Chai Tea From Scratch

For some time I have LOVED Chai Tea. Real Chai Tea. However I didnt drink it very often because its really hard to find anywhere that brews it from spices. Most Cafes seem to only serve packet mix Chai Lattes, which are full of un-pronounceable ingredients and are sickly sweet. 

Then I discovered Chai is actually not hard to back at home. 

As per my general method of cooking, I don't have an exact recipe for Chai. I usually just add in the same spices but each time a slightly different amount, depending on how much of each spice I have available and how I'd like the Chai to taste.

As I like to have Chai in the evenings, after dinner, I make my Chai on Rooibos Tea, which is naturally free from caffeine. I haven't been able to find loose leaf tea, just tea bags of Rooibos. This hasn't been all bad though, as it gives me an estimate of how much tea I am making.

Ingredients:
- 50 bags of Rooibos Tea
- 50 Cloves
- 25 Star Anise
- 25 bay leaves
- 50 cardamon pods
- 10-15 teaspoons of dried ginger (powdered)
- 5-10 teaspoons of cinnamon (powdered)
- 50 black peppercorns

Method:
- Cut open bags of rooibos tea and pour into a large bowl
- using a blender/ mortar and pestle/ food processor/ coffee grinder, chop Peppercorns, Cloves, Star Anise, and Cardamon  Pods into finely, but not to a powder.
- add chopped spices, Cinnamon and Dired Ginger to bowl
- Mix in with Rooibos Tea.
- Amazing Chai

 There are two ways to prepare this Chai...

The 'instant' way is to add one teaspoon per cup to a teapot, with a mesh insert (so two teaspoons in a two cup tea pot), add boiling water, allow to infuse for 5 minutes, pour into mugs, add milk and a teaspoon of honey.

The 'long way', which results is much better tasting Chai, is to heat milk in a saucepan, add 1.5 teaspoons of chai to the milk and allow to simmer for 10-15 mins. Strain Chai and serve with honey. This is a much stronger and better flavour, however it requires more time and dishes.

Chai makes a great gift for Christmas and is delicious and full of great spices, which have many health benefits.

Homemade Chai is also easy to tailor to individual tastes. If you like it spicier, add more peppercorns and ginger, for a more 'licoricey' taste, add more cardamon pods and star anise. I personally am not a huge fan of cinnamon, so I add less that what other may prefer.

Raw Vegan Sushi

Another day, another raw food recipe. This one is Raw Vegan Sushi. Its something that I made up on the spot as today I was running late for work, I didn't grab anything for lunch and I didn't feel like fast 'food'. So off I went to the shops to see what I could invent. These rolls were the result.

Ingredients:

- Nori Sheets
- avocado
- Noosh (nutritional yeast)
- himalayan salt
- fresh pepper
- Spinach
- rocket
- cucumber
- alfalfa
- Tamari sauce

Method:

- scoop of avocado and mash with tsp of noosh, pinch of salt and pinch of fresh ground pepper
- spread avocado evenly over two nori sheets.
- place sliced cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, rocket and spinach on top of avocado mash.
- roll up sushi sheets. Hold until they keep their shape.
- Use a wet sharp knife to cut into bit sized slices.
- sprinkle a little tamari sauce over.
- Enjoy

I'll probably be eating these for lunch everyday this week now that I have all the ingredients at work. They were so yum and easy to make.

Raw Vegan Pasta with Pesto

Now that Summer is almost here, I will be incorporating a LOT more raw foods into my diet. The main issue I have with most raw foods is that they generally take a lot of preparation (soak nuts for hours/dehydrating/blending). I like my raw foods to be QUICK and EASY with minimal preparation and equipment.
I like a lot of pesto with my pasta but I didnt have much pesto left over from my freezer stash, only about 2 Tablespoons. So I mixed what I had with half a mashed avocado. It was devine, I will be doing this ALWAYS

So here is the recipe:

RAW PASTA WITH PESTO

Makes enough for one lunch and one snack; or for four 'sides'

Ingredients:
- 2 zucchinis
- handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
- 4 button mushrooms
- big handful of spinach
- pesto (recipe here) (use approx 2 Tbsp)
- half a mashed avocado
- pumpkin seeds

Method
- Rinse Zucchinis and slice length-ways into thirds.
- using a peeler 'peel' zucchini into strips, which will resemble tagliatelle (can also use a spiralizer  or mandoline slicer)
- sit zucchini pasta in a colander to drain
- finely chop spinach and mushrooms
- mix pesto into mashed avocado
- Place zucchini pasta in a large bowl, mix through pesto/avocado mix, add spinach, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, gentley mix.
- serve with pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top.

