Awww…snap! Summer is in season, my friends! Before we jump into June, let’s rewind on May. Check out the list below of my May favorites – places, products and passions. As per usual, if you have a suggestion of a workout, product or recipe I should try in June, let me know in the comments. Happy kick-off to summer!Roll out the red carpet, here’s the top 10 places, products and pastimes from May!

1.) Favorite Places to Lolly Dolly: every spring I look forward to the opening of the Green City Market Lincoln Park. It’s my favorite farmer’s market in Chicago for the rows of fresh produce, divine bits like fresh tamales and a great spot for Moose to meet new pooch friends. I love how the market evolves as new produce pops up throughout the season!

2.) Favorite Brunch Spot: Mindy’s Hot Chocolate is a staple in Wicker Park and while it may be most famously known for the rich cups of hot cocoa and decedent desserts, it’s one my absolute favorite brunch spots for its rotating seasonal menu of fresh fare like the creamy spring pea risotto I had there recently. My husband is a die hard french toast fan and inhaled the strawberry rhubarb french toast with sweet cream. I’m more of a savory brunch fan, but it was hard to keep my hands off that french toast.

3.) Favorite Workout: with all that brunching, something needs to offset the decadence. This month, the first of my favorite workouts was flowing to Cardi B at Y7Studio in NYC. This hip hop yoga studio gave me all the positive yoga vibes.  And I absolutely NEED every piece of apparel on their racks, including the “I make yoga moves” tank.

4.) Favorite Workout Jams: nothing gets the body moving like good tunes. Get my personally curated playlist featuring my favorite mash-ups of May on SoundCloud. Catch these songs as I return to teaching spin as a guest instructor at Cycle X Studio Monday mornings in June! First class is free!

5.) Favorite Beauty Hack: when you’ve got a 9-5 and side hustles as a blogger and spin instructor, time is a hot commodity. Thanks to Amazing Lash Studio Lincoln Park, I can roll out of bed looking gorgeous with lashes for days.

6.) Favorite Indulgence: my willpower may have been at a low, but I did not regret stocking up on a stack (literally) of Vosges Haut Chocolate Bars at O’hare earlier in the month. I wouldn’t have expected it, but my favorite of the bunch was the Coconut Ash & Banana Super Dark Chocolate Bar. It was just the right amount of island sweet to offset the bitter, but rich dark chocolate. Close second was the Matcha Green Tea & Spirulina Super Dark Chocolate Bar. Give me all the antioxidants and superfoods!

7.) Favorite New Product: The Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi is worth the hype peeps! Seared in a pan, it had the perfect crispy exterior and pillowy center. Paired with a simple sage butter and…perfection! Get the sage butter dEATs here.

8.) Favorite Workout: there were too many favorites this month to pick just one, but the Peloton Tread class absolutely killer! I literally booked the class before I even booked my flight when I had a business trip to NYC earlier this month. Now the wait begins until the new tread is released this fall! Check out my blog post on the class and treadmill here.

9.) Favorite Way to Restore: Chill Meditation + Massage in Chicago’s River North turned this busy bee into a believer. Living in the moment and tuning out the noise is not my forte, but Chill helped me to see the light and pause in the moment. Walked out feeling the sweet sweet nirvana of a mind at rest. For more on my experience, check out my post.

10.) Favorite Recipe: it’s always SO HARD to choose just one because I love all of my babies! But, if I had to pick (which I force myself to pick just one), it’s hands down the vegan red pepper crema that I paired with everything from fresh veggies, to strips of baked avocado in tacos and even pasta. This one is a must try, my friends!

I hope you enjoyed these May favorites. Excited to see what June brings and hope you are too!

The post May Favorites appeared first on The Shooks Life.

I dip you dip we dip…for vegan chocolate avocado mousse. Droppin’ strawberries like it’s a bad habit into this sweet treat with the rich flavors of  @navitasorganics cacao. Try to stop at one dip. I triple dog dare ya. Get the dEATs below!

So here’s the deal, no need to count those dips with this little delight. The base of the mousse is healthy fats like avocado and coconut cream, sweetened with maple syrup and vanilla, with a super rich chocolatey flavor derived from superfood cacao.

Hold up, chocolate is a superfood? Yes ma’am. But there’s a difference between traditional cocoa and cacao. Two different things, not a spelling error (hello, I was a journalism major).

So here’s the deal. Cacao is the purest form of chocolate, produced by cold-pressing unroasted cocoa beans. It maintains a majority of the nutrients from the cacao beans while removing the fat (serious magic). In this whole form, it delivers an abundance of jam-packed nutrients such as magnesium, flavanoids (antioxidants that support the immune system), iron and phenylethylamine (PEA) – often called the “love drug” since it boosts mood and energy levels. Yes, please.

Cocoa looks like same, but don’t be fooled. Cocoa powder is raw cacao that been roasted at high temperatures, reducing the overall nutritional value (womp womp). In addition, many companies will add sugars to cocoa mixes, so watch those labels!

Now that you’ve discovered all the goodness of superfood cacao, dip on into this delectable mousse! P.S. Bonus points if you get the song reference from this post!

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Mousse
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
– 4 large, ripe avocados, peeled and pitted
– 1 1/2 C coconut cream
– 1 1/4 C Navitas Organics cacao powder
– 1 C 100% pure maple syrup
– 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
Serve immediately with fresh fruit or store in the fridge.

Happy dipping, friends!

The post Da Dip appeared first on The Shooks Life.