Thursday, February 27, 2014

Wait! Now, I Can Relax



It was a long day. It was a good one though. As a homeschooling mom, I've learned when to take a day off of school. Since we'll be busy this weekend, I decided to have us clean up the house so that we'll have a clean house when get home from our busy weekend. It's nothing worse than coming home to a messy house after a busy weekend.

So, we were busy this afternoon doing a lot of cleaning. My body is sore!! LOL We need to get to the grocery store. The meats that we do have are frozen. I was able to defrost some ground turkey, but to be honest, I really wasn't in the mood to cook it. Hubby came to the rescue!! He brought some food home for us to eat tonight! Whew!

We had Wendy's for dinner. It was good. Of course, in the midst of feeling so tired, I caved in and ate some fries and left the bread on my bacon cheeseburger (boo!). All well! Praise God for grace! I'm striving to not allow myself to be too bound to the "rules" of healthy eating. Of course, I want to be mindful of them and do a better job in following good eating habits, but not to KICK myself when I fail. God loves me even when I do eat a french fry. LOL

As I left the table, I was so ready to relax and sit on the couch for the rest of the evening (well, sort of. I still have some things to do). But, I wanted to finish off my meal with a nice cup of HOT tea. It seems like I haven't really had some hot tea in a well. It was GOOOOD too! LOL

Here's what I fixed:

Creamy Cinnamon Rooibos Tea 

1 Bg of Twinnings Pure Rooibos Tea
1 Bg of Cinnamon Mix tea (I'm sorry, I forgot to write the name of it down. It was an old bag I had in my tea section.)
1 Tb of heavy cream
1/2 cup of Almond milk
Sweetener

Psst! I added some Cool Whip in it too. Pray for me to stop until I can get some Reddi Whip cream!! LOL Seriously.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Creamy Peppermint Tea





I have a craft project in mind. I plan on using my empty bulk season containers and turning them into tea canisters. I'm so excited to do this. But, I have a lot of prepping to do before I start the project. Since I can't draw, I plan on using some coloring sheets to do it. Don't worry, I'll show it once I'm done. LOL

Each of my girls have a favorite tea (or at least a particular tea that they ask for every time we spend time together). My youngest girl seem to like Bigelow's Peppermint tea. So, what I plan on doing with the tea canisters that I'll be making, I plan on having a little girl pictured on them to show that it's one of the girls' favorite tea.

I love the tea I fixed today for Anna & I. Here's the recipe:

Creamy Peppermint Tea
1 bg of Peppermint tea
1 cup of Almond milk
1 tsp of Peppermint extract
Sweetener

Psst! I also added some whipped cream to it. Hee-hee!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

No Sugar! Boooo!

Now that I'm totally into using alternatives to sugar in my teas, I've become use to it. I usually have a sweetener for my tea, but this last grocery shop, I choose to try another brand instead (Man!). So, I only had a few packets of Stevia and I wanted to use them "wisely". LOL

I wish I had some Splendar (my favorite brand so far. I heard that there's some added sugars in there too, but..) because I came up with two blends to try. I had enough Stevia to get a little taste, but I'm sure if I had my Splenda, it would of tasted GRRRRREAT (sounding like Tony the Tiger)!

I tried Twinnings Pure Rooibos Tea mixed with Celestial Seasonings Tangerine Orange Zinger Herbal Tea, it was a nice morning drink. Then for to drink with my lunch, I mixed Twinning Pure Rooibos Tea with Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea. I always wanted to have a cinnamon taste with my Rooibos tea and this recipe gave me that. For my time with my daughter, she requested Vanilla Chai tea. We had ran out of it, sooo, I was able to mix Bigelow's decaffeinated Spice Chai with their decaffeinated French Vanilla. It tasted similar to Vanilla Chai.

Here are the tea recipes:

Orange Cream Morning Tea
1 bg of Tangerine Orange Zinger Herbal tea
1 bg of Rooibos tea
1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt
Sweetener

Creamy Cinnamon Rooibos Tea
1 bg of Bengal Spice tea
2 bgs of Rooibos tea
1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt
Sweetener

French Vanilla Spice Chai
1 bg of French Vanilla tea
1 bg of Spice Chai
1 cup of Almond milk
1 tb of heavy cream
Sweetener

I hope you'll enjoy them.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Tea Time In The Moments


"As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." 
1 Peter 4:10-11


My girls weren't feeling too well yesterday. They each had a fever and stayed in their beds most of the day. We are truly blessed to be in a church where we serve and are loved by the saints. They each have dear friends who they can't wait to see them come Sunday. So, I knew that they would try to say that they were well when they probably were about 80 % better. My sweet husband gave his pastoral order to have us stay home and rest while him and the boys attended church.

