Pumps & Iron

Kale & Spinach Acai Blend with Hemp Seed Granola

January 8, 2013 by Nicole 15 Comments

Kale & Spinach Acai Bowl - This green acai bowl is topped with granola and makes for the perfect breakfast! #vegan #plantbased #acaibowl #smoothiebowl #acai

This kale & spinach acai bowl is inspired by one of my favorites at Juice Generation. Today there are tons of options for acai bowls in Boston, but back when I first created this recipe, there really weren’t. I had one on a trip to NYC to visit friends, and decided to try to make my own version at home. I’d say I came pretty damn close to replicating JG’s!

You have options with the below recipe, depending on how thick you want the spinach acai blend to be. If you use a frozen banana, it’ll be thicker. And if you use the whole banana in the base instead of saving half as a topping, it’ll also make it thicker. Just depends on if you want more of a smoothie or sorbet thickness with the base.

There’s a fine line between adding enough liquid that it’ll blend easily and adding too much. To make sure you don’t end up with a watery base, start with just 1/4 cup of almond milk and then add slowly as needed.

I like to keep it simple with granola and banana slices, but you can get creative with the toppings. Nature’s Path makes a delicious hemp hearts granola that I use, but any will do! You could also do a dollop of peanut butter, shredded coconut and/or berries. Customize it however you want!

I love starting the day with a refreshing acai bowl, but they can easily become more of a dessert than a breakfast. Yes, there is sugar in the banana and granola, but this recipe doesn’t overdo it. It’s also packed with leafy greens and isn’t overly sweet. Try this spinach acai bowl today and let me know what you think! It’s one of my current favorites. 🙂

OTHER ACAI BOWL RECIPES TO TRY:

xo Nicole

Filed Under: Breakfast, Dairy-Free, Lunch, Recipes, Vegan

Peanut Butter Berry Smoothie

November 26, 2012 by Nicole 16 Comments

This simple peanut butter berry smoothie recipe will make breakfast for two. It’s refreshing and fruity with a satisfying hint of peanut butter. If you’re looking for something more filling though, you could always add a scoop of your favorite protein powder. And of course just halve the recipe if you’re making it for yourself.

Peanut Butter Berry Smoothie

This is an older recipe from the archives that was in dire need of new photography. Updating older posts is a great excuse for me to make older recipes. I forget how good some of them are! And it gives me the opportunity to tweak those that maybe aren’t up to par.

If you’re a fan of this peanut butter berry smoothie and are looking for some similar breakfast ideas, I’ve got you covered:

PB&J Smoothies for Two – very similar
Strawberry Date Smoothie – only a few ingredients and super yummy
Peanut Butter Protein Acai Bowl – filling and delicious

Can’t really go wrong with the fruit-peanut-butter combo if you ask me!

This smoothie is easily customizable. You can use any nut milk you’d like—or cow’s milk, you do you, boo. Almond butter can be used instead of peanut butter. Any berries can be used. And add any little “boosters” you’d like: chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp hearts, protein powder. Get creative!

You could also turn this into a smoothie bowl and top it with granola. If I want a heartier meal than a smoothie, I usually go this route. I’ll add in some protein powder as well to keep me satisfied until lunch. Some of my favorite smoothie bowl recipes from the archives:

Kale & Spinach Acai Bowl – one of my favorite acai bowls, I make this one all the time!
Matcha Green Smoothie Bowl – for the matcha lovers out there
Blueberry Acai Bowl – simple and delicious with a coconut crunch

xo Nicole

Filed Under: Breakfast, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Recipes, Smoothies, Vegan, Vegetarian

Giraffe Halloween Costume

October 26, 2012 by Nicole 14 Comments

Halloween is not just a holiday for me—it’s a sport. And becoming the Michael Jordan of it is my life’s goal. Nothing is more fun for me than coming up with creative costume ideas and craftily executing them.

For my company’s Halloween party yesterday, I went as a giraffe. And not just a look-my-shirt-is-giraffe-print-and-i-have-a-horn-headband-on giraffe. I wanted to go big (literally) and recruited some contractor’s stilts and crutches to do so. Yes, I felt a little like a young Forest Gump-giraffe hybrid with the stilt leg braces, but ultimately, they were perfect.

In case you want to make your own giraffe costume, here’s how I did it:

I covered both the stilts and crutches in giraffe-print felt using a hot glue gun, and cut slits in each wrapped crutch so that I could slip my arms into them. The height of the stilts and crutches lined up perfectly so that my body was at roughly the same pitch as a giraffe’s.

For the tail and ears, I bought a cat ear & tail set at iParty and covered them in the same giraffe-print felt. I found this awesome fur trim at A.C. Moore and added that to the ear insides and tail end.

To recreate a giraffe’s horns, I put my hair in pigtails, twisted a doubled-over pipe cleaner around each hair tie, and wrapped my hair around it, securing with a second hair tie.

Brown face paint was an easy choice for turning my face and neck into that of a giraffe’s, and some false eyelashes recreated the animal’s signature long lashes.

Originally, I wanted to make a full-on giraffe-print body suit by adding brown felt spots to a nude-colored jumpsuit, but there just weren’t enough hours in the day. I reach for the sky with these costume ideas, and then my full-time job, adult responsibilities and budget slowly bring me back down to earth.

I have two more costumes (one for this weekend in Boston and one for next week in Vegas), which I’ll share over the next week. Also, I promise that in November I’ll get back into the swing of posting one or two workouts a week. Pinkie promise. Cross my heart and hope to die stick a needle in my eye.

What are you guys being for Halloween??

Filed Under: Costumes, Fashion