Enjoy this smoothie to awaken well and start your week off feeling good! No case of the Mondays, get extra Vitamin C into your body!

Orange Bliss Immunity Smoothie

Filtered Water

Coconut water

Coconut Meat (Optional if you have a raw coconut)

2 Oranges (Orange juice is optional)

Pineapple

Spinach or Kale (greens optional)

Option: add protein powder, fiber, probiotics,

Blend everything together in a VitaMix. I like to keep most of the orange peel on and blend to make the smoothie a bit more foamy. Sprinkle with Hemp seeds on top and enjoy!

Oranges: High in vitamin C which supports your immune system, especially beneficial after a holiday weekend of fun ;). Oranges have many phytonutrients that help inhibit blotclots, heal inflammation, and aid in detox. Oranges also are high in carotenoids, which improve your vision,

Love This. Music for the weekend~

 

I’m booking myself a one way flight
I gotta see the color in your eyes
And telling myself I’m gonna be alright
Without you baby is a waste of time

Yeah, our first date, girl, the seasons changed
It got washed away in a summer rain
You can’t undo a fall like this
‘Cause love don’t know what distance is
Yeah, I know it’s crazy

But I don’t want “good” and I don’t want “good enough”
I want “can’t sleep, can’t breathe without your love”
Front porch and one more kiss, it doesn’t make sense to anybody else
Who cares if you’re all I think about,
I’ve searched the world and I know now,
It ain’t right if you ain’t lost your mind
Yeah, I don’t want easy, I want crazy
Are you with me baby? Let’s be crazy

Yeah

I wanna be scared, don’t wanna know why
Wanna feel good, don’t have to be right
The world makes all kinds of rules for love
I say you gotta let it do what it does

I don’t want just another hug and a kiss goodnight
Catchin’ up calls and a date sometimes
I love that we’re rebels, and we still believe
We’re the kind of crazy people wish that they could be, yeah

Oh, and I know we’re crazy, yeah

But I don’t want “good” and I don’t want “good enough”
I want “can’t sleep, can’t breathe without your love”
Front porch and one more kiss, it doesn’t make sense to anybody else
Who cares if you’re all I think about,
I’ve searched the world and I know now,
It ain’t right if you ain’t lost your mind
Yeah, I don’t want easy, I want crazy
You with me baby? Let’s be crazy

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na

No, I don’t want “good” and I don’t want “good enough”
I want “can’t sleep, can’t breathe without your love”
Front porch and one more kiss, it doesn’t make sense to anybody else
Who cares if you’re all I think about,
I’ve searched the world and I know now,
It ain’t right if you ain’t lost your mind
Yeah, I don’t want easy, I want crazy

Yeah, look at us baby, tonight the midnight rules are breaking
There’s no such thing as wild enough,
And maybe we just think too much
Who needs to play it safe in love?
Let’s be crazy!

Na na na na oh na na na na oh

Who cares if we’re crazy? We gotta be crazy
I know that we’re crazy, so let’s be crazy
Yeah…

Happy National Kale Day!!

I’m blessed to be named after a Goddess and one of the Healthiest Greens! Eat up & read up on why–

What will it take for us to reclaim our health? Simple shifts. That’s what all the green buzz about kale boils down to. Swap pretty much anything in your diet for kale and you’ve made a healthy choice. Kale is so nutrient-dense, delicious, and surprisingly versatile that it bumps up the nutrition in everything from smoothies and salads to pizza and popcorn. Yes, there is a miracle in kale’s crunch.

Just a simple shift, say from a potato chip to kale chip, is a step from nutritional carbage to a delicious green snack filled with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and plant-based antioxidants. Jason Mandala, a farmer and educator, made a simple shift. He started eating kale regularly and his health improved (I hear this story daily now.) His simple shift — just a little more kale — grew into something much larger and more important. This Wednesday, over 8,000 children will eat locally-grown kale chips in 17 schools in Missoula, Mont. Their collective crunch resonates with me, and I suspect with you. We can make a simple shift that is about more than kale: It is about embracing a healthier, greener, more connected lifestyle that builds community and local food culture.

Last spring a band of kale lovers formed to spread kale’s message of the health benefits, culinary versatility and to use kale to celebrate the amazing progress in America’s local food production. Today, there are 8,144 farmer’s markets in America, according to the USDA. Kale and other farm fresh, nutrient-dense whole foods are arguably more available than anytime in recent history. The shift is simple. (Did I mention also delicious?)

We called ourselves Team Kale, and we are chefs, nutritionists, doctors, farmers, food advocates, parents, health coaches, and activists. We went to work building nationalkaleday.org, which is full of recipes, resources, and our free Kale Hero Toolkit. We created a petition asking President Obama to recognize National Kale Day as an official American holiday. (After all, Mr. President, we have a National Donut Day in America, and we suspect this a great opportunity to get you points with The First Lady.)

The inaugural National Kale Day is this Wednesday, Oct. 2, and will be held the first Wednesday in October. We want you to join us.

This Wednesday, our green band of Kale Heroes and Kale Ambassador are celebrating kale around the country and the world. School cafeterias, hospitals, restaurants, and farmer’s markets will take a bow to the Queen of Greens, and you can join in as our forums will be checking in with them and streaming LIVE using the Google+ Hangout ON AIR platform.

Please join the National Kale Day by:

• Signing the National Kale Day petition on Change.org, and encouraging your network to sign.

• Tweeting and posting about National Kale Day on Google+, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest #nationalkaleday.

• Joining our day of Live Forums on all things kale! Check out the Events.

If you wonder what the heck all the kale fuss is about, it’s easy to sum up. Kale means health: a multi-colored superfood from the cruciferous family of vegetables that everyone from vegan to paleo embraces. Yes, almost all plants are a healthy choice, but when it comes to nutrient density, culinary versatility, local availability and value, nothing beats kale.

