good start: blueberry kale smoothie

Green smoothies are all the rage right now, as I'm sure you well know. And why shouldn't they be? Depending on what you throw in there, green smoothies are:

1. packed with healthy nutrients, vitamins, and minerals
2. an easy and yummy way to up your daily dose of fruits & veggies (which can help prevent cancer and other diseases!)
3. great for a natural energy boost
4. I could go on and on.. or you could hop over here to read a bit more!

Those all sound like pretty good reasons to try one today, right?

Right!

Which is exactly what I did this morning. I have a full day of wine-pouring to do over at the farm today, and what better way to get an energetic, healthy start than with a yummy blueberry kale smoothie?

First up: the ingredients.

I have to admit that I'm a huge almond milk lover. Next on my list is making my own (to avoid all the extra and unnecessary add-ins you find in most popular brands), but for now, Almond Breeze works. I like to cut the amount of milk I use with a bit of water, as well.

One of my personal "secret" ingredients, as you may notice up there on the left, is pumpkin. I often use this in place of yogurt or tofu in smoothie recipes - it adds a great substance and creamy texture, doesn't have that "pumpkin" flavor you think of (that's mostly in the spices you add, actually!), and is incredibly good for you. Another yummy, and more green option, would be avocado!

But enough chit-chat. Let's get our green on!

blueberry kale green* smoothie

*green tends to become a bit bluish in nature when you blend kale and blueberries!

1 banana (I use half frozen, half regular)

1/4c frozen mango chunks

1/3c frozen blueberries

1 large kale leaf, chopped

1/4c pumpkin puree

1 Tbsp ground flax

1/2 Tbsp natural almond butter (or any other nut butter!)

water + almond milk as needed - less for a thicker smoothie, more for more liquify

Add all ingredients into blender*, mix well, and enjoy!

*I tend to use either my Magic Bullet or Oster MyBlend - I'm hoping to get a NutriBullet for my birthday this year!!

Do you have a favorite green smoothie recipe? Do share!

Wine.

A while back, I was rambling about new opportunities coming my way - and to be a bit more specific, I was talking about a potential position at a local winery. Back then, I wasn't quite sure if or how any of it would work out, but here I am, months later, excited to tell y'all that it clearly did.

(I've been to Texas, so I'm allowed to say y'all now. Right..?)

Anyway, I'm happy as a peach to say that I've expanded my resume a bit and am currently an official team member of Great Shoals Winery. It may seem a little odd.. a massage therapist and health coach who moonlights at a winery.. but guys? If you haven't guessed.. I love wine. Like, love-love. And I whole-heartedly believe that I can be all health-guru-ish, but still enjoy some libations when my little heart desires.

Now WHO wants a backstory?!

Quinoa Buffalo Chicken Bites

One of the things that gets me super amped is when I'm able to whip something up from the ingredients we have laying around the house. Usually when I feel inspired or find a recipe on Pinterest that I just have to make, I'm missing half the ingredients.

Like the other day, I thought "I should make falafel for dinner - we have tomatoes and lettuce already!" But what we didn't have included chickpeas, onion, tzatziki, olives, cucumbers... basically, all the things you need for a decent Greek-inspired falafel dinner. Resulting in a trip to the store. Which is fine, except when that store is always Whole Foods and I'm always spending more than I should, and I end up doing this three times a week.

So when I got in the mood to make something with quinoa the other day, I was excited that I actually had quinoa. And I worked a bit backwards from there, (which is probably normal for most), by finding recipes I had already pinned, that I actually had all the ingredients for. Which led me to my new most-favorite recipe of the moment: Quinoa Buffalo Chicken Bites!

One bite of these scrumptious little balls of spicy heaven and I knew they would be the perfect sort-of-lighter dish to bring to our friends Super Bowl party. Except I got completely distracted by my mom being in town and totally forgot to make them. Oops.

However! To be fair, Scot and I were both incredibly busy making chili for our local farm & winery's Chili Day. I stuck with my theme-of-the-week and made Quinoa Sweet Potato Chili, while Scot made his 12-hour smoked brisket chili.

I won't lie, I'm pretty sure Scot's ended up being the bigger hit. (Apparently people want meat in their chili. Whatever.) But at least the people had options!

And so, my lovely friends were never able to taste my yum-tastic quinoa buffalo bites, but that's ok. I made another batch just for Scot & I the next day.. and we didn't have to share!

Quinoa Buffalo Chicken Bites

Ingredients:

- 1 cup shredded chicken

- hot sauce of choosing (I use Frank's Red Hot Wing Sauce)

- 1 cup cooked quinoa

- 1 egg

- 1/4 cup panko (I used gluten-free)

- 2 Tbsp flour (Used gluten-free, again!)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350F & lightly grease a baking sheet.

