The Friday Five 12.28.12

Hello!! Long time no chat. Er, blog? I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and nice time off of work. I’ve been off for a while and I feel like all I’ve done is cook, run, spend time with family, and bake. It’s been wonderful.

1. What I’m Reading: The Plant-Powered Diet. This past year I’ve been eating more vegetables than ever and want to continue nourishing myself with them as much as possible. It just makes sense. Or does it just it acceptable to eat cookies for lunch like I did on Monday? Anyway, this book discusses the benefits of vegetables, fruits, and grains and some great recipes.

2. What I’m Eating: Now watch me contradict myself. I mean…balance out all the veggies…with THESE. Thanks to Erica’s recommendation, I picked up a bag of Hershey’s Mint Truffle Kisses. If you’re a fan of mint + chocolate, grab a bag. Because they’re individually wrapped, I find I eat fewer than when I rip open a bag of M&Ms. Agree?

3. Recipes I’m Bookmarking: Auntie Kelly gave me a juicer (yippee!) so I’ve been saving some juice recipes. This recipe for Beet-le juice sounds delicious.

4. What I’m Listening to: Scream & Shout by will.i.am and Britney Spears. Britney’s back, woohoo!

5. GIFs I’m Loving:

WHEN I FIND A GUY I LIKE THAT IS AS WEIRD AS I AM

MY BEST FRIEND AND ME

MY BEST FRIEND AND ME WHEN WE SHARE SECRETS AFTER TOO MANY COCKTAILS

Happy Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!

Hummingbird Cake Smoothie

…in a bowl.

Inspired by Stefanie, who posted about a Carrot Cake smoothie last Tuesday, I woke up this morning wanting cake. Alas, cake is inappropriate for a Tuesday morning breakfast, unless of course, you make it in smoothie form with plenty of milk, fruit, and protein powder.

Hummingbird Cake Smoothie

• 1 sliced, frozen banana
• 1/2 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1/3 cup light vanilla soy milk
• 1 rounded scoop vanilla protein powder
• walnuts, for topping
• cinnamon, to taste

Process in blender or food processor until smooth and creamy.

This has the flavor of cake and the texture of ice cream – how can your day go wrong when you start it out with this!?

What’s your favorite cake? What are your favorite smoothie ingredients?

. . .

Last night I went to my friend Noah’s house to help him pick out an outfit for a first date he’s going on tonight. We picked out his clothes, a restaurant, and a time. I’d love to tell you his whereabouts, but he’s too cute and you guys might want to go crash his date. We talked about all the must-dos (pick her up, open doors, ask her what she wants to drink) and the no-no conversation topics. Noah was about to tell her how last week he picked up some deodorant and when he got home there was a black hair on it. I told him to not tell her that story over dinner.

. . .

Lastly, Britney Spears’ new c.d., Femme Fatale, came out today!

I pre-ordered it so it immediately started downloading when I turned on my computer today. I’m listening to it now, and so far it’s very clubby. Not sure how much I’ll like playing this in the kitchen, but it will be great for the gym. I’m currently loving the songs Selfish, I Wanna Go and Inside Out. Any Britney fans out there?