Ok – I know.. I guess I’ve been slacking on recipes. I’m coming back with this simple “Quarantini.” Our Meyer lemon tree, as per usual, produced hundreds and hundreds of lemons and we were a little late to getting them all picked this year! But luckily – only sacrificed a few to our lateness.
So.. I’m pulling weeds in the backyard for what feels like the 100th time this month or week at that. And the lovely honey bees are swarming all around the lemon and lime trees as the blooms smell like what I imagine heaven must smell like and they are going back and forth between the trees and the garden where the herbs and the beautiful lavender are growing!
This is just one of the several lavender plants growing in our garden currently! Isn’t it beautiful?
So – I had already picked all of our lemons and peeled and juiced ALMOST all of them. I had a giant pitcher of juice in the fridge waiting to be frozen (like the last 2 gallons) or trying to figure out what else to make!
Save the peels – I will share my “secret” BBQ rub (or all purpose) soon!
So for this Quarantini you will need approx 6-8 stems of lavender and about 2 cups of squeezed lemon juice, preferably Meyer lemon (it’s milder/sweeter). This recipe will make approx 4-5 martinis. You can cut in 1/2 if you don’t want that many!
Begin by making your simple syrup. Equal parts sugar to water. I used one cup of sugar and one cup of water. Bring it to a boil and stir until dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and stir in your lavender stems. Let cool.
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice (it is best super cold), strain your simple syrup into the shaker. Add a cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice and shake well. Dip martini glasses in lemon juice (or use a quarter lemon to coat the rim) and then coat in sugar. Pour in 2 oz of chilled vodka and then fill to the top with your lemonade mixture – stir gently. Top with a lavender stem and/or a thin slice of lemon for garnish. Enjoy!
Note: If you are like me and like them a little more tart – feel free to top with some extra lemon juice. And don’t worry – the meyer lemon isn’t too tart! 😉
Lavender Lemon Quarantini
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 6-8 stems lavender
- 1 cup meyer lemon juice (or more) fresh squeezed is best
- 1/8 cup sugar for garnish
- 4 oz chilled vodka
Instructions
- Make your simple syrup. Add one cup of sugar and one cup of water to a pot and bring to a boil. Stir until dissolved. Once sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and add lavender stems. Let cool.
- Add ice to shaker. Pour in one cup of meyer lemon juice and strain the symple syrup into the shaker. Shake until super cold.
- Rim martini glasses with sugar – use lemon juice and then dip in sugar around rim. Fill glasses with 2oz of chilled vodka. Pour lemonade mixture on top until glass is full. Stir gently.
- Add a lavender stem and/or thin lemon slice for garnish. If it too sweet for you – top with a little extra lemon juice. Enjoy!
Frozen Protein Bars
These are a go to breakfast, snack or pre/post workout treat for me. They are so easy to throw together and you can change them up however you like. I have shared these with most of my guests (I’m bad about breakfast…) and I’ve had dozens of requests for the recipe. I’ve been making these for years and they are slightly different each time. I finally just finished another batch so I think I can now share a “recipe” with everyone.
Start with some overripe bananas. I’m talking black, but not quite moldy.. those are how I like them for recipes like this. I used about 7 large ones in this batch. Next, I add peanut butter. You can use whatever your preference is. I prefer an all natural organic peanut butter and the one we happened to have opened at this time was the Sprouts brand (creamy, unsalted and unsweetened). Picture is deceiving.. I’d say there are about 3 tablespoons of peanut butter in this particular batch. Then, I add in some honey (you could substitute pure maple syrup or agave if you choose). I like to add the local, all natural honey where I can as I suffer from allergies and am told it’s supposed to help! I added probably 3 tablespoons give or take of the honey as well. Mix together well – a spoon should work fine. It should look something like this..
Easy enough so far, right? Next, I throw in some shredded coconut (about 1/4 cup), some sprouted rolled oats (I love the One Degree brand) – probably about a cup or more of the oats. I’m not a big sweets person or chocolate for that matter so I need something tangy and chewy to add. This is where I add my dried cranberries. In this batch I added about 3/4 cup. Often I would throw in some sort of crunchy granola. I didn’t have any on hand so I decided to leave out this time. Last two ingredients I add are chocolate chips (either dark chocolate or semi-sweet) and chocolate protein powder. About 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips and your protein powder really depends on what kind you are using. I prefer the Orgain Organic and use their creamy chocolate fudge for this (there are no added sugars which is important to me). I kept adding until my consistency and taste were ok without overdoing it – my guess is about a cup.
