Green Romance

I've been having a clandestine affair with spirulina. Just look at those curvy spirals! How could a curly-girl like me resist?

I thought the secret was safe from my long-time superfood lover, cacao, until I returned home from the office with a telltale smear of green on my cheek. Luckily cacao is a generous lover - she's okay with my girl-on-the-side green goddess. So now I'm dosing my body and my tastebuds with both of these phenomenal food-medicines, and life is just one big dance of ecstatic pleasure. Who would have thought that algae could be so racy!

Look, I'm not letting cacao go. I'm still drooling over her gorgeously bitter flavor, her delectable rich oils, her tantalizing way of potentiating other superfood partners. I'm blissing out on her feel-good chemicals: her love-inducing phenylethylamine, chill-creating anandaminde, brain-balancing tryptophan and serotonin, and satisfyingly stimulating theobromine. And as a woman, I appreciate the way her massive dose of magnesium soothes my sensitive soul.

But I'm just not a one-superfood kinda gal. And green is my favorite color. So spiraly spirulina is my new lover, superfood extraordinaire. The number one reason I've fallen for her is an absolutely amazing protein content - we're talking over 65%, which blows animal products out of the water. Not to mention this is a slaughter-free way of getting my protein, and is much more absorbable by my body. So don't ask me again where I get my protein! Or my iron, for that matter. Spirulina gives me super-power energy, balances my brain chemistry, and innundates me with antioxidants, and then some. If that's not sexy, I don't know what is.

This little firecracker is not just for adding to green smoothies or juices anymore, either. I'm eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I got a little inspiration from the fabulous video here: Courtney Pool of Tree of Life talking Spirulina Salad on Tim VanOrden's Raw Running Project.



Spirulina salad! Who knew? I've been making awesome green cacao yummies for my darling for a while now, and sneaking teaspoons of the stuff into my own smoothies and juices, but on salad? Whoa now. Green on green. That's madness.

Luckily I adore madness! So I gave it a try. Yeah, it's freakin' good. So good that I've been eating it at least once a day every since. I even had a simple spirulina salad with chard, sesame oil and himalayan salt for breakfast one morning instead of my usual green juice! And I've discovered an even better variation: adding some maca. Wow. The possibilites are endless. Here's my favorite recipe so far:

Maca-Spirulina Salad

Big bowl of iceberg/cos/romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size bits
Good drizzle of Olive Oil
Good sprinkle of Himalayan salt
Big heaped Tbsp Spirulina
Big heapted Tsp Maca
1/2 Avocado, cut into small chunks
1 small tomato, diced

Mix it all up and enjoy the salty/sweet/creamy/tangy/umami/refreshing pure joy.

And yes, just like Courtney says, your teeth get all green and you get a lovely little green moustache. A bit dangerous to eat on my lunch break at the office, but they all know me as health freak girl anyway! Which they don't mind, because I bring in lots of treats that they all agree taste way better than the usual lollies and baked goods, and they love the way these foods make them feel.

But raw superfood desserts are an easy sell. You're just going to have trust me (and gorgeous Courtney) on the spirulina salad. Go try it. Right now. Life will never be the same.

Just make sure to thoroughly wipe your face after - or risk your new romance being discovered.