As Matt and the boys were heading out the door, I could feel the tension. The boys' eyes began to water, the girls' faces began to look sad, and I just knew that after I closed the door, that they were going to be very sad. I'm so thankful for God's grace!

He helped me to finish cleaning and prepping in the kitchen so that we could sit down at the table and eat breakfast together. I wanted to make it extra special in order to help ease the pain of not being in the car heading to church.

It was great to sit down and talk with them as we ate our breakfast. The girls had hot apple juice and I sat and sipped on Bengal Spice Tea by Celestial Seasonings. It was good. It was mixed with almond milk and heavy cream (not too much). I loved the spicy and creamy taste.

Afterwards, the girls and I had our own "Sunday School Class" as we waited to stream Pastor H.B. Charles' church in Florida. We read chapters 1-3 in the book of Esther. Once the service started, it was a blessing to worship with them. We sang and clapped to the music. Their choir sang "I Give Myself Away" by William McDowell. I confess, I've sang that song many times, but it was something different this time when I sang it. You see, the Lord has been pruning my heart more towards home, especially as it relates to me using my spiritual gifts more in the home, and for me to learn what does that look like. So, as I was singing that song, my heart was full and tears ran down my face as I sang the song as a prayer. "Lord! I truly give myself away to be used for Your glory to use my spiritual gifts to serve my family." That was my heart's cry. Then the sermon was in 1 Peter 4:10-11 and he was talking about using our gifts in service. It was TOTALLY needed.

After the message, we ate lunch. I fixed Bigelow's Plantation Mint tea for the girls in hopes it'll help with their throats and I drank my ice tea of Bigelow's Vanilla Chai & a generic Green tea mixed together. It was good. All in all, it was a great time at home with my girlies. God is good.

Creamy Bengal Spice Tea
1 bg of Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea
1 cup of Almond milk
1 tb of heavy cream
Sweetner

Vanilla Chai & Green Tea 
1 bg of Bigelow's Vanilla Chai
1 bg of Green tea
1 cup of Almond milk
1 tb of heavy cream
Sweetner

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Blueberry-Rooibos Tea

Whenever anyone would ask me if I like FRUITY teas, I would quickly frown to let them know that I DESPISED fruity teas. LOL When I would drink a fruity flavored tea, I feel like I'm drinking hot KOOL-AID! LOL

But, after doing some experimenting and researching, I've come to notice Rooibos tea mixed with a fruit flavored tea seems to taste good. One flavor in particular was BLUEBERRY! Well, I just happened to have a pack of Celestial Seasonings True Blueberry tea (I had it back in my beginner stage of discovering tea). I also had some Twinnings Pure Rooibos Red Tea. So, I brewed them together. It had a wonderful aroma!!

Here lately, I've been making some cold teas also. I've been mixing some of my teas with PLAIN YOGURT!! Yes! It's kind of like a smoothie, but without all of the fruits added to it. I didn't have any more yogurt. But....I did have some SOUR CREAM. I know that may sound yucky, but it worked!! So, here's the recipe. Sorry no pictures. I hope to get better with adding pictures in the future.

Blueberry-Rooibos Tea

1 bg of Blueberry tea 
1 bg of Rooibos tea 
1 1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of sour cream (or plain yogurt)
4 pks of Stevia

After you brew the teas, set it aside to cool down. Once the tea is cooled, add your sweetner, and pour into a blender. Then add your sour cream (or plain yogurt) and blend. Then enjoy!!

I hope you'll like it.


Friday, February 21, 2014

Tea Tripping!!

Okay! Some may get it and some may not. But, it seems like I've become a tea lover for about 2 years now. How did I start, you ask? Well, it started when I decided to find something sweet to have instead of the normal cakes, cookies, and ice cream. Although tea doesn't come close, but it helped.

When I tried Bigelow's Cinnamon tea with a creamer...I was hooked!! Then I started trying different types of teas with matching creamers and I was even more hooked. My sweet husband and family are very "supportive" of my tea crazed. In fact, I've got my daughters hooked on tea too. LOL

But, here lately, I (about a year) I've noticed that adding creamer and sugar wasn't good on the body (added pounds - boo!). So, by the help of prayer and wisdom, the Lord has helped me to discover another way to enjoy my teas with a tablespoon of heavy cream and almond milk. And to sweeten it, I've come to try Splender, Truvia, or Stevia. I'm still trying to figure out which sweetners are "better". But, all in all, I love how it "helps" to not have sugar added to it.

Well, I wanted to do this in order to write and share the different tea recipes I've tried. I've come to enjoy making teas. It's so fun and relaxing. Just another "craft" that I can do. I've even got my girls into trying the different teas that I've come to mix.

So, I hope to use this blog to post my recipes, teas that I'd like to try (and have tried). So, we'll see.