This recipe is actually for a drink called “Moon Milk.” It doesn’t contain any tea or coffee but kind of has a resemblance to a tea latte because it contains milk and spices.

Moon milk is actually designed to be a relaxing nighttime drink. It contains ashwagandha which has recently become very popular for relaxing and calming characteristics.

I LOVE a nice warm drink at night. Or morning. Or midday. I will drink a yummy warm drink anytime of the day.

But I really became interested in moon milk because it is known for being very soothing and similar to the “warm milk” sleep aid you might have been given as a kid.

What I loved about this recipe was it takes the warm milk drink and adds a few other nice flavors as well as ashwagandha so it feels nice and warm and cozy in your belly and sends you right off to a comfy sleep.

I drink moon milk fairly often just about a half hour before bed and its actually just even a nice little self care routine, as well as having very healthy qualities.

It takes about 5 minutes to make and its fun and easy to make it look pretty and as silly as it may sound, I feel like I get more out of it by adding cute things.

So I thought it would be fun to find a way to add some color without using food coloring. In comes Butterfly Pea Flowers!

Honestly anything that has butterfly and flower in the same sentence just sounds cute to me. So when I discovered these purplish blue little edible flowers I was dying to use them in things! I made a keto chocolate cake and used them as a garnish but was told they actually complimented the cake quite well!

Then I discovered they dye things quite effectively when steeped creating a pretty blue color! So I decided to add them to my moon milk.

In comes the recipe which is below:

Ingredients

1 cup almond or coconut milk

1 tablespoon butterfly pea flowers (can be found on Amazon!)

1 tablespoon monk fruit extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3-4 cardamom pods

pinch of turmeric (make it a smaller pinch as it will affect the color!)

1/4 teaspoon ashwagandha (I use a dropper and do about 1 dropper however you can also buy powdered)

Milk frother (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan. Simmer on low until the moon milk is a light blue color. Strain out butterfly pea flowers into your favorite cup.

Here you can froth the milk if you’d like or just sip and enjoy!

it’s so easy - ready in about 5 minutes and so so good!!! Also can be made without the butterfly pea flowers as well for a tasty nighttime drink sans color :)

If you try it tell me what you think!

Xoxo,

Claire

I was raised on the idea that a cup of tea can cure anything.

I’ve spit it out laughing, sipped it mixed with salty tears, boiled water for good news and bad - drank it hot, cold, strong, weak. There has probably not been a day in my life I haven’t spent at least part of drinking a cup of tea.

It’s something we’ve done for generations and I’m beginning to realize despite previously thinking we didn’t have many traditions, tea is kind of our tradition!

So as you’ve probably gathered, I love tea. I also really love delicate flavors and anything having to do with rose. Along with that - Earl Grey. It always reminds me of some of my favorite times and blustery chilly weather I love.

I also love cooking and love sharing recipes on my blog and creating aesthetic but hopefully delicious foods. Unfortunately, in my schedule these days cooking and photographing a whole meal is not quite possible. I celebrate if I can just make us some steamed veggies and a tasty protein while getting everything else done.

As a result I decided to make little drinks to cater to my desire to create and share but also cater to the schedule that often has me thinking wait how is it already Sunday?!?

The first of this series is my Dairy-free and Sugar-free Rose Earl Grey Tea Latte.

Suggested occasion: Saturday morning

Suggested wardrobe: Something like this

Slippers from Anthropologie

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• Monkfruit Sweetener

• Water

• Food Grade Dried Rose Petals

• Rosewater

• Earl Grey Loose Leaf Tea

• Almond or Coconut Milk

• 1 Milk Frother - if you don’t have this - I give you another way to froth milk easily below :)*

• Optional - flowers and bakers gold to garnish
  

Mix 1/2 cup of Monkfruit Sweetener with 1/2 cup rose petals with 1/4 water in a small saucepan. Cook on low until sugar dissolves and remove from heat, allowing it to steep for 5 minutes. This will be your rosewater syrup.

While this steeps, mix 2 tablespoons of Earl Grey tea and 1 tablespoon of rose petals and place in a teapot. Pour over roughly 1 cup of boiling water and cover for 5 minutes.

