I ran out of blueberries for my blueberry smoothie. I was very sad. But I found some cranberries in the freezer and decided to try those. If you've ever had a cranberry, you know they are super tart, so I also added a date, hoping that just one would be enough to make it drinkable instead of puckerable, lol. It was really good! So I thought I'd share :)
Cranberry Green Smoothie
1 1/2 oz greens (I used 3/4 oz baby kale and 3/4 oz spring salad mix)
3/4 C coconut water
3 oz cucumber, sliced
3 oz frozen whole cranberries
1/2 oz fresh ginger, sliced
1 large medjool date, pitted
Blend the greens and the coconut water together for a while, then scrape the sides of the blender and add the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth and enjoy!
Yield: about 2 cups
Showing posts with label Beverage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beverage. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Monday, December 28, 2015
Blueberry Cucumber Ginger Smoothie
Most green smoothies have quite a bit of fruit in them to help sweeten up the typically bitter greens, but this was causing the same upset stomach and general feeling of unwellness when I have too much sweet anything. I definitely didn't want to give up the smoothies, so I started trying to think of things that might be able to sweeten up the greens without so much fruit. I came up with cucumbers! They have a lovely sweet, mild flavor that mellows the flavor of the greens nicely. I also put in some blueberries, which are not very sweet in general for a bit of flavor balance, and some spicy ginger I bought that is too hot to do what I bought it for (making syrup for ginger ale). This smoothie has become my staple smoothie the last week or so, and I'm not sure I'll be changing it any time soon!
Blueberry Cucumber Ginger Smoothie
3/4 c coconut water
2 oz greens (I'm currently using 1 oz baby kale and 1 oz of a spinach arugula blend)
3oz cucumber, washed and unpeeled
3 oz blueberries
1 oz (or more) fresh ginger, sliced against the fibers
a good sized pinch of broccoli sprouts
Blend coconut water and greens until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth, adding a bit more coconut water if needed to keep it flowing in the blender.
Yield: about 2 cups
Blueberry Cucumber Ginger Smoothie
3/4 c coconut water
2 oz greens (I'm currently using 1 oz baby kale and 1 oz of a spinach arugula blend)
3oz cucumber, washed and unpeeled
3 oz blueberries
1 oz (or more) fresh ginger, sliced against the fibers
a good sized pinch of broccoli sprouts
Blend coconut water and greens until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth, adding a bit more coconut water if needed to keep it flowing in the blender.
Yield: about 2 cups
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Water Kefir Flavor Ideas
After you get your first batch of kefir water, you get the fun of figuring out what flavors you like! I'm still experimenting a lot, but here's what we've enjoyed so far:
Mulled cranberry: 1-2 tsp mulling spices, 1/2 cup pure cranberry juice
Blueberry: I filled up the rest of the 1 liter bottle with pure blueberry juice
Plain Sucanat: If you let the sucanat version finish fermenting, it doesn't get as fizzy, because most of the sugar has already been eaten, but it gets a wonderful fruity taste to it that is quite unique. I'm going to try adding a small amount of water with sucanat dissolved into it to the next batch to see if it gets fizzy.
2015-12-20 I tried adding 1 and 2 T dissolved sucanat to 2 bottles of the finished first ferment kefir, and it isn't getting fizzy for some reason. I'm not sure why, I'll have to experiment some more.
Dr Pepper: since this is the culprit that hubby needs, I've been playing with various blends to try to make something similar. I'll post a finished recipe when it passes the hubby test! For now, I've used prunes, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla extract, almond extract and some random other spices. Just throw stuff in and see how it comes out! I've been loosely working off of this recipe I found: Mockter Pepper.
2015-12-17: I did another trial with pure black cherry juice, frozen raspberries, cloves, mace, peppercorns, allspice, cardamom, a bit of a star anise, a bit of ginger paste, some vanilla and almond extract. I think it came out pretty good. Still not Dr Pepper, but better than the last trial. It took me a few days to drink it and it didn't age very well. I've got some wintergreen leaves coming in the mail that I will add to another batch. Gonna try just spicing some plain sucanat and seeing if that will be good.
Ginger: I've tried a couple times to make some kind of nice ginger drink, but I think the ginger actually kills the probiotics, so it doesn't get fizzy. Still working on it.
