Spiced Tea Infused Vanilla Pancakes

So now that it's down to 60 degrees in LA (brrr says the Boston girl - how did that happen?), I decided to spend my Sunday morning making a hot cozy breakfast with -you guessed it- tea. There was talk of pumpkin pancakes and all sorts of yummy Thanksgiving varieties last week, but I wanted to try something different for December. I used a standard pancake mix since I figured that's what most people do (?) but you can also just substitute the tea for milk in your favorite homemade recipe with a few additions noted below.

Spiced Tea Infused Vanilla Pancakes

Your favorite pancake recipe without the milk
3/4 c water
1-2 StripTeas tea strips (combination of Kashmiri Kahwa and Masala Chai is nice)
1/4 c milk
1 t vanilla
1 T sugar or 1.5 t Splenda

Make your mix as usual, but while you combine the ingredients (aka mix, egg, perhaps oil), make a cup of strong tea that will be your substitute for the milk called for in your recipe. I used one strip of Kashmiri Kahwa and one strip of Masala Chai in 3/4 cup water. Once they steep about 6 minutes and make a nice dark tea, add 1/4 c milk to the mug and let it sit another few minutes, swirling the strip a few times while your griddle or pan heats up. Add the vanilla and the sweetener to the bowl.

Once the tea mixture is fragrant and strong, pour over the other ingredients and whisk. Once pan is hot, cook your pancakes as you usually do. The pancakes will be slightly darker in color due mostly to the vanilla, but the texture will be light and fluffy as usual.

Serve hot with your favorite toppings. I prefer applesauce, but maple syrup or plain yogurt sprinkled with slivered almonds is delicious too.

Enjoy!

TeaEscapade Review of Pushkar Rose

Thanks, Nikki, for reviewing our Pushkar Rose blend. Reviews of Kashmiri Kahwa and Mint will follow soon!

http://tiny.cc/VtuPO

StripTeas on DailyObsession.net!

Thanks Carolyn for the great write-up on Daily Obsession! We love your site!

"I’m sure founder Emily Koteff didn’t quite have this in mind, but StripTeas is my favorite new…office gear. It’s true- I’m loving the uniquely packaged, delicious tea strips (love a good play on words too) and it looks so cute and fits right in with the rest of my colorful desk decoration. Plus it provides a nice (and often necessary) pick me up at various points throughout the workday- say when my computer crashes or when people are sending me super annoying emails.

I love that I don’t have to deal with the mess of tea bags and being able to swirl the tube in my cup. According to StripTeas, that actually makes the tea taste better because it allows the leaves to move about and the flavor to come out. These are certainly some of the tastiest teas I’ve had, so they must be right! Plus, my coworkers are always asking me what I’m drinking and equally impressed by the clever packaging. Check out the 7 flavor variety pack for $12.95. They were all so yummy I couldn’t pick a favorite!"

www.thedailyobsession.net

Jamie's Precious Peas Winner

Congratulations to Natasha of Alexandria, TN who won a box of StripTeas through Jamie's Precious Peas blog. Enjoy!

I just stubbed my toe

I know, I know -- that's one of those phrases you see on Twitter and think, Really? But I just stubbed my toe on the leg of my grill and I am pretty excited about it. It means that I am outside barefoot, which seems like a small thing, but after spending a week on the east coast where snow was still on the ground and I had to pile on the comforters, it actually made me smile rather than wince. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing to complain about after spending a week with friends and family, planning my wedding and seeing my fiance's film on the big screen in New York City.

But we've had some ups and downs in our lives lately that make you stop you in your tracks and remind you to be grateful. So that's what I'm doing -- being grateful for stubbing my toe.

What does this have to do with tea? Well, nothing really. Except that now I'll be coming up with some fun iced tea recipes and sharing the good ones soon. My latest vision is StripTeas Sangria. We'll see how that one turns out....

Heavy Tea Drinkers Have Lower Stroke Risk

Some interesting health news from my hometown Boston news channel ...

"The more tea you drink, the less likely you are to have a stroke, according to a new study. Researchers from UCLA found that people who drink three cups of tea a day are 21 percent less likely to have a stroke than people who don't drink any tea. Study author Lenore Arab said it did not matter if people drank green tea or black tea, though herbal teas were not associated with a risk reduction.

To come up with the result, Arab and her team reviewed nine studies, which had 195,000 patients and more than 4,000 strokes in total. She said that if people added three more cups of tea a day, their risk would drop another 21 percent. Arab suggested that antioxidants in tea could prevent coronary artery disease and prevent strokes, though that has not been confirmed. The study was published in the online edition of the journal Stroke."

Scarlet's Letter Review

Thanks, Amber, for trying out my teas and writing such a great review of the line. And congratulations to Nikki and Donna, Scarlet's Letter readers, on their win of a box of tea of their choice!

"I love tea. I like to say that it's part of the reason I haven't had a full on cold in about two years. I don't drink soda, I haven't had one sip in the past 5 years, so tea is an awesome alternative for me. I also love cute girly things, like lipstick and flirty designs. So when I recently stumbled upon StripTeas I was seriously smitten. How cute are these?? Just what is a StripTeas, you ask? Not your average tea bag, that's for sure! StripTeas is a cute single serving of tea in a recyclable aluminium package. They literally look like cute "strips" that you can dunk into your mug and brew some delicious and exotic tea for yourself, one serving at a time. StripTeas was started by Emily Koteff. Emily came up with the awesome idea to bring these fun single serving tea strips to America after venturing to India and seeing how much love and quality goes into the tea there, the exotic scents and flavors of the tea. Discover flavors such as Darjeeling, Sweet Khus, Mint, Masala Chai and more. These teas are a cute alternative to the regular tea we see in many stores today, and these would even make awesome gifts for baby showers or bridesmaids. StripTeas even has their very own blog!

Visit Amber's blog: www.scarletsletter.net and see what other fun products for women she loves - both naughty and nice :)