Pretty Hands From the Pantry

Hello! Yes, I'm still here! Between migraines, and home life craziness, oh and massive work deadlines and 12+ hour work days, I haven't had a whole lot of time for crafting, let alone blogging lately!

I've been feeling like my cuticles needed some TLC lately. Well, more like INTENSIVE treatment. Believe me, I have plenty of cuticle creams, softeners, removers, etc. But nothing seems to be doing the trick lately. I remembered from my BeautiControl consultant days, they had an amazing hand scrub that was really good for my cuticles and my nails.

Not one to pay full price when I can get away with it, I went to eBay. I found some listings but not a whole lot of savings after shipping. Then the light bulb came on.

This is not the first time I had done this. I went to my kitchen, where I gathered the following supplies:

• Vegetable Oil
• Coconut Oil
• Olive Oil
• Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Table sugar
• Table salt
• Kosher salt
• leftover side dish container from Kentucky Fried Chicken

I put the dry ingredients in first, about a tablespoon or so of each. Probably twice that much brown sugar. Then I started adding coconut oil by the tablespoonful. I think that one might be the most expensive oil, so I moved on to the others, adding a tablespoon at a time and stirring it together to a nice, thick, pasty consistency.

VOILA! Ladies and gentlemen, I just saved myself about $27! I now have my very own yummy smelling, skin softening hand scrub! I look forward to fresh, beautiful cuticles in the next few days!

There are SO many hand scrub recipes and tutorials online. The bottom line is, throw together some natural oils, scrubby stuff (can be coffee grounds, lavender, herbs, you name it) and get to mixing! Keep it in small batches. Unless you use something to keep the grodies from growing in it, you want to keep the batches small to keep your scrub from going bad. I think Vitamin E oil would do the trick, but I need to research it first!

Happy Hands! 

Sara's SortaLike Chicken Florentine

Last week I came up with this yummy concoction, using ingredients we had on hand. This was a rare occasion because we (hubby) usually plan our meals for the week, and buy just what we need. My bff, Jen, over at Mom Rocks Mealtime is a pro at menu planning!
Anyway, this is what I had to work with:

• 1 very large chicken breast
• Yellow onion
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Canned spinach
• Canned, diced tomatoes
• Chopped olives
• Arborio rice

Saute garlic & onion in a pan with olive oil. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, start cooking the Arborio rice according to package instructions. It takes a while.

Season the chicken breast as desired. I think I used seasoned salt, powdered garlic & onion powder. Place the chicken in the pan with garlic & onions. Cook for a few minutes on each side over medium heat. Time will depend on how thick the chicken is.
When chicken is nearly done, add the spinach & tomatoes (drained, or it will get too soupy).  Add chopped olives. Let it all co-mingle for a while.

Once it all looks done to you, spoon some of the arborio on each plate. Put a piece of chicken on the rice and spoon the yummy spinach and tomato goodness over the top. If you happen to have some feta cheese on hand, sprinkle some on top. I tried this with a later rendition and it was DIVINE! Sorry, I forgot to take a pic both times I made this dish. I am probably  making it for my folks next weekend, so I'll snap a pic for you then.

Instead of arborio, you could also serve up some brown rice, pasta, or whatever Roni box you have in your pantry.

Enjoy!