Sentiments by Denise

Time for Tea

Yes, I've been on a blogging break - though somewhat unintentional.

My days are so full, with work (I'm away from home at least 11 hours a day) and exercise (I try to hit the gym several evenings a week for either special classes offered or track time) and family (date nights with my husband, helping our kids with different things or just spending time with them, or out of town to visit extended family). Sometimes I have to figure out what is the important parts and leave the not-so-important parts behind for the time being. Like blogging.

Life is going to get a lot more chaotic in our house over the next couple months as Ed & I embark on a much needed remodel project. I just need to take a deep breath and go for it! More on that later.

A little thing that keeps me balanced each day is my tea time. Every morning I prepare a travel mug of tea (like some people prepare coffee) to drink on the way to work and it is a comfort beverage for me.
I really like different flavored teas, especially green tea and chai tea. I've found some wonderful leaves to blend:

 
Remember my Teavana infuser cup? This makes a perfect cup of tea every time with loose leaf tea. I found this Masala Chai to be very strong (chai flavor), so I "tone it down" a bit by putting 1/2 of the chai leaves and 1/2 of the Kyoto Garden green tea (1 tsp of each) into my infuser cup. Add hot water (not boiling) and steep for 3 minutes.

 
(Here's the leaves added to the cup before adding water).

Since I love the taste of Chai/Green tea latte, but need to be careful of the extra calories (I never add sweetener to my tea), I usually heat a small portion (about 1/3 cup) of vanilla flavored almond milk and stir it into my tea when it is finished steeping.

 
A full cup (8oz) of almond milk is 90 calories, so I only add 30 calories to my morning tea latte by adding this. So much better (and healthier) than those options from Starb*cks. And cheaper, too! Give it a try - I'm sure you'll enjoy it even more, knowing you're saving money and choosing something healthier!

It's All About the Vegetables!

People often ask me what I eat since I don't eat meat anymore. My reply?

"Vegetables! Lots of vegetables!

Tonight when I came home from work I knew I needed to use up some food in the fridge to make room for my CSA delivery tomorrow.

I chose some crimini mushrooms, mini sweet peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, and broccoli slaw. I cut up these vegetables and tossed them into a pan with a bit of grapeseed oil (great for sauteing or stir-frying, as it's suitable for high heat).
Then I added a few wheatberries that I had cooked the other day (these are a great source of fiber), some red kidney beans (more fiber and protein), and about a 1/4 cup of brown rice that was leftover from Ed's stirfry. I seasoned this with a bit of black pepper and my staple favorite - szechuan sauce!

 
Doesn't it look great!?  This is enough for two servings - I'll have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

I love mixtures like this - they are quick to make, very nutritious, and fill me right up! Vegetarian cuisine can be so easy and I find now that I don't center my meals around meat, I am much more creative in my cooking and how I put my meals together. I like them to be colorful (vegetables give me that). I like them to be healthy - choosing a variety of vegetables, legumes, and grains make it so. And I like them to taste great and all of these flavors combined (or combining other flavors - veggies with beans or veggies with grains) really satisfy my taste buds.

Tonight it's cold outside so I think a cup of hot tea might just hit the spot.

 
I'm rockin' the Green Tea - extra special since it tastes like candy canes and is decaf! Love that!

Highlights of October

This month is flying by and I haven't made much of an effort to post on this blog. The month started off with our trip to Madison for the weekend (see previous post on that adventure!).  Here are some more highlights:

Tea -
 
This is a new tea that I bought in Madison - love the flavor! The added bonus of caffeine-free makes it great to drink any time of day for me. I'm loving the hot teas more now that the days are cooler. I usually start my day off with a mug of hot tea with breakfast or I make a flavored tea latte (green chai, coconut chai, or mango oolong with 1/3-1/2 cup of almond milk added) in my travel mug to sip on my long drive to work in the mornings. I drink several more cups  (2-3) at work in the morning - mostly Sencha green tea - and often have a cup of vanilla spice at night before bedtime. Love my teas!

