Amaze Tea!

Hello everyone,

We got great information for this weekend, we love herbs and teas and we are one of the strong believers of medicine is what we eat and drink. Today is about drinking and teas as you can guess we have special guest  Desiree Hawa,  the Director/Founder of Amaze Tea. She is from Sydney, Australia. she studied a Bachelor of Health Sciences at Charles Sturt University. She will tell us about her high quality organic teas and the story behind her great brand.

So the reason why I created Amaze Tea was because I saw there were a lot of detox or ‘skinny teas’ or whatever you want to call them popping up over the last few years. However, most of them lacked a quality product. Essentially what a lot of the slimming teas do is perform a colon cleanse, which can make you sick or go to the bathroom a lot and all you are effectively losing is water weight, which is easy to put back on.

• Amaze Tea Detox is a Liver Detox tea. The Liver is the toxin processing center of the body and processes our medications, chemicals we put into our body’s, fats and sugars.
• It performs important functions such as purifying and cleaning your blood.

These days most of the populations has overloaded livers, so our livers are not performing at their best. This can lead to a lot of complications especially around the area of obesity or weight gain If our Liver is overloaded, our body is effectively unable to process fats and sugars properly. This can lead to weight gain or people finding it extremely hard to lose weight. I am very certain that a large portion of our society’s issue with weight gain or obesity comes from an overloaded liver. So I saw this as a gap in the market with the diet teas and decided to come up with a formula for the Amaze Tea Detox.

• After that my son who has been involved in many sports, said it would be a good idea to come up with a tea that is a natural alternative to chemical laden workout supplements on the market – and he came up with a recipe which is now the first all natural workout tea in the world.
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• So this is how Amaze Tea came to be. We also have a Stress Relief Tea which helps with anxiety, depression, stress and sleep.
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• Our teas are completely natural and organic. They are a very high quality and are made here in Australia. We have shipped our products all over the world and are growing very quickly as a business.

We are a ‘Health and Fitness’ tea brand, as we cater to people who want to lose weight or improve their health with our Detox and Stress Relief Teas as well as people who enjoy working out as well as exercising through our Pre Workout Tea. An important point about our Pre Workout Tea is that not only is it all natural – but it has Branch Chain Amino Acids in it, which helps with recovery and tiredness while working out. The Pre Workout Tea gives you a lot of energy for your workout and helps with muscle repair and soreness after you workout as well. It really is a unique and very amazing drink that we sell.

• In terms of the best teas to have on hand at home for health – I would recommend Green Tea, Burdock and Dandelion Root, they are all great herbs which help functions such as improving metabolism, cleaning out your blood, clearing your skin and energy.
• A message I would have for everyone out there in terms of getting a good quality tea is to ensure you avoid teas with Tannin’s. Tannin’s are organic matter which drain the nutrients out of the herbs, so it renders them basically useless from a health point of view. A lot of the cheaper teas have tannin’s. Amaze Tea has spent a lot of time and money ensuring our Tea has absolutely no tannin’s in it.

Thank you so much for this great information Desiree. We are getting so exiting to try Amaze teas and of course we are heading to summer we need detox actually we need detox always not just in specific season to keep our selfs healthy and also looking good in body & mind  and special gift from Amaze tea for all our viewers they will get 10% off their first purchase by using coupon code ‘amazeteanew’. (http://www.amazetea.com/ they have also free shipping worldwide) Have a Amazed Detoxed body & mind keep healthy until next post :))

So finally this is how it looks and works 🙂

Weekend Cooking: Stuffed Stuff

Love weekends when we can fully relax and cook savory cozy meals that speak to the soul and heart.

This is a favorite dish especially for cold winter nights. Yet so easy to make, but sure to delight the senses.

Ingredients:
2 small yellow peppers
Couple medium sized zucchinis
4-5 medium sized firm tomatoes
1 lb Organic ground beef
1 cup of Organic jasmine rice
3 cloves of fresh pressed garlic
Salt
Olive oil
Black pepper
Red pepper
All spice
Crumbled feta for the top

Was the veggies and hollow them out. Careful not slice your hands open or cut through the veggies. You need both 😉 to enjoy this meal. Using a small melon baller might help, but I use a nice small sharp knife. Goal is to hollow the veggies without damaging the shell that will keep the stuffing.

Put hollowed veggies in a container of water and salt mixture (brine) while you mix up the stuffing.

Best beef for this is organic and semi fat. Don’t go lean – the dish with be way too dry and tasteless. For vegetarians; omit the beef and use a coarse chop of the hollowed out innards, add mushrooms and viola! Turn the oven on to 475 degrees and get your baking dish ready.

Mix up the beef with spices, rice, and pressed garlic. Use as much spices to your liking and diet. Drizzle olive oil as you are mixing the stuffing – again amount is up to you. We love bathing in it so we go wild!

