Oh my my my….where to start??

I’m honored that you are all flying to Colorado with spoons in hand ready to dip in the the jar of Cocao-Coco-Pnat Butter!! I will have it ready + waiting, along with a huge pot of Scottish oats, and maple cinnamon almond butter. I promise!

Speaking of oats + nut butters, I present you with breakfast.

Slightly different from photo 1. I couldn’t decide!

I could swim in this.

In today’s mix:

1/4c [rounded] Scottish Oats – I’m almost out…eeek!!
1 1/4c water
1/4c coconut kefir [makes them suuuper creamy]
1/2 banana
1/2t banana

Topped with:

Raspberry Galaxy Granola
maple cinnamon almond butter [~1/2T]
cocoa-coco-pnat butter [~1-2t melted]

A reader made my day today!!! I received a package from a loyal reader, Bowyn. She has a blog called Teenage Health Freak. It’s impressive to me when teens are so proactive about eating healthy. Bowyn has obviously put in a lot of time + research to be the healthy foodie that she is and has even gotten her mom in on it too! I love her blog slogan, “Skinny by genes. Healthy by Choice.”

She sent me FRESH pecans from her pecan tree!!! I rarely use or talk about pecans but honestly they are one of my favorite nuts. SO buttery + delicious. They are perfect for desserts or eating by the handful. Bowyn sent these because of my latest obsession with making nut butters.

Thanks Bowyn!!!!

You can tell that these are extremely fresh. They are a bit softer and earthier tasting than pecans bought from the store. I have a feeling these are going to butterize really easily. Abby actually made pecan butter tonight aaand an amazing cookie using avocado instead of butter.

I loved this line on her blog…

Pecans + food processor = pecan butter. I will never buy nut butter again.

Really, if you own a food processor and eat a lot of nut butters there is NO reason to ever buy nut butter again :)

Ahhh, what to do with these…

Off for a workout at the gym because it SNOWED yesterday and was way too cold + wet to bike outside.

Dakota says woof. 50mm self portraits are not easy!

I’ve been walking a LOT in my Vibrams. My feet feel 100% better but I haven’t tried to run in over 2 months, so hopefully they are really back to normal. I cannot wait for the barefoot running clinic in a few weeks!!

This is the happiest dog I have ever seen. Her tail never stops. She doesn’t understand anger. Ohhhhhhhh Kenna.

She’s almost 1.5 now…we can barely use the “puppy” excuse anymore.

I biked on the stationary bike at the gym which was snoooooooooze, boring. Oh my gosh. I haven’t biked for a few weeks at the gym now, but it was painfully boring. I even read the entire time, but time crept by. It’s amazing how time FLIES when swimming + when biking outside. Oh well, still a good workout. I had the resistance up higher from the last time I was there which was cool. Obviously the outdoor biking is really strengthening my legs!

I came home craving a smoothie, even though I was COLD from the walk. I have been thinking about Jessica’s Vanilla Lime Smoothie ever since she posted it.

Here is my go at it!!!

Ooops. It’s pink…not white with green. Well, I had no lime, which brought me to making just a plain vanilla smoothie. I luuurve plain vanilla! However, I couldn’t help but add 1/2 banana + ~10 frozen org. cherries.

Vanilla LimeLESS Cherry Smoothie

1/2c plain greek yogurt
1/2c milk of choice
handful of ice
~10 cherries
1/4c Living Harvest Vanilla Spice hemp protein
1/2 banana
1/2 seeded vanilla bean

I spilled on my new favorite tea towel. Crap.

Can we talk about something?

Strawberries!!! Yes, let’s talk about this gorgeous + delicious fruit.

If you could only buy 1 organic food, I would probably tell you to make sure and get organic strawberries. Although, peppers come in a close 2nd. Yes, they are expensive at nearly $5/container. So why am I telling you to spend more money on food? Well that’s a loaded question…but when it comes to strawberries here are the reasons:

“Strawberries are the single most pesticide-contaminated fruit or vegetable in the United States. Strawberries receive up to 500 pounds of pesticides per acre. 36 types of pesticides can be found on 90% of tested conventional strawberries.” [source]
“And in Sacramento, a pesticide so cancer-causing that it's often used specifically to create cancer in rats for medical experiments was just proposed for approval for use on the state's strawberry crop.” [source]

There is an article from the site Sustainable Food titled, What You Don’t Know About Strawberries Might Kill You. This article is quick + to the point and explains it the best. Please please please read it. I try not to harp on my political food views too often, but this is just plain disturbing.

My Strawberry Rules:

When shopping at the store: Buy organic strawberries + organic only.
Do not buy non-organic, unless at a local/street market where you can talk to the actual farmers about how the strawberries are grown + maintained.
Keep up on sales at your local health food stores.

People think Whole Foods is ridiculously expensive, however, if you are a careful shopper I beg to differ :) I watch their bi-weekly sales for things I need to stock my pantry with and try to stick to the fresh veggies that are on sale during that time. They also have a GREAT bi-monthly flyer filled with tons of coupons that are actually useful and each time you go you can get more of them! I usually save at least $5 in coupons. You can also check for organic/natural food coupons at Natural Food List [the company I wrote a few articles for].

Okay…back to my point!

How do I afford organic strawberries?

Instead of buying 1 container of strawberries each week, now I only buy them once every 2 weeks, or I wait until they go on sale [like right now at WF] and buy 2 containers.
I try my hardest to not munch through a whole container in 1 sitting.
I buy frozen strawberries for smoothies or chopping up and adding to plain Greek yogurt. You’ll get more bang for your buck with frozen strawberries but obviously fresh are sometimes irresistible.

Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits. Definitely in the top 3. These were deelicious. They had a nice crunch and were completely sweet and full of flavor.

I don’t even give non-organic a 2nd though. 2 for $5 non-organic –> fo’getaboutit!!!!

MUNCH!

Delicious afternoon snack.

2 GIgantic strawberries [plus another + another]
organic grape tomaters
organic carrots

Even with our tight budget right now, organic food is top on our list of things to spend our money on. I eat about 85-90% organic, if not more.

Thanks for listening :)

Recently I received a fabulous envelope of coupons from the wonderful people at GT’s Kombucha! I picked up 5 flavors I’ve never tried before.

I’ve been eyeing up the scary green kombucha but couldn’t spend $3 on it without knowing if it was worth it.

This one sounded awesome!!

I’m starting to like ginger more + more lately.

Purdy colors.

Here we go. Ready?

Ingredients: 100% raw organic kombucha + wild blue green algae + Hawaiin spirulina, chorella

Thoughts? The first sip tasted GREAT. And then the aftertaste set in. I still thought it was okay though. I went for the 2nd sip and almost spit up. This is the most fowl thing I have ever tasted in my life. So far I have loved every other flavor and you all know I LOVE earthy/grassy products. However, I am not a fan of things that taste like sea-life. OMG, it tasted like a cross between seaweed + a fish and even my vegan chocolate avocado cake couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth.

gag.me.with.a.spoon.

But! I know some people like seaweed veggies + such, so maybe this is the flavor for you?

Goooooodnight!!!

[buyorganicstrawberries.buyorganicstrawberries.buyorganicstrawberries.]

<3 Ashley <3

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