3 Super Easy Healthy Snacks

19.09.2019

Essential oils for food preparation – a labelling minefield!

Before I introduce you to these fabulous recipes, I want to explain about food preparation with essential oils. Not all essential oils are created equal…..as you well know, if you’ve been reading my essential oil bulletins.

So when choosing an essential oil to use in your food or beverages, you firstly want to make sure that it’s produced with no chemicals in the production process. The essential oil needs to be pure and unadulterated, and grown on fields that are free from chemical use. All of Young Living’s essential oils meet these stringent criteria.

So once you’ve decided on your brand of oils, you then need to know which oils are “compliant” for food and beverage flavouring in your own country. The laws between countries differ.

So if you are in Australia or New Zealand, we have 35 different “culinary oils” in the Young Living range, and all of these are compliant with Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) as flavouring agents. These are a subset of our normal range of essential oils. The oil bottle label will give you the instructions on using it as a flavouring agent (you might need to peel the label back to read it).

However, if you live in the US, the laws are different. The same oil is offered in two different bottles. So there is for example Peppermint oil, and Peppermint Vitality oil. “Peppermint oil” can be used topically and aromatically, whereas in the US something that can be used in this way can’t also be labelled for use as a food or dietary supplement. That’s where “Peppermint Vitality” was born – it is labelled for use in food and beverages. So it’s exactly the same essential oil in both bottles, it’s just marketed differently (and hence labelled according).

And if you live in the UK/Europe/Scandinavia, you have a very similar situation to the US – you have two different bottles with the same oil in it. So you have Peppermint oil, and “Peppermint Plus” oil (where the “plus” oil indicates it can be used in food and beverages).

And just to make things slightly more complicated, the allowable oils in each range differ. So there is a “Thieves Vitality” oil in the US, which can be used to flavour food and as a dietary supplement, whereas in Australia, the Thieves oil blend is not part of our culinary oil range, so we can’t promote its use in foods and beverages.

So if you are reading this bulletin and you live in the US, you’ll be wanting to purchase these food oils from your Vitality Oils range, and if you live in the UK/Europe/Scandinavia, you’ll be wanting to purchase it from your Plus Oils range.

And if you’re not a member of Young Living and you love the idea of using pristine essential oils in your foods and beverages, we’d love to help! Please reach out to the person who introduced you to Young Living, or if you’ve lost touch with them or if you know about Young Living through my oils bulletin, then please contact us for some friendly assistance.

Rosemary & Lemon Roasted Cashew Nuts

Lilja Oddsdottir writes:

These Rosemary & Lemon roasted cashews simply disappear very quickly, because once you start eating the first, you can’t stop I have also made them to take with me in the car when travelling and teaching, and they are a great snack on the road. They’re also a fantastic treat to serve at essential oil gatherings.

Ingredients:

450g (16 ounces) raw cashews
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary – you just want the leaves (not much of the stem)
the peel of 1 lemon, pith removed
4 drops Rosemary oil
2 drops Lemon oil
¾ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit).
Place the cashews on a baking sheet and roast for about 8–10 minutes, until warm and lightly golden.
In the meantime, warm the olive oil, fresh rosemary, and lemon zest in a small skillet over medium heat until it begins to sizzle and smells fragrant.
Add the roasted cashews and stir to coat completely.
Remove from heat, and stir in the Rosemary and Lemon oil, and sea salt.
Serve warm.

Cinnamon Apple Chips

Kate Neubauer writes:

My cousin Julie McPhee and I hosted a Young Living info afternoon. I wanted to showcase some healthy treats along with the ever popular cakes. I googled YLEO recipes and this apple chip recipe popped up.

I much prefer to eat than cook, so this was the perfect recipe for me. The apple chips looked so simple to make and sounded delicious.

I bought the ingredients and made several batches.

For the first batch we cut the apples slightly thicker, so they turned out more chewy. The second batch of apples were sliced thinner, so they turned out more like crispy chips. Both batches were a hit! No doubt these have become a regular sweet treat in my home.

Ingredients:

3 apples
¼ cup honey
1 drop Cinnamon Bark oil

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 110 degrees Celsius (225⁰ Fahrenheit).
Use Thieves Fruit & Veggie Spray to clean the fruit.
With a mandolin or knife, thinly slice apples from top to bottom.
In a small bowl, combine honey and Cinnamon Bark oil.
Line two baking trays with parchment paper and place the apple slices on top. Drizzle the honey mixture over the apple slices.
Bake in the oven for 90 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and place the apple slices on a cooling rack.
For best results, store apple chips in an airtight container and eat them within 24 hours.

Fresh Lemon Blueberries

Rebecca Shields writes:

I love to soak all my fresh fruit in water and Young Living’s Lemon oil.

I have been doing this for several years now, and plan to keep doing it for many more.

I love how clean the fruit is after the soak, and I almost think it makes them seem “fresher”. And I can give it to my children without stressing about what might be on it.

I recently got a heap of blueberries straight from the farm, and after soaking them in the Lemon oil and water I have to say I LOVE the flavour combo – it’s so yummy!!!

This is especially nice with fresh sweet blueberries, or in fact for any fruit that’s going to be used on a fruit salad. I’m looking forward to experimenting so I can discover some new flavour combos.