Worship -

We are loving our new church so much! Our choir sings only once a month, but we do all three services (Sat night, 2 Sun mornings) so it makes for a busy weekend when we do sing.  For the past six weeks our pastor has been doing a series on prayer and it has been powerful! I have learned so much! The weekend in October that the choir sang, we also did a special Sunday night service called a Night of Worship and Prayer. It was an emphasis on everything Pastor Philbeck had been bringing to us in the past few weeks, worshipful songs of praise to our Lord, and a time to bring our prayers/petitions to God. What an evening of blessing and praise to God! Here's a link of one the songs we sang: Revelation Song (this will link you to our Worship Pastor's blog - click on the link to see/hear the video. Can you spot me in the choir? ). I didn't get permission from Brian to post this video to my blog so I'll just link to his - the blessing you will receive is beyond compare!

 

IKEA -
 
Last weekend my dear friend, Bonnie, invited me to go with her to IKEA in Cincinnati. I had never been before - what a fun store! We spent several hours browsing through the model rooms, oohhing and aahhing over all the fun furnishings. I actually had a couple things on my list to get and I snagged those, plus a few more. I left the store only spending less than $45, but know that a trip in the future is bound to happen. Lots of great ideas and fun ways to organize areas in the home.

Soup -
 
Emilee and I have been itching to make some soups lately, so yesterday after our grocery shopping trip to Whole Foods and Trader Joes (we do this twice a month), we decided to dive right in to making some great vegetarian soups. Pictured above is the split pea soup (flavored with liquid smoke to replace the pork that is so popular in this soup- tasted wonderful!). We also made a butternut squash/white bean soup and a minetrone soup.
 
(Roasting the butternut squash and onions)

I also roasted some pumpkin that my mom had brought me from their garden a few weeks ago, pureed in my food processor and froze for future use in recipes (smoothies, breads, muffins, or as a mix-in for morning oatmeal).

Today our Sunday lunch with the kids consisted of a sampling of homemade soups with some Irish Soda bread that Emilee had made. It was all very good!

 
Loving these Autumn days and nights!

 

Lemonade with a Passion

Rumor has it that Starbucks has a Passion Tea Lemonade drink that many are raving about. I haven't tried it. Yet.

I figure I can make the same thing at home with just a little extra effort. Starting with these:

 
Fresh lemons always make the best lemonade.

While squeezing the juice, I put a pot of water (6 cups to be exact) mixed with one cup of raw sugar on the stove to boil. This makes the syrup for the lemonade. You can always add more sweetener later to your tastes, but I love it tart (!) so this amount works well for me!

Yes, it looks brown - that's the raw sugar (cane sugar, less processed than white refined sugar). Raw sugar has a more complex flavor, much richer than regular table sugar. The color may throw you off when you first begin to cook with it.

First I wash the lemons, like any other raw fruit. You'll see why in a moment. Next I roll each lemon around on the countertop with some slight pressure from my palm to get the juices flowing.
Then comes the juicing. I realize there are easier ways to do this (I even have a little manual juicer), but I didn't mind squeezing  just a few by hand. This recipe used ten small lemons. This will make a little over one cup of pure lemon juice. Mix it with the syrup water, stir, and cool at room temperature for about an hour.

The day before I had made some Tazo Passion Tea and put it in the fridge to chill.

 

Isn't it a lovely color? It's made with hibiscus flowers (and other delightful flavors). The best part is it's caffeine-free! You can find this at any grocery store that sells the Tazo brand.

 

I usually mix 2/3 tea with 1/3 lemonade to make a glassful, adding ice to chill it. This is an awesome, refreshing drink! Not sure what the Starbucks version tastes like, but I love mine!

Oh, you're wondering about my wrap pictured above with my Passion Tea Lemonade? Well, it has an unusual ingredient  - can you guess what it is?

