Tag: herbs

Herbal 🥃 Ice Tea * NO CAFFEINE

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My orange-turmeric herbal iced tea is one of my favorite summer drinks since school days. Enjoy your summer COOL drinks – refreshing and full of ready-to-absorb nutrients. Did I say easy to make? So easy – your road to good health!

It could be herbal ice tea she’s holding? 🥃 Use your imagination!

Orange -Turmeric Ice Tea

One summer, I was working at Ontario Place’s ( Toronto, Ontario, CAN.) beer garden, wearing a traditional German dirndl. A friend, brought in Celestial Seasonings’ “Constant Comment” tea 😋 when we visit [Today they replaced it with “Mandarine Spice Tea‘]. This was the FIRST TIME I tasted herbal tea in my life! You felt great during and after drinking herbal tea ~ with no caffeine. I think it was the orange zest that raised you to flavour town.

FUN FACT: Beer is made from herbs too called Hops. Hops act as a preservative and stabilizer. Barley and yeast are also in beer. Hops is used for women during menopause; that mimics estrogen.

Herbal teas, also known as HERBAL INFUSIONS

…and less commonly called tisanes are beverages made from the infusion or decoction of herbs, spices, or other plant material in hot water”.….published by wikipedia.org. Tastes best on a hot day!

Herbal Ice Tea

  • Servings: 6-8
  • Difficulty: easy
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INGREDIENTS
▢ The rind curls of 2-3 mandarin oranges (approx 1/4 cup)
▢ 2 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh turmeric root or ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
▢ 2 tablespoon thinly sliced fresh ginger root or ½ teaspoon ginger powder
▢ A few (4 or 5) whole black pepper corns or ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder
▢ 2 cloves
▢ 1 star anise (add 2 if you desire)
▢ 1 cinnamon stick (3-4 inches long break in half) or ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
▢ 4-6 cups water (steep longer with more water) test taste throughout
▢ 2 tsp of tea leaves: green ‘gunpowder’ tea leaves or black tea leaves
▢ 1/2 cup mandarin orange juice (optional -use to taste.)
INSTRUCTIONS

  1. peel zest curls from clementines (about 1/4 cup).
  2. Boil 4 (6) cups of water
  3. Turn stove off and stir in sliced fresh turmeric, ginger plus the rest of the ingredients
  4. Place a lid on the mixture and leave for 3-5 hours to steep on your stove top. Taste and adjust
  5. OPTIONAL:Add or leave out the mandarin orange juice. It is a taste preference. start with 1/4 cup, then taste it
  6. Strain mixture into a pitcher and refrigerate. If your herb tea is too strong add water. Too weak? Boil your left over herbs and spices in 1 1/2 cup of water and add to your pitcher of tea.

It is clear that turmeric(anti-inflamatory) and ginger( heart health) have amazing power to boost your health by reducing inflammation and pain. Reduce joint inflammation. Reduce cholesterol. Curcumin in turmeric has also been successfully used in treating rheumatoid arthritis. Give your immune system a boost!

Turmeric Orange Tea

Buy online $38.99 U.S. In my recipe I used clementine or tangerine for an extra Yumm! I wanted to mimic my favorite Celestial Seasoning –>”Constant Comment”< tea. The closest now is their mandarin orange spice tea. There may have been conflict with Bigalow’s version inspired 75 years ago. But, I liked Celestial’s version the best. ..gone…today. It always brings a smile to my face. A memory from school days and still a favorite today.

Roasted Sun Dried Tomatoes

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I am a firm believer in the power of a roasted vegetable. Not only can virtually every vegetable be cooked in this way — no recipe required — but roasted vegetables are also universally pleasurable to eat. Have a picky eater in the house? Roasted sun dried tomatoes tantalize your taste buds. Roasted tomatoes on your pizza with feta and spinach is a treat! YUMMMM!

Air Fryer Wins!

I dehydrated my tomatoes in the oven and in the air fryer. The air fryer won out in clolor and in flavour. No oil added. I did add olive oil and garlic with herbs as I jarred my sun dried tomatoes. When I say sun dried it is definitely my artificial sun from the air fryer! Like many other cooking methods, air-frying triggers a chemical reaction — the Maillard effectTrusted Source — that improves the color and flavor of air-fried food.

