Lala Living

Kimchi is amazing. Not only does it taste great, it’s also pretty darn good for you, too. Although I don’t claim to be an expert on anything kimchi – I’ve only helped make it from scratch once – my biggest secret is to add kimchi as a flavoring for cooking. For example, my chicken kimchi stir fry:

Ingredients:

Sliced mushrooms

Spinach

Cooked and shredded chicken

Kimchi

Toasted sesame oil (optional)

Directions: Grease skilled as desired (cooking oil, cooking spray, or just use water, etc). Over medium-high heat, cook sliced mushrooms and spinach in a skillet until soft. Add shredded chicken (I used boneless skinless breast meat) plus desired amount of kimchi. Secret trick: pour in some of the kimchi liquid — the best flavoring! Cook a few more minutes until all ingredients are hot, the liquid has evaporated off, and the flavors have mingled. If desired (it’s a delicious addition), add a turn of toasted sesame oil after you remove from heat. Enjoy!

I know smoothies are nothing new in blogland, as I see them popping up on many blogs we love. But this is my first post about them, so it’s definitely special to me. It was funny, I actually sat down, took one bite (yes, I like thick smoothies that need bowls and spoons), and immediately thought that I wanted to post about it!

For a long time, I would make a simple smoothie with just some sort of milk (unsweetened almond milk), plus frozen berries. Nothing fancy, but so very good.

Next, enter protein powder. Now, I know some people don’t like protein powders, and I can’t blame them. I would have never touched them at first, but I bought a BIG jar of the stuff when I lived in South Korea (teaching English… I’ll get more into that in a later post…), and found it can be a very tasty, easy way to add some nutritional punch and staying powder to some of my favorite dishes. (I promise to post about my favorite protein powder, too!).

Anyway, back to the smoothie… we still have four more notches to go…

Adding protein gave the smoothie a more complex taste. Not better or worse than my simple fruit and “milk” smoothies, but definitely a good alternative.

Next, an obvious addition, was nut butter (notch number three). At first I hesitated… I wasn’t sure if I would really be able to taste it without putting in a ridiculous amount. I was wrong!! Even just a tablespoon of the stuff is definitely present in your mouth, making it oh-so happy.

A few smoothies later, I decided to try adding spinach. I had seen this in blogs, and the nutritional benefits were tantalizing! A whopping handful of veggies snuck in my smoothie, adding vitamins, fiber, minerals, and a bunch of other good stuff? I had to try it… and I loved it! You definitely do not taste the spinach, and I put a LOT in.

Lastly, and what really made this a PB&J was… oat bran! Who would have thought?? I used just about three spoonfuls and it gave the drink a nice… well… how shall I put it? It brought the bread to the PB&J smoothie! Literally, this put the smoothie over the t-o-p, bringing me back to childhood PB&J sandwiches, updated and healthified for a 20-something lifestyle, all while adding an awesome nutritional punch. I think you’re just going to have to believe me and try it for yourself because I don’t think words really do it justice.

Here is a formal recipe, but keep in mind that smoothie recipes are incredibly flexible and can be tailored to your desires and tastes. Here’s what went into my version, that day:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup “milk” (unsweetened almond milk)
• 1 scoop protein powder (vanilla Spiru-tein)
• cinnamon
• splash of vanilla
• 1 Tbs peanut butter
• 1 HUGE handful spinach
• 3 Tbs oat bran
• ~1 cup frozen fruit, or more (strawberries and peaches)

Basically, blend in the order listed above, saving the frozen fruit for last, to thicken the mixture. It makes one large smoothie (>2 cups), or two regular drinks.  Enjoy!