Tag Archives: basil

basil ginger fizz

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whenever i go to the farmers market in honolulu, i like to sip on a ginger cooler as i peruse the market. one of my favorites being basil, lime, & ginger.

since i’m in texas and not hawaii {sad face}, i decided i’d make my own.

ginger concentrate:
-  5 oz (i used a scale) fresh ginger, peeled
- 2.5 cups water
-  rock sugar, agave, honey, stevia, or sugar of any sort**

this concentrate is enough to make 4-6 glasses of basil ginger fizz.
using a small pot, bring the ginger and 2.5 cups water to a boil for a 3-5 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium or medium-low, add sugar, and allow to simmer, partially covered, for 20-25 minutes or until the ginger is obviously detected by your taste buds and throat. i like it spicy!

**it’s hard for me to gauge how much sugar to use sometimes because i don’t like a lot of sweetness, but i used the amount of rock sugar pictured below. (fyi – my hands are really small so it’s a small palm sized piece)

the concentrate should taste fairly sweet since it will be diluted with sparkling water.

for 1 basil ginger fizz:
- 3-5 fresh basil leaves (or more if you love basil like me!)
- 1/2 lime or 1 key lime
- 4-6 oz sparkling water
- ice

muddle together basil leaves and lime with your utensil of choice. mine was two wooden chopsticks.
add ice + 4-5 T ginger concentrate.
top off with sparkling water.

feel free to adjust ingredients to taste. maybe add more sugar or less ginger to the concentrate or use less basil. or change out the lime to lemon. or add fruit. basically anything you please!

this recipe is just the way i like it - not too sweet-with an intense ginger kick and a refreshing basil taste-and a hint of lime.

are you a fan of ginger?
i love it! – and apparently its really good for women! 

oh and just in case you were wondering what this rock sugar is i’m speaking of, it looks like this.

i buy it from the asian grocery store and usually use it for chinese desserts like my favorite – sweet potato ginger dessert soup.

baked basil & kale meatballs

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After eating out for over a week, I was ready to get back in the kitchen and make something homemade.  I don’t cook with meat all that often, but I was really feeling like eating meatballs, and because many times I don’t know whats in the ones I buy from the grocery store, I opted to make them.

Plus this gave me an opportunity to add in some additional veggies.

This is a simple – 1 bowl recipe that leaves leftovers for the next couple days.
only dirties 1 dish and leaves leftovers?  it’s a win-win.

Baked Basil & Kale Buffalo Meatballs
{makes about 12-15}

-  4 stalks kale chopped into small pieces
– 20-25 basil leaves chopped into small pieces
– 1 small onion chopped into small pieces
–  1 t cayenne powder
– 1 t ground ginger
– 2 tsp garlic
– 2 t black pepper
– 1 t salt
– 1 T stoneground mustard
– 3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
– 1/2 cup egg whites
– 1.5 lbs ground lean [96/4] grass-fed buffalo or meat of choice

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix all ingredients together and roll into meatballs and place in baking dish. Depending on how large or small you make them, they can bake anywhere between 25-30 mins. I made 15 total and baked for 28 mins.

Buffalo is a very lean meat with about 125 calories and 25 grams of protein per 4 ounces of 96 percent lean ground meat.  I was able to make 15 meatballs which totaled around 59 calories per meatball.

I realized that a lot of times when I follow a recipe, I like to see visuals, so I did my best to take photos along the way.  My dslr is still broken, so it was iPhone to the rescue.

Finely chop basil + kale + onions

Mix all together

Add in all the spices, mustard, oatmeal

Mix well

Add in ground buffalo + egg whites

Make sure it is all thoroughly mixed together

Scoop and form meatballs
i placed mine in two silicon loaf pans and baked all 15 meatballs at 275 for 28 mins

Once cooled they can be store in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple days.

They would be lovely served over pasta or rice with marinara sauce, but I just ate mine plain, or with a squirt of mustard with some veg on the side.

I actually couldn’t tell there was kale in the meatballs, other than the green color, so I wouldn’t mind adding more next time, along with upping the basil as that’s my favorite herb and I didn’t really detect it.

Other than that, I thought they turned out great for a first time recipe.

Enjoy :)

Productivity and Protein

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Today was full of reviewing learning, finishing my last paper(!), and protein.

It pretty much started with a question…

What does one do when one is forgetful and forgot to put the ice bucket back into the freezer last night?

Go to the nearest coffee shop of course!

Starbucks just happens to be my nearest coffee shop so thats where I stopped by after the gym this morning. Actually, I didn’t exactly stop in since this particular Starbucks has a drive-thru. More like drove by. Laziness to the max? Yeah, I think so.

I couldn’t exactly just drive by and ask for a cup of ice now could I?…so I ordered myself a nice large cup of iced coffee. Something I haven’t had in a while.

Along with my iced coffee, I got my large cup of ice.

So why did I want this ice so badly? – I’ve been wanting to make a cold protein shake/smoothie for a couple days now and since I keep forgetting to put the container back in the freezer to actually make ice, I’ve had to resort to semi-cold chocolate milk. It’s good, but just not as good as it would be with ice. Especially in this heat.

Since I had a huge cup of coffee, and there was no way I could stomach both a protein smoothie and 20 ounces of coffee, I figured I may as well use it as my liquid.

So in went 1.5 cups of iced coffee, 1 serving of chocolate protein powder, a couple glugs of unsweetened almond milk, and about 2/3′s of my venti cup of ice.

The outcome?

I poured it into the previously ice filled Starbucks cup and it actually almost looks like a Starbucks frappe. I either put way too much liquid in or not enough protein powder, so it ended up tasting just like what I would think a Starbucks coffee frappe would taste like. yum :)

I think the coffee I added in that ‘protein frappe’ may have given me some super concentration powers or something because I plowed through my paper like no other. Three cheers for coffee!

Shortly after it was lunch time and I found out that not only do I not have ice in this house, I have no food. Well, there’s some food, but the majority of it is expired.

After some scrounging around I finally came up with soba noodles, silken tofu, and eggs. Um…protein in a bowl? I think by that time, my stomach was ready to eat just about anything in a bowl.

Layer 1 – Soba Noodles:

Soba noodles pack quite the protein punch. Surprising, yeah?

Layer 2 – tofu:

I don’t think silken tofu is meant to be sliced. I couldn’t even pick move it to the bowl without it breaking on me.

Layer 3 – 1.5 eggs:

Basically just 1 egg + 1 egg white sprinkled with cayenne pepper.

A nice sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds.

Plus some chopped basil. (I LOVE (!!!) the smell of basil)

All mixed up with a little more toasted sesame seeds and cayenne pepper.

(Not to be gross or anything but…Don’t stare at the photo too long or else the noodles start looking like worms – don’t say I didn’t warn ya! ;)  )

I don’t think I’ve had such a protein packed lunch in a long time. It was actually so filling I never finished it. I ate all the other layers, but left some of the soba.

Right before dinner I had another protein bowl. Just a mini one though.

cottage cheese + a generous sprinkle of cinnamon + operations management notes

I wonder if protein has anything to do with productivity because I was certainly able to concentrate a lot better today than the previous days. Protein = full = satisfied = more concentration on work & less concentration on hunger pangs?

Or it could have been the fact that I finally got into study mode.

I think my brains reached capacity for the day so it’s time to crash and start new tomorrow.

Night! :)