Foodie Friday | Kale Shake
So...I love food. I mean, I L.O.V.E. food. I don't just love to eat it, I love to know all about it. I want to know where it came from, the texture of it, what foods complement each other, the bold colors of it and especially I love to know what goodness it has inside of it. This may sound snooty or even silly but we eat purposefully in our home. When we learned that we would be fighting John's disease for the rest of our existence we figured we better figure out how best to do that. It started with doctors, which lead to a bunch of very confusing information and some really, truly awful medications that would make his life, and our family's, a complete hell. We also, rather instantly, began looking at food differently. Now it was about eating to save a life, not just about filling our bellies. That's when we decided to contact a macrobiotic nutritionist, Deborah Barr, owner of Whole Health Resources. Who knew that those appointments would change the whole game for us. We learned that food could be used as medicine and when paired with exercise....wowsa wammy slammy pow WOW! It was a prescription for wellness. So, off the meds John went and on a whole new journey we began and I'm thrilled to tell you that between our dietetic tweaking and John's consistency with yoga and his new addiction to trail running he's healthy as a horse. John and I have always been foodies. For most people that means testing out all kinds of awesome restaurants to see what the local flavor has in store. For us, our restaurant became our kitchen. I have always loved to cook so figuring out the right diet lifestyle for my family was a fun process. In our home we are meat free and dairy free, except for Ella...cannot get that girl off of macaroni and cheese to save my life. Outside of the home we may eat an egg or 2 or even a piece of fish. I also won't starve myself for anything. So if it's a wedding day and the only thing someone can find to feed me is a cheeseburger then that's what's going down the hatch (and happily because I do loooooove a good burger).
People seem to always come to me when wanting to know about food and it's fun for me to talk about it. Then a friend of mine, Justine Lynn, owner of Beauty Justified, mentioned that I should write a blog post every now and then talking about what we eat and why.
So, I am now beginning Foodie Fridays. :) I hope you don't find this too boring and I'm not even sure if I will be able to stick to it every week once the wedding season swings into full gear. But for now, let's have some fun with it. I find food fascinating and I figure most of you gorgeous brides are doing your best to get that healthy glow for your wedding day. Maybe this can help. I'd also like to recommend a personal trainer that has worked with one of our past brides and is now currently working with a bride that we will be photographing this year. If you are need of a fantastic personal trainer I recommend you call Mallery Schaffer, owner of Mallery's Inspired Training.
The photos below show you how John and I start every morning. We begin with this simple kale smoothie. Kale is a whatooziewoo of a super power food. If there is nothing else you hear from me on Foodie Fridays, hear this: kale is amazing for you. Jam-packed with beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin and most importantly, sulforaphane, which is loaded with potent anti-cancer properties. If you could get this into you even just 2x a week your body would be singing your praises. Everything else we put in this smoothie is really just to get a good taste, but all of the ingredients are quite nutritious. And feel free to mess around with different ingredients. These are the ingredients that just so happen to work for us. And we don't measure.
A couple of handfuls of kale (we fill the blender to the top with it. We don't squish it in but we do fill it). 1 pear 1 banana Cinnamon Whatever kind of milk you like. We use either vanilla rice milk or vanilla coconut milk (yummmmmmmmmm)
So much nutrition right there!
And here you go! Don't let the green fool you! This is delicious. You can't even taste the kale one bit. It tastes like a sweet vanilla/banana shake.
Have a wonderful and healthy weekend!