Posts Tagged "green smoothie"

I am always recommending that people consume 2 bunches of leafy greens (about 2 lbs.) a day and the most common responses I receive are, “Why are greens so important?”Followed by, “How do I prepare them?” I decided to prepare a list of ideas and recipes for you to get you started. Once you get the hang of it I am sure you’ll be creating awesome recipes yourself.

If you don’t know the importance of eating greens I recommend the book Green for Life . I just watched Greens Can Save Your Life and it has so much valuable information. It’s incredibly important to vary your greens. Here is a list of common leafy greens that you can use in the following recipes. The cool thing about adding two bunches of leafy greens to your diet is that it gradually squeezes out the “junk” that we shouldn’t be eating. Instead of just eliminating foods and wondering what to eat I like to start by ADDING to your current diet and then after fitting in your quota of greens see how much room is left for the other “stuff”.

Juices/Liquid

• Wheatgrass Orange Juice
• Green Lemonade or a fast version I use is: 2 T lemon juice, 1 packet of stevia, 2 T of juiced greens & 8 oz water.
• Check out Mehgan chugging down this green drink version with TONS of Vitamineral Green. WOW!
• Kale & jicama juice: juice 1 bunch kale w/ 1 jicama (peeled) This tastes much like an unripe banana. Don’t ask how, but it does!
• Green Juice: 1 bunch spinach, 1 head celery, and 1 cucumber ( this is a common juice prepared at Tree of Life)
• RawModel’s Spicy Green MSM Tonic

Smoothies

• Chocolate green smoothie ( kale, bananas, ice or water, cacao or carob powder blended in a Vita- Mix)
• Here is a video of one of our first green smoothies

Savory Green Energy Soups (Benefits)

• Ann Wigmore’s Energy Soup

Salads

• Alexis’s Massaged Green Salad ( mash it together with your hands)

  1/2 (or more) bunch kale chopped
  1 ripe mango chopped
  1/2 ripe avo chopped
  1 small, ripe lemon juiced
  1 jalapeno diced
  1 green onion chopped

• Check out this video w/ my kids preparing a Massaged Greens Salad
• Prepare Zucchini Hummus ( minus lemon, cumin, paprika & added red bell pepper, & cayenne pepper ) and massage it into a green of your choice. I like spinach myself.
• Courtney’s Spirulina Salad

Snacks

• Shake a bag of lettuce with a squeeze of lemon or lime in a bag and eat them fresh like chips.
• Kale Chips

Dessert

• Leija’s Chocolate Pudding

If you have a favorite green recipe, don’t hesitate to share it in the comments below!

Can you believe how much spinach is in this thing? I did add more peaches and if I had another banana I would have added that too. My son did like it less sweet though.

I have noticed my kids are more receptive to green smoothies if they make it. They used to cringe at the sight of a green smoothie, but now that we are making them daily, they don’t even think about it. I know color plays a huge role in how we perceive something to taste. It seems to work best that all our smmothies are green right now, because I am sure if I made a pink smoothie they would think it tasted better. Maybe I should do a blindfolded experiment and do a taste test… sounds fun. 🙂

Here is an update on my “Peas on Earth” raw food challenge. My goal was not to eat 100% raw, but rather to take in the proper amount of hydration (water) and 2 bunches of greens. I think when I went raw originally I was overwhelmed with the changes that I missed the core of our dietary intake.My appetite and emotions are much more balanced on the greens. I am learning to break emotional eating patterns and eat for nourishment.

I also go into the other “green stuff” aka: MONEY! I have a few thoughts on how we obtain it, how we spend it, and the state of our economy.

OK, I wanted to lay low on the fruit, but it seems the most appealing way to get my kids to love the greens. This was a simple smoothie recipe that we normally made, with a young thai coconut, banana and strawberries, but this time we added one bunch of spinach. IT WORKED! I feel much more optimistic about my kids completing the challenge now. WHEW!