homemade chai concentrate

I try to only go to Starbucks once a week.

I think of it as my weekly treat. A fancy coffee for myself, if it's only once a week it's not bad.

The problem is, I love their chai tea lattes. I could drink them everyday.

Not so helpful to the budget.

Why couldn't I make it at home? The tea bags you buy at Starbucks don't seem to do the trick and I'm not spending the money on the pre-made concentrate you can buy in the stores.

Thank you to my endless hours of browsing food sites, because you solved my problem. Make my own chai concentrate.

All it took was a few trips to store to find some hard to get ingredients, a pot of boiling water, and 20 minutes to spare.

The best part is, the total cost of ingredients, if you can find them in bulk, was less than what I was paying for 1 chai latte at Starbucks. Plus I got a ton more to make multiple batches.

So for my Sunday morning, I heated up some chai concentrate, steamed up some milk and made my own chai latte. Warm, spicy, sweet, creamy, all those things that I love. And I don't even have to get dressed or brush my hair to get it.

Homemade chai concentrate
[ from Tasty Yummies ]

Makes about 4 cups or enough to fit in a 1L mason jar.


4 1/2 cups cold, filtered water
8 bags black tea, I used Tetley orange pekoe
2 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise in half ( or 1 tablespoon of extract added at the very end)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 3-inch section of fresh ginger, cut into sections
10 whole cloves
8 black cardamom pods
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 whole star anise pods
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 tablespoon honey (leave out if you want to make this vegan or if you don't like your concentrate sweet.)


Prepare the teabags by removing any tags and tying them all together, if necessary.

In a 6-inch square of cheesecloth, or in a handy little strainer bag I found at the natural store, arrange all of your spices, ginger, vanilla bean, and orange zest in the centre. Gather and tie together with kitchen twine.  If you are making the little pouch with cheesecloth, it might be easier to leave the cinnamon sticks out to make the pouch more compact. Alternatively, you can leave the spices out of a pouch all together, but you will have to strain it very well at the end.

Add the water and sugar to a medium saucepan. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil. Once boiling, add your teabags, spice pouch, and cinnamon sticks (if you left those separate). Turn heat down to a simmer and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and remove the teabags, spice pouch, and cinnamon sticks or strain through a fine mesh sieve.  Add the honey, if using, and stir to combine. Let concentrate cool completely before pouring into jars or storage containers. Will keep for 1 week in the fridge.

To serve, mix one part chai concentrate with 1 part milk. I like mine warmed with steamy non-fat milk, you could also blend it with ice and make a frosty drink. It's all up to you.

lemonade

Finally, we had a beautiful day of rain.

Usually, I wouldn't care if I ever saw a day of rain in my life, but this baby cooking business has turned me into a sauna.

Real life.

Sunday afternoon, it was hot and humid, overall just horrible. I couldn't cool down. Nothing would help. I tried to make a salad and when I opened my cupboard to get some beans,  the entire top shelf fell backwards. Fantastic.

I made lemonade and then I had a pity party on the patio because I was hot and I needed to fix the cupboard.

The pity party didn't work so well, but the lemonade cooled me down.

Organic lemons + sugar + ice cold water. Simple, easy, refreshing. I don't add much sugar because I don't like my lemonade over-sweetened, I enjoy the tart taste of the lemons, but feel free to add more sugar if you need to.

Lemonade

7 large, organic lemons
1/3 cup white sugar
7 cups water

Cut each lemon in half, squeeze over a large pitcher to extract juice. You may also use a citrus press, but I don't have one, so I use my brute strength. Be careful to avoid getting any seeds in the juice, to help avoid that, place a fine mesh strainer over the pitcher. This will catch any seeds before they fall into the juice.

Add the water and sugar, stir until sugar is well dissolved. Serve in tall glasses with lots of ice to extremely overheated, pregnant women, sulking on the patio.

broccoli slaw

Summer can come with some side effects that are not so pretty.

Mosquito bites (which I have three of on my right foot), overheating (especially while straightening my incredibly curly, unruly hair), and the worst of all, very unsightly tan lines.

I've been really trying to avoid getting the dreaded tank top tan lines on the chest and shoulder, and I think with my excessive wear of strapless maxi dresses, I've conquered that.

But, I have another very odd tan line.

It's on my right knee. It's a band aid tan line.

banana date smoothie

I finally figured out what to do with those dates my mom gave me.

Grind them into a pulp and drink them.

Well okay, it's a little bit more civilized than that.

I'm usually not a fan of drinking my meals, protein shakes give me tummy aches and I don't want to look like this lady . But I looooove milkshakes.

So, yesterday I was eating my snack of a banana and a few dates and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Banana date smoothie. Jennifer, you are a genius.

It's no earth-shattering news that bananas and dates go together like pb & j, but to me it was a big step in not trying to drink chocolate milkshakes for breakfast.

In the blender, I threw together some dates, half a banana, plain yogurt, skim milk and a eensty bit of vanilla extract and turn it on full speed and vóila ! Smoothie time.

The smoothie is icy cold, smooth, creamy, sweet from the dates and fresh from the banana. Perfect for mid-morning snacks or breakfasts or desserts or pretty much whenever. Maybe not real early in the morning if you don't want to wake the husband who, may or may not be an angry bear in the morning.

That may, or may not be the case in my house.

Banana Date Smoothie

Makes one good sized smoothie.

3 dates, pitted and chopped
1/2 banana
1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1/4 skim milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
handful of ice cubes

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend for 1-2 minutes or until desired consistency is reached.

Pour into tall glass and enjoy.

lemon buttermilk sherbet

Lately, I've been completely unmotivated to cook anything.

We have so many leftovers and since I spend the long weekend cooking, my inspiration has disappeared temporarily.

I spend all my time watching hockey, riding the emotional roller coaster that was round one against the Blackhawks, or eating Easter chocolate or exercising to burn off the handfuls of mini-eggs I had for breakfast.

Luckily for you, I have a cache of goodies I baked/cooked/churned over the weekend.

gluten free apple spice cake & brown sugar glaze

My sister turned 25 this week. I know right, what an old lady.

She now calls herself a cougar. If you knew my sister, you wouldn't be surprised.

Hey! It's me & my sis! We look fancy.

Since I love my sister and I love to cook, I decided to throw a birthday dinner in her honour over the weekend. Of course the first words out of her mouth when I proposed the idea were, "are you making my apple cake ?"

peanut butter oatmeal monster cookies

Today we went to go visit my grandma. She rocks. She fed us caesar salad in cocktail bowls. She's going to Egypt in February. On her own. She's 71.  I think that's rad.

candy cane ice cream

Just in case you haven't noticed, Christmas is coming. I'm kind of indifferent to Christmas this year. I used to love Christmas, this year I'm kind of blah about it.

persimmon, walnut & almond granola

I love breakfast.

cookies, but healthy

Being an adult is hard.