Ice-Cold Lemonade (Healthy and Calorie-Free!)+ (That doesn’t mean artificial sweeteners)

Here’s the simple, really frugal, recipe:

2 T. lemon juice

1/4 t. stevia (or to taste)

1 c. water

2 ice cubes

Mix. Sip. Enjoy.

Cranberry Jewels Smoothie

This is a recipe  I made up myself to use up my cranberries in the freezer. I ended up really enjoying it though.

The recipe is simple:

1/2 c. cranberries (thawed)

1/2-1 c. yogurt (dairy-free or not)

1/4 + c. milk (dairy-free or not)

stevia

 

Mix all of these together in your blender and adjust amounts according to your preference. YuM! :)

Sweet Milk Hot Chocolate or Chocolate Milk!

 

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It’s been cold around here lately and I was in the mood for hot chocolate. I had some sweet milk leftover and decided to try it out. It worked great.

 

Ingredients:

1 c. sweet milk (whether that be dairy-free or not)

1 T. cocoa

 

Mix well and warm in the microwave (if you want hot chocolate… Make one serving! No other sweeteners required! :) Yum!!

Sweet Milk- A delicious, natural alternative to other sweeteners, including honey, etc

“Sweet Milk”                 vs               “Regular Milk”

I recently borrowed this wonderful, older book from my college library. I was amazed they even had it. I’m pretty sure I will be purchasing it soon. It’s called Sweet and Natural Desserts without Sugar, Honey, Molasses, or Artificial Sweeteners and it’s by Janet Warrington. Though published in 1982, I find it a very useful reference and wish I could get in contact with the author. I am going to post this recipe and hope that it is ok. I am giving all credit to Janet and her cookbook. :)

The following is quoted from her book on page 29.

“Sweet Milk: Naturally sweet, this milk is delicious on cold or hot cereals and grains. It is also a common ingredient in many of my desserts. I like to keep a jar of it hanging around in my refrigerator for spur of the moment baking. It should be made at least one day in advance for use, but reaches peak sweetness after two or three days.

Ingredients: 2 cups reconstituted nonfat milk

2/3 c. raisins

1. Combine milk and raisins in a jar, cover and refrigerate at least overnight.

2. Before using, shake the jar vigorously. Milk should be an ivory color.

3. Strain the milk to remove the raisins which will be mushy and a little flat tasting.

4. Use milk as directed.”

So, after quoting that, let me tell you a little bit about what I do. I do, as she says, except, I haven’t tried it with reconstituted/dry milk. I usually use just the milk I buy from the store. If you are dairy-free, I think this would work well with any-other dairy-free milk.

I usually store it in the fridge for a few days and I find that it gets the sweetest after about 2-3 days…and turns the color up above. I showed “regular” milk beside it so you can see the difference. It is a great sweetener and I’ve been experimenting a lot with it (and have had both failures and successes) and will post some recipes with it soon.

Hopefully, it is ok to post this here and if anyone knows how I can contact the author, let me know! Thanks!

**UPDATE**: Aubree Cherie said,

"I wanted to let you know that I tried the sweet milk with unsweetened soymilk. It worked great! I left it to absorb the raisins for about 3 days. I used it in place of regular milk and a sugar substitute in a bread recipe – the bread turned out perfect! So thanks again for posting that "

So, for all of you that were wondering if this would work with non-dairy milk, here is your happy answer! :)

Grapefruit-Pineapple Punch

Grapefruit-Pineapple Punch

*Note: picture is of my aunt’s recipe… but this one should come out very similar

by Ari Anderson

Modified from my aunt's recipe, which she likes to serve for Thanksgiving. However, this is a very easy recipe, so feel free to make it anytime.

Ingredients:

• 1 part grapefruit juice (the real stuff, no sugar added, you may have to make your own...home squeezed...I don't know of any around here that aren't loaded with sugar etc) 
• 1 part pineapple juice (again, the real stuff :))

Note: I put part because it can be anything that you want: 1 quart, 2 cups, a gallon etc, as long as both are equal amounts.

Mix these two juices together. Pour some into a cup and taste. If too tart, add a little stevia, agave, or honey. Mix. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, add 3-4 to a glass. Pour lemon/lime "soda" (see note) with over the top. Mix. Enjoy!

Lemon/Lime "Soda"

(AKA lemon/lime flavored water/ seltzer water)

For every cup of water, add a couple of teaspoons of lemon and or lime. Add stevia (0r other desired sweetener) to the mix if desired. Stir. Adjust measurements to your taste buds. Serve over grapefruit-pineapple juice cubes.

Peanut Butter Banana Green Smoothie

Oh my! I just had the best! smoothie :)

I have been a little wary of green smoothies but decided to give it a try (especially since I can't seem to digest spinach by itself [ie. in a salad, or just raw]). Boy, am I glad I did.

My recipe is based off of this one from The Spunky Coconut! Thanks for the inspiration!

I love, love, bananas and peanut butter! And since I don't have any protein powder but wanted some protein in this smoothie, I decided to put peanut butter in it!

So good! I could taste both the peanut butter and the banana. (And I couldn't taste the spinach :)).

