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Drinks/ HOME/ Natural Products/ Simplifying

Paper Towel Alternative

We have had a few spring like days here in Nebraska.  I love it!  It is making me think about spring cleaning!  I will be having radiation the next 6 weeks, so I will have to do mine in baby steps.  I am planning on working in a different “zone” of my home each week, 15 minutes a day.  Hopefully by the time I’m done with radiation my house will be de-cluttered and sparkling clean!!
I was inspired by this post at Clean Momma.  She is someone who knows sparkly clean!  I loved the idea of getting rid of paper products.  It kills me to spend money on paper towels, and we were going through them like crazy!  I do still keep one roll around for those nasty type spills, you know, like when you accidentally drop an egg?  Or when the raw chicken leaks onto the counter?  Yuck!
Both the jar and the cloths are from Target.  If I did it over again, I would get a more quality cloth, like these.  If you are an Amazon shopper, and want to buy the jar, here is a link.
 Clean Momma also got rid of paper napkins and cloths to wash her children’s faces.  She said she is saving at least $20.00 a month by not having to buy paper products!
Even though I am not a fan of bleach, I do occasionally bleach these white cloths.  I also started keeping the jar under my sink, as I wanted a bit more counter space.  If I had more room, I would for sure keep it on the counter, it is handy and I think the jar actually looks pretty!
Are you getting the itch to spring clean?
De-clutter?
**I’m happy to be linking to these parties.
Tip Junkie handmade projects

 

28
Drinks/ HOME/ RECIPES

Candy Cane Lane Green Tea

When something makes me this happy, I just have to share it with you!

I am coming down with a cold, my throat is very sore and I’ve got a stuffy nose.  Crap.

I picked up Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane Green Tea at my health food store the other day and boy, am I glad I did.  It is REALLY good.  It has the taste of peppermint sticks, creamy vanilla bean and a hint of cinnamon.  I added a packet of stevia and a splash of milk to make it sweet, white and creamy.
This makes it feel like I am drinking an expensive, hot drink that is full of calories, when really, I am drinking something full of antioxidants, and all kinds of things that are good for me, and it is sugar free!  There is just something about peppermint when one has a stuffy nose!  Ahhh…

I just bought a bunch of red and white, candy cane striped coffee mugs at my local Dollar Tree. They are square and really cute. I am planning on using them in some way as Christmas gifts for teachers.  They would be perfect stuffed with these tea bags, (they smell SO good), and a candy cane, then wrapped with cellophane and tied with a red bow.  Great, simple gift for any tea lover’s out there!

If you go to Celestial Seasonings Website, you can type in your zip code and they will tell you where to find this particular tea in your area, or, you can click here and order it from Amazon.

7
Drinks/ HOME/ RECIPES

What I Buy & Why-Acai Mango Celestial Seasonings Tea

Acai Mango Celestial Seasonings Tea…I love this stuff!  I’ve been drinking it like crazy.  It tastes like a mildly sweet fruit juice, thanks to the natural stevia that is in it. I think it is great that you don’t have to take the extra step to sweeten the tea, and that it does not contain artificial sugar!  It has zero calories and is caffeine free.

I use this simple cold brew method, but if I forget to set it up the night before to brew, then I usually just:
~Fill the teapot with water.
~Put it on to boil
~Put 4 bags of tea in a mason jar (I love that they are heat resistant)
~Pour the water into the jar to the 2 cup line
~Let steep for 4-6 minutes
~Fill another mason jar with ice
~Pour tea over ice, (this will only take 1/3 of the prepared tea, store what is left in refrigerator)
~Stir and enjoy!

*If you click on the above Acai Mango Celestial Seasonings Tea link, it will take you to Amazon where you can purchase it for an extremely reasonable price. (lower than what I purchases it for at the store.)  If you use that link, I will receive a small percentage of anything you buy, but it will not cost you anything more.  If you use this option, THANK YOU!
This post is linked to:
Frou Frou Friday @ Frou Frou Decor

4
Drinks/ HEALTH/ RECIPES

Masala Chai-An Indian Beverage To Die For!

I am sitting here is absolute Chai heaven.  Seriously.  I’m so happy about this recipe that I am smiling stupidly at this computer screen, and I keep taking my fingers away from the keyboard to take another sip–this post could take awhile because of this tasty distraction. It is sooooo good!

