green soothie

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I’m a bit scatter brained.  You’ll have to excuse me.  We have been thrown another curveball called life.  I really can’t get into the details right now, but I’m really hoping things turn around soon!

Despite the craziness, I try to keep up with my cooking and to-doing.  Helps keep my mind off things. 

Scottish Oats are back!  I haven’t had them in almost a week I think.

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Topped with Love Grown Foods deeelicious granola + cocoa-coco pnat butter + walnuts.

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The oats were stuffed with:

  • 1 1/4c water
  • 1/4c coconut milk
  • 1/4c Scottish Oats
  • 1 whole sliced banana
  • 1t cinnamon

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Part of my random lunch.  The cucumber was not good!!  It was bitter.  Blegh!  I ate some leftover pasta, from the other night.  The sauce is my 1-2-3 Pasta Sauce.  I amped it up with a little white wine + red pepper flakes this time.  Seriously, such a delicious sauce.  SO fresh.  I like to put it on toast or just eat it by the spoonful :)

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This packaged cheered me up today!!  The wonderful Glass Dharma sent me FOUR of their gorgeous glass straws to try out. 

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I can’t wait to use them!!  Although I am a little afraid of breaking them!

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Their packaging design is spot on.  Love it.  Their website is great too.  Also, the straws come with special tiny brushes for easy cleaning.  Perrrrfect!!

Guess what else??  I get to host a Glass Dharma giveaway!  Be on the lookout for it, sometime next week! 

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A sneak peak of these lovely straws.  Can’t wait to start slurpin!!

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Love them!!  So pretty!

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For part of dinner, I wanted to experiment with a recipe Gena posted the other day.  It called for Fuji apples, but the only local apples available right now were these.  They’re called “transparent” apples.  I have never heard of that type, but they are most closely related to Granny Smith.  They are small, juicy + sour.  Very tasty! 

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Although, I think my favorite apples are:  Pink Lady, Honey Crisp, + McIntosh. 

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So cute.  Did I mention that my new favorite color is green?  Yep!  It used to be blue but now it’s definitely GREEN!

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Gena’s recipe called for celery but my stomach + I disagree about celery.  I like it, but my stomach does not.  She used flax oil, but I wanted to give coconut oil a try.  I actually made 3 different trials of this soup before I got it right!  I had an excess of the ingredients I needed and felt like playing.  It didn’t take long at all and the result was a very different but delicious cold summery soup!

Here is Gena’s recipe

Fuji Apple and Spinach Soup (serves 3)

1 Fuji apple, peeled, cored, and diced
1/2 large avocado
2 stalks celery
1 cup raw spinach
1 1/2 cups coconut water (I used fresh, but packaged is fine)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp nama shoyu or tamari
2 tsps flax oil

Ashley – Trial 1

  • 2 small green apples, peeled, cored, + diced
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1c zucchini, peeled, chopped
  • 2c raw spinach
  • 1 1/2c coconut water
  • 1T lemon juice
  • 1/2T tamari
  • 2T coconut oil

*The tamari and coconut oil DID not pair well together.  Unfortunately, this went down the drain.

For the next two trials, I blended all of the veggies + water together but then split them in 1/2 to try a few diff. ingredients in each.

Ashley – Trial 2

  • 2 small green apples, peeled, cored, + diced
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1c zucchini, peeled, chopped
  • 2c raw spinach
  • 1 1/2c water
  • 1T lemon juice
  • 1T tamari
  • 2T hemp oil

*I just used plain water this time, since coconut water is $$$ ;)

**I did not like the combo of the tamari + hemp oil with the rest of the ingredients.  However, it might be totally different with a sweeter apple + celery, like in Gena’s version.  I’m sure her soup was fabulous.  I made a lot of changes, so it’s my own fault this one didn’t turn out!

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Fruit n’ Veggie Coconut Soothie

  • 2 small green apples, peeled, cored, + diced
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1c zucchini, peeled, chopped
  • 2c raw spinach
  • 1 1/4c water
  • large handful of ice
  • 1T lemon juice
  • 1T honey/agave/brown rice syrup
  • 2T coconut oil
  1. Blend all ingredients, except the oil, until smooth. 
  2. Soften the coconut oil and blend in.
  3. Taste + add more honey/oil as needed.
  4. Serve cold + immediately.

I really liked this this version!! I call it a “soothie” because it was a cross between soup + a smoothie.  The coconut flavor was awesome and the slight sweetness was a great contrast to the sour apple.  If using a sweet apple, you might not need to add sweetener at all.

This is DEFinitely very different.  Not all will like it.  However, I thought it was delicious + refreshing!

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Something you probably never thought you would see on my blog…

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Don’t be scared.  I was in a pinch and needed to better frost my cupcakes for the header photo shoot ;)   It wasn’t worth it to buy all of the ingredients to try the coconut frosting again, when I could buy this for $1.50, just for the photos.  I definitely ate a finger-swipes-worth amount.  Holy sweetness!!  Blegh!

I will try that coconut frosting again soon…don’t worry! ;)

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I just made 2 POUNDS of peanut butter.  No joke.  I reserved 1c of the plain pnut butter to whirl together a version with honey, vanilla + cinnamon.  mmmMMMMmm  I’m off to eat some pnut butter toast + then crash into bed!

~Ashley