Green-ish monster

The basis for this smoothie/shake comes from Squeaky Gourmet, my go-to resource of late. Some of the recipes in the book are SO SIMPLE and yet, I'd never thought to make them. Clean eating doesn't have to mean complicated, and even I forget that sometimes.

Anyway, this shake is supposed to be made with milk, protein powder, coffee (a packet of Starbucks Via works great--just dissolve it in a bit of warm water first so it's not gritty), vanilla, and ice. After making that a few times--The H likes it, too--I decided to mix it up a bit today and greenify it.

The one I made today contains almond milk (plain, unsweetened), chocolate protein powder, instant coffee, spinach, a dash of vanilla, ice and about a tablespoon of coconut butter.

Cool and refreshing, with the tasteless benefits of spinach. Not a bad way to start a day that I'm feeling under the weather!

A regression confession

Not even sure if "regression" is the right word choice. It's my short way of saying "I tried having low-fat milk in my morning coffee for a few months, and it was all right, but I've come to the decision that I enjoy it a lot more when I use half-and-half, and since it hasn't negatively affected my weight loss at all, I'm going to revert back to half-and-half because it makes me happy and if something so simple keeps me from eating dessert and sugary crap all day, then I'm going to be ok with that."

This is not really a true confession in that I feel exactly ZERO guilt for choosing half-and-half over skinny milk. It's something that I realize is such a trivial thing in the long run (for as little as I drink daily) but suffering through murky-instead-of-creamy coffee was just not worth it to me. Don't worry, though, I haven't jumped off the clean-eating ship altogether. :)