Green vegetables of every kind are a source of concentrated energy as they contain energy-promoting minerals, vitamins and chlorophyll. Start your day with this energizing, bone-supporting green smoothie to feel refreshed all day long.
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Beverages
Homemade Almond Milk (no-waste recipe)
Good ideas breed better ones; even, bad ideas once expressed and duly discarded pave the way for the good, better, and best. But having ideas and not expressing them doesn’t bring anything new in the world. So, I am glad that I expressed the idea and practice of making quick homemade almond milk on Traffic Light Cook a while ago. A friend started making almond milk at home with the TLC recipe, but soon came up with a better idea–making almond milk without throwing away the leftover almond meal. By the way, I have switched 100% to making almond milk at home as the store-bought nut-, seed-, and grain-milk may possibly have adverse health effect ( especially on digestive system) with prolonged usage. Curious, why? keep reading……
Anti-inflammatory Minty Celery Pineappleade
This juice boasts of a powerful ingredient–celery. I created this recipe (without pineapple) many years ago when I started noticing that celery soup and juice worked great to subdue or completely cure my migraines. Upon further research it was clear why? Celery is a nutritional powerhouse and among many of its health benefits, lowering inflammation clearly stands out. …
Beet Energy Juice
Do you want to improve your running performance? Why am I asking this seemingly arbitrary question? Because nitrate-rich beets offer sustained source of energy and scientists have even found a link between beets consumption (both in juice and whole form) and improved athletic performance. How cool is that? Many of us may not be serious runners or big exercisers, but one thing we can all probably agree on: We all need energy to get through our days. And we seem to be looking for resources–food or non-food– to increase our daily energy reserves. The meteoric rise in energy drinks sales since early 2000s is a testament to our energy-seeking quest. This beet energy juice not only offers a ton of (instant) energy, but also scores high on nutrition and taste tests….
Vegan Pumpkin Pie Spice Latte
Marcus Gavius Apicius, a first century Roman gastronome, apparently came up with the phrase,”we eat with our eyes first.” The phrase aligns with our digestive process, which starts in the brain when we let our thoughts wander to food. In today’s world where food photos have become ubiquitous, our eyes offer enough (read countless) cues to dine multiple times, visually. I tend to belive that I am immune to these visual cues, but every fall I find it hard to ignore the appetizing images of pumpkin spice latte that seemingly are plastered everywhere. While the pictures looks quite appetizing, the pumpkin spice lattes at coffee shops are cloyingly sweet. I still enjoy the beverage by making this no-processed-sugar-added homemade vegan pumpkin pie spice latte, which has real pumpkin and spice. …
Protein-rich Berry & Mint Smoothie
Smoothie is a great way to consume a lot of fruits and/or vegetables on one occasion, in one glass. The highlight of this protein-rich berry & mint smoothie is the presence of refreshing mint and absence of any processed sugar. I am not a big fan of concentrated protein powders, even the ones without any whey or soy protein (more on this later). Therefore, I use cooked garbanzo beans to add protein. Usually I have this protein-rich berry & mint smoothie either as a breakfast or an afternoon snack.
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Spicy Hot Cocoa
I am not a big hot cocoa fan. Well, this revelation is not very inspiring as the blog post title screams COCOA! But over the years, I have figured out the reason. My first experience more than two decades ago was that of a supermarket-bought cocoa powder that you put in hot water or milk. To be honest, it tasted sweet, cloyingly sweet, with almost no hint of cocoa and off-putting taste of something else–superfluous ingredients I did not recognize at the time. Just to clarify, I did go through the cycles of buying various packaged powders and syrups for my kids, but never finished a box or bottle completely. So at some point, I stopped buying. I had almost stopped making hot cocoa at home. And then one day, I fortuitously figured out the key to making great-tasting hot cocoa while trying a new chocolate cake recipe, which called for 100% pure cocoa powder.
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