Smoothie Saturday/Sunday:The Papaya Coconut Smoothie

Fun Blogger Fact: Did you know that if you type in the title of your post, then hit "enter", your entire post gets published without any content? Yup, that would explain the fact that many of you got a blank post sent to your inbox. I could insert that photo of myself screaming again, but I'll just shrug it off and get busy giving you a post that actually contains words and photos.

The Papaya Coconut Smoothie:

Yes, it's December and it's cold, rainy and snowy out where many people live. But I would hazard a guess that in Hawaii, it is just lovely. With the holidays approaching, I have had a few "Calgon Take Me Away" moments recently, and I can't think of a better place to escape than a tropical island, right Averie?

If you have never heard "Calgon Take Me Away", here is a historical review. It's got nothing to do with my smoothie, but quite interesting nonetheless. There are three short videos that you can view to witness the evolution of Calgon:

1. 1960's version- very British, very glam, very ritzy, very sexy. Apparently bathing is hot hot hot. And I don't mean Farenheit.
2. 1970's version- kids laughing while jumping up and down during a pillow shredding incident apparently sends this lady to her tub.
   
3. 1980's version- is it me, or does this woman display some anger issues? Personally, I think that she is about to 'go postal' (please don't make me explain that one too). Amazing that the bath seems to work for her because I was going to suggest some Ativan.
   

Ok now that we are clear on Calgon, I will get back to the Smoothie du Jour. I happened to get a couple of papayas at the Co-Op for a reduced price, so they just begged to be eaten. They are sooo juicy and yummy, and apparently have a lot of fiber in them.




Here are the ingredients:

• Water or Coconut Water (it's naturally sweet and does have ~60 calories per container)
• Ice to desired thickness/frosty-ness
  
• 1 scoop Protein powder
• Coconut extract
• Papaya- ideally cubed and frozen
• Small sprinkle of Xanthan Gum, if desired to thicken
  
• Sprinkle of Guar Gum, if desired for creaminess
• Optional Torani or DaVinci syrup: I used Macadamia nut (contains Splenda)
• Stevia if desired for added sweetness
  
• Shaved coconut (for topping)
• Coconut butter (for your spoon)
• Chopped nuts as a topping: I used Beek's Sweet Cumin Almonds- yum yum.

Blend up and pretend that you are on a tropical beach. Now get to your Holiday Shopping or just take a bath!

Q: If you could transport yourself anywhere in a Calgon-take-me-away moment, where would it be (other than the tub)?

PS. Sorry Janetha B for deleting the old defunct post with your funny comments- I figured I better just repost the darn thing :-/ Gaaahhhh Blogger- it's like staying in an abusive relationship!!

Pearls

Hello folks: This is one of my original posts from my very early blogging days in August. I cringe when I think about reading my old posts (do any other bloggers or writers do that too?). I feel that my writing style has changed, as has my content. However, this post still rang true.

I had been intending to do a little recycling anyway, and right now seemed a perfect time. I have a bunch of half-written posts in the queue, but I need more time to have fun doctoring them up and add photos. So why not revisit an old post?

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LIFE IS LIKE A PEARL NECKLACE:

Well, not exactly. But I like to think of our knowledge base as a string of pearls. And I LOVE stumbling upon random "pearls"- little tidbits that really hit home and sink in and create an a-HA moment. I have experienced a few in recent months that I'd like to share with you...

Food Diary Change:
Charlotte wrote a post about her grandmother, who had suffered eating disorders her entire life until she died. Later, Charlotte came across her journals and instead of memories of her life, the journals contained every morsel that went into her grandmother's mouth- every calorie accounted for- until she died. Charlotte was so saddened that there was no mention of the people she loved, her life experiences, and her joys- but rather useless numbers. That day I decided I would stop with the madness that was MY food diary (above in purple is the "old" food diary-I showed it to a dietician and she nearly fell off her chair). I still keep a journal (above in yellow)- but it's more about my day's activities, and summarizing the calories, but not "7 almonds= 60 calories".

Edited to Add 12/16/09: If you want to read about my decision to ditch the food diary, you can do so here. I would be lying if I said that I haven't been struggling to keep a weight with which I am extremely happy. I figure that I have gained about 3-5 pounds since losing the diary. I have also been traveling and celebrating various occasions that has made it a challenge for me. However, for the time being, the emotional strain that it took to keep track of every morsel of food was not worth weight I have gained during the time that I have not been keeping records. I am trying very hard to find a balance where I am able to lose a few pounds without resorting back to counting calories. For me, it really was no way to live. As always, it's an ongoing process. I am just trying to be more "normal".

Tying my shoes:

So random, I know. I think it was Tina who posted about "how to tie your shoes". Fact is, if you tie your laces correctly, they should almost NEVER come undone. And you should not need to double-knot them in order for them to stay put. If your shoelaces often come undone, there is a solution! Another hint that your laces are tied correctly: the bow will sit at a 90 degree angle to your shoe from toe to heel. If it is incorrect, it will flop over at a 45-degree angle and not look "neat". I find it hilarious that for mumble mumble decades, I've been tying my shoes wrong! So now if I fall on my face, I'll just blame it on a crack in the pavement or copious amounts of booze. I've posted a link to an instructional video that I found. Enjoy.

