![Fresh & Fruity Coconut Water]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Jun 19, 2015 | Drinks, Iftar, Ramadan, Suhoor
There’s no doubt that one of the hardest part of the fasting day might not even be going without food, but going without water. That’s why it’s super important to hydrate during the non-fasting hours, all throughout those hours. It’s easy to remember to do if you make a huge jar of a natural, hydrating drink and keep it on hand to fill up large cups to drink after eating the Iftar meal, take it on the go to the taraweeh prayers, and more.
I made this wonderful large jar of fruity coconut water earlier in the day, refrigerated it and took it out at Iftar time. I drink as much as I can throughout the night and before it’s time to stop eating and drinking once again. Use fresh fruits you have on hand, the best coconut water you can find (or just water) and fresh herbs from your garden to make it extra special and refreshing.
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![Linden Berry Tea for Wintertime Colds & Flu]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Feb 22, 2015 | Drinks, Winter
I’ve wanted to share this recipe for a long time, and I’m not sure what took me so long other than the fact that this tea is usually made when I feel a sickness coming on, like a cold or a flu. Alhamdullilah (thank God), that’s rare in my house, so I don’t need to grab for it too often, but today I have had to drink several cups. I also feel very nostalgic for my best friend who first introduced it to me and gave me handfuls of it to keep. She brought it from Turkey, where they call it Ihlamur, and I was very sure to not forget the name of it so I could ask for it and look for it should I run out. Thankfully, she has re-stocked me several times!
Ihlamur is the Turkish word for linden berry, which also grows in the U.S.- I know because she actually showed it to me on the street and told me there was a certain time of year in which the leaves should be picked and further dried. They also have these tiny berries that come along with all the leaves when you pick them, as you can see on the plate above. I actually think we have them in our yard now, but I keep missing the season to go and pick them. This gardener talks about them here, giving some fascinating facts and you can even buy it dried in some Mediterranean or specifically Turkish shops. Online gives you more options to source it, though:
Once you have the leaves, the tea is easy to make and lasts a long time without getting bitter. In fact, it’s better and better when you leave it out, covered, of course.
Simply boil water and add the leaves, letting them steep over low heat, for about 10 minutes. At this point, turn the pot off and let the leaves stay in the pot, scooping out only enough liquid for the amount of tea being served and straining the leaves from the pot for each cup of tea.
For each cup of tea, add a spoon of good honey like this one from Canada, or this one from Germany:
..and the juice of one quartered lemon. Serve warm.
The other thing I love is that if/when this gets cold, I simply cover it and put it in the refrigerator (once leaves are strained) and reheat over the stove when I want to have some more. In this way, it’s good for several days.
I really hope you reach for ihlamur this winter, not because you need it but because you want to try it. Who knows, maybe in the spring you’ll even find a linden tree your yard and pick the berries and leaves. Just be sure to check with your local arborist to make sure what you’ve picked is safe to consume.
![Chocolate & Banana Smoothie]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Sep 27, 2014 | American, Breakfast & Brunch, Drinks
One of the things I really love doing is showing people how to make simple, all-natural recipes using truly wholesome ingredients. It’s an additional bonus when those products have been halal-certified to ensure that the entire process of bringing that product to market is also halal, as there can always be issues with other ingredients crossing into a halal product and there can be issues with packaging, too. For more information on that, check out the IFANCA (Islamic Food and Nutrition Council) website, as they are a tremendous source of information on all things halal-certified and food science. I’m working with IFANCA on their upcoming halal and healthy workshops around the Chicagoland area where I’ll be conducting food demos on four different recipes, all super simple and all nusing halal-certified products.
This chocolate drink is one of four I’ll be making and our audience tasting at each one. If you can’t be at the workshop, you can still enjoy the flavors, the simplicity of the process and see which halal-certified products can be used to make it.
For more information about the locations, dates and times of the workshops, please visit the IFANCA Facebook or Twitter pages. Of course I’ll be sharing on the My Halal Kitchen Facebook and Twitter pages, too. We’d love to see you in person!
