Have you ever tried cooking with essential oils? Yes, you can use essential oils for cooking, even for cleaning. But when you’re using them internally you need to be especially careful with which ones you choose. When you buy essential
Have you ever tried cooking with essential oils?
Yes, you can use essential oils for cooking, even for cleaning. But when you’re using them internally you need to be especially careful with which ones you choose.
When you buy essential oil make sure you get therapeutic grade and as organic as possible.
Essential oils are 50 to 70 times more effective than herbs or plants. I love to use fresh herbs too, they give great taste and have strong healing components. Herbs like ginger root, cinnamon, mint and basil have many health benefits.
Eating lots of vegetables and fresh herbs can support your body’s healing process and improve your health too.
But essential oils are so highly concentrated that they may offer much more powerful benefits. And of course they give your food a stronger taste too.
Oils also have a much longer shelf life than fresh vegetables or herbs, just make sure you keep them in a cool and dark place.
Here’s a few delicious recipes and tips that you may like to try!
I like to add a couple drops of peppermint oil in my water bottle, it adds a great flavor too. You can try other oils to find your favorite flavor.
Cinnamon oil is a great match with oatmeal.
Here in Hawaii at the moment the weather seems to be changing so often, and lots of people are getting the flu. A great recipe to support healing is 1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger, 2 drops of cinnamon oil and 2 drops of lemon oil in a mug of hot water. For taste you can add a little raw honey.
To improve your digestive system you can try just a couple drops of ginger, fennel and peppermint oil in hot water to make a delicious tea.
For great breakfast pancakes take 2 whole eggs, 2 apple bananas, add 3 drops of cinnamon oil, mix well and cook on medium heat.
How about a sauce for pasta or grilled veggies? You can add tomatoes and garlic with 3 drops of basil, 2 drops of rosemary and 2 drops of thyme oil 10 to 15 minutes before serving your meal.
Or avocado pudding: take 1 ripe avocado, 3 tablespoons cacao powder, 3 drops of peppermint oil, 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk, and some organic stevia or coconut sugar. Mix everything well and put in the fridge for an hour before you eat.
For a protein smoothie take 1 scoop vanilla flavor protein powder, 1 tablespoon almond butter, 2 cups of unsweetened almond milk and 2 drops of cinnamon oil. Blend well and enjoy!
You can even use oils to wash your fruit and vegetables, especially if they are non-organic. Take 1 cup white vinegar, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon baking soda and 10 drops of lemon oil.
If you are not sure which essential oils are safe to use, then I suggest you check the FDA website, they have a list of safe recommendation at https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=182.20
Enjoy your cooking!
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Ayda Ersoy is a nutrition and fitness director at The Diet Doc Hawaii. She can be reached at DietDocHawaii.com, Ayda@DietDocHawaii.com or (808) 276-6892
