Vitamin C Mask

If your skin is feeling dull or dry, use this mask. It'll bring the vibrancy back.

It has just 2 ingredients:

-Vitamin C crystals (or pills if you can't find crystals)
-Distilled Water

Directions:

-In a small bowl, mix 1/8 tsp of vitamin C crystals (or half of a vitamin C pill) with 5 drops of water. (If you're using pills, it's easier to add the drops of water to the pill first, then crush it w/ the bottom of a clean glass) It needs to become paste-like.
-Apply a little bit on your face. If it's drying upon contact with your skin, the consistency of your mask is too thick. Add more water to make it a bit more fluid. You don't want it to be too thick because then it won't penetrate your pores, but you don't want it to be too liquidy because it'll drip right off your face. It should have the texture of melted chocolate.
-Once you have the right consistency, apply it all over your face.
-Let it dry for about 20-30 mins. When washing it off, move your hands in an upward circular motion. This allows the vitamin C granules to work as a sort of scrub on your skin.
-When everything is washed off, apply moisturizer as usual and then go to bed.

In the morning, you will notice that your skin appears brighter and smoother, with smaller pores. I do this mask about once a month but for people who tend to break out easily or who are developing fine lines/wrinkles, you can do it once a week or once every two weeks. Vitamin C is very important for collagen production in the skin so this mask can become a great part of your anti-aging regimen.

Suggestions: Use Vitamin C only crystals or pills. Don't buy the kind with Rose Hips or Ascorbic Acid Crystals. Vitamin C is ascorbic acid, but it's in the l-configuration. Only L-ascorbic acid has been shown to improve skin quality and texture.

Warnings: If your skin feels tingly, that's normal. If it feels like it's burning, please wash it off IMMEDIATELY. Topical Vitamin C application takes a while for your skin to get used to. You can try using a smaller amount of Vitamin C until your skin adapts, and then you can slowly increase the dosage as the weeks pass by.

Dinner: Brussels Sprouts

I had a long boring meeting at work today so I needed something quick and easy (and hopefully healthy) to eat for dinner. I was too lazy to make myself rice (the hallmark of south indian cuisine btw), so I just decided to finish up the bag of frozen brussels sprouts that was currently taking up valuable freezer space.

Ingredients:

-bag of frozen brussels sprouts. You can use fresh as well but those tend to be quite bitter so I avoid them.

-fresh garlic (as much as you want)

-fresh ginger (a small sliver)

-salt to taste

-seasonings: any herbs/spices you want. I personally used garlic powder, ground cumin, cinnamon, black pepper, parsley, and fennel seeds.

Directions:

-Heat brussel sprouts, garlic cloves, and ginger in a covered bowl in the microwave for 3-4 mins on high heat. Drain the resulting water. Add spices and salt. Done!

It's pretty easy to make and it's healthy. Even if you hate brussels sprouts, you'll love this (I swear it's not bitter and nasty!)

Enjoy!

Food for thought: Brussels Sprouts contain sulforaphane (phytonutrient that protects against cancer). Growing up, my mother drilled it into our heads: "Brussels sprouts reduce the risk of cancer. Now eat your sprouts or you'll die!!!!" Needless to say, my sister and I got scared and ate everything on our plate (we didn't want to keel over and die at the dinner table ya know). Anyway, you can read more about the health benefits of brussels sprouts here: http://bit.ly/cJYh3o

Healthy meets Junk Food: Grapefruit Curd

My coworker brought me a huge bag of grapefruits today and told me to do whatever I want with them. She has a tree at home that's producing more fruits than she can handle and since I'm a major foodie, she immediately thought of me. LOL, I've been working with my colleagues for just a few days now and they already know that I have a passion for food!

Anyway, I was in the mood for lemon vanilla cupcakes w/ lemon curd (b/c of Tartelette) so I decided to modify it a little and make grapefruit cupcakes w/ grapefruit curd.

The curd ended up being so delicious, that I consumed the whole thing and decided to forgo making the cupcakes.

Here's the recipe for grapefruit curd:

Ingredients

-grapefruit zest
-half cup of grapefruit juice (about 2-3 grapefruits)
-1 1/2 cups of sugar
-8 tbsp butter
-3 eggs, lightly beaten
-2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

Directions

Microwave the butter for 10 secs. You want to soften it but not completely melt it. Stir/whisk in the rest of the ingredients. Microwave for 1 minute. Take out and whisk. Then microwave, then whisk, then microwave, then whisk (you get the idea). Repeat this until the mixture thickens and becomes a pudding like consistency. If it seems like it's taking forever to thicken, don't worry, it will. It just takes a little patience to be microwaving and stirring till it finally firms up a little.

After it has thickened, you can pour it into a sterilized glass jar and store it in the fridge for a few weeks. I normally pour mine into a clean spaghetti sauce jar and tie a bow around the lid to make it look nice. Today however, I devoured the whole thing straight out of the bowl, so no pretty little glass jar for me :(

Enjoy!!

P.S. You can omit/reduce the amt of butter if you want but the texture will change. The butter makes it incredibly smooth so you can slather it on toast, pancakes, etc. If the butter's gone, it becomes super thick and almost hard (tough taffy-like) and is hell on teeth (imagine chomping on a stale piece of starburst candy). Also you can reduce the amt of sugar too. Taste it before you pop it into the microwave and adjust accordingly (don't cut out too much though, the sugar is what thickens the grapefruit juice and makes it jam-like. Without it, the grapefruit juice will remain in its liquid form).

Food for thought: Grapefruit has anti-aging (spermidine), anti-cancer (liminoids, lycopene), and can help lower triglycerides. Another thing to keep in mind: the scent of grapefruit can make a person appear 6 yrs younger and more attractive. I don't recommend slathering yourself with grapefruit curd & then sauntering over to the nearest hot guy (or girl) though... they might think you're crazy and plus you'll get attacked by a flying swarm of insects ;-)

Typical early morning conversation with my mother...

5:30 am:

Mom: "Are you awake?"
Me (in a sleepy voice): "Do I sound like I'm awake?"
Mom: "Ok, I'll call you back later."

10 mins later:

Mom: "Are you awake?"
Me: *hangs up*

10 mins later:

Mom: "Wake up!! WAKE UP!!!!"
Me: "Alright, ALRIGHT, I'm awake, what do you want?"
Mom: "Just wanted to remind you to eat breakfast this morning. Those strawberries you bought last week are gonna spoil."
Me: *sigh*... "Okay."

10 mins later:

Mom: "Have you eaten the strawberries yet? They're gonna spoil if you don't eat them. Don't forget to drink water afterward. I don't want you to become dehydrated at work. So what are you doing now? Eat those strawberries before they spoil! You bought them last week. They'll spoil if you don't eat them soon."
Me: "MOMMM, I GOT THE MESSAGE, THE STRAWBERRIES WILL SPOIL IF I DON'T EAT THEM!! I'M EATING THEM, OKAY? OKAY???"
Mom: *pause*... "I don't hear you chewing."

Disclaimer: I will frequently feature conversations with my mother because she's hilarious and always has a lot to say. Yes, this is a real word-for-word convo I had with her. There's a reason why I'm such an odd person, look who raised me :)

New Blog

Decided it was about time I started up a food blog again. Right now just tweaking the layout. Expect a real post on Monday!!