Easy Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Talking about lavender a few weeks back made me want to try something new. I buy dried lavender by the pound and just got my order in a few weeks ago as well. Something I’ve always wanted to try but hadn’t yet was cooking with dried lavender flowers.

The one thing that I’ve seen regularly when looking for lavender recipes, is cookies.

I had to give it a try. I read over many different recipes (a lot of which I had saved already, I’ve wanted to make these for a long time).

And, this is what I finally came up with.

These cookies use butter, sugar, honey, vanilla, flour, salt and lavender flowers. Pretty easy really.
Mix together the butter sugar, honey and vanilla.
Cream the butter mixture together
Mix your dry ingredients.
Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and combine well.
Roll your dough into a log using wax paper. You can shape it to a square or rectangular shape if you like.
Then place the log in the freezer for about 30 minutes or in the refrigerator for more than an hour until good and stiff.
Using a very sharp knife cut the dough in about 1/4 inch slices.
Put the cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet about 1-2 inches apart. These are a lot further apart than that, but this was my first batch and i didn’t know how they would act yet.
Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 – 20 minutes. Cook until lightly golden brown. Be careful not to overcook or once they cool completely they will become really crunchy.

Now if you want to dip them in coffee, this might not be a perfect idea.
I glazed most of these cookies.
Make a nice cup of lavender and lemon balm tea and sit back and enjoy your cookies. It’s an awesome pairing.

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1.5 Tablespoons raw local honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup flour
  • small pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers

Instructions

  1. Cream together the butter, sugar, honey and vanilla.
  2. Combine the flour, salt and lavender flowers and mix well.
  3. Pour the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until well combined.
  4. Roll out onto a sheet of wax paper and roll into an approximately 1″ to 1.5″ log.
  5. If you want, flatten into a more square or rectangle shape.
  6. Put in the freezer for about 20-30 min or in the refrigerator for an hour or more. You want the dough to be firm.
  7. Cut the dough in about 1/4″ slices. You could probably roll it out and cut it into shapes if you wanted to.
  8. Put on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet at about 1-2″ apart.
  9. Cook in a preheated oven at 325 deg. for 15-20 min. Then cook until they turn a light golden brown.
  10. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

I actually made a small amount of lavender tea and then used that to make a glaze.

Glaze

Mix together 3 – 4 Tablespoons of powdered sugar with 3 teaspoons of lavender tea. You can adjust that as necessary for the thickness you prefer.

You could use a mixer to cream the butter-sugar mixture and then to mix in the flour. This recipe is really small enough, it was easy enough to use a short wooden spoon.

These things were really awesome. An amazing test for anything like this that I make is if my husband likes them. He’s a chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies and milk kind of guy.

And…he really liked them!!! For me that makes this a recipe card recipe that will stay on the side of my fridge for later use.

I hope you’ll give this a try or make your own version of it. If you do, please come back and let me know how it turned out.

I plan on making some different versions of this one in the future. One with lemon and one with slivered or chopped almonds. If you get there first, I hope you’ll come back and let me know what you did and how it turned out. I really want to hear how it worked.

Until next time — Health, Wealth & Blessings!!! ~Tracey

DIY Myrrh and Cinnamon Tooth Powder

Have you ever read the label of a tube of toothpaste? I have and, no thanks. If you do, it might make you look at an alternative like tooth powder too.

A jar of tooth power. Half a recipe.

Luckily I inherited my dad’s teeth. I rarely had too much problems beyond cavities when I was a kid. Which I will attribute to my lack of brushing well.

While, I’ve always been pretty good about brushing my teeth, as an adult I was terrible about going to the dentist. I’ve always been scared to death of them.

As a kid you don’t have much choice where you go, but as an adult I found out you just really need to pick your dentist carefully. There are good ones out there.

But I have to confess, I still don’t like going and they still scare me to death, although I admit my current dentist is a great guy. He told me once, “You’ll never feel any pain in my office.” He neglected to say, “the pain will come later after you’ve left my office”, but I knew that already.

