The Almond Milk Experiment- part 2

Good afternoon, bloggies!!!  I'm excited to share that I have made a SECOND BATCH of almond milk!  So, that goes to show you that the first batch was good enough to try again!  I tried my first ever almond milk green smoothie this morning, and let me tell you, it was DI-VINE! 

That's a tower of raw goodness if I've ever seen one.  Smoothie of champions.

Ingredients:

1/2 C Almond Milk

1/2 Banana

1/4 C Pineapple

1/4 C Zucchini

1/4 C Cucumber

1/2 C Frozen Spinach

1 T Chia Seeds

1 Scoop Amazing Grass

LOVELY.  Look how greeeeeen!!   

See all of the chia babies in there!?  If you want to feel good all day, make a green smoothie.  The raw foodies swear by it- everyone I've ever seen that is a raw food lover makes green smoothies.   Have you made yours yet?  I'm still working on Brenton- we'll get him there... eventually.  (muah hah hah....convert.....convert....)

Breakfast of Joy

Hi everyone.  Just a quicky green smoothie recipe because I have a busy weekend ahead.  Luckily it's a foodie weekend, so there will be lots of pictures to come!

Pick Me Up Green Smoothie

In this baby I have:

1/8 c Chia Seeds, soaked to form a gel
1/2 Frozen Banana
3/4 c Frozen Spinach
2 Kiwi
1 scoop of Amazing Grass Green Powder
Water to help it blend

This smoothie picks me up every time!  Give it a try.  Throw it in a travel mug and it's a great 'to-go' breakfast!

AMAZING GRASS!

Good evening!! Yesterday my Amazing Grass came in the mail!!! I WAS SOOOO EXCITED TO TRY IT THIS MORNING!!



This is the small container, and includes a scoop. Check out what's in it!!!!! LOTS of good stuff.



So my first reaction? When I opened it up and gave it a whiff, it smelled like those Think Green bars- or those Green Superfood bars. It tasted like those too- almost a chocolaty taste?

I added a scoop to my GM this morning-



I could taste the new addition, but it's something that'll grow on me very quickly! In this GM I had a scoop of Amazing Grass, 1 Kiwi, 4 Strawberries, 1/2 scoop Protein Powder, 1 Kale Leaf, 1/6 of a BIG zucchini. SUPER YUM!

Dinner tonight was my FAVORITE- Veggie Sushi Salad.



This is seriously my favorite dinner. And it's SO simple to make. Tonight's recipe was made out of 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/4 avocado, 1/4 big cucumber, soy sauce, and vinegar.

LOVE IT. Ok sorry, enough of that. After my work out tonight (which was a 1 mile run), I decided to try to mix the Amazing Grass up in just a glass of water.



It was good- but it wouldn't blend up very well for some reason. I drank almost all of it, but by the end, it was almost like I was drinking sand. Not good after a work out HAHA.

All in all, I'm glad I have this neato powder! I'll only be putting it in my smoothies, but that's ok with me!

Until next time- spend $$ on your health. You'll be glad you did in the long run.

Namaste.

ANOTHER Manic Monday. AGAIN?!

I don't know what it is with Monday. The last few Mondays have been INSANE for me!! Today was no exception. Lots of buzzing around, CrAzY phone calls, and needy people. Why are people so needy? What causes that? If people were self-sufficient, the world would be a better place. Ahem... (steps off soap box) Now onto the food!

Since watching Food, Inc., Brenton has wanted to be a veggie. This is FINE with me, but it made me realize today "uh oh... what about Thanksgiving and Christmas?" So, I have been searching for meat 'alternatives' for our 'main course' that other people will also want to eat- OH... holidays are always a challenge. I'll take any opinions/favorite recipes you have! I've found some recipes that I'll post closer to the holidays.

Last night I made up some hummus, and made veggie pitas.



Brenton's is on the big plate, and mine is the little guy. I LOADED it up with tons of veggies- spinach, cucumber, carrots, mushrooms, and onions- and a good glop of freshly made hummus on Trader Joe's Pita Bread. YUM-O!! VERY VERY filling. Brenton couldn't finish his! We also had a handful of organic cherries- ultra YUM-O!!!

