We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to say there’s been a breakthrough in the kitchen of Chez Molly: The spinach smoothie recipe has been tweaked to perfection (for now). (Taken with Instagram at Houston, TX)

Green smoothie

1/4 c cold water 
1/2 c unsweetened vanilla almond milk
3 heaping tablespoons plain, low-fat Greek yogurt 
1 heaping tablespoon smooth, natural peanut butter
4 slices banana, frozen (approximately 2” in length)
3 or more cups spinach leaves, loosely packed (approximately 4 cups of the fresh “baby spinach” work well) 

Blend (in a food processor or blender) and enjoy. 

Optional, before blending: Add everything but the spinach to a food processor bowl or blender, then place in the freezer for several minutes (until ice forms on the top of the liquid) while you cut off the spinach stems. Makes a thicker smoothie.

Servings: 1, approximately 12 oz., depending on spinach volume

Nutritional info, estimated: 210 calories; 9.5g fat; 17g carbs; 5.5g dietary fiber; 6g sugar; 13g protein. [Please correct me if these figures seem off. Note: Figures will vary, depending on banana size and peanut butter and yogurt used.]

Over the past year, I’ve found Pinterest to be quite useful for two primary reasons:

1. Discovery of recipes (see my “food finds” Pinterest board here).
2. Discovery of items made from repurposed materials (see my “creative reuse — Unconsumption ideas” Pinterest board here). For several months, my personal Pinterest activity pretty much centered on finding examples of repurposing to share on the Unconsumption Tumblr. (As many of you know, Unconsumption is an inspiring, mindful consumer behavior-oriented project with which I’m involved). Later, in April, after continuing to come across so many reuse-related finds on Pinterest, I launched a separate Pinterest page for Unconsumption (to which I pin many more interesting pins than those I share on my personal Pinterest page!). Needless to say, Pinterest is a great vehicle for expanding the Unconsumption brand. I mean, look at the volume of items — pinned by other Pinterest users — from the Unconsumption blog! 

Anyway, it’s thanks to Melody Kramer’s food-focused Pinterest board that I discovered, this morning, the recipe for this incredibly tasty, highly aromatic turmeric chicken dish, and made it tonight for dinner.

I followed Beth’s (of the Budget Bytes blog) recipe, except I used only half a can of coconut milk; used ground red pepper instead of crushed (which I didn’t have); and I didn’t make rice; I simply ate the chicken in the sauce. (A note about the “no rice” thing: I’m trying to reduce my consumption of grains, including rice; see Wheat Belly blog and William Davis’s book by the same name.)

If you love Indian food, and easy-to-make, one-dish cooking, I highly, highly recommend you make this dish. 

For the recipe, which includes onion, ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, red pepper, a bay leaf, chicken, and cans of diced tomatoes and coconut milk (cilantro optional), see Budget Bytes.

For variety, I think you could add cauliflower, red bell pepper, chick peas, and/or cashew or almond pieces to the dish. And vegetarians could leave out the chicken altogether.

What else could be added? Probably many other things I haven’t thought of!

If you make a turmeric dish, let me know what you put in it. 

Happy Halloween!

Via laphamsquarterly:

Oreo cameos and other brilliant food art from Judith G. Klausner. (via Kristen Butler)

Amusing.

Via goodkarmahandmade:

Clementine Granita

Clementine juice, sugar, and rum. I’m so making clementine granita this weekend.

Via wnyc:

On weekends, jazz guitarist Bill Wurtzel makes healthful, artistic breakfasts for his wife, reports the Times. He has not yet responded to an email request for deliveries.

Today in things I love.

Via unconsumption:

It’s an idea that sounds … well, bananas.

Del Monte has come up with individual plastic packaging for bananas, a fruit that already comes in its own natural, biodegradable wrapper.

Paradoxically, Del Monte says the packaged bananas, which will be marketed [in a trial] as a “natural energy snack on the go” in Britain and the United States, are intended as a green initiative.

The clear pouches are said to contain “controlled ripening technology,” purported to extend the shelf-life of the fruit by several days. 

Del Monte’s U.K. managing director James Harvey [told the Fresh Produce Journal] … “Del Monte’s new CRT packaging is designed to provide significant carbon footprint savings by reducing the frequency of deliveries and the amount of waste going to landfill. The packaging is also recyclable.”

Can extra packaging really be more environmentally friendly?

(Story via The Globe and Mail; photo via The Daily Mail Online.)

(hat tip to our friends at Green Thing, @Dothegreenthing)

Related: Earlier Unconsumption post about banana stickers.

Via snafubar:

hidandelion:

um, holy awesome.

whoa

Cats + satsuma mandarins? Compelling …

Click through to watch videos: Stacking Satsuma Oranges on Cats’ Paws | Serious Eats.

(spotted on Twitter, via Patrick LaForge, @palafo)

Via abitlate:

Related: Musings on sugar and butter as media, Designing with Cookies at Design Observer:

When I was about seven, someone noticed I was good at arranging the cookies on a plate. It seemed only reasonable to me to separate cinnamon from almond with a wedge of green frosted trees, to create a bulwark of spherical buckeyes between the ladylike sand bakkels and the swirls. Why make brown piles when you could make a wheel of varied texture, color and shape?

Read the rest here.

Via washingtonpoststyle:

Thanksgiving Turkey-Stuffing-Mashed potato-Sweet potato Cake.

And why not. Go to town, and Happy Thanksgiving, all.

UPDATE: We have been informed that the correct name for this dish is “Turcakey.” Blessed be the Turcakey.

via slightlyundead