Anyway, a year or so ago I discovered this recipe for tooth powder. Seemed weird at the time, but I’ve since discovered, my teeth are in better shape and my bi-annual cleanings are much easier and they don’t take as long.

I’ve talked to my hygienist and she said my teeth and gums are doing good , so I’ll stick with it.

This tooth powder only has 3 ingredients. You can add a 4th one if you really want to. But either way it’s super simple to put together.

The Ingredients

First lets look at the individual ingredients so you can understand why this is actually good for your teeth.

Myrrh

Myrrh is a sap like substance that comes from the commiphora species of trees. It’s been used in Asia as a traditional medicine for inflammatory diseases.

It’s been used as an antiseptic for the mouth and an analgesic for toothaches.

The myrrh I used was in its original gum form. So I had to grind it up. There’s several methods you can use for this, but I prefer a mortar pestle.

Making powder out of myrrh gum.

You’ll recognize myrrh as one of the gifts from the wise men to the baby Jesus when he was born as it was a highly valued item back in the day.

It’s been used as an analgesic for toothaches and can assist with inflammation.

Myrrh is also good known to be good for gums.

Cinnamon

We’ve talked about cinnamon before here where I talked about spicing your coffee.

Cinnamon adds benefits to this tooth powder in that it’s an astringent and an antimicrobial which provides support for oral health and can help prevent bad breath.

Cinnamon diluted essential oil is also great for relieving tooth pain.

And most important, cinnamon adds a nice taste to the powder.

Licorice Root

Licorice root is another one of those things that adds a nice flavor to this powder since it’s actually 50 times sweeter than sugar. Because of how sweet it is though, you only need a small amount.

It also soothes mucos membranes which can ease sore throats, and it’s good for healthy gums.

Cinnamon and Myrrh Tooth Powder Recipe

If your ingredients are not already ground, you’ll want to grind them to a fine powder. Then mix them

2 Tablespoons of cinnamon

1 Tablespoon of myrrh

2 teaspoons of licorice root

The first time I used this recipe I didn’t use the licorice root it was still good. I’m now on my second batch and I used the licorice root this time and it was even better.

Tooth Powder, a healthy alternative to tooth paste.
All of your powdered ingredients. Ready to mix your tooth powder.

If you decide to add the baking soda I recommend only about 1 teaspoon mixed with the entire batch. I probably didn’t use that much in my recipe, but that is entirely up to you.

You can purchase all these ingredients in powder form, saving you lots of time. Be sure you buy from a reputable company to ensure you are getting the best product for your money.

That much mixture will last me several to 6 months. I actually will put coconut oil on my toothbrush, then dip it in the powder.

A full batch of Tooth Powder.

And there you have it. A simple, effective tooth powder that I’ve been using for more than a year with no issues whatsoever. My dentist and hygienist are both happy with my teeth. My dental visits are easy and pain free, and that makes me happy.

Do you use something other than store bought toothpaste? If so, let me know what you use. Maybe you’d like to share your recipe. Please feel free to share in the comments below.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time – Health, Wealth and Blessings to you. ~ Tracey

For The Love of Lavender

Everybody loves lavender, don’t they? Do you know anyone who doesn’t?

Last month I wrote an article about the gifts my granddaughter and I made for her teachers. You can find that article here.

Bundle of lavender
A bundle of lavender and wheat. Picture courtesy of
Prairie Lavender Farm.

In that article I told you I would go over the herbs we used in those gifts.

I thought I’d start by telling you some of the awesome benefits of lavender, a very old and well loved flower/herb.

Here’s just a few of the benefits everybody should know about this beautiful flower.

Everybody knows lavender for its beautiful scent and relaxing qualities. It’s said to relieve stress, lift moods and relieve the agitation that comes with dementia. I wish I had known that years ago.

Germany actually has patented a product called Silean that’s been shown to be as effective as Ativan in helping adults diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorders.

A drying rack full of lavender
Drying lavender. You can only imagine how lovely that lavender smells. Picture courtesy of
Prairie Lavender Farm.

