Month: August 2017

Blueberry Avocado Smoothie Bowl

Do you ever feel super full or bloated after drinking a smoothie?

It’s so easy to drink them waaaay too fast and fill our stomach with too much too quickly. For more on that, check out this post I wrote for mindbodygreen.

I’ve started favoring smoothie bowls over smoothies in a glass because eating a smoothie with a spoon slows down the rate of entering my stomach. I can put away a smoothie in a glass with a straw in a matter of seconds, if I’m being totally honest! But sitting down with a bowl and spoon makes me more mindful and slows me down.

Slower eating = better digestion!

Today’s smoothie bowl is full of some of my favorite things – blueberries, avocado, and a hint of cinnamon! The avocado makes it smooth and creamy, and the blueberries give it this amazing color. I also topped it off with a sprinkle of bee pollen from Beekeeper’s Naturals, which is full of protein, B vitamins, minerals and free form amino acids.

If you’re a fan of smoothie bowls, check out another recent post I shared with three of my favorite smoothie bowls, including the Berry Good Bowl, Berry Chocolate Bowl and the Shrek Bowl.

Blueberry Avocado Smoothie Bowl

This is one of my favorite smoothie bowls packed with protein, fiber and healthy fats!

  • 1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I love Amazing Grass pure vanilla protein superfood)
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 1/2 zucchini (peeled and chopped)
  • sprinkle cinnamon
  • 1 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
  • 2/3 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
  1. Blend the first 5 ingredients in your blender until evenly combined

  2. Add the frozen fruit and blend again until smooth and creamy. Pour into a bowl to serve and top with some bee pollen!

 

Turmeric Golden Milk Smoothie {Vegan, Paleo}

Are you into golden milk as much as I am?

Maybe you’re wondering what it is and what all the fuss is about and have yet to try it.

After drinking golden milk from about five different places on a recent trip to Colorado, I was inspired to create this recipe. It takes a popular hot drink and turns it into a cool and creamy smoothie!

The base of this smoothie combines an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant-rich, anti-cancer spice blend of turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger. Adding a pinch of black pepper helps the body better absorb the turmeric, so whenever you consume turmeric, make sure to pair it with some black pepper.

Turmeric is a plant that grows underground and is a member of the ginger family. It has a long history of medicinal use, dating back nearly 4000 years, and it has been studied in numerous clinical trials for its therapeutic use. The primary compound in turmeric is called curcumin and its consumption has been correlated with a range of potential health benefits:

  • Protection against certain cancers
  • Treatment of arthritis and osteoarthritis
  • Support for those with inflammatory bowel disease
  • Reduce blood sugar
  • May help prevent Alzheimer’s disease

To learn more about this powerful plant, click here.

By itself, turmeric doesn’t taste that awesome and can have a bit of a bitter taste, but when it is combined with other spices (like in the case of curry powder or golden milk), its flavor is muted but its vibrant color shines through.

To make this a more substantial smoothie, I added a few scoops of my favorite collagen protein powder, which supports healthy tissue growth, and some cashews for a source of fat. If you’d rather use cashew butter or coconut butter, you can do that instead.

I usually have to mess with a recipe multiple times for sharing it with you, but this was a one and done kind of day! I hope you enjoy this delicious golden milk smoothie. Let me know what you think if you try it!

Turmeric Golden Milk Smoothie

This cool and creamy spin on a popular hot drink is the perfect way to start your day!

  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (powder)
  • 1/8 teaspoon ginger (powder)
  • 1 pinch black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon raw cashews
  • 1/2 teaspoon sweetener (honey or pure maple syrup)
  • 2 scoops collagen protein powder (I use Vital Proteins)
  • 1/2 zucchini (peeled and coarsely chopped)
  • 1 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
  • 1 banana (frozen)
  1. Put spices through almond milk in a blender and blend until evenly combined. 

  2. Add frozen banana and blend until smooth.

To purchase collagen peptides from Vital Proteins, click here.

I’m Into It: HotelTonight, A Song & Ice Cream

What an exciting week it’s been!

Bill and I have been in Colorado celebrating our anniversary and a cousin’s wedding. We’re about two hours south of Denver in a small town called Salida. It is absolutely stunning out here!

I’m glad you guys have been so excited about the I’m Into It! series, so I have three more recommendations coming your way, including one that we used while on this trip!

