March Foodie Penpal

Sorry, sorry, this post is a day late, but I was lounging the beaches of Jamaica yesterday and was not able to post.  For those of you who don't know about the Foodie Penpal program, let me just tell you, its great! Despite the fact my roommates and boyfriend make fun of me for it, I love it and will continue to do it! :)  A big thanks to Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean for creating it.  Basically, every month, everyone is given a name of a person.  They are then in change of finding out what that person likes/dislikes and then sending them a box of tasty treats.  You also receive a box in return from a different penpal. (read more into the Foodie Penpal program below).

This month, I received my box from Jacqueline at Not Born to Run.  I was sooo excited to find out that she is a naturopathic doctor and a nutrition enthusiast and boy, let me tell you, her box did not dissapoint! I told her I wanted to try some things from Trader Joe's because we don't have them in Colorado (yet) and that I am a student and have class all day Tuesday/Thursday so I like things that are easy to take with me.

In the box: Trader Joe's olive tapenade, Trader Joe's rice crackers, Trader Joe's organic fruit leathers, Trader Joe's sweet and spicy pecans, Ginger Pear tea, Trader Joe's chocolate covered power berries, and an assortment of Pure bars.

I ate this dark chocolate berry bar right before my run and it was delicious.  I packed the other ones on various days in my lunch.  I ate almost the entire bag of sweet and spicy pecans and even had my sister bring me back some more from California when I saw her this past week.  I was most surprised about the olive tapenade.  I have never had it before and really enjoyed it with the rice crackers! And of course, the fruit leathers and tea were amazing as well.  Jacqueline also included a banana bread recipe.  I actually make banana bread quite frequently, so this was great!  Thanks so much Jacqueline!!!

I sent my box off to Amanda.  I wanted to send her all local products so I sent a selection of Justin's Nut Butter, a Two Moms in the Raw Bar, some local quinoa, local honey sticks, and some Boulder Chocolate Granola.  She was so kind and wrote a guest post for me, so take it away Amanda:

I’m so happy to be announcing my all foodie pen pal goodies that I received from Shannon!  This was my first time to participate in foodie pen pals and what a great way to kick it off.

I have to admit my favorite thing that I received was the Granola.  Chocolate in my granola?! So yummy.  Another item that I absolutely loved was the assortment of Justin Nut Butters.  I see these things everywhere and don’t know how I’ve never had one before this before.  And I must say the chocolate hazelnut butter was delicious!! In case you haven’t noticed I love chocolate. 

The other food that I found fascinating was a Garden Medley Quinoa that I made in the microwave.  I’ve never made quinoa in the microwave and after a little adjustment with adding in the water I had complete lunch that was so good! And I can’t forget the ever handy honey sticks and finally a really hearty raw granola bar.  The granola bar was actually the best one I have ever had.  Not too hard, just the right amount of sweetness, chewy, and just plain good.  You should check them out at http://www.twomomsintheraw.com/.

If you want to get involved in the Foodie Penpal program, heres more info:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.

-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 

-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!

-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)

-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.

-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for April, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions. You will also find contact information on that page for the UK branch of Foodie Penpals if you’re a blogger across the pond!

You must submit your information by April 4th as pairings will be emailed on April 5th!

Veggie-Go's

I am a sucker for anything local, organic, and healthy.  Call me a marketing company's dream, but hey, whatever helps you sleep at night.  Anyways, I got really excited when I went to Alfalfa's today and they were sampling Veggie-Go's made my The Naked Edge, a local company here in beautiful Boulder, CO.  These gems are organic, healthy, and really good.  They are kind of like fruit leathers for grownups, made from ingredients like beets, spinach, and sweet potatoes.  Needless to say, I left with my two favorites: the Mountain Berry Spinach (spinach, apples, berries, sweet potato) and the Cinnamon Spiced Beet (beets, apples, sweet potatoes, flax seeds, cinnamon).

Unlike many fruity snacks, these are super low calorie (14 cal per pack) and really low in sugar  (2g). Since they are made with fruit juice and the actual fruit, they have more fiber than most fruit snacks/leathers.  I don't have any particular food allergies, but these are soy free, dairy free, vegan, and gluten free so almost anyone can eat them. Delishhh. I think I am going to go buy more to take on the plane with me to Jamaica!

