Green Tea Latté With Sprouted Almond Milk

I love lattés! Once I found out about the dangers of cow's milk, I switched to homemade almond milk or coconut milk for my drinks. Processed almond milk that is sold in stores is not healthy due to the fact that they do not sprout their almonds before processing. All nuts must be pre-soaked in order to activate the nutrients and release the enzymes. Nuts that have not been pre-soaked contain enzyme inhibitors that are toxic to our bodies! Check out my simple recipe for a Green Tea Latté With Sprouted Almond Milk below! Enjoy good health!

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Birds And Beans Café - Mimico by the lake

We dropped by the Birds and Beans Café today, where we spent a pleasant afternoon on the patio and then over at the Lakeshore! We purchased a couple of teas to try that are organic and fair trade. The owner also sells organic, fair trade and "Bird-friendly" certified coffees which meet the requirements for organic certification, as well as ensures that they maintain the forest cover - which provides habitat for birds and other wildlife. You can learn more about "Bird-friendly" coffee here.

Below: Photos taken while hanging out at the Birds and Beans Café patio and the Lakeshore at Mimico. Enjoy!

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Dandelion Root Coffee

The benefits of Dandelion Root include purification of the blood, liver cleansing, weight reduction, lower blood pressure, improvement in bowel functions and more. Dandelion Root can be made into a coffee (or tea). The process is simple and can be done at home in a short amount of time. We decided to give it a try, and although it is not the greatest tasting coffee alternative, the health benefits make it worthwhile. Dandelion Root has antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties and supports the digestive system. Dandelion Root coffee is bitter and strong in flavor but it can be sweetened with some honey. Enjoy!

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Bird Friendly® Coffee

Bird Friendly® Coffee is certified to preserve habitat, compensate farmers fairly and globally contribute to biodiversity. By purchasing Bird Friendly® Coffee, we can save the agro-forest ecosystems and ultimately encourage reforestation efforts, which will improve lives for farmers and help make sure that the songbird migration continues for future generations. We recently visited an Organic and Bird Friendly® Café called 'Birds and Beans Café by the lake. There is an outdoor patio located at the back, with a view of Lakeshore. We ordered a Fair Trade Organic Green Tea and Fair Trade Organic Guatemalan coffee - Guatemala Santa Rita. This coffee type originates from Lago de Atitlán (Lake Atitlán) in the Guatemalan Highlands. I have tasted many types of coffee (especially during my Café/Barista days) and none, to this day, have ever tasted as 'sweet and rounded' as the Guatemala Santa Rita coffee. It is described as "earthy chocolate on the nose, accented with a hint of raspberry. It is bright and sweet with some lovely spice, perhaps cardamom or white pepper." Since we are cleansing, we haven't had any coffee but I decided to give it a try and fortunately, I had no side effects. This coffee was the tastiest ever! I strongly recommend it to any coffee lover! Birds and Beans Café is located in Etobicoke. You can check out their website and coffee selections here.

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Healthy Green Coffee

Regular coffee does not contain the health benefits that organic green coffee bean extract has to offer! Organic green bean extract contains 20 mg of caffeine per serving, compared to a minimum of 100 mg for regular coffee. The low caffeine content does not allow it to act as a stimulant in making you feel nervous or jittery. It contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties and helps lower blood pressure. 

Organic coffee is free of dangerous chemicals and safer to consume than regular coffee. Regular, non organic coffee, is one of the most widely pesticide/herbicide sprayed crops in the world, with over 1000 toxic chemicals found after roasting!

We love drinking coffee and had been coffee drinkers for many years, but for almost 2 years now, we switched to organic decaf coffee - to lower our caffeine intake. We have a cappuccino machine that we fire up from time to time for decaf lattés, espresso baking and rooibos espresso shots. Since we've learned about organic green bean extract, we are interested in trying it out and will share our results in an upcoming post. Stay tuned.

