Wahaca: Easy Horchata

As part of my new diet, one meal a day is either a protein bar or a protein shake.  I feel a little guilty about consuming both of these products as they contain a ridiculous number of ingredients that I have never heard of and are produced in a laboratory rather than grown in the ground.  This goes totally against the principle I've been trying to adopt of only eating things that you know where they come from (and I don't mean you can eat something because it comes from Waitrose - other supermarkets are available).

But that's what the meal plan says and so that's what I've been trying to do in my last-ditch, desperate attempt to get back to my happy weight so I can wear my favourite two outfits once more this Christmas.

The only thing these products have going for them is that they're pretty filling.  And because, since having Miss A, I tend to get the munchies at 4.30pm, I have one or other of these 'meal replacements' to banish my grazing needs once and for all.  I have tried Graze boxes, but they don't work - I'll just end up eating two or three if I'm that kind of mood.  But the protein stuff seems to be the solution.

Leafing through my new copy of Wahaca: Mexican Food at Home this week, I found two potential replacements for the protein shakes.  Although not scientifically balanced and guaranteed to help me lose weight (provided I eat nothing but lettuce and exercise seven hours a day, seven days a week), they're made using simple ingredients, packed full of all the good stuff that you're supposed to eat.

A drink that knows where it came from - my kitchen!

I tried the Horchata first.  This is a blended mixture of rice milk, almonds, oats, cinnamon, honey, banana and yogurt.  I chose it because I thought I could share it with Miss A.  Unfortunately whilst I liked mine, she wasn't a fan and insisted that she wanted a chocolate milkshake.  I ended up re-blending hers with a teaspoon of cocoa powder - it was then consumed in about five seconds flat.

The one thing I didn't do was serve it over ice as recommended.  I thought it would be okay because some of my ingredients were chilled and we had no ice, but on reflection I think it would've been far more refreshing served that way.  I think it would also work well blended with some soft summer berries.  If the sun ever comes out and ripens my raspberries, I'll definitely be making this again with some of those thrown in.

I would definitely recommend buying the book.  Although this is the first recipe I've tried, based on my experience of Thomasina's last book - Mexican Cooking at Home (the recipes I've tried from it can be found here), it will be jam packed with amazing recipes.

There are loads of variations for Horchata on the web so give it a Google.  Next up - Avocado Milkshakes!