Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Posts Tagged ‘Chai Tea Latte’

My Meatloaf

Posted by terrepruitt on January 23, 2017

I always cook the same thing.  If you have read my blog for a bit or looked at the recipe page you can see what I cook.  I actually USE my blog for my recipes.  I use it for

Cauliflower Cake

Easy Peasy Chicken Enchiladas With Sour Cream Sauce

My First Tomato Sauce Lasagna

A New Recipe To Love – Red Beans and Rice

Chai Tea Latte For Me

Celery Soup

Although I don’t make some of those that often.  What I do make all the time is just ground turkey and whatever leafy green (besides lettuce) that we have in the refrigerator.  If I have any ricotta in the fridge I might stir that in.  Or if I have any cream cheese.  That makes it “different.”  I would make that at least once a week, if it didn’t drive my hubby batty.  But he gets tired of it.  I don’t.  I haven’t made meatloaf in a long time.  But I just made it this past weekend.  It used to be that it wouldn’t stay together for nothing.  But then I started using less liquid in it.  Ya see, I am not a fan of tomato paste or ketchup so I  don’t always use it.  I usually make it with ground turkey.  But this last time I decided to use beef.  And while I was in the aisle about to buy some tomato paste I remembered that I had some marinara sauce in the fridge and I thought, “Hey, I can use that.”  Here is the basic recipe I use.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitMeatloaf

2 tablespoons of butter, plus enough to grease your loaf pan
1/4 of a large onion
1 lb ground meat (beef or turkey)
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup bread crumbs*
1 large egg
3 tablespoons ketchup**
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon salt
a couple of turns of pepper
soy sauce
cooking cherry
1 green bell pepperDance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit

 

Mince the onion.  Heat the butter in a pan then saute the onion.  Grease the loaf pan with butter.  Heat the oven to 350° F.  Put the meat in a large bowl.  Finely chop the garlic or use a garlic press.  Mix the garlic in with the meat.  Then add the bread crumbs and mix well.  Add the egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and salt.  Incorporate it all into the meat.  Sprinkle some pepper into the mixture.  Mix well.  Then use a measuring cup and make a combination of soy sauce and cooking cherry – totalling a 1/2 cup.  Pour it into the meat mixture and stir.  Mix it in with the meat.  Dice the bell pepper then mix it in with the meat.  Add the onions.  Mix it all together.

 

Put the mixture into your loaf pan.  Spreading it out until it fills the whole pan and is level.  Then bake it for about 50 minutes.

Slice and serve.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitIt might not stay together . . . mine rarely does.  If you like your meatloaf to stay in the loaf shape and you want to be able to slice it, use less liquid.

*in this last batch I used Panko bread crumbs and I really liked that.
**sometimes I use ketchup, sometimes I use tomato sauce.  I use whatever I have.  I have made it before without any ketchup at all.  It works.

I like it with beef, but it could be that I am just used to it with turkey because I think I like it better with turkey.

What is YOUR favorite meatloaf recipe?  One with two kinds of meat?  Maybe one with sausage? 

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Accidental Lunchtime Zing

Posted by terrepruitt on April 16, 2013

One day I was having my Chai Tea Latte (you can check out that recipe I got from a fellow Nia Teacher here:  Venting Gets Me Good).  Even though the tea needs to be stirred constantly, the spoon I was using to stir the tea ended up on my plate with my turkey sandwich.  Some of the ginger from the tea came off the spoon and I ended up taking a bite of sandwich with ginger on it.  “Oooooo!”  I thought.  That was good.  So I got up and sprinkled more ginger on my sandwich.  Right now the lunch meat we have is sliced turkey breast from Costco and it is a sweet flavor so it was nice to have the little bit of spicy from the ginger.  I don’t know if other sandwich meats would taste as good.

