Announcing the winners of our chai contest!

Congratulations to jewelsy for winning first place with her fabulous Sweet and Savory Spiced Chicken! We thought it was a unique recipe and embodied exactly what the contest is about. She wins 0.8 ounces of Chai tea, her choice of a Pier 1 mug, and a tea infuser/strainer.

Second place goes to tinytuna and her recipe for Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa! The presentation was wonderful and it fits so great with the season. She wins 0.8 ounces of Chai tea and a tea infuser/strainer. 

Thank you for your entries guys! Over the next few days, we’re going to try out your recipes and feature them on the blog. Keep a lookout!

We’ve only gotten two entrants so far. Let’s get crackin’!

See the contest rules here.

On the other hand, we have some good news and some bad news. 

The bad news is that, after the contest is over and we choose our winners, we’re going to take a temporary hiatus. We have been way too busy with school to post anything decent for you guys, and we prefer to deliver some quality stuff for you to see.

The good news is, before we go, we’re going to write one last post for Home-Made Helpings, which we’ll share here as well. We always think of you guys, don’t we?

Love you all!

Guys, look how cute!

Our good friend Isai made us a little animation for our chai tea contest. Isn’t it absolutely adorable?

So that being said, we’re extending the contest until the end of October. We feel this will give everyone more than enough time to create something amazing. 

Check out the new contest dates here and make sure to subscribe to Isai’s YouTube channel to see even more animations.

Chai tea breakfast rolls
Chai-inspired contest submission #1 from Jewelsy

[Recipe].

Sweet and savory spiced chicken with caramelized garlic and onions
Chai-inspired contest submission #1 from Jewelsy

[Recipe].

Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa
Chai-inspired contest submission from tinytuna

Pumpkin spice syrup 

2 tablespoons pumpkin puree
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Over low heat, bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally to keep the sugar from burning.Simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved and the pumpkin is fully mixed into the syrup. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to an airtight container. Refrigerate and use within 3 weeks.

Now for the hot chocolate  …
Melt good dark chocolate over a double boiler until smooth and lucious, remove from the heat and pour in full fat milk (or skim, your choice) and blend until it’s still viscous (between heavy cream and pudding in consistency)  Add a pinch of salt! 
Add pumpkin spice syrup to your taste and top off with a nice big swirl of whipped cream (homemade and lightly sweetened) 

You can do a chilled version as well, just blend everything cool with ice and you’re good to go!  
Enjoy on these chilly autumn days! 


www.Adventuressheart.com 

To invite the fall weather, I wanted to change it up this Tea Time Tuesday by presenting you guys a contest.

Thinking of you, we went ahead and bought some loose leaf chai tea and small trinkets for you to enjoy. If you win, we’ll send you a sample pouch of tea (enough to make 8-10 servings) and other tea-making supplies.

Here’s how it goes:

• Make any food item you want using at least 3 typical chai tea ingredients: black tea, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, cloves, vanilla, and black pepper.
• Take a nice, clean photo and invest time into your presentation. It doesn’t matter if you have a DSLR or a camera phone. Just make the food look edible. (Here are some food photography tips via Vegan Yum Yum).
• Submit your entries here. Be sure to include (a) at least one photo, (b) your three chai ingredients, (c) your own recipe, and (d) the story behind your idea. Optionally, you can link us to your food blog or professional site if you have one. We will post these publicly once you submit.
• We will be judging on creativity. Make something that has never been done before and try not to adapt recipes. We want to see what you can create.
• Submissions close on Monday, October 31. Winners will be announced on Friday, November 4.

Winners and prizes:

• There will be three winners for this contest. Natalie and I will recreate all three of the winners’ recipes and feature them on the blog, then evaluate their rankings.

1. First prize: 0.8 oz chai tea, your choice Pier 1 mug, and tea infuser/strainer.
2. Second prize: 0.8 oz chai tea and tea infuser/strainer.
3. Third prize: 0.8 oz chai tea.

Make sure to reblog this and let your friends know about the contest! 

P.S. If you have any questions, aim ‘em here.

Rosemary Sweet Potato Bread (Vegan)

Without even realizing it while I was making it, this dish is both earthy/Thanksgiving-y and has bananas in it, satisfying both of our most recent Suggestion Friday requests.

This is a vegan rosemary sweet potato bread, completely invented by yours truly. No eggs, no margarine or oil, no sweeteners. I wanted to create something warm and chunky for the cold weather that’s to come, yet healthy and lively. I heavily adapted my own vegan banana bread recipe and replaced most of it with sweet potato and herbs. Like I said, there is absolutely no added sugar—the sweetness of the rosemary potato with the added bananas really take control of this savory bread.

I’m proud of the way this came out and I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did! Once it cooled, I wrapped it up in tin foil and I’ve been gobbling it up for breakfast with my tea/coffee all week. And if you don’t like sweet potato, I’m sure you can substitute this with pumpkin, or even butternut squash. Yummm.

[Recipe].

I want to start with saying this is neither earthy, or has bananas in it. These came about last Saturday afternoon, when I was hungry and felt the need for something fried but not utterly unhealthy, and I started rummaging around the plastic tubs of food to be found in my dorm room. And what did I find? Something fishy.

Tuna. I had about seven cans of it, for some odd reason. So what do you do with seven cans of tuna? Well, you fry them up and make tuna cakes, obviously!

THIS was the recipe I used, altering it slightly, of course. Mostly in portion size, but also in ingredients. I’m not too fond of spicy things, and tuna and jalapeno peppers didn’t sound tasty to me, so I replaced those with green onions. The product? DELICIOUS, and fast and simple too. Sure, the bubbling olive oil was a little but of a safety hazard, but hey, if you don’t try new things and tricks, you won’t grow.