Spinach Melon Green Smoothie

Happy Friday to everyone!  I spent the morning cleaning, the afternoon with my mom going around town, the early evening shopping with Kevin, then a quick workout before my dinner smoothie (see recipe below) and watching the Mariners while relaxing on the couch. First, is my daily log, and stay tuned for my super simple green smoothie recipe after!

Food Log:

• Breakfast: lots of water
• Lunch: Ethiopian Vegetarian Combo Split with my mom... (check out the pictures below too!)
• Veggie Sambussa Appitizer: delicate pastry filled with lentils, onions, and spices
• Vegetarian Combo: Yatakilt alicha (potatoes, carrots, and cabbage delicately sauteed with onions, garlic, ginger, and tumeric), Yemisher kik we-t (split red lentils cooked in berere sauce), Shiro (ground chickpeas mildly spiced and slow cooked with chopped onions and tomatoes), Yaterkik alicha (yellow split peas cooked with tumeric, garlic, and onions), with a bunch of Injera (spongey fermented flatbread) to dip and scoop
• Dinner: Spinach Melon Green Smoothie
• Extras: drinks with my friend in celebration of his grandmas life (she passed away peacefully today)

Exercise Log: Jogged for 20 minutes, abs, squats, stretching

How I felt:  Today was a fun day, and definitely a different food schedule than usual, but in the end, I think I did fairly well.  I didnt get in a true salad, but after my evening workout, I want in the mood for making a salad, let alone eating and having one sit heavy in my stomach.  My solution to that... this awesome new smoothie!

Spinach Melon Green Smoothie

Amys Notes:  Feel free to use whatever melon you prefer for this recipe.  I used cantelope (rock melon) because I needed to use mine up, but I bet honeydew melon would go wonderfully as well!

Ingredients: 

• 2 huge bunches of spinach
• 1 cup fresh melon
• 1 frozen banana
• 2 dates
• splash of non-dairy milk to thin

Directions: Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth and creamy.  Add more non-dairy milk to thin to your desired consistency.

Have you ever tried putting melons in a smoothie?  Crazy right!?

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Mojito Green Smoothie

Happy Earth Day to all!  I thought I would share with you guys a little info-graphic that I made to send out at my work.  It is fairly general and doesnt include as much information about diet and the health of the environment as I would normally put in.

Some of you who have read my "about me" section may know that my college major was Environmental Science, so I am very passionate about doing what we can to preserve the world that we have.  When I started following the Nutritarian lifestyle, I did it for weight loss and my health.  As time has passed, I have come to find that one of the best ways that you can care for the planet as well as your own health is by eating a whole foods, plant-based vegan diet that focuses on organic and local produce.  

I have had the whole foods part down for a while, but now I am starting to focus more on where my food comes from and how it was grown.  I buy organic when possible (available and financially reasonable), and have been striving to get more of my food from closer sources.  I really cant wait for summertime when there is a farmers market only 3 miles from my apartment, to which I plan to bike to and from.  When Im the one biking, and I get all of my energy from food that was grown in the sun, you cant get more solar powered than that!

I havent featured a smoothie recipe in a while, so I thought Earth Day seemed like a great day to have a green smoothie that is full of nutrients and delicious!

Mojito Green Smoothie
Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 1-2 servings

Ingredients:
        2 packed cups/large handfuls of organic spinach, washed
        1/2 cup plant-based milk
        1/2 cup ice cubes
        1 frozen banana
        2 dates, pitted
        Juice from 1 lime, or about 1.5 Tbsp
        2 Tbsp fresh mint

Instructions:
1.)  Place all ingredients into a high-speed blender.
2.)  Blend on high until smooth and creamy.
3.)  Enjoy immediately.

Amys Notes:
This recipe packs quite a bunch of spinach, with the green taste masked deliciously with the lime and mint combo.  Who needs a mojito with liquor when you can have greens?!

What are you planning to do this next year do decrease your environmental impacts?

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Healthy Chocolate Fix Smoothie

I hope everyone had a splendid weekend.  Im currently getting over a bit of a head cold that I caught from Kevin, which he probably got from the school he works at.  Im happy to have Monday and Tuesday off this week, and I will be starting a new job hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday!  Yay!

