I’m hanging out in The Market today… which is not my top choice for work places (I prefer Dogtown), but it will do. It’s funny how much mental energy I expend figuring out my plan for working each day—it depends on so many things, the yoga class schedule, appointments, client needs, if I feel like showering… And today I planned to work at home at my awesome kitchen table. However, my Internet isn’t working, so here I am. Luckily for me, I got some things done before I left… one of them was this:
Fruit Snacks – Green Tea with Lemon
2 cups green tea (or any kind—I’m going to try some herbal teas next!)
juice of 1 lemon
stevia to taste (I used three droppers full of NuNaturals Lemon Stevia)
8 Tbsp gelatin (I always use Great Lakes Kosher because it’s from grassfed cows, and even if that part doesn’t matter it still feels like I’m building better karma by not supporting things that come from factory farms. Look for a brand that has nothing in it but gelatin! Many of them have small amounts of MSG.)
I’ve also found a better way of making the fruit snacks now too… with the blender. It’s way easier than the hand mixer!
Measure out the tea, put most of it in a saucepan on the stove on medium, and a skosh of it in the blender. Sprinkle some gelatin in the blender and let it sit. Heat the tea on the stove. It doesn’t have to boil, just get hot. Once hot, turn on the blender to a low speed, slowly pour in the hot tea, add the lemon juice and stevia (you may have to stop and taste it to get the desired sweetness—-and this depends on your preferences and also the strength of your tea). Add the gelatin one tablespoon at a time, waiting a few seconds in between so it is blended well.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish, and put it in the fridge for an hour or so. It gels pretty quickly, but gets really more like fruit snacks if you can keep your hands off it for an hour or more!
There are, honestly, my favorite fruit snacks/gummies so far. I do love the wine gummies, but obviously I can eat these more freely—they’re a super source of most of the amino acids and the only sugar is from the lemon. I’m thinking when I make herbal tea versions I’ll just leave out the lemon—then they’ll be totally sugar free. As a former fruit-snack-junkie and current lower-carb-high-fat/protein-eater, this snack really seems too good to be true. I started eating gelatin for the digestion effects, and am now rolling it into a test for connective tissue (aggravating knee pain for no diagnosable reason), skin benefits, and protein/muscle. I’ll write a post on those things soon, after I gather more thoughts and self-research data.
News/Notes: I am in super work mode, and it’s so great (yes I said that!). I definitely have some ongoing focusing issues (and distractions are fabulous and plenty here), but I’m finally to a point where I have very specific things to work on (rather than figuring out what those things are). Pilar and I are videotaping her yoga sequences on Friday for the Food/Yoga for Pregnancy course we’re developing, and then it will be just a few weeks till we launch it (she and I have long conversations about deadlines, and how great they are, especially when they’re short!). We’re launching before her due date, which is in less than 6 weeks now! If you don’t know Pilar, please go check out her website: www.pilarcarrillo.com and especially watch her videos! That girl is the real deal in yoga (even at 34 weeks preg)! I love the one where she shows transitions between arm balances—I kind of thought I had a strong core until I watched that!
I can’t leave you without showing you the pic I took yesterday morning (in case you didn’t notice it in my instagram feed).
When it looks like this at the end of my street, I can’t help but wonder why everyone doesn’t live here? Really… tell me why you don’t!
I WISH I lived there! Seriously, I would love it (it’s about 20 degrees outside right now and ugly).
I want to make my own gummies now. I think this is brilliant! I may even make some with my Sleepy Time tea, as a sleep aid 😉
we wished we live there!!! love the west coast, maybe one day it will happen 😉
hope you have a great day friend! hugs
Your pictures from where you live now make me so jealous! I haven’t been to the beach or seen really beautiful weather for any length of time in awhile. Today is pretty, but the rain is coming…
Although I have no need for the prenatal yoga, I will wish I could get an insider glimpse (like, sitting with you guys while you’re planning!) at everything you’re doing. 🙂 Good luck, you’re both awesome! Can’t wait to hear all about it!
When you said your favorite place to work is Dogtown, my first thought was that you were lamenting about the hot dog joint on Monroe Ave here in Rochester and I thought “wow, that’s not exactly where I would picture Lisa settling down to work!” I’m glad I kept reading. 🙂
Thank you for the blender tip! I’ve been having clumping issues (despite adding gelatin slowly, etc.) and this totally fixed that. Thanks to the blender I was finally able to use the full 8 Tbsp of gelatin and they were definitely gummier. I tried the tea too. First I went with mint tea, but I set the paper tags on fire (OOPS!) and sent a ton of ashes flying into my tea water when I blew them out… (good lord) so for Attempt #2 I went with Mango Passionfruit tea. And no ashes. I left sweetener out completely though thinking it would be kind of sweet – and I was wrong. I’m still going to eat them and now just know better for next time!
Anyways…
We don’t pick up and move to paradise mostly because of friends and family and wanting to be close, especially with the kids now. When we were first married we moved to Ireland with the plan to live there for a year – but I was SO home sick that we came home after 3 months. I think the culture shock of moving from the US to Europe played a role in my homesickness too. I’ve definitely daydreamed about moving to California more than once! (NYC too…)
You were in the perfect position to pick up and go – I love that you did it and that you are rockin’ out in CA. It’s fun to live vicariously through you! (In a totally non-creepy way of course!)
What a great idea! I’m going to try this with some herbal tea. So much better than grabbing “candy” but still feels like a treat.
OMG, that’s so funny—I totally forgot about the “real” dogtown… I can say I’ve never been there, but that it has been involved in some of my (probably not that funny) jokes over the years… The blender is definitely the way to go with the gelatin–and honestly, mine is in a low cupboard so I pull it out and put it on the floor, make my mixture, then stuff it back in the cupboard. I’m so lazy sometimes I don’t know why it would be harder to just put it on the counter! It’s interesting about choosing location… I was just talking to my mom about it and how it does seem like most people who live in ny live there because of family… out here it’s a little different because it’s just so darn pleasant to be outside everyday. I do love it here—but I won’t lie, there’s a gross essence of smog sometimes visible on the horizon, and I’m sure I’m breathing that in (even tho I rationalize that I’m next to the ocean breeze so it seems cleaner than looking inland. My Mom is moving to florida in the next year or so… if I don’t get too established here, I think I’ll just go be her neighbor again.
Here’s to no more ashes in the kitchen! 🙂
On Fri 22/02/13 06:14 , “Disqus” notifications@disqus.net sent:
I’ve made gummies with the blender twice now, and I get tons of foam. Mine don’t resemble the pictures. haha It makes for a rather odd consistency. Have you ever had that problem? I’ve been in Cali all my life, used to live in Santa Barbara, but I’m now in the desert (work). At least the ocean and mountains are both less than an hour away. Got to love it.
Yes–I think I probably know the problem. I need to add to this post that your blender needs to have a super duper low speed, otherwise it will just turn foamy. If you don’t have this, you will probably want to make this by whisking by hand. If you whisk by hand, make sure the liquid is pretty hot so the gelatin will dissolve easily. I tried to make gummies when I was visiting my mom, and the same foamy thing happened in her blender. (I’ve also tried to make them with a hand mixer with whisk attachment on low and this works— there is a bit of foam on top but I just spoon it off and eat it before I pour into the pan). I have a vitamix blender at home that has a really low speed that I use, and I’m not sure what other blenders work well for this but I know there are others! Hope this helps!
On Sun 29/12/13 23:13 , “Disqus” notifications@disqus.net sent: