So my new thing is trying to eat more veggies. I'm a plain salad sort of gal, just a little lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli and croutons. Yep, pretty plain. Don't even do dressing, well, once in a while a little ranch, but pretty much a plain Jane when it comes to variety in eating, cooking or non-cooking as the case may be. In reality, the only other veggies I get is when we go out to eat and I'll venture out and get a fresh grilled mix...so when I say I need to increase my veggie intake, I truly need to increase my veggie intake.
So when my friend Tom Russell was over for a friendly studio visit last week our talk turned to his drinking green smoothies...I replied that I didn't care much for greens and couldn't see "going green" as I'm a fruit smoothie sorta gal. When Tom shared that I could mix the two, fruit AND greens, it perked my interest!
So Tom & I went to Krogers. Seriously. Right then and there. We hopped in his car and away we went. I'm a very visual learner and I probably wouldn't have tried some of this if he hadn't of held my hand - well, actually instead of holding my hand he came back to my kitchen and made me one to try! Wow, I can drink veggies!
There's not a "set" recipe, but here's what I put in my Vita Mix this morning:
(1) Canned pineapple in it's own juice (never heavy juice - you defeat the "healthy" goal). Now for the record, this wasn't in Tom's version, he uses spring water for the base, but I've always liked this for my fruit smoothies so we went with it.
(2) Veggies - we added spinach, broccoli and shredded carrots, limiting the veggies for my "first taste" since I'm not big into greens and Tom didn't want a strong flavor to scare me away. Tom, you will be happy to know that in a week's time I've "grown up" and this morning added kale, bean sprouts, and cucumbers. The truth is, you can add anything you want....
(3) fruit - in my Vita Mix today, in addition to the canned pineapple, is half a granny smith apple (my fav variety), a banana, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries and a few frozen grapes. I like using a mix of fresh and frozen fruit - the frozen gives my smoothie a nice cool texture. Since I buy and eat a lot of fruit, more times than not, it will sometimes get over ripe. That's when I pop it in freezer bags for future smoothies. Bananas freeze well. Tom shared his secret of freezing - wrap in parchment paper and they don't stick to each other!
(4) a little protein powder, just because ... figured it can't hurt (grin)
Now normally I would slowly add the items as I increased the variable speed on the Vita Mix...but I didn't think that would photograph as pretty (grin)...oh and speaking of which, sorry the photos are a tad blurry - I used the iPhone and it's a cloudy overcast day in my kitchen...(and I don't have a magic camera like Tom).
Ta da! A wonderful concoction chalked full of good stuff! Indeed a breakfast for champions!
And for the record, yep, it makes several servings - but it refrigerates well. I can either have another one later in the day or skip the prep tomorrow. And, if you have a Vita Mix, the clean up is easy! Just rinse out, fill half way with hot water, add a little dish washing soap and turn on high - clean as a whistle and you have nice sudsy water if you have more dishes to wash...
Cheers! I'm off to the quilting studio now - ready for a fun filled day!
2 comments:
Good for Tom getting you to try green smoothies. I've been hooked on them myself for a few years now and really enjoy them for breakfast or anytime as far as that goes but mainly in the morning works for me.
Truly haven't heard of this, but I've been on a "whole foods" kick & this would be right up that alley! Thanks for sharing...
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