Chai Tea Oatmeal | Popcorn & Chocolate

Chai Tea Oatmeal

Chai Tea Oatmeal | Popcorn & ChocolateWe are back! It has been an amazing vacation and it has taken us a little while to get back into the swing of things but we are back to share some more yummy recipes and fun DIY’s with you. We just spent nice long weekend visiting my parents in NH where we could relax and plan a few things for the future (stay tuned!). Whilst we planned and crafted we also enjoyed trying some new recipes, one of which we are here to share with you today. This is no ordinary oatmeal. What makes it so special you ask? Well, this delicious pile of oats is made with chai tea.Chai Tea Oatmeal | Popcorn & ChocolateI love a good bowl of oatmeal in the morning and I also love a good cup of tea in the morning. Why not combine the tea with some chai tea oatmeal?! This oatmeal is warm, spicy, and energizing; the perfect thing to wake you up in the morning.

Chai Tea Oatmeal | Popcorn & Chocolate

Ingredients:

Serves 1

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1 cup milk or water (we used almond milk)
  • 1 chai tea bag
  • Toppings of your choice such as honey, nuts, fruit

 

Directions:

  1. Boil 1 cup of milk or water in a saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Add the oats and the tea bag and stir consistently for 5-10 minutes or until the liquid is gone.
  3. Take the tea bag out and top your oats with whatever you like!

 

Chai Tea Oatmeal | Popcorn & ChocolateThat’s it! A super simple recipe to change up your morning oats. We made ours with almond milk and found it creamy and delicious but feel free to just use water. If you prefer stronger chai tasting oats then you could put two tea bags in. We drizzled ours with some honey and pecans but you can throw on any toppings you prefer.

Is it excessive to also have a cup of tea with this oatmeal? Nah…Chai Tea Oatmeal | Popcorn & Chocolate

Tell us, what are your go to oatmeal toppings?

What I Ate Wednesday

Hello! How’s it going? Hope everyone is having a splendid week so far. We just got back from a quick little visit to our college town. It was weird but also a lot of fun to be back in Saratoga Springs (we went to Skidmore college). It seemed to be a lot colder than I remembered, but we made up for it by eating lots of soup and other yummy things. Speaking of food and yummy things, I am here to share what I ate yesterday. Keep on reading if you want to know!

IMG_4169Breakfast: Greek yogurt with pomegranates, banana, strawberries, and granola. I’m so excited that pomegranates are in season! They add the perfect crunch and sweetness to my breakfast. I topped this with the original ancient grain granola from Purely Elizabeth. I love this stuff; it is too good.

IMG_4181 Lunch: Quinoa and kale salad with roasted veggies and chips and hummus on the side. We did some meal prep on Sunday and roasted up cauliflower, carrots, sweet potato, zucchini, and yellow squash as well as making some quinoa to throw into salads for the week. This spicy yellow lentil hummus is super delicious and also super spicy for my delicate mouth. I drank two full water bottles after this lunch because my mouth was on fire!

IMG_4186Snack: Kind peanut butter and dark chocolate bar. Gotta have something to keep the hunger away between lunch and dinner and it’s just an added bonus that it has some peanut butter and chocolate in it 😉

IMG_1512Dinner: Crisp kale and brussels sprout tacos with avocado and white bean creama These tacos are freaking delicious! We’ve had them before – in fact this is an old picture as it gets dark at 4pm here and that means weird shadows and odd looking food. I could eat these tacos for days, the white bean creama is excellent and the brussels yum! I’m already excited to have these again as leftovers.

IMG_4201Dessert: Tea with a cookie. As it gets colder all I want is tea tea and more tea. In fact, not pictured are the 3 cups of tea I drank between lunch and dinner (I have a problem). You’d think I would be too water logged to want even more tea after all that but nope bring on the tea (and pee)! This tea is my absolute favorite and I went on a wild goose chase trying to find it in stores. Luckily once I found it I stocked up. These cookies are amazing. They are chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips in them yum yum yum.

Mmm that is all I have to share with you today. What have you guys been munching on late at night when you know you should go to bed? Anything you love to eat once the weather gets a bit cooler? Do you have any favorite holiday teas you like to drink?  I’d love to know; comment below!

As always, thank you Peas and Crayons and Clean Eats, Fast Feets for hosting!

