The Coconutty.

This is by far my favorite smoothie, it's more like dessert and would probably be fantastic with some protein powder post-workout. It's also a bit of a pain due to trying to open the thai coconut (which I make my husband do, because I literally cannot do it). This is a complete copycat recipe of my favorite smoothie from Thrive in Seattle. Seeing that I have to pay the toll, pay to park and then pay $12 for the smoothie and the bridge is closed 50% of the time these days anyway, I needed to figure out a way to make it myself; and I did. Here it is.

1 Thai coconut hacked (PCC and Whole Foods have them, they're $1 cheaper at PCC, so I get mine there) Use all the coconut water and all the meat, scoop out with a spoon.
1 pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt
1/2 cup Cashews
4-5 pitted and softened metajool dates (I soak mine in boiling water for a few minutes)
5 or so ice cubes

Throw all into the Vitamix and blend until creamy. You could add raw cacao, I've added spinach, almond butter or cinnamon would be good; there are lots of ways you could spice this up but I like mine plain Jane.

Orange and Green Smoothie.

So it really looks green but there's more in there. This was what I drank for breakfast today and it made enough for tomorrow as well. Shaana, this is for you! :)

1 small gala apple

2-4 cups of kale and spinach

1 cup parsley

about 1/2 inch of ginger

2 carrots peeled 

1/2 cup frozen mango

Juice from one lime

water 

Thrown into the Vitamix. Done. 

The BEST PALEO BREAD EVER!

This is hands down the best paleo bread I've ever made, I found a recipe and tweaked it until I got it right! Here's the recipe!! Here's the original site: http://www.paleoeffect.com/recipes/fluffy-paleo-bread-paleo-effect/

Preheat Oven to 350.

Dry Ingredients:
1 Cup Flaxseed Meal or buy whole golden flaxseeds and grind in your Vitamix.
1 1/2 Cup Arrowroot Powder
4 tsp. Gluten Free Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp. Salt

Wet Ingredients:
4 Large Eggs
4 Egg Whites
4 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. For the wet ingredients start with the eggs and whisk well, then add the rest of the wet ingredients, next slowly incorporate the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and put the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes until just barely golden (see picture). I dipped in Extra Virgin Olive Oil with minced rosemary and sea salt. So yum.

Almond and Raw Cacao Green Protein Smoothie (with mint or vanilla)

I like to drink this smoothie after a workout, it's got protein from the almonds and is packed with nutrients, it's also really really filling!

Into the Vitamix add:

2 tspb. of smooth almond butter
a little less than 1 tbsp. of organic raw cacao
1 cup of unsweetened almond milk
3-4 cups of mixed greens (spinach, kale, chard, collards etc)
1 tspb. honey
optional 1 tsp. of peppermint extract or 1/2 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup of ice

Blend. So so good you guys!

The Vegetable Garden Smoothie

I love this smoothie, I hate beets and I think the lemon in this smoothie almost completely masks the beet flavor, I also add about 1 tbsp. of ground organic golden flax and shake in my blender bottle right before I drink it, if you do it in the Vitamix it becomes too thick and clumpy. I do however but full flax seeds and grind them in my Vitamix and then store them in a plastic bag in the fridge.  I really love this smoothie, it tastes so clean and fresh and healthy but it's still super delicious. I didn't add any greens to this one simply because I already make so many green smoothies and it IS possible to over do greens, so I am trying to make smoothies that are packed with vitamins but that don't always involve spinach, kale, collards and chard.

What goes into this smoothie:

1/2 beet peeled
2 carrots peeled
1/2 cucumber with skin (cleaned)
Juice of one whole lemon
1/2 apple
coconut water

Harvest Smoothie

I've been getting a lot of questions about what smoothies I make so I am going to start trying to blog them. This is the one I made today, it's a "harvest" smoothie but it's delicious all year!

Using your Vitamix or Blendetec put in
1/2 a sweet potato (chopped into large cubes)
2 peeled and rough chopped carrots
1/2 an apple
cinnamon to taste
fresh peeled ginger to taste (I peel and chop mine and put in a bag in the freezer so I can grab what I need, I don't want to peel ginger every day)
enough water to blend easily

Blend.
That's all. Don't you love smoothies, so easy, so healthy!

The BEST marinara sauce.

So I made this sauce two nights ago for the spaghetti I made, I had quite a bit extra and it was so good I wanted to try it on pizza, so I made this paleo pizza crust, it was great, and incredibly easy:
http://paleospirit.com/2014/paleo-pizza-crust-recipe/ . Then added my sauce and topped with mushrooms, red bell pepper, grilled chicken breast and basil (and cheese for the kids).  This sauce is amazing and so versatile, I should also add that the kids had meatball subs last night with it, they might be getting sick of Italian, or maybe not ;). This sauce is great, and I am sure would freeze great as well!

1 sweet onion small dice.
1/4  cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. tomato paste
2 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes (preferably organic in a BPA free can)
5 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp. dried Italian spices
1 cup parsley (stems ok)
Sea Salt
Fresh Black Pepper (both to taste)
3/4 cup white wine
Basil

Heat a skillet to medium high and add the onion, sautee until soft and translucent
Add the rest of the ingredients except the wine to a high powered blender or food processor and puree. When the onions are done add the wine wine and allow to cook down a few minutes then add the pureed sauce and simmer for at least 40 minutes. At the end mince your basil and add cooking another 3 minutes or so.

That's it! I hope you'll like this sauce and find a million other uses for it (You could also brown some ground beef prior to the oil and onions and then set aside and add in later for a yummy meat sauce if you don't want to use it as marinara sauce. This would also be delicious for just dipping some paleo bread into!