Smoothie Bowl: The Fancy Edition

Guys, I just have to share with you all the recipe for this smoothie bowl, because I'm so proud of how it turned out. It was delicious

Smoothie Base:
3-4 smaller strawberries
2/3-1/2 cup milk (skim)
ice cubes
opt. 2 scoops Herbalife vanilla shake
opt 1 scoop Herbalife fiber

Toppings:
museli
2-4 strawberries
small handful of dried blueberries
small handful of sunflower seeds
small handful of pumpkin seeds
small handful of flaxseeds
small handful of chia seeds

1. Blend the smoothie base in a blender and pour into a bowl. It should be pretty thick. Too soupy and everything will sink to the bottom.
2. How I decorated:

• I sprinkled the museli in about 1/3 of the bowl
• I lined the strawberries half way, eating the ends because, why not?
• I then sprinkled the blueberries and work my way to the other end with the different seeds.

So easy, right? And I found all of the ingredients in either E-mart or my local grocery store, so you can definitely find them near you! Heck, even my editing was minimal. iPhone 4S camera and a little playing around with the lighting in Instagram. 

How to Make a Smoothie Bowl

Guys, these things have revolutionized my life. I have to teach you all how to make a smoothie bowl. I'm not even fancy about it, but I plan to get more creative when I come home from vacation and order off iHerb.

Did you ever spend a bunch of time cutting up fruit and blending all these ingredients just to finish your smoothie in five minutes? So much prep for so little satisfaction.

Well, I've been drinking smoothies a lot since I'm doing Herbalife, and I found myself getting bored with them. I was scanning my instagram feed and kept coming across pictures of smoothie bowls. Of course, I was intrigued, and I quickly looked up the most idiot-proof way to make one.

I N G R E D I E N T S:

• Four or more strawberries
• One sliced banana
• A handful of sunflower seeds
• Ice  
• A splash of milk
• (opt) Protein Powder (for this recipe, I used the 2 scoops of the Vanilla Shake mix and 1 scoop of the Apple Fiber mix)
• (opt) Blueberry or Strawberry Yogurt

D I R E C T I O N S:

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender. I like to put the milk and powder in and mix just to avoid the powder sticking too much to the sides. Then add the yogurt, a few slices of banana, two or more sliced strawberries, and the ice. 
2. Blend until it's all together, and pour into a bowl. While blending, be sure to add a good portion of ice and keep the milk to a low so the consistency is just a little thicker than a normal smoothie. 
3. Decorate! I cut two strawberries into three or four slices and laid them out like a flower. I then cut four thin slices of banana (and popped the rest in my mouth) to decorate with and sprinkled the sunflower seeds accordingly. 

Done! How easy is that? And you eat it with a spoon, maybe some green tea, and it's like eating a ice cream but fresher and with more flavors. I can't wait to experiment with different ingredients (coconut flakes, anyone?!). 

Let me know if you have any tips on how to make a smoothie bowl, and feel free to share your own recipes in the comments below! I can always use inspiration.

Healthy Sweet Potato Brulee

Adapted from My Fitness Pal & Skinny Taste

So for Christmas, I had to make something for the different dinners I went to, and I was scratching my head trying to think of something fairly easy and not so reliant on an oven since I don't have a proper one here. Lo and behold, I log into my e-mail to find a My Fitness Pal recipe for Mashed Sweet Potato Brulee. And, whadda know? My grocery store was having a sale on sweet potatoes! After reading through the ingredients and discovering I could easily find all of them at either Hanaro Mart or E-mart, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I think it came out quite nicely, don't you? It tastes really good as well, and you can feel a little better knowing it's healthy! 

