Happenings & A Raspberry Vanilla Smoothie

I had FULL intentions of posting yesterday but the day ran away from me!  I'm looking forward to a few days off on Monday and Tuesday and hope to do some scheduling of posts to keep the site active.

A while back Tammylee poked that I needed to update my profile pic on the crafting sites and Facebook.  My default Profile Pic is years old.  But I have to say - I don't often like the photos I take of myself nor do I take many.  I always seem to be the one behind the camera and not in front of it, I guess.  I'm NOT Camera Shy but there certainly aren't a lot of recently photos of me.  More specifically ones I would or could use as a profile photo in a semi-serious situation.  I belong to a lot of writing, radio, and voice over sites as well so I should look into changing it soon, eh!?

My foods have been overly simplistic this week!  Mostly smoothies, salads, mono-meals of fruit, maybe a veggie sandwich or two.  I did 'cheat' and had a Vegan Grilled Cheese Sandwich using Daiya Cheese the other day...and I have had Tempeh twice this week.

I'm sprouting more Radish Sprouts as well as a Salad Mix.

Another interesting kitchen experiment tidbit - I'm going to start trying to grow Celery soon!  Yes...in my kitchen!

A Smoothie I had the other day is pictured here!  Very simple...

1 C Raspberries
1 C Almond Milk
1 Scoop of Garden of Life Vanilla Protein Powder
1-inch chunk of Banana

It was tasty!  I also received a shipment of more NuNatural Products yesterday and I will be messing around with those soon!  I was intrigued by the Oat Fiber as well as the Tagatose which is a naturally-occuring sweetener found in fruits and veggies.  But I'm super excited about the Peppermint Stevia Flavor!  YAY!

PS - Fantastic Food Friday has MOVED - check it out HERE!

In My Kitchen ~ January

I jumped on the In My Kitchen wagon in November and I think I may have skipped December!  Oops!  But I'm not going to let that stop me for January!  I have a lot to share with you about my Kitchen Adventures!  Looking back to that first post many things have changed!  I mentioned in that first post about wanting to upgrade my dehydrator and I did that last month!  I even gave it a name!  Another update since that last post has to do with Maca.  I mentioned I wanted to do more with my Maca stash and I have...a few desserts and smoothies.  And finally...my Garden of Life Products I have been having fun with - almost on a daily basis!  So much so that I hope to have some REALLY exciting news to report in the near future! 

Moving ahead to a new month and a New Year...what are some of the utensils that I cannot live without?  Well, it may be simple, but, my all-time favorite is wooden spoons.  Any kind, really, but today I would like to narrow that down to these smaller scoops that I like to use for loose leaf tea, matcha, and other things!  I really love them!  I also obtained some plastic funnels over the last month or two.  Can you believe that up until recently I had never had funnels for pouring food related items into other containers?  Now that I have been reusing a lot of my glass jars I have been using these almost every day!

Speaking of Tea...Tea is a staple in my kitchen and my life everyday.  You can read a lot about that over at the Sororitea Sisters site that my friend Anne and I co-founded.  But I not only drink tea...I use it for crafts and more recently revisited a childhood use of washing my hair with it.  More on that down the road.

A few new products to my kitchen include...The Spaddy and the Spaddy Daddy...as seen on Shark Tank.  I will be doing several posts about these products in the future!  It's a neat little tool that helps reach the bottoms of bottles - such as condiments - and make-up containers - like foundation, for example.  But one thing I will be playing around and posting about is my attempts to use this product with small compartments of my Bento Boxes.  Which brings me to my next item In My Kitchen for January...Bento Boxes!

And let's not forget about my NEW obsession with EcoJarz and many of their products!  I started blogging about them last month and continue to LOVE them.

The last In My Kitchen I posted a few of the healthy snacks I had be into at that time.  This time around I've decided to include - various home made Kale Chips that I have made in my new dehydrator, some of my new favorites including Coconut Chips from Trader Joe's, and some seasoned Cashews that I have been making at home, too! 

(And it just occurred to me that I think I forgot to post about these so I will try and do that in the near future, too, they are a very tasty and healthy snack with very little time and effort involved).

In my freezer this month I've been pretty hot on frozen fruit - mixed berries and Mangoes - but also I challenged myself to get into frozen bananas more and have been able to handle about a half of one in a smoothie.  I'm pretty proud of that - for some one who has always HATED bananas! 

This past weekend I was able to SCORE some FRESH Blackberries and Blueberries as well!  They aren't local this time of year - of course - but I bought them anyways and they were tasty.  If you scroll down to the previous blog entry before this one you will see a vegan smoothie recipe I made with the Blackberries!

I have been getting back into various grains, again, including Farro - which I posted about in the previous blog post as well!  YUM!  And have also been tinkering with my NuNaturals Products again - thanks to Christine for the encouragement there, too!

And here's a REAL Shocker...I attempted to BAKE...read more about this HERE.

