Smoothie, take 1.

I have always been a lover of smoothies and milkshakes.  In college, I spent pretty much all of my flex dollars (read McShane Money akin to Toys R Us Geoffrey Bucks) on smoothies from "The Grille."

On fastpaleo and other sites, I constantly see banging smoothie recipes.  Many of which have banana in them, which is unfortunate because I cannot get my boyfriend to even be in the same room with me when I am eating one.  So try to camouflage it all you want, dude knows.  Its his spidey sense.

I felt like getting creative today.  And it was 3:30pm.  And I hadn't eaten anything.  And even though I wasn't particularly hungry, I knew my body needed a little fuel for cleaning.  Got a little creative with fridge contents, and here we are. You can definitely sub another fruit should you desire.  Or chia for flax. More flax/chia for the raw coconut.  And I think this would be great with almond, dairy or hemp milk too. Whateva. Mix it up, baby. Just remember: NO BANANAS ALLOWED.

Smoothie # 1
2 avocados, super ripe
1 champagne mango, diced
2 1/2 cups of coconut milk like Silk Pure Coconut
4 ice cubes
1 tablespoon of flax meal
1 tablespoon of raw coconut
1 teaspoon of organic wildflower honey (optional)
juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon of organic, sugar free vanilla extract

Add avocado, 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk, flax, coconut and lime juice to a blender and mix until well combined.  Add ice cubes, mango, honey, vanilla and remainder of coconut milk and blend again.  Slurp with a straw, obvs.

You may want to add more milk or even some water to get it to your personal desired texture.  My mango was super juicy and my avocado very soft so I didn't need any more liquid.

sweet potato fries aka indulgence

*crickets*

I suck at posting.

Now that THAT is out of the way....

Here's the deal. I haven't been feeling so hot lately or since like the beginning of this year.  Sluggish, unmotivated, foggy headed.  Kind of akin to the glutenous days of yore. I tried to pay attention to whether I was getting DL glutened in restaurants, or whether one of my regular favorites had changed ingredients or suppliers. Nada.

I started to panic after a few weeks, recalling the words of my awesome, awesome, AWESOME GI (more on this later) about how I should probably do a total elimination diet to cross check for other sensitivities and food allergies.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, or if its been evident bc every single fucking recipe that I create has cheese as at least an ancillary component, but I am coo coo for CHEESE. So much so that one of my dearest friends made this, in my honor (inspired by the amazing Hyperbole and a Half):

Eat all the cheeses? Well, okay. If you insist.

So as of today, I am on day five of eating NONE of the cheeses. And am kind of going out of my mind between that and what must be some kind of sugar detox hangover.  Boyfriend and I are doing the Paleo thing, for a while at least.  I'm hoping to be pretty strict for a month, at least, and then start to add things back in to see how I do.  So for now, I've needed to get creative to feel like I'm getting my fix of the foods I love that don't love me. And am going to make a better effort to post recipes... without my beloved cheese.

Installment number one?

Sweet Potato Fries 

2 medium sweet potatoes, jewel yams, garnet yams, what the fuck ever your store has

1.5 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1/4 to 1/3 teaspoon of kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

3/4 teaspoon of garlic powder

1.5 teaspoon of dried oregano

1/4 cup of coconut oil (or 1/8 cup olive oil and 1/8 cup coconut oil, which will keep the olive oil from burning)

*Preheat your oven to 425.  Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up.

*Chop up your sweet potatoes.  You can do wedges, if you like. Or steak fry sized larger pieces, if you prefer.  I like smaller fries and went for that. Your best bet is cutting the potatoes in half lengthwise, putting the flat side down on a cutting board and cutting small slivers, which I then cut again to desired fry width. SCIENCE. Not really.

*Add the coconut oil to the baking sheet and place in the oven, removing it once the oil has melted.

*Combine your herbs, tossing well.

*Add the potatoes to the baking sheet, coating well with the coconut oil. 

*When the potatoes are coated, liberally sprinkle herb mixture over the top, reserving approximately one third of it.  Toss the potatoes again to coat evenly with herbs. Use reserved herb mixture to hit spots you miss or just sprinkle it evenly over all the fries again and toss lightly.

*Bake for 20  - 30 minutes (20 being on the softer side, 30 with a bit more crispy bite)

Let them stand for 2 - 5 minutes to reduce the likelihood of burning yourself. 

And then, ya know, EAT. Perfect side to a steak and veggies, to a lettuce wrap burger or even a salad.