Hump Day and Hippie Pizza!

Oh man, my body was sure feeling hump day this morning, thank goodness for super juice! Take a peek at my fun fridge It’s probably one of my most decorated areas at the moment because magnets are small, easy to save, and send

Work was a bit crazy today, or maybe it was just me. It was Wild Wednesday after all, hence the orange polo (and the crazy knee socks you can’t see). Whenever it gets cloudy down here in the south, I swear people come out of the woodwork. I was spilling things left and right to top it off.

PTL for Green Monsters!! I also made another Rocket Maca Shake around lunchtime, but I had to stay late at work so that got slurped up in a rush before I could even find my camera.

Besides, you know what shakes look like by now, a bunch of stuff mucked up together that end up in some funky color. YOU ALL appreciate it, my co-workers just go, “what is it that you are drinking…..”

NUM NUM for delicious summer fruits!!! Some beautiful red plums may have disappeared from this container before photo was taken…..darg gone munchies.

Today was a catch up day on the homefront since I was gone from dawn til dusk yesterday. I juiced, did laundry, swept up a bit, etc. I decided it was time to do another deep clean on my juicer by soaking the filter in lemon juice. Mr. Brutus works hard to produce me such deliciousnesss!

Then I set to work on dinner. I adapted the following recipes out of Thrive by Brendan Brazier-which is an awesome book full of some very good information.

Quinoa and Pink Eye Pea Pizza Crust-

Here is the raw crust that was blended all together in my food processor. I got to use my pink eyed peas from the farmers market!

    

• 4 cloves garlic (if you like garlic, use less if you don’t)
• 1 cup cooked pink eye peas (or sprouted to make raw) you can sub black eye
• 1 cup cooked or sprouted quinoa
• 1/2 c chickpea flour
• s+p to taste
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4c hemp oil
• (if you like it spicy, add 1/2 tsp cayenne and 1tsp chili flakes)

Sundried Tomato Marina-

Process everything together in a food processor or blender:

• 1c sundried tomatoes, soaked for 20mins
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1c chopped tomatoes
• 1/2c grated cucumber
• 2T hemp oil
• 1T flax oil
• 1T balsamic vinegar
• 1T italian seasonings
• sea salt to taste
• 1c water

Topping-

• 1/2 sliced red bell pepper
• 1/2 diced onion
• 1/2 grated sweet potato
• 1 grated med beet
• 1c cauliflower florets
• italian seasoning
• if you like spice, add some chili flakes

Here it is out of the oven. I cooked it at 325 for about 40mins…cooking time will vary depending on moisture from veggies, crust, and how crispy you want it. I was actually pleasantly surprised. I’m sure the marinara would have been better had I not screwed up the recipe but it was still very flavorful! The veggies, despite the odd combination, was quite good and made up for any lack of cheese though I found myself kind of wishing there was at least a sprinkle of feta. I think I might try adding nutritional yeast to the sauce next time. The crust was very good, thick, crispy, yet still doughy enough. Yeah, it wasn’t the usual light and fluff pizza crust, but I wasn’t expecting that. It was very filling and very nutritious, and I don’t think you could ever find a personal pizza THAT BIG and get that much good nutrition out of it at the same time! I’ll definitely be experimenting with this again!

Don’t forget, you only have two day left to tell me what Navita’s Natural’s product you want in my giveaway! Also, they are offering a 25% off discount until August 27th!!

Idaho Cackalacky

I sent my mom home with a pile of North Carolina goodies so she could recreate some good southern bbq for my fam back in the northwest. Man, did she go all out and were they ever impressed! The secret: cookin’ with love

She had an array of the finest southern sauces: Bone Suckin’ in regular and hot, Texas Pete, some Eastern BBQ, and some other goodies such as cheese straws to compliment!

She made a feast!

This is the simmerin’ pulled pork in the Eastern BBQ sauce.

Gotta have slaw!!

BBQ Wings in some Bone Suckin’ sauce!!

   Her own fried green tomatoes, which were a major hit!

