Hi! I'm Dee Dine, a mother of three plus a few fur babies, living in Washington DC. I'm also a recipe developer focused on nourishing plant-based recipes which I share on GSG, otherwise known as Green Smoothie Gourmet. My recipes usually have short ingredient lists. I use my biochemistry background to make sure you can replicate these recipes consistently. And not everyone in my family eats vegan, so I make my recipes delicious so that anyone will love them regardless of diet.
My background: I have graduate degrees in biochemistry with a focus on immunology and a nutritionist sub-major. I've authored two cookbooks, and am the nutrition and vegan food specialist editor and co-author for Wikihow.
5 Personal Facts About Me
I have the best family. They are my anchors, my cheerleaders, the color in my day and my taste-testers, and that includes our pets.
I love winter. For some reason, I feel stressed when summer approaches, and I feel more relaxed when the sky is cloudy and we must all stay home and cook.
I adore dogs and birds and cats and pandas. Yes, pandas lol. I spend way too much time scrolling social media for panda videos. We lost two beloved pets from old age recently, our Pomeranian and our cockatiel. Their love is so pure, not a day goes by that we don't think about them both.
I love reading (and writing) cozy mysteries. In fact, I have started writing my own culinary cozy mystery series to be published this year. I am about to write the sixth book and it's a seven book series. If you want to be an ARC reader, join my newsletter, I call for them occasionally. It's a culinary cozy mystery but also a thriller and action combined. Baldacci, beware. Lol.
Random things I love: yellow raincoats, fresh Christmas tree stumps, children's picture books, fun socks, the colors pink and aqua (the accents on my blog), blueberries, hibiscus tea (so pink!), hidden magic such as that found in the novel, The Subtle Knife. (Wouldn't it be lovely to find another world by cutting a hole in the air?).
How It Began
If you are tired of reading about me, stop now, lol. Cause I'm going to talk about how I began my blog back in 2016.
Since college, I had leaned toward eating whole foods and less processed. I was a good student, but then I failed an organic chemistry exam because I'd been eating so badly. I changed my diet up then and there with a refurbished blender. I also added a slew of nutritionist classes. I managed to graduate, and continue on to grad school, with my blender and much healthier nutritionally. Then, later, as my three girls came along, I began creating recipes, focusing on shorter ingredient lists, eating the rainbow, and cooking healthier. Then, I eventually launched this blog.
In our house now, the mad morning dash involves subways to downtown DC offices and schools. So the time shortage is real and making our smoothies and shots, and lunches the night before is a given. Lunches are loaded with energizing yet healthy drinks, snacks and desserts, this last is what you'll find plenty of on this blog.
Eating for the win is important to me. It's too easy to eat something that does not contribute to a daily nutritional profile and then to feel terrible later. I like feeling good after I eat, and I figure most people feel the same. But I love chocolate and dessert, so I have lots of desserts and protein snacks such as hostess cupcakes, samoa cookies and twix bars. OMG try the hostess cupcakes!
Basically if you have a need for more energy, a brighter brain, a desire to pump up your immune system, or simply don't know where to turn when the 3 pm slump hits, come here! I've got your back!
Who Can Eat My Recipes
Everyone! I mostly share healthy breakfasts, snacks and desserts, with a few savory meal recipes as well. My recipes can be eaten by everyone, including those with no specific dietary requirements, and those who eat vegan, non-vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, and refined-sugar-free, and mostly gluten-free, and reduced or even no sugar. And many are no-oil, and friendly for a paleo or Whole30 or keto diet.
A repeating theme you might notice is that I seem to push veggies into unlikely places.
My favorite chocolate cake depends on pumpkin puree instead of eggs and oil, and I frost it with 2-ingredient sweet potato frosting - can you guess the second ingredient?
I put avocado in blueberry ice cream here and my chocolate peanut butter pie here.
Zucchini can be found in this chocolate smoothie, and cauliflower in this cauliflower brownie.
In fact, my husband and friends say my biggest talent lies in hiding vegetables in desserts😂.
I hope you can find something on my blog that you like, and if you want to drop a comment and share your ideas or variations, I'll see that first.
Take care and love, Dee xx
My Cookbooks With 4 Ingredients
Did you know I wrote two cookbooks? They both have 4-ingredient recipes and are color-coded for the healthy area they target, such as fiber, protein, immunity, sleep, etc.
1. Crazy Healthy with 4 Ingredients: Desserts & Snacks
2. 4-Ingredient Smoothies & Juices: 100 Easy Nutritious Recipes for LifeLong Health
