Orange Mango Strawberry Parsley Smoothie

Add another worthwhile smoothie to the collection. This one gets its flavor from the strawberries, sweetness from the dates and creaminess from the mango. Parsley comes along to sweeten the breath and sharpen the eye-sight!

It’s the middle of November and I’m now getting down to the last of the greens from the garden. Event thought we’ve had a frost and more than half the leaves have fallen off the trees, the parsley’s strong enough to endure. What a great plant. Even though I’ve still got Collard Greens and kale, the parsley still tastes fresh and healthy! The Collard Greens turned peppery and that it’s too really not something I can stomach. The kale, well, no longer tastes all that flavorful, it’s kind of old.

So, using what’s offered, parsley’s on the menu!

Recipe:

  • 2 oranges
  • 1 ripe mango
  • 10 frozen strawberries
  • 3 medjool dates
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 fresh bunch parsley

The work comes pealing and removing the seeds. I like to buy oranges that have seeds for the fruit tastes better. Add the fruit to the blender and liquefy.

Once it’s liquid, press in the parsley.

Plan on having enough for breakfast and half a lunch! This combination yields about 6 cups.

I love these small mouth quart jars! This one is an old honey jar that I’ve been recycling for months now. As long as you promptly wash it out before the residue dries, the lid will not corrode very fast. When the lids ware out, it turns out that the jar doesn’t hold my interest much longer. Fortunately, I can still find great raw honey in quart jars so my source doesn’t run dry.

Have a great day!

Strawberry Pear Apple Parsley Smoothie

What’s in a name? How about, surprise goodness. Or smoothie by happenstance. Maybe, I can’t believe this mixes together so nicely.  lol!

I have to say that I was a bit surprised by this combination. The first one I tried happened because I was hutting around for fruit and, well, all the exotic stuff was gone and all I had left where pieces that I was tied of eating. I had a beat-up pear, an older kind of soft apple but that wasn’t enough. I dug around in the freezer and found some strawberries and thought what the heck.

That adventurous happenstance turned out nice enough to want to share with the rest of the world. And, well, here it is!

  • 1 pear
  • 1 apple
  • 10 frozen (or fresh) Strawberries
  • 2 Medjool dates
  • ¾ cup coconut milk
  • ¾ cup rejuvelac
  • 1 bunch fresh garden picked parsley

Add everything but the greens to you high speed blender. Grind to a liquid. That might take about 10 seconds.

Next, add your greens. Remember, green smoothies are all about getting your greens in a way that is raw and enjoyable. As you can see, I try to always use a ‘bunch’ of parsley. The stores are pretty good about selling bunches in the size that works perfect in a smoothie.

Now blend again. This time, after the greens are chopped, you’ll want to spin the blender on high for about a minute. The longer you go, the smoother the smoothie. At the same time, the longer you go the warmer it gets. Because we’re using frozen strawberries, you shouldn’t notice any heating in that 60 seconds.

In the end, depending on the size of the fruit that you use, you’ll get 4 to 5 cups.

Even if you have an aversion to parsley, you might find this one a little more tolerable. If you  like parsley, you’ll probably really enjoy this one. If you love parsley (like me!) you’ll want to make this smoothie a number of days in a row!

Remember, if you get to experimenting with green smoothies, it always helps to keep the Green Smoothie Basics in mind. They taste best when balancing sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Once the balance if found, it then a matter of accentuating the flavor!

Good day!

Fresh Orange Strawberry Parsley Smoothie

As many of you know, I love parsley! It’s a power packed green with a fresh aftertaste. Unfortunately, it can be overpowering when added to a smoothie. Yet, every once in a while there’s a combination that comes together that builds upon the strength of parsley and turns it into a magical delight!

Ok, well, maybe not magical, but totally doable.

In this case, the Orange and Strawberries that work together to give this smoothie an intoxicatingly fresh fruity flavor. I can’t remember mixing orange, strawberries and parsley before but I’m glad I found this combination.

If you’re looking to find a way to include more parsley in your diet, it’s time to pick up a frozen bag of strawberries and some fresh navel oranges.

 Recipe

  • 10 frozen ripe Straberries
  • 1 ripe juicy orange
  • ½ mire lemon – juice
  • 3 (or 4) little Halawy dates (or your favorite dates)
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 bunch washed and shaken parsley

Optional:

  • 2 Tbs Fresh ground flax seed
  • 1 probiotic

The mixing process is pretty straight forward. Pour the coconut milk into the blender first, add the strawberries, dates, lemon juice, pealed orange (no seeds) and blend.

At this point, it should look and feel like Strawberry sorbet! If you’re making desert, you might want to stop right here. If you’re making breakfast, the next step is to add the parsley. Because it’s so cool and thick you can blend it for a bit longer than 60 seconds. The longer you blend it, the smoother it gets.

If you’re looking to add some warmth to it, consider adding some fresh ground flax seed. As you can see in the ingredients picture above, I’ve already ground up a little over a tablespoon worth of golden flax. Oranges tend to cool me down and the flax seed works really well to turn that around. 