While the tea is steeping, return to your rosewater syrup. Add 1 tablespoon of rosewater and mix slightly, then strain the liquid into a bowl pressing slighty on the roses so as to catch as much of the syrup as you can. You should be left with a nice pinky light syrup.

Next heat 1 cup of Almond or Coconut milk on low in a small saucepan. You can rinse out the one you used for the syrup and use that - it’s kind of nice with a little rosiness left in there! Once it is heated but not boiling, add it to the bowl of rose syrup and froth.

*If you don’t have a frother - I used to do a trick I learned online that is kind of funny but does work! Grab a mason jar with a lid and fill it with your cup of desired milk. Shake it vigorously for 30-45 seconds and then microwave for 30 seconds. It won’t be exactly as effective as using a frother but it does do the job! Just use a spoon to hold the frothed milk and place it on top once you’ve poured the milk.

I love the pinky tint the rose syrup gives the milk! So cute!

At this point your tea is also steeped, so pour it into about halfway up your favorite cup then add your frothed rose milk, taking mind to hold back the froth if you tried my jar trick!

Then garnish however you want and enjoy!

It’s sweet from the monkfruit but won’t give you the sugar comedown that can sometimes happen with sugar and dairy.

This recipe is so delicious and super easy!! It took me about 10 minutes to make.

I encourage you to try it, especially on a cold windy day like today, and send me a picture of what you made!

Xoxo,

Claire

I’m really into holidays. My favorite time of year spans from September through December and it wasn’t until recently that I stopped experiencing a total sadness from the loss of the holidays ranging from January 2 to January 16 or so.

Usually I start getting pretty into Halloween with lots of pumpkin spiced foods, candles and pumpkins themselves. The big thing during that phase is Halloween movies. I’m very un-brave when it comes to anything scary so it’s usually a pretty mild array of titles like Beetlejuice and Practical Magic.

Come Thanksgiving, I’ll be honest. I love cooking and a group coming together but I also love that its an opportunity to segway into Christmas!

My usual Thanksgiving week routine starts with a trip to the Flower Market on Wednesday morning, I then refrigerate the flowers to create arrangements the morning of Thanksgiving once the turkey is on. I really love the Flower Market and its fun to get up early and grab a cup of coffee and a bunch of beautiful flowers!

On Thursday morning I get up early and get the turkey on and the side dishes prepped and basically cook until its ready and in spare moments arrange flowers and set table, often forgetting to eat anything and by the time dinner is out I’m happy but also falling asleep.

So THIS year because I’m cooking for what appears to be a growing number, I decided to plan ahead a little bit!

My basic overall outline is as follows:

Sunday:

• Ordered all the groceries - cleared allergies and preferences with everyone and finally checked out on Amazon Fresh which is a gaaame-changer from previous years.

• Fridge clean out. Trying to fit all those groceries in our fridge before cleaning it out would probably end in some sort of injury. So I’m taking advantage of a little more time today to get ready for the delivery of said groceries tomorrow

• Pull out baking supplies/table settings. This way I can make sure we have everything needed from aprons to a rolling pin to enough napkins and glasses!

Speaking of rolling pins, I’m cooking quite a few grain free pies this Thanksgiving that have slightly temperamental crusts. So I bought this roller which I think will be a little easier to maneuver to keep the crust intact form Amazon:

Click for link

Wednesday AM:

• Trip to the Flower Market. I have some inspo photos of arrangements and colors I’d like to follow on my Pinterest page but this year I plan to go a little more minimal in design. With a lot of people coming, the biggest problem becomes room on the table. So while I love elaborate tables with lots of pretty flowers and pumpkins, I’m going to go smaller on the arrangements and larger on food.

sources via Pinterest

Wednesday PM:

• Move tables into living room. Nick had the great suggestion of bringing two large wooden tables into the living room where there is a lovely fireplace. So I will be employing some muscle in moving those over but at least we won’t be trying to do it day of Thanksgiving which I have done before.