This year my life was overtaken by kale. After the publication of 50 Shades of Kale, all I talk about is kale: I’ve grown, eaten, and shared bushels, and my blood is probably green. But beyond feeling healthy and smarter (This Is You Brain on Kale), my real #kaletale is one of connection.

Team Kale came alive with a vision of communities that eat together, that feast on nutrient-dense plants, and that take pleasure in the mutual delight of eating delicious food. My co-founder Chef Jennifer Iserloh and I have felt blessed as organizations and individuals dedicated to the mission of National Kale Day reached out and our numbers grew. Last week, we helped prepare two giant kale salads at the Hoboken Shelter with a Chef Q, an inspirational man who five years ago was homeless. The week prior to we stood in the largest organic kale field in America — a sea of green possibility that swayed in the California breeze.

What SuperGreen Powers emerge when you bring together the Kale Crusader, the Joan of Arc Of Kale, Kirsten Beddard, kale legend Bo the “Eat More Kale” guy, a few kale doctors such as CEO and physician Lisa Harris, M.D. (who built a farm on the roof of her hospital) and Physician/Chef John LaPuma, M.D., plus kale farmers such as Jason Mandala, celebrity trainers who make supermodels from kale, and two women who helped create a vegetarian cafeteria in New York City?

There is spot on Team Kale for you. I hope you will join us.

In Kale We Trust,

The Law of Surrender

To surrender does not mean putting your hands in the air and flying a white flag, it is not defeat, giving up or failing. To surrender is to be wise. It is wise to accept the flow of life’s energy rather than resist it. To surrender is to accept “What is now” unconditionally and to give up, without any reservations whatsoever, any inner resistance to “What is now”.

By making a conscious choice at this moment, and in every present moment of now, to fully accept that the present moment is as it should be, then by surrendering to this knowledge you are more powerful than you could possibly believe. By not judging the present moment of now but by accepting it and offering no resistance to what is now, you show tremendous faith in God and other Unseen Entities. This allows you to be in a state of grace, easy flow and enlightenment. Whether things are perceived “good” or “bad” is not material in this state of grace. Things are what they are and, eventually everything happens for the best. You can truly let go and let God – but make sure you row away from the rocks! By surrendering to “what is now”, in this state of graceful surrender, you can see clearly what action needs to take place and by doing one thing at a time, step by step, inch by inch, moment by moment, as illustrated in the Law of Process, you accomplish what needs to be done, in your surrendered state.

The energy released in a surrendered state is a powerful, healing energy. This energy propells your healing, growth and evolvement. Surrender to discover how powerful You Really Are.

Laws From: Guide Speak

Almond Milk. Do you drink it or have you tried it? It is delicious. To me, it taste much better than regular milk of an kind. Of course, I’ve never particularly enjoyed the taste of milk, unless it was laced with some kind of sweet sugar like chocolate. In which case, I still could not drink much of it. Almond milk brought a whole new flavor and style to my diet. I suddenly started putting it in coffee, blending it in smoothies, drinking it plain, making ice cream with it, and more. Regular milk no longer did anything for me and I upgraded to buying almond milk. For a while I tasted different kind of boxes found at the grocery store; non refrigerated, refrigerated, different brands, flavors, it was all good and all so easy. Then I heard it was easy to make and I suddenly became curious.

Could I, a somewhat lazy shopping consumer possibly take time to make almond milk? I did not think so. I had to be told a dozen times I could do it and it was easy. One day I had some time and thought I’d try it. I had found the perfect nut bag to use to drain and finally ventured to the store for almonds. Then I experimented with making my own almond milk. To my surprise, it really was easy. So so easy. best of all, it took little to none ingredients: raw almonds, water, and option to add vanilla, a date, or anything else I want…. If you have a high speed blender, like a Vitamix, I encourage you to just try to make your own almond milk.

You just may be surprised at how easy it is… and if you don’t drink almond milk I dare you to try it, even the boxed version. You will be amazed at how much better it tastes and how much better YOU FEEL (and it’s a whole lot healthier for you than anything supporting the dairy industry).

Homemade Almond Milk

What you need: A high speed powerful blender, like a Vitamix. One nut bag (My friend has used a paint strainer bag too). Raw almonds. Purified water. A large bowl. A container to put milk in after it is made. Optional: vanilla, cinnamon, dates, nutmeg, etc.

Step 1: Soak your almonds overnight (or at least 6 hours) in a sealed container with fresh water. I recommend about 1.5 cups raw almonds per blender of water, or so.

Step 2: After almonds have soaked, rinse/drain them and either put them in an air right container in the fridge or in blender to use right away to blend

Step 3: Fill blender with purified water. I typically fill almost to the top, but experiment with your own proportions.

Step 4: Add raw almonds to blender. Blend well! It may get a little foamy, that is okay.

Step 5: Get a bowl and nut milk bag and strain almond mixture from blender through bag into bowl.

Step 6: Squeeze bag to fullest so all liquid is out in bowl. There will be a dense mixture left in bag, please throw this almond pulp out. You can always save the pulp and cook something with it too. Wash nut bag for reuse

Step 7: Pour almond milk into container and use as it. Or, and recommended, place almond milk back in blender.

Step 8: Add anything you want to milk. I personally love to put vanilla flavoring in, at least 1-2 dates, some cinnamon, and nutmeg.

It’s your creation so blend, add, subtract, and try new things! Place it in the fridge also and enjoy whenever you want.

Typically the homemade milk lasts about 3-4 days. It’s so tasty though, I’m sure you will drink it faster than that!

Yes! That Easy…. For me the trouble is usually making it to the store for the almonds, or remembering to soak 😉

           

Song of the Month~