Cooking can be fun!

Often times, I will have a rather stressful day, and sometimes, though it is hard to admit, the DoTERRA oils just do not help in  the  way that I would like them too. My mind continues to race after using Elevation, my whole body refuses to slow down when using Balance, and I am left to go to the only other thing that helps me calm down and  process   the  events of my day -  Baking.

My mother taught me how to make  blueberry  muffins from scratch when I was little, to  the  point where I would make them  almost  every  Sunday  morning before people woke up. It was a fun way to start the last day of the weekend, and a way for family to get together and enjoy the lazy  Sunday  morning.

Since then, i have learned to bake numerous things and have made myself quite the  recipe  book. Many of the different recipes that are the index cards are baked goods that I used as a stress reliever before I was introduced to DoTERRA. They are usually involved, take some time, and fun to make. However many of those recipes can be remade to include DoTERRA oils, and often are made even more delicious by doing so. I wish to share with you a cupcake recipe that I had that I recently used to try out the oils within and it was delicious. I hope you enjoy them!

Wild Blood Orange Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For cupcakes:
3 cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
zest of 1 blood orange
1 drop of Wild Orange DoTERRA essential oil
4 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup fresh blood orange juice

For faux buttercream:
1 large jar (13 oz.) marshmallow cream
1 lb. unsalted butter, room temperature
zest and juice of 1 blood orange
2 drops of Wild Orange DoTERRA  essential  oil

Instructions:

For cupcakes: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.

Sift dry ingredients and set aside.

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, oil, and zest until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl as needed.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the extracts, beat well.

Starting and ending with the dry ingredients, add the flour and sour cream alternately, mixing just until the flour disappears into the batter. Add the orange juice and mix well.

Remove the bowl from the mixer. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are incorporated.

Fill each lined cup 2/3 full with batter. (You may end up with enough batter for a few extra cupcakes.) Bake for about 20 minutes. The cupcakes will be golden brown, and will stay flat on top. Test with a toothpick inserted into the center.

Remove the cupcakes from the pan while hot and place on a wire rack to cool.  Top each cupcake with a little of the buttercream and eat.  (I put mine into a piping bag fitted with a tip to make the swirly tops.)

For faux buttercream:

Place the marshmallow cream in the bowl of a stand mixer and turn on medium speed. While mixer is running, add the butter a tablespoon at a time into the bowl. Beat until incorporated and fluffy. Add the zest, oil, and juice. Continue beating until the buttercream comes back together--it may separate or look curdled.

Use immediately or store in the fridge for up to 1 week. (The icing will also freeze well in an airtight container, being careful to keep it protected from strong odors like garlic and onion.)

I hope that you guys enjoy this recipe!

Roller Derby

So, today is the NoVa Roller Derby Silent Auction. It is being held at Dry Mill Winery. Come experience the fun winery and at the same time bid on some cool stuff, including an amazing doTERRA basket including some awesome stuff! For those of you who are worried about allergies, the remember that an application of pepermint, lavender, and lemon will help keep it at bay. If you are worried about only a tiny bit of congestion due to the cold weather, then try breathe.

Happy oiling to you all this day!

DoTERRA from a moms point of view

Hi All,

Well let me start by saying that DoTERRA Oils are a God-send. I am totally and completely hooked on these oils and use them in my everyday life. I am not the only one who loves these oils so much, so does my 3 year old son! Every night before bed we have a ritual of applying our oils and getting our vitamins. My son gets Onguard on his feet every single night along with lemon and lavender all over. Let me explain what I have seen with each oil that I use on him, myself and my daughter. My husband who had been calling these "snake oils" has even recently started to believe that these work.

Onguard - My son has suffered from fibril seizure since he was 15 months old. Every time that he would get sick my heart would drop and I knew it was a matter of time before I was calling 911 and spending an endless hours in the ER. We have been using Onguard for about 6 months and the only thing he had was a little cold that lasted less than a day....thanks to Onguard and Breathe (I'll talk about Breathe later). This is my secret weapon for keeping my family as well as possible. I have just recently started applying a small amount of Onguard to the bottom of my 9 month old feet as well ( She giggles when i apply it....too cute!) Also peppermint on the spine and behind the ears helps reduce a fever quickly! Just a side note.

Lemon - As we know this will help with the digestive functions. I had my gallbladder removed April of 2011 and since have has horrible digestive issue until I started using lemon! It helped everything feel just plain better. I don't like the taste of Digestzen very much but if my stomach is really yuck, I use Digestzen. ALSO IT TASTE JUST AWESOME! I will be ordering the veggie tablets soon so i can add digestzen into my everyday.

Lavender - calm, quiet and relaxing explain our bedtimes! need I say more?

I could go on all day about my favorite oils and what they do for me....but i would end up listing almost every oil!

IM in LOVE with DoTERRA OILS! They truly have saved me for a couple of heart attacks, a couple of freak outs, and make me feel that I am doing the best I can to protect my kids health with out using over the counter processed-not sure whats in them-meds.

OH two more things if you haven't tried them yet the Peppermint beadlets ROCK! OH MY GOSH! and Balance is ADHD medication is swear!

Loving Life,

Melissa

Lemon as an Oil...

Last weekend, I went o what one could only call an epic party. This party was more than just a party, it was almost like a festival. You see, in September, I have several friends whose birthdays are all within days of each other and in order to consolidate, we choose one day out of the month and have what we call a VirgoFest (yes, before you ask, all of them are Virgos as well). Being the fact that we are all over the consenting age, there were certainly enough concoctions to drink.

