Blend:
- 4 oz plain soy milk
- 3-4 frozen banana slices
- 1 tablespoon ground flax (grind with pestle or coffee grinder [$10 at walmart]) fresh ground is best
- 1/2 apple in chunks
- medium handful of frozen blueberries
- large handful of fresh spinach (I use about 5 cups packed spinach for 2 1/2 servings)
Ike is color blind so it looks black to him anyways. You cannot taste the spinach and if you can...just add some more blueberries (cheapest at costco). I keep all the ingredients for this ready to go. Everyone loves them. Introduce them to your kids as blueberry smoothies - not spinach smoothies. Or Darth Vader Smoothies (because they are black like his clothes?) or Halloweenie Smoothies. what ever.
I believe if you feed your kids this once a day (breakfast, after school snack, after dinner treat) you will be making a huge difference in their health. There is a great book called "Disease Proof Your Child" by Joel Furhman - I bet it is at your library. I made this recipe up but it contains all the food he recommends.
I think this smoothie is sweet. But last year we got on a smoothie kick and I didn't think a plain old fruit smoothie was sweet enough. I wanted lots more sugar in my smoothie so I added sweetened yogurt and that helped - but I still wanted more sugar.
Now I think this naturally sweet smoothie is SO GOOD! And oranges! Holy cow are those sweet. Pears are like pure sugar. I think eating this way just tastes better than the old way. Everything tastes amazing.
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What has more protein: 100 calories of meatloaf or 100 calories of spinach? (the answer is in the comments)
Posts
10 comments:
Per Calorie:
meatloaf is 24% protein
spinach is 51% protein
Spinach is the winner!
I came to your blog through Diane's and have been interested in your diet.
I have been training for a marathon and decided to change my diet a bit because I was just getting so tired in the evenings (I also have 4 very young children and am the YW president). Anyway, my point is: I eat a spinach-strawberry-blueberry-apple-orange salad every morning and it really has made a big difference. My diet changes haven't been as dramatic as your change but your blog is very persuasive:) Thanks for posting your progress.
Way to go Robin! I'm really interested to see how this goes for your family. I am trying to switch to a lifestyle of whole foods and "clean" meats (sorry - don't know what to call them...the kind that come from the farmer next door...)
It's going to be a slow change for our family - I'm going to keep checking this blog for some inspiration.
I have lots of weight to loose, my husband has none, but our children are following in my footsteps (they're 6, 5, 5, 1, 1) and I'd love to change my habits now - while they're still young.
Thanks for sharing!
Robin...I make this exact smoothie for breakfast!! The only difference is that I haven't added a banana or apple (I have just used blueberries) and I add a scoop of my vanilla protein powder. I love it and am amazed that you really can't even taste the spinach.
p.s. do you have a Magic Bullet? I just got one and absolutely love it. (got mine at Costco)
oh...and sometimes if I don't want to use milk I just use water and add a spoonful of the Fage greek yogurt to make it a little creamy...yummy!
Thanks for being such an inspiration...keep it up!
Will you come to my house for a week and help me get started on this vegan diet? I mean it!
Awesome. I especially love the the protein trivia at the end. Who knew? Spinach really is a superfood.
I checked this book out from the library (the Disease-proof your kids) but it is still in my book bag, unread. I am wrapped up in The Help right now and can't put it down.
I am going to make this smoothie this week.
yay! my requested vegan book is in at the library. I'm on my way to pick it up and then to buy more fruits, veggies, nuts and soy milk.
I love this blog Robin. I want to go vegan. My breakfast every morning is a variation of your smoothie as well - I do 1/2 C plain yogurt, 2 tsp flax (my blender is awesome, it grinds it for me), 1 C of soy milk, a handful of frozen blueberries, and then I shove as much spinach into the blender as I can. It's so yummy. My younger kids love it. The older ones say "gross" and won't even try it. I also love pureeing spinach and putting it on pizza under the tomato sauce. Spinach with craisins is one of my favorite treats. I eat it with my fingers. Keep blogging! Oh, and check out www.nourishingmeals.com. It's where I got the recipe for "healing cabbage and quinoa soup" that I brought to a ward party that only Hans and I ate. It's really good though. Have you tried quinoa? It's so good with fresh cranberries (boil til they pop in the water and then add quinoa til it's cooked). I add cinnamon and some vanilla soy milk and it is dessert. So good. Good luck!
Grinding the flax seeds yourself, as you use it, will give you a much,much higher content of antioxidants than using store bought ground flax.
I put a scant tablespoon full of flax seed into my mixer and grind it first, then add the other ingredients for my smoothies.
Freshly ground flax seed is good sprinkled on cereals, salads, and desserts.
I enjoy masticating a teaspoonful right after grinding it.
Your body is unable to digest whole flax seed.
Ground flaxseed can be substituted for fat at a ratio of 3 to 1. For example, ½ cup of butter or margarine can be replaced by 1-½ cups of flax!
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