More favs to add to the list

First off, thank you for all the sweet comments & emails yesterday! I was very honored to receive that award & pass it on to some of my favs. That made my week!

I have a couple recipes to share with you from this weekend.

We made a modified version of Clean Teen Kelsey's Carrot Cake Batter Shake. Because a couple of the ingredients were just out of our reach in terms of the cleanse, we had to make a couple substitutions.

Carrot Cake Shake

1/2c Almond Milk (unsweetened vanilla)

1/4c Coconut Milk

1/2c steamed Carrots

2-3T Buckwheat flour

2-3T Coconut butter

1T unsweetened Coconut

1/2T Chia seeds

1/2t Cinnamon

pinch ginger, salt, vanilla extract

small handful of ice cubes

Topped with shaved coconut butter & cinnamon. Very tasty!

For dinner, we tried another delicious sounding soup. Again, we had to make some cleanse modifications, but it was still so good!

Butternut Squash & Kale Soup

(Recipe adapted from Kath Eats Real Food)

1 medium butternut squash

2 carrots (or a small handful of baby carrots)

2 celery stalks

1 apple

1 big handful of kale

1 box Pacific brand Cashew Carrot Ginger Soup

1t olive oil

dash of cinnamon, nutmeg, chili powder, red chili flakes

First we nuked the squash in the microwave for a couple minutes. Then we removed the skins. Next we sauteed the squash, carrots & celery together. After they were fairly soft, we added the base, the Cashew Carrot Ginger soup. We added all the seasonings & simmered that for several minutes. Once in the blender (we had to divide it into 2 batches to fit in our blender), we added the apple & kale. After mixing it all together, we placed it back on the heat and simmered for a few more minutes.

New Bowls! + Topped with Chopped Almonds 

For us being on the cleanse, this made well over 2 batches. For leftovers, we had it again the next day. We just added 1/2 large butternut squash & 1/3c of pumpkin puree to the mix to make 2 more complete meals.

Lastly, I have to include the smoothie I conjured up on the fly last night. Can I just say, we are so over blending & smoothing?! It has been hard coming up with recipes that fit within the guidelines that we can actually enjoy. A frozen or raw banana would go so great in so many of them. Sigh.

But last night I just used a few ingredients we had off hand & it was surprisingly delicious! Actually one of my favorites so far. This and the Berry Almondy are at the top.

Cashew Kale Smoothie

4 kiwis

1/2c Almond Milk

1T unsweetened Coconut

1 heaping T Cashew butter

1/4c Cashews

1/2 scoop Amazing Meal-vanilla chai

1T Flaxseed meal

2-3 ice cubes

This recipe made 2 small smoothies, but can easily be used for 1 full sized smoothie. The flavor was fantastic & the consistency was so creamy. Yummy!