Homemade Spinach Pasta

I have recently discovered the deliciousness that is the homemade pasta noodle. I found a basic noodle recipe and have made it several times now. It's been kid approved. It consists of....wait for it.... TWO ingredients. Flour and eggs. Do you have those two items in your kitchen? Then yummy homemade pasta is just a few steps away. While this blog post is actually about spinach pasta, all you need for basic pasta is two cups of flour (most recipes I've seen call for special flours, but I just used all purpose) and one egg. This will make enough pasta for about 2-3 people. Then, follow the steps below, omitting the spinach steps.

I set out to make regular pasta last night and at the last second remembered that I had some spinach in the fridge that needed to be used sooner rather than later. After a quick check through Pinterest, I found a recipe that closely matched the one I normally used, meshed the new recipe with the one that worked for me in the past, and began preparing the dough. I was worried when I got to the kneading portion because the dough was so tough and hard to knead. I ended up having to use my rolling pin to give my kneading a little extra OOMPH. I continued on with my endeavor, but was prepared to just chalk this up to a loss and run out for fast food if it didn't turn out well. My perseverance paid off though and it turned out wonderfully! Now, without further ado.... the step by step instructions!

Spinach Pasta

Ingredients- olive oil, garlic (optional), 1/2 lb. spinach, 4 cups flour, 2-3 eggs

Step 1- Over medium heat, add a couple turns of olive oil and garlic, if you like, to a skillet.

Step 2- Add spinach, cover with a lid, and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Step 3- Remove spinach from heat. Once spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze all the liquid out of the leaves. Once I squeezed out the liquid by hand, I then put the spinach into several paper towels and squeezed it some more. Get all that liquid out!

A dry lump of spinach!

Step 4- Finely chop the spinach.
Optional step- if you have a mortar and pestle, put spinach in after chopping and ground into a paste. I only did this step because I actually have a mortar and pestle that I haven't used in several years.

 Step 5- In a small bowl, crack two eggs and add spinach, mixing well.

Step 6- Measure out 4 cups of flour and put onto a clean surface, creating a well for the spinach and egg mixture (or just the egg mixture if you are making the basic pasta). 

Step 7- Mix your dough well. At this point, my dough really wasn't coming together well, so I added another egg. Once I worked that in, the dough still wasn't sticking well, so I started adding small bits of water. Knead your dough for about 8-10 minutes until it isn't tacky.  Like I said before, the dough got really tough. I ended up dividing the dough in half to make it a bit more manageable. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest at room temperature from 15 minutes up to 2 hours. I usually go for 30 minutes.

Step 8- Roll your dough and cut your noodles. If you don't have a pasta roller and cutter set, then just use a rolling pin and a knife. It's that simple. My hubby bought me an attachment set for my Kitchen Aid mixer a long time ago, which I hardly used until recently. I love it and it's so much fun to use!!! Either way, I ended up dividing each ball of dough into 3 parts. When you roll the dough out, it spreads A LOT!

If using a pasta roller, I usually run the dough through the first setting 3-4 times. After it passes through, I add a bit of flour if the dough is sticky, then fold it in half, and run it through the first setting again. Then I run it through settings 2-4 one time each. Usually I stop here if making fettucini noodles.

Run the sheets of dough through your pasta cutter. Peanut was intriguied by this!

To keep the cut noodles out of the way while cutting all the dough, I hung them over clothes hangers covered with wax paper. I did take some of the noodles and made small, single serving nests and put those into the freezer for future use. The hanger on the far right I separated out to try air drying those. Once throughly dry (overnight), I broke the noodles in half and put into a Ziploc bag. The freezing and the drying are experiments for me. I usually only make just enough for us to eat. From what I read, freezing is better and it hardly adds any time to the cooking time.

Cooking instructions- Add pasta noodles to a pan of heavily boiling, salted water. Don't skip the salt because it adds more flavor to the noodles, especially since none was added to the dough. From what I've read, the water should taste like the ocean. Boil the pasta for about 3 minutes. That's it!!! It cooks super fast. Serve it up however you like and enjoy!

This is our finished product. The sauce is actually home made tomato sauce I froze from my tomato crop last summer.

The pasta got the Peanut stamp of approval! He likes it because the spinach helps to make his muscles grow big and strong! 

Clean plate (after two giant servings)= successful dinner! 

Give it a shot! Making your own pasta seems like a very daunting task, but if I can do it, anyone can. 

At Home Spa Night

Last night I decided to give myself a little spa night. Peanut had gone to bed around 7:15pm. The Woodman was getting off work at 8:00pm and then going to the gym, so he wouldn't be home until 10:00pm or so. The dog was already curled up on his bed and snoring like an old man. The night was mine! I could hear our deep bathtub calling my name.

