Saturday, May 8, 2010

Berry-B-Good Tea: An Antioxidant Boost in a "Simple Saturday Sipper"

This week's Simple Saturday Sipper is an easy, healthy and refreshing drink that is full of nutrients and antioxidants from the blueberries. Berry-Be-Good Tea is from "Yogi in the Kitchen: More Than 100 Enlightened, Delicious, Healthful Recipes for Body and Soul" by Elaine Gavalas, M.A., M.S. Besides those free-radical fighting antioxidants, blueberries are packed with vitamin C, manganese and fiber. Here they are combined with the herbal tea of your choice, lemon juice, honey and ice for a delicious drink.


Berry-B-Good Tea
"Yogi in the Kitchen" by Elaine
Gavalas, M.A., M.S.
(Serves 2)

1 1/2 cups spring or filtered water
1 bag mint herb tea, hibiscus herb tea, or decaf green or black tea
2/3 cup fresh (or frozen and thawed) berries (such as strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries)
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp honey
6 ice cubes

In a medium saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Drop in the tea bag. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Cover and let the tea steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bag and discard. Refrigerate the tea for 1 hour.

Place the berries in a blender and blend until smooth. Add the tea, lemon juice, honey, and ice cubes and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.



Notes/Results: Cold, lightly sweet (I reduced the honey down by half), and flavorful from the tea and fruit, this is a simple drink, perfect for a busy day. For the tea I used an herbal rooibos blend of hibiscus, orange peel, burdock and red clover. Although you can use any fresh or frozen berry or mixed berries, I kept it simple with frozen wild blueberries from the big bag in my freezer. Be sure to cool the tea down well before using, and if you want the drink thicker and slushier, you can use the berries frozen instead of thawed.A simple pleasure that I would make again.

Speaking of simple pleasures, there is nothing like a big shallow shipping box with crinkly packing paper to keep Max entertained for hours. (Of course he made time to stop and pose for this picture). I haven't tossed a Max photo into a post for quite some time--so here is one for his fans. ;-)


Happy Weekend!

12 comments:

  1. My friend and I found a lost cat last weekend who looked JUST LIKE Max! We found and returned him to his rightful owner, of course, but it was so much fun to play with him for a while!

    That sipper looks delicious. I love how its full of good-for-you natural ingredients and not sugar!

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  2. Ahhh! You've warmed up my heart with that adorable picture of Max! What a wonderful soulmate!

    This sipper looks fabulous, full of vitamins and antioxidants!

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  3. This drink sounds so good, healthy and delicious, I love the color of it!

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  4. oh wow great drink and color and more cat pics pls!!

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  5. What a colour! It sounds amazing. And Max is looking very handsome.

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  6. What a beautiful color!Healthy and delicious!

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  7. The color is so tempting !!! Love it.

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  8. How refreshing! And Max is a good-lookin' guy! A cat's added value to any post is priceless! ;)

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  9. Got pink? Max is extraordinarily good looking. I hope you've been good to him :-). Blessings...Mary

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  10. What a delicious sipper! So richly colored. Max is adorable!

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  11. Max is one good lookin' cat! You can tell that he is very well loved:D

    I love the dark purple hue of this blueberry sipper. Looks might tasty.

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