Blueberries Galore

 

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and when its added with chock-full of antioxidants and good for you nutrition it’s even better.  Berries are high in antioxidants and polyphenols, which help fight chronic disease and cancer but they also have high levels of compounds that help widen arteries, which helps blood to flow smoothly. With all these types of benefits why wouldn’t you want to pile them on your plate. With berries being in season at this time of the year, finding them at a reasonable prices at any store is possible. Berries are great on desserts and smoothies but I for one  love them in my breakfast. I love them topped over my waffles or pancakes to get all the benefits that they provide. Listed below is my favorite 5 minute go to breakfast or any time of the day meal that provides a great amount of protein, fiber, grains, and sweetness  to satisfy you throughout the day. I’ve listed the brands I  used to make this dish but really these products can be swapped out  with any product you have at hand or swapped out for your own homemade version which would be even better and more nutritious.

Blueberry Nut Delight

2 Kashi Blueberry waffles

1/2 a cup of  Fage Plain Greek yogurt (I used nonfat in this recipe but full-fat is perfectly fine to use)

Honey or Syrup for the waffles

Handful of Bare Naked Banana Nut Granola ( My favorite granola!!)

Handful of blueberries

 

Prepare the waffles as you regularly would, and top the rest of the ingredients to your liking. This recipe is so good , you probably might find yourself eating it for lunch or dinner too!

 

 

 

Kale and lentil tabbouleh salad

 

Tis the season to catch the flu, and boy did it catch me. With a new semester beginning I really didn’t have the time to get sick. So I upped my vitamin C intake to battle the symptoms but my body just wasn’t having it. So I raised the white flag and gave my body some rest.  For days I had no appetite and longed for my green smoothies , but soup and tea was the only thing on the menu. When I finally had some relief  and an appetite I decided to make me a big salad mixed with kale and lentil tabbouleh. This was my first time using baby kale, which in my opinion is very bitter compared to whole leaf kale but it was nutritious nonetheless. This is definitely  going to be a staple salad  for me,its nutritious and tasty and only took five minutes to make. I’ve attached the recipe below:

3 handful of Kale

2 Hass avocados diced

2 Tomatoes diced

1/2 cup of any brand Lentil tabbouleh salad

Enjoy!

New year, New day!

Its a new year and a new day! I’ve been on a a little hiatus from updating you guys but with things changing up a bit I plan on having more time to blog with you guys.  Around this time of the year,  I usually do a fast for 40 days In preparation of that  I went to the  farmer’s market to purchase some produce.  From kiwis, pears, starfruits, clementines, bananas  and lemons, I was well equipped to make  tropical green smoothies for days for under 15 bucks. Though its great to buy green juices or smoothies on the go, the cost adds up. With a little bit of time and preparation 15 bucks of produce can stretch well into a week. I for one love the fresh taste of Kale in my smoothies because it gives it a fresh grass taste but Kale goes bad really quick. So in order to prevent that I wash my kale in vinegar and  water  and zip lock them, keeping one bag in the fridge and one in the freezer. Though the frozen batch never taste the same as the fresh batch its close compared to the frozen bagged Kale found in grocery stores. Check out my recipe below:

Tropical Oasis Green Smoothie

Fresh Kale

Fresh/ Frozen pineapple chunks

1 or  2 clemetines (peeled)

handful of frozen grapes

Coconut water or Water

Blend and enjoy!

FYI: I almost always use frozen pineapples so I rarely incorporate ice in my smoothies.

Morning Delight

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and my favorite meal as well. Since becoming a vegetarian my breakfasts hasn’t really been the same. I tend to drink a green smoothie to break the fast and maybe have have some yogurt with hemp seeds and nuts but today I wanted something hearty. I’m use to making my own pancakes and waffles but lately I just haven’t had the time to that. So when buying waffles I buy the most natural I can find. This week I decided to try Kashi 7 grains Blueberry Waffles and topped them off with fresh raspberries. To make it a well rounded breakfast I added a slice of avocado(diced) and maple syrup drizzled on the waffles. I often get strange looks from people when I say I eat avocados with my waffles,but trust me this combination is like no other when it comes to a hearty and filling breakfast.  This breakfast was tasty, nutritious and hearty and took less than 5 minutes to prepare filled with heart healthy fats, 7 grains and fruit. Who says breakfast can’t be quick and nutritious!?!

