college apps, baby oranges, & more nutrition books

while writing 23 supplemental essays is genuinely fun for me - yes, i'm an English freak - it totally wears me out. luckily, smoothie bowl fuel and this beautiful/applicable song have saved me!

the base of my smoothie bowls is always my favorite green smoothie. unfortunately, it's been more purple/brown lately as seen below - i've been cramming in mixed berries instead of an extra banana.

oooohhhhh yessssss

there's a very specific art to crafting the perfect (green?) smoothie. the spinach must be directly in the liquid, with the other ingredients on top. it's an unproven theory, but i'm pretty convinced the blender is able to blend the spinach more efficiently, reducing the risk of any creepy residual spinach flakes. no one likes those slimy little stowaways. 

i'm just going to interrupt myself for a second and talk about a few books i've read lately, because they were very eye-opening and important. discussing the assembly of the bowl is gonna have to wait. 

lately, i finished Salt, Sugar, Fat by Michael Moss, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Both were quite fascinating and were written with what i perceived as an inquisitive desire for change. Salt, Sugar, Fat slammed the food industry, but not in annoying, rant-y way. Moss's approach was very scientific and methodical, with speculations around the way current eating habits involving processed food impact our society. it really inspired me to research even more about processed food, and the allegations against the food industry. i was/am so frustrated with it all - i just wish we could all have access to the healing power of farm fresh fruits and vegetables...which leads me to the next book i read! Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was the story of a really interesting experiment; eat nothing but what was in season and accessible locally. the Kingsolver family gardened a lot, gave up all processed food and all food that wasn't in season, and wrote a fantastic collaborative book about it. although i don't especially like gardening, i was ready to hop in my car and drive until i found a couple acres to grow beets on (i may have been getting a little ahead of myself). this book really made me think about what it means to go back to our roots, to eat locally. for the family in the book, it meant supporting local farmers markets, growing your own food, practicing the truly, truly, truly lost art of eating locally, and contributing to a community. i thought it was a great idea, and if it works for your family, go for it. as a vegetarian and borderline vegan, i wouldn't be able to survive winters of meat and root vegetables. but i really enjoyed the exploration of local food in the contexts of health and anthropology. 

wrinkly thumb, color me mine bowl, off colored smoothie <3

whew. long story short, read those books. haha. anyway, smoothie bowls are famtastic because you get to feel super artsy and creative while you make them. there's a million and four ways to deck out your smoothie bowl, but i always opt for coconut and chia seeds as my constants. sometimes i'll add pumpkin seeds and raspberries, or mango and granola. today, it was a sliced Cutie and apple. i just have to say - the Cuties are phenomenal right now (though not local...sorry Mrs. Kingsolver) i've been eating four a day for the past few weeks and i have zero complaints/regrets about it. mmmm.

so there you have it! the ultimate college app fuel/i'm-stressed-out fuel/i-need-an-excuse-to-play-with-my-food fuel. below is my favorite smoothie recipe, but feel free to change it up. it's really just a formula to go off of.

lo and behold, the finished product

1.5 cups unsweetened almond milk (or coconut water, or milk, or water)

3ish cups of spinach - i usually just try to fill half to three-quarters of the blender with spinach

1-2 frozen bananas - this is imperative if you don't want your breakfast to taste like grass!!!

1.5 cups frozen berries (or another banana or two, or frozen mango, etc)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 lemon, squeezed into the blender (or lime, or a cutie - which i used in this bowl)

i'll usually blend up the almond milk with the spinach first, then add in banana, then the berries/lemon/vanilla. however, i'm pretty sure that's just me being crazy and that the layering technique in the first photo works just as well.

happy smoothie bowl-ing!

