Crimson Tide

Rating: *****

My wife likes me to leave out the grains and nuts from my smoothies, so I decided to leave those on the side today.   I also decided to experiment a little with some new flavors.  The result was a crimson concoction with a serious, yet fruity flavor.

Ingredients:

1/2   Zucchini
1/2   Red Beet
1     Stalk of celery
1/2 C Strawberries (frozen)
1/2 C Blueberries (frozen)
1/2   Orange (Frozen)
1/2   Red Bell Pepper
1 C   Greek Yogurt
2 C   Spinach
1 T   Fresh Cilantro
2-3 C Orange Juice

Start with the zucchini, beet, celery and some orange juice and blend for a few minutes for smoothness.   Add frozen vegetables and more juice and blend until smooth.  Add everthing else and blend until the spinach is blended to your liking.

At first, I was struck by the distinct vegetable flavor that comes from the pepper and cilantro,  however it didn’t take long for me to adjust and pretty soon I was loving this smoothie!  The cilantro did a wonderful job of balancing out the beet flavor, and the spinach doesn’t affect the flavor much at all, but it did change this shake from deep purple to a lovely crimson color.

Good Morning Breakfast Smoothie

Rating: ****O

Today I went for a breakfast smoothie with a little more substance.   I also wanted to correct a problem I’ve had with too much grit from flax and other grains.  

Ingredients:

1/4 C  Flax flour
1/4 C  Oat Flour
1      Orange (frozen)
1      Banana (frozen)
1 C    Misc Frozen fruit (mango, guava)
3 C    Orange juice
2 t    Lime juice
2 t    Sugar

To make the flours, I used a coffee grinder to grind the flax and the oats separately.  This was pure genius- it took care of almost all the grittiness and made a very smooth texture. 

Next, add the frozen fruit and 1/2 the juice and blend until smooth.  Add the rest of the juice to get to the texture you want.  

Overall the flavor was good.  My daughter loved it, but my wife isn’t a big fan of oats in her smoothie.  I like it and was happy to sip on it through the day. 

Spinach Orange Smoothie – Delicious Simplicity

Rating: *****

Between my wife’s complaints about too many ingredients and our dwindling end-of-the-month grocery supplies, life has conspired today for me to make a two (well, three) ingredient smoothie, with excellent results!

Ingredients:

1/4 C   Flax meal (optional)
1 1/2   Peeled oranges, frozen
2 C     Orange Juice
2-3 C   Spinach

Blend everything except the spinach until smooth (about one minute), then blend in the spinach.  That’s it!  This one tasted  almost like a pure fruit smoothie.  I also liked the color of this one – very lively!

A note about flax meal- I add this for the nutrition/fiber, but I do notice a texture change when I do.  Next time I am going to try smoothing out the flax first in a coffee grinder and see if that helps. 

Citrus/Carrot/Cabbage – I Win!!!

Rating: *****

Finally, I got to catch up on my sleep last night with 9.5 amazing hours of slumber.  I feel fantastic!

Today it’s me against the cabbage again, and this time I think I got the upper hand.  I was very pleased with the citrus-heavy shake I did yesterday, so I tried the same trick against the mild sulfur flavor of the cabbage. 

Ingredients:

1/2 C  Sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and cacao nibs
1/2    Fist-size chunk of cabbage
1/2    Large Carrot
1      Orange
1/2    Grapefruit
1      Frozen banana
1/2 C  Frozen pineapple
3 C    Orange Juice
1 T    Lime Juice
2 t    Sugar

Job 1 is to get the grains, carrot, and cabbage into tiny, tiny bits.  I put everything up through the grapefruit into the blender, along with a little orange juice and let it go for almost 3 minutes.   The flavor at this point was very bitter because of the grapefruit and cabbage. 

Next I added the frozen fruit and some more orange juice and blended for about 30 seconds until the mixture was smooth.  When I tasted it this time, it was sweeter, but it still needed some more “oomph”, so I added lime juice and sugar.  That did it!

The cabbage taste wasn’t 100% gone, but it was diminished enough so as not to impeded my enjoyment of this smoothie. I’ll be happy to make this one again!

Citrus Spinach Smoothie – Delightful!

Rating: *****

Today I was recovering from a late night of watching the BYU Young Ambassadors perform at the Everett Civic Center.  It was a delight to watch all those young, energetic performers, especially for my daughter who was raving about them this morning.

Feeling interesting in something with a little extra zing to it, I decided to go for a citrus smoothie today.   I used spinach as my green vegetable because it’s mild flavor is compatible with anything. Same goes for celery.  I decided to leave out yogurt, apple, and avocado, because I felt these flavors would compete too much against the citrus.   I used salted roasted nuts instead of raw nuts because that is what I had on hand.  It’s hard to guess if raw nuts would taste better.