Half Day Cleanse -Blueberry Oats and Green Pineapple smoothie

The summer is made to have fun, unfortunately this summer my face has been stuck in the books. I’m realizing more and more each day that the life of a grad student is not so fun.  With the added stress of school along with work i really haven’t been eating the way I’ve like to. Fries, Pizzas, Cake, Lasagna  and anything fried has been on the menu for the past few weeks. So i decided i need to change things up and do a half day cleanse, where the first half of the day its smoothies and a light snack if need be with a  late lunch and dinner as usual. With plans in mind of doing this cleanse, i went to whole foods looking to find a new source of protein , and found hemp seeds. I usually buy hemp protein powder but i hate the chalky texture protein powder in general leaves so i was hoping that this would work.

So in replace of ordinary protein powder,I milled handfuls of  Raw Rolled Oats, Flax-seeds, chia seeds and hemp seeds in my Nutri-Bullet and use it as protein powder.  I used it in my Blueberries Oats smoothies and Green Pineapple smoothie that’s picture below. I also  tried a new addition to my smoothies for a sweeter taste this time: 2 medjool  dates and one dried fig in each batch. They didn’t blend thoroughly but i didn’t mind the the sweet bits that they brought. Down below are the recipe for both smoothies.

Blueberry Oats

• Blueberries (Frozen)
• Protein Mixture
• Coconut water
• Water
• 2 medjool dates
• 1 dried fig
• extra cup of oatmeal (for heartiness)

Green Pineapple

• Spinach(Frozen)
• Pineapple (Frozen)
• Protein mixture
• Coconut water
• water
• 2 medjool dates
• 1 dried fig

I made three for the day, underestimating the power of my protein mixture and only drank one and a half  that morning. If you’re looking to do a full day cleanse, you can do six jars a day with water in between each. I for one prefer smoothies than juicing cleanse for the mere fact that they are more filling  to me. But what’s great about these recipes is that they are so  tasty that they can be made for cleanses or anytime of the day.

Lunch at Panera Bread

With all that been going on lately with school ,work and life, i decided i needed  a little break to do nothing for a whole day.  That lasted for about 2 hours till my mom suggested we run some errands. Let me be the first to tell you that there’s nothing like running errands , that aren’t really your errands on your day off . Being the team player I am though, I got dressed and went . While running around the city with my mom, my sister called and said “lets do lunch at Panera”. I gladly accepted and brought my mom for the fun as well. So we met up with my sister at Panera Bread and  we had the best daughter  and mother lunch you could ever have. I ended up trying their new summer shrimp roll and their summer corn chowder and my sister had her usual.I generally don’t like eating cold shrimp sandwiches and chowder but this was the exception, It was everything that you would expect from Panera Bread  and more.I like switching things up every once in a while and this didn’t disappoint, but I’m still sticking with my tried and true tomato mozzarella panini and broccoli cheddar soup . But who am I kidding, you can never go wrong with Panera Bread.

One year mark

It’s been a year!!! Never would have I Imagine that I’d get to the one year mark blogging and guzzling green smoothies daily. I’m not gonna lie, There’s been days where i slipped throughout the year and tried meat. Case in point: My sister birthday at an Argentinian buffet style restaurant.  Those days though few made me realized that you can train your body to do anything. Prior to transitioning i wasn’t the biggest meat eater but i held my own when it came to meat. But as these  months went by the littlest bit of meat would make me feel sick surprisingly even organic chicken. I didn’t stop at just meat… sweets ,snacks and soda did a whole 36o in my daily food intake. Coke is something I use to have almost daily , now I only drink probably once every 2 weeks maybe . Earlier in the transition I choose to eat closer to nature, so when i started trying to incorporate Little Debbie snacks and chocolate back in . The sweets just seem so artificially sweet that they made me feel sick. I now drink my tea and coffee black, no sugar, honey or syrup or hazelnut creamer that i use to love. When it comes to smoothies, i cant do fruit smoothies anymore… I need some type of vegetable in there or its unbearable. At times I feel like an old lady with my bitter teas and  green smoothies but i now know how my body works, back than i didn’t know. Trust me when i say I’m not perfect, i have those days when i binge on fries, veggie pizza and donuts. But once that is over and i feel like crap, I make me a green smoothie to counteract all that.  It’s all about putting more good in and less bad, eventually with time you’ll find yourself only wanting to put only the good in.

 

 

Switching things up a bit: Tropical Oats Smoothie

One thing about me is that i like trying new things, Food wise but I’m not much of a risk taker in other aspect. So since transitioning  I’ve been a green smoothie drinker addict. I went from one smoothie a day to sometimes three, I went from super sweet smoothies to barley  sweet smoothies the list goes on.  But I wanted to switch things up a bit cause a girl can only take so much green smoothies. So i decided to do  raw oatmeal smoothies instead, trust me I’m not sure how i came to that decision but it made perfect sense at that moment.   This is very similar to the No cook oat smoothie i did when i first started transitioning, but this has more nutritional and tasty  ingredients. I was excited and nervous to try this recipe because I’ve been on a mission to avoid food and drinks high in arginine for personal reason. So oatmeal was an issue, but i kept it to organic raw rolled oats ( it is said that instant oatmeal has a high arginine content but who knows).  Since I was avoiding nuts all together due to the foods i was avoiding  almond milk was a no go , so i opted  for SO Coconut milk unsweetened vanilla and Chobani Vanilla Greek yogurt.

