Mint-Matcha Chia Pudding

Oh my gosh, today is my 2 year bloggiversary!!!!!!
I just realized it! Thank you so much for all of your support! RFFMBT would be nothing without my readers. I love you guys so much! xoxo

I’m super super excited because today I’m going on a blogger summit for DOLE!
Myself and 10 other bloggers will be joining the DOLE team for a few days dedicated to healthy eating, cooking, and nutrition! I cannot wait to meet the other bloggers, we’ve already been having a twitter party chatting up a storm!
I’ll be updating you guys on my trip via Instagram and recap all of the delish recipes for you here on my blog!

I hope that everyone had a healthy happy St. Patricks Day on Monday!

As I told you on Monday, I ate healthy green meals and snacks allll day!
The best thing about eating greens is that they’re filled with so many nutrients, vitamins & minerals, that they give you TONS of every throughout the day. I actually felt really energized and amazing all day long. Here’s a look of what I ate (huge green salad for dinner not pictured):
For breakfast I started off with a green smoothie made with a handful of spinach, 1 frozen banana, 1 pear, and 1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk!
Green Smoothie St Patricks Day
A couple hours later I had a little snack with a half of a small avocado mashed up with a little lemon juice, and a pinch of salt & pepper on top of a brown rice cake! Best. Snack. Ever.
Avocado Rice Cake Helathy Snack
Then I had some delicious Mint-Matcha Chia Pudding that I discovered from Kathy Patalsky’s blog The Lunchbox Bunch!
Mint Matcha Chia Pudding Healthy Snack
Next up I ate an entire bowl of Kale Joy Sweet Mustard Kale Chips. Whoever decided one bag of kale chips was 2 servings is SOOO wrong. I eat the whole bag, every time!
Sweet Mustard Kale Chips Healthy Snack
Yesterday I worked on a freelance project all day and then went out for a paddle with my friend Blake! It was absolutely gorgeous out at the water was perfectly calm and flat and there was absolutely no wind. The perfect paddling conditions!
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After Paddling, I went to Full Psycle to get my spin on. Since Full Psycle just opened their second location at Bella Terra in Huntington Beach, the instructors are bouncing around between studios, so this is their first week with completely new schedules. I’m such a creature of habit and was a little intimidated to try a new teacher last night but I did! The class was really challenging and I worked super hard!
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Speaking of Full Psycle opening their second studio, I went to the Grand Opening at Bella Terra in Huntington Beach last weekend! The new studio is soooo nice! The air conditioning is amazing, the sound system is incredible, and there is tons of free parking! If you live near HB you have to go check it out! Oh, and your first class is free with the promo code “FIRSTCLASSFREE” and they also have free rental clips for your first class! No reason not to try it!
Full Psycle Grand Opening HB 4

Now onto the nom noms! I saw Kathy’s Mint-Matcha Chia Pudding recipe on Sunday night and happened to have all of the ingredients on hand, so I whipped up a batch with a few little adjustments, put it in the fridge overnight, and enjoyed it on St. Patrick’s Day!

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Mint-Matcha Chia Pudding
Adapted from Kathy Patalsky of The Lunch Box Bunch
Serves 1

1/3 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp matcha green tea
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/2 Tbsp agave
small drop of peppermint extract

Combine almond milk, matcha, agave, and peppermint in a blender, blend until matcha disolved. Transfer the mixture to a jar and mix in the whole chia seeds. Cover and store in a frigge for about 8 hours or overnight for best/thickest results.

Green St. Patrick’s Day Recipes

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
I’m not a huge St. Patrick’s day celebrator, but I loveeeee green food!
St. Patrick’s Day can easily be the ultimate healthy eating day of green fruits and veggies!

I hope you have an amazing monday and eat your greens, little bunnies.
Check in on my Instagram as I’ll be eating healthy green foods ALL DAY!
Tag your healthy green meals #healthystpatricksday and let’s see what everyone is making.

Anyone else willing to accept the challenge to eat green rabbit food all day?!

Enjoy my roundup of healthy green recipes for your healthy St. Patrick’s Day!

