Green Smoothies

Do not let the color turn you off from trying a green smoothie.  This time of year it reminds me of the holiday season with rooms and halls decorated from floor to ceiling in green.  A green smoothie is holiday cheer in a cup!  Some may not want a smoothie because of the chill in the air; but a smoothie is perfect at this time when the fresh fruit and vegetables are few.  You can get easily 3-5 servings of your fruit and vegetable in one smoothie.  Below I would consider a beginner green smoothie because of all the fruit; as you become accustom to the taste remove a piece of fruit and add more greens. 

Apples, Pears, Banana, Kale, Yum

Recipe

1 Pear cored, chunked

1 Apple cored, chunked

1 Banana pealed, halfed

1 cup Cranberry juice

4 cups Kale

1/2 Lemon juiced

1 Tablespoon ground Flax seed (Optional)

Cut fruit and place in blender with cranberry juice.  Blend until smooth, may need to add more liquid and mix ingredients in blender.

Add lemon and handfuls of kale at a time; blend until smooth, repeat until use all the kale.  If the smoothie is to thick add more liquid, but better to start with less than more.  This made approx. 24 oz of smoothie, a good amount to start.  I usually drink 1/2 in the morning with a hard boiled egg (for protein) and rest as a snack. 

Note: The lemon juice is to help preserve the smoothie, if drinking right away you can omit the lemon juice. I used this combination because we got kale & pears from the CSA.  You could use berries, cherries, spinach, chard, hemp seeds... you begin to see the combinations are endless.  

Green Smoothie

Food to Nurse my Husband Healthy

This week I spent most of my free time cooking or baking something.  Cooking relaxes me; it is my creative outlet as I use most recipes as the foundation; then change as I feel.  Now that we have "fallen back"; I am embracing fall to experiment with different vegetables and spices that I do not normally use in the warmer months.  The cooler temperatures beg for warm roasted comfort food... root veggies, squashes, legumes, pears, apples with warming spices like cumin, cinnamon, curry, nutmeg, chili powder...

My husband came home from work with a 104 temperature last Friday; this started my thinking of needing to feed him to nurse him healthy. Kris loves pears & we had a bowl full of them, he needed a pancake for breakfast. I have a “big pancake” recipe that uses apples; I used pears. Changed the recipe to use less sugar and a gluten free flour.  A HIT!

Big Pear Pancake

Before I went to bed the previous night, I filled a pot of beans with water to soak in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning I cooked the beans while I cut onions, carrots, sweet potato, parsnips, jalapeño, green pepper, etc. if it was in my refrigerator or bowl of vegetables I cut it up to use in the soup. (I did all this with no cuts to my fingers or hands, plus I had the New York Marathon showing in the background.) The soup was a winner; the only regret is not making more. While doing the soup, I realized about ½ dozen of avocados needed to be used. (I buy them in bulk, because use them daily on everything.) My favorite condiment is guacamole; this ended up being a perfect pair with the soup; nice creamy texture to add to the soup. Added a little cheese & chopped onion for looks...a great meal.

Veggie Soup

To come more soup, pesto, nuts, granola, pumkins, butternut squash...