Antioxidant Rich Raw Chocolate Smoothie

Since my other smoothie recipe was such a big hit, I decided to share another one with you guys! I actually came up with this recipe before the Energizing Lemon Blueberry Smoothie recipe, but didn't think about sharing it until now!

I try to pack as many servings of fruit, veggies, vitamins and antioxidants as possible into each smoothie I make. It is a ridiculously easy way to get all of the nutrients you need without having to think about it too much. Plus, if you consume the smoothie in the morning, it is an excellent jump start to your day! I can really tell the difference in my day to day depending on if I had time to make and enjoy a smoothie before my day starts.

One of my favorite smoothie combos are blueberries and chocolate.

For this specific recipe, I went with mixed berries 

and Boku Superfood Super Cacao Nibs.

Blueberries are high in antioxidants and they taste friggin' delicious!

SO delicious in fact, that when I spilled my pint of fresh organic blueberries last week, I simply rinsed off the dog hair and debris, and happily munched out on them anyway.. 

(The five second rule quickly turned into a 5 minute rule when I had to fight off three dogs to capture my precious berries... They love fruits and veggies!)

Blueberries are also known to improve memory function and reduce the effects of aging!

Raw Cacao Nibs are amazing! They are yummy straight out of the bag, on yogurt, in salad, or anything your beautiful brain can think up.

Like blueberries, cacao is FULL of antioxidants! But what Cacao is most know for their flavonoid content. (Also found in berries, as well as tea and grapes!!) Studies suggest flavonoids may help prevent things like cancer and Alzheimer's.

I hope you learned a couple things, and are inspired to make some healthy decisions today!

Smoothies are so much fun, as you can really vary the recipe any way you want!

Feel free to use some honey for added sweetness.

I also drizzled organic chocolate syrup around the inside of my jar.

Energizing Blueberry Lemon Smoothie Recipe

I try to drink at least one smoothie everyday. It can be a challenge when you think about dragging out all of the items needed to make it. So what I do is prep the ingredients and place in a freezer bag until ready to use. I just pop it out, liquify the greens with 1 cup of liquid, then slowly add the rest of the ingredients using the smoothie setting on my blender. This recipe was too good not to share! Let me know if you'd like to see more of my yummy smoothies!

1 1/2 C Blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1 Lemon (wedged/peeled/unseeded)

1 Giant handful of greens (I used baby spinach)

1 frozen banana (to make it creamy and sweet)

1 C liquid of your choice (apple juice, hemp milk, milk, etc.)

Add sweetener if desired.

(I also added in some granola and Boku Superfood Super Cacao Nibs for added depth!)

Add spinach and 1 C liquid

 (I used hemp milk to keep this smoothie vegan)

 Blend using liquify setting.

Add blueberries and lemon wedges.

Blend on smoothie setting.

Finish off by blending in a frozen banana.

Pour into a glass, top with blueberries and granola, and enjoy!

 Yay for my first smoothie recipe post!

Enjoy ;)

Tomato Girl/ Tomato Baby Company Review and Giveaway!

Tomato Baby Company is devoted to growing the tomato and pepper seedlings that their customers want.
This company was formed as a sort of a co-op to provide the many types of plants gardeners want to try at a fair, decent price.
Substantial, quality plants are their goal and they will continue to grow them for you, as long as they get the quantity of orders they need to operate.

So, please pass their name on to your gardening friends and neighbors, hobbyists and commercial growers alike!

Remember to shop for tomato, pepper and basil plants and seedlings here because they ship throughout the continental United States!

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming. 

 I have not yet received my plants, but I wanted to do a preliminary review anyway! The wonderful plants at Tomato Girl/Tomato Baby Company sell out rather quickly, and I want my giveaway winner to be able to choose something awesome before they are all gone! I will be posting another (more detailed) review when the tomato plants get to me (and into my garden)!

When I contacted Tomato Baby, I got a response quicker than I expected. I had the pleasure of speaking with Alainia (the owner) several times. She was very kind and so very helpful. By browsing her site, you can really tell how committed she is to her tomato babies. She made a few suggestions on how, what, and when to order. You can really tell that she is genuinely helpful and involved, not just trying to make a sale like a lot of other companies I have ordered from in the past.

The Tomato Baby website has SO many different varieties of tomatoes as well as several other veggies to choose from that it can be a bit overwhelming (especially for the beginner gardener.) Luckily, the site has an option to have the grower pick the plants for you. All you have to do is leave a detailed description of what it is you are looking for. For instance, when I ordered I  put in the description box:

1 unique cherry tomato variety that will be great in salads.
1 variety that is perfect for cooking (stuffing)
1 variety that produces striped fruits.
1 variety that loves hot climates and is disease resistant.
1 variety that produces HUGE fruit.
1 variety that that has an early season.
1 variety that just sounds cool, and will make me proud when showing it to others!
(can be a mixture of each quality! Such as a large, striped tomato that is great for cooking, etc.) I typically only enjoy cherry tomatoes, so I am trying to focus more on those.

