Darn it, only my second day of juicing and I’m already having second thoughts. This is actually not juice, it’s a smoothie. The good news is my Vitamix is fixed and I have it back again!! I was going to make a juice, but I just couldn’t bring myself to waste all the pulp. I threw it all in the vitamix instead, thinking that it might make me gag, but it was actually really good. And I got two of these big glasses. If I had made this into juice it would have been less than half of this. Here are the ingredients I used (all organic, of course):
Peeled Granny Smith apple; Celery; Romaine lettuce; Unpeeled cucumber; Baby kale
Maybe it’s an acquired taste, but it really was delicious!
Here is the bad news: My Vitamix broke!!! It sounded funny for a little while, then the motor was spinning kind of sporadically, the speed would go up and down on it’s own, and then, it started smoking!! It is still under warranty so I can send it back and they will fix or replace it. But in the meantime my green smoothies leave something to be desired.
After watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead 2 last night, I’m re-inspired to get back into juicing and making green smoothies. At the same time I have certain fruits and veggies I may need to avoid for a little while (spinach, strawberries and bananas, all my smoothie stables.) So, this one has blueberries, celery, cucumber, Boston lettuce, and water. It was actually a pretty good combo, but, I made it my food processor and it was a little chunky, I was literally chewing it as I drank. Ewww.
But it felt good to get those nutrients into my system. As I always say, It’s an acquired taste.
I love making my own homemade nut milks, especially almond milk and cashew milk, but they can be expensive, and it’s good to have back-up options when I run out. I saw a recipe online for oat milk, decided to give it a try, and adapted it slightly. It turned out great!! I made it very thick, because I wanted to use it in coffee (yes, coffee, but that’s a different story.) I was surprised at how delicious it was! Not to mention easy, and cheap.
Here is my recipe:
1 cup organic steel cut oats, soaked for 20 minutes then rinsed
4 cups filtered water
tablespoon agave nectar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
dash of cinnamon
and here is my secret ingredient: 1 tablespoon coconut oil (because fat free milk in coffee is gross, right?)
I blended the oats and water in my awesome Vitamix; strained it in my awesome new nut bag; then blended it again with the rest of the ingredients.
My only warning is it does come out pretty slimy, especially because I made it so thick. I don’t think it felt slimy when I was drinking it, but you can see the slime when pouring it, which might gross some people out. The Vitamix is powerful that it blended it extremely fine and there wasn’t much to strain. Next time I’ll put it on a lower speed, leave it a little grittier, and then strain out more of the oat fiber.
It was so delicious I even drank some plain, over ice. It reminded me of orchata.
Here you can see it in my iced coffee, nice and creamy : )
I’ve mentioned them before, but today I am dedicating an entire post to green smoothies!!
Why am I so excited about them? I just think they are a really healthy, really easy, and really yummy way to get some greens! And that’s gotta be a good thing. Granted, it would probably be healthier to actually chew and eat all those greens, but seriously, who’s going to do that? A whole bag of spinach for breakfast? Plus, this way I’m not using any dressings or oils.
My go-to recipe is just banana, strawberry, and a whole bag of spinach. But I’ve been getting more creative and adding more veggies.
This is what I used today:
Spinach
Romaine lettuce
Cucumber (with peel)
Celery
Frozen Strawberries
Frozen mango
Fresh lime juice
Green tea
All organic, except the mango.
It was good!! If that sounds (or tastes) gross, you can definitely start off with more fruit and less greens. Spinach has a very mild flavor and is easy to mask with the fruit. Personally, I try to use a minimum of fruit and a maximum of veggies because I figure the more fruit the more sugar, which I avoid. You’ll see a lot of green smoothie videos where they load the smoothies up with pineapple and fruit juices, and I question the benefits of this. Too much sugar hitting the blood stream at once will cause an insulin response which does bad things. I actually like the taste of the celery and greens, although I understand that might be an acquired taste : )
I recently saw a recipe for a savory green smoothie, kind of like a raw soup, and I’d like to try that! It looked really good! It had jalepeno, garlic, a little avocado… I’ll post the full recipe when I try it.
