Feeling Fancy: Nutty Kale Surprise - Smoothie

My breakfast in a stemless martini glass!

It wasn't so bad adjusting back to being home after my glorious weekend in Seattle with my oldest and dearest friends. Sure, I miss the spa, the great meals, the company of course, and not having to wipe anyone else's butt. I did come home to a spotless house because like a smart woman I scheduled house cleaners to come in and do a DEEP (and I do mean DEEP) clean right before I left. I was not overwhelmed when I returned. I did all my household laundry before my trip so when I returned I mostly had only my vacay laundry to do. I was right on schedule.

I drool over this type of selection, am I crazy?

While I got to enjoy visiting Pikes Place Market last weekend, I did miss out shopping at our local Farmer's Market. I got to go yesterday with both of my sons before baseball practice and stocked up on kale! It's been over a week since my last green smoothie and I was having a craving!! Apparently Monkey was too, as he asked for one also. I love it!!!

I decided to mix it up a bit this time. Of course, I used some of my favorite ingredients that I typically use in my kale smoothies with a little addition!

Nutty Kale Surprise
2 large kale leaves, hard stems removed and chopped
1 cup blueberries
1 ripe banana
2 tablespoons crunchy almond butter
1 cup crushed ice
1/2 cup water
1 cup non-dairy "milk" of your choice

Whirrrrrrrrr it up and you're done! Voila!

I loved the crunch of the almond butter! It also made crunching the bits of kale, which I really don't mind at all, less noticeable. I find banana makes my smoothies sweet enough, but some of you may want additional sweetener in the form of a non-sugar such as Stevia or even a maple syrup. Enjoy!!!

Have you tried almond butter? I bought it for myself and thought I could sub it out sometimes in my son's sandwiches but he's not having it. He didn't even mention it in his smoothie this morning, so I guess the Deceptively Delicious concept worked in my favor here!

Stay smart and delicous!

Drinking the Blues Away

I know, if you see one more of these on my blog you might not come back! Sorry!

It seems I've been talking non-stop about my green smoothie obsession lately. I chat about them with my running buddy in the morning, and my posts on my Facebook page seem to generate a lot of commentary and interest. Even more recently, one of the gals on my Running Moms group on Facebook has indicated she is trying to eat more veggies to fight depression and our group has had some exchanges on that topic. I'm seriously starting to feel like people are going to think I've gone off the deep-end. I was starting to wonder about myself until I got to thinking the smoothies were the reason I have been so inexplicably happy lately.

Really, I do have a lot of things in life to be thankful for. I tell my husband all the time, "We have our health." We are fortunate to have jobs at all in this economy, we have healthy children, we have a roof over our heads. But frankly, I've got a lot of stress and worry on my shoulders these days too. Up until a few weeks ago I was beginning to wonder how on earth I was going to come out of all of this. My circumstances haven't changed in the slightest over the last few weeks, not even budged but for whatever reason I feel GREAT. Weird, huh?

I tried to attribute it to some sort of epiphany. You can check out that post here. But the more I think about it, I think I drank the Kool-Aid smoothie.

Go ahead and Google "vegetables and depression" and a whole litany of material will come up about the topic. Vegetables, particularly raw veggies have vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function. Lack of some of them have a direct influence on depression and mood. I think what I have inadvertently done, with all my spinach and kale, is increase my folic acid (B9) and B6 and have given myself a natural high!

All I know is I really do feel much happier, less funk-y, and I am so happy that I am doing something that is good for me. Something natural that is actually working! Yeah, so I sound loony, and guess what? I am too happy to care.

Happy Hump Day! You know I love Wednesday!

FTW! Kale Smoothie - Trial and Error

Now THIS concoction is something I will look forward to!

Ok, I think I've got it now. Last time I made a juice-based smoothie with my kale. As you may have read, I liked it a lot better than I thought I would but still wanted to experiment with flavor as it was just a little bitter. This time, I used less kale (approximately 2 cups instead of 3). I also used almond milk instead of orange juice. I found that this counteracted the bitterness in the kale much more than juice. This one was really good. We had a leftover fruit salad from Costco that someone brought over on the 4th, and it was perfect for throwing into the 'Bullet.

Beautiful , healthy kale

I used a whole banana, a couple days too ripe for eating plain.

The banana had the perfect sweetness for this smoothie

 I chose some mango, blueberries, a couple strawberries and melon from the fruit salad. (My kids don't like melon or mango. Perfect).