Interpreting "Hunger":

I have read about a zillion books on diet and health. Oh, please don't think that I'm a brainiac or anything! I don't retain all of the information I read, but once in a while something hits home. Just recently I was reading a book that is mostly psychobabble, but one thing the author said that really made sense involved the difference between emotional hunger and real true stomach hunger: to paraphrase...

• Emotional Hunger comes on like Gang-buster and is the type that makes you think that if you don't get something in your gullet asap, you might just start to eat your own arm.

• Real Hunger comes on more slowly, and builds. But (here's the clincher)... real. hunger. can. wait. Genius. And true.
  

Wow. A total eye-opener. I always had it the other way around. I always thought that if I suddenly get hungry, I must be starved and my life would be in danger if I opted to wait to eat for another 5 minutes. Hence my previous affinity for coolers. I've been trying to tune in for the past month and I've been amazed. Try it yourself.

Recognizing the Booze munchies:

Matt of Kath and Matt fame pointed out something interesting not long ago. They had been out to dinner and had some beer and/or wine. They had a lovely, filling meal, then afterward, Kath announced that she that wanted an ice cream. Matt simply put his hand on her shoulder and said something like "No, it's the wine that wants one". So true.

Look at Charlotte [RIP] and Samantha- ogling our wine...such booze-hounds (yuk yuk, gettit?)

And for the record, I have no idea why the font size goes from HUGE to tiny. I keep changing it back to "normal" but I think this post just has a mind of it's own :-) So at this point, any pearls of wisdom regarding Blogger settings/layout/format would be greatly appreciated.

Edited to Add: I have been on blogger for four months now, and I still am dazed and confused. For those who are curious, I DID try Wordpress too, and I am lacking the Wordpress Portion of my cerebrum. Sad but true.

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By the way, if the lovely Francesca Litz is reading, YOU WON the first HeabVersary giveaway and you'll need to contact Heather with your address. You have until December 21, 2009 to step forward otherwise ANOTHER WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN! And if you witnessed the pain and torture of the winner-choosing process, you'll want to spare the blogosphere any more stupid pet tricks to find a new winner. Trust me, I have lots. And I'll use them if I have to.

Q: Do you have any great pearls of wisdom or a-ha moments to share?

Deb

Saving Almond Butter and First HeabVersary Winner Announced!

Hello faithful Heab readers and nut butter luvahs!

I have chosen the Winner for the First HeabVersary Nut Butter Giveaway. If you want to see the painful process, please be my guest. Otherwise, scroll to the bottom to see the lucky winner.

Please excuse the dust, boxes and junk lying around in the videos- we are still in construction mode and everything is a bit disheveled, including my hair.

I had hoped to have the ever-youthful 14 year-old Samantha (our Fur-Baby) help me choose the winner for the contest by being perky and playful. You can witness Samantha the hatchings of the original brilliant (??) plan here. She did assist, but the process was about as much fun as watching paint dry. If you take pleasure in watching animals refuse to do tricks on command, please feel free to watch the video links to YouTube throughout this post.

There is also video toward the end of this post that shows me making some almond butter (or rather salvaging a rogue batch)...feel free to click on the link here and here to watch the short clips.

The Winner-Choosing Process: Read at Own Risk

First I wrote numbers on pieces of paper: 1-50, 51-100 etc. up to 250.


Then I hid each in a ball of aluminum foil. Usually, an aluminum ball is kitty crack, but today Sam just wasn't feeling the love. A quick sniff and she was done. Pet trick #1: Fail. Video evidence here.



Moving on to Plan B: to just crumple up the numbered pieces of paper and see if she would bat those around. No such luck either. Another fail. Gah! See here for yourself, if you can stand the pain.



Plan C was created out of desperation: to see which one of the crumpled pieces of paper she simply sniffed first. Lame I know. If you're bored, here is the actual footage of this momentous occasion. The winning range of the Sniff Test was 100-150. Woot.

Next was the Empty Box semi-finals. Thankfully, Samantha is a sucker for an empty box. Video here. We put pieces of paper with number ranges in the boxes. Sam jumped into the box with the range of 141-150. Good girl!

I suppose the fact that she's 14 years-old explains why I found her in this location a good 15 minutes after she chose the semi-finalists. I guess she was comfy.

Truth be told, I couldn't take any more Stupid Pet Trick Disasters so I went to Random.Org (thanks Abby for the tip!!) for the actual winner to be chosen from the last 10. Scroll to the bottom for the winner!

Resurrecting a Failed Nut butter:

I had made all of the nut butters last night, but was desperately unhappy with the "straight up raw almond butter" that Heather requested. It was a dry and crumbly mess. Blech. Here is some video (why is it sideways????!!) of me attempting to save the Almond Butter Gone Wrong. Forgive the look- it was just after I got back from the gym.

Here I succeed in the Almond Butter Salvation (hurrah!) and announce the winner of the First HeabVersary Nut Butter Giveaway!

And the winner is:

# 146. francesca Litz

Francesca: Please contact Heab to give her your contact info! I will send you 4 fabo nut butters, and a party hat covered in cat spit. Congrats!!

