20 calorie Chai Tea Latte!

Hi guys!

Wow, it's been a long time since I last updated! This is going to be a short post, but I just had to share this recipe with you guys. It's not much of a recipe, but after many tries, I feel like I've perfected my version of a chai tea latte. :)

Chai Tea Latte
Makes one BIG mug 

Ingredients

• 8 oz. boiling hot water
• 2 chai tea bags and 1 black tea bag (I used Stash Double Spice Chai, Tazo Organic Chai, and Stash Irish Breakfast Tea)
• 1/2 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze*
• 3 tablespoons Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup (I just did 3 big splashes)
• 1 tsp of stevia, or to taste
• Dash of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger

Directions

• In a 16 oz mug, pour hot water over tea bags and let steep covered for 4-5 minutes.
• Pour almond milk into a microwave safe measuring cup and add vanilla syrup. Microwave for 1:30-2 minutes. DO NOT ADD YOUR SPICES TO THE MILK. The milk will NOT froth as well if you do. Not sure why, but just trust me. :)
• Remove the tea bags when your tea is done steeping. Add stevia and spices to the hot tea. 
• Froth your hot milk with a milk frother* until you get foam! You should now have a little bit over a cup of milk with froth.
• Using a spoon, hold back the foam as you pour the milk into your mug of hot chai tea, then top with the foam. Give a small stir and dust the top with some ground cinnamon. Enjoy!

*The calories for this recipe were calculated using Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze. If you choose to use a different brand of almond milk or another type of milk, adjust calories accordingly.

*If you don't have a milk frother, pour cold milk into a container with an air tight lid and shake vigorously for 20-30 seconds. Pour into a microwave safe cup and then heat up milk. DO NOT do this with hot milk as it will explode everywhere. This method should give you similar results to a frother.

*For a pumpkin chai latte variation, add 2 tbsp of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) and a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice to the steeped tea before pouring in the milk.

What is your favorite tea brand/flavor?

First post eats! Yay!

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to finally start my very own food blog! I have been stalking many other food blogs daily for the past 5 years or so, and now I get to join the blogging world family!

This morning I decided to fix a yummy egg white and cheese breakfast sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin, with an unsweetened applesauce cup on the side (we're out of fruit, argh!).

And a close up of the melty goodness...

Mmm! It was delicious! Way better than any breakfast sandwich you could get from McDonald's or Dunkin'. Speaking of Dunkin' Donuts, I'm missing their iced coffees. :( I was born and raised in Florida and there are DD's everywhere! However, that is not the case with Cali. Can you believe there is not a single DD in the entire state?! While I do enjoy Starbucks, DD is just more reasonably priced.

And on that note, I would like to share my caramel latte recipe!

 

  Sugar Free Caramel Latte

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup any milk (I use regular skim milk because it froths better than almond milk)
• 2 tbsp sugar free caramel flavored syrup (My local Dollar Tree carries these)
• 1 tsp instant coffee (I used Nescafe Clasico)
• 3 tbsp hot water
• a milk frother or whisk

Directions:

1.Pour milk into a measuring cup and microwave for 2 minutes.
2. In a small cup, add instant coffee and water, then heat for 30 seconds.
3. Add caramel syrup to milk and use frother to create foam. The milk should double in size.
4. Pour milk slowly into your cup, holding back the foam with a spoon, then top with foam. Slowly  pour the shot of "espresso" in the center of the foam. Stir (if you like) and enjoy!

This little gadget is so awesome! I got mine from Amazon.com. It's just the cheap IKEA one, but they also have a $20 one called the Aerolatte. Although, if you have an IKEA near you, I think it's only $1.99 in store. 

Click here to buy one, you know you want to. :) Free shipping too if you have Amazon Prime. 

And now, it's time for you to meet our kitty-child, Artemis! It's been almost a year now since we adopted him from the pet shelter last August. He is probably one the happiest cats I've ever had. He loves laying in laps and always wants to be near us, even right on top of our heads when we're sleeping. You'll probably be seeing a lot of pictures of him because he's always doing something crazy!

Before I had lunch, I decided to do day 2 on phase 1 of Jillian Michael's Body Revolution. It was a nice workout, but not all that challenging really. I'm hoping as the days progress in the first phase, it will get a bit more intense. Although, this is probably only as much as I can do right now. I came down with a bad flu 3 weeks ago, 2 weeks before I would have finished P90X. That made me so angry but what can you do, right?

I'm planning on continuing with the Jillian Michael's program for at least a month or more(the whole program is 90 days), then stepping it up and trying Insanity for the second time again. The first time I tried it, I only made it through the first 2 weeks before my feet were killing me. The pain only lasted for a couple seconds, but it was stopping me from being able to do the moves correctly. My plan this time is to go barefoot and use an extra thick mat designed for high impact exercises. Lets hope it works!

By the time I was finished with my exercise for the day, I was starving! I wanted to keep my lunch on the light side though since the husband and I were going out later to the Cheesecake Factory.

Here's what lunch looked like:

Om nom nom nom!

A simple BBQ chicken sandwich with lettuce and laughing cow cheese on a sandwich thin, with a side of baby carrots and some jicama! I have never tried jicama before until recently and I discovered that I really liked it! It's almost a cross between an apple and pear, but with a slight peppery taste. 

Oh no, he's awake!

And now it's time for me to go dig into my lunch and watch some Revenge!