Smoothies a Start
I’ve started making smoothies.
My Beloved was watching, and I joined in, the movie –> Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead 2.
I wanna say I’m not an extremist. I don’t hold that all those other folks (from eat a burger a day and don’t delay to save the earth eat vegan) are nutty. Seems there should be some reasonable balance though. By reason I mean, think about your health habits. Don’t over indulge and don’t jump off the cliff. Theresa and I have been somewhere between Vegan and Vegetarian for about 4 years now. She’s more Vegan, I’m more vegetarian ( that cheats once in a while. ) more on that some other time.
Any way we were watching the movie and I’ve always wanted to get more salads in my diet. Do it in a way that I don’t have to depend on Theresa to “fix me supper.” I know. I am a traditional/historic, “let the wife cook”. She certainly has a talent for it. Why argue? I do very little food prep. I don’t even really know the vernacular. So I decided to start making smoothies. Yep didn’t even really know the basics about that. Theresa is getting over the frustration of having to explain everything to me. And I really appreciate her patience with me. Especially since I don’t hear well and don’t listen well either. What a pain I am.
My first smoothie was a lettuce (not head of lettuce, the leaf kind, spring mix kind), baby carrots and almond milk in a Bullet blender. Single serving. Yikes. Lots of roughage on the top. Maybe shoulda done it longer but here I was. Had to chew my way through to the liquid. I added a little apple juice to sweeten a bit. I thought about some stevia, but decided to try and stay all natural.
Theresa said I should use Joe’s Nija Blender (link). His sisters gave it to him for his birthday. WOW! What a difference a blender makes. Be careful it’s sharp!
My second attempt was a bit more then 2 servings (seems they are all turning out that way.) Lettuce, baby spinach, a banana, baby carrots with an Almond milk base. Not bad at all. Added some apple juice to sweeten after I tested it. Theresa even said it was pretty good. She had told me we need to keep it washed up so the next person can get to blending. She had cleaned up and showed me her technique in adding a little soap and then running the blender. Cool. I can do. Don’t want to leave a mess. Next time.
My third attempt was a banana spinach carrot smoothie with once again an Almond milk base. Turned out great!! So I cleaned up. Pulled the Ninja blades out and rinsed them off. Decided to run my fingers along the blade flat edge to get the debris off. Wrong!!! Sliced and diced my left hand real good. Don’t ever do that; never!!
Ok my fourth was an Apple (good sized, yellow Granny Smith, core it leave the skin on), spinach, carrots, Almond milk. Great. I had it in addition to my regular oatmeal breakfast. Theresa told me that the smoothie was suppose be a meal replacement. I said I did not sign up for any plan. Just trying to get more veggies and fruit in the diet. I have to think about it though. What is it I am trying to do. Hmmm
OK, so today I have to start using the Kale I bought before it goes bad. I kinda went overboard and bought too much greens. Theresa said let the store manage the stock. Only get enough for a couple of days. OK, so Kale. I thought about it and wondered if I should just put the leaves in or the whole stock. Decided to look it up on the Internet. Question? How to prep Kale for a smoothie? Found the following website.
Not quite what I was looking for. But I did have some interesting information about how Kayl may affect the body which then told me I should probably blog this because the information might be a valuble to somebody. Thyroid info in there. What Kale can do to the digestive system. I’ll leave it at that. Watch the video….
In the end I took a large orange, peeled of course, six stocks of Red Kayl with the stock trimmed up to the first leaf, a cup of Almond milk, and a quarter cup of walnuts. I called it Orange Kale Smoothie. Not bad at all. A little thin. Could have added some spinach to thicken it up. That Almond milk is turning out to be a nice base. The walnuts added a little bit of grit I think. Not a bad deal, but might no like it. I like it. I need to start thinking about the number of calories in each concoction.
So there you have it. The beginning of the smoothie era. I’m getting more veggies into my diet and have a little fun at the same time. No smoothie is the same as a last.
See ya In The Dash —
Rick
