Tropical Green Smoothy

Its another Monday. Excuse me while I crawl back into bed and ignore life... just kidding. That isn't an option so I'll blog instead. Lately I've been asked by a few people what I put in my green smoothies, so I'm going to share my secrets through some poorly taken pictures and poorly phrased instructions. Don't feel like you have to stick to my smoothy recipe. You can be flexible and use whatever and however much you want depending on your preferences and what you have in your fridge. Also be warned that green smoothies are amazing and you won't want to stop. Also be warned that greens don't blend as smoothly as fruit so you're going to need to get used to a new texture (don't worry you'll learn to love it). This smoothy is a "tropical" green smoothy. It tastes like coconut and lime, speaking of which pineapple would be good to add to this. I'll have to try it. Any who, here is my recipe for a tropical green smoothy. Enjoy!

First you have to get your ingredients. I'm using:

collard greens (you can also use bok choy, or kale, pretty much any leafy green)

spinach

cilantro (or parsley)

aloe vera gel

coconut oil (or avocado)*

coconut water

lime

frozen mixed tropical fruit

*you should always have  a fat source in your green smoothy so you'll have better nutrient absorption because some of the vitamins are fat soluble. 

Add your greens to the blender. I used about four collard leaves and three big handfuls of spinach.

Add about 2 tbsp of cilantro. Add more or less depending on your taste preferences.  

Add about 1 tsp of coconut oil.

Add a heaping tbsp of aloe vera gel.

Add the coconut water and blend all your greens.

Next remove the peel and add the lime and about 2 cups of the frozen fruit. Blend everything together. At this point you may or may not need to add water. It depends on how thick you like your smoothy.

Afterwards you end up with this beautifully green smoothy. Its so fresh and delicious and full of the good stuff. So sit back and enjoy

Snowed In (almost)

Generally I wake up at 7 every morning. It gives me time to drink coffee, blog, watch tv and get ready for the day. Yesterday when my alarm went off I said "No." Just no. So I stayed in bed till 8 which would give me just enough time to get out the door ready for work. Well I woke up and looked out the window to see that we had been snowed in, literally. We got something like 30 cm of snow but thanks to gusting winds we had more than that blown onto our yard. It took me 15 minutes to shovel my way from the front door to the road. At that point I saw that the car was far to buried and I made the gut wrenching decision to walk to work. It was below 30 and there was a wicked awful wind. Basically it was the worst morning. I am not a winter person.

My view out the living room wind

We're snowed in!

Holy snow batman!

Baby its cold outside.

Oatmeal Power Balls

These bad boys are awesome. They're no bake, full of fibre, the ingredients are flexible, and they taste really good. They're also sugar free and gluten free. What up?! So I got this recipe off of Pinterest, but like every recipe I get from Pinterest I tweaked it to fit what I wanted. So here is the Oatmeal Power Ball recipe:

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1/2 cup flax

1/2 cup ground walnuts

1/2 chocolate chips

1/2 peanut butter

Between 1/3 and 1/2 cup of honey

Combine all the dry ingredients so that they are well mixed.

Add the wet ingredients and combine, you may or may not need to use your hands for this part.

Place the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour.

After an hour take out your mixture and roll it into 1 1/2(ish) balls.

Keep refrigerated. 

Done!

Vegan Pancakes

This weekend I made some Vegan Pancakes and CHRIS LOVES THEM!!!!!!!!! Haza! They are delicious. They are filling and they are egg and dairy free. They are also really easy to make. I found the recipe and tweaked it a bit so that it has more fibre and healthy oils. So here is my tweaked recipe:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup flax

2 tbsp sugar

4 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 cup soy milk

4 tbsp coconut oil 

Combine all the dry ingredients. Mix in wet ingredients. Mix till the batter is smooth. Heat up your griddle to medium high heat. Drop about a half a cup of batter onto the well oiled griddle (I used an ice cream scoop and it made perfect little pancakes, I also used coconut oil to oil the griddle). Once the pancakes start to bubble (about 5 minutes), flip them over and let the other side cook (about 2-3 minutes). 

Happy Friday!

Baby Fever!

Baby Fever. I've got it... baaaaaaaaaaaaad! It seems like everyone is getting pregnant. But we are not in a good place life-wise to have babies right now so instead I pin. My BBs board on pinterest is overflowing. Here are a few of my favourites thus far...

Katie's Totally Bogus Review

Every once in a while I see an amazing movie (or an ok, or a kind of ok but mostly lame, or a lame but with a funny part here and there, or a completely awful movie) and feel the need to tell everyone. So from time to time I'm going to do a movie review. I have no credentials besides the fact that I've watched the movie. Enjoy!

Friends with Kids. Good movie. I'm not sure I'd watch it again. I'm not going to give away the plot but basically two friends decide to have a baby together after seeing the way relationships change after kids, and how they navigate those rocky waters. All in all it was OK. There were some funny parts and its got a great cast, but it was kind of boring in parts. Its the kind of movie you watch when you have some time to yourself and there's nothing else to do. Since this is a bogus review and I have no credentials whatsoever I give this movie 8 unicorns out of 17.

Next we have This Is 40. Two words. Frickin Amazing! I love Love LOVED it from start to finish. Warning, there is nudity, adult content and extreme language but if you can get over all of that it is a really well done movie. The actors are phenomenal. It's funny, its relatable, and its real. The movie captures marriage really well. But watchers beware, it's rude, crude and socially unacceptable in many parts so look out. I give this movie 19 unicorns out of 17.