Ingredients: 

1/4 C     Flax meal
3/4 C     Salted, Roasted Cashews
1         Orange
1/2       Grapefruit
1/2       Frozen Banana
1         Stalk Celery
1/2 C     Frozen Pineapple
3-4 C     Spinach
2-3 C     Orange Juice

As usual, I started with the flax and nuts to keep the shake from being too grainy.  I blended them together with the orange and grapefruit  for two minutes.  Any time that I open up the blender to add more ingredients, I sample the mixture to check the flavor and texture.  The flavor helps to educate me on what tastes good and if the texture is too rough, I’ll blend some more before adding more ingredients.   When I sampled the cashews mixed with the orange and grapefruit, I could tell this was going to be good!  The cashews blended very smoothly and the flavor had great citrus pizzazz.

Next I added the Celery, frozen fruit, and 1/2 cup of orange juice.  I like the frozen fruit because it cools down the temperature and makes the smoothie thicker.   I blended the new mixture for about 30 seconds. (I sampled here and the taste was getting even better!)  Finally, I filled up the blender with two big handfuls of spinach and a cup or two of orange juice and blended until the spinach flecks were mostly gone (about a minute). 

What came out of the blender was smooth, zippy, and left a very pleasant taste in my mouth.   Some people (like my daughter) like their smoothies sweeter than I do, and those folks might find this one to be a 4-star because it’s not as sweet as other smoothies, thanks to the grapefruit.   No matter, you can always add a few teaspoons of sugar, brown sugar, or honey. 

Apple/Carrot/Cabbage Power Smoothie!!!

Rating: ****o

Eating well is just one strategy out of many that we can employ together to live well.   Yesterday I discovered cool TED talk on the idea of “Power Posing”- privately assuming a powerful pose for a few minutes to change the way we think and feel.   Everybody knows how body language affects other people, but the novel idea behind power posing is that our body language has power to affect our *self* too!  I tried it out this morning in front of a mirror.  It’s silly, but I don’t mind feeling silly.  I have to say- I did feel different after just a few minutes;  better, less stressed, more confident.   I’ll report more on this new life-hack after I’ve tried it out for a few weeks.

For today’s smoothie, I went back to an old recipe and followed my own advice to tweak it up.   The result was delicious!  My 2nd daughter, the one who is by far our pickiest eater, actually asked for more after I gave her a sip.   Now that is saying something!   I like to go for color themes in smoothies, not for any scientific reasons, but purely for aesthetics of taste and appearance.   I went for red today and got pretty close, but was probably muted by the blueberries.   If I had some strawberry yogurt on hand, I probably would have use that.

Here’s the recipe:

1/4 C  Flax
1/4 C  Walnuts
1      Medium carrot
1/2    Fist-sized chunk of red cabbage
6      Big Frozen strawberries
1      Apple
1 C    Blueberry Yogurt
~3 C   Kiwi Strawberry juice
2 T    Lemon Juice (optional)

The first part of the smoothie is always working down the grit/lumps, so I first put in the flax, walnuts, carrot, and cabbage, since these ingredients are the toughest to blend.   I added about a cup of juice and let the blender go for two minutes.  Remember to add just enough juice to get the mixture to circulate since thicker mixtures get smoother faster. 

Next I added the frozen strawberries and blended those in with a little juice.  Last, I added the apple, yogurt, and more juice and blended for about 30 seconds.  I added lemon juice as well and I like the tang it adds to the smoothie, but it can be omitted.

The reason this smoothie is not a 5-star is the cabbage, plain and simple.  Cabbage contains sulfur - it’s not the best flavor, and it is easy to notice and hard to cover.   I cut back on the cabbage and increased the apple in an attempt to soften the sulfur, but was only partly successful.   Nevertheless, the smoothie was really good and I enjoyed two glasses this morning.  YUM!!!!

Apple/Spinach/Avocado smoothie

Rating: *****

I woke up this morning with an emotional hangover thanks to a blender mishap last night and a less-than-optimal conversation with my mom.   Thankfully my good wife was there to hear my troubles and turn my mood around. It’s amazing to me how simple and powerful the act of listening is and how it change my trajectory of the day.  I was ready for a really delicious smoothie!

Apples and spinach is a fantastic combination and goes well with just about anything you might want to add.  Avocado can be a little too unusual for some, so feel free to replace it with a banana.   Also, a dash of lemon or lime juice increases the fruitiness of this smoothie.

1/4 C  Flax meal
1/4 C  Walnuts
1      Apple
1/2    Avocado
3-4 C  Spinach
1 C    Blueberry Yogurt
~2 C   Strawberry Kiwi Juice
~1 C   Water

To smooth out the grit, blend the flax and walnuts first with some juice for about 1 minute.  Add the cut up apple (minus seeds) with a little more juice and blend for about 2 minutes.  You want just enough juice so that the shake circulates as it blends, but no more.  Sample a little of the mixture before continuing and make sure that it’s smooth and enjoyable.  Blend longer if not.   

Add avocado, yogurt, and spinach, pushing the spinach down to the bottom with a spoon.  The spinach compresses down a lot, so I just fill up the whole blender with it before pushing it down.  Add some enough juice to allow the mixture to circulate as it blends.   Once blended, tast the mixture.   Add water or juice to get it to the desired thickness/sweetness.  

Enjoy!