Hello Green Beauty

Healthy Snack: Homemade Microwave Carrot Chips

My definition of a perfect movie/TV snack is a large bag of salty potato chips. Potato chips are so addictive that I keep on dipping my hands into the chip bag until it is empty and I’m still left craving for more. Indeed, the Pringles famous slogan about potato chips is correct - “once you pop, you can’t stop”. Luckily, there are ways to satisfy our cravings for salty snacks like store-bought potato chips and you won’t believe how easy it is to make it at home using just a common kitchen gadget – a microwave oven. I’m talking about making healthy crispy carrot chips in a microwave. Let’s dig into the recipe, shall we?

Ingredients

Carrots

Olive oil

Salt and pepper (for seasoning)

Instructions

Peel the carrots and slice them as thinly as possible using either a knife or a mandolin. The thinner the slices, the crispier the chips will be and the cooking time will be faster.
Drizzle some oil into the carrots and season with salt and pepper. Make sure that all carrot slices are evenly coated with oil and seasonings.
Arrange the carrot slices in single layer on a microwavable plate. Don’t overcrowd the plate.
Microwave at full power in 30 seconds interval until the carrot slices are dry, crispy and a little bit brown (not burnt). Depending on the power (watts) of the microwave and how thin the slices are, it will take approximately 2-4 minutes for the chips to cook.
Serve while hot.

Arrange the carrot slices in single layer on a microwavable plate

Note:

It’s very important that you pay attention while cooking the carrot chips as they easily get burn. Also, since the carrot slices are uneven in sizes, some of the pieces will cook faster and must be removed from the microwave as soon as they have turned a little bit brown. Again, cooking time may vary depending on the power of your microwave oven so you may need to experiment the first time you do this recipe.

I love how the carrot chips had turned out, they’re sweet and salty in taste and crispy. The good thing about homemade chips is you can control the amount of salt that you put into it so it won’t be as salty as commercial chips.

This microwave veggie chips recipe is not limited to carrots. In fact, you can also follow the same recipe with potato, sweet potato, zucchini and eggplant. Just like store-bought potato chips come in variety of flavors, you can be creative with the seasonings you use in your homemade veggie chips. Some of the herbs and spices that you can use for seasonings are cinnamon, rosemary, thyme, cayenne pepper, curry powder, garlic powder, onion powder, flavored salts, among others. The veggie chips can be eaten as is and are also equally great when partnered with a dip (e.g. vinegar, yoghurt).

Have you tried making homemade veggie chips in a microwave? Which vegetables and seasonings have you used? Share it on the comment section below J

P.S. To always get the latest blog updates, don’t forget to follow me on Facebook.

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, by Hello Green Beauty

In Beauty, DIY

DIY Natural Whipped Coconut Shea Body Butter

For several years, I have been a big fan of The Body Shop’s line of luxurious body butters that come in variety of scents. The only thing I don’t like about it is the price. It’s quite expensive for a small tub of body butter. I use body butter like lotion so a small tub only lasted less than a month for me. So when I found out how easy it is to create a customized body butter, I did not hesitate to give it a try. It is also more cost-efficient since you can buy 500g of shea butter for less than a thousand pesos and that is enough to make several batches of body butter.

First of all, there are actually two types of body butter. The first one is the emulsion body butter which contains water in the ingredient so it is thinner in consistency and less greasy. The Body Shop’s body butters are good example of the emulsion type. The other type is the anhydrous body butter which doesn’t contain water so it is thicker, creamier and a little bit greasy. For this DIY project, I’ll be doing the anhydrous version because it is less complicated than the emulsion type.

The anhydrous body butter is a moisturizing skincare product that consists mainly of butters, carrier (vegetable) oils, fragrance/essential oils and antioxidants. Since it doesn’t contain water, it doesn’t need a preservative. However, be very careful that you don’t contaminate the product by accidentally introducing water into the body butter during the process of making or using it.

The star ingredient of this recipe is the shea butter. Shea butter is a fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree. It is rich in fatty acids, most especially oleic acid that has skin softening properties making it an effective emollient. Shea butter is also high in antioxidants like vitamin A and E which help prevent signs of skin aging (e.g. wrinkles, fine lines, etc.). Most people find shea butter greasy but it is the richness of this butter that makes it an ideal moisturizer for people with dry or aging skin.

