Still have some kale. I also saved a little bit of red pepper from my dehydrated peppers yesterday. Have one sliver of a hot pepper left also.

We have a lot of kiwis that are ripening, and I just discovered yesterday that a less ripe Kiwi makes a nice peppery addition.

I also remembered an attempt this summer to make a Muscadine tomato gastrique. I took a container of muscadines, some fresh tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and reduced them together for quite a while. It was only okay, so I froze it until I could figure out what to do with it. I realized that might make a fine addition to a green smoothie.

So, this morning’s lonely breakfast, green smoothie is:

(Recipe for two)
4 cups kale
One frozen banana
Half of a fresh red pepper
One slice of hot pepper
Two medium kiwis
4 tablespoons flax meal
One scoop lecithin granules (for my hubby; I’m not really sure if this is important, but he bought ‘em so I’m using ‘em).
1 cup frozen Muscadine- tomato gastrique

This was a risky one, but it was really good. I give it a solid four stars. I don’t think the hubby liked the fact that the muscadine skins didn’t get well puréed, and you had to chew. That didn’t bother me; I simply thought it was healthy fiber.

The hubs is home today studying hard for the GMAT, so I’m doubling my recipe to make us both one.

Unfortunately I have only one cup left of the flax milk, and only a little bit of cows milk. So I’m thinking hard, and realize that I really prefer to make this with the coconut milk beverage if I could.

And the proverbial lightbulb comes on over my head: I have a can of light coconut milk in the pantry. I looked at the label, and it’s 50 cal per 1/3 cup. That’s about how much is in one cup of coconut milk beverage. So I decided to make my own coconut milk beverage with one can of light coconut milk and two cans of water.

It looked a little thinner than what you can buy in the stores, but it tasted slightly more coconutty, which I liked. Particularly when you’re making a curry smoothie.

I also have a whole lot of tumeric root. I saw it at whole foods and thought I’d try it. I don’t really know exactly what to do with it, but I’ve blended up a piece with a few smoothies. It’s really bitter, and it definitely stains your hands orange, but tumeric is really good for you, and it’s suspected to decrease the rates of several cancers.

Here’s today’s Curry Smoothie (for two):

1 frozen banana
1 cup flax milk
1 cup coconut milk beverage (or diluted coconut milk from the can)
4 cups kale
1 1/3 cups frozen mango chunks
2 inch piece tumeric root
1/2teaspoon rosewater
1 teaspoon white/unroasted curry powder
2 tablespoons shredded coconut flakes
Six pods of cardamom ground

This was pretty awesome! At first the rosewater was overpowering, then I added the curry, and then the curry was overpowering the rosewater. So I adjusted the recipe above to cut back a little on the curry powder. Hopefully you’ll taste more of the rosewater that way.

Now for my coffee…

This morning is total redemption! My eggplant chips and simple dehydrated red, orange and golden peppers are awesome! Today is going to be a great eating day!

My city is also excellent as well. I’ve learned that berries and Kiwi go great with kale, better than a lot of other fruits. So today:

2 cups kale
1 smoothie packet açai guarana
One kiwi
One cup flax milk

Five stars!

I also opened up the special holiday coffee that is really just too pretty to drink. It’s called hullabaloo from Metropolis coffee.

Verdict? Good! 4 stars

I’m working in my scoring system:
1 star : not drinkable requires fixing
2 stars : drinkable but takes effort
3 stars: passable
4 stars: good, I enjoyed it
5 stars: awesome, I slurped it up!

Verdict? Good! 4 stars

I’m working in my scoring system:
1 star : not drinkable requires fixing
2 stars : drinkable but takes effort
3 stars: passable
4 stars: good, I enjoyed it
5 stars: awesome, I slurped it up!

I love veggies, and I have no trouble eating them. I do have trouble finding prep time.

So, I’m trying this. It is also a way for me to connect with people who come to me asking about these new fads and trends in nutrition: I say don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. And researched it. Green smoothies is my first trendy nutrition habit to try.

Since I started trying to do this regularly, I have been pretty good about it. I don’t do it everyday, but 3-5 days out of the week I’ve successfully made this breakfast.

I’m going to try to tweet my smoothie recipes and my taste rating under the ‘Lonely’ bfast heading (#lonelybfast) I started writing about my ‘lonely’ meals when I lived apart from my husband and was dining solo. I’m usually eating workday breakfast solo, so it fits.