Finally, to witness Samantha wearing a party hat and wishing Auntie Heabie a Happy First HeabVersary, click here.

Thanks for all of the enthusiasm for this first-ever giveaway!

If for some reason you enjoyed this post and want to see more of the Queen Diva herself (that would be Samantha, fyi), you can read this post and this one. Enjoy...I think.

To see a previous home made chocolate almond Butter Recipe, click here.

Q: Have you ever won a giveaway? Any fun stuff? Do you have a pet who does tricks?

Smoothie Saturday/Sunday- The Cookies & Creme Smoothie

First things first, while making a smoothie, a girl has to wake up. I can't think of a better way to wake up than with a cuppa:

Sprinkles make everything yummy

OK Here we go again. Another mistake that somehow righted itself. I really do get lucky sometimes with recipes!

This smoothie started life as the Straight Ahead sMoooothie. Get it? Cow. Moo. sMoooothie? ha ha. yeah, well the first time I did it, I LOVED it- it was so simple- Milk, gums, stevia ice. Boom. The oldest and simplest smoothie on the planet. Laura Ingalls Wilder probably made this smoothie. Here are the ingredients:

• 1.5 cups milk
  
• Stevia or other sweetener
• Xanthan Gum & Guar Gum to desired consistency
• Ice
• Water if needed to thin
  

So pure and so refreshing... And look at how much smoothie was produced- holy moly... no way to finish that in one sitting!

Well, the second time I did it, I was very wildly unenthusiastic. It was just 'meh' as we love to say in the blogging world. Meh. I wasn't in the mood for meh. So I decided to tweak. I added one of my new favorite finds:

Oh yeah baby, this stuff is dark and rich. Very very nummy.

I was too lazy to re-dirty my Vitamix as I had already washed it, so I just stirred about a tablespoon and a half (15 cals!!) into it. Then dusted a bit more on top:

I looked at it, and it just screamed, "COOKIES & CREME!!!"

The Cookies & Creme Smoothie (why didn't I spell it 'Cream' I wonder?)


In a bowl. Looks like an oreo on top with the creme smooshed out. This one got a bit messy!

I'm certain that this can be made with any other milks for those bleeps with milk sensitivites. I bet Almond Cookies & Creme would be yummy! If I had thought about it I might even crumble part of a chocolate cookie on top...mmmm!

Q: Vanilla person? Chocolate person? or Yes please and thankyou?

Recipe: Deb's Maple Rum NoOaties

In other words, there is nothing in common with oaties whatsoever, except that Heather, of Heather Eats Almond Butter inspired this knock-off.

OK, here's the deal: I LOVE Heab's Oaties. They are dense, rich and possibly the most delicious little food item on the planet. In fact, they are so good, I can eat my body-weight worth of calories of Oaties because they.are.that.good.

Here is the original HEAB recipe for Maple Oaties and some Oat Porn:

Bowm Chickie Bowm Bowm

Heab is soooo sweet. She knew of my calorie-concerns, so she tweaked the recipe and came up with a slimmed-down version by subbing some of the syrup for NuNaturals Stevia baking blend: Each piece 160 calories. OMG these are amazing too. Yum. Here's the recipe (yields 28) & the delightful package I received from my friend:

Yum. Every bit as good as the original in my opinion!

Usually in the kitchen, my M.O. is to find amazing recipes and strip off as many calories, while keeping some semblance of the original taste. Sometimes this works and sometimes I end up with cardboard, bricks or balls of sawdust. I had told Heab that I wanted to try the oaties with crisped rice (lots of volume, few calories), and she blessed this endeavor, so here is my version.

This recipe came out pretty good! Let's just say on a scale of 1-10, HEAB Maple Oaties would be a 10, and these snack balls are about a 5. If you are willing to spend about 55 calories for something that's pretty good, but not nearly as good as the original, then this might be for you.

The Ingredients:

Missing from photo: Protein powder and crisped rice- oops!

• 1.0 C Go Lean Cereal (or any other cereal you have lying around)
• 1.0 C Crisped brown rice (camera shy)
• Scoop protein powder (same as above. Or I forgot to put it out)
  
• Few shakes of Stevia powder
• 4 T Sunflower seed butter (or other nut butter)
• 4 T. Reduced fat shredded Coconut (find at health food store, or use regular shredded coconut for slightly more calories and more coconutty taste)
• Few drops maple extract
• Few drops rum extract
• Liquid if necessary to bind (water, milk)
  

Method: Combine all of the above and form 15 - 1.5 inch balls. Place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F until crispy and golden.



So you can see that there is nothing in common with Oaties except for the fact that they are molded into balls and baked! Hence the name NoOaties. At ~ 60 cals per ball, they are a pretty nice treat for relatively few calories. They definitely do not have "real" sugar flavor, so if you don't like stevia, use the real deal. Also, I know some food-savvy folks don't like the flavor of protein powder in baked goods and I can't blame them. You can taste it in these. If you make these, or tweak them, let me know how they come out!

Q: Have you made Heather's Oaties yet!? Do you have a decent knock-off?