Green Smoothie

Only a couple of days before St. Patrick’s Day and we’re kind of sticking to our holiday theme and we’re going to look at healthy green smoothie recipes for this week’s post. As you remember, we did a heart healthy food list for Valentine’s Day.

Green smoothies are an ever popular trend. Some are very simple and some have lots of ingredients in them but they all are super healthy. Take a look and see our green smoothie guide that can help you create a drink to feel healthy and to help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

Simple Green Smoothie:

So a green smoothie has a basic outline. You want to add milk/liquid, greens, fruit, protein, and seeds. If you’re making a big batch of green smoothie, follow this rule, 2 cups of greens, 2 cups of liquids, 3 cups of fruit plus whatever add ons you want.

First of all, a green smoothie wouldn’t be green without the greens so some possible greens that you can use are...spinach, kale, lettuce, Swiss chard, bok choy, collards, dandelion, carrot top, celery, or beet greens. Feel free to use just one kind of green or mix it up and use a couple different types.

Next you’ll need to choose a liquid to add to the smoothie. You can use water, but for an extra bit of flavour try... dairy milk (1%, 2%, skim), soy milk, almond milk, coconut water, cashew milk, rice milk, oat milk, coconut milk, or cold brewed green tea.

Now add some fruit. Frozen bananas are always good to use but also try adding in some other fruit as well. Good fruit to add to your smoothie are mangos, pineapple, berries, peaches avocados, oranges, grapefruits, pears, apples, and grapes.

Finally add in some extras if you want. Some examples of extras are... your favourite protein powder, matcha green tea powder, flax, quinoa, chia seeds, honey, and other seeds.

Here is a recipe for a small batch of green smoothie...

1 ½ cups of milk (you choose what kind)

2 cups of frozen spinach

1 frozen banana

1 cup of fruit, your choice (good ideas are...mango, pineapple, berries, peaches, citrus fruit, green apple)

A scoop of your favourite protein powder

Blend all the ingredients together and drink. You can freeze this smoothie in individual containers so if you’re in a hurry you can pull it out and let it defrost in the morning.

Kale Chips

“Evocative of the great outdoors and a healthy lifestyle, Kale is another foliage-based green that conjures up our desire to connect to nature, similar to the more vivacious Greenery. And, just as we see in nature, this lush and fertile natural green shade provides the perfect complementary background to the more vibrant tones in the palette.” – Pantone 18-0107

I know what you’re thinking, you see the title that says “Kale Chips” and you think that’s been done before and how it’s been a trend for some time now, but Pantone has included Kale as part of their Spring collection and we have never made kale chips before, so we’re gonna try them.

I was never on the kale bandwagon as so many people had been for the past while. I always avoided trying kale chips and kale in general and Nicole has never been a fan because of the sometimes bitter taste. So this week we have tried out a quite simple kale chip recipe so that I can see for myself what the hype about kale is and Nicole can see if maybe adding cheese make them taste better to her! We’ve added some notes to the recipe of things we noticed as we made them so look out for those.

Garlic and Parmesan Kale Chips

You will need:

• 2 bunches of kale (we used organic, but feel free to use whatever)
• 4 tsp olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• Table salt about ½ tsp. sprinkled over top
• 1/4 cup grated/finely ground parmesan cheese (pay attention to the notes about cheese)

How to:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Wash the kale and dry well either in a salad spinner or dry the leaves with towels. Remove the ribs and chop/rip the kale. We cut the kale into small bits but we think it might be better if you leave them a bit bigger more like chips.

Put the cut leaves into a large bowl and toss with the olive oil, garlic, and the salt. We added the cheese to this mix, but we found that it burnt and was a messy, so a good idea would be to either sprinkle the cheese on top after baking or to grind up the cheese in the processor (getting powdered cheese would work too) and sprinkling it in the bowl or on top after baking. 

 

 

Spread the leaves on a large rimmed baking sheet. We used two medium sized baking sheet. It’s going to shrink so you can pile it on within reason.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring a couple of times until they are brown and crispy. Nicole who was in charge noticed burning near the end, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on them because they might not need the full time in the oven. The cheese also added to the burning so adding it at the end before serving is probably best.