I can say my experiment is going pretty well so far, and I have been satiated until lunch. That makes me very happy, because I was really worried about getting ravenous in a few hours. I am also drinking 12-16 ounces of coffee, so that may play a role.

Unfortunately it hasn’t worked for my husband, just because he leaves the house so early, he never eats breakfast. To my vast amazement and delight, he actually likes the ones I’ve made for him. He can even tolerate ones that are more savory than I can. I think I’ll have to switch him to a ‘dinner and a smoothie’ plan to get him all the veggies he needs. We already try to have veggies for 1 or 2 side dishes at night, but he ONLY eats veggies at night, and that makes it hard to get his daily servings in.

How should I rate the taste? That’s an interesting question because I know that I may think something tastes really good but someone else (like oh, let’s say my dad) who is used to highly processed fatty/sugary foods will think it sucks. Anyone reading my recipes and ratings should take them with a grain of salt: my 5 stars may not be YOUR 5 stars.

So today I did the following:
1 1/2 cups kale
1/2 cup dandelion greens
1/8 large avocado
1 orange
1 acai/acerola purée smoothie packet (freezer section at Whole Foods)
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk beverage
2 tbs dried unsweetened shredded coconut

To be frank, this didn’t taste great. I’d give it 2 stars. I wasn’t looking forward to drinking it. I think it was the dandelions (stronger taste than the red kale), the avocado (I’m developing an aversion to using it in smoothies, not sure why but it’s too creamy I think), the acai/acerola (can’t taste it; frozen blueberries are better) and orange (too citrus, clashed with the avocado).

When I added a half packet of Truvia, it got a lot better, enough to make it a 3.

Tomorrow I probably won’t get to it (7am conference), so we’ll see what my next one will be.

I worry about my husband in particular. I have to force-feed him veggies. It’s a real struggle.

So I’ve been racking my brains trying to figure out how to incorporate more vegetables into our routine.

One potential answer? Green smoothies. Now before you start laughing, please note I am not a ‘nutrition freak’. I may be the Medical Director of Clinical Nutrition at my hospital, but I’m a Standard American, just like other Standard Americans (to play off the phrase SAD, or Standard American Diet). I eat crap just like the rest of you.

But I am trying very hard to keep my family’s eating habits in line, so as a generally curious person, I was intrigued by the idea of getting all my daily fruits and veggies served straight up in one convenient 16 ounce to-go package that reportedly tastes great.

I’m not a fan of the fact it’s a liquid (liquids generally produce less satiety because they empty out of your stomach more quickly), but I am a fan of how much great green goodness can be packed into just one green smoothie.

I mean, you people have NO CLUE the kinds of faces my husband makes when I serve Kale. It’s painful for both of us.

So, I frantically searched for a place near me that made green smoothies, just so I could give it a try. I do intend to try it at home, but the convenience factor of having someone else make it for me is huge for me right now while I’m drowning in work.

Thank heaven I found a place- awesome organic nursery with a REAL juice bar- these people ROCK! Good Earth Greenhouse and Cafe in River Forest, IL has an unbelievable list of fruit and veggie smoothies.

So, drum roll—–

My first green smoothie!

Brass Monkey with Kale (kale banana hazelnut milk almond butter raw cacao dates)

It’s AWESOME!!

I decided to go all-in and get the Rock Me Amadeus too
Cucumber celery spinach romaine kale arugula cilantro jalapeno parsley

Yeah. I said it. ALL IN.

It’s not exactly awesome, but it’s the real deal green smoothie, and I’m proud of myself for going for it. It’s not bad, it’s just that I, as a card-carrying SAD eater, am not used to savory juices. It has such awesome stuff in it, though, I’ll learn to like it.

I hope to write more about my Green Smoothie experiences.

What’s not so great- this place opens at 9 and closes at 5 which essentially makes it impossible for me to get my daily green smoothie fix.

It’s also 7-8 bucks a smoothie. Wowie that’s pricey but if it is your entire meal then it’s not far off fast food prices for a full meal.

My Palm Tree Was Dead

I was so sad.  Especially because it was my fault.

