Goodbye processed yumminess, It was a good ride...

So it's the end of January and I have been the most stereotypical version of any female in the New Year - I went on a health kick. All I am now is a January cliché.... AND I LOVE IT. Unlike my fun-loving counterpart Philippa, who is living up the New Year partay shtyle with her January Juice containing Champagne, I have chosen to be clean and boring (but it doesn't have to be is what I'm slowly discovering).  My new roommate from Budapest (woohoo, free apartment when I visit) is a real slave to the clean eating trade. She has introduced me to so much. I thought that because I was going clean in the New Year that it would only be for a short period of time to shed those xmas fatty blues and put my love of cooking and food aside with it. This is just not, not and NOT the case. There are so many amazing clean eating blogs out there to get inspired from! So many new ideas to work with. And soooo many new ingredients to shovel into your face. My new favourite, almond butter!!!! (4 exclamation marks because this thing is OHMYDEARHOLYMOLYFANTASTIC!)



who needs friends

So I know I sound all preachy and holier than thou with my new clean eating lifestyle, but let me tell you, I have struggled. Oh have I. This guy I know (i.e. my boyfriend) came to visit me in the land of the Riviera recently and I was all "I only eat this now" and "Do you even know what you're putting into your body right now" etc. etc. During my self affirming rants about the goodness of coconut oil in your food AND on your face I decided to take him to have the best croissant in Nice. Now, as I write that sentence I understand IT MAKES NO SENSE. Why did I choose to do that? Nevertheless, I did. And so I began to fully understand what it would feel like to be in Hell. The interaction after be bought the croissant went a little like this:
 
Boyfriend: Jesus, this is feckin' delicious
 
Crying on the inside Emma: Haha, oh yeah, looks class, yeah, I might have a handful of berries
 
Boyfriend: It's like crunchy on the outside and soooo buttery on the inside
 
Dying on the inside Emma: BUTTER? Can I smell it...?
 
It went on like this for a little while, it was painful. But I prevailed (okay...I had the end of the croissant...literally smaller than my thumb so it was fiiine...) Anyway, moving on from my shortcomings when it comes to buttery pastries.
 
This month is Juicin' and Jammin' It in January and I am making a yummmmy smoothie pudding clean dessert type of thing. It was originally meant to be a green smoothie, but as only two supermarkets in Nice have fresh spinach and I had no spare change to get the tram to either of these, I improvised...well not so much as improvising, rather I just left the spinach out. Sure look.
 
As I said, it was meant to be a green smoothie...which changed to a normal clean smoothie...and then when the final product came out I decided this would be a lovely pudding like dessert also. So, digest it as you wish, as a smoothie or a pudding... doesn't matter it's still deliiish and everything in it is clean clean clean.
 

Smoothie/Pudding Ingredients

 



Now, what we have here is a handful or two of frozen berries, a tablespoon of almond butter, chia seeds, bee pollen (new to this one...but heard it just really good for you, right so!), 3 medjool dates, 1 pot of non fat plain yogurt and a realllly ripe brown banana (freeze the banana beforehand for extra creaminess...probs better for the pudding option.)

how brown is your banana?

 

Smoothie/Pudding Steps

 

Step 1: Throw everything in a blender, and blend

 

Step 2: There are no more steps

I lied... Step 3: Pour in fancy glasses and sprinkle with chia seeds and pollen (careful on the pollen though, it does weird things to your tummy if you're not used to it I'm told, I guess I'll keep ya'll posted on this....)

***CAUTION*** If you do not invest in a good blender, it will crack under the pressure (literally) and look like it pooed out your delicious smoothie.

how rude

Good luck to all of you on your clean eating ventures, should you choose to join us folk. If not, good luck to you and please eat extra butter for me. I'm off to eat a stick of celery now.