It's been fun to play around with June's herb of the month, basil. Though we recommend the use of Holy basil for it's excellent adaptogenic benefits, it's more common cousins offer multiple health-boosting properties as well.

The basil family has been known to lower cholesterol and boost the immune system. Most interestingly, basil has antibacterial properties, which when consumed makes it a great protector against food-borne illnesses. Last but not least, it's just plain yummy.

Please forgive us for the sporadic posting this week. I've been out of town several days for a wedding and Rachel has been busy planning for and celebrating her son's 1st birthday. We will be posting our Weekly Fitness Challenge report here shortly and perhaps most exciting of all, the conclusion to our essential oil company comparison, which I found to be really insightful and I hope you will, too!

But in the meantime, here's a yummy (and herb-free) recipe to tempt your palate.

In the country, I get more peace of mind that the wild plants and herbs I pick out there are safe and pesticide-free.  That's just not the case in my neighborhood.  So when I knew we were planning another trip out to my in-laws, I had every intention of picking fresh dandelion to bring back home with us.

Well, it didn't happen this time around.  We returned home empty-handed after my couple failed attempts to get outdoors.

So what did I do instead?  I purchased fresh dandelion leaves on a recent visit to Whole Foods.  Yes, true story.  I actually bought the most common weed on the face of the earth.

If you read about culturing milk earlier this week, then you know what amazing stuff kefir is made of.  High in calcium, phosphorus, K2, and a bunch of other vitamins, it may be termed a superfood.  

What you may not know, however, is that kefir grains have the wonderful reputation of lasting indefinitely if given the proper attention they deserve.  Add to this their special habit of multiplying over time and you've got yourself a lifetime supply of this "cultured gold."

Since feeding my kefir grains with fresh milk has become a regular kitchen routine, I usually have about 1-2 cups of finished kefir each day that stores nicely in the fridge.  The question naturally follows then... what do I do with it?

Today we shift our focus from the wonderful tonic herb, Nettle, and set our sights to another "weed" in our yard: Dandelion.

It's hard to believe that this pesky lawn nuisance would have anything beneficial to offer the medicinal herbal world, let alone our kitchen tables. But the smiling faces of my kiddos at the breakfast table this morning and their multiple chortles of "more, please?!" suggested there is good use out there for even this weed. And so I ask you this: What is a weed, really?

At our house morning menus are fairly routine. We're big fans of eggs and lovers of oatmeal; quick and simple. Once or twice a week we shake things up and have a more carb-heavy breakfast of pancakes, waffles, muffins or coffee cake. Mmm.

A couple of months ago, when the weather was still cold, I experimented with a hearty breakfast cake recipe in an attempt to find a way to use up a few bags of $0.99 organic cranberries I had snagged at the grocery. Feeling a bit daring, I tossed some dried nettle into the batter, too. As I slid the pan into the oven I thought, "Nettle? Really? What have I done?!"

The night before Easter, I had grand ambitions of rising early and baking off a batch of these Hot Cross Buns for my family (since I obviously failed to do it on Good Friday).

But as is often the case, my grand ambitions fell flat on their face when the reality of a sleepless infant left me feeling a bit groggy Easter morning. Ok, a LOT groggy.

I may or may not have overheard my normally optimistic husband say upon waking, "Jesus already arose... so why do I have to?" It was bad.

There I was standing in my kitchen, bun-less and sleep-deprived with three little hopeful faces begging for a holiday breakfast magic show. I was hoping to pull off scrambled eggs.

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and since we had to eat something I decided to compromise and use inspiration from a traditional Hot Cross Buns recipe, plus a few random leftovers in my fridge, to crank out a whole new  Easter favorite. And that's what we did.