For starters, I’m just going to give you a lil’ breakdown of yesterday: woke up, went to JUICE PRESS (one of my fav juice places in the city that I’ve missed oh so much), mosied over to my literary agency, HELD MY BOOK in MY HANDS for the first time ever (well, the preliminary copies at least), met with my fab agent Sarah and her boss about some cool writerly stuff, headed uptown to go to Seventeen Mag to discuss the book with them and give them a copy, ran into one of my idols Kathryn Budig in the lobby (do you believe in fate? I do!!!), went to the yummiest lunch at a place called the Little Beet with Sarah, cram packed the afternoon with back to back meetings, met the lovely PR gal for DRINKmaple (part of my giveaway!!!) to snap some photos, went to a Vegan Beauty Affair (basically all-natural beauty party) with my friend Melisse of Well+Good NYC, met one of my BFFs later for a drink, and shared my book with a handful of awesome, incredible, influential and healthy rockstar individuals. Oh, and continued my cycle of never sleeping – hehe.

Hangin’ at Seventeen Mag- Breaking Vegan + the Biebs! Good combo?!

Kathryn Budig & I in the lobby of the Heart Building! Fate at its finest!

So now, before I run off to today’s lineup of meetings (equally as exciting as yesterday’s — and maybe another fateful run-in will go down?!?!) I want to share a delicious recipe with you as well as a FANTASTIC brand I stumbled upon that I absolutely have to tell you all about. Are you guys coconut chip fans? I mean, I know a lot of you are… but if you haven’t tried this brand yet and you are iffy about coconut chips, you are going to be a convert immediately.

The company is called Made In Nature and basically their toasted coconut chips are crack in a bag. The flavors I tried that I obsessed over were Maple Madagascar Vanilla, Mexican Spiced Cacao, Italian Espresso and Ginger Masala Chai. I’m not even joking when I say that my stomach is rumbling just thinking about them — and it doesn’t help that I am starving right now to boot!

Made in Nature’s promise is that they create REAL food with REAL flavor because why not? That’s what we all deserve, and flavor certainly does not have to be sacrificed just because we are committing to healthy, natural, fresh, organic, sustainable ingredients. No sugar added, no artificial color, no gluten, no nuts (yay for food allergy peeps) and no GMOs. My kind of company.

There are so many yummy things you can do with coconut chips, but other than eating them right out of the bag by the handful (because trust me, you will eat HANDFULS… there’s just no other way it’s going to be done with these crack chips), I like to put them on top of smoothies, yogurt and acai bowls. Today I’m sharing one of my favorite acai bowl recipes with you… I hope you love! And don’t forget to visit Made In Nature‘s site, give them some love and try their stuff. It’s too good not to.

Coconut Chip Acai Bowl Recipe:

1 ripe banana

1 packet of frozen acai (or 2 tablespoons of acai powder)

1 tablespoon plant-based protein powder (I like to have protein in my acai bowls to balance out the natural sugars and keep me fuller longer)

1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 cup water

Blend!

Do yourself a major favor & try this yumminess! Acai bowls + coconut chips + fruits + almond milk… Super food deliciousness galore! YES!

Any NYC requests or suggestions while I am here?! These are my old stomping grounds, but ALWAYS open to suggestions and ideas for things to do / places to try — this is my Disneyland! I am in love. 

As far as staying hydrated goes… There is a really cool product I want to tell you guys about. A) I’m partial to it because I know the guys who started it and they are amazing people, and B) I actually really truly like it, use it on the daily and recommend it to people in my everyday life all the time so I might as well recommend it to all of you as well.

It’s called Liquid I.V. (so awesome, right?) and because they go by LIV for short I’ve become super into to saying #LIVbalanced all the time. Like many times a day. I’m a huge dork.

Say hi to Brandin, CEO & Co-Founder! You could say we got a little beveragey at the Lakers game last week.

LIV just started being carried in 8 Whole Foods around Los Angeles… and my prediction is that they’ll be nationwide very soon because as it stands their boxes can hardly stay on the shelves.

LIV is a natural healthy hydration solution that you can put into your water, juice, smoothie or… Drum roll please… Acai bowl (!!!!) for an extra boost of hydration. And when I say extra I mean they’ve patented a specific formula that gets the hydration into your blood stream much faster than water alone. It’s for the athletes, the people who are prone to dehydration (me) and even those of us who may have had a wild night out of the town.

And it’s LEMON LIME flavor and you know how I feel about all things citrusy. Kinda totally more than mildly in love.

And since I love you all, use the discount code LIVbalanced for 30% off of your order.

P.S. Look at Liquid I.V. next to my Yoga Digest cover in Whole Foods! Too cool or what?

Nooowww are you ready for this acai bowl recipe featuring LIV? Here we go…

The Rehydration Acai Bowl

1 ripe banana
1/2 cup blueberries
2 tablespoons acai powder (or one packet of frozen acai)
1 large handful ice
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 packet Liquid I.V.