Hot wings and ribs! My family loves their spicy stuff, I’m the only pansy

 

And of course, some good ol’ southern corn pudding. I sent her this recipe and they all loved it!

Here is my family!! It’s may parents along with my older brother and his family. They are so wonderful and I miss them dearly. I have to say, I wish I could have been there for this cackalacky. I was there in spirit though! I was glad I could send a little Carolina home with my mom and she could share it with them. I think she did a darn good job. Way to go Mama!!!

Berry Good Reviews, Recipes, and More!

Phew, despite this being my first four days off in a very long time, I think I’m almost more exhausted as my mom and I have been running ourselves ragged!

It was good to be home, and I started off the morning with my usual juice and fighting with the computer trying to download the weekend’s worth of pictures from my crappy camera and my mom’s spiffy camera!  My internet kept going out though from a brief period of southern thunderstorms.

I enjoyed a berry good monster via smoothie soup! It’s great this way. When eating raw they say you should “chew” your bites, even if it is smooth, and I even dropped a few berries in, I thoroughly enjoyed this! Once again, so nice to be able to sit and have my breakfast rather than rushing around!

We had to meet someone to get an estimate on some car work mid morning so we headed down to the coffee shop. My mom met some of my fellow co-workers, I got some computer work done and we met the mechanic. Haven’t heard back yet, but cross your fingers it’s not too much $$!!!

VORTEX SHAKER CUP PRODUCT REVIEW

While at the shop I had my good ol’ lunch shake, creamy and delish! Howeever, lately I’ve been finding it not holding me over as well, so I might need to oomph it up a bit. I seem to have lost the picture, but check out the cup I have been using. I love it! I can make my smoothie in the morning, take it with me in the car for a few hours, and it is still creamy and cold! Perfect for a girl always on the go!

photo from http://www.fit-fresh.com/images/prod_detail_vortex.jpg

If you are a constant smoothie drinker like myself, I definitely recommend getting one of these. The price is right, and I have also not had any green monster explosions like some of my previous shakers.

We headed out for an epic Walmart adventure. Normally I don’t like to support that company for ethical reasons, but when my budget only allows for so much, I have to succumb. We actually had some great finds, my apartment is becoming quite homey, so picts to come soon!!! My mom is a superb decorator!

I snacked on my fresh fruit of berries and mango+ a chocolate chip raw bar on the way there. It was perfect!

I had brainstormed a few ideas for dinner, but didn’t want to go to the store so on the way back I was thinking of all the leftovers I had in my head. Taco salad with a bean burger concoction came to mind and this is what came out:

Oaty-OoHempf Bean Burgers-

• 1/3c oats
• 1/2 c black bean pate-recipe on this post
• chopped peppers

Combine above in bowl and mix well. Divide into 1/2c portions and form into patties. Bake on a VERY WELL greased cookie sheet, grill, or fry in pan. ENJOY!

Makes 2 servings.

I served these in a taco salad with some homemade guac, and topped them with greek yogurt! Perfect!

Try your luck!

If you’re feeling “hangry” check out an awesome giveaway over at Hangry Pants for some MojiMix granola!

At first I was a bit torn on the Amazing Grass stuff, but after putting it in my lunch shakes for awhile, it’s grown on me. Oh She Glows is doing an awesome giveaway, check it out here!

“Smoothie” Surfin’ at Wrightsville Beach

It was a bit of a rough night with the two of us sleeping in one room, but that just made for an early wake up call, which was fine with me, because that meant, off to the beach! Today’s agenda, Wrightsville Beach, and then wherever the open road took us…

Wrightsville was gorgeous! The water was so clear, none of that seaweed stuff I was used to from Seattle. The sand was soft, the water was warm, we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day! My tip bag was emptied into the parking meter quite literally, and we settled into the sand.

I enjoyed my green monster on the beach, I think this was the best one yet, I mean, could you imagine a better place to enjoy such cool, nourishing deliciousness?

