all this becomes.... |
this tiny bit of liquid |
Ok, so after reading about them, and thinking...yes, I need more vegetables and I'm starving after my morning ride, I went for it.
I read some books I bought on Kindle and off I went.
Here is what I have come up with...a very BASIC guide to building your own green smoothie.
1. Fill up your blender with spinach and 1/2 cup of soy milk, or regular milk or water. *I use non-fat vanilla soy. Also note, the better the blender you have the more milk you need, if you have a blendtec or something similar add a bit more milk.
2. blend until you have a lovely bright green liquid at the bottom
3. add two or three more veggies
4. blend
5. add three fruits (make sure one is a "base" fruit i.e. Apple, Mango, Durian, or Banana, these blend well and aren't too water heavy and are strong enough in flavor to take the bitterness out of the greens)
6. blend
7. drink
Seriously. That's all I do.
Try different combinations.
So far my favorite has been
Spinach, Cucumber, 1/4 Red Onion, Apple, Mango, Strawberry.
I would recommend also using other greens like Kale, Mustard, and Arugula.
If you are counting calories these do pack a punch...however, they are all great calories. I am not hungry and full of energy after these. I seriously don't need to eat lunch until later because of these awesome smoothies.
If you are doing intense cardiovascular work before consuming these(like me) I actually have started to add soaked instant oatmeal and steamed and cooled edamame to my smoothies because I need the protein and carbs after 40km on my bike. If you have hemp or soy protein powder I recommend add that too!