Since then I have been making our sandwiches with ginger on them.  I don’t know if my hubby has even noticed . . . .well, in all fairness, I have not been doing it on his everyday lunch sandwiches.  Just on the weekend sandwiches.  I know the poor guy eats a sandwich every day for lunch and then on the weekend I make him yet ANOTHER sandwich.  Ahh, but yes, thank you for the reminder (I heard your future thoughts, he COULD make something for himself).  But since I am making a sandwich I just make two so we can each have one.   With each sandwich I make I get a little more bold and add more ginger.  So far I have not made it too hot or spicy for me.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI really like the little drama that the ginger adds to the sandwich.  This is really funny to me because two years  (maybe about that long) ago if you would have asked me if I like ginger I would have said no.  But then again, I always thought of that pink slimy stuff that comes on a sushi and sashimi plate as ginger.  I mean, it IS ginger, but it is PICKLED ginger.  I hadn’t known that fresh ginger or even powdered ginger can add just enough of a zing to food to make it a nice change of pace.

Like many things I post, some people might be reading this and wondering why I am doing an entire post on adding ginger to my sandwich and it is for the others saying, “Oh, I would have never thought of that.  I bet it IS good.  I’m gonna give it a try.”  I can’t take for granted and/or assume that everything I know other people know.  That is ridiculous.  And just because it is simple doesn’t mean that it is not worth sharing.

And here is a picture of my lovely half eaten sandwich.  There is turkey, cheese, mayo, bell peppers, and ginger on the sandwich!  Pretty good.
Remember that ginger is a digestive aide and can help relieve nausea. It is also considered an anti-inflammatory root/herb/spice.  So in addition to adding a little zip to your sandwich ginger could add some health benefits!

Are you a ginger fan?  What do you put it in?  Have you tried it on a sandwich?

Posted in Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Chai Tea Latte For Me

Posted by terrepruitt on April 2, 2013

So in my post Venting Gets Me Good I explain how my complaint about Starbucks’ Chai Tea Latte landed me a great Chai Tea recipe AND cardamom, one of the spices used to make it.  Well, the original recipe calls for “pinches’ which didn’t seem like enough to me and is difficult to translate in a recipe.  So I decided that a pinch would be about an 1/8 of a teaspoon.  I felt that made a bit of a weak tea.  So I have increased the measurements and changed the water to milk ratio.  Also, lately when I have been in the mood to make this tea and have actually had the time and the milk I have not had fresh ginger so I have been using ground ginger.  It works for me and I am not left chewing on ginger.  While my fabulous Nia friend who gave me the recipe pointed out I could use a tea strainer to get out the ginger and the cloves, one reason I like to drink the tea is to drink the ginger and get the benefits from it.

Like many recipes SOMEONE has to have created it.  Then others morph it into what works for them.  I keep telling one of my friends about this recipe and that I made adjustments.  She seems excited to try it so she says, “And you put the adjustments on your blog?”  I had not so that makes it difficult for her to make the tea with my adjustments when I have not noted them.  So I decided to do it.  Plus it helps me.  I use my blog as my recipe book and when I have to keep remember to adjust it is not as helpful as when the measurements are just documented accurately.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaHere is the recipe I have been using and I think it is very lovely.

Terre’s Favorite Chai Tea Latte:

2 cups of water
2 tea green bags
10 cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 (heaping) tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 cups milk

Boil the water then add the tea bags.  Let simmer for a few minutes.  (Here is where you decide how long according to how strong you like your tea).  Squeeze out the tea bags and remove them from sauce pan (or whatever you are using to make the tea). Then add all the spices.  Allow it to sit and simmer a bit.  Then add the milk and let it simmer gently.  Add sweetener of your choice. Serve and enjoy!

The original recipe said to use “2 tea bags (black, green, redbush, etc.)” so I it seems you can use whatever you like.  If green does not agree with you, then don’t use it.

I think this makes a very yummy tea.  And I call it Chai because that is what the recipe said when I first got it.  One thing I do like to do while drinking this tea is stir often.  I want to drink the spices and get their flavor.  When all the spices end up at the bottom of the mug it is not as flavorful a cup of tea.  Plus in order to get the benefits from the spices you need to drink them.

