Cinco De Mayo Horchata On the Rocks

Happy Monday!

Since Cinco De Mayo is tomorrow, I thought I’d share a quick recipe to make a delicious drink just in time for tomorrow’s festivities. 

Ingredients: 

2 parts RumChata

1 part Grey Goose

2 pumps Vanilla Syrup

Ground Cinnamon 

Directions: 

Combine RumChata, vodka, and vanilla syrup into a glass over ice. Stir thoroughly.  Top with ground cinnamon and enjoy!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Cinco De Mayo!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

RumChata Hot Cocoa

Since the weather has been so frigid around here lately (today’s high is 18, which is crazy low for people that live in the South!), I’ve been constantly drinking hot beverages, lighting all my candles, and staying warm under all my layers.

Here’s a warm alcoholic drink my brother told my about years ago, and I’ve loved it since the first sip! (And I’m sure you will too!)

Ingredients:

1 package of hot chocolate (I use Swiss Miss)

1 airplane bottle of RumChata (or 1 shot)

1.5 ounces of half and half

8 ounces hot water

Whipped cream, as topping

Ground cinnamon, as topping

Directions:

1. In your mug, add package of hot chocolate, hot water, and half and half. Stir together until well blended.
2. Add your RumChata and mix together.
3. Top with whipped cream and cinnamon. Enjoy! 

This is the perfect drink recipe for a really cold night, when you just aren’t feeling wine, but still want something to warm you up, and take the edge off. 😉 

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

Earl Grey Tea Latte

Some mornings, I wake up and I want something hot to drink, but I don’t always crave coffee like Ashley does. On those days (like today), I make myself an Earl Grey tea latte. It only takes a few minutes longer than brewing a cup of coffee, and satisfies my need for something hot to get my day started!

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons loose leaf Earl Grey tea

½ ounce vanilla syrup (or 2 pumps if you have a bottle and pump)

6 ounces milk

8 ounces water

Directions:

Place 2 teaspoons of loose leaf tea into a tea sachet, or tea strainer.

Heat water in a teakettle until whistling. Pour 8 ounces of water over tea and steep for 4 minutes.

Remove tea bag and discard.

Add 2 pumps of vanilla syrup to cup with tea and top off with 6 ounces of cold milk.

**Combining the hot tea and cold milk will make the tea a drinkable temperature immediately!

Enjoy!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

Detox Beet Smoothie

The other day, out of nowhere, my boyfriend sent me a text message saying he wanted to get some beets because he heard they were good for you. He said he hadn’t been feeling the greatest lately and wanted something to kind of give his body a natural detox. He didn’t have to tell me twice. You see, it’s a very rare thing to have my boyfriend eat something healthy that I make for him, but to have him actually REQUEST a healthy thing. Whoa now! I decided to make him a smoothie packed with all kinds of delicious detoxifying foods, including beets. I knew it had to taste good though or else he wouldn’t drink it. Needless to say, the end result was pretty good and he drank it with very few complaints! Success!

Ingredients

• 1 raw beet, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• sunflower seeds
• handful of chopped kale
• 1 cup of Simply Apple Juice (or other 100% fruit juice)
• juice from 1 lemon

Directions

Throw everything into a blender. If your blender will not grind things down very finely you may want to consider cooking your beet a little beforehand. I have a decent blender, but I would have preferred the texture to be a little more smooth. It did not grind the raw beet up as well as I’d hoped. I prefer not to cook my beets only because you lose some of the nutrients, but if you can’t handle the texture it may be the best option. This would work great in a juicer also!

 

It may look like a murder scene, but all the mess is totally worth it. The beets will stain your hands (and anything else it comes in contact with) so you may want to wear gloves while handling them.

Some of the Benefits of these Ingredients:

Beets

• Unique phytonutrients in beets called betalains provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support in the body.
• Betalin pigment found in beets support detoxification by helping to neutralize toxins and make them water soluble so that they can be excreted out.
• Helps purify blood and liver
• May lower blood pressure
• Gives you energy and is a natural aphrodisiac

Sunflower Seeds

• anti-inflammatory
• excellent source of Vitamin E, a fat soluble antioxidant
• Good source of selenium, which is necessary to activate certain enzymes that function in the liver to detoxify harmful molecules

Apples

• antioxidant
• anti-inflammatory

Kale

• Glucosinolates found in kale form isothiocyanates which regulate detox activities in our cells

Blueberries

• One of the highest antioxidant capacities among all fruit

Lemon

• Good source of Vitamin C
• antioxidant and antibiotic

If you try this let me know what you think. My boyfriend said it tasted like a garden, but he continued to drink it, so I guess that wasn’t a bad thing. I think it tastes really good and will make you feel good as well.  Thanks for reading!

Bows and Arrows,

Ashley

Healthy PB&J Smoothie

Since it’s heating up outside, here’s something to cool you down!

 

Ingredients:

10 frozen strawberries

1 banana

1 ½ tsp PB2 powder (you can leave this out if you want it to be more of a strawberry banana smoothie instead)

Around 20 baby spinach leaves (I counted because I was plucking them out of a salad mix)

4 oz. Soymilk

 

Blend all ingredients.

Yields 1 10oz smoothie

Just a few benefits of this smoothie:

•  A much better cold treat option in warm weather as opposed to ice creams, soft drinks, and other beverages or snacks that are full of sugar.
• Great for a breakfast on the run because it meets the minimum amount of protein and fiber needed for a healthy breakfast.
• Equivalent to 2 servings of fruit!

Hope you try it!  If so, let me know what you think!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

Bloody Screwdrivers

I’ll admit it.  I have this secret obsession with Martha Stewart.  I don’t even care that she went to jail 10 years ago.  I still love her.  As a child, I never dreamed of my “fairytale wedding,” but if I did, Martha Stewart would have planned it all.  So, as I was aimlessly clicking all over her website earlier today, I discovered a recipe for Bloody (Orange) Marys.  I decided to use her recipe as a loose guide to make my own version, so here it is!

I MADE THIS!!!

 And then I drank it.  And it was nom.  Because why not day drink in the middle of a gorgeous afternoon off?

 Here’s how I made mine:

 Just as a warning, I almost never measure anything when I make food or beverages…so use your best judgment when trying to figure out how much I added.

 I also don’t like spicy/hot stuff, so I don’t own any Tabasco sauce…sorry about it.  It’s just not in there.

Annnnnd, I also don’t add pepper either unless I deem it completely necessary.  But right now, I would rather not taste pepper.  You can go ahead and judge me now.

 

And, as you’ve already seen, I’m calling these:

Ingredients:

A dash of horseradish

A dash of salt (literally, the smallest amount I could possibly add, without saying I just didn’t add any)

About 3 tablespoons of lemon juice

6 oz. of tomato juice

3 oz. of orange juice

1 oz. Absolut vodka

1 very large ice cube

 

Mix with a swizzle stick.

Garnish with a celery stick and lemon slice.

Enjoy!

Have an awesome rest of the day!

Lynda