Archive for the ‘smoothies’ Category

apple pie smoothie

February 24th, 2010

It’s Smoothie Week here at crunchybits,  and today we’ve got another dessert-like drink for you! When it comes to smoothies in the winter, I find that I’m not looking for light, clean smoothies as much as I do in the summer. I want something richer, warmer, decadent. And today’s smoothie fits the bill.

Apple Pie Smoothie

  • 3 apples
  • 1 banana
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 2 handfuls spinach
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 Tbs ground flax
  • cinnamon to taste
  1. Core and chop apples and banana.
  2. Add raisins, water, and 2 handfuls of spinach.
  3. Blend and enjoy!

Once I got the smoothie to the table with a spoon, I realized that I’d left out the most important ingredient — cinnamon!  So I got our shaker from the cupboard and several shakes and stirs later, YUM! It was perfectly spiced and warming, tart and sweet, green and crunchy.  Thanks to our buckwheat crunchies that is. I would like to try a variation of this with a handful of walnuts some time, but I found this to be a satisfying glass o’ yum for breakfast.

The start of this smoothie (apples, raisins and cinnamon) makes a great applesauce. I like to puree 2/3 of the apples and toss the last bit in just before turning off the blender so that it’s a bit chunky, but again, I like to chew food and find pureed applesauce odd to eat. So, if you don’t want a smoothie but are looking for a quick sweet treat, give it a whirl!

Dante, always the man for a garnish, dressed it up for the camera — slice of kiwi and crunchies spelling S heart, for smoothie love.

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merry tri-greenberry

February 23rd, 2010

Continuing on with our Smoothie Extravaganza, I’m posting one I made this past weekend — hence the full blender. I can’t believe this one came out so purpley. Lots of berries hidden in that blender. Can you spot them? Actually, cherries aren’t berries are they. But I’m going to ignore that and call this glass of goodness

Merry Tri-greenberry

  • tri-green smoothie ingrediets1 apple
  • 3/4 cup blueberries
  • 1/2 cups strawberries
  • 1/2 cup sweet cherries
  • 1 banana
  • 2 beet greens
  • 2 romaine leaves
  • 2 kale leaves
  • 1/2 small container coconut water
  • 2 Tbs hemp seeds
  1. You know the drill. Rinse, chop and blend.

eat your greens!You can see that most of our smoothies are topped with crunchies. Both kids love this aspect of smoothies and we tend to use then nearly every day if we have them. They’re super easy to make and have on-hand, and keep for ages in the cupboard if dehydrated properly. I buy raw buckwheat groats (not kasha, or toasted buckwheat) and soak them for an hour or two in a bowl. The soak water gets very slimy and sometimes you see tiny bubbles form on the surface, almost like when you cook beans but not as foamy. I imagine this happening in my stomach if I ate unsoaked/sprouted buckweat… blech. After soaking, rinse really well until they no longer feel slimy. You can let them sprout for a day or so or pop them straight into the dehydrator for a couple of hours. They don’t take too long to crisp up nicely.

Before I had a dehydrator, I would spread them on clean kitchen towels in the hot summer sun, stirring them up a bit now and then to ensure even drying. I still do this during warmer months, but am glad to have the dehydrator to keep us crunching our smoothies throughout the winter. Last week I made a superyummytastic granola bar with the soaked buckwheat. I only made a bit to try it out, but they were gone in seconds. A hit with everyone in the house, and a perfect on-the-go snack.

sweet crunchy love

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bluebrazzle dazzle

February 22nd, 2010

love, blender styleSince we’re going to be covering smoothies in our raw food class this week, I thought I’d post another. This one is closer to what I drink  most mornings when I start to get hungry. The kids love it, and since the spinach is so mild I can pack a decent number of greens in. Can you see why I choose to plant blueberries and raspberries?

Such a simple, ordinary smoothie begs an ostentatious name, n’est-ce pas? Something along the lines of those at Jera’s Juice, the smoothie shop I remember from our days living in Boston. My favorite was the Razzamatazz, which was basically frozen yogurt with some ice and raspberries in it. With 2 free “enhancers”, of course. These days, my preferred smoothies are more nutrient dense, and with the greens, darker and mauver in color. All those antioxidants and minerals give me the power to make up new words like mauver. What new word have you made up recently?

