the edible perspective » amazing grass

full of orange

Ashley — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 06:03:19 +0000

So, word around the blog-street is that some people are starting to get sick of pumpkin. I almost went into shock when I heard this. Pumpkin season is JUST starting. I’m sorry if you’re not a pumpkin lover, or if you’ve already eaten too much, but it’s baaarely mid-october. This girl eats pumpkin for at least 6 months of the year.

We’re just getting started people.

Pumpkin oats with Pumpkin Spiced Almond Butter. This totally redeemed yesterday’s bowl by a mile. Best bowl I’ve had in months!

There was 1/2 cup pumpkin stirred in riiight at the very end, which gives it a swirled effect. I don’t do this for looks, but for taste. Hitting the little pockets of pumpkin is the best part!

Besides the pumpkin AB is a dollup of FiCoco spread [fig + cocoa] and Love Grown Foods “simply oats,” which is FANtastic!! It was my first time trying their new flavor, which is actually just plain oats granola. Even with it’s simplicity, I was still amazed.

Enter the sugar pumpkin. I’ve had two sitting on top of our bar for about 3 weeks. One was starting to mold. It was time to roast these babies!

I cut them into 1/4’s and roasted them for ~40min at 400* until soft.

I only have 1 plan for this pumpkin so far. Angela’s homemade pumpkin butter. Oh yes, that is on tabs for tomorrow.

DON’T THROW AWAY THE GUTS. Well, okay, throw away the nasty orange goo, but not the seeds. I’m sure you’ve all had pumpkin seeds before. Typically, I can take them or leave them. It always seems like there is too much to chew. Well, tonight things changed.

Thoroughly rinse your seeds and set them out to dry for a few hours.

While drying, go for a 26 mile, kick your arse, hilly, bike ride. I’m really enjoying going out for solo rides and pushing myself further each time. This ride was seriously intense. You can visibly see my quads growing by the minute. I need new jeans.

When I got home, 20min of yoga was the next plan to really stretch out. My hamstrings and hips have been incredibly tight, even with daily stretching. It’s strange because I’m super flexible, but my leg muscles are always really tight. The foam roller helps, but it’s also really hard to foam roll your hamstrings. Not enough pressure.

I was ready for lunch, but wanted to do yoga, so I made a quick recovery drink. My body thanked me for this!

1 scoop Amazing Grass chocolate green superfood + 1c almond milk –> blend –> chug

mmm like chocolate milk, with an earthy edge

After yoga, which felt lovely, it was most definitely time for lunch.

Wrapped UP

Rudi’s spelt tortilla [really good!! very soft]
~1/2c whipped sweet taters
1/2 avocado
thinly sliced carrot
2 eggs
salt

The flavors worked really well and I love sweet taters and eggs, however, the texture was a tad bit too mushy. Would have been better with sweet tater chunks. However, still deeelish.

Large mixed greens salad on the side with a 30sec homemade dressing.

hummus + hemp oil + apple cider vinegar + balsamic vinegar

Now….back to the pumpkin seeds.

I considered devoting a whole post to these. This is a “go home and make these RIGHT now” recipe. Seriously. Leave work early, make these now. Demanding, aren’t I?

I promise you won’t regret it. You should have seen Chris’s face after the first bite. Maybe he was just happy I didn’t try to sneak pumpkin into them.

Rosemary is one of my favorite spices. It’s so amazingly fragrant, especially when slowly roasted. Rosemary garlic potatoes are one of my favorite ways to use this lovely spice, so I figured it would probably be okay on pumpkin seeds as well. Okay does not even come close to describing this little treat.

I could go on..but I won’t…just trust me on this one!

Rosemary Garlic Pumpkin Seeds

2c rinsed + dried pumpkin seeds
1T olive oil
1/2t fine grain sea salt
1/2t garlic powder
1T fresh chopped rosemary
few grinds of pepper

Preheat oven to 275*
Line a pan with parchment paper.
In a bowl combine all ingredients and stir until well coated.
Spread in a single layer on the pan and roast for 45min-1hr, stirring every 15min. Seeds are down when they are crispy + browned.

I think roasting them at a lower temperature is key to getting perfectly crunchy, not too chewy, pumpkin seeds.

If you don’t like pumpkin or are already sick of it, just buy 1 more, and give these seeds a chance!

A few of my favorites just posted about their love of pumpkin as well.

