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Green Smoothie Virgin

Hi- Hey I have to admit it- I haven’t been successfull at drinking green smoothies. Today was the first day I have made a decent one. I still don’t have a great blender so I am expecting they will even get better. I tried one with melon about a week ago. Kale, juice and melon but could barely drink it! But today I finally had the ingredients I needed to make a good one. I put in a giant kale leaf minus the hard middle part, a banana, a few slices of pineapple, some mint, a slice of lemon peel, ice and water. yea!

Comments

  • Hi again. I have to tell you after I drank that smoothie I got seriously hot. It was weird. I was just sitting here and my whole body felt like it was on fire. Has that happened to anyone? I’m back to normal now though.

  • coconuttycoconutty Raw Newbie

    Well for making the smoothies I would suggest starting off with milder greens. Start off with romaine lettuce, green and red leaf lettuces… they are really mild tasting. Then work your way up to the kale, once you get used to the taste ;-)

    As for the “getting hot”... Sorry don’t have a clue on that one!

  • jenny2052jenny2052 Raw Newbie

    writeeternity, I had to laugh when I read your post, because I have had some green smoothie misadventures myself. To be perfectly honest, I’ve been drinking them 1-2 times daily for over a month, and only one of them was what I would call tasty. Fortunately, they really agree with me, so even when they taste a little (or even a lot!) “interesting,” I am usually still able to drink them (I know how great I will feel afterwards). But I did have one that was so ghastly that I couldn’t finish it: blueberries, cherries, and mustard greens. I do not know what I was thinking! I guess I thought it would be pleasantly pungent? Um, no. It was horrific.

    I second coconutty’s advice—give lettuce a try! I especially love butter lettuce in green smoothies. It’s very light and refreshing, and I feel just as good when I have lettuce as when I have the darker greens. Plus, I like to mix it up a bit and have different things every day. Another tip I read is to use bigger greens rather than baby greens if you want a lighter flavor. It was a little counter-intuitive for me (I equated “baby” with “light flavor”), but the baby greens actually have a much stronger flavor when they’re blended because they have less water. I had been using mostly baby greens, and when I switched to large greens, my smoothies got a lot more palatable. I still use baby greens occasionally, but they’re not my staple smoothie greens anymore.

    I’ve experienced a less intense version of what you mentioned with the heat. My body temp runs quite low (95.8-97.5ish), and there seem to be some foods that really help out with normalizing that. Blended greens and blue-green algae in particular. Starting maybe 15-20 minutes after I drink them, I feel this spreading sense of warmth. And my temp goes up, sometimes even past 98 degrees! So for me, I think it’s a very good thing. But again, it also seems to be quite a bit milder than what you experienced. If it’s not too uncomfortable, do try to stick with them! Maybe they just work well with my physiology, but I haven’t found anything that makes me feel anywhere near as good as a green smoothie or algae drink does.

  • wow i totally have the same problem. not with the heat, but with green snoothies being totally DISGUSTING! so if you all don’t mind me asking.. what is the benefit of putting in a lettuce leaf? don’t you get essentially the same thing as just with the fruit?

  • rawmamarawmama Raw Newbie

    Hi peachy_pie, Do a search for ode to green smoothies on google. Chewing greens does not break thru the cellulose wall of the cells of the greens, unless you chew them to liquid. Liquefying them does so you reap the amazing benefits. Victoria Boutenko did extensive studies on Green Smoothies, although I believe it all originated with Ann Wigmore. Here are 2 links I have found, showing Victoria’s info on green smoothies and the recipes…

    http://www.emaxhealth.com/14/1182.html

    http://www.vegetarianbaby.com/articles/rawgreen…

  • omshantiomshanti Raw Newbie

    Hey W.E.! weird about te heat thing! I love kale and some of the stronger stuff but one of my fav greens is spinach and i find adding any herb to it helpful with taste, like parsley, cilantro or basil …i used mint once with coco powder so give that a try if you are chocolate mint fan, i made i creamy with an avo but it was so filling i couldnt finish it! just a thought, but could you be allergic to some greens and have a heating up reaction due to that? and one more thing have you tried savory smoothies? ones more like V*8..instead of sweet, i do those for late afternoon or dinner smoothies. good luck!

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    My whole family LOVES green smoothies, especially when they are made with spinach. Our base recipe is: Fill the blender to the top with spinach, add 2 bananas, and then another fruit of choice…nectarines are amazing, strawberries are good too, and a little lime juice is always nice when added to other fruits. Oh, another good combo is kale, banana, and pineapple.

    Sorry, I wish I could tell you about the heat…that has never happened to me with a smoothie…oh, except for the time I accidentally got mustard greens instead of kale…LOL! Really cleaned out the sinuses!

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    I made some watermelon rind juice today, just to keep the cleansing thing happening. I added it to a green smoothie with spinach, 3 dates and a pear. It was tasty this morning, but I had to leave and I put the leftovers in the fridge. This evening it tastes like it fermented! It’s a little effervescent. I know melon should be eaten alone and spinach has laxative qualities, but I made this anyway. Don’t drink this if you have to be out for the day!

  • debbietookdebbietook Raw Master

    Here’s a good one for anyone who hasn’t found a green smoothie they like yet (from Karen Knowler). Blend a large mango (or two medium). Important – it should be a bit overripe, ie very sweet. Then add and blend five handfuls of spinach. They might have to be added one or two handfuls at a time and pushed well down into the liquid. Finally, add one handful of rocket (arigula?). Add water for required consistency. Tastes amazing. I’ve tried other combinations of greens and fruit and haven’t liked any of them. Love, Debbie Took

  • KristensRawKristensRaw Raw Newbie

    It’s important not to mix melons with anything, so when I drink watermelon smoothies or eat watermelon, I eat it alone.

