Free Printable gift labels - hand drawn from me with love

Christmas is on its way and I doodled a whole page of gift labels. I thought I would share them with love as a gift to my readers so that you guys could print off some of your own. Either print them on regular white cartridge paper, coloured paper or sticker paper. I even included a round label to add to mason jars for those of you who are like me and like to give gifts from the kitchen. 

There are lots of uses for these little guys, get creative! 

Please respect my rights as an artist and use these labels for personal use only. Feel free to share them with family and friends, but please do not use them for commercial gain.

1. Select image from Blog (right click).
2. Save image as... on to your computer.
3. Open file and print.


Would anyone be interested in getting a workable EPS file? I would love to know what people think. When I use these little tags for my gifts, I'll make sure I add pictures to my post.

Enjoy!

Homemade Chai - From My Kitchen

 

Make your home smell absolutely wonderful and have a cup of chai to boot. This recipe is one of my favorites during the holidays and I have been making it for guests for years. Its always a crowd pleaser.
So far since the weather has turned colder, I've had a pot of the chai spices simmering on my stove almost constantly. Many store bought chai mixes or bags have unwanted junk or nutmeg in it. I usually adore nutmeg, but apparently it is toxic to babies while they are in the womb and not good to have while breastfeedng? I was very suprised to learn this since I had no idea about this for my first pregnancy.

What you will need

4 cups of water
1 stick of cinnamon
1 slice of fresh ginger (a chunk of candied ginger would work too)
1 small handful of cardamom pods
6-10 whole cloves
6-10 whole peppercorns
2-3 whole star anise
4-6 whole allspice

2-3 teabags (any plain flavor teabags work - black, rooibos,decaf black are great choices)
2 cups of whole milk (almond milk or soy milks work great with this too)
1 Tbsp of sugar (or to taste)

Method
1. Boil water with spices in medium sized pot for at least 30 minutes. The longer the better I'd say (just make sure it doesn't dry up) down to 2 cups of liquid.
2. Remove from heat.
3. Strain spices from pot.
4. Steep tea bags in liquid for 5 minutes.
5. Remove teabags and return liquid to stove. 6. Add sugar and milk. 5. Heat back up on medium heat to be sure not to scald the milk.

Serves 4

Once you have made my version, maybe consider personalizing it by adding more or less of what you would like!

Other considerations:
Vanilla Bean/Extract
Nutmeg
Fennel Seed
Orange Peel

If you aren't sure what the effect will be if you add more or take away, here is a brief description of what each or the spices adds to the Chai spice blend from my recipe.

cinnamon - slightly spicy, sweet, very aromatic. Gives it that warm cozy feeling.
ginger - spicy/hot
cardamom - is the exotic base spice for this blend. It is slightly spicy, herbal and kind of citrus-like.
cloves - strong flavored, warm and spicy. A little of this goes a long way. Very aromatic. In my humble opinion it is slightly floral tasting.
peppercorns - its a classic... its spicy and warm. 
star anise - aromatically sweet. It tastes a bit like licorice and fennel.
allspice- I used to think that this spice was a combo of a bunch of spices because of its name... but it turns out its named that because others agree: it tastes like mixture of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg

Its fun to play around with recipes and create something truly unique. Maybe your version will end up being your family's next best kept secret?

Enjoy!

Lentil Couscous Soup - From My Kitchen

This simple and tasty soup is hearty, and would be perfect on a cool Autumn's day! It features the delicate flavor of fennel matched with Garam Masala. I think I feel a craving coming on...

What you will need

1 Tbsp of olive oil
1 small onion chopped
2 large carrots sliced
1/2 large fennel bulb chopped
1 lb of tomatoes chopped
1 box of low sodium chicken/ veggie broth
1 tsp of curry powder
1/2 tsp of ginger powder
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
2/3 cup of dried red lentils
1/2 cup of whole wheat dry couscous

1/4 toasted slivered almonds (optional) 

Method:

1. Heat oil in large pot. 
2. On medium heat, add chopped vegetables and brown. Add a sprinkle of salt to help the browning process.
3. Add broth and bring pot to a boil.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and let the put simmer for about 15-20 minutes. 