I N G R E D I E N T S:

• 6 Cups Mashed Sweet Potatoes
• 3/4 Cup 1% Milk
• 3 Tablespoons Light Butter
• 1/2 Teaspoons Salt
• 1/4 Teaspoons Cinnamon
• 1/8 Teaspoons Nutmeg
• 1/2-3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar

D I R E C T I O N S:

Mash the Potatoes: 

1. Cut a line into the skin around the circumference of each potato. 
2. Boil water and add a pinch of salt.
3. Add potatoes. Boil for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
4. Remove potatoes and place in ice water for 10 seconds.
5. Peel off skin. You can just use your hands to rub it off.

The Brulee

1. Mash the potatoes in a 9x9x1 inch pan. I just use a beater to mash them.
2. Mash in butter, milk, and salt.
3. Sprinkle in the cinnamon and nutmeg. Finish mashing.
4. Sprinkle brown sugar over top.
5. Microwave until sugar is caramelized. My Fitness Pal suggests broiling for 2 minutes, but I don't have an oven, so microwave for about 5-7 minutes. If you do have a blow torch, you can always caramelize the brulee the actual way. 
6. Serve!

{Foodie}: Powaaaballs

Ahh, powerballs. What delicious treats these turned out to be all summer. Now that I've had the chance to peruse iHerb, I might be making these again. I took the Eat Your Kimchi recipe and adapted it ever so slightly (took out the almonds). It's a surprisingly easy (though definitely time consuming) recipe, and you'll be stocked with snacks and/or breakfast for quite a while. 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups oats (Gluten Free or regular work)
• 1/2 ground flaxseed (in my instance, I just ground the flaxseed in the blender)
• 1/2 cup chia seeds
• 2 T goji berries
• 1/4 cup cacao nibs
• 1 1/2 cup toasted coconut flakes (spread out on a pan and put in the oven for a few minutes)
• 1/2 cup honey (or more)
• 1 1/2 cup peanut butter

For the coating:

• handful of sunflower seeds
• handful of green pumpkin seeds
• handful of chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. 
2. Mix in peanut butter and then honey. Add some honey if it's not sticky enough.
3. It's going to be really hard to mix, so feel free to use your hands!
4. Blend the ingredients for the balls and put in a bowl.
5. Roll the mix in a ball and coat in the powder.
6. Done! Keep in the freezer.

{Foodie} El Olivo in Seoul

As I mentioned in my previous post, Elissa and I met up with another girl who studied with us in Spain, Boreum, at a Spanish restaurant in Madrid (technically it was in Gyeonggi-do, but you can still get there with the metro and maybe a five minute walk). We went in around maybe 1:30 and probably didn't leave until close to 5:00 p.m! I think it's been so long since any of us have been able to just use our Spanish for just some charlando that we had so much to say. Plus I hadn't seen these guys in at least two years, so there was a lot of ground to cover. 

Not Your College Ramen

This really works with any ramen or ramyun you choose to eat. I don't really know which one I picked out. Only that it was in an orange-ish bag and Korean. Anyhow, here is a quick, easy ramen hack to make your ramen into an actual meal:

Ingredients:

-A ramen package

-A slice of processed/cheap American cheese

-Boiling Water

-Chicken

To Make:

1. Boil water.
2. Cut up chicken.
3. Throw chicken in water for about 5-10 minutes.
4. Drain chicken, set aside.
5. Refill and boil water again.
6. Put in ramen and any extras (but not the sauce).
7. Drain out about half of the water after ramen is cooked.
8. Add in sauce, cheese, and chicken.
9. Stir up. 
10. Serve in a bowl to feel fancy.

So easy, so delicious. Maybe not exactly healthy...

xoxo,

Samantha Elisabeth

DIY Cronuts

Yesterday I met up with one of my longest friends from home (since middle/early high school!) and managed to convince her to do some baking. When it comes to hanging out in suburbia, there's not all that many choices, and I've been itching to try making cronuts at home since there's frankly no way in hell I'm waking up early to wait in line to buy them from a bakery. Since neither of us are particularly domestic goddesses, I wanted to keep the recipe as easy as possible, so I adapted this recipe from Baking Beauty. Maybe in the future when I'm more patient, I'll figure out a healthier recipe (like coconut oil instead of vegetable, handmade croissant dough instead of Pillsbury), but for now this recipe did the trick. And it was delicious. Like, if these DIY suckers made by Kate and me were this good, the real ones have to be divine. I'm still not waiting in line for them, though. 

