Green Smoothies

I’ve been on an adventure of green smoothies and of fruits from faraway places, and I’m returning to share a few recipes and a bit more of my current adventure! First, here are a few smoothies. Blend one up, sit back and read. I try everything once, take what I like, and make it my own.

I tend to blend up more ingredients than “they” suggest, so I’ve pared down the ingredients in traditional green smoothie style.

Most smoothiable veggies I don’t eat. Celery, cucumbers, zucchini, or lettuce are apparently the base for many varieties. I did use a red pepper, raw onion and raw garlic a few times, but really not a fan of drinking those. I am a fan of the cruciferous family which is comprised of siblings broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, etc; and as you will learn, cruciferous are not smoothiable. So I was rather stuck.

The base of my green smoothies consists of a few of these ingredients daily. Don’t drink the same greens day after day; each have great health benefits, mix it up. I’ve only given you a glimpse of what each contain.

• Romaine Lettuce is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin K, folate, vitamin C, manganese, and chromium. It prevents cholesterol from sticking to artery walls.
• Spinach, Chard and Beet greens contain at least 13 different flavonoid compounds that function as antioxidants and as anti-cancer agents.
• Cucumber contains silica, an essential component of healthy connective tissue and cucumbers reduce water retention which can reduce certain types of high blood pressure.
• Celery contains vitamin C and several other active compounds that promote health, including phthalides, which may help lower cholesterol, and coumarins, that may be useful in cancer prevention.
• Parsely contains volatile oils-particularly myristicin-have been shown to inhibit tumor formation. Flavonoids in parsley-especially luteolin-have been shown to function as antioxidants that combine with highly reactive oxygen-containing molecules (called oxygen radicals) and help prevent oxygen-based damage to cells.
• Summer squashes are excellent sources of manganese and vitamin C. It is also a very good source of magnesium, vitamin A, dietary fiber, potassium, copper, folate, and phosphorus. In addition, summer squash is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, calcium, zinc, niacin, and protein.

So the base is a little on the savory side, not so sweet and not so palatable for most people. The average green smoothie drinker will use 60% fruit to 40% vegetable, so definitely add some fruit. Banana thickens and sweetens it and dates are sweet, avocado thickens a smoothie and provides good fat. How about some berries or cherries? Not very sweet but full of antioxidants. Then, try more exotic items like coconut meat, coconut water and acai berries. Coconut contains good fats that actually help you process fats and the water contains necessary trace minerals and acai is filled with antioxidant qualities if they aren’t overly sugared or processed.

I still stayed quite savory adding basil, cilantro, thyme, or mint to berry, pineapple, papaya smoothies. I also used tamarind and guanabana pulp found in the frozen section of Mexican grocers, plus kiwi and pears.

I don’t use cruciferous veggies raw in smoothies because they inhibit the thyroid. I don’t need my endocrine system slowing down, so eating these veggies cooked or fermented will bring out their better qualities.

If you are drinking these in the Fall and Winter, add ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon or a dash of cayenne or drink them room temperature. Consuming cold or cold-natured items in the cold temperature seasons isn’t ideal for your body to break down so you can warm them up with spices. You may want to skip cooling summer vegetables like cucumbers until the the prime season for them come back around. Stick with slightly bitter or winter vegetables like celery, swiss chard, lettuces or spinach. Experiment with short season fall fruits like pomegranates and persimmon.

Oh, blenders! It really helps having a Vitamix or a BlendTec blender. Those can puree whole vegetables and fruits in seconds. I spent more time cutting up my vegetables and slowly feeding them to my old standard blender.

I will discuss some other add-ins a little later like Cacao, Hemp, Maca, and Goji Berries when I fill you in on Superfoods.

Here are recipes: This one was given to me which was clipped out of the newspaper
Pineapple Grape
1 cup Green Grapes
2 cups Pineapple
1 large handful Spinach
1 cup or more water
Raw spinach has no flavor in smoothies, so it’s an easy way to get a big dose of green goodness. This one was really sweet for me, but tasty.

Cilantro Pineapple
2/3 small Pineapple
Entire bunch of Cilantro
6 full leaves Romaine
Again a sweet one, but I want you to start with ones that will keep you wanting to drink your smoothie

Blueberry basil
2 large handsful of blueberries
6-7 basil leaves
1 green apple
1 large cucumber
1/3 cup parsley
2 cups red leaf lettuce loosely packed
2 cups spinach
Juice of 1 lemon or 1 juicing orange
Thumb nail size ginger root
Water

Mint lime thyme
3 thyme sprigs
8 mint leaves
Juice of 2 limes
1 green apple
3 stalks celery
1/3 cup parsley
2 cups spinach loosely packed
½ cucumber or 6 leaves of romaine

Rosemary raspberry
1 pt raspberries
10 grapes
2 large fresh tender rosemary sprigs
3 stalks celery
2 cups spinach
½ cucumber or 6 leaves of romaine
Thumb nail size ginger root
Juice of ½ lemon

Marjoram Acai beet
1 cup shredded fermented beets
1 portion frozen acai berry puree
4 marjoram sprigs
1 green apple
3 stalks celery
1/3 cup parsley
2 cups spinach loosely packed
½ cucumber or 6 leaves of romaine
Thumb nail size ginger root
Juice of 1 lime

Lemon balm orange
Entire juice orange
5 lemon balm sprigs
1 green apple
3 stalks celery
1/3 cup parsley
2 cups spinach loosely packed
½ cucumber or 6 leaves of romaine
Thumb nail size ginger root

Goji Pear
1 large handful Spinach
2 stalks Celery
1 small handful flat leaf Parsley
1 Pear
¼ cup Goji berries
3 – 4 Dates

Banana Mint
1 handful lettuce leaves
1 handful mint
2 bananas
1-2 cups water

Avocado Persimmon
3-4 stalks celery
2 ripe persimmons
1 avocado
1 handful of spinach
1 -2 cups water

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Friends are great, aren’t they?