Image Credits: Lotioncrafter

It is important to know that shea butter is available in two variants: unrefined (raw) and refined. Unrefined raw shea butter has a strong nutty smell (which some people don’t like) and light yellow in color. Meanwhile, refined shea butter has very minimal scent and creamy white in color. Selecting which shea butter to use is a matter of personal preference. Personally, I prefer to use the refined version because it has less tendency to get grainy in texture (a typical problem of any butter).

For the carrier (vegetable) oil, I’ll be using coconut oil. Since I want the tropical scent of coconut oil to linger in this body butter, I intentionally did not add any essential oil. Although coconut oil has a pretty stable shelf life, I also added Vitamin E – an antioxidant that will slow down the rancidity rate of vegetable oil. Rancid oil doesn’t smell good and we definitely don’t want smelly body butter!

Ingredients

(Makes 50g of body butter)

40 g shea butter (refined or unrefined)

9.5 g coconut oil

0.5 g vitamin E

Special Equipment

Pocket-size digital weighing scale

Instructions

Combine the coconut oil and shea butter in a heat-resistant container. Place the container over a small pot of simmering water (a.k.a. double-boiler/water bath method). Over low heat, stir until the shea butter has completely melted.
Cover the container either with aluminum foil or kitchen paper towel and place it in the freezer to set. The cover makes sure that no water drips into the mixture which can contaminate the body butter.
Once the mixture is semi-solid in texture (not too hard, ideally you should still be able to make a dent with a finger), remove from the freezer. Add the vitamin E.
Using a fork/wire whisk/electric mixer, mix the shea butter mixture until creamy in texture (consistency is like whipped cream).
Transfer the body butter into a clean container and store in cool, dark place.

The butter is ready for mixing/whipping once the texture is semi-solid (can still make a dent with a finger)

Tips

After placing your mixture inside the freezer, make sure to check it every now and then because if it gets too hard, then it won’t be possible to whip it.
If the mixture did get too hard, then simply put back the container to the pot of simmering water to soften it a little.
If you want an extra fluffy body butter, then you need to use an electric mixer instead of manually whipping the butter using a wire whisk.

Where to buy the materials

I bought the refined shea butter from Craftology Essentials.
The extra virgin coconut oil can be bought in any supermarket. I bought mine from Landmark Makati.
Vitamin E capsule can be bought from any drugstore. I bought mine from Watsons pharmacy.

There you have it, your very own body butter at a fraction of the cost of store-bought version. Again, this body butter is a little bit greasy so I only use it at night in place of body lotion. The shea body butter is really effective in moisturizing the driest parts of my body (e.g. soles of my feet, elbows, etc.). Since it doesn’t contain water, the body butter will last for about 6 months. In future DIY projects, I’ll try to formulate a non-greasy body butter (probably the emulsion type) so watch out for it J

P.S. To always get the latest blog updates, don’t forget to follow me on Facebook.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and purchase the products, I’ll receive some commission.

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, by Hello Green Beauty

In Health, Healthy Eating

4 Healthier Alternatives to Refined White Sugar

Imagine a world without sugar – there would be no chocolates, ice creams, cakes and other sweet treats. Life is so boring without those sweet desserts most especially to people who have “sweet tooth” like me. This is the reason why refined white sugar is an indispensable condiment that is added to almost all food and drinks. The common white sugar is a crystallized sucrose that is extracted either from sugarcane or sugar beet. It has undergone refining and bleaching process in order to remove impurities and to produce a bright white color sugar that is more visually appealing to the consumers. However, when a sugar is refined, its beneficial nutrients are also stripped away leaving us with a sweetener that doesn’t add any nutritional value to the food or drink it has been added to.

Consuming too much refined white sugar can have a negative impact to our health like diabetes and obesity. Having too much sugar in the body can cause blood sugar spike and if we don’t have enough insulin to metabolize the sugar, the sugar will be stored as fat in our body which can lead to gain weight. That is why it is very important to choose natural form of sweeteners that will help you satisfy your sweet cravings in a healthier way.

1. Coconut Sugar

I’m a big fan of anything coconut so it’s no wonder that when I learned about coconut sugar, I didn’t think twice to try it. Coconut sugar comes from the liquid sap that is collected from the flower buds of the coconut palm trees. The liquid sap is boiled until all the water has evaporated and what is left is the dehydrated coconut sugar.