Without further ado, I give you my tribute to the ghost of smoothies past:

Bluebrazzle Dazzle (extra points if you can say that 10x fast!)
bluebrazzle dazzle ingredients

  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
  • 1-2 Tbs chia seeds
  • 1-2 Tbs flax seeds
  • several handfuls of spinach
  • less than 1 cup of water to thin
  1. I tend to put the fruit cut into chunks on the bottom, then frozen fruit, then greens. All amounts are an approximation. I just pour into the blender til it looks right or the bag is empty.
  2. Sometimes I add the seeds before the greens, sometimes I pour them in once everything has homogenized.
  3. Once everything is in, I add enough water to nearly cover the fruit.
  4. Blend, baby, blend.
  5. We like to top our smoothies with buckwheat crunchies and goji berries, and eat them with a spoon.

I stopped drinking smoothies in early winter because, well, we keep our house relatively cold, and a nice frosty smoothie was often the LAST thing I wanted to drink. But I didn’t feel as well when I started eating things like sprouted toast or oatmeal and hot tea for breakfast as I have in years past.  So I’m back to smoothies, and I’ve found a couple of things to alleviate the situation: I put on my hat, coat and gloves before I sit at the table. Kidding. Well, almost. I do actually wrap up in my snuggly shawl sometimes when I’m particularly feeling the cold, but that’s only til the heat kicks in. Did I mention that I crank the heat to a balmy 65 when I start to make my smoothie? Yes indeedy, it’s a veritable sweat lodge in the kitchen by the time I start to slurp my frigid beverage. I turn it right back to 60 when I’m done, however, so those of you who wear your coats at my place can continue to plan accordingly. Unless you come for smoothie time.

bluebrazzle dazzle in all its gloryI don’t usually “break the fast”  until I’ve been up for a while, so if I remember, I pour the frozen fruit into a bowl and let it defrost until I’m ready. This alters the texture of the smoothie slightly, but nothing horrible and the not-freezing smoothie is more appetizing for me in winter.  Lucky as I am to have a Vita-Mix, I also leave it running for a little bit. You can make warm soups in a Vita-Mix if you let it run for 5-7 minutes. I’m not looking for warm berry soup, but if I run it for 2-3 minutes it does seem to take a bit of the chill off.

I am still experimenting with adding warming spices to the smoothie — ginger, cayenne, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, etc — depending on the other ingredients. The carrot cake smoothie would be an excellent winter warmer since it lends itself to inclusion of lots of those spices, and I imagine chocolate-flavored nut milk drinks would also be delicious with those types of spices. Also, those same spices are credited with having a number of health benefits: cinnamon alone is known for its antiseptic, antibacterial and antifungal properties and has been widely used as a diaphoretic (promotes sweating), parasiticide, antispasmodic, aphrodisiac (hubba hubba!), analgesic (painkilling) and diuretic. Ginger has more than 12 types of antioxidants making it useful for many health issues, is anti-inflammatory and — you guessed it — reputed to be an aphrodisiac!  Love is all you need…



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Carrot Cake Smoothie

February 21st, 2010

carrot flowersBotanically, carrots belong to the Umbelliferae family, which also includes fennel/anise, celery, parsnips, dill, cilantro/cumin, parsley, caraway, Queen Anne’s Lace and the poisonous hemlock. Many of the popular plants in this family works well in the garden as a companion plant. Largely because the tiny flowers forming the umbels, for which the group is named, are perfectly suited for parasitic wasps, ladybugs and predatory flies which drink their nectar. These beneficial insects will then dine upon insect pests on nearby plants. Some of the more fragrant herbs in this family possibly dilute the odors of nearby plants, or the pheromones emitted by pest insects to signal to other pests.

Raw carrots contain vitamin C, vitamin B6, thiamine, folic acid, potassium and magnesium. Carrots are one of the best sources of carotene which is a strong antioxidant and is converted by the body into Vitamin A. Also most of the goodness is actually in, or just below the skin. Many people do not realize that numerous antioxidant compounds are located in the skin of fruit and vegetables, so buy organic where you can for fruits and veggies that have edible peels and don’t peel them before using!  You can get some vitamin K by using the greens on top of the carrot — the carrots themselves don’t have much of this important vitamin, so save those greens for your next green smoothie! Carrots are also known for their sweetening, antianemic, healing, diuretic, remineralizing and sedative properties.

