Smoothies
 

I've recently decided it's time to get serious about losing weight and getting fit. With this in mind, I've found that there are amazing things you can do with a stick blender in creating delicious fruit smoothies. Here's the latest (and best) one so far.

1 mango sliced
1 punet of blueberries
three large scoops of organic frozen yoghurt

Blend and then drink.

I'm including blueberries and other fruits and vegies which are high in anti oxidants in my diet because apparently there's something wrong with my liver, so the doc wants me to stop drinking alcohol and make some attempt to detox my liver before we do some more tests.

To that end, I'll be starting a 'liver cleansing diet' next week after I wean myself off caffeine this week.

I'll post a thread about that when I do it. Mean time, if anyone has any great smoothie recipies, I'd love to hear them.

the combination of bananas and strawberries, either with a yogurt/milk base or an orange juice base, has always been a favorite of mine.

Do you have a juicer? I love my juicer, and it's especially good for detoxing with vegetable juice.

what's a "punet"?

punnet? It's a small usually plastic container with a couple of handfuls of berries in it.

I'll try the strawberry and banana combo. My brother has a slow juicer which is good. Apparently if you juice quickly so as to crush and cut the fruit you can damage the natural enzymes in the fruit/veges. My fav juice is carrot, apple, celery and ginger.

Masticating juicers are the way to go - its the heat from the centrifugal ones that destroy enzymes.

huh. we don't actually have a name for that little thing.

I love carrot/apple/ginger(no celery!) with lemon, orange and cardomom. And romaine/kale/apple/lemon/mint.

Yeah that's the sort of one my brother has Jinx. I think I might just order my own though. Might as well get serious about it if I'm going to do this.

Yup, and you might as well do it now, it won't get easier if you put if off.
What's going on with your liver? Did you go in with symptoms/complaints or..?

I think milk thistle is recommended for your liver.

Maybe cinnamon...

This is the one I'm thinking of getting.

All my enzyme levels are all way up over 100 and they should all be below 60, so close to if not double what they should be. It could be viral or it could be something more serious. Time will tell after I have some more tests done in a couple of weeks.

I'm sure it'll all be fine.

I went to see the doc because I had some chest pains, and also I have an ankle which swells up all the time which contributes to me not getting enough excercise which of course means I'm unfit, so I wanted to find out what's wrong there so I can get more excercise. Turns out I have ligament damage, so that's just a matter of strapping and adjusting the way I use my ankle for the time being. The chest pains appear to have been stress related. My cholesterol is fine as is my heart rate after an ECG. I have no signs of any other blood diseases or issues associated with any other vital organs apart from my liver, so basically, besides that the doc was pretty happy with me and doesn't see any reason why a change in lifestyle wont give me the results I want.

So in the short term, I need to sort out my liver, and I can probably help there by eating plenty of antioxidant type veges and fruits, hence the smoothies and juice idea.

My favorite smoothie recipe:

A handful of frozen strawberries
Two cup fulls of ice
Fill to top with Tequila

Delicious.

you forgot to blend, add a goofy umbrella straw thingy and then drink.

I think I should leave out the tequila or it's likely to kill me. ;)

If you don't mind GREEN, you might want to add some spirulina to your smoothies.

a link

Hmmm...interesting. I'll look into it. I think that was one of the suppliments the nutritionist recommended to my mum when she had cancer.

What I've been making lately:
1 cup of milk
6 ice cubes
2 teaspoons of chocolate whey protein powder
A small amount (1/4 teaspoon?) of stevia
1/4 cup of mixed berries (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry)
1 packet of plain instant oatmeal (added water, nuked it, put it in the blender)

Its awesome stuff. Makes your hair and nails grow like crazy too.

Well, I've ordered my juicer, and I've also placed an order with a home delivery organic grocer which should arrive on Thursday. By then I should have used up all the fresh produce in the fridge and my new juicer should be here. In the mean time I'll head to the health food store for a few suppliments and some whey powder. I like the vanilla stuff. It has a nice malty taste in a smoothy with yoghurt and fruit.

frozen berries work really well for smoothies, and there's no waste as there often is (at least with me) with fresh berries.

and no punnet or whatever. :) D'ya suppose that's a corruption of "pint?"

I don't really know matey. I suppose if you like you could do some research. ;)

Why whey powder?

I just want to keep enough protein in my diet and also, I like the taste in smoothies.

