Lavender Berry Smoothie

Have you ever had a lavender milkshake? I’ve had two in my life so far. And they were pretty life changing.

Lavender. Such a wonderful botanical herb. And yet so underrated. Within the past few years, lavender seems to have at least started making a name for itself out on the food scene. From lavender ice cream, sugar syrups, creme brûlées, chocolate truffles, jams, shortbread cookies and cakes, it sure has gotten around.

It’s such a great herb to experiment with. Add it to grilled pork chops? Pasta? Pancakes? I’ll take all of the above, please.

But yeah, back to those milkshakes. I was kind of craving one of those today post-workout at the gym. I was planning on juicing some fruits and veggies when I got home but the idea of a smooth, creamy workout treat of purple goodness struck my fancy.

And the results were awesome. I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Makes 1 serving in a 8 to 10 oz. glass

• 1 medium sized frozen banana
• 1/2 cup frozen mixed berry blend (I like cherry, raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry)
• 1/2 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 cup almond or coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons raw cashews
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender buds
• 1-2 ice cubes (optional)

Blend everything together at once in your blender! Pour into your favorite glass, stick a straw in it, and fall in love. Muah!

Lean Green Peanut Butter Machine

Five reasons why I am stoked to share this awesome smoothie recipe with you:

1. It’s delicious.

2. It tastes like a peanut butter milkshake. (Trust me.)

3. It has a gargantuous heaping amount of fresh spinach leaves in it.

(Beta carotene, vitamin E & K, what whattt!)

4. It has more than just spinach in it–how about some mango, butternut squash, and a date? Talk about powerhouse meal with loads of veggies in it that you can’t even detect. Jessica Seinfeld would be proud. It’s pretty “deceptively delicious”.

5. Did I mention that it’s delicious? Yeah. Can’t rub that in enough.

Oh yeah, and the whole thing fit PERFECTLY into this glass. Right to the top.

Talk about satisfaction…

I was stoked on myself for that alone.

It’s the little things in life, I tell ya.

Sooooo yeah. I wasn’t in the mood to cook dinner last night. I was tired. Exhausted. Over it. Totally over it. I was jazzed to make some roasted root veggies for dinner but, alas, I had unfortunately neglected my purple beets a bit too long and they were molding. Did not want to go to store. Screw it. So I resorted to Plan B.

Like I said, it’s like all you need in a meal. There’s some orange stuff hiding in there that you can’t see. And the spinach? You can’t taste it at all. I. LOVE. SPINACH. I am the spinach queen. It’s always in my fridge. If it’s not, I’ll drive to the store just to buy spinach. Loads and loads of it. I would drive a thousand miles in the snow for spinach (at least I’d like to think I would). That’s how fond I am of the stuff. Can’t live without it. Did I mention Trader Joe’s sells pretty hefty bags full of it for only $1.99? Steal. Major steal. I don’t know what I would do without Trader Joe’s. (And their organic Valencia peanut butter. Holy crap. I’ve tasted a lot of peanut butters in my life and I still have to say, hands down, it’s outsmarts, outwits, and outplays any other peanut butter on the planet. Yes indeed.)

It’s wonderful for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Or even dessert! It’s pretty much heaven and not to mention healthy! This really gets my day going and I feel so energized. It’s all that green stuff. Go green, I’m tellin’ ya. It does wonders for me, at least… And it’s full of FIBER. Your body is going to love you and every cell will be smiling. And I bet it will help keep those nasty boogie monster viruses away! It’s been going around.

Ok so on with the recipe. But I can’t really say it’s a recipe since I made it up and I don’t keep track of things I throw in but I’ll try my best. I kinda go crazy and experiment with things like this. You can substitute any sweetener (maple syrup or honey, perhaps, or none at all) for the pumpkin butter. But it’s really nice. Here goes.

