And, the Winner is...

Congratulations to Lauren G. & Karen! You both get to pick the Amazing Grass energy bar box of your choice! I am so excited for you two and hope you really enjoy these products. If you will just shoot me an e-mail at realfoodrunner@gmail.com with your address and bar flavor choice than I will happily ship them to you! Thanks so much everyone for participating! There's always next time :)

A special thanks goes to Amazing Grass for sponsoring this giveaway. They have some really incredible products many of which I can't wait to try for myself. I can speak for the wheat grass though, that stuff is great! I take it every morning before I go running and it gives my body great nutrition for a tough workout.

{My breakfast smoothie after working out this morning with flax powder and goji berries}

So I hope the week is off to a fabulous start for you. I hit it hard yesterday with the training and went for a 40 min run and then upper body weight lifting (one of my favorites!). Slightly sore today, but I still went ahead with my plan and ran 3 miles this morning and then did a few minutes of Insanity. Fun but insane. How have your workouts been going? 

I'm planning to do a recipe post soon... we'll see what I can cook up :P Any requests?

Green Goodness

So folks, I hope your Sunday has been a restful one! It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny with white fluffy clouds offset by a blue sky.

The sermon at church today was convicting, as usual. We are almost finished with a study on Genesis! Diving into this book has greatly expanded my understanding of the covenant and God's redemptive plan for His people.

I drank my green smoothie this evening. It was delicious! A delightful way to end the day :)

{My green goodness for the day}

So we made it to the end, it's Day 7 of 7 for the Green Smoothie Challenge! Congrats to all of you for giving it a go and a big thank-you to Jen for making this possible! Here's a collage I made with some of the pictures from the week.

I've enjoyed all of my green smoothies so much that I'm planning to continue making it a daily habit! I've loved doing this with all of you- thank you for participating! We would love to know how many actually completed the 7-Day Challenge, so please either leave a comment on mine or Jen's blog just for fun!

It's a big week coming up!

Chocolate Cupcakes

It's spring which means it's time to bake. These cupcakes turned so beautifully! I was inspired by Lesley over at The Purple Carrot: The Art of Real Food Grows to give this recipe from Clean Eating a try.

I topped them off with a made-up-out-of-my-head chocolate frosting :) I used sour cream, Irish moss, agave and cocoa powder. Not sure the quantities- a bit of this and a bit of that is about all I can tell you! It was good though, especially if you let it sit in the freezer for a few moments before icing. Next time I think I'll add a sprinkle of instant coffee to give it a hit of mocha flavoring. Garnish with your favorite chocolate selection!

And, here's my green smoothie of the day! Only 1 more day to go... can you believe it? This has been way too much fun! We might just have to make this an annual spring event, what do you think?

{Getting ready to mix up it all up!}

One of my darling friends shared this link with me yesterday and I thought I would share it with you, it's from the Smoothie Girl who has tons of advice on incorporating whole foods into your diet.

{Strawberry/spinach smoothie}

There's been lots happening around here, one of which including getting a new horse!!! We welcomed our new Arabian mare, Padrona Rose, to our farm last evening. She's so lovely and I just love her name. "Padrona" means "lady" in Italian, so it's "Lady Rose", so feminine. Can't wait to get to know this little sweetie!

{My Egyptian Arabian, Shibar, on the left with Padrona Rose getting to know each other}

Ooh, and be sure to enter the Amazing Grass energy bar giveaway for your chance to win a free box of these delicious and nutritious health food bars :) Cheers! 

I'm Hosting a Giveaway!

In light of how inspirational and successful the current 7-Day Green Smoothie Challenge has been, I'm hosting a give away! The incredible team over at Amazing Grass is graciously offering to give away a box of energy bars to 2 top winners! How sweet is that?!

Okay, so here's how it works. All you have to do is leave your name in the comments below. If you put a link to my blog on your site I will enter your name twice, but be sure to mention this when you comment so I know. This will give you a greater chance to win! The winners will  be chosen through a random name selector and announced at the beginning of next week.

The 2 winners will each get to pick the Amazing Grass energy bar box of their choice!

{Photo credit}

Please be sure to "Like" the Amazing Grass Facebook page! We definitely want to support good companies. The one catch for entering the giveaway is that we need you to live in the US or Canada. 

I've been a fan of these bars for a while now and I think you're going to love them too! I like to eat as much fresh food as possible but it's nice to have that packaged version for when you're on the go and the peace of mind that it's good for you! :)

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Here's my green smoothie for the day! Day 5 of 7 :)

It had a tropical twist: pineapple, mango, spinach and raw protein powder. Delish! I think I'm hooked on these things :) Has anyone else noticed any increased energy or health benefits? 

