Vanilla Almond Frappuccino {Dairy-free}

Winter break is almost over.  It’s Wednesday and just the fact that I’ve been feeling this since Monday means I’m not doing so well with ‘living in the moment’.  I needed this break.  I’m not sure there’s a single person on the school campus I work at who didn’t need this break.  I think the day we all had our lock-down procedure run-through (oh yes, because schools have now become a dangerous place to work, we all need to know where to go on campus in case an active shooter is on the premises) the faculty and staff of our school gave a collective sigh and thought, “How much longer until Winter Break!?” I capitalize “Winter Break” on purpose.  It’s very much a proper now in my book.  I need it.  I never thought I’d work at a school.  Heck, I never thought I’d be a school counselor.  Technically, I do not have a counseling degree.  I have my Master’s in Social Work and was originally hired to be a co-director of student life, which meant that I was hired to plan all the events on a private Jewish campus that make it feel a little bit like camp.  I was not 2 weeks into that job when I walked into a meeting that I thought was going to be about working with the kosher food bank but turned into a meeting about the possibility of transitioning into a position as a full-time middle school counselor.  Two years and a half years later, I can confidently say that saying ‘yes’ to that offer was one of the best decisions I ever made.

So now, here I am, in the middle of my third year working at a school in a job I was only semi-educated for and I’m realizing that the end of this Winter Break means the beginning of second semester and facing the reality that I’ll be moving on soon.  I gave myself a break from really thinking about the impending move to LA and start of my position as the Director of School Counselor for a very prestigious private Jewish day school.  It’s intimidating as h*ll.  But, I’m realizing that its time to face the facts that 2014 will be a massive year of challenges and change and boy, don’t I just LOVE challenges and change! (I don’t.  I don’t like either of those things at all).

And yet, it’s Wednesday and dang it, I still have half a week to live this Winter Break OUT LOUD! I’m pretty proud of the hubby and I for doing the majority of the things we said we were going to do during this time off.  We went to the Miami Zoo on Christmas day which, as it turns out, every other Jew in Miami decided to do.  We went to the new Perez Museum of Modern Art .  We also had some epic play dates with a dear friend from work and her insanely adorable daughters.  Mama did a little shopping, an activity that netted everyone some new threads, including mama and got to hang out with the one and only Jeremy Ashley, my co-creator of Jewhungry.  And, of course, I did A TON of cooking.  I also did a ton of coffee-drinking as our sweet little kiddo has decided to start participating in some serious sleep regression. YAY! I mean, who needs sleep, right? What a waste of time! Why would we be sleeping when we could be staring at the clock at 1:45 in the morning and praying to the sleep gds to please return our good sleeper.  Seriously, give. Her. Back.

The recipe below is one I based off a delicious iced coffee drink my local Whole Foods used to feature in the summer.  But since it’s Miami and it’s kinda always summer, I’m curious as to why it’s off the menu.  And since I’m doing a lot of coffee-drinking I figured I do some coffee-drink-making.  It seems like everyone’s got a coffee/chocolate combo but lately, I’ve been really digging on almond-flavored stuff thus, almond-flavored coffee. I hope you enjoy and if you do end up making this recipe, send a little ‘l’chaim’ up my way.

Coffee filtration system from Costa Rica. It’s HIGHLY sophisticated. 🙂

Top with sliced almonds if you’ve got them. It’ll impress all your friends!

A photo-montage of Winter Break.  Enjoy.

We hung out at home a lot. The ultimate stay-cation

Who wants to look at gorillas when you can stop for a belly-button search?

We got new shoes! She got slippers and mama got super-unnecessary-but-definitely-awesome-motorcycle-boots.

My little family

After her bout with food poisoning — a drive in the car to help induce napping. She would NOT let go of those pretzels.

The morning-after food poisoning drive that took us to Wynwood. The kiddo slept while we roamed the streets checking out the street art.

Met up with this incredible guy. That’s right, it’s Jeremy, part of the original Jewhungry team. We like to go to outlet malls and pose hipster-like with alligators dressed up like Wonder Woman. What? You don’t?

Checking out the new Perez Art Museum Miami

Our NYE ritual — homemade sushi, Prosecco, an air mattress, all the pillows we have. the balcony + a movie on the laptop.

Props to my girl, Tara, for the awesome W mug. Also, yes, I know what that filter looks like.

