Well, I *do* love the color green…

3 Comments » // July 26th, 2009

So it makes perfect sense that I would also love green smoothies and kale chips…except for the fact that although I know I should be a health nut, I am not.  But, thanks to the 21-Day-Detox I did a few months back, and being around so many inspiring, healthy people in the Bay Area (mainly, the lovely HoopGirl herself, Christabel Zamor), I have gotten into making green smoothies for breakfast almost every morning.  I have been asked by so many people for my recipe, so I thought I would just give you an idea here.  I don’t really have specific recipes, they are different every day and I am still trying new things.  It’s sort of trial and error and seeing what works for you.

Let me say first off though, I *do not* have a super nice fancypants VitaMix blender…although I hope to get one someday and I have put it on my vision board.  I sort of have it in my head that if I keep the daily smoothies up for a year, I will buy myself one.  I am almost at 6 months, so that’s pretty cool!  Anyway, I have a Hamilton Beach 10-speed Stay-or-Go Blender that comes with this really cool travel cup for taking my margaritas smoothies on the go!  It didn’t cost me too much and it works really well, and I put some crazy stuff in my smoothies!

So here is my smoothie recipe…I am not a big measurer, so I pretty much eyeball this stuff and vary it depending on my day and how much smoothie I need.

• a banana or two..this is my fave base for a smoothie, but apples are great too
• kale or spinach or some other dark leafy greens.  I have only tried kale and spinach so far, but will do collards soon.  I put a lot of these in…like enough to make a pretty big salad!
• frozen berries: I like strawberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, etc.  I’ve also done peaches, which was pretty good.  You can also do fresh fruits, but I actually like the frozen thing because it helps make my smoothie cold and I love cold beverages.  And yes, my blender blends these frozen fruits just fine…and super fast!
• water, soy milk or coconut water…I sort of eyeball this amount, depending on the other stuff I am putting in and seeing how thick I want it
• Vega powder…man this stuff is amazing and has all the goodies you need in it.  I learned about this stuff from my vegan friend, Allison.  I like the natural and chocolate flavors and have not tried the berry or the vanilla chai yet.  This stuff isn’t the cheapest, but it’s like buying a multi-vitamin and then some and I use it more regularly than I have ever taken a multi-vitamin.  So it’s good for me.
• I then also alternate other goodies in my smoothies depending on my mood or how I am feeling.  These things are: Amazing Grass’s Amazing Meal or other awesome products they have, chia seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, acidopholus, seaweed, bee pollen, Dr. Greens, etc.  I am still playing around with all this stuff and I keep it really simple.  I still need to look at all the nutritional info and get a better plan going to make sure I am getting all the right stuff daily or not overdoing it either.

So yeah, that’s about it.  Then I blend everything up in less than 30 seconds (sometimes I have to stir things around a couple of times in between) and voila!  I also have these amazing glass straws for my smoothies (especially helpful in the to-go cup)…so I am not using plastic straws and being more eco-conscious.  Oh and my smoothies come out way darker than the ones pictured…I think it’s the blueberries mostly…yummy yum yum.

Another thing I have finally gotten into is Kale Chips…yummers!  I cannot believe how much kale has become a part of my diet…my only experience with kale before this year was when I used to work at Godfather’s Pizza (my very first job…yummers again!) and we used it as a garnish for the salad bar…as decoration over the ice holding the buckets of toppings in.  Yeah in my world, kale was not edible and was just for looks…craziness!  It is actually a super food and is considered to be a cancer fighter!

Now the first time I heard about kale chips was through Christabel (again, such an inspiration)…but she makes them in a dehydrator.  She made some for us when we went to the Abraham-Hicks workshop in March, and I was hooked.  Unfortunately, I do not have a dehydrator (another thing for the vision board), so I thought I was out of luck.  But then I found out a couple of my friends were just baking theirs.  I know this isn’t considered raw, but I am not ready to go that whole route just yet, anyway…I need quick, easy and simple things in my life right now in order to be healthy…this is the girl who has been eating fast food her whole life, so I need my healthy food to be pretty fast too!

So I got a recipe from my friend Justine for the Kale Chips…the first time I made them a little too salty…I cannot believe I could ever make anything too salty for me, but I did (when she says a little goes a long way, she means it).  So here is her recipe!

To make the kale chips you will need:

1 bunch of Kale
Olive Oil
Sea Salt….
(and I use nutritional yeast as well, I sprinkle when I am tossing the leaves with the oil…..)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash & dry Kale and rip off the stem into large potato chip sized pieces. Put in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat lightly.

Place leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle to taste with Sea Salt (a little goes a long way). Bake for ten minutes or so until the edges become crispy. Cool & eat!

Yum! Feel free to share this with friends….may we all find (and share) good for us snacks…

p.s. today I added some Onion Powder as well and It rocked it!

Enjoy the kale chips…they really help me when I am in my crunchy, salty mood…which is almost every day!  I have also played around with garlic powder and stuff too…yummy and fun!

And enjoy the smoothies…let me know if you make some cool recipe…I am wanting to experiment with raw cacao and stuff too,  just haven’t had the chance yet.

Here’s to me getting healthier slowly but surely…cheers!