Fruity ginger green smoothie

Fruity ginger green smoothie

Each time I post a smoothie recipe I feel the need to reassure everyone that I am not a hard core green smoothie person. Yes, this smoothie looks thick and lush green. But no, I’m not really into kale (even though I probably *should* be) and I do.not.like beetroot in drinks. No thanks!

But I do enjoy the buzz that green smoothies give the body and I am becoming more and more in tune with when my body needs one and how it will help. So that’s good. This is a beauty if you are a newbie to green smoothies because it is just SO drinkable. It has 3 pieces of fruit so I guess that helps.

1 cup baby spinach leaves

1 ripe pear

1 green apple

1 peeled orange

1-2cm knob fresh ginger, peeled

1 handful fresh mint leaves

1 cup water

1/2 cup ice

Blend away. I tend to add the water in later because our blender works better with less liquid to purify the ingredients. But this will depend on what sort of machine you  have.

Refreshing and zingy and perfectly drinkable! Enjoy!

Green Iron booster smoothie

Green Iron Booster smoothie

This is a variation of an Iron smoothie a friend posted on Facebook recently. The pineapple adds a sweetness to this. You could also throw in a fresh date if you need more too. But I love pineapple and mint as a combination and this smoothie, with the zingy lemon and mellow spinach leaves is awesome. I was feeling very flat this afternoon and decided to make this and see if it would help. Guess what? It did!

Throw out the chocolate and pick up the green smoothie. Yes. Will have to listen to myself more often 😉 (Not that I really eat chocolate anymore but you get the gist…).

1 cup spinach

1/2 lemon

1 green apple

1/2 cup pineapple

handful fresh mint leaves

1 T sesame seeds

1 cup water

handful ice

Blend away.

It is rare that I enjoy smoothies. Especially green ones. I only post ones that I REALLY like and this is one of them 🙂

Fruity cucumber smoothie

Today we were really down to the bottom of our fridge supplies before the shopping this afternoon.
I managed to find:

1/2 cup chopped pineapple

1/2 cup frozen watermelon pieces

3/4 cup strawberries

1/2 cup broccoli

1 small cucumber

1/2 cup coconut water

What else do you need! This smoothie did NOT look pretty but tasted GREAT and gave me the little kick I needed 🙂 Enjoy!

Nutty choc-ana smoothie

Nutty choc-ana smoothie

I was in a mood. Thus, lacking in energy, enthusiasm and any interest in breakfast (or, in fact, the day ahead) I decided to try a mood-fixer that is something along the lines of comfort and a ‘naughty’ treat in a bowl. That will help. Yes!

Lucky for me there really isn’t anything naughty about this. And it only took a few minutes – AND it fixed my conundrum! (Love that word).

Here it is.

1 handful of hazelnuts

2 bananas

1 dessert spoon raw cacao

1 dessert spoon protein powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup ice

1 cup rice milk (or non dairy milk)

Whizz the hazelnuts in the blender. When fine, add 2 bananas and cacao to form a puree. Add remaining ingredients and blend.

Happiness in a glass for a grumpy, tired morning! 🙂

Mint choc green smoothie

Mint choc green smoothie

Happy St Patricks Day all. In honour of the Irish, I’m blogging a second post today that’s a green one.

This is one of the absolute best green smoothies I’ve had. It feels extravagant and dessert-ish but is fresh and healthy. It helps that I adore mint chocolate (and I know not everyone likes mint!). So for those of you out there who are mint freaks like me, this one is for you. And for what it’s worth, our 5 year old demolished this smoothie! Go spinach, go!

2 bananas (frozen if you have them)

3 cups baby spinach

1 handful fresh mint

2 medjool pitted dates

1 capful of peppermint essence

1 capful vanilla extract

2 cups almond/soy/rice milk

1/2 cup ice
Only you will know if you have a machine that will blend dates well enough for a smoothie. If not, leave them out. They add extra sweetness but are not critical, especially if your bananas are very ripe.

Blend everything except milk and ice until a gorgeous green puree.

Then add the ice and milk and blend some more. Add a sprinkling of cacao nibs on top before serving, and a fresh mint leaf. Enjoy!

Thanks to Yummy Mummy for the inspiration.

Blackberry protein smoothie

Blackberries are my new latest kick. Our local(ish) Foodland sells Sunnyside berries by the kilo (frozen) bag. Normally we get raspberries (for me) and blueberries (for the 3 males in the house!). Funny that. Last time I ordered blackberries and oh my, how good are they! We used to live in “berry country” and nothing beats fresh blackberries from Alpine Victoria. But hey, I’m happy to be back in blackberry land at all to be honest. I’ll have to make the jam as a blackberry jam at some point. The colour is divine!

Anyhow, I digress.

This is such a simple delicious smoothie.

1 banana

1 cup blackberries

1 cup bok choy

1 T protein powder

1 T soy yoghurt (leave it out if you don’t have it, I was just using the end of a container)

1 cup almond milk

And…blend away. De-lish! What a happy way to start a day.

(NB If your blackberries are not frozen, add ice to cool the smoothie down).

A month of green smoothies

I found a fantastic post today via pinterest. This is from All Things Good – go have a look if you are into green smoothies!

It is just a way to organise your smoothies to take the morning stress of preparation out of the equation (if it is a stress). It is  also a way not to have a bunch of kale go feral in your fridge waiting for smoothies 🙂
I’m going to do this. Though I think mixing it up with raspberries or lemon/mint etc would be good too so they are not the same everyday.

Hope this helps.

Purple lunch smoothie

Another “What do I do for lunch?” day. This is lunch:

Apart from the divine colour 🙂 this really tastes delicious. And it doesn’t even contain blueberries for the purple colour!

2 handfuls of kale                                                                                                                                          

2 handfuls of broccoli florets

1 cup left over fruit salad (use WHATEVER. I had grapes, watermelon and rockmelon)

2 T crushed pineapple (again, use fresh, or nothing at all if that’s where your fridge is at)

1/2 cup of frozen raspberries

1/2 cup plain soy yoghurt (see note below)

2 handfuls pepitas

2 T protein powder

1/2 cup oat milk (or almond)

Blend with some ice and enjoy the beauty of nutrition without having to cook!

* A note on soy yoghurt. Yoghurt is not an ideal product when vegan. Soy yoghurt is obviously vegan friendly but it comes with other pitfalls. We use this one.

As you can see it has sugar in it which is the less-than-ideal. But on the upside it is Non-GMO (There’s no way we would buy a GM soy product!) and there are no artificial colours (another big problem with yoghurts!).

This company also make fruit flavours which is what we give the kids and they are artificial colour-free. They are the only company we have found that makes soy yoghurt without colours so yay for them! There is a lot of conversation about how good soy is for people anyhow. I am comfortable with it in moderation as long as it is Non GMO and artificial colour free.

Pineapple green smoothie

I have to admit, I am still in the “getting used to it” box when it comes to green smoothies. But this one makes me feel like I’m sitting on a tropical island with my feet up instead of the reality of chasing two young kids on limited energy. It’s like a little holiday in a glass 🙂

I’ll try to add some quantities – though I’m not great at this because it changes every time I cook. Just alter it to taste. But here’s a start

1 tin pineapple (fresh is good if you have it, although slightly “bit-tier” in texture)

300 ml coconut cream

2 good handfuls of baby spinach

2 good handfuls of ice

2 tblspns of protein powder (I used hemp)

1 cup of pineapple juice

If you have fresh ginger, that would be stunning in this as well.

I was going to share it with my kids but accidentally drank it all. Will have to make them another one!