Image taken from AliveByNature.com

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A Red Tea With Milk

Red rooibos tea is caffeine-free, rich with minerals and contains anti-oxidants! We've previously made a Red Latté (with steamed oats milk), but this version is one of our favorites during our cleansing period. We added some homemade almond milk once our tea cooled down to 108°, in order to keep the enzymes. It's also great for keeping warm in these cooler days! Check out the simple almond milk recipe below. Enjoy!

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A Red Latté

Red rooibos tea is caffeine-free and rich with minerals such as iron, calcium, potassium, copper, fluoride, manganese, zinc and magnesium. It contains anti-oxidants that have been shown to increase when you grind the tea and make it into a Red Espresso. We love lattés, so after we made our espresso shots, we added steamed milk that we frothed. Unfortunately, all the milk alternatives that we have tried so far (coconut, soy, rice and oats milk) can't produce foam so we're still unable to make cappuccinos. We used oats milk for our 'Red Latté' and it tasted amazing! We love that it's caffeine free and that it provides us with health benefits! Give it a try. See process below. Enjoy!

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Green Tea With Ginger Latté Cookies

It's been cold the last few days, here in Toronto. We want popsicles but are forced to have hot drinks - instead. We bought some organic green tea with ginger over the weekend, and decided to make green tea latté cookies with coconut milk! Yummy! It was quite a surprise to see that the coconut milk actually foamed a bit, and although we were tempted to drink the latté itself, we held off to put it in our new cookie recipe! (See recipe below) Enjoy!

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'Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain'

Today was a chilly day lashed by rain and strong winds, here in Toronto. We started our night off with a warm cup of 'cliff hanger' americano. Once we got the cappuccino machine fired up, we decided to incorporate the green pea flour and bake Mocha and Peanut Butter Zucchini Brownies. This is our latest gluten free dessert recipe with a rich texture and an abundance of flavor! (see recipe below) Enjoy!

Mocha and Peanut Butter Zucchini Brownies Recipe

Makes 8 pieces

Ingredients:

∙ 1/2 cup of organic rice flour

∙ 3 tbsp of organic almond flour
∙ 3 tbsp of organic green pea flour

∙ 1 1/2 tbsp organic black chia seed powder 

∙ 1/4 cup of organic raw cacao powder

∙ 1/4 cup of organic shredded coconut

∙ 1/2 tbsp of organic vanilla bean powder (fresh vanilla beans are best)

∙ 1/2 tsp of baking soda (non GMO)

∙ 3 tbsp of organic coconut palm powder/sugar

∙ pinch of Himalayan salt

∙ 1/4 cup of organic shredded zucchini

∙ 2 tbsp of organic peanut butter

∙ 1 happy chicken egg (free run)

∙ 2 tbsp of organic coconut oil (melted)

∙ 1/4 cup of organic fair trade espresso

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix rice flour, almond flour, green pea flour, baking powder, black chia seed powder, pinch of sea salt, raw cacao powder, shredded coconut, vanilla powder, baking soda, coconut palm powder and salt. Mix ingredients well.

3. Add zucchini to dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Add peanut butter to ingredients and mix well. Set aside.

5. In a separate bowl, mix egg, melted coconut oil and espresso. 

6. Add to dry mix. Mix well, will be slightly sticky.

7. Scoop out and place in a round flat 9" glass oven dish. 

8. Place in oven rack for 15-20 minutes or until edges are browned.

9. Remove from oven and let cool.

10. Once cooled, drizzle fresh honey for added sweetness (otherwise you may find the cocoa powder too strong in flavor).

11. Serve and enjoy! 

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Mucho Mocha

We dusted off our cappuccino machine and decided to have a mocha night! Mocha can be served hot or cold. It was a hot day so we made an ice mocha with homemade rice milk (use coconut milk for best results). For dessert we made a gluten free Mocha Brownie Cake made with organic raw cacao powder and decaf espresso from Kicking Horse. Kicking horse is Canada's #1 organic fair trade coffee. Our favorite kind (since we switched to decaf) is 'cliff hanger decaf espresso' coffee. Both the ice mocha and mocha cake were rich in flavor. The mocha espresso cake was topped off with a raw cacao and shredded coconut frosting made with honey and avocados. Mmmmmmmm.... tasty! 

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