my very own green monster.

Some of my favorite food bloggers seem to be a little smoothie-obsessed. In a good way.

They're always showing off beautiful pictures of their "green monsters" and I get soooo jealous. Jealous, you say? Yup. My blender bit the dust awhile a go and my life has been smoothie-less ever since.

So, one of the major downsides of being on vacation is feeling bloated from eating out and not being in your normal food routine. One of the major upsides is having access to your mom's cute little smoothie blender so you can help fight that major bloatation.

And now - I have green monsters in my life.

And, come on - how much more enjoyable are they on this porch?

my very first green monster recipe.

1/2 banana

1 tbsp honey

1/2 cup of almond milk

1 tbsp almond butter

massive bunch of kale

2 tbsp chia seeds

1/2 cup of blueberries

.... delish!

b4.

black baked bean burgers.

My husband was wary. I was excited.

These will make many more appearances in my life.

I started with 1 cup of black beans, 1 cup of kidney beans, and 1/2 cup of organic baked beans, mostly for flavor.

Then, this is where you can get a little creative.

I threw in some red onion, cumin, chili powder, salt & pepper.

I'm a little lean on the groceries, being that it's the end of the week, but you could just go nuts here! Cheese? Why not! Avocado chunks! Sure. Garlic? Definitely!

A few tablespoons of whole wheat flour help for the congealing process.

A few minutes on the griddle on each side and woosh, what a beauty.

I was SO hungry and paired mine with one slice of ezekiel bread, organic ketchup, dijon mustard, and honey drizzled corn.

The hilarious thing was, the whole time I ate this - I kept thinking how funny it was that this is now a splurging meal for me. Because I ate corn and an extra bean patty.

And for real, I am FULL. Beyond full.

the husband's opinion: "it was really good. the baked beans were good. it was a nice surprise." If I keep blogging about food, I'm going to have to groom him on his comments.

one patty tops out around 200 calories and I don't mind telling you I'm way over my calories for the day. But goodness gracious, it was worth it.

I love you b4.