How about renting one of those vacation homes? That’s on my agenda…

We walked down the beach a ways and discovered a big surfing competition going on, lots of very handsome looking gentlemen….It was very fun to watch. Very cool to see so many girls out there too, woohoo girl power! We walked back, my mom literally dying in the heat and took a swim. I tried to catch a wave with my kickboard, I’m no surfer and have a few tricks to learn.

All weekend I have been continually reminded by God’s beauty in all it’s simplicity. He is so wonderful and the calm, yet joyous tickle I have felt in my tum that has been missing is such a great feeling. PTL!

For lunch I had gotten my mom a pimento sammie to try as one of her southern foods, she took one bite and decided to finish off her thai salad. Oh well, she still has fried chicken and hush puppies to try

You may have wondered how I had my green monster at the beach? Well, my philosophy? Have blender, will travel! Yup, I brought my blender and my ingredients and blended in the hotel room, ok ok, a little high maintenance, but I know what works, love it, might as well do it! So I had blended up my usual lunch smoothie to bring to the beach with me too and it was good. It was a bit sweeter than usual though because I had to use frozen berries, but still tasty.

We lasted about three hours at the beach, it was just too hot out for mom, and I was actually getting pretty red. So we let our parking time run out then packed up. We decided to check out a little more of the shopping around Wilmington, as well as hit up Costco. For snack I enjoyed a Chocolate Chip Trail Mix Pure Bar, which I think is one of my favorite flavors, as well as devouring the last of the canteloupe.

We had a nice drive home, it was sad though, I didn’t want to go back to reality. By the time we got home I was a hungry cat and as soon as we walked in the door I scarfed down my sesame kale salad before I could even dig out my camera so sorry, no picture. Then, I heated up a sweet potato, some left over black beans, topped it with a dash of Fage, some cinnamon, a sprinkle of splenda, and some sea salt. It was perfect!

My mom had a more fashionable plate of leftovers: the coconut trail mix rice with some sweet potato fries.

She decided to relax, while I went to say goodbye to some friends at their open house. I got lost as usual around Durham, but finally found it and caught up with some church buds. When I got home I made a soupy smoothie for my nightime snack.

There was a big YUM at the bottom of this bowl Literally, it’s one of those cute “yum” bowls from Target, it makes me happy. And, alas, I went to bed, exhausted!

“You alone are the LORD. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve and give life to everything, and all the angels of heaven worship you.” -Neh 9:6

Hemp “f” it’s Friday!

My mom’s plane actually came in early last night, but so did a number of other flights creating quite a wait for the luggage so I took a little nap as it was about 6 hours past my bed time and I had to be up in another 4 for work!

We got all the way to the car when my mother realized we had grabbed the wrong suitcase. No harm done, though it was a bit embarassing. Silly girl. I woke up to my alarm just fine, but my eyeballs have felt slow all day and I’m definitely a bit on the irritable side. Regardless, my superseed juice got me going after a good shake!

Being tired always messes with my appetite. I wasn’t feeling hungry around the hour I normally have my monster which was definitely green today due to the 3c of spinach or so. I drank it anyway, and once the sweet deliciousness touched my lips, my stomach growled, HUNGRY!

This definitely satisfied! It was the usual mix, a bit heavier on the spinach per usual and I really liked it. Jay Robb, blueberries, almond milk, and greens!

Before heading out I made up another lunch shake, which I’m really enjoying because it’s light enough on my stomach to not upset it but really fuels me through the afternoon. I’m playing around with different mixes and this was today’s concoction:

• 1c almond milk
• chunks of frozen papaya and half banana
• pkt of Amazing Grass berry flavored greens powder
• 1/2 pkt of vanilla jay robb (for some protein)
• 1T Nativa Naturals Acai Powder

This was very tasty, and made a very thick and creamy shake! It would have been perfect for a bowl smoothie but I was on the go. I am loving the Acai Powder, it adds a sweet kick, not to mention a number of health benefits.

I picked my mom up, after, GRRRRR, LOCKING MY KEYS IN THE CAR!!! Thankfully, my amazing co worker saved the day. I showed her a bit of town and we ran a few errands. I snacked on some juicy canteloupe and a new PURE bar I hadn’t tried yet while we were out and about.

