**Granola, Smoothies, and food haul**

Hello my little cupcakes!

So this post is a fun one for me. If you read my posts while I was in Charlotte, you know I loved Luna's Living Kitchen! Well... since I will be in Indiana for another year I needed to try to recreate the two things I had there: Grey Hulk Smoothie and Hola Granola. So what did I do... got on Vitacost and ordered some things. Here is the link to their website: Vitacost . Vitacost sells many different things. I will post more about it further down in this post.

Thursday I cut up a pineapple I got a Kroger's for 99 cents. It was seriously the best pineapple I've had this summer! 

I like to put fresh fruit in my water during the summer to give it a little more flavor. This water had 3/4 water, 1/4 coconut water, pineapple chunks, a few raspberries, and a few blueberries. The weather is so nice right now in Indiana, so of course I had to take some pictures outdoors!

Since my plaintain chips from Trader Joes (ordered on Amazon) are not delivered yet, I tried making my own. I think if I make them again I will try to get plaintains that are more green. These were starting to turn brown and they did not turn out as crunchy as I would like but they still tasted awesome! I sliced up two plaintains and cooked them in coconut oil. Once they were golden I took them out of the pan and sprinkled them with pink Himalayan salt.

I decided to try to bake them for awhile to make them more crispy. It helped! Here was the final product. 

I also made some homemade guac. I could seriously eat this everyday! I make mine by squashing up some avocados and adding garlic powder, onion powder, and pink Himalayan salt and mix it all together. When I have more time and more ingredients, I like to add fresh cilantro, chopped red onion, and sometimes fresh tomatoes. Also in this picture is one of my favorite brands of coconut water. I bought some while I was in Charlotte at Food Lion and I found it back home at Krogers! Score!

I whipped up some eggs. This egg scramble has 2 eggs, 1 piece of prosciutto, a little red potato, and some of my homemade guac. 

Here is my order from Vitacost! I ordered coconut aminos, hemp milk, pumpkin seeds, hemp protein, goji berries, spirulina, dates, buckwheat, and coconut. 

Here are the ingredients for the granola:

1 bag of buckwheat

1 cup of cashews

1/2 c chopped almonds

1/2 c walnut pieces

1 c unsweetened coconut

1 c raisins

1 pkg of goji berries (about 1 1/4 c)

1 bag of pumpkin seeds (about 1 c)

1 box of dates (this had 11 whole dates and I removed the pits)

1/2 c + 1 Tablespoon of milk of choice (I used coconut almond milk)

3 T melted coconut oil

2 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

 In a food processor, add dates, milk, coconut oil, and cinnamon. Blend until completely smooth. Set aside. 

In a large bowl. mix together the rest of the ingredients. After that, add the date paste to the bowl and mix until all granola is covered. 

Spread the mixture out on the prepared pans and place in the oven. One pan on the top rack and one on the bottom rack. Bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, switch the pans so the pan on the top is now on the bottom. Bake for 20 more minutes. Remove pans from oven and let the granola cool completely. You must do this last step so that the granola gets crunchy! * I adapted the recipe I found on keepinitkind.com*

The smoothie was pretty easy to make. I used probably 1 c. hemp milk, 1 banana, a handful of frozen mixed berries, 1/4 + 1/8 tsp spirulina, and 2-3 T hemp protein. I would normally use a frozen banana to make the smoothie colder. 

Here is the finished granola! It turned out pretty good! I want to try having it with a dairy free milk!

I had to throw a picture in of Jessie. She was a little sleepy!

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Later Taters <3