My take on a blue latte AKA the Hillary latte

Yes, not a great photo I'm aware

I recently read about a blue latte created at a Melbourne café. I was intrigued. My intrigue transformed into frustration at the thought that I couldn’t try this concoction. And if I’m being honest, I couldn’t Instagram this pretty drink. Twenty hours later I was drinking a blue latte.

I learned the blue was from a blue green algae E3 Live. I am a fan of E3, I’ve written about it, sold bottles of it at Foodtrainers but there was a problem. E3 live is best in shot form, it tastes like sh!t. I would make a blue latte but I didn’t expect to enjoy it.

The original blue latte was said to contain E3, ginger, lemon and agave (I may be omitting something). I assembled my line up. Out of E3 at home, I bought a shot (and a pack up shot) at Juice Generation. I put my pacific coconut milk in my frother and pulled out a glass cup. I decided on Wakaya ginger, lemon nustevia, peppermint essential oil and coconut oil.

I put about half the shot in my cup and stirred in warm coconut milk (for some reason it didn’t froth). Blue! I added a half teaspoon Artisana coconut oil and stirred it in. Next came the ginger, drops of stevia and peppermint. I ended up frothing organic half and half for a foamy top layer.

I snapped a few photos and took a sip. It was delicious. Peppermint definitely was the key it’s more of a peppermint blue latte than anything but that beats an algae latte, right?

Cheers to the weekend! Speaking of the weekend, maybe this is a Hilary latte.

Have you heard of the blue latte? Would you try it? Who do you think Hil will pick as a VP?

I freaked out majorly: warning 1st world problem

I haven’t written in a bit but I have a good reason. I was in food shock. It started a few weeks ago. We decided- I should say I decided to replace our cracked kitchen tile and countertops. My husband gave me the “is this really necessary?” line.  The truth is that his kitchen experience amounts to occasional coffee making, gluten free beer opening and table clearing when he’s in a helpful mood. I could’ve wasted my time pointing out that the kitchen to me was the equivalent of the golf course for him but I had a more productive idea. I selected the countertop material  (Caesar stone) and flooring (light wood planks). I presented my husband with two samples of each that were basically the same so he could “choose” and put him in touch with the kitchen guy. Our division of labor for any renovation is design- me and construction- him. This proved to be a mistake.

Two weeks ago today, the boys had started spring break and I was enjoying not having to be out of the house at 7:30AM. The doorbell rang and I answered it in my pajamas. There were five men with tools standing outside with the head honcho kitchen guy. I had been told the kitchen work would be done while we were away. As I stood in the doorway, Marc emerged freshly showered and smiled at the guys “that’s great that you’re getting an early start.” And the unraveling began. I guarantee these nice men will tell the story of the crazy upper west side lady for years to come.

“You told me this was happening when we were away”

  He said

“I thought it was a good idea for them to start before we left in case there were questions.”

While that’s totally logical in retrospect I said

“It’s a good idea for you but what about me, I am supposed to eat days of take-out food right before a vacation?”

And he said

“I think having a new kitchen is worth a few days of non-organic food.”

It went downhill from there and I decided to go get dressed and calm down.

When I came downstairs, four men were carrying my fridge into the dining room.

The fridge was unplugged. The fridge with a freezer full of grass fed meat and wild salmon, the fridge with my kombuchas and organic berries.

And while I now know I must’ve sounded like a spoiled baby, I freaked.  Mid fit the kitchen guy plugged the fridge into a dining room outlet. The light went back on and I started to breathe.

I will never admit this to my husband but I kind of liked running out to Juice Generation to get smoothies breakfast for all of us and a few newspapers. Having no kitchen meant no pillaging for dark chocolate. And we plugged the coffee maker in the home office and it was fine.

This past Friday, the men were putting the kitchen sink in and the kitchen guy said “was it worth it?” and, with my tail between my legs, I apologized knowing that nothing I cold say would erase my crazy. It was totally worth it.  The problem is that now I don’t want to cook and mess any of the newness up.

Coconut Water: Yay or Step Away

You may not have noticed but this poor blog was neglected over the summer. Neglect leads to guilt, which sucks, and anyway I’m back and it feels refreshing…sort of like the YOSA (Yay? OR Step away?) topic today... coconut water (corny transition, I’m a little rusty).

 

Yesterday I spoke to CBS about coconut water. I must admit I haven’t been pounding the coconut stuff as much lately. Partially it’s because I spend all my beverage bucks on kombucha (and some Tito’s martinis) and also because I am fickle, sort of like a toddler, and go on benders with certain foods (and workouts) and then lose interest. So the segment got me thinking and here are my 2 coco cents.

The basics

Coconut water is the liquid from a coconut. If you think you dislike coconut water it may be because you’ve had the bottom of the barrel versions that often have a milky appearance and very little taste. I’d describe them as phlegm-like, agree? The best coconut water is organic, unpasteurized, straight from the coconut and a personal preference-ice cold. I was super psyched that juice generation has these adorable coco to go offerings. They’re 50 calories, fun (put the straw on the dot), and idiot proof- just saying I was worried about my coco abilities and first time got it right. If you're concerned you can also have them use a large coconut and open it for you. Carolyn and I were sent a cocojack tool and it wasn’t pretty. Coconut wrestling is a workout. If you’re not up for it, Harmless Harvest is also good stuff, our bottled go to.

The pros

Coconut water has way less sugar than sports drinks, sodas and fruit juices. It also has an impressive potassium content. If your retort is bananas, potatoes and avocados do too, I’ll ask when the last time you drank a potato was… This potassium content makes coconut water great post workout, after imbibing (or during) and good for blood pressure. Coconut water also has magnesium; potassium and magnesium make it a great PMS drink (debloat and de-stress-YES).

