Monday, July 30, 2012

Glowing Green Smoothie

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I've got a new beauty secret for you! The glowing green smoothie makes you beautiful from the inside out, from your liver, to your digestive tract, to glowing, radiant skin. It's no secret that I love green smoothies as evidenced by this post, and this post, among more, but this one is unlike the others. The others contain fruit and/or yogurt in an effort to makes the greens taste, well...sweet. Theres nothing wrong with that, but you are limited by the actual amount of nutrients from green ingredients since you must leave room for all the fillers to make it palatable. Enter this beauty...

While my Aunt Kellie was visiting, she turned me onto this drink and I cannot get enough. Honestly. As much as I like sweet things, I love salty, lemony, savory things as well. You heard me right- this drink is not sweet, contains mostly green ingredients, and it still rocks the house in the taste department. In louurve, I am.

While my aunt was still here, we did a girls afternoon, invited Danielle over, gave ourselves facials and made this smoothie. It was very spa like. I recommend. My daughter Isabella was thrilled.

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We steamed our faces over a pot of hot chamomile tea for ten whole minutes, then we washed, applied a polisher, a hydrating and nourishing mask, next came an anti-aging mask, and lastly, we moisturized with face cream. It was quite serious. Then we drank this smoothie. Cheers!

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Feel free to play around with ingredients in this recipe. It's delicious as written, but sometimes I'll throw in a kale leaf or two (not too many or it will get earthy), sometimes we add mint, or more salt or lemon, but the general quantities stay the same.

I'll write the recipe for serving both 1 and 2 people because with a smoothie like this, you want to get it right, and your blender is only so big- so you can't exactly just double the recipe. Lucky for you, I make it both ways quite a bit and think I've perfected the blend. Keep in mind, even one of these smoothies makes a lot because the point is to make it a meal, but you could still split one serving into two smaller ones easily for more of a snack.

Glowing Green Smoothie
1 serving

1/2 cucumber, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 big handful flat-leaf parsley (about 1/2 cup)
3 cups spinach
juice from 1 lemon
1/2 Tablespoon sea salt (Himalayan pink salt, or Celtic, preferably)
1 scallion or green onion, roughly chopped
1/2 an avocado
1 1/2 cups water
6 ice cubes


Glowing Green Smoothie 
2 servings

3/4 cucumber, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 huge handful flat-leaf parsley (about 3/4 cup)
4 1/2 cups spinach
juice from 11/2 lemons, (if lemons are very juicy, you may only need one)
1 avocado
1 scant tablespoon sea salt (himalayan pink salt, or Celtic, preferably)
2 scallions or green onion, roughly chopped
2 cups water
7 ice cubes

Blend everything together in a powerful blender, such as the vita-mix on the highest setting until very smooth. If you are using a regular blender, you may need to add more water to get it to blend properly. Always taste before you pour. If it tastes bland or you are in doubt, add more lemon and/or salt. It's always the answer.

Whoa! A 1/2 or whole tablespoon of salt? Yep. As long as you are using good sea salt, it's very good  and provides your body with essential minerals. Consider it a health food! It is not the same as table salt, and you shouldn't have to watch your intake unless you have a very specific health issue. Salt makes the smoothie taste good.

You might hate me for pointing this out, but owning a vita-mix is going to make a world of difference with the outcome of your smoothie. My friend Melissa makes it with a normal blender and says it's fine and she still enjoys it, but the vita-mix blends this baby until it's smooth as silk.

7 comments:

  1. Krysta,

    I love your blog! Can't wait to catch up on more of your posts :)
    Keep it up!

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  2. I love green smoothies & juices!!! I've had a Vitamix on my wishlist for a while now. I ended up getting an expensive juicer and wish I had done it the other way around! Looks like a fantastic spa day!

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  3. Sometimes a veggie juice is all that's needed and it's super filling too,
    Great recipe..

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  4. I'm going to try this! I've been consuming green smoothies most every day for a year now, and they've always had some form of fruit in them. This has inspired me to leave out the fruit (at least sometimes!) and make an all green one. BTW, I always throw in the whole lemon (or lime) because I don't like throwing most of it away. I don't know if it affects the taste as I've always done it this way. Thanks for the inspiration, can't wait to try it!

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  5. Just made this with swiss chard instead of spinach and no cucumber (because I don't have any on hand) and it's great! The avocado makes it really quite smooth - yumm :)

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  6. Should feel relaxed after all that.

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