Tuesday@eleven: True Colors

Like many people who are trying to eat nutritiously, I sometimes use stevia powder as a sweetener. I use the little packets of white stevia powder to sweeten my tea, lemonade, smoothies, and even coffee. The packets are convenient and since it is so sweet, a little goes a long way. But being the organic snob that I am (I'm admittedly addicted to organic food), I began to wonder why I can't find any organic stevia.
Today, I wanted to make a smoothie as part of my lunch, and I had an idea. I'd look at my favorite health food store (just a few blocks away from my house), and see if they had any organic stevia in their bulk spice section. They have just about every other spice and powdery substance in bulk, but I never thought to look for stevia there.

And I found this:

organic stevia leaf.

It's green......

It makes sense that it's green, since stevia is a green leaf plant. I wonder if they process it to make it into the white form that you usually find it in.
So, this made me very happy to find! It's organic and it seems to be closer to its natural form. You should take a look at your health food store and see if you can find some. It's realllllly sweet. I used a little too much in my smoothie, but it was still tasty:

(all organic)
apple juice, non-fat milk, frozen strawberries, apple, cinnamon, and stevia.

I drank it with this:

two organic frozen flax waffles, with organic peanut butter. It was delicious, and just the right fuel after my run and before I went in to the pilates studio to work.

Oh, and half of this bar which is my favorite right now. It's organic, raw, vegan, and so GOOD. It's a chocolately brownie treat with walnuts. I'm thinking of buying a bulk box online.