Happy Tea

I am a coffee drinker. I don't like iced tea, and I really only drink tea when I am sick. The only kind I will drink is organic green tea because of it's many wonderful properties (see HERE for a list that I am fond of). Anyhoo, a friend of mine and I were talking, and she gave me a great recipe for tea using the green tea as a base. I love this recipe so much I am not having a mug of tea every day!

the best shot I could get of my ingredients before I dropped in the pouch and water

my delicious tea, ready to drink after 15 minutes (still needed an ice cube lol)

As always, I modified the tea a bit. I don't put the ingredients into the pot because 1. It's a pain in the but to clean it out of the pot and I only drink 1 cup at a time 2. I occasionally make my little one herbal tea so I like to just have the boiled water and let the tea steep in their mugs.
And as you may have caught on, I do not measure, so use your best judgement!

I like to add a packet of splenda to the tea, this is clearly optional. I just like a bit of sweetness that one of my ingredients doesn't fully give me.
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon (I grate my cinnamon from sticks, but you can use the already grated kind
1-2 tsp honey
1 clove
1 pouch organic green tea, your choice of brand.

Steep for 10-15 minutes. I pull the clove out before I drink it, sometimes the clove melts because my water is crazy hot. That isn't a big deal for me. This tea is amazing and each of the ingredients have so many healing properties, that I have done my best to link each ingredient to a website to tell you about it's healing properties.(I do NOT send you to spam sites) So, even if you are a coffee drinker, I really think you are going to love this tea!

Apple Raisin Bread Pudding

I have a recipe!!!!
So my brother in law mentioned that he missed his mother's bread pudding. I had to admit I had never made it before so I would look into it. Still having apples left over from my applesauce (see previous post), I decided I would make it an apple bread pudding. I looked online for recipes, this one is modeled after Betty Crockers Old Fashioned, and as is my way, I tend to pull ingredients in from other recipes to make them my own. It came out AMAZING!!

2 C. milk
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
3/4 C. sugar (I used 1/2 C. white sugar and 1/4 C. brown sugar)
1 tsp. Cinnamon (you can use any kind of cinnamon, I grated a cinnamon stick)
a dash of nutmeg (I am not a huge fan of nutmeg, so I go light on it)
1 tsp. vanilla
6 cups of cubed bread. I used everyday white bread, recipes often say use stale bread, french bread or italian bread because of their hardness, so you don't get slimy or runny bread pudding. We didn't get either of this, so I am going to say: go with any kind of bread you want.
1/2 cup of raisins
1 apple diced

The next time I make this I will add:
1/2 cup of walnuts and pecans

Heat oven to 350. Heat milk and butter over medium heat until hot (don't scold the milk!). Meanwhile, in large mixing bowl mix eggs, sugar, cinnamon. Stir in the bread, raisins and apples, then stir in the milk. Pour into any shaped baking pan and bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes. You should see the pudding pulling away from the sides when it is done.
Enjoy!!

Homemade Apple-Pie Tasting Applesauce

I wish I could give you measurements on this one, but if you know my style of cooking, you know it's pretty hard to do, it's trial, error, taste...and as for apples, you just can't be sure that one is going to taste like the others.

Before I even cut my apples, I get my largest stainless steel pot going on the oven so I am able to properly can my applesauce.*
So as I am cutting my apples and throwing them into my dutch oven, I put a little lemon juice into the bottom of it to keep the apples from browning, which I realize is unnecessary because its applesauce, but I do that with my apple pie, so it's just what I do. I like my applesauce to taste like apple pie, with a little bit of chunks in it. I buy a bushel of Cortlands and go to town! I have an all-in-one apple peeler, corer, slicer and it makes the job get done so much faster! After they come off that, I cut the already slim loops in half and it makes my cooking time so much faster. I do cut out any huge chunks of peel that may be left behind, but small pieces just add flavor and aren't worth wasting.
When my dutch oven is full, (approx 15-18 good size apples), I start off with 1 cup of sugar and I am going to say 2 tbsp of cinnamon because I really just sprinkle until it looks good. I know you are thinking, where is the nutmeg?? Not in this batch because I didn't have it on hand and it tastes just as good without it. If you are using nutmeg I would go a lot easier then with the cinnamon.

Then I throw it on top of the oven, give it a good stir, put the lid on it and let it cook for about 10 minutes. By now my apples are getting soft so I am able to take a spoon and give some of the mush a taste. This is when I readjust my sugar or cinnamon. When the apples are really soft, I get out my potato masher, throw on a hand-cover pot holder because steam burn is NOT fun and I start smashing. You could use an immersion blender, I have one, it's doing a good job holding its own next to my seal-a-meal in the pantry ;) There are going to be little chunks left behind and that's the best part. I then give it another taste (with a clean spoon, these are not only going to get eaten throughout the winter but passed out to friends and family), and see if it needs any more sugar or cinnamon. Sometimes I need to do another round of mashing, sometimes it's just fine. If you are using my "recipe" you are going to end up tasting it about 4 times, the total cook time is about 22-25 minutes. When it looks and tastes like a nice, mildly chunky, apple-pie tasting applesauce: you know you are ready to fill your jars and get them ready to last the winter. This part I like to have a partner with because filling the jars and then wiping off the tops so there isn't going to be anything sticky around the lid takes a while. If my sister is around, she is the jar top wiper, otherwise it's my significant other. (if you make a mess on the lid, clean it, if it dribbles down the jar, don't fuss about it, that will just wash away in your canning water). I usually do two batches in a day because by then I'm exhausted and that yields about 14, 8 oz canning jars. I use the 8 oz jars only because I make homemade jelly and those are the size that are left over. Although this round, as you can see, I ran out of the 8 oz and used some 16 oz jars that I had left over from homemade spaghetti sauce.

