Growing Blend-ships

June 9, 2014 By Laura

What happens at Blend doesn’t stay at Blend.

Well, maybe SOME things do… shhhh…

What I love the most about Blend is the staying-power of the relationships we form and/or solidify in just 3 short days. I’ve read many of the attendees’ blogs before, but meeting these women in person makes the connection that much stronger. Life long Blend-ships! Maybe Corny Cotter is rubbing off on me?!

Same goes for the brands we’re introduced to. For example. I love Silk Pure Almond, but meeting the reps and learning more about the company and type of people they employ make me want to support them that much more. It’s just one more reason I was so excited to get to represent Growing Naturals again this year. I’m so passionate about this company, their products, and the people that work there… it makes me want to share it with everyone!

…

Blend Your [Growing Naturals] Protein

June 6, 2014 By Laura

My Blends are Strange.

But oh-so-good.

Today I am in Utah for the annual Blend Retreat! I look forward to this retreat all year… and I feel especially lucky because I get to represent Growing Naturals again this year. I wish I could share them with everyone (but scroll on down for a sweet freebie offer). You should all come to Blend next year! If you can’t be there this year, be sure to follow along on Twitter and Instagram for the live action.

Last year they were a huge hit with the other bloggin’ ladies, but here are a few reasons I personally love them:

Reasons I love Growing Naturals:

Not chalky
Great flavor (not fake-tasting)
Super-clean (vegan, soy-free, and gluten-free!)
Low in sodium, sugar, and carbs
Their staff rocks – they are passionate about their product and committed to health!

Growing Naturals truly is my favorite protein to use. I love to use it in all the things! It’s fantastic raw in smoothies like my favorite Mocha Beet Frapp and Carrot Cake Batter Shake, or baked into Plantain Ginger Bread.

Rather than one of my own #strangebutgood creations this week, I wanted to feature some favorites from my Blends who use Growing Naturals!

My “original” Blend, Sarah, is the first blogger I met in real life. We will miss her this year, but will celebrate her strangeness today with her Strawberry Pineapple Cilantro Smoothie:

Strange creation #2 comes from a Blend who I basically invited myself to visit… having never met her… in Switzerland!

Lucie is one amazing woman. I wish she could make it to Blend, but I guess coming from Europe would be a little pricey. Instead, we should all make her Green Protein Pancakes in her honor! 😉

Last (but certainly not least) is a Blend I will get to see tonight! My brother from another mother, Lindsay!

This lady knows more about fueling with food and gut health than anyone I know. I’m so glad she’s agree to share 3 strange but healthy recipes today!

Grain-Free Superfruit Bread

Orange Dream Machine Smoothie

Mexican Chocolate & Walnut Healthy Balls… errr… Bites

I have made these, only I subbed sunflower seeds for the walnuts. They rocked my balls off.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

How have you enjoyed making co-workers, friends, or family stare with strange but good creations this week? The link up rules can be found here or by clicking on “Strange But Good” in the menu bar above. In short, I want to see what concoctions have earned you weird looks from co-workers, family and friends! Post your Strange But Good creations, grab the logo below for your blog, and link up here.

If you’re not a blogger, you can still share your recipes on Instagram with the #strangebutgood hashtag.

Remember to use #strangebutgood in any Tweets and Instagrams of your creations. 🙂

An InLinkz Link-up

***

Want to try Growing Naturals for yourself? Sign up to be a Growing Groupie and enter discount code sprint2thetable at checkout for a free bottle of Simply Soapberry (their natural laundry detergent) and a free 1lb container of protein powder. Offer expires 09/06/2014.

What is your favorite protein powder recipe?

What was the last recipe you tried from a Blend? (Blend = Blogger + Friend)

Rocky Road Berry Coconut Bites

June 17, 2013 By Laura

It’s no secret that I like balls.