Stuff each veggie somewhat loosely to allow for the rice expansion as it cooks. Place the veggies upright. Once done stuffing them all. Pour a lukewarm water at the bottom of baking dish – just enough to come up to quarter of the height. With a spoon carefully put some of the lukewarm water into each veggie as well – makes for more moist stuffing.

Cover up the baking dish with a parchment paper to help it steam while cooking and keep the moisture. Bake for 40 minutes. Then turn off the over, put crumbled feta on top of each veggie and broil till feta is pink and melty.

Pull out let it cool for 2 minutes and serve up!!
Sure to be a hit – enjoy it and let us know what you think after you tried it.

Live well. Eat well. Love well !

Nuts about anything COCONUT!

Ok, finally I decided to write about my obsession with anything coconut. Have always really liked coconut, but about few years ago got more serious as I learned more about the healthy benefits of coconut.

Coconut is another miracle of nature that is yummy and smells amazing. So many uses for this amazing nut – hard not to love it.

Coconut Juice and Flesh
Best way to experience this is to have fresh coconuts. I will never forget the coconuts in Thailand. Last year, during our trip to Thailand coconut juice became our official drink. We were delighted to also discover we could scrape and eat the flesh. Coconut juice is more hydrating than water.

Coconut Flakes
Coconut flakes come in various shapes and sizes. Most common use is in baking. I love the large hefty flakes that I can crunch and taste the coconut flavor. I use them in the mornings: little yogurt, blueberries, and coconut flakes!

Coconut Butter
Warning – if you read beyond this section we will not be responsible for your coconut addiction.

Coconut butter is great for cooking, baking, or just as a spread on a piece of good bread. BUT mixing couple spoonfuls mixed with dark cocoa powder makes the best impromptu desert!!

Coconut Oil
Yes, you can cook with it. BUT even more importantly you can use it for your skin and hair. I am close to ditching my body lotion altogether and completely switch over to coconut oil. It is important to emphasize you should use organic cold pressed virgin coconut oil. If your hair is too fine you may not want to use it besides as a mask to nourish the hair. But if you are sporting a bushy lush head of hair – your hair will love you for using coconut oil.

Btw – if you live in a cold climate the coconut oil will naturally solidify, that does not mean it is bad. This is normal, it will easily turn liquid with a bit of warmth.

How do you enjoy your coconut ??

Traditional Aprakh (Wraps)

Before we start to this traditional family recipe I want to give you a great tip that I learned it from my aunt during summer I collect the fresh grape leaves and just line them on top of each other then wrap them with aluminum foil and put them in freezer bag and freeze them when I took them from freezer I have to be very careful because when they freeze they are very fragile so when you touch them you have to be very careful! and after you de-freeze them they are ready to use &  enjoy sunny summer taste!

 Are you ready to enjoy?

Organic grape leaves

1 cup organic rice

1/2 cup organic coarsely ground wheat

1 or 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 tbs organic butter or ghee or olive oil
1 tsp pressed organic garlic
1 tsp sea salt
2-3 cups boiling water (you will need more or less water it depends of what type of rice and leaves you use)
For Top ( for 1 person)

1 large organic egg (optional)

1 tbs organic butter, ghee or olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup water

2 tbs fresh green garlic leaves diced very thin I don’t have fresh green garlic leaves so I used normal garlic cloves crushed.

You can use just rice or just wheat or as I do you can mix them.

Rinse rice and wheat.

Mix melted butter, yogurt, garlic and salt to rice and wheat mix them well.( I didn’t have enough yogurt at home so my mixture looks dry but normally should be runny and wet yogurt gives special flavor and character which is the specialty of this recipe.

Then as below you see the photos put some rice and wrap the leaves.

Line up them in pot the closure side should be faced down.

When you reach the last row if you have left over leaves you can cover the top of wraps or if you don’t have that’s fine.

Put pot on high heat.

Very slowly add boiling water.

Cover the lid bring to boil 20-30 min. or until the rice and wheat cooked well.
If you are using very big leaves yo can dived them into 2 pieces or just make big wraps my leaves were very small.

Now our Aprakh is ready carefully take each Aprakh and line it in plate.

For top
Put butter in pan until heated pour scrambled egg and stir fry put the crushed garlic and salt stir-fry then add boiling water boil it 1-2 min. it should be little water left when you put it over the
aprakh wraps.

Okay I know its worth it but isn’t it enough we wait… aaawww it smells garlicious!
Give me a moment please! I have to eat and sweep this I stand to much.

Honey bee Quince

My mother told me a lot about how they were happy when they had a chance to get a quince from the tree; they were putting it in their wardrobes between their clothes to give nice smell to their clothes at that times when they did not have perfumes. I can imagine quince scented wardrobes it was very nice, safe and healthy way to smell good…. and she adds those time the quinces and all fruits were smelling really good but now days unfortunately and sadly they didn’t…  and after it begins to getting ripe in the wardrobe they took it and made it into a dessert like this — during those days nothing was to throw but to use it use it reuse it! When she prepare this dessert always as I use to ask her what were they doing that times it’s always nice to hear old quality stories especially during long winter nights.

