Recipe: (Non-Alcoholic) Pineapple Mojito Smoothie

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I'll be honest... I've been going a little smoothie crazy lately. I seem to always crave them as soon as the weather warms up a little bit. I plan on experimenting with different, interesting ingredients and sharing all my smoothie-masterpieces with you guys- starting with this one! It's light and refreshing and perfect for the spring and summer. Plus, it not only makes a great quick addition to your breakfast or snack, it can be turned into an awesome cocktail smoothie by adding some rum

Makes 1 serving

Here's what you'll need:

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen pineapple

3/4 cup water (use 1 cup if using frozen pineapple)

4 fresh mint leaves

the juice of 1 lime

Blend all ingredients together for about a minute - or until the mint leaves are distributed evenly throughout the smoothie. Sprinkle with a bit of raw cane sugar if you please! Enjoy :)

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Recipe | Winter White Sangria

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Okay, I know I'm bad at keeping promises when it comes to this blog (*cough* fotd friday *cough*)... so here's a sangria recipe to help you get over it.

1.5 liter of Moscato, or your favorite white wine
1 Granny Smith, or any other tart apple, sliced
the juice of one orange
another orange, sliced
about 2 cups of fresh cherries
1 pear, sliced
1/4 cup grenadine
juice of half a lime, the other half sliced
1/4-1/2 cup honey whiskey
optional - club soda to top off the glasses once served.

Combine all of the fruits, whiskey, and juices with the wine in a large pitcher or punch bowl. You can make it a sparkling sangria by adding the club soda to the pitcher, or you can just use it to top off each glass of sangria served. This step is also totally optional as the sangria will taste just fine without the bubbly.

Let the sangria sit and chill for at least an hour before you plan on serving it!

Enjoy :)

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Recipe | The Dark Passenger

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My roommate and I have been thinking up awesome drink concoctions since the beginning of last summer... mostly related to either Dexter or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. So, since yesterday was my 21st birthday, we figured what better day to actually execute one of these awesome drinks we've had in mind?

This one's called The Dark Passenger, and for all you Dexter fans - you'll know exactly what this refers to. You only need three things to make this awesome drink.

1.5 shots of Mango Vodka
3/4 can of Redbull
a few tbsp of Grenadine

You want this drink to have a layering effect, so start off with the vodka, then add the red bull, and then slowly pour the grenadine in last to give it a murky, bloody, look to it.

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Recipe | Almond Flavored Simple Syrup

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I love coffee. I really, really, really, really, REALLY love coffee. It's hard to believe that 2 years ago I was trying to force myself to enjoy it. My freshman year of college introduced me to the unfamiliar world of all-nighters. So naturally, the procrastinator in me wanted to be able to stay up reeeeeally late (or all night, some nights) to do schoolwork without chugging those nasty energy drinks.

When I'm out and about and want to grab a coffee at Starbucks or Dunkin', I usually get some sort of flavored syrup in it along with soy or fat free milk. The thing that skeeves me out about the flavored syrups, though, is that I don't know what's in them. That, and the fact that I don't have them available for when I make coffee at home, is what drove me to come up with my own recipe. Yes, you can buy the Starbucks syrups online, but who has the time to wait for that to ship and who wants to waste 10 bucks on it? Not THIS coffee addict. If you're as dedicated to making delicious coffee for yourself every morning as I am, here's what you'll need:

1 1/2 cups of water
2 cups of granulated sugar (I used cane sugar)
2 tbsp Almond Extract.

This recipe is so painfully simple, it's almost a sin that I've been paying an extra 50 cents or so for syrups in my coffee all this time (don't get me started on Starbucks' new gold card member rewards. I am NOT a happy camper about them).

Anyway, add the water to a pot and bring to a boil. Add the sugar to the boiling water, reduce the heat to low, and stir to dissolve. Remove the simple syrup from the heat and add the almond extract. Stir to make sure it's dispersed throughout the whole syrup. Add to your coffee and enjoy!

I keep my syrup in a small mason jar in the fridge and just add a few spoonfuls to my coffee with some unsweetened almond milk. I should note that this recipe makes for a VERY sweet simple syrup because it's 1.5 parts water to 2 parts sugar while a normal simple syrups usually calls for equal parts water to sugar. If you don't like your coffee terribly sweet but with more of an almond flavor, maybe bring the measurements down to 1:1 parts sugar to water and up the almond extract to 2 tbsp. Tweek it to whatever your taste calls for! And try this with any extract you like! I plan on doing this with coconut, vanilla, and maybe even some orange extract. If I can get my hands on some hazelnut extract I'll DEFINITELY be doing that too.

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