“Girls have got balls. They’re just a little higher up that’s all.” ~Joan Jett

I’ve made several balls in the past. Vegan “Meat” Balls, Champagne Cake Balls, Biscoff Dough Balls… ball jokes… ~~I’m a 12-year-old boy at heart.~~

But the BEST balls ever are made by my kindred-blogger spirit, Lindsay. She is more mature than I am, so she gracefully calls them Bites.

Heather, Me, and Lindsay

In case you haven’t figured it out, today’s guest post is from this lovely lady… and she’s sharing her ~~balls~~ bites with all of you!!!

Thank you, Lindsay, for sharing your Rocky Road ~~Balls~~ Healthy Bites and making everyone’s Monday more Marvelous! Read on for the recipe, and check out Katie’s link up to see what else is marvelous on this Monday!

________________________________________________________________________________

Hi there friends. My name is Lindsay Cotter and I blog over at Cotter Crunch.

I’m a pro triathlete’s wife, nutrition manager/fitness consultant, kombucha lover & wanna-be wino who has a joyous passion for GLUTEN FREE cooking!

It’s funny, this is my blog title and sub-title and yes, it really does describe my life. No lie. I also make a lot of Strange but Good Cotter Creations, which is why Laura and I get along so well. Plus she is my brother from another mother. Am I right Laura? (Editor’s note: Ummm… YES!)

OK OK, enough of my rambling intro. Let’s get this post started, shall we?

So, the main reason I blog is support my husband. We’ve created this dream together. A dream to pursue HIS professional triathlon career and I get to play wing man woman, or is it wing wife? Either way, I’m by his side.

I’d say my best support comes through food and fueling. I’m good at feeding that man, or so I like to think. 🙂

In an effort to help James (aka the hubs) fuel properly for pre and post workout, I started making him healthy bites. What are Healthy Bites? Glad you asked.

Healthy Bites are my take on functional gluten-free bite sized “ball” snacks. Each bite is made with natural, gluten-free, and mostly organic ingredients.

What started off as a little healthy snack option for me and my husband has now turned into my own little business.

I am passionate about it and want to share these bites with others…kids, athletes, on the go mom’s, food allergy folks, and more!

My mission is to make gluten-free and process free food that actually tastes really good.

Sheesh, do I sound like an infomercial or what? Haha. (Editor’s note: But they really are that good!!!)

Anyway, today I wanted to share with you one of my STRANGE but GOOD Healthy Bites recipes. It might not be strange to some of you, but it is a rather ODD mix of ingredients.

__________________________________________________________________________

Rocky Road Berry Coconut Bites

1 heaping cup of Vegan Marshmallows (I use the ones at Whole Foods chicago Vegan Foods Brand)
2 tbsp. 100% cocoa
2 heaping tbsp peanut flour (can also use coconut flour, ground up peanuts, etc.)
1 serving Berry Protein (Vega Smoothie blend is good here)
2 tbsp. Food for Life Vegan Chocolate chip Minis (Can also use carob chips or 100% dark chocolate chips)
1-2 tbsp. unsweetened coconut (shredded)
3-4 tbsp. of preferred nut butter
¼ cup honey
2-4 tbsp crushed nuts (optional)
Optional: cocoa or coconut extract

Grind up your marshmallows in a blender or food processor first. If you have large chocolate chips, go ahead and blend them up with the marshmallows as well. If you are using minis, there is no need, just mix in. Make sure you grind up the rest of your dry ingredients as well.

Transfer into a large bowl and add in nut butter, flours, protein, coconut, and agave. Mix well, and then roll into balls/bites.

Makes around 10-12 bites.

I then like to roll each of them in some extra coconut and/or cocoa. Freeze right away then store in fridge or freezer to maintain freshness. Store for up to 6 weeks. YUM!!

Well folks, that’s all I got for now. I hope you get to make these. If so, please let me know how they turn out.

