Pickles are packed with probiotics and antioxidants which can help to lose weight, fight cancel, improve your digestive system and improve your overall health without adding lots of calories to your diet.

Pickling has been the most popular way of preserving food for centuries and is easy for you to do at home, where you can create a range of different flavors to suit your palate. Pickles add crunch and their own special flavor to a variety of different meals, they are wonderful on sandwiches, burgers and you can even take your taste buds on a completely new adventure and make a pickle pizza!

5 ways to make a pickle pizza

Pickles add a whole new depth and taste element to our favorite food, the pizza. Here are some new taste combinations that will change the way you view pizza and pickles forever.

1. Replace the tomato base on your pizza with basil pesto. Top with cheese and tomato, red onions and spinach and the top off with some pickles. Cook in a hot oven for 15 mins till golden brown and bubbly and enjoy.
2. Another great pizza topping that mixes well with pickles is pepperoni. Take you standard tomato and cheese based pizza and top with pepperoni and pickles. The sharp tang of the pickle compliments the spicy pepperoni to make a fantastic tasting pizza. Cook in a hot oven till ready to serve.
3. If you are feeling adventurous, a Cheeseburger Pickle pizza is the way to go. All you favorite burger toppings, on a pizza, including the pickles.  On a pizza base, spread your favorite burger sauce, top with cheese, onion slices, minced beef, some mayo and of course pickles. Cook till bubbly and brown.
4. Our next pickle pizza is for garlic lovers. The sharpness of the dill pickle helps to cut through the richness of the cheese and garlic and creates a wonderfully tasty pizza. Prepare a Margarita pizza as normal (cheese, tomato and oregano), sprinkle with 6-8 cloves of crushed garlic and sliced pickles, as many as you like. Cook as you would any pizza and enjoy.
5. The last pickle pizza recipe is based on a club sandwich. Combine mayonnaise, and cream cheese and spread on the pizza base. Top with cheese, cooked shredded chicken, fried bacon bits and of course your favorite pickle and cook till golden brown and bubbly.

Enjoy !

Make you own Dill Pickles

Dill pickles are versatile, tasty, healthy and can be used to improve the taste of almost any dish. Making your own pickles is fun and easy and you can control the amount of sugar and spice that is used.

Here are three easy ways to make you own pickles at home. Make sure in all cases that your bottles are clean and sterile.

1.  Super fast garlic pickles. Place some chopped dill, a bay leaf, a handful of dill seeds and 4 cloves of whole garlic cloves into your pickling bottle, pack in as many pickling cucumbers as you can fit. In a pan boil 500 ml of white vinegar and 500 ml water with 2 tablespoons of pickling salt. When boiling, pour into the jar over the cucumbers. Seal and leave for a day to pickle.
2. Slight Bite Pickles – follow the recipe above, but add a few chili flakes to the bottle before adding the cucumbers and vinegar mix for slightly hotter pickles.
3. Pepper Pickles – Another great addition to the above recipe it to spice it up with black peppercorns instead of chili flakes. (of course you can add both to have some really hot and spicy pickles).

Cucumbers and a sexier you

After all your hard work making pizza and pickles, you need some beauty time for yourself. Placing cucumbers on your eye’s can help you look younger and sexier in no time. Slice the cucumbers, find a quite, relaxing place and put the cucumber on your eyes for 10 to 15 minutes. The absorbic and caffeic acid in the cucumbers will help reduce puffiness and swelling around the eye. The lightening effect of cucumbers will help hide dark lines and circles under your eyes and make the skin around the eyes youthful and glowing. Cucumbers are also great for firming and tightening the skin and reducing wrinkles.