Refreshing Lavender Lemonade

Hot summers can be a drag. The only fantastic part about them are refreshing drinks. The other day I tried a recipe I found in one of many cooking magazines I was handed down by my future mother-in-law {for the record, she loves my creamy potato salad and knows I know how to cook just wants to inspire me more}, and couldn't wait to try it out. Lavender is known to have a soothing and calming effect and when it gets too busy, too hot, and too overwhelming a little lavender can help. It turned out refreshingly perfect.

Here's what you need:

1/4 cup dried organic OR food-grade lavender buds
2 cups boiling water
3/4 cup sugar
1 tray of ice cubes {14 large ones}
8 small lemons
3-5 cups cold water

Here's what you do:

- put the lavender in a large heat-safe bowl, and pour in boiling water.
- allow to steep for 10 minutes, then strain out and discard the lavender
- stir sugar into hot lavender water until dissolved
- add ice cubes, stir until cool
- pour lemonade into a 2-quart pitcher {if you haven't done so already}
- squeeze lemons and put juice into pitcher
- top of with cold water, stir and serve
- adjust lemon juice or sugar to taste
- enjoy!

The wonderful smell in our apartment was better than any candle every used!

I failed to take a photo of the end product, so I looked for one online and found one that quite resembles my own refreshing drink. My favorite person even liked it, and he's not at all into "girlie drinks" - so knowing this was to his liking I am happily announcing he requested for more lavender lemonade!

Next time I'm making some {and it will be very soon} I will add honey or use it instead of sugar, plus I will try to make my drink more purple.Cannot wait to experiment.

Do you have a summer drink you enjoy drinking, or even making?
What makes a great refreshing summer drink?

image via here

Happy Birthday America!

Do you have any plans for this long weekend? That is, if you live in the US and are celebrating. 

This may sound weird to most people but there is a bunch of people who do not celebrate the 4th. This does not mean they aren't patriots or don't like the holiday, but it just simply means they don't want to spend a ton of money or mingle with thousands of people. I have to admit I love it when a country is celebration its independence, its founding date, its whatever. I do. Switzerland's so-called patriotic day is August 1 but in fact it's actually a made up date just so they can fake celebrate. Some people are very patriotic, others are just playing along. The spirit isn't fully there. Turkey's patriotism is a whole different story. It's huge and it's special.

After many years I am spending July 4th in the US again. WOW. Do we have plans? Not really. My favorite person is off work which is really nice, so I am hoping we get to at least see fireworks or do something small at home. I don't want to mingle with thousands of people, but I'd like to celebrate a little. I may just make drinks and have a blast with red, blue and white.

Have a brilliant day tomorrow, and a fun weekend!!!!
See you definitely on Monday (hopefully with a recap on my Birthday Weekend!!! It's about time!)

images via Etsy - Love The Day - mom.me

Mango Coconut Smoothie by Monic

Coconut and Mango are my favorite, so today I decided I would combine the two for a refreshing green smoothie.

Ingredients:

1/2 of a Mango

your favorite coconut watter

1/2 of fresh lemon juice

handful of spinach

handful of kale

2 Tbs of unsweetened coconut

Recipe:

Add your greens, fruit and about a cup or more to your liking of coconut water, then toss in your unsweetened coconut, BLEND and sprinkle a bit more coconut just because it's soo yummmmy !

What do you like to combine coconut with?

*********

Thank you, Monic, for filling in for me again.
I love how yummy this smoothie sounds, so I will definitely try this today or tomorrow, 

depending on when I find my blender. :) 

We are almost settled in.
It's all coming together, and I have so much to tell you.

Hope you are having a fabulous day my lovelies.
I will talk to you soon again (and catch up on gazillions of blog posts)

xoxo

Almost Halloweeeeeeeeen!!

It's that time again...where I can't stop myself from watching horror movies, eat a little more candy than usual and get excited about fall decoration, pumpkins and spooky sounds. :)  I even found a few things to spice up the daily sometimes dreaded cooking...yay me! 

Have a look and let me know what you think?!
Are you excited as much as I am?!

 And now to the yummy part... :)

 

 

I'm ready to make a fun pizza...are you?!

But before...or maybe after I enter a house like the following.

Fingers crossed y'all.
I had a rough Sunday evening!!
Lost one of my most important essays and had to rewrite everything from memory.
Lesson learned.
I know.
But it hurt.
Nothing seemed to work and let me restore nor find the file on my USB drives (plural!!).
Oh well.

Fingers crossed!!!!

My Cleanse Drink

Are there times when you think you are just plainly full and bored of what is in your body? You know, those times after all those big holidays, or a long summer full of BBQ's, chips and drinks? I know you are feeling the pain as much as I do. :) That is when it's time to cleanse, detox, or even just simply make yourself feel healthier. 

Years ago I swore the cabbage soup cleanse was the best thing ever for me. I'd eat cabbage soup (with all kinds of green veggies) for an entire week, drank only water (no more coffee, tea, alcohol and sodas), no meat or fish, just the soup for three days and a bunch of veggies and fruits, and then slowly added bananas and milk, and lean meat later on. It worked, I lost pounds but I was also too lazy to cook that soup. My energy was back though and I was more aware of what I put into my body after my week full of cabbage soup. Though my laziness was stronger and I needed to find something else.

Today, I'm going to share another cleanse that has worked for me. It is easy to make, doesn't cost a fortune, doesn't need to be delivered and is healthy and good. I read it in a healthy magazine while I was waiting for my hairdresser to work on my hair, and well, this little cleanse has beautifully worked for me so it may also work for you, or not.

All you need is fresh ginger (preferably, 2 to 3 inches long, not longer), two oranges, and cranberry juice (one bottle; fresh juice...not the sugary stuff - and yes, that may be a bit costly but it's worth it). 

• bring the cranberry juice to a boil
• peel the fresh ginger, then cut it into thin slices
• once the cranberry juice is brought to a boil, let it stand and add the ginger to it
• let it all stand for 20 minutes
• squeeze the oranges (fresh orange juice is sooooo delicious)
• remove the ginger (up to you how)
• put the juice in a pitcher/jar/whatever works
• add the orange juice to the warm cranberry-ginger juice
• let it cool
• drink
  

  Enjoy the cool drink!

I made up to five new drinks in a week. I drank it instead of coffee, tea, or any other soda temptation. I ate regularly and may have cut out a lot of fatty foods, but literally felt my body was being cleansed. No need to get into details here, right?

I don't like ginger. I made this drink anyways and I like it a lot. It clearly is a refreshing drink whether or not you use it as a cleanse!

We all know that detoxing and cleansing our bodies can be a horrible, quite boring thing and just difficult to "maintain"... The temptation to just stop is sometimes stronger. So I was pleasantly surprised to know that I could follow through with this drink. And it was so easy!

If you like cranberry juice, fresh orange juice and even ginger...go for it.

If you don't like it at all, then well...

Just kidding...you'll be fine even without my cleanse drink!

Hope you're having a good day.

xoxo