Smoothie-licious

Smoothies are always a great way to get an instant shot of fruits and vegetables, full of vitamins and nutrients. Here are two of my favourite ones.

This first smoothie a great pre-workout smoothie filled with potassium and protein. 

Protein a macro nutrient that is composed of amino acids is necessary for body and muscle function. Without protein muscles can atrophy and the body can function at peak levels. Nuts, milk, yogurt and hemp hearts are all filled with protein.

Potassium keeps muscles strong, reduces involuntary contraction (aka. cramping), reduces hypertenstion and maintains fluid and electrolyte balance in the body. Bananas are an excellent source of potassium and electrolytes. 

Banana Peanut Butter Protein Powerhouse
Yield- 2 cups

Ingredients:
1 Banana
1  cup skim milk
1 TBSP natural unsweetened peanut butter
1 TBSP unpasteurized locally produced honey
1-2 tsp vanilla (or seeds of one vanilla pod)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 TBSP hemp hearts

Blend all ingredients together and serve. You can also substitute plain yogurt for vanilla yogurt but then you might want to remove honey and vanilla. Vanilla almond milk or coconut milk can also be used in place of the dairy for a vegan version. Coconut water can be added for extra electrolytes. 


This second smoothie is a great pick me up for those days you are really hungover or just after a workout. Avocados are naturally filled with potassium and protein. Coconut water is also high in electrolytes and one of the best natural post-workout beverages. Berries are high in antioxidants which can help with proper cellular function. Both oranges and honey are rich in many vitamins and nutrients that are very beneficial to cellular repair and digestion, etc. in the body. 

After I drink this smoothie I feel like a million bucks! 

The Hangover Cure

Yield- 2 cups

Ingredients:

1 full orange- peel removed

1/2 avocado

1  cup coconut water

1 TBSP unpasteurized locally produced honey

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 TBSP hemp hearts

1-2 tsp Greens +

handful of berries (like strawberries or blueberries)

Blend all ingredients together and serve. To make a vegan friendly version add the other half of the avocado, add a little more coconut water and remove the yogurt. 

Enjoy!

Last Day for Skill Share Class

Well today is the last day of my SkillShare class. I have been working on my illustration all day and my eyes are going a little buggy. I feel it is at a finished state now. Here is the final piece. Enjoy! 

Skill Share Class

So I have been in hiding for a while... I apologize. We did some major events for work all in a row with large numbers of people and I have been planning like crazy. Now that everything is done life is starting to slow down again. Whew. No more festivals for a while I hope. :)

In other news, I have recently been taking an illustration class on Skillshare from Brad Woodard. This is the first class I have taken so far on this site but I am loving it. He is teaching us about illustrating Colour, Pattern and Texture. Usually I use Photoshop for most of my work but I have really been wanting to learn Illustrator. So to challenge myself for this class I have been trying to do everything in Illustrator. It has been a struggle and some times I feel like it takes me so much longer to even put the design to reality, but I have made it work... sort of. The class ends soon, which is sad but I feel that I have learned a lot so far. 

Here is my interim design. It is not really done yet but I am a little stuck. We are illustrating either the word LOUD or the word quiet. This design is a representation of quiet. Let me know your thoughts.

Grumpy Nyan Cat

So last night I was a little bored. I thought to myself, what is better than Grumpy Cat or Nyan Cat???? Grumpy Nyan Cat of course. So I whipped this beauty up. Here is a little Tuesday humour for you. 

Ghosts, Ghouls and Spooky Things

It's All Hallows Eve and the wee little ghosts, goblins and ghouls come out to play. The history of Halloween is quite interesting and nothing like the commercial version you see nowadays. It dates back to the Celtic traditional festival of Samhain. This was a pagan event to celebrate the end of the harvest and prepare for the winter. October 31 was believed to be an overlap of the two worlds of the living and the dead in which the dead for that evening would roam amongst the living. Of course dead people coming back to life love to wreak havoc and such... especially on your crops. To blend in with the spirits, people would dress up like ghosts, ghouls and other spooky things and thus they would not be targeted for mischief and wrong-doings. 

The story of the Jack-o-Lantern is even more confusing. There are many different versions of it, but they all boil down to a crafty man named Jack who outwits the devil. He then releases the devil but only with conditions that his soul will not go to hell when he dies. The devil complies but when Jack dies he finds out that since he wasn't so good he also can't go to heaven. This put him in a bit of a pickle. He was forced to wander the earth. As he could not see where he where he was going the devil gave him an ember from hell that would never extinguish. Jack carved a lantern out of a turnip and put the ember in it and wandered endlessly. He became known as Jack of the lantern. 