I'll be back next time to share more about this delicious wrap!

p.s. when using fresh lemons, take a few minutes to zest several and freeze the zest - this will come in handy later for those holiday baking recipes!

  

Refreshing Green Tea Smoothie

Green tea, next to plain water, has been my preferred drink of choice over the past several years. I drink it by the mugfuls when the weather is cold and I need something to warm me up since I'm not a coffee drinker.

In the warmer months, I prefer to drink it iced - even adding some almond milk and a couple ice cubes to make an iced green tea latte. I actually enjoy my version better than the expensive one that Starbucks sells!

Recently I ran across this great book:

 

Along with so much good nutrition information for cancer survivors (and anyone else, for that matter), it is loaded with some fabulous recipes that compliment the way I've been eating these days. There are quite a few smoothie recipes which gives me lots of new ways to incorporate fruits/vegetables into my diet.

{Side note: recently someone asked me how it was possible to get the 7-9 daily recommended vegetables and fruits into their diet - they were having a hard time with that. For me, it's all about being creative with my food selection. Since I concentrate on a plant-based diet now, I find that's what my body craves most. Making smoothies, stir-frys, colorful loaded salads, roasting a variety of vegetables (like potatoes, squashes, brussel sprouts), and fresh fruit bowls, are some great ways to get all of those wonderful, healthy foods to become a daily habit.}

I found a recipe in the above book for a Green Tea Smoothie, which sounded like something I needed to try. This morning, before church, I made it and also ate a half of a blueberry bran muffin (these are made with lots of natural and organic ingredients: whole wheat flour, fruit juice concentrate - pear/pineapple, blueberries, wheat bran, water, low-fat buttermilk, applesauce, egg whites, leavening, cinnamon, and lemon extract. I get them from Trader Joes and freeze them - great for mornings when I'm in a hurry and want a healthy start to the day), with a touch of almond butter.

Now, that doesn't look scary at all, does it? (I know many of my friends are "put off" by my consumption of the green smoothies I make with spinach). This contains: frozen strawberries (5-6 large), almond milk (3/4 cup), a frozen banana, brewed green tea, chilled (about 1/2 cup), and some POM juice (1/2 cup - cranberry juice can be substituted also).  What a refreshing drink! Next time I'll add some chia seeds (a muscle and tissue builder, which also energizes and hydrates!) just to liven things up a bit more!

If you'd like to read more about the wonderful attributes of green tea, pop over to my new friend, Liz's blog, and enjoy all the great information she gives us for reasons to add green tea into our daily lives!

Let me know if you try this smoothie recipe and what you think!

Perfect Tea Maker

A couple weeks ago I was browsing around on the Teavana website and came across the perfect tea maker. Of course it found its way to my home and I've been using it quite a bit with the wonderful blends of loose leaf teas that I also purchased from Teavana.

 
This is the 16oz size, but they also make a 32oz size. This will fill my tea mug close to the top, or fill two little 8oz tea cups.

First, I put a kettle of water on the stove to heat.

 

 The bottom of the tea maker has a fine filter screen. The maker is also plastic, but does not contain any BPAs that are harmful to the body.

While the water is heating up, I select my tea.

 

 This is the Peachberry Jasmine Sutra green tea blend and it is so flavorful! It also smells awesome while it steeps.

 
Next I add the hot water and let it steep for 3-5 minutes.

 

 The tea maker holds the water/tea leaves in (with no leaking). There is a cool mechanism on the bottom that releases the water into the mug once it is placed on the rim of the mug. Here you can see the TEA draining into the mug.

 

 Tea is drained into the mug and ready to enjoy!

I love making loose leaf tea this way. And it's a breeze to clean! I usually just scrape the used tea leaves into my compost bag and rinse the tea maker thoroughly with warm soapy water, rinse, and it's ready to use again! 

The teas from Teavana are so flavor-filled that I will often infuse the same tea leaves a second time for another cup. Still lots of flavor left!

More tea posts to come!