Essential Oil-Infused Summer Recipes
Looking for the perfect grill marinade or a beverage that your friends won’t find on the menu at the their favorite restaurant? You’ve come to the right place. I absolutely LOVE experimenting with all sorts of flavors, ingredients, and Young Living vitality essential oils in the kitchen. Today’s blog includes some personal favorite creations as well as a few favorites from others that are tested and truly AMAZING!
As the saying goes . . . “never serve your guests a recipe you haven’t made before”. I highly recommend that you try any recipe at least once before going all out at your next party. Just make a small batch, taste it, have a friend or family member try it, and put the official YUMMM sticker on the recipe.
There is a little learning curve to using essential oils in your recipes.
#1) A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY.
If the recipe calls for 1 drop of essential oil, only use ONE DROP. Trust me! Oils like Peppermint and Oregano can overpower a recipe.
You can also do the “toothpick trick” to get less than a drop. Simply take the lid off your desired oil bottle, use a toothpick and swirl it around the top of the stopper. This will enable you to get just a little bit of oil on the toothpick that you can then stir into your recipe. The more you cook, bake, and infuse essential oils into beverages, the more intuitive you’ll become. Some oils are more potent than others. Sometimes you’ll want just a smidge of taste, and sometimes you’ll want the flavor to jump out and say “Hello, I’m here”!
Think Lavender Lemonade or Lemongrass Soup.
#2) YOUNG LIVING’S “VITALITY” ESSENTIAL OILS ARE FOOD GRADE
The only brand of essential oils I use in my recipes are the ones that come in the Vitality bottles from Young Living Essential Oils. Vitality oils are labeled for internal use and are safe to ingest in small amounts.
Not all plants are grown, distilled, and bottled to be used as food grade, medicinal essential oils. For this reason, I trust Young Living’s Seed To Seal quality standard and only use their oils in my recipes. The best part is that by including these amazing essential oils in your recipes, you are also giving your body an ingredient that has health benefits, in addition to the flavor and scent.
Note: Young Living’s vitality bottles (labeled for internal use) contain the same ingredient as the regular bottles (labeled for topical and aromatic use). For instance, the Peppermint Vitality bottle has the same oil in it as the regular Peppermint bottle.
#3) KEEP ESSENTIAL OILS OUT OF YOUR EYES
If you accidentally get an essential oil in your eye, do NOT rinse with water. Water makes the essential oil absorb into the area more quickly, causing more irritation. Instead, apply Young Living’s V-6 Mixing oil, olive oil, or coconut oil directly to the eye. These “fatty oils” will “dilute” the essential oil and will slow down the absorption of the essential oil. After about a minute, wipe the eye and area with a cloth. If stinging persists, apply more of the diluting oil, wait and wipe away. The same technique works if you get an oil on your skin and it feels hot or itchy. Simply dilute with a fatty oil to sooth the skin. Sometimes Oregano, Thyme, Lemongrass, and Cinnamon Bark can be irritating to the skin if applied without diluting. These oils are also potent and you only need a little bit in your recipes.
Okay, now that you know the basic of using essential oils (EOs) for cooking, let’s get started!
MARINADES FOR CHICKEN, BEEF, AND LAMB
Who doesn’t love a flavorful marinade to bring flair and tenderness to a dish! The amazing fact about using essential oils in your marinades is that 1 drop of essential oil is roughly equivalent to the flavor of 1-2 teaspoons of the dried version. For instance, 1 drop of Rosemary essential oil is equivalent to 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary spice. Here is one of my favorite savory chicken marinades.
Rosemary—Lemon Marinated Chicken
This is a tasty, basic chicken marinade recipe. You can add salt and pepper, to taste. You can also use the Black Pepper essential oil rather than ground black pepper.
If you want more of an Italian seasoning flavor, try 1 drop Rosemary, 1 drop Thyme, 1 drop Oregano essential oil in the base of olive oil and garlic.
Black Pepper—Ginger Beef
Think stir fry!
This is a perfect basic flavor profile for grilling or pan searing meat and adding it to a medley of al dente vegetables.
Get creative with the spices on your vegetables to add an extra flavorful element to this meal.
Cumin—Lime Beef Tacos
Lime, Lime, Lime! Yummmm!!!
Did you know that lime helps to tenderize meat?And Cumin Vitality Essential Oil has many health benefits including: *anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, anti-fungal, antimicrobial, digestive aid, liver protectant, immune stimulant.
*taken from the Essential Oils Desk Reference 7th Edition, P 83.