I have made 2 different Chai recipes in the last 2 days.  I liked the first one, but now that I have tasted this second one, I know I have the Chai Tea recipe that I hoped to find.  I’ve had Chai tea on my brain ever since a Friday night a few months back, when I stopped at one of our local Indian Restaurants.

The restaurant is called Taj Mahal.  I walked in to order take-out on a Friday night.  It was fairly late, so they were not busy.  The owner greeted graciously in his heavy Indian accent, took my order, and motioned to the bar showing me where I could sit and wait.  He headed toward the back, and before the door shut behind him I saw him grab a pan in an empty kitchen, which excited me, because it meant that he would be the one cooking our meal.  A few moments later, he returned with a teacup in one hand and a pan in the other.  He had made a complimentary cup of Chai Tea for me to drink while I was waiting.  I watched him pour the contents from the pan into my cup using a fine mesh strainer sitting atop of it.  As the pan emptied, towards the bottom were all kinds of interesting shapes and shades of loose tea, seeds, and pods; browns and greens.  I was intrigued, excited and touched by this man’s kindness.

cardamom pods

Needless to say, that cup of Chai was authentically amazing, and I have craved another ever since.  This is SO much better then the Chai concentrate that you can buy in a box.  There is no comparison!  I am quite pleased that it only took a couple of tries to find a recipe that comes very close to the cup of Chai that I drank at Taj Mahal.

The recipe comes from Sabra @ One Life To Eat.  It is a blog I just recently discovered on the basics of Indian cooking.  I can’t wait to explore her blog more, as I would love to learn how to cook Indian food!
I loved this post she wrote about Masala Chai.  She talks about memories of her father making it in the mornings and evenings, and some history of Chai tea.  She also had this to say about the different ways it can be made:

Every Indian you talk to will probably also have his / her own favorite method of preparing Chai. Variations include brewing the loose tea leaves in boiling water, brewing them in milk, brewing tea leaves along with spices (known as Masala Chai) and brewing the chai with pieces of ginger (known as Ginger or Adrak Chai). Some like their chai weak, some like it strong. Some like more milk, some less. 

Her process is simple and detailed at the same time.  Hers is thicker and flavored with ginger & vanilla.
I think it is perfection and my search for a Chai recipe ends here!

To make 2 mugs of Chai – You will need:
  • A medium sized saucepan
  • A small sieve
  • 4 heaped teaspoons Red Label or Society tea, available at any Indian store **I used loose Darjeeling
  • 1 inch piece of ginger root
  • 6-7 cardamom pods, slightly opened
    • 3 tbsp sugar (I used processed white sugar, going to try pure cane sugar next time)
    • 1/2 Vanilla stick (optional) (I used a splash of pure vanilla extract, added it at the very end)
    • 1.5 cups water
    • 1.5 cups whole fat milk
    Method:
    • Heat water to a boil in the saucepan
    • Add the tea leaves, cardamom pods and ginger root and allow to brew on medium heat till the water turns a golden brown color
    • Add the milk and reduce heat to low. Add the vanilla stick and sugar at this stage. Mix well
    • Allow the tea to boil gently and thicken on low heat for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the saucepan as the Chai may boil over
    • Turn off the heat and let the liquid rest in the saucepan for 2-3 minutes. This lets the temperature of the liquid come down a bit
    • Pour through a sieve in your favorite mug. (*or mason jar:))

Do not be intimidated by the exotic ingredients.  I took a quick trip to my local health food store, where they have bulk bins for the Darjeeling tea and the cardamom pods.  I had ginger root in my freezer, and everything else on hand.  I personally think whole milk is a must to achieve the creamy texture.  My only complaint about this recipe is that it doesn’t make more!  I would love to double or triple it and keep it in the refrigerator for a couple of days.  My first cup was hot, but now I am drinking it over ice and OH. MY. YUM!
This post is linked to:
Get Your Craft On @ Today’s Creative Blog

8
Drinks/ Featured/ FUN/DIY/ RECIPES/ Seasonal

Homemade Gifts-Peppermint Stick Cocoa

I have seen SO many great homemade gift ideas this year.   I really want to write a post featuring them all, but they are all disorganized and saved in my bookmarks, or starred somewhere on my reader. You would think I would would take the time (2 clicks!) to clip and annotate them to my Circus Ponies Notebook, but….no.  Gotta work on that!

