Warmer days have us craving lighter foods. These are the most delicious ones we’ve tried this summer.
Morning Glory Trail Mix from Lupa’s Kitchen
Lupa and Claire Irie of Doraville-based Lupa's Kitchen produce a line of products that they call "therapy through food." We've long been fans of their sauerkraut and kombucha, but hadn't tried their sprouted seed mixes until recently. Sprouted ingredients make all the nutrients in foods like seeds easily digestible. Now we're addicted to their Morning Glory Snack Mix. It's a combination of sprouted buckwheat and pumpkin seeds with unsweetened coconut flakes, raisins, pure maple syrup and goji berries. What puts this over the top for us is the spice mix. The blend of cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, black pepper and coriander is unexpected and keeps us wanting just one more nibble. You'll enjoy it at breakfast as a topping for yogurt or oatmeal, but Lupa was right when she said it works as a crunchy topping for salad as well.
$9.99 per 8-ounce package. Available at Whole Foods Market, Nuts 'n Berries, Sevananda Natural Foods Market and online at Fresh Harvest and lupaskitchen.com/.
Ready-to-Blend Smoothies from Nectar
The best green smoothie ever. One we polished off without even thinking. The Green Smoothie from Decatur-based Nectar is officially our favorite summer drink. Nectar offers ready-to-blend smoothies in a really clever package. You buy a cup of frozen ingredients, then add the liquid of your choice to the top of the cup (we made ours with orange juice). Then pour everything into a blender and puree. You can put your smoothie back in the cup, top it with its plastic lid, insert a straw and run off to whatever your day has in store. Those frozen ingredients? The green smoothie is kale, spinach, cucumber, pineapple and apple and everything’s organic. We also tried the Acai + Strawberry smoothie, blending it with coconut water. It was delicious, too. And there are four other flavors we can’t wait to try. Their Coconut + Pineapple was a finalist in the 2019 Flavor of Georgia competition.
$6 per 7-ounce container. Available at Savi Provisions, Sevananda, Buford Highway Farmers Market, Candler Park Market and at Nectar, 1365 Clairmont Road, Decatur or online at benectar.com/.
Foodie Cubes from Glass House Kitchen
Stefani Glass is now an Atlanta-based certified health coach and personal chef. Preparing baby food from scratch while living in Uzbekistan on assignment for the German Foreign Service led to the creation of her Foodie Cubes, a line of frozen pureed fruits and vegetables that is all fruit or vegetable with no added ingredients. The cubes started as a way to create healthy baby food but they also work as the base for smoothies like her Potassium Punch that blends a frozen sweet potato cube and a frozen carrot cube with orange juice, banana, kefir and seasonings. It’s an easy way to get the goodness of fresh produce in a refreshing form. Or to have pureed organic vegetables on hand for sauces and soups. You can buy her frozen cubes at local farmers markets or order directly from her.
$8 to $13 per 7-cube bag. Available at the Peachtree Road and Grant Park farmers markets or from Glass at 678-793-3469. http://myfoodiecubes.com
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