App: HotelTonight

I first found out about this app last year when Bill and I were traveling to Wilmington, North Carolina to stay with my grandmother before he did the Half Ironman in Raleigh that weekend. It was approaching midnight and we still had almost three hours to go in the trip and know it would not have been smart to keep driving.

I discovered the app HotelTonight, which gives you great last-minute deals on top-rated hotels. You can book tonight, tomorrow or seven days out and will see the difference in price between what the hotel usually charges and the deal they are offering you. You book it through the app, quickly and easily, and the one stipulation is that you can’t cancel, and the fees are nonrefundable. But if you’re looking for a room with that little notice, chances are that you wouldn’t cancel anyway. I also like how they categorize the hotel by “type” (Basic, Solid, Hip, Luxe) and show you customer ratings. Unfortunately, it doesn’t list Furnished Corporate Rentals, and these are definitely worth checking. My friend stayed in one recently and said they had so much more room and amenities than in a hotel.

On a recent trip to NYC, we had a less than awesome Airbnb experience and decided to bail on our place the second night because the accommodations were so awful. At 11:30 on a Friday night, we found a room at the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue and 45th for $115 for the following night! That was cheaper than the Airbnb room and SO much better! We’re currently in Denver celebrating our anniversary and a cousin’s wedding, and the first day we landed in Denver, we didn’t have a place to stay and booked one that morning through the HotelTonight app and had plenty of options.

We always call the hotel just in case to confirm whether their rate is cheaper than what we’ve found online. It never hurts to double check!

Try It: Download the app in the app store. And if you want to save $25 on your first booking, use promo code RADRUCKENMILLER.

Food: Nada Moo Ice Cream

I apologize in advance if this recommendation causes you to consume copious amounts of ice cream 🙂

I was at the Green Goddess Market in Lake Placid, NY a few weeks ago and was using a birthday gift card my mom had given me. I was trying to figure out what I could buy there that I couldn’t find at stores back home and came across Nada Moo Mmm…Maple Pecan dairy-free ice cream!

HOLY COW.

It was smooth and creamy and delicious, not icy like a lot of non-dairy ice cream can be. Not only that, but each serving of that flavor had 5 grams of fiber and only 8 grams of sugar (about half of what most ice cream contains!). You never see a single digit sugar content in ice cream that tastes this good. It’s still a treat and not a daily staple, but it is an upgraded one! Another perk about this brand is that it’s certified fair trade, meaning the people who make it receive a fair wage and are treated like human beings, and it’s organic! With fun flavors like “That Snickerdoodle Dough”, “Vanilla…Ahhh!” and “Lotta Mint Chip,” you’re going to want to grab a pint of Nada Moo the next time you’re at the grocery store!

Try It: You can search your zip code on their website to find where it’s sold near you or you can buy it at Whole Foods Market, Harris Teeter, and Roots Market, if you live in the Baltimore/DC area.

Song: You’re Gonna Be Okay by Brian & Jenn Johnson

As you guys know, one of the things I like to do on this blog is share honest and open stories about challenges I face to create a space where you can feel safe to do the same in your own life. One of my goals is to be a light in the world and bring hope to dark places, so as much as I share uplifting quotes and other forms of positivity, I also live in the real world and know that life isn’t rainbows and butterflies all the time.

In those moments, we seek comfort.

That’s what this song has been for me.

A few months ago when I was in the early stages of recovering from Epstein-Barr Virus, I was driving home from a meeting and heard this song. It made me think of my friend whose sister has been dealing with the impact of a horrific brain injury since last June and hasn’t been the same since. I thought of another friend who lost her first child in the third trimester of her pregnancy. I thought of yet another friend who has been battling a lifetime of autoimmune conditions and struggles to hold on to hope each day.

This song brought a sense of peace and comfort to all of those situations. I hope it does the same for you. Share it with someone you know who is going through a tough time. Maybe it bring them hope and encouragement.

And that’s a wrap, my friends.

What are you into this week? Feel free to leave your thoughts below! I love hearing from you.

 

I’m Into It: Ravensburger, Winks & Wise + Well

What a WEEK it’s been, my friends!

I’ll be sharing more about the full story with lots more pictures in an upcoming post, but a 50-foot maple tree in our backyard came down the other day as a result of a terrible storm here in Baltimore!

Dealing with our insurance company, roofer, tree remover, fence company and neighbors to sort out all of the logistics has not been the best ending to my week. But I’ll be sharing lessons learned in the process in a future post.