So after i had those main staples ingredients, i  then added mix ins of fruits, juices and teas and water all to my liking. On this particular day this was what  i like to call my Tropical Oats Smoothie. If you follow me by now, you should know i  free hand everything so i  don’t have exact measurements. But, here’s the run down on my hearty nutritious smoothie

• Organic Raw Rolled Oats
• Coconut Milk Unsweetened (can use sweetened if preferred and any kind of milk)
• Greek Yogurt Vanilla
• Flax seeds
• Chia seeds
• Tropical Blend Frozen Fruits (Banana, Pineapple, Mango)
• a small ripe banana
• Coconut Water (optional)
• Unsweetened  Green Ice Tea ((optional)
• A couple dashes of cinnamon

Mix all that together and you get a satiating tropical  oatmeal smoothie. I find that using the NutriBullet give a  smooth silkiness that i never achieved with my blender ,but if you’re having  a hard time mixing add more liquid to the blender till you get the consistency that you want.

FYI: I don’t add protein powder because I’m not a fan of the gritty taste. If you want a hearty high fiber smoothie for breakfast,  sans protein powder double up on the the yogurt and oatmeal. This smoothie can be made a head of time and stored in the fridge in an air tight container for 1-2 days. A great on the go breakfast option but great for any time of the day as well!

Cheers to the Pancake!

There are two types of people in this world, Pancake lovers and waffle lovers. I personally like both myself but some people are really particular when it comes to their breakfast. Everyone in my house prefer waffles over pancakes, but are willing to eat pancakes if its a “good gourmet pancake”. Well let me tell you my friends, I got the recipe to a good gourmet pancake. My pancake recipe is so good, my waffle loving family request me to make these pancakes just about weekly. They are so yummy, satiating and full of good fiber, fats and nutrients. Its practically everything but the kitchen sink in these pancakes but i just call them my banana almond oat pancakes.

So what’s in the pancakes you ask?  Well the most important yet so basic ingredient needed for the pancakes is pancake mix. It can be organic  if you like but for mines i used a generic store brand buttermilk pancake mix. I than sliced some bananas and mashed them to small pieces.

But i didn’t stop there, i added just about everything i had on hand in my pantry.

First I milled a handful of dry ingredients in my Nutribullet  until it became a fine powder and mix it in with the pancake mix such as :

• Flaxseeds
• Chia seeds
• Raw rolled oats
• Raw unsalted almonds

Than for taste, i than added a few spices such as:

• Powdered ginger
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Vanilla extract

Mix everything with a few cups of water, and followed the direction on the pancake batter box. The end result being a gourmet pancake that is out of this world filled with fiber and nutrients.   Cheers to the pancake! lol

FYI: If you have a waffle maker, You can still have a good gourmet waffle with this recipe too.

 

Drink to health

Hey loves, It’s been a crazy couple weeks and the next few weeks will be too but i wanted to stop everything and say hi. With assignments, projects and quizzes due simultaneously on top of being sick 3 types of ways with a full time job, Updating you guys had taken the back burner. But I’m back and better than ever!  With all that’s has been going on i hadn’t really been eating the healthiest but i make sure to get at least 2 if not 3 green smoothies a day. This has help me to recover from being sick quicker than usual without the need for medicine. When sick i like to make a super alkalizing  green smoothie, that basically flush out toxins out my body while giving me the provided nutrients my body need. What’s in my Super alkalizing green smoothie you ask?

• bunches of Kale and Spinach (fresh or/and frozen)
• Pineapple chunks (Frozen)
• Green Grapes
• Water
• Coconut water
• Unsweetened Green Tea (can be bought in store, i use whole foods bottled version)
• Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar
• Matcha Green Tea
• Spirulina Tablets
• Wheat Grass powder/ tablets
• Vibrant Health GreenVibrance powder
• Honey(Optional)
• Avocado(Optional)
• Hemp protein(optional)
• Flax-seeds and Chia seeds (optional)

I know you’re thinking i just gave you a laundry list of ingredients, but the cool things about green smoothies are that you can put whatever you want in them.These ingredients listed are high in antioxidants and/or alkalizing to the body, With a bit of research your food can cure your sickness with no need for medicine. Drink to health my friends.

Best part of waking up is a Green smoothie in your cup