Oregano, Thyme, Lemon Lamb Marinade
Wow your dinner guests with this savory Grilled Lamb entree!
Enjoy the simplicity of adding essential oils to your marinade. A little goes a long way. So try 1 drop of Oregano oil and 1 drop of Thyme oil in your marinade to start out. If you desire more flavor, or for one taste to stand out more, simply add 1-2 more drops.
NingXia Red Dressing & Marinade
If you’re one of the thousands of people who enjoy their daily 2 ounces of NingXia Red as a health drink, then have I got a recipe for you!
Imagine citrus, plus savory, plus a slight sweet and spicy flavor all at once. This is a mellow and yet full bodied marinade that is great for grilled chicken, beef, venison, or vegetables.
You can swap out avocado oil (which is great for grilling at high temperatures) with olive oil and enjoy this recipe as a salad dressing.
Curious to learn more about the nutrient-dense, antioxidant-rich NingXia Red drink? Visit my blog HERE.
VEGETABLE SIDE DISHES INFUSED WITH ESSENTIAL OILS
When you’re going for the perfect flavor pairing that just melts in your mouth and keeps you going back for seconds, try adding essential oils to your vegetable dish. Almost every spice in your pantry can be found as a Vitality Essential Oil from Young Living. They have over 40 single essential oils and blends to choose from.
Generally, when cooking, I go for the single essential oils that are the same name as the spice I’d want to use. The fun part is that you can even substitute lemon essential oil for lemon juice, or orange essential oil for orange peal. It’s simply over-the-top amazing how many substitutions you can do with essential oils.
I hope you enjoy some of my favorite vegetable side dish recipes!
Lemon-Pepper Buttered Broccoli
Who doesn’t love a little butter on their steamed or sautéd broccoli. Adding a few drops of essential oil to your butter will help the flavor infuse into the broccoli while cooking and give it that bit of spark as you munch away.
Honey Glazed Carrots
You can do traditional honey glazed carrots, or “Extra Special Honey Glazed Carrots”! Similar to sautéing broccoli with essential oil-infused butter, roasting your carrots with an essential oil-infused honey glaze allows the flavor to soak deep into every bite of carrot.
The fun part about these carrots is garnishing them with fresh herbs such as rosemary or thyme, and your choice of nuts such as slivered almonds of crushed hazelnuts. Pine nuts, pecans, or walnuts work well too.
Tomato Cucumber Salad
No summer party is complete without a Tomato Cucumber Salad! It’s a fact. Haha!
The important part is that you make it with love and flavor the dressing to your liking.
In this recipe, I suggest several different Vitality Essential Oil options. However, you do not need to use every oil recommended. You can keep it simple by just adding one or two of your favorite flavors.
ICED COLD BEVERAGES
Summer is the perfect time to get creative with your beverages! By adding vitality essential oils to your beverages, you get to enjoy the health benefits, in addition to the delicious flavor. Whether you are making a single serving or a pitcher full, here are some of my favorite iced cold beverages infused with Young Living’s Vitality Essential Oils.
NingXia Red Iced Tea
This tea is perfect to enjoy after a day out in the sun when you need some electrolytes and a kick of energy.
As a base, you can experiment making sun tea, or any iced tea mix you generally enjoy. Chill it in the refrigerator and enjoy over ice.
Lavender Mint Lemonade
Everyone loves Lemonade! Sweeten it with honey and you will be all the crunchy granola loving ladies best friend. But add Lavender essential oil and you’re really going to be on their A-List!
Peppermint Essential Oil is optional. However, it really adds a nice refreshing element to this lemonade. So experiment with the amount of drops of Lavender and Peppermint you use and flavor it to your liking.
Tip: Using room temperature water will help the honey dissolve easier. Blending all the ingredients is the easiest way to get it all mixed up. Then chill in the refrigerator before serving.
Strawberry Mint Lemonade
Add an extra bit of pizazzz to your next batch of Lemonade by adding fresh or frozen strawberries. Enjoy the benefits of lemon as a natural liver cleanser and Peppermint Essential Oil as a digestive support.
This beverage is sure to make your taste buds smile, while also supporting healthy digestion.
It’s time to get creative!
I hope you choose a few of these recipes to experiment with. It is my sincere joy and pleasure to share my favorites from years of incorporating essential oils into my kitchen routine. Please help me share this knowledge of healthy, tasty oil-infused tips with your friends! How about getting some friends together for a “cooking party” and enjoy experimenting together?
Cooking is always more fun together!
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I look forward to connecting again soon!
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To Your Health, With Love!
Elizabeth Rose