Recipe (Makes 3 and a doughnut ball) 

• 1 Pillsbury Original Crescent sheet 
• Vanilla Pudding Cups
• Vegetable Oil

Glaze:

• 1 C Confectioner Sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 1/2 tsp Milk (maybe a little more)

No, really, this is it. 

Directions

1. Heat in pan about 2 inches of vegetable oil. Enough to cover the cronuts. Heat on medium heat to about 350. Be careful of making it too hot, were lazy and impatient, so we just put it all the up to high and it got too hot at first! 

2. Spread out the crescent sheet, then fold in half once. Then again. 

3. Using a glass cup, cut out to circles. Spread out the dough again and cut a third. You should have a little extra to roll into a ball.

4. Make a circle in the middle of the three circles you have. The original recipe cut out a whole in the center, Kate and I just stuck our fingers (our clean fingers, mind you!) in the middle and stretched the dough out a bit. 

5. Your oil should be heated! I put in our doughnut ball in first to test it out, which is how we figured out the oil was too hot. 

6. Then put the rest of the cronuts in and cook for about 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Wait for the outside to be a golden brown color. They shouldn't cook too quickly, if they start browning too fast, your oil is too hot.

7. Put them on a plate covered in paper towels to let the oil drain a bit. 

8. Cut in half and spread the vanilla pudding in the center.

9. Make the glaze! Mix the sugar, vanilla, and milk in a bowl until it's pretty liquidy. Honestly, you could probably cut this recipe in half because you're not going to use that much for 3 cronuts. The original recipe called for twice as much as this one, and we threw it all out!

10. Put the cronuts on a new plate and drizzle the glaze all over them.

11. Enjoy!

I tried to get Kate to get a picture with them, but it turned out blurry, so I'll save her the bad picture ;). In other news, though, this is probably the last time I'll see her for the next year! She goes back to Georgia for college, and I go off to Korea for the real world. However, given her major and university, she has a better chance of seeing (through glass windows and such) the Ebola patients than any of us do. At the very least, if Andi from the Bachelorette gets preggers, she might be able to meet her!

Healthy Cookies

Today was one of my days off, and I found this little recipe on Pinterest. It was weird because the recipe was the description for the pin, but the link was to a different recipe entirely (one that was more involved). Being the lazy baker that I am, I opted for the easiest directions and went from there.

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 cup of quick oats
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (I used a little less because I ran out!)
• 1 spoonful of peanut butter,

Directions:

1. Mash everything together in the bowl.
2. Spoon onto a baking sheet.
3. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Easy, right? They're super tasty. I may or may not have eaten all of mine over the course of the day!

By the way, I finally ran 2 miles straight at about 10:00 a mile! For someone who simply is the worse at running endurance or speed (seriously, put me on an elliptical or an incline power walk, and I can go for days! But running...Nope!), this is a huge feat! I didn't even need to watch a TV show while doing it.

Everything Oatmeal

Listen, I used to be the chick who hated oatmeal when I was younger. It was too thick, and while the first few spoonfuls taste good, it got old quick. My brother's ex-girlfriend turned me onto a recipe, though, that pretty much made me addicted to the stuff. Fast forward to the end of this past school year when I was cleaning out my apartment kitchen and found a superfluous amount of crushed walnuts and coconut flakes. I experimented a bit and discovered perhaps the most delicious oatmeal. ever. I don't use measurements. Just put in as much as you find tasty (except keep it minimal on the chocolate chips!).

