Happy Hump Day! 🙂
Yesterday was pretty exciting over here. My quinoa-stuffed roasted green peppers were featured in SHAPE Magazine’s 10 Tasty Green Foods for St. Patty’s Day!
You can view the whole tasty slideshow here. I’m honored to be among such great company, including fellow bloggers Brittany and Katie.
My company, DreamChamps, also received a fun mention yesterday on Fast Company’s Fast Co-Exist in an article called Building Better Businesses By Closing The Happiness Gap. And to top things off, Bobby and I had the chance to attend the Northwestern vs. Akron basketball game, their first in the NIT tournament. The Cats were able to secure a nail-bitingly close victory. Woohoo!
There have been some delicious meals on the eats front, such as this breakfast creation. Nothing particularly new other than the fact that scrambled eggs with veggies never get old. 🙂 These were made with spinach, mushrooms, red pepper, potatoes and chicken sausage, then doused with a generous amount of salsa and queso cheese.
I’ve also been drinking plenty of tea, which reminds me that I’m overdue for a review of a product that was sent to me recently: Bamboo Bottle. I brought it with me on my trip to Milwaukee over the weekend. Long review short, it rocks!
The Bamboo Bottle is made using glass (the inner portion where the liquid goes), renewable bamboo and BPA-free plastic. Their claim to fame is that they provide pure flavor for any hot or cold drink, and are durable and sustainable while also being dishwasher safe.
I think what I was most pleasantly surprised about was the fact that they were spot on about the “pure flavor.” Often when I put hot drinks (especially coffee and tea) into a plastic to-go cup or reusable mug, I find there is something off about the taste. Perhaps it’s all in my head, but it’s as if the plastic adds an extra flavor that shouldn’t be there. With this glass bottle, I noticed no difference between it and what I’d usually find drinking out of a mug.
You can buy Bamboo Bottles for $25.00. A bit on the pricey side, but I think they more than make up for themselves if you bring drinks with you on-the-go a lot. And luckily, the company is offering an online discount for Eating Bender readers!
You can get 20% off of a purchase by putting the word “Health” into the coupon code box during checkout. Find the online retailers by clicking here.
Thanks again to the team at Bamboo Bottle for allowing me to try it out.
Now let’s talk tea.
Believe it or not, I have recently replaced my beloved three-a-day Coffee Cocoa. I have never been a huge fan of tea, but over Christmas at home I was re-introduced to the wonders of Teavana by Mama Bender, and the rest is history.
I don’t have anything against coffee. In fact, I still love the occasional latte or mocha from Starbucks or Caribou. But overall, at 25 calories per 16 oz. mug of tea vs. 60 per Coffee Cocoa on a daily basis – not to mention the herbal benefits of tea – it seemed like a switch that was right for me.
Teavana teas are definitely not cheap, but a pound of each of my favorite flavors – Raspberry Riot Lemon Mate, Blueberry Bliss Rooibos and Strawberry Lemonade Herbal – combined with a bulk-sized order of German Rock Sugar and the occasional online coupon gets me through at least two months of tea-drinking bliss, which comes out to roughly $1.11 per mug on an average of drinking three mugs per day. That may still seem ridiculous to some, but compared to the cost of K-Cups, creamer, whipped cream and hot chocolate, it’s roughly the same – and a lot better for me.
And it’s definitely cheaper than a daily Starbucks run.
That said, what works for me doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, and I’d love to hear from you.
Are you a coffee or a tea drinker? What strategies do you use to “drink” cheaper?
The most surprising aspect of this new habit for me is the fact that I didn’t set out to fully replace coffee. My plan was to do a balance of both to make all the ingredients last even longer, but once I became familiar with the taste of tea I found that the Coffee Cocoa was too much for me. I think it’d be interesting to try homemade coffee again without the extra sweet ingredients. I’ll make sure to post my thoughts when I do.