I really liked this one, it was the Cherry Cashew flavor. I want to find the trail mix one….

Speaking of bars, I gave Matt a coconut Larabar at work today, but he was not so keen, so we’re 1:1 on the bar exchange :p

I had a few plans for dinner, but they went awry. I was going to make the Omega burgers, with Twister Powder off the Navita site, but I mixed it up, tasted it before grilling them, and it tasted disgusting. So I sadly tossed that mess down the drain, I HATE wasting stuff, but it was not salvageable. Then, I was going to make black bean burgers with the same idea, but ended up putting too much water in as I was putting the beans in the processor, so ended up with more of a black bean hummus, sans tahini, but my recipe ended up being quite delicious, nutrient, and protein packed!

I put it on cabbage leaves and topped it with some berrys to compliment the spicy kick. My mom loved it! This was the plate we shared with some sweet potato fries on the side.

Hempy Black Bean Pate

• 1c black beans, save liquid
• chopped onion
• garlic
• 1/4-1/2 tsp cumin, or as spicy as you like it
• sea salt to taste
• 4T Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro 70
• Dash of lemon juice
• meat of small papaya
• dash of stevia or agave if you want to sweeten it

Combine everything in a food processor and mix until smooth. Add enough liquid to make as creamy as you would like!  Serve in wraps, with chips, on crackers, mix into salads, be creative!

I also made us some salads on the side. I put some fresh mixed greens with some roasted sweet potato’s, 1/4 c black beans, 1/3c quinoa, and a sprinkle of feta. The dressing I made was delicious and basically went off of Gena’s Lime Basil recipe, making a few alterations with less oil, and I had to use lemon, it was great!

It was so nice to share a meal with someone, especially my mom again! Definitely better than eating alone. My mom really enjoyed this too, and it was almost all raw! (She didn’t know she ate hemp powder though).

We’re headed on an NC adventure this weekend and off to the beach! I hope to be able to blog though!

“The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace.” Psalms 29:11

Mix it up!

Lately I’ve been waking up before my alarm even goes off and that says a lot seeing it’s 4:20am. Honestly, I think it’s just nature calling. I confess, despite the fact that I work at a coffee shop, most mornings I would stumble out of bed and make *gasp* instant coffee. Then, I noticed how it would stain my counter and not come off, goodness knows what it was doing to my insides. So, I now practice patience and put on the tea kettle while I shower and make a french press.

Nummers, I sip on it while I prepare my juice, green monster, and lunch, though I seldom am ever able to finish a cup before I run out of the house. If you truly want to taste a coffee though, french press is the way to go.

I was too tired by the time I got home last night to bust out Brutus (my juicer) so I only had a little bit left. Thus I grabbed an emergency back up to try Mix 1 has new vegetable/fruit juice mixes out that have a bit of fiber and protein in them as well. This was the berry blend one and it wasn’t too bad. It mixed quite well with the little juice I had left and my super seed powder, and although there was some stuff I couldn’t pronounce on the lable, I was put at ease after going to the website. HOLY MOLY! I have never seen anything so interactive and a company so willing to tear apart their nutrition label and explain it to you. I really like that its soy, gluten, and lactose free which is so hard to find in any commercial smoothie these days. I have tried these once or twice before when they first came out, but never the juice ones. If I’m in a pinch I think I would get one again. I wonder what the carrot/orange is like….

Lunch was a layered salad with leftover broccoli slaw, bean sprouts and some pineapple with that thai curry dressing I made last week. Packed up and ready to go:

Work was the usual. Boss was stressed about a meeting ,the kids were left alone to run the store, I soupled up my green monster which was actually quite purple, guess I went a little strong on the blueberries this morning Still tasty!!!

Before leaving, I chomped on my salad. WOOHEE! That dressing must have absobed some curriness in the fridge. Due to the stress, I have some cold sores, so this was a bit too spicy now, but I ate it anyway :p

For dinner, since it’s hot out, I made another salad. I had made a fresh batch of juice and Brutus was still out so I decided to juice me some dressing. I put some strawberries and a lemon through, then mixed it with a dash of flax oil for some healthy fats and omega’s! The strawberries were so sweet and the lemon gave it the perfect zing! You could do this in a blender too, it would just be seedy.