Oven dried Roma tomatoes, and in “sur la table” air fryer. My air fryer looks like a toaster oven. I want to see inside. The air fryer resulted in brighter and tastier tomatoes. So pleasantly surprised! From this picture I let the tomatoes sit longer in the air fryer. They got smaller and crispier. But, stayed a bright red.

Follow the temperature and times suggested by your dehydrator. It may take up to 8 hours in the dehydrator – to dehydrate the tomatoes to the right consistency.

TIPS For Best Results

Use about 3 lbs of tomatoes (or more) It varies. Follow these instructions to get optimum results

  • Try sprinkling the tomatoes with other herbs that you may prefer, such as rosemary or thyme.
  • Be careful not to over-dry the tomatoes. They should still be somewhat pliable and have a chewy texture.
  • You might also consider adding a tablespoon of lemon juice or white wine vinegar to each jar prior to sealing them. The acid helps to preserve them even further.
  • To avoid spoilage for longer storage, don’t add garlic.
  • Sun-dried tomatoes should last a month or more when refrigerated.

I put my sun dried tomatoes on pizzas, sandwiches, burgers and salad. Feta cheese is a must in the salad and pizza. These two flavors really pop together.

There is a Tomato Land at Flavor Town!

Chicken Diablo

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chicken-diabloThere are many versions of this recipe. For my Chicken Diablo, I will be broiling the chicken breasts instead of using the fry pan. It is a healthier, lower calorie version when you bake or broil your chicken in the oven. If you use homemade mayonnaise for this recipe, you will not have all the preservatives you get in the store bought version. This is easy to make and so tasty!!!

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RECIPE
Ingredients
6 pieces chicken breast
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
2 tbsp. mayonnaise or yogurt
1 tbsp. dry white wine or chicken stock or lemon juice or vinegar
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1 1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
1 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese ( or more Panko or bread crumbs )
1 tbsp. chopped thyme or rosemary or sage or other herbs

Instructions
1. Dry chicken breasts with paper towels
2. Pound the chicken between 2 pieces of parchment or cut in half to make the cutlets thinner.
3. Combine in a deep dish or bowl the Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, wine, Worcestershire (Worcester) sauce, Tabasco and pepper.
4. Combine and then place on a plate the Panko bread crumbs, grated Parmesan and chopped herbs.
5. Dip chicken into the sauce and then coat on both sides with the Panko mixture. Place on a wire rack until ready to cook.
6. Preheat broiler and place baking sheet in the oven.
7. Place a piece of parchment on the baking sheet and then the chicken on top.  Broil 3 or 4 minutes on each side. Turn over after the first 4 minutes.
8. Reduce heat from broil to 350F/180C and bake 5 minutes longer.  Yummy!
chicken_breadingCoated chicken, ready to broil
chicken_breaded_ovenChicken Diablo out of the oven. Tasty and low cal!
chciken_diablo-plateChicken Diablo with roasted asparagus, tomato and sweet potato salad
cottage_tableWelcoming dining room at the picturesque lake house.
HAT2FOOD TIP: Serve warm and then refrigerate any left overs which are great cold sliced on salads or in a sandwich with some oven roasted tomatoes or just lettuce and more ‘homemade’ mayo of course.
You will want to make extra!

Decorated Goat Cheese

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menu_flower Spring is just around the corner. Here is an idea that will wow your friends and welcome spring with a goat cheese appetizer. Have you seen those lovely decorated goat cheese rounds in your grocer’s deli case? They are so easy to make. Put a piece of plastic wrap in a small container that is a shape you wish to duplicate. Place a piece of washed herb, edible flower(s), olives, crushed coloured peppercorns, whatever you wish on top of the plastic wrap. Place a piece of goat cheese on top, pressing the sides into the corner of the container. I wrap the plastic wrap on top and at the end, press it on the counter top to flatten the base. Refrigerate overnight and you can unmould it onto your serving dish. It looks so much more appetizing when presented this way. Remember, the eye does half the eating. Beautiful!

didyouknow FOOD FACTS: Some things you may not know about goat cheese. While cheese and milk from cows is most popular in the United States, on an international scale, goat cheese is actually more commonly consumed.
If you want to get technical, cheese made with goat milk has a higher amount of medium-chain fatty acids. You don’t necessarily have to know the science behind these acids, but they account for the cheese’s signature tangy flavor, and also make goat cheese easier on the digestive system, so those with lactose sensitivities often find goat cheese easier to digest.