Adventures in Eating-Take 1

I love food.  I also love information.  I have read countless articles and books about how what we ingest affects our bodies and impacts our health.  There is so much information out there and so many different trains of thought.

A friend recommended the documentary "Food Matters", so of course, I had to watch it. (You can find it on Netflix). This is where I first heard of spirulina.  Spirulina is an algae that is very high in protein, vitamins, and a wide range of minerals.  It's been touted as a "superfood" and is supposed to help with a host of ailments and diseases.  Being the ever curious foodie/info junkie that I am, I decided to try it and see what all the fuss is about.

Spirulina comes in capsule and powder form.  Nuts.com had a pound of the powder for a reasonable price, so I added it to my order.  I don't like pills-I can never remember to take them.  So I thought I could just add the powder to some water or apple juice-easy breezy.

When I got my order, I promptly opened my spirulina powder.  What I was not prepared for was the smell.  It's god awful.  It smells like the worst low tide imaginable.  It IS algae so I don't know why I expected anything less.  I put a tablespoon in some apple juice-it didn't get better.  Matter of fact, it got worse-it clumped up.  Gross.

So now, I have a pound of foul smelling powder-what to do?  To the Internet!  Most blogs and websites recommended mixing the spirulina into smoothies.  I did find this basic recipe on highonhealth.org for mixing the spirulina into chocolate balls-

1/4 cup seeds (I used sunflower-can use hemp or chia)

1/2 cup cacao powder

2 TBSP spirulina powder

2 TBSP coconut oil

3 TBSP raw honey

pinch of sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

I threw everything in the food processor and turned it on.  The mixture came out looking like tar.  Happily it doesn't taste like tar-it tastes pretty darn good!  I scooped them out by the tablespoon, plopped them on parchment paper, and popped them in the freezer.  One of these per sitting (or standing) is plenty-they are very filling.

note-people who have seafood allergies should not eat spirulina.

One last thing-go visit the nice folks over at Nuts.com.  They have a large variety of snacks and sweets and everything in between.  They usually include something free in every order and they are just plain fun!