I am not by any means addicted to coffee, I have probably 3-5 cups per week on a good week. Some weeks I don't get any. Anyways, I am not a black coffee drinker. I am a sissy when it comes to coffee I guess. I enjoy a healthy dose of half and half with some stevia or sugar. If I am really getting spoiled I enjoy a store bought creamer. Usually avoid these as I don't like the ingredients in them, although you can buy ones with pretty clean ingredients, most are full of hydrogenated oils (future post on that I promise). Ok so I decided the other day to make my own coffee creamer. My favorite store bought creamer flavor is of course a seasonal one as well, Peppermint Mocha. It is heavenly tasting. So I made my own the other day and it is so good!
Peppermint Mocha Coffee Creamer
2 cups of half and half
6 Tbsp of sugar (I used pure can sugar, you can also use pure maple syrup)
3 Tbsp of cocoa powder (unsweetened for baking)
3-5 drops of peppermint essential oil (make sure it is one that is safe for consumption. Most are not. I used Young Living brand, if you want more info about their oils etc message me). If you want you can try using 1 tsp of peppermint extract, I just prefer the purity of just 5 drops of essential oil.
Over medium heat combine first 3 ingredients and blend together well and dissolve sugar. Turn off heat add the essential oil and put in a jar or container of some sort and put it in the fridge. It is really that easy. :)
This recipe of course can be messed with and made tons of different ways. If you don't like peppermint mocha try removing the cocoa powder and peppermint essential oil and add some vanilla.
On my grocery trip run to get half and half (to make coffee creamer), I got a bunch of lemons for super cheap (15 cents each!). Well upon returning home with them I realized when going to put them in the fridge I have some sort of lemon addiction I guess, there were already like some 15-20 lemons in my fridge. :) So I decided I would zest and juice 20 or so of them to prevent them from going to waste. I zest them and keep the zest in the freezer (labeled of course) for all sorts of uses, mainly a super yummy lemon cheesecake I make that my family and friends love. The juice I use in cooking etc. I recently learned that store bought lemon juice is not really pure lemon juice, mostly water. So I just juice my own and put it in a jar, lasts a long time. It also makes great lemonade. So I got all the lemons zested and juiced, and I had of ton of each. I ended up freezing 2/3 of the lemon juice, and half of the lemon zest. and had so much lemon zest left I decided to make Limoncello, something I have been wanting to make for some time now. The recipe I used is-http://allrecipes.com/recipe/limoncello/
My next adventure was discovering all the apples in the crisper with the lemons, they had been there awhile so I decided it was time to use them. I decided after some debating with myself to make applesauce. I peeled and cored about 20 apples and threw them in a big pot with a little water, let it simmer for about 30 mins then stuck my stick blender in it and blended them until smooth. I didn't add anything to the apples except maybe 1/2 cup of water and that was just to keep them from burning while they got soft. It is so yummy.
Both of these are ways to use up fruit that is on the down hill slope. I hate throwing food away and rarely do, as I either dehydrate it or use it in another way.
Shanda
