Ginger Lime Chia Water

Water sweetened with ginger simple syrup, brightened with a touch of lime juice, and extra nutrition added with chia seeds.

Chia seeds have been a popular health food fad for a while now.  It's no wonder why.  They are a great source of fiber, protein, omega-3s, and other nutrients and antioxidants while being low in calories.  These seeds are tiny and a great way to add health benefits to many recipes.  This is one of my favorite ways to add some extra fiber to my diet.

Chia seeds are a great source of fiber, protein, and omega-3s.  [Tweet this]

Usually, I add a scoop of chia to about 6-8 ounces of water or coconut water and quickly chug it down after a workout.  Other than that, I mostly just drink plain water and try to get my 8 glasses a day (64 ounces or about 2 liters) but, occasionally, I like to have something different.  Flavored simple syrups are a great way to flavor water and they are also great in cocktails. You can control the sweetness and the strength of flavor.  If I'm going to add sugar to my water, I might as well add some nutrients from chia seeds too. It's so much better than buying and drinking sodas (I don't like carbonation but if you do add flavored simple syrup to soda water).

I try to get my 8 glasses (of water) a day.  [Tweet this]

I often have fresh ginger laying around.  It's easy and inexpensive to buy here and I often use if for cooking.  I had some leftover so I decided to use it for Ginger Simple Syrup.  I had about 1/2 a cup of peeled ginger slices that I added to 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar.  Then heated the mixture until the sugar dissolved, covered it and let the ginger steep in the water until it cooled.  This made a very sweet simple syrup with the spicy bite of ginger.  Just a little bit of this simple syrup will go a long way.  If you want even more ginger flavor with less sweetness use a 1:1 sugar to water ratio (with the same amount of ginger--then you can use more syrup imparting more flavor).

A little bit of Ginger Simple Syrup goes a long way.  [Tweet this]

Ginger Lime Chia Water

Ingredients:

12 oz water
*Ginger Simple Syrup to taste
1 Tbsp chia seeds
Lime wedge

Fill a glass with about 12 ounces of cold water.  Stir in some ginger simple syrup to your taste.  Then pour in up to 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and stir thoroughly.  Refrigerate or just let set for about 5-15 minutes to allow the chia seeds to soften.  Squeeze in some fresh lime juice before drinking or serving.  Stir as you drink to keep the chia seeds afloat.  You can add ice if you like I just prefer the temperature of beverages right out of the fridge.

Stir, drink, and enjoy.

For more drinks check out:

How to Make Cold Brewed Tea

Homemade Bloody Mary Mix

Dillinger Cocktail with St. Germain

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Homemade Bloody Mary Mix

A simple bloody mary mix made from tomato paste.

Bloody Marys make a great drink for 6 AM kickoff on gameday Saturdays.  However, the bottled mixes can be slightly expensive and you still have to tweak it to suit your tastes.  I decided to make my own.  I don't keep plain tomato juice in the house, but I always have tomato paste, so why not dilute it?  I absolutely love tomato paste.  It is so versatile, you can make tomato sauce with it, add it to soups and stews, and now I have found out you can make tomato juice with it.  I love that I can now, easily, make my own bloody mary mix using my favorite spices and hot sauce.

#Tomatopaste rocks | #Homemade #BloodyMary Mix  [Tweet this]

Homemade Bloody Mary Mix

Ingredients:

1 6oz can tomato paste
3 1/2-4 cups water
4 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup chopped green onions or 1-2 Tbsp onion powder
1/4 cup hot sauce (I used Big Daddy's Ass Burn Sauce, use your favorite)
1 tsp celery salt
few shakes celery seed
1/2 cup cilantro (optional)

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth.  Use less water if you like a thicker bloody mary, use as much hot sauce as you like or leave it out altogether.  I used green onions and cilantro just because I had some that needed to be used.

Pour the blended mixture into a large saucepan and heat to a boil (if you are worried about chunks pour mixture through a wire mesh strainer to catch any larger chunks).  It doesn't need to boil long, just let it reach a boil then remove from heat.  This just helps take off the raw flavor from the garlic, onions, and cilantro.  If you use only dried spices you could probably skip this step.

Refrigerate at least over night to allow the flavors to meld.  Pour over vodka and garnish how ever you like.  You can rim the glass with celery salt, add a stick of celery, pickles or olives. I used a stick of bacon.

Drink, watch football, and enjoy.

