Smoothies

VeganVegetarianSmoothieSnackKid friendlyAllergy Options

12 Mar

Smoothies are delicious, nutrient dense and are made in our kitchen everyday. Use whole natural foods as ingredients, experiment and mix it up and develop your specialty and favourites, tailoring the smoothie to you and your families needs and tastes. Smoothies are a whole food nutritious meal or snack as they include the important fibre of the fruits and vegetables, protein with nuts and seeds (or protein powders) and beneficial fats in the form of avocado or coconut. This is how a smoothie differs from a cold-pressed juice - the whole food is used.

Go with the seasons and choose what is plentiful and fresh in the fruit and vegetable department, choose your liquids - organic unhomogenised milk, almond mylk, coconut water/milk/cream, any nut milk or rice milk, and add some protein - nuts and seeds.

Add any optional extra nutrient dense foods such as those listed below-

ginger
tumeric
spirulina
maca powder
acai powder
goji berries
berries
nuts and seeds

A few things to consider when making your smoothies:

Use organic or chemical free ingredients when possible, we are aiming to eat nutrient dense foods and not further burden our digestive system with the activation of detoxification pathways to remove harmful chemicals.

Add some protein and fats ensuring a balanced nutrient dense meal or snack, and you will not be left feeling hungry half an hour later.

Becareful not to get too carried away with the amount of fruit you are adding. As we drink the smoothie it can be easy to overdose on the amount of fruit and fructose (fruit sugar).

I add ice because I love a super chilled smoothie.

I do use a Vitamix high-speed blender which enables anything that I throw in to be blended to a deliciously smooth drink which no chunky pieces of kale/ginger/nuts/cacao left floating around. So if the smoothies aren't the texture that you are after you might need to look at investing in a high speed blender.

Here are a few ideas guaranteed to be delicious and to get you started. All quantities are for 1 tall glass, increase liquid and adjust other quantities to make for the family. Give it a go!

Golden Goddess (Nourishing and Nurturing)

The Golden Goddess smoothie is not only deliciously nourishing but has fantastic anti-inflammatory properties with both tumeric and ginger reducing inflammatory mediators.

1 Banana
1/2 Mango
1 cup Coconut Milk
1 tsp tumeric powder or small knob of fresh peeled turmeric if you have
1 tsp Maca powder
small knob of peeled fresh ginger (about 1 cm, depends how strong you like your ginger)
4-5 raw macadamias
sprinkle of cinnamon
crack of black pepper
handful of ice

The Green Smoothie (Refreshingly Clean and Green)

1 cup coconut water
1 Tbspn chia seed
1 tspn spirulina powder
1 pear
1 bunch kale leaves
sprig of mint
squeeze of lime juice
half an avocado
handful of berries/slice of mango/slice of red papaya - seasonal fruit avail
handful of ice

Summer Berry (Fresh Energy Powerhouse)

1/2 cup fresh/frozen mixed berries/strawberry/blueberry
1 banana
1 Tbspn Chia seed
1 tspn Acai Berry powder
date/tspn raw honey (optional)
1/2 avocado or coconut yoghurt (Cocoyo)
1 cup rice milk/almond milk/organic unhomogenised milk
handful ice