Favorite Items To Welcome Fall

I love the fall. It’s a time to cozy up and slow down, which is always welcome in my book. I like to enjoy all the things that fall has to offer like candles, blankets, and all the beautiful reds and oranges that are scattered across the sky. Not to mention it is a nice break from all the humidity and heat that comes from summer. I feel like to me as I get older fall becomes more and more about a time to unwind and really relax and enjoy the moment. Fall always used to be a time of stress as I shuffled off to school and then college, but now I get a moment to breath in the crisp air and really sit and enjoy the transition from summer to winter. Here are some items that I’m looking forward to enjoying and unwinding with this fall.

Looking forward to fall

  1. Sam Edelman ‘Paige’ Fringed Ankle Booties. I bought these during their half yearly sale and can’t wait to try them out this fall! Similar style from Target.
  2. Anthropologie Backstory Tee. Again got this on sale and can’t wait to wear it! Similar.
  3. David’s Tea Peanut Butter Cup. I love tea in the fall – this is a new fall flavor from David’s Tea that sounds delicious! Perfect in this mug.
  4. Threshold Herringbone Throw from Target. So soft and cozy!
  5. Marshmallow Fireside 3-Wick Candle from Bath and Body Works. My all time favorite fall candle from BBW.
  6. Fox Socks from Target. Gotta keep those toes warm too!

What I Ate Wednesday 9/16/15

Hi all! I’m here sharing a what I ate Wednesday for you. I thought it would be fun to show you what a typical day of meals for me is. Plus, who doesn’t love stalking what everyone else is eating??

Greek yogurt bowl

Greek yogurt bowl

Breakfast: Plain Greek yogurt with figs, strawberries, blueberries, ground flax seed, and Mamma Chia cinnamon pecan clusters. This is one of my go to breakfasts because it is quick, easy, and filling. I usually throw in whatever fresh fruit we have and top with my favorite granola or cereal – the more the better!

Quinoa salad with a side of grapes

Lunch: Salad with quinoa and roasted veggies with some cotton candy grapes on the side. Lately I have been trying to roast or stem a bunch of veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini) on Sunday so I can throw them into my lunches for the week. I also have been making a big batch of quinoa on Sundays. Can we talk about something for a second? Cotton candy grapes. Like what? How? Yum? These things taste exactly like cotton candy it is kind of crazy and you kind of need to try them. Okay done rant.

Luna bar

Snack: Luna Protein Bar. I like to have a snack around 3:30/4pm to tide me over until dinner. I had a meeting at this time so I had to grab something quick and this protein bar definitely did the trick. Plus who doesn’t love some cheeky afternoon chocolate?

Cuban salad bowl

Mind the messy avocado..

Dinner: Cuban Salad Bowl from Simple Roots. We love love love this salad bowl. We bought some plantains last week and needed to use them up so we whipped up this delicious bowl of goodness.

Tea and chocolate

After dinner treats: Celestial Bengal Spice Tea and some peanut butter chocolate. I love ending my day with a warm cup of tea even if it means I pee 9428 times in the night. I also got to have something sweet to go with it!

I hope you enjoyed peaking into my food life. Comment below what you ate today too!

Thanks Peas And Crayons for linking up!

May Favorites

Wowa, where did May go? What is this? How can it be June already?? This June is going to be a good one for us. We have lots of fun summer plans in the books that we will be sure to bring you along for the journey. First on our big June plans is moving – we are moving apartments on the first and are very excited, and a little bit freaked out about how much stuff we have. How do two people accumulate so much stuff? Please, tell me, I would really like to know. Is it Target? It’s Target, isn’t it… Anyways, we also are planning a few trips down to Cape Cod this summer and will probably go for a long weekend as soon as we are settled in our new place. Exciting things on the horizon! But, this is all in the month to come and we are here to talk about what we loved in May. I’ll admit we weren’t loving much, (besides Uhaul and their cheap prices on boxes) but we managed to come up with a few things that we enjoyed throughout the month.

May favorites

Food: Well here we are again with popcorn as one of our favorites. You best get used to it because we eat a lot a lot of popcorn. We are always trying new brands and new flavors we see (so long as they are still pretty healthy and light). We have always loved the Lesser Evil brand but never tried their Himalayan Sweetness kind. We bought our first bag at Whole Foods and sort of forgot about it until we went to NH for the weekend and bought another bag of it there. Let me tell you we went through that whole bag in one night just the two of us and had to go out and buy 2 more bags the next day. We are LOVING it. Salty and sweet and light and delicious! Wow.. I had a lot to say about that popcorn, maybe we should just leave it at that? Nahh

Also for food, we have both been enjoying Tea pops from David’s Tea. It is basically strong brewed tea that is then poured over an ice cold glass of seltzer. We have been experimenting with making them at home and made a really delicious one that involved their root beer tea from last year and coconut seltzer. Sounds odd, but they are really good!

