Posted on: September 19, 2011 at 9:27 AM

Filed under: Homemade, Recipes

With: 3 comments

I’d like to start off by apologizing for my photo. I took this one using my iPhone. I keep meaning to take a better photo, but end up drinking my smoothie before I get the chance. Oops!

In case you haven’t noticed, my food choices have changed drastically over the course of the year. I’ve gone from eating nothing but processed foods to eating more whole foods. I’ve cut way back on oil and sugar. I hardly ever fry my food anymore. I quit soda. I’m trying really hard to lead a healthier lifestyle. I even joined the local gym. I workout there at least 4–5 days a week. I go hiking weekday mornings. I go for nightly walks. I’m feeling pretty great about my choices lately.

I’m mostly proud of my new morning breakfast routine. I used to have coffee and pastry. Sometimes I’d make French Toast or pancakes. Basically sugar on top of sugar. Sure, it tasted great, but it left me feeling crappy ALL day long. I’ve always wanted to be one of those people who woke up early in the morning, drink a smoothie and be HAPPY with that. Believe me when I tell you, I tried. For a long time it just wasn’t happening. But I kept trying. I just knew one day I’d find a combo that worked for me.

Then one day I ran across this green tea smoothie recipe. It was fantastic! Only problem is it’s not meant as a meal replacer. I wanted something that could easily replace my nasty habits. So I asked around for some protein powder suggestions. I didn’t want soy and I’m not a fan of rice. Lots of people suggested hemp protein. With a little Google magic I came across Nutiva Hemp Protein. This stuff is AMAZING! At first I tried their Chocolate Hemp Shake. It’s good, but you’re sort of limited to what you can and can’t add to it. I don’t think green tea would compliment chocolate. I usually just blended up 3 tbsp of the powder with 1 cup of Unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk and 1 banana. Nutiva actually improved their Hemp Shake formula recently. I’ll have to try some of the other flavors.

Anyway, back to the green tea smoothie. I took that recipe, changed it around slightly and added 3 tbsp of the Nutiva Hemp Protein + Fiber powder and finally had an awesome meal replacing breakfast smoothie. Now for someone who is not a smoothie drinker you know that this just HAS to be great. And I assure you it is. Not only is it delicious, but it totally holds me off until lunch. And if you have a sweet enough melon you don’t even have to add sweetener! Perfection!

Toss all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. I usually make my green tea in advance and store it in mason jars in the fridge. I do the same with the honeydew melon. I chop it up and fill up an 8 oz mason jar with the melon and store in the fridge. This way come morning all I have to do is open the jars and dump the ingredients into the blender along with the other stuffs. Super easy!

Posted on: September 12, 2011 at 1:49 PM

Filed under: Homemade, Recipes

With: 1 comment

I haven’t really been up to much these days. Lots of baking! But meal-wise I’ve been trying to keep it fairly simple. I think I’m in a bit of a rut. I just don’t know WHAT I want to eat these days. Alls I know is that I want something FRESH and I want something EASY. Something like this! Now you’re probably thinking that slow roasting tomatoes is far from easy. But it really was an easy meal to throw together. Sunday night I stayed up late playing Monopoly with the guys. I figured that would be the perfect time to throw my tomatoes, garlic and shallots in the oven. Monopoly games can last a few hours. By the time we were done playing my tomatoes were done. And the house smelled AMAZING! See? Perfect!

The next day all I had to do was cook the pasta and toss it with the slow roasted tomatoes. I didn’t have any fresh basil on hand so I used dried basil instead. I also didn’t add parmesan. I could have added vegan parmesan, but I really enjoyed the dish as is.

There are quite a few recipes I’ve tried from Good Life Eats. All of them turned out fantastic. Fresh, fairly simple yet so full of flavor! She has a vegetarian section in her recipe index. All of which can easily be veganized. In fact I made her Sundried Tomato and Spinach Lasagna Rolls last week. I ended up freezing a few for a lazy night. Seriously good stuff!