I realize that this is a crazy long list but cut out your processed foods and junk foods and you’re pretty much good to go. I’m a huge advocate of the farm to table approach and am always happy to support our local farms and markets.

I used to work for a local organic foods company where I live and people would constantly ask me why they should buy organic or natural. For me, it’s just how food was always meant to be. Real food minus all the crap.

I know I mentioned it before, but I just can’t get enough of this smoothie!

Blueberry & Kale Smoothie

 

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Ingredients

• 1 c Organic Kale
• ½ c Frozen Blueberries, Dark Cherries or Açaí
• 1 Frozen Banana
• 2 tb Organic Ground Flax
• 2 c Unsweetened Almond Milk

Instructions

1. Toss everything into a blender and blitz. Add more milk for a thinner consistency.

Notes

Add-in’s that I also like:
Hemp Seed, Wheat Germ, Spirulina, Spinach, Goji Berries, or Cacao Nibs!

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I drink this every morning and take them unsweetened but if I’m making them for my brothers, I drizzle in a bit of Agave or toss in a few extra berries

Love & Purple Monster Smoothies,

Your Squishy Monster

I used to work for a local organic foods company where I live and people would constantly ask me why they should buy organic or natural. For me, it’s just how food was always meant to be. Real food minus all the crap.

Here’s my “health-haul” video, just in case you missed it.

I know I mentioned it before, but I just can’t get enough of this smoothie!

I drink this every morning and take them unsweetened but if I’m making them for my brothers, I drizzle in a bit of Agave or toss in a few extra berries

Love & Purple Monster Smoothies,

Your Squishy Monster

To me, food isn’t just about nourishment.  It extends beyond survival.  It’s the pleasure of watching your fork sink into a freshly baked pie and the gooey cherries oozing out.  It’s about the crust that cracks from an artisanal loaf, just waiting to be slathered with butter and jam.  It’s about the abundance of colorful produce that gleam and glisten, trundled in baskets, begging to be taken home with you for supper or those thick slabs of meat that you can just imagine grilling over an open flame, sputtering in its own juices in its special seductive way.

Cute little babies.  I love Tomatoes.  I used to eat a Tomato Sandwich 3 days out of a week and never tire of them.

I’ve been on a huge nut kick lately and have practically been hoarding Almonds & Walnuts.

Fire Cracker Shrimp

These were so very tender.

Wild Caught Shrimp off the coast of NC

These look like stained glass to me

Lunch: herbed Bulgar, Carrots, Wild Arugula, Broccolini, Summer Squash, Sunflower Sprouts, Baby Kale, Roasted Tomatoes, Grilled Tofu, Peanuts, Scallions, and Spicy Harissa.

XOXO (from a little baby food heaven),

Your Squishy Monster ^.~

What happened to that girl that used to party all night long, slump over in a heap at 5, sleep in all day, smear on lip gloss and do it all over again?  She is gone.gone.gone.  When I think back of how stupid me and my gfs all were, it’s a wonder we didn’t have the SVU involved somehow.  We would hop into cars with boys we barely knew and drive forever, or at least until the next party.  I don’t know what I would do if my future daughter were to do these things.  I’d probably sweat and stress harder than on a day like today (it’s 109 out today eeek)!

So sue me if that same girl today extracts more pleasure out of biting into something delicious at a hole-in-the-wall joint that she just happened to stumble into or perusing through shelves lined with groceries.  I dare you to call me homely.  Justin Timberlake brought sexy back?  I’m bringin’ homely back.

Pssst…there’s nothing to be ashamed of, my friend if you concur

Breakfast

There’s a local place that makes all-butter croissants from scratch.  You’ve probably unknowingly consumed a dozen pastries or so made with sweetex or crisco.  I really like Spectrum and I’m not afraid of lard…and I don’t suppose I must reiterate my allegiance to butter.

Lunch

A type of Korean 5-grain rice, spicy potatoes and stir-fried anchovies.