Just try whatever ideas you have, you are sure to find something that you like!
Mulled cranberry: 1-2 tsp mulling spices, 1/2 cup pure cranberry juice
Blueberry: I filled up the rest of the 1 liter bottle with pure blueberry juice
Plain Sucanat: If you let the sucanat version finish fermenting, it doesn't get as fizzy, because most of the sugar has already been eaten, but it gets a wonderful fruity taste to it that is quite unique. I'm going to try adding a small amount of water with sucanat dissolved into it to the next batch to see if it gets fizzy.
2015-12-20 I tried adding 1 and 2 T dissolved sucanat to 2 bottles of the finished first ferment kefir, and it isn't getting fizzy for some reason. I'm not sure why, I'll have to experiment some more.
Dr Pepper: since this is the culprit that hubby needs, I've been playing with various blends to try to make something similar. I'll post a finished recipe when it passes the hubby test! For now, I've used prunes, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla extract, almond extract and some random other spices. Just throw stuff in and see how it comes out! I've been loosely working off of this recipe I found: Mockter Pepper.
2015-12-17: I did another trial with pure black cherry juice, frozen raspberries, cloves, mace, peppercorns, allspice, cardamom, a bit of a star anise, a bit of ginger paste, some vanilla and almond extract. I think it came out pretty good. Still not Dr Pepper, but better than the last trial. It took me a few days to drink it and it didn't age very well. I've got some wintergreen leaves coming in the mail that I will add to another batch. Gonna try just spicing some plain sucanat and seeing if that will be good.
Ginger: I've tried a couple times to make some kind of nice ginger drink, but I think the ginger actually kills the probiotics, so it doesn't get fizzy. Still working on it.
Just try whatever ideas you have, you are sure to find something that you like!
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Water Kefir Basics
I've been playing with water kefir lately. I've never really cared too much for most cultured dairy, so when I learned about water kefir, I was really excited! Hubby only ever drinks Dr Pepper, and I'd really like to find something he likes that is better for him than that. The water kefir sounds like it might just be the ticket. I did a lot of reading before ordering my grains, ended up buying them off ebay for a really reasonable price, and they arrived just after Thanksgiving. I was concerned about not feeding them enough at the start, so I think I actually ended up feeding them too much. I ended up with kefir that was way too yeasty and therefore the final product was rather alcoholic. Nothing wrong with that, but not what I was after! The good thing about that was that my grains really grew fast, and gave me enough to do a lot of experimenting with. I seem to have come up with a good system of making kefir water without them growing too fast or getting alcoholic. It looks like this:
Equipment:
-1 half gallon Ball wide mouth mason jar
-1 metal lid band
-Small coffee filters
-Nut milk bag or nylon strainer
-Long handled wooden or plastic spoon
-Non metal bowl to put the grains in while you refresh the sugar water. There are many theories out there about metal harming fermenting agents. I don't know what I believe yet and I haven't had time to experiment and gather evidence, so I just follow the mainstream because it's not too much trouble.
-Bottles that can hold pressure for the carbonation phase. I purchased my 1 liter plastic bottles at Kroger. They held sparkling water, which I drank and then saved the bottle. Many people buy flip top bottles because they are glass, but I prefer the plastic ones because they won't explode glass shards all over my kitchen if they over pressurize and I can avoid fizz explosions by releasing the pressure gradually instead of all at once.
Ingredients and process:
7 cups filtered water at room temperature
1/2 cup water kefir grains
1/4 cup sucanat or demerara sugar, alternating. The sucanat has more minerals, which feeds the kefir, but if used exclusively it seems to develop more yeast. I'm still experimenting with this. Most of the recipes out there call for 1/2 cup of sugar per half gallon, but that was making the kefir too sweet and too yeasty, which has the natural result of becoming alcoholic. If you are using plain white sugar, you can add 1 teaspoon of molasses to supplement minerals, or get trace mineral drops.
Heat 1 cup of the filtered water and the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Sugar crystals can damage the kefir grains, so make sure it is all dissolved. Pour into the jar and add the rest of the water.
Add the water kefir crystals.
Take out a coffee filter and write the date and time along the edge (because I can't keep track of things otherwise, lol), then place over the mouth of the jar and screw the metal band on over it.