I could go on and on with things happening in my kitchen as of late but I think I will end it with this next item...that I have YET to try...but am super excited about...Chocholistic.  Raw Vegan Chocolate...among other things...but a full review on that, soon!

Celebrate With A Shake

I didn't plan this post but I figured...WHY NOT...it's time to celebrate!  I'm ringing in the New Year with a SHAKE...both in movement and in this smoothie.  I've been trying to use my Maca and Cacao more lately and thought tonight was the perfect time to try another one.  Here's what's in this...

2 C Almond Milk
1 Banana
1T Maca Powder
1 tea Cacao Powder
2 T Agave
1 tea GoL Perfect Food Yerba Mate Energizer

Another goal of mine here was to use more than a half of a banana.  I'm really trying to incorporate more of them in my diet and I have been working really hard to get past that HALF banana mark in my smoothies!  Guess what!?  Tonight I did it!  Woot!  I used almost an entire banana!

Also pictured is a Glass Straw from EcoJarz - my first time using the glass one and I'm LOVING it so far - AND - the glass jar - I'm reusing it from an Argo Iced Tea that I got a while back!  I now have TWO of these and love the height and heavy-dutiness to it...I'm so glad I used them and they cleaned up nice! 

Looking forward to a great 2014!  Happy and Safe New Year to you all!  Thanks for reading!

Pumpkin Persimmon Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

Here's a little concoction I made before Christmas and it was so fulfilling and flavorful and packed with TONS of vitamins, nutrients, and GOOD stuff!
Pumpkin Persimmon Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie
1 C Coconut Milk
1/2 C Pumpkin Puree
1 Persimmon
2 T Chocolate Peanut Butter
3 Drops of NuNaturals Cocoa Bean Stevia
3 Drops of NuNationals Vanilla Stevia
1/2 Scoop of Garden of Life Yerba Mate Perfect Food Engerizer

I put all of this into my Ninja and blended well.  This is VERY thick.  I could have done with less Coconut Milk and probably made it into a pudding.  I couldn't finish the whole thing.  I drank this over two days!  It was very tasty, tho!  As you can see I put it in my new EcoJarz Lid (Wide Mouth, pictured) and my stainless steel straw!

EcoJarz Wide Mouth Drink Top & Stainless Steel Straws, Strawberry Lemonade Smoothie, Mason Jar Madness!

I mentioned earlier this week I received a package in the mail of EcoJarz and I have to say I already LOVE them!  The items I want to blog about today - specifically - is their Wide Mouth Drink Top as well as their Stainless Steel Straws!  I'm sure you will be seeing a LOT of photos in the future of me using the EcoJarz Products and will surely try and mention each time I post! 

In this first post you will see I did some water with Lemon Peels in it.  This works 'swimmingly' because the peels can be right in there and won't fall out or splash you in the face!

Now...if you have visiting my blog before you know I use Mason Jars for SO MANY things!  I'm so grateful to add this to my list of things to use Mason Jars with!  They are so trendy, stylish, and FUN!  And more importantly "GREEN"...they are VERY good for the Earth!

According to EcoJarz:

• Perfect for all your Pint-and-a-half sized sipping
• Sleek stainless-steel style for your wide-mouth to-go cup sets
• The first stainless steel wide-mouth drinktop 3-pack on the market 

Our wide-mouth stainless steel lids are entirely non-reactive and can be used with hot or cold beverages without any worry of chemical leach.  They are completely BPA and phthalate free.  We recommend washing your new Ecojarz lids thoroughly with soap and water before use.  Dry your stainless steel lids and jar bands well after washing and store in a dry place.
You can choose to ship your lids in their lovely retail packages (pictured on the left) or save paper and select “Ship WITHOUT Retail Package” from the drop down menu at the right.
A “Jar Band” is the metal ring which threads onto a glass jar and is necessary to attach an Ecojarz top.  It works just like a canning jar lid.  If you already have wide mouth jar bands you are good to go, but if not you can add them to your order for just $2.50 using the second drop down menu on the left.  Add 3 stainless steel straws for only $8.50, or 3 sets of straws and bands for $11.

Now when it comes to the Stainless Steel Straws...I must say I think they are great, too!  I've only ever had 1 heavy-duty re-useable straw and it was still plastic and I'm sure contains dyes and chemicals...but NOT this one!  This is HARDCORE AWESOME!  They are quite TALL, too, but I'm cool with that!  They even have Straw Cleaners...something I have been lacking...and I'm so HAPPY that I can now clean my straws!  Woot!  A little bit more from EcoJarz about their Stainless Steel Straws...

• Strong, durable, reusable drinking straws
• Elegant shape with small permanent bend 
• Easy to clean
• Work with all Ecojarz lids

Disposable straws are so out-of-style; all the classiest hippies sip through stainless steel!  For a glamorous green juice on the go, show how much you love the earth and add some bling-bling, stainless steel sustainability to your drink.
Featuring a sleek and slender design, our drinking straws have a slight bend that resemble the familiar flexible disposable straws (though ours are not flexible).  Best for sipping liquids like fresh-squeezed juice or tea, this drinking straw fits both our silicone and stainless steel Ecojarz lids.  If you need a great straw that can handle thicker drinks like smoothies check out our Smoothie Straws.
We recommend to wash your new stainless steel drinking straw thoroughly with soap and water before use.  Cleaning your drinking straws is easy with our excellent stainless steel straw cleaners!

