Cough Suppressant Tea

So simple and so effective. I had a cough lingering for a little over a week. Any thing that lingers for over 24 hours has overstayed it’s welcome. And I take serious action to get back to my fully functioning self.

I went on a field trip with my gardening class to a local farm and as we were walking through the orchard and admiring all the fruit trees my teacher starts talking about the Loquat tree and the healing properties of the leaves. As soon as he said “it is known to help alleviate coughs”, I grabbed a few leaves and asked him how to prepare it. As soon as I got home I made a batch and within a couple days of drinking my cough was completely gone! Not that I am surprised that nature works so well, I am just continuously amazed at the simplicity of healing myself naturally.

So I am sharing this with you, in case you believe in the power of nature as well and you can get your hands on some loquat leaves!

Loquat leaves have this fuzz underneath them. You need to rub that off gently as it would be unpleasant to drink it.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 large loquat leaves, fresh or dried
• 5 cups water

 

Steps:

• rub the fuzz off the leaves
• chop up in large pieces
• add to 5 cups of boiling water
• simmer for 5 minutes with a lid on
• let it cool
• strain
• drink a small cup 3 times a day until the cough is gone!

I found the tea to be a subtle and pleasant flavor. Very easy to drink. You could add fresh lemon and honey to add to the benefits of healing, but I found it effective and tasty as is.

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Luxurious Chocolate Chai Latte

Just as the title states, luxurious, hint of chocolate, creamy and decadent, this beverage is a weekend treat. After making my Black Tea Mocha a few months back, I knew I was on to something with replacing coffee for tea in all the specialty coffee drinks. I like coffee, but I prefer tea. My warm beverage drinking world has opened up even wider!

This is a perfect fall beverage. While I enjoy chai tea at any time of the year, I feel more drawn to it during the fall and winter months because of all the warming spices. And if you’ve been following me for a while now, you have surely caught on to what a chocoholic I am, so naturally finding ways to sneak that delicious superfood in where ever I can has become quite a skill 😉

And lastly let’s not forget about what makes this drink so luscious: coconut butter. That’s right. I’ve been using coconut butter in drinks for a while now to add healthy fats and decadence. A winner every single time.

While I would love to say I get to enjoy this beverage quietly in a cozy chair while reading a book, the truth is, I generally have 3 minutes to myself before I have to brace the cup and raise it high above my head while I get jumped on by one of my children, or shoved off my seat by another or even just have the cup grabbed out of my hand because “Can I have some?”. In any case, how ever you get to enjoy this Latte, it is well worth it and will put a smile on your face 🙂

Ingredients:

• 2 cups steeped and strained chai tea (I buy mine in bulk and prefer the slightly spicy kind)
• 1 cup almond milk (or any other milk), for this drink I used almond coconut milk that I had just made, and it was such a divine choice 🙂
• 1.5 TBS coconut butter OR 3TBS coconut cream (the rich stuff from a can)
• 2-3 dates
• 1-2 tsp cacao powder (Depending on how chocolatey you want it)

Steps:

• Put everything in blender and blend on high until you get a little foam at the top
• pour and enjoy!

Black Tea Mocha

Exactly as it sounds. This mocha is rich and creamy and delicious. I love mocha’s. I am not a regular coffee drinker, I definitely enjoy a cup every now and then and if I’m wanting a special treat, I have a mocha. But on a daily basis, I am a tea girl. Black, herbal, dried leaves, fresh herbs, flowery or bitter. I don’t discriminate tea. And while I drink so much of it, it never occurred to me to make a mocha with it. Until now. And I am so happy I did!! This is taking my tea drinking experience to a whole new level!

I am sharing with you here one of my first mixtures, but I am sure I will be playing around a bit with this concoction over the weeks and if something even tastier arises, I will be sure to share it with you. But for now, this is rocking my morning boat 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 cup steeped and strained black tea of choice
• 1 TBS raw cacao powder (regular cocoa powder will work but you are missing out on the amazing benefits of raw cacao!)
• 1 TBS coconut cream (This is what adds the richness, if you don’t have cream, try it with coconut oil and a little bit of your milk of choice)
• 1 date (or sweetener of choice, again though, i feel like the date here adds to the richness)
• 1/2 tsp Everlasting Vitality and Youth powder by Edible Goddess (optional, but I love me some superfood drinks!)

Steps:

• put all ingredients in a blender and blend on high until you get some foam going
• pour in a cup and enjoy warm!

Watermelon Grapefruit Juice

We scored a huge box of grapefruits recently. While my middle child and I LOVE grapefruits (hence the name of this blog 🙂 ), there are just a little too many of them. I am finding ways to use them up before they go bad and one of the ways is to make loads of juice 🙂 I’ve also juiced a bunch and made ice cubes so that I can have those ready to make this smoothie, (which is my latest beverage crush), when grapefruits aren’t around.

