Cooking Your Way to Gorgeous (2 page)

Focusing on beauty as a whole, this book will help you leverage your everyday eating habits to become the most beautiful person you can be inside and out. You can get a skin-care guru, health and beauty coach, and a personal chef without the $2,000 per hour price tag. I’m all about the pep talk and helping YOU reach your goals. If you like chocolate, you will get it. Craving nachos? I have a recipe that’s good for your skin and cheesy delicious. Are you a hearty-soup fan or a burger connoisseur? In this book you will find simple, fresh recipes that can actually aid you in your quest for clearer skin. If you like your mac and cheese and cake, too, you will have them—with a high performance twist that’s beneficial to your skin and beauty. Even your cocktails get a Borba health boost, as was written about in the
New York Times
. I want you to use all the information I have researched, reviewed, and refined over the years so you don’t have to reinvent the way you cook. I want you to look and feel your best without having to sacrifice what you love to eat. Eating the foods you love in the
right way
will reveal your healthiest skin. When you look great you feel great, your inner light shines through, your beauty beams across the room, and that shining inner beauty conquers all.

If you are serious about improving the health and appearance of your skin, this cooking beauty book is for you. In these user-friendly recipes, the key ingredients can also be used to create homemade facials or cosmetic tricks while you prepare the meal, or during the few minutes you sneak for yourself in your own home spa.

Each ingredient can yield multiple uses for total body benefit. For example, due to their high vitamin C content, red and green hot chile peppers and bell peppers can power your skin to glow. Making a great chicken sauté with these ingredients, plus grapeseed oil for the pan, will give you multiple health and beauty benefits in one fell swoop,
deliciously
. But did you also know that when you apply hot chile peppers on your skin it helps with circulation, which is great for dimply skin on the legs, tummy, and body? A quick, targeted body serum would be to muddle (mash/mix together) the chile pepper or a chile paste along with the grapeseed oil and rub it vigorously on the skin before a hot shower. Wash it off when you feel the tingle.

If you have a lot on your plate, and you don’t have the time or focus to radically change the way you cook, eat, and care for your skin (who does?) but you are open to improvement—this book gives you an easy route to beautiful skin. It’s the insider’s scoop on how to achieve results
without
completely overhauling your eating habits or lifestyle—and it’s immensely helpful and fun, too. You will find time-saving tips, tricks, fun facts, home-spa treatments, and problem-solving food ingredients that are essential for increased energy and improved health—and will help the body and complexion at any age.

For example, do you ever find that when bedtime rolls around that you and your loved one retire at the same time, but, by the time you’ve just gotten into your beauty routine, your partner’s already done and fast asleep in bed? You dab on cream for that dry patch, and astringent for that breakout, a dab of moisturizer A for the forehead, a slathering of moisturizer B for the neck . . . pimple cream on the left, vitamin E on the scar, a pat-pat under the jowls for tightening (doesn’t work), serum on the nose, cream under the eyes, Vaseline on your lips, skin brightening cream on your cheeks . . . too much time spent catering to bathroom-business minutia is eating up your free time! This is precious time you could be reading, relaxing in front of the TV, or,
ahem,
enjoying your partner. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if you could pare down your beauty rituals and synthesize your facial products and procedures? If you had better skin overall, you could. And you will, if you can tweak the way you eat.

As you begin your journey, the biggest thing to know is that even if you start to revert to your old habits—unhealthy eating can be a vicious cycle—you can quickly make up for lost time and get back on track, so don’t give up! Simply by being mindful, you can control and nurture your beauty. You will learn how to experiment with items you already have at home to make your own regimen, meal, or skin-care items on the cheap. For example, if you use topical anti-aging serums or even basic moisturizers, why wouldn’t you use the same
active ingredients
internally? This book will give you the tools to creatively synergize both the topical and internal systems to work together. For example, if you get great results from a skin-care product that contains vitamin C, I will show you how to get optimal results by making recipes that contain vitamin C. If you’re using an ingredient in a topical skin-care product, try to eat foods that contain the same ingredients.

What you do and don’t have in your cabinets, pantry, and refrigerator will help keep your skin looking its best. With over 125 healthy recipes, quick and easy facials, hair-care treatments, and pantry-stocking tips, curbing the frenzied cycle of unhealthy eating and recapturing your beauty power will be an eye opener, a game changer, and won’t dent your dollars. Many of us suffer from acne scarring, premature gray hair, smoker’s face, unwanted facial hair, dark under-eye circles . . . but let’s face it, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Dry sensitive skin, enlarged pores, bacne, wrinkles, weight challenges . . . whatever your challenge,
Cooking Your Way to Gorgeous
will help keep skin looking flawlessly translucent and radiant. I want you to feel enthralled, to walk away looking and feeling gorgeous—and empowered inside and out. You should feel inspired by your own health and life!

~Scott-Vincent Borba

Chapter 1

Take It from the Top

Your hair is the frame of your face.
Hair makes a statement that dictates a lot about your personality, too. When it looks great you feel confident and beautiful. When it looks dry, frizzy, or oily, you pull it back in a ponytail or smother it under a hat. Good news: It’s very easy to enhance and improve your hair’s beautiful luster and shine and fall in love with it all over again. Square one: Make sure that you are drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily. Not only will your skin repair and recharge, but your entire body will thank you, including your hair. If you find the taste of water to be boring—and lots of people do—squeeze in some lemon juice, use the flavored water brand of your choice, or turn your water into a pitcher of cold, easy-to-gulp green tea. Green tea may influence the serum levels of certain hormones that are linked to at least one form of hair loss common in women and men.

