The weather couldn't be more perfect if it tried. Sunny and hovering around 80 degrees, with a light breeze... it's almost fall like... I ran-walked 5 miles this morning -I suck at running consistently but I'm working on it- in preparation for my 5k in October. I'm a sprinter and ran (and won) lots of 100m dashes and 100m hurdles on the track team in H.S. so instinctively, I want to sprint. I am working on pacing myself more and reigning myself in so that I don't go all out in the first 10 minutes. It's hard to hold back sometimes and just run at an easy pace, especially when I'm listening to The Killers or Dropkick Murphys or Eye of the Tiger...man I just want to sprint!!! haha I did learn recently that running backwards for a bit in the middle of the run helps me run so much longer the minute I spin back around and go forward again...my thigh muscles feel rested after running backwards for 30 to 60 seconds, so I'm using that trick to help me go the distance! It's fun too, and you look all cool and in serious "training" mode when people see you running backwards. Even cooler if you are wearing a Road ID! :-D
After my run I had this fabulous green smoothie made with 2 cups of spinach (packed), one 'nana, one peach, one orange, 1 and a half cups of spring water and a teaspoon of raw coconut oil for that 'this tastes like I should be sitting on a tropical island' flavor. It was delish. Two bees buzzed by and I had to fight them for it. They know the good stuff when they see it!
Lunch was an easy salad of spinach, roma tomatoes, kalamata olives and 2 small avocados. Dressing was my go-to favorite of balsamic vinaigrette mixed with a high quality dijon mustard and sea salt. Sometimes that's all I want and it was perfect.
Eating outside in the sunshine is so nice...I just LOVE it!!!
Yes, that salad is the size of my head. Yes, I ate the whole thing. I always make giant salads, and I always eat all of it. I love veggies. I get cravings for veggies. It was a simple salad, but so good. :-)
And now what you've been waiting for...the EASY SHMEAZY RAW ICE CREAM! It's so easy, you're going to say, nuh-uh...there's no way that's all you have to do. And I'll say, yeahhh-huhhhhh! Watch this...
Take 3 RIPE bananas. Chop them into 2 inch or so pieces. Put them in a freezer baggie or a Tupperware container and put them in the freezer for a few hours, or overnight. When you take them out, they will look like this:
frozen 'nanas!
Take your frozen 'nanas, and put them in a food processor. I added one tablespoon of raw honey, but you don't even have to do THAT. Pulse it a few times to get them to break up. My food processor wanted to dance off the counter, but that's because I had left these in the freezer for 3 days and they were hard as rocks. Not necessary to do - just a few hours or overnight tops is all you need. So put the 'nanas in, and pulse a bit, and when it looks broken up just press down the on button and let it run for 5 minutes or so.
I added less than a quarter cup of spring water as the food processor was running just to make it a little creamier. You can do that, or not, or add a little nut milk, or add nothing - totally up to you.
After 5 minutes, it looks like THIS:
Yep. That's all you had to do. Put frozen bananas in a food processor and blend.
I flavored mine with a heaping teaspoon of cinnamon and a tsp of nutmeg to give it that spicy fall pumpkin-ish flavor and I also added a chunk of frozen (real) pumpkin. It worked! I had pumpkin spice ice cream! Next time I make it I'll use less bananas so it tastes more pumpkin-y.
If you want to make raw chocolate ice cream, just add a tablespoon of raw cacao powder ...you can even add raw cacao nibs! If you want it to taste like strawberry ice cream, just add a ton of frozen strawberries to the food processor.
It's so easy. This has no dairy, no added sugar (unless you want to with some raw honey, agave, or dates), no chemicals, no food coloring number 5, nothing you cannot pronounce. This soft serve is just BANANAS! That's IT! Flavor it however you choose! Get creative. It's pretty hard to mess this up. It also looks quite pretty in a glass :-)
And tasted quite yummy in my tummy.
Hope everyone is outside enjoying this beautiful weekend!
xoxo
Lauren






