 

1. Cucumber Tea Toast

Cucumber Tea Toast

 

2. Avocado ToastAvocado Toast1

 

3. Hemp Protein PancakesHemp Prtein Pancakes

 

4. Hail To the Kale SaladChef AJ Hail to the Kale Recipe

 

5. Tempeh and Green Vegetables with Peanut SauceTempeh with Green Vegetables and Peanut Sauce

 

6. Kale ChipsKale Chips

 

7. Spinach ChipsSpinach-Chips9

 

8. Spinach HummusSpinach-Hummus-Cabo-Chips-1

 

9. Kiwi GreenieKiwi Greenie

 

10. Gargantuan Green GiantGargantuan Green Giant

 

11. Mango Avo SmoothieMango Avocado Smoothie

 

12. It’s Easy Being Green Kale SmoothieIt's Easy Being Green Kale Smoothie

 

13. Avo Fruit SmoothieAvo Fruit Smoothie

 

14. Snickerdoodle Green SmoothieSnickerdoodle-Green-Smoothie-4

 

15. Copycat {whole foods} Tropical Green SmoothieWhole-Foods-Copycat-Tropical-Green-Smoothie-3

 

16. Pistachio Ice Cream SmoothiePistachio Ice Cream Smoothie

 

17. Thin Mint Protein SmoothieThin Mint Girl Scout Cookie Smoothie

 

18. Simple Green SmoothieSpimple-Easy-Green-Spoomtie-3-520x518

Slam Dunk Lettuce Wraps + Dole Giveaway

I love DOLE Chopped Salads because it’s a quick and easy way to eat more rabbit food. They’re filled with all sorts of goodies like different lettuces (green cabbage, red cabbage, and kale), broccoli slaw, carrots, and even snap peas! It’s an easy way to change up my usual all spinach or all kale salad and get some different textures and new flavors in the mix. My fav way to eat a chopped salad is to pour the entire bag (yup, all 4 servings! Only 100 calories and 8 grams of fiber for the entire thing!) into a gigantic mixing bowl, throw on some homemade dressing, mix it up, and nom nom that shiznit up. Straight out of the mixing bowl. Awww yeahhhh. But besides eating the entire bag like a rabbit, I love branching out and making new recipes. For example, I love filling spring rolls with the Asian Blend for a quick and easy appetizer when friends come over!

Since March Madness is just around the corner and basketball is all about those slam dunks, I teamed up (no pun intended!) with DOLE Salads to make the ultimate dunk recipe! Serve them up while watching the March Madness games as a fresh snack that’s so healthy, you can dunk into that sauce alllll you want! I love that the Asian Blend is filled with green cabbage, red cabbage, kale, broccoli slaw, snap peas, and carrots. It makes for a super easy veggie filling for my lettuce wraps with little prep!

These fresh Asian lettuce wraps are so easy to make, and even easier to devour!
They’re a total slam dunk!

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Dole-Chopped-Salad-Asian-Blend-Helathy-Lettuce-Wraps-4Love this adorable chopping block from DOLE to chop my ingredients! This bamboo Mezzaluna style chopping block comes with a double-bladed herb knife that actually stores inside of the unit when it’s not in use!

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Slam Dunk Lettuce Wraps
Serves 4-5 as an appetizer or 1 as a meal!

Lettuce Wraps:
2 cups DOLE Chopped Asian Blend
1/2 cup cooked quinoa, chilled
2 Tbs cashews, chopped
2 Tbsp Sweet Chili Sauce
5 butter lettuce leaves

Sweet Chili Sauce:
3/4 cup rice vinegar
3/4 cup honey
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp chili pepper, finely chopped
2 tsp red-pepper flakes
1/2 tsp coarse salt

Cook and chill quinoa beforehand. Combine all ingredients for the sweet chili sauce, mix well, and refrigerate. In a mixing bowl, combine the DOLE Chopped Asian Blend, quinoa, and sweet chili sauce. Scoop the filling into lettuce wraps using a 1/4 cup measuring cup. Dunk into sweet chili sauce as desired, and enjoy while watching March Madness!

