Popeye aint got nothing on me

Holy crap, remember how excited i was when 100 people had viewed my blog last month? well now i'm practically peeing my pants, i reached 1000 readers yesterday - whats that sound? thats me doing a happy dance - thank you readers from the bottom of my heart, this blog is a much needed outlet for me to escape the stress bucket that is my job and nothing makes me grin (not just smile, i grin) then when someone tells me my posts make them laugh, i live to make you grin readers! (its more fun then smiling you should try it out today, maybe not on a stranger though you might get funny looks, i know BF and doodle are looking at me a little weird right now) but back to our regularly scheduled post...




I heart spinach! 
Just call me popeye because i love eatin the greens, now luckily for me my high spinach consumption has not resulted in: bulging forearms (my biceps however are sooo tiny but i love to show them off when asked, it just takes me a little concentration and grunting to make them appear!), an afinity to smoking pipes and wearing a ridiculous looking yellow hat - everyone knows i look bad in hats so lets thank a higher power for that!

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Health benefits of SPINACH (taken from here - again i just google this stuff, i'm not an expert! - on spinach anyway, lululemon... now that is another matter) 

The A and C vitamins in spinach plus the fiber, folic acid, magnesium and other nutrients help control cancer, especially colon, lung and breast cancers. Folate also lowers the blood levels of something called homocysteine, a protein that damages arteries. So spinach also helps protect against heart disease.

The flavonoids in spinach help protect against age related memory loss.

Spinach's secret weapon, lutein, makes it one of the best foods in the world to prevent cataracts, as well as age related macular degeneration, the leading cause of preventable blindness in the elderly. Foods rich in lutein are also thought to help prevent cancer.

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Things i put spinach on/in/around/under/in the general vicinity of

• Everything - but that makes for a short post, so i will elaborate...
• Under eggs on toast
• On top of pizza under the cheese layer (cheese must be on top to ensure optimal bubbling, isn't broiled melted cheese the best? isn't it??? mmm bubbly cheese, it sure is the best)
• Chopped up finely and mixed into soups/chili
• Stuffed inside tacos instead of lettuce
• Sauteed with fajita ingredients
• Mixed into omeletes
• As a bottom layer in sandwiches/paninis (never the top layer - the horror!)
• On top of multigrain nachos but under the cheese of course, mmm cheese (this recipe will be coming up soon, stay tuned!)
• A whole lot more... but my favourite place to put spinach is

THE GREEN MONSTER

adapted from Oh She Glows green monster phenomenon

I have SO many varieties of the green monster, my go-to monster is

1/2 frozen banana
Ice cubes, i use only 2 (and its important that you humm ice ice baby while you add it to the blender)

1/2 tsp chia seeds

1/2 tsp of maca root powder

2 cups of baby spinach

1/2 Tbsp of nut butter

1 cup of vanilla almond milk (or soy milk/rice milk/cow milk)

Todays monster had a kick to it, are you ready?  Ready to be monster kicked?  Muahahahaa (thats my evil laugh, take note, i evil laugh a lot but i'm a sweetie in real life i promise, i just evil laugh on blogs!)

Ingredients

• 1 cup of vanilla almond milk
• 2 cups of baby spinach
• 2 cubes of ice
• 1 pouch of chocolate rice protein powder
• 1/2 tsp of chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp of maca root powder
• 1 pounch of starbucks instant coffee (should have been half a pouch, that starbucks makes some strong-ass coffee)

Directions

1. Toss all into the blender (literally throw we have a 3 point line in our kitchen, i kid i kid!)
2. I'm waiting for you to humm ice ice baby, "dumdumdumdumdedumdeumm" (i grew impatient and hummed if for you!)

3. Ummm blend, yeah thats about it, i need to find more direction heavy recipes for you all this is getting sad

4. Pour into glass with a green straw (green straw not necessary: unless you are me and have matching issues)

5. Ignore the fact its green, you WILL NOT taste the spinach but you will reap (you'll reap i tell you) the nutritional benefits that spinach has to offer, maybe there is even a yellow hat in your future, i'm sure you will look better in it then i would, i look horrible in hats :o)

Mmmmmm popeye would be proud!

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Well my thighs are screaming mercy (seriously if you are really quiet you can hear them), i have to lower myself onto the loo and my abs are on strike - but i'm not going to whine, i'm just going to quote one of my favourite instructors - "it hurts so good"!!!


Happy humpday everyone xox