I'm not gonna lie. I love Panera. I also love that they were committed to having antibiotic-free chicken LONG before it was popular. I eat there frequently enough, but our budget does not always leave room for me to indulge. Food is also an area where I have those moments of: "I could totally make that". One of my all-time favorites of theirs is the "Fuji Apple Chicken Salad."
I discovered that you can actually buy the salad dressing at the grocery store (I saw it at SuperTarget) but after reading the ingredients (soybean oil, sugar, etc) I decided making it would be an even better idea. So, here is my copycat version of the Panera Fuji Apple Chicken Salad:
Romaine lettuce (we added some spinach and kale too)
Grilled chicken breasts (or rotisserie chicken)
Chopped Red Onions
Chopped Tomatoes
Pecans (or walnuts)
Crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (or feta)
Dried apple chips (we have a dehydrator so we made some of our own!)
For the dressing:
2 T. oil (we like to use Grapeseed, but I'm sure olive oil would work well too)
1 T. white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 T. organic apple cider vinegar
1/2 T. garlic powder
1/2 T. onion powder
1.5 tsp dijon mustard
3 T. Frozen organic 100% apple juice concentrate (we also have a juicer so I am hoping to try this with actual fresh juiced apples in the future)
Whisk together and refrigerate!
YUM! And this one recipe costs less than one order at Panera but fed all five of us. The only ingredient I did not have was mustard (we're not big mustard fans), but now that I have it, we can use it over and over to make this recipe.
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Coconut Oil Skin Cleanser
I've seen a few articles in the blog world about the "50 Best Things To Do With Coconut Oil" or "100 Unknown Uses for Coconut Oil" so clearly people are starting to see the benefit of this wonder fruit. Did you know it was a fruit? It's in the same family as olives and peaches. But it can also be classified with nuts and seeds. See? Wonderfruit!
Did you know that the Coconut Palm in the Philippines is called "The Tree of Life"?
Coconut is known to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and healing properties.
Coconut oil was used in a study on Alzheimer's patients and was shown to increase the patients' mental capacity over time.
It's considered a "good fat" because it's not an artery clogging fat. It is easily absorbed by the body. I could go on and on.
We have been cooking with coconut oil for a while and even used it as a skin moisturizer for over a year. It also makes for a great "carrier" oil for essential oils. But there's one use I was skeptical about. Using coconut oil to cleanse the skin. It seems counterintuitive to add oil to skin in order to clean it, but I can speak from experience: it works.
There's a simple concept: oil cleanses oil. Our skin has naturally occurring oils that act to keep the moisture balanced, protect the pores, and maintain elasticity. So, when we apply soap to the skin, we are essentially stripping the good oil away from the skin. We work hard to replace that oil with moisturizers (many of which have additives that are unhealthy), when truly we should just cleanse the oil that we have. Enter the oil cleansing method!
I started at this website for some great information: www.theoilcleansingmethod.com
She suggests castor oil and sunflower oil but I have found coconut oil to be the perfect choice for me. You simply rub the oil into your skin and massage for a minute or two. Then take a warm (almost hot) washcloth and hold it up to your face until it cools. Then simply wipe your face with the washcloth. I like to repeat this step a few times to make sure I have all the mascara off.
If you think you need a moisturizer, you can take a small bit of coconut oil and rub it in to your skin and leave it. Who said going natural has to cost you more? Toss out your expensive face creams and washes and use just one product! And you won't find it at the make-up counter.
Remember that your skin is the largest organ of your body. What you put on it gets absorbed so don't put anything on your skin that you wouldn't ingest!
Did you know that the Coconut Palm in the Philippines is called "The Tree of Life"?
Coconut is known to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and healing properties.
Coconut oil was used in a study on Alzheimer's patients and was shown to increase the patients' mental capacity over time.
It's considered a "good fat" because it's not an artery clogging fat. It is easily absorbed by the body. I could go on and on.
We have been cooking with coconut oil for a while and even used it as a skin moisturizer for over a year. It also makes for a great "carrier" oil for essential oils. But there's one use I was skeptical about. Using coconut oil to cleanse the skin. It seems counterintuitive to add oil to skin in order to clean it, but I can speak from experience: it works.
There's a simple concept: oil cleanses oil. Our skin has naturally occurring oils that act to keep the moisture balanced, protect the pores, and maintain elasticity. So, when we apply soap to the skin, we are essentially stripping the good oil away from the skin. We work hard to replace that oil with moisturizers (many of which have additives that are unhealthy), when truly we should just cleanse the oil that we have. Enter the oil cleansing method!
I started at this website for some great information: www.theoilcleansingmethod.com
She suggests castor oil and sunflower oil but I have found coconut oil to be the perfect choice for me. You simply rub the oil into your skin and massage for a minute or two. Then take a warm (almost hot) washcloth and hold it up to your face until it cools. Then simply wipe your face with the washcloth. I like to repeat this step a few times to make sure I have all the mascara off.
If you think you need a moisturizer, you can take a small bit of coconut oil and rub it in to your skin and leave it. Who said going natural has to cost you more? Toss out your expensive face creams and washes and use just one product! And you won't find it at the make-up counter.
Remember that your skin is the largest organ of your body. What you put on it gets absorbed so don't put anything on your skin that you wouldn't ingest!
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