How to make green smoothies

image

The process for making green smoothies is very simple. The hardest part is cleaning the blender, but even that gets to be routine, habitual and easy after doing it long enough. Don’t be like my dad… actually take it apart completely when cleaning it!

Now, depending on the width of the bottom of the smoothie jar you will likely want to start with some liquid. The cleanest water you can find does the trick. If you decide to use coconut water, keep in mind the sweetness of it when considering the ratio of greens to fruit later on. Now, a lot of people like to include freshly squeezed orange juice for the base but for a quick fast convenient green smoothie, water is the way to go really. Nut milks are good too.

Ratio of greens to fruit

When first getting used to “drinking greens” a higher fruit-to-greens ratio is probably appropriate. Starting with spinach, being mild flavored is a good choice. For convenience sake, dumping in frozen fruit is an OK option. For health sake, picking wild fruit from a tree in a nearby forest might be more appropriate. Somewhere in the middle doesn’t hurt either.

A handful of greens to start is fine, but jumping up to two, even three or four might be something to strive for. I found that “adult” kale was the hardest to get used to (plus bitters like dandelion greens), but parsley and spinach were some of the simpler tastes to accept in the beginning stages.

Gaining weight or losing weight

Adding a handful of soaked figs adds to the calories, nutritional value and fiber of the smoothie. Adding them regularly can actually encourage weight gain, and that’s fine if that’s your goal. Other weight gain smoothies might contain ingredients such as gobs of coconut oil, vegan protein powders (Vega Sport Performance Protein or pine pollen powder are good choices), bovine colostrum (non vegan), and butter (non vegan obviously).

For green smoothie weight loss, simply replacing meals and sticking to just water, fruit and greens, the weight will likely come off.

Cleaning up and storing

It’s best to get in the habit to clean the bender right away after use, especially if you are trying to make a go at drinking smoothies frequently. It’s harder to stay motivated on a green smoothie cleanse or way of life having to clean the blender before making the smoothie, than it is cleaning it after.

Also, I have found that Mason jars work great for storing extra in the fridge (for half a day usually at most), and also for drinking from. It’s cheap enough to get a box of 500 ml, 1 L, and 2 L Mason jars, and they are so versatile, the jars will all come in handy for other things. I use them to store things that are normally stored in plastic, for example.

Michelle Bosmier
Raw Michelle is a natural health blogger and researcher, sharing her passions with others, using the Internet as her medium. She discusses topics in a straightforward way in hopes to help people from all walks of life achieve optimal health and well-being. She has authored and published hundreds of articles on topics such as the raw food diet and green living in general.

( http://www.rawfoodhealthwatch.com/ )