How to make a delicious cappuccino.

                My recipe for a delicious cappucino & a beautiful day


We are told to smell the roses each time we are encouraged to relax, take it easy and enjoy life. For a gardener like me I don't just limit myself to smelling the roses, I need to smell the Coffee as well to have a brighter day. You know... make it a " beautiful morning". During my pregnancy I had to limit my daily intake but I would literally open the cupboards and sniff the coffee. Smelling the coffee made me feel soooo much better.

If you are a coffee drinker I hope this post will make you smile!

I am not addicted to coffee by any means ( yes I say it humbly, they are people way worst), one to two cups a day is enough to make me happy especially when I have a lot to get done and I need a 'happy' boost!!!

Okay my own little disclaimer here before we get rolling:Too much coffee is not healthy but being happy is a healthy thing !!!


So today I wanted to simply share my own recipe for homemade cappuccino and share my happiness.

 My sister in-law was visiting recently and when I offered her some coffee she replied that she wasn't a coffee person and wasn't very familiar with cappuccinos. I offered to make her a cup and she asked to have just a little.
 I made her half a cup. She complained at first that I had given her too much but when I asked her minutes later if she liked it, she raised her empty cup and flipped it upside down to show me there wasn't even a drop left in it ...her proof that she liiiiiked.  So I figured...if she liked it why not 'show her how I do it'...

This is just my personal version I want to learn yours so please share your tips. If you have never made one please try this recipe and let me know how you like it!!!

My Ingredients:

• Coffee grounds.

African coffee is (with Brazilian brands of course) my favorite. After all I grew up on the motherland!!! Coffee from Ivory Coast

Image of African coffee grounds from Ivory Coast

 is the best from the continent if you ask me, but oh well that's just my biais opinion.

• Sugar. I prefer brown sugar

• Cinnamon
• Honey
• Flavoring syrup. I love Hazelnut
• Milk.  I prefer Silk Almond milk instead of dairy.
• Whip cream would be yuuummmy but optional. I stopped using it as much as I used to just because I am watching the calories,otherwise it's a great indulgence!!!
• One of many favorite cups/mugs of course!!!

Okay so what do I do?
Make the coffee as usual,
foam or warm my 1/4 cup milk ( I prefer to warm about a cup or more on the stove my kids love to drink the warm leftover).

Ready: A tablespoon of Hazelnut syrup, pour coffee in the mug, add milk, brown sugar, add a little bit of honey stir, top with whip cream ( optional) and add cinnamon.
 And voila!!!

Why Cinnamon? It not only adds flavor but also helps with weight loss soooo it's a way to limit the damage and have a drink packed with flavor!!!



What's your favorite morning drink? How do you make it?
Never had or made a cappuccino? Try and let me know how you like it!
For more fun coffee articles check here and here.


Thanks for stopping by, sharing your comments, Following , Liking the FB page, subscribing by email, sharing with your friends and all those good stuffs...(smiles)

Until next time have a better and healthier life...

N'na

Natural Skincare & Green living: Ways To Reuse Coffee and Make a Coffee Body Scrub

"Hey!!!Don't waste this"!!! These are the words I tend to tell my husband, my kids and my friends when it comes to certain things. I make sure that leftover water and leftover tea are poured on plants and when it comes to coffee it's no exception. So, I just I wanted to take some time to share some of my simple ideas for re-using coffee and hope to learn something from you guys in return!

Picture taken at a local Starbuck!

As a plant lover I learned that coffee and leftover tea, are good plant food!,
Simply pour your leftover coffee on your indoor or outdoor plants. The coffee grounds can also be used as compost. I always make sure to get some extra leftover coffee grounds from the coffee shop. It's great nutrition for acid loving plants and I must say it also seems to do some good to all my indoor tropical plants.

In the kitchen I found that rubbing some coffee on my fingers with ground coffee work as a good odor remover, especially if I had handle fish, garlic or anything smelly.  It works well too in the garbage disposal to deodorize and disinfect.  The leftover coffee can also be used as a fridge deodorizer, simply  place a small bowl filled with fresh coffee grounds in your fridge.
I love the smell of coffee so much that it's my room deodorizer of choice during the winter months. I simply brew some fresh coffee when I need to fill the house with a pleasant aroma! You can actually put some leftover coffee grounds on a cooking sheet and place it in a warm over, but I just prefer brewing.
Leftover coffee can also be used to:

Picture taken at a local Starbuck.

• Make some frappucino
• Marinate your meat
• Replace red wine when cooking meat in recipes calling for wine!
• Flavor cake or waffle recipes ( replacing milk or water for coffee)
• Mix with condensed milk and freeze as popsicle.

Replace milk in your smoothy! Deliciouuuus!
Make ice cubes.  Why wait on a super hot coffee to cool down when you can just throw a coffee cube in?!
Well there must be many other ways to use leftover cofee in the kicthen but that's my little tried and true repertoire here!

It's also possible to use leftover coffee as a dye! You can use your leftover coffee to dye paper or fabric to give it an aged look.
Did you know you can also add it to the wash water when you wash your dark color clothes?! It's also a good dye as beauty hair treatment if you have dark hair. Apply about 5-6 cups of leftover coffee to your wet hair and cover and leave it on your hair from about 15-20 mns before rinsing! But it's only a temporary dye I can not claim that it will work like Garnier!

