freedom fun

I hope everyone had a GREAT Fourth of July! I know I had an amazing and patriotic day! I absolutely adore holidays, and I get very wrapped up into the festivities. Everything I did yesterday had an element of red, white, and blue to it, like my Strawberry, Banana, and Blueberry Fruit Bowl! Yummy!

I started off my day with a pre-workout, breakfast Firework Smoothie! It had a red, white, and blue theme of course, although my blue layer seemed a bit purple and my red layer seems a bit pink…but it was all natural dye from the fruit. This smoothies serves 3 and has under 150 calories per serving.

Ingredients

Blue Layer:

♦ 1 cup of organic baby leaf spinach

♦ 1 cup of organic frozen blueberries

♦ 1 heaping tbsp of blueberry greek yogurt

♦ 2 tbsp of water

White Layer:

♦ 2 medium frozen bananas

♦ ½ scoop of Vega Smoothie Viva Vanilla

♦ ¼ cup Coconut Milk

Red Layer:

♦ 5-8 organic strawberries

♦ ½ cup of crushed ice

♦ 1 cup water

Blend the “blue” ingredients together and pour a layer into 3 chilled glasses. Return to the freezer to thicken while you make the rest of the layers.

Blend the “white” ingredients together and pour slowly on top of the blue layer. Be careful not to pour too quickly, so mixing of colors doesn’t occur. Place back in the freezer while you finish the last layer.

Blend the “red” ingredients together. This layer should be a more runny consistency. Pour onto the the smoothie to top off the “firecracker” look.

I topped them off with some festive paper straws! I have a weird quirk about liking to drink my smoothies and shakes through paper straws. It makes them more enjoyable—and on that note…

E N J O Y

After digesting this delicious smoothie, I laced up Jessi’s shoelaces on my red, white, and blue Asics and headed to the gym with my Berry Infusion Water. I ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill because it was too hot to run outside yesterday. I posted a picture of my patriotic workout outfit yesterday on Instagram with the tag #asics, and it actually made it on their page at the end of the day! Go see for yourself here!

After I cooled down and cleaned up, I began my baking for the day. I have to admit, I was over ambitious and tried to conquer too much in the kitchen yesterday. I had all of these wonderful plans for vegan and gluten-free fruit pizza star cookies, gluten-free vanilla cupcakes, and not-so-healthy firework cupcakes. I ended up with the firework cupcakes, some tasty gluten-free honey cookies (recipe to come), and some lumps of coconut gluten-free “muffins”… I guess that is what baking is all about though, learning for yourself what works and what just…does not. I see it as a challenge, so I will try to tackle and perfect some gluten-free vanilla cupcakes in the near future, do not fear! Anyway, the night before I knew I was going to be making cupcakes so I crafted some firework cupcake toppers out of silver and blue wire.

Firework Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcake:

♦ 1 box of white cake mix

♦ 2 large egg whites

♦ 1¼ cup water

♦ festive sprinkles

Frosting:

♦ 1 tub Mascarpone Cheese

♦ 1½ cups powdered sugar

♦ 1 tbsp milk

♦ 1 tsp vanilla

Mix all of the cupcake ingredients together and add in some sprinkles to the batter for pops of color. Fill 24 cupcake liners with 2 tablespoons of batter and bake at 375°F for 16-19 minutes.

While the cupcakes are cooling, beat the mascarpone cheese in a mixer while gradually adding the powdered sugar in to taste. Add the vanilla and milk to the frosting to obtain your desired consistency. Pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes and top with sprinkles and a cupcake topper!

With help from my wonderful mother, we got the kitchen all cleaned-up from my baking frenzy, then I got ready for some Fourth of July BBQ and pool action.