You can see more recipes in my BOOK of BITES eBook, which is on the side bar of my site. Or if just feel like spending $, cause let’s face it, we all like to at times, feel free to order some yourself from me. I ship!

Pretty BALLER, eh? (pun intended)

Cheers,

***

If I felt better I’d make inapporpriate jokes about my “procedure” and balls.

If you could have any flavor Healthy Bite, what would it be? Lindsay custom made me Reese’s balls!

What is making your Monday marvelous?

What I Ate at Blend

May 22, 2013 By Laura

Everyone in a while you meet total strangers who aren’t.

I swear that made sense in my head…

I hope I’m not the only one that feel like they “know” bloggers. So many of the fabulous ladies I met at Blend this past weekend are bloggers I’ve been reading for so long that I felt like they were my “real” friends already!

First, I have to say a huge THANK YOU to Janetha, Lindsay (with credits for the following pic), and Katie for putting together another life-changing weekend!

Heather, Me, and Lindaay

Second, I owe a big thanks to Growing Naturals for sponsoring me at the retreat. These guys are truly a great example of a small business offering good, clean products.

I was so thrilled to share their pea and rice protein powders and their protein drink mixes with my friends. More on their products here.

I know Bonnie was extra-excited to try this after the 9 mile run they did in the chilly Park CIty rain!

My friend Heather already used hers and shared a pic on Instagram:

It was also the start of my first post-workout recovery meal.

The vanilla rice protein was fabulous in my green smoothie (extra spinach!) topped with Muesli Fusion:

Stay tuned – this fall they are coming out with a new addition to their protein/supplement line – yummy greens to throw into shakes!!!

________________________________________________________________________________________

Rather than a “traditional” WIAW post, today is all about What I Ate at Blend! We were totally spoiled all weekend, and I’m still enjoying all the tasty schwag-bag selections at home. 🙂

Check out my eats with my Blends below, and then click here to head over to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons to get to see what delicious foods everyone else is enjoying!

________________________________________________________________________________________

Friday:

We arrived at the hotel excited and famished from travel. Famished. The schwag gods were smiling though… check out all the goodies we had to munch on: protein from Vega, Zevia, SoyJoys, a Lara Bar, muesli and granola from Bob’s Red Mill, Attune Foods chocolates, Healthy Bites (so in love)…. and more!

After a photo ops, we gabbed, snacked… and headed to event #1: a pre-happy hour with Justin’s Nut Butter! I was careful to sample everything, but stopped for a pic with one of the lovely organizers – Katie!

My top butters were: Maple Peanut and Chocolate Hazelnut. They were even better on Attune Foods graham crackers. All I needed was some apple juice.

The kind folks at Silk must have wanted to make absolutely sure the Blends were happy, so they set up a Happy Hour where we could unwind from travel ~~and begin the photo-taking frenzy~~. Heather was patient enough to take a gorgeous pic of her ginger-Silk drink.

There was also an amazing buffet of black bean cakes, veggie summer rolls, and cute veggie sticks in jars (how did they know bloggers like Mason jars?!). Let’s pretend like I didn’t attack this… the temptation was too tasty and I couldn’t wait until dinner! Plus, we all know it’s bad to drink on an empty tummy. 😉

Dinner itself was off the chain. It was a buffet… but a good buffet. Normally I’m anti due to the rogue dirty hands and food sitting out too long. That didn’t happen here. My Blends were nice and clean, and the hotel staff couldn’t have done a better job and keeping the food refreshed.

There were salad options, quinoa patties, roasted veggies, chicken breasts, and lemon-y fish filets. There was literally something for everyone! And it was all good!

No dinner is complete without dessert! there was Chobani panna cotta, apple pie, and berry tarts.

A few of us decided to split all 3… which I graciously finished off. Starving kinds in Africa, you know.

Thanks to Lindsay for this artful photo.