Lean Green Peanut Butter Machine

Makes 1 serving–by yours truly

1/2 frozen mango or 1/2 frozen packet mango puree

1/2 cup frozen butternut squash (raw is ok)

1 date, pitted and chopped

1 gigantic handful of fresh spinach leaves (ok, about 1 cup packed)

2 tablespoons natural crunchy peanut butter

3/4 cup unsweetened original almond milk

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin butter

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

a few dashes of ground cinnamon

a few dashes of ground ginger

1/2 scoop of any smoothie protein powder, such as this (optional)

Blend everything until smooth! Drink immediately and tell your body how much you love and appreciate it! Because it loves you, too. I think I have to go and make one now.

The Liquid Pumpkin Pie

The latest pumpkin concoction I’ve been making lately that makes me so happy I could die and go to heaven.

(This is the previous version I’ve posted before.)

Pumpkin Power Smoothie #2

-1 frozen banana, broken into pieces

-1/3 cup pumpkin puree

-1/3 cup vanilla yogurt

-1/4 cup Odwalla Super Pumpkin Protein soymilk

-1 date, pitted and chopped

-cardamom, cinnamon to taste

-a teaspoon hemp protein powder (optional)

Seriously incredible. The yogurt makes a huge difference. Try it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Expressing gratitude does wonders for your soul and happiness.

It’s my goal to think of what I am grateful for as much as I can, every day, from here on out.

Rose Petal Jam & Smoothie

I must confess I had never made jam before until I made this recipe. Mainly because it’s so easy and convenient to just buy pre-made jam at the store. But rose petal jam? How could I not? I found it going through the Eat, Taste, Heal Ayurvedic cookbook (I love this cookbook SO MUCH–it is my Bible!) and had it on my list of things “to-do” for a few weeks now. Well, I finally got around to making it, thanks to a lovely gardening family friend and her enormously beautiful pesticide-free rose garden. Otherwise I probably couldn’t have done it. 

It’s really a heavenly jam, very fragrant and sweet, with a beautiful texture. It’s a perfect spring time  jam. I’m still trying to come up with ideas for what to use it on/with, other than toast (with maybe some cardamom almond butter?) or crackers and cheese (brie or goat would probably be amazing), but in addition to the recipe for the rose petal jam, there is a rose petal smoothie that incorporates it as well. That’s what made me want to make this jam in the first place–just to make that drink. So have at it. It’s really easy to make. The hardest part is acquiring the rose petals (preferably from pink roses), and everything else pretty much just takes care of itself in the saucepan! If any of you have food pairing suggestions or ideas please drop me a line!

Rose Petal Jam from Eat, Taste, Heal

Makes four 8-ounce jars

-Recommended for Pitta and Vata Doshas

-Not recommended for Kapha due to the sugar

Ingredients:

1 quart fresh pesticide-free rose petals

1 3/4 pounds (28 oz.) fructose (found at health food store)

3/4 cup apple juice or filtered water

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice or lime juice

1 tablespoon rose water

1. In a large saucepan, arrange several layers of rose petals and fructose. Pour the water or apple juice over them. Add the lemon juice. Bring the liquid to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the rose water and continue cooking until the mixture has thickened, about 5 minutes. Test for doneness by placing a drop on a cold surface. If it forms a globule, it’s ready.

2. Immerse resealable glass jam jars in boiling water for 5 minutes to sterilize. Transfer the jam to the jars and store in a cool, dark place. 

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For this next recipe, I didn’t end up using the sandalwood oil (because I don’t have any yet) and instead added a lot of stuff on my own aka. “pimping it” to my liking. I thickened it up with a frozen banana, a frozen strawberry popsicle, and a little cinnamon. Add whatever! Experimenting is fun!

Rose Petal Smoothie also from Eat, Taste, Heal

Serves 3

-Recommended for Pitta and Vata Doshas
-Not recommended for Kapha due to the sweet taste of the sugar and jam

Ingredients: 

2 cups filtered water

1/2 cup organic plain yogurt

3 tablespoons raw organic sugar, ie. Sucanat or agave nectar

1 tablespoon Rose Petal Jam (recipe above)

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1-2 drops sandalwood oil

1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender and pulse a few times to mix thoroughly. Pour into tall glasses and serve immediately. 

