The Obregon Family

When I go shopping I always pick up a few more vegetables than I end up actually having a plan for. This week’s victim was snow peas. I picked up two bags, ate one, and the rest was sitting there, lonely…lol. I also had about double the mushrooms I needed for another recipe, so I decided to make a stir-fry of the two, with some homemade teriyaki sauce.

2T. olive oil

8oz. snow peas, cleaned

4oz. mushrooms, sliced

2T. Teriyaki sauce

1. Heat oil in a large skillet (over medium high heat) until shimmering. Once oil is shimmering, add vegetables.

2. Stir veggies until crisp-tender.

3. Add teriyaki sauce, stir well.

Serve hot.

Serves 4 as a side dish.

Note: In order to “clean” snow peas, you grab the tough little string hanging off the end, and pull. You may or may not do both sides, if the string doesn’t feel tough on the bottom, don’t worry about it.

This is not necessarily a review of the company or website, but rather a review of the products. Since I order so often from Lush, and have so many of their products, the list of reviews would be excessively long, so ALL Lush.com related reviews will be placed here. I’ll add links to each individual item reviewed in The Big List of Product Reviews, but it will just link back here!

Lush.com is a company that creates and ships cosmetic items. I do not mean cosmetic in the make-up sense, but rather the personal care sense. Their products range from deodorant to perfume to bath items with a lot of stuff in between. Their products are strongly infused with all natural items. Each product page features a list, in English terms, of the ingredients involved in making the product.

I just ordered a ton of items, and received them about a week after ordering (totally reasonable since they ship from Canada to the U.S.).

This is what I received yesterday:

Dirty Springwash (small blueish bottle top left): is a shower gel, can be used by male or female as the scent is a sweet mint. I did not try it, but hubby did, and it took a very tiny amount.

It’s Raining Men (small and large caramel colored gel, top middle): is a shower gel. I used this yesterday, and while I only used a dime, the suds were incredible. The scent is a sweet toffee scent, and my skin didn’t feel dry afterwards. I also used it on Peanut, and it just left behind a subtle sweet scent.

American Cream (creamy white, top right): is a conditioner. This is the scent I die for all the time. It is vanilla, but more adult than the sugary sweet vanilla scents you get everywhere else. It conditions really well with a dime sized amount for my medium length hair. This will NOT make your hair feel weighed down, it is very light.

Trichomania (small brown paper wrapped package center, left): is a solid shampoo. Lush is the only company I personally know of that has SOLID shampoo bars. This one in particular is roughly the size of my fist, and is essentially a hunk of coconut goodness. Either you rub the bar down your hair in 2-3 strokes, then use your hands to lather OR you rub this in your hands like a bar of soap, and lather it in your hair. Rinse, and it rinses completely clear, no residue. My hair between this and the conditioner smells and feels SO amazing.

Herbalism (little tiny clear pot with green stuff in it, almost dead center): is a sample size of a face wash. I used it, and it made my face skin feel very moisturized. I can’t say much about the smell, it smelled like slightly weak oregano to me…lol.

Rub, Rub, Rub (black jar just right of center in middle): is a shower scrub. This particular item is what captured my attention and love for Lush to begin with. When you open the jar (shake first!), inside is a bright blue gel. This gel has a LOT of sea salt in it, and the scent is very strongly mint and lemon. Scrub it all over your body (I prefer using my hand or a rag as a pouf negates the feel of the salt), rinse well, you seriously do not need lotion afterwards. This stuff is insanely moisturizing, the scent is almost edible. Love, love, love.

Sunny Side (gold shimmery hunk in the center): is a bubble bar. This bar makes enough bubbles and scent for 4-5 baths. You break or cut off a chunk (I cut mine, store it in a tupperware container with a lid in my bathroom), then crumble the chunk under running water for a bath. The result of this bubble bar is copious bubbles, and shimmery gold water, the scent is very citrusy and sweet. The glitter does not appear to have stuck to me, but did give me a light overall skin glow. Here is what it does in the tub:

It did leave a streak of glitter upon emptying the water, so just be aware of it, and rinse it out when you’re done.

Hottie (creamy yellow/white bar, center, right): is a massage bar. The bar melts into oil at body temperature. I used it briefly on hubby last night on his sore back and he said it felt good. The Hottie bar is made with peppery oils, so it’s supposed to heat up.

The Comforter: (pink/white swirls, bottom left): is another bubble bar. I have not used this one yet, but it has a SUPER sweet fruity bubble gum scent. I cut it into something like 8-10 pieces, so tons of baths out of it.

Seanik: (blue bar, bottom center): is a solid shampoo bar. This one smells of clean ocean, but I have not used it, so I can’t say what it does.

Godmother: (brown paper wrapped package, bottom right): This is another one of the products that brings me back to Lush over and over again. This is a bar of bath soap, and the smell is insane. It’s like you take the sweetest candy scented fairy Godmother and stuck her into this container. The scent is hands down my favorite for kids, uses very little, and lasts for a loooong time, no drying of the skin either.

I made this last night for our family. My husband has never had the pork/fruit combination, so he kept asking me to serve the apples separate. That said, I knew he would enjoy the combination if he tried it, so I persevered and it was a TOTAL hit. I scaled this recipe down to a normal family serving size of 4.

Pork Chops with Apples

2T. vegetable or olive oil for frying

4 pork chops (we prefer boneless)

2T. brown sugar

salt and pepper to taste

1/2t. cinnamon

1/2t. nutmeg

2T. Butter

2 apples, peeled, cored, sliced

1. In a skillet, over medium heat, fry pork chops in oil. Remove cooked pork chops to a warm plate, keep warm.

2. Combine sugar, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a bowl. If you don’t happen to have the cinnamon or nutmeg, you can substitute it with pumpkin pie spice like I did.

3. In the same skillet you cooked the chops in, add butter and allow to melt over medium heat. Add spice mixture, stir to distribute in butter. Add apples.

4. Cook apples over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. The apples should not be mushy. Remove apples, place over pork chops.

5. Continue cooking butter/spice mixture until it thickens slightly 4-5 minutes. Pour over pork chops and apples.

Serve hot.

I would not change any part of this recipe, as it was exactly correct the first time I made it. The sweet spices and salty pork, plus mildly crisp apples were a treat. The entire family ate it, loved it, and asked for seconds.