FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

My Black & Bleu

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You know, I bought a 20 class yoga card at Yogani on 7/18/2009, just three days after moving back to Tampa from Dallas.  That class card should have been all sorts of used up by say…  August, maybe September, of 2009.  But it wasn’t.  I renewed the card on 1/20/2010 and, embarrassingly, again on 4/19/2011.  I think the lady at the counter felt badly for me at that point and set my new class card to expire on 12/2/2036.

Tonight, I decided to use up the remaining classes (for real this time) before I head back to Texas.  Even though there’s always a chance I’ll end up back in Tampa sometime between now and 2036, let’s not hope for that.

After yoga, I headed to the market to pick up ingredients for my version of a Black & Bleu.

I may or may not have had this song stuck in my head as I cruised through the aisles.

I scooped up the bluest bleu I could find and headed home to sauté portobellos in coconut oil.  I sprinkled garlic salt and crushed red pepper liberally and let them finish cooking.  I topped mixed greens with the heavily seasoned shrooms and cheese and called it a meal.

I intentionally over-seasoned the mushrooms (beware of pepper sneezes!) so there wasn’t a need for dressing.  And with all the umami-ness going on, this was quite possibly the easiest, meat-free, meatiest salad on earth!

Spicetastic Salad

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Salads are so much more satisfying with cheese.  Spicy cheese.  Like…  Hot habanero cheese.

I stopped at the market on my way home from running on Bayshore Blvd and wandered the aisles hoping for inspiration.  We never really found one another, me and inspiration, but a simple salad started sounding really darn good when nothing else came to mind.

Over a bed of mixed greens (super greens according to the package), I layered 1/3 can of black beans, a generous portion of fresh salsa, one serving of shredded hot habanero cheese, and a dollop of sour cream.  Now that cheese and I are friends again, I have a feeling that fun salads are making a come back in my life!

As far as the run, I got a tad closer to gauging 3.1 miles and a tad farther from a pace in the 10’s.  Perhaps I shouldn’t take three weeks off next time!

Did you take a break from working out during the holidays?  How was your first workout of the new year?

Pretty Little Smoothies

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I’m on my fourth day of detoxing and it’s been much easier than I thought it would be.  I accredit the ease with two things: not working for the past four days and doing a modified detox/cleanse.

The detox supplement that I’m taking doesn’t require a special diet, so I decided to stick to mostly green smoothies during the detox to give my digestive system a maximum break after a few weeks of maximum gorging.  A typical day has been nursing 32-ish ounces of smoothie throughout the morning and early afternoon, snacking on bananas, cooked kale, or nuts when I feel the need to chew, and finishing the day with another smoothie.  Although I’ve rarely felt stuffed, I have yet to feel starving.

Detoxing has also become easier now that the new year is officially here and my friends are just as anxious as I was a few days ago to be nicer to their bodies.  Getting Val to come over for smoothie dinner and Pretty Little Liars was easy peasy.

Side note:  My taste in television is perhaps the least cool thing about me.  It’s been over a year since I cancelled DVR and the only channels I know by heart are ABC Family, CW, and MTV (and only because it’s been channel 66 since my babysitting days).

FoodFash Tropical “Green” Smoothie

yield: about 32 ounces

1/2 cup of aloe vera juice

1/2 pineapple, skin removed

2 inches of  ginger, skin removed

1/2 avocado

1 cup of water

1 cup of ice

Val and I downed our tropical smoothies (followed by berry carrot smoothies) while sitting in teeny-bopper suspense.  It only took one hundred or so self-timer pictures of us watching TV to get one where we actually looked “normal”.

What are your guilty pleasure TV shows?  If one of them is Pretty Little Liars, who do you think A is?!

Detox

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I recognize that most people wait until after the new year to get back into the swing of real life, but I just couldn’t wait.  I’ve been off of work since the 23rd and after seven days of acting like a college kid, I’m done.  I was getting lazier by the second, changing out of one pair of pajamas only to jump into another.  It was a problem, this laziness.

I went to Rollin’ Oats last night and stocked up on everything and anything that looked blend-able.  Yup, in pajamas.  Pajamas that I graciously disguised as yoga gear.

Let’s just be thankful that I made it out of the house.

FoodFash Jump Start Smoothie

yield: 32 ounces

2 kale stalks, de-stemmed

1/4 papaya, seeds removed

1/2 lemon, seeds removed

1-2 inches of ginger, skinned and sliced

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup of pure aloe vera juice

1 cup of water

1 cup of ice

I blended the aloe vera, honey, ginger, and lemon (with peels) first to make sure they were completely pulverized before adding the remaining ingredients.  The lemon was definitely potent, but it completely masked any signs of papaya – which is a good thing because I find papaya to be… SO gross.  This smoothie wasn’t delicious by any means, it was merely OK, but with the following health highlights there’s no complaining going on here!

Kale – Contains over 45 flavonoids.  Studies show that flavonoids that have anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-cancer properties.

Papaya – Contains papain, which is an enzyme that helps digest proteins.  They are also a rich source of vitamin C, flavonoids, folate, pantothenic acid, potassium, magnesium, and fiber.

Lemon – Contains flavonoids that have antioxidant and anti-cancer properties.

Ginger – Has numerous therapeutic properties including antioxidant effects, an ability to inhibit the formation of inflammatory compounds, and direct anti-inflammatory effects.

Raw Honey – Contains phytonutrients that have been shown to posssess cancer-preventing and anti-tumor properties.

Aloe Vera Juice – Aids with digestion.

Source: WHFoods.com