Here is what it looks like after you have everything mixed up. This batch is slightly thin, but will be ok – thicker is ok as well – which it would be if you added granola.
Next – line a muffin tin with some paper cupcake liners. This is important.. it won’t work if you just dump into an empty muffin tin. Also, if you don’t have a muffin tin or don’t have enough you can just use any baking dish that is freezer safe and place your liners in that. See examples below.
Place these in the freezer overnight or until hard. Pop the bars out of the liners into a ziplock bag and store in the freezer until ready to enjoy. If they were a thinner consistency when you put in the freezer keep in mind they will melt faster. These are great in the summer time, after a workout or just anytime in Arizona!
I hope you enjoy these as much we do. Let me know if you come up with any additional ingredients that we need to try!
A few suggestions are: any other dried fruits, including raisins if you don’t like dried cranberries or want sweeter. If you are looking for some extra fiber you could add some wheat bran. Any nuts that you like: almonds, pecans, walnuts.
Frozen Protein Bars
Ingredients
- 7-8 bananas overripe
- 3 tbsp peanut butter
- 3-4 tbsp honey
- 1/4 cup coconut shredded
- 1 cup sprouted, rolled oats or more
- 3/4 cup dried cranberries
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips dark chocolate or semi-sweet
- 1 cup chocolate protein powder
Instructions
- Mix your wet ingredients together first: bananas, peanut butter, honey.
- Add remaining ingredients and stir together well.
- Line a muffin tin (or baking dish) with cupcake liners, fill about 2/3-3/4 full and place in freezer overnight or until frozen solid.
- Pop the bars out of the liners into a freezer bag and store in the freezer until ready to enjoy.
Red Skin Spice Cake
This is not something you will see from me often. Cakes and sweets are really not my thing and not typically found in my diet. But – today is my birthday and I’m craving my favorite cake so I thought I would share with you. This recipe is from my mom. I’m not sure where she found this other than while she was living in Texas. It’s not too difficult – mine won’t be the prettiest as I’m NOT a baker, but as long as it tastes good that’s all we really care about in this house.
We start with 2 cups of flour (sifted) and 2 cups of sugar. Add in 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, 1 tsp of ground cloves and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. Mix the dry ingredients together. Add 1 cup of oil, 1 tsp of vanilla, 3 eggs, 1 tsp of red food coloring (or a touch more for the deeper red color) and 2 jars of baby food. The original recipe calls for baby food plums. I cannot find those for the life of me so really any fruit will do. This time I used apples. Beat all of the ingredients together well in stand mixer or with a hand mixer.
Next, grease and flour your pan. I always use a bundt pan for this and I feel the deeper groves in your pan the better. My mom always taught me to use crisco with a paper towel. Wipe the entire pan and then dump some flour in and shake it over the sink or trash until there is just a very light coating. You don’t want too much flour or it will stick to your cake, yet you want the entire pan covered so that your cake comes out in one nice piece.
Pour your batter into the pan and bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour.
While your cake is baking, make the icing. I use a mixture of powdered sugar, lemon juice and red food coloring. You just have to play with the amounts until the consistency is where you want it. You want it to be pretty thick, but just able to drizzle over the warm cake. I’d start with about 1.5 cups of powered sugar to 1/2-1 lemon (depending on how juicy) or you can use store bought lemon juice if you don’t have lemons. And then the food coloring just until it’s red enough for your liking – remembering this will thin your icing as well. I usually have to keep adding more sugar, etc.
I use the toothpick test to see that my cake is done – if you put a toothpick in the middle, it should come out pretty clean. Give it a few minutes to cool before flipping onto your cake stand or plate.
Now while the cake is still warm, drizzle your icing over and let it melt down the sides. I like a lot of icing!
Red Skin Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour sifted
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground gloves
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp red food coloring approx (or more)
- 2 jars baby food (plums or other fruit like apples)
Instructions
- Sift together all dry ingredients through the salt.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and beat well.
3. Optional (add 1 cup chopped pecans)4. Grease and flour pan and pour mixture in.
5. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour.
6. While baking, make the icing mixture of powdered sugar, lemon juice and red food coloring (until just thick enough to drizzle over hot cake)7. Wait just a few minutes, until cool enough to handle and flip the cake onto stand or plate and drizzle icing on top while still warm.
*if not serving right away, wait until cake is cooled to cover, or your icing will continue to melt more as the steam will collect inside your cover.