I wanted to do some sort of natural face mask, so off to Pinterest I went to research recipes. I finally found one in which I had all the ingredients at home. I was also on day 5 of not washing my hair and knew it was time to wash it, so I decided to do a coconut oil conditioning treatment beforehand. How can I go so long between hair washings, you ask? I went no 'poo! I also needed to shave my legs, as it is getting a bit warmer outside and I don't need my winter coat anymore.  :)

Coconut Oil Conditioning Treatment

The first thing I did was grab my tub-o-coconut oil. Literally, it's a tub. I got it at Costco earlier in the year and I'm almost at the bottom of it. Thankfully, I got another tub of it this past Christmas as a gift!

All you need to do is grab a handful of coconut oil and start slathering it all over your hair. I take some and rub it in my hands to melt it first. Or, melt a bunch in some hot water beforehand and pour over your hair. Get your hair as greasy as possible and make sure you massage it into your scalp! Then, gently pull it back and cover with a shower cap. A shower cap isn't a necessity, but it does help to hold in warmth from your scalp to help the oil set into your hair. Leave it in your hair for at least 30 minutes. When I know I'm not going to have to go anywhere for awhile, I'll leave it in for 2 hours or more and then I'll apply some extra heat by using my hairdryer to blow hot air onto the shower cap. Some people even go to bed with it and then wash it out the next day. 

Hard to tell, but that hair is super greasy!!! There are still chunks of unmelted oil in there!

When you're finished, you'll need to wash your hair. This is actually the only time I use commercial shampoo, because I've never been able to get just baking soda to wash out all the oil. I usually have to shampoo twice to get all of the oil out. Dry and style as normal. Then I dare you not to rub your hands through your hair! It feels so soft! I try to deep condition my hair about twice a month.

Honey, Nutmeg, and Cinnamon Face Mask

Honey is great for your skin! Refer back to this post if you have forgotten why honey is so awesome. Nutmeg helps to reduce blemishes, is a great exfoliant, and works wonders at removing blackheads. Cinnamon is actually an antiseptic, which means it'll help reduce bacteria. It also helps to pull oxygen, blood, and other nutrients to the surface of your face, which will make your skin glow! 

This mask is super easy to whip up and it smells great too! Get a small bowl and mix together:

          2Tbsp. Honey

          1 tsp. cinnamon

          1 tsp. nutmeg

Combine until a thick paste forms. Put a small daub of it on the inside of your wrist and let it sit for a few minutes to see if you have any sort of reaction to the ingredients. I've read that some sensitive skin types might have a problem with the cinnamon. Once you've tested the mask, spread on your face and let it sit anywhere from 30 minutes up to an hour. Now, I found this mask a bit drippy, so I suggest doing this while soaking in a tub. If not, make sure you have a towel handy to wipe up any drips. When you're ready to remove the mask, use a rag and rub VERY GENTLY in circular motions to exfoliate your face. After I rinsed off the mask, my skin felt so much tighter. I also didn't even need to use any coconut oil as a moisturizer afterwards! Plus, I smelled like a cinnamon Christmas ornament! 

Wow....this mask really brings out the brown in my eyes! :)

Oil Pulling

This is something else I did during my spa night. Now, I'm not going to write too much about oil pulling....yet. I'm going to do this regularly for two weeks and then write a blog post about oil pulling. I came across oil pulling when I first got into using coconut oil. It was on some list of things you could do with coconut oil. Having never heard of it before, I looked it up. I've tried it a few times here and there and have been impressed with the results, but I think it's something you need to do on a regular basis for it to really be beneficial. Google it and see what you find. 

Anywho, I put all the coconut oil in my hair for the deep conditioning treatment. I then applied the face mask. I got a Tbsp. of coconut oil and started with my oil pulling and then got into the tub to soak and read. My first timer went off at 20 minutes, which is when I finished with the oil pulling. I made sure I had a disposable cup nearby to spit the oil into, and I also had my toothbrush nearby to brush afterwards. Then at the 30 minute mark, I washed off the face mask. I then took the tub-o-coconut oil, got a chunk out of it, slathered it on my legs, and shaved. It makes great shaving cream! Plus, no need to moisturize afterwards! When I finished all that, I got into the shower to wash the coconut oil out of my hair. 

The results of my at home spa night were, as follows:

• I was more relaxed
• I finished up a book
• my hair was softer
• my skin was tighter and well moisturized
• my legs were super smooth and soft

All in all, a success!