Can you believe I made this sweet and creamy, beautiful purpley-blue smoothie with flowers? It's true, no blueberries here! I sure do miss me my blueberries!

I have been dreaming of some more blue (Vishuddha/throat chakra) to add into my diet since as you all know, I love to eat the rainbow but unfortunately, blue seems to be difficult to find around here! What blue fruits and veggies do you have where you live?

Eating all of the colors of the rainbow and your seven chakras has many benefits for the body and the particular area the color is associated with. The higher three, blue, indigo and purple all are connected to spirituality and since I have been learning about healing energetically, the blue was calling out to me as something I was missing!

The other day I had an idea! I get gorgeous blue flowers called butterfly peas from my local organic farmer's market. Normally I just use them to decorate the plate, then eat them after since they are edible and don't carry much of a taste. However, I remembered that the last time I was in Thailand, a lady I met showed me how to make blue sticky rice with these very same flowers! I thought, I wonder if I can use them for a smoothie?

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I had a lot of ideas about extracting the blue from these pretty flowers and originally thought I might have to boil them. Not wanting to overheat them and not sure what was going to happen, I put them in a glass jar in water and put it out in the sun. I came back an hour to surprisingly tinted water!

Here is a picture I took from when I was visiting my favorite farmer's garden so you know what the flowers look like! He has a big bush of these gorgeous hued plants! I planted some but Bear ended up eating all those plants before they could take off. I guess she wanted her blue hues too! ;)

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Depending on where you are in the world, you can either get seeds and grow these tropical plants, or get them imported as tea. They are native to South East Asia and are known on this side of their world for their medicinal properties which is why butterfly pea tea is often given at spas after a service. If you're not somewhere where your climate can produce the heat these beauties need to flourish, you can buy dried leaves in the form of tea easy-peasy online. Just search butterfly pea tea and you'll surely find some!

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I didn't look it up at all before trying and my friends didn't think it would work, I guess it does seem a little strange. But guess what? Just submerging the flowers in water allowed the natural tint to come out! I had a gorgeous glass jar of blue water ready for me to use in no time! I decided to pair it with my favorite fruit, soursop because soursop is very creamy and white and so I thought the color would be able to really pop while still giving my smoothie the deliciousness from the sweet fruit!

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Here's the thing everyone, I didn't add anything else to this! I LOVE soursop on its own. It's a creamy dream as it is and is often called ice-cream fruit due to it's consistency and sweetness so basically I was just adding the blue to make a beautiful drink! In order to get my blue, I could have just drank the water whenever it had taken the blue tint or I could just eat the flowers but this was so much more fun and so yummy!

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In case you have never heard of or tried soursop, here it is, beside the juice. It's a big, green, spiky fruit that has white, creamy flesh within. It's my favorite fruit as I mentioned and I love using it in everything. It's especially tempting after being frozen as it then becomes the perfect vegan ice-cream!

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Flower Power

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When I was living in San Fransisco a few years ago, my partner was going to school at the University of SF and as an elective, was taking a natural gardening course. In it, there was a section on edible flowers and how to differentiate them. At the time, I had never given eating flowers much thought. I used to eat the white nectar out of a purple flower that grew in my yard when I was very little but my mom was never a fan of that so I stopped and became a huge germ-a-phobe so whenever he had come home, sharing this information with me, I was quite weary and resistant. After reading over his notes and the section in their handbook, I discovered how many benefits lie in these beautiful, colorful plants we usually just look at! I had no idea how much healing potential was lying in their petals! So, we went around SF and collected flowers to try and it was so fun!

Nowadays, we see edible flowers popping up on gourmet dishes across the globe and this is great because flowers are part of the plant kingdom and like I said, offer so much healing potential. We drink plenty of dried out flowers and herbs in our teas, why not grab some or better yet grow some fresh and eat them too?

Flowers are so colorful and vibrant! Try some on your meal today! I was so afraid to eat them, but they are plants too! Many flowers have a sweet nectar and don't taste 'flowery' like you'd expect! Give them a smell and always be sure to check it out online if you're unsure! PS: You can totally eat roses and they are delightfully soothing!
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Sending you love through (plant-based/vegan) food, as always! If you are new here, it's great to have you here!
I am obsessed with food as you'll surely see, and I am a strong believer in the power it has within it, and the ability it has to heal us! I aim to inspire through my recipes and posts and hope to connect with you here, through your heart. Some say the way to the heart is through the stomach, I 100% agree with that theory ;)
I believe in sharing what makes the heart happy, if you'd like to see more, come on by @heart-to-heart!😘

Here is a recent recipe for a delicious energy filled smoothie bowl! Click here to see it!

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Until next time, love what you eat, eat what loves you back!
XO,
😘

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