The Rabbit Food Pyramid Breakdown
Produce: Dole Chopped Asian Blend and butter lettuce
Whole Grain:  quinoa
Protein: none
Plant Based Fat: cashews

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I’m hosting a giveaway in collaboration with DOLE Salads & EatingWell!
One lucky RFFMBT reader will win:

(Free) DOLE Salads coupons to try DOLE Chopped Salads
DOLE chopping block
DOLE reusable grocery bag
The Simple Art of EatingWell Cookbook
EatingWell Fast & Flavorful Meatless Meals Cookbook

*Must use a valid email address and be a US resident to enter.
Giveaway ends on Friday, March 14th at 11:59pm PST.
Winner will be announced on Saturday, March 15th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want more dunk able March Madness recipes to make with DOLE Chopped Salads?
Checkout their “Super Dunk” dip & “Avocado Spring Rolls,” both featuring DOLE Chopped Asian Blend!

The Best Iced Coffee

Any coffee addicts out there?
I’ve been obsessed with coffee since high school and then got completely addicted in college when the all nighters started happening haha.  When I went to visit my friend Tammy in Holland this past summer, she made me the most amazing iced coffee every morning.

She would brew a fresh pot of coffee, add some sugar, pour it all into ice cube trays and freeze it overnight, and then in the morning put the coffee cubes in a glass and fill it with milk. It’s so simple, and 10 times better than regular iced coffee (aka coffee, milk, and ice cubes).

I hate when I order or make an iced coffee and the entire cup is filled with ice instead of coffee, and can’t stand when it gets all watery towards the end after the ice starts to melt. If you have the same iced coffee pet peeves as me, you will loveeee this!

Coffee ice cubes are a genius and simple way to get the best iced coffee!
Almond Milk Coffee= perfection

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The Best Iced Coffee
How To:

1. Brew your favorite coffee
2. Mix in stevia or sugar – whatever you would normally put in your coffee (I used 12 drops of liquid stevia)
3. Pour into an ice cube tray
4. Freeze coffee ice cubes overnight
5. Pop about 6 cubes out of the tray and transfer to a cup
6. Fill the cup with unsweetened original almond milk
7. Let it sit for a few minutes, and enjoy!

Tip:
If you like sweet coffee, the trick is to add the sweetener to your coffee before freezing it into cubes! The amount of coffee ice cubes you put into your glass depends on how strong you like your iced coffee, start with 6 and you can add from there!

Natural Products Expo West 2014

Special thanks to Newhope 360 for the press pass to the Natural Products Expo West 2014! I had a blast sampling and learning about new natural food brands from Friday-Sunday and came home with a ton of goodies! Below are my top picks from this year’s expo as well as photos from my adventure!

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1. Vega One Nutritional Shake

Fav Flav: Vanilla Chai
The 411: Vegan, non-soy, 15 g protein. 6 g fiber, 1.5 g omega-3, antioxidants,includes probiotics, greens, and 50% daily intake of vitamins and minerals. Vega One features their signature, broad-spectrum, plant-based protein blend, with all essential amino acids in ideal balance. Vega One’s Complete Protein Blend includes: Pea protein, SaviSeed™ (sacha inchi) protein, Hemp seed protein, Sprouted whole grain brown rice protein
My Take: 15g of plant-based protein… how can you go wrong?! I love that this is a non-soy vegan protein powder! Vanilla Chai is a twist on the usual vanilla protein powder with vanilla, chai, nutmeg, and cinnamon, YUM!

2. I heart Keenwah – Quinoa Clusters
Fav Flav: Chocolate Sea Salt
The 411: All natural and gluten free, I heart Keenwah “Quinoa Clusters” are made with the ancient grain quinoa, which is a complete protein.
My Take: These crunchy little guys are pretty addicting, but they’re a snack with a purpose and offer complete protein that will keep you full between meals.

3. Credible Cravings
Best Selling Flav: Oatmeal Cranberry
The 411: CredibleCravings is the first organic snack bar carefully formulated with Obstetricians, Nutritionists, and Midwives to support the nutritional needs of pregnant and breastfeeding women and their developing children. CredibleCravings uses only high quality, natural ingredients amd probiotics, that serve the specific nutritional needs of mom and baby. No artificial preservatives, artificial sweeteners, or chemicals.
My Take: I love that this is geared towards pregnant & breastfeeding moms! They use natural ingredients like ginger to sooth upset tummies! Even if you aren’t a momma-to-be, these are all natural and super healthy for everyone!

