Smoothie from My Garden

Okay, so the title of this post is a tad misleading. It's not 100% from my garden, but it is mostly stuff I grew. I grew the carrots, kale, and strawberries, but not the orange or banana. Sorry, but the harsh Michigan winters prohibit such fruits. That is your geography/science lesson for the day. This smoothie is seriously awesome. It tastes like magic. Or maybe it's just that I haven't made a smoothie in weeks. Whatever the case, it is still pretty damn yummy...and (gasp) good for you!

What you need:

• 1 banana
• 1 small seedless orange, peeled
• about 6 strawberries (average sized)
• about 6 smallish kale leaves with the thick stems removed
• 2 small carrots or 1 medium
• a few bits of ice

What you do:

1. Do I really need to tell you how to throw everything in the blender and blend the shit out of it? Nah. I didn't think so.

Fluorescent Green Smoothie!

I'm back on a smoothie kick lately. I can't stop. Whenever I look at produce, I start imagining them swirling around in my Vita-Mix. Alas, I was low on produce when I made this one. It's simple and delicious...and very green.

What's in it?

• 2 big handfuls of kale (just 1 if you have Hulk hands)
• 1 kiwi (peeled)
• 1 banana
• 1 orange
• a smidge of water and some ice

Look how easy that is! And, when you use ripe fruits, you don't need to add any sweeteners. Ripe fruit is sweeter fruit. 

KROB Smoothie

KROB smoothie. What the hell is a KROB? It's a healthy-ass, delicious vegan smoothie full of awesome!

K-ale (from my garden, and it was actually purple kale)

R-aspberry

O-range

B-anana

Now you get it. And now you should make it. It is supremely delicious.

• 1packed cup kale
• 1 big handful raspberries
• juice of 2 oranges
• 1 ripe banana
• ice (optional)

Want to know more about the health benefits of kale? Click here for more info. Want awesome "EAT MORE KALE" gear,like tees and bumperstickers? Then you definitely want to click here. I have the shirt and get so many questions about it.

Peanut Butter Banana Green Smoothie

Look carefully at the jar. POWDERED PEANUT BUTTER. I know you're thinking, "What the fuck, Chickpea?" And, dear readers, I was right there with you. My auntie brought this to me from her health food store and I was an instant skeptic, as I often tend to be. But, I decided to give it the ol' college try. I have to say, I'm quite impressed. Though, I have only tried it on a spoon (yummy and it cakes to your roof) and in this smoothie. I have to tell you, I am really quite impressed. I absolutely LOVE it in my smoothie. It gave the smoothie a bit of peanutty flavor without all the oil and fat of jarred peanut butter. Here's what the back of the PB2 jar says:

So, here's how I made my smoothie of excellentness:

• 1 carrot
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 big handful of red grapes
• 1 big handful of baby kale
• 1 big handful of baby spinach
• 3 TB orange juice
• 2 TB powdered peanut butter (PB2 is the kind I used)
• some ice

Blend that shit up and drink it down.You can thank me later.

Another ugly smoothie...

When you mix a lot of colors, you end up with brown. And that's exactly what happened with today's smoothie. It turned a sickly brownish-green. I had odds and ends in my fridge that needed to be used, so I threw them all together. It still tasted terrific, though, so I'm not complaining. If you can get past the color, you'll dig the flavors.

This recipe makes 2 large smoohies.

• 1 huge handful of kale
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 honeycrisp apple
• 1/2 ripe banana (if you like a really banana-y smoothie, use a whole one)
• half a handful of blueberries
• handful of raspberries
• 1/4 cup POM pomegranate-cranberry juice
• 2-3 TB orange juice
• ice

Blend, duh.

Vegan Orange Cardamom Madeleines

Martha Stewart better watch out! I'm baking my way through her Cookies book and making them vegan. Dudes. These cookies are the bomb...or whatever the kids nowadays say. Anywhoooo, I have a voracious cookie appetite, so when I stumbled upon her book while browsing my favorite Dewey decimals (the 641's) at my library, I had to pick it up. I doubt there is a vegan recipe in the book, but that doesn't matter one bit. I'm on the case.

I have a soft spot for cardamom, and when I saw the recipe for these orange cardamom madeleines, I knew I needed to buy a special pan to make them. I got mine from Amazon for about $14.00. I already know I'm going to be getting lots of use out of it, so it was $14 dollars well spent. Mine makes a dozen cookies. You can buy larger ones and even mini ones. You should totally invest in one.

The recipe below is my altered version of the one in the Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook. It makes 1 dozen cookies.

What I used:

• 2 TB melted Earth Balance vegan buttah
• 1/2 TB agave syrup 
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 TB sugar
• 1 egg replacement (I used Ener-G egg replacer this time instead of flax) mixed and left to gel for 3 min.
• Glaze ingredients:
• 1 TB pulp-free orange juice
• 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest
• 1/3 cup confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)

 What I did:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, vanilla and agave. Let sit while you prepare the rest.
2. In mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg replacement. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt. 
3. Add the flour mixture to the sugar/egg and add in the butter mix. Gently whisk the ingredients all together. It will look like it isn't enough, but it will be. Now, brush a little butter (Or spritz some cooking spray) into the madeleine pan indentations. Spoon the batter/dough into the molds. You want them a smidge less than half full. 
4. Bake about 8 minutes, or until the middles are set and the edges are just golden. Leave in pan 4-5 minutes, then put on a rack to finish cooling. Now, whisk together the glaze ingredients and brush it onto the madeleines. You can eat them right away, but I suggest letting the glaze set for 10-15 minutes so it isn't goopy or sticky. Here's the finished product:

The Ugly Smoothie

I was really craving a smoothie this morning, as I do most mornings. So, I got adventurous and just threw a bunch of stuff in my VitaMix. It turned out quite ugly (brown-ish green), but it did taste pretty good. Just don't look at it when you drink it. Hey, remember those old Cocoa Wheats commercials where the kids wore blindfolds and bags on their heads because the food was so ugly? No? Perhaps this will refresh your memory:



Yeah. So. There you go. 1989. Awkward and strange.

Ugly smoothie ingredients:

• 1 medium carrot
• 1 cup kale
• 1/2 large red apple
• 2 small blood oranges
• 1 small banana
• 1-2 TB ground flax
• 1/4 cup cranberry juice
• a few pieces of ice

I assume you know how to put this in a blender and blend the shit out of it. It's easy. Enjoy. Or not. Whatever you do, don't look at it.

Smoothie of The Day

Mmmm! While I was away on vacation I had smoothie withdrawal, so of course, I had to make an awesome one today to make up for it. Fortunately I remembered to make a trek to the grocery store yesterday to stock back up, otherwise yesterday's Hearty Minestrone Soup wouldn't have been possible...nor would today's smoothie. This is one of the best that I've had in quite a while. Maybe I was in a smoothie rut pre-vacation. Whatever. Here's what I used:

• 1 small banana
• 1/2 of a giant HoneyCrisp apple (skin and core left intact)
• 1 tangerine
• 1 small carrot
• 2 large handfuls of baby spinach
• 1/4 cup cranberry juice
• 1 small scoop of ice

Blend until nice and smooth. Enjoy.

In case you're curious, here's what I made this day last year:
Penne alla Vodka! <---Click to check out the recipe.

The view from my back porch this morning. Cold and foggy. I love it!