The next day, there was nothing but pain and what a lot of people like to call "Hangover City". So, now that I am a new DoTERRA junkie as my mom like to call it, I looked up what would be good for the problems. Upon a little research, I came across the perfect blend of oils:

Pepermint
Lemon
Rosemary

So obviously, that is quite the motley idea of how these things go together. It makes no sense at first, but let me explain it a little bit then. Most of the time, essential oils are used by topically applying them, that is placing them on your skin. Some people ingest oils or extracts of oils, and we certainly cook with them on a fairly regular basis, so what is it about these three oils that had me feeling pepped and ready to go after a night of shall we say, less than moderate drinking?

Well, let's start with the most important organ that you are affecting - Your liver. Your liver does some amazing stuff for your body. It is basically like a brita filter in the middle of your body. It filters out all the bad stuff from everything that you drink and ingest, i.e. alcohol, caffeine and also stores vitamins and minerals. As a result, there are many things that we should not do for our livers.

So, the Lemon Oil first. Lemon oil helps bile function from your liver to the gall bladder so it turns out bile salts that go into your intestines so that it can break down the proteins that you’re going to eat that day as well.  It helps boost metabolism, reduces toxic build-up in fat cells, and aids liver function. Lemon oil also acts as a diuretic and as a powerful body cleanser. If you would like to learn more about limonenes and the liver, I have an excellent scientific article that details this here.

So we know that Lemon is good for your liver eh? well, you can ingest it with a glass of water, or do something that is more proactive to your liver. Just take some and slather it onto your stomach just over your liver. This is quite frankly very soothing and also, very good. So we have your liver detoxing. Moving onto the next oil - Peppermint.

As I said in a previous post, peppermint is good for headaches. So you can place the peppermint on your head where the obvious headache is. This should make the pounding stop just a little bit.

As for the Rosemary, it has anti-oxidant powers and oddly enough, comes from the Labiatae Botanical Family which is, odly enough, also where peppermint comes from as well. Rosemary essential oil can affect your immune, respiratory, and nervous system in a positive way. It is also good for useful for stimulating the immune system and increasing circulation.
As you can see, essential oils can be helpful. This article however, is in no way an endorsement to drink irresponsibly. You should still keep hydrated while having your awesome time. Try not to get to black out mode, no one likes that person. Also, just as a gentle reminder... these oils in no way help preventing you from drunk dialing people.

Still, isn't it nice to know tha the day after won't be so bad?

Essential Oil Smoothie!

Peach Orange Smoothie with Wild Orange essential oil

Did you know you can use a lot of the doTerra essential oils for flavorings and cooking? Not only is it delicious, but you get actual health benefits from having a smoothie with Essential Oils.  I know I'm headed to the Farmers Market to go pick up some Peaches now!

Orange Peach Smoothie

• 3 ripe peaches peeled and pitted
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 T Honey
• 4 ice cubes
• 1-2 drops Wild Orange Essential Oil

A Different View by Sean

Hello there!

My name is Sean and recently, I was introduced to the world of DoTERRA essential oils. I will be honest with you, I do have my beliefs in several different things, but for a while, holistic healing was not necessarily one of those things. Sure, I have parents who are from countries other than the United States and they have a more distinct belief in herbs and unguents and potions and oils, but I have never been one of them.

Recently as I said however, one of my very good friends, introduced me to something quite different. Natural oils. I'll tell you right now, my family uses peppermint for stomach aches, honey and black-pepper for sore throats, aloe vera is for burns that one gets from the stove, ginseng for regulating blood pressure, et cetera. They have a million and one cures and I just prefer to have my Advil.

At the time that my friend had come over, I had a terrible headache. You see, I had had one for most of the day and on top of that, my Advil had not been working for quite some time. She passed me a small bottle of brown color and said, "Put some of that on."

I took one look at the bottle and rolled my eyes at her. "I'll get an Advil," I told her and began to shuffle to the bathroom.

She tried to pass me the bottle once more and then said, "Just put some of that where it hurts and tell me that you wont feel better."

So I opened the bottle and was assaulted by the strong scent of something minty. Placating my friend, I did exactly as she told me and took a couple drops of the oil and placed it on my temples which were throbbing with a pulsating that was driving me crazy. We then began discussing a party that was going to be happening at some time in the future.  It was somewhere around two minutes when the throbbing suddenly was noticeably gone and I remarked on such. My friend nodded and simply smiled and then exploded into the uses of DoTERRA and it's myriad of joys.

I slowed her down and then listened to what she had to say. I feel a little silly to say, she had me try some other oils and blends that she had with her and within a week, I was signed up with DoTERRA.

Now I have been signed up with these oils for some time and I have heard and experienced quite a bit that I would like to share with everyone. However, unlike everything else, I would like to share a male perspective of these essential oils that I have come to enjoy and use.

Stick with me, and I'll tell you of a whole new way to enjoy DoTERRA.

doTERRA is Awesome!

The doTERRA range of essential oils, spa products and skincare is taking over my house! I was first introduced to the brand by a friend who recommended www.godoterra.com for natural aromatherapy supplies. I tried a few of the oils and I loved them. Once I learned more about the natural health benefits of essential oils, and realized that they can provide alternative and superior treatments for many health issues, my obsession with all things doTERRA began.

Did you know that essential oils contain natural antibacterial, anti-fungal and antiviral properties, and can fight infections and viruses which modern medicine is unable to cure? They are effective whether they are diffused in the atmosphere, taken internally as supplements or applied topically as skincare ingredients.

www.godoterra.com carry the entire range of doTERRA products, all of which are 100% natural, safe and guaranteed. There are single oils, oil blends, spa and skincare, as well as wellness and weight loss items to choose from. If you're anything like me you will soon be working your way through everything. I'll talk more about my favorite items next time!