Make Your Own Turmeric Latte Mix!

If you haven't heard, turmeric lattes are the next big thing. They taste similar to chai lattes, but are super super good for you. The compound curcumin found within turmeric is widely known to fight cancer and inflammation and all kinds of bad stuff. I'm not a scientist nor a medical professional, and don't want to give mis-information, so. . .Google it!

Anyways, it can be kind of time consuming to make a real turmeric latte as it requires heating nut milk on the stove and using a hand-held blender to foam it.

When processes are that involved, let's be honest, we AREN'T going to do them every day.

So, here is a scaled-down easier method that you can do every morning in lieu of or in accordance with your morning coffee!

First of all, you will need at LEAST the following spices: turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon. All three of those spices can be found at Aldi or Big Lots for $1.00-2.00. (I suggest buying them soon as once big corporations find out that their low-cost items are now considered "health foods," they go and jack up the prices.)

I also added a tiny bit of cardamom, but that is because I have it. Be warned, though. Cardamom is like. . .upwards of $16 a bottle at Wal-Mart! It's really good for you, though, so if you have it, add it.

The ratio I have found on other blog posts and online recipes seems to be something like: 1 part turmeric to 1 (or less) part ginger to 1/3 part cinnamon. But if you like one of these spices more than the others, feel free to tweak. (You could also add pumpkin pie spices like nutmeg and clove if you want.) The important thing is to keep turmeric as the biggest part. I added a 3.75oz. bottle of turmeric, two 1.5oz. bottles of ginger, about 1oz. of cinnamon, and about a tablespoon of cardamom to this mason jar cup. (If you don't have a mason jar, an old washed out pasta sauce jar will work equally as well.)

Then, I shook it all together.

So now on to how to make the latte.

You can add as much of your powder to your nut milk (almond, coconut, etc.) as you want. I do a heaping tablespoon, and I add it to just a little bit of milk to start.

I stir that together for a few seconds. I do this because sometimes if you add the powder to a full glass of milk, it causes annoying lumps. If you stir a little milk with the powder to make a paste, the powder breaks down more evenly. (This trick is helpful with any powder-to-drink mix.)

Then, I filled the mug with milk. . .

. . .and added a little honey. I do highly recommend honey or some other sweetener as the spices can be kind of bitter/harsh on their own. But don't add very much! It doesn't take but a little bit of sweetener to counteract the bitterness. 

Don't cancel out the healthfulness with sugar! (You KNOW that is what the big corporations are going to do once these lattes catch on. They will create their own "ready made" mix and it will promise to be all healthy, meanwhile it will be LOADED with sugar. Happens every time!)

You can also add a tablespoon of coconut oil or ghee butter (if you real real fancy!) and heat it all together. That's what you are supposed to do, actually, but. . .anyways. . .I was running late this morning, so I didn't.

Then, I put the mug in the microwave for two to three minutes.

To make a really foamy latte, you can put this mixture in a separate microwave safe container, heat it for a minute, shake the container, heat it for another minute, shake it, etc., until you get a nice thick foam--you know, like a regular latte. Anyways, I didn't have time for that mess, so I just heated it up and sprinkled some cinnamon on top. My drink still had a little layer of foam on the top, so it wasn't like I was missing out on the latte experience or anything! 

So, there you have it! For a couple of dollars, you can have a ready made nice cozy spicy drink mix on hand for the whole winter (that ISN'T loaded with sugar)! You can also use the mix for other things besides lattes. You can add it to coffee, or like. . .muffin mixes. . .or wherever you feel appropriate.

(P.S. these jars make great gifts!. . .You're welcome!)

Simplified Directions:

Drink Mix:

1 part turmeric

1 (or less) part ginger

1/3 part cinnamon

(other spices - optional)

1 glass jar

Latte:

1 tablespoon of mix to a cup of nut milk

A bit of honey

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

Heat for 2-3 minutes

Enjoy!

One last note!!! Swallow a few peppercorns before drinking and your body will absorb the nutrients more fully! (Or you can add pepper to the mix, if you want.)

The End!

Surviving the Daniel Fast: Vegan Chocolate Pudding Cookies!

"Pudding cookies??? ...wait...on the Daniel Fast?...What about *gasp*...SUGAR??" you ask.

Well, stress not, Dear Reader. Read on.

So my husband and I are about to begin week three--the final week--of our 21 day fast, and I am craving cake and coffee like nobody's business...so it's giving me plenty of time to pray...and also to be creative with what I am allowed eat.

"I want cookies!!!" I screamed...(in my head so I wouldn't be mistaken for a crazy person....)

Searching for an eggless, sugar free, gluten free cookie option brought me to a lot of recipes that were haystack-y or nugget-y, but nothing truly cookie-like...so...I decided I needed to offer the world a recipe that did so. I improvised. Since I was improvising, these measurements are probably not exact but are as best I remember them. Makes about 30-36 cookies (depending on how big you make them.)

Ingredients:
1. 3T of ground flax seed
2. 6-8T of water
3. 1/4c of ground tapioca
4. 1/3c cocoa powder
6. 1 1/2 bananas (around 1 cup)
7. 1/3c coconut oil
8. 1t baking powder
9. 1t vanilla extract
10. 1-ish cup gluten free flour
11. 1-ish cup almond milk
12. Nuts (to your taste)

Directions
1. Grind up flax seed in a coffee grinder. Add to mixing bowl with water. Stir. Set aside. (This will become your two eggs.)

2. Grind up tapioca in coffee grinder. Add to flax along with a splash of almond milk. Stir. Set aside.

3. Now preheat your oven on 350 degrees. In a separate small bowl or large mug, microwave your coconut oil till melted. Add the bananas and mash them up. Go ahead and grind the nuts in the coffee blender to give the flax and tapioca a few more minutes to soak up the liquid.

4. Now add the coconut oil and bananas to the mixing bowl along with the cocoa powder, baking powder, and vanilla.

5. Okay so...this next part is just to add flour and milk until the mixture is a nice dough-y consistency and it becomes fairly hard to stir. Add the nuts and stir one more time.

6. Put aluminum foil on cookie sheets and lightly spray them with oil if you want. (The coconut oil in the cookies works well enough to keep them from sticking too badly.) Add small spoonfuls of dough (they will be sticky) and put the sheets into the oven for 10 minutes. (Halfway through, I switched the two sheets on their racks to keep the cookies baking evenly.)

Done!

Notes:

- One thing that impressed me about them is that they came out really really well. Not goopy on the inside, but very spongy on the inside, crispy on the outside. Very satisfyingly cookie-like.

- They didn't spread out all over the pan, but held their shape--rather round. If you like flatter cookies, add more milk.

- They held together REALLY well even though I didn't use eggs. I attribute this to the combination of tapioca, flax, and banana.

- They cooked really evenly and didn't burn on the bottom. I think this may be due to the fact that coconut oil burns at a higher temperature than butter....but I may have totally just made that up...

- You might not want to take these to family/church events because people expect sugar at those things and while the bananas add sweetness (especially the riper they are), it's not what most Americans are used to.

- If you don't like bananas, try adding another fruit that goes well with chocolate like strawberries, applesauce, mango, or peaches...Things with a banana-like consistency when blended. (Not sure if citrus would work because of the acids, but...you can always experiment!)

- You just made cookies with no gluten, animal product, or added sugar (or sweeteners of any kind!); yet packed with fiber, potassium, protein, and skin cancer protecting cocoa!

The End!