I have two new blogs I've been enjoying: Pimp My Protein Shake ( pimpmyproteinshake.blogs
pot.com/ ) and Smoothie Girl Eats Too ( smoothiegirleatstoo.blog
spot.com/ ). They have lots of protein smoothie recipes and other creative ideas for high-protein foods (Totally trying the coconutty pancakes soon ( tinyurl.com/yzfqjyd )). They have opened my eyes to the wonders of guar gum and/or xantham gum, which are natural products that make your smoothies creamy. In the summer, I usually make a protein smoothie at home and bring it to work for breakfast. One of my biggest complaints is how it separates by the time I get to work. Lo and behold, a little sprinkle of one of those gums equals no separation.

Last night I got home from work and immediately erupted into a cleaning frenzy because I hosted craft night and I haven't had people over for 2 weeks and we have a magical ability to destroy our home in that amount of time.

(And for those of you who were there last night and might read this and are thinking, "Wait, that was AFTER she cleaned...?", I KNOW. It's an effort just to keep the chaos at bay.)

So instead of cooking something time consuming for dinner, I made a protein smoothie (and also a bunless hamburger with muenster cheese). Inspired by my new smoothie friends, I made the following:

Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie

1 1/2 cups plain, unsweetened Almond Breeze
1/4 cup plain 2% Greek yogurt
10 frozen strawberries
1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
1 scoop chocolate Amazing Grass Green SuperFood (I found a single serving packet at Whole Foods and decided to give it a try because I've been hearing a lot of buzz about it)
8 ice cubes
1/8 teaspoon xantham gum

Fabulous!

I just figured out my calories in SparkPeople yesterday and I ate a lot, calorie-wise. About 2100 if I'm going to be honest. I was honestly hungry. According to the low-carb people, calories don't matter so much. I guess I'll see. It's hard to feel okay about bucking the Conventional Wisdom ( tinyurl.com/qfbxvl ) I've learned for so long.