Happy Saint Patrick's Day!! I wanted to do an Irish-themed blog for St. Paddy's day so I figured I'd make a drink. After all, it is what the Irish do best. However this is a drink that you will feel much better about the morning after you shake your shamrocks! GREEN SMOOTHIES!!
This was my first green smoothie, and I can promise you that it won't be my last! I spent some time searching online for green smoothie recipes and there are literally hundreds of different recipes. Since I am the queen of indecision, I figured I'd just make my own. And not to toot my own horn ((TOOT TOOT!!)) but I did good. Here's my special concoction.
Jenny's Green Gulp
Ingredients
1 green apple
2 kiwi
1 frozen banana
1 mango, diced and frozen
1 small cucumber, peeled
1/2 bag of spinach leaves
1/2 to 1 cup of water, depending on desired thickness
Directions
Put it in the blender and blend away!
In my searching online for smoothie ideas, I read that fruit and veggie smoothies are a great way for your body to absorb a lot more nutrients! When you just eat vegetables in their whole form, your body is only able to absorb so much. When you throw it all in the blender, everything gets pulverized and many more cells of the vegetable are opened up so when you drink it your body absorbs much more. Plus, it's an EASY and delicious way of getting half a bag of spinach in you, plus all the other stuff you put in it. It's also totally fat free! The only other ingredient besides fruits and veggies is water.
This occasion calls for a good 'ol Irish toast.
May the winds of fortune sail you,
May you sail a gentle sea.
May it always be the other guy
who says, "this drink's on me."
Now, second order of business tonight... another visit to Darbster (well, technically I went last night). You all know by now I have a mild addiction to this place. Ok, let's be honest... it's more than mild. Anyway, I'm always SO excited to go there with people that turn their noses when they hear the words "vegan food." I think it was a success! We had a party of eight this time. It was a rare occasion for several of the court reporters to get together, so aside from the food being nothing less than amazing, the company was nice too. To start out, I had a cup of the Organic Cheddar IPA Chowder. IPA stands of Indiana Pale Ale. It was very, very good. One of my all time favorite foods (and most definitely my favorite soup) before I went vegan was beer-cheese soup. And I have missed it dearly... until last night! This was great. It was more like a chowder with chunks of potato and it had a perfectly spicy flavor in the background. For my main course, I had the Falafel Salad with Tahini Dressing. The falafels were perfect! So fresh! The greens were perfectly dressed with the most flavorful lemony tahini dressing. I couldn't finish it all (partly because I saw that there was Nutella Cheezecake as a dessert special). Brenda and Tracy both had a bite and said it was very good!
This was Tracy's second time at Darbster. Both times she was amazed that the food she was eating was vegan! Last night she ordered chicken and steak soft tacos and raved about them. (I think we have a convert!!) She likes to tease me about my "rabbit food" diet, but I think she's a closet fake-meat lover! Ha! Last night was Brenda's fist time and I think she enjoyed what she ordered, too.
She had the cheddar-ale soup with the palm cakes. And really, what's not to love about Darbster's palm cakes? They are little, fried pieces of heaven. Just perfection! Crispy on the outside, delicious and creamy on the inside. Claudia, a fellow Darbster-fan and vegan, ordered the Chile Relleno. I didn't taste this, but it looked awesome! Chile relleno is a chile usually stuffed with tons of cheese, meat, and some veggies. Darbster's version is stuffed with lots of veggies and topped with a "cheese" sauce. Claudia was still talking about how good it was the next day!
I will surely be ordering this next time I go for dinner! The problem with Darbster is their menu is full of great choices. Everything sounds so good it's hard to narrow it down to just one thing. Then to make matters worse, their specials are consistently innovative, interesting, mouth-watering, and fresh. I mean, if you're going to have problems, these are the kind of problems you want to have!! Darbster's chef extraordinaire, Seth, came out to our table and described his creations. His explanations were full of "air bunnies." (That's a Modern Family reference, and I'll say it again- is you haven't seen that show, stop what you're doing right now, well maybe finish reading my blog first, but the stop what you're doing and do whatever it is you need to do to get your hands on season 1. You'll thank me. And since we're on the topic, I just have to take this moment to profess my love for Cam!!) Ok, back to Chef Seth and the "air bunnies," which are air-quotes that he uses when referring to meats, cheeses, and other non-vegan ingredients that he uses vegan-versions of.
He started to tell us about the dessert specials. "Tonight we have for you 'Nutella' Chee--." Stop right there, mister! You had me at Nutella, even with the air-bunnies! I'll take it. I don't care what it is. I am kind of obsessed with Nutella. Of course this isn't real Nutella, so he veganized it and made it into to Nutella Cheezecake!! Hold the phones, people. This is serious. Yes, you read that right; Nutella Cheezecake. After patiently waiting (it was quite busy) we received our dessert. I'm glad that we were too full to eat more than a couple of bites because it was even better the next day after it spent all night in the fridge! YUMMMM! Wow. That's all I can say. Kudos to you, Seth.
Well I hope everyone enjoyed their Saint Patrick's Day! I think my next blog will be a yogurt comparison. I'll be comparing yogurts made from soy, rice, almond, and coconut milks and they will be graded! Who will come out on top?? Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment