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Health & Fitness

Adventures in Green Smoothies

So I may be slightly behind the trend here but since I purchased a fancy new Ninja blender, I have recently started blending my own green smoothies and after a gut busting Fat Darrell from the beloved Grease Trucks yesterday (most of which I didn't even end up eating), I figured today would be a perfect opportunity to blog about these delicious, nutritious treats. As you may of may not know, green smoothies are a smoothie blended with an assortment of leafy greens (such as kale, spinach, collards, herbs etc.) and fruit with water, coconut water, green tea, almond milk as a liquid base as opposed to a traditional milk or yogurt base. For those of us who don't like to muscle down a traditional salad, this is a great way to get all the nutritional benefits in a much more convenient, easier to digest way. They do look a bit scary and at first may taste a bit "grassy" but as you make them more often you can tinker with the ingredients to come up with a product you will look forward to drinking. Here is a basic smoothie recipe you can whip up in no time that will keep you full and energized throughout the day. Start with about 2-3 heaping handfuls of kale (I kept the stems on but you can remove them, also feel free to use any of the substitutions I listed above if you don't like kale), 2 chopped Gala apples (mangoes are also a great substitute for sweetness and vitamin B), 1 chopped lemon peel on (citrus fruits are great because of the added vitamin C and they help mask the "grassy" taste), 1 knuckle of chopped and peeled fresh ginger (we should measure more things in "knuckles") about 1/2 cup of water (you can always add more later) and a few cubes of ice. As I noted I left the kale stems and peels on everything just be sure to really pulverize the smoothie with your blender so you're not picking lemon rind out of your teeth later. Add more liquid as needed (again feel free to try different liquids such as green tea, coconut water, almond milk as you become more comfortable with green smoothies) and Voila! a delicious breakfast or lunch on the go that will give you energy and focus throughout the day and keep your body trim and healthy.   

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