So, I've lost count of what day this is on our green smoothie challenge/transition to a lifestyle, but we've been at it for a few weeks now. Chris & I are still imbibing 55-60 oz of green smoothie daily and feeling pretty good for it. I'm still getting used to the more frequent trips to the grocery store to buy fresh produce and I've never spent as much time in the leafy greens section of the store as I have the last few weeks. We have been learning about how different greens work in smoothies with some surprises along the way...
Spinach: I would have figured that raw spinach would be too bitter for a smoothie, but it's actually really good in it. I use about 5 big handfuls per blender batch.
Collards: aka collard greens. These are really intimidating just looking at them... the leaves are big and leathery and you think that there's no way this would possibly be good in a smoothie, but they are very mild and work well in most smoothies.
Romaine: I always figured that romaine lettuce was mild enough that you could put it in almost any smoothie without a problem... this is simply not the case... romaine has a very distinctive flavor that isn't easily "hid" by the fruits, so unless you like your smoothie to taste like Caesar Salad, I suggest using stronger tasting fruits with your romaine... things like raspberries, blackberries or maybe blueberries.
Kale: Again, like the collards, it looks like an intimidating green to use, but it is quite mild in your smoothie and blends well with most any fruits. Kale comes in many different varieties. The ones available at our local store are green, purple, & Italian.
Chard: Same as collards and kale. It comes in varieties as well. We've been using the red chard (see pic above) mostly because it's readily available in an organic form at the store.
Lately, I've been wondering what the cashiers in the check-out line think of my grocery basket. There are huge bunches of strange greens piled up in my grocery basket along with a ton of fruit. I'd say that on any given trip to the store, my grocery inventory ise comprised of at least 50% fruits and veggies... but hey, isn't that the way it's supposed to be???
I have started digital scrapbooking lately in an effort to a) hone my PhotoShop skills and to b) get some more scrapbook pages done. I am a very slow traditional scrapbooker. I'm not sure why that is. I think I tend to get more obsessed about the way the pages look and making sure they all look creatively done, instead of just making sure the pictures get into an album.
Anyway, the digital scrapbook allows for a few advantages over the traditional method:
You can re-use the digital elements as many times as you want. This saves the hassle of having to purchase multiples of one element just to repeat it on a few different pages.
You can re-work the page as many times as you want - until you get it how you want it. Once your electronic piece of paper is "cut" you're not stuck with it like you are with traditional paper pages.
There are many sites on the web devoted to digital scrapbooking and many of them offering tons of freebies. My favorite site at the moment for freebies is Shabby Princess. She offers a bunch of free kits that have not only the papers but lots of coordinating elements for downloading.
To give you an idea of how dreadfully behind on scrapbooking I am, the above page, which I just did this week is pictures from our wedding... and Chris & I just celebrated our 5th anniversary this month! Agh!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
This cracked me up. Thanks to my aunt for sending this out. Yes, I do know people who take pictures of their breakfast and then post it up on Facebook. I won't name names to protect those involved, but you know who you are...
The cats love the dining table. I don't know exactly why, but I think it's just the law of cats that they most enjoy being in those places and situations that they know they're not supposed to be. Couple the love of the dining table with Scruggs' love of hanging her front end off of stuff (I think she likes the blood rushing to her head) and you get the above picture. As much as I wanted to get Scruggs down from the dining table, her look was cracking me up, so she got a reprieve while I snapped the shot.
Today's smoothie is much sweeter than normal. Chris requested that we have a "sweeter" one today than normal, so I cut back on the greens a bit and added an extra banana (also, the bananas are going ripe really fast with the heat, so they need to be used up).
Chris came across a video of Sergei Boutenko (Victoria's son) making a smoothie on their website www.rawfamily.com. According to Sergei you should reduce the number of items in your green smoothie and stick to only one variety of green at a time. This will reduce the chance of toxicity (via alkaloids) of any of the leaves to build up over time. He suggests rotating through a series of greens throughout the week. So, following Sergei's advice, here is our recipe for the day:
Recipe for today's smoothie: - 2 bananas - 1 large peach - couple handfuls strawberries - 1/2 bunch italian kale
I'm still getting used to the more frequent trips to the grocery store to buy fresh produce and I've never spent as much time in the leafy greens section of the store as I have the last few weeks. We have been learning about how different greens work in smoothies with some surprises along the way...
