honeydew melon

Strawberry Melon Spinach Smoothie

Today’s a good day to post another smoothie recipe. This one is mainly Strawberries, but it carries a hint of honeydew melon. The melon is subtle, but noticeable. The spinach, well, it just kind of blends in.

The thing that’s different about this smoothie than most others that I’ve posted is that this one is mainly one fruit – strawberries. I used a handful of fresh berries (what you see on the cutting board) and then finished it off with frozen berries.

Also, I’m using rejuvelac as one of the liquids. There is nothing like being able to create your own probiotic that actually has living yeast in it! If you haven’t made rejuvelac before, you’ll get an idea after viewing my previous post on it.

Recipe:

  • 1 cup homemade Honeydew melon juice
  • 1 cup rejuvelac
  • 16+ fresh strawberries (plus frozen ones to fill the blender)
  • Couple medjool dates to counter the tartness of the berries
  • ½ pound spinach

Place everything but the greens in the blender and get it spun up.

After just a few seconds, the mixture should be liquid enough to add the greens. When you and them, add a handful and press them in with the tapper. You’ll be surprised how the liquid fills in the space around the greens allowing you to shove in ½ pound without affecting the liquid level all that much.

When done, you’ll have a brown mess that looks somewhat like the following:

Notice that I’m using the larger craft for my Vita-mix and I’m using the whole thing. The result is two glasses to share and one quart for my breakfast. If I were to drink the full 64 oz’s, wow, that would be filling! Instead, I’ll drink just enough of the quart until I’m full (usually 2/3rds of it) and then I’ll have what’s left as the first course for lunch.

Smoothies are so easy, I can’t believe everyone doesn’t make them. It’s a great way to get more life-energy from greens into your diet.

If you haven’t made one, this is a great start!

Orange Pineapple Banana and Lettuce

But this one has a twist of Honeydew melon to really round out the flavor. I can’t stress it enough, if you get a chance to make juice for the base of your smoothie, there are a few that work really well:

  • Watermelon
  • Honeydew melon
  • Orange
  • Apple + berry (whatever kind you really like)

Or, if there’s something else that stands out as easy for you, consider it. Juice makes the best base. I look forward to the start of summer every year for the first Honeydew melons to arrive. I know they are a little ‘crunchy green’ having been shipped half way around the world, but when you juice them, you get all the flavor that you can sweeten up a little if need be. It’s pure goodness!

  • 3 oranges
  • 1 banana
  • 1 inch ripe pineapple
  • 1 cup fresh Honeydew melon
  • A few small dates as a sweetener
  • 1 bowl fresh garden lettuce

I simply love the fact that my garden’s provided me with more than enough beautiful crisp green left lettuce all summer. I hope it lasts for a few more months.

Notice that I picked apart each slice of orange to see if it had seeds in it or not. If so, I removed the seed(s). There’s something about orange seeds that I really don’t like to blend. It’s up to you, but I remove them.

I’m sure this blender full made a little more than this quart. But yum.  Give it a try, I’m sure you’ll love it.

Cherry Swiss chard Smoothie with Cacao

It’s been a while since I posted a smoothie recipe, so it looks like today is a great day to share with the world a cherry concoction with one of my favorite base ingredients – Honeydew melon! If there’s one thing that I’ve learned that makes a smoothie really stand out, it’s the liquid base that you use. To me, water just doesn’t cut it.

I know all the purists state that the green smoothie that you make should  be as simple as possible. But if it doesn’t taste fantastic, where are you going to find the motivation to keep making them? I mean, really think about it. If you’re going out of your way to make something that’s generally not cheap, wouldn’t you really want to make it enjoyable?

Well, this one is!

  • About 1 ½ cups fresh pitted cherries
  • 1 banana
  • 1 ½ cups fresh honeydew melon juice
  • 4 little dates
  • About a heaping spoon full raw cacao
  • Small amount Vanilla powder (just part of a teaspoon)
  • One bowl garden fresh Swiss chard

For this year, this recipe is being posted after cherry season has come and gone, but if you were lucky enough to store some away, you’ll still be able to make it while the Honeydew melon are plentiful. Swiss chard can still be found in stores (as it can year round) so that shouldn’t be a problem.

Take note that this quantity will fill the blender!

This one always turns out brown from the mixture of green and red. And, if you look close, you’ll be able to see that I didn’t run this one as long as I normally do – there are little pieces of cherry still visible. Yum. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Cherry Chocolate Swiss chard Smoothie

Well, it’s been a little while since I’ve had the opportunity to share on the blog here. The road has taken many-a-turns, but I’ve barely been able to sit down and relax for a couple weeks now. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Fortunately, I’ve been able to shrug off the stress. Could it be that the green smoothies are helping? Maybe it’s the fresh garden greens. But in any case, as long as I’m still feeling good, it doesn’t matter what’s the source of the goodness really is. Sometimes I like to think that it’s the time spent weeding and watering the garden. Other times, it’s just breathing the fresh air on the back deck while listening to the birds singing in the trees.

Sometimes, you can’t help but wonder if it’s the anandamide in the cacao that I’ve added to this smoothie!

Melon juice makes this one!

So here we go.

  • Almost 2 cups Honeydew melon juice
  • About 2 cups pitted cherries
  • One banana
  • Four little dates
  • A spoon full cacao
  • About ¼ teaspoon vanilla powder
  • Bunch of garden fresh Swiss chard

Add everything into the blender starting with the wettest stuff first.

Looks like half fruit

Keep the speed fairly low until you get the mixture to start turning. After that, flip it on hit and count to about 60.

The creamy result

The end result is amazingly creamy with a full cherry BANG! It’s like a cherry tootsie pop. The Honey drew draws out the favor of the fresh cherries to really make them stand out.

This recipe is a total keeper for me. It’s too bad that I don’t have a larger store of cherries, for I’d be making this one way more often. Yet, then again, if I simply made this one over and over again, I’d miss out on all the other great fruit that comes out midsummer!

Planted some more lettuce, spinach and beets with the intention of making those my late fall smoothie greens. Hope they come up in this heat.

Enjoy.