This is delicious. It is so creamy and filling. I find when eating raw foods, due to a lack of calories in the food, I need to eat LOTS of it. The above recipe is what I eat for lunch, with a bit leftover for a snack later in the day. There is also enough for about four people as a side for a main dish.

Back from holidays and settling in to regular routine

Well I haven't written a post for about 6 weeks because we've been super busy.

The last weekend in July was my niece, Asha's 2nd birthday party. My sister in law made her a gorgeous Peppa Pig Cake. And Gig, Asha and Lily had a great afternoon.

Unfortunately I came down with a really bad cold that weekend, almost bordering on flu-symptoms. It was such bad timing because I had heaps going on at work and Gigi, my mum and I were flying out to Fiji for a holiday at the end of the week. Lucky for me our lemon tree has been absolutely loaded, so I spend a week absolutely smashing down Lemon/Garlic/Raw Honey 'Juices'. I ate about six lemons and three bulbs of garlic in four days. Luckily I couldn't smell myself, but my family and colleagues assured me that I absolutely reeked of garlic. The magic potion worked though, and I went from deaths door on Monday, to bouncing off the walls on Thursday and ready for an adventure in Fiji.

Magic Potion

 We've had so many lemons that my Mum has been going crazy making Lemon Tarts left, right and centre. I think she made maybe 6 tarts in two weeks to give away to friends and eat.

Shopping Local and Roast Capsicum and Pumkin Soup

(L-R: Quinoa, Nutritional Yeast, Couscous, Quinoa, Chocolate, Soap)

When it comes to food, I believe that where we buy our food from is as important as what we buy. Good food choices start with supporting our local growers/ suppliers/ community, as well as growing our own. 

Whilst I do visit the big supermarkets on occasion, I prefer to buy my food from a Fruit/ Veg Shop, which is supplied by the local farmers and our nearest Co-Operative, which is about 20 minutes from home. 

I absolutely love shopping at the Co-Op. Not only do members get a discount (yay), but a lot of the foods are available in bulk, and are mostly organic. The Co-Op also has just about everything else you could need- beauty and health products, dried food, fresh food, grains, pulses, chocolate, diary, bread, frozen foods, ice-cream, etc. It is basically a miniature supermarket. 

I generally purchase all of my grains and cereals in bulk, using the paper bags supplied at the Co-Op, transferring them into various jars once I get home. The paper bags are then added to my cupboard, to be used for seed saving.  My favourite items are Couscous; the handmade chocolate; and the handmade bar soap- which are only $1.95 per bar.  

I also regularly biodegradable bamboo toothbrushes; herbal toothpaste; essential oils; raw honey; raw Apple Cider Vinegar; etc when we need them. As we only visit the co-op about once per month, I keep a list on the fridge of items we have run out of, or are getting low on. I then take this list along with me to ensure I get everything we need, avoiding wasting money by doubling up and having food stuffs go bad. 

The other place I go shopping is in my own garden. Over the last three weeks, we've had approximately 15 capsicums from our capsicum bush.  I grew the capsicum bush accidentally, from seeds I threw in the garden at some point. I'm not a huge fan of capsicums, I only like them roasted. So I've been getting crafty in the kitchen, incorporating roast capsicums into our dinners. My favourite was  Roast Capsicum and Pumpkin Soup. 

