All natural shake powder

Ok don’t get me wrong, I like the taste of slimfast after I add fruits, and sometimes veggies to it, but I don’t absolutely love the ingredients list on the back of the can.

I like knowing what is going into my meals and where that food came from. Sadly slimfast had been the only meal replacement drink that had agreed with me of all the ones I had tried. I tried quite a few natural ones. I think they had too many added vitamins or something because I would always feel really horrible after drinking them.

So I went on a quest to make my own. I did a bunch of research and found I had everything but the chia seeds.

My slimfast shakes were normally around 150 calories because I would use less fruit and lower calorie nut milk like unsweetened vanilla almond or almond coconut milk.

I did not want to up the calorie intake from shakes due to the fact that I usually eat something small every 2 hours in addition to a shake/smoothie in the morning and one at night before bed.

Slimfast, the powder alone, is 110 calories. I decided I would throw everything together and then hope it came out to that or less, so I might add more fresh fruits to the mix.

Now I did not want to add powdered fruit, as I already put fruit in my shakes, I felt it would take away from the texture if everything was powder. I did however, really like the idea of getting more veggies into my shakes. Lately it has just been a handful or two of spinach when it fits the flavor.

So here is what I came up with:


The mix I concocted includes oats, chia seeds, beets, yams, pumpkin, carrot, a green goodness powder mixture (there are like 9+ ingredients in it and I can’t find the list. You can get it at the Herb Pantry though)
I made 13 servings worth of this mix. Each scoop is 2tbsp and is approx. 21 calories (yes, you heard me)

Now this does mean each serving is also only .75g of protein, but I am ok with that, since once I add a banana to the mix, that bumps up the protein to about 2g, which is what slimfast has.

I really like this mix because it is really versatile.
I could add carob or chocolate powder.
I could add nut butters for added protein. (I don’t want the extra protein unless I need it at the time)
I could add spices like cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, etc..
I could add powdered honey
I could add green tea powder, other tea powders, flax seeds, etc.. The possibilities are really endless.

Now they have this pbx powder stuff that looks interesting, but since peanuts are the worst nuts for you comparably, I decided not to get any of it.

Almond flour would be good to add if you do not already use almond milk in your shake.

I made my shake today with a whole banana instead of half, blueberries, yogurt, and almond coconut milk. It ended up being about the same amount of calories as my slimfast shakes would have been, but with more goodness.

Now the texture is going to be different of course, but I honestly did not mind it at all. Anyone who has put powdered oats in their shake will know what I am talking about. The flavor is great and did not taste like leafy greens at all really. You don’t taste the beets, only the light sweetness.

I am honestly quite happy with how this little experiment turned out. Now I just need to come up with a neat name for it instead of just calling it my shake mix.

I would like to note that I did opt out of adding a soy, whey, or hemp protein powder intentionally. While I could easily get my hands on any one of those, after reading up on the pros and cons of them, I felt it best to leave them out. Now pea protein is one that was interesting to me after reading about it, and I might try that one in the future (probably from sprouting, dehydrating, and powdering my own peas) I will update you on that if I do decide to try it.

For those who wish to try making this mix, here is the recipe I used:


Oats I used 1/2c of the normal quick one min oats. Powdered it came out to 14Tbsp.
Chai seeds I used 1/8c which came out to 6Tbsp + 1tsp.
Green powder mix I used 1Tbsp + 1tsp
Pumpkin powder 1Tbsp
Yam (about 1/8 of a yam) powder 1Tbsp
Carrot powder 1Tbsp (I cannot recall how many carrots this was dehydrated, but not many, like 1-3)
Beet powder 2Tbsp (about 1 beet)

I did dehydrate all the veggies myself except for the green powder. Eventually once my garden is growing again, I will be dehydrating more greens to make my own green powder mix.

I also want to mention how inexpensive this is to make 13 servings compared to spending $7 per 14 servings for slimfast. If you use the $15+ mixes, this will be an even greater savings. I have not yet done the price breakdown, but you can see from the above, it does not take much.
The bag of chia seeds I got for like $6 I could make like 18 batches of the above with, and it is the smaller bag… Oats are cheap to buy, as is everything else on the list. Just something you might want to know is all.

Let me know if you try it and your thoughts on it. I want to know what awesome things you add to your shakes!

Creating my 2015 homesteading goals

I am hard at work the past two days creating my homesteading goals for 2015. I had a good portion of them written down, but many more I needed to add.

