Smoothies & Juicing

SMOOTHIES

If you told me you were feeling overwhelmed with the idea of changing your families daily eating habits and asked where you should start, I would immediately reply with “GREEN SMOOTHIES!” For more reasons than one, green smoothies are the perfect first step in a “healthy habits transformation” for kids and adults alike. It’s quick, it’s easy, the combinations are endless, and if done right, just one pint (500ml) of green smoothie can provide 7 or more servings of fruits & vegetables and still taste great. (Check out the Green Smoothie Blueprint).

What you need to know about Smoothies:

1. Smoothies contain fiber: The difference between a blended fruit & a juiced fruit is that the blended fruit still contains the fiber. This is important because the fiber helps to regulate the sugar load you receive from the fruit in your smoothie and prevent huge spikes in blood sugar. This is especially important for diabetic children.
2. Just because it looks green doesn’t mean it tastes green: You will be surprised with how much leafy greens you can add to a smoothie before it starts to taste veggie. I recommend starting with spinach because it’s flavour is so mild your kids won’t even notice its there.
3. Easily digested: The blending process is able to break open the cell compartments that make up the fruits & vegetables allowing immediate access to all the vitamins, antioxidants and phytochemicals which eases digestion and enhances absorption of those nutrients.
4. Quick & easy: Less than 10 minutes from start to finish is how long it takes to make green smoothies for the whole family during the mad morning rush or as a mid afternoon snack, with very little clean up.
5. Less waste, save money: Even spinach & other leafy greens can be frozen and still come out tasting great. If I find that i’m not using up my produce as fast as needed before it goes bad, I simply wash & freeze and use it for smoothies later. Only heaven knows how much money i’ve saved by freezing rather than throwing.
6. Easily concealed: The color of the smoothie can be easily masked by using a tinted cup for serving. My girls for the longest time only thought their smoothies were pink and purple 🙂
7. From green to purple: Dark berries like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries & pomegranates not only add lots of free radical fighting antioxidants among other nutrients, but they are also very effective at turning the smoothie from green to purple.
8. Omegas & other Superfoods: It doesn’t matter which recipe I use, I always add flax, chia or hemp seeds (or sometimes walnuts) to the smoothies. These are all great sources of omega 3 fats which are very important for your child’s brain development and seem to be hard to come by in the standard american diet. At times I will also add other super foods such as dried goji berries or raw cacao powder. Go ahead, experiment!
9. Low calories, high nutrition: The greener the drink, the lower the calories without the sacrifice of nutrition. Perfect for replacing pop, slushes/slurpies and other empty calorie drinks that your children might currently be addicted to.
10. High Powered Blender: As the most used appliance in my kitchen by far, I recommend getting a good quality high powered blender. I own a Blendtec and love it! Make a smoothie in it once and you will know why. Vitamix is also another great brand. You can learn more about these two blenders HERE.

Need More information? If I haven’t already convinced you of how awesome green smoothies are, you should just ask the expert herself. Visit The Green Smoothie Girl or purchase her book “The Green Smoothies Diet” in Hard Copy or kindle ebook format by clicking on the picture below:

JUICING

Although, I generally serve my children more smoothies, than juice, I definitely feel that it has it’s place in my kitchen as well. Adding too many tough or fibrous greens to a smoothie can get to be a bit much, so sometimes, when I want to get even more nutrients from greens into my children, I will make a juice instead. Fruit is still added to round out the flavours, but the more use to it the kids get, the less fruit I add because as I mentioned earlier, juicing removes the insoluble fiber so you get greater sugar spikes. (I’ll let Dr. Fuhrman explain why this isn’t a good idea). It’s rare that my kids get juice that doesn’t contain a vegetable. They either don’t realize it’s there or have come to expect it.

Juicing Justification:

1. Get your greens: Another great way to add more greens to your diet in a power packed or concentrated manner.
2. Soup broths: Juicing carrots, beets, celery, onions & other veggie varieties is a quick and great way to create perfect homemade vegetable broths for your soups & stews without haven’t to boil ahead of time.
3. Nut Milks: Creating your own nut milks is easy to do and a great replacement for dairy milk. (Almond and coconut milk are our favourites.) Although this can be done with a blender and squeezing by hand in a nut milk bag, using a juicer is definitely more efficient and time saving. The key though, is the right machine for the right job and you can find out more about what juicers I use and recommend HERE.
4. Wheatgrass: Juicing wheat grass (1-2 oz for adults, 0.5-1oz for children daily) is a great nutrient booster. You can learn more  about growing wheat grass & other resources HERE.
5. Slow and steady wins the race: Although high spinning juicers are a lot quicker, I prefer the slow turn masticating juicer over a centrifugal juicer any day as generally it does not heat the juice so there is no risk of denaturing the nutrients. It also squeezes more juice out leaving a drier pulp to compost or use in other recipes and masticating juicers tend to be multipurpose so making nut butters, sorbets, baby food and pasta among other things, is just another reason to pick the right one.

What kinds of things do you make or do with your juicer? Please share your ideas in the comments section below.

For some of our favourite smoothie & juicing recipes go to Smoothies, Juices & Drinks.