Toppings:
1/2 banana
Goji berries
Granola

Method:
Blend all ingredients, top with toppings and enjoy. Tip: pour second half of LIV into a glass of water for double rehydration!!

Thoughts on the importance staying hydrated? Where my athletes at?! Have you tried LIV? Order it, tag me in a photo with the #LIVbalanced hashtag and I’ll feature you in my next blog post about the importance of hydration in the third week of Feb!

I have to say… although this is a mish mash of flavors, it is an absolutely delicious one. People have been asking me lately what I put in my acai bowls, and this combination is one of my favorites. The spinach flavor is hidden by the tangy fruitiness of the strawberries and the acai, while the almond butter, banana and coconut give it a creaminess and sweetness.

The fresh peppermint gives it a refreshing twist, which I love because the typical acai bowl can taste a bit sugary. I put figs on the top of this bowl because I love them, but any sliced fruit will do. And of course granola + corn flakes gives it that crunch that makes an acai bowl so fun to eat!

Another exciting thing about this particular breakfast bowl is the inclusion of the MaraNatha Coconut Almond Butter… because guess what? It’s Monday! Meaning it’s the second week of the month-long almond butter giveaway on TBV!

To win 2 free jars of MaraNatha almond butter, recreate this smoothie bowl (or tweak it a little as you please), tag @theblondevegan and @maranathafoods in the photo on Instagram and use the hashtags #Maranatha, #theblondevegan & #almondbutter. The contest is open until Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time… can’t wait to see what you all come up with!

P.S. Does the name “Everything” Breakfast Bowl remind you of “Everything” bagels at Noah’s Bagels? It certainly does for me. If so… think about those bagels while you are eating this bowl and realize how much healthier of a breakfast choice you are making! And WAY yummier, in my opinion.)

P.P.S. It feels SO good to be back in the blogging game. My family was in town this weekend celebrating my birthday, so there was not much time for cooking. We had an incredible long weekend full of good food, good drinks & lots of NYC explorations. I will post about some of the yummy restaurants we went to sometime this week.

Ingredients:

Bowl:

–       1 very ripe banana

–       1 Sambazon acai packet

–       1 handful spinach

–       1 handful fresh peppermint

–       4 strawberries

–       1 teaspoon MaraNatha Coocnut Almond Butter

–       1 cup almond milk

–       3 pieces of ice

Toppings:

–       ½ cup Corn Flakes

–       ½ cup granola (I used chia ginger granola from Whole Foods)

–       1 T coconut shreds

–       2 sliced figs

–       1 T coconut almond butter

Directions:

1. Blend all of the bowl ingredients together until smooth.
2. Pour into a bowl, and then place toppings on.
3. Enjoy!

The bowl I had this morning was to die for. The common problem that I’ve found with acai bowls at restaurants and smoothie places is that they are delicious while you’re eating them, but once you’re finished you feel too full, sluggish and overloaded with sugar. That’s why I love making my own acai bowls, because I can make them light and refreshing while still tasty and perfectly filling.

The trick I use to do this is… drum roll please… just fruits and veggies with a tiny pinch of acai powder, some almond milk, and voila! Crazy right? Easy as that. And then I top it with granola, nuts, fresh fruit and today even a little bit of coconut yogurt and almond butter! Can you say y-u-m?

I’ve always loved acai bowls, but the difference between the vegan me and the pre-vegan me is that before I went vegan I never would have attempted to make my own bowl. Now I can hardly stand the thought of ordering an acai bowl out at a restaurant when I can make my own fresh and delicious one and I can know exactly what is in it.

And let me hit you with a little acai knowledge, in case you were skeptical… acai is a superfood chock-full of antioxidants, amino acids and omega fatty acids that boost your energy and immune system, your metabolic function, and slows down your aging process. And the tangy berry flavor it adds to your morning bowls/smoothies doesn’t really hurt, either.

Oh, AND… for those of you requesting recipes with fewer ingredients, you can easily subtract the acai powder from this recipe and it will still be a fantastic breakfast. And if you’re running low on toppings, just top it with some nuts or granola or even just a few slices of fresh fruit. Nothing wrong with simplicity, especially when it involves the words fresh fruit and breakfast.

Ingredients:

Bowl:

–       1 banana

–       4 strawberries

–       3 blackberries

–       ½ tablespoon acai powder

–       ½ cup almond milk

–       2 pieces of ice

Toppings:

–       3 blackberries

–       ¼ cup blueberries

–       ½ cup granola

–       1 spoonful almond butter

–       1 spoonful coconut yogurt

–       1 drizzle honey/agave

Directions:

1. Blend the banana, strawberries, blackberries, acai powder, almond milk and ice. Once blended, pour into a bowl.
2. Top with blackberries, blueberries, granola, almond butter, coconut yogurt, and drizzle with honey/agave. If you are choosing the more simple form of this breakfast, top it with whatever fruits/nuts you have laying around!

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope the middle of this week brings you something exciting… today I am blocking out some time to rework the premise of my novel – exciting (and nerve-wracking!) indeed.