In the end, you’ve got a decent breakfast

Now that I’ve had this smoothie a couple times, I’ve noticed that the flax seed tends to give it a grainy feel and taste. But that is subtle next to the powerful parsley, orange, strawberry combination.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Greens are magical – experience the magic.

Parsley Pear Banana Smoothie

I love parsley! When I was a teenager, I would buy it by the bunch and eat it like eating a bouquet of flowers. People that observed this behavior called it ‘grazing’. Looking back, I now think of it as a little weird, but that doesn’t change the fact that I love parsley!

I’ve been looking for nearly two years now for a combination of ingredients that would significantly mask the taste of parsley so that my wife, who really doesn’t care for anything be the taste, would not complain about a parsley smoothie. Normally, all she has to be is in the same room as a parsley smoothie and her spirit gets all worked up. She absolutely detests parsley smoothies!

Well, as it turns out, for the last three days she’s had parsley smoothies without knowing it. And, better yet, each day I asked her what she thought of the days’ smoothie and she’s said “Ok” and “good”, but still complains that it’s too thick (parsley tends to congeal when it gets broken down, thus it’s jello like if you don’t thin it out.)

So, I’m going to have to say that this parsley smoothie passes the Lori test – which is a pretty high bar to get over!

Parsley, Pear, Banana + smoothie

Recipe:

  • 2 Bananas
  • 2 Pears
  • ½ Mires Lemon
  • 2 Medjool Dates
  • 1 cup Coconut milk with Vanilla flavorings
  • ½ cup Dole Pina Colada juice
  • 1 Tbs ground golden flax
  • 1 probiotic

And, of course:

  • 1 full bunch well washed parsley

If you haven’t noticed, one of the key principles of the green smoothies that I make is that there needs to be an incredible base of liquid to really bring out the flavors in the smoothie. In this case, it really is a must have to include the Dole Pina Colada mix! Without this, it just wouldn’t be the same. 

Funny thing about this juice was that a friend came over on the weekend and had a couple pina coladas but left leaving half a container of mix. Not wanting it to go to waste, I figured I’d add it to a smoothie or two. Well, I’m glad that I did for this smoothie would not be the same without it.

Back to the preparation process. Throw everything together and blend.  J 

Well, actually not everything. Add Juice first, throw in bananas, slice pears adding everything but stem and seeds. Pit the dates and add. Squeeze the lemon making an effort to not allow the seeds in (adds bitter taste). And start the blender for a few seconds to break up the bigger pieces. Now grind the flax seed in your old coffee grinder until fine (and standing) add to smoothie. Add probitic and then cram in the parsley.

Blend again and give it 60+ seconds on high. When you feel the side of the blender and you can sense just a little heat, stop!

It’s at this point that you taste it. Is it sweet enough? Peary enough? Creamy enough? The taste that should stand out is the Pina Colada mix and pear granules (those little specs of pear that don’t grind up).

I’ve got one more bunch of parsley, two pears and a couple bananas so I’m sure this will be on the menu for tomorrow. After that, back to mangos! Got a collection of those for under a buck yesterday and one’s almost ripe.

See you next time!

Tropical Grapes with Parsley

It’s an emerald infusion of topical goodness, yet, hold the apple. The flavor combination of this smoothie has held up all week. I guess, when I find something that I like, I can’t help but keep it going as long as I can. This smoothie has now been the mainstay for two pineapples and about 10 lbs of grapes! It’s amazing how fast good fruit disappears.

A couple weeks ago, I got another great deal on grapes at Costco. At the same time, I picked up bananas, pineapple; enough so I wouldn’t have to think about it for a while. The greens I left on the shelf for the fall crop is still producing in the garden. I don’t expect it to last more than a couple more days, but it’s been a fantastic run (part of May, all of June, July, August, September and now nearly a full month of October!). Five months of greens in the Seattle area up at 500 feet is pretty amazing. … can’t wait for next spring to start over again!

I tried this smoothie with Lettuce, Beet Greens, Swiss chard and Collards. The Grapes carried the day with each one of them. Here’s what I started with:

Recipe:

  • 1 inch pineapple peeled and cored.
  • 1 ½ cups seedless rich colored grapes
  • 1 banana
  • 5 cubes coconut milk (Or 1 cup coconut milk from the store)
  • 1 bowl greens, in this case parsley
  • Optional: ORMUS supergreens (for light chlorophyll lettuce days)
  • 1 probiotic

Here, the picture shows the fresh young Thai coconut milk ice cubes. I didn’t have the ice cubes every day, so I used coconut milk from Whole Foods. Throwing all the fruit into the blender, you get this:

If you haven’t noticed, I find that starting the blend with just the fruit helps speed up the process. It also gives me a good feeling for the amount that it will make with it’s done. Thus, if I need to add an apple or banana, I can. And, as you can see in this picture, the apple never made it into this smoothie.

In the end, if you make enough it you’ll have breakfast and part of lunch.

Get out and get some grapes. You’ll love them blended with your favorite greens. It’s all about getting the alkalizing green in and enjoying it in the process.

Drink up!