Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Make Your Own Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte

For months now I have been going to Peet's Coffee.  Strangely I don't like coffee so never before did I have those kind of wallet breaking addictions.  I went in one day for my boss and came out trying an Iced Matcha Latte.  I have to say "Non-fat, non-sweetened, light ice" because for one, I hate sweetened drinks especially with green tea.  Two, if you don't say light ice you spend $4.20 for a large cup of ice with 3 sips of the yummy drink.  Three, the non-fat milk is sweet enough on it's own, adds no fat to my day and tastes better with the matcha than 2%.  It has a stronger flavor this way.  Seriously, if you are a green tea, matcha flavor everything fanatic like me that's what you want.



So the problem lies in the fact that if I want to buy these things 4 times a week that's about $20 a week at least on this one drink.  The last time I got it (I love Peet's they have great customer service but this one location is hard of hearing at times) I got it sweetened for the second time. Which is a waste of $4.20 in my eyes, and I could not return to the store to get a new one since I had to run back to work.

So my curiosity to see if I could make my own drove me to go to a local Japanese super market called Nijiya in San Mateo, CA.  Some of the best sushi there ever I swear!  Of course they also have matcha powder cheaper than you would get at a tea place like David's or Teavan (again, great places if you want the best but I'm on a budget).  They had a lower cooking grade matcha for $6.99, wasn't sure if that would work so I went for the "universal" matcha for $8.99.  That's $8.99 for 1oz of matcha.  I'm thinking of trying the cooking grade I think it will work fine.



For every 8oz of milk you need 1 tsp of matcha, so with 1oz container you will get 6 matcha latte's.  Say you bought a gallon of milk (I get free milk at work luck me) the milk was $4.50, the matcha is $8.99 that's $13.49 for 6 matcha latte's vs $25.20 matcha latte's being made for you at a store.  Over a month if I had 6 latte's a month that would total $100.80 at the store ($100 for drinks over a month! wow!) and $53.96 making my own.

Here's the best part.  This recipe is SUPER easy, fast to make and can be done at home or work.  All you need is milk (any kind you prefer even soy and almond), matcha powder and a blender or bullet of some kind.



Here's the recipe:

Iced Matcha Green Tea Latte Recipe

And a little fun video I made.  Well it was fun for me :)



For more updates:


Thursday, June 19, 2014

Cucumber Chicken Avocado Bites

Searching for ideas for a low carb for my carb cycling diet I thought of these yummy bites.  Chicken, avocado and cucumber it's sort of like kappa rolls without the seaweed.  Here is the easy to make directions, perfect for dieting at work: http://allrecipes.com/personalrecipe/64086870/cucumber-chicken-avocado-bites/detail.aspx



Thursday, June 12, 2014

Basic Spaghetti Sauce - Home Made from Scratch


Ranchos Huevos Healthy Style

First post Finally!! Yee!

Ok so what inspired me to finally start on my exclusively about food blog? This super healthy, light, protein rich, gluten free and dairy free breakfast option that's packed with flavor.

First of all, I eat gluten and dairy, I just don't use it for every meal. Tops, I use it to snack once a day this is what makes me have a light feeling throughout the day without losing the good nutrition that whole wheat and milk provide.

Secondly, I worked out last night and ate light for dinner. So with mornings like these I am starving for something filing, and I know I need lots of protein to rebuild my muscles. So 2 things that work great for high protein and are low fat are egg whites and black beans.

Lastley and probably the best part of all, this was so easy I was able to make it at work. Just poured about 5 eggs worth of egg whites in a bowel. Added rinced low sodium black beans (1 servings worth) and microwaved the egg and beans for 2 and half minutes.

Ok I lied, the best part is actually the taste. I chop up the egg into junks with a fork and add plenty of my favorite roasted pepper salsa and spicy guacamole. About 6 tbls of salsa and 4 of guacamole but everyone can add their own desired ammount. I did add some extra carbs to the deal with blue corn organic chips, I love them so much and it adds salty dipping crunch to the dish.

Now mind you, with the beans, salsa, guacamole and added chips you can be taking in a lot of salt. So it's not perfect if your into such clean eating that you require no salt but you could always make your own salsa and guacamole and skip the chips. The peppers, tomatos, onions, vinegar and avavado all great for you so enjoy your trip to flavor town! I did by my salsa and guacamole but I also manage my days worth of nutrition intake to avoid salt in other meals.  After all, we do need salt just not too much.

 
Nutritional details Without corn chips 


Nutritional details With corn chips