Another study showed when the essential oils were used in nursing homes and was shown to decrease falls. Now that’s pretty cool, says the old lady writing the article.

All these things have long been Lavender’s claim to fame.

But did you know, there’s a lot more uses for lavender and some you might not have thought or heard of before.

It’s good when it’s used as an antiseptic and antimicrobial. Both of which help prevent infections and decrease pain.

I’ve used the essential oil to relieve a minor burn I got from pulling something out of the oven. I read about that somewhere and decided to give it a try and was shocked at how well it worked.

A few days later I read a little more on the subject and found out it promotes tissue healing too.

Lavender with a bee.
A bee and his lavender flowers. Picture courtesy of Prairie Lavender Farm.

Then I found this study that showed that kids who had their tonsils taken out took less Tylenol (or its equivalent) when they inhaled lavender essential oils after surgery. That’s pretty awesome, cause I know how bad that hurts.
**(“Evaluation of the Effect of Aromatherapy with Lavender Essential Oil on Post-tonsillectomy Pain in Pediatric Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology 77, no. 9 (2013): doi:10.1016/j.ijporl.2013.07.014 )

Rows of lavender
Beautiful rows of lavender. Picture courtesy of Prairie Lavender Farm.

Lavender’s considered a warming herb which means it makes a great tea when you’re a little under the weather and have a bit of a chill.

And on top of everything else it can help promote digestion. Who knew!!

And here’s a little history.

Did you know Cleopatra was said to have used lavender as one of her secret weapons for seduction? It seemed to have worked on Mark Anthony and Julius Caesar.

Lavender with a butterfly
Looks like a sweet meal. Picture courtesy of Prairie Lavender Farm.

And at one time, the sprigs were hung in doorways to protect against evil spirits. And added to baths to drive evil spirits and demons away from cranky kids, then used to rejuvenate adults (probably after giving those cranky kids a bath and putting them to bed).

There’s one more thing it’s good for.

Lavender is an edible flower and there are a ton of recipes out there, which is great since it’s so good for digestion.

Dried lavender flowers
Dried lavender. Great for teas and cooking.

What I love most and make regularly, is my most favorite way of using lavender and that’s in a loose leaf tea.

I use it together with a lot of different herbs but what I mix it with most is lemon balm tea. 3 parts lemon balm and 2 parts lavender is the best.

It doesn’t only smell divine but it tastes great.

So, the next time you need to kick back and relax, grab a cup of lavender tea. Enjoy the warm feeling it gives you and its lovely scent.

Enjoy these small things a little more.

Chairs in the shade under a tree
A lovely place to relax. Picture courtesy of Prairie Lavender Farm.

Remember to use organic UNSPRAYED herbs or flowers of any kind for whatever your using. You want to put the best quality products in and on your body that you can afford.

If you’ve tried anything lavender, let me know how it worked out for you and what you loved about it. I’d really like to know.

I want to thank Prairie Lavender Farms for letting me use the beautiful pictures taken on their farm. Please visit them online here and if you live nearby, I hope you can get by to see them in person.

Until next time…

Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

Spices In Your Coffee?

When you make your coffee in the morning, do you just put coffee grounds in the filter? Did you ever consider adding spices to your filter to jazz up your coffee in the morning?

Spices in your morning coffee.

I can’t remember where I heard it or when, but I was told once that cinnamon in your coffee was good for helping to regulate blood sugar levels. After looking into it I found that was a true statement about cinnamon.

Use a cinnamon stick to stir your coffee.

So I tried it and guess what, it was good.

I regularly drink my coffee black. So where some people get extra flavor from sweeteners and creams, I found adding spices can give a lot of extra flavor without the extra calories.

The Research

As I did a bit of research for this article I also found that cinnamon is also good for rheumatoid arthritis, great for relieving tooth pain and helps boost the immune system. You can’t beat that!!

Just start with a half to a full teaspoon for a pot of coffee. It’s always best to start small and work up to the flavor that suits you best.

The Whimsy

Then on the more whimsical side of things I also found that cinnamon was also good for success, healing and protection.

