FOOD! - GREEN SMOOTHIE #1!

Let's keep this short and sweet.  I'm interested in eating healthy and following a mostly vegan diet.  I don't have a lot of time in the mornings as I'm typically rushing around getting children ready for school and preparing for my day - whether it's going to the office, volunteering in one of my children's classrooms or going to the grocery alone!  So - I like to make protein shakes and smoothies to get me through my mornings on the go!  Last Monday, I posted an easy chocolate protein smoothie.  Today, I'm posting A Berry Green Smoothie!

A Berry Green Smoothie

In a 24 oz blender cup add the following:

10 oz bag of frozen organic berries

1 handful of walnuts

1 large Kale leaf, lightly torn and without the stem

1/2 to 1 cup of Almond Milk

Blend until smooth and enjoy!

The addition of leafy greens (spinach, chard, kale, etc) makes a smoothie "green".  Although the smoothie isn't always green in color and you don't even taste the greens!  What a great way to get those very important green leafy vegetables without having to choke down another salad!

I use a lot of Almond Milk these days, but any non-dairy milk would be an acceptable substitute, as would plain old water.  If you aren't concerned about keeping this smoothie vegan, you can add your favorite yogurt or regular milk.  And if everything doesn't seem to blend well enough the first time through, add another 1/4 cup of liquid and blend again.

Have more time of your hands and like buying in bulk?  Purchase your berries separately, wash them and freeze them and add as desired.  I like finding the bags of frozen organic fruits on sale and stocking up - especially when berries are out of season.  Super quick and easy!  The frozen fruit creates a thicker smoothie.  Fresh fruit can be used too, but you may want to add ice and less liquid if a thicker consistency is preferred.  

Feel free to add other fruits, nuts, cocoa powder or protein powder to switch this up!  But overall, this is a solid base for an easy green smoothie.  Enjoy!

Food! - Protein Shake #1!

It is the first full week of 2016!  The holidays are over.  The weekend is over.  Time to get serious again about maintaining a more healthy and sustainable diet!  Now I'm not talking about signing up for some fad diet.  I'm talking about diet in general - the food put into one's body.  Looking for a good place to start?  Start here.  Each week in January I will be posting one protein shake or green smoothie recipe.  Shakes and smoothies can be complicated or simple.  I'll stick to simple for now.  No need to overwhelm you right away!

Protein Shakes and Green Smoothies are a great way to get a lot of the necessary vitamins and minerals that your body needs without having to make a huge meal.  They are pretty quick (especially with some planning ahead) and extremely portable!  I like to vary my shakes and smoothies so that I'm not drinking the same thing every day for a week.  After I spent some time exploring hundreds of recipes, I mainly stick to ones that I know I will like and that are not very complex, or I'll just throw some random fruits and greens together on the fly.  As a mother of three young children, who tries to keep up a blog, work a part-time job at an environmental consulting firm and work at sharing my love for Young Living Essential Oils, I don't have time for complex!!!

Since watching "Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret", I have been minimizing the amount of meat, eggs & dairy we consume.  I also wanted to make sure that I was still eating what my body needs, so I happened across two vegan protein mixes at Sam's Club (Naturade Vegan Smart and Purely Inspired 100% Plant-Based Protein).  I was finding that many Protein mixes had Whey in them, which is a dairy product and therefore I wanted to stay away from Whey.  I was also looking to stay away from Soy, as I get plenty of soy in other parts of my plant-based diet.  To my surprise, both of these Protein mixes are Vegan as well as Soy and Gluten Free!  I regularly mix one of these up in the morning for my breakfast, especially if I'm hustling out the door to get kids to school and me to work or an appointment.  

The recipe that I'm posting uses the Purely Inspired 100% Plant-Based Protein - chocolate!!!  Chocolate and good for you???  Get out!  Below I'll show you just how easy and quick it is to make a protein shake using this protein powder mix and I'll also mention a couple easy ways to add some variety to shakes using Purely Inspired Chocolate Protein.

Before you get started, it is important to have a blender that can blend/puree ice and other frozen fruits and veggies as well as fresh greens (spinach, kale, chard, etc).  After reading too many reviews, checking out the items in person and thinking of how the blender will fit my lifestyle, I finally settled on The Nutri Ninja - Ninja Blender Duo with Auto iQ.  It's pretty awesome and fast, especially when I use the appropriate amount of liquid!  Do your research!  There are a lot out there at all different price ranges too!

Chocolate Protein Nutritional Shake Recipe - Basic
Use a  16 oz blender bottle/cup/container
Fill about 1/3 to 1/2 with ice cubes
1 scoop of the Chocolate Protein Powder
Add about 8 oz of Water or your favorite Unsweetened Non-Dairy Milk (I use a lot of Almond Milk).
Mix/Blend on Blender until smooth.
Enjoy!

The Ice makes it thicker and keeps it colder longer.

Add-In Options
1 Chopped Banana (frozen or fresh)
Or
1/2 of the flesh of one Avocado
OR
1/4 Cup of Walnuts
OR
1 large Shredded Kale Leaf (Now it's a Green Smoothie!)
OR
Any Combination of the Add-In Options
OR
All of the above!

(I apologize for the video with the huge watermark!  I'm still learning!  I guess my videos need to be quite a bit less than 6 minutes in order to have a nice seamless transition from my phone to blog!)

What is your favorite Protein Shake Mix and Recipe???  I'd love to try some new blends in 2016!