nutritious junk

Man was i HOT today (not in the "damn woman you look FINE!" type way, more like piping baked potato hold the butter type of way). I am very jealous of my Australian fans that they get the pleasure of coolness right now, if only i can borrow some and place that air in my house (at least for when i go running so i dont turn into a human sweat machine within two mintues of power walking!). Anyhow, iced teas are cold and actually teas are a great way to hydrate without adding sugars. And didja know you can go beyond snapples and liptons? ah yes i found some awesome recipes for interesting ones worth a try on cdkitchen.com. Hope they cool you off!

Almond Vanilla Iced Tea

Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sweetner (splenda, sugar, stevia, or whatever sweetner you like)
1 quart strong tea (any black or green variety)

Directions:Combine all the ingredients and pour over ice cubes in tall glasses.

Iced Lemon Grass Tea

1/4 cup Chopped fresh lemongrass tops
or
2 tablespoons Dried lemongrass flakes
4 cups Boiling water
sugar to taste
Directions:Preheat teapot with boiling water; discard water. Add lemongrass and boiling water, steep 8 to 10 minutes; strain. Allow to cool, sweeten to taste, and serve in tall glasses with ice.

Citrus Tea

Ingredients:
3 Bags black tea
OR
1 tablespoon loose black tea
1 1/2 cup Boiling water
1/2 cup Fresh lemon juice
1 Bottle (28 oz) diet lemon-lime carbonated beverage or diet gingerale Chilled
3/4 cup sugar/ or splenda or other sweetner you like
1 Tray ice cubes

Directions:Place tea bags or loose tea in bowl. Pour boiling water over tea. Let stand 5 minutes. Remove bags or strain to remove leaves. Add sugar and stir until all is dissolved. Place ice cubes in 2-quart serving pitcher. Pour hot tea and lemon juice over tea. Stir briskly several seconds until mixture is cold.

Stir in chilled lemon-lime carbonated beverage. Pour into glasses and serve at once.

Sparkling Raspberry Tea

2 cups cold brewed tea
2 cups chilled raspberry or cranberry crystal light (alread prepared)or diet ocean spray works nicely too
2 cups chilled sparkling water
Raspberries, lime slices or lemon slices, if desired
Fresh mint leaves if desired

Directions:

In large pitcher, mix tea, juice and sparkling water. Serve tea over ice. Garnish with raspberries and mint leaves.

Now being home and having easy access to whole foods, i've finally gotten the chance to lay my hands on the new Luna Tea Cakes. I know Luna pimped these out with their new line of Luna elixir as well. Luna calls these little bars "tea-infused baked snacks" for "mood balance" (eye roll). Ok so lets review it contents: each tea cake is 150 calories (at least the one i tried was, the vanilla macadamia), 4 g fat, 3 g fiber, 2 g protien, and 8 g sugars. Some of the Luna Bars I actually crave more than cakes sometimes, but these "cakes" are nothing but slightly nutty putty. Bleh, i really didnt like it, and i could bare taste the vanilla (although it did smell nice though). And being a "health" bar, i'd expect it to at least give me some more protein, but even on that it fell really short. And it also fit in the palm of my hand (and like the rest of my body, my hand is pretty teeny), so i dont see how this can hold you over even as a snack. Luna should leave the "tea" cakes to those little old British women. The one good thing is that they are so clay/putty like, that they make an awesome, nice smelling door stop.

With coke plus pimping their vitamin enhanced cola, i wasn't suprised to find yet another new age vitamin enhanced beverage. I usually dont like these types of beverages like propel and vitmamin water but for the sake of reviewing, i decided to take on for the team and try this out. Diet Viso has zero everything accept 100% of your daily value of Vitmain A, D, B1, B3, B6, B12, C, Biotin, Folic Acid and minor amounts of calcium (sounds like a chemistry book right?). Damn, this makes my Flintstone vitamins (yes, i know i am an adult but old habits die hard) seem puny. This is the best way to describe the taste: imagine the liquid detergent you use to clean your clothes, that, plus lime and raspberry essence and you've got this drink. Basically, ICK! and theres a reason the bottle is a dark blue because looking at this drink will avert you from sipping. Its cloudy and foggy and if your not careful, its easy to actually mistake it for real detergent. Sure, its vitamin enhanced, but i wish i didn't have to think about the laundry while sipping.

Every drink company and their mother seems to be coing out with new gree tea versions of their drinks boasting all this EGCG benefits (like lipton, snapple, coke...). Well Hansen's did it too and i dared to try it. I usually find green tea a little bitter for my taste but this is peach flavored and sweetened with splenda. It does not taste like the usual bottle green teas but it was ok. No bitter taste and really not too sweet at all, infact, i could have used a little more sweetness. It was a lot like Snapple's Peach iced tea, only no snapple factoid :( It was a bit pricy, 2 bucks for a bottle, so maybe i'll get it again if its on sale. But its nothing amazing, and for green tea dosage, i still prefer the Arizona Green tea.

So i guess i am into drinks this week cause i gotta another one. I heard about these smoothies, and i ve seen them on various shelves. but i don't know i've never reallly been compelled to actually try them. Until today, when i thought about what to review and there was this little lonely yellow bottle at Vons. So i got it. Lets break down the nutrtionals: each carton has 90 calories, 1 g fat, 6 g fiber, and 6 g protien. The company boasts that this is a "satiety" smoothie and should hold off your hunger pains (hmm...ok...then). It does have a decent amount of protein and fiber, so they may be right on this one. anyhow, i bought the chocolate fudge cause anything chocolate will probably make me buy it. I like the little carton with the extendable straw, made me feel like i was 7 and trading lunches at the playground. But this aint no kiddie drinks cause it aint the sweetest. Its a lot like unsweetend chocolate milk (not like almond breeze though, that was just yucky). I dont know why they call this a smoothie cause its more like chocolate milk. It was alright, but not delicious. i suppose its a better alternative to chocolate milk if thats what your craving but i dont think i'll be drinking this again. i think fullness is measure differently in everyone, or maybe i dont get full easily cause this didn't "fill" me up. but being only 90 calories, i know it wont "fill me out" (how cheesy was that line!)

Like cheese, i am not a milk fan, always have been. As i a kid i used orange juice in my cereal (its actually really yummy with the RIGHT kind of cereal like Toasted Oatmeal Squares). But i even lack a taste for soy and rice milk, i just cant take milk. But i was very curious about the heavily pimped out Almond breeze thats been featured in countless blogs. Nutrtionally. these are all stars. 45 calories per cup, 3.5 grams fat, 3 g protien, 1 g fiber, and no sugar (well it IS unsweetned but make sure you buy the right kind). I wanted to like this, i reallly really did, but sorry, it was just really watery and not yummy. it didnt make me gag, i'll give it that, but i would not drink this straight up. Maybe with some coffee and ice blended with torani syrup, but no way would i chug this on its own. I dont know how one milks almonds, but almonds dont belong in milk, they belong in almond joys!

I like snapple. I like ice tea (and tea for that matter). I also like blueberries, so i thought i'd go crazy for this new tea when i saw it at my local 7-eleven. It boasts no calories, like most of snapple's diet products, but has all that tea anti-oxidant stuff. I was a little underwhelmed though by the taste. It was not bad, i did like it, but i had higher hopes for this. The tea flavor is more dominant, and the blueberry it very suttle, perhaps too much so and i really craved the blueberry infusion. Try it if you spot it, it is interesting a good break from tradtional ice teas. and snapple says its made from the best stuff on earth.... (plus, i love the factoids on the bottom of the caps, mine was that jellyfish is 95% water...good to know, i guess its that 5% that makes the sting hurt).