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Smoothies + Dessert!

As I have mentioned, I have been starting my days off with smoothies. When I first started blogging I had said that I don't like making the same recipes twice, especially when there are hundreds of millions of bazillions of recipes out there, boy that is a lot of recipes, and all of those can be extremely, or slightly altered to adjusts your tastes' so let's just say there are an infinite amount of recipes out there.

No, I may not make the same recipes twice, but, the past few weeks I've repeatedly made this, oh an this smoothie more than one. I am so incredibly obsessed with how wonderful and refreshing these two smoothies are, they seriously take me to another universe for a couple of minutes while I sip them back.

With that being said. Here are some of my latest smoothie creations.

Peachy-keen Goji Smoothie

This was definitely a tasty smoothie, however, I was a little taken a-back by it's flavour at first sip. Then on my second sip, the tastes' literally burst in my mouth and I was hooked. This was so different than something I've tasted before, but it was a new flavour combination for me, and it was certainly something I will enjoy seeing again in the future.

1/4 cup goji berries rehydrated (put some hot water on them for a couple of minutes 'til they fluffy up) + 1 frozen peach + 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk + 1/2 cup coconut water + 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder ... pulsed in your blender until desired consistency.

Blueberry Bliss Smoothie

Love, love, looooove, and I'm not even a big fan of blueberries but vanilla and blueberries definitely make one sweet batch of lovers and sweetly kissed my mouth. I loved this, and yes, even made this one two days in a row, gasp!

1/2 cup frozen blueberries + 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk + 1/2 cup water + 3 ice cubes + 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder ... pulsed in your blender until desired consistency.

Pear-y Good for You Smoothie

Refreshing with a little zing from the ginger. Loveeeeed it!

2 cups of kale (ribs removed) + 1 Bartlet pear - chopped + 1/2 cup coconut water + 2 tbsp hazelnut agave nectar + 1/2 tsp ground ginger + 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk + 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder ... pulsed in your blender until desired consistency.

Cherry Amaretto Smoothie

As I have said before, if there is one thing that makes me Italian above anything else it is my love for almonds. I love, love, loooove the flavour of almonds, especially in my favourite *cough alcohol - Amaretto. This smoothie was reminiscent of that drink with the addition of cherries. I loved this, and will certainly be making this again, considering I just bought a four pound bag of frozen cherries at Costco this weekend!

1/2 cup coconut water + 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk + 3/4 cup frozen cherries + 1 1/2 tbsp almonds + 1/2 tsp almond extract + 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder ... pulsed in your blender until desired consistency.

Lemon Poppy Seed Pull-Apart Bread

Recipe inspired from here

Lastly, this may not be a smoothie, oh no, but it goes down as quick as a smoothie does. No, I'm not talking about any other beverage either. I'm talking about a quick-bread or a cake, whichever makes you feel better thinking about what this "thing" really is. To me it was a br-ake. It looked like bread, but I ate it like it was cake, so a "br-ake".

This was super delicious, I've never made pull-apart bread/cake before, and I'm glad that the first time I attempted it it was a vegan version. I looked at a lot of examples of non-vegan pull-aparts and I came up with a combination of my own. I loved a lot of the flavours out there, but they were far too... je ne c'est pas... so I decided on a simple yet elegant with full flavoured lemon poppy seed version.

I love lemon poppy seed. I love anything to do with citrus OTHER THAN grapefruit, nope, I still haven't been able to jump onto that bandwagon. Love the smell, love the colour, strongly dislike the taste. I loooove the look of poppy seeds though, they speckle whatever food they are in with such beauty. I just love staring at the teeny tiny little speckles and admiring them. They may not have a huge impact on the taste, but with the lemon, zing, love!

This was super delicious. It was insanely gorgeous to stare at... honestly I couldn't stop. It reminded me of a xylophone, or of intestines twisting... okay, I'm a little weird. But, I've seriously looked at the photographs many time since I've taken them. This was so good, especially when dunked in fresh maple-syrup, oh frig yes! This was gone the first day, yup, as unfortunate as it was... although I am thankful it wasn't lying around the house because I'd be doomed. I don't know what it is with me and desserts lately, but I have been a pig. Making between two-three each week, ugh oh well... it will have to end soon... right?

Ingredients:

For the dough:
  • 3/4 cup vanilla soy milk
  • 2 1/4 tsp active yeast
  • 3 cups whole wheat bread flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp poppy seeds
  • Zest from 1 lemon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 5 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
  • Juice of 1 lemon
For the filling:
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • Zest from 1 lemon/1 orange
Directions:

In a small saucepan, gently warm 3/4 cup non-dairy milk to about 110 degrees. Sprinkle yeast over warmed non-dairy milk and let it dissolve, about 5 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, cinnamon , zest, poppy seeds, lemon juice and 1/4 salt in a large bowl. Add 5 tbsp applesauce and yeast mixture, stir to combine. Add in another 1/2 cup flour, stirring to combine. Continue mixing until you have a sticky dough ball.

Place the dough is a large, oiled bowl (or drizzle a little oil in your current bowl and roll the dough in it. Cover with plastic wrap and/or a kitchen towel. Place in a warm space and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Once risen, you can refrigerate overnight to use in the morning, just allow to rest for 30 minutes on the counter before rolling out.

While the dough rises, mix together the sugar and zest and mix well with your fingers to allow the oils to release their flavours. Grease and flour a 9×5×3-inch loaf pan. Set both aside.

Sprinkle remaining flour on a flat surface and knead dough, kneading in most of the flour. Using a floured rolling pin, roll dough into a large thin rectangle, about 12-inches tall and 20-inches long, or roughly as large as you can make it.

Slice the dough vertically into strips and stack strips on top of one another and slice into strips again. The strips will measure around 3 1/2-inches on each side. Layer into your greased loaf pan and cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for 30-45 additional minutes.

Meanwhile, place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes until tips are deeply golden brown. The center takes much longer to cook, so deeply golden tips will be indicative the entire loaf is cooked through.

Allow to cool for up to 30 minutes before removing from pan and onto a clean surface or serving dish. Drizzle with glaze topping if desired.What are your favourite smoothie combinations?

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