As you may know, grapefruits are pretty bitter if you eat the pith. Which is what happens when you juice them. My son and I don’t mind it, the other 2 kids aren’t fans. So this juice is a special juice just for the two of us 🙂

While this isn’t really a recipe, I am sharing it with you because it was such a fun juicing project with my almost 3 year old boy and the colors are too pretty to not share 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 watermelon, cubed
• 3 large pink grapefruit, peeled

Steps:

• blend everything on high until completely broken down
• using a nut milk bag, pour the contents of the blender in to the bag over a large bowl, and let your kids massage the bag in order to separate the juice from the fibers. We did this in 3 times in order to not overfill the bag.
• make sure you hold the top of the bag tightly or juice will come spilling all over!
• throw away the contents of the bag, unless you like eating super uber bitter fruit pulp
• drink up your juice as is, or get creative with it by adding sparkling water, or making a smoothie with it.
• we did all those things and then some 🙂

The flowers are from a recent hike we did. Spring is blooming and it’s beautiful!!!

Luscious Crimson Smoothie

Luscious is right. Luscious. Vibrant. Slightly tart, definitely sweet. Slightly bitter, definitely awesome. Thick, creamy and dreamy.

I made a huge batch of this with the intention of sharing it with my family. I didn’t. I often go to bed with a thought for what the first thing I want to put in my body is. I am usually intentional with my first meal. And this time, I knew I wanted it to be red. Bursting red. With lots of anti oxidants and immunity boosting qualities. I wanted it to feel refreshing while still warming my body. I wanted it to be bursting with flavor and dense in vitamins. I wanted something that would make me feel alive and excited to be awake. This smoothie did all those things and then some. I’m making this again tomorrow.

Just in case you needed more convincing here are a few nutritional benefits of some of the ingredients in this smoothie:

beets: high in iron and B vitamins (great for blood and new growth cells), as well as potassium and magnesium. They also contain tryptophan (creates a sense a well-being).

grapefruits:  high in vitamin A (good for mucus membranes and skin) and vitamin C (an antioxidant that helps the body develop resistance against infections). Vitamin C also helps in the absorption of dietary iron (so a great pairing with the beets!)

maca: high in vitamins B, C, and E (healthy immune system, skin and eyes), as well as iron, calcium and magnesium. Maca is also known to increase energy and improve one’s mood. There are many other benefits to maca that I won’t post here. If you’ve never tried maca, I suggest you do 🙂

jicama: high in fiber it is also rich in vitamin C and provides healthy amounts of minerals such as magnesium, copper and iron. Another great addition for this smoothie 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 large beet or 2 small ones
• 2 large pink grapefruits
• 1 large chunk of ginger (about 2 inch cube)
• 1 cup chopped jicama, or 1 cucumber
• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1/2 cup raspberries
• 1 large banana
• 1 TBS maca (optional but highly recommended as it gave me super powers)

Steps:

• juice first 4 ingredients
• add juice to blender with all other ingredients and blend on high until nice and smooth
• pour in your favorite large container and feel alive!
• this made enough for two large servings. I sprinkled some cinnamon on top because cinnamon makes me happy.

Pre-Party Smoothie

We had two birthday parties to go to yesterday. Which means there would be a lot of unwholesome eating in one day. I try not to be too strict with my kids with that stuff. I don’t want them to form a negative relationship with food because “mom never let us eat “junk””. At home I feed my family what I believe to be the highest quality foods and nutrient dense meals, and when we are out, while I still try and make sure they don’t spend the whole time gorging themselves with sweets, I let them eat what is offered.

I do put a limit on things such as “You either get a piece of cake OR a cupcake. You get the juice box OR the ice cream”. They are still just children and need a little bit of guidance, no? For the most part they are on board with this. And if I do catch my 6 year old daughter sneaking an extra piece of cake, or juice box or cookie (or anything else, because this happens, often) I try not to make her feel bad about it. I use this as an opportunity to check in with her and ask her how it makes her body feel, or if it makes her happy to eat sweets, or any other question that comes up that will allow me to have her be in touch with a deeper part of herself versus just the immediate palate satisfaction. While eating just for pleasure is fine sometimes, when it happens too often, it is not just for pleasure anymore. If it were up to my daughter, she would have it all, 3 times. My son can easily have his piece of cake and go right back to playing. The baby, well since he is only 15 months, has not really been exposed to sugar yet. Holding off as long as I can on this one. With two older siblings its just a matter of time.

So while I want my kids to be exposed to other peoples way of eating so they can make their opinions about food, their health is still very important to me. That is why I make them a Pre-Party Smoothie before we leave the house. The Pre-Party Smoothie allows me to make sure they get a good dose of healthy fats, fiber and protein in order for their little bodies to function properly not only to be able to play and have fun with their friends, but also so they can handle what ever foods they might eat that their bodies are not used to digesting often. And, if done right, they might not even be that hungry to have pizza AND cake AND ice cream. *wishful thinking* 

While I get my kids to drink their smoothies and juices regularly, they still sometimes put up a fuss. The Party Smoothie is easy because they know we are not leaving until their cup is empty. I make sure to remind them that this smoothie will give them lots of energy so they can play for along time.