Now get to your local orchard (or grocery store if you don't have 10 of them within a 20 minute drive like I do) and get to making some applesauce!


*I can using the boiling method. I take a stainless steel pot, fill it with enough water to cover the tops of my jars by about an inch and get it boiling. I let my jars boil in there for 10 minutes. 5 minutes will do, but I have always done 10. There are recommendations on the internet on how long you should boil based off what you are canning, but this topic is about applesauce. Presto! You have canned applesauce that you can snack on all throughout the winter with plenty to pass out to your friends and neighbors.

Healthy Strawberry Smoothie

Okay, So I admit, I cheated and took a sip before this picture (and it was Oh...sooo Yum!)
3 ingredient strawberry smoothie.
1 C. Organic Frozen Strawberries, this time of year its hard to find fresh strawberries, but frozen works best because they act as the ice!
1- 1 1/2 Strawberry Yogurt (we use Stonyfield Organic)
2 C. No-Fat Milk (we use Garelick Farms here, no GMO's, local) (or soy, you could do almond, whatever you drink works, you may need to play around with the milk portions).
chia seeds, just throw in the amount you want...they will sink in your glass fyi
AND BLEND!
That's it! We do this with peaches and raspberries as well. You could use plain yogurt if you wanted. We DON'T use greek yogurt for 2 reasons. 1. It's gross and 2. Have you researched Greek Yogurt and the problems they are having with the whey disposal? If not, google or go here: GREEK CLICK ME, and then STOP GOING GREEK!

Mini Muffins: The Perfect School Day Breakfast

My daughter loves mini muffins, if I can find or create the flavor, she eats it
. They sell them in the stores, over priced and full of preservatives. While I don't yet have a food sealer, freezer bags work great in the mean time.
Depending on how I am feeling (today I cheated and used Jiffy Blueberry Muffin mix), I make mini muffins, bag them in 6 and freeze them. Pull a bag out the night before and you're good to go for the morning!
You can find mini muffin tins and cups anywhere. I make 48 at a time so I do go through a LOT of cups, but it's completely worth it because I know exactly what is in the muffins and I know it's good for my daughter. They keep in the freezer for 3-6 months but in our house, they usually don't last that long. I used my phone camera which doesn't have a flash, so the pic isn't the best, you get the idea.
Happy Eats!

Apple Cider Vinegar

While I watch the cactus role by on this blog, I still realize I have a great love for it because I built it from scratch. So today, I'm finally getting around to working on it. This isn't my recipe, its simply a pic of something a lot of us have known and worked with for years. Psst: You can click on the picture to make it bigger.

To your health!

Feeling Sick?

I don't have a picture because thankfully no one is sick! Having asthma, when we get sick, we have to limit what we can take as far as medication. I'm not a doctor, I just know what works for us, and hopefully you can find some help here.

Now I am not a tea drinker, hot or cold, but when we're sick, its a must. For us grown ups, some hot green tea with a bit of lemon and honey clears out your lungs. (I add a packet of my favorite sweetener because like I said, I'm not a fan of tea).  The good news is most teas are caffeine free, so it's great for kids (double check just in case!). My daughters favorite is Raspberry Zinger. Celestial Seasonings makes great variety packs to try and see which ones your kids might favor most.
Honey has great healing properties as seen here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/039963_cinnamon_honey_healing.html
This site talks about cinnamon too, because that is included in my next home remedy.

Sore throats (and Coughing.)
We all get them, and why waste money on a store remedy (although Ludens are oh so yummy). Again, I don't measure so the best way to make sure you have it right, is to taste it. We make a small dose that will last 3x a day for 3 days.
3tbs honey
4 tbs white vinegar
a healthy sprinkle of cinnamon
stir together (taste to make sure its good, the consistency should be mildly runny)
As seen in the link above, the honey and cinnamon are great for healing and the combo soothes your throat and helps ease your coughing.

Stuffed Sinuses
There is always the tried and true netty pots. But when my nose gets crazy stuffed, I self drown. So I boil Apple Cider Vinegar and breathe it in. Another tried and true remedy handed down from our grandmothers is boiling water, putting it in a plugged sink and hovering over it with a towel. It clears up your sinuses and lungs.

Coughing keeping you up?
I throw a hefty pillow under my daughters mattress. It elevates the mattress (not just her head), so it makes it easier for her to sleep comfier and being propped up helps her with her night time coughing.

Stay Hydrated!!
Water, tea, ginger ale, anything! Just make sure you are drinking. I lost a friend to dehydration while sick, and maybe that's why this part of staying healthy is so important to me. The more hydrated you are, the more prepared your body is to fight off infection.

We always make sure to have air purifiers going, cleaning them once a week, and replacing the filters as needed. We run humidifiers (especially with it being winter). I don't add anything to the water I put in it, but I imagine a few drops of lavender oil would help aid in sleeping, as lavender is a tried and true sleep aid.

Got any ideas we should try? Send them along