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How to Make: Lemongrass Green Tea

A tutorial about how to cold brew green tea with the subtle citric flavor of lemongrass.

Iced tea is a great way to wake up in the mornings.  Hot tea is good too, but I only like it when it's cold out.  I drank lots of hot tea when I lived in Minnesota during the winters.  Now that I live in Hawaii it doesn't really get cold so I prefer iced tea.  I don't like to drink too much caffeine so I try to save it for weekend mornings but I still like to try new ways to make it.  After posting a lemongrass stir fry recipe I received a comment about how lemongrass tea was also good.  That got me thinking, if you can brew lemongrass tea with hot water maybe you can do the same with a cold brew method.  So I tried it and it turned out quite good.  It had a very subtle lemony/citric flavor and was very refreshing.  There are also many claims of health benefits of lemongrass, so if they are true that's just an added bonus.

Take a stalk of lemon grass.  How many you use is up to you.  I used 3 stalks for 1 quart of tea, but if you want more flavor use more.

Prepare each stalk of lemon grass by cutting it into about 2 inch segments (so that it will fit more easily in a french press).  Dispose of the root end.

Peel off a few layers of the tough outer leaves until you get to the more tender center leaves.

Now, bruise the stalks by hitting all over with the back or a knife until they split and separate (this helps to release the flavors).  At this point you can mince the stalks for addition to stir fries or curries but for our purpose just leave them whole.

Place all of the prepared lemongrass in a french press along with the tea leaves.  I only made 1 quart so I used 4 heaping teaspoons of tea leaves.

Fill the french press with cold water and let it set and steep for about 24 hours.

After 24 hours the tea will be brewed.  Push down on the plunger and strain out the delicious lemongrass green tea.  You can sweeten as you prefer.

Pour over ice, add a stick of lemongrass and enjoy.

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How to Make Cold Brewed Tea

This simple tutorial, for how to make cold brewed tea, requires no boiling water and results in a smooth and tasty tea.

I got the idea for this after trying Life After Empty Nest's:  Cold Brewed Iced Coffee.  I like having cold tea on hand in my refrigerator.  Usually it is green tea or jasmine green tea and I love it.  Regular brewed tea isn't difficult, but with green tea I find it difficult to get the water the right temperature and timing how long it brews so that it doesn't get bitter.  Some people don't mind the bitter but I do so this cold brew method is perfect for brewing tea so that it doesn't get bitter (it also works for coffee just use however much coffee grounds you like depending on your tastes).  You only need 3 items to make this loose leaf tea (bags would work too, then you don't need the french press to strain out the leaves) a french press and water.

First you need to measure out your tea leaves.  My french press is only 1 quart but I wanted to make 2 qts tea.  My usual ratio is 1 tsp tea leaves per cup of water.  So I put 8 tsp tea leaves in my press and filled with water (about 4 cups).  I plunge this a few times (press down on the strainer and pull back up) to mix the leaves around.  Or you could just stir it.  Then let sit out at room temperature for 24 hours.  The water will slowly change from clear to brownish/tea color.

After 24 hours push down on the plunger to strain out all of the tea leaves.  If you don't have a french press you can do this in any pitcher or bottle and strain through coffee filters, cheese cloth or a thin towel.

Pour the tea into a 2 qt pitcher and add enough water to fill.  You can sweeten to your taste or leave unsweetened.  I dissolve 1/4 cup sugar in some warm water to sweeten 2 quarts of tea.  Refrigerate and enjoy.

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Dillinger Cocktail with St. Germain

A refreshing cocktail with cucumber, lemon, vodka and St. Germain.

I saw this drink recently on Barefeet In The Kitchen blog.  The cucumber and lemon flavoring a vodka soda sounded great and a new liquor, to me, was used as more flavor, St. Germain.  I've never tried St. Germain, but after reading the comments I had to try it.  I'm glad I did.  The St. Germain adds a sweetness and a floral taste to anything it is added to making any drink taste fancier.  It tastes great.  I had tonic in the fridge instead of soda water, so I used that instead.

Ingredients:

2 lemon slices
3 cucumber slices
Ice
1 shot of vodka
Tonic Water
dash of St. Germain

In the bottom of a glass muddle the lemon and cucumber.  Fill with ice and then pour in a shot of vodka.  Top up the glass with tonic water and add a splash of St. Germain.  Stir, relax and enjoy.

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