(some sort of fake) Synergy

confession: i love Synergy w/chia. (it’s kombucha (basically just fermented tea) with chia seeds)

confession: i have sixteen dollars and fifty seven cents to my name which means

confession: i made some sort of fake Synergy for #FREE and

confession: it's really, really good. also,

confession: i listened to all five taylor swift albums today….AGAIN

disclaimer: this post is going to have a ton of photos, so bear with me here.

this is everything you'll need for this glorious drink. four ingredients.

okay. let us begin.

go grab a bag of your favorite tea. right now. my current favorite is Tazo’s Passion Herbal Tea. it tastes like joy + summer + everything, and is incredible hot, cold, lukewarm, or chia seed-ified. today, we’re going for chia seed-ified.

boil (or microwave) eight oz of water, aka one cup.

after the water has cooled, stir in the chia seeds. stir every minute or so for around 7-8 minutes, or until the seeds have gelled to your liking.

stir in about a teaspoon of honey for a touch of sweetness.

quick rant:

i recently read A Year Of No Sugar by Eve Schaub. long story short, she took her family off fructose and added sugar as an experiment. i respect the idea and the intent, and loved the observations she made about the way food and sugar have become so ingrained in our society. 

however, i found the execution of the project really misinformed. the family ate a dessert a month, so right off the bat it wasn't truly a "year of no sugar." if they were at a restuaunt ordering salad, they'd choose meat over salad, if the salad dressing had a drop of oragne juice in it. (luckily, she still let her family eat whole fruit.) one one occasion in the book, the only bread available had sugar in it, so they fed their kids potato chips for lunch (!!!!!!) instead. things like that. 

ALSO, she started baking with dextrose instead of fructose, because somehow a weird powdered sweetener extracted from corn is healthier than raw, organic honey????? it made me more upset than it probably should have, but my philosophy on sugar is quite different. i think that 
1. it's fine to eat sugar/white refined flour every once in a while because brownies rock, cookies are great, and life is short.
2. sweeteners like honey or pure maple syrup are quite different from the proccessed sweeteners that are hard to pronounce. (hydrogonated starch hydrolysate, anyone?)


anywayyyyyyy..... i got my honey at the cutest fruit stand on our most recent road trip. west coast road trips always result in me begging to stop at every roadside stand i see. yummm

i drank this beaut while listening to...you guessed it...tswizzle. it's the slightest bit bitter from the Passion, but has just the right touch of sweetness. the unique, gel-ly texture really matches the texture of the chia synergy i so dearly love. plus, it clocks in with 4.5 g protein and 7.5 g fiber (25% of the reccomended fiber intake for women!) it's missing the glorious acidic fizz of the original drink, but is a little bit sweeter, a little more flavorful, and doesn't take forever to ferment. woot woot

1 cup water

1 packet tea

1.5 tbs chia seeds

1 tsp honey

steep tea in hot water. let cool, then stir in chia seeds and honey for a cup of joy.

green goodness bowl

a few matters of business:
1) finals suck
2) #SO
3) much
4) everyone needs to try this dinner bowl bc it's the bomb.com/org/edu/gov

ok so i follow like 300 food accounts on instagram & lately i've seen the idea of a dinner bowl floating around. last week i was out of ideas for dinner, so i tried it out....and i'm so glad i did. it only took 10 minutes max to put together, and was sooo filling. (i couldn't finish...which, let's be real, pretty much never happens).

edamame, cucumber, spinach, broccoli. simple, but when used the right way...dynamite. i roasted the broccoli and sprinkled on some nutritional yeast, which has a taste reminiscent of cheese. the limes ended up on the spinach (as well as some toasted buckwheat groats), and everything got dunked in the greek yogurt dip in the middle. it's pretty impressive how full you can get off of some plants.

the yogurt dip is plain nonfat greek yogurt with lime, jalapeno, cilantro, and pepper. it's sort of like sour cream, but infinitely better. love you long time, greek yogurt. the only thing this is missing is some tofu or tempeh. next time i'll add my fav trader joe's tofu. yummmm.

so not-so-long story short, make this. you'll thank me forever.

recipe:

(this made enough for 2 enormous bowls)

a head of broccoli, chopped and roasted (i do mine without oil or salt)

about 1/2 cup edamame per bowl, thawed

one cucumber, sliced

couple handfuls of spinach for each bowl

sliced lime

about 3/4 cup greek yogurt

1/3 jalapeno, diced really small

lime juice!!!!! (i'm lime's #1 fan so i used the juice of two limes...but do whatever tastes good to you)

a couple sprigs of cilantro, chopped

a couple dashes of pepper

nutritional yeast to sprinkle on the broccoli

toasted buckwheat groats for the spinach

arrange however you want! i put my yogurt dip in the middle as a dipping sauce and also bc it was aesthetically pleasing. lol. 

