Money In My Blender

Praise the Lord; we got about half an inch of rain last night! Now 1/2 an inch will really not do much for the 10 inches of rain that we are lacking for the year but it still makes for a beautiful morning. Last evening I rode my bike across town to a political forum and during this forum I could hear something stirring outside. Sure enough when I exited the building to get on my bike, it was raining with lighting and thunder still going on. My ride home was a little treacherous considering I still haven't gotten my flashing light fixed, I was wearing a skirt and sandals, and the possibility of me hitting something or being hit by something was probably pretty likely in the dark. However, I made it home safely, got wet, and loved it! Seriously, now if only we could blessed with about a week of steady slow rainfall we could possibly do something about this drought. But today I'm thankful for what we did receive.

To celebrate the rain this morning I went all out and made a smoothie which I haven't done in quite some time. This mornings creation is definitely money in a blender and money in my body. It is soooo tasty!

• 1 small frozen banana
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 large spoonful of cocoa powder
• 1 small spoon of raw, local honey
• 1 spoonful of almond butter
• 1 cup raw whole milk
• 5 ice cubes

This is seriously money folks. I might add that using raw whole milk makes this thing amazingly creamy and frothy. The awesome fat in there has this amazing power to really froth up in a blender. I purchase my raw whole milk from a grass-fed dairy so it is of exceptional quality and I love it. If you don't have your own source of raw dairy products, I encourage you to purchase as close to home as possible. Now go get it!

Smoothie Love

I love smoothies and I love my new tablecloth. I managed to confiscate such tablecloth from the deepest hiding place in a long lost cabinet shelf at the farm. I'm pretty sure that my grandmother made this tablecloth from sherry-like towel material. It's fabulous and it needed to see the light of day so it's on my table now. Thanks Grandma!

The past couple of weeks have been smoothie heaven for me. These two weeks in my kids classes we have been making two different smoothies. I normally would prepare the same food sampling in all of the classes of a particular curriculum but I decided that 11 classrooms with the same food prep would get boring for me so I decided to try two different smoothie recipes. So the smoothies I've been enjoying with the 2nd graders include:

Power-Up Smoothie 

1 banana

1 1/4 cup Orange Juice

1 1/4 cup frozen mixed berries

1/2 cup silken tofu

Soy-Good Chocolate Banana Smoothie

1 banana- sliced and frozen

1/2 cup silken tofu

1/2 cup soymilk

2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1 Tablespoon honey

These have gone over really well with the kids, although initially they freak out about eating tofu. I'll be honest, tofu is not that appetizing to look at plain, but blend it up in a smoothie and you have a great source of added protein that you don't taste at all! 

Now for the smoothies I've been making for myself for breakfast and/or lunch include a random mixture of the following:

• Whole raw milk Yogurt and/or Kefir
• Hemp protein powder
• Flax seed
• Frozen berries
• Splash of OJ
• Kale!

Smoothies are so great because as you can see you can put whatever you want into them. Just be sure to keep the added sugar (including juice) to a minimum.

New Adventures

Yesterday I ventured to Manhattan for the annual meeting of People's Grocery. I am an owner of this small cooperative and although I don't get to shop there very often I always spend my moneys worth when I do. The meeting was interesting as it was my first time at such a thing. I even got to bust out some parliamentary procedure skills so we could unanimously elect a board member. We were about to pass out 50 ballots and write the one person that volunteered to serve on it. Thank you FFA/4-H for those basic meeting efficiency skills. I was very excited to meet some new people and share a little bit about myself. I've been listening to lecture after lecture about how to start random conversations with people about my health coaching training. I was able to have a great conversation with a lovely lady that was super interested and also works at the store so I'm hoping to have opened a door there. It's all about networking and marketing!

I ventured to the store after the meeting with a list of random things that I have been meaning to purchase and try. I've been reading a lot of different blogs about the paleolithic lifestyle recently and wanted to try some different recipes that involve coconut flour and/or oil. So I managed to find both of those along with some ingredients to make homemade toothpaste! 

One of my new foods that I picked up in Manhattan includes: Kefir! It's almost like a liquid yogurt packed full of probiotics and healthy gut bacteria. I thought I could drink it straight but realized that may take some getting used to. My breakfast smoothie was fabulous made with: Kefir, pears, cranberries, hemp protein powder, and flax seed.

Red

Eat right with the color RED!

Tomatoes, red peppers, red apples, beets, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, pomegranate, red & pink grapefruit, rhubarb, cranberries, watermelon

The color pigment in red fruits and vegetables comes from  lycopene and anthocyanins. These are both powerful phytonutrients that help fight many types of cancer and improve heart health, lower blood pressure, reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and ease the pain of arthritis. The color red seen in these fruits and vegetables also contain essential antioxidants Vitamin A & C. Eating right with the color red has immeasurable health benefits, tastes so sweet and good, and is low in fat and calories!

Red cherries contain melatonin- regulates sleep

Raspberries are fruit with highest antioxidant levels and
among the highest in fiber. 

Post-jog smoothie: Strawberries, blueberries,
plain yogurt, milk,  hemp protein powder