Books: I absolutely am loving The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I was hooked after the first page I read and haven’t been able to put it down since. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a gripping novel for the summer.

TV: We shamelessly watch The Bachelorette and are super stoked for the current season that just started. It is already full of such drama, loveit! We are playing along to The Bach Fantasy with Rose’s coworkers so we got some serious stakes for this show. We take our Bachelorette seriously #noshame.

Clothes: Rose is laahhving these pants from Loft. She got them in navy and has worn them a bunch already. They are appropriate for work but also comfy; A good purchase all around!

Valentines Day Trays

IMG_4950

Valentine’s day is upon us my friends. I feel like this holiday is either dreaded or loved; I used to be someone who dreaded it but now I am slowly moving towards the latter category. With all sorts of Valentine’s goodies in stores and seeing fun blog posts and pictures of homemade treats on the internet, I’ve gotten excited for Valentines day this year. I guess I appreciate it more from a crafters standpoint nowadays, and have even given into the reds and pinks and heart shaped everything.

IMG_4879 We tend to be suckers for holiday goodies and end up falling into the trap of buying everything just because it is pretty and holiday related (exhibit a, and b, and c – okay I’ll stop now). Therefore, to justify our purchases we have decided to put together two Valentine’s day themed trays. We have done a breakfast in bed themed tray and also an evening dessert tray. These trays are quite versatile and are a cute way to say I love you. Even if you don’t have a date, you can share these goodies with a friend, a neighbor, or just enjoy it all yourself! IMG_9988 When you wake up in the morning on a holiday it is fun to be surprised with a present or homemade breakfast. On this tray we have put all the things that we would like to be surprised with in the morning, such as a cute hand made note, a delicious homemade breakfast, and some nice, warm tea. IMG_9992 IMG_0036 These little notes are simple to make – all you need is some paper, stamps and ink. We got most of these stamps at A.C. Moore last year for sale for super cheap. A homemade made card adds a cute little touch that shows your creative side. Plus, you can customize them to fit the person you will be giving it to. IMG_4905 IMG_0023 We also added a simple breakfast that you can make ahead and have ready to go in the morning with minimal work. We made Chocolate Covered Katie’s Customizable Breakfast Granola Cups. These were very easy to make and you can do so the night before and then just add in Greek yogurt or whatever filling you wish (peanut butter anyone?) We added some fresh fruit to the cups to make it a well rounded breakfast treat. IMG_0033IMG_4946 Lastly, we added two cups of warming tea to the tray. You, of course, could have coffee or even some mimosas if you’re feeling indulgent! We love these new mugs we got at Target. Target does it again!IMG_0087 Our second tray is more of an afternoon/night time treat tray. This one features rosé wine, some popcorn and some chocolate covered fruit delights. Some other ideas to put on it could be a movie to watch, a game to play together, or a candle to light. IMG_4960 IMG_0109 For the chocolate covered fruit, we bought this mold at A.C Moore for $2 and melted some chocolate chips in the microwave. We then cut out whatever fruit we had on hand – cherries, raspberries, and strawberries, blackberries – into little hearts. We piped a layer of chocolate into the molds and placed the heart shaped fruit on top. Then we stuck it in the freezer for about 30 minutes or an hour to harden. This treat is truly delicious, and it adds a nice indulgent counterpart to some salty popcorn. You all know we need some chocolate to go with our popcorn! IMG_0105IMG_0110 No nighttime treat would be complete without a glass of wine or a cocktail to pair with it. We went for some rosé as it is pink and fitting for Valentine’s day, but feel free to add in any cocktail or type of wine you prefer. There have been a lot fun cocktail recipes I’ve seen lately that would make a great edition to this tray. IMG_4992 We scattered the table with some heart confetti and some red arrows that Rose cut out to add to the festiveness of it all. The hearts were made with a little heart punch from A.C. Moore and some colored card stock. IMG_0092 We hope you enjoyed our two Valentine’s day themed trays. It was a lot of fun to put together and to make two different types of trays as well. Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s day!