I read so many blogs a day thanks to my Google Reader –I’ll post about this soon for those who don’t know what it is– so I come across many, many great ideas.  My head started to feel spinny whenever I would think about what I wanted to do.  I finally had to just pick one, so Peppermint Stick Cocoa it is.  I thought the layers were pretty, especially the mini-chocolate chips and the crushed peppermint candies.  Plus, I got to use a mason jar!  I like that I can do smaller jars for 1-2 people and larger jars for families.  (if you click on the link, you will see that they put it in a very cool square-ish jar.  I love it and you can buy them at wal-mart, but at almost 3 times the cost of a mason jar.  They are very cool but not THAT cool!:)

Peppermint Stick Cocoa
Layer the ingredients for homemade cocoa in a jar, add a ribbon, embellishment, and a tag, and you have a simple but cute gift.  This mix will fill a 1 quart jar (12 servings), but if your containers are different sizes, just keep the ratio of ingredients constant.  On the back of the tag, write: “Mix contents in a bowl.  For each serving, place 1/3 cup cocoa mix in a mug and stir in one cup boiling water.  Store remaining mix in airtight container.

1 cup powdered milk
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy

Layer powdered milk, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, chocolate chips, and peppermint candy.
Yeild: Makes 1 quart mix or 12 servings hot cocoa.

I used a 16 oz jar (1 pint) and halved the recipe, this serves 6.  I also made 8 oz jars (1/2 pint) and adjusted the measurements, this serves 3.

16 oz jar measurements (1 pint) serves 6
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candy

8 oz jar measurements (1/2 pint) serves 3
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/8 cup crushed peppermint candies

I like giving away homemade gifts to people like co-workers, school teachers, mailman, neighbors, piano teacher, pastor, and friends.  Just a little something to let them know I am thinking of them during the Christmas season.

My oldest daughter and I made these together today, while the younger 2 watched a Christmas movie.  It was the perfect thing to do on a “school’s- out -snow- day!”  It went pretty smoothly, I do wish peppermint candies came pre-crushed!  Beating them with the rolling pin did not work, banging them with the bottom of a mason jar did not work, finally we got out the hammer and with some muscle–it worked!  Those were some hard- headed peppermints!  Once we had the candy crushed and a fun little math lesson with the measurements, we were good to go.  We made an assembly line, and got busy!

We found that with the small 8 oz jar size, we needed to change up the order so that the peppermints would show.  We did sugar, cocoa powder, mini chocolate chips, crushed peppermints, salt and powdered milk.  Much prettier that way.  In the 16 oz jars, we kept the order as stated in the recipe.

After my girls had some igloo fun in the snow, they came in and sipped on some Peppermint Stick Cocoa.  It was very chocolate-y and very good;  so good that I got impatient when I had to say no at least 9 times when they asked for more. (3 times per girl, 3 girls).  I will blame their persistence on the addictive nature of the cocoa drink, because of course, my girls would respect their mothers “no” the first time, so they must have been on a chocolate high. Ha! Um, yea–guess we gotta work on that one!

Ask Anna

 

16
Drinks/ RECIPES

Best Ever Hot Chocolate Part 2

I wrote this post on The Best Ever Hot Chocolate a few days ago, and had a reader ask for ideas on how to adjust this a recipe for someone who is a teetotaler.  I think it is a great question, as I know there are many people, with reasons I completely respect, for choosing to not consume alcohol.

I made the original recipe (click here for recipe) minus the Godiva Liqueur, and added another teaspoon of sugar.  I am drinking a cup right now, and it tastes creamy and good. (I used whole milk for creaminess.)  I have a few ideas to make it even better.

My first idea would be to make Homemade Chocolate Sauce, and add a teaspoon or 2 in place of Godiva Liqueur.   This recipe is from Small Notebook (I love this blog, one of my favorites), I put this on my “homemade gifts to make sometime” list.

The next idea I had is quite exciting!!   I owe the inspiration to my Grandpa Earl, who is a huge fan of Werther’s Original Candies.  They had a way of showing up in his overalls’ pockets, which delighted my girls whenever they got to see him.  When we go to Missouri to visit Grandpa and Grandma, there is always a bowl of them sitting in the entryway, inviting us to help ourselves. I will never eat a Werther’s Original candy without thinking of grandpa!