I tried to follow Alainia's suggestions:


How should a new customer pick plants? Pick at least one for:

taste alone

its color (black, white, yellow, orange, green, even striped jobs)

production - so there WILL be guaranteed tomatoes

disease resistance

its size (Big ones, little ones, Huge ones)

an early season (60 days is about the earliest)

a mid-season variety (approximately 80 days)

late season (90-100 days) - probably worth the wait!

something that just sounds cool....there is a lot of character in these plant names and their histories

cherry tomatoes for the babies and grandbabies

I am super excited and cannot wait to see what she sends me!! 

 

ONE lucky winner will get to pick 5 plants of their choosing from the Tomato Baby company. Giveaway is open to the continental US only, and will end on April 21! To enter,  just leave a comment below telling me what plants you would choose. For extra entries leave separate comments for:

Follow/Like Living the Paisley Life on Facebook

Following @loveofpaisleys on Twitter

Thank you all, and good luck!

Alternative Baking Company- Proving that Vegan Food can be Delicious too!

Alternative Baking Company, Inc. is dedicated to helping make the dairy and meat industries obsolete by providing gourmet quality, vegan alternatives to traditional baked goods. And they are having fun in the process!

Their cookies look and taste like the very best traditionally made cookies, but contain no dairy, no eggs, no trans fats, no hydrogenated oils, no cholesterol, no animal ingredients, no artificial ingredients, and no refined sugar. They also have a gluten-free line of cookies. Alternative Baking Company also uses organic flour and organic sugar, as well as other premium, natural ingredients. They make their cookies in small, handmade batches. The result is a soft and chewy cookie that is both decadently good and good for you. Their cookies are available in thousands of health food stores across the country and also in many mainstream grocery stores, convenience stores, and coffee shops. 

Alternative Baking Company uses sustainable palm oil!!

Alternative Baking Company offers 12 delicious looking cookies to choose from. I got to choose four, and it was very hard to make a decision. In the end I went with the Outrageous Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cookie, Colossal Chocolate Chip Cookie, Blueberry Lemon Muffincookie, Explosive Espresso Chip Cookie.

I am typically not a fan of packaged cookies, but these babies were amazing! No joke. They were all so good that it was hard to choose which one was my favorite. But I guess if I had to, I would choose the Explosive Espresso Chip Cookie. Each cookie is 2 servings, but this particular one was hard to stop eating at the halfway point. The cookie is so soft, and the espresso flavor just explodes in your mouth. Hence the name, I suppose! This cookie tastes even better when heated up for a bit!

The Blueberry Lemon MuffinCookie is scrumpulescent! I have never had anything like it. It is soft, lemony, and bursts of real blueberries. It is also very tasty warm, and goes nicely with a cup of coffee.

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 Disclosure: I received the above item in return for an honest, sincere review. I was not expected to leave a positive review, and would never post something I didn't feel fully confident in. No monetary compensation was provided. The above opinion is the sole opinion of me and my family, and may differ from your own. I am disclosing in accordance with FTC 16 CFR Part 255.

Surprise your Valentine with Sjaaks Organic Chocolate

*Vegan/USDA Organic/Fair Trade/Rainforest Alliance Certified

Sjaak's Organic Chocolates aims to create the highest quality gourmet organic chocolates possible while simultaneously supporting a positive work environment, fair trade practices and encouraging sustainable agriculture through the use of organic, non-GMO ingredients.

I was excited to try these products as my family and I are firm believers in using natural products whenever possible, while maintaining fair wages and fair trade practices.
 

The first thing I tried was Sjaak's Organic Chocolate Truffle Assortment. It had 9 tempting flavors to try (all of which were delightful!) The Cappuccino and Blueberry were my personal favorites. 

I also got to try Sjaak's Organic Dark Chocolate Peanut Clusters. I don't even really like peanuts, but these little guys were so good! Oh my goodness. I hated having to share them..

I reaaaaally like love am obsessed with the Sjaak's Organic Hearts of Cherry chocolates. They are so full of flavor. The perfect balance of chocolate and cherry. These tiny heart shaped delights brought me back to my childhood. They were rich and creamy, almost like an adult version of the Cherry Cordials I loved so much. The dark chocolate is rich and smooth, while the filling is tart and sweet, just like a real cherry. They are made with minimal ingredients, and real organic cherries.

I also got to try Sjaak's line of candy bars: Eli's Earth Bars are the result of a long standing dream of theirs. Sjaak's has imagined an amazing chocolate candy bar that not only delights their taste buds, but stands for and does something more. Eli’s Earth Bars are organic and Fair trade which makes them environmentally and socially responsible. They also give back 5% of every sale to a non-profit charitable organization that benefits children because they feel that childhood should embrace joy, delight, and peace. Every child should be entitled to these simple inherent rights.

The Milk Chocolate with Creamy Caramel bar was delicious! Not what I expected from a Vegan caramel.

The Dark Chocolate with Almonds bar was by far my favorite. The chocolate was rich and dark, but did not leave a bitter aftertaste. Just the way I like my dark chocolate. Each of the 5 yummy squares boasts a full sized almond.

The last bar I tried was the Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar. It offered five delectable squares of milk chocolate stuffed full of rich, creamy peanut butter. Definitely satisfied the sweet tooth for a few days to come!

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Disclosure: I received the above item in return for an honest, sincere review. I was not expected to leave a positive review, and would never post something I didn't feel fully confident in. No monetary compensation was provided. The above opinion is the sole opinion of me and my family, and may differ from your own. I am disclosing in accordance with FTC 16 CFR Part 255.