Ill give you a "quick" breakdown of how my life has been changing over the past few weeks:

I have been working as an Administrative Assistant at Tradesmen International since July, but in the beginning of January I had had a meeting with my boss that would change everything.  Since it was the beginning of the year, I thought long and hard about where I want to be in a year professionally, and I decided that I wanted to start pursuing careers in the field I graduated in, Environmental Science.  I have always been an honest person and appreciate when others are honest with me, so I sat down with my boss and discussed taking Thursday afternoons off so that I could have some time to start looking for environmental jobs.  Since I got all of my work done by noon most Thursdays, this was no problem, and he understood that I was going to be with them temporarily from the beginning.  I told him that it would probably take me months to find the right job that I was looking for, and that I would of course give him my two weeks.  He was very understanding and supportive that I wanted to go after something in my field.

Well... about three weeks late I had a few leads on some jobs I had been looking into, and even an interview.  However, I also found out that I was being "laid-off" and would be worked through the end of the week and replaced by "someone who is wanting to be with us long-term."  Damn-it!  This will definitely teach me to be honest when it comes to things like this.  It turns out that the person they gave the job to replace me was my bosss brothers friend/girlfriend.  They kind of got what was coming to them in the end though: when I went to pick up my final check, I learned that the computer I had been working on and had all of my documents and spreadsheets I had created to do my job efficiently had crashed.  All I can say is karma is a bitch!

So, I have been out of work for two weeks, but Im happy to announce that Ive taken another job as an Administrative Assistant/Project Coordinator at a well known engineering firm that has wonderful connections and gateways to environmental positions I hope to get to someday.  Did I mention that I work about 20 hours less a week than my previous job and that I get paid about the same?  I think thats a fair trade-off.  In the end, Im a firm believer in thinking that everything happens for a reason.  Im just happy that this led me to something bigger and better.

Now, on to my recipe.... I, like most women, get that time of the month when chocolate seems to find its way into my mouth one way or another.  I thought I would try making something that would hopefully be more forgiving than a candy bar.  All I can say about it is... it is supposed to make two servings, but if you end up having the whole thing over an afternoon snack, dinner, and evening snack... Im not going to judge you ;).

Ingredients:

• 2 cups non-dairy milk
• 2 frozen bananas
• 6 ice cubes
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 2-4 dates
• 1 large kale leaf
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients into a high powered blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy.
2. Serve cold immediately, store leftovers in an airtight container for up to one day... but it wont last that long.

Amys Notes:

• I used homemade almond milk for my smoothie, but any type of non-dairy milk will work.  If your milk is unsweetened, you may want up to 4 dates, but start with two and work your way till you find your desired sweetness.
• I used 1 large kale leaf, which equaled out to about 2 cups of greens, but feel free to add as little or as much of any type of dark green that you have on hand.

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Kale Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

Hello all!  Very sorry I wasnt able to post my daily log yesterday.  My day was jam-packed with errands and a lot of fun.  First, I woke up and did some household chores before my mom and I were to have a girls outing.  My mom ended up canceling, unfortunately, because she is a substitute secretary at a local school district and had accidentally gotten signed up for a shift when she had thought she had marked out for the day.  Bummer!

I then stayed around the apartment in the morning doing a bit more housework and rearranging the living room.  Feng shui anyone?  I also finally hung up some pictures that had been sitting in the corner since we moved in over a month ago :/.  After that, I made Kevin lunch and brought it to him at work since when he went to make it himself this morning his deli meat had gone bad (I think thats a sign he should go Nutritarian with me, dont you?).

After making Kevin his lunch and I made myself a green smoothie to-go (see below).  Once I brought Kevin lunch, I went to run some errands for the rest of the afternoon.  This included getting a new screen protector put on my iPhone, getting a birthday present for a friend, going to a local spice and vinegar specialty store, trying to get Rip Esselstyns newest book My Beef With Meat (which I decided to probably just get on my kindle iPad), going to spend a gift card at a novelty store, and getting some things at Target.

