Smoothie

Summer is coming!!!  Not only that, I need to consume more fruits and vegetables.  In order to get the proper "daily" allowance or servings of fruits and vegetables, it's almost impossible to consume them in their natural state...well, at least for me.  I know that some of you can feel my pain.  Don't get me wrong, I love fruits and vegetables.  I don't know that there is any that I don't like. But to eat them all and make sure I'm healthy??? Well...So this is where the smoothie comes in.

I am not a professional smoothie maker, but I do stick to this one rule...I always use a 60/40 ratio. 60% fruit and 40% veggies. This way, I never taste the veggies like "kale, brussell sprouts, spinach, cabbage, etc." I make up the other percentage of veggies with my afternoon salad, dinner or whatever.

I shop at my farmers market and living in California, I have a huge variety of fresh produce at my fingertips.  I also shop...don't laugh...at Grocery Outlet.  I love this store!  Yes, I do have to look at things like expiration dates, but I can always find frozen fruit there that may not be in season at the farmers market and it's inexpensive.  I also get my juice cheap there.  I'll write about my love affair with Grocery Outlet in another blog.

In this morning's smoothie I begin with a mini banana, 1 cara cara orange (my fave), 1/2 mini avocado, 1/2 tomato, 1 handful of spinach, 1 handful of kale, 1/2 cup frozen peas, some frozen Honey Dew Melon chucks (these were extra sweet that I got at the farmers market, but I couldn't eat it all..they wouldn't sell me one, so I cubed and froze them), some Acai powder and some red yeast rice  powder (Acai is extremely high in the different omegas and the Red yeast rice powder helps with cholesterol), 1/2 cup of Welches unfiltered pure berry juice (read the ingredients..you don't want a bunch of crap in your juice) and a half a cup of low fat milk.  I forgot to put in my little chunk of fresh ginger, and I'm out of protein powder.

Lucky for me, I have a VitaMix (another future blog subject), which is the same machine that Jamba juice uses.  This machine is so awesome...and as long as I layer the ingredients right, it will blend right up.

Now I'll grant you...This smoothie may not look appealing to you.  It is a thick green color, but the taste is the right amount of sweet and fruit with a slight taste of veggies.  And no, I cannot pick out the kale/spinach taste.  Even my 14 year old niece will drink my smoothies and tells me I'm the best smoothie maker in the world.  Although I know I'm not..as long as she'll drink them, I've done well.

The great thing about smoothies is that it never has to be the same thing every day.  You can mix it up with your favorite fruits and vegetables.  My niece is partial to pineapple and apples.  With apples, I wash the outside but I don't core them..I just cube them than throw them in.  The VitaMix will blend them smooth! If you find that maybe your smoothie isn't sweet enough, I always keep Agave nectar on hand...not only because I make margarita's with it, but it's a natural sweetener that's low on the glycemic index.

I made too much this morning and can't drink it all, so I split it in half and put it in the fridge for tomorrow morning.  That's the only problem I have with the smoothies...I have a hard time figuring out the right amount for one person.

Don't be afraid to have some fun. Add a scoop or two of protein powder so it will be filling and hold you till lunch time.  I use IsoPure Zero Carb protein powder.  This powder has no fat, carbs, fillers, sugars or lactose.  I like the unflavored powder because I can add it to anything...hot or cold!  I've added it to soups and to oatmeal. You could even drink it with water.

I also buy frozen mixed vegetables and will throw a handful of that in to make it easy on me, plus it keeps the smoothie cold.

Have fun with your smoothies.