Pumpkin Dinner Rolls anyone? Ashley, you are a kitchen genius.
Mama Pea just put S~~uck~~tarbucks to shame. Pumpkin scones, P.Daddy approved!
Heather listed her tribute to pumpkin. I’m still drooling and she posted it 2 days ago.

Pumpkin coma….gooooodnight! Happy Friday! GO BUCKS!!!!

<3 Ash

amazing day!

Ashley — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 06:26:34 +0000

If you saw my post yesterday and if you saw my guest post on the lovely Teri’s blog, A Foodie Stays Fit, you will understand why I only have 5 photos on today’s post. I’m tired.

Well, there is another reason or two as well.

1 – I took a ton of photos, prepping a few upcoming posts. I never prep posts ahead of time, but we have visitors coming tomorrow, so I thought I would try and get a few blog things done before they get here.

2 – More importantly – CHRIS GOT A JOB. A real deal full-time job. This has been a long time coming. He was laid off almost 2 full years ago. We moved out to Colorado about 10 months ago [read here] and have had no real luck since moving. Well, a HUGE weight has been lifted off of our shoulders but today was spent in suspense waiting for final offers and whatnot. We are thrilled + relieved and cannot.wait. to kick our outrageous Cobra payment to the curb. The one snafu is that we have to move from Denver to Ft. Collins. It’s about 1 hour North and is a really great city. It usually pops up in top ten lists for places to live in the country, so I know we’ll be happy there. I just don’t want to do the actual moving part. How many times have you moved? In college I moved 4yrs in a row and then 1 time after graduating. Then, Chris and I moved to Charlotte and now in Colorado. So, in the past 10 years [omg – I can’t believe I started college TEN years ago], I have moved 6 times, going on 7. Blegh!

Okay. Enough blabbing. But am I allowed to {{{{{squeal}}}}}}

…

The amazing people at Amazing Grass [ha ha ha] sent me their TWO new products, which I was pretty excited about. In the beginning on August, I’ll be hosting a giveaway to win them as well.

Their first new product is a new Amazing Meal flavor – Vanilla Chai Infusion. Of the Amazing Meal’s up to this point, my favorite has been the chocolate. I love all of the greens they magically powder-ize into these mixes and the blend of Hemp Protein + Rice Protein. They also include a stellar fruit + veggie blend and live active cultures. For more information, visit their site!

Upon receiving this product, I noticed Stevia Leaf in the ingredient list. This is not in the other Amazing Meals, and I must admit I was disappointed. I would much rather have the 6g of sugars from cane sugar than have stevia added to the product. You all remember me ranting about the stevia in the Vega product last week.

Oh, did I say I would stop blabbing? I lied.

I covered up the stevia sweetness but still don’t like that it’s there. I don’t want to get used to have super sweet smoothies. Anyway, besides the stevia problem, this is an awesome product. I will have to try it out with just milk, ice + banana to see what the true flavor tastes like. I’ll report back when I do.

Not the prettiest color, but here is what I added:

2 peaches
2 apricots
hemp milk
coconut milk
1/2 banana
handful of blueberries
1/4c pepitas [for some healthy fat!]

Despite the look, it was tasty!

Topped with: Love Grown Foods granola, peanut butter + chia seeds and eaten with my shovel spoon

Fill in the blanks with typical Ashley lunch food….

A pile of low + slow sweet potatoes were consumed for part of dinner.

With some fancy red dipping sauce! I am ketchup obsessed.

I also consumed an entire head of kale, part of a smoothie for an upcoming recipe, piles of other fruit, a few mini cucumbers…and the list goes on…chocolate….crackers…pickles…

Why didn’t we go out and celebrate?? Chris had to go to a meeting tonight about his Ecuador trip. He has been gone for 6 hours! Hopefully we’ll get to share a toast soon!

All for now…

Ashley

saucy goodness

Ashley — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 06:41:00 +0000

Part TWO of pizza madness.

Chris’s pie – pizza sauce + cheese + jalapenos + bacon + garlic scape pesto on 1/4 of it

My pie

1/2 one – pizza sauce + cheese + shrooms + spinach

1/2 two – garlic scape pesto + pizza sauce + shrooms + spinach

I topped it with a pile of raw spinach. I loved this as a topping! I have also added kale to the top of my pizza before too

I made a rectangular pizza for myself. I like rectangle pieces better than triangle. Does anyone else have that strange preference?

