Green Smoothies
Green smoothies are a great way to increase greens in our diet. There are some simple guidelines to follow then the rest is up to experimentation. For the many health benefits visit www.rawfamily.com
Tips
- Use 60% organic fresh fruit and 40% raw greens
- Keep the greens to just a few per smoothie
- Vary the greens regularly to avoid alkaloids (plants natural defense toxins) building up in your system, say every three or four days
- Know your greens – make sure what you are eating is safe eaten raw for humans – carrot greens are not recommended, also baby comfrey leaves are too toxic
- If you have thyroid issues avoid the Brassica family, or be sure to limit them and make sure you are having plenty of iodine (kelp, seaweed, celtic sea salt)
- Listen to your body – if the thought of a green smoothie that day feels unattractive listen to that. If you feel unwell or tired after a green smoothie consider the ingredients or try lessening the amount, timing or frequency of your smoothie.
- For those that are sensitive to fruit sugars, you can try savory smoothies using ginger, lemon, grapefruit, cucumber, avocado, lime pickle.
Ingredients
- Fresh pure water, 1/4 of the desired amount of smoothie you wish to drink or as desired
- 40% raw greens – keep the flavors mellow – bitter is fine, but hot flavors may not be what you are after. Here is a selection of what I rotate through, certain times of the year are more difficult for variety… parsley, mint, lemon balm, pineapple sage, chicory, dandelion, winter lettuce, miners lettuce, cos lettuce, silver beet (who would have thought after all those traumatic meals as a child), zucchini leaves, cucmber leaves, nasturtium, grape leaves, spinach, kale, brassica leaves – broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, watercress, pak choy and tatsoi. There are more, but this will get you going, and give you some ideas for what to plant in your garden.
- 60 % organic fruit – choose a few or even one of… banana, berries, stone fruit, pears, kiwifruit, feijoa, lemon, grapefruit, pineapple, mango, papaya and more!
Preparation
Place your water into your blender. If your blender is not very powerful chop your greens and blend half first, adding the next half when the water is green! Add fruit broken or chopped into smaller bits the size of a large walnut shell and all. Blend till smooth. Drink slowly – taking into consideration how much fruit you are ingesting! Store in a jar to travel with. Keeps out of the fridge for half a day at room temperature, and in the fridge for a day. Shake to blend prior to drinking. Enjoy!
NOTE Pineapple’s enzymes will start breaking the protein down within 20 min so your smoothie will start to look a little odd, stir and consume asap.
Superfoods Smoothie
Ingredients for a smoothie for 2
- A small handful of Goji Berries ( I recommend Tibetan, and at the least organic)
- 10 Almonds (organic is best)
- A teaspoon of Nettle tea
- A tsp of Oat straw tea
- A handful of berries – fresh, frozen or some other antioxidant rich food like dark grapes
- 1 banana
- 1 tblsp heaped cacao powder – raw organic
- 1 tblsp cacao nibs ground -raw organic
- Additional extras – 1/2 tsp bee pollen, 1/2 tsp Maca (not for the Estrogen dominance), raw coconut flesh and milk
Preparation
Over night, soak goji and almonds in a mug of filtered water and tea’s in a one cup plunger in a cup of hot water
When your ready, pile everything (including the goji water) into your blender and blend twice to make it creamy
Travels in a jar, and will keep out of the fridge at room temp for half the day, not sure beyond that as I cannot ignore mine any longer than that
For more insight on these super foods, check out David Wolfe’s book ‘Superfoods’. Or go to http://www.davidwolfe.com/
To source ingredients above check out www.purewellbeing.co.nz
Vege Juice
Ingredients
- 5 organic carrots per person
- 1/8 medium sized beetroot
- 1 piece of fresh tumeric – the size of the last two knuckles of your little finger
- 1 stalk celery – only if organic – too heavily sprayed otherwise
- Juice of 1 grapefruit or 1/2 a lemon or 1 lime to be added once veges are juiced
- Options – 1/4 apple. If your juicer is a masticator like Champion, Oscar or green max, you may like to add a handfull of wheatgrass.
Preparation
Wash if necc, chop, juice and enjoy slowly!
Raw Crackers
Beyond Bliss Balls
Ingredients
- 1 mug brazil nuts
- 1/2 mug almonds
- 1/2 mug pumpkin seeds
- 1 level tablespoon freshly ground cardamom
- 1 1/2 mugs organic dried apricots- roughly chopped to start them off
- 1/2 mug sultanas
- 3/4 mug coconut shredded
- 1/3 mug cocoa nibs (raw chocolate)
Preparation
In a food processor with an S blade grind the nuts (not coconut), seeds and spice till soft with no hard lumps- you may need to do half at a time to get consistency with the grinding. Put in a bowl.
Do the same with the fruit and coconut, you will definitely need to do half at a time. You will know they are done when the mix balls up as it goes around in the food processor.
Add half the nut mix to half the fruit mix in the blender and blend together. Repeat with the last half.
Place all the ingredients in a large enough bowl and sprinkle in cocoa nibs- stir to mix in.
Roll into balls or logs of desired size and shape, store in an airtight container in the fridge. I have only ever eaten them before they have gone bad- so no idea of shelf life. Test your will power if you like.