Mindy's Hot Chocolate

My friend and her husband sent me a gift just because.  I really don't know why God has blessed me with such sweet, thoughtful friends but I do and I am so incredibly grateful.  They sent me and Mat the hot chocolate mix from Mindy's Hot Chocolate and chocolates from my favorite chocolatier, Vosges.  I just went to Mindy's recently and posted it here.  

So this is what heaven tastes like... it is perfect on a cold, rainy evening with my dog curled up against me on the couch.  

The cocoa tastes exactly like it does at the restaurant.  

I was curious so I tasted the cocoa mix itself and it tastes like little crumbles of dark chocolate with cocoa powder.  I cannot put my finger on it.  They must have crack in it.  It is rich and divine. 

While I was drinking my cocoa, I noticed that the sunset was really pretty this evening.  I think I'm having one of those reflective Oprah ah-ha moments.  Breathe in a little deeper and slower, trying to soak in the simple things, and enjoying myself and my cocoa moments.  I'm so happy it's the weekend.

Superfood Green Smoothie

I was inspired to make this smoothie after having something similar at Raw in Chicago.  When I first had it, I loved the smoothie and then I realized that I could just make it at home so that is where this recipe came from.  I also noticed that the owner of Raw has amazing skin!  She was glowing...like seriously glowing.  I want to have what she has so I have been making them for me and Mat for breakfast.  Multiply this recipe accordingly if you want to make a bigger batch.

Recipe

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

1 banana

1 tsp spirulina powder

1/2 tbs chia seeds

1 c grapefruit juice

Directions

Blitz in a blender and serve cold.

The ingredients of this recipe are definitely on the pricier side like the chia seeds and spirulina.  I found the chia seeds at Whole Foods and found that it is best to buy the spirulina online.  After seeing the prices of the ingredients, no wonder this smoothie is on the expensive side.  It is usually $7 for a 16 oz drink if you buy it.

I love pre-making these and putting them in mason jars.  When I'm ready to drink it, I take it out of the fridge, give it a little shake, and drink out of it with a straw.  The grapefruit juice tastes great in this!  It gives the smoothie a little bitterness to balance the sweet banana. 

Cold Brewed Iced French Vanilla Coffee

I can show you have to save money on fancy coffee.  This takes very little to no effort to do and I think my coffee tastes better than Starbucks because I used fresh french vanilla flavored coffee beans.  I find the aroma of coffee to be intoxicating.  I love it.  However, even though I find the smell of coffee to be so addicting surprisingly, I do not drink coffee.  Me and caffeine do not mix.  Today, I'm making this for my wonderful husband to bring to work in the mornings so he can work hard and make the $$$.   Just kidding... not really though.  Haha!  

Recipe
Makes 4 to 8 cups

Ingredients
3/4 c french vanilla coffee beans (you can use whatever coffee beans you want)
4 c cold water

Directions

Freshly grind the coffee beans.  

Place the coffee bean grinds in a french press and fill with 4 cups of water.  Leave the plunger up and place it in the fridge overnight.  In the morning, slowly plunge the coffee.  Taste and add more water depending on your preference.  You can always add water to this but you cannot take it away.

I bought this wonderful smelling coffee beans at Henry's Market.  Yum....

Add milk and sugar if you desire.  Mat likes drinking his coffee black so I didn't need to add anything to it.  You can do this recipe.... it is that easy.

Lavender Honey Tea

When we were in the south of France, Mat and I stopped by the beautiful city of Aix-en-Provence.  When we were walking through the city, I was thrilled to stop at the open market.  I was totally in my element with all the fresh produce, seafood, olive oil, and flowers.  The lavender really caught my attention because Provence is known for their picturesque lavender fields.  

While perusing the market, I met the most adorable little French lady selling lavender.  She explained to me how versatile lavender was in foods which totally intrigued me because I am used to lavender for bath products and perfumes.  You will definitely be seeing lavender in future food posts from me!  I'm so excited to try the lavender in savory dishes now. 

 

She also explained to me that I could use lavender in tea.  I followed her instructions and found the tea to be extremely soothing and calming.  I should really be drinking this stuff every day after work to unwind!  Absolutely love it.

Recipe

Makes 1 to 2 serving

Ingredients

2 c boiling water

2 tsp dried edible lavender

Honey 

Directions

Boil the water and steep the dried lavender in the hot water for 10 minutes.  Add as much honey as you like.

I also bought honey from a village in Zakynthos which went perfect with my tea.  It was totally worth lugging back in Mat's luggage.  Lol!  My luggage was already over the 50 lb weight limit so I stuffed it in his bag.  The honey is already floral so it paired well with the lavender.

Orange, Ginger, Carrot Juice

Starting off the morning with fresh juice is such a treat!   I usually get 5 to 8 lbs of organic oranges during orange season per week.  It sounds like a ton of oranges but crazy enough.... Mat and I always finish it!  While I will completely miss the sweet like candy, super juicy navel oranges that just went out of season, I try to embrace whatever I find at the farmers market.   This past week I got a bunch of valencia oranges that just began its season.    Because their season just started, they were a little tart so I thought it would be perfect to make juice with and sweeten it up with carrot juice.  I had ginger leftover in my fridge from the chicken tikka masala I recently made so I threw that into the juicer too.

Recipe

Juice:
5 medium carrots peeled
5 lbs valencia oranges peeled
1 ounce ginger root peeled

I think this is the easiest way to peel an orange with a knife.  Trim the ends off of the orange so you have an even surface to place the orange on the cutting board.   Cut off orange skin from flesh like the picture shown below on the right.

Lucky for me I have a fancy Breville juicer but you can use any juicer.  Doesn't have to be fancy.  It just has to work.  The colors of the juice are so pretty.

Whenever I make fresh juice, it always has foam on the top.  Does your juicer do that too?  It was a weird phenomenon to me when I first juiced from my juicer.

 

Is this summer going by fast or what?!?   I'm trying to enjoy the last weekends of the summer here as much as possible since we will be out of the country for a chunk of August to September.  This weekend, we are heading to SD to enjoy time with all our cousins, enjoy the sun and beach at La Jolla, and hang out in Gaslamp.  Hope you guys have a lovely weekend too!

Ginger Beet Apple Carrot Juice

As one of our wedding gifts, our dear friend, Joseph, sent us this wonderful juicer even though he couldn't even make it to our actual wedding day.  He is pretty much a genius and recently landed a job in Switzerland to help 3rd world countries get access to clean water and other wonderful things like that and was moving the weekend of our wedding.  So whenever I use my juicer, I think of him.  Thank you Joseph!!!

I came up with this recipe because we had some carrots and ginger that had been in our fridge for a few weeks and I knew I had to make use of them soon before they went bad. Juicing is a great way to use veggies or fruits that need to be used up!  So, I went to the farmers market and picked up fresh apples and beets to make this concoction.  And one of the best parts about juicing is that the measurements do not have to be perfect so follow the recipe loosely and add in anything you want that sorta fits in the flavor profile like parsley, kale, pears, etc.

Recipe

Makes about 5 servings

Juice:

4 small unpeeled apples (preferably organic since I'm using the apples unpeeled)

2 large peeled beets (when I say large I mean the size of a grapefruit)

1 peeled ginger root the size of a thumb

5 medium peeled carrots

Doesn't the beet look so weird in the picture on the right? 

But it looks so pretty inside!  Like a beautiful print for a dress.

I put everything in a large colander and rinsed with water and juiced away!

Serve juice over ice or chilled.

This is when I wish I had a compost bin and a green thumb!  One of the things God has NOT blessed me with.  I am highly allergic to everything outdoorsy.