Dinner

$16 Kobe Burger. Geez louise.  This is what I get for being a foodaholic vs a shopaholic.  Nothing left but pictures and an anorexic wallet.

Midnight Snack

How many Orchids had to die for a chocolate cheesecake, lol (yes, part of being old–er is laughing at your own jokes)

Eating followed an entire morning of going somewhere to look at more food at my local Farmer’s Market.

Sample of tabouli and falafel with baba ghanoush.

Later into the day, me and my friend rode the light rail and watched the sunset…

I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!

Stay cool (literally and figuratively) because cool is what you make it!

Love,

Your Squishy Monster

If you’re looking for a BB cream review or a sandy peach lipstick swatch, sorry to disappoint.  These are just a few shots of things that I found beauty in this past week.

This is the winner–hands down.  As I slipped past them, it was, without a faltering moment that I decided that I must immortalize this in my iphone.  It literally brought tears to my eyes.  One day, I’m going to find this and have it for myself

Heirloom babies to make into tomato sammies.  Yum.

Fresh lychees to snack on in the car and dribble sticky juice all over yourself and not be able to find a napkin.  Yup.  That’s me.

Berries growing in my besties backyard!

Can you put a price on pleasure?  For $6, you can experience the dark chocolate cardamom sort.

A piece of Heaven (I’m certain).  I picked up The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (apparently, it wasn’t depressing enough the first time around).

The thing here to notice is his pack.  The poor thing is so damn old that it’s literally splitting at the seams.  I stuck my hand in to fish something out to see if he’d notice, just to be funny.  You’ll be happy to know that it’s since been retired.  Silly hippie college kids today.

The sky is angry but the tall grass is begging you to play.

So intense!

The city right before the skirts and the heels come out to play.

What’s something beautiful you saw or experienced this week?

XOXO

your wondering what that cute old couple is doing,

Squishy Monster

I feel like I’ve gone a bit mad.  You know how some girls submerge their blues in a pretty dish of pink ice cream?  I am no exception but extend past this fact with enough food to feed a massive army.  I am too embarrassed to post images of everything food-related for this past weekend but suffice it to say that there were many bottomless bowls of various things spooned over with nutella involved.  My pretty little princess in all her wide-eyed optimism came bouncing down the stairs one morning, making a quick bee-line to the fridge and helped herself to a bowl of ice-cream of mammoth proportions.  (Mind you she’s itty bitty) and gleefully snuggled close and exclaimed the brilliance of her chosen breakfast.  So two things here, D.S.S. would probably intervene for my lack of responsible parenting and her enthusiasm gave way to the next hour of staring at Saturday morning cartoons with an open bag of this chocolate cereal that should quit lying and call itself what it really is: cookie-candy.

This stuff is crazy dangerous.  If I ever had kids, I don’t know how I could justify feeding this to them for breakfast….but then again, I stare at my nieces pleading doe-eyes and quickly reconsider.  Parenting has got to be some tough stuff.  I don’t know how y’all do it!

Strawberry milkshakes are a necessity when over seeing two girls hula-hooping.

Strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting and chocolate ganache.  Princess wanted to know what ganache was.

These represent the better parts of my childhood.  (but yet another example of what should be included in the list of “things you should never feed your kids).  The label reads a scary calorie and fat content, the ingredient following chocolate is cheese? On the bottom, it clearly states “does not contain pig fat.”  Was that ever a thing for my yan yan?

Don’t worry, there was some actual food involved, too.  Spicy shrimp with cilantro and jasmine rice

Grilled garlic beef tenderloin with cilantro-lime corn.  I am a woman obsessed!  I want cilantro-everything lately.

More cilantro, please! (and tying into the shrimp and cilantro theme, too)

How goooorgeous are these?!

I found myself sitting in the muck of squashed Berries that people had carelessly strewn all over the ground, not caring that my newly washed jeans began to bleed with Berry stains and taking my glorious time with hand plucking these plump, fragrant babies.  Sun shining with an endless supply of Strawberry perfume, I could have made a home for myself, nestled between the beautiful red and green streaked field.  I laugh as I imagine my fat, happy self, rolling around in the Strawberry field, turning pinker by the day, LOL.

