Mint Chocolate (Green) Protein Smoothie

Now that it's getting hot here in the deep south, I've been craving cooler foods. But after an intense gym sesh something light is not what I want! So today I awkward-walked (my legs guys, my legs!) into the kitchen and searched the refrigerator for something to fulfill my cooling yet filling craving after the gym. The solution? Chocolate + peppermint. A classic combination usually found in desserts and sweets, but now being made to work for you to refuel your body with the good stuff! Yeah!!

The results were less appealing looking than I'd hoped for, but let me promise you that one sip and you'll be in Andes Candies peppermint heaven.

Mint Chocolate (Green) Protein Smoothie

• 2 Frozen Bananas
• 3 Cups Fresh Spinach (Packed)
• Handfull of Fresh Mint Leaves
• 1/2 tsp Spirulina 
• 1/2 tsp Wheatgrass Powder
• 1 Tbsp Flax Meal
• 2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
• 2 Tbsp Cacao Nibs (add these later if you want them to be "chips")
• 3 Tbsp Cacao Powder
• 1/2 tsp Pure Peppermint Extract
• 1/2 Cup Chocolate Coconut Water
• 1/2 Cup Vanilla Coconut Milk (or preferred non-dairy milk)
• 1 Cup Ice

Place all ingredients into your blender and go to town! If you prefer more a a mint chocolate chip smoothie, add the cacao nibs after everything else has been blended and pulse a couple times.

Enjoy!

xx

Erin

Vanilla Chai Spice Almond Oatmeal Smoothie

I don't know about you, but I love a nice chai latte. But warmer weather is coming and it's time for something chilled. This chai smoothie is creamy, full of flavor, and satisfying without tons of extra sugar or caffein. Feel free to play around with the recipe and add other things you might like in your smoothie, including protein powder, cacao powder, chia seeds, yogurt, or perhaps another type of fruit that you like with chai. If you do want it to be a chai tea smoothie try adding some black tea!

The oatmeal adds a nice richness to the smoothie and keeps you full for longer. A high-power blender like a Vitamix or Ninja works best to make the oatmeal smooth. But don't worry if you don't have a high-powered blender, just let your blender run for a longer time!


Let me know how you made this smoothie your own!

Vanilla Chai Spice Almond Oatmeal Smoothie

• 2 Frozen Bananas
• 2 Giant Spoonfuls of Almond Butter
• 2-4 tsp. Chai Spice*
• 1 tsp. Maca Powder
• 2 Tbsp. Flax Seed
• 1/2-3/4 Cup Rolled Oats
• 1/2 Cup Vanilla Coconut Milk
• 1/2 Cup Almond Milk
• 1/2-1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• Honey (To Taste)
• 3/4-1 Cup Ice

Place all ingredients in a blender in order and run until smooth. Drizzle the top with more honey if desired. 

*Chai Spice can often be found in the bulk spice section. If it's unavailable near you try this recipe (Inspired by Fox In the Kitchen):

• 2 tsp. Ground Cardamom
• 2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
• 1 tsp. Ground Cloves
• 1 tsp. Ground Nutmeg
• 1 tsp. Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tsp. Ground Allspice 
• 1 tsp. Ground Ginger

Protein Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie

I'll admit I've been a bit remiss in posting with moving to the "big city" and all that. It's strange getting settled into a new place, and some semblance of a normal life is finally starting to form. What that means yet, I'm not quite sure. But I started Kayla Itsines's Bikini Body Guide (lovingly nicknamed "BBG") a few weeks ago, which makes for a nice start to getting stronger after my spinal injury nearly 1 year ago. It's been a slow road, but two of my friends have joined in on this fitness journey along with all the support from the online community. It's beautiful, really!

While I'm not a big proponent of calorie counting, I am a big fan of clean eating. But sometimes after a challenging workout or stressful day, you just want to dive into a big bowl of chocolaty goodness! Guys I cannot begin to tell you how much I love, love, love Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Seriously. This smoothie will help cure your dessert and chocolate cravings (perhaps those Reese's cravings if you're like me), while packing in the protein at the same time!

