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spinach

Health

Why I love juices & smoothies

July 9, 2014

Ahh, summertime. All you wanna do is be at the beach or by a pool and sipping something cool and refreshing.

healthy and easy green smoothie recipe

A simple green smoothie

My go to for hot weather is definitely juices and smoothies! Sadly I do not have a juicer and cannot make my own juices (one day I will own a juicer!) but I do have an awesome blender and love experimenting with different smoothie combos. Smoothies and juices are wonderful as you can pack them full of nutrient dense fruit and veg. As much as I love salads and chomping away on fresh fruit, it’s really nice to have a small snack which is full of goodness and also easy to take on the road with me if I have a particularly busy day.

Healthy Juices and Smoothies

green juice from suja juice is a great travel snack

Suja ‘Glow’ juice – my fave on the go companion!

delicious green juice from vive juicery in Salt Lake City

‘The Hulk’ juice from Vive Juicery, Salt Lake City – contains blue-green algae!

Although I love both juices and smoothies, there is a slight difference to the two. Juices do not contain the fiber of the fruit which can make it easier on your digestive system, but you obviously do not get the benefits of fiber (which include keeping you full, keeping your bowels moving hehe and lots of other good stuff). Smoothies on the other hand do contain the fiber of the fruit and veg, but they are a little bit heavier on the stomach, but not by much as the fruits and veggies are still easily digestible since they have been blended up. It really depends on your preference whether or not to choose a smoothie over a juice or vice versa, but both are great options. The best way to enjoy a juice or a smoothie is to of course make your own, but time does not always allow! When choosing a smoothie or a juice, the most important thing to look at is the ingredients list. Make sure that the smoothie or juice contains nothing but a dairy or non dairy base, fruits and veg. If you see something like ‘sugar, cane sugar’ or etc, run!! Many juices and smoothies are already so naturally sweet from the fruit in it that there is simply no need to add any more sugar. So avoid brands that do. My juice brands are definitely Suja Juice and Project Juice as they do not have any added sugar in them.

Greenhopping is a fabulous app that lets you locate green juice bars, so definitely make sure to download it when you can.

delicious turmeric mylk juice from Project Juice in San Francisco

Turmeric Mylk is so yummy and unique!

delicious dtox juice from Project Juice in San Francisco

Mmm, my fave Project Juice drink

delicious Swiss Beetz juice from Project Juice in San Francisco

The juice that made me loves beets again 😀

Okay soooo if you want to make your own smoothie, I can definitely help with that. Sadly, I do not have my own juicer but I have found that a lot of juice places let you choose your own blend of juice and what to put in which is really cool.

Anyway, the basics of making a smoothie are:

  • the base liquid (this could be water, coconut water, brewed green tea, milk, coconut milk, unsweetened almond milk or another of your choice)
  • fruit (I prefer to use frozen fruit in a smoothies; choose away from any fruit such as bananas, strawberries, blueberries. Dates are a yummy addition too)
  • vegetables (optional, but makes the smoothie so much better; choose from cucumber, leafy greens such as spinach, kale, romaine lettuce and etc)
  • healthy fats (optional; choose from natural peanut butter, coconut oil, avocado, flax seeds, chia seeds and etc)
  • protein powder (optional for those looking for a more filling smoothie, I use vanilla whey protein powder)
  • citrus (lemon juice, lime juice, oranges and etc)

So there you have it! Feel free to add anything else your heart desires. I have seen some pretty unique additions to smoothies such as spirulina, chlorella and maca powder. The world is your oyster when it comes to smoothies. My favorite smoothie is pictured below and is made up of frozen bananas, unsweetened almond milk, lime juice, spinach, and vanilla whey protein powder topped with fresh mango.

easy homemade st patricks day green smoothie with mango

I hope you enjoyed this post! I love making, drinking and buying these healthy juices and smoothies, and I just wanted to share with you all why I loved them as much as I do. If you already make juices or smoothies, what is your fave combination?

Honestly yours,
Alice

 

Friday Fare, Health

Asian Pear & Spinach Salad with Creamy Cider Dressing

April 25, 2014

This week’s inspiration comes from my good friend Alyssa, a lover of good and healthy food. She gave me the idea for this salad although I have made a few tweaks which I hope you will enjoy. This is a meatless salad with its protein source coming from the cheese (I give two different options), almonds and pumpkin seeds. You can always add some lean protein such as grilled chicken, beef, shrimp or fish to make the salad a little heartier, although in all fairness it is pretty hearty as it is because of the nuts, seeds and cheese! I added shrimp to mine though … surprise, surprise 🙂

Asian Pear & Spinach Salad with Creamy Cider Dressing

 Enjoying a twelve essentials ‘Suja Juice’ drink with my salad for the greenest of all meals!