Ingredients:

• Oatmeal
• Skim milk (or whatever milk/alternative you prefer)
• A small scoop of peanut butter
• Small handful of chocolate chips
• Coconut flakes
• Crushed walnuts (I'm allergic to almonds, but they'd be good too!)

Directions: 

• Fill bowl with oatmeal and milk (make sure you don't add too much milk!). 
• Add the rest of the ingredients as you wish. 
• Heat up in the microwave for a minute. 
• Mix everything together, and eat up!

Easy, huh? It's so good too. If you just take the coconut flakes, crushed nuts, and chocolate chips, they make a delicious snack as well.

Berry Tarts

I'm by no means close to going vegan, but one of my friends, Mallory, is, and we've been exploring different recipes and food combinations so that we can all enjoy eating together! Often times she comes over to make dinner (such as our spaghetti squash with homemade tomato sauce the other week), and for Valentine's Day Corinne, her sister and my big, made her Berry Tarts from a Pinterest recipe.

They were quite delicious!

[Foodie] Kale Talk

I feel like as a whole our society focuses a lot more on health and fitness as a means to an end in terms of physical appearance. I'm guilty of this even now! I'm hoping to educate myself--especially before I get settled into the real world--on living a healthy lifestyle as opposed to just doing a diet or fitness regime in the hope I get a hot bod. I'm still hoping for the hot bod, but I'm hoping it comes as a result of healthy eating habits and regular exercises--whether it be getting out more, enjoying the gym, or what have you. 

Okay, so can we talk about kale for a minute? Unless you live under a rock or live in a world of junk food, you've heard kale touted as one of those "superfoods." It's up there with almonds (which I'm sadly allergic too), salmon, avocado, etc. I never really understood why though, hence why I'm putting up this infograph for you to reference. I don't know why they list fat and calories as lows... From everything I've read, though, kale is literally crazy good for you. Like from the claims people make, I feel like someone who lives off of this stuff will become a superhuman herself.

Anyhow, I finally bought myself some at the grocery store to use as my "leafy" portion. I usually buy salad mix, but the prices now that I'm paying for myself make me blanch a little. I usually get lettuce or spinach, but I thought I'd try kale this time (I don't eat enough leafy goodness yet to justify buying all three! Someday). Guys I love it. I'm still getting used to the taste raw, but using it in a sautéed mix of veggies and chicken--it tastes delicious. I'm currently making some kale chips, so I'll give you a few recipes to get yourself started. My next attempt will be with salads.

 R E C I P E S

I couldn't come up with a clever name...

Ingredients

• Shredded Chicken
• Mushrooms
• 1/2 Cubed Avocado
• Chopped Red & Green Peppers
• Chopped Kale
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper 
• (Optional) Some Mozzarella or Cheddar Cheese

Directions

1. Put some olive oil in a pan on medium to high heat and add pepper and salt.
2. Cut up mushrooms. (I'm bad, I just use my hands and pull them to pieces!) Add to pan
3. Once mushrooms are pretty coated, add in the rest of the ingredients except the chicken and avocado.
4. Put a little more olive oil. Add salt & pepper as you like.
5. Add shredded chicken.
6. Then add avocado.
7. Satuée until everything is considerably cooked through.
8. Enjoy!

I should probably have let it soak in the oil & spices more...

Ingredients

• Kale leaves
• Olive Oil
• Spices (pepper and salt for me)

Directions

1. Set oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl (or bag) mix kale leaves with olive oil and spices as you like.
3. Smooth out on a baking sheet on top of a paper towel.
4. Put in oven for 35 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

IT'S REALLY, REALLY GOOD!

Ingredients

• Kale
• Ice
• 1 Orange
• 1 Banana
• Some milk

Directions

1. Blend kale, milk, and ice first until liquefied
2. Add in orange, blend.
3. Add in banana, blend.
4. Serve & Enjoy!

(Anything I didn't give an amount for--just eyeball to what you like! I don't measure any of it, just use what I'm craving to guide me)

Got any yummy kale recipes?