Cherry Almond Chia Smoothie

 

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about blogging lately.  Food blogging in general.

Ahem….stepping up onto a small soap box…tapping a microphone.  “Is this thing on?”

The reason why I’ve been thinking a lot about food blogging lately is because I have been reminding myself a lot lately of why I even blog in the first place.  Which, in all honestly, I think is a question that a lot of people out there who blog should ask themselves. I’m lucky in the sense that I’m not completely reliant on my blog as a means for paying my bills, and honestly I think it’s pretty amazing that food blogging can actually be a full-time career for some.  But I’m also constantly amazed by sometimes the lack of inauthenticity out there in this little world.  Yes, most of us modify or slightly adapt someone else’s recipes (and hopefully cite or make reference to the original creator/writer of the recipe instead of taking credit for it completely).  Some of us create our own recipes…or tell about major kitchen fails.  There’s a mixture of professional photographers gone food bloggers and vice versa.  It’s a whole big huge world of people-and all of us have strengths and weaknesses.

But here’s my (humble) opinion.  There’s absolutely no “right way” to be a blogger.  You don’t have to have a *persona*.  You don’t have to update Twitter/Facebook/Instagram ad nauseum.  You don’t have to comment on 8,000 other blogs a day.  You don’t have to have a professional design a logo or a website.  You don’t have to build your own wooden backgrounds in every single color.  You don’t.  It’s your blog, and you can run it any way you want to.  Remember, for most of us, this isn’t a full time career.  It should be a fun, low-pressure hobby (well, at least that’s the way I want to see it.)

I’ve had a few discussions lately with some of my food blogging friends and non-food blogging friends, and I feel like there’s this weird sense of pressure to out-comment, out-compete, out-tweet, and out-pin every other blogger out there. (p.s. At least for my non-food blogging friends, all this “Share Me! Tweet Me!  Pin Me!” stuff is a major turn-off.)  There’s this swirling sense of some people acting on auto-pilot without any sense of true friendship.  I think back in the day where there were only a few blogs out there (way before I even had one and just read them), and I feel like there was more a sense of comraderie and support.  The market is saturated with bloggers now, so people feel like they have to frantically jump/shout/sing/get attention/gain (or even pay for…yikes) followers any way possible in order to stand out.  And I feel like people just lose their own identity when they do this.

So this is why I started  a food blog…in all honesty.  I was going through a horrible separation with my now ex-husband.  Cooking was a horrible experience-he even threw a spatula at my face once because I wasn’t scrambling his egg *correctly.*  I used to dread spending time in the kitchen. And the saddest part was that cooking had been something that I had really loved before I met him.  And I lost that part of me.  So, with the prodding of my friend Annie to start my own blog to get my mind off of things, I decided to take that part of me back and just start coming from a place of love.  It became a cathartic release-I could do what I loved, make food for my family and friends, and create something completely positive out of something that had hurt me so much before.  And it truly has become an integral part of who I am-it’s been a constant place of comfort for me through several moves, completion of my training, and the opening of a new chapter in my life.  Looking back over the past four years, I’ve seen a major growth in myself that’s actually translated into the blog.

Why am I telling you all this?  Because I feel like actually writing it all down somehow recalibrates me in a way.  When I’m frustrated about the lack of good lighting in the evenings, the pressures of a few deadlines (most of them self-imposed), or a sense of pressure to keep up with everyone else, I have to re-set myself.  After all, you’re really here for the recipe of a cherry almond chia smoothie.  Not my *brand*.

*throws microphone down and jumps off soapbox*

 

So this smoothie-creamy and full of flavor.  The chia seeds add an extra dash of fiber to keep you fuller longer (always an issue with smoothies for me….I never feel full.)  Using frozen, pre-pitted cherries cuts down on time, and you can add/adjust the flavor profile here to your own liking.  I added a teaspoon of almond extract just to give a little almond-y boost to the smoothies, but play around with it.

 

 

Cherry Almond Chia Smoothie

Servings: 2

 

Ingredients

1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

1 cup vanilla almond milk

1/2 cup frozen pitted sweet cherries

1 tablespoon vanilla-flavored whey protein powder

2 tablespoons chia seeds

1 teaspoon almond extract (optional)

 

 

Instructions

1. Place all of the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

2. Serve immediately: the chia seeds will swell and gelatinize a bit over time, so this is a smoothie that you will want to drink right away.

 

Source:  A Curvy Carrot original.