joy in a bowl (banana ice cream)

ok so i'm pretty sure every person who's ever been on a health kick, "lifestyle change," or whatever you want to call it, has made banana ice cream. you know, the good old standby, freeze a couple bananas, chop em up, food proccessor those suckers and magicially, ice cream happens. BUT i made a couple changes and took super artsy pics so i had to post it.

please love this as much as i do

my mom just got this rockin fujifilm camera that takes the BEST pictures ever so my photo quality should be on the rise here. iphone photograpby b gone. 

i can hear angels singing rn look at this divine creation

i really can't believe how much it looks/tastes like actual ice cream. it's a beautiful thing. i made this for breakfast a few days ago, and it was fan-tas-tic. i added frozen blackberries and vanilla extract to the first little batch on the bottom (1 banana's worth) then mixed cocoa powder, maple syrup, and coconut extract into the top layer. on top are buckwheat groats (if you've never heard of them click here. they're oprah approved everybody.) i eat mine raw or toasted, but not boiled. i used raw for this bowl of joy, then sprinkled some dark mini chocolate chips on top. 

recipe

2 bananas, frozen overnight

1 tbs cocoa powder

1 tsp maple syrup 

1/4 tsp coconut extract

1/4 cup frozen blackberries

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

do the bananas one at a time. all you have to do is cut them & throw them in the food processor (or magic bullet), then wait until they go from chunks to dippin dots to dairy queen standard soft serve. add blackberries and vanilla to one batch, and the cocoa/coconut extract/maple syrup to the other. you'll love your life. the end.

one more bc i'm so proud of these pics

Extreme Self Control (making homemade Larabars)

Today, I bring you not only your new favorite recipe, but also a test in self-control.

I seem to really like putting food in strange places, then taking pictures of it???

I failed it.

I made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough Larabars, (each batch makes around 2.5 full sized bars). Unfortunately I was unable to get a picture of them before someone DEMOLISHED them... (me) Sooooo I did the only logical thing and made another batch. This time they were key lime pie.

looks like granola but it's not...

Luckily I was able to get these pictures before they too were GONE. I don't know what it is about Larabars, especially homemade ones...but they're just so, so, so, so, so, SO good. They're easy to make, raw & vegan, (unless you stuff them with chocolate chips...) sweetened with dates and limited to three or four ingredients, and overall perfect. That's all.

aw baby larabar

Not to mention you can do all sorts of cool things with these crazy good snacks. Example A, roll the dough into mini energy bites. Or cut it into the traditional bars, as thin or thick as you want. Sculpt a small scale Mt. Rushmore. Seriously, as long as it ends up in your mouth, who cares?

So, moral of the story, make these when have one of those I-rule-the-world-I-am-Beyonce-my-life-is-so-in-order-I-love-myself-I-am-so-in-charge-and-in-control days. Hopefully you won't end up like me, finishing off half a container of dates and bloated for days. (WORTH IT)

Homemade Larabars - my two favorite flavors

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:

1/3 cup pitted soft dates (I get mine at Trader Joe's)

1/2 cup raw, unsalted nuts - I've found I like to use a mix of almonds and walnuts

1/2 tsp vanilla

tiny bit of salt

1 tbs (or more!) chocolate chips

put the dates and nuts into a food processor and pulse until the nuts are mostly ground up and the dates don't really look like dates. This is a horrible attempt at describing this...but basicially, it will look like a loose Larabar. At that point, add in the vanilla, salt, and chocolate chips. Pulse a few more times, then roll into balls or bars. For an easy way to make the bars, put the dough between two pieces of wax paper and roll it out as thick or thin as you want. Cut into squares/rectangles. I store mine in the fridge or freezer.

Key Lime Pie: (guys...these are incredible)

1/2 cup pitted soft dates

1/2 cup raw, unsalted nuts

1/3 coconut

zest of 1 lime

1/2 TBS - 1 TBS fresh lime juice (depends on how lime-y you want it)

tiny bit of salt

Follow the same instructions as above!

Enjoy! (& good luck with that whole self control thing...)