The pesto 1/2 was all vegan and all delicious. SO much flavor packed into that pesto!

I topped the whole pizza with vegan parmesan cheese, which I have been throwing on everything but my oats! Although it would be good on a bowl of savory oats as well

Speaking of oats, here were Thursdays!

I did my regular mix with steel cut oats, banana, vanilla, water, milk, + cinnamon. My toppings haven’t been varying too much lately as I seem to have a found a summery style that I’m in love with.

mix ins:

blueberries
raspberries
Love Grown Foods granola [sooooo good!!! love this company!]
glob of homemade pnut butter
glob of homemade salt kissed cashew butter
Crofters blueberry jam

Have I mentioned that it’s been at least 2 months since I’ve purchased a single jar of nut butter?? I have at least 6 different kinds of nut butter in my fridge right now. I’m not sure why I would need to buy them ever again. They are cheaper to make at home and definitely more delicious.

Remember I was sent 4 boxes of Lundberg’s brown rice couscous to try out and review? This was box #2. Chris + I loved it! The texture was great as was the flavor. The ingredient list is impressive as well as the nutrition label. We are loving these mixes! I think I am still a fan of buying the grain in bulk and then adding my own seasonings. It usually ends up being more cost effective. However, if you don’t have a lot of seasonings or never get the ratios right, definitely check out this product! Deeelicious!

Fluffy with a little crunch!

Another new product! The bright green jumped out at me as I was walking the aisles at Whole Foods. This was not the normal Amazing Grass! It is a new energy drink product that is infused with Matcha + Herba Mate along with a lemon lime flavor and all of the other normal AG SuperFood ingredients. I just love this company!

I was a little scared to mix this grassy packet with just water.

[source]

It was actually pretty tasty! The lemon lime was definitely noticeable but nothing was overpowering. It was earthy but not as much as some of their other flavors, surprisingly. I think it would be awesome mixed into a smoothie!

We finally made it back to the rock gym today! It’s been over a month. It’s frustrating being on such a long climbing hiatus because you lose your strength so fast. Just when we were really noticing a lot of improvement, I pulled my quad, Chris cut his hand pretty bad, I went to Ohio, and Chris went to Ecuador. Hence, our month long hiatus. It was good to be back but we were tuckered out pretty quickly. We met our friends there that drove down from Ft. Collins. They just moved from Reno and we couldn’t be more excited!! We invited them over, after climbing, for an impromptu dinner.

A super easy + always delicious meal that you can usually pull straight from the pantry/fridge/freezer.

Pasta Bake 101 – Really this couldn’t be any easier!

Preheat your oven to 350*

In a 9×13 baking dish empty a bag of frozen organic peppers or any frozen or fresh veggie you prefer.

Then dumb a 16oz bag of pasta on top. [You do not have to precook the noodles!] Whatever pasta you prefer. I love whole wheat and my favorite shape might be the shells because they trap all of the saucy goodness

Pile on as much spinach as possible. This was probably about 6 huge handfuls worth of spinach.

Empty 2 jars of pasta sauce on top. I used 2 jars of Whole Foods Organic Four Cheese blend. It’s pretty tasty and only $2.99 per jar. Stir everything together + top with foil. Bake in the oven for 30-45min until the pasta is cooked through. I stir it up about 2 times during cooking to check on it and make sure it’s all getting cooked.

After it’s fully cooked, I top with cheese + broil at 500* for about 3-5min. Our oven doesn’t actually have a “broil” setting, so I just bake it at 500* for a few more minutes until the cheese is bubbly.

So easy. So delicious. A crowd pleaser!

With the rest of my leftover whole wheat pizza dough I made garlic knots!! I tore chunks off and rolled them into a long strand and knotted them together. I coated them with olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, oregano + basil. I baked them at 350* for the last 10min the pasta cooked and then at 500* for the last few minutes as well. SO yummy!

This week has been pretty crazy for us. Too many things to even get into, but we’re both looking forward to some R+R this weekend. Aaaaaand Saturday is my 27th Birthday!! I feel like 27 is a lot older than 26! Eeeek! I have always been a big birthday person. Whether it’s mine or someone else’s, I just love birthdays. Definitely keep your eye out for a fun post on Saturday

Chris has a little something planned Saturday night but I’m not really sure what else we’re going to do. I would really just like to go to the Boulder farmer’s market Saturday again and stroll around without thinking of my to-do list. Wouldn’t that be so nice! Pat + Natalie are having a 4th of July + Birthday Bash on Sunday, which will be super fun! Wish my family could be here this weekend but at least we just had a nice long visit.

