So I’ve never been too much of a smoothie lover (wild, I know) but lately I’ve been getting into experimenting with different ingredients and things. I try to find ways to pack as many nutrients into my morning smoothies and that usually (*usually) translates to a pretty tasty way to start the day!
Looking to my parent’s freezer for inspiration, I found huge amounts of frozen spinach and thought I’d go for it. Spinach is pretty interesting. It has protein, fiber and tons of vitamins. It also blends in (literally ha!) with other flavors really well.
1/2 banana
2 tbsp sunflower seed butter- or your nut butter of preference
a couple of handfuls of frozen spinach
1/2 cup frozen mango
splash of water
1 green tea bag
flaxseeds/ chia seeds/ blueberries or whatever goodies you want to sprinkle on top
basically just blend everything together… oh yeah, cut open the tea bag and pour contents in the blender. add water as needed, break apart spinach if it’s clumpy.
I don’t know when I discovered matcha but I’ve been hooked ever since. When I visited my cousin in Vienna last summer, there was a traditional Japanese tea house that specialized in matcha. They would make each drink by hand with a whisk in a delicate little china bowl. It was always the same three women working, wearing beautiful silk and you could watch them, expertly whipping up the frothiest, creamiest matcha lattes I’ve ever seen. My mom made matcha shortbread cookies for Christmas for a couple years and they were delicious. Recently I saw this Food & Wine article about all the things you could do with matcha and it’s been on my mind ever since. Luckily, my mom’s friend owns a specialty tea company that carries some incredible matcha powder and she shared some with me for experimentation. This is my version of the Food & Wine pound cake recipe. I used coconut oil, coconut milk and coconut sugar to make it a little healthier and give it a coconutty twist. It is very dense, I’d recommend enjoying it with tea, white wine or a hoppy beer.
2 cups flour
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp matcha powder
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup coconut sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup coconut milk
glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
5 tsp coconut milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
shredded coconut (for sprinkling)
1 tsp cardamom (optional)
2 tsp orange zest
preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper
in a small bowl whisk together the flour, salt and matcha powder and set aside
melt the butter and coconut oil then beat in the sugar, don’t worry if it doesn’t completely emulsify, it will when you add it to the dry ingredients
add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract, beating after each addition
beat in the dry ingredients and the milk in a few additions; scrape down the bowl as necessary
pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes
to make the glaze, pour milk into a small bowl and slowly whisk in powdered sugar as needed, until it is a glaze consistency, add orange zest, cardamom and vanilla extract. Pour the glaze over the warm cake and sprinkle the coconut on top
