Ramen

*belch*

What I ate in August…

• 56 smoothies
• 15 servings of pasta
• 14 salads
• 7 bags of chips
• 6 bowls of popcorn
• 5 veggie burgers
• 2 orders of fries
• 2 pieces of banana bread
• 2 muffins
• 1 loaf of bread
• 1 bowl of instant ramen (pictured above)
• countless fruits including pears, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes, oranges, grapefruit, blackberries, peaches, plums, nectarines and cherries
• pounds of trail mix and corn nuts

I can’t recall what was my favorite thing – but I would have to assume it was the chocolate smoothie since I consumed almost two per day! Smoothies were probably a good thing because of the weather – it was hotter than normal in August.

I do know what the worst thing I ate – it was the instant noodles pictured above. I bought it because it was on sale for an unbelievable $0.88. I was also intrigued by the ingredients – even the beef, chicken and seafood flavours did not contain any animal products. However, they contained lots of ingredients that I could not identify or pronounce. After eating it, I felt a bit nauseous – it wasn’t tasteless, but I found most of the taste came from salt – a bit empty in terms of real taste and probably nutrition too. I won’t be eating this again too soon in the future. It was a one-meal stand.

Here’s the set of food that I ate in August. Click on the larger image to advance to the next image. If you’re on a mobile device, click here to go to my flickr set.

Improved

New and improved

Several people have asked me for the recipe of my chocolate smoothie and the nutrition of it. I was unsure of the nutrition because I’ve made several changes to it recently. I’m not sure if it’s better or worse than the previous version. The new smoothie include less avocado, more hemp, less Vega and I also added some mango. According to Nutridiary, it’s about the same as before (685 calories now vs 660 before, 36g vs 39g fat and 79g vs 63g carbs). I updated it and the recipe and nutrition is below. It still tastes just as good, if not better and it might cause you to have your best day ever!

Ingredients

• 1 ripe pear
• handful of frozen strawberries
• handful of frozen mango
• handful of soaked almonds
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/6 avocado
• 3 raw cacao beans (grind in coffee grinder before)
• tsp raw cacao powder (optional)
• protein powder (I use hemp and chocolate Vega)
• water

Instructions

1. Blend fruit, almonds and avocado with water until a smooth consistency. Add water as needed or to desired consistency.
2. Gradually add cacao powder, ground cacao beans and protein powder. For a more chocolately flavour, add some raw cacao powder.

After adding water, it’s about 1.5 litres of smoothie! I usually have it all for breakfast, but most people can only drink half because it’s pretty filling. But it’s all good.

The new nutritional profile

The previous smoothie recipe can be found here.

Kryptonite

I don’t have green smoothies that often as I prefer to eat my greens. After making my first one last year, they’ve grown on me and now I have them on a regular basis.

They aren’t always as bright as the one pictured above, sometimes they come out a murky green colour. The bright green one reminds me of kyrptonite – but it has the opposite effect! The colour is affected by the type of vegetable and other ingredients I use. Regardless of the colour they usually are pretty tasty (to me).

Here’s how I made the one listed above.

Ingredients

• 1 apple, cut into chunks (or other fruit)
• handful of frozen cranberries
• 1/2 bunch of green kale
• 2 tablespoons ground flax
• lemon juice
• cayenne pepper (another one of those secret ingredients)
• water

Instructions

1. Put everything but the flax in a blender and blend on the highest speed.
2. When well blended, add the flax.
3. Add more water to the desired consistency.

If you want your smoothie to be a bright green colour, substitute the flax with 1/6 of an avocado. I also sometimes add dulse too – this will change the colour to a muddy brown-green colour. Red kale does the same thing. If you want a bright green smoothie, don’t use these ingredients.

Edit [August 15, 2010]: Here is the nutritional information…

Salad

I seem to be eating a lot more regular green salads with baby greens, spinach and similar greens; like the one above. Previously, I used to eat a lot of kale salads. However, living away from a large city presents some challenges with more uncommon vegetables and fruit. When I lived in a larger city, I would eat kale almost daily because it was readily available. When it is available, it is usually expensive, poor quality or both. Sadly, I haven’t eaten kale in over three weeks.

One of my favorite kale salads is a creamy kale salad, made with few ingredients, but the combination makes it taste amazing. Most people that I served it to, didn’t even realise they were eating raw kale. I think many had never eaten kale before I served it to them.

Pictured below, a creamy kale salad.

Recipe

Creamy Kale Salad

Ingredients

• One bunch lacinato kale (dinosaur kale)
• One ripe avocado
• One tomato; cut into small chunks or cubes
• Handful of sliced green onions
• Lemon juice (from half a lemon)
• Cayenne pepper
• Sea salt

Directions

1. Shred kale, dice avocado and place in a large bowl
2. Add lemon juice, cayenne pepper and sea salt to kale and avocado.
3. Combine above mixture with bare hands by massaging all ingredients together.
4. Add the tomato and green onions to the mixture; combine it with a large spoon.

For variety, I sometimes add other things like wild leeks, peppers, hemp seeds and dulse.

This salad is rich and filling enough to be a meal on its own.