Healthy hot drinks:
It is not just the blizzard raging outside that prompts me to share my healthy hot drinks creations, or the fact that we are all practically stranded either.
Hot drinks are the ultimate quick and delicious comfort foods you can enjoy anytime anywhere.
Homemade healthy hot drinks cannot be beat!
Made with sensible fresh ingredients, and reasonably sweetened, they are in my view calories well spent. As soon as we order a fun drink outside our homes, we get snagged into concoctions more caloric than dinner. Read the caloric contents posted in coffee houses. Some recent sleuthing around about matcha latte ended up with an unpleasant discovery: I love Matcha and try to enjoy a cup once a day, most often at home, but I order it on the road too. I wondered why a cup had upwards of 300 calories, and asked the barista, how come it is so rich, do you use cream or something? He said no, just the powder with a steamed water and milk. How could that be so caloric, I wondered? Here is the answer:
Starbucks Matcha powder is heavily sweetened!
But this nefarious fact is disingenuously left out of the equation at all their stores. So when you order matcha, you feel virtuous and enjoy it with a clear conscience. Big mistake! And it doesn’t get better with the added whipped cream, caramel drizzles, and all other presweetened drink mixes. They even came up with some mix they marketed as lightly sweetened (39 grams of sugar per serving instead of 59). My weekly sugar allowance in one drink! Enough to make you shudder.
Look at the impossibly rich monstrosities we see so many people losing their figures on! That, in my view, is not a weakness but an absurdity: Give it up!
PS: Dear gourmet coffee boutiques,
How nice, how hip, how progressive of you to start off with a wonderful zero-calorie treat— coffee or tea —and disfigure it (and us) by building it up to a 700-calorie drink, almost half of our daily caloric allowance in a tall glass. You’re all the way up there with the déclassé fast-food joints, except with you, we haven’t even started eating yet! Is this the best contribution your marketing wizards could come up with? No wonder the public is so confused and frustrated, and so often overweight! Yes, it is our responsibility to control our eating, but it is the manufacturer’s responsibility—indeed mission; it should even be his pride and joy, his raison d’être—to offer safe delicious treats! So noble of you to support Fair Trade and to make Saving the Planet your goal. But what about Saving the People?
No I am not calling for a boycott, I love my coffee and my tea too much. So I order my drinks straight up, no frills, bells or whistles, and nothing hidden.
Thank you for letting me vent! I feel much better now.
Drawstring tea bags:
They are a must for any serious tea lovers, and lovers of all things infused. They cost pennies too. I just couldn’t be without them! The bags in the link I am including here come in three sizes, so it’s great for larger preparations as well, soups, stews etc… No straining, no filtering, and no fishing out stray spices or tiny bones. All aboard in the bag, tie the string securely, and discard the bag at the end of cooking. If you use these bags, as I hope you will, then put all your spices listed in the recipes below in the bag, and no straining.
On to my delicious super healthy hot drinks!
Almost ready. Only one more thing before I get on with it:
Can I interest you in making your own vegan milks?
Making them costs pennies, and is the best way to ensure they are not watered down, and contain no gums and other unwanted ingredients
All you need is powerful blender and you are good to go. Best investment I ever made in my kitchen! I don’t strain or rinse or do anything more than I what I describe here. You will not get the same results with a medium performance blender. The high performance blender is a workhorse!
Including my two favorite vegan milks, the ones I use the most.
Oat milk: Blend 1 cup old fashioned oats with 6 cups water (less if you want it thicker and richer) and 1 scant teaspoon sunflower lecithin (I have Lore Salas at datesandavocados.com for the lecithin tip: Perfect and healthy suspension agent!) for a full minute. I prefer not to add salt or vanilla or anything, so I can use for anything I want. This makes almost 2 quarts of oat milk.
Cashew milk or almond milk: place 1 cup raw cashews or almonds in your blender with 6 cups water (less if you want it thicker and richer). Let the mixture soak overnight. Then blend at high speed for 2 full minutes.
Hemp milk can be made the same way, but with a shorter soaking time. Same with flax milk and sesame milk. Seeds and water, that’s the whole story!
Matcha Latte
This adorable bamboo matcha whisk will make your drink nice and frothy each time.
for one serving (of course, you can multiply), bring to a boil, or microwave, 1 cup water, 1 cup milk of your choice, 1 to 2 teaspoons matcha powder, depending on how strong you like it, and just a hint of honey, maple syrup or stevia . Whisk the mixture until smooth and frothy, just a minute or two. By the way, delicious cold too! Just whisk everything together and add ice to taste.
Spiced Hot Cider
In a little saucepan, put 1 cup water and 1 cup unfiltered apple cider. I promise that half strength cider is all you need to make it deliciously strong. I like to throw in a ginger lemon tea bag right in the pot. Add cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise and bring to a boil. Strain into a mug, and add sliced lemon and/or orange
Mulled Wine
Much like the hot cider above. Sweeten very lightly, with honey, maple cider or stevia. Or start with a lightly sweetened wine. If you want to get naughty, add a little rum or brandy
Clear Miso Broth
Literally: Mix a little miso paste with boiling water in a cup.
Turmeric Chai Tea
Not for nothing is it called the Golden Tea! Put in a little saucepan, 1 cup water, 1 cup milk, 1 to 2 teaspoons chai mixture in a drawstring tea bag (see above), a little matcha powder or a green tea bag. Bring to a boil, whisking to make it nice and frothy.
Hot Mocha
We healthy hot chocolate lovers have devoted a whole blog post to hot chocolate and hot mocha
Spiced Coffee
Spiced coffee is the way coffee is enjoyed in Ethiopia, Yemen and many other parts of the world. This is so delicious that you might drink it the way I do, and never add milk or sugar. My mother ZL sipped her coffee with tiny bites of date in her mouth.
I make a spice mixture to last me a few months, and I am delighted to find it ready when I am. My guests love me for it.
My spiced coffee mixture doubles as my Chai mixture
2 cups cardamom, 1 1/2 cups ginger, 1 1/2 cups cinnamon, 1/2 cup cloves, 1/2 cup white pepper, 1/2 cup nutmeg, 1/2 cup anise
Mix thoroughly, and store in a glass jar. For every cup of coffee, use 1 to 2 teaspoons spice mixture. Strain. No straining if you used the drawstring tea bag.
Mushroom Tea
Here I must tell you: You have surely noticed that dried mushrooms are pricey and somewhat hard to procure. We at Levana Nourishments have composed an amazing mushroom mixture. So I make mushroom tea the super easy and super healthy way, and pour 2 cups boiling water over the contents of a pouch of Levana Nourishments Mushroom Medley in a mug. Mix and cover the mug, and let the mixture steep a few minutes.
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