Coconut sugar is naturally brown in color and has a similar taste and smell to brown sugar. Since it is less processed than regular white sugar, it retains most of its nutrients like iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc. It also has a low glycemic index (GI) so it will not elevate the blood sugar level as much as white sugar. You can easily substitute white or brown sugar in recipes with coconut sugar in 1:1 ratio (e.g. 1 tsp white sugar = 1 tsp coconut sugar).

Where to buy coconut sugar in the Philippines

KM’s Organics Organic Coconut Sugar is available in small packets and in 250g packs

2. Pure Raw Honey

Honey is one of my most favorite natural sweeteners. I usually use it to sweeten my tea without the grittiness of the white sugar. Honey is a sweet substance that is produced by bees by collecting nectars from flowers. Raw honey contains vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants.

Do you know that pure honey doesn’t spoil? It’s because of its antimicrobial and low pH (acidic) properties which make it very challenging for bacteria to survive. So if you are into preserving fruits (a.k.a. fruit canning), you can simply replace sugar with honey. Since honey is a lot sweeter than white sugar, you just need to use less honey in place of sugar.

It’s very important that what you buy is organic, pure, raw honey and not honey that is mixed with corn syrup. Check the product label and make sure that you will only see one ingredient listed – 100% pure raw honey. Also, among all the natural sweeteners in this list, honey is the only one that is not considered as vegan because it is produced by animals (bees).

Where to buy pure raw honey in the Philippines

Milea Bee Farms Pure Raw Honey is available in various sizes at their official Shopee shop

3. Stevia

Do you ever wonder if there is a way to add sweetness to your food and drink without the extra calories? The answer to that question is yes and it is made possible through stevia. Stevia is an all-natural sweetener that is derived from a South American plant that is known locally as “sweet herb”. It has zero calorie and zero glycemic index (GI) so it is suitable for people with blood sugar issues. Don’t confuse it with other zero calorie artificial sweeteners like sucralose (e.g. Splenda), aspartame (often added to zero calorie softdrinks) and saccharin.

Stevia is 200 to 400 times sweeter than white sugar so only a small amount is needed to achieve the same level of sweetness as sugar. In fact, the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) mentions that the recommended daily intake of stevia should be no more than 9 packets a day. The only downside to using a zero calorie sweetener is that it has no nutritional value.

Stevia is also heat-stable so you can easily use it in any kind of recipes, even in baking that requires high temperature. Another plus factor is using stevia in your sweet treats will not cause tooth decay.

It’s important to note that there are several varieties of stevia-based natural sweeteners and not all of them are approved by FDA. So far, the two brands that are approved by FDA are Truvia and PureVia.

Where to buy stevia in the Philippines

KM’s Organics Truvia Stevia is available in small packets and in 50g & 150g packs

4. Maple Syrup

We are all familiar with the sweet maple syrup that we often put on top of pancakes. However, maple-flavored pancake syrups that we bought from the supermarket are really not derived from maple, rather they are just corn syrup with artificial maple flavoring, so make sure to check the product label.

Authentic and 100% pure maple syrup contains vitamins and minerals. In fact, 100 grams of maple syrup contain 28% zinc and 165% manganese of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA). Maple syrup comes from the sap collected from maple trees that are native in Canada. There are two major grades of maple syrup. Each grade has different color and intensity of flavor. Grade-A maple syrup is both light in color and flavor, it also resembles the flavor of artificial maple syrup. On the other hand, Grade-B maple syrup has darker color, thicker consistency and stronger flavor. Take note that whichever grade of maple syrup you buy, it is twice sweeter than white sugar so you should use less during substitution.

Where to buy pure maple syrup in the Philippines

Uncle Luke’s 100% Pure Grade-A Maple Syrup is available at S&R Membership Shopping

I just want to emphasize that even if you use these natural sweeteners in your daily diet, please use them moderately. Always remember, eating too much of anything is not good for your health J

To wrap up this post, here is a table of comparison showing the glycemic index (GI) of white sugar and natural sweeteners. The lower the glycemic index, the slower the rise in blood sugar level.

Sweetener	Glycemic Index (GI)
White sugar	65
Maple syrup	54
Honey	50
Coconut sugar	35
Stevia	0

References:

Glycemic Index for Sweeteners. Retrieved from http://www.sugar-and-sweetener-guide.com/glycemic-index-for-sweeteners.html

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, by Hello Green Beauty

In Beauty, Cosmetic Chemistry

The Anatomy of a Facial Moisturizer

Finding the perfect moisturizer that will work best for your facial skin is not an easy task. I remember how much money I wasted until I found the moisturizer that doesn’t give me any skin breakouts and doesn’t intensify the oiliness of my skin. It turns out that just by looking at the ingredient list of a moisturizer, you can have an idea whether it is suitable for your skin.