4. Mr. Cheese O’s
Fav Flav: Tuscan Herb
The 411: Tuscan These crunchy little O’s are made from quinoa, oat bran, organic brown rice, and real cheese!
My Take: They’re just as addicting as Cheez-Its, but they’re made of 100% natural ingredients, and they’re gluten free! Mr. Cheese O’s launched at Expo, and I cannot wait for them to hit stores! They’re to die for!

5. Dang Coconut Chips
Fav Flav: Caramel Sea Salt
The 411: Vegan, gluten free, non-GMO, no cholesterol, good source of fiber, high in lauric acid. Only 3 ingredients, coconut, coconut sugar, and sea salt.
My Take: Simple addicting. Delicious on it’s own for a little snack, or on top of yogurt, oatmeal, or in trail mix or cereal!

6. Go Lo Foods Dark Hazelnut Spread
The 411: It’s sugar free, gluten free, dairy free, Paleo, Vegan, low sodium, and Kosher. It’s only 65 calories per Tablespoon and contains 5.5g fiber and only 1 net carb.
My Take: I like to call this “healthy Nutella.” It doesn’t taste identical to Nutella, but I almost prefer it now. It has a stronger hazelnut flavor along with dark chocolate!

7. Go Lo Foods [36 Calorie] Cookies
The 411: They contain 0g fat, less than 1/4g of sugar, and only 36 calories per cookie with a whopping 13g fiber, 7g of protein, and only 2 net carbs PER COOKIE (and they’re big!)!
My Take: These cookies are insane. You may think these delicacies are too good to be true, but I promise that with one bite, these soft and chewy cookies will cure your sweet tooth! They’re totally my new secret weapon for my late night snacking and sweet tooth! 1 cookie and a glass of water and I’m good to go!

8. cruncha ma-me
Fav Flav: Onion & Chive
The 411: cruncha ma-me is an all natural, high protein, non-GMO Verified, gluten-free and vegan, freeze-dried edamame veggie snack.
My Take: Perfect for snacking on the go, cruncha ma-me edamame snacks come in six delicious flavors and are rich in plant-based protein from non-GMO soybeans.

9. Dole Fruit Squish’ems
Fav Flav: Apple
The 411: BPA free packaging, non-GMO, gluten free, kosher, only 60 calories, 100% fruit, no sugar added.
My Take: They’re easy to grab and go for healthy snacking on busy days. Plus you don’t need a spoon! These aren’t just for kids, I eat them in the car al the time!

10. The Scoopie™
The 411: Made the same standard size as the scooper provided in most protein powders/supplement jars, The Scoopie™ has an added funnel with a spout smaller than the circumference of a water bottle opening for accurate pouring. With The Scoopie™, you simply scoop the protein or liquid, snap on the attached funnel, flip and pour into the water bottle without the mess of powder or liquid spilling on you.
My Take: This little tool is genius! So simple! Just scoop, snap, flip & pour! I’m waiting for all protein powder companies to start including these in their jars! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve scooped something and attempted to pour it into a bottle and watched it pour all over my counter! Never again!

11. Slow Food For Fast Lives Savory Bars
Fav Flav: Savory Thai
The 411: Savory, not sweet ,health food bars.
My Take: These are awesome! There is nothing like these bars on the market! They’re made of vegetables, spices, brown rice, nuts and or seeds to create a savory granola style bar. I’ve never had anything like this, and they are super good! I tried so many sweet bars at expo that this savory veggie bar was a breathe of fresh air!

12. Rise Protein+ Bar
Fav Flav: Sunflower Cinnamon
The 411: Gluten free, non-GMO, dairy free, preservative free, vegan, 15g plant-based pea protein.
My Take: This bar is so ooey gooey good, I can’t believe it’s a protein bar! This particular flavor is nut free (made with sunflower seed butter) and contains only 5 ingredients, awesome!

13. The Chia Co. Chia Pod
Fav Flav: Mango
The 411: Each dairy free and vegan Chia Pod® provides 100% of your recommended daily intake of Omega 3 and 25% of your fiber.
My Take: I love the convenience of these little pods, they have a spoon built in, and are completely recyclable. They’re also made of only 3 ingredients!