One day when I tweeted out that I was making Chai someone responded that she makes it every day and she adds fennel.  I have yet to try that.  I don’t see why you can’t add anything you want.  This is just a starting place . . . .

So . . . . . tell me what you think?  Do you like it?  What changes did YOU make to make it “Chai Tea Latte For You”?

Posted in "Recipes" | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Tuesday, Day Twenty-Six Of Planking Every Day For A Month Challenge

Posted by terrepruitt on March 26, 2013

Tuesday.  How is your planking going?

Maybe you’ll come back to see what I have done to the Chai Tea Latte recipe?

Posted in Planking | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Venting Gets Me Good

Posted by terrepruitt on January 31, 2013

I go to Starbucks when I have a gift card.  I like Starbucks Chai Tea Lattes.  When I first started getting them they were almost too spicy for me.  Then they seemed to change a bit.  They got less flavorful.  Then one time I got one at a store I don’t normally frequent and I thought my teeth were going to fall out.  It was soooooo sweet.  Yes, I know that the fancy drinks at Starbucks and other coffee houses are a huge source of sugar.  That is ONE reason why I don’t buy them.  I DO have them on occasion when I am blessed with receiving a gift card.  To me they are a nice treat.  But this one hurt my teeth and my stomach.  I chalked it up to this store making them different.  But then I went to the store I usually go to and it was the same thing.  Ugh.  I posted a Facebook status asking if they had changed their recipe.  I know places and manufacturers do that all the time.  One of the responses I received was to make my own Chai.  The response even included the recipe.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaA few days after that I was in the grocery store and I actually remembered while I was in the spice aisle that I needed cardamom to make the chai.  I looked and looked and when I finally found it I almost choked.  It was $12.99.  I didn’t realize it was that expensive.

So, again, I posted on Facebook, I said that I would stick to using my gift cards at Starbucks instead of spend $13.00.  And again the replies were awesome.  People near and far reminded me that I live in an area rich with many cultures and that I could find cardamom at Indian Spice stores.  The major benefits to that would be that it would be cheaper and more than likely better.

But before I could remember to get to a store one of my amazing friends brought me a little box of it.  She is awesome like that.  She frequents an affordable spice shop so she picked me up some.

Here is the recipe that Danielle Woermann (a Nia Black Belt) posted for me on Facebook.  I am unaware of where she got it.

Masala Chai. Serves four.

Boil 3 cups (.7 liters) of water with
4 cloves
2 pinches ground nutmeg
2 pinches ground cinnamon
2 pinches ground cardamom
1/2 inch (1.27 cm) piece of grated fresh ginger

Add 2 tea bags (black, green, redbush, etc.) and simmer for 2 minutes. Add 1 cup (.2 liters) almond milk or milk of your choice, and heat until hot, but not boiling. Add sweetener of your choice. Serve and enjoy!

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI decided to measure my “pinches” so that I could have a more accurate measure and adjust accordingly.  I used an 1/8 of a teaspoon as a “pinch”.  I think that I need to work on it a bit.  Either the person doing the pinching who created this recipe has REALLY LARGE pinches or they like a more mellow tea.  I think that this might be really good if I made it ahead of time and let all the flavors really seep into the water.  The time that is stated in the recipe didn’t seem to do that.  Also it does help if, when you are drinking it, you actually get some of the spices in your mouth . . . . which also makes for an oddly textured and a bit chewy tea.  But I’m ok with that.

I think I might experiment with chopping the ginger.  For some reason I don’t might little tiny chunks of fresh ginger as opposed to what came off my grater . . . . it was odd.

That is a GREAT thing about recipes though, right?  I love to try them the way they are then adjust them to my tastes.  Maybe this is one that you can make and enjoy — either adjusting or not.

Do you like Chai Tea?  Do you have a recipe?  Doesn’t this one sound yummy?

Posted in "Recipes" | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments »