I’m on “vacation” this week, meaning that Emma is spending some quality time with her grandparents.  This has meant that I don’t have to prepare regular meals and can be on my own schedule, which has been really nice.  I’ve eaten mostly Raw the last 2 days and I feel great!  Honestly, I don’t feel tired and it’s extremely cleansing (catch my drift).  Breakfast has been a big green smoothie and that keeps me full until lunchtime.  For my breakfast smoothies, I’ve used  some kale (2 leaves, stems removed), oranges (peeled and quartered), water, frozen banana chunks, a pear, some frozen strawberries and a squirt of agave and flax oil.  Because of the grittiness of the pear, this smoothie needs to blend for 30 seconds to a minute.  Our blender is kinda crappy, by no means “high performance,” so blending time is dependent upon how efficient your blender is.

Yesterday for lunch, I made a Creamy Carrot and Parsnip Soup and a Chunky Chopped Salad (or a “clean-out-the-fridge-and-throw-whatever-you-find-in-there” salad).  I used my new mandoline slicer to make pretty julienned strips of fennel, red beets, carrots, zucchini, apple and cucumber, then chopped up some cauliflower, green onion and cherry tomatoes.  My salad was topped with the Sweet Dijon Dressing that I’m so in love with.  Very filling and very delicious!

For my Creamy Carrot and Parsnip Soup, I blended 3 peeled medium-sized carrots with 1 peeled medium-sized parsnip, a handful of raw oat groats, and enough warm water to get everything going.  Once it was done, I added a pinch of S&P.  The flavor of my soup is great, but the texture takes some getting used to.  I’m not a smooth soup kind of person and it was hard for me to get used to the fact that there isn’t anything to chew in there.  I found it easiest to drink it though a straw instead of using a spoon.

For an afternoon snack, I whipped up another green smoothie yesterday.  Dinner was cooked and wasn’t all that exciting, so I won’t blog about it.  I will say that after my smoothie, I really wasn’t that hungry for dinner last night.  I was pretty surprised at how filling it is and I think I’m pretty hooked on smoothies right now since blending and drinking is much more efficient than chopping and chewing.

Today for lunch, I had the same salad as yesterday with some spinach leaves added in.  I was feeling like maybe I wasn’t eating enough fat, so I whipped up this Coco-Mango Berry Super Smoothie.  YUM!  When I buy coconuts, I don’t always eat the meat after drinking the water, in which case I’ll stick the coconut meat in the freezer.  So I used some of my frozen coconut in my lunch smoothie along with some banana, an orange, a handful of spinach, 1 kale leaf (stem removed), and some frozen blackberries.  Alongside, I had a few olives.  Man, do I love olives!  After eating my salad, I could only drink half my smoothie, so the rest will be my snack this afternoon before my Hula Hoop class.

You’re probably wondering why it is that I love kale so much.  My husband has asked me why I put it in everything and I bet you’re wondering too.  I first love kale because it doesn’t’ taste like anything when you put it in smoothies, or hide it in baked goods.  You may be surprised to learn that kale, like all leafy greens, is a good source of protein.  It’s also an excellent source of vitamins A, C and K and manganese and a good source of fiber, calcium, iron and folate.  Leafy greens are super duper because they stimulate digestion, strengthen immunity, and cleanse the body of toxins.  I’ve also read that leafy greens can reverse the graying of hair.  I seem to find more and more gray hairs every time I go looking for them, so that’s reason enough for me to get down with the greens.

OH, and a note about coconuts.  In my previous post, I mentioned that Asian markets are the places to score decently-priced coconuts.  Well, at Whole Foods today, I noticed that their price for them was about $2 each.  I didn’t remember WF being so expensive.  At the Asian market I went to, I got my coconuts for $1.20 or so.  If you’re into coconuts, it’s definitely worth a special trip.