The Unprocessed Life

Yes, I'm pretty sure I'd run all the way across the country to meet my honey. Even if he were a wee bit undertrained.

Happy Monday!

So, today, I'm in a bit of mourning. During my morning cardio, I finished "A Dance with Dragons" the fifth (and most recent) book of "A Game of Thrones" series.

I absolutely love these books and now I'll be waiting for some time before I get a crack at another one (author George R.R. Martin took six years between his last two books and he's got a pretty busy schedule these days with a little TV show you may have heard of).

I've got some other great books taking up my shelf — I'm loving "Speaks the Nightbird," which I started alternating with "A Dance with Dragons" to drag it out — but still, saying goodbye to Westeros for awhile leaves a huge hole.

So, I decided to fill that hole with juice.

Juice that happens to encompass the final book's theme of "fire and blood." I planned on juicing a beet with other tasty veggies and a bit of jalapeño. At the last second, though, the little man decided he wanted some (as you can see above), so I left out the pepper. But that jalapeño does add a great kick if you're not sharing your juice with a 3-year-old.

Either way, it comes out a really pretty red color that, well, admittedly looks a bit like blood.

Espeically when your 3-year-old is messy and spills some on the floor :)

Fire and Blood Juice

1 head celery

4 small leaves kale (dinosaur or curly or a mix)

3 medium carrots, peeled

1 large beet, peeled

1 large lemon, peeled

1 handful cilantro

1 small piece seeded jalapeño (optional)

Run all through a juicer. Devour with a good book!

I'm in a pretty good mood this St. Patrick's Day. Last night, KU won, Mizzou and Duke lost and this morning is full of birds chirping and 60-degree temperatures.

Lovely, lovely madness, indeed.

Mad, and green. All across the Web, my blogging friends are posting green recipes for this especially green day. So, I thought I'd join that bit of madness.

Naturally, I want to share a green smoothie recipe. Because, for me, that's the easiest way to be green. This one has a summery feel to it, just like this T-shirt-worthy holiday.

Enjoy!

Emerald Isle Green Smoothie

1 mango, chopped

1 banana

1 cup strawberries

2 handfuls baby spinach

Handful raspberries

1 scoop Vanilla Sunwarrior

1 tablespoon Vitamineral Green, spirulina or chorella

1 to 1.5 cups water

Blend all. Serves 1 to 2.

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This has exactly nothing to do with food, but I love my Jayhawks, and we had a super big win on Saturday. I had kale salad right before the win, by the way, so there's the food component:)

Make sure to watch the film all the way through the end. There are two videos, one before the players are announced and one after that's even cooler. Yes, that doesn't seem possible after watching the first video, but it's true.

Rock Chalk!

I have a smoothie every day. Sometimes twice a day.

And often, those smoothies have a chocolate element — cocoa powder, cacao nibs or chocolate-flavored Sunwarrior.

Rarely do I ever go the "vanilla" route. I've always been a chocolaholic to the core. Vanilla tastes just fine, but I'm not drawn to it like I am chocolate.

But, every now and then a girl's got to try a different flavor combination.

I went to my local co-op last week to pick up more Vitamineral Green. Right there next to it were some other HealthForce products, including some little sample bottles like the one I started with for Vitamineral Green. So, I decided to go "wild" and buy some vanilla-flavored Warrior Food protein powder. The little sample bottle cost less than $4 — perfect for a test run.

After a particularly tough track and stadium stair workout on Sunday, I decided to taste-test my newest smoothie ingredient. Because I was having it at about 4 p.m., I didn't want to make a chocolate-laced smoothie because of the caffeine factor. Therefore, vanilla Warrior Food seemed like a perfect solution.

I ended up combining it with cinnamon, sweet bananas and my trusty Vitamineral Green. The result is sure to become a new favorite!

Vanilla Green Protein Smoothie

2 bananas

1 to 1.5 cups water

10 grams vanilla Warrior Food

1 tablespoon Vitamineral Green

Splash vanilla

Pinch cinnamon

Put all ingredients in a blender. Blend. Serves 1.

Make sure to watch this on an empty stomach ... and then fill back up with *real* food.

Now, as you can see from the pic above, I'm definitely not going hungry. Even in the winter, I can manage to throw together a salad with ingredients purchased from any old store. And this salad, inspired by my friend Lauren's love of all veggies fermented, is really, really good.

It has a kale base and is topped with tons of nutrient-dense goodies: squash, avocado, olives and kimchi, the aforementioned fermented product. I'm trying to add kimchi to more of my meals as a way to get more gut-improving probiotics. Right now, I get most of my probiotics from kombucha, which is yummy, but pretty expensive. So, needless to say, I'm looking for cheaper alternatives. Kimchi fits the bill, and it's absolutely perfect on salads like this one.

Kimchi Squash Kale Salad

1/2 bunch green kale

1 to 2 cups chopped cooked squash (I used 1.5 roasted sweet dumpling squash)

1/2 cup kimchi (or more)

1/2 avocado, chopped

Kalamata olives

Tear the kale leaves into small pieces and discard the stems. Put the pieces in a bowl and top with avocado, massaging it gently into the kale pieces. Top with squash, kimchi and olives. Enjoy! Serves 1 as a dinner salad or 2 as a side salad.

It's no secret that we love green smoothies and juices in our house. But, pretty much 100 percent of the time, our drinks get their color from just fresh greens like spinach and kale. That's what I prefer, and that's what I do.

But, the other day I was at our local health food store and decided I'd try something new. Well, it's not new, but it's new to me — Vitamineral Green.

It's not a supplement, per se, the creator's website is very adamant about that. Rather, it's a mixture of super foods in a powder form, meant to enhance what you already take in. The powder is a mixture of a few dozen beneficial plants, including spirulina, kale, ginger root, wheat grass, plus various enzymes and probiotics.

I have blogger friends who have mentioned it before, and so I picked up a tiny bottle. I decided my first trial of it would be to add it to a pre-run protein smoothie and the results turned out great. Vitamineral Green has a surprisingly mild flavor and didn't overpower the smoothie or make it taste "too green" (not that that bothers me, but I know it bothers some folks).

My little trial bottle cost less than $4, making it a great little investment if you want to dip a toe in the world of greens but fear smoothies full of kale and chard. If you do like those things (like I do), it's a great little addition to whatever you're whipping up in the blender or juicer.

Here's how I tried it, in a smooth-tasting concoction I'm calling my "Double Green Smoothie." Enjoy!

Double Green Smoothie

1 banana

1 handful spinach

1 scoop chocolate Sunwarrior protein

1 teaspoon Vitamineral Green

1 to 1-1/2 cups water

Blend all in a blender. Serves 1.

Dark Green Night Cap

1/2 bunch dinosaur kale

1 small head romaine lettuce

1 Granny Smith applle

1 lemon

Run all through the juicer. Serves 1.

I have a feeling I'll be making this green juice a lot in 2012.

Mega Super Green Juice

2 Granny Smith apples

2 small heads celery or 1 regular one

6 small leaves dinosaur kale

1 inch fresh ginger

1 lime, peel cut away

Run all ingredients through a juicer. Enjoy!