Healthy Recipe Fruit pops (dairy free, salt free, egg free, no cooking, no baking)

Nowadays, everything gets so simple version. Have you heard the Brooklyn couple live in a 240 sqft apartment? And they do have furniture, believe or not! No wonder all new yorkers get out of town in weekends-to get some space to breathe!!

Healthy Recipe Naturally flavored iced tea (Grapefruit, lime, sugar free, dairy free, gluten free)

Mark Twain said, Americans are hot, but not as hot as the weather!!! Oh, Mark is my neighbor, an immigrant from Mexico;-) Twain is not an Mexican name? Is there any difference between English and Spanish?

Superbowl Recipes-A healthy and Alcoholic version

Superbowl!!! yelling, screaming, #$#%^@, and....FUN!! Not bad! Well, the game itself pretty much can get your blood going. Wanna a better idea? Alcoholic tea is the answer!! Try our signature Lightly Alcoholic Blooming Tea Punch

Healthy Recipes-Orange Matcha Ice Cream (eggless, sugarless, saltless and really easy)!!

Have you ever tried Turkish Ice cream? No? That's the only thing everybody needs to try before the end of the world! I'm not kidding! Turkish Ice cream is hand made, chewy, with light coffee flavors, the BEST ever!! The vendor will even further impress you with their final friendly and fun trick, like shown in this video from youtube.com

Tea Lifestyle-Stevia recipes-Whole Wheat Banana Yogurt Bread

I have been baking a lot of breads recently. why? Urrrrr.... I bought too much flour!!;)))) Urrrr... I also love breads, any kind!! Anybody has a better anwer?;))))

I told one of my friends yesterday that I stopped adding any sugar to the Lightly Alcoholic Blooming Tea Punch. She said, that's great because everything we eat and drink now contains sugar!!! That's right!! And it adds up over time.

So I finally tested the banana bread recipe. I brought some with me when I went to the Toastmasters' meeting last week!! Guess what? Everybody asked me the recipe!!! Hahaahahaha!!

In the beginning, everybody was a little bit hesitated because people are health caucious nowadays!!

When I told them I did not add any sugar, they then rushed to the table for a bite!;))

Amanda said, your bread is so soft, full of moisture and tastes soo good. Many breads use a lot of butter to keep the bread moist. Did you add a lot?

I said, Actually I normally cut the butter volume in almost all my recipe. Same with my Banana bread.  For this one, I replaced sour cream with Fat Free Yogurt!!

Ah ha!! that's my secrete ingredient!!!Listen, nothing wrong with sour cream, but I love fat free yogurt because it offers me a lot of calcium.

I got this recipe from Martha Stewart and made my own version;)) Hey, nothing can beat the customized bread, right?!!!

Benefits: rich in calcium and fiber, low fat, low cholestrol...and nice aroma!! When I was baking, the aroma from my overn filled out the whole room!!!

Tea pairing: The bread  tastes lightly sweet, soft, full of moisture, delicate aroma. Great to pair with Green or Herbal tea

Ingredients:

Ingredient A:

¾  cup whole wheat four

¾ cup all purposes flour

¼ tsp sea salt

½ tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp stevia

¼ tsp freshly ground clove

½ cup chopped pecan

Ingredient B:

2/3 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup Greek fat free yogurt

2 ripe banana

2 egg white

2 tbsp butter (room temperature)

Directions:

1.        Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease the loaf pan 9"x5"with oil and flour.

2.     Mix ingredients A

3.     Mix ingredients B-I used hand blender to help mix everything evenly and smoothly

4.     Pour ingredient B into Ingredient A and mix evenly

5.     Bake for about 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean



Tea Lifestyle-Stevia Recipes-Whole Wheat Gingerbread

I used to shop at local bakeries, but found most of the stuff I bought are way too sweet for me. Many bakeries use food colorings and that bothers me a lot!

I'm a super picky shopper and eater;(( My foods have to taste not only good, look pretty, but also provides enough health reasons!! That's one of major reasons I decided to bake for myself-healthy, light, FRESH and BALANCED nutrition. I control what I eat and what ingredients to use. I like "She controls"!;))

My neighbor, Jill, told me that her boyfriend is in chemotherapy. She is so stressed out that she looks like a paper doll!!;((( The other day I made few breads and granola and shared most of them with her. Jill knocked my door almost every 5 minutes, trying to tell me she loved everything! HA!! I promised her I will make more...

I try to use Ginger more often in my cooking in case I forget to drink ginger tea! Flu season, babe! I need to be extra careful!

This morning I decided to make a Gingerbread. I found a recipe at All Recipes. The original recipe is actually Pumpkin Gingerbread, but since I do not have pumpkin any more, I simply just make a simple version of Whole wheat Gingerbread...