This morning, to try to get off to a good start (which worked until the phone started ringing at work HAHA), I made a really good Green Monster.



Woah, hello blurry. Sorry. This concoction was made out of a kale leaf, 1/2 frozen banana, kiwi, 3 strawberries, 1/4 zucchini, 1 T chia seeds, 1/2 scoop protein powder, and a little bit of water. Those little chia seeds- so funny!!! The gel that they create is so weird! Anyway, kept me pretty full until my early morning meeting, when I had a Cashew Cookie Larabar. It's pretty good, but I like some of the other flavors better.

Lunch was nothing exciting- lefover hummus (from the night before) with some cucumber slices, a teeny apple, and an AB and jelly sammie on Ezekiel. This kept me full ALL AFTERNOON. It didn't hurt that I was insanely busy and too worried about other things to be worried about lunch. Sorry, no pictures.... :o( it was frazzle city!!

For dinner tonight I made stuffed potatoes. This is something that I used to eat when I was on Weight Watchers, but I haven't had recently.



Look at that veggie loaded mess!! There really is a potato under there....

This yummy dinner was made out of 1/2 potato, wilted spinach (I just heated it on the stove to wilt it), onion, tomato (from the farmers market- YUMMY!!!), 1/4 avocado, black beans, hot sauce (Franks- only the best), and wee tiny itty bitty sprinkle of cheese. CLEANED my plate!! Munched a few cherries for dessert, and a couple of TJ's semi-sweet chocolate chips. MMMM- just what I needed after a crazy ridiculous day.

On a better note, I've cleaned up all of the dishes, am sitting in my favorite chair, and am going to exercise soon. I haven't decided if I'm going to do Jillian, or if I'm going to run- just depends on if it starts raining soon. OH! Remember the whole 'mold in the Oikos' thing? Stoneyfield sent me some coupons and an apology letter!!




So, I guess it's a good end to a Manic Monday, huh? Hope you all have a good rest of your evening! Until next time, enjoy some vegetarian food! It'll make you feel good!

Namaste.

Chia, you're alright!!

Hi everyone!!! So I made my GM this morning with Chia seeds- and I have to say that they're nifty little buggers!!!!! They started to turn into jelly halfway through my drink-- weird! Today's concoction was made out of 1 kale leaf (stem removed), 1/4 zucchini, 1/4 yellow squash, 1 orange, 1 piece of frozen banana, 1/2 scoop of protein powder, and 1 T Chia Seeds. NUM NUM NUM!! Try this combo- it gave me this happy-buzzy-like feeling.... kinda like Kombucha does. Goodbye Flax obsession... Chia is here to stay!

So yesterday, I had a conversation with a loved one that just wrinkled my feathers. And by wrinkled, I mean made me mad- and concerned.

Many times, people tell me ''oh, you eat so healthy all the time...'' (like it's a bad thing, ok what?!), "you eat healthy all week- just have this one _________ (whatever it is). it won't hurt you", or "oh, there you go eating healthy again... what is it today?". Man, this drives me CrAzY!!! Yes, I eat healthy. Why is this such a big deal? Why in this country is eating healthy a BAD THING?! Am I pushing my health food on you? NO. You're the one that is making it a big deal. That's ridiculous.

Back to my conversation- I was talking to this loved one about the movie that I am SOOO excited to see on Friday, called Food, Inc. If you haven't heard of it, look at the trailer, to the left of the screen. I was talking about what the movie was about, and giving general information. Well, that spawned a reaction of ''you go overboard, you cross the line with what you eat and don't eat, you don't enjoy food, do you want to live to be 150?, we don't get to eat anything good anymore because of you and your food choices, etc. etc. etc." you get the idea.

First of all, who is creating this 'line' that I'm crossing?? It's surely not me.

Second, I eat what I eat because it's GOOD FOOD. It's REAL FOOD. It's food that MAKES ME FEEL GOOD AND IS GOOD FOR ME. And this is a bad thing... because??

Third- heck yeah I want to live to be 150! That's 125 more times that I can go to Walt Disney World (yeah, I said it).

