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:

Blogger Returns with Drawing for a Prize!

I am sorry I haven't posted lately.  We sold a house, bought a house, and moved in September and October last year.  That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!  Meanwhile, my sewing mojo ran away in the Winter and came back in the Spring.

Eating healthy food is always a priority with us, and we started a garden in the Spring.  Making smoothies and fruit slushes has been an on-again-off-again thing, and we recently got back to making green smoothies.

I promise to post more often on my blog.  I also plan to post some sewing tutorials occasionally.

I want to celebrate my 100th blog post by giving away some awesome soap that we buy locally.  Here's a link to the creator of these lovely soaps.  Here is a picture of the prize soap collection, which I selected just for my readers:

 Here's how to enter in the drawing for these awesome soaps:

1. Tell me in a comment on my blog that you want to enter in the drawing (only USA destinations please).
2. Include your email address in your comment, and please write it the way you say it.  Use the words "at" and "dot" instead of the symbols if you want your entry to be included in the drawing.
3. One entry per email address with the following exception:
4. Answer these questions to get one additional entry per email address:

• Have you ever used a sewing machine?
• What was the last thing you sewed or mended using a sewing machine?
• What is your current sewing skill level?

The drawing will be done by random number generator at Noon on Sunday, June 19, 2011 (East coast of USA), so enter by Saturday, June 18.

Good luck!

How to make a yummy fruit smoothie

We have a VitaMix blender. We did lots of research and found a good price. This blender makes it very easy to make a fruit smoothie. Here's what we put in it:

A banana, blueberries, two apples, some raspberries, about an inch of ginger, and at least one cup of green tea.

Here are the pictures:

Simple Fruit Smoothie with supper

I peeled two oranges and blended them in the VitaMix with some frozen strawberries. Dee-licious! This went very well with supper, which was orange roughy sauteed in coconut oil and sangria, with a little sea salt and fresh ground pepper. The side dish was boiled sweet potato slices, drained, with a little butter.

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.

Nuts to Smoothies!

I just made a smoothie that I can declare a total success, but only when Success is defined by "DH couldn't taste the greens in the smoothie!"

Blend until creamy:

• 1 large handful raw walnuts
• 1/2 Cup iced chai tea, sweetened with stevia

Add and blend until smooth:

• 1/3 head leafy green lettuce, rinsed, vein removed
• 1 Cup blueberries
• 1 Cup raspberries
• 1 Cup strawberries
• 1 large banana

I think the nuts cancel the lettuce flavor. DH said that he can tell it's got fruit in it, but the rest is a tasty mystery.

I filled up a salsa jar for my lunch tomorrow, and there was enough left for us to each have a large tumbler of smoothie.

Blueberry Smoothie

I just made tomorrow's lunch smoothie:

• 1/2 head romaine lettuce,
• 1 Cup blueberries
• 1 Apple
• 1/2 Cup iced tea

I often use iced tea instead of water.

Diabetes-friendly Smoothie

I just made a smoothie for tomorrow's lunch, and I shared the extra with DH, who has diabetes II. Here's what's in it:

• 1 large apple
• 1/2 head romaine lettuce (shh, don't tell him)
• 8 frozen strawberries
• lots of powdered cinnamon
• a little bit of stevia powder

It's pretty good. I'm going to experiment more with herbs in my smoothies.

Green Kiwi Smoothie

I made the kiwi smoothie for tomorrow's lunch. It has one banana, one kiwi, and half a bag of spinach.

While my kids were here, we ate out too much (but it was So Good!), and I gained some weight. I'm making myself keep up with making smoothies because I need to lose that weight for the wellness fair at work. If I lose one BMI point since last year OR if my BMI is below a certain number, I will not have to pay the insurance increase for this year. I think that's a pretty good incentive to get or keep in shape. I've also been trying to ride my Trikke every evening (unless it's raining).

Sweet Smoothie

Tonight I made a sweet smoothie that was just enough for two people:

• 1 banana
• 2 Cups frozen papaya chunks (from the freezer section at Winn-Dixie)
• 1/2 Cup shredded coconut
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander

That gave us lots of fiber but it tasted suspiciously like dessert!

Sometimes I Misbehave

Last Friday I was at my lowest weight this year. So far this week, I've been stuck at about two pounds above that. Aaargh!

I don't always eat green smoothies for lunch or drink only water or tea for my beverage. Yes, sometimes I misbehave when eating. It's usually on the weekends.

I think my greatest food problem is quantity. What is your greatest food problem?

Weight Loss

By sneaking in veggies via green smoothies, I continue to lose weight slowly. Today found me at my lowest weight this year!

Just a "heads up," y'all!

Kiwi Smoothie

The smoothie I ate today had one kiwi fruit, one banana, and about 1 cup (packed) of spinach.

I think that the spinach has the most nutrients of these ingredients. The predominant flavors are the banana and kiwi fruit. I could not taste the spinach in this smoothie, but it was Very Green!

Spinach in Smoothies

My sewing pal mad-SewIKnit2 questions spinach in smoothies. Spinach has a much milder flavor than most greens. Give it a try!

We are expecting delivery of our VitaMix, which is a super-charged blender. That doesn't begin to describe it, but I will be sharing pictures of it in future days. Keep watching!

Today's Smoothie ...

... is lettuce, blueberries, bananas, and some coconut and almonds. It looks like purple mud, but it tastes pretty good!

More Green Smoothie talk

Today's smoothie was spinach leaves, strawberries, blueberries, a banana, and some coconut. Pretty much any smoothie that has coconut in it is very good.

What's your favorite smoothie?

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."