Everyone knows the importance of incorporating fruits and
vegetables into the daily diet; balancing the right amounts of fruits,
vegetables, protein and grains- has been debated for decades, and I am sure
will continue to be debated. I am not going to pretend to be a food scientist,
just a food lover, and an enthusiast for healthy food that tastes good! But my
personal belief is: food. is. a. science. And whatever your health goals are,
tweeking that science can do wonders!!
I have been reading a lot about green smoothies, and have
been experimenting with them for about 2 months. Poor Frank has had to try all
sorts of crazy concoctions. This whole process has also made me want a juicer
reeeeeal bad. I think the next time I get some birthday money I might breakdown
and buy a sweet juicer. But until then I have been doing it the old fashion
ways, so to speak, using my blender, and occasionally my little food processor
[to get a finer texture for the more… coarse (if that’s the right word) veggies?].
So I am going to share my personal recipe that I have been
tweeking… simple and sweet (literally). Initially I was all about adding
EVERYTHING, kale, spinach, tofu, carrots, green apple, banana etc. But Frank
made a keen observation… less is more. The more I added to my smoothies, trying
to increase the nutritional value, the fewer flavors they had. I know that
might sound counter intuitive but they just ended up tasting blahh. Since then
I have been dialing back, and trying to keep the number of ingredients to the
minimal.
SO, with all of that, the recipe that I finally mastered, is as follows:
Directions:
- I typically add the spinach, coconut water and banana and let them blend for a solid 1-2 min to get the spinach all chopped up. No one likes large pieces of spinach floating around in their smoothies.
- Next I add the peanut butter and ice. The amount of ice added is completely up to the individual, I typically add anywhere from 1/2-1 cup crushed ice.
- Note the more ice you add the more diluted the taste will be
- If you'd like to skip adding the ice, use a frozen banana instead
- Once all the ingredients are added blend away for an additional 1-2min, until the desired texture is achieved!
NOTE: Another common ingredient I add is 1/8 - 1/4 avocado to make it more creamy and get some of those unsaturated fats!!
- Avocados also adds fiber, potassium, and vitamins C,K,
folate, and B6. BUT....Half an avocado has 160 calories, 15 grams of
heart-healthy unsaturated fat, and only 2 grams saturated fat. One globe
contains more than one-third daily value of vitamin C, and more than
half the day’s requirements of vitamin K.
I will also share my one struggle with any smoothie, green or
not… and that is the struggle of SUGAR!! Trying to keep the sugar down is
really hard, especially when you’re using fruits for flavor. After doing some
reading I have really cut back on adding sugar to our breakfast/green
smoothies. Initially, when I first started making breakfast smoothies I added
honey for flavor. As my smoothie blending skills advanced, I graduated to a
more “clean” sugar, if you will, Agave. Now I have moved (or as frequently as I
can) to just using the sugars in the fruits to flavor the smoothies.
Unfortunately there is still a lot of sugar that adds up even when you’re just
using fruits. This is a balance I am still trying to master, but even with the
higher content of unprocessed sugar,
I definitely am an advocate of green smoothies!
Through my research I found this awesome Q/A from some green smoothie experts, and I am going to pass it on to you!! (Source Greenthickies.com)
Best
vegetables for green smoothies
The best vegetables for green
smoothies are dark leafy greens as these are the vegetables we struggle to eat
the most of and they are the best for us. You can put other vegetables in
the blender too but ensure you have enough creamy fruit to balance out the
fibrous textures.
Best
greens for green smoothies/ green smoothie greens/ what are the best greens for
green smoothies
Spinach, lettuce, parsley, kale,
chard, basil, cilantro, bok choy, celery, and cucumber are all great in green
smoothies. The darker the leaf the better it is for you. You can
also add beet tops, celery leaves and strawberry leaves in to your green
smoothie. If you are looking for a mild green, the best green to start
with is spinach as you can easily hide the taste with sweet fruit. You
can include herbs to make the green smoothie taste very fresh. I personally love
herbs in my green smoothies.
Best fruit for green smoothie
The best fruit for green smoothies
are fruit with more soluble fibre as it blends more easily and makes the
smoothie creamier, sweeter and hides the taste of the greens more. The
best fruit to use are banana and mango as these are the sweetest and will make
your smoothie creamy. You can combine either mango or banana with any
different types of fruits such as peaches, pineapples, strawberries or other
berries, pears, kiwi, oranges, papaya, grapes etc. The worst fruit to
blend on it’s own is an apple as it has a high amount of insoluble fiber so it
doesn’t blend very easily or mask bitter tastes.
Can you use frozen spinach in a green smoothie/ Green smoothies frozen
spinach?
I have been adding frozen spinach to my green smoothies and green thickies
for years and know of other people who have done it a lot longer. However
on many frozen vegetables there is a warning telling you not to eat them
raw. This is because they haven’t followed the same safety guidelines as
they do for frozen fruit as they expect people to cook their greens and eat
their fruit raw. Once the greens are cooked they are much safer to
use. Some people reason that if you consume your greens raw, the benefits
they provide for your body (and ability of your body to fight off infections)
outweighs the risks of eating raw frozen greens.
Can I add protein to my green smoothie?
Yes, you can add whatever you like to your smoothie. You can add protein
powder (see above for my views on this) or you can add other types of food that
contain more protein such as nuts, seeds, quinoa, grains such as oats, sprouted
seeds or beans, tofu, or other dairy free forms of protein. Bear in mind
that greens contain a high level of protein per gram, you just need to eat more
of it to get the same amount of protein. I prefer to get my protein as
part of a whole food as that is the way it is designed to be consumed. I
prefer not to separate my foods. So I add nuts and seeds to my smoothies
to turn them into a complete meal. I also add oats to get enough carbs to fill
me up until my next meal.
Midnight Orange Recipe
