© mizina
As I’m writing this blog post, I’m sipping a glass of green smoothie. How apt. Indulging in what some people would call “drinks wankery”. 😛
I’ve always called green smoothies “green juice”. I didn’t know that “green juice” meant cold-pressed juice or just juice that’s extracted from veggies. I’ve always called them green juice. But now I know that what I’ve been drinking daily for the past couple of years are green smoothies. This means that I drink all of the fibrous pulp that are blended in the blender too.
Just a little over two years ago, Tim bought a fancypants blender for green juicing. Prior to that, we were not green juice/smoothies drinkers. We’ve never purchased any from vendors in shops. I didn’t know what got into Tim to buy an expensive blender (while it’s not a Vitamix blender, it’s still an expensive one from Bio Chef that costs well over $300) given that we don’t have the habit of green juicing. But I figured it wouldn’t hurt if he enjoys drinking green smoothies because he’ll get to meet his daily intake of fruits and veggies.
Me, I wasn’t so into the idea because I wasn’t a fan of green smoothies. I once had a badly blended one and I had to eat the very “green” tasting bits of beaten up spinach that was floating in the smoothie. It tasted pretty bloody awful and I told myself I wouldn’t drink another green smoothie ever again. I even had bits of spinach pulp stuck in my teeth! Why the heck do people even enjoy such drinks? *shudder*
Prior to getting the Bio Chef blender, I had a much cheaper, conventional Kenwood blender that I used to blend banana smoothies, curry pastes, etc. I tried making a green smoothie with that blender and soon learned why you need a good, professional-level blender to make green juices because regular blenders just don’t cut the mustard. In order to cut and crush veggies and fruit into tiny drinkable pulp, you need a very good blender for it. Blenders like Vitamix, Blendtec, etc actually have blunt blades instead of sharp ones that surprisingly do a much better job in blending the crap out of veggies compared to conventional blenders with sharp blades. Yeah, go figure. 😛
When Tim started making green smoothies with the new blender, I wouldn’t touch those green smoothies with a ten-foot pole. The thought of drinking spinach and celery was hard to stomach. Yuck. One day, Tim challenged me to just a sip of his green smoothie that contained baby spinach leaves, celery, carrot, green apple, orange and beetroot, and if I didn’t like it, I never have to touch any of those green smoothies and he wouldn’t bug me about it ever again. So I did.
After that one sip, I actually drank the whole glass of green smoothie. It tasted so good!
I couldn’t taste those individual veggies at all. When blended well, I couldn’t actually pick out any of the leaves or bits of beetroot and celery. The combination was a deliciously sweet conconction of fibrous goodness. They were fantastic during the warm summer months and just as well during the cold months. They’re pretty filling too, which meant helped me cut down on my afternoon snacking.
© xxolgaxx
Soon, I was drinking a glass of green smoothie daily. These green smoothies have helped fulfill and many times even go over my required daily intake of fruits and veggies. Sometimes when I’m rushing for time, I’ll even bring it in the car with me and sip on it during traffic light breaks.
Green smoothies haven’t just helped my daily bowel movement tremendously (I’m not the kind who could naturally do a number 2 daily), they have also improved my overall health. It also shows in my skin. It’s plumper and smoother than before (I wouldn’t just credit my skincare routine for it for I know that all that extra fruits and greens I’ve been having daily have certainly helped). After each run, I’d guzzle down a glass of green smoothie from the fridge. It’s not only delicious, but very refreshing too.
When I’m away on holiday, I actually find myself missing green smoothies. Even though my mother-in-law back in Malaysia has a Vitamix blender, the lack of the required greens is frustrating. Organic veggies are terribly expensive in Malaysia; even the non-organic ones like baby spinach are shockingly dear. It’s no wonder why my Malaysian friends couldn’t do much green-juicing, not when those greens cost so much.
However, if you have access to affordable leafy greens and veggies, I highly recommend getting into the habit of drinking green smoothies daily. We get a mixture of organic and non-organic fruits and veggies for our green smoothies (you can get 1kg baby spinach leaves very cheaply at Costco. ONE KILO!).
There are plenty of green smoothies recipes online. Just head over to Pinterest, type “green smoothies recipes” into the Search bar and then fall down that rabbit hole that is Pinterest. There’s also a great website called Simple Green Smoothies that I refer to regularly. Tim usually just gets whatever’s on sale and throw them into the blender. It’s highly recommended to put in a higher ratio of veggies to fruits as fruits contain a lot of sugar. Our green smoothies are usually 3:2 in terms of veggies to fruits. You can also throw in frozen berries for extra sweetness if you’re not keen on the “green” taste of veggie juice alone. Add a bit of lemon juice and ginger into your green smoothies for an extra kick. For someone who was adverse to green smoothies and juices, it took me just one well-blended green smoothie to make me fall in love with green smoothies and made them a daily drink.
My mum hadn’t had any green smoothies before until she tried one that Tim made for her when she visited us last year. She’s usually not a fan of such drinks but even she liked them and requested that Tim made one for her every day that she was in Melbourne. Each time we Skyped, whenever she sees me drinking a green smoothie, she’d say “aww I miss Tim’s green juice!“. 😛
If you haven’t tried green smoothies before, do give them a go. Watch out for those sold in shops and make sure that they do not add sugar/syrup into the mixture and that they add more veggies than fruit. If you’re game on trying this at home but don’t want to splurge on a Vitamix or similar blender, then try the smaller Nutribullet-style blenders as they’re cheaper. Unfortunately, conventional all-round blenders won’t really work as well on veggies (they’re all right on fruit but not veggies. And mind you, too much fruit = a heck lot of sugar!).
Whaddyaknow. I actually like and drink eat kale now. Tsk tsk. 😛
Cheers! *clink my glass of green smoothie with yours*
But what’s your favourite recipe? Haven’t had a green smoothie in a while……maybe it’s time to crack out the blender!
Believe it or not, we don’t actually even have a favourite recipe! Tim literally throws in a handful of roughly chopped celery, kale, baby spinach leaves, carrots, oranges, apples and whatever frozen fruits I have lying around (usually the mixed variety). The usual suspects for a green smoothie. It’s nothing interesting. In fact, I keep telling Tim to try new recipes from Simple Green Smoothies and he’s like, nah, too lazy to think, just throw in the usual suspects. 😛
I decided to drink that tasteless green tea anyways even though i don’t like it. Each day i used to drink one cup of green tea right after eating but one day there were no green tea in the house and i started to feel that something is wrong!!
Green tea can be pretty addictive like that. 😛