Thursday, March 26, 2015

Gettin my Green On

I've been busy. Sorry, it's true, that even though I'm not working currently, I've still been busy. It takes time to find a job, you see, and I've allowed myself to be all consumed with it. It paid off because I've landed a job!! Maybe more on that later, we'll see. Anyway, the other reason I've been busy is that we've had family visiting. Well, ok, that last part has only been for the last 3.5 days or so, but it still counts.

Anyway, I thought I'd take the opportunity to share 2 recipes that I'm totally in love with. The first one is what I drink every morning for breakfast. I actually feel guilty when I DON'T drink it for breakfast, because it gives me my greens first thing in the morning. If nothing 'good' happens the rest of my day in terms of my diet, at least I know I started off on the right foot!

Now... don't get me wrong, either. I'm not a juicer, and up until now the only smoothie I would fix myself contained either a yogurt / strawberry / banana / oats combo, or sub out the strawberry & banana for raw cacao and peanut butter & that's my go-to number two. That was my repertoire... partly due to the fact that I wasn't really buying the whole "drink for breakfast" thing, and partly because my blender was a typical run-of-the-mill blender. Insert my sister's Blentec and the smoothie world is my oyster!

So... let's get to it. My new favourite go-to breakfast is the "classic green monster" from Oh She Glows. It's TASTY! See my recipes section for the ingredient amounts, but it's basically made with almond milk, spinach, frozen banana, peanut butter, chia seeds, vanilla and cinnamon. You can try subbing in kale for the spinach, but personally, I'm just NOT a fan of kale in a smoothie. It just flavours the whole thing which I feel is a bit overpowering, particularly in the morning. Let's just say that if I'm going to drink something green, it better be tasty.

So... here it is!


Now, I may have said that kale does not work in the smoothie. Ok, I will most certainly go on record and stand by that. I have, however found a fantastic place for kale. My 2nd favourite recipe right now is the "festive kale salad with sweet apple-cinnamon vinaigrette & pecan parmesan", again from Oh She Glows. Let's face it, I'm seriously loving that cookbook, and I think I could eat that kale salad every night. BIG TIME. And I don't feel guilty about it at all!


Please don't take the picture as any indication of what it tastes like. This picture makes it look like something you picked out of the seaweed at the beach - but that's partly because I've used Lacinto Kale. I was using curly kale originally, and it's not so dark green, but I figure it's good to change things up in the kale department every once in awhile! Both types of kale work really well, but I will say, you have to MASSAGE it. If you've never heard of massaging your kale, well, then you've probably never eaten kale (or enjoyed it if you did). What a chewing nightmare. If you've massaged the dressing into it properly, and even let it sit awhile (a few hours maybe) before you eat it, then you should have a perfectly 'relaxed' kale that won't make you feel like a cow eating dinner.

So... I've been busy getting my green on, and hopefully these 2 recipes will help you do it too!

xoxo
-VE




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