"Swamp Thang"

I got a few emails asking what made up my "swamp thang" smoothie (gluten free, dairy free) I mentioned in my Wardrobe Refashion interview so I thought I'd blog about it in case others were interested. Here are the ingredients:

- 1/2 tsp dulse flakes/seaweed (good source of iron)

- 1 scoop Garden of Life's Perfect Food (tons of green goodness)

- 1 scoop of hemp protein powder or brown rice protein powder

- 1 banana and any other fruit I have around (in pic are blueberries)

- 1 tsp maca powder (helps regulate hormones)

- 1 scoop flaxseed meal (good source of fiber, anti-ox, omega-3 fatty acids)

- 1/4 cup of no added sugar juice

- 1/4 cup almond milk (not pictured)

- ice

Yeah, it takes a little getting used to between the taste and texture but I love it. It gives me energy and I feel good about getting so many nutrients the first thing in the morning. I'm off to a good start for the day! You definitely don't have to have all this in your smoothie but I like to get all my bases covered and perhaps overdo it at times.

As far as crafting, I'm finishing the shirt dress tonight. I cut out a pattern for me last night and plan on making the dress sometime in the near future. :) I have to finish DB's capris - it's not a big deal, just keep forgetting about it. Well no, here's the real reason, I/perfectionist don't want to finish it because it's a disaster. He's only going to wear it around the house but still, I have to look at it. I should just finish it.

Good day, good eats

We had a good day. Boo and I ran errands then went to the mall to ride the carousel, have lunch (I packed bentos for us), browse a little, and then she got to run around and climb in the toddler play area. As we rode the carousel, I looked at her and told her I loved her so much and she smiled really big, leaned down, and planted a bunch of kisses on my face. Soooo precious and sweet!

Speaking of sweet...I made pattycake's banana booty bars last night because my sweet tooth was screaming for something tasty and the bars did not disappoint. To quote from the recipe, these are "Oaty, chewy, fruity bars with a hint of spice and a walnut crunch". I used coconut oil plus added the optional orange zest and 1/4 cup of Ghirardelli's 60% cacao bittersweet chips. There were just enough chips to give it chocolatey goodness. I have to say, I do replace sugar with agave nectar in many recipes but that doesn't mean I don't eat it. I just replace it with a healthier option as much as I can so when I eat sugar, I don't feel as guilty about consuming it. :o)

For breakfast this morning, I made pattycake's blueberry spiced smoothie because I just happened to have all the ingredients. I promise, I'm not a stalker, pattycake! I just really love her recipes because they are healthy, fit my diet restriction, and are easy to make plus I trust her taste buds since everything I have tried have all been delicious.


I'm still in the cooking mood so was quite busy in the kitchen this evening. DB, who works from home, was able to come down at 5 to entertain Boo. I let her watch two episodes of Super Why prior so I was able to start cooking at 4. I had a lot going on - making an eggplant dish (that sounded good but ended up tasting as bad as it looked), a seaweed dish (that was too vinegary but I was able to salvage it), azuki bean paste, and was attempting to make a lotus root mini-cake but decided to make them tomorrow since the other two dishes flopped. I was trying to have vegetarian night but since things weren't going my way and it was already 5:30, I quickly whipped up a batch of the stewed tsukune dumplings (this time using lean ground turkey) with carrots that I made Monday. Things didn't turn out like I planned but it was still a good dinner.

This smoothie would've been good

I don't drink coffee because it makes me too jittery, irritable, and hyper and once it wears off I crash hard...and this is after just one cup! It's mornings like today's that make me wonder if it wouldn't be worthwhile to have just a little. Just enough to wake me up enough so that I would be aware that my blender was coming undone and oozing its contents. My precious smoothie. I mean seriously, it didn't get like this in a couple seconds. It took about 20 seconds, I would guess, and I didn't notice. I remember the blender making a strange sound and proceeded to ignore it then I turned my head and saw the mess. Did I mention I was standing right next to it (but staring off into lalaland)? I made another sans the spinach because I was out. So sad, I like my morning salad.

Concocting interesting smoothie combinations

The first thing I do every morning is make a smoothie for me and Boo. It's easy, there's no cooking involved, and it's refreshing. I don't drink coffee so I need to do as little as possible first thing. I like coming up with different combinations and sometimes they work and sometimes they fall flat, like this one in the blender. In concept it sounded good to me. It's a combination of spinach, watermelon, and cucumbers and it tasted ok but had a weird aftertaste and the texture was mealy. I still drank it so I wouldn't be wasteful but Boo wouldn't. DB drank it but thought what I did. It was the watermelon that made it that way because it was overly ripe. Note to self: in the future when using watermelon, juice it. I like adding spinach to my smoothies because if you add just a big handful with fruit you cannot taste it and it's good knowing I got some veggies in without much effort - just didn't work here. I'm not giving up on the cucumbers just yet. I think it would make a tasty and refreshing addition - to something.

I had some steamed sweet potato left over from a recipe I made so I thought it would be yummy to make a smoothie out of it. Here's how I made it:
- 3/4 cup of sweet potatoes
- 1/2 cup of vanilla rice milk
- 1/2 cup of pineapples
- dash of cinnamon
- 1/2 cup of ice
- 1 teaspoon of flax seed meal
- scoop of strawberry protein powder

OHMIGOSH, it was delicious! I just bought more pineapple and some vanilla protein powder (think that'll be even better) today so will have another tomorrow. I'm going to throw in a handful of spinach, too.

As a snack this afternoon, Boo wanted ice cream. I didn't have any frozen bananas so I threw one in a blender along with some ice, chocolate soy milk, chocolate protein powder, and peanut butter and it was amazing. I have had this combo at Planet Smoothie where it's sold as a Chocolate Elvis. Not low cal but worth it if you want a treat.

I want to play around with other combos so will post when I come up with something yummy.