Loaded Smoothie

Being a mom of two little children under five can be hectic some days. Okay who am I kidding most days. Then add in two parents who are entrepreneur’s and that takes it up a NOTCH. So one of my favourite things to do is create a “loaded” smoothie.

It means that you can be strategic about what you are choosing to eat and you can “load” up on some key ingredients to give your smoothie an extra nutritional punch! Instead of just a fruit smoothie make it a Super Energy Boosting Smoothie.

Now how does that sound? Just look at this amazing drink and the inspiration for this post. It is loaded with so much good stuff that you just feel great drinking it.

Ingredients: 2 Cups of Water, 1 scoop of raw vanilla protein powder, lecithin, mint greens, cacao nibs, 1 frozen banana, and raw cacao. Vegan DHA oil added at the end and topped with cacao nibs. Yummy.

One of the things that I learned many years ago is that you can take advantage of every opportunity that you have to fuel your body with amazing ingredients. To be honest if you make any kind of smoothie you should give yourself a HUGE PAT on the back, because that is awesome!

Here are some great things that you can consider adding to your smoothie to make it “LOADED”. You don’t need to add all of these at once but you can pick and choose and start to add in some of your favourites.

Here are some of my top options:

Raw/Vegan Protein Powder
Extra Green Powders ( wheat grass, spirulina, blue green algae, raw greens powders)
DHA Oil (I opt for a vegan source of DHA and EPA)
Lecithin (helps emulsify fats and contains some great nutrients for your brain)
Fiber (ground flax seeds and chia seeds are great)

The key is that you want to buy great ingredients with no fillers or artificial ingredients. The great thing is that once you get comfortable making smoothies these ingredients don’t have to mean “awful taste”, on the contrary they can blend really nicely and still taste amazing.

I would love to hear from you. What are some of your special ingredients that you use in your smoothie? I also wanted to let you know that I have been working on a special project-my new website. I have not make the full switch over there yet but it will be soon. So go check it out

Cacao Smoothie & Hazelnut Cupcakes

Hope you are having a great day! First I would like to share this beautiful photo that my professional photographer took this week. Pretty good protege? Only 5 years old.

Check out my guest post on Crazy Sexy Life today on raw food strategies for your family. Here is a healthy cooked recipe that was featured as recipe of the week.



I am sure you are all wondering why I have been on this hazelnut kick lately. To tell you the truth, I found this amazingly huge bag of raw hazelnuts, that I rarely ever see. It has led me to some creative time in the kitchen. So I thought I would share a few photos. I actually made these a little while ago but forgot to share them.




My daughter and I made these together. She loves to get in the kitchen and get messy.




Next I want to share this quick smoothie. You could add many other things to this if you wanted to. The sky is the limit. You could also add ice to make it cold and frothy.




Ingredients:

Frozen Banana
Almond Milk
Touch of Maca-optional
Vanilla Powder
1 scoop sunwarrior vanilla protein
Cacao Powder
Bambu Alternative Coffee Mix

Blend together in the vitamix and ENJOY on a nice hot summer day!! This is definitely a guilt free treat.

Stay tuned for a new contest coming your way in a couple of weeks. You won't want to miss this one!!

Corn Avocado Soup and Mexican Crisps

Creamy soft avocado and corn soup! This raw soup is so easy to make. You will wonder why you never tried this or raw food before. I have been eating lots and lots of salads, smoothies and making lots of sprouts in the last couple of days. I wanted to switch things up a bit and add in a nice soup. I also made another smoothie and some little appetizers below.


This corn soup is adapted from The Raw Gourmet. I have had this book for years and although I don't use it that often it has some really great information in it especially for those that are new to raw food.

Ingredients
1 cup of frozen corn
1 avocado
1-2 tbs of chopped red onion
water or plain almond milk
cumin
sea salt
crumbled flax crisp
pea sprouts

Blend all of the ingredients in Vitamix. Add pea sprouts and few kernels of corn on the top. I added some flax crackers on top. You can add any type of flax cracker on top. Mine was a nice spicy Mexican Beet Fiesta crisps from Two Girls Cooking, which went really well with the soup. This really took about 5 minutes or less. The left over soup was used as a dressing for my salad the next day.


I used the same Mexican Crisps for this little appetizer below. Very simple but tasty.I like these crisps because they have a good flavor to them and they are definitely not bland. Actually they have a good amount of heat to them. You could used any type of flax cracker.

I just mixed some tomatoes, cilantro(my favorite), red onion and some of the thick creamy corn and avocado soup as a sauce. Yummy.

Lastly I also made another smoothie. This time I made a chocolate raspberry smoothie but added some Chocolate Amazing Grass to it. This is another brand that I like.

This has many different great ingredients in it and is not to costly. It has a great chocolate flavor. I think I am on this raspberry chocolate kick lately. Give me a couple of days and I am sure it will pass...and I will be onto something else. Speaking of something else I am trying to make rejuvelac, which I will report when it is done.

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Ps. Yoga was great!

Get Me Going Smoothie

This morning I had a glass of warm water with a few squeezes of lemon juice. Then I snuck in a few grapes. Truly I would like to eat a bit more but these last few days have been killer on the "Things To Do List". Anyways not really complaining just moving right along.

I was able do a smoothie. I have made this one once before and it seems to go down pretty well. It is not overly sweet. I am not a sweet smoothie person. I like mine less sweet than the general population. I tried to pack as much into it as I could do. I have a feeling that I will be experimenting with it until I get it just right. For now this is what was in it.

Amazing Grass Chocolate Powder ( 2 scoops)
Goji berries (for some body or thickness and nutritional value)
KLamath Lake Blue Green Algae (opened 2 caps)
1 Frozen banana
Camu Camu Berry Powder (small tsp for Vitamin C)
Powdered Vanilla (1-2 small tsp)
Coconut Oil

I put it all in my Vitamix and blended away. I must say this is turning out to be a keeper for me. There is still some tweaking, however it is a start. Last time I did add some Reishi mushroom powder to it as well.



I really love to try new things in my smoothies and food. I also know that it is great to make your smoothies more balanced with some protein and fiber. I could have added more protein but I am just in the midst of ordering some new ones that I want to try.

I think the key is to have fun with your smoothies. What are some of your favorites? If you don't have all the ingredients listed above. Fear not!! You can really put almost anything into your smoothies. If you are making your first smoothie you can just add in some fruits and almond milk until you get used to it and then explore!!