The Taoists regarded cinnamon as the food of the Gods. I’m sure there are some that would tend to agree with this assessment.

A 5000 year old mythical Chinese emperor, hero and herbalist known as Shennong spoke of cinnamon too.

And the gypsies are said to have used cinnamon for lust and love spells.

So Now You know

Now you know some really awesome reasons to give cinnamon in your coffee a try. Let me know what you think.

If you use something different in your coffee, let me know what it is. In the reading I’ve done, I found there are several spices to be tried. Maybe give nutmeg, ginger, star anise, or even clove a try. These are all warming spices. Spices that make you think of curling up on a couch with a blanket.

Cinnamon sticks, star anise, whole clove and nutmeg.

If you know someone who might like to give it a try, be sure to share this with them. And be sure to let me know in the comments section below if you’ve used cinnamon or any other spices in your coffee to add that little bit of extra flavor to your morning.

Until next time, Health, Wealth & Blessings ~ Tracey

The Best Homemade Chapstick

So, have you ever thought of making your own homemade chapstick? Well, you should, cause it’s easy. And because 1 recipe makes a ton of chapstick.

The basic recipe includes 2 ingredients, almond oil and bees wax. That’s it, really.

Almond oil is used because it’s not as greasy feeling as coconut and some of the other carrier oils. You could always make it that much better and infuse your almond oil with calendula flowers and make it that much more nourishing for your lips.

Yep, it really is that simple.

Do you know What’s in Chapstick

Have you ever read the ingredients in chapstick? I just looked them up and it’s crazy!

Here is the list of inactive ingredients from the Pfizer website.


With the active ingredients listed as Avobenzone, Octinoxate and White petrolatum.

How many of those ingredients do you know?

Well, now you’ll always know what’s in your chapstick and it’s so inexpensive to make. I wanted to say it’s cheap to make but that really sounds bad, but anyway.

How To Make The Best Homemade Chapstick

Before you start, you’ll want to get your tubes and/or tins set up and ready. This is a cup of oil and 2 oz of wax and it made 25 1-oz tubes and 7 2-oz tins. Never hurts to have a couple of extra, just in case. I link below where I get mine.

Start with 1 Cup Almond oil

Mix with 2 oz Bees wax.

A side note about bees wax. You can see from the picture that I’m cutting from a block. The first bees wax I bought, I thought I was doing good by buying more for less. While this wax is just as good, it’s SO hard to cut up or shave off. This is where I buy my bees wax. It’s awesome wax and they have several different ways you can buy it. I highly recommend buying the pastilles or 1 oz bars unless you are making candles. Just my opinion, but I’ve used both and it’s SO worth it, trust me.

Melt wax and oil over a double boiler or very low heat. I’ve made my own double boiler. That’s a medium sauce pan with the glass measuring cup sitting on a canning ring. It’s easy to make something similar.

Melt slowly in a double boiler.
That’s a chop stick I’m stirring with.

If you want to use essential oils, add them after you’ve removed the oils from the heat. It’ll take about 1 tsp, give or take. Start small and work up. You can always add more, but you can’t remove it.

Then pour into chapstick tubes or small tins. Sometimes this can be a challenge, but it’s doable. There are tube holders I’ve seen, but I haven’t found a need to buy one yet.

I’m sure there are a lot of places to buy these (or you could re-use tubes if you are keeping them for yourself), but here is where I’ve bought the tubes and here is where I bought the tins.

That’s 25 tubes and 7 – 2.oz tins.

So there you have it. Simple homemade chapstick, that’s easy and inexpensive to make. Not often you find that combination. I hope you like this one and, if you need to, can adjust it to make it perfect it for you.

If you have a different recipe let me know. If you have an essential oil combination you love to use, let me know that too. Leave those ideas and recipes in the comments below to share with anyone else who may want to give it a try.

And if you know of someone who might want to give this a try, share it with them.

I hope you enjoy it. I make it and give it away during the holiday season to family and friends. It’s makes so much it would take me forever to use it up.

Until next week–

Health, Wealth & Blessings~Tracey