Vanilla Almond Frappuccino

Ingredients:
Recipe will make 3 – 4 drinks

1 Cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 – 3/4 Cup extra strength coffee (double up on your typical brewing scoop amount but maintain same water amount)
1 Tbsp granulated vanilla sugar (or regular sugar will do)
OR
Instant coffee works here as well – again, double up on what the directions call for in terms of coffee/water ratio
CHILL COFFEE BEFORE USING
1.5 Tsp vanilla extract
1 Tsp almond extract
Chia shot – (just to feel a little better about drinking a frappuccino)
2 Cups of ice
Pinch of salt
Sliced almonds for topping

How:

Make double-strength coffee by brewing with twice the coffee required by your coffee maker(that should be 2 tablespoons of ground coffee per each cup of coffee). Chill before using.

Once coffee is properly chilled, combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high-speed until ice is crushed and drink is smooth.

Pour into tall glass and marvel at how you just created a delicious, full-flavored coffee beverage for a fraction of the price.  Pat yourself on the back.

It’s the Simple Things

Costa Rican coffee under a palapa — every morning for a week on our honey. Pure bliss.

Hummus from Abu Gosh — the best in the world!! (photo taken during an afternoon in Abu Gosh with my girl, Eva).

Some days, it truly is the simple things in life that warm my heart and bring me back when I think I’m on the brink of tearing my hair out. School is winding down, which is WONDERFUL, but that just means the stress level is increasing as everyone is running around trying to make sure students are prepared for their finals while also coordinating the dismal task of informing students and parents of the potential of failing courses, and of course every other detail you can think of. It’s that time of year when everyone else wants their ‘important’ to be your ‘important’. So when the stress starts getting to me, I think about the little things that make me so darn happy. There are so many things that fit into this category. Admittedly, a lot of them are focused on the baby and her cute Dad but dang it a lot of the things on that list are edible too. There’s coffee; the coffee we drank under palapas in Costa Rica. There’s the lasagna, dripping in bechamel, served at the Little House in Baka in Jerusalem (so much of my favorites are from Jerusalem.  Don’t get me started on the hummus. That’s a blog post in and of itself). Then there’s ordering room service and eating in be while watching cable. I can’t explain why but ordering some kind of delicious pasta and eating it while watching whatever is showing on Bravo makes me so dang happy. High on that list of simple pleasures, right under room service and right before a glass of anything Bell’s Brewery has to serve is hors dourves. Good Lord in heaven, I love finger foods. Did you ever seen that early 90s Cher and Winona Ryder movie, Mermaids (if not, please watch it. I watched this movie over and over and over again as a kid)? Cher plays Winona’s unorthodox mom who can’t cook anything other than finger foods. Winona’s character abhors that in her mother. I would have been right on board with that. Seriously, if you can mix it up and put it in phyllo dough or a mini quiche, I’m in.

Ground Turkey Goodness

In the spirit of making a meal out of finger foods, and trying to use up some leftovers, I made a very simple but

truthfully, very delicious meal a couple of nights ago that I wanted to share. I think the recipe below would make Cher’s character proud, ifIdosaysomyself.

What’s on your ‘simple pleasures’ list?

The Assembly Line

Before Cooking

The Final Delicious Product

Perfect Pockets: Ground Turkey and Tofutti Cream ‘Cheese’ Wontons

What!?

2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 pound – ground turkey
3 green onions, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
Pepper
1/2 cup of non-dairy cream ‘cheese’ (herbed works best)
1 package of wonton wrappers

How’s That Now?

Heat olive oil in large frying pan over medium high heat. Add the green onions and garlic and sauté for 2 – 3 minutes or until fragrant. Add the ground turkey to the pan and continue cooking until turkey is just about fully cooked. Season the turkey mixture the soy sauce and pepper and let cook for a minute or two more.

Next, add the turkey mixture to a large mixing bowl and let cool for 5 minutes. Once cooled, add the cream cheese mixture to the bowl and stir to combine. I like my mixture to be on the creamier side, so feel free to add more if you like. The best thing about this recipe is that it’s all up to your interpretation.

Preheat your over to 375 degrees.

Now, fill your wontons! Very lightly dust your counter top with a bit of flour. Place 12 wrappers on the floured counter top, and add a small dollop of filling just off-center of each dumpling. Run a wet finger around the rim of each wrapper, gently fold one side over onto the other so that it forms a triangle, and try to avoid trapping air bubbles in the dumplings if you can. Repeat until you run out of wrappers or filling. Place the wontons on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush a little bit of oil into each wonton before baking. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until edges turn golden brown.