clean living / seasonal drinking (and eating)

i was on the way to work yesterday listening to my usual npr - [afternoon shift] about mixing drinks got me so inspired (naturally). chicago's WBEZ had this lady, [bridget albert], on the show who is a "farm to bar mixoloigsit" which basically means all her drinks are not only super fresh, they use seasonal produce! she talks about different herbs and juicing veggies and how they mix with certain alcohol. she recommended a ginger, carrot, bourbon, which i'm going to have to try, because i'm all about bourbon drinks.

anyways it got me excited and thinking about seasonal fruit and veggies, and i came across these awesome charts to make life easy. i'm going to print them out and put them in my kitchen cabinets.

thank you [chasing delicious] for these extremely useful and beautifully designed seasonal charts!

monday munchies / frushi

frushi frushi frushi

i was so excited to make this! i think i said the word "frushi" about 60 times this weekend.. and i think my boyfriend rolled his eyes about 50 times.. until he saw he saw how damn cool it is! its so easy to make.. especially if you have left over rice from the night before. you don't need the "perfect" stickiness. you have bananas and chia seeds! 

(side note: my bananas are always a little brown on the peel. this is on purpose. they are not bad, they are actually perfectly ripe and extra squishy)

ingredients:
- 1/2 cup cooked rice (i used brown rice but any will work)
- banana
- tablespoon chia seeds
- 2 or 3 fresh fruits (strawberries, oranges, and pineapple shown above)
- plastic wrap (or if your super fancy.. a bamboo sushi roller)

1. put your chia seeds in a small bowl and add about 2-3 tablespoons of water to them. mix and let them sit for about 10-15 min and you will have "soaked chia seeds"they should look like jelly, not dry and not watery.
2. mash up about 1/2 a banana in your cooked rice. you might need a little more depending on the type of rice but you want it really mushy. add your soaked chia seeds and mix until evenly distributed.
3. once you have your rice mixture, lay a piece of plastic wrap on a flat surface.
4. spread your rice mix out on the plastic wrap. you want it to be thin but not be able to see thru it. maybe a little less than 1/2 inch thick. use a spoon to flatten it out and make into a rectangle shape.
5. next is your fruit. you can use anything.. mango, avocado, blackberries.. etc. try and cut them in a thin. and place it in the middle of your rice rectangle.
6. this seems like the tricky part but its really not. just slowly take one side of your plastic wrap and curl it over your fruit until you get to the other side of the rice. then seal it up.
7. place in the refrigerator for a few hours or the freezer for about 1 hour, so that the ingredients will harden together a little bit making it easier to cut into pieces.
8. chop your frushi up and serve!

i can't expect him to be able to eat everything, after all he is only 10 months. 

but he tried. and he made a big mess. he loved the rice and he loved the fruit, 

just didn't quite make it into his mouth all in one piece.