    Some of my favorite smoothies have spinach and banana or spinach and apple and cinnamon (yum!) or pineapple, romaine and cilantro. Oh, and some simple basil added to any smoothie is delicious!

    These should be tasty…because they should have enough fruit in them. The proportion Victoria recommends is 60% fruit and 40% greens and it sounds like it’s the other way around for some of you.

    I admit, I go hard core sometimes and add more green, but when I do, I tend to get bloated. I think it’s too hard for the fruit to get digested if you do this and you run the risk of it fermenting, which is not a good thing. I’d stick to more fruit, fewer greens, like Victoria. These are supposed to be delicious and enjoyable :)

    Cheers! Chef Kristen Suzanne 

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    I listened to Victoria on the Raw Summit podcast. She has been adding more greens and less fruit to her smoothies lately, according to her.

  • Hi! Thanks for all of the info. I am going to try to go more low glycemic so I am going to try to drink cucumber and something else. If someone has a good recipe like this let me know! Thanks!

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    Wow, I must have read her info. wrong…I thought she said 60% greens, and the rest fruit. Oops…guess that is what you get for trying to read and play with your 3 year old at the same time…LOL!

  • rawmamarawmama Raw Newbie

    spiritedmama, You are not wrong. Originally she said she did 60% fruit, 40% greens, but now she has up-ed her greens to about 70% greens and 30% fruit because her body is more used to greens and she craves greens more than the sweetness of fruits. :) So time will tell, you might want more greens as time goes on. She also said that she’d have to eat 2 bunches of greens per day, so she was putting 2 bunches of greens in her 2 gallons she originally drank. Then she figured that she couldn’t continue drinking that much and because it was a liquid, she really wouldn’t need to “drink” 2 bunches of greens because as a liquid that’s more accessible to her body than a salad she was “eating/chewing”. She said that if you have 1 or 2 quarts of smoothies per day, which breaks down to 1/4 bunch of greens in each quart of smoothie per day you’d be aok on the greens. That’s not a ton of greens. Soooooo… 1/4 bunch greens per quart smoothie, OR 2 bunches of greens “chewed” per day.

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    Thanks for the clarification rawmama! I am on the right track then, as that is about what we are doing now.

  • Oh wow, thanks for all of this. I was under the misconception that green smoothies were made with all greens, so this clears up a ton for me. I just got “Green for Life”, so maybe some of that will also guide me along. I usually throw in some romaine lettuce with a fruit smoothie, so I guess I’m not too far from having a green smoothie, lol

  • Hi—my approach is that the greens are medicinal and a must. The disgusting texture and taste are a small price to pay for the immense benefit of a 2 quarts/day green smoothie. Make a habit of doing it every day before you let yourself eat something else. Eventually you get used to how nasty it is. The most nasty one we’ve ever made: watermelon greens, nettle leaf, dandelion, and swiss chard. YUCK but awesome medicine!!

  • FeeFee Raw Master

    I made my first green smoothy this morning and really enjoyed it. I juiced two pears and then blended that with one banana, a splash of water and a handful of spinach. I know its much more fuit than green but its a start. My carnivoriuos, veg and fruit disliking partner even agreed that it tasted better than it looked! Tomorrow Im planning to do pineapple banana and spinach.

  • jenergyjenergy Raw Newbie

    I love green smoothies! There have been the occasional not-so-yummy combinations of course, but life is an adventure and it’s all an experiment anyway. The icky ones just have to be chugged down faster, that’s all. Heh. ;o)

    I’ve been soaking dates and adding them to my green smoothies for the last couple mornings, and I find that they sweeten things up nicely even if the greens are on the bitter side.

    This morning I put in my smoothie: 1/2 of a green zucchini (makes it creamy if you don’t feel like banana), red grapes, black mission figs, aloe vera juice, maca powder, flax meal, fresh apple juice… blended all that up and then crammed in as much spinach as I could get into the blender, blended it up until it was creamy. Oh yeah, and a shake of cinnamon, because I like it, and ice cubes to keep it cool until I got to work.

    My co-workers have gotten used to me bringing in my quart jar full of green goop every morning. I’m sure they all think I’m a weirdo, but hey, I’m a HEALTHY weirdo! ;o)

    Love,

    Jen

  • Hehe- That is so funny jenergy! I like the zuchini idea! That is funny Fee! It’s so weird to me that people can be fruit and veg disliking!

    The thing to me is to not mix watermelon and greens because it makes the drink a brown color. Keep watermelon and apple together and anything not green. Cherries, strawberries, jicima, or even beets.

    I just read something about haw great aloe vera juice is. I’m going to try to find some. Do you recommend a particular brand?

  • pearjoypearjoy Raw Newbie

    For the past 3 days I’ve been drinking green smoothies that were 60% greens and I am feeling INCREDIBLE. I feel warm as well!! I just posted a green smoothie recipe (with citrus) and it’s giving me intense joy.

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    The warmth that you’re feeling could be a niacin (vitamin B3) flush. I get it when I drink a green superfood drink quickly. It also happens with B complex supplements, particularly the liquid type, which I used to take.

    It might be the maca that makes the zucchini smoothie creamy. I put maca in many things because it enhances hormone production and is loaded with vitamins and minerals. It also stimulates the limbido, not my goal, but it might be yours! I also like the malt flavor and thickening that it adds to almond milk. It has flour-like qualities without the need to bake it like wheat flour.

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