The cons

So yes, coconut water has sugar. I will say my least favorite of the sugar family is fructose and coconut water isn’t loaded with fructose. There are about 6g of sugar per cup of coconut water. Again, this isn’t a ton but I’d keep liquid snacks (coconut water OR kombucha OR green juices) to 1 per day max.

Uses

Coconut water is great in smoothies; I freeze coconut water in ice cube trays for this purpose. If I am not having a smoothie, 1 cococube makes water more interesting. And as you can see in the link above coconut water is superior to many cocktail mixers.

Yesterday I was asked if I could see a time when people would be walking down the street with coconuts? One can dream. Oh and I have to answer Yay or Step Away. If forced to choose I'd say Yay but needs to be quality coco and once per day is perfect/max. 

Do you drink coconut water? Straight up or in other ways? Do you want to walk down the street with a coconut? 

Are You Juice-Confused?

I juice and when I’m not juicing I’m spending (too much) money on juices from juice shops or taking pictures of my juices. In this juice-centric universe I live in it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that when most people think juice it’s still apple/orange/cranberry that come to mind. A client asked, “what do you mean when you say green juice” uh oh I assumed (remember the grammar school spelling trick- don't assume  it makes an “ass” out of “u” and “me”). 

Since I'm an ass, I asked Joanna our Snack Queen to morph into a juice queen and answer some questions:

For my client and the others out there who are juice-confused, what is a green juice?

 It is exactly what it sounds, a juice made from greens. In the same way you get orange juice from an orange, green juice is derived from kale, spinach, collard greens, chard, watercress etc.

Ha, I always thought it sounds like a juice that is the color green. Greens are healthy but oftentimes there are other ingredients lurking; some juices are actually chock full of fruit, how do you pick a good one?

To steer clear of sugary green juices, your best bet is to choose a concoction with max ONE fruit per green juice not counting lemon or lime. You said in June’s Allure magazine that green juices can contain 6 teaspoons of sugar and that was shocking to me but sure enough options from Blue Print and Evolution have 19-24 grams of sugar (there are four grams of sugar per teaspoon).

How come people don’t think about organic when it comes to green juice and why is it especially important?  

Because so much produce (up to 6 to 9 cups) is used to make juice, you don’t want to be drinking a glass of pesticides. Some favorite NYC options to go for organic juices are One Lucky Duck, Gingersnaps Organics and Organic Avenue. And a great resource is Living Maxwell’s PressedJuice Directory that lists locations where you can find pressed organic juice all over the world. He also interviewed you about your juicing habit.

We’ve been on lookout for less sweet green juices (especially since we quit sugar our month ends today but still) what would you say are our top 5 less sweet concoctions?

1. One Lucky Duck -Mean Greens 

2. Juice Press- Mother Earth this was the first all-greens juice I really enjoyed, love the dandelion

3. Organic Avenue - Mellow Love  this is Carolyn's favorite.
These two have 1 fruit

4. Juice Generation Supa Dupa Greens- we have made with ½ apple

5. Gingersnap Organics- Go Kick -the pear makes this delicious.

Thanks J, see you at the Fancy Food Show. 

Do you juice? What are your favorite combinations? Any favorite juice shops in your area? 

Sinless Margaritas, Giveaway and Recipe

Yesterday, I had that skin cancer procedure. For me, it was a huge relief to have that behind me but I’m not selfish enough to think that other things weren’t happening in the world. For example, while I was lamenting the band-aid on my face others were celebrating National Tequila Day. I’m sure I’ve made fun of National Donut Day or National Hot Dog Day but Tequila Day? Ole’.

I’m sorry to be a day late with this crucial cocktail information but trust me it’s ok to margarita anytime…especially when they’re healthy margaritas. You know me too well to think I’m going to tout “skinny” drinks but we looked high and low and found something better.  Enter Sinless Margaritas.

Sinless is all-natural and sugar free. It’s 5 calories per serving and sweetened with stevia. If you have margaritas once in a blue moon and want to use simple syrup…ok but if you like to margarita as much as I do (and I do) these are the way to go. They are in the refrigerated section (or available online) because they use real lime and real lemons. And if you want proof that some people have great jobs Zach, one of the Sinless owners, told us “my wife Cat still makes and tastes every batch in our Atlanta headquarters.” Zach- you let us know when Cat calls in sick, we're here to help taste test.

Sinless makes your life easy. You mix 2 parts of their mix with 1 part tequila. I had healthy skin on my mind yesterday and concocted this Sea Buckthorn (thank you to the reader who corrected my spelling of buckthorn) Sinless Margarita. I’ve mentioned sea buckthorn before as a key ingredient for healthy skin and hair; it also has a tart taste making it perfect with a limey margarita.

Sea Buckthorn Margarita

1.5 ounces Sinless Margarita Mix

1oz Sibu 100% Sea Buckthorn (or in NYC Juice Generation makes Sea Buckthorn shots)

1.5 oz. Tanteo Jalapeno Tequila

Stir to combine and serve over ice

These margaritas come in just over 100 calories.

Zach and Cat didn’t want you to feel left out and so they’re giving away a bottle of their regular and a bottle of their strawberry margarita mix to one lucky reader.

To be eligible:

1. Comment below telling us about the best margarita you’ve ever had OR why you want to try Sinless AND
2. Tweet @Foodtrainers has a @sinlesscocktail #giveaway today.

You have until next Thursday 8/1 to enter.

One of these and band-aid, schmand aid. Cheers!