I chose fruit from this leftover salad that I knew my kids wouldn't eat

 I used a cup of my favorite almond milk.  And a cup of crushed ice.

I buy 2 of these when I go to Trader Joe's now!

I did not stuff my MB full of kale this time

 No extra spices or sweeteners were necessary for this delicious  - and I mean DELICIOUS - smoothie. I could really taste the banana, and I like banana. Whirrrr...and voila! Enough for 2 of us!

Not as green as the other smoothies I made. Sort of Shamrock-ish

 I can't wait to buy more kale at the Farmer's Market this weekend. Consider me hooked!!!

I know not everyone will have a fruit salad handy like I did but what's great about smoothies is the recipe doesn't have to be exact.

Recipe for Hungrigyrl Kale-Banana Delite:
2 cups kale, rinsed and lightly chopped (discard tough stems at the end)
1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup mango
1 ripe banana
1/4 cup honeydew or cantaloupe (I used both)
2 strawberries (optional)
1/2 cup crushed ice (optional)

I really want all you green smoothie skeptics to give this a try. Unless you hate bananas, you will love this smoothie!

Kale. It's What's For Breakfast

Me and the Magic Bullet are getting to be good friends. Today I decided to try a kale smoothie after my run. I know kale is really good for you, but I've only had it sauteed with olive oil and garlic or cooked in some way, where it is softened and less bitter. So I was a little scared, but I went for it.

Hungrigyrl's Krazy Kale Smoothie:

2 cups rinsed, chopped kale (discard the tough stems)
1 cup orange juice
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries
1 teaspoon maple agave syrup from Trader Joe's
2 dashes of cinnamon
1 cup water
1 cup ice (optional)

I used about half of this

I used orange, but I bet apple juice would be good too

I wish I could grow blueberries, we eat them like crazy!

I wanted to use the whole banana for sweetness to balance out the kale

Loving this stuff lately!

Cinnamon is a staple around here

Before....

...and AFTER!

Kale is definitely more bitter than spinach. When I made my spinach smoothie I didn't mind so much if there were little chunks of spinach. However, with the kale I really notice them so I definitely let the 'Bullet do its thing for a bit longer. It is definitely key to add sweetness to balance out the flavor. I have to say I really was surprised at how much I liked it, more than I expected. I've got lots of kale and nothing to do with it so will be experimenting a bit more this weekend, when I am not indulging in holiday bbq and alcohol. I handed my husband his kale smoothie this morning and I said, "I guarantee this is the healthiest thing you will put in your body all day." He agreed.

Have you tried a kale smoothie? Try my recipe and let me know what you think! Or share your own, I'm looking forward to having fun with this!

Be A Good Girl Now and Drink Your Veggies!

Over the last couple years I have been seeing info on the web about people making "green smoothies". It always looked like something I would try, if I wasn't so lazy. Seriously, I think God invented Jamba Juice so we would never have to clean our blender, right? Well, last week, one of my Running/Recipe Mama  friends on Facebook Adventure Junkie Mom posted something about the Green Monster Movement. I happened to be going to the Farmer's Market the next day, so I picked up a huge bunch of spinach along with my usual goodies like blueberries, bread, strawberries, etc. I came home and poked around on the website, pulled out the Magic Bullet and decided to go for it.

Trusty Dusty MB

Big Bad Bunch of Greens

 I eyeballed what looked to be about 3 cups of spinach, and rinsed well. Set aside

I also rinsed 1/2 cup of blueberries. Set aside.

I poured 1-1/2 cups of almond milk in the Magic Bullet.

I added my spinach and blueberries, as well as half of a very large banana, so you could use  a whole small banana!

I like my smoothies with some cold, icy crunch to them so I added a 1/2 cup of crushed ice and fired the bad boy up. 

I poured some out for me and my husband and my Monkey said he wanted to try some. I also told him the Green Smoothie would make him powerful. He really liked it.

I was a little nervous about trying this, but I must say, I am going to work these into my regular diet plan. They did not taste "veggie" at all. Ignoring the obvious green color, these smoothies taste like regular fruit smoothies. And I got a massive dose of greens without having to eat a huge salad, which I don't mind but its nice to have some variety. Even better, you can drink this on the go if you are pressed for time. If you have thought about trying a green smoothie, you should give it a "whirl".

Have you ever tried a "green smoothie"? What did you think?