With the recession in full swing a lot of us are reassessing our food budgets.

The inflation that is about to hit will hurt deeper than we can imagine and it means that more and more people are going to look for ways of saving on their grocery bill.

I personally think that most people will come out of this recession stronger and healthier than before because so many people are bringing their lunch to work, eating at home more often and cutting meals in restaurants.

I was recently reading about Guy Irace, a man who lost his job on Wall Street and started teaching. The switch meant that Guy was eating differently because he had to ditch his daily $12 each day lunch grabbed at a city eatery. This also meant that Guy dropped a whopping 40 lbs in the process.

You can read the article I was reading here: Guy Irace drops 40 lbs!

I know that each time I’ve been laid off, I have always lost quite a bit of weight because I was no longer eating those ordered meals during lunch meetings that were often not the best food choices for sedentary office workers.

One of the things laid-off workers quickly drop from their diets are the high-calorie drinks they used to consume each day. You know what I’m talking about: expensive coffees that should be called desserts, countless soft drinks, sugary juices, bottled or fountain iced tea and those hot chocolates you get in vending machines that should really be illegal given how much sugar they contain.

A lot more people are making their daily lattes at home now to save money while they are job hunting and I thought I’d share my own recipe to making homemade iced tea since the weather is about to get hot!

I’ve always enjoyed homemade iced tea and if I go for brunch to an eatery that makes its own iced tea on the premise, I know it’s an obvious choice for me.

I’ve drank a number of bottled iced teas and I find they are often quite sweet.

A few years ago when I got laid off from a high-paying job, I was looking for ways to cut corners and since I always find most store-bought drinks too sweet, I thought of turning my cup of green tea into a glass of iced tea!

You might have to experiment with this and find the right balance for you. I like my tea and coffee strong so I usually add quite a lot of tea bags and I put less sugar than most people because I don’t like sugary drinks.

I find that making my own iced tea is quite economical, but the best part is really the fact that I know exactly what’s in it (no preservatives) and I also know how much sugar is in it!

I only use three simple ingredients and I can assure you that once you start making your own homemade iced tea, you won’t see the point of buying the bottled ones.

I started making iced tea with black tea, but after trying to make iced tea with jasmine green tea over a hot summer weekend, I’ve never gone back to black tea ever again!

I will apologize in advance because my quantities will be a bit of an approximation because I’m more Nigella Lawson in the kitchen than Martha Stewart, but the following recipe will give you about 1 litre of iced tea!

You’ll also notice that I’ve listed white sugar for this recipe, but I make mine with raw sugar now after having made it with white sugar for years.

>>>> Summer Jasmine Green Iced tea recipe

INGREDIENTS:

4 tea bags of jasmine green tea (put three if you don’t like your tea to be too strong, I use a traditional ceramic tea pot that makes about the equivalent of 6 mugs of tea)

Hot water (you can use filtered water if you wish, I use plain cold water from the tap)

6 tablespoons of white sugar or raw sugar

DIRECTIONS

1)  Once you’ve boiled your water, you’ll want to pour it in your tea pot that contain your tea bags (be careful … the water is super hot).

2) You’ll want to add your tablespoons of sugar when the water is hot to help the sugar dissolve easily.

3) You’ll then want to brew your tea to the strength of your choice (so the longer you brew your tea, the stronger it will be).

4) Once brewed, pour your iced tea into a glass container and put in your refrigerator. You’ll want to taste you tea and see if it’s sugary enough for you. If you didn’t put enough sugar, simply boil a bit of water and add more sugar and pour the sugary water into your tea to adjust the taste. You can also buy liquid sugar to adjust the sugar levels.

5) You’ll want to keep some of the iced tea to place in ice cube trays and freeze. This will allow you to add ice cubes that won’t water down your iced tea!

When serving your homemade iced tea, you can add iced tea ice cubes and some sliced lemon rounds and you’ve got yourself a nice glass of refreshing tea.

The best part about making homemade iced tea other than the fact that each glass costs you only a few pennies is that you are able to control your sugar intake and you know that your homemade iced tea only contains three ingredients!

Photo by Ollie Crafoord

Before being a beauty editor, I used to be a food editor and before that I was a part-time personal chef. Food is just part of who I am. I’m always thinking about food or I’m thinking about a new recipe. I receive four or five weekly newsletters and I’m always hunting for the next great food and flavour combination.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again … if grocery shopping was an Olympic sport, I’d represent my country well!

I’d love to say that I’ve inherited my love of good food at home, but it’s something that I learned as an adult.

Of course, there is nothing quite like having to write about food to really become an expert on the subject and this is a luxury I’m very grateful to have had.

I’ve known about the Slow Food movement for a few years now (I discovered the organization while writing the third edition of my food guide), but it’s only now that I decided to make the time to join. There has been a chapter in Canada for a few years now and I feel fully ready to become more active in spreading the word and helping readers understand why it’s important to make time for slow foods and real foods as opposed to fast foods and junk foods.

Slow Food, like so many other good things in this world, finds its roots in Italy! The movement was created in 1986 by Italian food writer Carlo Petrini as a protest against the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in Rome in 1986.

I really don’t have a good explanation as to why it took me so long to join, but I think my need to find a more balanced life has also pushed me into moving forward and taking the plunge. I really felt ready to become more active in the movement that praised good quality food and that praised the pleasure of sharing food with people. Regardless of the amount of chaos that has happened in the last few years, I’ve managed in some way to never forget to feed my body with high quality ingredients. I also wanted to be part of an organization where I can mingle with other people who also want to take certain aspect of their lives “slowly”.

I once made a joke with a guy I was seeing who asked me how come I always had sautéed onions in my fridge because “normal” people don’t have sautéed onions on hand … I explained that I sauté when I’m happy and I sauté when I’m sad. Regardless of my state of mind, I’m always more than happy to cook.

Slow Food is not only about sitting around a big table and eating elaborately prepared dishes with other foodies, Slow Food is also all about celebrating fresh, seasonal produce, local growers, recipes that have been handed down by a grandmother or a mother and artisans who have a passion for their craft … basically it’s the celebration of “REAL GOOD” food.

Another real aspect of Slow Food is that in the end it will save our planet because it’s a very eco-friendly way of living … if you buy from local growers you reduce the need for food to travel long distances and you also are eating food that is fresher because local growers can allow fruits and vegetables to mature a little longer in the soil. Don’t get me wrong, I would go into panic mode if I could no longer buy exotic fruits at my local grocery shop, but when it comes to fruits like apples … I’ll buy locally grown fruits over exports.

I’m sure that there will be many food events to share with you and many recipes and food ideas to talk about.

I hope you’ll keep reading about my Slow Food adventures!

I’ve read many testimonials in favour of the Slow Food movement and I’ve read feedback from many happy members, but the following testimonial is of Royal proportions:

“I am an enormous admirer of the Slow Food Movement and of the remarkable work it has done to encourage sustainable agriculture, to increase appreciation of good food and to celebrate and share the knowledge – often developed over millennia – of the traditions involved with quality food production.”

– HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales

If you want to know more about a local chapter of this food movement, you can find details on their Web site: Slow Food

Photo by cygnus921