More-brown-than-green Green Smoothie

I promise that this won't become a smoothie blog and that there will be some other types of recipes on here.  It just so happens that posting a smoothie recipe seems much easier to start with since there are only one or two photos involved and I can guesstimate the quantities of ingredients for you.

This morning I woke up with no desire to start cooking (can you see a pattern here) so I decided to make a healthy smoothie instead.  The one I made turned out more brown than green, but it tastes absolutely delicious.

Closeup of the more brown than green color.

Full glass, and one more in the blender.

Yeah, I know it looks pretty weird, but it only looks brown because of the combinations of colors in the ingredients.  If I had added more spinach, it would be green and if I added less it would be pinker.

So, if you're brave enough to want to make this, here's the recipe:

Spinach Sunrise Smoothie

•  2 oz. baby spinach, washed
• 8 oz strawberries, unhulled
• 1 banana
• 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk
• splash of water or a few ice cubes
• 1 T Almond butter
• 2 tsp flax seeds

 I put the spinach in first, then the almond milk and water, followed by the remaining ingredients.   I didn't need the smoothie to be freezing cold since it's the middle of winter, but if you do, you can just add ice cubes instead of water or you can use frozen fruit.  I added water to take away from how thick and sweet the vanilla almond milk tends to be.  I blended everything up on high and once it looked smooth I tasted it.  This one had more fruit and the spinach is milder than the swiss chard that I used for the Strawberry Swiss Chard Smoothie that I made a few days ago, so I didn't even need to add any additional sweetener.

Some things that you could do differently would be:

• Add more greens... after all, they're the most nutrient dense part of the smoothie.
• Change up the milk: You could use unsweetened almond milk to make it healthier, coconut milk, or even dairy milk if you prefer.
• Freeze your fruit in advance to make it colder and thicker.
• Grind your flax seeds in a coffee grinder before putting them in.  I don't have a coffee grinder yet, so I just throw them in whole and hope that the blender blades catch them.  The problem with flax is that it's great for you, but only if freshly ground.  If you buy pre-ground flax seeds they loose the nutrients very quickly and aren't as good.  If you eat them whole, your body can't process the outer shell and so you can't absorb the excellent nutrition that they provide.

So, I hope that you'll enjoy this more-brown-than-green green smoothie and, since I'm pretty new to the green smoothie thing, I hope that you'll share your recipes and experiences, or even requests for recipes with certain ingredients, in the comment section below.

Cheers!

Strawberry Swiss Chard Smoothie Goodness!

I've been reading Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live and am pretty amazed that although I've always eaten lots of vegetables, that my diet still can improve in so many ways.  Also, learning about the nutritional content of different vegetables has been an eye opening experience.  One of the points that Dr. Fuhrman stresses is that of eating LOTS of raw vegetables.  I'm not a huge salad person.  I enjoy a salad as part of a meal or during the summer as my whole meal, but I am picky.  I like a lot of stuff tossed into my salad.  Many times I add cheese, which is a source of saturated fats (bad) and dressing, which contains either evil amounts of fats or evil amounts of sugars.  

When I told my mom about the book, she got excited, started reading it, ordered a blender, and then bought a book that promotes the consumption of green smoothies.  I'd heard of green smoothies before, and even stuck a recipe or two on my Pinterest boards, but had never actually made one.  

I got home today late, exhausted from a long day of driving and doctor visits and shopping.  The last thing I felt like doing was to start cooking, even if the reward would be a plateful of delicious greens.  I took a leap and decided to try out this green smoothie thing and here is the result: a delicious green sweet, slightly grassy/earthy concoction.  See for yourself below.

This is a pretty accurate version of the color.

 

This recipe made a whole blender's worth of smoothie.

So, curious to make one for yourself, yet?  If so, read on.  I adapted the recipe from Green Lemonade's blog, which you can see here.

Swiss Chard and Strawberry Smoothie

Ingredients: 

• 4-5 leaves and stalks of swiss chard
• 3 cups frozen strawberries with tops (I used some that I had previously frozen to prevent from spoiling)
• 3/4 cup - 1 cup vanilla almond milk
• Drizzle of agave nectar

I don't have a special blender, so I put half the leaves in first, then the milk and then half of the strawberries, which I cut in half or quarters first (depending on the original size).  The only reason why I started with half is that it was all that would fit.


I stuck it on the high liquefy setting until it all looked liquid and then added the rest of the leaves and strawberries through the hole in the lid. 


Once it was finished I tasted it and decided it needed to be just a tiny bit sweeter, so I then added a small drizzle of agave nectar.


De-li-cious!


Feel free to change up ingredients according to your taste.  Please let me know if you tried it and what you like to put into your green smoothies in the comments!


Next up, I'll be posting about red velvet and raspberry/chocolate macarons!

A Voice for a Much Loved Room

My kitchen speaks to me in the sounds of sizzling onion and the clacking of the wooden spoon against the edge of the pot.  It speaks to me in the tantalizing aromas of the cooking, and sometimes in the odor of my oil overheating while I frantically chop something to put into it.  The kitchen speaks to me through the coarse feel of a sweet potato's skin as I wash it under the tap and the stinging watering I get in my eyes when I chop the onion that marks the beginning of most of my dishes.  Finally, my kitchen speaks to me and to each person that I share my food with through the presentation of the finished product and the flavor that dances on your tastebuds.

If my kitchen could actually speak in words, it would probably tell you that I neglect it for days on end and then abuse it for a day or two of marathon cooking when I come home to prepare the next batch of meals for work.

Cooking sits at the top of my favorite things.  I've thought of going to culinary school and becoming a chef and then decided that the reasons why I love cooking so much include how relaxing it is for me to craft a meal (especially when I just look at what I have in the fridge and make something up) and the pleasure of sharing my food with the people whom I love. I think those things would be lost if I was working in a restaurant.

My kitchen doesn't get as much love as I'd like it to, since I am a flight attendant and am away for days at a time, but I've been trying to take my meals with me lately, so in this blog I'll try to record my adventures in the kitchen, and sometimes the meals that I eat when away from it.

In case you're wondering, I'm a much happier (and healthier) flight attendant when I eat home cooked meals instead of bad-for-you take away food.

What stories could your kitchen tell if it had a voice?  For most people, the kitchen is the center of the home, the place where everyone congregates.  Does your kitchen bring your family and friends together?  Please share your stories in the comments section.

Cheers!