It's amazing what people don't know about what they eat. And when I try to help them, and give them knowledge about it, BLINDERS are put up (you know, the whole 'cover the ears la la la la I don't hear you' thing). This conversation personifies what the movie is trying to say!!!! What you don't know WILL KILL YOU, people!

The argument was brought up by my loved one that "well, my parents and grandparents never ate organic food or any of that stuff, and they lived to be 85 and 90". Ok, HELLO?! They DID eat organic foods and grass fed beef and all 'that stuff', because that's all that was available...it was the norm. None of this "quick!!! get as much cheap food out so we can make $$$$ fast!!!" crap! Do you realize that kids now have a SHORTER LIFE EXPECTANCY THAN THEIR PARENTS?!

UGH- it makes me sick. Go see Food, Inc. Please. It's about time that people start to REALLY know, what we have known all along.

Namaste.

Greenie Monday!

Hello all! Busy Monday, today was! I started things off right with a GM- and added a new ingredient... KALE! Boy those leaves are huge-o!!! But, tasty and a great addition. I needed to spice things up a little bit!!



It made the color SO green! In this lovely glass there was 1 Kale leaf, 1/2 zucchini, 1 kiwi, 1/2 orange, 1/3 frozen banana, and a little bit of water. I paired it with a piece of Ezekiel bread with AB and organic jelly- kept me going until 10:30ish (which was almost 4 hours later), where I had a Cashew Cookie Larabar. YUM!! Lunch wasn't anything exciting, and I forgot to take a picture of it. I had organic black bean soup with celery and the other half of the orange. Since today was so busy and I didn't feel much like cooking, I stopped at Meijer and got Brenton an Amy's burrito (he liked it a lot!), and surfed online to see what I should make for myself. Then, I saw Gena's post about her raw zucchini soup, and I knew I had to try it!!!

Here's all of the yumminess in the blender- look at all those veggies!!! Haha lovely workstation... I've got my recipe up on my computer, my lemon all over the place... oye. That's how I work!



Anyway, blend blend blend away!! Quite the action shot.



Looks a whole heck of alot like the GM I made this morning... but, it tasted MUCH different. Haha and I even had a square bowl to put it in... just like Gena!



I made a chopped fruit salad of organic strawberries and peaches- YUM-O!! I did break the raw rules a little bit by adding some Tabasco sauce to the top of the soup... ah well.

While cleaning up the kitchen, I noticed that I had some little guys growing on my pepper plants outside! I was so excited that I had to take pictures! My little babies!!







It seems like only yesterday that I had little seeds planted in my kitchen- look how big they've gotten! All started from little bitty seeds. Too fun.

Well, I'm off to get ready for tomorrow and watch Anthony Bourdain. New season starts tonight at 10pm!!! Have a lovely evening. Until next time, try your hand at green-ness... whether it's making Green Monsters, raw green soup, or using your green thumb, GREEN is the trend. Follow it. Love it. Green is good.

Namaste.

Vegan Wednesday!

Hello! Happy WednesdayalmostThursday!! Today I had a dentist appt. (no cavities yay!) in the morning so I could take a little more time in the AM than usual. I did some ironing, cleaning, etc....

Made a fantastic FANTASTIC green monster this morning, and paired it with a piece of Ezekiel with AB and jelly.



My WONDERFUL GM was made out of 1/2 frozen banana, few pieces of pineapple, kiwi, spinach, and 1/2 zucchini. YUM!!! Best smoothie in a LONG time! Might have to do a 'round 2' tomorrow!!

Then I went to the dentist, and on to work. At work I snacked on a Cherry Pie Larabar... forgot to take a picture. ...oops.

At lunch I had rice/lentil salad that I made last night, paired with 1/2 orange.



Haha that's not how much I ate- that's the whole batch! Brenton had that for lunch too. It was very very yummy. I'm going to bring it for lunch tomorrow, too. It's made out of...

Equal parts cooked Brown Rice and Lentils
Chopped Onion
Chopped Carrots
Tiny drizzle of Rice Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

That's it! SO EASY and SO YUMMY!!

But, that doesn't take the cake of what I made for dinner. ...I'm getting ahead of myself...

