The Last Days of Summer

Summer is slowly fading into fall, a time where hoodies and leggings become a common occurrence in northern Virginia. Change. That’s that word that comes to mind with a season’s birth from its predecessor's death. The wind is crisper. The air is cleaner. The sky is temperamental and absolutely beautiful in contrast with the leaves turning color. With such amazing feats of nature, why focus on the stressful things in life?

So much is going on behind the scenes of Meals with Morri, things I am timid with sharing and bringing out into the open. The majority of it has nothing to do with food or cooking, but everything to do with moving on, wellness and healing, and personal empowerment. Luckily, I have a plethora of posts I’m really excited to share with you, such as:

• A product review (click here)
• A new page on the MWM site
• Food inspirations from friends and family
• Fermenting (which I have been doing, I swear)
• Foodie adventures
• Getting back into the GFRR groove
• Health and fitness updates
• … and so much more!

As this is the last official week of summer (when did that happen?), I thought to share a recipe or two of something I view to be the epitome of the summer months.

The smoothie.

Oh, there’s a smoothie or two on this blog already, but I feel that next summer will be the smoothie season on this blog. Blended into a drink of nutritious goodness, you can put anything in it as meal on the go. Fruits and veggies, dairy and non dairy components, powders and spices… it is so versatile and takes maybe a minute or two to go from blender to cup.

Smoothie making, what a beautiful concept indeed.

In my vigilance to lowering my coffee intake (it’s between 30 – 60 ml now), my adrenals have been grateful and my mornings are not so chaotic and manic. There are some days, though, where a pick-me-up is desired and I came up with this recipe.

Good morning, Sunshine! Smoothie

1 Frozen banana
140 g Frozen mango chunks
10 g Chia seeds
10 g Bee pollen
240 ml Filtered water*
11 g Coconut electrolytes*

Place all of the ingredients into the blender and mix until thoroughly combined.

Makes 2 servings.

* You can use anything in place of the water, such as coconut water (in which case the electrolytes wouldn’t be needed), dairy or non-dairy milk, or juice.

The following recipe was my most recent smoothie attempt. It has fresh fig in it, a fruit that I adore dried and baked but really want to learn to like them fresh. It also has açaí puree, an interesting find in my local Harris Teeter’s frozen food section. Both fruits are not overtly sweet as far a fruits go, and most certainly not tart at all. The resulting smoothie, as it was pointed out to me, tasted like a simple bowl of oatmeal made right.

I’m still figuring that statement out.

Açaí and Fig Smoothie

100 g Frozen açaí puree
4 Fresh figs *
1 Banana *
360 – 480 ml Unsweetened almond milk, depending on preference to thickness

Place all of the ingredients into the blender and mix until thoroughly combined.

Makes 2 servings.

* I would recommend freezing the figs and banana for a creamy, ice cream-like consistency, though blending them from room temperature is fine.