After the wonderful feedback you gave me when I announced the new “I’m Into It” series last week, I was excited to put together this week’s version!

PUZZLES: Ravensburger and Springbok

I was talking to my friend Jenn at the beginning of the summer, and she shared with me how she was committing to being more intentional about how she spent her time. She told me that she decided to Learn More About Eatel and their video on demand service since she loves watching movies, but she wouldn’t sit in front of the tv all night, every night anymore. She would ask more of herself than that.

I started thinking about it. How often do we just eat dinner and then plop on the couch for the rest of the night watching hours of TV until one of us falls asleep?

A LOT.

I thought about how doing that didn’t make me feel connected to Bill at all. It usually meant I was staying up later than I needed to be watching yet another Jimmy Fallon episode that would be there in the morning.

So, I talked to Bill about it and asked if we could do something else that might help us feel more connected instead of checked out.

We decided to start putting together puzzles…and listening to Les Miserables or Broadway radio on Pandora. It really makes the night! I could listen to “On My Own” a thousand times over. Any other Les Mis fans out there?

This Beauty & the Beast puzzle has been my favorite so far. They even hid characters from other Disney movies – Bambi, Pinocchio, and the mice from Cinderella – in the puzzle!

The best brand of puzzles I’ve found is Ravensburger. The pieces snap together, so you know for sure when you’ve found a match. Springbok is another good brand, but some of their pieces are cut in odd ways, so it’s tough to figure out which ones are corners and which are not. Either way, I’d encourage you to buy yourself a puzzle this month to cut down on TV time!

Try It: Here is Ravensburger’s website and Springbok. We’ve bought a few at Barnes & Noble, but you can also buy puzzles on Amazon.

Blog: Wise + Well

The nature of my work gives me the opportunity to meet so many amazing people. Just over a year ago, I was giving a presentation at my company for our clients, and afterwards, I met Leigh Winters. I had been told that we needed to meet and that we’d have a lot in common.

She is delightful…and so is her blog, Wise + Well!

Leigh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the blog, Wise + Well. She is a clinical researcher at Columbia University’s Spirituality Mind Body Institute and Columbia University Department of Psychiatry’s New York State Psychiatric Institute. In addition to studying and researching mind-body and mindfulness practices, Leigh is also a certified aromatherapist and Ayurveda specialist. She holds dual master’s degrees from Columbia University in Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience.

Her blog covers a wide range of holistic health topics, including aromatherapy, mindfulness, nutrition, fitness, and nature, among others. She is a regular contributor to the online lifestyle website, mindbodygreen, and her posts are so thorough, engaging and easy to read. Applying her training and the latest research, she wrote this recent Essential Oils Beginner Guide that is SO incredibly helpful. We’ve been using essential oils in our home for the past two and a half years, so I appreciate having the scientific backing for them from Leigh! You have to check out her beautiful Instagram feed, too!

Follow: Check out Wise + Well on their Blog, Instagram, and Facebook.

Book: When God Winks: How the Power of Coincidence Guides Your Life by SQuire Rushnell

My friend Samantha recommended that I read this book several months ago, so I took it on vacation with me and read it.

I tend to be someone who looks for meaning in any situation, especially challenging ones, because I believe we can learn lessons or receive gifts if we are open to it. In this book are dozens of stories of people whose lives were, in many cases, radically transformed as a result of seeming coincidences. The author uses the term “God Winks” to describe these messages given to us on our journey, nudging us along the grand path that has been designed especially for us.

One of the stories, in particular, stood out to and stuck with me. Beth’s father had just passed away suddenly after a heart transplant. As she’s at the airport terminal crying, a man puts his hand on her shoulder and asks if she’s all right. She looks at him and recognizes him.

Kevin Costner.

He comforted her as she shared her story through tears and then invited her to join him at the set of a movie he was working on nearby. To make a long story short, Beth ended up visiting the set and meeting the film’s public relations executive, whom she ended up marrying within the year!

A horrible situation (the death of her father) ultimately led to a life-changing joy (meeting her husband). If you want to be uplifted, encouraged and inspired, I invite you to check out When God Winks!

Read It: Find it at a bookstore or online at Amazon.

That’s a wrap, my friends! What are YOU into this week? Feel free to let me know in the comments below 🙂 Have a great week!

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