Cooling Off - Coconut Chai with a recipe!

Well, here it is hotter than the sun in Phoenix, Arizona. Once the weather is hotter than 110 degrees I become a little preoccupied with finding ways to stay cool. After all, when it is so hot it hurts to run errands, that is a little scary.

One thing I noticed was that with the spike in heat, it becomes dangerous to do things outside between about noon to 5pm. Jason and I have been spending a lot of time going to Starbucks to write recipes. There is nothing wrong with this at all. I love going a few times a week, but I suck down the green teas. Each one I get with 4 pumps of sweetener, so two is 200 calories of just sugar. Kind of scary, depending on how many times you do this. Also, cost can be a factor. Yes, I am a gold card member (many times over) but my green tea is about $3.89 with tax. Not the most expensive drink at Starbucks, but with trying to cut back and save more money, not something I want to do every day.

I looked in the pantry and we have a lot of tea. And when I say we have a lot of tea, I mean we have a LOT of tea. A while back, Sprouts was clearing out their better teas and we were getting Zhena’s Gypsy Tea for .99 to 1.99 per container. We bought them all. Then we stopped drinking tea at night shortly after. They just were in our pantry, wanting to be used.

Looking at the pantry one day, I realized I could solve multiple problems, so I started making various dressed up teas, and keeping them in the refrigerator. Now, Jason and I reach for these, and I do not find myself wanting to go out as much.

Other than whipping up teas for easy summer entertaining, even if I am just entertaining myself, I have been working on recipes for the next issue of the Vegan Culinary Experience, teaching some classes, and working on 2 cookbooks at the same time, because I am like that.

I will try to post pictures soon of all the tasty things being made over here both on the blog, facebook, and my new twitter account. I am on Twitter under Madelyn Pryor is anyone is interested.

Hugs to everyone and stay cool!

Madelyn

THE RECIPE

This recipe is for coconut chai. The original flavor is Coconut Chai with Black Tea http://zhenas.com/coconut-black-chai-tea-bags.html . I made this with a whole tea kettle full of water (about 8 cups) and 6 teabags. I boiled the tea and stepped the bags for five minutes. Then, I added to sticks of Mexican cinnamon and 1 can of light coconut milk. At Trader Joes these are only $.99.  Then I added ¼ cup of real maple syrup, grade B. This is a sugar, but also is unrefined and has its trace minerals. I place all this in the refrigerator to chill, then we can drink it when we choose.