Iced Coffee- A shark potion

   I dont like coffee, never have. During long nights of studying as an undergrad I would try everything at Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks... but my taste buds resisted all of it. I just resolved that I was never going to be able to use coffee as a normal college student. Then I started grad school, and while I do not spend nearly as much time studying late at night... I am forced to keep my eyes open for 4 hour long classes, which for those who know me understand just how unlikely that is. So I started driving to get those fake cappuccinos from the gas stations. I didn't have time to do that one day so decided to try one of those bottled Starbucks drinks. IT WORKED! I could drink it without holding my nose or chugging it. So it became my new fuel. Since then (about 4 months ago) I have probably spent 70-80 dollars on those darn drinks. As I mentioned I am unable to pay attention for long classes and being a cheep college kid I went online during class today to determine the best way to make the drink myself.

From all the recipies I saw I decided what I thought would make the best combination for the coffee portion, then used some different types of milk to finish the drink off. I expected to go home and experiment with failed trials for a while, but basically nailed it on the first try. So here is exactly what I did, with some suggestions as to what could make it more like the real deal.

Ok so this recipe is pretty darn close to the bottled Starbucks MOCHA frappuccino drink. I am going to try to figure out the vanilla and maybe even caramel at another time.. I'll keep you all posted :)

Mocha Iced Frappuccino Drink

Ingredients
3 Cups Hot Water
4 teaspoons Instant Coffee
1/4 Cup Nesquick chocolate powder
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
6 Tablespoons Sweet and Condensed Milk

3/4 Cup Milk
1 1/2 teaspoons cream

Directions
1. Mix instant coffee, chocolate powder, and brown sugar together in a small bowl while heating the water. (you can make it stronger coffee flavor by adding more instant coffee to the mixture, this recipe has a pretty weak coffee flavor)
2. Add the coffee mixture to the hot water and stir to dissolve
3. Add sweet and condensed milk to the coffee mixture. (this is really where it gets all of its sweetness, so if you want it more or less sweet adjust this amount)
Put in a container and store in the refrigerator

When read to serve place 4-5 ice cubes in a cup. Add about equal parts milk and coffee mixture, stir well and add cream. (Here again you can decide how weak/strong you want the coffee flavor by adjusting the milk:coffee ratio)


I used skim milk because that is what I had, and someone that tried it said the flavor was very similar, but that mine was much thinner. So using a milk with higher fat content may yield better results. I also tried making it with vanilla almond milk... but that came out too sweet for me, but am going to try to use it to make the vanilla one since I will me omitting the chocolate powder. Don't leave out the cream unless you really have it, it really changes the entire drink. I don't really know how because it is such a small amount, but it does.

Depending on how sweet and strong you like your coffee you can adjust many things... here is some suggestions to change these two factors...

Increasing the instant coffee or using less milk will make a stronger coffee drink
Decreasing the chocolate powder will make it less sweet and increase the coffee flavor at the expense of chocolate flavor.
I would not mess with the brown sugar
Decreasing the sweet and condensed milk will decrease the sweetness
Using a higher fat content milk will increase the thickness and creaminess of the drink, but will also slightly weaken the coffee flavor.
USE AT LEAST A LITTLE CREAM... even if it is only the first time just so you understand the difference.

Something Pumpkin- Krispie Treats

I had a bunch of Rice Krispy cereal that I had planed to make treats out of. So when I started talking about making pumpkin EVERYTHING Lauren suggested using those and finding a pumpkin krispy treat recipe. So I did.. they came out tasting amazing, but I was not patient enough to let them cool, so if you make them, LET THE MIXTURE COOL. So here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

5 Tbs unsalted butter

16 oz package marshmallows

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp fresh (or dried) nutmeg

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

7 cups Rice Krispies Cereal

1 cup choc chips (slightly optional, although I don't find them to be optional)

Step 1:

Brown the Butter

To do this... Put the butter in the pan, now wait.

It will bubble up, foam, and caramelize. 

It should take 5-10 min, and should end up a LIGHT brown color. If you wait too long it will burn.

Step 2:

Add the marshmallows and pumpkin puree

Mix until the marshmallows melt completely 

Step 3:

Once all the marshmallows dissolve add in the spices, salt, and vanilla.

Mix to combine. Now WAIT!

Step 4:

It will look like bellow

WAIT!

WAIT!

WAIT!

If you do not wait the cereal will get soggy, I know it will because mine did. And while I really like them, the texture is really hard to get past because it is not crispy at all. I would say wait 15-20 min, if it gets too cool, you can reheat it for a bit. But make sure you wait long enough

Step 5:

Add in the cereal and mix

Step 6:

BUTTER, not oil a 9x13 pan and pack in the treats

Step 7:

Let it cool for 6 hours

Melt the chocolate and spread on top:)

Step 8:

MMMMMMMM

YUM!

Something pumpkin A-Z

So I had this great idea... to make Lauren and I fat. The plan is to make something pumpkin from A-Z. I started on October 1st and it will continue until November 21st which is Thanksgiving day. This post will show what we made, and following blogs will have the recipes.

A- Apple Butter
B- Breakfast Casserole
C- Cream cheese bars
D- Dip
E- Eggless truffles
F- Frappe
G- Granola
H- Hot chocolate
I- Icing
J- Jack-o-lantern cookies
K- Kisses Cookies
L- Latte
M- Monkey bread
N- Nutella Swirled pumpkin Pie
O- Ooey Gooy Caramel Blondies
P- "pumpkin" bread
Q- Quaker oatmeal chocolate chip bars
R- Rice Krispie Treats
S- Smoothie
T- Tres Leches
U- Upside down pie
V- Vanilla Bean Cream Pie
W- Waffles
X- X-Ray cookies
Y- Frozen Yogurt (go to Menchies)
Z- Zebra Cakes

Goodbye to our Blog Virginity!

What happens when you let two people who are destined to change the world live together for two years? Well, first of all you get many ideas, several recipes, a variety of therapy sessions (athlete problems), and most importantly a blog! We are Lauren, a typical Type A, pre-med student and Rachel,  a what we like to call "go with the flow-er," a physical therapy student. Two students driven to succeed and change the world at the same time. This is our way of sharing what happens behind our door on a daily basis. Our world is anything but ordinary. We thrive off the constant chaos in our filled, young lives and love every second of it. We consider the events of our everyday lives, whether they are good or bad, as gifts and opportunities to learn and better ourselves and the people around us. So this is our story. We hope you will follow our progress towards our ambitious dreams and enjoy hearing about our slightly odd habits (look forward to our delicious recipes!).

Today we watched The Lorax and this quote at the end just sums up our view on the importance of one person...
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not!"
      - Dr. Seuss The Lorax