Thirsty Thursday: Fentimans & Strawberry Infused Vodka!

Last spring I shared a post about making homemade infused strawberry vodka, using the leftover tops from strawberries.  Well, we're still doing it, and lemme tell ya...it's amazing. The longer it infuses, the more it mellows.  And it's taken on a gorgeous pink hue from the strawberries. (I've got a couple other infusions going as well...stay tuned.)

Also earlier in 2018, the Hubs & I brewed up some homemade ginger ale (non-alcoholic), and we split the batch to ferment half, making hard ginger beer.  Aside from it being a little explosive (because of the champagne yeast we used), it's tasty stuff, providing you like ginger.  This is like, Goslings or Q spicy ginger beer, not like Seagrams or Canada Dry sweet soda.  Like, burn-yer-nose-make-ya-sneeze ginger level.

As it turns out, our neighbor Neil is quite a fan of ginger beer, so we delivered a 6 pack to his door.  And in return, he gave us a mixed pack of Fentimans soda.  Because, you see, Neil is a Brit.  And not just any Brit, but co-owner of locally famous food truck London Calling.  You wanna eat lunch in a legit double-decker bus?  They've got you covered.

In addition to delicious pasties (like, a hand-held pot pie, or if Hot Pockets were made of real food), they offer other British imports like Walkers chips/crisps, candy, and English Fentiman's sodas. And their mall location also has UK import beers that are hard to find in this area (like Innis & Gunn).

The chicken tikka masala is my current favorite.

Lil' Man is a big fan of the Wotsits. And the sausage rolls.

So, we were savoring our stockpile of sodas, and finally popped open this one, which was just begging to be made into a cocktail.

INGREDIENTS: (per cocktail)

2 oz strawberry infused vodka (you could also make it with regular vodka)

4-5 ounces of Fentiman's soda

lots of crushed ice

strawberry to garnish (note: I think some fresh mint would also work great in this.)

DIRECTIONS:  

Fill your glass with crushed ice, and add the vodka. Then top with the soda and stir to mix.  Garnish with strawberry and enjoy!

We made two versions, one with just plain vodka (so essentially a screwdriver), and the other with the strawberry infused.  We both agree that the strawberry version was much smoother.  Slainte!

Daniel Fast, Days 3 & 4: Morning Infusions & Vegetable Spaghetti!

Day 3: Wednesday
Today’s Devotion – “This is the 3rd day of your fast. Three is the number of resurrection. It’s Jubilee & all can be freed to return to their original families.( Lk.4:18-19) The beggar (poor), the brokenhearted, the bound (captive), the blind, & the bruised can now return to their original state. Jesus has paid the redemption price for all to be free. Embrace your new found freedom, the chains are broken & the things that have held you in bondage are removed. Stand up tall & face this day with a new perspective, a bold confidence that says, “If God Be For Me, Who Can Be Against Me?”
Indeed, today was much easier!  No craving for coffee, no hunger pangs when I smelled my coworkers’ cooking their lunch (my office is all of 10 feet from our kitchen).  Perhaps the chains of bondage are removed!  Even with 18 more days ahead, I know we can do this.  This is not a diet, or some “cleanse”…this is a spiritual commitment.  I think that’s hard for some to comprehend.  I’ll mention I’m doing the Daniel Fast and it seems to translate as “you’re trying out a vegan diet”.  When I mention the things I can’t have, they suggest soy cheese or agave nectar or Boca burgers… but that’s not the point.  Yes, I realize that there are replacements out there for everything under the sun, but if all you’re doing is “replacing” the things in your diet with fake versions, it’s not really a fast.  It’s like you’re trying to outwit God, or “bend” the rules to make the fast comfortable for you.  But it’s not supposed to be easy, or comfortable.  It requires a commitment, and sacrifice on your part.  And you really have to enter into the fast with a heart for God and the challenge ahead, otherwise you WILL be tempted to bend the rules.
Our weather is bleak & cold & snowy this week, and not having something hot to drink in the morning really wore on me today.  So I decided to make an apple & cinnamon infused water.  I put ½ apple and a stick of cinnamon into a big insulated mug, and then filled it with hot water before leaving for work.  By the time I got here, the water was nicely infused!  However…the cinnamon is a bit overpowering for my taste.  Next time, maybe only half a stick.

Breakfast: Flatout MultiGrain Flax wrap w/natural peanut butter, banana & strawberry (makes me feel like a kid!)

