Elephant Smoothie Bowl + Homemade Salted Magic Shell

Hello, friends.

This is a smoothie bowl. 

You probably already know that.

But you're about to see a lot of pictures of it, anyway.

 I used to live on peanut butter banana smoothies. Sometimes I would have them for two or three meals, which illicited some concern from my parents, as any seemingly liquid diet probably should. But, seeing as it has plenty of carbs from bananas and fat and protein from peanut butter, I maintain it's basically a perfect meal, especially when you throw in some spinach. And, it tastes like dessert. I'm not even joking, it's like ice cream.

Really Special Pancakes

Why, you may be asking, are these innocuous pancakes, which, if this photo is any indication of the overall condition of the general surroundings may have been made in squalor, special? Well, these pancakes are suitable for special people. The kind of people who don't eat refined sugar, or gluten, or animal products. And they can be made without a trip to the health food store for a package of buckwheat, or some other gluten-free flour expensive enough to have been a gift to the infant Christ. In fact, they can be made with stuff you probably already have lying around. Lucky you.

Salted Caramel Mocha Frappe: Pt I

Around the time the other half and I were jaunting around the Boston area for my aunt’s wedding, Starbucks did their thing and released their usual fall flavors: pumpkin spice and salted caramel mocha. Many factors, such as its revolting, distinctly un-vegan ingredients and the fact that the barista/snob in me generally hates the sort of individuals who come in frothing at the mouth over the flavor, abbreviating it to PSL as if pumpkin spice latte crosses some obscure threshold of tolerance is just too much of a mouthful to actually say, rabidly snapping celebratory iPhone pics of their decidedly run-of-the-mill beverages fated to be over-sentimentally hashtagged and posted and reposted to the point of exhaustion, have made me refuse to order the ever-popular pumpkin spice. This is pure pigheaded- and meanspiritedness, because I actually love it.

    My one choice when abroad, therefore, was to suck down as many salted caramel mochas as possible before returning home. This left me with such a spoilt, salted caramel lust that I actually drove to a Starbucks after leaving my job—again, at a coffee shop—to get one of said drinks. It was pathetic, and I was in my uniform still and the Starbucks and I kept exchanging knowing but confused looks. So I staged an intervention. For myself. 

And yes, I know I'm just the salty cousin of all those pumpkin spice hags.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Smoothie

This Thirsty Thursday, I'm taking a step away from my usual coffee beverages to bring you a quirky smoothie. Yes. Quirky. 

It's like Zooey Deschanel in a cup.

Cookie Crumble Frappe [vegan]

 

Oh, hello there, you gorgeous drinkable confection. Let me introduce you to my friends, Oreo cookies.

   Well, almost Oreo cookies. The cookies, like the drink, are really a one-off of someone else's brilliance (aren't we all), brilliance in this case being Starbucks' Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino.

Iced Chai

   I'm about to share with you a fairly straightforward recipe for something delicious. An iced chai tea.

Mocha Frappe

   It’s a cold, rainy Easter Sunday in our little Southern city here on the East Coast. Last year, we were spending Easter in Minnesota, and it was ever colder and more miserable. I think I thought then that moving closer to the ocean would solve all my problems, including weather-related ones. Well, it hasn't, though it has made most of them milder. 

    So what is one to do when you’re trapped indoors (and have been all weekend), and the afternoon needs a little sprucing up? My answer is usually the same: coffee.