I feel so scattered right now. Please forgive me for being away so much lately! The longer I’m pulled away from the blog, the harder it is to sit down and write something meaningful. I don’t know why, but nothing feels right lately. There’s so much on my mind and so much to say, but I just draw a blank when I finally sit down to type. I’ve written 3 draft posts recently and scrapped each one of them. Eric, the stater-of-the-obvious, looks at me and says, “Well, why don’t you write about how you’re having a hard time writing then?”
I’ve turned into a 90 year old woman who goes upstairs only to forget why she went up the stairs in the first place. This is mildly concerning at my age. The other day, I found a new jar of almond butter in the freezer. Scary. Shifting from cookbook mode to blogging mode has been more challenging than I anticipated and my best work seems to result from the days when I totally step away to saturate myself in one thing. Multitasking can be a double edged sword – trying to do everything at once often gets me nowhere, but when I only focus on one thing I have guilt about the other things I’m leaving behind. To this Eric says, “Well, don’t feel guilty about it then.”
This right here is the difference between men and women.
All of this self-indulging talk today is for me to say: it’s not you, it’s me. This long-distance thing has been a drag and I’m counting down the days until I can run to you and twirl you around in a big bear hug. Until then, I’m doing my best each day and trying to forget about the word balance because sometimes that just doesn’t exist. Let’s be real. The good news is that I finished shooting all 100 photographs for the book. Twenty-five of those photos were shot in the last 7 days alone. Yes, it was insane and no I don’t ever want to do that again.
Currently, I’m knee deep in the editing process which probably won’t let up until August. Even though it’s been a crazy time, I’m so grateful to be able to do the kind of work that makes me feel excited when I get up in the morning. No one said the worthwhile things in life would be easy. I’m trying to be mindful each day and not worry needlessly about the future. These are the moments I will look back on with fondness…even the days when I spill milk all over my photo.
Plus, there’s always coffee.
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Iced Mocha Green Monster Smoothie
Yield
2 servings or 3 cups
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Total time
This icy drink is a hybrid between an Iced Mocha Coffee and a Green Monster Smoothie. I snuck in a handful of greens, but you can’t taste them one bit.
Ingredients
- 1 cup coffee, room temperature
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 1 small handful spinach
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 3 large Medjool dates, pitted (or sweetener of choice)
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 10 large ice cubes
Directions
- Blend until smooth. Gulp. Cool down. Enjoy summer!
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)I’ll leave you with one of my photo set-ups (Jared this one is for you!). I was cleaning up yesterday and turned around to catch this angle. I had to laugh at this hot mess. There’s an antique, beat up baking sheet for the background, and old wood slab for the base, and a white board to reflect light coming in from the window. The baking sheet is from a garage sale. The poor lady looked at Eric with great concern and said, “You aren’t going to cook with this are you??” Once she knew it was for photography she was relieved. Oddly, enough the photo turned out quite nicely despite its apparent shortcomings!
Many of you are asking about the date of my cookbook release and I don’t have an official date yet, but it’s slated to be released early in 2014. My publisher is hoping for a January/February release to kick off the New Year. Yay! I’ll be sure to keep you up to date as soon as I know for sure. As always, thank you for your excitement and support. It means the world to me.
If you’d like to sign up for my cookbook newsletter, you can do so here. I haven’t sent anything out yet, but I hope to send some juicy tidbits as the date gets closer.
By the way, happy almost summer! Bring on the fruit and veggies.
I could definitely go for one of those iced mocha green monster smoothies right about now!
Great for the weather nowadays
It’s easy to assume that readers want material that contains conclusions, insights, revelations, and so on. Oftentimes, what readers want (and I speak for myself as one of your readers) is just to hear someone’s thought process. And that’s precisely what you gave us in this post :) Thank you for that, and for being you. No pressure, ever, to manufacture material for your audience. In simply being authentic, you’re sharing the qualities that people love you for!
I just have to tell you that I actually thought the split milk looked perfect! I hope you ended up using it in your shoot!
Also, loving this smoothie! I usually have to down my smoothie, and then my coffee in the morning and now, I know how to do it all at the same time! Talk about multitasking!
Yum! The Iced Mocha Green Monster Smoothie is awesome! I used the coffee left over in my coffeepot from last night and snuck in a scoop of protein powder. Perfect morning drink!
