Yes, I have fallen off the blogging horse. Work has been rather busy over these past few weeks, and I didn’t had the energy to create, write, and edit for this little blog of mine. Nor did I had the desire to come home and stare at a computer screen when I had already been staring at one all day. Hopefully, this was just an ebb in the ebb and flow of my work life. It seems to have settled over the past 2 weeks or so, and I have been enlivened with a spark to create once again.

If you know me, you know that I don’t handle stress very well. I try to, and I can handle it if need be (I did survive the ultra-competitive environment of Penn, after all), but I am a struggle bus all the way to the finish line. It’s funny- all throughout high school and college, I would procrastinate like no tomorrow. Paper due at 12 am? I’m still putting the finishing touches on it at 11:55pm, and I probably started it yesterday (or five hours ago, let’s be real). Was I calm about this? Hell, no! I sweated and tensed up the whole time, as I anxiously watched the clock tick towards the deadline. Now that I have transitioned to the working world, I’ve figured out I am the exact opposite. Report due in three weeks? I better do the most I can right this very instant. I want the most time as possible to put my energy into the end product. I’m not really sure what has inspired me to do such a 180. It may have been the fact that I know now that there is always more work coming. It may be that I dread staying at work past 6:30-7. But whatever lit the fire under my tail, I feel like I am better for it.

Anyway, bottom line is that I was quite stressed this March. To combat this, I devoured lots of fresh fruits and veggies. I know, I know- you’re probably rolling your eyes. “Who eats fruits and veggies when they’re stressed? Isn’t ice cream the trite go-to?” Well, here’s my logic. I was stuck frozen in a chair all day, my mind racing around like a hummingbird, and I needed some invigorating, refreshing fuel. Pure and simple. So I smoothied my heart out. Burgundy-hued blueberry smoothies,  neon pink raspberry bowls, and grassy green monsters (You can check out my Instagram page for the full smoothie diaries, and can, of course, follow along if you are so inclined). In fact, I got on a pretty big green smoothie bender, having an unquenchable thirst for a more grassy slurp (Pretty gross-sounding, I am aware), adding tufts of parsley, dark-leafed lacinto kale, and thick cylinders of cucumber.

But this beaut has no kale in sight. It is fruity, with that lovely tartness cherries lend, and a sends rush of lime to your palate upon the first sip. It’s so good, I can picture it sloshed into chilled margarita glasses and crowned with a shot of tequila. Shhh, I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.

The ingredients are rather simple: frozen cherries, frozen banana, vanilla protein powder, lime juice, water/milk, and ice. That’s it, folks! I usually like to throw in tons of ingredients into my smoothies (getting whisked away by such things as my kale-parsley-cucumber-lemon-ginger-chia-vanilla-almondmilk green monster bowls), but sometimes, the simple things are simply the best.

Cherry-Lime Smoothie Bowl

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup frozen cherries
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 scoop sweetened vanilla protein powder (I use Sunwarrior)
• Juice from 1/2 medium lime (or the whole lime, if you prefer)
• 1 tsp flax seed (optional)
• 3/4 cup water or non-dairy milk
• 4 ice cubes
• 2 tbsp rolled oats
• 2 tbsp sliced almonds + a little sprinkling of salt if they are unsalted

Directions

1. Put all ingredients up to and including ice cubes in a blender. Blend until smooth, but still icy (You don’t want it to turn to soup). Pour into a bowl and top with oats and almonds. Enjoy with a piping hot mug of coffee or tea.

Notes: 1) For an even more limey flavor, add a small piece of lime peel to the smoothie. I would only do this if you have a high-powered blender. 2) Instead of topping this with oats and almonds, you can really top it with whatever you’d like. Crunchy cereal adds a nice texture contrast, as well as granola, or raw buckwheat. Almond butter or cashew butter would go beautifully with the smoothie flavors, as well as toasted walnuts.