Health and trying to be an artist

It's almost embarrassing how many meals I have eaten at the Whole Foods salad bar this summer.

It is just so easy to get a quick, pretty, colorful, healthy meal there that I cannot get enough. I have also managed to get myself addicted to sparkling mineral water. I must continue to chant to myself that carbonated water is a privilege and not a daily entitlement. My Whole Foods meals are almost always a small scoop of grain salad, tons of veggies (especially kale salad!), a couple pieces of fresh fruit, a little scoop of beans, a slice of grilled tofu, a sprinkle of granola and dried cranberries, and a Larabar or other raw nut/fruit bar (I also like thinkFruit, Pure Bar, and the coconut & agave flavor of Raw Revolution live food bars). I just love getting a bite of each goodie in an enormous salad! To keep my energy up, I have also been having green smoothies as snacks instead of "healthy" vegan cookies, which I had started to treat as an obligation instead of something special.

Nope, that's not Shiner Bock. (Definitely not - even a couple sips of alcohol make me feel dehydrated and horrible!) Enter my Green Monster recipe, stage right:

• 2/3 cup Living Harvest Original Hempmilk
• 1 pinch sea salt
• a liberal splash of pure maple syrup
• 1 scoop raw almond butter (I use MaraNatha natural)
• a few banana chunks
• 1/2 cup frozen fruit (my favorites are raspberries, blueberries, and mango, but I choose just one - I don't combine them)
• a couple large handfuls of spinach

I know I talk a lot about the latest vegan ice cream that has entered my tummy, but I really do think this smoothie is just as good as ice cream - better actually, especially if you don't want to have your energy zapped later on.

One of my favorite meals I have made lately was a fun little platter. It reminded me of eating at Whole Foods because I just put a bunch of my favorite foods on one plate:

Marjon grilled tofu, cinnamon-lime pearled barley, roasted butternut squash, rutabaga fries (which I heard about from Shelby), sliced mango...

and curry ketchup (curry powder + ketchup), for rutabaga fry dippin'! I felt so fantastic after eating this. I loved every single morsel on my (rather huge) plate.

And finally, I hinted in my last post that I would tell you about my summer job(s). Oh, the suspense! Are you ready for this?!

Okay, here goes...

Bam:

I work at two (!!) coffee shops, and I have been working on my artistic side.

Here's my latest latte art:

Ze heart.

Ze rosetta:

Ze heart, again:

These days I have been trying to balance health and my love for quality (as in good-tasting!) espresso by limiting my coffee intake. I will tell you I had between 10 and 12 espresso shots last Friday (oops)(and it wasn't all my fault, seriously), but beyond that I have been trying to limit myself to 2 to 4 shots a day. I have found that after my initial double shot of the day, any kind of coffee makes me sleepy and un-energetic... But I drink espresso because I have access to the good stuff (some of the best stuff in the whole wide coffee-growin' world, actually), otherwise I would cut coffee out of my diet completely. Bad coffee isn't worth drinking, and if I had to drink that or nothing, I would just wean myself off of caffeine. Appreciating espresso and coffee is like a person's love for fine wine - coffee done right can have a multitude of tastes and nuances, floral tones, hints of fruit, chocolate, or nuts. But this pretty much won't happen if one is buying their coffee stale or at Starbucks. Anyway.

I just love espresso so much. Coming up, I'll be doing a review of Amy Ferraris's new movie, The Perfect Cappuccino. Thanks for letting me take a peek, Amy! Stay tuned for the review on this very blog. The Perfect Cappuccino is such a great film - it is so satisfying to encounter the thoughts someone who is as passionate as I am about cappuccinos. If you watch this movie, you'll know I am not crazy!!! I am not the only one who is obsessed with the perfect balance of microfoamed [soy]milk and espresso. :)

RRV out!