Honestly I made it twice. The first time, Jill said it tasted great, but would be better if I added little bit more sweetness and cinnamon. And we both did not like the all spices in the recipe...I then made a revision, and...here we go, Yum Yum!!

Benefits: Lowe calories, Low cholestrol, fresh ingredients...that's GOOD enough!!
No sugar added-Less calories
Less oil used-Less calories and Cholestrol
Only use egg white-less cholestrol
Fresh ginger zest (juicy!!) and fresh ground clove (the aroma is so strong that I have hard time to clean my grinder!): I use fresh ingredients as much as possible

Food pairing: good with green tea and black tea. Also tastes great with Jam. I tried it with the Mango jam I made....goody goody!!

Ingredients: it makes 1 loaf (9x5 inch)

A:
1-1/4 cups of all purpose flour (I always use unbleached)
1-1/4 cups of whole wheat flour
4 tbsp stevia
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground clove
Cranberry raisins and pecan (optional)

B:
4 egg white
4 oz olive oil (or veggie oil)
*3 tbsp freshly grated ginger (or you can use 1 tbsp ginger powder, as in the original recipe)
1/2 cup of vanila soy milk (I used organic one bought from costco, light aroma)











Directions:

1. Preheat oven 350F. Lightly greese and flour 1 9x5 inch loaf pan
2. Mix all ingredients B
3. Mix ingredients A and pour the mixture of ingredients B into A.
4. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, roughly 45 minutes (i used)

*Clean ginger and peal off the skin. Use a fine grater to get both ginger juice and ginger zest.
*Almost all gingerbread recipes, such as the cookbok "Joy of Cooking" recommend using ground ginger, instead of fresh ginger because fresh ginger has too much juice and hard to control the moisture of the bread. I did test few times and this one came out great!!

PS. I shared many of my foods with my neighbors;))) they loved it!!! As long as they continue to say "Jane is a good cook", I will continue to share my foods with them;)))) hahahaha!!

Tea Lifestyle-Recipes-Natural Apple Cuppa with Cinnamon

Apple is not just a fruit any more! It's a company that brings changes to hi-tech, entertaining, publishing, telecommuting industries and more.

I create this recipe in memory of Steve Jobs, the man who loved apples.


The first computer I ever used was called Apple II (never heard of it? then you are too young;))should be "antique" now). It was a black screen and I had to type in some commands to do calculations. It was a very cool experience.

The second time was when I moved to the US. Apple computers were very popular on campus (probably still are) and I used Mac desktop for all my computer science classes.

Right now many people own an iphone. But do you know a fun story about the first iphone? When the first iphone was released, many media were so excited about the new product-stylish design, touch and bigger screen, etc. but soon people found you can do many things with this beautiful device, but there's one thing you can not do: you can not make a call with this phone!!;)))) Apple added the phone function immediately.  Now you can make a call with your iphone now!

This recipe is simple, tasty, natural and keeps everything original. Mr. Jobs loved simple design and was a vegeterian. He went to India when he was young. Indian foods are flavorful and normally come with deep aroma from spices.

Benefits
Apple, a once forbidden fruit, is  rich in antioxidant (both from tea and apple) and minirals. It's said "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"!!

This recipe uses everything natural, great aroma from cinnamon and apple. Low calories, no cholestrol, no sugar added. It helps weight control as well. Best of all-YOU can do it because it's easy!!

And...not much cleanning to do, yal!! After done, just eat the apple;)))

Ingredients:

• Two apples (or you can use one if only one person, wouldn't you want to share this wonderful tea with ya friends?;))
• 1 tbsp Black tea (or green if you prefer)-recommend using whole leaves. If not, use 1 teaspoon of black tea
• 8 oz boiling water
• 2 cinnamon sticks

Instructions:
1. pour 8 oz of boiling water into your cup then add 1 tbsp of black tea. Brew for about 3-4 minutes. I always prefer my tea light.

2. Make an Apple cuppa-use smaller spoon to mark a circle on the top of an apple then take all the apple flesh out. It should leave enough space to hold your tea

3. Pour the hot black tea into your apple cuppa. Use 1 cinnamon stick to stir a little bit to get some aroma.

That's it!! Yum Yum!!

Tea Lifestyle-Gluten Free recipes-colorful pepper cups stuffed (great weight loss recipe)

Not a vegan by profession, I do like to eat a lot of vegetables. I bought few organic peppers (green, yellow, orange, red) in different colors the other day. As I always loved PRET in NYC (www.pret.com), I made few pepper cups stuffed as my dinner yesterday, paired with green tea. it was soo delicious that i finished all 4 pepper cups by myself!!!;)))

This is a great weight loss recipe!!