Abrazos,
I’ve saved tons of $$ and time by using Trader Joe’s instant coffee. Most instant coffee is pretty terrible, but theirs is delicious. At $3.49 for essentially a month’s supply, it’s about as cheap as you can get a caffeine buzz. I heat up a cup of milk and mix a tablespoon of coffee for an instant latte. Perfect for someone with no time in desperate need of a wakeup.
And I like TJ’s camomile tea at night 🙂
That’s a great tip on Trader Joe’s! We have a new one that opened up near us, so I’ll have to finally go. I love that store. 🙂
I’ve been drinking tea for years and only recently tried coffee at Seth’s suggestion. I like coffee in terms of aroma and sometimes flavor, but it’s so expensive and makes me jittery that I am sticking to my tea habit. I keep it budget-friendly by scoping out coupons for my favorite brands.
Awesome! What are your favorite brands?
So much good stuff going on over there! Good for you! The feature is just FABULOUS! I love it! I’m not a tea girl, but I totally want to try that bottle
Thank you, Erica! Psst…there might be a giveaway for that bottle coming soon!
I am an avid tea drinker! My mom owns a small tea business that I help her run, so I get to taste test so many fun flavors. I love my coffee, too, but as it gets more and more expensive, I try to go half and half. If you ever want some new flavors to ‘review,’ I can send you some Sage Hollow Tea. 😀
How cool that your mom owns a small tea business! I would love to review Sage Hollow Tea! Let’s chat more about it, if you want – eatingbender@gmail.com. 🙂
I love my coffee, specifically Starbuckles (caramel macchiato), Caribou (vanilla cooler), Dunkin (iced latte)…so, ummm, basically everything…haha. Yep, it certainly gets pricey. I drink the Caribou blend on a daily basis and a bag of the ground coffee usually lasts a while. I like teas too – mainly green tea and peppermint tea. I keep my costs down by shamelessly requesting coffee gift cards for Christmas & my b-day. 🙂
I love the name “Starbuckles,” haha. I love the idea of requesting gift cards! 🙂
I won one of those bottles through a giveaway and although I love it, it doesn’t hold very much liquid! That’s my only real complaint about it but I agree there is no “taste” that you get from bottles like nalgenes and such.
Congrats on being featured for your recipe!
It’s definitely a narrow bottle – and I bet it’s also pretty heavy when you’re outside all day!!
I am a big tea drinker. Teavana tea is great BUT when I want to save a little I buy bagged teas. (usually with coupons and on sale – I drink A LOT of tea) whole foods lets u use their coupons and manufacturer coupons. I got my last box of honey vanilla chamomile (all time fave) for less than $1 add in my almond milk and I’m looking at ~.19 a cup not bad!!! Also yummy peppermint tea (from my own mint plant) with chocolate almond milk yum
Wow – .19 per cup is not bad at all! I love your flavor combinations, especially peppermint with chocolate almond milk. That sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing.
I drink both tea and coffee. I really try to avoid buying a cup of coffee and think that saves me a lot! I buy boxes of tea at the grocery store, usually Celestial Seasonings, and will often reuse the same tea bag twice so I only use one a day but drink 2 cup fulls. I would LOVE a Keurig but I think I would spend a lot of money for supplies!
Great tips! You are very right about Keurig. It’s kind of like a printer – the overall cost of the machine itself is reasonable for the use you’ll get, but they are in the “ink” business like Keurig is in the “K-cup” business! 🙂
I’m definitely a coffee drinker, through and through. I try to get on the tea bandwagon every once and a while, but I only really want it when I’m sick! I’ve started buying my coffee at Trader Joe’s and bringing a mug to work with me. A $5 pound of coffee lasts me about 2 weeks!
So many people are raving about Trader Joe’s coffee! That’s it. I’m going there this weekend!
Drink tea monday – thursday and then splurge with a latte on Friday and French press on the weekends.
I love Tazo teas white apricot and red bush. Also Stash Tea’s Double Chai Spice — yum!
Ooh – I like that system! French press coffee is SO amazing. Where did you get your French press?
Thanks for those tea tips – they sound great!
My French press is from amazon.com. I’ve seen them at kitchen stores and coffee shops too.