Now that your done reading this, go buy some of these. You will thank me later.

Drink Your Greens Smoothie

I am addicted to the Drink Your Greens Smoothie at Whole Foods, but at $7 a pop, my bank account is not....so I decided to make my own.  The one at Whole Foods is a pretty lime green color.  Mine turned out a reddish/brown color.  Look so gross but tasted soooo good.

The ingredients:

Apple juice (I juiced my own because I didn't have apple juice on hand, but use whatever you have), baby kale, spinach, frozen raspberries, a few frozen peaches, strawberries.

I also added half of this packet it...I only added half because I was afraid of the chalky taste and texture.  The nutritional stats on this are great: tons of vitamins, minerals, omegas, and protein.  Theres also less than 1g of sugar which is important when I look for any protein/smoothie powders.

I added everything to the blender and whirled.  I also ended up adding a half a container of Oikos plan Greek yogurt for more protein.  I loveeeedddd this smoothie.  It was a little thin, so if you like yours thick, definitely add a thickening agent. I am just too cheap to buy those.

On another note, it was this guys 2nd birthday yesterday, complete with broken toe.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK (poopmonster)

Drink Your Greens Smoothie


1 handful of kale
1 handful of spinach
1/4 cup of frozen raspberries
a few frozen peach segments
4 strawberries
1 cup apple juice
1/2 container of plain greek yogurt (4 oz-ish)
1/2 packet of whole foods optimizer or protein powder


Blend and enjoy!

Healthy Broccoli Salad-Slaw

Mondays are great! I have no class and have the whole day to do whatever I want.  Tuesdays and Thursdays on the other hand are busy.  I have class all day with no breaks.  Needless to say I have to bring my lunch and an accouterment of other snacks or my stomach will literally start eating itself.  I am starting to get really sick of making wraps or packing snack plates but don't want anything thats too fussy or take forever to make.  Enter my creative vision: Healthy Broccoli Salad-Slaw.  It is really not that creative at all and is just a smorgasbord of other broccoli salad/slaw-esque dishes.  I made a giant batch of it so I can eat it for dinner and lunch or lunch both days. BAM, thats killing two birds with one stone if I've ever seen it.

I spent a small fortune at Whole Foods this morning, so I thought I would use as many fresh ingredients as I could: broccoli, pre-cut cabbage, zucchini, cauliflower, and carrots.

*I'm not even going to pretend to be a great photographer, so you get iPhone photos.

I also heated up some frozen shelled edamame after this picture was taken.

I then used to a mandolin to chop/shred all the veggies and put them into a giant mixing bowl.  If you don't have a mandolin, just chop 'em with any old knife.  I shredded the cauliflower but I did not like the grainy texture so I chose to just cut the broccoli.

I mixed and portioned into two containers to keep in the fridge until I am ready to use them.  

I plan on eating it with this dressing.  You could use whatever you wanted, I just was going for a kind of Asian-flare and wasn't horrified by the nutritional stats of this kind.

I am off to be productive and hopefully get a run in.  Its almost 70 here...LOVE IT!

Things I'm Loving

I have been a little bit busy with school/job stuff (snowboarding) and have not had time to write a decent post in a while, so I thought I would share with you a few things I am loving lately.

1. This view on my run

Last week was a rough week as far as running goes.  Thankfully this weeks runs have gone much better so far and it sure doesn't hurt to have a running trail like this practically in my backyard

2. Ezekiel 4:9 Bread

Organic sprouted whole grain bread, enough said.  This stuff is seriously delicious and good for you.  Sprouted grains are living grains and are much more nutrient dense than their unsprouted counterparts.  This bread also is a complete source of protein which is a definite plus.  I read on Run, Eat, Repeat that they are coming out with waffles soon too!.  Can't wait!

3. Artisana Raw Cashew Butter

I am not usually a fan of cashews, but this nut butter is amazing.  The only ingredients in this are organic cashews..no oils or sugars.  I have been eating this on Ezekiel bread for lunch or for pre-run fuel.  Only down side is the hefty price-tag ($18.99 at Whole Foods), so I have been using the little one-serving packets for now.

