Foodtrainers' Summer Finds and winning smoothie recipe

My losing smoothie

Greetings from Vegas! I have to admit, it's a little strange to be here, of all places, when we open up the sign up for our September Squeeze program (a few spots remain). In today's newsletter we mentioned our "work"trip to the wild blueberry barrens of Maine. In Bar Harbor, a little competition took place for the best wild blueberry smoothie. I made a basil blend and Carolyn concocted something with avocado. Full disclosure, it was pretty annoying how into food styling their creations some people were. Carolyn and I did not win but our non annoying, awesome friend Marnie did. Here's her winning recipe.

Wild Blueberry Basil Mojito Smoothie AKA the "Marnito"

recipe via Marnie Schwartz, Nutrition Editor, SHAPE Magazine

1 cup wild blueberries (different than cultivated blueberries)

juice of 1 lime

10 basil leaves

10 mint leaves

1/2 cup full fat plain yogurt

1-2 dates

Add yogurt to a powerful blender, follow with the other ingredients and blend.

Do not spend more than 30 10 seconds on your garnish. 

Enjoy the last days of summer!

Foodtrainers' Summer Finds and winning smoothie recipe

Greetings from Vegas! I have to admit, it's a little strange to be here, of all places, when we open up the sign up for our September Squeeze program (a few spots remain). In today's newsletter we mentioned our "work"trip to the wild blueberry barrens of Maine. In Bar Harbor, a little competition took place for the best wild blueberry smoothie. I made a basil blend and Carolyn concocted something with avocado. Full disclosure, it was pretty annoying how into food styling their creations some people were. Carolyn and I did not win but our non annoying, awesome friend Marnie did. Here's her winning recipe.

Wild Blueberry Basil Mojito Smoothie AKA the "Marnito"

recipe via Marnie Schwartz, Nutrition Editor, SHAPE Magazine

1 cup wild blueberries (different than cultivated blueberries)

juice of 1 lime

10 basil leaves

10 mint leaves

1/2 cup full fat plain yogurt

1-2 dates

Add yogurt to a powerful blender, follow with the other ingredients and blend.

Do not spend more than 30 10 seconds on your garnish. 

Enjoy the last days of summer!

The Horoscope Diet

Do you ever read your horoscope and feel it rings eerily true? Maybe you don't read horoscopes at all but, even if you say that, I'd guess when you see yours you peek. Horoscopes are confusing for me. I'm what they call "on the cusp" between two signs. This makes me insecure as sometimes I'm a Leo and other times a Virgo. I've sided with Virgo mainly because everyone says "you're SUCH a Virgo." What they mean by that is that I'm particular and either neurotic or a control freak or, in my case, both. 

Anyway, I'm on a plane right now. I have my usual seat next to the crying baby and I read Marie Claire magazine in an attempt to distract myself. In about 10 minutes, I found myself on the horoscope page. My horoscope basically said do one thing at a time. Revolutionary? No,  but it was a reminder I needed. For example, yesterday I was in the house for most of the day and found myself making a red white and blue açai bowl, researching a trip to Hawaii, reading the first section of the Times, purging two drawers from my closet...you get the point. At 10pm I realized I hadn't done the 1 thing I needed to do which was packing for the trip I'm on. 

It occurred to me that this acute case of ADD (not making light of ADD) could be seasonal or summer-related. I see a lot of it with my clients. If you're suffering from the summer sloppies - don't say you'll wait until September to get it together!!! At the same time, you're not going to clean everything up. So pretend you're a Virgo and do one thing! Do you need to socialize a little less and cook or bbq at home? Ditch the day drinking? Stop staying up late? Pick one thing and focus on that behavior for now. If you'd like you can do our Sept Squeeze to focus on your food even further (we're announcing the details next week). And if you're wondering about my birthday? I'm sure you're not but I made my own reservation (Virgo) at Senza Gluten.

Are you a horoscope person? Or, can you relate to the need to focus on one thing versus many? 

Healthy, hip Dallas

Dallas…I can still hum the theme song to my first, lowbrow TV obsession. More recently, this season’s Bachelorette Jojo (finale tonight) hails from Dallas. There’s the Dallas Cowboys oh and some videotape I recall floating around our house (ahem) when I was growing up. Most places live as stereotypes in your head until you actually visit.

Let’s be clear, we didn’t have plans to visit Dallas. I have good friends from college in Dallas and    my favorite Joanna Czech opened her skincare mecca there but we were supposed to be just passing through the Dallas Fort Worth airport en route to Cabo. As the “friendly skies” would have it our first American Airlines flight left late due to a mechanical issue. And after a 5K, barefoot sprint through the humungous Dallas airport, our second/connecting flight left EARLY. Wait, it gets better. There were no other flights out that day, it was hours before our bags were located oh and did I mention if was Marc’s birthday?

All I can say is it’s a good thing we’re plan B masters. I sent out an SOS to my Dallas crew. Within minutes, I received an annotated list of where to stay, eat, drink and dessert in Dallas. From my guide, I chose the Joule. They said they’d have a room waiting for us and they asked what Marc liked to drink (why don’t all hotels ask this). From the minute we walked into the gorgeous, groovy lobby I knew things would be ok. We were shown to our swanky suite (love the Amex upgrade) and two little bottles of Patron, a carafe of margarita mix, salted glasses and ice greeted us. Cheers to Dallas!

They had him from "Patron"

Some Foodtrainers' favorites in this mini bar (good way to judge any hotel)

After plugging in our devices to charge, washing up and margarita-ing, we were off.

Our first stop was the Texas Truck Yard. 

The website describes it as an “adult playground” but that tagline, to me, sounds a little…. Anyway, there are food trucks and outdoor bars including one in an Airstream. We relaxed, did a little sampling,the taco truck was our favorite, and moved on.

This should read "eat here" not "eat her" as a Facebook friend surmised

Next up was HG SPLY Company. While the place has a healthy slant, it’s only because of their ingredient consciousness.  Their manifesto says it way better than I can and is worth reading. HG SPLY is in an up and coming area called lower Greenville. When we arrived the rustic, cool restaurant was packed. We happily found two seats at the bar (usually our favorite place to sit). We ordered an Double Under, which is made with beet-infused tequila. It sounds weird but tasted amazing. There was also a green tea gimlet made with matcha. I can’t believe I had to go to Texas for my matcha cocktail. 

We ordered light bites, I was very happy with my tuna poke’. And I was so relieved that Marc liked HG Sply/our taste of Texas so much he was happy we ended up in Dallas for his birthday.

There’s one more Dallas hotspot on our list. A few years ago, Carolyn were “researching” for our annual Feb chocolate newsletter. My friend Marie sent us goodies from Dallas-based Dude Sweet Chocolate.  “Dude” only does dark chocolate and their chocolate salami with marzipan has been my all-time favorite chocolate since first slice. A little buzzed, Marc asked the clerk “is there anything we’re missing or need to try?”  Rest assured, we didn’t miss anything and had a chocolate tasting buffet back at the Joule. Note: whisky truffles may be my new #1.

If you’re wondering (or not on social media) we did make it to Mexico and it was well worth it. But the morals of this story are that a) Dallas is cool and b) plan B can be the best.
Have you been to Dallas? Any stories when Plan B was best? Who will Jojo choose?