Since I love hanging at perfumes counters and shopping for candles I also learned to use it to trick my olfactory senses. Carry along some leftover coffee beans  or grounds and inhale them after smelling a perfume! It neutralizes the scent of the fragrance you smelled previously and help you to better sense the following fragrance.
And as to my favorite use of leftover coffee grounds, a little messy I should admit but very rewarding, I use it as a scrub! Yep! I love to use leftover coffee grounds as a facial scrub or a body scrub in the shower.

MAKING COFFEE SCRUB
2 cups coarse coffee. I prefer to just recycle the one I freshly brewed
1/2 sea salt or brown sugar. I skip that step most times
3 tbsp. oil such as olive, coconut, sweet almond, jojoba etc
A drop of scented oil of choices. Totally optional!


The only inconvenience is having the grounds over the shower floor and in...well...let's say that I advise wearing a swim suit bikini when you decide to use it as a full body scrub! I don't know if it's the pleasure of rubbing something totally organic on my body, or feeling like I am giving myself what could have been an expensive spa treatment from the comfort of my home, but I love love love the way my skin  feels afterward! It's best to use fresh ground coffee as it still have many of it's antioxidant property when it's fresh. Like 20-30 minutes after you have brewed some since it will need time to cool some.
So before you think it's a messy idea ( I am making a face)give it a try because you might love the way your skin feel afterward, it's worth trying!

So... no need to let that leftover coffee go to waste right?
What do you tend to do with your leftover coffee? If you tried or try to use is as a facial or body scrub please let me know what you think of it as a scrub! Have you heard that it's claimed to remove cellulite when used as a scrub on thighs and legs?

PLEASE JOIN US ON FACEBOOK WE WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU THERE!

• N'na

Coffee Shops and why we love them so...

This post is just for fun. I love to hangout at Starbucks on Sundays afternoon so I was amused by a French  video that got me to realize how important coffee shops and coffee houses are to some people (like me)!

Picture taken at a local Starbucks on February 6, 2011.

I also realized that many movies do have scenes in Coffee shops/Coffee houses. They are such an integral part of people lives. I thought it would be fun to add some scenes from movies that have greatly entertained us like You Got Mail or the televise serie Friends.

(If you are new on the blog please take time to read my post http://goodhealthdiva.blogspot.com/2011/02/dont-waste-that-coffee-ideas-for.html  I share on this post many pratical ideas for re-using your coffee)!

My hubby and I are Starbucks lovers and we especially enjoy spending some times there on Sundays  evening.  I noticed that a few people are just as regular there on Sundays as we are, one is a wonderful man who just warm our heart each time we run into him on a Sunday evening.
I have started to realize that there is something truly special about a coffee shop. It's not always about the coffee,or is it?! It offers such a wonderful setting to...

• Start (or end)  your day
• Relax,Connect with friends like Friends did at Central Perk
• Make some new ones,
• Run into someone you haven't seen in years ( this happened to my hubby and I twice in the past weeks)
• Regroup from a long day or week, 
• Get some work done, 
• Catch up on some reading, 
• Have a barista as part of your "family" ,
• Learn a new language ( like a scene of Friends with Phoebe speaking in French! Check one of the videos below)
• Fall in love  or at least declare your affection to someone like in the very funny scene of Friends where Rachel is preparing to leave

• Or even run into someone you don't want to see (like that scene from You got mail with Meg Ryan)

Well those are just some of the things that make a coffee shop special to some...

This tall Venti caramel macchiato that I love to top with cinnamon and a low fat very berry coffee cake are some of the things that make me go to Starbucks every Sundays or some Saturdays when I just have to get my Java made by a barista.  The rest of the week I play barista in my own kitchen!

I have ways to go before I can do what this guy does...

What make your coffee shop so special to you?

The video below is actually what inspired me to make time to write this post today and just have a little fun.
I wanted to bless coffee lovers and coffee shop dwellers (smiles) with a post they can appreciate and that would bring a smile as we start this new week! Hopefully this post will also generate a lot of laughter!
This is a French video, I understand the lyrics and it's pretty comical as she talks about some of the things she observes in the Coffee shop, but for those of you who don't understand, I thought you might still enjoy watching it!

Speaking of French here  is something really funny from Friends

I will post later this week on the benefits of omega-3 fats so come by please just to read on a different subject.
 Some time next week I will add another post on coffee! So please make sure to stop by again! Hope to see you soon, in the meantime please tell me...
What's the name of your Favorite Coffee/ coffee shop?! Where is it located? ( Please share so that offers will be inspired to check it out too)

What kind of  coffee shop aficionado  (smiles) are you? The one who is content just going through the Drive -Through?  Or the kind that needs to step in to take in the fullness of your coffee experience? Are you a coffee shop dweller who just have to seat  at least a few minutes or  do you prefer hanging there for at least a couple of hours? How often do you hang at your coffee shop? What makes your coffee shop experience so special to you?

N'na