A Blog Birthday and a Smoothie for Allen

April 13th marked the four-year anniversary of this blog. Writing here has been a wonderful thing for me for so many reasons: it's a fun creative outlet; it's given me tons of photography practice; and it's been the conduit and inspiration for many, many, many wonderful meals. Best of all, though, it's helped me connect with a community of amazing, talented people who share a passion for food and a recognition that few things are as good at bringing people together.

Unfortunately, one member of the Austin food community, Allen Stern of Let's Talk Fitness, passed away earlier this month. I regret that I never met Allen personally, but he was a frequent participant in the private Facebook group for the Austin Food Blogger Alliance, and by all accounts he was energetic, generous, and kind. Allen, who had lost over 125 pounds thanks to improved diet and exercise, was a big proponent of drinking green smoothies for weight loss. As a tribute to Allen, some of his family and friends suggested that folks make a smoothie in his honor and post about it online. So it seemed fitting that to celebrate my blog's birthday, I should toast a green smoothie to a fellow food blogger who left us too soon. Allen, this one is for you.

I learned about this smoothie recipe from my awesome sister-in-law, who posted about it on her blog last month. The original recipe is here. Mine was slightly modified from both, so I'll post my ingredient list here - but the beauty of smoothies is that the recipe is really just to provide inspiration. You can fiddle with it however you like until you've got the perfect blender concoction.

Green Smoothie for Allen
1 frozen banana
1 T peanut butter (I used The Bee's Knees peanut butter, which has some honey added to it - a gift from Peanut Butter & Co. If you don't have any Bee's Knees, you could use regular peanut butter and add honey separately, to taste.)
1/2 c Greek yogurt (I used Fage)
1/4 c milk
Enough spinach to fill the blender to the top (most green smoothie recipes call for baby spinach; I used heirloom spinach from our Tecolote Farm CSA, and it worked great)

Blend and enjoy!