almonds + pears + dark chocolate = a happy palette

This dark chocolate bar caught my eye yesterday when we were shopping for groceries while in New Orleans. Dark chocolate infused with pear and almonds. What a fantastic flavor combination!

green monster!

In honor of Meatless Monday, I'm going to start posting delicious veggie blogs every Monday. So today I am blogging about the green monster smoothie my friend Bethany introduced me to this weekend. She drinks one for breakfast every morning, but since I am currently having a passionate love affair with granola, I'm going to start drinking one for lunch each day.

These drinks are packed with vitamins, nutrients and green goodness... there's really not a whole lot of rules. Here is what I've been putting in mine...

You can really put whatever you want in one of these and it's a great meal replacement... or

snack. You can't taste the spinach, so throw it in to make it a monster. Here's what it looks like...

D.

Over the past few days, I have come across several different sources about how great vitamin D is for you. I never really thought about it much, but we generally don't consume it much in our regular diets. Here is why it is so awesome...

• it can help prevent cancer
• it helps to boost the immune system
• it regulates blood pressure
• it gives the body energy... woohoo!
• it works against depression
• it decreases mortality
• it protects against heart disease and diabetes
• it can reduce aches and pains throughout the body

Fantastic! Here's where you can get some...

• sunshine
• salmon
• canned tuna in oil
• fortified milk
• fortified breakfast cereal
• egg yolks
• dietary supplements

I think I'll go get some today!!!

a fantastic find.

thank you, Ashlee for the yoga album you found at the thrift store. It will be spinning on my record player very soon.

eggs!

tonight, my friends and I dyed eggs for Easter. I found a technique using electrical tape to make a cool design on the egg. Here's what I ended up with...

one totally rad egg.

Here are a few more I did...

I heart yoga... I loved that one.

bread for friends.

Amish friendship bread... a friend gives you a starter batter, over the course of ten days you stare at it, wondering what it's going to taste like, mashing the bag every day, adding flour and milk on day 4. I was so ready to make my bread this morning and, of course, I kept getting pulled away from it. Finally, I divided up my own starters to give away, and made a mighty fine loaf of sweet Amish bread.

should I grow a long beard?

pistachios + dried cranberries = awesome

+ =

I love pistachios. I also love dried cranberries. Since I had some of both on hand this weekend and I'm experiencing a mild obsession with granola lately, I decided to try my hand at making my own pistachio cranberry granola.

my latest masterpiece... ready to put some milk on it!