Holly's Green Smoothie Recipe

So between January and February, I started feeling very ill and fatigued. I couldn't stay awake for more than a few hours at a time. Eventually, I went to the doctor and yeah, I don't want to go into it, but I was sick. 

During March, I tried a bunch of things to feel better. Then one day, I decided to just do what made the most sense to me: walk a ton and eat a ton of spinach. The thing is: it worked. I feel a million times better. My skin has cleared up. I'm more energetic. I can think more clearly. Things are looking up.

Today, in honor of walking my 900th mile since April 1, I'm going to share with you my green smoothie recipe. I've been drinking this by the blender every morning for the past 3 months. It's a product of a lot of trial and error. 

 I've gone ahead and put all the ingredients into Cronometer so you can see just how insanely good for you this recipe is. 

You can buy ALL of these ingredients with the exception of Stevia in the Raw at Trader Joes. You can buy Stevia drops at TJ's, however, and they will work just as well. I personally moved to Stevia in the Raw because I wanted to eliminate all alcohol from my diet (like vanilla extract, the drops contain alcohol).

Holly's Green Smoothie Recipe

6 oz. Frozen Strawberries (1/2 bag)

8 oz. Frozen Spinach (1/2 bag)

1/2 Banana

2 cups Unsweetened Almond Milk (Vanilla or Plain)

2 cups of water

Stevia in the Raw (to taste - I use about 1/4 cup. Don't judge me.)

1 tsp. Chia Seeds (optional)

1 tsp. Flax Seeds (optional)

1) Put everything in a blender:

2) Drink it.

3) DRINK IT EVERY DAY.

As you can see, for a measly 300 calories (for the entire blender), I'm hitting most of my vitamins and then some. I take an Emergen-c Packet alongside my smoothie to cover the B vitamins and: 

BAM. That's breakfast and I'm awesome.

Good luck, guys! 

Vegan Gingerbread Kids

This recipe is my vegan adaptation of a traditional recipe found in the Alpha-Bakery, Gold Medal's Children's Cookbook. It's not perfect eating (boo flour boo), but I've made the recipe vegan using coconut oil instead of shortening and it makes a cookie that you can decorate with icing and/or build Gingerbread tardises out of.

Vegan Gingerbread Cookie Dough

1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of dark brown molasses
1/2 cup of coconut oil (softened, but  not melted)
1/4 cup of water
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp baking soda
2.5 cups of white flour

1. Beat sugar, molasses, coconut oil and water in large bowl with electric mixer until relatively smooth. (Coconut oil will probably make tiny little lumps--s'ok. Deal.)

2. Add rest of ingredients to make dough

3. You can optionally chill the dough for 2 hours to make roll-out cookies.

4. Shape your cookies to be about 1/4" thick.

5. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

6. Makes about 5 or 6 biggish cookie shapes that will stay relatively puffy but will harden as they cool. Once they harden, you can decorate them.

We made gingerbread sonic screwdrivers and daleks. We ate them, though. This is what remains.

Dairy-Free Instant Chocolate Pudding

A lot of recipes for dairy-free pudding require you to have in your possession a ripe avocado. In life, ripe avocados are like four-leaf clovers. But I've recently learned that there is bottled avocado oil!

Dairy-Free Instant Chocolate Pudding

1 14 oz. box of silken tofu (here from Trader Joe's)
1/2 cup avocado oil
3-5 tablespoons of brown sugar
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Dump all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth (or use an immersion blender). I can't recommend a nutrilbullet enough for this kind of task, though.

Sneaky Sqoodles

So the other day, I showed you how to make Zoodles. Today, I'm going to make Sqoodles, which are julienned squashes. Then, I'm going to sneak them into leftover protein-enhanced pasta that'll I'll use for a stir-fry. Here's my thinking: Sneaky sqoodles get eaten. Plain squashes do not.

First, shred your squash like so. Our squashes are weird and look like cupcakes. Obviously, the straighter and less cupcake-y your squash, the easier this is.

Sqoodle pile!

Mix into pasta and tell no one.

DIY Taco Sauce

During my brief life as a camp counselor, lunch on Tuesdays was pretty awful. It was tacos. And they were awful.

But the worst part of the experience was the song. Oh, god, the song! Kids would run up to the front of the cafeteria to sing the damned taco song:

Tacos, burritos

What's coming out of your speedo?

You got trouble (uh oh)

You got bubbles (uh oh)

 Every week. For months.

Anyway, this recipe is about taco sauce. This taco sauce I'm presenting to you is easily customized. I'm making it here as mild as humanly tolerable as it will be served to children who have told me at least once that chocolate is too spicy. You should add cayenne. Probably Sriracha. I'm biased.

DIY Taco Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 6oz. can of tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
• 1/3 cup of white vinegar
• 4 teaspoons of chili powder
• 2-3 teaspoons of salt
• 3 cups of cold water

1. First, in a sauce pan, add the cornstarch to the water and make sure it's all dissolved. Goopy cornstarch is the worst. Not your friend.

2. Then add all the other ingredients, bring to a boil then lower the heat. Simmer.

3. The sauce will be done after about 10 minutes. You can let it go longer if you want a thicker sauce. Three cups of sauce is a lot of sauce. 

Zoodles

What do to with zucchini? Zoodles! Shred your bounty of zucchini into little noodles using a julienne peeler.

Transfer to a skillet and stirfry with a little olive or coconut oil.

Transfer once more to a strainer and squeeze out any excessive moisture.

Voila.

Chocolate "Trust Me" Black Bean Fudge

This is a recipe that requires a special title. Tell someone you made black bean fudge and they're probably going to go Mr. Yuck on you and totally shoot it down. So, you know, trust me. It's fucking awesome.

This fudge contains no dairy. It contains two cans of black beans. It's high-fiber, high-protein, dairy-free and a great, nay, excellent source of coconut oil fats.

Chocolate "Trust Me" Black Bean Fudge
(adapted from Whole New Mom)

• 2 cans of black beans (rinsed), or 3.5 cups of cooked black beans
• 3/4 cup of coconut oil
• 1 cup of cocoa powder
• 1 cup of sugar (can be reduced to your preferences)
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt (to taste)

Blend all the ingredients in your blender, Nutribullet or Vitamix.

Pour into a bowl and chill for at least two hours (longer if your coconut oil is liquid when you started).

 The mixture will be pretty hard (think soft fudge or chocolate icing).