Needless to say, I rushed home, excited and breathless, as if  I’d run the entire way to make use of Berries that I would try to restrain myself from greedily gobbling up with Honey (though, these were so sweet that they didn’t even need it)!

Cue Strawberry Ice Cream.  For the longest time, I’ve flirted with the idea of investing in an Ice Cream Machine but somehow always talked myself out of it.  Boy am I glad I did!  Between the Semi Freddo’s, Creamy Granitas, and no-churn Ice Creams of the World, it’s just one less bulky piece of machinery you don’t have to wash!

Watch this video on YouTube Embedded with WP YouTube Lyte.

Let me take you down
‘Cause I’m going to…

eat all the Ice Cream by myself!!! =D

XOXO
Your Squishy Monster

Fruit makes me happy.  Fruit tarts make me even happier.  No matter what the situation was, growing up, we always had lots of fresh fruit.  It’s how we ended most meals and what we’d have for breakfasts, snacks, you name it.  I remember how thrilled I was when I discovered the concept of stretching fruit out to pack different flavor punches.  I distinctly remember my first bite of a fresh slab of grilled pineapple, dripping with it’s own juices and glossed over with melted chocolate.  Now that is something deserving of a “foodgasm.”

Not much harder to achieve is this fruit tart.  People seem to get spooked whenever “tart” is mentioned.  I think it has to do with it’s neat fluted edges that comprise of what most people freak out about: tart pastry.  I’m not gonna lie.  Rolling out pastry is not one of my favorite things to do.  Then again, I wasn’t too keen on play-doh as a kid.  I watched too many of my friends eating the stuff.  It never appealed to me.  So don’t worry.  I wouldn’t impose upon you something that I wouldn’t do myself.  This tart pastry is endlessly forgiving.  It’s a matter of mix and smoosh.

Fresh Fruit Tart

 

Prep time

2 hours

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

2 hours 15 mins

 

Author: The Squishy Monster

Ingredients

• Tart Pastry:
• •2 sticks of softened, unsalted Butter
• •8 oz of softened Cream Cheese (full fat, of course)!
• •2 cups Flour + 1 ts fine salt
• Pastry Cream:
• •1 c Heavy Cream + 1 c full fat Milk
• •1 scraped Vanilla Bean
• •2 Yolks
• •6 tb Sugar
• •2 tb Corn Starch (Corn Flour)

Instructions

1. Tart pastry: cream together your butter & cream cheese (you can smear it with a wooden spoon but a mixer is much easier)
2. After your butter/cheese mixture is nicely combined and fluffy, begin sprinkling in your flour/salt. I would do about 3 separate additions.
3. At this point, mix on low, sprinkle, and STOP when the dough comes together. A soft, smooth dough ball will form.
4. Gently press the dough evenly up and around your pan, squishing it into every crevice. You want it to be pretty even.
5. Pop your prepared pans into the fridge for 1 hour
6. To pre-bake: line the inside with wax or foil and fill with dried beans or rice. Bake at 350 for 12-15 min.
7. Pastry cream: Constantly whisk and cook until it bubbles and thickens.
8. Cool and directly lay cling film on the surface of your cream and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
9. If your pastry cream is lumpy, just pass it through a fine mesh sieve.
10. To assemble:Tip your cooled pastry cream into your cooled tart shell. Arrange whatever seasonal berries you’d like on top. Take a pastry brush and lightly brush the tops of each fruit with this mixture: 2 tb jelly + 2 ts water, zap in the microwave for a 20-30 sec, cool and brush on top of fruit to make it glisten and shine.

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I also broke a dish.  I seem to break a lot of dishes…and cups…and bowls for that matter!  LOL.  I’m very much a klutz.  I know, I know I seem so composed and elegant (haha) but now that I think about it, I really do seem to break a lot of dishes and I know that I break more dishes on days I’m preoccupied or flustered.  Today, I couldn’t seem to catch my breath.