I’m off to bed. I’ve been ravenous + sleepy ALL day. Oh, but not before a little yoga!! Gooooooodnight!

Ashley

Vita adventures!!

Ashley — Sat, 22 May 2010 08:28:43 +0000

Off to Laura’s bright + early this morning! I told her I was going to make breakfast. She didn’t put up a fight. I was really mad that I forgot spinach and couldn’t give her a true Green Monster, but at least I brought the wheatgrass!

Yes. Vita-Mix in tow. Mama Pea, have you taken your VM on any adventures yet?

Choco Strawberry Banana

handful of ice
~1/2c oat milk [any milk will do]
1/2 banana
1 1/2c frozen strawberries
1 scoop Chocolate Amazing Grass
1t cocoa powder
1/4 avocado

Pulverize.

Creamy delicious. You will be amazed what a little avocado can do for a smoothie.

Berrylicious

1/3 banana
1/4 avocado
~1/2c oat milk
1c cherries
1/4c strawberries
1/2-3/4c blueberries
1 scoop Green Amazing Grass

The background I’m shooting on is a sweet chair that Laura + Travis found at a Thrift store. One of these days it’s going to disappear….muahahaha

It was the most gorgeous day today. The nicest day yet this spring! We walked around Pearl St in Boulder. It was really hard to not buy anything…especially cute kitchen things!!!!

And necklaces…headbands..wallets…sunglasses…ahhhh

And cute vases you can hang from antique ceiling fixtures!! I mean I don’t know what I’d do with it…but I want one anyway

I realllllly ~~want~~ need this shirt…for 2 reasons

the first reason should be obvious
it’s organic cotton

Modeling session.

Fun morning with my Laura!!

Kom-boo-chaaaaaa!! This flavor was just okay. I wouldn’t buy it again. I like Superfruits much more!

Chris + I went on a hard 17 mile bike ride today. The weather was perfect but for the first 8.5 miles we were straight into the wind with lots of small uphill action that whole time. My quads were screaming!!! Good ride though in just over an hour.

Then I headed to a yoga class at Om Time with my friend Lauren! This class rocked. I haven’t been to formal yoga classes since living in Charlotte so this kicked my arse. Yowza.

It was a 1.5hr vinyasa class, which was the style I practiced in Charlotte but it was very different! I had never done about 80% of what we did in class today. It wasn’t hot yoga, like in Charlotte but it still felt plenty hot with all of the bodies in the room. The temp started at 72* and our bodies + breathing brought the temp up to 84* by the end!! I was sweating like crazy!

Chris got me this yoga bag for Christmas, and I haven’t been able to use it yet. I was pretty excited. It is the ideal yoga bag! It opens extremely easily, so it’s super simple to get the mat in + out. There are straps that secure it in the bag as well. There is a holder for a water bottle too, which is perfect.

The front pouch was big enough to hold my phone, camera, wallet and car keys. LOVE this bag!

The bed is calling my name!! Not a ton planned for tomorrow but I do know I’ll be hitting up 2 local farmer’s markets. Can’t wait to restock my eggs. I just ran out today!

Night all!

<3 Ashley

and the results are in!

Ashley — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:18:53 +0000

Thank you to EVERYONE who participated in the Amazing Grass giveaway. I had to delete any of the comments that were from outside the US [sorry!] and there were a few double comments that I deleted as well.

A quick message to my readers….COMMENT MORE You are hilarious + full of knowledge!! I love alllll of the new recipes + tips that you gave me. I have a plethora of links to add to “my favorites,” from your suggestions now too! Not to mention a slew of blogs to check out. Like I needed to spend more time on the computer? I’ll definitely be sharing some of these sites and tips once I have time to go through them.

Okay Okay…the random number generator selected LUCKY #79

CONGRATS Tieghan!!! “I love amazing grass, but I live up in the mountains, Frisco to be exact so I can not find it any where up here! I ether have to drive to Denver and go to whole foods or order it off line. I really hope I wine and I would love to meet you since we live so close!!!”

[I’ll shoot you an email with the info you need]

Thanks to everyone who participated again! And watch out for another awesome cookbook giveaway coming up in the next week or so!

Now…what to make for dinner……

<3 Ashley <3