Smoothie Basics

Smoothie Basics – by Angie Mohr

Have you been letting your blender collect dust? If you have, it’s probably time that you brush off that dust and get blending! Most people are in a hurry when they eat, and don’t chew enough. Blending the food makes it more bioavailable for the body. Unless you have perfect digestion and regularity (I don’t know anyone who does), and take your time to chew raw vegetation until it’s pure liquid before swallowing, it’s probably a good idea to give the digestive system a break so it can work on healing whatever needs healing. Your body doesn’t multitask well, and digestion takes up a huge percentage of your body’s energy. As an added note, “even though you are drinking, it is always a good idea to “chew” your juice.” Digestion can begin with a thought and/or smell, but then digestive enzymes are released into the mouth from chewing as well.
I used to think smoothies needed juice or flavored yogurt to make them taste good. Then I bought a nutribullet several years ago, which came with a recipe book. I tried some of those recipes and was amazed that the only thing needed besides the solid ingredients is water! Here’s a simple guide to building a 100% raw, whole food, nutritionally dense smoothie. There are countless additions you can include to make it even more nutritionally dense, but unless you’re on a strict keto diet and don’t want any fruit this is a great base recipe to start with, then change the ratio to more greens etc and less fruit as your taste buds get used to the greens, and add any supplements/superfoods that you want to add in.
1. 50% greens – spinach, collard greens, romaine, spring greens, kale, swiss chard.
2. 50% fruits – as many as you want but that equal the amount of greens – Green apple, avocado, banana, blackberry, blueberry, cantaloupe, cranberry, fig, green grapes, guava, honeydew, kiwi, mango, nectarine, orange, papaya, peach, pear, pineapple, plum, raspberries, red grapes, strawberry, watermelon.
3. Add ¼ cup in total of the following for more fiber and nutrition – NUTS – Cashews, Walnuts, Almonds. SEEDS – chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds. BERRIES – Acai Berries, Goji Berries, Golden Berries.
If you are using a Nutribullet you just fill the cup up to the line then blend. I find in a bigger blender you don’t need to have it immersed fully in water, just try half that much water first, and adjust to your preference. Couldn’t be easier. These are guidelines from the NutriBullet book. There are quite a few recipes in the book under different categories, and I have heard the book doesn’t come with the blender any more, which is a shame for the recipes but good in a way because there was some pretty mixed up info in the book. Example, gave a list of seeds to avoid like apple seeds because of the cyanide, and I think most of us know that is just wrong. Add the entire apple if you’re going to use apple, but best to use green apples.
Additions that I add regularly:Concentrace Minerals (always) Nutritional Yeast Ginger Turmeric Carrot Protein powder (sprouted, hemp, grass fed whey protein powder. Sunflower lecithin Green Banana Flour (prebiotic and resistance starch) Maca powder or any superfood powder you like to take. Iodine (because you won’t taste it) Vitamin C Mushroom powders (eg. chaga, reishi, lion’s mane)
Pumpkin seed powder extract AND too many more to mention.

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