Do you know rice is actually gluten free! I'm not allergic to gluten, but I found many foods I cook are actually gluten free!

The best part is that this meal is not only GLUTEN FREE, but also LOW calories, LOW carbs,LOW fat, LOW cholesterol, RICH in fiber & vitamines & FREE of sugar.

Very easy to make it:

Prep time: 20-30 minutes
1 cup of Brown rice mixed with another rice, cooked

¼ Onion in small pieces

3 Celery stems-small pieces

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 tsp Soy sauce

Half lemon

pinch of Paprika

Fat free crumble cheeses (optional)

Instructions:

1. Cut the top of pepper as a cup top, clean inside seeds. Put in oven under 450 F, for about 5-8 minutes

2. Heat the pan, add olive oil, stir fry onion, celery and rice. Add soy sauce and paprika. Squeeze the half lemon. Mix well.

3. When peppers look soft, having water inside, take them out, dump the water, fill the cups with stir fried rice, topped with crumbled chunk cheeses. Put it back to oven for another 3-5 minutes. Or you can just eat like that

Tell me if you like the colors of this meal;)) Make one and send me your photos;))

Tea History-The Discovery of Tea

Chinese legend reads that the Emperor Shen Nong ("the god of farming") first discovered tea leaves when he observed that many of his people were dying of epidemic diseases and he decided to search for medicines. The legend says that Shen Nong (picture below)



has a transparent skin which enables him to test the toxicity of an herb by observing the change inside of his body.

He discovered tea one day while testing a cure. On this day, Shen Nong tried too many different kinds of toxic herbs and he lost consciousness. As he lay there, a few drops of dew from a tea tree dropped on his lips and revived him. Fascinated by this miracle, he ate the leaf, and though it was very bitter, he was able to see the leaves moving through and removing the toxins from his body.

It is recorded in the first Chinese medicine book named after Shen Nong, 神农本草经 (Classic of Chinese Herbs by Shen Nong), that Shen Nong tried 72 toxic herbs a day and that each time, tea detoxified his body. This is the first known record in Chinese history that shows tea being used as a medicine.





News of these medicinal qualities spread fast and tea varieties were developed for a host of different ailments, many of which are being proved true by modern science. For example, numerous recent studies have found that green tea has more anti-oxidants than any other drink. Anti-oxidants are shown to help reduce the presence of free radicals in our body. Free radicals randomly destroy healthy cells and reduce wholeness. It's no wonder that after more than 5000 years, green tea remains one of the most popular teas of the world! In honor of this rich history, Tea Beyond uses only the highest quality green tea as a base for all our beautiful blooming teas

Exotic Blooming Tea PUNCH!

Alcohol level-light, light sweet

Exotic Blooming tea punch is inspired by original punch which had been quaffed by sailors, explorers and patriots for centuries. The word punch either comes from Indian word “panch”, the Sanskrit word “panchan” or the Persian word “panj”, all meaning five, from the fact that this drink is made of five ingredients: tea (bitter), sugar (sweet), lemons (sour), water (weak) and arrack (alcoholic).

Best for: any parties (wedding service, Baby shower, Birthday party, etc), holidays, Family gatherings, BBQ events, Fund-raising events, Corporate events, etc. It has beautiful presentation.

Taste: refreshing, subtle, delightful, light alcohol that fits everybody's appetite.

Prepare time: 20 minutes, plus 2-3 hrs to chill
Yields: 20-24 servings (or approximately 96 oz)

Ingredients
1 cup Sugar
2.5 cups of Apple Juice (unsweetened, from concentrate)
¼ cups of Lemon Juice (from concentrate)
2 cups of Grapefruit (from concentrate)
½ cups of Tequila
¼ cups of Vodka
4 Blooming teas
6 cups of spring water
*Strawberry ice cubes

Instructions:

1. Brew tea first: Boil 48 oz spring water. Then drop 4 blooms to brew 15 minutes.
2. Mix Apple Juice, Lemon, Grape Fruit, Tequila and Vodka in a punch bowl
3. 15 minutes later, take all blooms out (will need to put back later) and add 1 cup of sugar to the tea. Stir gently until sugar fully dissolved. Mix all liquid together and put 4 blooming teas back to the mixture.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and put it in refrigerator to chill for about 2-3 hours.
5. When serve, float on Strawberry ice cubs in individual glasses or in punch bowl, whichever you like.

*Strawberry ice cubs:

Ingredients: Ginger ale and whole strawberries (or strawberry pieces)

Fill the ice cube mold with ginger ale and add whole/pieced strawberries to each cube. Freeze to use. Please allow few hours to process.