Basically, a moisturizer contains three types of moisturizing ingredients: humectant, occlusive and emollient. The hydrating properties of a moisturizer depend on the amount and selection of ingredients for each of those types.

Humectant ingredients keep our skin hydrated by attracting water from the atmosphere and the dermis (lower layers of the skin) and bind those water into the outermost layer of the skin. It makes our skin plump, soft and supple to the touch. Moisturizers that contain mostly of humectant ingredients are lighter in consistency and less greasy. They are ideal to be used during summer and as a daytime moisturizer. If you have oily/acne-prone skin, then your skin can benefit from oil-free moisturizer with humectant as its primary ingredient. The most commonly used humectant in moisturizer is glycerin because of its low cost and effectiveness. The only drawback is high concentration of glycerin can create a sticky feeling on the skin and can increase the rate in which the skin lose water. That is why humectant is often combined with occlusive ingredient when used as a moisturizer in order to prevent skin water loss.

Examples of Humectant

Glycerin
Sorbitol
Propylene Glycol
Sodium Lactate
Urea
Hyaluronic Acid

Occlusive ingredients provide a physical barrier to our skin to prevent or slow down water loss through our skin. Moisturizers with occlusive ingredients are ideal for people with dry skin. Most people with extremely dry skin are due to transepidermal water loss (TEWL) wherein moisture evaporates from the skin at a faster rate. This explains why there are times no matter how much moisturizer we put, our skin remains dry. The inclusion of occlusive ingredients can help seal in the moisture into our skin. Take note though that there are some occlusive agents (e.g. petrolatum and waxes) which can leave a heavy, greasy feeling on skin. On the other hand, silicone derivatives (e.g. dimethicone) are effective occlusive agents without the greasy feeling. Moisturizers that contain mostly of occlusive ingredients are ideal to be used during winter and as a nighttime moisturizer.

Examples of Occlusive

Petrolatum
Mineral Oil
Waxes (e.g. Beeswax, Carnauba Wax)
Vegetable Oil (e.g. Sunflower Oil)
Silicone Oil (e.g. Dimethicone)
Fatty Acid (e.g. Stearic Acid)
Fatty Alcohol (e.g. Cetyl Alcohol)

Finally, emollient ingredients make the skin soft and smooth by replenishing lost lipids (oils) in the skin. Skincare formulators usually combine different emollient (with varying degree of absorption and spreadability rate) to customize the skin feel of the moisturizer. There are some emollients who are also occlusive in nature (e.g. mineral oil, vegetable oil, dimethicone).

Examples of Emollient

Mineral Oil
Butter (e.g. Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, etc.)
Vegetable Oil (e.g. Sunflower Oil)
Silicone Oil (e.g. Dimethicone)
Lanolin
Synthetic esters of fatty alcohols and fatty acids (e.g. Isopropyl Palmitate, Glyceryl Stearate, etc.)

Now that we know about these three elements, let me give you an example on how to decode the properties of a given moisturizer. Ideally, a good moisturizer must be able to attract (humectant) and retain (occlusive) moisture to your skin, as well as nourish (emollient) dehydrated skin.

Let’s take a look at Human Nature Day Moisturizer product ingredient list.

Humectant: glycerin, aloe vera leaf juice

Occlusive: rosehip oil, sunflower oil, avocado oil, stearyl alcohol

Emollient: rosehip oil, sunflower oil, avocado oil, glyceryl stearate, dicaprylyl ether

As you notice, majority of the ingredients of the sample moisturizer are occlusive and emollient so it is best suited for people with normal to dry skin.

P.S. To always get the latest blog updates, don’t forget to follow me on Facebook.

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, by Hello Green Beauty

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Healthy Snack: Homemade Microwave Carrot Chips

DIY Natural Whipped Coconut Shea Body Butter

4 Healthier Alternatives to Refined White Sugar

The Anatomy of a Facial Moisturizer

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Healthy Snack: Homemade Microwave Carrot Chips

DIY Natural Whipped Coconut Shea Body Butter

4 Healthier Alternatives to Refined White Sugar

The Anatomy of a Facial Moisturizer

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