Food Green Smoothies

I tried three strawberries, a third of a banana, a cup of baby spinach leaves (minus the stems), and 6 oz of Trop50 "orange juice", blended it with the immersion blender and poured it over crushed ice and it was brilliant. Absolutely no spinace taste at all. It was yummy.

 

I am loving my established morning routine.

Green smoothie, green tea, and some stretching. Sometimes on the patio if the weather is asking me to be outside.

For the smoothies, I have been mixing up the following:

Greens: kale (my favorite), endive, escarole [I've been buying whichever are cheapest at the grocery store]
Fruit: usually a banana, but sometimes mango or kiwi
Frozen stuff: frozen strawberries or peaches, or ice if I'm out of the other two
Liquid: always OJ so far, but considering pineapple juice
Additions: flax seeds (always), brown rice protein powder (if I will have a longer gap between breakfast and lunch)

I've added vanilla yogurt a couple times and didn't really like the result. I might try plain yogurt another time in place of the protein powder, but the vanilla is far too sweet.

I've had a green smoothie for breakfast with few exceptions (like when I went out for breakfast a few times) for at least a month now. I love them.

 

I don't do smoothies, closest I come to a smoothie is when I make "boat drinks" or split pea soup. But I eat a lot of veggies and my meat intake is way down in the last few months. I don't think I'd every be a full time vegan, I love a good steak way too much, but I really like the way I feel after cutting down on meats. For breakfast I almost always have fruit. Lunch and dinner are usually a mixed greens salad, steamed veggies and some kind of beans or split pea soup for protein. I don't care for spinach or any "collared greens" but here they have a Mayan spinach called "chaya" and I like it in soups and steamed. Throw in some shrooms, cauliflower, carrots and broccoli with a couple cloves of garlic on top and it's really very tasty. I stay away from anything that comes in a powder form, in a can or box. I get everything from the market fresh, usually the same day I'm going to eat it. After changing the way I eat for a while I have much more energy, sleep better and wake up more alert.

 

I've had maybe... two smoothies in my entire life. I like 'em, though. The inclusion of greens in any smoothie I haven't considered, ever.

What the hell?!

Shamrock has his own smoothie/milkshake at McDonald's?

 

I have tried tofu in smoothies before - I wasn't a fan, personally, unless the other flavors were very strong. But then, I may have added too much because I was trying to use up tofu left in my fridge.

I use a vegan protein powder - MLO brown rice protein. I really like it.

 

Not a fan of silken tofu.... it causes some noxious emissions and kills my stomach.
I've been sticking to Trop50, collard greens, a few frozen strawberries or peaches, half a banana and a dollop of cultured coconut or almond "yogurt" when I do green smoothies. Since I started back to the gym this morning, and plan to keep going on a regular basis, I'm looking into protein supplements to just give a little more satiety after my workout in the morning. Satiety? I'm not sure if that's the right word. But I need to get the right balance of nutrients because I'm extremely un-hungry after the gym and literally have to force myself to eat, then get starving around 2pm after a light-ish lunch.
So far every one of the hemp and soy and whey products have torn up my stomach, so I may have to look into the brown rice protein powder!

 

Satiety is correct... BG got me to look it up about a week ago. Bastard.

 

Dammit, Tully, I just snorted vanilla sleepytime tea. From the visual image of you pulling out at 25 pound dictionary to look up "satiety" at Baraka's demand.

/Threadjack

 

Protein will help with satiety, but fat is important for that, too. Do you drink your smoothie before or after your workouts, noodle? If you usually have it before, I'd split it in half and have part of it before your workout, the rest after. Definitely add some protein if you can, and I add a tablespoon or two of flax seeds to my smoothies to get a little bit of fat in them. I definitely notice a difference in how quickly I get hungry when I skip or forget to add the protein and flax seeds to my smoothies.

Lately (and I know this won't help snowy, since it's not vegan), I have been having oatmeal or corn grits for breakfast with greek yogurt (plain with some ginger syrup added) if I worked out the night before. If I'll be working out or running earlier in the day, I have the smoothie.

 

Other then the coconut milk, which I can get off my trees, I don't think I can get any of the other items listed. I'll just stick to fresh whole fruit for breakfast.