They’re fast. They’re nutritious. We eat them every morning. And sometimes we eat them with lunch or dinner.
Popular with kids as well as parents, smoothies enable you to sneak in all kinds of healthy vegetables and proteins your family members might otherwise turn their nose up at. Make them with totally fresh, raw ingredients and WHAM! You’ve got a real living food on your hands — rich in enzymes, minerals, amino-acids, and other nutrients your body needs.
If you’re new to making smoothies, you may not realize the possible variety available to you. Think of a smoothie as a chance to express your creativity.
To make a good smoothie, you only need a few things:
- Something sweet — This means raw fruits, organic if possible. Bananas, berries, pineapples, peaches, apples, oranges, you name it.
- Added protein — Nut butters, raw eggs from pastured hens, yogurt.
- Healthy liquid — Raw milk, kefir, almond milk, coconut milk, raw cream, mineral rich water, whey. Have fun.
You can also sneak in raw dark green veggies like kale, spinach, or swiss chard and healthy tropical oils to make sure you stay full.
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I do more juicing than smoothies, but mostly because I have a love/hate relationship with my blender. How do you blend up kale into a smoothie? I’d think it wouldn’t really blend very well. Do you have a VitaMix?
Michelle @ What Does Your Body Good?
No, I don’t have a VitaMix (although I envy the people who do!). I’ve got a powerful old all-metal drive Osterizer blender though. It’s an antique as well as a powerhouse. It takes about two to three times as long as a Vitamix would take to blend kale — about a minute. A VitaMix would have it blended in 20 seconds.
I’ve got a juicer, but I don’t use it b/c cleanup’s a hassle and I miss all that fiber!
Great ideas! We love smoothies at our house.
kristin
I have a vita-mix that I found used on Craig’s List. It was practically new (used 5 times in a vacation home) and I got it for cheap. Make sure to check your local Craig’s list for these hidden gems. Vita Mix is a powerful machine–I had a Bosch blender which was fine for milkshakes, but it didn’t blend greens. The vitamix does a superb job of blending greens, plus it is so easy to clean.
Julie — Yes, Craigslist has saved us SO MUCH money! I found that greens blend quite well in a standard blender in a bit of hot water (before you add all the other ingredients). Just add hot water to your kale, spinach, whatever, and whirl around for a minute or so. Then add the rest of your smoothie ingredients like normal.
Wow. Kale in a smoothie. I would have never dreamed. I’m so glad, because our CSA box always has about two bunches more kale than I can think of things to do with! Thanks!
Local Nourishment
Love having a vitamix, we use it everyday! thanks for this blog. we put bluegreen algae on salads for extra protein. kale is awesome too!! much love
Hey thanks for this! i think its not just for breakfast. You can even have it for lunch and dinner. More power to this site!
Heather (dinner group fan)
.-= heather´s last blog post …The Calendar that Saved a Friendship =-.
Hi,
That’s right, heather!! I use to drink smoothies for breakfast and dinner, and sometimes as snacks too. I love them and the ease of improve year health.
Thanks for your info.
Javi
I love smoothies! I always found it difficult to get my veggies because like a lot of Moms back in the day, she didn’t cook them well or maybe too well 🙂 Anyway now I start every day with a smoothie & a pile of veggies. Great Site!
I have found that making green drinks can be easy with a juicer. It’s a bit about what you choose to juice! We have a Samson 9001 6 in 1, that juices everything and easy clean up (run under hot water, some scrub on the cone that filters, and that’s it). Here’s the best combo’s I’ve found (since I don’t have a book):
spinach
apple
kiwi
broculli (yes, I mean the green trees!)
pineapple spears
celery
granny smith apples
Fennel
Carrots
Lemon/lime (to preserve it and give it some tang taste: about 1-2 teaspoons).
You can also add green beans (yes, I mean beans!), ginger to this mix, bananas (blender these), along with Spiralina, Barley Grass (this juicer will do grasses btw), I have yet to do the added protein. Why I do the fruit/veggies combined: I know alot of folks don’t agree to do fruits and veggies combined, but I found that fruit alone was just too sweet, even carrots have been gmo’ed to be super sweet, so I add something to balance the sweet out. Also, by adding fennel and Broc. it helps with digestion and sulfar assists with anyone (like me) with arthritis (my case osteo and Fibromyalgia) so that I can function through the day.
Word of warning about juices: unless you have a “chewer juicer” with an auger screw that pulverises your juices (like Vitamix), most juices won’t last in the fridge longer than a day. Storing them in Mason Jars is better than any plastic, and carrot juice WILL stain everything and anything it touches…Keeping that in mind, having a dedicated carrot juice holder is a good thing.
I find that drinking juices in the morning helps with energy and less nausea factor, if you have thyroid issues, it can really help.
Word on Juicers;
Vitamix is good as a super blender and it does juice, it is also very expensive if you don’t find a good used one. Next is a Norwalk press, which unless you’re rich, it’s good juice, but way too expsenive for most of us (2500 range).
Champions, Samson’s and other Auger juicers, are excellent because they can do a variety of food stuff besides just juicing, and they don’t pasterize your juices. They are mid range price juicers (300-200 dollar range). They are also super easy to clean up, which I didn’t find the case with the centrictical force juicers (Lalanne, Acme, etc). And the auger juicers are QUIET, which is certainly nice compaired to the Lalanne/acme style, that vibrate, have loud motors that grind down.
The cheapest juicers are the cyntrical force juicers at 200-139 or less range. These are the best for fruit juicing alone (and don’t you dare put in the seeds or stems, it ruins the blades!). On an endorsement note: my mother started with an Acme back in 1968. This machine STILL runs today. It is much better than the Lalanne, because the parts are stainless steel and not plastic (except the pouring spout, the plunger parts).
Remember about juicing: if it takes up too much time in prep or cleaning, you won’t juice on a regular basis. Have a good dedicated spot for your juicer, with easy plug in area, plenty of room for all your stuff, again if you don’t, you won’t.
Also note: Juicing is well worth the trouble. For any of us with compromise immune systems, juicing will give you your vitamins and minerals in a way that your body can absorb it.
Some of the earliest books on juicing are the best: Kirshner’s book on Raw Juicing for Vim and Vigor (1947), can give you the solid nutritonal facts for juicing. Also, note: you need to dilute your juicing when you drink it: 50/50 is the best. 50% juice to 50% water (or another liquid) because, you are getting the whole foods, the vitamin load is extremely high, esp with Carrot juice. You don’t want to over do carrot because Vitamin A is stored in your fat cells and can do liver damage. That said, we are talking about quarts of carrot juice a day, not glasses, so don’t worry about drinking carrot juice, just dilute it and you will be fine.
I am not a nutritionist, nor a doctor, but someone who was raised on juice, has used juicers through out my life and have learned so much by juicing!
I have putting spinich in our smoothies and am now worried that we are not absorbing the calcium from the raw milk or yogurt that I sometimes put in with it. I guess when I use spinich, I should make sure we get the dairy benefits another time in the day or just use coconut milk or another alternative? I was excited my son was getting some more greens in this way, but want to make sure we are getting the other good stuff too.
Also, I don’t have a lot of experience with kale, but when I taste it alone it has such a strong taste, I cant imagine it would taste good in a smoothie. I guess I just need to do some more experimenting 🙂
Thanks for all your info!
Is brown rice protein powder ok? I can’t do any milk-based proteins. Thanks
How necessary is the liquid? Is it just a consistency/texture thing, or…? Normally when we do smoothies I just do the fruit/veggies and maybe some yoghurt. Sometimes I do add aloe juice, but very little.
Thanks!