• Table Setting & Dressing. Something I also usually do on the day and starts as such a fun creative endeavor that goes to exhausting very quickly as I keep running back and forth from the kitchen. This year with simplicity playing a larger role I ordered a big roll of kraft paper which I’m going to handwrite every guests name on to sort of spruce it up and not have to worry about mess or 20 placemats. Here’s a very early attempt without the correct supplies but I think still came out pretty cute!

• Baking the pies! I’m baking 1 Paleo Apple Pie, 1 Regular Apple Pie, 1 Paleo Pumpkin Pie and 1 Regular Pumpkin Pie. The pies are one of my favorite parts but always give me trouble day of as well! Which is funny because a lot of people I know have made the pies the day before for years however I’m apparently just figuring it out!

• Baking quiches! Everyone always seems to be hungrier Thanksgiving morning and I find quite a few scavengers in the kitchen creating eclectic snacks and little messes. At the same time, I love having everyone around hanging at home Thanksgiving Day. I really don’t mind doing all the cooking but love to have everyone hanging out and around instead of cooking alone! So in order to keep them nearby but out of the pots and pans, I’m cooking some quiches to put out in the morning and a charcuterie plate to put out around midday.

Thanksgiving Day!:

• The first order of business is getting the turkey on. Based off our turkey size I’m planning for about 5 hours. I’d like to have it on by around 9:00 am because I’d like to eat by 4:00 and this gives a little time give or take.

• In the meantime I will also heat the quiches to feed the scavengers

• 9:00 am Turkey is on

• Prep side dishes. The entire menu is as follows:

  • Turkey with gluten free stuffing and gravy

  • Traditional organic cranberry sauce

  • Rosemary Roasted Root Vegetables

  • Organic Buttery Mashed Potatoes

  • Slow Cooked Beef Brisket with Onion

  • Green Bean Casserole

  • Pumpkin dinner rolls - which I am SOO excited to try

  • Apple and Pumpkin Pies

Top right image original, rest of images from Pinterest

• The ideal set up is that most of the people coming for dinner get to hang out starting around noon and everyone arrives by 3:00pm for dinner at 4:00pm

• After dinner I’ll stick the pies in the oven to heat up and we’ll play games and enjoy pie and fresh cream

Then I save the turkey bones and leftover meat for Turkey Rice soup the next day!

Hopefully this outline helps to organize things a bit. Either way I find it always comes together and I’m so looking forward to this year’s! I’ve really become aware of the effect that grains have on me and how they seem to affect a lot of others the same way so this year while keeping a lot of the schedule and decor simple, I’m really trying to go a little healthier in terms of the menu.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Love,

Claire

This soup was SO good and tasted so nourishing. I really like the addition of mushrooms to soup because when you aren’t eating grains they are a nice variation of texture and taste and they soak up flavor so well. Its filling but completely paleo and Microbiome Diet approved and it smells SO good while cooking.

This recipe will make enough for a few people!

• 6 Green Onions

• 1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil, 1 Additional Tablespoon for Turkey

• 3 cloves of Garlic

• 2 inch Fresh Ginger - peeled and chopped finely

• 6-8 Large Shitake Mushrooms

• 2 Tablespoons Coconut Aminos

• 4-6 Cups of Chicken Broth

• 6 Cups of Water

• 1/2 - 1 Full Head of Cabbage Chopped into strips

• 1 Onion

• 1 Pound Ground Turkey

Slice up green onions and separate the green tops from the whites. Set aside the green portion for a last touch when the soup is cooked.

Place a large pot over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the garlic, ginger and sliced white portion of the green onions. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the garlic and ginger are fragrant.

Add in coconut aminos and the mushrooms and cook until mushrooms begin to become tender.

Add broth and water and bring to a low boil.

While the broth is heating, put the ground turkey into a medium pan and add whole onion and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook on medium heat until onions are clear and turkey is no longer pink.

Once the broth is boiling, turn down to simmer and add cabbage pieces.

Prepare bowls to serve the soup and place about 4-6 ounces of turkey in the base of each bowl, as well as the green portions you set aside earlier when cutting up the green onion. Pour soup over this and enjoy!

Send pictures if you try it!

Xoxo,

Claire