Greens contain cellulose which is one of the strongest molecule structures on the planet! Because of this, to get the cells in the greens to release their nutrition we have to chew and chew and chew. Well, obviously, most of us just don't do this. That's why "chewing" our greens in the blender is such a great option! It allows the nutrition contained in the greens to be released and us to get the benefits in a quick and easy way!

Hope you are having a wonderful Friday and enjoy your weekend! Sign-up for the contest and tell your friends- who knows you might be the winner! 

My Little Garden & Baking Confessions

Here's the "before" picture! Not promising there will be an "after" picture, but we'll see. :) 

I took this picture last night right before going out to plant with little bros. Relishing these cool, breezy evenings with my family :)

I also made TWO of these cakes yesterday afternoon for guests we're having tomorrow evening. Quite the workout! This, my friends, is hands down one of the best cake recipes in the whole wide world. You must give it a try.

I took these pics late last night as I wrapping them up for their overnight stay in the fridge to keep them moist. Enjoy! Click here to head over to Taste of Home for their Southern Chocolate Torte recipe.

It's Day 4 for the Green Smoothie Challenge! Hope you're enjoying it! Have you discovered any new favorites? 

Here's my delicious strawberry smoothie. I let a friend, who doesn't typically like this kind of stuff, taste it and she loved it! I was pleasantly surprised myself because I put tons of spinach in it and that can change the taste, but it turned out sweet- just like a strawberry. I figured I needed the increased nutrition as I have a huge day ahead me :) The kind I like best! Never a dull moment. I'm now off to the grocery store to help make food for a sit down dinner for 25 people this evening. So fun!


Stayed tuned for Friday- special giveaway announcement coming!

Chocolate Banana PB {Green} Smoothie

For all of you chocolate lovers out there, this is your day! This smoothie was like a dessert!

{Photo op in front of my chocolate mint plant}

The ingredients: 

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 frozen banana

1 cup spinach

1/2 cup almond milk

1-2 T cocoa powder

1-2 teaspoons cacao nibs (this gives it a bit of crunch)

1 teaspoon PB, optional

goji berries and agave for sweetener 

(I know I promised for a chocolate raspberry recipe, but I ran out of raspberries so I had to improvise.)

{I just love this pretty little pottery pitcher. It's from a trip our family took to Montana several years back. Definitely, one of my favorites states!}

Place all ingredients in blender or food processor, starting with the milk. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add ice if you want to thicken it up a bit or a squeeze of honey or agave if you want it more sweet, both which I did. 

Thanks to Embrace True Health for the recipe inspiration! Ooh, and I ran across this really neat smoothie website (Smoothie-Handbook.com) with lots of helpful information on green smoothies that I thought was interesting as well as this link from IncredibleSmoothies.com

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Workout update:

I went for a short run this morning and then got in a good stretching session. After going for a run there is nothing I love better than a cool glass of water to hydrate my cells and a nice long stretch to release tension. It's amazing how just spending as little as 20 min to an hour a day can positively influence the rest of it so greatly. :)) 

How about your workout, anything you'd like to share? 

Are you going for the green nutrition today?

 If so, I'd love to hear about it! 


 Have you heard?!  Jen announced it on her blog- we're up to 85 participants!!!! 


Oh, and please "Like" us on Facebook!

Garden Spinach Herb Wraps

I was in charge of lunch for the fam yesterday! Here's a glimpse! 

{Garden spinach herb wraps with orange slices}

The recipe: Spread your favorite salad dress onto a spinach wrap (I used vidalia onion), pile high with lettuce, broccoli, avocado, sprouts, tomatoes and anything else you want! Roll up and eat. Loved it!

And, this is what my sweet sister made along side:

{The perfect thing for a spring day!}

{Homemade honey mustard dressing. Colored with turmeric-- no dye in this! I'll be posting the recipe later on}


My workout today was fun. I ran 2 miles, did a 20min FIRM workout, a few minutes of upper body weight lifting and a 15 min stretching session. That's it! Left me feeling invigorated, along with my green smoothie :) Speaking of which, we are now on Day 2 of 7 for the Green Smoothie Challenge!  I worked off this recipe as a base for my breakfast. It's my old faithful, and I needed something quick and easy this morning.

{Fresh as a daisy}

Coming up tomorrow is a green chocolate raspberry smoothie! Can't wait to try this new recipe! It sounds amazing. Remember, your smoothie doesn't have to be the color green to have greens in it. There are definitely ways to hide those nutritious leaves and make it pretty. Have fun and be creative!


How about you, did you go green today? 
I would love to see your smoothies recipes! Please comment and share with the rest of us!