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My Addiction to Pinterest
The Power Punch in Green Smoothies
Now that I’ve hopefully inspired you to join me for a week of green smoothies during our 2nd week of The Grain Challenge – I’m sure you’d like to know what good combinations of fruits and greens you should use!
Yes, that would be helpful.
First of all, what is a green smoothie? In all my research I have found that there is a very specific purpose in calling it a ‘green’ smoothie. Many people interpret that to mean ‘vegetable’ smoothie – and that’s not what it is. Greens are separate from veggies. Did you know that? I didn’t always know that.
”…I define “greens” as the flat leaves of a plant, attached to the stem, that can be wrapped around a finger, with a very few exceptions, including nopal cactus leaves and celery.” ~ GreenSmoothiesBlog
I’ve also learned that adding starchy veggies to your green smoothie isn’t the best thing to do.
“In his book Food Combining Made Easy, Dr. Herbert Shelton explains that starchy foods have to be eaten alone because starches are digested with enzymes different from those used for any other food group. Combining starchy foods with fruit may cause fermentation and gas. Dr. Shelton has found that combining green vegetables with every food group produces favorable results.
Vegetables such as carrots, beets, broccoli, zucchini, daikon radish, cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts, eggplant, pumpkin, squash, okra, peas, corn, green beans, and others do not combine well with fruit due to their high starch content. While these vegetables are nutritious and beneficial for our health, their high starch content makes them unsuitable for use in smoothies.
If you do not want to mix sweet fruit into your green smoothies, you can use nonstarchy vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, avocados, celery, and others. You can also consider using low–glycemic index fruit such as berries (any kind), apples, cherries, plums, and grapefruit.” ~ GreenSmoothieBlog
Good to know!
This post could be super long with all the choices that are out there, but I’ll just post a few today – maybe more next week as I make them. I’m also including other websites where you can go and get more in depth info on green smoothies. One thing you need to realize is that everyone has a different palate! So what I might find intriguing in a green smoothie – you might find appalling. Catch my drift? So, use common sense when you are making your smoothies next week. If you absolutely cannot stand kale or rainbow chard in a salad – you won’t want your smoothie to have that strong taste, so use less of them or add more fruits and berries to over-ride that taste. I do believe that once people stick with certain eating styles long enough- they grow accustomed to the taste and don’t have to hide the flavors of so many things. I promise. Now – if you are up to trying new things, then go ahead, but if you know you can’t handle new tastes very easily – don’t waste your food! You’ll just end up throwing the smoothie out and skipping this process. Make it work FOR you, not AGAINST you! The other thing you need to keep in mind is any health concerns, specifically diabetics or those with low-blood sugar. If your body tends to not handle too much sugar too well, watch how many fruits you use at a time in your smoothies. Even though it’s naturally occurring sugar, it will still spike insulin levels. If anything, drink your smoothie while consuming a wonderful healthy fat and /or protein. Drink your smoothie while your snacking on some trail mix, or eating full-fat yogurt (good source of healthy fat and protein).
So, did I create these recipes all on my own?
No. Sometimes I follow recipes from websites or books that I have, but mostly I just throw a bunch of stuff in my blender and go for it. Typically I end up with way more than my body can drink at one time (like 20-24 ounces), so I pass some off to my kids and whatever is left over I give my pot-bellied pig.
Yes. I have a pig.
Random, I know.
In order for me to help you along with this and for those of you who need detailed measurements of ingredients – these are for you! My palate isn’t hard to please and I have become accustomed to trying new things and learning to embrace new things, tastes, textures and colors. Colors? Yes. Some people can’t drink something that is bright green. My thought? Put it in a glass that you can’t see through, put a lid on it, add a straw and you’re good to go. The color won’t interfere with the taste. Just sayin’, Mom. Did I type that outloud? Dratz.
Moving on.
There are some basic steps to making a green smoothie. Starting with the 3 main ingredients: greens, filtered water, fruits. Now, sometimes I add a very small amount of organic, full-fat kefir or plain organic, full-fat yogurt to mine if I need a different taste to it, but mostly I stick to the 3 main ingredients. I know it probably voids it of being a true ‘green smoothie’, but it’s what my body needs to ease the effect of all the fruit-sugar in the drink. Start by putting the greens in the blender along with the water and blend. Most blenders will require you let this step go on for about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes. Once you get the greens to a good, smooth consistency – add your fruit. If you have an awesome blender – just put it all in and go for it. I tend to not like real watery smoothies – so adding a banana or avocado is a good way to make it thicker or creamier! Add apples, oranges, berries, melons – or whatever fruits you like. The berries are great at giving it a bold taste, which helps tone down the green taste. You can also add some supplements to your smoothies like coconut oil or omega-3 oil or flaxseed oil! Those will just boost the power of these even more. One thing I don’t do is add all the other goodies I put in my smoothies, like whey, almond meal, ground flaxseed, etc. You don’t want too much to interfere with the absorption of all the vitamins and minerals you’ll be getting in these green smoothies.
