What's in a Latte? A Tea Latte That is!

Let me first say that after realizing that coffee was no longer suitable for me to drink like water on a daily basis, I kicked the addiction and switched over to a much less form of caffeine that my body can tolerate....TEA! I loved tea already, but was definitely more of a coffee drinker. I loved everything about it. Waking up in the morning without the aroma of Arabian Mocha-Java just seemed wrong and horrible. I decided that even if I lived alone and could not drink it, I'd still brew it just to wake up to that smell. Okay, not really, but I did say that. It'd probably turn out to take too much effort and I'd forget it. So back to the tea inspiration. It started with Starbucks...dun dun dun, that big green giant that seduces us into spending half our paycheck. They have this drink called a London Fog. The name sounds inticing doesn't it? My mom first brought this drink to my attention. We both agreed it is the most delightful drink. Earl Grey tea, vanilla syrup and milk. (Soy milk for me). YUM!
Then we went to Coffee Bean and that became our new favorite place to get tea lattes. They have the best variety of teas. Ginseng Peppermint, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Moroccan Mint, you get the picture. Our wallets however, did not care about the wonderful cups of yummy deliciousness. For example, when I wonder where my money is going I check my bank account online. When I scroll down the statement and see entries like: Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Coffee Bean, Coffee Bean, Starbucks....Uh oh...I come to the realization that this is a very financially destructive habbit.
Then came the wonderful gift that my mom brought home. Her co-worker knew she was dealing with a lot of stress, loved those London Fogs from Sbux and gave her a little care package. It consisted of a tin of Tazo Earl Grey tea, Archer Farms Vanilla Syrup from Target and Voila! We can make our own tea lattes at home. Now we begin having a bit more spending cash, the lattes are absolutely delicious and we don't have to go somewhere to make a delicious treat. So we make them morning, noon and night and even though we go through syrup like crazy it's relatively inexpensive to buy more.
Then payday comes and I decide to splurge. I go to Coffee Bean and get a tea latte. First sip, ACK! It tastes like sugary dirty tea water...I drink it anyway. Then I'm out in my ministry and need a little boost being that it is a long day and I stop at Starbucks....first sip, ACK! Gross! What is up with this day!? I calculate that I just spent almost 10 dollars on dirty, sugary water. Then I decide I was better off preparing my own tea latte at home and bringing it with me. Lesson learned. So now I almost never go spend my hard earned money on dirty tea water. If I'm going to spend it, I want a quality beverage that I deem as deliciousness in a cup. That hasn't happened very much lately. Maybe all the baristas are new. I can count on my Riviera Village Coffee Bean though because it's usually the crazy comedian barista who knows what he is doing and heard me call my drink deliciousness in a cup and announced it loudly as such as he placed my drink on the counter.
So now my mom and I purchase the majority of our tea at Trader Joes. It's usually about $1.50 for a whole box, 3 bucks at Target on syrup and milk is about the same there. Yay cheapness! I love spending next to nothing and getting about a months worth of the greatest tea lattes on earth, if I do say so myself.

Experiment in Vegan Baking

So, I decided to take a risk and try something that I've absolutely never thought I would do. That is to try and bake vegan. Now this means using no dairy or eggs. Why in the world would I do such a thing? I love dairy and eggs, this is too true. In fact I love dairy so much that I'd marry it if I could. I'm serious! The only problem is, we have a rocky love/hate relationship. I LOVE it and it HATES me. It's really sad for a relationship to be so one-sided so I had to end it. I just couldn't take the repercussions of having dairy in my life anymore. So I've moved on after a bout of sadness and discovered a whole new world! Vegan! I discovered this when I took a trip to Trader Joe's with my mom and I was browsing around. I randomly looked on a shelf by the bread and there was a row of cookies. The one that caught my eye was a bag of Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. A light bulb went on in my head. I remember that Vegan meant no dairy or eggs. Mainly the no dairy thing caught my attention because I don't have an issue with eggs. After skimming the ingredients I ran to my mom and said "Look! Look! I can eat these!!!" She laughed and told me to throw them in the cart. Yay! Now getting to the crux of the story....

I came home today, popped two scrumptious cookies(as a side note my whole family loved them as well, they didn't even know they were vegan until I pointed it out) in my mouth and "ding" light bulb. I had the sudden urge to look up vegan cookie recipes and try my hand at them. I found a good website, compiled the ingredients and began. I didn't have flax seeds so I substituted applesauce for the eggs. It was much easier because I would have had to blend the flax seeds and soy milk into a paste. Not too difficult, but I'd rather open a jar than run to the store for flax seeds. Okay, so mix mix mix, taste the batter, brother tastes the batter(yes, we can because there are no eggs), and it tastes SO good.

The consistency looks like regular cookies and I start placing them on the baking sheet...then my brother starts talking about milk and I realized I didn't put the soy milk in! OH NO! I run to the oven and pull out the cookies, put them back with the batter and put the milk, stir, and UH Oh...they look runny now. I mix more and wonder what happened. Jennifer strikes again with her failing brain power. I forget that the recipe only calls for soy milk if I am mixing it with flax seeds. My brother has a great idea and suggest I just pour them into the baking sheet and make sheet brownies. Great idea Scott! Thanks. They fill the house with a delightful chocolaty aroma as they bake and lickety split they are done.

Then it's taste test time. I have to say they are good, not great. The batter by itself actually tasted better and Scott agreed. Although we all agreed they are different, the fact that the have no eggs and dairy makes them downright good. I'll try another recipe again and not mess with adding things when I don't need too, but I can always just run to Trader Joe's and get my sweet fix for about 3 bucks a bag. Oh yeah!