Pumpkin Extravaganza 2008

Holy moley, I wish I could update this thing more often! I feel like such a slacker sometimes but other things in life have been taking priority, as usual. I’ll make it short and sweet, condensing all of the wonderful pumpkin and autumn-like things I can into this single post. 

First of all, about two weeks ago I put on my first party by myself. I invited all of my lovely girlfriends and it was good times. The theme: Pumpkins of course! I wanted to make everything pumpkin. Food, drinks, utensils, you name it. I wanted to go all out and create every single Martha Stewart recipe in the October Halloween issue (little marzipan pumpkin petit fours, chocolate pumpkin cake, etc) but I had to control myself and calm down. The final menu consisted of: 

Appetizers – pumpkin seed cheese, apricot stilton, porter stout cheese, Cowgirl Creamery Mt. Tam brie, pumpkin seed crackers, sweet potato chips, black grapes, pumpkin hummus, pumpkin cream cheese, various jams and butters ie. blueberry merlot, brandied strawberry apricot, peach jalapeno, and pumpkin butter (and more)

Main course – vegetarian pumpkin chili baked in individual “wee-be-little” pumpkins for each guest (I made the chili first, stuffed the pumpkins with it, and baked them at 375 for about an hour), pumpkin cornbread, and toppings (avocado, cilantro, green onion, etc), spinach salad with cranberries and pecans

Dessert – vegan pumpkin mini cake with pumpkin spiced frosting topped with marzipan decorations, iced gingerbread cut out cookies, a vegan chocolate/pumpkin cake that didn’t turn out very well, the most AMAZING pumpkin pie I’ve ever had in my life thanks to a lovely contributing guest that made it, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin gelato, pumpkin ice cream sandwiches (there was a lot left over, as you can probably tell)

Oh, and of course, pumpkin beer and spiced apple cider!

We also carved pumpkins. It was fabulous. It couldn’t have gone any better. The best compliment I received (ironically) was that everyone was saying I was Martha Stewart and that couldn’t have made me any happier. It basically made my life. Time flew by and I wish it could have gone on forever. Well, actually, I pretty much make my life into a pumpkin party every single day so it’s an endless party for me. 

More pictures are on Flickr.

That aside, Halloween was also quite nice. I dressed up as a flapper girl (this time, I was a “curly” flapper girl meaning I had curly hair instead of a straight A-line bob like I did several years ago) and sang karaoke all night long at a friends house. This is the lovely pumpkin she carved:

So talented! 

And this is the one I carved. 

I’ve also been making:
Yummy pumpkin scones (available here):

Pumpkin-Sage Ravioli (these are INCREDIBLE!) with Pumpkin Alfredo Sauce:

I made this for dinner tonight and discovered a little cooking trick–while I was boiling the ravioli, I added green beans in the pot to cook with it simultaneously and it came out great! I also topped the ravioli with some dried cranberries and drizzled on some toasted pumpkin seed oil (this gave it a really nice additional nutty flavor). I was out of sage otherwise I would have fried some and topped it with that instead of fresh basil. I’ll fancy up my leftovers tomorrow!

My infamous pumpkin smoothies (recipe below):

Kylie’s Pumpkin Power Smoothie

1/4 cup soy milk or almond milk

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

1 frozen banana, broken into small chunks

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tbsp vanilla protein powder (optional)

Blend everything in a blender and wah-lah! A creamy, delicious vitamin-A packed pumpkin power smoothie! Note that the ingredient measurements are rough estimates. I usually just use my intuition and eyeball it. Sometimes I jazz it up and add in different things every time I make it, like some frozen nectarines, peanut butter, agave nectar, plain yogurt, or a scoop of pumpkin ice cream itself. Experiment! Guarantee you’ll like it. 

I think that’s about all of the pumpkin stuff I can muster up for now. I’ll keep you posted on more things to come later (pumpkin beer ice cream floats and more!).