I’ve been drinking green smoothies for a while, but I’ve never done it very consistently. It will be interesting to see if it changes the way I feel by having one almost every day. There are plenty of people on youtube making all sorts of claims about the benefits. I’m not expecting miracles, but it would be nice I noticed improved energy and health. I’ll keep you posted!
I wanted to take a picture of these fresh juices at the breakfast buffet, because I thought they were very pretty! I think they are mango and watermelon. But, I actually wouldn’t necessarily recommend drinking them!!
I used to have a juicer. I didn’t use it very often, but once or twice a year I would do a juice fast for a few days. There are definitely lots of people who advocate juicing, including a very inspiring movie, Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead, about a man who completely turns his life around and improves his health through juicing.
I am by no means an expert, but here is what I have (personally) concluded about juicing: I don’t like the idea of removing the fiber from all my fruits and vegetables (fiber is good!); I didn’t find it was that great for digestion/elimination (again, fiber is good!); it made me crazy to see most of my organic kale going into the trash can (okay, last point on fiber!); juicing is fairly expensive and could be considered wasteful; I think that is a lot of sugar to hit your bloodstream at once (even if you mix in vegetables); and finally, juicers are a pain the butt to clean. On the point of wastefulness: I’m sure many people are organized/motivated enough to bake carrot cake muffins out of their leftover apple and carrot fiber, but I am not one of those people!
So now, I have traded in my juicer for a Vitamix, and I am all about the GREEN SMOOTHIES!!
Green Smoothie Girl is awesome (but just ignore her adoration of BlendTec blenders. Vitamix is WAY better, IMHO : )
I tend to keep mine very simple, I’ll throw in a bag of pre-washed spinach, some frozen strawberries, and a banana. All organic, of course. Sometimes I throw in other things as well, but that’s my go to recipe. Even my kids love green smoothies!! (For them I use more fruit and less greens.)
Wow, I didn’t realize I had so much to say about beverages!! But really, even the green smoothie is more about nutrients then about hydration, for that, there is nothing better than plain old WATER. I guess I am lucky, for some unknown reason I am constantly thirsty, so I drink water all day long. And in the winter when I want something hot, I drink a lot of unsweetened herbal tea. I’ve been doing this for so long that it is second nature, it never even occurs to me to buy soda or juice.
Check this fact out: “The average American consumes 45 gallons of sugary drinks a year. That’s 39 pounds of sugar — about as much as a 5-year-old child weighs!” http://www.kickthecan.info/soda-facts
My daughter wouldn’t really drink plain water, and I was trying to encourage her to drink less juice, so we invested in a Soda Stream. It was a little pricey, but it’s been great. We love having an unlimited supply of sparkling water, and sometimes I like adding (unsweetened) flavors like orange, or raspberry. YUM! And it saves having to carry home and then recycle all those bottles. It was a great purchase. Sparkling water feels so decadent : )
I drank this entire 1.5 liter bottle at dinner and thought my stomach might explode : )
The other thing I’ve been trying to research and want to invest in is a really good water filter. I have a steam humidifier that I use in the winter and it is unbelievable the amount of minerals and gunk that are left at the bottom after the water has gone out! It’s gross! I would look at the black sludge when I rinse and refill it and think, THAT’S what I’ve been drinking?? Plus, the chlorine can’t be good either. I’ve tried Brita, and PUR, but wasn’t totally happy with them. So I’d like to get one of the really good quality ones that can be installed in the kitchen sink and connects to the plumbing.
Between my Vitamix, Soda Stream, and future fancy water filter, that’s a lot of money just for beverages!! But the human body is made up of about 60% water, so it seems a good investment!
Oh gosh, I almost forgot! I can’t do a post about hydration without linking to my favorite assortment of pictures of Women Struggling to Drink Water!!
On May 16, 2014, I started a year long challenge of living life with more intention; focusing on health, spirituality, yoga, veganism, quality time, well-being and whatever else comes up!
Check out my intro post entitled: True Body Mind Soul 365 - A New Challenge!!
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true body mind soul 