Makeover!

You'll notice my blog looks a bit different today. I decided to give it a makeover. I wanted a design that's simple and clean, and I think this really shows of the pictures better. As much as I love GREEN, all that color seemed a little distracting to me. What do you think?

Yesterday afternoon I decided to make some nut butter, since I'm all out of the last batch of almond butter I made. I wanted to try to replicate the spiced vanilla butter from Williams Sonoma that I'm almost out of, so I came up with this...

Chai Spice Cashew Butter

2.5 cups raw cashews, lightly toasted and cooled

1.5 tsps cinnamon

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbls agave nectar

1 Tbls EVOO

• Process cashews in food processor until finely ground
• Add spices
• Continue to process until nuts start to clump and form a paste
• Add vanilla extract and agave nectar
• Continue to process until very smooth paste forms
• Slowly add EVOO with motor running and continue to blend until it forms a creamy, delicious butter

I sampled the butter on a Medjool date.

This stuff is delicious! The spices are so yummy. And its so easy to make! I highly recommend you give it a try.

Dinner was leftover mushroom, asparagus, and goat cheese pizza.

For dessert I had the last of the lemon sorbet and a Dancing Deer molasses spice cookie. No, not a homemade cookie. Along with the pizza crust, I bought these for Friday night's dinner party. But there's all good stuff in them and no preservatives. So I'm ok with it - especially because they're so tasty.

This morning I had plans to run the course of a 10K I've signed up for in Milton. My friend Jane is running it too and invited me to run the course with her. But when I woke up it was raining - not good running weather. We rescheduled and I made breakfast.

A fritatta with portobellos, roasted red peppers, and goat cheese. And a slice of whole wheat toast with my cashew butter. Derek agreed that this stuff is awesome.

After breakfast, I headed to an hour long yoga class at my gym. I planned to run on the treadmill after the class, since I was supposed to do 6 miles today. But I just wasn't feeling it. I guess I was too mellowed out from the yoga :) I ended up just running 2 miles and then heading home.

For lunch I tried this new product that I ordered a sample of - Bell Plantation's PB2 powdered peanut butter.
This is supposed to be used as a low fat peanut butter - the company turns peanuts into a powder that makes a peanut buttery product when mixed with water. I'm not really concerned about the good fats in my nut butters, but I thought the powdered form of the product made it interesting. Not completely sold on how processed it is either - but I thought I'd try it. I mixed this whole sample packet with 1 cup of of 2% Fage Greek yogurt.

It definitely gave the yogurt a nice peanut buttery taste - but I don't know if its any better than just mixing regular peanut butter with yogurt. I topped the bowl with strawberries, 1/2 sliced banana, and some cocoa nibs.

I ate this along with a Green Monster. I made it with the other half of the banana - its definitely better with a whole banana. Makes the texture much creamier.

I spent the afternoon baking a special treat for my father's birthday next weekend. You'll have to wait until then to see what it is - but I can tell you it involves chocolate!

For dinner I made quesadillas with some of the whole wheat wraps I had.

These were filled with roasted butternut squash, portobellos, spinach, goat cheese, and cheddar cheese. I served them with guacamole and salsa.

I love that I could get so many vegetables in these and make them healthy.

I'll shortly be munching on a piece of my favorite Taza chocolate. This stuff is amazing and I seriously have some every day.

Check out this great post about Taza from the Conscious Kitchen! She got to tour the factory and see how its made.  They seem like a great company that's continuing an ancient tradition of chocolate production and doing it in a very environmentally conscious way.  And their product is unlike anything you've ever tasted.

I'm headed to NYC tomorrow, so off to go pack!