Protein Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie

The smoothie in the picture is a double serving if you've got a monster chocolate craving or are sharing with a friend. The recipe below is for a single-sized smoothie.

• 3 Frozen Bananas
• 3/4 Cup Unsweetened Vanilla Flavored Non-Dairy Milk (Coconut, Almond, etc.)
• 4 Tbsp. Raw Cacao Powder
• 1/3 Cup Creamy Natural Peanut Butter
• 1 Serving Vegan Protein Powder (Chocolate or Vanilla flavored is best, check package for serving size)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Throw all ingredients into high speed blender until thick and smooth. Pour into glass and enjoy!

My Favorite Green Smoothie (For People Who Are Not Fans of Green Smoothies)

It seems that everyone is writing about their favorite green smoothie concoctions. Some claim to be "ultimate" or "life altering," but there's none of that here. This is a basic green smoothie for those of us who aren't really the biggest fan of adding every kind of greens ever found into our drinks. In fact, I've always been more of a fruit-only smoothie kinda gal, so this is my "how-I-learned-to-love-green-smoothies" smoothie.

The maca powder has a distinct sweet taste, and may take some getting used to if you've never had it before. Maca is wonderful because it contains vitamins B, C, and E, and also has calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and amino acids. Maca is also thought to help boost energy, clear common skin issues, relieve menstrual symptoms, and help balance mood. This being said, the only real difference I have personally noted is a boost in energy and find it great for helping me to recover from a workout.

The other gem in this smoothie are chia seeds. I love putting these in everything! They're a great source of fiber, protein, and omega-3s, as well as calcium, manganese, magnisum, phosphorous, and a few of the B vitamins.

My Favorite Green Smoothie

This recipe should make around 16oz:

• 1 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
• 1/2-1 frozen banana 
• 1 cup frozen peaches
• 1 cup frozen pineapple
• Lots and lots of spinach (3-4 big handfulls)
• 2 Tbsp chia seeds (or as many as you want)
• 1 Tbsp maca powder*

Put all ingredients into a blender until smooth. 

Pour out and enjoy! Let me know if you have any favorite smoothies or how you switched this one up to make it your own!

*Do not use maca if you are pregnant or nursing. 

Unexpectedly Refreshing Bubblegum Green Smoothie

While traveling on the road blender access has been limited and I have been missing my smoothies. Does this happen to anyone else? If only my blender came with a car adapter...wishful thinking. But now we've reached sunny (and HOT!) California and have acquired a blender. It seems to have a mind of its own though, and will randomly send the top flying spraying the kitchen with beautiful smoothie creations! Yikes! But how wonderful to be able to make smoothies to combat the California heat. 

In the search for the perfect smoothies sometimes you end up with completely unexpected flavors. In this case spinach, lemon, and banana created a refreshing smoothie with an interesting hint of bubblegum flavor. It sounds a little disgusting I know, and at first I wasn't even sure it was something I wanted to keep drinking as I despise the flavor of bubblegum. But after the initial surprise it turned out to be a perfectly refreshing drink to accompany breakfast! Plus if you have kids it's a great way to sneak greens into their diet.

Unexpectedly Refreshing Bubblegum Green Smoothie

• 10oz of Organic Soy Milk (or more if your blender needs extra liquid to process)
• 1/2 Frozen Banana
• 1/4 Lemon, including peel
• 1 cup Frozen Pineapple
• Handful of Spinach
• Chia Seeds

Put all ingredients into a blender, mix well, and enjoy! Add ice to the mix if you desire. Yours may or may not be as green as mine depending on how much spinach you decide to include.

Don't forget to keep your smoothie plastic free! I'm a big fan of mason jars and my Glass Dharma straw.

Roadtripping While Veg - An Intro (Plus Trail Mix Recipe)

I recently stumbled across a Vegetarian Times article titled "Ultimate Veg Travel Guide". I was excited for my favorite veg magazine to have an article on the topic as I am about to drive (yes drive) across the United States, literally coast-to-coast. Was I ever disappointed when it mostly turned out to be one big advertisement! You can check out this article here. While it has a few good tips, it's nothing someone who has traveled more than a few hours in a vehicle or taken an airplane wouldn't already know. I travel for work and often take food with me so as not to inconvenience my hosts and to save time after working 12+ hours. This requires some forethought and preparation, and often most of my luggage ends up being food.