Lunch: More avocado salad & applesauce

Dinner:  Here’s a challenge.  Wednesdays, as you well know, are Trivia Night, where we typically head down to our favorite watering hole, and enjoy some tasty Irish grub.  However…ehhh….pretty much nothing on the menu is Daniel Fast friendly.  I don’t have time to run home on Wednesdays, so it meant either bringing dinner to work with me, or finding a spot to eat out.  Thankfully, several Pinterest searches recommended Chipotle being Fast-friendly.  And then…there’s Qdoba!  Which, if you’ve never been there, is almost exactly like Chipotle but with a few extra options.  I used the Nutrition Calculators on their websites and determined that if we went to Chipotle, we’d have to get a Burrito Bowl since they don’t have a whole wheat tortilla.  BUT, Qdoba does…and, with the same ingredients, the sugar content at Qdoba was lower than Chipotle, meaning Qdoba was less likely to have added sugar into their salsas and fillings.  So we did Qdoba.

YUM.  But…here’s the thing…I don’t know if you’ve ever eaten at a Chipotle or Qdoba, but the portions are HUGE.  One veggie burrito (wheat tortilla, brown rice, black beans, fajita veggies, lettuce, pico, corn salsa, & salsa verde) = 680 calories.  That’s with NO meat, cheese, or sour cream.  So if you’re gonna go there, PLEASE share with someone (like we did—we just split it) or take half home.  Seriously.  Otherwise you WILL be in pain later.
And then…there’s trivia.  Where our teammates are chowing down on a delicious burger or roast chicken dinner, and sipping on cold brew.  It’s challenging to be around, but we survived with only a few pangs of envy.  And we even won 3^rd place!
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Day 4: Thursday
(Since I got home late on Wednesday, I’m combining these posts.)
Today’s Devotion: “Day 4: A Time to Be Creative” 2 Cor.5:17 ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’  Four is the number for Creation. The 4 corners of the earth are north, east, west, & south. This gives us the acronym News. News always travels faster when something incredible has happened. Your new life in Christ needs to be proclaimed throughout the earth. Be creative, innovative, & allow a God idea to break forth out of you that will change somebody’s world. It’s a new Day!
Alas…it hasn’t been a very creative day.  It’s been a day of billing clients, actually, which is not terribly creative at all. That does frustrate me at times about my job—it’s a science job, full of data and facts & no real frills.  Some days the artsy side of my brain gets really antsy because of that.  There are days I miss working in the media (TV, newspaper), because it was a creative job.  We “made” the news. I assembled commercials. I took pretty photos and put them in the paper. I wrote articles that used alliteration and got to be subjective, share my opinion. 
BUT…that’s why I have this blog.  Even when we had The Scoop open for the season, I couldn’t let this refuge go fallow.  This is my creative outlet now.  That, and my kitchen!  I love thinking up new recipes, and scouring the interwebz (aka Pinterest) for ideas.  Today, the Hubs emailed me at work and asked that I “please make a big batch of something hearty tonight so we can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow”.  With our restrictions, that means a whole wheat pasta dish or meatless chili….or….OOORRR…. are there other things?  Something with marinated mushrooms!  Ooh, quinoa!  Maybe some pasta e fagioli?  Maybe it’s weird, but I love spending my lunch hour figuring out what I want to make for dinner.
Another cold day today, so this morning I just did hot water with some lemon slices in it.  PERFECT!  So good, I had two more glasses that way.  There’s something about snow on the ground that just DEMANDS a warm cup in your hand!

Breakfast:  Two oat-raisin pancakes with all natural peanut butter, like a sandwich (VERY filling! I highly recommend!)

Lunch: 1 tomato, 1 cup carrots, 2 tbsp garlic hummus (oooh….need to roast some garlic!!!), and a half of a whole wheat flatbread

Afternoon Snack: Applesauce
Dinner:  We decided to go with pasta!  I did my basic spaghetti recipe, but replaced the meat with some dark red kidney beans.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cups mushrooms, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 2 tbsp minced garlic, divided
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp dried rosemary, crumbled
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 Dorot cubes basil
• 1 can dark red kidney beans
• 1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti
• 2 cans tomato sauce w/ oregano & basil
• 1 can diced tomatoes w/garlic & onion
• 2 tsp Cajun seasoning
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Directions:
While you’re boiling your pasta, in a separate pot sauté the mushroom, garlic, onion, and bell pepper in the olive oil.   When the pepper & onion are soft, add the beans, tomato sauce & tomatoes and seasonings.   Season to taste.

