Vegetables In Smoothies
I've been incorporating blended fruit drinks into my daily routine. I usually use berries and occasionally banana if I feel like I want something sweet. I also use spinach to add more vegetable matter to my diet. What other vegetables should I add to my blended drinks that wouldnt make it taste too bad?
I also make avocado shakes but I've been wondering what I can blend with avocados that wouldn't be weird.
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I do similar smoothies.
Handful berries, kale, carrots, broccoli, cucumber, celery Parsley,2 tbsp coconut oil (required fats) 2scoopes life extension mix powder, scoop whey, scoop collagen, and some water. I usual steam, then freeze the cruciferous/leafy greens
This is what I take to work to break my IF at 1pm
It ends up being 20-32 oz.
I was thinking about adding kale. I've also heard beets are a common smoothie ingredient, but that just sounds unpleasant. That being said, I've never had beets so I can't say I wouldn't like them.
Kale's great, but according to Dave you should steam or blanch it, drain it, and filter out the oxalic acid with calcium and magnesium.
I'm in the middle of a no kale experiment due to acne, so I switched to collard greens and brussels sprouts last week - both steamed/drained, but no cal/mag. It tasted bitter, but was doable. I went to the grocery store today, and they were out of collards, so I went for green swiss chard. Today was about half a bunch of swiss chard and 3 brussels spouts, steamed/drained, and it was actually pretty tasty. The chard is nice. I broke off the part of the stem below the leaf, but it was tender enough that I don't think I needed to.
I always use a cucumber for water volume and 2-3 celery stalks depending on their size. Plus a chunk of ginger, which I peel with a knife (though the edge of a spoon works too) because supposedly the peel can have some anti-nutrients.
I like tossing in an avocado - Hass is optimal - for a little bit of fat and a thicker/smoother feel, though I could see why you might not like it. I try to include some type of fat: avocado, MCT, or the not-so-bulletproof hemp seeds, because fat aids in absorbing all the veggies' nutrients.
I'll sometimes add protein, and occasionally fruit, but I try to stick to the lowest-sugar berries due to the fact that I make sure there's fat in the shake.
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Broccoli in a smoothie = really gross. If you want to try it keep in mind that broccoli has a strong smell.
and raw broc can really give some nasty gas!
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I have avocado WITH the PIT (apparently it is chuck full of Antioxidants). It tastes nasty, but then I do lemon with the peel and it is not so bad. I can honestly say that nothing makes me feel more energized than the above mentioned and Alderspring Ranch meats.............besides coffee ofcourse ;-)
I would try that but I have a regular blender not a vitamix or blentec haha
wow. never heard of that. not gonna try it with my blender...and even if i had a fancy blender i dunno if i'd wanna ruin the awesome avocado taste i'm used to. i would think there are tastier ways to get antioxidants...but i'm all for the idea of throwing out as little as possible...
lemon with the peel too? wouldn't there be antinutrients in there as well?
Having ditched BP coffee for a while, I've started making a massive, fatty smoothie each morning. Usually do a whole can of coconut milk, a few berries, an avocado, a handful of spinach, a handful of kale, some mct and, if I want more sweetness, a bit of raw honey. Ice, too. Comes out mighty tasty! Can't be fucked to steam my kale though. Hell, at least I'm eating the stuff regularly now! This has helped me at least double my veggie intake daily.
Banana is good as well, on occasion. Wonder what else I could add to it to make it even tastier/more nutritious...
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sounds similar to what i was doing for a long time. other ingredients you might want to try are grated fresh ginger, fresh basil (you might be surprised at how tasty this is), sambazon acai smoothie packets, spirulina/chorella, vanilla, cocoa powder. not necessarily all at the same time...but maybe! also, i would always lightly mix some solid chunks of something at the end to add more interesting texture - more frozen fruit, chunks of quest bars, broken up lindt bars, macademia nuts, etc.
You know, I thought about adding in ginger but couldn't find any organic at my local stores. How important is it to buy organic ginger? Is conventional OK? I think that might make for a nice addition. Some cocoa powder, too! Thanks for the tips.
I added green tea once. That was pretty tasty as well. I bet some matcha powder would be even better!
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from my experience, organic ginger is actually noticeably better...usually a brighter yellow. maybe there's good ginger that isn't organic though. and ginger is just awesome enough that it might be better to go conventional than to skip out entirely.
Until I can source some quality ginger, I've been using ground ginger root from capsules I bought. It lends the smoothie a nice ginger-y taste and smell, though I'm sure fresh is much better. I'm loving the daily smoothies, though. I feel a lot healthier drinking one each day. The whole blender's worth is probably at least 1000 calories, considering the MCT, coconut oil and avocado, which gets me a lot of interesting comments whenever I discuss my recipe with anyone, but damn is it good. I don't even add honey in anymore, though I could stand to use less berries. I've been doing a big handful of strawberries and a few pinches of blueberries each day, but that might be a lot of Fructose. I love banana too, but that's a Fructose bomb. I've been eating higher carb in general ala Perfect Health Diet, and have been feeling better. I think my reliance on BPC over the past few months really burned out my system. Haven't had coffee in like a month, but these smoothies are here to stay!
Any recommendations for fruits that would taste good in a smoothie that are also good for daily consumption, y'all? I'd like to slowly wean myself off of the fruits and just do veggie/fat smoothies, but... I'm not hardcore enough yet. lol. Plus, I feel like the fruits add some decent nutrition in. I just need to keep from overdoing it. Will look into these acai smoothie packets, too.
