Blenders At The Ready
If you’re feeling a bit sluggish as of late and are looking to clean up your dietary act but not keen on gnawing your way through a kale salad first thing in the morning, then drinking your veggies may just be the answer you’ve been searching for. Blending your vegetables makes mornings more convenient and a great way to boost your instantly absorbed incoming nutrients.
Healthy drinks don’t have to taste like twigs and iced water, my daily smoothie is delish and consists of spinach, kale, celery, cucumber, mint, ginger and coconut water.
To make things more efficient, I prepare and chop my ingredients on the weekend and place in containers in the fridge. If you’re finding it hard to source fresh locally grown veggies, then snap frozen organic veggies will do the trick nicely.
Green vegetables are bursting with chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the molecule that absorbs sunlight and uses its energy to synthesise carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water, also known as photosynthesis. This fascinating property is also wonderful when consumed through your veggies, as it oxygenates the blood, improves circulation, reduces DNA damage, fights infection, is anti-carcinogenic and detoxifies the body of heavy metals.
Vegetables are also highly alkalising. A highly acidic environment is where illness will be having a field day, and eating a diet with loads of raw veg, especially green vegetables, is a sure fire way to keep yourself in a healthy balance of acid and alkaline. Including a smoothie in your breakfast routine has so many health benefits, from boosting your immune system to helping balance your hormones.
So in a nutshell, here are five good reasons fuel your body with a green smoothie:
- It’s a major detoxifier and internal cleanser
- It helps alkalise the body
- It supports and strengthens the immune system
- It provides energy
- It’s not a reason, but pop in half an avocado if you fancy even more green goodness
Avocado and Spinach Smoothie
Here’s a five-ingredient concoction from my latest book, Eat Yourself Beautiful, and the perfect cure-all for the mid-morning slump. Avocado is a beauty booster and a great source of Vitamin E, boosting the skin’s vitality and luminosity. Its high Vitamin C content reduces skin inflammation, while avocado oil stimulates the production of collagen in the skin, to tone and improve its texture.
Ingredients
- 1/2 large ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
- 1 bunch English spinach, leaves only
- 1 small cucumber
- 250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) coconut water
- 125 ml (4 fl oz/1/2 cup) almond milk
Method
Place all the ingredients in a powerful blender and whizz until smooth and creamy.
And now for my next trick…
This recipe comes from my soon-to-be-released Supercharged Vegetarian Book. You’ll be attracting only positive vibes with this magnetizing, pure and alive green smoothie that will wake you up from the inside out and leave you bursting with energy. Hailed as a mighty garden in a glass, this detoxifying blend is jam packed with circulation boosting-chlorophyll and guaranteed to put a swing in your step and a smile on your face. You don’t have to just have this one on a Monday morning either; if afternoon brain fog gets you down or you feel like you’re dragging your feet through to Friday, then the answer to midweek delirium comes in three powerful words…
Raw Superfood Greenie
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 1/2 cucumber, seeded
- 2 kale leaves, stems removed
- 3 sticks celery
- 2 cups spinach leaves
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1/2 avocado, peeled
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 1/2 cups coconut water
Method
Combine all ingredients in a blender and whizz until you have the consistency you prefer. The addition of coconut oil will help the nutrients slide down and be absorbed into the body.
What Superfoods Do You Put In Your Smoothie To Super-Charge It??
Lee Holmes is a mum on a mission, author of Supercharged Food and Supercharged Food for Kids and founder of www.superchargedfood.com, an altruistic website to help people expand their range of healthy food choices and plan ahead to create and maintain a satisfying, wholesome and nourishing diet. Lee is a Certified Health Coach (Institute of Integrative Nutrition) and Whole Foods Chef. She created a petition to improve food in hospitals in Australia and as a result a healthier menu has been introduced by the Minister for Health. In addition to passionately creating change at government and policy level, Lee recently won the title of Health Influencer Blog of the Year. Lee’s favorite recipe is Smashed Sardines and Avocado on Chia and Flaxseed Loaf.
