Domestic Goddess Dress Up: Pregnant Goddess Edition

I know, I know, the "Which Post Would You Like To See Next" poll is closed and the winner is clear. Meaning I SHOULD be posting my Baked Pumpkin Doughnut Tutorial right now. But I am just too excited and this can't wait. But I promise, as soon as I get my act together and buy some eggs, I will be making and posting the doughnut tutorial.

This post is actually TWO tutorials. That's right. Jackpot.
Last night I woke up at about 4 am (not out of the ordinary) with a brilliant idea. For about 6 or 7 years now I have been madly in love with Starbuck's Green Tea Frappuccinos with raspberry syrup. It's my guilty pleasure (because of the surprisingly high calories... if you add the whipping cream) and one of my favorite desserts. So, this morning I woke up thinking "why not make my own tea frappuccino... and why not make it Red Raspberry Leaf Tea?

If you are unfamiliar with red raspberry leaf tea, it is extremely good for women, especially pregnant women, and, being pregnant, I've been drinking it every day for quite a long time.

Now, I love tea, I'm a big tea fan. But, I haven't been creative and so I've been drinking my RRL tea the regular hot way every day. It's getting boring.

Lying in bed, I came up with my game plan. Then I got up and ready and went to work. It took all of about 20 minutes.

First, I needed some raspberry syrup. Luckily for me, I had seen a tutorial recently on how to make various flavored syrups, so I whipped some up.

Tutorial #1: Raspberry Syrup

Ingredients:

1 Cup Water
1 Cup Honey (the recipe called for sugar, but I have access to lots and lots of honey. Here's why, if you'd like to know. Plus, the whole idea of this endeavor is to keep a healthy body, so honey it was. You can use whatever you would like, the measurement stays the same)
3/4 Cup Raspberries (preferably fresh, I used some I had picked last sumer and frozen. And I used my whole bag, which was about 1 1/3 cups for more raspberry flavor with less sweet)



Directions:
Combine the honey, water and raspberries in a small saucepan.



Heat the mixture over medium-high, stirring occasionally, until the honey has dissolved. Reduce the heat to low and let simmer, about 10-15 minutes.



Remove from the heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove the berry solids.



Side note, muslin is too fine... as this picture below clearly shows. You won't get anywhere.



Let cool. Store in the refrigerator.



Now how easy is that?

So, I had my syrup, now I just needed to make the Frappuccino. Which brings us to...

Tutorial #2: Red Raspberry Leaf Tea Frappuccino

First, I had to grind my tea a bit. This is the way my tea comes (I buy in bulk, not in the regular baggies)



So, with my trusty Vitamix, I ground it down to a fairly fine powder. Like so.



Then, I just googled the recipe and followed it.

*******UPDATE*********
Since I love to simplify everything as much as possible, I have found the ULTIMATE way to prepare the frappuccino, sans leaf clumps and separating!

1. Brew your tea as normal
2. Pour tea into ice cube trays and freeze
3. Use these instead of regular ice cubes!

Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon RRL tea powder (This didn't seem like I'd get enough tea goodness, so I tripled it to 1 1/2 tsp. Next time I will do a bit more, I think 1 T. would be perfect) - You don't need this if following the updated version.
1/8 cup hot water (I don't know why they say 1/8 cup, it's just 2 tablespoons) - you don't need this either. See?! Simplify.
1/2 cup milk (raw milk... that post is coming up too, get excited)
1 tablespoon sugar (honey)
1 cup ice (I guess I added about 1 1/2 cups...) -UPDATED - Use your ice tea cubes.
a blender in which to throw all these things
2 T. Raspberry Syrup (I just eyeballed it because this wasn't in the recipe)

Directions

Start with the hot water and the green tea powder and wait for it to dissolve before pouring it into the blender. I also put the raspberry syrup in at this time, and I just put them into the blender and stirred them up a little bit, letting the tea steep for a few minutes.



Next, add the sugar (honey) and (raw) milk to the blender.



Mix it all together by running the blender for a few short bursts.

Add the ice and then blend until you get your preferred texture. You'll probably want to stop short of completely blending it so that you get a milkshake type feel to the frappuccino.





And behold: The wonderfully delicious concoction. It really is good, and I'm looking forward to many more months of drinking it! And thinking about it, the only things added to the regular way of drinking this tea are: raspberries, raw milk, and ice. I usually sweeten with honey anyway.



*Update*
I've started adding frozen strawberries to my frappuccinos, I don't know why I didn't think of it right from the beginning. It's that much more delish.


Pregnant women around the world, you're welcome. :)