Saturday:

One would think that after all that I’d still be full… well, GPP Fitness fixed that with a little workout that left me waddling. More on that tomorrow but let me just say 200 burpees (I did refuse to yell “Yay burpees!” after each rep as instructed) is a certain cure for lack of appetite.

The highlight of breakfast for me was getting to try a new granola – Muesli Fusion. They have an “Athlete’s Fuel” mix that rocks my socks off. NO added sugar or sodium, and 7g of protein per serving. It’s like they designed it for me. I poured my unsweetened Silk all over that! There was a ton of fresh fruit (holy pineapple deliciousness), and a fabulously strong brew from Green Mountain coffee.

Then we had another workout! Zoomba. I’ll spare you the pics of this white girl shaking her thang… until tomorrow. 😉 Following that we did what any normal blogger does – we went to Whole Foods. I totally failed at life and didn’t take a pic.

I DID take a pic of the snack break that followed – Onnit provided us with some amazing chocolate-banana hemp protein smoothies and rice cakes with cashew-walnut butter (totally crave-worthy). What’s better than these blogger staples? Getting them handed to you by Miss United States! Whitney is one of the sweetest girls I’ve ever met. How cute is she?!

And then there was dinner. Calee, Michelle, Heather, Heather, Heather (that’s not a typo – there were 3 beautiful Heathers) found an amazing restaurant on Main St. in Park City called Riverhorse. The food was incredible.

We started with a great Pinot Noir, chosen by fellow-wine lover Michelle (who I will gush about meeting later) and a beet salad served with micro greens, brie cheese, and a potato crisp with tarragon vinaigrette. Calee and I split the Trio of Wild Game for our entrée. It came with buffalo, venison chop, and elk over broccolini and asparagus with a port wine and huckleberry reduction.

I was nice and full… but when I saw the dessert menus I had to place one more order. Peanut Butter Bread Pudding with caramelized bananas and a chocolate drizzle. Can you blame me? 🙂

Every dish was near perfection. Lucky because our server was terrible. I swear I have the worst luck. She basically ignored us all night, added 20% gratuity (for a party of 6 who was clearly spending money… WTF?!), and when Heather asked about the charge (there was NO warning note on the menu) she snatched the bill out of Heather’s hand and stalked off. We tipped the man refilling our waters in cash on the side and spoke to the manager on the way out.

Like I said, the food was great. That combined with the fantastic company made for a great evening and we laughed about our crazy experience all the way back to the hotel (the cab driver was thoroughly entertained).

Sunday:

Holy breakfast heaven. This was the best breakfast out of any Blend Retreat. They had an omelette station!!! Protein at breakfast?! Color me happy. Thank you for this sponsored deliciousness, Chobani!

I got an egg white omelette with mushrooms, garlic, onions, and spinach. And a Chobani yogurt pancake. And fruit. I wanted ALL the foods! 😉

Be sure to check the #blend2013 hashtag on Twitter and Instagram for more action from the weekend!

***

I snacked my way back to ATL with schwag bag goodies, and (obv) hit the Whole Foods hot bar immediatly after getting home. 😉

Soooo… are you all going to come to Blend next year with me?

Have you ever tried any of these fun products? What are you loving right now?

Strawberry Cornmeal Protein Pancakes

May 13, 2013 By Laura

A weekend without plans never happens for me.

I have such good intentions to relax…

This weekend it happened. And it was because I made a mistake. I thought for WEEKS that this weekend was the Food & Wine Festival. Last year it was on Mother’s Day weekend. This year it apparently is NOT. So suddenly I had a whole weekend, wide open. And it was marvelous.

Of course I worked out. My kickboxing streak continued with a lunchtime class on Friday. I rocked some shorts that may have more personality than I do.