Ingredients:
- Half a Jap Pumpkin
- 1 Brown Onion
- 5 Celery Stalks
- 3 cloves garlic
- Butter
- 3 Medium Capsicums
- can of coconut cream
- Spring of Rosemary

Method:
- Heat Oven to 200 degrees Celsius, place capsicums whole on a baking tray and put in oven
- Peel and chop brown onion and garlic, add to chopped celery  and brown in a large saucepan with butter.
- Peel and chop pumpkin, add to saucepan. Add water until pumpkin is just covered. Add the sprig of rosemary.
- Put the lid on the saucepan, bring the water to a boil
- Once water is boiled, lower temperature and simmer until pumpkin is cooked through.
- The Capsicums should be roasted by this stage. The skin should be blistered.
- Remove capsicums from oven, cut open and remove seeds. Roughly chop capsicum and add to soup.
- remove the rosemary sprig
- Using a stick mixer, blend the soup into a smooth consistency. If the soup is a little watery, remove lid and increase heat, to evaporate off some water.
- Once the soup is thick, add the can of coconut cream.
- Allow the soup to heat to preferred temperature and serve.
- season with salt and pepper.

Alternative Pesto Recipe

Mary, Mary

Quite Contrary

How does your Basil grow?

WILDLY

As mentioned in a previous post, the basil in the herb spiral is growing very well. The time had come to harvest and make pesto. I don't make pesto to a specific recipe, instead I usually experiment and use whatever I have in the pantry/fridge. So the following is a guide and contains various substitution options, based on your likes/ dislikes/ pantry situation. 

For this recipe I used:

• Bail (10 Cups)
• Sun-dried Tomatoes (5-6)
• Sun-dried Tomato Oil (5-7 Tbsp)
• Parmesan Cheese (5 Tbsp)
• Walnuts (5 Tbsp)
• Cold Pressed Olive Oil (if required)

I collected about two colanders worth of basil leaves, so approximately 10 cups of Basil, added it to my blender (the all-mighty Vitamix). Next I added about 5 or 6 Sun-Dried Tomatoes (all that was left in the jar) and the oil from the jar. The sun-dried tomatoes that I buy are preserved in olive oil and the delicious tomato flavour has infused itself into the oil, along with whatever herbs are used to flavour the tomatoes. This is the secret ingredient that really makes it.

Turn the blender/food processor on its lowest setting and sundried tomato oil a little at a time, to allow the basil to be blended. Turn off the blender and add Parmesan cheese. The amount of cheese depends on how strong its flavour is and how strong a flavour you like. I have really strong flavoured cheese and love a strong flavour, so I added about 5 Tablespoons. Next add whatever nuts you prefer. Most recipes call for pine nuts, but these are super expensive. I had an open packet of walnuts, so used those. Pecans, cashews, pepitas, sunflower seeds are also good options.

Inside the blender

Blending 

Turn the blender back onto its lowest setting and blend away, adding more oil if required. The secret to good pesto is blending it until it is combined, but still a little chunky. 

I then spooned out the pesto into cupcake molds and stuck them in the freezer. Once they'd frozen I popped them into a container and will now have pesto for several months. 

Sort of chunky perfection

Enough to freeze

If making large batches of pesto, it is much easier to freeze them into single batch portions, then chuck the portions, once frozen into a container. 

Hot Chocolate

Mumma and Gigi hot chocolate cups

As the weather rapidly cools down (seriously, what happened to our mild autumn?), I've been craving warm drinks of an evening, particularly hot chocolate. What I don't want is an expensive commercial instant hot chocolate laden with sugar and chemicals. So I did a google search and found a few recipes, and combined them to the following:

1 cup of milk (cows/almond/oat/soy- whatever floats your boat)
1 Tablespoon of raw cacao
1 Tablespoon of honey
1 Tablespoon of Coconut Oil
Cinnamon to taste

Basically combine the above in a saucepan over the stove until just below boiling point and serve.

Not only is it delicious, but its much healthy AND cheaper than the commercial hot chocolate available.

Yes it is slightly annoying having to cook it on the stove top, as opposed to 'instant' powder. But it only takes 5 minute, instead of 1 minute. And is totally worth it.

Plus it got a huge tick of approval from Gigi, so win-win.