Top 10 Nutritional Boosters: SMOOTHIES!

Let's see, about 2 years ago I bought myself a Vita-Mix blender. When I started cooking more whole foods, plant based I came accross many vegan cookbooks that emphasized the usefulness of an excellent blender. Recommendations from friends and a family member as well as the death of my 50$ wal-mart blender while trying to make a smoothie finally conviced me that the Vita-Mix was the blender for me. The thing costs like a million dollars (ok so not really but certainly way more than most people want to afford) but it has been so worth the money. I consider it my most used kitchen appliance so thank gosh the thing comes with a 7 year warranty.

While I use it for a lot of things I originally mainly bought it for making smoothies. I wanted to be able to "hide" vegetables in smoothies and drink them more regularly so I could increase my fruit/veggie intake. I read "Green for Life" by Victoria Boutenko. She is ALL OVER the green smoothie thing and while I don't agree with some of the assertions she makes about how much grain vs. veggies a person should eat I was greatly impressed with how she breaks down nutrition in vegetables and fruits, especially green leafy items. If you were to write down what you eat in the week and consider how much is actually fresh produce I doubt you would feel very good about how much you were getting on any given day. I certainly wasn't and I wanted more energy and I wanted a stronger immune system and efficient digestion. I also wanted to start a healthy habit for my kids by drinking green smoothies.

So approximately every other day I make a "green" smoothie which is basically the same as any other fruit smoothie but I add a bunch of veggies in there. Spinach is a terrific green leafy to add as it is incredibly mild in flavor so its flavor is easily masked. I have added every kind of veggie you can think of in there, turnips, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, jicama, radishes, zucchini, even fennel. Smoothies are a great way to get through my leftover produce. You know, like when a recipe calls for 2 turnips but you have to buy them in a bag of 4. What the heck do you do with the other 2 turnips? Throw 'em in a smoothie of course! Of course you gotta put in plenty of fruit so it still tastes good. I like pineapple and blueberries. Pineapple because it is really sweet and blueberries because it makes a veggie smoothie that looks like mud into one that looks like a blueberry smoothie!

A typical smoothie for Brad, Beya, and I might include the following: 1 1/2 cups juice (any kind, orange, pineapple, etc.), 2 bananas, 1 orange or 1 apple, 2 carrots, 2-3 big handfuls of spinach, about 2 cups chunk frozen fruit of which about 1/2 cup is blueberries, and finally 1 or 2 of the following (whatever I find in my fridge) like a tomato, half a zucchini, 1/4 of a red pepper, 1/2 cucumber. I don't do recipes. I just use whatever I have so you never know what you're gonna get. =)

Comments

  1. I love me a good spinach smoothie in my vitamix! Kaliya eats them with me. Cardon wont touch it :) Kaliya comes running when she hears it turn on and dances around me till she gets her glass!

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  2. Thanks,I have a few ideas of what I'll do with these posts. I'll tell you when I finish.

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