As much as I like to joke that “I got this body from junk food”—after all, I do love cheeseburgers, quesadillas, and caramel ice cream—every now and then my body jokes back, “Dude, it’s time to flush your transmission.”
Today was that day. I had marked out Thursday to work on the next novel, and my creative juices needed all the help they could get.
I remembered there was a new smoothie shop in town, so I headed downtown to The Green Bar at 1517 Winchester Avenue in Ashland, Kentucky.
A friendly young woman (I later learned her name was Fay Shuh—not sure I’m spelling it correctly) greeted me and, like the dork that I am, my first question was, “Is this Nutrisystem or whatever it’s called?” She noted that this was indeed not Herbalife (the multi-level marketing company with several juice bars around the country), and while The Green Bar does have a protein powder they can add, the ingredients are non-processed (a.k.a. “clean ingredients”), plant-based, whole foods, which is exactly what I was looking for.
I told her I wanted something green. Turns out, they just happened to have a smoothie called The Green with spinach, avocado, pineapple and orange. That was a Go.
I was hungry too, which meant I also needed a bowl of some sort.
First I had to pick my base: acai berry or dragon fruit. Since I have a dragon in my novels, guess which one I chose. Turns out, the fuchsia color of the dragon fruit base just happens to be one of my Rivervine brand. Score!
Next, I had to select a milk. My options were oat or almond (if I didn’t like either of those, I could have it made with water). I’m not a fan of almond milk but oat milk is okay, so I went with that.
My final selection was toppings. I wanted all of them, but sought to demonstrate some form of self-control (it’s one of the 12 Fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23, not that self-control is my favorite fruit) and narrowed it down to chia seeds, granola, almonds, coconut, strawberries and blueberries.
I asked her to hold the stevia in both the smoothie and bowl. If I can’t have real sugar, I don’t want any sweetener at all. I’m totally okay with the flavor of the spinach in the smoothie or the dragon fruit of the bowl being unmasked.
I was happy to learn they offered a military discount, so I flashed my veteran spouse ID and received 10% off my order. Yay!
After enjoying this amazing power foods breakfast, I am now ready to get to work writing my soon-to-be best-selling, award-winning novel. My body is sending me thank you cards and rewarding me with a tsunami of creative juices.
The Green Bar has a loyalty program that offers $8 off your front-bar purchase after 20 visits. What a way to inspire creativity! This place is my new fueling station when I need to write. Now I have even more reason to pursue the literary arts.
My overall impression of The Green Bar is the food is high quality and tasty. The service was great, and the prices were reasonable. Most of all, it’s a much-needed asset to a city with a motto of “Create with Us.” Creativity needs fuel and this place is an excellent resource.
Gwen Alyce Clayton 