I don’t blog, but I spend most days with a list of to do’s that don’t get completely done because I’m so way overextended. I then sit down at the end of the day, log into facebook and it says “what’s on your mind?” oh dear. No one wants to hear that. LOL The mud puddle that is my brain would confuse the bravest of souls. =D You found almond butter, my husband found my work keys. Yes, in the freezer. *sigh* Really looking forward to your cookbook whenever it shall appear. Vegan joy in my heart. Sending you a virtual *hug*. It’s crazy now but you’ll look back with pride at what you created and WE will all get to enjoy your genius for eternity, so thank you!
Thank you for your lovely sense of humour! That is hilarious about your keys in the freezer….hah. Hugs to you as well!
Thank you for the iced green monster mocha smoothie. It was amazing! Can’t wait to try your coffee concentrate recipe!!
I love this smoothie!! I have a feeling that this is going to be my go to iced coffee drink this summer! Thank you!
Hi Angela,
I’m justing starting to make some of your recipes! My nieces follow your website and recipes all the time!
I would like to find the recipe for the bars at the top of this page! they look great! I seems to me there is cranberries, pumpkin seeds, oats…….. No name though!
I’m going out today to shop for the ingredients to make Endurance Crackers. I’ll let you know how they turn out and if I’m successful sneaking them onto the cheese board this weekend!
Suz
Hey Suz, That recipe is for my Glo Bars from the bakery I ran a couple years back – they will be in my cookbook! :) Thanks for reading & good luck with the crackers.
What a lovely post. I’m new to your blog and just love your photography, recipes, writing, and your honesty. Now that mocha smoothie with spinach? Inspired!! So glad I found you!
Heather
Thank you Heather, you are so sweet! :) off to check out your blog…
Oh wow, that iced mocha green monster smoothie is AWESOME. I will be making that on a regular basis from now on! Thank you for another great recipe!
The photo of the grain bars with cranberries….where is the recipe??? What name do you have them under? They look wonderful…
Hi Peggy, The recipe will be in my cookbook (it was my bakery granola bar recipe) :)
Do you have suggestions for alternates to Almond milk in your recipes? (I’m allergic to nuts–boo).
Hi Hil, My advice is to find a non-dairy milk that you like because that’s most important. Almond milk is my fav so thats why I use it in my recipes. You could try oat milk, hemp milk, soy milk, coconut, etc. good luck!
I’ve made this yummy iced mocha green monster a few times now, but I always seem to end up with some date ‘sediment’ at the bottom of the Vitamix…anyone else have this? Am I just not blending long enough?
that happens to me sometimes too…just keep blending! Or soak the dates beforehand to soften them up. enjoy
Soaking them! What a smart idea. I’ll try it. Thank you!
I really appreciate this post because I have been feeling the same way. With the things keeping me away from my blog over the last few months (mainly pregnancy) I am finding it SO difficult to get back into it – which makes me just sad.
I took the same approach and just wrote a post about why I’m having a hard time which has turned out much better than all my failed attempts in the kitchen as of late. Honesty about how we are doing is always best, right? It makes me like you more :)
Besides, I can’t imagine how you have managed amidst the craziness of your cookbook photo extravaganza. Take care of yourself, my friend.
Sarah, How funny that you just left a comment because I just finished reading your latest post! We must be on the same wave length today. Your honesty is so refreshing and I wish you all the best with the rest of your pregnancy. Thanks for your lovely blog!
According to Amazon, the paperbook version came out in March 2013, and the Kindle version is due out end of December. :)
I am tempted to order the paperback just to see what happens. Maybe it’s a magic portal that lets me order books from the future…
Ugh, paperback, not paperbook.
I *love love love* this blog, Angela. Since I got married almost 7 years ago, I’ve gained 30 lbs and become someone I hardly recognize in so many ways. This website has made me excited about working out and making healthy food; every recipe that I’ve tried here has been amazing and I’ve started to improvise (always hard for me for some reason) with great results. I tried the Green Monster Smoothie this week and it put me in the best mood! The next day, I made one using avocado, kale, flax, banana, almond milk, cocoa, a dash of maple syrup…and, while it sounded pretty risky, it was delicious! So, thank you for being there, for working so hard and inspiring so many of us. You rock!
I always make this but I never thought to do it with cocoa powder! Def trying this tomorrow!