Moms Meet: Zevia Natural Soda Review & GF Mountain Zevia Cupcakes

First off this has been a busy weekend, we have been ripping up the flooring out of the basement and keeping up with our other normal weekend activities.  Two of our neighbors came over to help my husband and they really knocked it out, while I was upstairs with four boys.  Early in the day I decided to test myself with some gluten-free baking (don't get too excited I used mixes.)  I made a Banana Apple Bread (which I will post later) and Mountain Zevia Cupcakes. I knew the cupcakes were a hit when I needed to keep all the boys (big boys included) away from them. They also had a chance to try the Zevia soda, they had mixed feelings about the sodas flavor and tried adding some mix-ins  to help. But that review will come in a minute...

Zevia sodas are a natural, zero calorie soda that is naturally sweetened by stevia.  You can find them at most grocery stores that have a selection of natural foods. When I receive the package from Zevia, it contained 24 soda; 12 different flavors, an apron and a spatula  So with that I felt I needed to bake.  The cake recipe that they sent with everything called for cake mix and a soda, those were the only two ingredients. Since I am gluten-free I was weary about just using the GF cake mix and soda so I did a little research and settled for this: 

Cake

1 box cake mix (I used King Arthur's GF yellow cake)

4 eggs

1/2 cup vanilla pudding (GF of course)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

8 oz. Mountain Zevia

Glaze

4 oz. Mountain Zevia (the remaining from a 12 oz. can)

3-4 tbsp. powdered sugar

Mix all the cake ingredients together, and pour into greased muffin pan. (This made 12 regular size cupcakes and 36 mini cupcakes.) Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 min for the mini and 20-25 for the regular.

While the cakes are cooking, make the glaze.  Heat the soda in a small sauce pan over medium heat until simmering.  Whisk in the powdered sugar.  Spoon over the hot cakes.

Now for the review...the overall review was that some flavors were okay some were a fail, and they were not worth the cost (about $6+ for a six pack).  The sodas all had an after taste that we just didn't seem to care for, I don't know if it was the stevia or what.  I feel like if you are a true soda drinker, you will not like these. If you don't ever drink sodas then you may enjoy them, they are sweet, wet and carbonated.  All have natural caffeine (except the caffeine free ones).  Now if you are like me, I don't drink a lot of sodas but occasionally I do crave a dark soda.  My usual go to's are Dr. Pepper, Birch Beer, or just a diet Coke.  These sodas aren't able to fulfill those cravings. 

Here is a quick run down on each flavor we tried...

Cola - we all though it seem flat and watered down
Dr. Zevia - not anything like Dr. Pepper, so don't get confused. 
Mountain Zevia - to drink, Fail. To cook with great. 
Grape - that one was pretty good, but it did taste a little like medicine
Black Cherry - We liked this one, it still had the after taste but I would drink it if some one handed it to me.
Lemon-Lime - uh, could take it or leave it.
Grapefruit - personally this was my favorite, it was refreshing
Orange - we never actually opened it. Sorry.
Caffeine Free Cola - same as the cola
Ginger Root Beer - this one was disappointing, it smelled really good but the flavor was off.
Ginger Ale - this one was ok, but I was expecting the bite you get from a real ginger ale (like Reed's)
Cream Soda - same as the root beer, disappointing. Only my husband seemed to like this one.

So if I had a really good coupon, I may purchase one or two of the flavors but if I want a soda, I want a real one, one with all that syrupy goodness.  I know that is awful, but oh well.

Sandy and Vegetable Quinoa Soup (GF)

So this post is a little later than I originally wanted but we have had a lot going on, like a lot of the northeast we were also affected by Sandy. Granted, we had minimal damage compared to A LOT of other people and for that we are blessed. (Please realize that I am not complaining we have nothing to complain about.)

Knowing that Sandy was coming we took precautions and froze water in all our water bottles and some Tupperware, we bought extra non-perishable items and even moved a few things out of the basement all just in case we lost power. And, we lost power. We luckily only lost power for something like 29 hours and just like I feared the most, our sump pump (which is electric and we didn’t have any back up) went out also. Because the water table was so high, we [as in my husband] was not able to keep up with bailing the water. Once we realized that we were going to have a mess, we and some wonderful neighbors help moved anything we cared about or that was laying on the floor to higher ground. With our fingers crossed, we called it a night.

Meanwhile, my parents who live in Delaware on the bay decided to ride out the storm (even though we all thought they should leave.) They too were lucky and any only had minimal damage. The water never made it in to the house, only the garage. Here are some pictures from their house…

Back to our house, when we woke up we didn’t have as much water as we thought we might, only an inch at the most. But still without power there was little we could do. The water level went down in the pit but because of some great design, our pit is not located in the low part of the basement, therefore the water didn’t drain to it. We mopped up what we could, our wonderful neighbors helped out again, and we were able to use a generator for a couple hours and shop vac the standing water. We will need to remove some if not much of our flooring and just work on drying out the concrete, keeping our fingers crossed we don’t get mold.

Enough about that…on Monday before our power went out, I stayed home with my son and we decided to make soup. It was starting to rain harder and the wind was picking up so soup just seemed like a good idea. I rummaged in our refrigerator and decided on a vegetable soup. I used what I had on hand, so it can easily be altered. I invited our neighbors and we had soup and salad for lunch. {Have I mentioned we have awesome neighbors!}

Vegetable Quinoa Soup (aka Sandy Soup)

(I didn’t measure anything so the measurement may be off, but should be close.)

2-3 celery stalks, roughly chopped
2-3 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 medium shallots, roughly chopped (or regular onions)
½ head of cauliflower, broken into florets
3-4 medium to large potatoes, peeled and cubed
6-7 cups chicken broth (I used gluten-free granules and water; you could also use vegetable broth)
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. dried thyme (I really wanted to use fresh, but I wasn’t going outside)
2 bay leaves
1 to 1 ½ cups of uncooked Quinoa
Salt and pepper to taste

(I used a food processor for almost everything, but you can use a knife if you would rather.) Heat olive oil in a large stock pot. Pulse the chopped carrot, onion and celery in the food processor until finely chopped. Add to the hot oil, and sauté until just tender.

While the vegetables are cooking, shred the cauliflower using the food processor. Add to the vegetable mixture, stir to combine. Add the broth and potatoes bring to a simmer. Then add the thyme, curry, turmeric and bay leafs. Let simmer. Add the uncooked quinoa. Let the soup simmer until the quinoa is cooked. Enjoy! Serves about 8.

Halloween Party...the Friday before the storm (Great friends!)