After work I went to a local farmers market. It was 'opening day' so I was very excited. I got some zucchini (for my raw pasta) and some cucumbers.





THEN, there was dinner. OH I AM SO PROUD OF THIS MEAL. Tonight's dinner was inspired by the veggi sandwich that they serve at ESPN on Disney's Boardwalk. Gina had posted about this wonderful sandwich that she, too, has eaten. Here's the finished product (served with a peach)...





Not to toot my own horn... but TOOT TOOT!!! Here's what I did:

I sliced up onion, mushroom, zucchini and peppers, tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them in the oven for 15-ish minutes at 425.

While they were roasting, I made a 'guac' out of avocado, 1/2 small lemon (juice only), salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce. I also lightly toasted the Ezekiel bread.

Once the veggies were done, I topped the toasted Ezekiel with the guac and a few basil leaves, and layered all of the veggies (as many as I could!!). This was the best sandwich EVER!!!! I'll definitely do this again!! Brenton liked it too, just not as much as I did I think.

Well, I'm off to do Jillian, LEVEL 3 of the 30 Day Shred. I'm going to bounce back and forth from the 'hard' to the 'modified', depending on the move. Have a lover-ly evening! Until next time, try this FAB veggi sandwich!!!!! And eat vegan. It's really not that hard- trust me.

Green Tuesday!

First of all, I wan to say CONGRATULATIONS to Jenna for making the top 10 for the Murphy-Goode job!!!

So today was the ultimate GREEN Tuesday! I swear, almost everything I ate was green today! I started the day off with a GM to go!! It was made with spinach, cucumber, ice, banana, pineapple, whey powder, and a little bit of water.



Sorry... I also think it was the day of blurry pictures, too.

It was potluck day at work, so I made some weeeeee little 'Carlibars' to share.


Aren't they cute? I made them tiny because I wasn't sure how the office would react to them. I made oatmeal raisin, and chocolate coconut. I thought they were good! Anyway, I had a late morning snack of 1/2 an orange and AB and organic strawberry jelly on an Ezekiel tortilla. I was hoping this would hold me through lunch time, to avoid all of the 'goodies' at the potluck. No such luck... more on that in a minute.



The Ezekiel tortilla is really good!! Love me some sprouted goodness! Plus AB and jelly-- oh it's heaven! The only problem was that any time I took a bite, it squirted all over the place hahahaha!

So, on to the potluck. There weren't a lot of options that I was willing to 'indulge' in (if you will). I did have some melon, 2 tiny meatballs in marinara sauce, and a salad. Well, unfortunately, I ate some MSG (and knew it as soon as I did because I recognized the recipe of the salad from when I was younger... totally SCREAMING in my head), so I stopped eating and immediately took my lunch hour. I needed to do some damage control.

I got some kombucha tea (this flavor I hadn't had before... there was blue-green algae, spirulina, and other goodies in it!):



and a Green bar (since I didn't really eat lunch because of my brief freak-out moment):



This baby was good!!! LOTS AND LOTS of goodies in it- every green veggie you could imagine! Kinda expensive though- $2.45.

This combo kept me full until I got home! ...which was over 4 hours. That's a record for me! The kombucha kept me from feeling sick and horrible, though I did bloat up a wee bit. BUT I could still fit comfortably into my 'skinny pants', so all was well in the world I guess.

For dinner tonight I made a Trader Joe's chicken burger. Brenton had his like a normal burger (bun and all). I topped mine with, you guessed it, more greens!!



There really is a chicken burger under there! I also topped it with salsa, Franks Red Hot, 1/4 avocado, and some onion. YUM.

Happy green day! I love eating and drinking greens-- it makes me feel sooo good! Isn't it amazing what people DON'T KNOW that they're putting in their bodies? That's part of the reason that I don't like normal potlucks... there's so much hidden in foods that you don't know is there, unless YOU made it and are educated about what's good for you and what's not. Oh well- I'll keep trying to spread my knowledge. I don't think people loved the little carlibars that I made, but that's ok. They're not your traditional chemical-laden cookies that everyone that doesn't know any better is used to.

