strawberries

Strawberry Pineapple Banana Lettuce Smoothie

Pineapple and lettuce is such a great combination. For some reason, they complement each other very well. Then, when you add some additional flavor – like fresh strawberries, you get a meal and a happy plate both at the same time.

I love it when I can find really good ways to eat lots of lettuce. Consuming it in a salad takes way too much time. There are so many things to do and so little time outside of work to get it done. Thus this smoothie!

Recipe:

  • 1 inch pineapple peeled and cored.
  • 3 medjool dates
  • 1 banana
  • 1 bowl strawberries (probably 3+ cups)
  • 1 cup rejuvelac
  • ½ cup juice (orange pineapple mango is this one)
  • 1 large bowl lettuce

Start out by blending all the fruit to liquefy.

Then add the lettuce.

When you pack in all that lettuce, you’ll be amazed that it all fits. Even though it’s a huge bowl, it doesn’t really take up much space. It might have taken 1 cup (wet measure) when I added it. Once it’s in, blend for an additional 60+ seconds until everything it broken down well.

As you can see, it makes about 8 cups. You’ll want to find someone to share this one with or stretch it into a breakfast and lunch.

One of the nice things about using rejuvelac is that the living culture will come alive as it sits for a little while. If you want to grow some B vitamins, let the second half (lunch) rest a room temperature until it’s time to consume it. I haven’t let it sit any longer than that, but I would expect that it would get tangy if left much longer. Maybe one day I’ll try it and see! 

Life is an adventure, even if you do the same things every day, the subtleties of each moment can be enjoyed with new enthusiasm!

Spinach Strawberry Mango Smoothie

It’s the perfect time of year for this smoothie. Mangos are still available, the sun is helping the strawberries get sweet and the spinach is fresh and tender. The amount of strawberries really makes this smoothie shine. The pile might not look like a lot, but it’s probably more than four cups. Yet, because they tend towards the tart side, dates are pretty much in order here.

If you’ve got the strawberries, this one’s worth placing in the morning rotation.

Recipe:

  • 1 large mango
  • 4 large medjool dates
  • 4 cups (or so) fresh garden strawberries (or the next best thing)
  • ½ lb fresh young baby spinach
  • 1 ½ cup rejuvelac

There really isn’t anything special about this combination. Just place all the fruit in the blender and liquefy.

After a couple seconds, it won’t have any lumps to get in the way of adding the greens. Do so and blend until creamy (that should be about 60 seconds on high). Makes around 7 cups smoothie.

The baby spinach is so mild that it doesn’t stomp on the essence of strawberry like a lot of other greens do. The mango works like a ripe banana making it all come out creamy.

This one is easy, easy, easy! And, best of all, everyone will thoroughly enjoy it.

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!

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.

Strawberry Mango Swiss Chard smoothie

Now that winter is upon us (me that is), I don’t feel bad about using frozen fruits in my smoothies! Normally, I advocate using fresh fruits rather than frozen for the molecular structure of the fruit has not been altered by low temperatures. But when it gets cold outside, I like to bring back the feeling of warm season fruit in a way that warms me up. Nothing fits that bill better than Ice Cream!

Ice Cream it is! At least for the first few seconds of the life of this drink. Well, ok, I give, it might not really be iced cream (diary), but it sure does taste like it. And, if it doesn’t, I keep working it until it does. Ultimately, I LOVE to experience great tasting smoothies, thus I’m always working to bring out the best flavors.

So, here we go, a creamy strawberry surprise.

Recipe:

  • 1 ½ cup Coconut milk with Vanilla flavor (ok, ok, it’s not raw, but it isn’t dairy!)
  • 10-12 frozen strawberries
  • 1 banana
  • 1 ripe (if you can find them) mango
  • 2 Medjool dates (don’t eat the seeds)
  • About 1 large Tbs Flax seed
  • 1 probiotic

And, of course, you can’t forget the greens:

  • 1 bunch Swiss chard

When I did my shopping the other day I weighed the Swiss Chard before bagging it. Each bunch came in just under a pound. Yep, that’s right. I use the full bunch and get the biggest ones that I can find. The green smoothies are all about re-mineralizing your body and sweeping out the toxins. So, even though you see all the fruit, it’s balanced by all the greens.

When putting this one together, I combine the coconut milk with all the fruit and blend. The Strawberries take just a few seconds to break down and you end up with something that looks like this:

If you were to look straight down on this, you’d notice that it’s more like a milk shake than ice cream. I probably should have added another few strawberries. That would have thickened it up. Never-the-less, it tasted like a strawberry milk shake – which was close enough for me.

The next step is to grind the flax seed. I love this function for me coffee grinder. Since I gave up making latte’s, that little grinder had sat unused. Now, it’s my flax seed grinder and it works great.

To the ‘milk shake’ I add the rest of the ingredients: ground flax, probiotic and Swiss chard. When I add the Swiss chard, I remove the main rib from the leaf. It’s got some great properties to it, but I don’t want anything in this drink that will distract from a smooth texture.

Now blend. If you’re using a vita-mix, you’ll most likely have to use the plunger to get the greens broken down, but once you’ve got it spinning, flip it on high and give is a whirl.

But don’t stop there! Because we’re using frozen strawberries, we can let the blender run longer and the heat is dissipated into the frozen fruit. And, because we get to let it run longer, we get a creamer feel in the end product.

You won’t get a strawberry seed as you enjoy this one.

Note that this makes about 6 cups!

Light is Life!