Now, on to some green stuff.
If you would have asked me a year ago to make green smoothies and feed them to my family, I would have laughed and thought, Ew, that's just too much of a nature nut thing.
But just a few days ago, I was ready to give them a try.
What changed?
Well, since we've been eating more real foods and a lot fewer processed foods since the beginning of the year, I've felt great. I've had lots of energy, have hardly gotten sick, and have had fun experimenting with food.
I've come across some very inspiring websites and blogs. One is Unconventional Kitchen, which has a 30-day Love Your Greens Challenge starting May 1. It's free and promises to double your energy, get your glow, and rock your skinny jeans.
I'm ready to rock my skinny jeans, for sure. Even though I've been eating healthier, those winter pounds haven't come off, and I'm not thrilled with them.
So I signed up, and the welcome email had a recipe for a pineapple-grape-banana-spinach-yogurt-lime and water smoothie. I had all those ingredients, so I pulled out the old blender and put them all in. I wasn't so sure about the spinach part, but went ahead and followed the recipe, blending all the ingredients. Lo and behold, we ended up with a big container with an Incredible Hulk hue to it. It was a little bit scary. It was a little bit exciting. I grabbed the camera. Maybe this would turn out worthy of a blog post.
I gingerly poured the smoothies into several cups. Then I had Desert Boy try it first. I was too much of a wimp, too scared to find out what drinking spinach would be like. He took a little taste and smiled. I let out a sigh of relief. Maybe this was doable. Then Desert Girl gave it a try. She liked it too. Then it was my turn. I worked up my nerve and took a sip. It was better than I expected. When my husband came home, he also tried it and liked it. We poured some of the smoothy mixture into popsicle molds and downed the rest. Maybe this would be worth repeating.
I was out of grapes, but had strawberries, so two days later, I repeated the recipe with smaller amounts of everything.
Desert Girl was an eager helper as we blended up the ingredients. It took a long time to get those frozen strawberries blended! We still have to learn the art of blending.
For those of you experienced with green smoothies, what's your favorite recipe?
I don't really have a specific recipe - just throw in what I have. But I will pass along a tip that I've discovered - too much kale is not tasty, nor is too much broccoli. Pomegranate seeds are a bit gritty and carrots can add some sweetness. I don't know what your whole foods has you eating, but plain Greek yogurt is really good. We've tried various milks - almond milk, coconut milk, etc but I think those add more sugar than necessary. I like lemon or lime juice and some kind of berry in all of my combinations. The kids like them and sometimes, that's all Alyshia has for breakfast.
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