Favorite winter dessert!

I’m always getting very exited when doing this veryyy simple but amazing dessert. The smell, the taste, the look Oh my GOD it’s terrific!

This is why honey bees like it :)))

First you need fire if you have fire place or stove like me you are very lucky you just have to wait until the log is turn to a nice fire it’s relaxing to sit in front and watch for a while.

Come on get up it’s time to take one nice smelled organic quince wash it well.

I wish I had a tree.

Wrap it with aluminium foil like this

Put it on top of the fire-coals. I remember my mom was covering it with fire-coals as well you can do the same or turn it every 10 min. to cook every part of it.

I check it out. It wasn’t cooked yet it wasn’t soft and the skin should be burned. Cover the foil again put on fire-coals to wait more.

It should be burned more than the picture more than half of it should be burned. This takes 40 min. with me because I didn’t have enough coals and the quince was big.  If you have enough coal and to cover it with them maybe this will take 15 or 20 min. I think.

Remove it from foil cut it in half first.

Peel the burned skin. Remove the seeds from the pits. It smells amazing.

Put 1 tsp of honey in each half of quince cut nice slices. If you like more honey drizzle over more honey or you can serve it with scoop of ice cream.

This is for 2 person but I ate all of it veryyummmmyyyy.

The end…. happily!

Nothing left behind sorry.

Solar Dried Banana 100%

Especially during winter I like to have some natural dried fruits because of their nutritive value and long shelf life and of course they are very healthy snack you can carry with you everywhere you go. Dried fruits has long tradition of use dating back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia. For overall health of your heart banana contains high potassium quantity and helps with all signs of low potassium like body weakness, muscle cramps, stomach upsets, irritable bowel disease and irregular heartbeat. If you are purchasing dried fruits rather than making them at home, pay close attention that you are buying organic, no sugar and fat added products.

Happy healthy snacking!

Shrimp a la Vicky style

So I just had the last Christmas party of 2012. Yes, this year my dance group decided to have our annual party after the holidays.

We do a cozy potluck style party every year. This year I had a hard time deciding what to cook; but my dance teacher Vicky came to rescue. She is a Greek firecracker, dance teacher, life guru, animal lover, loyal friend, great cook, composer, … and I love her. She gave me this recipe and everyone loved it tonight. Epharisto Vickymu!!

Here is the recipe:

2 pounds of deveined organic shrimp

2 large onions

4 roma tomatoes

handful of sundried tomatoes (this is my improv, you don’t have to use it if you don’t like sundried stuff)

organic feta (crumble it by hand)

salt, oregano, black pepper (in quantities you like)

olive oil (I use a lot, use as little as you like)

Coarsely chop the onions and tomatoes. In a pan pour olive oil and lightly sauté the onion, then add the sundried tomatoes – stir for a minute, then add the fresh tomatoes. Sauté for 2-3 minutes. In the meantime heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Wash the shrimp in cold water and let it drain. Prepare a large oven dish/pan – I used a rectangular pyrex dish. Pour the sautéed mix at the bottom, then add the shrimp and seasoning.
Mix it all and add half a cup of water. Drizzle with some olive oil. Put the dish in the oven and bake for 5 minutes (watch carefully, don’t overcook the shrimp).
Take the shrimp out of the oven and cover the top with crumbled feta. Use as much as you like, I prefer a light coverage. Turn on the broiler on high, put the dish back in the oven till you see feta melt and pieces are golden.

This dish is a great appetizer as well as a hefty side dish. If you are a seafood lover you will enjoy this super easy to make healthy dish. Bon Appetit !!

Who Likes Chocolate?

Here you go finally as I promised I’m sharing another organic delicious taste from the Oliv & Te Delikatesser shop in Sweden.

If you have never tried organic chocolate you must; it’s really different from regular chocolate it is very pure and healthy in texture. I love dark chocolate it’s rich with antioxidants and this one had unique combination with ginger & lime which I like it so when I took this picture the box was empty — I ate all of it !! It has a gentle heat of ginger during this cold winter days. So I taste every corner of this single square and now I can recommend to you as well 🙂 I feel little guilty for not taking the picture before eating it all, please forgive me.

Organic Liquorice anyone!

I would like to share new tastes that surprised me!

This is yummiest liquorice I have ever had and I was very surprised that it was also organic; this is for sure healthy. I can’t stop eating and eating. Knowing that it’s organic makes me feel ‘guilt free’ or at least it sounds better. I wish I could visit Oliv & Te Delikatesser shop in Sweden — it’s little heaven for organic, fair trade delicious things but I will share more delicious things that I had from this nice Delikatesser.