All this history of ghosts, ghouls and other unmentionable things of course I decided to join them today with my Carmen Sandiego outfit. This of course is the perfect outfit to outwit those zombies. They wouldn't even know where in the world she was? He he he. 

Truthfully my outfit evolved last week sometime when I found a great Carmen hat at Winners.  With a red coat at home, yellow scarf and some black outfits to wear underneath, I was set. I wore this costume once already on the weekend for a party with friends and then again for work today. For the rest of the people at my office I planned a costume contest as well as a cubicle decorating contest and my co-worker made some Halloween trivia. 

For prizes I made some nice little felt items. The prize for the trivia was a wise little felt owl ornament to decorate an office. Inspired by this idea here. For the costume contest I created a little pumpkin. I used the idea of cutting little circles and folding them like you would for a felt carnation but instead I made it round. To do this I glued them all to a button in the middle. Then I added a little felt roll of a stem and a green leaf. It turned out pretty cute! Lastly, for the cubicle decoration winners I made some cute little felt ghost ornaments like these ones here. Hopefully everyone likes their gifts. 

 

I also made some cards to give to friends and family on this day. I was very pleased with how they turned out since this is my first batch of cards ever. (A friend of mine just recently taught me how to do it and now I am addicted.)

 

The evening will probably entail handing out candy at a friends house, drinking wine and watching Halloween movies on the TV. Ahh... such a great day!  

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

There she is!

Felt Ghosts for a Prize 

Felt Owl for a Prize

Felt Pumpkin Prize

 

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Today, feeling in the fall spirit, I decided to make some Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal for Breakfast. Warm and delicious, this was certainly a hit with my stomach! Thank you to my sister for the recipe. (I am unsure if she found it or invented it)

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

1/2 cup of Quaker plain quick oats

1 tsp brown sugar (or to taste)

1-2 TBSP pumpkin puree (or to taste)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

hot water

milk (optional)

Put all ingredients in a bowl. Add hot water to desired runny-ness and stir. After oats have sat for a minute of two, add a dribble of milk if you wish to top it off. Enjoy!

Baby Shower

Two weeks ago I hosted a baby shower for the lady I made the blanket for. Showers are always fun and it gives me a chance to try out new decorations and recipe's. I decided to decorate with large crysanthemum poof's in yellow white and orange. Please see here for a tutorial since I didn't record mine. (Tissue Flowers Tutorial) I made some huge ones and some small ones to give some variety to the look. Also instead of hanging streamers like normal, I twisted them like I saw on this post. (Garland Tutorial) I really liked how it turned out!

For snacks we had Salsa and Guacamole with chips. I have posted my Salsa recipe in another post on my blog (Salsa Recipe) but I will post the guacamole down below. Also we had tea, coffee and cakes. I made some delicious coconut cakes with a coconut cream cheese ganache mousse cake topping. Yum yum! (I was using up leftover bits of icing from the last week) On top of the cakes were little orange fondant flowers. The rest of the guests brought potluck items so I didn't need to provide as much.

We hade a few games too for the day. One of them you had to guess the number of baby items in the bag. The mother to be got to keep all of the items after. Can you believe there are 41 items in that bag below??

Overall I think it went quite well and the mother was happy!

Here are some recipe's for your Monday enjoyment:

Guacamole Recipe

2-3 Ripe (preferably organic) Avocado's

1 tsp Sriracha Rooster Sauce or another hot sauce

2-3 TBSP plain yogurt

Salt to taste

Cut avocado's and scoop green flesh out from inside. Mush with a fork in a bowl till creamy. (I sometimes use my food processor to speed things up) Add other ingredients. Salt to taste. Enjoy!

Coconut Cream Cheese Ganache Mousse Cake Topping

1 cup of your favorite cream cheese frosting

1.5 cups or so of whipped Ganache (please see my previous post) (Ganache Recipe)

1/4 cup coconut cream

1.5 cups heavy cream

Blend cream cheese frosting, coconut cream and ganache in a bowl. In a seperate clean bowl, whip the cream. Slowly fold about 1 cup of whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. When it is incorporated, fold in the remainder. Ice cake accordingly.

Setting up the table

Cakes- These were on a cake stand later on

Guessing game- How many pieces do you think are in here?

Lei with blue pacifiers for the mother-to-be to wear

Poofs and ribbons