The latest travel endeavor is a cross-country trip where kitchen facilities are few and far between, and the words "vegetarian" and "vegan" are unfathomable in many areas. Why wouldn't you want butter or cheese on your pizza?! This being said, I've decided to start compiling some of the best vegetarian/vegan traveling tips from my personal experience. Hopefully they'll be of use to you too!

Road Snacks:

To me, having healthy snacks handy is a must for those on-the-road-and-there-isn't-a-rest-stop-for-58-miles snack attacks. I like having a mix of proteins, carbs, and salts, with a couple sweet treats thrown in. One of my favorite snacks recently has been kale chips. While I've attempted to make these tasty morsels in the past, they never seem to be as delicious as the ones I buy locally from Kitchen Ahimsa. They have amazing vegan, gluten-free, and raw kale chips in addicting flavors like spicy chipolte, Thai curry, and cheesy pizza. Seriously check them out here. Gushing about wonderful local businesses aside, here are some other car-friendly snack ideas:

• Nuts
• Granola bars/Lara Bars
• Granola (Naughty But Nice chocolate granola is a personal favorite)
• Fruit (bananas, peaches, pears, apples, anything that won't spoil too quickly without cold)
• Kale chips
• A dairy-free dark chocolate bar
• Trail mix (check out the bottom of this post for my recipe)
• Dark chocolate espresso beans (for when you need your caffeine fix without needing a rest room stop)
• Baby carrots & hummus 
• Multigrain crackers & peanut butter 

Travel Food:

Traveling with prepared food is one of the best and most difficult things to do as a vegetarian/vegan. Most often is requires you carry a cooler and means you have a day of cooking before leaving on your journey. But your body will thank you during your traveling when you have good, healthy food to eat and aren't resorting to eating sides and salads (aka lettuce with tomato and carrots if you're lucky) with balsamic at restaurants. One of my favorite dishes to travel with is curry. It's very easy to make and can be frozen to create ice packs for your cooler. Plus when you arrive at your destination, exhausted, it requires minimal prep outside of cooking rice and defrosting the curry itself.

However, if you're concerned about liquids leaking in your vehicle (understandable), try to keep to dry foods like quiona dishes and noodles with veggies and spices. Personally I'm a big fan of wraps. If you're concerned about the white flour in the tortillas, look for varieties like multi-grain, flax, spinach, sun-dried tomato, and organic corn for a gluten free option. Wraps can be filled with all kinds of versatile fillings and don't take up much space. They are also great to freeze if you make a large batch.

Here are a few of my personal favorites for travel-friendly food:

• Baked blueberry oatmeal
• Tofu scramble
• Vegan fajitas
• Quiona & veggie bowls
• Black bean casserole
• Overnight oats in mason jars
• Vegan muffins
• Homemade healthy oatmeal cookies (this recipe is vegan, oil-free, gluten-free, and has no added sugar)
• Curry
• Chia Pudding

Supplementals:

When traveling there a few other things I love to pack in order to stay healthy and energized. Pick and choose what best suits your needs and your trip.

• Non-dairy milk (for oatmeal, granola, smoothies, chia pudding)
• Chia seeds
• Nuts
• Bulk rice
• Flax meal
• Maca powder
• Lentils
• Oats (rolled or steel-cut)

Don't forget to pick up some fresh fruit and veggies at any local roadside stands you may pass.

Hope you enjoyed my starter-tips to making traveling when veggie and found a couple of helpful tidbits! Check out my trail mix recipe below!

Erin's Totally Awesome Road Trip Trail Mix

This trail mix will satisfy your crunchy, salty, sweet, and spicy cravings! I found all of these items in the bulk section. This is a great option because you can buy just as much as you want to put in your trail mix (I like a lot of chocolate, cranberries, and cashews!).