I bought the tree for, like, $5 at Home Depot the first few months I was here.  Despite my persistent black thumb, my palm survived.  Last year I even dropped it off at my friend’s house so they could palm-sit over the holidays.

I bought it a new, pricey container and always intended to transplant it because I thought it had outgrown its small plastic pot.  It also got brown leaves a lot, which I thought needed some lime, so I bought that too to work into the soil.

Alas, I’m a busy person, and I neglected my palm.  Truly, I was abusive.  I left it out when it froze overnight.  For 2 years I faithfully brought it in from the cold, but ironically the nice, new pot I bought it made it impossible for me to lift, so I didn’t bring it in in time.

I had noticed wilting leaves for weeks.  Frantically, I cut off all it’s beautiful (but broken) fronds prior to leaving for home in the hopes it would regenerate.

Sigh, I was wrong.

Looks Like a Cancer Tree

I got home to find my poor palm growing white mold.  (Dum dum da dum da da dum da dum da dum–WordPress Death March).

So, a few days late, it is time to salute my palm.  The only living thing besides myself I have kept alive for more than a few days.

Only Fitting is a Signature Cocktail.  Sadly, I’m on a diet (yeah yeah, I know, typical pre-bride).  So, this will be the “light” version.

I thought a lot about this cocktail because I wanted to pay proper tribute to something that really was kind of a companion down here.  It gets lonely in my condo, and my palm was a friend.

So:

1) TEQUILA, naturally, for a palm. 1.5 oz.  I used my tall black bottle, Insignia Tequila Reposado. 100% agave.

2) Lemonade Passionfruit Skinny Water (would have used lemon juice but the lemons were moldy just like the palm).  I guess the passion part is appropriate

3) 13 dashes of Fee’s Bro’s peach bitters.  I just got these bitters yesterday and I was curious.  I also thought it was like putting a little part of me (Southerness) into a south-of-the-border drink.  Peaches always remind me of wilting Southern Belles, and the wilting part reminded me of fading away into the sunset (see #4).

4) Drop of Grenadine to mimic a sunset.  Actually, this looks like a Tequila Sunrise, but whatever.

Voila! Imbibe!

The Drink is Definitely prettier than the Tree

]]> http://genteelworld.com/2010/food/imbibe/the-i-killed-my-palm-tree-cocktail-light/feed/ 0 http://genteelworld.com/2009/food/the-keep-me-up-cocktail/ http://genteelworld.com/2009/food/the-keep-me-up-cocktail/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:24:35 +0000 Lena Palmer http://genteelworld.com/?p=98 I fell asleep on my condo floor next to my space heater about an hour ago.

I’m exhausted, but I need to pack to go home tomorrow.

Hence, I need a keep me up cocktail.

Though alcohol might be desirable, I’d totally pass out, so it must be coffee based.

To the Drawing Board!

Step 1. Coffee (Obviously)

Counter Culture Holiday Blend (8oz/2tbs ground): www.counterculturecoffee.com

Finca Nueva Armenia
Region: Huehuetenango, Guatemala
Varieties: Bourbon, Typica
Elevation: 1500-1833 meters

Harvest: Jan-March

“The Vienna Melange roasting and blending technique creates layers of sweetness and flavor: combining notes of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel, and dried fruit”

Step 2. Frothy Sweetness

Maple View Farm Skim Milk (~1/4 cup):www.mapleviewfarm.com

No lie, this is the best tasting milk I’ve ever had.

Malted Milk Ovaltine (2 teaspoons): www.ovaltineusa.com

Orgeat (1 tbs), an almond-orange flower syrup

Fees Bros Orange Bitters (5 drops):  www.feesbrothers.com

Step 3. Combine and Imbibe!

Time to try it!

Notice my aerolatte blender.  My lil bro got me this last Christmas and it’s awesome–quick, fun froth.  It works pretty well in plain milk, but when you start adding sugar syrups, chocolate, etc, it doesn’t froth as much as I’d like.

The Verdict: Too sweet ):

Counter Culture’s Holiday Blend is awesome, and it got overpowered by the chocolate and orgeat.  The combo of the almond, orange, and chocolate are fantastique, but honestly, you gotta choose whether you want sweet or complex.  The flavors would make a great Starbucks TM latte, but I should’ve just put some splenda and skim milk into the cup and drank it the old fashioned way.

45 minutes and one blog post later,  i am UP.