A Weed Smoothie

No, I don't mean That Weed, silly.  I mean This weed:

Chickweed is prolific in my yard.  In fact, in Florida's wet season, chickweed grows much larger than you would suspect from the picture.

Here is a picture of chickweed growing in my yard in February, so it's not very thick:

I know that it's a very nutritious herb, even though it's most commonly known as a weed.

Click on this sentence for more information about the nutrition and benefits of chickweed.

Here's a picture of chickweed taken in April, which was dry this year, so it's not very big here, either:

Here's a picture of it in June, just as it was starting to get bigger:

After harvesting and freezing, here's what it looked like when I pulled it from the freezer.  For reference, the bag shown is gallon size:

My basic smoothie recipe is to place the ingredients in the blender in the following order:

• something green - spinach or mild herbs
• something wet - coconut water or iced tea made with stevia
• three apples - pared and quartered
• spices - apple pie spice or cinnamon or fresh ginger pieces

Here are the assembled ingredients in our VitaMix blender:

Here are the blended smoothies:

This is very tasty.  The chickweed makes it milder and less bland than a spinach smoothie.

Avocado Green Smoothie

I made a new green smoothie today.  This was my first successful attempt at a non-sweet green smoothie.  My usual green smoothie tastes like apple pie with apples, spinach, coconut milk, ginger, and cinnamon.

No traditional fruits were used to sweeten today's green smoothie.  The ingredients are:

• 1 haas avocado
• three-inch piece of cucumber, peeled
• handful of spinach
• 3/4 can of coconut milk
• five dashes of salt
• one dash of lime juice

The taste is not exciting, but simply tastes like the list of ingredients.  The coconut milk and avocado make it very creamy.  I like it because sometimes un-exciting is good!

This batch filled a salsa jar and refrigerated so I can eat it tomorrow.  I put the rest in a coffee cup for my evening snack:

A Diet of Real Food

I have wandered and returned to smoothies more times than I can count. I do know, though, that I lose weight when I take a smoothie to work and snack on it in the morning and afternoon instead of junk food. I lost 3 pounds this week, and that's a good thing.

Meanwhile, since DH is the cook at our house, my mere mention of reducing our intake of rice and pasta and bread brings a reaction that means he has closed his ears to me. Even quoting from books doesn't get me anywhere with him. My concern is for our inability to lose weight, much less keep it off - but especially him.

Imagine my surprise when a friend sent him an email with a link to this article and forwarded it to me. My "reply to all" said "I have a book called "Diet Wise" that Paul didn't want to hear what it said - which was pretty much what this article says - so I loaned it to a friend at work." DH told me, "Gee, thanks for embarrassing me in front of my friends!" My inability to tell a straight story with all the facts is what blocks his attention.

Since I had loaned that book to a friend, he asked me how was he supposed to know what it says. I told him to look up "allergy elimination diet," which he did, and he came up with this link and this link. I got the book back the next day because my friend was going to just go buy it at the book store, so he's had a chance to look at it.

The book "Diet Wise" basically says that no one particular diet is good for everybody - not the south beach diet, atkins diet, low-fat, low-carb, raw food, vegetarian, vegan, or even the grapefruit diet. The book says that you have to find out for yourself what foods are good for your own, unique body. Often food allergies or sensitivities block your body's natural health. By taking the most-common allergenic foods out of your system, you are giving your body enough time to really eliminate the effects of these foods. After that, you can start adding foods to your diet, one at a time. Reactions to re-introduced foods let you know what your food sensitivities are. Foods giving no reaction at re-introduction are safe to eat.

The bottom line is that after Thanksgiving we are going to ditch ALL grains, citrus, dairy, chicken, and processed "foods" for at least two weeks, maybe three. Then we will add certain foods back to our diet to see if we have any reaction. I hope we don't have the situation where he can eat a food that I can't, or vice versa. Meanwhile, such "clean" eating will probably become our new habit, especially if we do the intro for at least three weeks.

More Green Smoothies

Sunday night, I made enough for Monday and Tuesday's lunch:

• romaine lettuce
• some parsley
• 2 peaches
• 1 apple

Today's lunch was quite good. I made a lot, and I ate it all:

• spinach
• blueberries
• 1 banana

Some day I might consider taking pictures of the process. The only thing holding me back from that is that my kitchen does not look like a studio of any sort.

Friday's green smoothie

Friday's smoothie was even better:

• romaine lettuce
• small amt parsley
• one apple
• one kiwi
• a few dashes of lemon juice

The predominant flavors were kiwi followed by lemon. Very good!

Drink my Lunch

It's not what you might think if you don't know me. I mean, it's not booze, or even a traditional protein drink.

It's Greens!!

Yep, my lunches at work have been what basically amounts to blenderized salads. Here's the line-up:

Monday
leftover salad with cheese and salsa
- yummy with a salsa attitude

Tuesday
red leaf lettuce, cut cross-ways and rinsed
one pear, quartered, cored, and cut up
a few mint leaves
1/2 Cup water
- just OK

Wednesday
6 large romaine leaves, cut cross-ways and rinsed
two bananas, broken up
1/3 Cup shredded coconut
1/3 Cup leftover iced tea
- the best so far

Thursday
romaine lettuce
bananas
strawberries
blueberries
blackberries
leftover tea
- tasted like a fruit slush

I put the smaller and wetter things into the blender first, greens on top, and liquid poured over. Then I blend on the Liquefy setting until it looks, well, blended. I pour this into a container which I then leave in the freezer overnight. When I take it to work and leave it on a napkin in the back corner of my desk, it thaws to just the right temperature by lunch time.

I thought I was doing this for my general health and for the health of my eyes. There is a nice side side effect of 3.4 lbs of weight shed, and I started just this week! I also don't have that mid-afternoon dragged-down feeling. If this is an experiment, it's not over yet!

I have made it a point to not change any other eating habits, except that two weeks ago we gave up carbonated beverages completely. Oddly enough, that had no effect on my weight.

I recommend any book by Victoria Boutenko, but especially "Green for Life" and "12 Steps to Raw Foods."