Serves 4

Taco Salad - From My Kitchen

This salad is super easy to make, affordable, fast and yummy. I make this salad for dinner and it makes a satisfying. meal.

What you will need

For the quinoa: 

1/2 cup of uncooked quinoa

1/2 cup of salsa

1/2 cup of vegetable stock

For the rest: 

1/2 head of washed and torn lettuce

1 can of black beans 

1 cup thawed and rinsed corn 

1/4 finely diced white onion

1 cup of diced fresh tomatoes

1/2 cup of sour cream

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

3/4 cup salsa

corn chip 

Serves 3

Method

1. Combine the ingredients for the quinoa in a small pot. Bring to a boil then simmer until the quinoa is tender. Cool ahead of time. (I have added the frozen corn to the quinoa to cool it off faster if you couldn't do this ahead of time) 

2. For the rest, layer the ingredients for individual servings, or lay them all out on the table for guests to assemble themselves! Easy as PIE!

There are lots of other ingredients or substitutions you could make. Why not try avocado, grilled chicken, green onions, chopped bell peppers? I also like to serve extra corn chips on the side. Yum yum! Get creative but most of all, ENJOY! 

Gabrielle 

Tomato Basil Quinoa Salad - From My Kitchen

This year my dad decided to put a couple tomato plants in the garden to see how they would do. They did very well! From only two plants there is about 15 pounds of tomatoes. Since I am one of his favorite people, he gave me a few. I made this delicious salad featuring protein packed quinoa, fresh basil, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Very often in my kitchen, I won't use a recipe. Only recently have I started to write some recipes down. I thought I would share this one:

What you will need

For the quinoa:
1/2 lemon, juiced and zest
1 cup of water
1 cup of vegetable stock
1 cup of uncooked quinoa
3 Tbsp of your best olive oil
2 tsp dry oregano

For the rest:
approximately 2.5 lbs of fresh diced tomatoes (I used 3)
1 long english cucumber diced
1/4 white onion finely chopped
1 cup of fresh basil chiffonade
1/3 cup of feta cheese crumbled or cubed
a few garlic cloves finely chopped (optional)

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Serves up to 4

Method
1. Squeeze the juice out from half of a large lemon into a measuring cup. Fill the rest of the cup with water up to the one cup mark. Add these to a medium sized saucepan with the zest, vegetable stock and quinoa. Bring pot to a boil, then immediately bring the temperature down to simmer with the lid on until the quinoa is tender. Remove from heat and fluff.

2. For the rest... combine ingredients into a large serving bowl. I didn't add garlic to mine since I still have a pregnancy aversion to it. I did however, add a dash of garlic powder at the end.

3. Once the quinoa is cooled to room temperature, mix in the olive oil and dry oregano.

4. Add the quinoa mixture to the rest of the ingredients in the large bowl and gently mix with a wooden spoon.

5. Add pepper to taste. You may want to add some salt as well, but I didn't since the feta is already salty.

I made this one night when it was just me and Ezra eating for dinner. He really enjoyed it! I made sure that the quinoa was really soft for him. I made a huge batch because I wanted to have more for left overs. I'm glad I did. It was very yummy.

A Tip!
If you feel intimidated to cook with quinoa, or have found that when you have in the past its been bland, make sure you are adding flavor during the cooking process. That way you can get the flavor deep into the grain. To do this, simply substitute the water for a different liquid(s) such as: stock, juice of any kind (diluted), vinegar (diluted), salsa! You name it!

Once I realized that I could do this with quinoa, it quickly became a main staple in my pantry. It is such a protein packed grain that it leaves the body satisfied for a long time.

Enjoy!

Gabrielle