Carrots & Classics

This post, like my last one, (in November...oops) must start with a song. I shazammed this gem from Veronica Mars. And don't worry, I linked the Listen on Repeat version to spare you the trouble of clicking "replay" over...and over...and over.

I got home today and was tired beyond belief and craving something good. I didn't even know what I wanted. I just knew it had to be good. I've been making Oh She Glow's carrot cake smoothie a lot lately. Breakfast, dinner, mid-afternoon snack, this smoothie has seen it all. And it is deeeee-lishhhh-ousssssss.

Disclaimer: I didn't actually open these books today...but Carrots & Classics was just way too cute of a post title to pass up

As soon as I remembered the carrot cake smoothie, I knew it was The One. The perfect pick-me-up after a (very) long day at school. I whipped it up in record time and took 50328 pictures of it before I let myself take a sip. It was torturous. 

I was probably drooling at this point. really. 

This smoothie is gorgeous. Not only is it ORANGE (!!!) but it is smooth, sweet, and cinnamon-y. Not to mention raw, vegan, and crazy healthy. Your mom was right about that vitamin C!! It tastes exactly like carrot cake batter, but better. No weird baking soda-y aftertaste. No one hounding you about salmonella from raw eggs (but let's be honest, I've never listened to that anyway...cookie dough is my friend). I sound like a desperate advertiser right now, but only because you need to try this smoothie. It's good. 

please admire a) my chipped nails b) my workout shirt c) my porch in the background

I've adapted my recipe from the Oh She Glows one to make it a little simpler. 

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

2-3 carrots, peeled and chunked (cut into 1 inch "chunks")

1/2 banana, preferably frozen

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinammon

5ish ice cubes

Pour the almond milk into the blender, and drop in the carrots. Blend until it's as smooth as possible. Then add in the banana, vanilla, and cinnamon. The vanilla and cinnamon are really a matter of taste. Once I accidentally put in so much cinnamon that the entire smoothie turned brown but I was EXTREMEMLY desperate for breakfast and drank it anyway. My throat burned for hours. Moral of the story: be gentle with your cinnamon shaker. Add in the ice cubes, and blend again. Enjoy!

first (and successful!) smoothie bowl

before i say anything, everyone has to listen to this song that i'm obsessed with. 

okay

i'm excited because this was my first ever smoothie bowl & my first actually healthy post on this blog. yay!

for those of you who haven't seen or heard of smoothie bowls, they're exactly what they sound like...but they taste even better. it's literally a smoothie poured into a bowl with some toppings. some other health bloggers get prettyyyyy artsy with layering smoothies and swirling in different granolas, etc. i kept it pretty simple with my bowl and decorated it with some carefully placed raspberries, pomegranate seeds (aka nature's candy) and a sprinkling of coconut. The crunchy coconut, tangy pomegranate, and sweet raspberries (so many adjectives) were the perfect compliment to my smoothie.

admire my poorly colored and probably oversaturated iphone photography

i'll admit, i bummed out on my couch and enjoyed to a couple episodes of Seinfeld. best show of all time. it was just what i needed on a saturday morning, the perfect marriage between healthy and delicious. fresh but filling, sweet but nourishing. i was also mostly just looking for an excuse to make something, and to eat pomegranate. i've been so obsessed with it lately i bring it to school, put it in smoothies, yogurt, and salads, eat it for snacks/dinner/lunch/breakfast/snacks. you get the idea. so besides christmas, pomegranates are pretty much the best thing about winter.

without further ado, i give you...my first ever smoothie bowl!

another iphone masterpiece

Smoothie Bowl

1.5 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk

2.5 cups spinach

1 frozen banana

1 cup frozen mango chunks

1 tsp vanilla

toppings of choice! i used 2 tbs pomegranate, a handful of raspberries, and 2 tbs coconut

blend the almond milk and spinach first, until it's completely smooth. break the frozen banana in half and throw it in, along with the mango chunks. when everything is blended how you want it, add in a teaspoon of vanilla. it's my secret ingredient, and really makes all the difference. introduces a whole new dimension of flavor. pour smoothie into a bowl, and go crazy with your toppings! enjoy with a spoon and feel like a health food queen/beyonce of the food industry