 

Asian Pear & Spinach Salad with Creamy Cider Dressing

Alice Williams
A light and refreshing salad drizzled with a delicious cider dressing.
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Ingredients
  

  • For the salad
  • 2 cups or more spinach
  • 1 medium - sliced asian pears
  • 1-2 tbsp - almond slices
  • 1-2 tbsp - feta cheese crumbles personally blue cheese is a my fave cheese on salad but it's pretty high in sodium so it is not something to have daily
  • 1-2 tbsp - pumpkin seeds
  • For the homemade dressing
  • 1/2 - 1 tbsp - dijon Mustard
  • 1 tbsp - olive oil
  • 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Grated lemon zest - 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp - black Pepper

Instructions
 

  • 1. First, let us start by making the dressing. Combine all of the salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl and use mix all the ingredients together. You could also use a food processor to do this as well.
  • 2. Set aside your yummy dressing. Get a plate or salad bowl and put the spinach leaves in it, and then pour some of your dressing into the plate or bowl. Toss the spinach and the salad dressing so that your spinach leaves are nice and .. well, dressed!
  • 3. Add the rest of the salad ingredients and toss them all together.
  • 4. Eat and enjoy!
Asian Pear & Spinach Salad with Creamy Cider Dressing

Asian Pear & Spinach Salad with Creamy Cider Dressing

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Friday Fare, and if you share it on instagram or twitter, please hashtag #fridayfare and tag me in your photo’s so I can see your lovely re-creations! Do you have any requests for future editions of Friday Fare? I am always open to suggestions because I want to make sure I am tailoring my posts towards what YOU want 🙂

Honestly yours,
Alice

Friday Fare, Health

Easy Shrimp Tacos

April 11, 2014

Easy Shrimp Tacos

This week’s Friday Fare is dedicated to my friend, Tenny, who requested an easy shrimp tacos recipe for the upcoming Cinco de Mayo!

shrimp tacos

I thought this was a great idea because a) I wanted to make taco’s anyway and b) Now you can all make these taco’s for your cinco de mayo parties, or to just eat and enjoy. This taco has my own Alice twist on it. Instead of cabbage, I have included spinach because then you don’t have to spend ages shredding cabbage. Plus, spinach is extremely healthy for you and very, very tasty. I decided to use guacamole to spread onto the taco (like butter on bread) AND also as a topping. The main ingredient in guacamole is avocado, which is a source of healthy fats and has quite a range of vitamins and minerals. Healthy fats are a necessity to aid your body’s absorption of vitamins and minerals too, by the way.

Your carbohydrate source comes from the corn tortilla’s, and your protein comes from the shrimp! I am a mega fan of shrimp (as those of you on Instagram know) because they are low in calories but quite dense in protein. For example, 4 ounces of shrimp is only 80 calories and has 18 grams of protein!

For all you students out there, I recommend buying frozen shrimp in bulk because it is much cheaper and it is really easy to thaw – you just put it in hot water for a few minutes and it is ready to cook.

Shrimp Tacos

Alice Williams
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with these tasty and healthy shrimp tacos!
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Ingredients
  

Ingredients

  • For the taco's
  • 2 corn tortilla's I used blue corn tortilla's from Mi Abuelita Bontia Naturals
  • 1 cup fresh spinach
  • 4 oz shrimp or 8 jumbo shrimp
  • Juice of half a lime
  • 1-2 teaspoons cumin
  • 1-2 teaspoons garlic salt or 1 clove of crushed garlic and 1-2 teaspoons of high quality salt
  • For the Guacamole
  • 1 ripe avocado
  • 2 crushed cloves of garlic
  • Juice of 1/2 a lime
  • 3-4 cilantro leaves
  • Optional - 1/2 diced jalapeno

Instructions
 

  • 1. Prep the guacamole first. Trust me, you will devour the taco's and forget all about the guacamole if you have not made it first! To do that, mash all of the ingredients listed above for the guacamole in a small bowl and set aside.
  • 2. Now get a large frying pan and put over a high heat. Wait 30 seconds to 1 minute until the pan is quite hot and then put the taco on it. Cook each side of the taco for 30 seconds to 1 minute - until they are lightly browned.
  • 3. Once both taco's are cooked, you can spread your guacamole onto them. I used about half of the guacamole I made to spread onto the taco's. Then add a layer of spinach onto your taco's, will require about 4 spinach leaves, depending on how big they are. Set aside for now,
  • 4. Saute the shrimp in a frying pan, using either coconut oil or olive oil. I used a spray olive oil to minimize the calories and fat since I am getting a substantial amount of healthy fats from the avocado already. Sprinkle the cumin and garlic salt over the shrimp, and then drizzle the lime juice over the shrimp. Please adjust the amount you add to your taste.
  • 5. Once the shrimp has cooked (does not take long, maybe 5-8 minutes?) place them evenly onto your taco's, and place another layer of spinach on top of them. Add some more guacamole if you want, and some salsa if you have made or have some as well.
  • 6. Place a few cilantro leaves on the top of the taco's (if you want), drizzle some more lime juice on them and then fold, and enjoy!
Shrimp Tacos

Shrimp Tacos

 

Shrimp Tacos with guacamole

I hope you have all enjoyed this week’s edition of Friday Fare! I love this recipe because it is quite a light dish, yet very satisfying, tasty and healthy all at the same time 🙂 I prefer to use corn tortilla’s because flour tortilla’s tend to have a lot more ingredients in them whereas corn tortilla’s are much simpler. Annoyingly though, flour tortilla’s do have more protein and fiber but corn tortilla’s have less calories. And for those who are intolerant to wheat and gluten, corn tortilla’s are the obvious winner here. I think corn tortilla’s are tastier too hehe, but that is just my personal opinion!

As always, if you recreate these, please please use the hashtag #fridayfare and tag me in your post so that I can see them! And if you like the posts, why not subscribe .. 🙂

Honestly yours,
Alice