Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Start Your Day with a Bang!

Greetings everyone! I am so excited about this opportunity to share some of my favorite recipes and tips for eating and feeling healthy with you. Thank you, Erin!, for inviting me to co-blog with you. I certainly don’t expect to do half as good a job as our fearless leader - no crazy expectations here! But, I hope you’ll stick with me anyway.

First, a message to our Erin:
Erin, I am sooo excited for you to experience the adventure of moving your family to Australia. Excited and insanely jealous! And as Chimmy said, I’m looking forward to getting some good Aussie recipes. What those might be outside of spreading Vegemite on everything, I have no idea. We will be waiting to hear from you when you get settled moving yourself, your husband, and your two 17 month old twins across the globe. (NOTE: If you eat a few more sweets than usual in the process, we understand. Shoot, I get stressed moving myself 10 miles to work.)

Now, let’s be clear on a few things first….I’m not a professional chef, nutritionist, personal trainer, writer…in fact, I’m not much of a professional at all. (Just ask my coworkers.) I’m just someone who is interested in feeling and looking healthy with the main purpose of having enough energy to handle my two kids day in and day out AND sticking around long enough to show any grandkids I might have someday the world. And I guess it would be nice to look good in a bikini and feel confident and sexy for my husband every once in awhile. More on that later….or not.

If you’ve been around the Full.At.Last shop for awhile, you may remember my guest post earlier in the year. This is a good introduction to my “journey” to eating a plant-based diet. I’m happy to report that my cravings (most of which are given into) are still going strong. Let’s not forget Full.At.Last’s golden words: Progress. Not perfection. It literally has become my motto everyday, but I could always use a good reminder.

In addition to a good cup o’ Joe, I can’t start the day without a tall smoothie. (I’ve often wondered, do you think they just cancel each other out?) In my opinion, it’s a great and easy way to get a good amount of your fruits and veggies for the day. I don’t know about you, but fruit is easy for me to eat. Veggies, not so much. So, as long as I start the day with some veggies, I at least feel like I got something.

Welcome to Jeannie’s Smoothie Series! Because most of the recipes I will share with you come from real chefs, I figured I would start with sharing my own smoothie concoctions; I am a slave to other people’s recipes otherwise. Today, I’ll start with sharing my base for most smoothies. Then, every few posts will be a different smoothie.

1 cup plant milk (I use soy, but have also used nut milks)
A handful of ice
2 ripe bananas
1 pear
2 tbsp of ground flaxseed
A couple handfuls of kale

[Remember Erin’s past posts about kale? It’s a superfood! I NEVER ate kale before reading Erin’s blog, so I started adding it to my smoothies. PS: Don’t be scared. You won’t taste it. Promise.]

Then, I add whatever else I’ve got in the kitchen, at least one or two other fruits and veggies.

The great thing about smoothies is that you don’t have to follow specific measurements. Experiment! You will learn what you like!

A little bonus: The kids LOVE them! So, I don't feel so guilty if I end up serving frozen fish sticks for dinner.

Do you have a favorite smoothie recipe? If so, please send it to fullatlast@gmail.com. Either I or Erin will respond and will share it with our fellow FALsters.

Cheers, Jeannie

6 comments:

  1. Hi, Jeannie! This is exciting to get 2 great women to learn from.

    Just a smoothie tip I learned along the way. Somewhere. Not really sure where to be honest. Frozen fruits can be used to get a great combo of fruit + ice. Step saver that I love. I buy organic frozen fruit and mix it with yogurt and a little honey and fruit juice. I think you could probably do a plant based yogurt (do they make those?) and agave nector, too. I just haven't gotten to that point yet. But my 2 year old loves the ones with the frozen fruit.

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  2. I love smoothies! I also use organic frozen fruits in place of ice and that inlcude frozen gogi berries, which are also a superfood! Sometimes, if I want a hearty, filling smoothie, I'll add a soy yogurt (yes, Carin, they do make plant yogurt!). I also like using almond milk, but can't use that often because my sister (also my roomie) has a tree nut allergy. I'm tropical girl, so I almost always throw in Mangoes! YUMMY!

    I have started adding flaxseed and Kale because of FAL.

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  3. Smoothies rule. So does Jeannie for sharing her recipes and ideas with us!

    I always buy extra bananas every time I go to the store and toss them in a freezer bag when they get ripe. Costco is great for BIG bags of frozen berries. I feel like the frozen fruit, especially frozen bananas, gives the smoothie a certain MILK SHAKEY YUMMINESS that I personally enjoy :)

    OK, now back to the business of moving ...

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  4. Hi Jeannie - so excited to read more of your recipes.

    I like the morning smoothies too. I started adding kale at Erin's suggestion, and agree, you can't really taste it. you just have to get past the fact that your smoothie is green ;-)

    Lately, they have been having delicious fabulous strawberries at our local farmer's market. So I buy 3 pints of them, and we eat a bunch during the week, and by the end of the week, the ones that getting a little not so perfect, I take and freeze them for my smoothies. Perfect.

    frozen blueberries in the smoothie are good too.

    oh, and Erin - don't you have movers to go supervise? j/k.

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  5. Hi Jeannie! You are Erin are going to make a great team! I must say I'm extremely jealous of how healthy you all eat - I think I'm a "wanna be but can't quite go there" vegetarian. Especially since I can't stand chicken. On another note, my kids are obsessed with smoothies and drink them every morning. I will have to try the kale in them and see if they still drink it. The 5 year old might fall for it but not sure about the 12 year old! Happy moving Erin- so exciting!

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  6. Gals, SO SORRY I missed your comments. I just returned from a week long trip to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons.
    I couldn't agree more re: frozen fruit. I always have at least two bags of fruit (usually strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries) in the freezer and throw in a handful for good measure.
    Chimmy, will try gogi berries. Thanks!
    CArin, when using yogurt, I like the coconut milk yogurt. I've found it at every kind of grocery store from Whole Foods to Safeway.
    Kelly, fresh strawberries are the best in smoothies! YUM!
    Jennifer, please don't be jealous. You wouldn't be if I told you about my diet during this trip. :-) And I bet your 12 year old will drink it and looove it. Keep us posted.
    Erin, are you holding it together girl?

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