Happy Mothers Day- Chai Hot Chocolate Spoons xx

Hey there, lovely people. I will do a wrap up of the Live Below the Line at a later date. Bit busy being crafty and getting ready for work. So much has been going on and I can't wait to tell you about it, alas, I must be quick.

Today, I have made some cute little chai style Hot Chocolate Spoons. I am very excited by the prospect of winter if only for all the tea, soup and hot chocolate I can drink. If you know me much, you know I have a lot of trouble sleeping. Last night at my local grocer, I found a fair trade vegan hot chocolate made with real chocolate beans. I drank that along with some vegan cookies because I felt like a bit of a treat. One hour later, I was fast asleep on the couch. It was like magic.

I often don't enjoy fake chocolate flavours which is why I don't often eat chocolate ice cream or chocolate topping. This is one of the reasons I thought these Hot Chocolate Spoons would be a great idea to make. Decadent, delicious and fun. Super cute, to boot.

Time: Two minutes prep, 30 minutes to set.
Makes: Six.


Ingredients:

• Half a cup of non-dairy dark chocolate.
• Half a teaspoon of powdered raw sugar (use a spice mill or a mortar and pestle to make raw sugar into a powder.)
• A few drops of vanilla. Not too much or it will cause the chocolate to harden.
• One small pinch of cinnamon.
• One small pinch of black pepper. 
• One small pinch of cardamon.
• Six clean tea spoons.

Method:

Add the vanilla essence, sugar and chocolate into a bowl. Now, you need to melt the chocolate. You can do this one of two ways. You can place the bowl in a microwave and cook at 30 second intervals, stirring after every thirty seconds. This should only take one minute to one and a half minutes. Once a little starts to melt, if you stir the mix you'll see the rest starts to melt too. Be very careful not to overcook or the mix will harden.

If doing this on a stove top, you can use a double boiler or place the bowl in a sauce pan that has some water boiling in it. Ideally, your bowl with the chocolate in it should not touch the bottom and you need to make sure that you don't get any water in the chocolate mix. Be super careful with this method! Stir when you notice the chocolate start to melt.

Take off the heat or out of the microwave and add the cinnamon, cardamon and black pepper. Stir. 

Take your clean spoons and scoop up some of the chocolate mix into each one.

Place on baking paper on top of a tray and let set in the fridge.

Once ready, wrap with ribbons and add a hand written card, telling the intended recipient how much you love them and to dunk it in hot nut milk for about 3 minutes. 

And there you have it. A cute little gift your mum will love. xx

Herbal tea for you and me...

Herbal tea is the best. It's flavoursome and delightful. You can drink it hot or cool it down for an icy refreshment. Lush. Today I am being super boring. I am relaxing on the couch and watching TV cooking shows. I'm really enjoying being horizontal right now. Sometimes it's good to not do anything.


Time: As long as it takes to boil the kettle.
Makes: As much as you like.


Ingredients:
• A bunch of your favourite herbs. I like mint and ginger.
• A few cups, more or less, of boiling water.

Method: Place the herbs in a container that won't be destroyed by boiling water.
Cover with the boiling water and let steep for about five minutes.
Pour into a cup and drink.

Enjoy xx

This Piña Colada Smoothie with Mango makes me wonder what I ever saw in ice cream.

I've been slack on the blogging front, I admit. I have freed up some time to dedicate to my cook book and this here little blog as well as my painting and so I'll try to be more forth coming. I could blame Christmas and the New Year but I'm not one to lay the blame. I could blame this super hot weather and not wanting to cook but I have been making some foods, like this here smoothie and fresh peppermint tea. I've also been doing some dehydrating and planing to pickle some green walnuts. I do still have a cupboard of delicious pickled onions.

Looking in my full cupboards, I'm feeling ready for the apocalypse.

If I was feeling super health conscious, I would omit the coconut cream and add some other fruit or veggie, or maybe even just some fresh coconut meat. How I'm feeling right now on this 38C/ 99F degree day leaves me yearning to add ice and maybe a little vodka to the mix and cruise my little bottom beach side. Instead, I'll top it with mint and play in the veggie patch. Grow, you little eggplants!

Serves: One large, two small.
Time: Six minutes. This could very well include drinking time.


Ingredients:
• One mango, chopped. If anyone wants to know a good way to chop a mango, let me know and I'll walk you through it.
• Half a cup of unsweetened pineapple juice or canned or fresh pineapple. Just get some pineapple in there.
• Quarter of a cup of coconut milk.

Method:
Place all the ingredients into a blender and blend until all of the ingredients are pulverised. Serve in one large or two small frosty glasses.

To me, this tastes like a lassi. Delicious. I'm going to make a batch of this into sorbet. I'll let you know how it goes.

Big love and all the best for 2012!

Green Chai Tea- for Vegan MoFo

How is your Vegan MoFo going? Mine is just swell, other than the fact that every computer I touch has a hissy fit and dies in my arms. If anyone has been wondering why i haven't made my youtube cooking show yet, this is why. Production of the cook book has also ceased. If anyone has a computer handy, head it on over to me! I'll be sending most of the posts this week from my lowly iPhone.
And unfortunately, I learned last week that the factory that makes iPhones in China is dealing with some pretty strong human rights issues.

