Vega Shake & Go Smoothie

After my workout with Mike, lunch could not come fast enough!  I stuffed an Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Tortilla full with Oregon's Choice Gourmet Albacore, fresh baby spinach, red onion and avocado. And sliced up a bunch of cucumber on the side.  It was really filling and held me over until my late afternoon snack that I was very eager to try!

I was just sent this package of Vega Shake & Go Smoothie, a plant-based protein powder that I mixed with a frozen banana and a little nonfat Greek yogurt as an afternoon snack.  Packages are available on the company website for $23.95.  It looks like the Tropical Tango is currently out of stock but other flavors are available.

Vega Shake & Go Smoothie is packed full of nutrients including protein, fibre, Omega-3, probiotics and greens, it combines whole food goodness with fast food convenience.  The Smoothie contains: 

Two servings of veggies 

2500 mg Omega-3-6-9 

11 g complete protein 

Only 100 calories 

1 billion probiotics cultures

The Smoothies come in four flavors:  Bodacious Berry, Vanilla Almondilla, Choc-a-Lot and Tropical Tango.

Such a Softie!

The path we take Hunter on for his evening walk takes us right past our neighborhood grocery store, Henry's, so on many nights I pop in to pick up what I need for that evening's dinner and always emerge with a doggy treat from the bulk bin for our favorite lab.

Only, Henry's has just done away with the bulk doggy treats and tonight, I just could not deal with the look on Hunter's face when I came out from inside the store without a special "prize" for him.

So, even though we have a TON of treats at home, I purchased another box to avoid the guilt.

How could I say no?

After our walk, I warmed up leftover chicken from last night, with quinoa, avocado and sweet red peppers for dinner.  I put it all in an Ezekiel wrap that I heated on a griddle.

I thought this was an interesting tidbit about why Ezekiel utilizes sprouted grains in their product:

Sprouting is the only way to release all the vital nutrients stored in whole grains. The sprouting process activates beneficial enzymes which cause the grains to sprout and become living and nutrient-rich. Stores of vitamins and minerals dramatically increase over the amount available in flour. Sprouting also converts the carbohydrates in grains into maltose, which is ordinarily done by the body during digestion, thereby predigesting nutrients for you. The enzymatic action enables the body to assimilate the vitamins and minerals more efficiently. Plus, the sprouting process naturally increases the protein content and decreases the calories and carbohydrates found in the original grain.

These sprouted grain tortillas are a complete protein and an entire one is only 150 calories.

I also like to warm them with a tiny bit of peanut butter and banana for a low-cal breakfast...hmmm maybe tomorrow!

Michael built a fire outside so its time to relax with my boys and finish up a tiny bit of work!

Good night!

Doctor Kracker & Funky Monkey

Even though I totally ate the Game On way yesterday, I felt like I had a major snack attack.  It started with my usual Breakfast Bowl of berries, Fage, Flax, Ezekiel and Agave.

Then on to apples with peanut butter, Ezekiel sprouted grain cereal and 1/2 a piece of low fat string cheese.

Followed by a ham, low fat swiss and Orowheat sandwich round for lunch (really tasty!).  Even Hunter could not resist.

And a salad.

Topped off with a bag of Funky Monkey Jivealime with freezedried organic pineapple and lime juice. Funkey Monkey sent me a big box full of all their flavors to try and this was my first.  It is just freezedried fruit and spices, this bag just only 45 calories.  You have to go to their site just to enjoy the music! If you are a label reader like I am you'll really like these snacks.  In fact, Joey in our office tested it out too.  Here's what he had to say:

Thanks for coming through in a jam Michelle. That was timely. I was hungry for a sweet snack and the Funky Monkey Carnival Mix was perfect.

The first thing I pulled out of the bag was a pineapple and it exploded with flavor. Wow. There were pieces of banana, papaya, and apple as well. All very bright and easy to munch on. The package says it contained 1 serving of fruit. No glutens either, whatever those are. I can imagine my 4-year-old liking these things and not wanting to share with me.

When I got home, I was still hungry so I reached for this container of Doctor Kracker Fire Roasted Crips.  Again, when the team at Doctor Kracker asked me if I wanted to try the product I could not resist saying yes!  I'm really happy to find out about these whole grain crisps.  They are oh, so gourmet and feel very decedent but hit the right mark with organic ingredients and low fat content.  Also, high up on my priority list, all the ingredients are whole foods with no chemicles mixed in to preserve the food. I have several more flavors to try but the Fire Roasted Crisp is going to be hard to beat.  If you would like to test them out, their website has a 75 cent off coupon you can download and a link to where you can find the product!

I started thinking, would the yumminess of the Doctor Kracker Fire Roasted Crisp with cheese, sundried tomato, sweet potato, flax seed and jalapeno taste good, say, dipped in peanut butter?  Answer is YES.   This was such a satisfying combo of sweet, salty and spicey!