I'm off to do some monster resistance training. I'm aiming for soreness tomorrow!! Until next time- start getting the chemicals out of your foods. MSG is bad, people! BAD!

Namaste <3 :o)

Just Another Manic Monday...

Hi everyone. What a day!!! The Monday after a long weekend... boy o boy! Work was SUPER busy... my car battery died and had to be replaced- on my lunch hour... I had tons of dishes and cleaning at home... oye!! On a good note, I've the Golden Girls on since I got home (it's 9:15pm, and I turned them on at 5pm... that's almost 4 hours HAHAHA!) They always make things better. Here are the meals for the day...

Started the day off right with a GM and a few almonds---


This one had a big handful of spinach, cucumber, carrots, pineapple, banana, and protein powder. The cucumber was pretty strong, but it was still good!!

Had an Apple Pie Larabar for a snack... forgot to take a picture...

Lunch was whole wheat pasta salad with a TON of veggies, and a watered down version of guacamole for a 'sauce'. Also paired it with 1/2 an orange.



YUM!!! ...and then my car died... ok I'm over it. Anyway...

For dinner I made veggi sushi rolls, out of carrots, onion, cucumber, and avocado, wrapped in nori. It looks horrible, but tasted GREAT. I topped it with soy sauce and rice vinegar, and paired it with 1/2 a grapefruit, and a few bites of the 'Carlibars' I made for tomorrow's potluck (at work).







So, food wise it was a good day! I'm ready for a new day, though! Until next time, get over your Manic Monday's! Namaste.

Looking forward...

Hello bloggies! The last few days have been a whirlwind! I'm SO looking forward to vacation... but alas, it's not until October. Brenton and I are going to his grandpa Jim's condo in Sunny Isles Beach, FL.

Here's a picture of the pool (thank you activerain.com... I couldn't find my pictures!):



Our flight leaves on a Tuesday evening, right AT dinner time of course. Since I'm all about bringing my own healthy food and snacks places (as people noticed at work today HA!), I'm SO going to be bringing my own dinner to have in the airport before we board. Check out my girl Angela's blog post for today! She talks all about the healthy airplane food she brought from home! Makes me VERY excited to go on our trip, and very excited to start planning on what I'm going to bring to eat!! I'm ready any time- SERIOUSLY! Too bad I can't bring my favorite green monster with me (poo on the no liquid rule!). Hopefully the condo has a blender!!!! If I have to go a week without a green monster I might die!! I had one this morning (of course!)



Tomorrow we're having our next door neighbors over for dinner. I'm making a pasta bar with lots of toppings/fixins so everyone can make their own meal. We'll also have salad on the side, and fruit salad for dessert. I'll be sure to take pictures. SHOULD BE NUMMY!

OH I almost forgot! Last night my sister and I were at Kroger for a LONG time (long story). She ordered us 2 Vanilla Rooibos Tea Lates with Soy Milk. O-M-G. Heaven in a cup. Seriously. It was sweet, wonderful, vanilla goodness. I looked on Starbucks.com to get the nutrition info, and here's what it said:

Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte

Full leaf African rooibos tea(naturally caffeine free), also known as red tea, paired with Tahitian vanilla and cinnamon. Sweetened with classic syrup and topped with steamed milk and velvety foam.

Serving Size		12 fl. oz.
		Amt Per Serving
Calories		150
Fat Calories		25
Total Fat (g)		3
Saturated Fat (g)		0
Trans Fat (g)		0
Cholesterol (mg)		0
Sodium (mg)		70
Total Carbohydrates (g)		27
Fiber (g)		1
Sugars (g)		25
Protein (g)		5
Vitamin A		8%
Vitamin C		0%
Calcium		20%
Iron		6%
Caffeine (mg)		0

Not horrible- especially because it was so sweet desserty like. YUM-O!! While we were there, I also picked up a couple of these little guys-

I haven't tried them yet- but they're all natural, organic, etc. etc. etc. A whopping 260 calories though, so I may end up cutting them in half and eating half a day. We'll see! I'll let you know how they are! I'll try one tomorrow.

Have a good evening all! Until next time, Namaste.