Anyone else have any smoothie recipes to share?
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Why frozen berries? Are they just better in smoothies, or is there a nutritional reason?
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My only addition is that wild blueberries (available frozen at Whole Foods) have considerably less sugar by volume than the normal blueberries, so you can add more flavor and polyphenols for the same sugar. There might be some sugar variability like this with types of cherries, but I'm not sure. Also, though I think you know, acai is a nightshade. EDIT: whoops, goji is a nightshade, not acai, my bad.
Frozen is cheaper, reliable to find year round, and you only lose a tiny bit of nutrition from industrial freezing techniques. Plus more frozen ingredients = colder, slushier smoothie.
Ginger - mine's yellow, organic is more yellow... why is the thinly sliced ginger at the sushi place pink?
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Actually, I didn't know about acai being a nightshade! Thanks for tip. I might have to stay away from that one, then.
I'll look for some frozen wild blueberries next time I'm out (though I don't have a WF near me, so I might be outta luck). Maybe I'll just throw down for some conventional ginger. Are there any issues with eating the conventional stuff, or is it clean enough? That's my only concern. I don't remember seeing it listed on that "dirty dozen" list.
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Hold up, maybe not. I remember reading about that, but can't find it now, and see Yahoo Answers and stuff saying they're not nightshades. Not that that's reliable, but if I can't find a good source, eat away.
EDIT: Goji is the nightshade, not acai.
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Would this be a good smoothie ingredient? It's really low in sugar and it has some of the more main stream health fruits. http://www.iherb.com/Navitas-Naturals-Organic-SuperFruit-Blend-Antioxidant-Smoothie-Mix-8-oz-227-g/9756#p=1&oos=1&disc=0&lc=en-US&w=navitas%20naturals&rc=39&sr=null&ic=5
I know goji is frowned upon for being a nightshade.
What about this? http://www.iherb.com/Navitas-Naturals-Coconut-Water-Freeze-Dried-Powder-5-8-oz-165-g/46913#p=1&oos=1&disc=0&lc=en-US&w=navitas%20naturals&rc=39&sr=null&ic=22
Or this? http://www.iherb.com/Navitas-Naturals-Organic-Superfood-Blend-Protein-Smoothie-Mix-8-oz-227-g/47689#p=1&oos=1&disc=0&lc=en-US&w=navitas%20naturals&rc=39&sr=null&ic=20
I know hemp has a bad omega 6:3 ratio.
Um, guys....?
DUDE. WTF. IS RAW GINGER SUPPOSED TO TASTE LIKE SHIT? My smoothie is full of like little strands of ginger that feel like hair in my mouth. Is this normal? UGHUGHUGHGUH. I might have to dump out my smoothie... bleh. I guess I''ll go back to encapsulated ginger instead...
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did you peel and grate the ginger? i do that, then usually just squeeze the juice out of the fibers that don't make it through the grater.
I cut off a chunk about an inch and a half in length, peeled it, rinsed it and just tossed it into my blender with my other stuff. It's SO bad, haha. I ended up drinking half a cup before I just couldn't drink anymore. The flavor was OK, if not a little overwhelming, but every sip I literally felt like I was drinking hair lol.
Is organic ginger powder a decent replacement? I was thinking something like this:
http://www.znaturalfoods.com/Ginger-Root-Powder-Organic
I really want to incorporate more ginger into my diet because it's so good for you... but I think I'm going to stay away from the fresh stuff for the foreseeable future...
Is it possible to take the powder and still get some benefits? I'm sure the fresh stuff is probably better than the powdered version, but the powder would be easy to incorporate into a smoothie.
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i would think the powdered stuff would be prone to mycotoxins, if you are concerned at all about that.
i dunno, i would say try grating the ginger or chopping it up like jason said. there is no noticeable texture change from the ginger in my smoothies, just that awesome delicious spice that it adds. but, i have been a bit of a ginger fanatic for a while...pre-BP i would order 5 lb bags of "gin gins" from the ginger people, and put ginger in just about everything i cooked, sweet or savory. i still use it a bunch but chilled out on the ginger candy...its probably not THAT horrible for you, i'd almost say it might not be in the red zone, but definitely not green.
oh, and you wanna try some badass stuff sometime that has way too much sugar? reed's ginger beer. they actually sell ice cream too, and pre-bp it was probably my favorite ice cream ever.
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So, by slicing it into thin chips the strands won't end up in the end product? Seriously, the strands were making me gag. lol. It was incredibly bad.
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Lolol. I'll give that a shot with the remaining fresh ginger, then. Electric shaver dust is certainly preferable to the strands I was experiencing.
Also, I ended up ordering some of that organic ginger powder I linked to upthread. Hoping it's quality stuff. It was relatively affordable, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try it.
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Ridiculous question here, but related to smoothies in general.
I add MCT oil to my smoothies. I drink my smoothie out of a glass, but like using a straw. The only straws I've got are plastic. Is this OK, or is it unsafe to use with the MCT oil in the drink? I mean, I drink it pretty fast, so I'm not sure if the MCT would have much of an opportunity to leech the plastic from the straw but... hell, am I over-thinking this?
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If there's a Costco near you, that's where I get frozen wild blueberries.
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Holy shit, I love you. I walked into Costco yesterday and left with a 4-pound bag of organic, frozen wild blueberries. Used them in my smoothie today and they were boss. A whole cup of them has about as much sugar as a serving of Lindt! I'm floored! And they're so tasty. Many thanks for the suggestion!
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