To have radiant, healthy, and glowing skin and full, shiny hair, it’s important to understand that skin and hair share the same nutritional requirements. In other words, if your body is healthy and nourished, your hair will shine and your skin will glow, too.

Since many of us can’t afford frequent salon visits or high-end designer shampoos, I will give you some recipes for homemade hair treatments. And speaking of shampoos, when you read the labels, try to avoid products with fillers such as mineral oil and petrolatum. These products clog hair follicles, inhibiting hair growth. They also sit on top of the hair blocking needed moisture from entering the hair shaft. You want products that give moisture and contain protein to keep the hair strong.

TIP:
Give your skin an antioxidant boost by treating yourself to a green tea Popsicle. Brew a quart of green tea. Once it has cooled, add in 1/4 cup Truvia Baking Blend, and stir until dissolved. Transfer to Popsicle molds and freeze.

More important, to keep your hair its healthiest you need to know how to boost its nutrients
internally
to nourish hair inside out. Try to eat foods with iron, B vitamins, and antioxidants—the nutrients that are essential for hair growth and repair—as well as biotin, which makes the body produce extra keratin. Keratin is the protein that forms the chemical base for hair and nails. The human body is not capable of producing its own antioxidants; therefore, we must incorporate antioxidants into our diet and onto our hair and skin. This chapter will give you the best heroes for hair with the highest food nutrients that help provide inside-out benefits. You will also get tips that can help get you started on reclaiming your confident glow. Review the recipes, see what their benefits are, and make a hair-care treatment using some of those ingredients. Cooking for beauty benefits from the inside out is the modern approach to beauty and a central benefit of
Cooking Your Way to Gorgeous.
In this chapter and throughout the book you will find that many recipes incorporate fruits and vegetables, the most excellent source of natural antioxidants available to us, and that many of these recipes contain ingredients that are bursting with benefits for beauty as a whole.

Supplementing a few key ingredients into your snacking habits and meals will help your hair shine and flow no matter its style, length, cut, or color. These active ingredients are essential for hair gloss, growth, and strength. I want you to celebrate and embrace your ’do, down to its last little quirk!

My goal for you is that by the time you reach the end of this chapter, you have a new source for recipes and hair-health information. If you try a handful of these recipes and at-home spa treatments you will surely start to notice improvements in your hair and scalp, among other total body benefits. Bookmark, dog-ear, highlight, circle, or snapshot the ones that work best for you and pass them on.

TOP

5
Hero Foods for Hair and Scalp Health

Eggs—a rich source of biotin, key for hair strength and growth.

Salmon—a biotin-rich protein source.

Walnuts—a good source of biotin, also contain omega-3s, which support scalp health and give hair a healthy, shiny appearance.

Spinach—this green contains vitamins A and C, which help your body produce sebum, a natural scalp oil that moisturizes hair and combats dryness.

Gelatin (or pectin, if you are vegan)—a fabulous ingredient for shine and moisture lock.

GRILLED SALMON WITH
GINGER GLAZED

Makes 4 Servings

A
hhh, the benefits of salmon. I think if I were stuck on a desert island with only a few foods to sustain me, salmon would be one I would choose for the long haul. The high protein content in salmon helps with hair health. The omega-3s found in salmon lock moisture into skin cells, encouraging the production of strong collagen and elastin fibers, which contribute to more youthful looking skin. Omega-3s have also been known to alleviate skin blemishes while providing nourishment to hair follicles, helping hair grow healthy and preventing hair loss. A rich supply of proteins is also important for hair growth.

Ingredients:

4 (8-ounce) fresh salmon fillets—superb protein!

Salt, to taste

1/3 cup cold water

1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon hot chile paste—can help with weight loss

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon soy sauce—iodine source

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Preparation:

1
Preheat the grill on medium heat and lightly oil the grate with cooking spray.

2
Season the salmon fillets with salt.

3
Combine the water, rice vinegar, brown sugar, chile paste, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer until barely thickened, about 2 minutes.

4
Place the salmon on the preheated grill; cook for 6 to 8 minutes per side, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

5
Sprinkle the basil on top of the salmon; top with the ginger glaze.

WILD-CAUGHT ALASKAN SALMON
WITH TOMATO SALSA

Makes 2 Servings

L
ike many of us these days, I am leaning more toward the consumption of organic foods in my home, and in my cleaning products, too. (I’ve been trying to “go green” for years.) This awareness incorporates yet another arena of thinking when it comes to fish—wild-caught or farm-raised? Most of the salmon consumed nowadays is farm-raised. I will leave it to you to make your own informed decisions about what is right for your needs and budget, but for this recipe I encourage you to go for the slightly more expensive wild-caught Alaskan salmon so you can maximize its health benefits. Food is like medicine, so you want to always be putting good food in to avoid the medicine later! Fresh wild Alaskan salmon is an extremely powerful anti-aging food.

Ingredients: Salmon

1-1/2 pounds salmon filet cut into 4 pieces, skin and bones removed

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Salt and pepper, to taste