Strawberry Mango Smoothie Bowl

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

Last night after 40 minutes of yoga from yogadownload.com I couldn’t decide what to make for dinner. After snacking on some soysteak I picked up at the Loma Linda Market last week, I decided to start by making today’s breakfast.

I do miss the Loma Linda market, a vegetarian health food/grocery store on the Loma Linda University campus. They had great deals on produce, bulk foods, prune cakes (which taste like chocolate heaven), and random things like soysteak! My roommates and I had a lot of fun going in the market just to look around at the random stuff they had (also an effective means of stalling studying).

Anyways, so after throwing together this mornings breakfast of a Refrigerator Oats Parfait Style , I decided to make a smoothie bowl for dinner out of almost the same ingredients.

To make the smoothie bowl I blended together the following:

– 3/4 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt

– 1/4 tsp chia seeds

– couple drops of stevia

– 5 frozen strawberries

– 1/4 cup frozen mangos

– 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

I added everything to the blender except the milk. I then added the milk slowly a couple pours at a time so that the mixture would stay nice and thick (like a cross between frozen yogurt and a smoothie). Once everything was just barely blended together (but still super thick) I poured it into a bowl and stuck it in the freezer while I put away all the ingredients. About 5 minutes later I pulled it out and topped it with granola and mini chocolate chips. I know chocolate chips aren’t the healthiest thing around but the dark chocolate almonds had already been under attack since I got home! Plus it tasted like going out for frozen yogurt only healthier, so I think it was a win!

Now it’s off to eat breakfast and head to the hospital. Lately I’ve been listening a book on the way there called Mind Over Medicine, written by one of my favorite bloggers, writers, and Medical Doctor’s Lissa Rankin. I actually was waiting on the edge of my seat for her book to come out, then when it finally did expenses were kind of tight so I never bought it. When I forgot to cancel my free trial of audible.com last month I was excited to see that this book was available, so I used my credit to buy it and then cancelled my trial membership. I’m still very early on in the book and already it has given me so much to think about. In truth, I can actually only digest small pieces of it at a time. Yesterday morning I learned about how the mind’s beliefs can actually change our cellular chemistry and health. Since I am a natural pessimist and hypochondriac, this is a very interesting and intimidating idea. In case your interested here are three of my favorite posts by her that I’ve really benefited from:

10 Fun Ways to Reduce Your Cortisol Levels

How to Transform Stress into Relaxation

Meditation As a Self Healing Tool

Nope, this isn’t a sponsored post. Yes, opinions and beliefs are all my own.

Questions of the day:

What do you believe is the biggest factor that affects health? Nutrition, fitness, mental health, stress, support…?