I received these funky green bottoms from YMX as part of being a FitFluential Ambassador. More than the unique look, what makes YMX workout gear special is the fabric they use. It’s called MadKool fabric. It’s meant to regulate your body temperature, keeping you warm in cool weather and cool when you’re hot. The boxing gym is HOT. The fabric was as-advertised… AND it was so light and comfortable I felt like I wasn’t even wearing bottoms. Strange… but good. 😉

Totally asked the instructor to take a pic of me. At least I waited until AFTER class! #shameless

To get your own naked-feeling YMX gear click here. You move like a butterfly and sting like a bee comfortably too! Try this quick circuit:

100 jab-crosses
10 burpees
100 upper cuts
50 mountain climbers
20 Side kicks (each side)

Repeat ~~until you pass out~~ 3-5x.

After that you should refuel! To be honest I was a little mad at Lindsay when I received my first order of Healthy Bites. They are so amazing… I was pissed she didn’t MAKE me try them earlier. I swear I’m not just saying that.

These bites are the most delicious snack I’ve had in recent memory. They are filled with good, clean ingredients, they’re low-sugar, and they’re gluten-free.

My custom order included a protein-laced Reeses flavor, Cinnamon Biscotti, Coconut Caramel, and Birthday Cake. They are all amazing… but the Reeses were my top pick. Or the Cinnamon. Tough choices!!!

They are almost gone. Whoops!

Sunday I hung out with my amazing mom and grandmother. Mom is truly a rock. I owe my passion for food and for being active to her.

Before I left her house, my mom and my grandmother asked me to make them overnight oats to have in the morning! I made an oatmeal version of my Cherry Ginger Smoothie.

I’m a terrible blogger and forgot a pic… but I’ll ask her to send me one to post on Instagram tomorrow. 🙂

Speaking of IG… I also reached a marvelous milestone. My 2000th picture on Instagram!

Eggs from my local farmer’s market. If you’ve never had a farm-fresh egg, you must hunt them down. The difference in taste is astounding. They are more flavorful, the yolks are bright orange, and they make the best runny yolks.

These eggs were first used in my favorite way… #yolkporn! I cracked one into half a pre-roasted kabocha squash and put it under the broiler for a few minutes.

Served over a bed of arugula and smoked salmon with Greek yogurt cream cheese (made by Atlanta Farm Fresh, purchased at Whole Foods).

They also make killer pancakes. The creamy, dreamy pancakes below are laced with local strawberries and hints of lemon and then topped with sautéed berries and toasted coconut. I die.

Strawberry Cornmeal Protein Pancakes

2 T cornmeal
1 T vanilla protein powder
1/4 tsp sodium-free baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg (or 1/4C egg whites)
1/4 C fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt
2 T water
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 butter extract (optional)
6-8 drops lemon liquid stevia (or preferred sweetener)
2 large strawberries, mashed
Optional toppings: syrup, toasted coconut, strawberries

Heat a non-stick pan medium heat and coat with cooking spray (I used coconut oil).

To a medium-sized bowl, add cornmeal, protein, baking powder, and cinnamon and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg white until foamy. Add yogurt, water, extracts, and stevia and stir well.

Add wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Fold in mashed strawberries.

Spoon batter onto pan and cook 3-4 mins per side or until they begin to bubble on top.

Add toppings and enjoy!

***

It’s also Meatless Monday! Check out all the links at Heather’s blog using this week’s ingredient: Dark Chocolate. I’m linking my #strangebutgood Chocolate Avocado Cookies from Friday!

Have you ever had farm eggs?

How did you celebrate Mother’s Day?

Growing Blend-ships

Blend Your [Growing Naturals] Protein

Reasons I love Growing Naturals:

Rocky Road Berry Coconut Bites

Rocky Road Berry Coconut Bites

What I Ate at Blend

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

Strawberry Cornmeal Protein Pancakes

Strawberry Cornmeal Protein Pancakes

Follow Me!

Popular Posts

Affiliate Links: This site is monetized through the use of affiliate links. This means that if you were to make a purchase through one of these links, Sprint 2 the Table would receive a small percentage of the sale price. Thanks for your support!