I'm VERY happy with BOTH of these products!  I love the way they look, too!  Here's another look at the lid when I put it on the wide mouth Mason Jar.  As you can see there are 2 holes.  One for the Straw and the other for something I will be posting about down the road!  Oh the suspense! LOL

The special tops sit right on top of the rim of the Mason Jar and then on top of that you put the ring on and secure!  It's clever!

So far I've tried flavored water, juices, smoothies, and Flavored Soy Milk in it.

Here's a photo of the very first smoothie I did in it, too!

Recipe for this smoothie...

1 C Frozen Strawberries
1 C Coconut Milk
1/2 Scoop of GoL Apple Flavored perfect Food
1 Meyer Lemon
1 tea Hemp Hearts/Hemp Seeds

It was simple and flavorful!

Here's another look at the Smoothie itself!  I took the peel off the Meyer Lemon and threw the whole thing in there.

Usually Meyer Lemons don't have very many seeds present - but this one apparently DID.  That's ok...it was still yummy!  I just had to blend it for longer.

Another optional addition for this would be Banana - I still have a few other frozen - I just didn't feel like the sweet at the moment...I was looking for a Strawberry Lemonade type flavor this time around.

I hope you enjoyed reading about these EcoJarz Products!  I know I'm having a BALL with them!  I am sure to be posting LOTS more in the very near future about their products, too, so stay tuned!

EcoJarz, The Vegg, Today's Bento Box, 2 Vegan Recipes

There's so much happening in my world and I'm so excited to blog about it!  I received a few items in the mail that I will be playing with, testing out, and blogging about soon...but...here is a sneak peak of one of them!  EcoJarz!  Woot!  Can't wait!  There are all sorts of goodies in this box that I received today and they go hand-in-hand with many of my Mason Jars!  Another one I received Monday was a package from The Vegg.  I've used Vegg in the past and blogged about it a few times but I now that I have more in my pantry I will surely keep you up to date with my adventures!  Including one TODAY listed later in this post! 

Better Yet...I also received their Vegg Cook Book!  I'm so excited!  (Later today I will be editing this post to include the Recipe)

I made Quinoa Bites or little Vegan Quinoa Quiches, almost!

Another photo I thought I would share with you is my Dinner Plate from last night!  I had a "DUH" Moment thinking I had a head of lettuce in the frig.  Hubby grabbed a head of Cabbage instead so once I realized that I switched my plan of attack!  I skipped the planned Salad and came up with this instead!  I did have a HUGE bag of washed Kale on hand and steamed a few cups.  I didn't let the Lemon Tahini Dressing go to waste that I had already prepared!  I drizzled it over top and it was just as good warm!  You'll also see some mixed veggies including cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, etc...topped with Nutritional Yeast Flakes.  And some baked fries!

Here's a photo of the dressing/sauce I made after blending it in my Ninja!  It's a Sweeter Lemon Tahini Dressing and/or Sauce.  Here's what's in it:

1/4 C Tahini
1/4 C Water
1 tea Basil Pesto Grapeseed Oil
2 tea Apple Cider Vinegar
Sprinkle of Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
2 T Parsley
3 Drops of NuNaturals Lemon Stevia
1 tea GoL Wheat Grass Perfect Food

Next...I want to THANK the Bento Box Blogging Community for such a WARM WELCOME yesterday!  It was AMAZING!  I responded to all of the comments you left for me and appreciate the encouragement!

Here's my Bento Box for today!  This was using the Salad Kit I got but I didn't use it for salad!  I do, however, have a Garlic Sauce in the green container for the Quinoa bites.  I have the rest of my homemade Cheesy Protein Crackers and some Dark Chocolate Nuggets that has Ginger in it!

This is the bottom layer!  I put some Kale on the bottom and added a handful or two of Walnuts throughout as well as the Quinoa Bites.  It was very filling!  I was unable to eat all of the Walnuts and was satisfied for the rest of the day!

I used the Vegg in the Quinoa Bites and I really enjoyed them!  They were tasty!  I also added some hot sauce to the mix but they only had a small kick to them...if you are craving even HOTTER flavor...just add more to the mix before baking!  I put the mix into a muffin pan. 

Here's what the Quinoa Bites are made out of:

1.5 C Cooked Quinoa
Vegg (Equiv. of 2 to 3 Yolks = followed directions on package)
1 T Minced Garlic
1 T Cilantro
1 T Hot Sauce (Next Time I will add more)
1 T Agave
1/2 C Vegan Bread Crumbs
2 X 2 Inch Sliver of Daiya Havarti Vegan Cheese, diced small