Currently my favorite caffeinated iced drink (I was obsessed with this horcatta iced latte for awhile too), it beats any iced latte drink you can order at SBux.  Although I was thrilled that Starbucks recently started offering almond milk option, it still comes out of a carton.  Nothing compares to homemade nut milk.  Nothing!  Before you think there is no way you have time to make this, think again.  Besides the passive time required to soak the nuts (see note below re soaking), it takes about 15 minutes to make a batch which can be savored over a week of lattes. That's a pretty solid ROI if you ask me! 

Of course, you can drink the nut milk straight up.  It is so, SO delicious!  But what isn't improved with a shot (or two) of nice strong espresso?  I think you know the answer my friend.  Cheers!

I wrote about my daughter's grain-free / dairy-free (essentially "paleo") diet in a previous post here.  This meant our beloved weekend pancakes became a fond memory.  Until NOW.

I'm so happy to kick off the new year with a recipe I'm rather excited about as it uses an amazing and wildly flavorful ingredient that is a relatively recent discovery for me - tamarind.   I didn't grow up with tamarind, but I have made up for that lost time by how much I love it now.  Are you thinking what even is tamarind anyway? 

In my previous post, I wrote about my family's (temporary) grain-free and dairy-free diet. Since then, we had our follow up visit with the naturopath and received an 'okay' to consume rice, oats and quinoa in small amounts.  I won't pretend to understand naturopathy at all. I don't. As a fairly science-based household (my husband is an intellectual property lawyer with a specialty in biotechnology and medical devices, while I worked nearly a decade at a global pharmaceutical company in a Finance capacity), this venture into alternative medicine is a giant leap of faith.  A leap we had not choice but to take since traditional medicine failed to help my daughter beyond full-body topical steroid cream applications to treat her eczema and absolutely nada to diagnose or treat her mild but persistent, daily stomach aches.  

Being prescribed a grain-free diet by my daughter's naturopath just before the holidays is like getting sick right before vacation ... or scoring free drink tickets only to get bar rail liquor ... or finding a hole in your sock the moment you take off your shoes at someone's house ... or dripping yellow mustard on your brand new sneakers (that stuff's like dye and never completely comes off!) ... or getting an unexpected visit from Auntie Flo when you're totally unprepared OK THAT IS GOING TOO FAR.  

This is a healthy, dairy-free take on the nostalgic flavor combination of sweetly acidic orange juice and creamy vanilla.  These may seem like an odd marriage of flavors for those who didn't grow up getting creamsicle popsicles from the corner store but they play so well with each other - like pb&j or chocolate & strawberries!  I really like it, can you tell? 

So when vogue.com asked me to contribute my recipe for this healthy creamsicle smoothie for a feature on their site, I gleefully agreed! You can read my wee feature here. No big deal ;) 

Sweetened black sesame paste is a mega-superstar in desserts. This is well known in east asian countries like Japan and China where it is a quintessential staple in sweet treats like ice cream, pastries, cakes and glutinous rice balls. In western culture we know how well nuts like pistachios, almonds and pecans work in all sorts of sweet applications, too many to list really. Black sesame lends a similar nuttiness to desserts although for some reason has not enjoyed the same ubiquity. The color maybe? Perhaps now is the time to give yourself to the Dark Side!

"Alkalizing". What does that have to do with juice? Remember grade school science class when you learned about the pH scale - as in, vinegar is acidic and baking soda is alkaline? As it turns out, our bodies are constantly balancing a pH too and plenty of literature informs us that bodies having a high pH (alkaline) versus a low pH (acidic) function better and are healthier.

I used to think it was too much trouble to make my own broth. I purchased good quality stock from my butcher made from naturally-raised animals from local farms.  So why bother with homemade?