Kale Strawberry Smoothie + Homemade Chocolate

Smoothies, fruit, that's all I want lately. It's too hot to cook and I'm so uninspired; I was thinking of making a raw dessert but I need to go shopping and I just don't feel like it. I went to the farmers market this morning, which was rather empty, surprisingly, and I got two quarts of strawberries after walking around all the tables like three times. Only one farm had organic strawberries and they wanted $7 for a little pint so I got 2 quarts for $5 each of minimally sprayed strawberries. The farmer explained the pesticide is not sprayed directly on the berries, instead they spray the roots. You just can't get away from this shit; it's killing the bee population but yet we still use pesticides. I'm sure organic farming is alot more difficult than conventional farming but if you have to cover your mouth when spraying pesticide on food, why would it be ok to eat??!! This is why I hit up Whole Foods during their organic berry sales; I want to buy local and support local farms but Whole Foods has exactly what I need and they've had quite a few sales this summer. I'm going back to the farmers market this week to check out more of the berry situation; maybe today was just a slow day.

So, yes it's too hot to cook but I did use my stove to make chocolate last night and I threw it in my smoothie this morning after eating the rest of it out of the dish. Yum....it was easy but I warn you it's high in fat so a little goes a long way.

So, for the chocolate: melt the following in a small pan:

3 tbsp of coconut oil

2 tbsp of cacao powder

1 tbsp of almond butter (optional)

3 tbsp of coconut sugar or a liquid sweetener of your choice

Make sure the coconut sugar is as melted as possible. Keep stirring the chocolate and don't turn the heat on too much. Pour into a glass dish and refrigerate. To cut down on the fat, don't add the nut butter. If you know you always add nut butter to your smoothie and you're going to add the chocolate to your smoothie, don't add the nut butter to the chocolate.

Smoothie Recipe:

1 cup of curly kale, organic

10-15 organic strawberries

2 small pieces of homemade chocolate

2 tbsp of almond or peanut butter

8 oz of coconut water

Blend everything well and serve in your favorite glass or mason jar. I bought a glass straw over the weekend from Ecojarz, I FINALLY have a glass straw and I'm loving it. Head to www.ecojarz.com to buy your straw and a straw cleaner! Ecojarz was at the The Seed Experience Vegan expo in Brooklyn, an event you MUST hit up if you are in NYC or visiting. The Seed has popup markets monthly so check their website for the July market date www.theseedexperience.com. Check out how much fun I had last year at this event; I had just moved to NYC and I ended up networking and meeting a ton of vegan vendors that day. Blog post here