Pretty Food!

I made a green smoothie today.  Into the blender I put the following:

• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 bag spinach
• 1/2 small bag frozen cubed mango
• 3 apples
• 1/2 cup green tea

Here's what it looked like when I started to blend it:

Here's what it looked like while it was blending:

Here's what we do with it when it's done.  Well, OK, we actually put the salsa jar lids on and store them in the fridge ...

I used a spatula to get the last of the smoothie out of the blender jar, and I let DH lick the spatula.  He declared it good enough to eat, and told me that it was a Pretty Color!

Usually DH doesn't like to eat it, and only because it's green.  For example the other half bag of spinach was used in an "apple pie" smoothie a few days ago, and he refused to eat it.

Here are the ingredients for the Apple Pie Smoothie I made last week.  I usually use coconut milk, but wanted to use up the last can of coconut water:

• 1 tall can coconut water
• 3 capsules psyllium fiber (it was still quite liquid)
• 3 small apples
• 1/2 bag spinach
• 1/2 small bag frozen strawberries
• 2 teaspoons (if not more) apple pie spice

Have you ever made a fruit smoothie or a green smoothie?

Paleo "Hot Toddy" and Special Offer

Yep, we've "gone paleo."  DH shed 15 lbs in about a month.  I'm not doing quite as well on that front, but that's not what this post is about.

Entirely.

We found this recipe for Creamy Turmeric Tea on one of our favorite Paleo web sites (click here).  Tonight's batch blends coconut milk and almond milk, coconut oil and butter - plus, of course, turmeric.  It does not taste a bit like tea, but it's a nice, warm drink that we make occasionally in the evening.  Instead of sweet, it's savory and buttery.  Here are the obligatory pictures.

SPECIAL OFFER:
If you've read this far, I might as well tell you that I buy Nutiva coconut oil at iherb (click here).  This high-quality coconut oil smells good and we have many uses for it.  I will blog more about it later, but if you click here, you can get $5.00 (USD) off your first order from iherb.

Note from the next day:  Silly me -- I forgot to add a little bit of honey to the drink, but it still tasted good!

Avocado Green Smoothie

I made a new green smoothie today.  This was my first successful attempt at a non-sweet green smoothie.  My usual green smoothie tastes like apple pie with apples, spinach, coconut milk, ginger, and cinnamon.

No traditional fruits were used to sweeten today's green smoothie.  The ingredients are:

• 1 haas avocado
• three-inch piece of cucumber, peeled
• handful of spinach
• 3/4 can of coconut milk
• five dashes of salt
• one dash of lime juice

The taste is not exciting, but simply tastes like the list of ingredients.  The coconut milk and avocado make it very creamy.  I like it because sometimes un-exciting is good!

This batch filled a salsa jar and refrigerated so I can eat it tomorrow.  I put the rest in a coffee cup for my evening snack:

Baked chicken, rice, and special salad

Oh, my!  Tonight's supper was especially good!  I will share some of the details with you.

We baked a whole five-pound chicken in the NuWave oven, which only took less than an hour.  Of course, it had to be emptied of the liver, etc., rinsed off, and patted dry.  Then the wings were tied together and the legs were tied together with upholstery thread because we can never seem to locate any one of at least three packets of kitchen twine.  The chicken was then coated with olive oil and sprinkled generously with poultry seasoning and trocomare (a sea salt and herb mixture).  It was baked for 20 minutes upside down, turned over, and baked another 15 minutes.

Brown rice was prepared in the small rice cooker.

The best part - I think - was the salad.  One large avocado, one tomato, one peeled cucumber, and three spring onions were chopped for a salad.  A small amount of once-fresh cilantro from the freezer was chopped and added to the mix, as was about two ounces of Italian salad dressing.  This was stirred and chilled before it was eaten.

Click on the picture to drool this meal:

One item not pictured is the dessert we made.  Two bananas, one cup of fresh blueberries, half a can of coconut milk, and several slices of fresh ginger were blended at high speed in our VitaMix.  This was poured into three dessert bowls and placed in the freezer.  When we removed the bowls from the freezer, the mixture was not frozen, but it was almost the consistency of a pudding or custard.  I could really taste the ginger, but DH only tasted the bananas.  Neither of us could taste what the other could taste the most.  That surprised me.

Tom Kha Soup

Miss Celie shared her soup creation today, and I remembered that we had made a similar soup not too long ago. I looked in my pictures and found two dated December 26, 2009.

We combined several recipes from recipezaar to create our own soup. We used regular Thai brand coconut milk (we use a lot and tend to buy three cans at a time). Instead of lemon grass stalks, we used ground lemon grass. We used Thai brand red curry paste and fish sauce, plus some fresh grated ginger instead of hunting the elusive galangal (a variety of ginger). We added bean sprouts and cilantro when it was almost done. We did not use any sugar.

Here's what the soup looked like about half-way through:

Here's what the soup looked like when ready to eat: