Green "Goddess" Smoothie: Day 1
- xxoliviarussellxx
- Feb 3, 2015
- 5 min read
A wise person once said, "Man cannot live by bread alone. He must have peanut butter."
You guys know that I'm a foodie at heart. I love food, I love making food, taking pictures of food, eating food (not necessarily a fan of sharing food though). So what could possibly possess me to start a detox? Considering this is my birth month, I want to look extra special! (That's not vain, right)? Over the Christmas break, I engorged on sweets, like, everyday. It made my skin break out horribly. While I got most of the breakouts under control, there's still some fine bumps just underneath the surface of my skin that you may not be able to see, but you can definitely feel. And that is no bueno! Remember my face mask attempt at clearing my skin? Well I did that again this morning as a way to attack the acne from both inside and out.
Don't mind the two apples, I only used one.
My original plan of action was to drink one for breakfast and lunch and then eat dinner. That got switched around when I remembered I can't go the whole day without eating. In fact, as I type this I'm getting heartburn. So I decided something that would be more effect (considering it's my first ever detox) would be: smoothie, lunch, smoothie. That way, I can slowly get my body used to it. I really don't know what to expect to happen, but I always plan for the worse. I didn't want to go whole heartedly into something I did limited research on. And I'll be the first to admit when I'm wrong (depends on the circumstances). But I would never lie to you guys. In fact, the only reason I picked this recipe is because you can still eat real food while drinking it. It works as either a meal replacement or as part of a meal. So that gives me hope that I actually can do this. Because the Hunger is real!
So here's how it really went down.
I was so hurt when someone brought in at least 8 plates of pancakes and sausage links and left it in our office, for OTHER PEOPLE to eat! No one offered us a single bite and the smell danced so enticingly over to my desk. But did I break? No sir! I wanted to. I really did. But I stayed strong. I'm sure you're wondering what kind of super smoothie this could be that I turned away from Pancakes!
Side Note: No one told me before hand that it would be more effective if I chopped the kale first. I definitely should've known to do that. Because I didn't, the smoothie was chunky and I do not like chunks of anything in my mouth. That's why I buy smooth and creamy peanut butter, hello! This would've been amazing had I done that first. I had to go to the cafeteria (perks of working in a school) and ask to use their strainer. I got all of the liquid out and I tried to eat the solid mix left behind but it just didn't work with my taste buds. I will definitely try this again tomorrow (probably with spinach instead of kale).
I got the recipe from CHowDivine.com. I left out the flax/chia seeds because I just don't have any. I also only had iceburg lettuce and not romaine lettuce and I used brown sugar instead of the Stevia, because if this is supposed to be an all natural smoothie, I'm not going to use a substitute or "artificial sweetner". Plus I heard Stevia tastes horribly and I am not wasting an investment. She swears that this detox smoothie does wonders for her skin, so I'll stick to this for a week, with the detox face mask every other day, and I'll give you guys my progress next week.
Green “Goddess” Smoothie Recipe
Can be a meal replacement or added to a meal. Yields 2 12 oz servings.
Ingredients
3-5 romaine lettuce leaves 1 BIG handful of baby kale 5 sprigs of parsley 1/2 large lemon or 1 small lemon 1 small red apple 1 small banana 2 TB ground flax seeds (or combination of flax and chia seeds) 1 cup of water 4-5 ice cubes 1 tsp of brown sugar (optional) 1/2″ ginger (optional) 1/2 – 1″ cucumber cylinder (optional)
Directions
Add romaine, kale, parsley, lemon, apple, ginger, cucumber, and water to the vitamix or blender. Close the lid tightly. Slowly turn up the variable up to 10. This should just break down the contents. It will look slightly lumpy. It should only take about 10 seconds using the variable knob for the contents to break down in a vitamix.
Add rest of the ingredients to the vitamix or blender. Turn the vitamix or blender on. If using a vitamix, turn the variable knob to 10, then to high. Blend on high for about 45 seconds – 1 minute until completely smooth. If you are using a different blender, it may take longer.
Cook’s Note*:
If you plan to drink this on a regular basis. Try to change the ingredients from time to time. For example, use spinach in place of kale, skip the banana, or use a pear in place of an apple. Using a few chunks of frozen pineapples really gives this a tropical flavor. I usually cut up 2 or 3 pineapples and freeze it in freezer bags for smoothies. I find that this smoothie is most effective (for your skin) when the banana is not used, but that will affect the taste and texture. It will be healthy either way.
I use a Ninja Blender for this smoothie. Kale leaves will be difficult to pulverize if the blender isn’t powerful enough, and the texture of the smoothie will be less than desirable.
Don’t blend for too long. The smoothie will get warm.
If you are a newbie to green smoothies, it may be easier to drink if the consistency is thinner. You can adjust the water to make it thinner (or thicker) depending on your preference.
Are you guys thinking about detoxing? I definitely would suggest getting the facts before starting. For example, what would work best for your problem area, what's good for your budget, best times to start and how long it should last. I thought this smoothie would give me energy but I literally just finished drinking it and I am sleepy! Also, no word yet on how this will treat my stomach. I'll get back to you on that as well.
XoX,
Olivia
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