Sit it out on the counter and stir it every 12 hours or so. It will start to sound fizzy after you stir it and smell a bit sour and yeasty, but not too much. Taste it after stirring it each time to see how it's coming. A cooler kitchen will take longer, a warmer kitchen will be faster. Right now it's winter and we keep the house around 65-70, so it's taking about 2 days for it to get where I like it. In the summer I imagine it will only take 1 to 1 and a half days. If your kitchen is colder than 68, you might try putting the jar in the oven with the light on and the door cracked to help it be warm enough to be active. I'm finding that even though the house gets colder at night, it's warm enough during the day to keep it active.
After it is pleasantly sour, I line my 4 cup measure with a nut milk bag and pour 3 1/2 cups into the measure, then place the bag into a ceramic bowl while I pour the kefir water into a 1 liter bottle.
Replace the bag into the measure and pour the rest of the water kefir into the measure, swirling at the end to get all the kefir grains out. If there are some left, you can pour some of the kefir back in the jar, keeping the grains separate in the bag, and swirl again to remove the last of them. Pick up the bag with the grains inside and squeeze it very gently to help the kefir flow out.
Set it aside in the ceramic bowl. Pour the kefir into the other 1 liter bottle and set aside. Gently flip the grains out of the bag, and gently scrape the sides of it with a spoon or spatula to clean what sticks to the bag off.
Rinse the bag so the leftover grains won't dry and get stuck on it. Then you can scoop the grains into a plastic or glass measure cup to measure out 1/2 cup. Restart the process for making kefir water.
The extra grains can be stored in a more concentrated sugar water solution in the fridge for a week or two. I put them in a quart jar with 1/4 cup sugar and about 2 cups of water. Date when you put them in so you don't forget and let them starve. When you have enough, pass them to a friend!
Equipment:
-1 half gallon Ball wide mouth mason jar
-1 metal lid band
-Small coffee filters
-Nut milk bag or nylon strainer
-Long handled wooden or plastic spoon
-Non metal bowl to put the grains in while you refresh the sugar water. There are many theories out there about metal harming fermenting agents. I don't know what I believe yet and I haven't had time to experiment and gather evidence, so I just follow the mainstream because it's not too much trouble.
-Bottles that can hold pressure for the carbonation phase. I purchased my 1 liter plastic bottles at Kroger. They held sparkling water, which I drank and then saved the bottle. Many people buy flip top bottles because they are glass, but I prefer the plastic ones because they won't explode glass shards all over my kitchen if they over pressurize and I can avoid fizz explosions by releasing the pressure gradually instead of all at once.
Ingredients and process:
7 cups filtered water at room temperature
1/2 cup water kefir grains
1/4 cup sucanat or demerara sugar, alternating. The sucanat has more minerals, which feeds the kefir, but if used exclusively it seems to develop more yeast. I'm still experimenting with this. Most of the recipes out there call for 1/2 cup of sugar per half gallon, but that was making the kefir too sweet and too yeasty, which has the natural result of becoming alcoholic. If you are using plain white sugar, you can add 1 teaspoon of molasses to supplement minerals, or get trace mineral drops.
Sit it out on the counter and stir it every 12 hours or so. It will start to sound fizzy after you stir it and smell a bit sour and yeasty, but not too much. Taste it after stirring it each time to see how it's coming. A cooler kitchen will take longer, a warmer kitchen will be faster. Right now it's winter and we keep the house around 65-70, so it's taking about 2 days for it to get where I like it. In the summer I imagine it will only take 1 to 1 and a half days. If your kitchen is colder than 68, you might try putting the jar in the oven with the light on and the door cracked to help it be warm enough to be active. I'm finding that even though the house gets colder at night, it's warm enough during the day to keep it active.
After it is pleasantly sour, I line my 4 cup measure with a nut milk bag and pour 3 1/2 cups into the measure, then place the bag into a ceramic bowl while I pour the kefir water into a 1 liter bottle.
The extra grains can be stored in a more concentrated sugar water solution in the fridge for a week or two. I put them in a quart jar with 1/4 cup sugar and about 2 cups of water. Date when you put them in so you don't forget and let them starve. When you have enough, pass them to a friend!
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