I also decided I needed to organize the list a little more so it had categories, as well as for each “goal” it would detail the cost, effort, desired season, and if it was at the top of the list of importance or if it was just something I would desire to do this year, and OK if it ended up being put off till next year.

I have 10 pages written so far, and I fear much more will be added to the list… There are so many things I wish to put on the list but KNOW will not happen this year, so there is no point in even writing it on the list for 2015.
I know the first year is the hardest one to organize, plan out, reach those goals, but I am looking forward to it.

I also really like making lists…

I should also keep in mind this is 10 pages of goals relating to urban homesteading, so I have a lot of other “to do” or “goals” lists that are not related, or possibly related.

This homesteading goals list will also have sub-lists, especially for the medicine making portions, as I do not feel like putting in tons of lines. I will just make a separate list for the ones I know I want to make, so I can mark what I got to, and then add to it the ones I made but did not plan to make.

Right now my categories are as follows:
The ground
The garden
The seeds
Projects
Blogging, writing, and paper projects
Community immersion
Inside the home
Skills to learn

Once I feel content with it (hopefully here soon) I will post it up so you can see what I have on my list and how I laid it out.

Anything I do not accomplish this year from the list will either be scrapped altogether or moved to next years list.

How yoga has helped me

I have gone through a lot of changes recently with my nutrition plan and overall made healthier life choices.

In addition to eating a healthier diet, which has helped me to lose weight (10 lbs so far since December 3rd) I have also been doing stretches and yoga.

I have not been going to any special classes. I just looked around youtube until I found a channel I liked and have been following the videos at home. Psychetruth yoga for energy is one of my favorite videos, and I love this channel in general.

I have done yoga before, but not consistently. This is the first time I have stuck to doing a yoga routine.

I try to do 1-2 videos of my choice 1-2x daily. I have been doing this for almost 2 months now I would say. I have noticed improvement in my flexibility and my breathing.
I noticed just how much this helped when I hit the gym last. I have not been to a gym in awhile as I prefer to workout at home or in nature. It is too cold to be outside so I went to the gym with my sister. I have not been able to do more than 12m (and one random 16m session) on the elliptical since I was about 18? Partially this is due to having minor asthma, another part  is due to not having been very active.
This last time I went to the gym, due to the benefits the yoga and healthy eating, I was able to do a 40m elliptical, 50 leg presses, 15 arm presses (need to work on that more), and still  had a ton of energy left to go. This was like an hour workout total.
Previously my workouts would strain to be 30-45m.

I never used to understand the whole “enjoy the burn!” thing people always talked about who go to gyms often. This was because before, for me, the burn hurt a lot. Minimal effort would feel like a mountain. The effort, exhaustion, and pain would cause nausea instead of energy and happiness. I think this is the first time I have actually gotten it. I have not felt sick to my stomach from going to the gym. (I had trainers before and it was still like that, so it was not from lack of doing things properly either) I really do believe that because of the yoga, my body can do a lot more than it used to be able to. I can do a good workout and not overwork myself. I can work through a tiny bit of discomfort vs a lot of horrible exhausting pain.

Did I mention I absolutely loved this! This was something completely unexpected that I did not think I would be able to do so soon. It is a really good motivator to realize I have gotten farther in my endurance, flexibility, and breathing strength sooner than expected.

I need to ramp up my workouts to help with muscle tone and strength, so knowing it won’t hurt like it used to is really encouraging. I did not feel ache the next day either like I used to. Before it would be a couple of days where it would hurt bad afterwards, even with stretching, but this just blows my mind.

This has always been a really frustrating area for me, since I did not have asthma until I moved to this state. We believe it is due to all the sagebrush pollen in the air, which I am allergic to. Still, I love the area.

It can be really tough knowing that you used to be able to do almost anything, and then because of your weakened lungs, couldn’t hardly do anything.

I was actually at the doctors every day for weeks when this first started happening.

I think my body has adjusted enough now, that if I can build up my lung strength, I can get back to a normal state. That does not mean I won’t still have asthma attacks, it just means I will not be able to use asthma as an excuse for staying healthy. The less I am active, the weaker my lungs are, and the more prone I am to attacks.

I will still get asthma attacks from anxiety, but that trigger is completely different, and one I am also working on.

I am enjoying my after yoga stretching highs I get. I can’t wait to see where this leads me physically, mentally, and spiritually.