• Cashews
• Almonds (raw or flavored)
• Peanuts
• Pistachios (you can purchase these with or without the shell. Generally with the shell on is cheaper, but will require more work for you)
• Hemp seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Tamari-spiced pumpkin seeds (I find these at the local co-op)
• Vegan chocolate chips (or carob chips for less sweetness)
• Dried cranberries
• Dried sour cherries
• Dried unsulfered mango, cut into chunks
• Dried whole figs of various types (4-6 of each)
• Cacao energy chunks, sliced into bite-size (I've only seen this at Whole Foods, but you may be able to find something similar. Just be sure to check the ingredients for dairy products and honey)

1. Place desired amount of each ingredient in a big container with a lid and shake it till everything is mixed. 
2. ENJOY and safe travels!

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Pie

Okay, so this definitely isn't a food blog. It's not even a dessert blog. As in the most I think I've ever posted in the realm of food is talking about Starbucks.

But since getting to my new university I've made a lot of friends who are vegan, not just vegetarian. For those of you unaware, vegan means that you consume no animal products or byproducts. No dairy, eggs, fish, etc. That includes chocolate chips that contain milk fat. Do you know how hard it is to find chocolate chips that don't have milk fat?! If you still don't understand what I'm saying, just visit Wikipedia.

Anyhow, my group of friends gets together a few times a month for a potluck and I am the dessert-bringer because I can't cook. But by golly can I bake. So I happened across a recipe for Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Pie. I know. It sounds divine, and let me promise you it is. I found it on the Healthy, Happy, Life blog by Kathy Patalsky, but wasn't really crazy about the crust included. For those new to vegan baking (date one and you will learn quickly, I promise), Earth Balance vegan margarine is quite oily, and I wasn't crazy about just mixing it with graham crackers. So I added a little brown sugar and no...just no. It failed horribly.  So I decided on using a chocolate peanut butter crust from "Jen's 'Best Godd****d Chocolate Pie You Will Ever Eat" (please excuse the language, I didn't name the pie!) from Please Don't Feed the Bears! (A Vegan Cookbook). Even if you're not vegan (which I'm not) I recommend buying it because everything is super simple and cheap to make, and it's delicious!

The three things you'll need are:
1 Batch of Mousse
1 Pie Crust (store bought is suitable, but I highly recommend the one below)
Chocolate Shell Coating (2 Tbsp Chocolate Chips + 1 Tbsp of Coconut Oil melted together)

Okay! So start out by making this pie crust and letting it cool:

CRUST:
(1) 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flower (unbleached all purpose works well too)
      1/4 cup Dutch cocoa
      1/4 tsp baking soda
(2) 1/2 cup brown sugar or Sucanat
      1/4 cup vegan margarine
      2 Tbsp peanut butter
(3) 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
      1 Tbsp water

Mix together (1) in a small bowl. Mix (2) together really well in a big bowl, then add (1). Now add in (3). It's easiest to mix this all up with you (clean) hands. Just get in there and mash it all up until it's of a gooey ball consistency.

Then press into a big, oiled pie plate (not one of them dinky ones) until up to the edges of the pie plate is filled. Flute the edges (make them wavy) for a fancy effect, then pop it in the oven at 375º for 8-10 minutes. Let it cool completely before filling it full of [mousse].

MOUSSE:
While your pie crust cools, make one batch of Kathy's Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse.

Pour mousse into cooled pie crust.

CHOCOLATE SHELL (from Healthy, Happy, Life):
Melt together the 2 Tbsp Chocolate Chips + 1 Tbsp of Coconut Oil in a double burner (You may want to make more of this depending on the size of your pie. This was not enough for my 10" pie plate). Then gently pour the melted chocolate/coconut liquid over the pie. Swirl the liquid gently into the mousse, creating a design of your choosing.

Place pie in the freezer for 20-30 minutes to quickly chill. Then transfer to fridge. Chill until ready to serve - usually takes at least an hour to fully firm.

Serve with a swirl of vegan soy whip or Homemade Coconut Whip.


And there you go! Enjoy the joy that is a piece of delicious animal product-free pie!

Peace,
Elina