Since I started this blog my mind has just been bursting with recipe ideas, especially when I’m getting ready to fall asleep at night and I’m in that half-awake-half-asleep state and I don’t really know if the idea was a good one until the next morning. And then I do what most people probably do when they think of an idea – they google it to see if it has been done before and most of the time it has in some way, shape or form. I wasn’t planning on making this smoothie because after I did a google search for red white and blue smoothies and saw about a hundred different ones on the screen I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore. But then I got to thinking, what did people do before the internet? They came up with ideas and brought them to life, without googling them first. They were free to just think and do. Here’s the part where I tell you to be independent and free and creative and play with your food and when you think up an idea, just do it! Happy Independence Day!

1 cup frozen raspberries

1 cup frozen strawberries

1 cup pomegranate juice (or coconut water)

juice from half a lemon

Ingredients for the White Smoothie

1/2 cup frozen pineapple

1/2 cup shredded coconut

2 frozen bananas (sliced)

1 can of coconut milk

2 tablespoons of hemp seeds

Ingredients for the Blue Smoothie

1 cup frozen blueberries

2 dates (pitted)

2 tablespoons chia seeds

1 cup of pomegranate juice (or coconut water)

Directions 

Combine ingredients for smoothie and blend in blender. To keep the layers separate in the glass make sure the blender is cleaned before each different smoothie. Spoon the ingredients into the glass gently making sure to coat the walls of the glass first with each separate layer. You can also try freezing before adding each layer.

Photography by Paige Alisa

Last week I spent two entire evenings organizing my Pinterest boards.  I know, that’s two evenings of my life I will never get back, two evenings I could’ve spent organizing my closet to try and get it to look like one on Pinterest. But once I started I couldn’t stop. Now instead of just one board where I pinned hundreds of recipes I have all these different dishes organized by category. The salad board had the most pins by far. What can I say, I love my salads. But not just any salad, I love salads with texture and color and spices and herbs, like this salad. The lentils are so good while being good for you and filling you up. The blue cheese is salty and the apricots are sweet. The pecans add crunch and the dressing with the curry and cinnamon is deliciously entertaining. Speaking of entertaining this is the perfect salad to bring to a party or picnic because it travels well and gets better as it sits in the dressing. It might just be my favorite salad.

1/2  cup lentils (I used black lentils)

3 to 4 apricots (or peaches)

2 big handfuls arugula

3 to 4 ounces of blue cheese (or feta)

1/2 cup of pecans

1 handful of flat leaf parsley

1 shallot (optional)

Ingredients for the Dressing

2 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon mustard

6 tablespoons olive oil (or you favorite salad dressing oil)

5 tablespoons vinegar (I used apple cider)

1 teaspoon curry

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pepper flakes

salt and pepper generously

Directions

Cook lentils according to directions. For a salad like this I like the lentils al dente. While the lentils are cooking, slice the apricots and chop the pecans and parsley. Combine all the ingredients for the dressing and blend. If you don’t have a blender you can finely mince the garlic and combine all the dressing ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake it up. Drain the cooked lentils then toss them with arugula and top with the rest of the salad ingredients. Drizzle the dressing on top.

Notes

If you don’t have apricots you can use peaches. If you don’t like blue cheese you can use feta. If you don’t have pecans you can use walnuts. This salad is so flexible with substitutions and always delicious no matter how you put it together.

Photography by Paige Alisa