2. For scrumptious shredded chicken: marinate & simmer chicken and hot sauce in a covered sauce pot over low to medium heat on stove. The chicken should be mostly covered by the hot sauce sauce. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until no longer pink in the middle. Shred chicken either in the pot, or place on cutting board to shred, then return to pot.

*I typically end up using 2 forks to shred - you want to make sure you don't over cook the chicken, or else it won't shred quite so easily! I like to keep it in the sauce, since that is really my only spice/flavoring for the dish.

3. While chicken is cooking, cook quinoa according to directions. (Typically, 1c water/broth to 1/2c quoina. Cover, boil, reduce heat, and let simmer until quinoa is soft and sprouted.)

4. Once chicken & quinoa are cooked - combine 1c chicken with 1c quinoa. Add egg, panko, and flour. Mix well.

5. Scoop 1-2" balls onto baking sheet - you should have about 12.

6. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until crispy and brown on the outside.

7. Add celery and blue cheese (or sauce of your choosing) and ENJOY!!

green eggs & a snow day

..because I don't eat ham!

So the DC area was hit by a whopping 6-8 inches of snow this past week, which, without fail, shuts the whole area down for at least a day or two.

When I officially called it a snow day and closed down work at 8am, it looked like this outside.

Anticipatory? A bit. But you have to understand that a mid-day snowstorm caused a 13 hour traffic jam in DC back in 2011. People here simply don't know how to deal with snow, much less driving in it, and you really just kind of have to embrace it. So I did.

And see? It actually did snow quite a bit! Well.. eventually.

Hey, Goüter!

Well, I'm still alive, so that's a good sign.

As I'm writing this, I have one more tonic to go on day 3 - the last day of my little cleanse.

How am I feeling? Pretty good, actually.
Am I excited to digest some delicious noms tomorrow.. not in tonic form? Hells. Yes.

{I actually had a dream about tortilla chips last night. It was delightful.}

Now I have to admit that I tend to have a flair for the overdramatic on occasion. So despite my musings, you must know that no, I was never rolling around crying and thinking "omg I'm so hangryyyyyy". Did my tummy grumble a bit? Sure. But it does every day. Did I occasionally wish I could have a nice, fresh salad? You bet. But did I make it through.. and dare I say, enjoy it?.. absolutely.

A pre-cleanse "cleanse". Say what?!

So I had a fairly lovely holiday season. It involved a lot of wine. And food. (As most things in my life do.)

Cue: photo montage.

Now despite the good times, now that it's all over, I've been left feeling a bit.. at capacity. Generally blah (scientifically speaking).

I do my best to eat right and not over-do it, but I think I took a lot of the stress of 2013 and just dumped it into my holiday celebrations. Which is great - we all deserve to enjoy life in whatever way we want to. But my body just isn't used to it all. On top of that, I didn't go to yoga for about a month due to various circumstances (that I can justify all I want, but really, why couldn't I get my butt to at least a class or two?!).

All of this is to say that I have decided to do a juice cleanse.

Dun dun dun.

Resolutions..? I am Ron Burgandy..?

Oh, eff it. I started writing this whole post on non-resolutions and how I don't believe in them, but you know what? I actually have a crap ton of resolutions for the upcoming year. Well, maybe more of a mix of resolutions and goals, really. Goal-utions? Reso-goals? Whatever.

Anyway, I figure the best way to possibly complete said goalutions would be to list them out - makes it more permanent and accountable, you know? And plus, I love me some lists.

1. Blog more.

Well, that's been a goal for what, a year and a half now?

2. Help out more around the house.

Let me put this out there: I have an extremely amazing, generous, and patient husband. Who does a crap ton around the house. I mean.. he's just so good at sweeping and the dishes and cleaning the cat box, you know? Who am I to get in the way of that?

Alas, he actually wants to be the one to go back to school/training this year (since it's been me twice now).. so I should probably figure out how exactly to use a vacuum. (Don't laugh.)

3. Purge.

I already did this before we moved over the summer, but I need to do another round. We just have so. much. ish. And I have so. many. jeans. Gotta cut the cord!

4. Get my health coaching in order.

I have a lot of ideas for this, but am having trouble implementing them. But, I am determined. And I am woman. Hear me (and my chia seeds) roar.

5. Organize my Pinterest.

Yes. I'm being serious. My pins and boards are all over the place and I really want to use that site for good.. but right now it's the equivalent of my room on its messiest day. Except for my wedding boards. Those are golden.

6. Take a break from social media.

So.. yes. This sort of goes against number 5. But I mostly mean Facebook - I check it too much, primarily out of boredom. I could definitely cut it back a bit.

7. Be happy with my myself, as I am.

That's part of the beauty of being both a health coach and human. This is still something I'm working on.

So what are your goalutions? How good are you at keeping them?