4. Drink Your Greens Smoothie from Whole Foods

Got this today and it was great.  The color was a little off-putting at first, but the taste was delicious.  I can't remember exactly what was in it, but I know it had kale, spinach, strawberries, pineapples and some other things.  I am going to have to try to recreate this soon.

In other news, I sent out my Foodie Penpal box today and have been told mine should be arriving any day.  Look for a post about that towards the end of the month!  For now, over and out.

Bang Bang

So for the most part, I am going to stick to posting about topics that are pretty light (why take things too seriously, right?), but today something a little more substantial caught my eye.  I usually don't get involved in any political talk or debates over controversial stuff, mostly because I am not smart enough to know what I am talking about and I usually just make a fool of myself.  That begin said, I just wanted to make a quick comment on something that hits pretty close to home:

If you go to CU, you have already received the e-mail or seen your Facebook feed blow up regarding the fact that CU is now allowing those who are over 21 with a Colorado Concealed-Weapon Permit to carry a gun on campus.

For those of you who have not seen the news or don't live in the Boulder bubble, here's a news article, go check it out.  Here is a quote from the e-mail all of the students received:

Further, under current state law, having a CCP 
does not allow a person to use his or her weapon to knowingly place or attempt to place another person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury.

Uh duh...I'm sure they are trying to make us feel safe about their decision, but come on.  I know that there are probably people on both sides who feel very strongly about this, but as a student at CU I find this issue a little concerning as to my safety. What the heck do you need a gun on campus for?  To ward off the crazy hippies or the rabid raccoons?  Is my lab partner going to be packing heat and I won't even know about it?  Sure this is a question of constitutionality and has roots deeper than I will ever understand, but there have been a lot of school shootings in the news the past few years, I just feel like we should do everything in our power to protect our campus and ensure our safety.

Regardless, I am a buff for life...Colt 45s or not.

(Source)

Juice Head

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I am embarrassed to admit it butttt one of my favorite possessions is my juicer that I received for Christmas from my wonderful boyfriend :).  I absolutely love it and would juice every meal every day if I could.  That being said, I would probably get pretty hungry if I was on an entirely liquid diet, so I stick to juicing a few times a week for breakfast or for a snack.  Juicing is a great way to sneak in a bunch of added fruits and veggies into my diet that I might not otherwise eat (umm hello, chocolate > carrots).  It's also a great way to get around all of the sugar/preservatives/junk found in most juices at the grocery store.

The Breville juicer I have (pic above) is especially great because I can stick whole fruits into it.  This really cuts down on prep time and makes life 100x easier...ok, not really.  Recently I have been making this Green Energy Juice about once a week.  The kale in it was a little scary at first because kale can sometimes have a weird texture/taste, but trust me, you can't taste it at all.  If I were you, I would go out right now and buy all of these ingredients and make this delisioso juice.

Green Energy Juice


2-3 large leaves of kale, stem removed
20-30 green grapes
1 Granny Smith apple
1 whole cucumber, peeled
1 cup of water

Juice everything but the water (duh).  Stir in water and refrigerate until ready to serve.  I have been drinking half the day of and keeping the other half for the next day.


IF YOU DONT HAVE A JUICER: don't worry!! just put everything in your blender and give it a good whirl (make sure you peel and core your apple in this case) and then strain in through cheese cloth or something of that sort.

Still don't have you sold?  Check out the great benefits of the juice:

Kale: Helllo antioxidants! Kale has loads of antioxidants which are shown to fight the formation of cancer cells and have other great health benefits.  Kale also has a ton of Vitamin A, C and K.

Green Grapes: Green grapes are also high in antioxidants, Vitamin C, and Vitamin K.

Granny Smith Apple: These green babies are also high in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.  They help protect against cancer, reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, increase weight loss and decrease the risk for diabetes.

Cucumber: Cucumbers have a decent amount of antioxidants, phytonutrients, and Vitamin K.  These lil' have anti-inflammatory properties which reduces the risk of a ton of yucky things (read: cancer, heart disease, etc)