Green Garden Smoothie

Our garden has finally started to produce enough food to eat. We harvested some spinach, kale, chard, two honeyberries, and a strawberry. We ate the berries immediately, but thought it would all go together to make a delicious smoothie.

We didn't have enough berries from the garden, so we suplemented from the fridge. Don't worry about exact amounts of the ingredients, the recipe is more about ratios: 1 water, 1 spinach, 2/3 kale, 2/3 chard, 1.5-2 fruit. Let your taste buds be your guide.



Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• spinach
• kale
• swiss chard
• fresh blueberries
• frozen strawberries

Method

1. add water to high speed blender until the one cup mark. We use a vitamix.
2. keep adding spinach and blending until the total amount in the blender is two cups. We used almost half a pound.
3. add chard and blend until just before the three cup mark. We used about six ounces.
4. add kale and blend until the 3.5 cup mark. We used about six ounces.
5. add two large handfulls of fresh blueberries and one large handfull of frozen strawberries.
6. blend until smooth
7. enjoy!

Makes 5-6 cups.

What 200 Calories Looks Like

I really like this short video as it shows what 200 calories of food looks like. It is based on a great post with lots of pictures here on wiseGEEK.

Since we can only consume a limited amount of calories a day, it makes sense to spend them wisely by eating the most nutrient dense food possible: plants.

YouTube: What 200 Calories Looks Like

Minneapolis Farmer’s Market

It’s been a while since we’ve visited the Minneapolis Farmer’s Market. We’ve been visiting the co-op and other smaller markets instead. We had a great time this weekend shopping. We came home with two huge bags of greens, some strawberries, and some rhubarb. I also bought another strawberry plant to put into the garden.

There was also a guy giving chair massages, neither of us could resist. Two bags of veggies and a massage = a great morning of shopping.

Walnut Tacos

It’s been a while since I made my delicious nut meat tacos. Last time I made nut meat tacos I used a mixture of almonds and walnuts. I’m out of almonds right now, so I doubled up on the walnuts and these walnut tacos were born. I let them soak overnight to get a slightly softer texture than last time. These tacos are wrapped in simple corn tortillas which we’ve grown very fond of over the last few months.

They are so tasty with some freshly picked cilantro from our backyard garden.

Vegan Tex-Mex Lasagna

While browsing through my copy of the “Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health” last night, I stumbled on ‘Layered Tex-Mex Lasagna” from Mary McDougall (page 130). Being a cold night with snow in the forecast, it sounded delicious! It’s layered corn tortillas with pinto beans, corn, black olives, and onions for the filling and drenched in tomato and chipotle sauce.

Making Maple Syrup at SapFest

This weekend was SapFest. It is a small, annual event run by a friend. He has a few acres and several Sugar Maples. In the early spring, folks come out and help gather the sap into buckets and then watch it boil. He claims it is the outdoor equivalent of watching paint dry, but my wife and I found it more exciting than that.

I’ve been surrounded by Maple syrup most of my life. I thought I knew how it all worked, but seeing it was a bit different than I excepted.

Restoran Natural Vegetarian Food Centre

Delicious vegetarian food in the Pandan Indah section of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. This was the first restaurant in Malaysia that we ate at when we were there earlier this year.