Allegedly, the workers work incredibly long hours and they work on the same production line every day of their working lives. I dont know about you but that would lead my little mind out the window. They have allegedly had to put fencing around the roof to stop people committing suicide. You can read more about that here. If you're like me and you love your humans as much as your animals, maybe think twice before your next upgrade? I personally find this information disheartening because I love the mac brand and I have refused to own anything but since I bought my first mac nine years ago. I still have it. It's a G4.
But on with the tea!

I love tea so much but really have to stay away from the more caffeinated versions because it makes me really jittery. Even green tea causes my body to shake, rattle and roll without my permission. Green tea is however, full of antioxidants and it even burns about 25 calories per cup by increasing your metabolism. Add these other ingredients and you're onto a winner, baby.

Makes: 6 cups.
Time: 15 minutes.

Ingredients:
• 1 tablespoon of fennel seeds.
• 1 teaspoon cardamom pods.
• 1 teaspoon of cloves.
• 1 stick of cinnamon.
• 8 black pepper corns.
• 2 bay leaves.
• 1 knob of Ginger, about the size of your thumb.
• 2 bags of green tea, or 2 tablespoons of green leaf tea.
• 6 cups of water.

Method:
Add all the ingredients to a saucepan and let simmer for at least 10 minutes.
Obviously, the longer you simmer it for, the stronger it will taste.
If you don't use it all, just reheat it on the stove or in the microwave if you're so inclined.

This, by the way, is my 100th recipe post. I thought I would share my green chai with you because I drink it pretty much everyday. Big love. Xx

Silky Almond Milk

I'm about to make a recipe for almond ricotta I found on the Cake Liberation Front's Facebook page originally from Maple Spice. In the process, I need some ground almonds so I thought I'll go ahead and make some sexy almond milk. It's very easy and the result is fantastic.


Makes: 4 cups or one litre.


Time: Ten minutes plus 24 hours prep time.

Ingredients:
• One and a half cups of almonds that have been soaked in water for 24 hours.
• Four cups of water.

Method:
Drain the almonds and put them in a blender. Put the blender on high and slowly, oh, so slowly add the water. Drain this mixture through a sieve into a jug.

Result:
Super sexy almond milk and a whole bunch of ground almonds ready to make all sorts of yummy treats.



And... Go!

Big Time Breakfast Smoothie

There are just some days when I can't bring myself to eat anything as soon as I wake up. I'd prefer something of the liquid variety. Now, I'm not a big cereal fan, or a big milk fan but for some reason if I mix the two together with some fruit and other tasty things, I feel like I've done something quite special for my body. This smoothy is a general go-to of mine but really, you can add anything. I often substitute the peanut butter for mixed berries and that is to die for!

Time: Really not a whole lot. Maybe five minutes. It's a lot quicker than making juice, that's for sure. Although I do love juice!

Serves: 1.

What you need:

• One cup of your favourite milk. I used oat today as I had it left over from yesterdays pancakes.
• One ripe banana, chopped or torn into pieces.
• Four dried apricots.
• One tablespoon of oats.
• One teaspoon of carob powder.
• A pinch of black sesame seeds.
• A pich of chia seeds.
• A tablespoon of all natural peanut butter.

Mix in your favourite blender and enjoy. It can come out a bit thick. If so, add some water or more milk and blend a little more.

There are some really great combinations out there. Here is one from Tea and Sympatico. I love her photo.

Enjoy xx

Go-Go Bananas Smoothie.

Yummy and nutritious, this juice is what I'll be having for breakfast this week. It's kinda more like a smootie, so if you find yours is a bit thick, you can pad it out with some cold water, or add ice. You will need a juicer and a blender for this, but trust me, it's worth it.

Ingredients:

One large orange,

One carrot,

Two ripe bananas,

Two dried apricot pieces,

Quarter teaspoon of chia seeds (optional).

Juice the orange and carrot. Transfer the mixture to the blender and add the banana, pulled into small pieces, the seeds and the apricots. Blend for a few minutes until the banana and the apricot have disintegrated into smithereens. Add some ice and blend further if using. I added about 200 mls of cold water to mine because it was so thick and it tastes like sorbet. This should give you a few servings, depending on how big your glass is. Get that down your throat.

Not so Soft Drinks

I have never been a big fan of soft drinks. I was never allowed to have them as a child as they were too expensive and my mum didn't want me filling up on drink. I always wanted and asked for a Soda Stream every christmas, and I finally got one two years ago. Oh, the excitement! And then I remembered how ill and dizzy and just plain sick they made me feel. Bummer- but soda water has become my friend, I must say.
Grab 1 bottle of soda water and add half a cup of fresh lemon or lime juice. I tell you what- This tastes just as good, if not so much better, than sugary, preservative laden lemonade.
The other day I was making a cup of raspberry tea, when it hit me. Why not make it into soda? So I did and it's very nice. I got three teabags and put them in a jug with about a litre of hot water and let them steep until the water became cold. I then added it to the soda stream and voila! You could do this with half a litre of the cold tea and half a litre of soda water and I bet it would taste just as good.
... And they both go so well with Vodka.