Oh, sorry... thought this thread was about Elspode.... nevermind.

Every Wednesday they offer smoothies here in the cafe at work. Fresh fruit, yogurt and light milk/cream. Strawberry banana is the best or mixed berry (blueberry, raspberry, strawberry).

Ali, if you visit the US or specifically the West Coast, specifically Cali....and you're not worried about, say, health....

..then go to Jamba Juice! A successful smoothie chain. Best smoothies eva. But it'll cost ya. About $3.19 for a small, and almost $6 for a large but damn, do you get a lot of good azz smoothie. Plus its totally customizable. Highly recommended from your American college students.

lol...thanks Fresh, but the kind of juice you get from most juice bars doesn't have a whole lot of nutritional value anymore, although definitely better for you than a coke! ;)

I can't say I'm planning a trip to the US at this stage either. We have boost juice over here that're very popular, and you can choose whatever fruit or veges you want in your juice. Same thing as Jamb I think.

Thanks for the tip though.

The two big smoothie operations around here are Jamba Juice (always has peppy techno-pop music playing) and Robek's (a more staid atmosphere).

Today I had blueberry and banana with a base of pure blueberry juice, and three tablespoons of LSA (Linseed, Sunflower seeds and Almond kernels ground to a powder).

It was delicious.

I also started taking the liver support suppliments today.

I'm going out for a nice steak tonight though. My last one for at least 2 months! I'm not sure how I'll survive it, but it'll be worth it.

Spirulina==fish food

Pineapple banana at Jamba Juice on the way home.

Right. Where did you think all the "good stuff" in fish came from? Spirulina is better for you than fish, it's lower on the food chain.

I'll bet fish taste better though. ;)

It really doesn't have much of a flavor at all. I used to eat it on top of peanutbutter crackers. They make tablets though... for the wussy at heart... ;)

mix it into your rice with a little salt, pepper and butter. its slimy and green and oh so yummy.

Green and slimey. Not two words I would put with tasty. :greenface

Guacamole.

Salsa verde.

Lime jello.

and the mother of all green and slimy foods,

Boiled Okra.

Sorry, I thought this thread was about women shaving pubic hair.

hahahahaha,
hahahahahahaah,


i've never had a smoothie, (meaning the drink - not Merc's genious misconception) although I think i'd like a banana one....

In the summer after a run I like to have a smoothie for breakfast. I usually make mine using various amounts of the following:

-ripe banana
-frozen berries (blue, rasp, black rasp, straw, cherries) that I buy on sale, prep and freeze in individual containers
-1-2 spoonfuls of frozen OJ concentrate (WAY easier and faster than peeling a dang orange)

--vanilla SILK soymilk. I like the added sweetness this gives over plain soymilk, and yogurt makes them too thick for me.

I have a 'smoothie' blender, that has a spigot at the bottom so you don't get all that foamy crap at the top. I don't usually have to add ice unless I'm using fresh berries.

I drink this in the car on the way to work. I do not recommend leaving leftovers in a hot car for a couple days. :2cents:

I don't like any dairy in mine... I don't know why, I just would rather eat my yogurt out of a carton. I usually do all fruit and juice or add a bit of sorbet for that extra yumminess.

As for Jamba Juice... I could totally go for an immunity boost smoothie right now!

Now me, I like drinking the yoghurt. Most of the time I go for the smoothie with yoghurt or banana or both in it. Gives everything a nice foundation for the fruit flavors to dance on.

me too. but for some reason my local store has stopped carrying low fat yogurt. Whole milk--yes; nonfat--yes. But no low fat, which I think tastes better.

Tho I suppose you really can't taste it much with all that other stuff in there.

I like juice and vegie smoothies.

Dairy ones make me feel bloated, which is weird, coz I can drink milk by the litre and eat plenty of yoghurt with fruit....just cant do them together for some reason.

this is one I'm going to try, based on the "Superfoods" theory that pumpkin is a superfood (along with oats, spinach, oranges, soy, turkey, nuts, etc.). Cheap, readily available, low calorie, and all that beta-carotene:

# 4 whole wheat graham crackers (squares)
# 1 cup frozen banana slices
# 1/2 cup ice
# 3/4 cup canned pumpkin (unsweetened)
# 1-1/2 cups orange juice
# 1/2 cup nonfat vanilla soy milk
# 1/2 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt
# 1 Tbsp. brown sug