I was away for a short trip to Bellevue. It was more of about shopping and spending time together rather than sightseeing.
Bellevue is a small beautiful town with quiet roads on east side of Seattle. Even the Bellevue square mall seemed hardly crowded. There were some unique shops in Bellevue square which I visited like TEAVANA, POTTERY & BARN, OIL& VINEGAR and VERA BRADLEY and did buy couple of things.
It was my daughter who was excited about shopping there but I found the mall, a slight upscale. What I loved the most about this place was that it was surrounded by many restaurants. We could pretty much walk every where. Red Robin, P.F Chang and Garlic Jim were the three restaurants where we ate. P.F Chang was awesome with a separate gluten free menu including desserts. I was so glad to have discovered gluten free pizza at Garlic Jim. I enjoyed excellent crisp crust pizza after a long time. I also found a couple of gluten free sweet snacks at Tully’s coffee. I guess people in US are more aware of gluten sensitivity
I had fun eating gluten free meals in different restaurants and spending time browsing a stylish mall.
Before heading on a trip I thought to finish the strawberries and couple of kiwis that were sitting in the fridge from about a week. So I made a smoothie. I have not added any juice, milk or yogurt in this strawberry smoothie. The photo isn’t fully focused, sorry about that.
STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE
Ingredients:
30 strawberries, rinsed and halved
few blue berries
half apple, diced
2 kiwis, peeled and diced
1 -2 tsp flax meal
Method:
Add everything to the blender (Vita-mix). Turn it on speed 1 increase to speed 10. Then blend on high for 30 -45 sec or until smooth. Pour your smoothie into a glass. Garnish with left over sliced kiwi. Enjoy a great smoothie.
I added 2 tbsp of orange juice when I found the smoothie a bit thick. The addition of flax meal is just to boost omega 3’s.
MARVELOUS MANGO SMOOTHIE / SHAKE
When we came back we wanted something refreshing after a continuous 3 hour drive. My daughter asked if there was any fruit, because she wanted smoothie. I said there are apples and orange juice. But she find them interesting for a smoothie.
Then, I remembered I had frozen mangoes. I always freeze some mangoes in June for smoothies and sorbet. We do get mangoes till the end of august but they are not very sweet. So I made this mango smoothie/ shake with frozen mangoes.
Ingredients:
2 cups frozen mangoes
2tbsp sugar
1-2 cup skim milk
1tsp ground green cardamom seeds,
few ice cubes
Method:
Place all ingredients into the vita mix container. Select variable1. Turn on the machine and quickly increase speed to variable 10, then to high. Blend for 1 minute using the tamper to press the ingredients into the blades.
Add more milk if it looks thick.
Enjoy!
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