What benefits will you get from these amazing beverages? The wonderful nourishment it will ADD TO YOUR BODY is amazing. My biggest selling point is the cleansing power these foods have in our system! They remove toxins like nobody’s business and to me, that is a huge factor in the average person today! Our bodies are toxic. Yes, God designed our bodies to have filters against toxins and we sweat and release toxins and our eliminating carries away toxins – but we are messing with all these areas of our body and they can no longer function in the way they were created to function! We wear anti-perspirants loaded with alum (aluminum) and other toxic chemicals that block our sweat glands from, well, sweating. So, instead of toxins coming out – they sit inside us. We aren’t going to the bathroom as often as we should. Not as in – we just don’t physically CHOOSE to go, but our bodies CAN’T go. We’re backed up! We aren’t getting enough fiber! We aren’t drinking enough clean water to push anything out. So, the waste just sits in there and our bodies reabsorb all the toxins in the waste. Nice, right?! And our liver is our body’s filtering system, but we have overloaded and over-taxed our liver with our diet of fake, processed foods, refined sugar, sodas, excess caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, soy by-product laden foods and so on – and the liver can no longer do it’s job optimally to filter out all the toxins that are in our body. It’s no longer toxins being IN our body. It is now our bodies are in a TOXIC state. This is not good! What other benefits do these have? Anti-oxidants, fiber (and boy, are we lacking a proper intake of fiber in this nation), vitamins, minerals (read this post about True Vitamin Water) and the overall goodness of fresh fruits and veggies. Our body’s can work with food that’s real!
I’ve heard about green smoothies for years, but it wasn’t until recently when I was introduced to Natalie, a Raw Food Chef when I was reading the book The Raw Truth by Jordan Rubin that I became interested in their benefits. I started doing tons of research on RAW eating and I came across her. I have several of her e-cookbooks and thoroughly enjoy everyone of them. It’s amazing what she has created from RAW foods! I’ve tried several and am hooked! So, she is a great source of information. She has a FREE Breakfast Makeover – 7 Days of Gorgeous Green Smoothies book that has 7 smoothie recipes! I’ve tried about 5 of these and really liked them. Now, due to fruits that may not be in season, I had to substitute. Never the less – they tasted great! Go over to her site and get this FREE e-book! It will help you tons next week and just from now on when you want to incorporate green smoothies into your eating regimen. Another thing that is great about Natalie is that I have emailed her a couple times in regards to her e-books and she’s always emailed me back and talked with me. She’s a busy gal, so that stood out to me!
So, here are a couple recipes for simple green smoothies and following are some video clips and websites that you can visit for more in-depth info on this subject! Just use the steps listed out above to prepare your smoothies.
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Basic Green Smoothie Recipe
1 cup spinach
1 apple
1 banana
1 cup filtered water
1/2 banana
Kale and Banana Smoothie
1 cup filtered water
1 cup kale or rainbow chard or green/red leaf lettuce
1 banana
1 cup berries, fresh or frozen
approximately 3-4 leaves of kale (they are huge)
Mixed Up Smoothie
1 cup spinach
1/2 banana
1/2 pear
1/4 – 1/2 cup berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc.)
1 cup filtered water
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- Another great site is The Green Smoothie Girl. She had a great story about how she got into eating REAL AND WHOLE FOODS and she has tons of information on her site. She also have a large selection of how-to videos that are intriguing. I’ve included one below on making green smoothies. She has an awesome 3 horse power blender that liquefies all her fruits and greens! It’s going on my wish list, that’s for sure. My blender does not do that – which I why I end up juicing many of my greens then adding it to the blender with the rest of the smoothie ingredients.
- The other site that I am always gleaning from, although it is not strictly about green smoothies, is Brandy over at Living Water Health and Wellness! Similar name to my business – great minds think alike! My beautiful Texas friend, Jenny, introduced me to her since she realized we both are so similar, if not almost identical in our beliefs when it comes to food and nutrition! I’ve always enjoyed her blog and all the amazing information she puts out there for people to see! It’s exciting getting on someone’s blog and reading everything you teach people and clients! Just recently she did what she called a‘system reboot’ and it was a week of her, her family and those following her blog/FB page drinking green smoothies AND she blogged about it. I know what we’re doing on The Grain Challenge is a little more involved, but we have similar goals. We will only be incorporating the smoothies into our days – where as her reboot was making them the main part of the eating during the days! When any of you are feeling up to doing it – I would encourage you to go through her blogs on the‘system reboot’ and do it yourselves! In this article, she give her top 4 reasons for adding green smoothies to your diet.
- Now, over at GreenSmoothiesBlog you’ll find tons of info on green smoothies and RAW food. I can’t express to you how much I enjoy information like this! Anyhoo – below is a video I found on her blog about making a tasty green smoothie every time. Granted, the clip may seem ‘silly’ or ‘cheesy’ (and I don’t mean that in a rude way) – but the instructions are great and will help you in making green smoothies! It’s 5 minutes long, but watch it and you’ll know the best way to combine fruits and greens to make the best tasting smoothies!
How’s that for some weekend reading! I think it’s best to be educated on doing something instead of just doing it!
So, how many of you will join me next week by incorporating green smoothies into your daily eating routine?
Have an awesome weekend!
As always, you can talk to me on our LivingStrongWellnessfacebook page!
You can also follow us on Twitter!
Thanks for always making your posts enjoyable to read along with the great education (loved your pig insert
We’re going shopping tomorrow so we might as well jump on board with this!!
You know me, can’t be serious ALL the time
) Ah, the pig. She has no clue I blog about her 
) Let me know how the green smoothies go!
I’ve juiced rclcbooi and cabbage, usually mix them with apples and peeled lime. My new fav smoothie combination is mango, grated ginger, flaxseeds, a teaspoon of greens supplement and some ice
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