That was my thought for the evening. Despite humidity that just won’t go away, I made hot tea. Not just any tea, but the green tea anemone. The anemone is the performance artist of green tea. Several leaves are bound together. Dry, it is a tight ball of tea leaves. Toss it into hot water and watch it perform. I guess it provides a moment for de-stressing, even a ritual. Not quite the ritual of a tea ceremony, but it was exactly what I needed.

I prop my chin in my hands and watch the green tea anemone slowly float to the bottom of the tall glass and begin its unfolding, I smile through the moment. This thoughtful friend of mine gifted me special tea anemones because these have flower petals hidden inside! She found tea that mirrors the oils I create in my practice. The subtle healing properties of flowers combined with the herbal properties of green tea are likened to the combination of the subtle healing properties of essential oils and Chinese herbs in Elemental Oils. See, friends are great.

(see www.teaposy.com)

Most people know me as a coffee aficionado, essentially pretty particular. If I’m going to have coffee I’m going to have a good cup of coffee as a real Americano or in a French press. If you stop by sometime you will notice I keep very small amounts of Alterra, Metropolis, Stumptown, or Intelligentsia around, but I have a massive collection of tea.

A small portion of my stash comes from jet-setting friends as remembrances from travels to Israel, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, China, Japan, Russia, France, and Italy. (I remembered you all.) Most of my collection I order from Specialteas. I love their tea, especially the green tea. I can think of 15 varieties, but I know I have more. Yes, they all vary by the same characteristics that coffee and wine vary – taste, color, body, tannin or acidity. Some days I want a stronger fermented or malty taste, other days I want grassy crisp flavor, or maybe a sweeter floral jasmine or peony.

White Tea

Young soft sometimes fuzzy buds of leaves, and contains the most antioxidant properties.

White tea is usually a great alternative for the caffeine sensitive or for whom tea is too drying.

Green Tea
Mature leaves used in the majority of green tea varieties. We’ve got sencha, bancha, kukicha, genmaicha, and dragonwell to start with.

My foray into tea began with pai mu tan (white peony). Sundays afternoons, a couple with whom I shared an Angelic Organics food share would sip white peony green tea and eat mung bean tea cakes while I divided out veggies. That was a long time ago.

Intelligentsia used to carry a green earl grey – drinking that was like a 2 for 1!

Sencha
A basic green with grassy taste

My favorite memory with sencha tea is skipping a continuing education class (before I was licensed) with a friend to sip cherry sencha while lying on the lawn of Balboa Park reading our new used books from bookstore

Bancha
Roasted, full flavored leaves

Kukicha
"Twig tea" because it is made from the twigs and branches of the plant
This is generally my rainy, foggy morning at home tea

Genmaicha
Green tea with toasted rice

Dragonwell
I suppose it is delicate, but it’s not my favorite

Oolong
Partially fermented and therefore has more caffeine and a stronger flavor.

I was told by a tea seller at a conference that no one loves all green teas; you either love oolong or you hate it. I just pursed my lips, nodded and walked on. As usual I don’t fit the supposed norm; I haven’t met a variety of green tea I didn’t like.

Pu’er
There is no other green tea that you want aged. Aging is for wine but Pu’er tea is the exception. This one is fermented and aged and classified just like wines. Seriously robust and great for digestion (and hangovers).

You know as well as I do that tea has antioxidant properties. Every magazine or television show has informed you over many years. Antioxidants assist the body in removing free radicals - those lovely molecules generated by cells of our body upon exposure to toxin, viruses, germs, fungi, stress, pollution, and chemicals. At first they are beneficial to us destroying unwanted invaders but everything is affected by imbalance.

Free radicals begin to attack the cellular DNA which directs key cell activity, the body wards off attack with antioxidant defense – free radical scavengers. I could go on and tell you all that happens but essentially free radical damage is partially responsible for aging and disease. There are many aspects of nutrition that will help on the antioxidant front. I will only say so many times, “EAT MORE GREENS.” So instead drink a couple cups of tea daily, you will receive a mild to moderate caffeine boost and will get busy on the free radicals.

www.specialteas.com my old standby

www.teaforte.com cute but the novelty has worn off 3 years later

www.teaposy.com green tea anemone with flower petals

www.stashtea.com now has powdered green tea. Look mom, no bags!

And if you’d rather:

www.alterracoffee.com

www.metropoliscoffee.com

www.stumptowncoffee.com

www.intelligentsiacoffee.com

www.angelicorganics.com