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 TBS hemp seeds
• 2 cups almond milk
• 2 cups fresh greens (this time it was spinach)
• Optional: a handful of sprouts because I had some handy.

Steps:

• Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth
• this made enough for 3 small servings

For some of my thoughts on eating at parties, you can check out my post from a few months ago:

https://anaboreal.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/tips-to-avoid-over-eating-at-parties/

Carrot Citrus Juice

This juice hits the spot once again. I didn’t have much time this morning before school drop off so I wanted to make a quick juice. By quick I mean, it needed to be quick to make and quick for the kids to drink so I wouldn’t have to prompt them non stop until it was time to eat breakfast. I somewhat succeeded 😉 But this juice was tasty, slightly tart, sweet and refreshing. It went down pretty easily for the kids. And most importantly, it was packed with amazing vitamins as usual.

Ingredients:

• 5 carrots
• 1 large pink grapefruit, peeled
• 1 lemon with rind
• 1 orange, peeled
• 1 large chunk on ginger (about 2 inches)
• 1 cucumber (optional)

Steps:

• wash and cut everything to fit in your feeder tube
• juice and drink immediately if can!

Try to use all organic ingredients if you can. Juicing is about feeding our bodies high doses of amazing vitamins and minerals, using conventional, pesticide ridden produce highly diminishes the quality of those ingredients as well as put harmful chemicals in your body.

Bitter Sweet Belly Love

This  juice is just that: bitter, sweet, tangy and definitely full of love for my body. I have been loving playing with all the deep crimson colors and coming up with different tasty combinations.

The combination of the pomegranate (super high in antioxidants), grapefruit (high in vitamin C), beets (great blood purifier) and ginger (immunity boosting) makes for another winner of health for this winter season, when people seem to get more sick than other seasons.

Starting my day with another belly full of love.

Ingredients:

• 1 large pomegranate, seeds only
• 1 large beet
• 1 large pink grapefruit
• 3 stalks of celery
• 1 packed cup of greens (I used fenugreek)
• 1 large chunk of ginger (2 inches)

Steps:

• wash everything
• juice in juicer
• serve and drink up!

This made enough for 1 adult and 2 kids.

Grapefruit Smoothie

This is such a refreshing, cleansing, lovely way to start the day. With everyone around me getting sick, I am taking no chances and I make sure every thing I eat supports my health positively. I am much better at preventing illness as I am healing it. This is why I decided to start my day with this delicious smoothie.

Grapefruits are high in Vitamin A (good for skin and mucus membranes), a great source of vitamin C (powerful anti-oxidant which helps fight disease) as well as lycopene(good for vision as well as UV protection). I find it to be a good colon cleanser as well, and drinking it fresh like this makes me feel like I am moving any unwanted bacteria out of my body.

I normally make this drink with flax seed oil but I don’t have any on hand at the moment and the coconut substitutions adds a really nice flavor. The coconut oil, amongst it’s endless list of benefits, helps digestion as well as speed recovery of a cold. I believe coconut oil to be a food from the gods as it can be used in such a variety of ways, internally and externally.

Ingredients:

• 1 large pink grapefruit, peeled
• 1 medium apple
• 1 celery stick
• 1/4 tsp sea salt (the real kind, not regular “table” salt)
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1 TBS coconut oil
• 2 cups water

Steps:

• put everything in bonder and blend until smooth
• serve and enjoy!

Cacao Delight

Smooth, Rich, Creamy, Decadent. Simple and delicious. This “hot coco” recipe hits the sweet spot for me. I was definitely delighted to have made it 🙂 The banana adds a nice thickness to this beverage, but could easily be left out for something more light.

We got our holiday tree today, and after we got done decorating it, I realized we needed a special treat to ring in the festive atmosphere that comes with tree decorating and december in general. Chocolate is so often my go to 😉

It was also snack time so I decided to make it extra decadent and rich in order to enhance flavors as well as nutrition content.

The kids loved it. It always makes me so happy to be able to satisfy their childlike appreciation for sweets while maintaining my own nutritional integrity.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups milk (I used almond)
• 1 ripe banana
• 2 soft dates( I used Medjool)
• 2 TBS cacao powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 TBS coconut cream, or coconut oil (optional but I had some cream leftover that needed to be used and I am SO happy I added it last minute as it created a really luxurious beverage)

Steps:

• put everything in blender and blend on high for at least 1 minute
• by blending it for this long the milk will get warm without it cooking and it will get frothy (I love that word, that word alone makes me want to drink chocolate milk)
• sprinkle it with cinnamon, or in my case cayenne pepper
• serve and enjoy!

This made (barely) enough for 2 adults and 2 kids.