It is day 20 of Vegan Mofo and I am choosing to make something healthy. I read health books and cookbooks for fun, and recently I have come across the concept of "green smoothies". I have always dismissed the idea thinking something like "there is no way drinking blended kale for breakfast would taste good". However, I have seen countless blogs this month where people make different variations of green smoothies and claim that they taste great.
I am also reading a book on raw foods right now and I can accept that I am not eating as many leafy greens as I probably should. So I decided last night before I went to bed that I would wake up and give a green smoothie a try.
The leafy green vegetable that I do eat a lot of anyway is spinach so I decided to start with that. Ideally I would rather make a smoothie with other greens like kale or swiss chard, but I didn't want to take a trip to the store for something new when I had spinach at home.
We even have a guest sniffer this morning! This is our other cat, Will. I am not sure if he counts as Zoey's older brother or her boyfriend/ life partner. They are definitely best friends though and lately he has started sniffing my food creations.
Here's what I did:
Zoey's First Green Smoothie
Ingredients:
1 cup of fresh spinach
1 banana
1/3 cup frozen blueberries
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup light soymilk
Directions:
1. Put it all in your blender and blend!
The recipe makes enough for 2 glasses this size.
Zoey sniffs the final product:
Okay, so I know that I "cheated" by adding some light soymilk so now it isn't a raw food breakfast, but I was worried that things were not going to taste good. But, the funny thing is that this drink was almost too sweet/ creamy so I wish I had left the soymilk out. I guess the joke is on me.
This tasted a lot like a banana blueberry milkshake/ smoothie and I couldn't even taste the spinach. It was light and fluffy and I felt like I was eating a treat.
Next time I will add ground flaxseed for sure and I will leave out the soymilk. I may even try some kale or swiss chard. I do have some collard greens in my fridge right now, would that work or is that too bitter?
7 comments:
I've only ever used kale and spinach in my green smoothies, and I don't think I've ever eaten collard greens. Kale is kind of bitter but you can't taste it in a smoothie, so maybe collard greens would work.
Hello there Will! Another cute food sniffer! :)
Your smoothie looks so colorful and vibrant, what a great day to start the day!
This does sound sooo good and definietly a quick easy way to get some nutrients into your body.
*waves hello to Will*
You can use bitter greens, but use less, or use more fruit with a really strong flavor - bananas or add cacao, carob, etc. I still like smoothies with spinach or lettuce best though...
I like to blend my smoothies for a long time btw, so that there are no flecks of green in them anymore.
DH and I were just talking about green smoothies. He is a bit freaked by the green color and I tried to convince him they are really good. He finally decided he woudl try one. tomorrow is his chance. Good job!
yummy. the cats are really cute.
I'm so clueless that before veganmofo, I thought green smoothies meant that there was wheatgrass in them. So I was thinking gross all this time for no reason.
Oooh, I love green smoothies. One of my favorites is my Fluffy Green Smoothie:
2 cups water
1-2 handsful spinach
2 apples
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Cheers,
Kristen
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