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Natural-Products-Expo-West-1Super cute guerrilla marketing for Bare Snacks.

Natural-Products-Expo-West-2The adorable Boom Chicka Pop girls passing out samples on their super cute scooters!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-24Loved this #kindawesome marketing for Kind. They handed out roses to all attendees walking in!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-4Close up of one of my fav new products, The Scoopie™ (read more in #10, above).

Natural-Products-Expo-West-5Scoopies on Scoopies on Scoopies! I went home with carrot orange : )

Natural-Products-Expo-West-9Hanging out with The Chia Co’s gigantic Chia Pods! I had the pleasure of meeting their founder and CEO John Foss! He’s a great guy! Both their product and packaging are exceptional.

Natural-Products-Expo-West-23Actual size Chia Pod that I snacked on at Expo. Banana was amaze, definitely my second fav flav.

Natural-Products-Expo-West-12Brad’s Raw Foods wins for my fav takeaway bag! Because Kale is Kool, DUH!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-11On day 2 of Expo, I stumbled upon this gigantic bag of The Chia Co Chia Seeds! Hilarious and so amazing!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-13Of course I had to stop and take a photo with Barbara’s famous Puffin! Guys, did you know he’s nameless? NAMELESS! He needs a cute name ASAP! Barbara, name your puffin! Their Cinnamon Puffins are one of my fav cereals, but as I’ve said before, I rarely buy cereal because I’ll literally eat the entire box in one day #problems! haha.

Natural-Products-Expo-West-19I stopped by the Dole booth to sample their new Shakers! Now made with fruit AND VEGGIES, and Greek yogurt! All you do is add fresh fruit juice, and shake. No blender required!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-7Of course it wouldn’t be Expo West without some excellent fashion! Above are the Sunfood girls “daring to go bare!”

Natural-Products-Expo-West-6Three Twins Ice Cream custom pants with their packaging all over… AMAZING! I need RFFMBT carrot print workout pants!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-20Super adorable veggie headpieces for Slow Food For Fast Lives.

Natural-Products-Expo-West-17How cute are the Chobani Chef Coats? Love the evil eye embroidered on. My Armenian family is REALLY into the evil eye, but we call it Char Atchk!
Natural-Products-Expo-West-8The Chobani booth was set up to be like their restaurant in Soho! They even made some of their original recipes from Chobani Soho for us to sample at Expo. Loved their ideas, I’m definitely remaking some of these at home! I have to visit Cho Soho one day! AHH!

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Natural-Products-Expo-West-18After hanging out with the Chobani crew for a little, I grabbed a Key Lime Flip and browsed some more booths. Next stop Vega!

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Natural-Products-Expo-West-29The Vega group was hysterical! I had the most fun at this booth! Every once in a while, the entire team did sets of burpees next to their booth and got everyone all riled up. They have SO much energy!!! It must be the Vega! They’re also super knowledgable about nutrition. I must’ve sampled every product and flavor they had and asked 10 million questions.

Natural-Products-Expo-West-32I fell in love with the “Suja Beach House!” Their booth was fabulous and I loved sipping on the new Suja Essentials and chatting with their Co-Founder Annie!
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Natural-Products-Expo-West-3I got to hangout with my new friends at Go Lo Foods and snacked on their delish 36 calories cookies!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-10I also got to have a little fiesta with the Cabo Chips team and their owner Christian! Their booth looked like an authentic cantina, complete with Photo Booth and sombreros! Olé!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-27And now for my favorite part, I totally stalked the Annie’s Homegrown booth because obviously I’m obsessed with their bunnies (as seen in the background of my blog)!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-28I saw these adorable custom bandanas with their bunny “Bernie” all over them as part of their decoration. Every time I walked by their booth, I stared at them with envy, and on the last day of Expo, a member of the Annie’s team grabbed a bandana from underneath their product, handed it to me, and said, “here, you need this!!!” BEST. DAY. EVER.!!!!! I folded it up and wore it as a headband for the rest of the day!

Natural-Products-Expo-West-25Thank you Annie’s Homegrown for my favorite new accessory!

I hope you little bunnies had a great weekend!
Let me know if you try any of my picks from Expo West!

Health & Happiness
xo Catherine

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