Roasted Asparagus Sunshine Salad

• Mixed greens
• Asparagus
• Cucumber diced
• I added some beet pulp, but you could just julien a beet or whatever veggies suit your fancy
• bit of shaved raw cheese or your cheese of choice!
• Fresh juiced strawberry zing dressing (mentioned above)
• 2 eggs, poached

Place greens in bowl. Roast asaparagus in oven or on grill. (I lightly sprtized them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.) Poach eggs, if I did this again I would make them runny in the middle. Layer all ingredients in bowl, drizzle with dressing, enjoy!

The salad was okay. I would have liked it if I had a real poacher and not a microwave one so I could have made the eggs a bit overeasy. Plus my dang cold sores keep getting in the way, oh well. Also, I really wanted big crunchy asaparagus, and the store had sad thin sticks. Oh well, I’m fed, thankful, and I’ll take it!

I’m so sorry for the lame pictures, hoping to get a camera eventually that is decent :p

Have a blessed evening everyone, get ready for a mantra tomorrow!

I’m a produce whore…

So I’ve decided I love produce because I’m obsessed with the beautiful colors. Yup, I admit it, all those vibrant colors blooming at a farmer’s market get me all excited and turns me on! I love it when my plate is bursting with color, I think it makes everything taste better too.

Tonight I finally got to try out Kath’s Oatmeal Pancake recipe and it turned out great!! I topped it with a warm peach, nectarine, and raspberry compote that was delicious! Full of fiber, whole grains, and even some protein, num!

For our veggies and main protein though I made a veggie egg scramble with mostly egg whites, and a touch of yolk. Herbs and spices of course colored with tomatoes, fungus (shrooms), zucchinni, spinach, onion, and some more fibrous black beans, NUM! I sprinkled a little grated light Laughing Cow Cheese for the parent’s and they loved it!

I’m going to be so sad when summer is over and my colors are gone, what am I going to do for my art?

Salsa,Tango, and Mango!

I was very grumpy after our errands and in a bit of a funk. Nevertheless, I busted out my single speed complete with sparkly red handles, but unfortunately, a very painful bike seat :p I toodled out for a bit on the prairie roads and despite the drop in weather wandered down to the lake which was quite empty. I forced myself to just jump in because I knew the water would do me good and it did. It was FREEZING, but my body just loves the water, it refreshes me so much and clears my mind. I did not stay in long at all and quickly biked home to change plus I had dinner to prepare!

I really had no idea what I was going to do going into this but it all came out great! I had marinated the chicken in some random herbs and lime juice all day which we grilled. I also had Dale toss the corn on the cob on the bbq as well for the salad. I had mate a watermelon fire and ice salsa the night before to top the chicken so the flavors would meld and it was great! Dessert was the best though. I toasted whole wheat pitas with a mixture of cinnamon and splenda and then made a fruit salsa with strawberries, apple, mango, and a bit of honeydew mixed with a little splenda and sugar free jam to go with it and it was DIVINE!!! num num for my tum tum!! The side salad I jus tossed randomly together for our other grain: mine was black beans with red and yellow peppers and a light dressing I made out of some freshly squeezed oj, cumin, garlic, and apple cider vinegar, the only difference with my parents was that they had the grilled corn because Dale can’t have peppers. They loved it and I did too!

One meal at a time…

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day! I am a very routined gal and I tend to get myself in ruts, especially with my breakfasts so you will most likely be seeing the same thing just about every morning for at least a few weeks, possibly months in a row with slight variation

My current kick is:

Steel Cut oats soaked overnight, and then in the morning I nuke it and add 1T flax for some brain power and 1/4c soy milk, cinnamon, splenda, and a titch of sea salt, num num!!

Mixture of blueberries, strawberries and blackberries for  my vitamin B!!!

127g cottage cheese, don’t ask me why its that amount, just is :p

and of course, COFFEE!!!!!