At Target I was browsing the clearance clothes rack and decided to treat myself to a new dress to wear out last night since I have been well at sticking to my 6-Week challenge.  I posted the picture on Facebook to the group Dr. Fuhrmans Eat To Live - Nutritarian Plant Based Diet.  I got a lot of great responses and encouragement from the group.  Later, when my mom had seen the picture online, she told me she was so surprised that that was me and that I was looking so great.  Thanks mom, for always being my #1 Cheerleader :).  Here is that "progress" picture:

After running errands, I did a small workout (more about that in my daily log below), then got ready for our fun evening out... you guessed it, in my new dress that is one size smaller that I would have been two weeks ago!  First, we parked at my work that is by the Spokane Arena, and walked across the Downtown Riverfront Park to go to dinner downtown at The Steelhead Bar and Grill.  It is an upscale gill that makes great fresh food. 

Normally, while eating out, I would try to get a salad, but all of their salads here had meat included.  I know I can ask for no meat, but Im always worried that I will still get charged the meat price for the salad even though I ask for it off.  I dont think thats fair, do you?  Instead, I ended up ordering a portobello sandwich with a side salad.  It was a big sandwich, but this ended up being my lunch and dinner, so the portion worked out perfectly.

After dinner, we went back across the park to the arena for a Spokane Shock indoor football game. Since Spokane doesnt have its own NFL football team, we have the Shock instead, which is essentially  a team with fairly professional-grade players on a field about a quarter of the size of a normal football field.  That means lots of action, lots of scoring, and lots of crowd fun!  My dad was able to score us ticket is one of the suites through his work, so we got a great view!

During the game they had a raffle toss where you donate $5 to a local charity, and you get 6 small footballs (think tiny stress-ball size) to attempt to throw into a car that drives slowly around the field with its windows down between the 3rd and 4th quarter.  The balls that make it in get put into a raffle to win half of the money from the proceeds.  From where we were seated, this is nearly impossible, but we gave it a shot anyways.  I threw two of them, Kevin threw three, and one we gave to another guy in the suite that is a client of my dads.  It turns out that the client had thrown the ball down to the lower seats, and someone has picked it up and tossed it in.  We surprisingly won the raffle!!!!! We ended up walking away with over $300!

Luckily, that night we were also going to the casino for a friends birthday.  No big money was won, but we did have a lot of fun.  We didnt get home till later in the night, so there was no blog post, and I will report my weekend log on Sunday or Monday.  Now, my daily log, and make sure not to miss my smoothie recipe below!

Food Log:

• Breakfast: Kale Orange Creamsicle Smoothie (recipe below)
• Linner: Portobello sandwich on a focaccia roll and a mixed greens side salad
• Extras: 2 beers at the casino

Exercise Log: 1 mile outdoor run, abs, push-ups 

How I felt:  Yesterday I felt very confident and happy. For the first time in a long time, I felt good about how I was eating and my body image.  At no point during the day was I temped to eat any SAD (Standard American Diet) foods, although there were plenty around.  Today (Saturday) will be a bit more of a challenge, as I am going to a friends BBQ in the evening.  Instead of grilled meats, Im opting to bring two corn on the cobs to grill for myself. Yum!  Hopefully the BBQ will have a couple of healthy sides.  I did hear that someone was bringing hummus!  Now on to my recipe....

Kale Orange Creamsicle Smoothie

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup raw cashews
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 handfuls of chopped kale
• 3 small oranges, peeled (about 1 cup or so)
• 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed (optional)
• Several ice cubes

Instructions:

• Place all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Add more ice to achieve the thickness you desire. 

Amys Notes:  

This was the perfect serving side for a meal on the go.  For this, I used cashews and water because I didnt have any non-dairy milk, but you could easily substitute 1/2 cup+ for that portion of the recipe.  Also, feel free to leave out the kale if you want more of a traditional orange creamsicle taste.  The great thing about this recipe is the oranges are sweet enough that extra sweeteners (dates, stevia, etc.) are not needed.  I put my smoothie in a to-go water bottle since I was running out the door to Kevins work.  Green smoothies are great for a meal on the go!  Enjoy!

How often do you enjoy green smoothies?  

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