Going Green Smoothie

From Vitamin cookbook

Great quick smoothie - I didn't used to like green smoothies, but lately I've become a fan.  By using a good blender to pulverize the greens, and just enough fruit, this one's a winner.   It's a lower-calorie-than-usual smoothie.  You can always add or substitute a non-dairy milk to the water to add some protein.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water

1 cup green grapes

1/2 cup fresh pineapple chunks (or mango or peach)

1/2 medium banana (even better with frozen banana slices)

2 cups lightly packed fresh spinach

1/2 cup ice cubes

Directions: 

1) Place all ingredients in the order listed

2) Blend until desired consistency is reached. 

Vitamix tomato spinach mint pesto

Love using my new vitamix.  Just trying out recipes to get used to the best settings to use.  Good thing it comes with a tool to push all the ingredients down while chopping, without risk of getting the 'pusher' in the blades.

This recipe is good - a little heavy on the garlic but I guess that's what its supposed to be.  The fresh basil stood out.  I was happy to use almonds (raw slivered) instead of the usual pine nuts, as I usually don't have those around and they go rancid rather quickly. 

Might add nutritional yeast next time, since pesto often has cheese in it.

Ingredients

• ½ cup (120 ml) extra virgin olive oil
• 4 large (730 g) tomatoes, halved
• ½ cup (20 g) fresh basil leaves
• ½ cup (15 g) fresh spinach
• 6 small garlic clove, peeled
• 1 teaspoon salt, optional
• 1 cup (145 g) blanched almonds
• 1 pinch ground black pepper

Directions

1. Place olive oil, half of tomatoes, basil, fresh spinach, garlic, salt, almonds, and black pepper into the Vitamix container in the order listed and secure the lid.
2. Start the blender on its lowest speed, then quickly increase to its highest speed, using the tamper to press ingredients toward the blades.
3. Blend for 10-15 seconds. Stop machine and remove lid.
4. Add in remaining tomatoes and secure lid. Select Variable 4.
5. Pulse 10-15 times using the tamper to press the ingredients towards the blades.

Quick Shake

In warm weather, sometimes all I want after a workout is a filling shake.  For years I shunned green shakes, probably because the first few I had were bitter.  But if there is fruit alongside the greens, it's quite tasty and nutritious.

In an effort to decrease the waste of produce from my fridge, I do a stir fry or slow cooker or veggie roast now and then just to use up odds and ends.

Today I tried to do the same with a shake.  This is just meant to be a rough guide.  Throw in anything you'd like and experiment!

Here's what I tossed in today:

1/2 avocado
large handful of spinach and arugula mix
1 banana
1 cup or so of frozen mango
~ 3/4 cup almond milk
5 oz vanilla soy yogurt.

Blend it up and you're good to go.  To decrease the sugar content, use plain yogurt, or add ice cubes.  If you use plain yogurt but want to sweeten it a little, you can add a swirl of honey.

Peaches and Green Smoothie

I must start by saying that I am NOT a fan of green shakes!  I had a few bitter awful ones years ago and have avoided them ever since.  HOWEVER, my blender finally died from my ice-crushing activities for chocolate peanut butter smoothies, banana berry yogurt smoothies, and the like.  With my new Torrent Blender by KitchenAid, which I love, there was a cookbook with loads of blender recipes, including smoothies, soups and other blended foods.  It was a steal because evidently its magnetic base with no moving parts hasn't really taken off, so I got it at 2/3 off - including this new recipe book.  The magnetic base turns the blade without them actually having to twist into each other - that connection is what started leaking - after many years of use, mind you.

Having my son home for a week, I had a live-in taster, so I made the most of it.  Here's a green smoothie that's refreshing and tasty.  If you want more protein, just change the almond milk to soy.

Ingredients:
1 cup ice
1 cup packed torn fresh spinach
1 cup fresh or frozen peach slices
1 cup vanilla almond milk
1 Tbsp honey (add more honey if using plain almond milk)
juice from 1/2 small lime
1 tsp dried mint, or a few fresh mint leaves - the more the better!

Directions:
Using a blender with ice crushing capacity - blend and pour!