Back to my idea,  I think it would be delicious to drop a Werther’s Original candy into the mug along with the Dove Chocolates.  I like that it would keep with the theme of dropping candies in the mug.  In fact… I will call it Candy Drop Hot Cocoa.  Who wouldn’t want to drink something with a name like that?  I have never tried this in Hot Cocoa, but I have dropped them into a steaming cup of coffee and they would slowly melt, giving my coffee a great buttery, caramel-y flavor. If you wanted faster dissolving, you could crush the candies before adding.  The Werther’s hard candies come in a variety of flavors–Mocha, Butterscotch, Irish Creme, Vanilla– how fun would it be to experiment with all of those?  Werther’s also sell a soft caramel chew, which might dissolve easier.

Candy Drop Hot Cocoa
8 oz milk
11/2 tsp sugar
3 Dove Chocolates
2 Werther’s Originals Hard Candy-any flavor (can crush for easier dissolving)
 or Werther’s Original Soft Caramel Chew
Microwave milk in mug until hot (about 11/2 minutes).  Add Sugar.
Drop in Dove Chocolate Candies and Werther’s Original Candies.
Give it a whirl until Chocolate is dissolved and enjoy!

Here are some other ideas to add to a plain mug of hot chocolate to make it special:
~Marshmallows
~Crushed Candy Canes or a few drops of peppermint extract
~A few drops of almond extract
~Crushed Peanut Butter Cups to melt into it- oh yum.
~Espresso Powder
~A bit of flavored cappuccino
~Any flavor of powdered or liquid creamers
~A pinch of cayenne and some cinnamon for a Mexican Hot Chocolate
~A spoonful of Raspberry Jelly
~Red Hot Candies

All this talk of Hot Chocolate brings back a child hood memory.  My mom would have us make Hot Chocolate and accompany it with Buttered Toast.   She showed us how to cut the toast diagonally in half and dip it into the Hot Chocolate.  I know it sounds like soggy yuckness, but the saltiness of the butter mixed with the sweet chocolate was quite tasty!

PS.  Can you tell my healthy eating goes pretty much out the window during the holidays?  We still get all our nutrients from real food, but we definitely add more processed foods and sugar foods than normal.
I’m completely at peace about that, as long as my family holds on to their good health throughout the season and as long as we keep it to a minimum.

2
Drinks/ RECIPES

Best Ever Hot Chocolate

I am excited to share this jewel of a recipe with you.  It is a special drink, so make it when you are feeling.. special!:)  This would not be an every night kind of drink- too expensive and not good for the body- but for a treat, I say go for it!
It combines 2 brands of chocolate..Godiva and Dove.  I know, very indulgent.

I got the recipe from a very special lady, Ilo Tefft.  She told me about the recipe almost a year ago and I have not forgotten about it, but I was too cheap to buy a bottle of Godiva Chocolate Liqueur.  I had told a close friend about the recipe a while back, and guess what? For my birthday she bought me a bottle of Godiva Milk Chocolate Liqueur! How great is that? It is a beautiful bottle full of creamy milk chocolate.  Just a teaspoon in a cup of coffee creates a delightfully warm, evening drink, but.. back to the hot chocolate.  Ilo was kind enough send me the recipe again, and last night I was in creamy, dreamy, chocolate heaven.

Here is what you do:
*Pour about 8 oz milk into a mug (I used whole milk-yea, baby!)
*Drop 3 Dove chocolates into the mug of milk.
*Heat in microwave until hot (less then 2 minutes)
*Add Godiva Chocolate liqueur to taste, 1-2 teaspoons.
*Add 1 1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
*Use fancy frother to whip it up. (or just a spoon:))
*Sit back, relax, and sip!

(I love my Aerolatte Milk Frother, it makes me happy!  This would make a great gift!)

To cut down on cost, you can also use cocoa powder.  Heat the milk in your mug, add 1 Tbls Cocoa powder and a little less than 1 Tbls sugar.  Whip it up, add the Godiva liqueur, whip again, enjoy!

***For alcohol free hot chocolate ideas, Click here.

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