yourself an occasional foot and hand massage, using herbal massage oils, very relaxing and softening at the same time.
 

Make sure your nails are perfectly dry before applying polish, or you'll promote fungus.

To soften rough feet, try this regimen every night before going to bed, for two weeks. Dip the feet in warm water containing a teaspoon of (preferably herbal) shampoo and one teaspoon of baking powder. Let them soak for 10- 15 minutes, before drying them. Apply a foot cream and then go to sleep.

A mixture of glycerine and rose water applied every night before bedtime helps keep feet soft and glowing, especially the heels.
 

Almond oil massaged onto feet before bedtime keeps cracks and dry skin at bay, especially during winters.
 

Application of Aloe Vera gel on your feet daily will keep them well moisturised and free of diseases like athlete’s foot.

Apply a mixture of 1 teaspoon of mango tree sap and 1 tablespoon water to the cracked skin.

Wash and dry feet daily. Remove dead skin cells by gently scrubbing corns, calluses and heels with a pumice stone.

 

A easy pedicure which is fast and effective can be done easily at home. It is herbal and natural and fast acting. Add a few (four to five) drops of vinegar to four or five table spoons (40-50 grams) of curd and mix well in a dish. Rub this mixture well on the feet, ankles, heels and the soles of the feet especially between the toes.

Recipe: Lamb and Courgette kebabs, with Red onion and Walnut Couscous

Well I told you i'd be writing up less recipes up on here- and I was dead right! I told the guys at Cosy Club that I was happy to do anything from 15-40 hours (see- nice and flexible!), and this week i've done over 45, and i'm pretty sure i might be doing the same next week. I mean, i am very much thinking about all the money at this point, which is why i am battling with myself whether i should moan about it really. On one hand the more money= the better, and even on 30 hours a week i'll have more than enough, but on the other hand....its LOTS OF MONEYYYYY. But yeah this is killing me man, full-time chef-ing again. I don't know when my next full day off is- last one was last friday and there aint a free in sight yet.....

Anyway only a few months more Mel, stick with it! Last time I had an evening free to myself, I cooked this dish for me and my boyfriend and we both loved it- very tasty and barely takes any time to prepare. The marinade for the lamb can also be used with bigger cuts of lamb to be slowcooked too- the flavours work particularly well with this type of meat. It isnt in the recipe, but I served this with a herby yoghurt- nom!

Lamb, courgette and red onion kebabs, with zesty cous cous

For the Kebabs
250g lamb leg steaks, cut into bitesize chunks
1 lemon (zest set aside for the couscous, ½ juiced for the marinade)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tsp dried mint
1.5 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp paprika
Seasoning
1 medium sized courgette, sliced

For the Cous cous

2 tbsp olive oil
½ red onion, sliced
2 clove garlic
1 tsp sugar
40g walnuts, chopped
130g couscous
200ml hot vegetable stock
Handful coriander stems and leaves chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra coriander for garnish

1. Place the lamb in a bowl with the lemon juice, olive oil, mint, rosemary, paprika and seasoning. Mix together, and leave in the fridge to marinade for at least 2 hours. Soak 4 wooden skewers in water for at least 15 minutes.
2. Heat up a fan oven to 220C. Thread the marinated lamb and courgette onto the four skewers. Put onto Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, turning once.
3. Meanwhile, put the couscous, lemon zest, walnuts, and coriander into a bowl. Add the vegetable stock and cover for about 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile in a saucepan fry the onion, garlic and sugar in olive oil for about 5 minutes. Mix into the couscous, fluff up with a fork and season to taste.
5. Remove the skewers from the oven, pour over any juices leftover in the tray and serve with the cous cous and some more fresh chopped coriander.

Tips for Hands Care

HANDS CARE

Hands tells everything about yourself, how you take care of your body.

Hands are the first part of the body to show your age and need quiet a lot of pampering and care to keep off wrinkles and keep them looking young, soft and beautiful.

TIPS:

The skin on your hand is thin and delicate, therefore take special care of them.

Do not let the skin on hands dry and moisturize them often to keep off the wrinkles.

Wear gloves every time you wash dishes or handwash clothing. Use it while you do gardening as well.

Put lotion on your hands after you wash them every time to keep mosturized.

Sun exposure damage skin so use sunscreen lotion on hands before heading out.

 

Use a mild pH soap like Dove when washing your hand.

Use hand cream often, it protects your hands.

Get manicure done often that practice good sanitation.  

Warm hands are key to better skin and good health. Cold hands often lead to colds and flu infections.

Mix glycerin, lemon juice and a few drops of rose water and use it to massage your hands every other day.

FOR DRY HANDS:

For dry hands after washing your hands with soap, wet them again. Pour salt on your hands and then scrub them under water. Dry hands and apply moisturizer on them.