Enough on that.  Let’s move on to happier things.  Fruit makes me happy.  Fruit Tarts make me even happier.  No matter what the situation was, growing up, we always had lots of fresh Fruit.  It’s how we ended most meals and what we’d have for Breakfasts, Snacks, you name it.  I remember how thrilled I was when I discovered the concept of stretching Fruit out to pack different flavor punches.  I distinctly remember my first bite of a fresh slab of grilled Pineapple, dripping with it’s own juices and glossed over with melted Chocolate.  Now that is something deserving of a “foodgasm.”

Not much harder to achieve is this Fruit Tart.  People seem to get spooked whenever “Tart” is mentioned.  I think it has to do with it’s neat fluted edges that comprise of what most people freak out about: Tart Pastry.  I’m not gonna lie.  Rolling out Pastry is not one of my favorite things to do.  Then again, I wasn’t too keen on Play-Doh as a kid.  I watched too many of my friends eating the stuff.  It never appealed to me.  So don’t worry.  I wouldn’t impose upon you something that I wouldn’t do myself.  This Tart Pastry is endlessly forgiving.  It’s a matter of Mix and Smoosh.

Watch this video on YouTube Embedded with WP YouTube Lyte.

Breakin’ Dishes & Makin’ Berries Shine

Love,
Your only temporarily sad Squishy Monster

XOXO!!!

My little niece and nephew came by today to decorate the Gingerbread Cookies I baked for Parkview Community

You can watch my Gratitude & Paying it Forward video to meet our local superhero Gwendolyn, again.
It’s too dark today but we’ll definitely be visiting everyone tomorrow with lots of goodies!!

The cuties that my cuties decorated especially for the little boys and girls of Parkview =D

with gingerbread cupcakes

The adorable Dora doll that one very Dora obsessed , very, very adorable girl requested (from Santa)

Sadly, I stopped believing in Santa a very long time ago.  It happened when I was 7.  Me and my brother had set out cookies for Santa with high hopes that in the morning, only crumbs would remain and be replaced by the wondrous gifts of our hearts of hearts desires.  With sleepy eyes, I was the first to awake and sleepily, but happily (with great anticipation) crept into our living room.  How horrified was I when I discovered the scrap piece of paper that read “Daddy say thank you for cookies.”  Now, before you call DSS with this backlogged story, mind you, there is a great cultural divide within Western and Eastern culture.  Dad most definitely didn’t do this out of spite or with the intention of crushing a little boy or girl.  He didn’t quite get the concept of Santa.  Now as grown ups, we know the true identity of said Santa.  Dad figured that the cookies were for “Santa.”  For the man bestowing great toys upon his children—himself.  Needless to say, I crumbled up the scrap note so baby brother wouldn’t see, and as quite as a mouse, stole back into bed to rejoin Christmas festivities again at the normal hour.

This Christmas, Dad is probably not going to be eating any cookies set out for Santa, the littlest one of our clan is now 18.  Mom and Dad are spending the days leading up to Christmas caroling for the retired community here, then traveling to Atlanta, only to return just before Christmas morning.  They’re such amazing parents.  This is after 9-10 hrs of a regular work load.  Sheesh!!  They’ve been pretty good, I bet they’re not getting coal from Santa!  LOL.

This is what they wear to go caroling:

It almost looks like real, live gingerbread people!  =D

I’m actually getting a shot of this blown up, framed and wrapped as one of my Christmas presents to them.  This picture makes me smile.  The little girl who’s getting Dora and the kids that are gonna chomp on those cookies that my niece/nephew decorated also put a smile on my face.

These are also little things that make me smile for Christmas

A random house I drove by and just had to sneak a shot of to share with y’all.

My teeny, tiny reindeer that puts a smile on my face each and every time I walk past him in my living room.  Best rollar store buy EVER.

I hope Dad’s crazy funny antics, the sugary Pictures and Mom and Dad as real, live gingerbread people put a smile on your face too!

Love, Your Squishy Monster