I made this concoction for sleep, because I was having a very hard time sleeping. It worked great for me, not only for sleep but for menstrual cramping. It’s one of well it’s pretty much the only thing that eased up my cramping. Other women have used it and found it helped their menstrual cramping a great deal. Some don’t find it too tasty, but it’s not bad.

1 teaspoon Chamomile Flowers
1 teaspoon Spearmint Leaf
½ teaspoon Hops Flowers
½ teaspoon Lemon Balm Leaf (Melissa)
¼ teaspoon Life Everlasting Flowers (Helichrysum)
¼ teaspoon Skullcap Herb

Put all the ingredients in a mesh tea ball, and let it steep in the coffee pot for about 20 min. It’s best if you drink it warm.
All the herbs I use for my teas can be purchased from Frontier Co-Op. That’s who we get all of our bulk herbs from.

A Crock Pot
6 Red & Orange Bell Peppers, tops cut off and seeds out
1-2 lbs. Ground Buffalo, or Beef & Turkey
4-6 Fresh Roma Tomatoes
2 12oz. cans Tomato Paste
13oz. Crushed Tomatoes
1-2 packets Beefy Lipton Onion Soup Mix
2 Teaspoons Paprika or Cayenne
4 large cloves of fresh Garlic
½ of a fresh Onion Sliced and sautéed
2 Eggs
½-1 cup of Japanese sweet rice
1-2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2-3 teaspoons powdered Beef Broth
Basil, fresh or dried

1.) You can easily mix this by hand, but I prefer to use a food processor. Cut up one of the tomatoes, throw it in the food processor, add the 4 cloves of garlic, beefy lipton onion soup mix, 1 teaspoon of paprika/cayenne, 2 eggs, rice, worcestershire sauce and mix it up. After this is thoroughly mixed begin adding your meat. I normally use a mix of 1 pound lean beef and 1 pound turkey, but I sometimes use just ground buffalo. Once it’s all mixed up set it aside. By now you should have your onion sautéed. I add a few pieces of onion to the bottom of each bell pepper, then stuff the rest with the meat, it’s okay if you over stuff them. You’ll most likely have some meat left over unless you’ve decided to do a few more bell peppers. I usually make the left over meat into a ball and put it in the middle of the peppers. Sascha doesn’t like bell peppers much. Once all the peppers are stuffed place them in your crock pot.

2.) Now that you’re done with the meat, and have washed out your food processor, you can start the sauce! I personally like a thick sauce that cooks up nice, if you prefer a thinner sauce add more fresh tomatoes. Cut your remaining roma tomatoes and put them in the food processor, add both cans of tomato paste, the crushed tomatoes, 1 teaspoon of paprika/cayenne, powdered beef broth and basil. Mix this up until you have a consistency you’re happy with.

3.) Spoon the sauce over the peppers, spoon any extra sauce around them. Cover and set your time! Normally I cook them for around 4-5 hours on high depending on how many I am cooking. If for some reason I need to cook them over night I usually put them on low just before I go to bed, then turn off the crock pot in the morning when I wake up. I find that cooking them for a longer period of time on low, makes the flavour much better.

*Pictures to come later!