This smoothie isn’t as simple as my usual morning fare, so I only tend to make it once or twice a year as a treat. It’s also incredibly sweet, so seldom is probably better than frequently anyway. But I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks now, and bought an extra bag of carrots to satisfy my craving.

We are lucky to have gotten a juicer from Luke’s parents when our old one broke, but if I didn’t have this I would probably just make a pulpier version in the Vita-Mix. Since I do, I juice the carrots ahead of time. I was making enough for myself and the kids, and while a better juicer might yield more juice with less carrots, I nearly used the entire 5lb bag!

I poured all the carrot juice into the blender and set the pulp aside for a later use (I’ll post that later this week — Luke ate all that I made so I am dehydrating the second batch for pictures).  The kids were playing Harry Potter and had a hard time settling to smoothie, so I’m here to confess that I didn’t push this sweet treat too hard and found an alternative use for the extra smoothie.

Carrot Cake Smoothie

  • 3.5lbs carrots, juiced
  • 2 carrots
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 2 bananas
  • 2-3 dates
  • cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, etc  to taste
  1. I juiced all the carrots, poured this into the blender.
  2. I roughly chopped 2 carrots, added to the blender, along with the bananas, walnuts and spice. I opted for only cinnamon this time to keep it simple.
  3. Blend til smooth. My old Oster blender never managed to get all the little walnut bits, so I had to chew that smoothie more, but this one was pure smooth goodness.

If our ice cream maker hadn’t started leaking freezy fluid, I would pour this in for a  delicious and different raw ice cream. It’s incredibly rich. If making this as a smoothie, I would probably leave out the dates and perhaps one of the bananas. Did I mention that I found this to be incredibly sweet? I don’t remember thinking that at all in the summer when I made this last, so either my carrots were much sweeter or my palate and sensitivity to sweetness has changed. At any rate, it was a lovely, rich treat on a cold winter day.

YUM!

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kitchen sink smoothie

February 12th, 2010

I read Victoria Boutenko’s Green Smoothie Revolution last night. It’s a slim volume and a quick read. Full of inspiring recipes. She lays out the benefits of drinking a quart of green smoothie daily, addresses the need to rotate greens, experiments to compare oxidation of ingredients in smoothies and juices, and touches on serving green smoothies to pets and children. Because the greens are blended, they are broken down further than we tend to do when chewing greens in a salad, thus the nutrients are more readily assimilated.

Luke is usually gone during the week by the time I’ve been up long enough to be hungry. But on the weekends I push the limits of the Vita-Mix to make enough sweet smoothie love for everyone. I also tend to make simple smoothies — 3 or 4, maybe 5 ingredients. But I didn’t have enough of any one thing to make a usual smoothie this weekend, so I ended up scrounging in the fridge and fruit bowl and tossing in whatever I could find to bump up the volume.

ingredientsKitchen Sink Smoothie:

  • apple
  • banana
  • mango
  • frozen strawberries
  • frozen cherries
  • 1 carrot
  • 5 leaves kale
  • 2 leaves romaine
  • 2 Tbs chia seeds
  • 2 Tbs ground flaxseeds

kitchen sink smoothie in the blenderRoughly chop all fruits and carrot, add to blender. Destem kale a bit, tear kale and romaine and add to blender. Add a cup or two or water, coconut water, herbal infusion or juice and blend!

Once the mixture is blended up, add chia and flax seeds and process for a little bit more.

We love buckwheat crunchies and goji berries on top of our smoothies. I soak, rinse and dehydrate raw (not toasted) buckwheat groats which keep pretty well in a jar in the cupboard. These add a nice crunch to the smoothie. Sometimes I sprinkle some chia seeds on top if I haven’t added them directly to the smoothie. If you do add them to the smoothie, only do so if you’ll be consuming them immediately. The lovely mucilaginous properties of chia turn your smoothie into a puddingish dish that you may not have been expecting.

not so green but oh so delicious smoothieTip for green smoothie joy — mix it up. Don’t make the same smoothie every day. Your body needs the variety that different mixes bring, and eating the same greens all the time allows the alkaloids present in that particular green to build up and cause trouble. It is not as important to rotate the fruit since they rarely contain alkaloids, but a greater variety will ensure a more well-rounded nutrient intake and is something you should shoot for.  My green smoothies aren’t always green (using red or blue berries will ensure a lovely mauveish brown color) but they sure are sweet!



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