Citrus Blueberry Green Smoothie

I have no time. Yet I also probably have bronchitis, so I better start making some time.

The fast paced nature of college has led my eating habits down a very bad path.

I've been trying to combat this. I cook, I try to eat healthy.

But, pizza always seems to be hovering over me like a dark cloud. Not that there is anything wrong with pizza. I love pizza.

But I feel like everyone in college needs Cookie Monster to drop by and remind them that pizza is a sometimes food.

Maybe that's the solution.

All of this thinking about nutrition and my new Christmas blender has gotten me looking into green smoothies.

"Try a green smoothie!" the internet exclaims. "You can't taste the spinach!"

So, I places some of the frozen spinach we had in the freezer in the microwave to steam it, then I let it cool.

After adding greek yogurt, berries, and a tangelo, I could still taste the spinach. So could Code Boyfriend. It kind of coated our tongues in a vegetable, dirt taste. 

Needless to say, that was thrown out.

But I wanted to try again.

So, I tried celery. Hallelujah! 

A vegetable I could mostly cover up in a smoothie. If you think about it, celery has an almost fruity taste anyways. 

If you can get past the stringy texture. But my emersion blender made quick work of that! 

So here it is, a "green" smoothie that I can actually drink. I hope you can to.

No offense to anyone who likes spinach in their smoothies. I'm trying again with fresh, baby spinach  Wish me luck.

Citrus Blueberry "Green" Smoothie

• 2 Small Stalks of Celery
• 3/4 of a Cup of Frozen Blueberries
• 1/2 of a Cup of Vanilla Greek Yogurt (Mine is non-fat, but go with what you feel)
• 1 Whole Tangelo, minus the skin and seeds
• 4 Ice Cubes, not necessary, but nice for the texture

Combine all ingredients in your blender carafe, mine is just a large cup.

I have no idea why neither the yogurt nor the ice is in this picture... Derp.

Blend until smooth and pour into a pretty glass. I felt fancy so I made myself a heart garnish out of the tangelo peel. 

Cake Vodka Mixed Drinks

I turned 21 this past summer. On my birthday, I went to the liquor store in my town and picked up a bottle of UV Cake Vodka, for pudding shots.

While the cake pudding shots were the favorite at the party, I am also out of them. But I will share the recipe anyways.

But my favorite Cake Vodka drink recipe is very simple.

Cake Cola Shooter

• 1 shot of Cake Vodka
• 3 shots, about a half a can, of Root Beer

Stir to combine. Best served cold.

Cake Pudding Shots
Be warned. These taste like vanilla cake batter and should be made with extreme caution.

• 1 box of Vanilla Pudding mix (Instant, not Cook and Serve)
• 1 cup of Milk
• 1/2 cup of Cake Vodka
• 1 cup of Cool Whip

 Use a hand mixer to combine the pudding mix, milk, and vodka until slightly thickened, then fold in the cool whip. Transfer in to tiny cups, shot glasses, or a giant bowl. Whatever you want to serve it in. The mixture sets up very quickly.

These are awesome frozen. They're like Cake Batter Alcoholic Ice Cream

I hope you guys enjoy these recipes, and explore the wonders that stem from Cake Vodka

Fantastic Sangria - Alcohol optional

In high school, I was very involved in a class called ProStart, which in a updated version of the culinary side of home ec. I competed in several Iron Chef type team competitions, and got to get my picture taken with Keegan from Food Network Challenge.
Ah. The perks of high school.

Some other activities in class involved catering.... a lot of catering. So, when my mother asked me to make some things for a colleagues retirement party, I said sure... I'm not doing anything else.

I spent the next several days relizing that I was enjoying all of that doing nothing...

However, I got to try out some pretty great recipes. And when else am I going to have a reasonable excuse to make 96 mini-cupcakes?

I'll show pictures of some of the baking I did later, but I wanted to share the terrific, easy punch recipe I'm using.

Red Apple Sangria
courtesy of Martha Stewart (but I made it a lot less work)

1 bottle of Apple Juice (2 quarts, but trust me, the big bottle in the store is 2 quarts)
1 quart Orange Juice (4 cups so you don't have to look it up)
1 cup Lemon Juice
2 tablespoons Grenadine (check next to the liquor, or just steal the liquid from a jar of Maraschino cherries)
1 Orange, sliced thin
1 Lemon, sliced thin
1 Apple, you guessed right, sliced thin
1 Bottle of Sparkling White Grape Juice (it's there, not just at the holidays, you just need to look up in your local juice aisle)

This recipe makes about a gallon, so make sure you are using a big container... Or learn the hard way, like me, and run out of room for your orange juice.

Now, pour the apple juice, orange juice, lemon juice, and grenadine together, and mix. Or slosh around. Either way.

Then, layer on the fruit. If this is not being used immediately, stop here. You want to add the sparkling stuff right before you serve, or there will be no zing in your Sangria.

(Doesn't all the fruit make it pretty? It tastes better than it looks)

When you are finally ready, go head and pour in the whole bottle of the Sparkling White Grape Juice.

 (Now, I am underage, so I feel funny recommending adding any sort of liquor to this, but if you are -ahem- of age, or at least pretending to be, a bottle of wine,  a bit of rum, or any sort of citrus liquor would not be out of place in this punch.)

Enjoy! I'll post more of the recipes I used as I get time :)

Yemeni Tea

I am lucky enough to have close family friends who come an visit occasionally from far off lands, bringing the wind of a different culture into my stale everyday life.

On this visit, I was able to learn how to make Yemeni tea. My mother has been raving about this tea for years and I had never been in a position to try any. As an avid tea drinker, I was always extremely curious.

This trip, I volunteered to help make it, with the very selfish motive of wanting to blog about it. When we finished the tea and I was finally able to taste some, I was pleasantly surprised. It was smokey and sweet, much like the chai tea I indulge in from Starbucks, yet with flavors I do believe I had never experienced before. I did tweak the recipe some on my first solo attempt, and am very pleased with the results. (I added cinnamon, ok? It just didn't seem right without cinnamon.)

This will definitely be a staple on cold mornings when I am back at school.

Yemeni Tea

Start with 5 cups of water in a large pot.

Add to the water:

•  3 teaspoons Cardamom
• 1 teaspoon Nutmeg (I grated mine fresh, because I am at home, but at school, you can be this will be pre-ground as well. 
• 1 Cinnamon stick or 1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
• 6 whole Cloves or 1 teaspoon ground Cloves   
• 3 tablespoons Sugar

Bring this mixture to a boil, at around medium to medium high heat. This will give the spices time to mingle with each other before adding the tea.

Once boiling, add 5 black tea bags. I used Liptons, so I know that works well, but I have grand plans to mess around with more exotic tea. Let me know if you discover anything awesome. 

Allow the tea to steep in the boiling water, on the HEAT, for 5-10 minutes. If you rush this step, you will regret it later, when the final product is weak. 

Once the tea has boiled, add a can of Evaporated Milk. 


Then let this mixture boil for another 2 minutes.


Then comes the hardest part of this recipe. You must let everything sit, covered if you can, for about 10 minutes. The tea needs to finish brewing, the spices need to finish making everything spicy, and the milk needs to get over it's separation anxiety issues from the can. 10 minutes. Full minutes. 

After this, strain out the cloves, cinnamon stick, and tea bags.

The end result is a cup of tea that will put any Starbucks to shame. Enjoy!