Hip Hemp

Aloha, it's a new week! New beginnings and new food to be tasted.. So my skin has not taken too kindly to the estrogen-rich soy I've been eating. I have had soy yogurt, soy pudding and soy milk! Quite a bit of it too! Lately my smoothies were becoming soy yogurt based, so this morning I was almost forced keep my fast. Fortunately, I pulled it together and realized I can still make amazing smoothies avec sans soy! Today I was craving blueberries so I made a Hip Hemp smoothie thats still fruity, creamy and oh so tasty! I used my new favorite protein powder called Nutiva Hemp Shake Berry Pomegranate thats organic, non-dairy, gluten-free and 100% soy-free! You would never guess where I found it.. 24 hour fitness! They also sell Chocolate and Amazon Acai shake flavors and for around $14.95.


Hip Hemp
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 c frozen raspberries
1 T almond butter
1 T sesame tahini
2 T ground flaxseed
2 T Nutiva® Hemp Shake Berry Pomegranate™*
1 c hemp milk
1 T agave nectar
2 T golden raisins
handful of ice cubes

*Ingredients: Organic hemp protein, superberry blend (organic mesquite pods, organic strawberries, organic blueberries, organic raspberries, organic cherries, organic pomegranates, organic Sambazon® açai, organic goji berries, organic guar gum, inulin from chicory root), organic Fair Trade Certified evaporated cane juice, organic berry flavor. Contains tree nuts.

Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into one large glass or two medium size glasses. Enjoy! (Side note: This is a super thick smoothie so a spoon might be best!)

A date with chocolate

I remember when my mom first wanted me to try dates. I was like "eww, yuck what are those wrinkly brown things?!" But after some persuasion I tried and one.. and then another one.. and "ohh these are kinda good!" maybe just one more.  Eating dates is almost like sticky brown sugar in a more solidified food form. Its satisfies the sweet tooth and the desire to chew.  It's like health food store candy. ;-) They are basically pure sugar so pace yourself and don't eat too many at a time or you'll have a sugar crash.  Medjool dates are my favorite because they are the largest, most moist dates and supposedly at one time reserved only for Morrocan royalty. This may be why medjool dates are the priciest, so for this recipe I used smaller organic deglet dates.

A date with chocolate (smoothie)

~serving up pleasure for two

mmmmm...nutty, sweet, sensational and chewy?

1 1/2 Large frozen banana

4-5 finely chopped/sliced dates*

1/3 cup soy yogurt

1 T almond butter

1/2 t cinnamon

1 t maple syrup

3/4 cup chocolate soymilk

1 T ground flaxseed

handful of ice cubes

*I thinly sliced my dates before tossing in the blender and consequently there were small chewy bits in the smoothie. I loved it! But if you are not too keen on anything you can't suck through a straw, put the dates in a food processor before transferring to the blender.

TIPS:

~When freezing bananas for smoothies first cut each up into 2-3 inch pieces before putting in a sealed bag/container.  Large pieces of frozen bananas can be hard to break up (even for the blender!) I usually estimate about 4 pieces equals one large banana.

~If you are using maple syrup in a recipe, NEVER ever use imitation or artificial maple syrup.  That is unacceptable.  If you don't have pure maple syrup, just leave it out of the recipe or use honey or agave nectar.

~This recipe makes enough for two large glasses so please share!

Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into two chilled glasses and serve with spoons. Enjoy!

Substitutions for:

chocolate soymilk~chocolate hempmilk, chocolate almond milk or chocolate dairy milk

almond butter~peanut butter

maple syrup~no need, just make it without.