She wore a raspberry beret

Now that I’ve got us singing – let’s talk about cherries.  What?!  I couldn’t think of any songs about cherries, but the flavor of these little red beauties makes me want to break into song.  The nutrition benefits are worth a verse or two as well, something that covers how these stone fruits may help you sleep better or help you lose weight.

I played around with a bag of frozen cherries at the beginning of the summer and was so happy with every result, it seems to be the magic ingredient, it can do no wrong in my smoothies!  BUT then there was this dry spell at Whole Foods – no frozen cherries.  No biggie, there’s lots of fun with other frozen fruits to be had, like with raspberries, BUT when I saw organic cherries back in my freezer section this week I bought not one but three bags!  Cherries are also a good source of vitamin C so toss in your spinach and enjoy all the benefits.  Here is my new favorite way to enjoy them:

1 cup frozen cherries
1 cup almond milk
1 scoop vega
1 big double handful scoop romaine
1 squirt flax
1 tsp agave

Blend away and enjoy!
Other amazing variations:
-add cacao
-try walnuts
-cacao and almond butter
-spinach
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Monday, Monday

Made this little beauty this morning, in my own home, with my own blender.  We are back from our trip, however on our last morning in Napa I stumbled on a little juicing place and had one of the most enjoyable electric green concoctions I’ve ever tasted.  I will share the recipe of “The Queen’s Greens” as soon as I can replicate at home.

Now, for this morning’s  breakfast:

1/2 cup Rice Dream

1/2 cup water

1/2 frozen banana

1 squirt flax seed oil

1 1/2 scoops Vega – Vanilla Chia flavor

2 TBS raw Cacao

Below I’ve included a correspondence I had with Vega – the maker of my preferred protein/nutrition powder.  There are so many things on the market and most of them are crap, when you find one you like you might want to double check with the company to ensure you are getting what you hope for.  A couple things I want are: no sugar, as raw as possible, if not raw as lightly processed as possible.

“Thank you for your inquiry.

I am a huge believer in checking the manufacturing procedures for products and companies that I really enjoy so I am glad you’ve contacted us. I’ll try and give you a bit of background as to the manufacturing procedures, please let me know if you have any further questions.

As it is our effort to provide the cleanest, most natural and minimally processed products you will see this reflected in both our ingredient choices and how we prepare them for consumption.

Several of our ingredients are raw, and utilize a jet spray process to dry them into a powder. This includes the chlorella in our WFHO and the green vegetables in our Shake and Go. Jet spraying literally involves soaking the plants, and then spraying them at a velocity that evaporates the moisture, while not heating the nutrients. There are no chemicals added, it is purely a mechanical process.

The hemp protein we use is also raw. It is produced by cold pressing the oil from the seeds to produce a dense hemp “cake” that is milled (at low temperature) and then screened to extract the protein.

Our flax is micro milled and flash pasteurized to remain shelf stable and digestible, all while not allowing the oils to become rancid.

Our pea protein and rice protein are not raw as they do experience friction in the milling process which brings them to about 130 degrees, which is slightly higher than the 118 degree threshold for raw. They are produced by a series of washing and sieving steps as well as isolating the protein through a (non solvent) process of dropping the pH. Again there is no hexanes, or solvents used to complete this.

Our maca root is gelatinized which is a cooking process to release the starch bonds concentrating the nutrients (glucosinolates and alkaloids). Maca must be cooked to be digestible.

Typically our Vega products are about 20-25% rawly weight, and no additives or preservatives are used in any stage of the manufacturing. All our products are tested by a third party laboratory to ensure quality, freshness and nutrient density remains and is viable.”