Is it so wrong to plan Mondays around yoga and a cocktail? My Mondays begin on Sunday which means grocery shopping – everywhere – from the West side to the East and markets stuffed in between. Days which can find my back and legs sore and achy from a weekend of heavy catering, the kitchen a minor or major disaster. Unload, clean, scour, organize, maybe some prep and baking to ready for the next day’s work. Monday morning is the beginning of a long day in the kitchen – lower back tingling, psoas cranking ever tighter, left hip feeling deeply bruised and beaten. What keeps me motivated and focused is the reward of Tami’s Monday night yoga class where I can breathe deeply, stretch and wring out the ouchies. No gentle class, this – think yoga boot camp, hot power Baptiste vinyasa flow. The kind of class that tests your mettle, the class that might find yourself questioning whether you can take any more (get out of that head!), right about the moment where you reach the other side of the practice and it’s time to rest. What remains from this joyful expression of endurance is a soggy, puddling, open, breathing, smiling and blissful remainder of the body that stumbled in an hour and a half before. Thirsty.

In my car I have waiting a large box of coconut water of which the greater part immediately gets chugged with gusto. The balance is designated for my Monday night special. Ok, I am not suggesting in any way that this beverage would be considered as “healthy”, but as far as booze-driven drinks go, this is pretty damn close. Healthy-ish. Icy cold, refreshing, hydrating, replenishing, relaxing. And just as welcome on a Friday.

The Monday

Serves one, blissfully

Ingredients:

2 oz. 100% blue agave white/silver tequila

2 oz. coconut water

1 oz. fresh lime juice

1/2 oz. raw agave nectar

Generous pinch fine unprocessed sea salt

1 small, thinly sliced thin-skinned lime

Place all ingredients in an ice-filled shaker. Shake until so cold that your fingers hurt. Pour into waiting rocks glass, or strain into an upglass. Namaste.

There still is time to support Veggie U over at Cleveland Foodie.

Check out this rad Cleveland event: Yoga for Foodies at the Greenhouse Tavern with David Romanelli.

My high-speed is constructed as a hybrid that pairs the base of a Waring with the container of a Vita-mix (the Waring base has a slightly higher horse power than the Vita-mix, and I preferred the container of the Vita-mix). In the short year’s time that I’ve owned my blender, it has quickly established itself as one of the most valued and frequently used pieces of equipment my kitchen.

Last week the mailman delivered a box which held a copy (thanks, Lisa!) of (raw) Chef Matthew Kenney’s latest, Everyday Raw. The book is filled with creative, yet not exhaustively laborious (think Klein and Trotter’s RAW) recipes for fresh and healthy building components of raw foods meals. Blended and Squeezed, Snacks, and Spreads, Dips and Sauces are but a few of the various chapters. The book is a godsend for people like me with a crazy schedule; desirous of meals and snacks on the run that can be prepared as nutritionally sound, sustaining and mostly, as tasty as possible. With that in mind, I flipped through with impunity right to the chapters of Desserts and Ice Cream.

A bunch of brown-freckled finger bananas and ripe mangoes were sitting in a bowl on my counter, pleading with me to blend them into an ice cream. I based the ice cream on Kenney’s recipe for banana almond butter cup, making my own changes . I adore bananas and malt together, so in went some mesquite powder which contributed deep malt-like tones. Crunchy little black poppy seeds followed to mimic the tiny black seeds of the banana.

Anything caramel draws me like a magnet, and Kenney’s recipe for caramel sauce made from agave syrup immediately grabbed me. This was something I really wanted to embrace, but honestly, the sauce brought nothing to the ice cream party. The resulting translation looks and feels of light caramel, but any similarity between the two stops right there. Even with the salt and cinnamon, the flavor is mono-dimensional and lacks the buttery lusciousness of real caramel. I’ve been drizzling it on some plain yogurt to greater effect, but on the ice cream, it served as an unwelcome layer of sweet.

The ice cream, on the other hand, is truly sensational with a dense and dairy-like silken texture with flavors melded in perfect frosty balance. I’m excited to try other variations – cherry chip might need to be the next batch. Armed with my workhorse of a high-speed blender and the knowledge to make healthful frozen desserts that taste sinfully rich and flavorful, ice cream can become daily routine instead of an occasional indulgence.

Banana Mango Malted Ice Cream
Yield: 1 Quart
Inspired and adapted from Matthew Kenney’s Everyday Raw via Heidi Robb

1 cup raw cashews, soaked 1-2 hours in filtered water
1/2 cup meat from young Thai coconut
1 1/2 cup filtered water ( I used the water from inside of the coconut)
1/2 cup amber agave nectar
4 ripe finger bananas, peeled
Flesh from 1 ripe Champagne mango
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 heaping tbs. mesquite powder*
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Seeds scraped from 1/4 plump vanilla bean
1 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds
Chopped macadamia nuts for topping, optional

Blend all ingredients except poppy seeds in Vita-mix until smooth. Pour into ice cream machine and freeze accordingly. Add poppy seeds midway into the freezing process.

Agave Caramel
Yield: 1 cup
Adapted from Matthew Kenney’s Everyday Raw via Heidi Robb

1 cup amber agave nectar
Pinch sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

Blend ingredients in Vita-mix for 20 seconds. Place in freezer for at least two hours. Remove and let soften somewhat before serving.

* “This high protein powder contains high quantities of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron and zinc, and is rich in the amino acid lysine as well. In addition to its great taste, the major benefits of Mesquite Powder include high dietary fibre content and high protein. The result is a food with the ability to stabilize your blood sugar levels.”