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![Smoothie Packs]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Aug 28, 2014 | American, Drinks, Suhoor, Summer
This past Ramadan I got really used to drinking smoothies at iftar and sometimes even at suhoor. Now here were are a couple of months out, and they are very much still on my radar, especially since I’ve frozen so much of the fruit that was leftover and still gets left over from weekly shopping. But what I decided to do this time around was to make packs of fruits, combining the ones I wanted to have together in a smoothie since it’s just easier to take it right out of the bag and add the things you can’t necessarily freeze so well. Here’s what I do:
Gather your favorite fruits, freshest fruits, most seasonal fruits and think about what combos you’d like to prepare in a smoothie. Then, get proper freezing bags, plus think about what liquids you’d like to add to the smoothies once they’re prepared fresh (I don’t actually advise freezing milk, yogurt, coconut water or any creams but just showed them here for visual purposes).
Mark the bags, using freezer tape and nice and bright markers like Sharpies, which don’t bleed when cold or frozen.
I personally like to combine dates with figs, dates with apricots, figs with bananas, pineapple with banana and coconut flakes.
Proportionally, I bag enough for one or two, but not more than that at a time so that they’re easy for everyone in the house to make their one when they want, especially for breakfast.
For example, I put 2 large figs (cut in half so that when they’re frozen they’re easy on the blender), 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup whole milk. Really delicious and makes about 12 ounces of a very smooth smoothie when blended until all the lumps are gone.
One last word of advice is to use whole milk products such as whole-milk yogurt so that the resulting drink isn’t too watery. Coconut water is so excellent in smoothies, too, but you almost never need as much as you think because the fruits have so much water in them, too, especially after they’ve been frozen.
![Cucumber Spritzer]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Aug 27, 2014 | Drinks, Summer
Even though we’re almost at the end of August, the weather seems to be getting hotter and hotter. This cucumber spritzer is the perfect way to stay cool and refreshed at this time of year.
All you need is sparkling water, lemons, and cucumbers of course! There are two cucumbers photographed below, but you only need one. Add more if you like.
Just pour the sparkling water into the pitcher then add in the fresh lemon juice. Add the thinly sliced cucumbers and lemons and mix. It’s that simple!
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![Strawberry Lemonade]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Aug 9, 2014 | Drinks, Summer
Lemonade is the quintessential summer time drink in America, isn’t it? I absolutely love it and it will always remind me of my childhood days when I had my own lemonade stand outside of my house where I grew up. I set up a small table with my mom’s pitcher full of lemonade made from Country Time® lemonade packets, paper cups and napkins for every customer. Each cup was a quarter and my best customer was always our regular postman. Do kids still do this today?
Nowadays I don’t care for lemonade out of a packet, at most restaurants or from a bottle bought at the store. It is so super easy to make at home, but you just need to be patient about preparing a lot of lemons, of course.
As well as fresh mint.
To use lemons, you can add strawberries and make strawberry lemonade, like I made here.
What I do during this project of a recipe is to save all the lemon peels and dry them. They are so wonderful dried because you can use add them to hot boiling water to make tea or add them to soups and stews. You can even candy them, if you like.
To make the lemonade, add ice to a blender first. That’s sort of the rule of thumb when blending- get the iciest or frozen things at the bottom so the blades can start breaking those down first. If they’re on top, it’s nearly impossible for the blades and can actually ruin the motor of your blender if it works too hard like that.
Then add frozen strawberries, or fresh if that’s what you have.
Next, some cane sugar. I don’t like sweet drinks, so I go easy on the sugar but you can always add more if you prefer it sweeter.
Next some cool water.
Now squeeze all those lemons. I like to use my handy citrus press that I got from a local Mexican store.
Next, blend it all up in the blender for about 30 seconds to a minute and it’ll froth like this. But that will settle. 
Just pour into serving pitcher or glasses directly.
Then add a sprig of fresh mint to flavor it even more.
That’s it- just a refreshing taste of summer every time.
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