"Our bodies are our gardens-- our will are our gardeners." William Shakespeare (or, as I affectionately refer to him: "Billy Shakers")
It's the new year! Again! I'm pretty sure the last time I posted in this blog consistently it was "the new year" which, of course, is now last year. Ah, the best laid plans...
At any rate, although I try to believe that every day is a fresh start, the idea of a brand new year can be very inspiring. It's a chance to put all the bull shit of last year behind us, start fresh and make changes.
That said, I didn't make any resolutions this year. Not because I don't believe in resolutions, but because I think we should train ourselves to make resolutions and changes throughout the year, not just at the beginning of it. Still, I was feeling pretty 'resolutioney' the last couple days, when all of a sudden two things hit me:
1. I love smoothies
2. I have a brand new Ninja 1200.
oh and also 3. I love vegetables (especially in smoothies)
Okay, it was more than two things. It was a pretty inspired revelation, but I didn't say it made me good at counting.
So yea, I decided to start making (and consuming) "green" smoothies.
If you aren't familiar, a green smoothie is a smoothie with lots of vegetables, that usually winds up looking very questionable, but tasting delicious. The idea is that when you mix up lots of raw vegetables with raw fruit, it masks the taste. But I find, the vegetables themselves taste good. Once you get used to it.
I used to make smoothies all the time, but with yogurt. But for this smoothie, I wanted to "super fucking healthy" approach, which means: no sugar, no yogurt, no anything except raw veggies and fruits.
...
But, I told myself I would probably cave and add sugar, just so I wasn't dissapointed later on. Au contra ire silly mind of self. This smoothie is completely delish, and like, the healthiest thing you will ever eat. I promise. Make it, and that Shakespeare guy? He was pretty smart. Our bodies really kind of are our gardens. If we take care of them, they take care of us.
Here's to a healthy and inspired 2013.
Billy's Shakespeare's Heathy Garden Smoothie
*Note, if you don't have a really legit blender, this might wind up chunky. Proceed with caution.
Ingredients
4 Stalks of Bok Choy (use the green part and the white stalk part)
3 Stalks of celery (even if you are a celery hater, use this. You won't taste it)
3 ish handfuls of fresh spinach (I'm guessing 2-3 cups?)
2 Carrots- chopped
1/2 C- 1 C fresh/frozen cranberries, depending how tart you want your smoothie. (buy these when they are in season in the winter, and freeze them, they are so great to have on hand)
2 handfuls (like 1 C?) fresh/frozen raspberries
2 C red grapes
2 Bananas
1 Orange (peeled, seeded)
1/2 C water (more or less, depending how thick you want it. I didn't use any water, and it was delicious but very very thick after it sat for a minute)
Directions:
It doesn't really matter what order you blend, however, I found that blending the bok choy, celery and spinach first created a liquid that made blending the rest easier.
So I did that, then added everything else in, a little at a time, and blending after each addition so it all got emulsified.
--I also added in a couple handfuls of this and that (Grapes, cranberries, etc) at the very end, until it tasted the way I wanted it.
Again, I didn't add water, but probably should have towards the end.--
Blend all of the deliciousness together. Pour into glass. Devour.
Yield: three big glasses, maybe four? I guess I should start measuring this stuff. It was quite a bit, but not as much as I thought at first.
Also, just a little FYI: I typed this up after drinking my smoothie. I seriously have enough energy to go run around the block, and I have had 5 hours of sleep, got up at 5am, worked all day teaching small children, ran an obscene amount of errands and didn't get home until 6:30. I was wiped out when I got home, and I should definitely be exhausted now. Go smoothie go!
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