DIY Home Facial

There is nothing I enjoy more than getting home from a long day, having a hot soak in the bath and treating myself to a facial. Heres how I pamper my pores.

First things first, we are going to make our own exfoliator and mask.

For the exfoliated you will need:
2 TBS Sugar,
2 TBS Oil,
1 TBS Honey,

And all you have to do is mix it all up and you can store this in an air tight container.

Sugar Honey Face Scrub

After that you can whip up a small batch of Honey Oat Mask:

3 TBS Oats,

Cover with hot water,

Add 1 TSP Honey,

Let this mixture sit and cool whilst we do the rest of our facial.

Honey Oat Mask

1) Wet face with warm water.
2) Use your favourite cleanser to remove makeup and dirt.
3) Next apply a small amount of the Sugar Scrub to your still damp face. Use light, small circular motions. Wash this of with warm water.
4) Now you want to steam your face, to do this, run your cloth in hot water, squeeze out excess and then press to face. Repeat this 3-4 times.
5) Apply oat mixture all over face and leave to sit for around 10 minutes.
6) Wash of with warm water then pat dry with a clean towel.
7) Apply your favourite moisturiser and enjoy your refreshed feeling face!

Fido's Kitchen: Paco's Peanut Butter Cups

As you all know, I love my four legged friend and love even more to spoil him with homemade yummy treats.

Today I have been trying out a new recipe from a very special cooking book...

Home Cooking for Your Dog

Thats right a whole cooking book dedicated to dog friendly dinners and treats. I received this as a gift for Christmas and I am already using the dinner recipes to feed my dog with. The idea of the book is that by cooking your dogs meals, you can control what is in it and adjust the nutrition to suit your animals needs. This is something I know from experience can have a huge effect on your dogs health and wellbeing. 

At the start of the book, there is clear and well explained information about why you might want to consider a more holistic approach to your dogs care as well as heaps of helpful charts about nutrition, good foods and foods that dogs should not be eating. 

The author of the book, Christine M Filardi not only had professional credentials but more than ten years of experience in feeding her own animals raw and cooked diets. The thing that I really enjoy about this book is the mix of everyday recipes and the special occasion ones that are a bit more out there and one of in the back of the book.

I thoroughly recommend checking this book out, even if you are just thinking of swapping your dogs diet, this book has plenty of information to allow you to make an informed decision.

Here's a quick little recipe from the treat section of the book... Paco's Peanut Butter Cups....

Paco's Peanut Butter Cups- Home Cooking for your Dog

For this recipe you will need:

2 cups porridge oats,

2 eggs,

1 cup shredded mozzarella,

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup hot water.

1) First step is to preheat your oven to 170C. 

2) Measure out all of your ingredients into a mixing bowl and then thoroughly combine... It's really as easy as that!

Paco's Peanut Butter Cups- Homemade Cooking for your Dog

3)When you have finished mixing everything together you should have a dough that is similar to cookie dough consistency.

4) Line a baking tray and lightly grease to prevent the treats from sticking. As you can see from the image bellow I used a layer of tinfoil dusted with flour. You could also use some baking paper or grease the pan directly.

 5) Collect a heaped teaspoon of the mixture and let it fall off onto the tray. You will then want to bake these for around 18 minutes or until they harden ever so slightly.

Let them cool completely before storing them. It is recommended to keep them in the fridge for up to three days, or in the freezer they will last 3 months.

Fido's Kitchen: Banana and Peanut Butter Flapjacks

Hi guys! So glad to be back and today I have something a little bit different for you. It's a recipe for some home made dog treats that are much tastier and nutritionally rich than your standard dog treats you can get at your local pet shop.

There are many benefits to making your own treats for your pooch. You know precisely what is in them and you can adapt the recipe to suit your fur babies needs. For example I have seen similar recipes that use flour as the base. My pooch is wheat intolerant so I went with oats instead... it's as easy as that.

Not only do these smell great when you bake them but I guarantee your fur baby will go mad for these chewy-peanut-buttery-banana pieces of goodness.

To get started you will need:

100g Oats

1x Banana

2 TBS Peanut butter

1 TBS Natural yogurt

1x Egg

1) Preheat your oven to 180°C.
2) Peel your banana and mash it in a bowl using a fork. Don't worry about it being completely smooth  , the odd lump of banana is fine.

3) Set your bananas aside. Over a low heat you want to slowly and gently melt your peanut butter in a saucepan.

4) Once it has reached a runny consistency, add your bananas to the saucepan.

5) Combine the two ingredients thoroughly.

6) Add the oats to the pan and mix again.

7) At this point I turned the heat off and removed the pan from the heat. I then add the egg to the mixture and stored it in well.

8) You are looking for a consistency that is similar to flapjacks you would make for yourself. You need to be able to spread the mixture but it definitely shouldn't be runny. If your mixture is slightly to dry add the yogurt in. If your mixture is to wet, add some more oats until it becomes the right consistency again.

9) Transfer your flapjack mixture to a lightly greased pan or baking tray and spread evenly. Mine were only about 1cm thick.

10) Put your tray of flapjacks into the oven and bake fore 10- 12 minutes. Look for the tops to change colour, they should go a couple of shades darker before they are done. You can also press the centre of the flapjacks, if they are done they will be somewhat firm.

11) After taking them out of the oven, you want to immediately cut the flapjacks in the pan to the size you want your treats to be. I got about 32 square treats from this batch.

12) Leave them to cool slightly before removing them from the pan. This will give them a chance to get a little firmer and they will not break so easily.

13) Once they are cool enough to remove, place them on a wire cooling rack to completely cool down before storing them.

14) You want to store these in an air tight container to keep them fresh. I find recycled glass jars work brilliantly for this and cost nothing or you can just use any kind of Tupperware you have laying about the kitchen!

So simple, quick and easy. Why not spoil your pet and try this recipe out for yourself!