Week 43 Hair: Henna Madness!

 So yea, I finally got the courage to try Henna. I LOVE how it had made my hair look and feel! It feels stronger, longer, fuller and heavier...all good things to me! However, for my schedule, and the realities of life, this is NOT something I can do every month. 

I got up at 8am on Sunday and wasn't finished with my hair until 11pm that night and I am not exaggerating.  The thought of sleeping with that stuff in my hair grossed me out. I am not a person that "sleeps pretty" so that gunk would have been all over the bed. That's why I had to do it all in one day. I actually mixed it the night before and then applied it the next morning.

The Henna process takes extreme patience in the application and rinsing out of the product, especially the rinising out of it. I can see myself wanting to do it every month because of the benefits but getting lazy with it. 

You really have to be careful to rinse that stuff out of your hair. It takes awhile. Right now I'm thinking I will do it once every 2 months. When my schedule slows down (in the summer) I might consider doing it on a monthly basis.

In the post Week 41 Hair, I didn't actually shampoo my hair. Since I didn't have the aloe vera juice I didn't see any real point in starting the process and having to finish it later. So I sucked it up and just wore my hair in updos for the rest of the week.

Last week is when I applied the Henna. Many people don't use shampoo to rinse out the Henna but I did. Partly because it had been 2 weeks since I shampooed and I wanted to have a clean scalp, and partly because I wanted to make sure the Henna rinsed out completely.

So here's the step-by-step process in pictures, Curly Nikki style.

This is how the bathroom was prepped. People aren't lying when they say it's messy. So if you are thinking of trying it make sure that you protect your bathroom. The Henna I used didn't have any color in it so nothing was stained anyway. Kudos to my husband for buying the plastic I put on the floor and cleaning up when I was done!

This is the mix. I made mine exactly how Curly Nikki makes her mix. I added 4 green tea bags to warm water and let it steep. After that I mixed it in with the Henna and then added about 2 tbsp. of honey. I made 200g of the Henna and froze my leftovers. Like I mentioned above, I let it sit overnight (approximately 8 hours).

This is my hair before the application. I wet my hair and throughly detangled before applying the Henna. It's important to do so because you don't want to manipulate your hair much in the application process.

This is at some point in the beginning of the process before I got super messy. The technique is to "smoosh" the Henna on your hair and not rake it through. Make sure you have some plastic gloves!

It is so hard to get this stuff evenly on the hair, or at least I thought so. Next time I will try to make it a tad bit more watery. I think it was too thick. But I did a decent job for my first time.

Now I'm one the second half of my hair. I split my hair into two sections and started each section in the back.

What my hair looked like before I put on my plastic bag. Again, the application was not exactly uniform but I did my best.

Here's a top shot.

 As you can see, I was filthy at the end. Make sure you wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty (or staining if you use Henna with color).

 Here I am again after cleaning up a bit. Now this stuff stayed on for 8 hours.

 After the 8 hours I was itching to rinse this out because it started leaking. Imagine sleeping with this stuff on!

 Yes, it is a complete mess!

Me in the shower right before rinsing it out.

I don't have any post-Henna pictures because, like I said, I didn't finish until 11pm and I was tired. But after rinsing it out really well (I used up all the hot water doing so!) I applied my deep conditioner. I added honey, olive oil and coconut milk to it. My hair felt great afterwards. I didn't have any problems with excessive drying.

I left the deep conditioner in for 1.5 hours and then applied my kimmaytube and twisted my hair up. It was a long process but I truly believe my hair reaped benefits from it. 

I recommend Henna but warn that it is an involved process. Only do this when you are in the mood and don't have to leave the house.

(Weekly) Recipe: Stuffed Acorn Squash

This was supposed to be a weekly thing but I've been slacking recently. Not really slacking, it's just that I haven't made anything new or interesting. However, I'm trying to get back into it.

This recipe I invented on the fly. I wanted to make something to celebrate my vegan challenge and this is what I came up with. It was SUPER good! You all have to try it! It may be vegan but you can add things to it if you like or it can be the vegetable side dish.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

• 1 acorn squash (feeds 2 people)
• 1/2 cup brown rice
• 1 can black beans
• 1/2  white onion
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 zucchini
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 1/2 eggplant
• 1/3 cup white wine
• oregano, rosemary, garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt to taste

First you want to cook the acorn squash. So rinse it, scoop out the seeds, and then cut it in half. Place it in a baking dish, cut side down, with a little bit of water (about 1 Tbsp.). Put it in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

While that is cooking you can cook the rice and rinse and chop up all the vegetables. Add first the onion and the green pepper and cook until fragrant with some extra virgin olive oil. 

Next, just add everything together (including the spices) and mix well. Add the white wine and lower the heat so it can simmer. Cook the vegetables until they are done to your liking. Add them to the rice once it's done.

When the acron squash is done, stuff it with the rice and veggie mixture. (You will have some of the mixture left. So look below for another recipe!)  Put it back in the oven for about 5 minutes and then take it out and start grubbing!

I can't tell you all again how DELICIOUS this recipe is. You have to try it! With the leftover rice mixture you make a new recipe the following day.

I was in a rush so I didn't have time to take pictures. But it was also SUPER yummy! This is something you can do with the other half of the eggplant when you make the above recipe. Plus, you can add any other veggies you need to use up before they go bad.

Rice and Beans with Veggies

•  1/2 eggplant
• 1/2 onion
• 1 head broccoli
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 1/3 cup white wine
• Any spices and other veggies you like!

Cook the onion and broccoli with some extra virgin olive oil until they have a little bit of color. Then add the white wine, eggplant, mushrooms, spices etc. and lower the heat. Cover and simmer until done. Mix it with the rice and beans and you have another quick meal!

Weekly Recipe: Appetizers

As many of you know I'm in the middle of an important move. So instead of Weekly Recipe Thursdays, we have Weekly Recipe Friday this week. I didn't actually make any of these recipes, but they were so good I had to share. Wednesday Chema and I had lunch with his aunt and uncle (he has 3 aunts and 2 uncles) as a sort of farewell. Here's a sample of some of the things we ate.

Bottled artichoke hearts with a spread of some type of homemade sauce (I forgot to ask what it was) and an anchovie. The sauce didn't have much of a taste but it didn't need to since anchovies have a strong flavor. Don't sleep on anchovies! They are so good!

Salad: Your preferred lettuce or field greens, tomato, pineapple pieces, tuna fish and shrimp. You can season this with any kind of salad dressing you like. This one was creamy, very similar to Thousand Island. I don't like shrimp. So I picked mine off and gave them to my husband!

Strangely, this was my favorite appetizer and I don't typically like blue cheese. Just cut up some tomatoes in thin wedges, drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil, and top with slices of blue cheese. Super easy and super delicious! I think I ate up half of the plate all by myself.

We also had huevos rellenos, a Spanish version of deviled eggs, but I didn't get to take any pics of that. Chema's aunt also served pork chops (I don't eat meat much, maybe chicken once in awhile) as well as homemade french fries. I don't eat fried foods often but I had a couple. They were good!

So nice not to have to cook!