Not only is it delicious, this smoothie sneaks in some not usually kid friendly vegetables (which are full of antioxidants- especially good this time of year), protien, fruit, and water to hydrate! And it is not full of sugar or juices. :)

Here's the recipe

3 handfuls baby spinach

2 T. peanut butter (natural)

1/8-1/4. t. powdered stevia

1 c. water

5 icecubes

1 frozen banana, in chunks

Combine in blender and blend well. Makes one very large and filling serving or two normal size servings.

Homemade EASY, LOW-FAT Coconut Milk

I love coconut milk but... I have a hard time handling large amounts of fat at once. Plus, no matte how delicious coconut milk is, it's pretty much cream and not easily drinkable. So (before Turtle Mountain came out with their version-or at least before I knew about it), I set about to make my own version.
First off, I had to make a lower-fat coconut milk. So, I figured out that 2T of full fat coconut milk (from the can) mixed with about a cup of water in my blender would equal 60 calories per serving and 5 g of fat. And guess what? Follow that basic ratio and you have low-fat drinkable coconut milk! Just double or triple it, etc to make a larger quantity.
This coconut milk is a good source of healthy fat and tastes the closest to milk of any recipe for "dairy-free" milk I've tried. And to answer the question, it does still taste a little creamy, at least to me. Maybe not like the original, but I think too if you want it creamier you could just lower the amount of water to coconut milk ratio. Also, this is an easy recipe and way cheaper than buying it in the store (aka. Turtle Mt brand). You can also make "lite coconut milk" for recipes using this same ratio and save money on coconut milk. (The only difference between the canned original and lite coconut milk in the store is water. So why not buy the full fat stuff and make more milk with it thereby saving lots more money? :))

Note: This is my post for Slightly Indulgent Mondays here.

Homemade Almond Milk: Delicious, low calories, and low cost! Under a $1 a quart!

I recently decided to try my hand at almond milk since I had success with rice milk and wanted to give this one a try. I have purchased almond milk from the store before (and liked it) but $6-7 a quart! that’s a lot of muhlah! I based my recipe of another one I saw online but to make it more cost effective and lower calories/fat, I changed it up. My recipe is about 60 calories or less per cup, and 4.5 g +/- fat per cup. And it’s delicious, sugar free, gluten free, and about 88¢ a quart! This recipe yields about 4 quarts or 1 gallon of almond milk! So are you ready for the recipe?

Here it is:

1 c. whole raw almonds

1 c. filtered water

Place your almonds in a bowl. Cover with water. Let soak for about 12 hours or overnight. (I soaked mine for at least 8).

Take you almonds and water and place in a blender. Add about 3 cups more water. Blend. Make sure it the almonds are ground up very fine.

Pour the result almost like a cream, into a big bowl. Take back one cup of it and add more water (about 3 cups). Blend. Repeat this process until you have about 17 cups of almond milk. You can even just stop after about 5 c. of almond milk that you’ve made and pour 12 more cups of water into the bowl. Mix together. Use your blender and a scoop. Transfer the milk back and forth a couple of times until you think you’ve got the mixture about the same consistency. Strain through a fine mesh and reserve what’s for another purpose. Pour your milk into containers such as Mason jars. Store in the fridge. Shake well before using. (Each time you use). When you get the the end of your milk, you’ll have some leftover pulp again. Strain that out and use it for almond cheese or some other purpose.

Note: To make flavored varieties, add flavoring such as vanilla and cocoa and sweeteners such as agave, honey, or stevia. Add about 1 T.- 2T. of agave or honey to each quart. Use 3/4 t. -1.5 t. stevia if you are using that instead (per quart).

The original recipe can be seen here.

My Homemade “Rice Dream"/ Rice Milk

How many of you out there LOVE "Rice Dream" by Imagine Foods? I do! My favorite is original, although I haven't tried chocolate! Anyway, I was thinking about how I could save some money and thought about once again trying to make rice milk. I had tried in the past with OK results but always went back to my good old "Rice Dream". I decided I needed to see what others thought online and I also looked at the labels. After looking at a idea online and reading the label more closely, I created my own version of "Rice Dream." Try it out and let me know what you think! If you try any of the options or make any alterations be sure to let us know!

Ingredients:
· ¼ t. sea salt
· A little less than 2T. high oleic safflower oil
· 1 c. uncooked brown rice
· 8 c. water
· More water as needed

Directions:
In a large pot, bring 8 c. of water to a boil. Add in 1 c. uncooked brown rice. Add ¼ t. sea salt. Stir. Put the lid on, turn it down, and simmer it for about three hours. Add the safflower oil. Mix. Take it off the heat. Pour in equal amounts of water and into your blender. You will need to do this a couple times. I would suggest that you strain the rice milk through a fine wire mesh or cheesecloth, if needed. Next, dilute your milk to your desired consistency with more water. Blend again. Pour and then store in air tight containers. I like using quart size Mason jars.

Options:
· Halve or double the recipe according to your needs.
· Sweeten with your choice of sweetener if you like.
· You may also flavor it with vanilla.
· If you choose to make chocolate/carob rice milk, add cocoa/carob and sweetener of your choice.

Original Recipe found here.