Posts Tagged ‘Vita-Mix’
Strawberry Banana Smoothie
It is oh so simple but oh so good. Anywould would LOVE this. Adults, kids, people who don’t like to eat fruits and veggies, health freaks, EVERYBODY.
It looks good and tastes better. I am drinking this right now before heading to work (after teaching morning yoga practice). You don’t even need a great blender (like a Vita-Mix) to do it (though I think everything tastes better in a Vita-Mix!).
Recipe = 1/2 pint of organic strawberries + 3 medium sized organic bananas + 12-16 ounces water
Makes 3 tall glasses of smoothie goodness. About 350 calories or less. Plenty of fiber, vitamin C and other natural antioxidants. More potassium than you could ever hope for.
Pineapple and Kale Smoothie
Behold, the power of the Vita-Mix! I had a green smoothie after yoga class today. It consisted of one-half of a medium sized organic pineapple and 4 large leaves of dino kale. I strip the thick stem out of the kale, and just throw the dark green leaves in.
This tastes really good. The sweet and tangy-ness of the pineapple is the over-riding flavor, but the slight bitterness of the kale also comes through. What a great way to get greens into your diet!
Put the raw ingredients in the Vita-Mix + 16 ounces of water (depending on how thick you want it to be). Blend it for 60 seconds and you are good to go. It comes to about 250-300 calories in total, almost all from the fresh organic pineapple. In fact, some feel that pineapple is practically a negative calorie food due to it’s digestive enzymes, high fiber and vitamin content.
Your Perfect Meal
I’m really into my blender drinks. I start out every morning with one, before work and even on weekends. I’ll add anywhere from 8-10 ingredients…a real mess of things. It’s tasty, organic, cleansing, energizing, alkalizing, hydrating, satiating and yes….I said tasty.
My drinks get pretty crazy because of all the great stuff I throw in there. When in doubt….toss it in. My Vita-Mix does the trick every time. If you don’t have a high quality blender…get one…..my Vita-Mix is one of the best investments I’ve made. I didn’t think there was a difference between a $40 blender and a $400 blender….but now I know that there is. You’ll never taste a smoothie so smooth.
My blender drinks are perfect meals. In the morning, they are so packed with nutrition, that if this one drink was the only nourishment I had all day, I would be alright. Note that I said if, since I do eat several snacks and lunch every day.
I enjoy the process of eating, but modern day lifestyles make it tough to just sit around and chew all day. That’s why blenders are so valuable. They also take foods that might not taste great on their own (e.g. raw cacao, spirulina, maca root) and make them down right tasty when blended with banana, honey, dates, berries or other fruits.
Blenders also pulverize food to the point where your body can more easily assimilate nutrients. I typically have a second smoothie after my yoga practice in the evening, while I am preparing dinner. This will be lighter drink (about 3-5 ingredients).
I am a big believer that any craving for food is ultimately born from a craving for nutrients. We are so used to eating calorically dense foods are nutrient light. Pizza, pasta, rice, sandwiches, etc. Lacking the nutrients it needs, the body starts to crave more food. This causes us to eat even more calorically dense foods in a desperate attempt to get the right nutrition. In most cases, this nutrition is in the form of key vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes. Unfortunately, our food choices rarely give us what we need. We get tons of calories but not enough real nutrition.
Blender drinks give you a way to consumer natural superfoods in a user friendly way. These superfoods (cacao, maca root, flax, goji berries and hemp are my favorites) are ridiculously nutrient dense. For example, cacao (raw chocolate beans) have > 5x the antioxidants of blueberries and is the top sources of minerals like sulfur and magnesium out of all food products. A high quality meal with these superfoods make food cravings a thing of the past. They make a perfect meal.