When the pasta is done, mix it into the pot & serve!

I miss parmesan…but otherwise it was pretty tasty!

NutriFacts:
Calories 286.4
 Total Fat 3.5 g
 Saturated Fat 0.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat 1.8 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
 Sodium 2,326.8 mg
Potassium 294.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate 56.8 g
Dietary Fiber 12.8 g
Sugars 9.0 g
Protein 12.1 g

Daniel Fast: Day 2

Today’s Devotional: “Phil.2:14-16 (MSG) ‘Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I'll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You'll be living proof that I didn't go to all this work for nothing.’

This is going to be a great day. What an awesome opportunity you have to be a carrier of Light & Glory. You are focused on your purpose & confident of the Christ that abides within you. Let that great smile you possess break forth on those who are blessed with your presence & set an atmosphere of Joy & Peace. Today you can bring someone out of darkness into the Light of God’s Love.”

Smiling?  Okay…that’s rough with a two-day caffeine deficit, but I’m trying my best!  Still feeling very sluggish, but never hungry, even though my calorie intake is about 200-400 calories lower than usual. Probably a good thing!  Definitely drinking tons of water…though, today, I’ll admit… I actually opened the bag of coffee at work and took a big ol’ whiff.  I do love me some java.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal again, but this time with strawberries, blueberries, cinnamon and a small dollop of Polaner All-Fruit Blackberry Jam, which is only sweetened with fruit juice.  The jam helped a LOT.

Lunch:  I brought a small (4oz) container of the black bean & sweet potato mixture from last night, and then made some of my fresh avocado salad.  It was a full plate of food, but only about 250 calories.

Dinner:  Leftovers from last night.  I really can’t complain…it’s such a tasty filling!

(Note:  I’ve also made this same burrito filling with roasted butternut squash in place of the sweet potatoes.)  Plus a couple big glasses of my infused water:

Ingredients:  1 cucumber, peeled & sliced; 1 lemon, washed well & sliced; two sprigs of mint leaves, lightly chopped

I’ve started a Pinterest board for Daniel Fast recipes (including infused water suggestions)—it’s here if you’re interested!

Oh, and a few frozen grapes to snack on.  The Hubs has a tendency to bring me a couple pieces of candy (when we have candy), so now he gets to bring me frozen grapes.  It’s a pretty solid replacement. :)

Rosemary Infused Olive Oil

I am what you might call, “supremely NOT GOOD at keeping plants alive”.  Unless they are of the very hardy variety.  Like, essentially, the cats of the household plant community.  I need a plant that says, “Hey….just water me.  Like…when you remember.  It’s cool.”  That’s why THIS is our garden:

A rosemary bush, and a cactus.  Oh, and there’s a bamboo and some green onions in the windowsill of our kitchen.  See what I mean?  Like literally…just some water about once a week.

And I LOVELOVELOVE my rosemary bush.  Bought it over the summer for about $5 from the local nursery.  It’s so amazingly fragrant.  I barely brush up against a stem while watering it, and I smell rosemary on my hands for the rest of the day.  WHY is there not a rosemary scented perfume?  Seriously.

And a little while back, my mom found some miscellaneous glass bottles at the thrift store, because I told her I was wanting to try infusing some olive oils.  So here was my first project.

INGREDIENTS:

Olive Oil

2-3 sprigs rosemary

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

 

DIRECTIONS:

In a small saucepan, warm the olive oil over low heat (just helps the oil to absorb more of the rosemary flavor) for about 5 minutes.

While that’s going, wash your rosemary sprigs & them dry completely.

Place the rosemary & crushed red pepper in the bottle you’ll be using.

Oooooohh, artsy…

Pour the olive oil into your bottle and then let sit for a couple days.  The flavor will increase over time.  Store in a cool dry area, away from the sun (like a vampire).

A few ideas for using your olive oil?

1. Drizzle over spaghetti & add some grated Parmesan cheese. (Heck, toss some more fresh chopped rosemary on there too, if you feel so moved.)

2. Pour into a small bowl, add some minced garlic and a dash of Parm.  Maybe even some balsamic vinegar.  Dip yer bread into it. (DON’T try infusing the garlic in with the rosemary.  Garlic gets some nasty bacterial issues if it’s not properly refrigerated.)

3. Use for sautéing veggies for some extra flavor.

4.  Make some fresh pizza dough, and lightly coat the exterior of the dough in this before rolling out to keep it from sticking to your pan, while also adding some extra flavor.