I didn't post last week. Sorry! I have been working on other projects, but, in the meantime, my enthusiasm has not waned for the smoothie. In fact, it has only increased. Breakfast is the perfect and probably best meal to put all of your efforts into. You probably reap the most rewards from this meal. Your body is just gearing back up into full swing from "rest" mode and you need calories -- and nutrients that count. I keep hearing experts talk about making breakfast that big meal, not dinner. The smoothie is the best way I've discovered so far to get those calories in, but I'm talking about valuable calories -- calories that pack a punch.
I've discovered a really great addition for the smoothie, which I heard about multiple times but never came across any in the stores around my area. I finally happened upon a "green" product for smoothies at Trader Joe's. Love them! They have their own brand, called "Trader Joe's Super Green Drink" powder, and there's two flavors. I chose berry. This honestly tastes like chalk when mixed with Almond Milk (vanilla flavored Almond Milk, no less). I didn't care, though. I have been faithfully putting a schoop of green drink powder in my morning smoothie. Everything else that I put into the smoothie masks this unpleasant taste. The "pièce de résistance": it provides 8000 units of Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) per scoop. Now, the label says that if I were to eat 3.5 oz of cherries, I would get 670 ORAC units. Broccoli is 900 ORAC. I was impressed the moment I read the label. But what was this ORAC? (This cool site lists lots of of ORAC foods values.
ORAC is basically a term that describes the power that antioxidents have. Remember I was putting a few handfuls of spinach or kale in my smoothie? Well, this by far replaces that!
Now, you may think I'm a hypocrite for endorsing a powder product. "Whole Food" appears in the title of the blog, so how can I recommend this? Well, it's called reality I guess. I'm sure there's purists out there who are aghast at what I just said. However, I'm a realist. We take baby steps here that we hope will lead to lifelong lifestyle changes.
Another check in the "plus" column for green powder is that the entire canister was $20.00 for a month's worth of servings. I figured that cost less than buying spinach or kale (in the same quantities) for the month. Never mind the care to keep the kale fresh, or to cook it, bag it, etc. This seems like a no brainer for busy moms, students, people who work, or people who are currently alive on this planet. (Once the spring and summer harvest hit, though, I'll have to go back to fresh greens.)
Think about it. If I could one day (insert evil laugh here) sneak this into my children's smoothies, I'll have hit the jackpot. Of course, the "green" color of the powder completely takes over the smoothie, unless I include berries, and the girls will spot the intruder within a nanosecond of me handing them the smoothie. That is, if I can even get Lourdes to eat a smoothie! She's still a work in progress in the smoothie department. I'm thinking about sitting them down and just talking to them about veggies and what this powder does. I'm already brainstorming ideas for how to present these powerhouse ORACs. I have to get creative. Pull out all the stops. Put my dignity and respect on hold. Truly, I'm thinking this might go the same way that flaxseed did. They tasted a pinhead's amount of ground flaxseed; their highly sophisticated, highly trained tastebuds detected no offending flavors. I'm now allowed to sprinkle flaxseed, in small amounts -- not nearly the heaping 1 teaspoon that I use, on sandwiches and so forth.
If I start small, maybe they'll let me sprinkle some green powder in a smoothie or even on peanut butter. I can tell you that I feel great getting two servings of veggies (AND 6000 ORACs) along with 3 servings of fruit in my breakfast alone. Top that with flaxseed and I'm already ahead of the game on my omega 3s for the day. Almond milk provides healthy fats and peanut butter some good protein. I drink this around 7:30am and I'm honestly full until about 11:00am, when I usually have another snack.
I'll keep you posted on "the talk." For now, let me know what kind of smoothies you're trying at home. Are you "green" yet?
Breakfast is the hardest meal to 'put you efforts into' as well. Once you wake up, you just don't have time to create an extravagant meal. A slice of toast and cup of coffee is about it for me...I suppose time is a big issue for lots of people. Perhaps a series of '5 minute meals' would be helpful?
ReplyDeleteAnd perhaps using a mascot a puppet to present the powder as 'magical fairy dust' would convince them? Perhaps they are too old for that though. :P