Housemate smoothie (again)

I have several posts on housemate's smoothie preparation, because I change it up every once in a while.   The ingredients are pretty stable, but my preparation method has evolved.  I used to prepare a whole week's worth on the weekend and freeze them as described here.  That has two problems:  1) after thawing, they just don't taste as good as when they are freshly prepared!  maybe it's that 12 hours in the fridge thawing makes them lose their freshness a bit; or maybe it's the freezing process  2) there's usually a bit of leftover for each smoothie which I drink, but when you make 7 of them, that adds up.  So I was overeating on a food that is more than sweet enough for my tastes.

So I've been making the smoothies every day, but doing some weekend food prep to make it easier.  Now I also drink a little bit of the leftover every day but it's a small enough amount that I can just consider it an allowed treat.  plus it's a nice little boost of energy that I usually get before exercising.

Here's what I do on the weekend.  I buy 7 10-oz bags of frozen berries or an equivalent amount of fresh fruit or a mixture.  In most seasons, I go with frozen but in the spring and summer, the fresh berries and grapes are great additions.  I try to include a mixture of berries with some sweet fruit like frozen sweet cherries, grapes, bananas.  Here's all the fruit in a giant bowl:

I feeze that into a large freezer bag.

Each night when I make housemate's fresh squeezed orange juice, I also squeeze 4 oz into this measuring cup, to which I add another 4 oz of grape juice:

Now each morning, assembly goes quick.  Here are all the ingredients:  2 cups of the frozen fruit, seed mixture (in the container with the blue lid), supplements at bottom right, juice, and spinach:

here's the juice, seed mixture, and supplements in the blender pitcher

Add in the spinach

I blend this up first, then add the frozen fruit and blend until smooth.  Here is the final product, served with today's newspaper:

housemate smoothie redux

okay I looked up the word redux and I might not be using it right, but the English language is ever changing.

For the longest time, I've been making housemate's smoothies in big batches on Sat. morning.  This week I was gone on the weekend so just made them in smaller batches and decided I like that!   This is partly because I changed my schedule.  I decided to work 75% time this summer, and boy is it nice.  It allows me to do my food prep in the mornings and mosey on into work at 10 am.  So there's time to make fresh smoothies every other day and freeze the second one.

These smoothies are good for SAD (Standard American Diet) guests who are used to eating sweet food.  They are too sweet for me.  I'm not sure I'd call them healthy because they are so sweet (too much fruit juice), but they are nutritious.

Ingredients for 2 smoothies (16-20 oz each):
18-20 oz (550-600 g) frozen fruit/berries
8 oz grape juice
8 oz fresh squeeze orange juice
2 Tbsp sunflower seeds or other seeds or nuts
3 oz spinach
supplements if desired (better than swallowing pills)

Blend the juice, nuts/seeds, spinach and supplements.  Add the frozen fruit and blend until smooth.  Pour into two tall cups.  I give one to housemate and freeze the other for tomorrow.  Note:  don't use flaxseeds or chia seeds if you are freezing.  They give it a jelly-like consistency when thawed.

Current Housemate smoothies

I usually make a week's worth of smoothies for housemate at once, in 3-4 batches. Each batch makes 2 smoothies. I then freeze them, like so:

Each night, take one out and put it in the fridge. Take it out in the morning, stir with a tall spoon, add a straw and serve! Leave the foil on if your client is scared of a slight green color that can develop as the top layer is exposed to the air.

Here are the ingredients for one batch (2 servings).

500-600 grams (18-20 oz) fresh and/or frozen fruit (typically 2 bags frozen).  e.g., frozen sweet cherries, strawberries, raspberries, mangos; fresh or frozen ripe banana.  Grapes are good too when in season; fresh figs too.   Note:  I've found blueberries don't thaw well after freezing--the texture is...gloppy.

2-4 oz spinach and/or sweet cabbage

2 Tbsp nuts and/or seeds: e.g., cashews, pistachios, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, flax seeds, or seed mixture

0-2 medjool dates, pitted, or 0-2 Tbsp date syrup (optional, depends on how much sweet fruit you use and taste preferences of the customer)

10 oz grape and/or fresh squeezed orange juice
supplements (DHA, gentle care vitamins, and osteo-sun)

This can be assembled in a variety of ways. If making 3-4 batches, you can combine all the fruit into a big bowl, like so:

Next assemble your dates, nuts, water and juice. Sometimes if I am making several batches, I might blend the dates, nuts and water ahead of time into a yummy nut date cream. I might make extra and enjoy my own treat of the cream over some fruit.

Here's everything ready for assembly for one batch. In this version, the dates, nuts, juice are combined into a mug:

Add the date, nut, juice and water to the blender. I break open the supplements and pour the powder in, and put in the DHA. This is great because housemate won't swallow pills. I can't taste them in the smoothies. I put 2 portions since this will make 2 smoothies. Add the spinach on top and blend on high until smooth. Then add the fruit, and blend again until smooth. Pour into 2 glasses. Eat them now, or top with foil and put them in the freezer.  

Daily Blended salad

I'm not a big smoothie fan because I prefer chewing my food and tasting the flavors of each bite separately. But if it's really true as Dr. Fuhrman says, that you absorb 5-10 times more nutrients from blending, then it seems worth it to blend up some salad greens once a day. And I like this one because it's not very sweet. I'd rather save the sweet fruits for other dishes. This is refreshing in a slightly sweet, bitter, and tart kind of way. The lemon is a key ingredient because it neutralizes the bitter taste of the greens. I really like this smoothie, but I don't recommend it for first-timers. For those, I recommend house-mate's smoothie or the spinach-mango smoothie.

Ingredients:

One 5-oz bag baby romaine or baby greens salad mix

2 oranges or 1 grapefruit (remove seeds or buy seedless like navels)

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp flaxseed

daily supplements (gentle care, osteo-sun, and DHA)

Combine in a high-speed blender.

Nutritional info: 226 calories, protein 6 g (10%), carbs 46 g (73%), fat 4 g (18%)

I usually make 7 smoothies on Saturday morning and freeze them in 16 oz water bottles. Here's the assembly line before production starts:

Housemate's spinach berry smoothie

This is the easiest and best tasting housemate smoothie with spinach in it (the spinach-mango is as good but too green-looking for housemate). This makes two 16-oz smoothies.

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen sweet cherries

1 bag frozen berries (blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, or mixed)

1 bag (5 oz) spinach

1-2 Tbsp date syrup or date sugar or 1-2 dates (or more or less, to taste)

1/2 cup grape or cherry juice; or 1 cup grapes
1 banana (optional)
fresh figs (in season)

2-4 Tbsp seeds (flax, sunflower, hemp, chia) or walnuts

vitamins and vitamin D

DHA supplement

Blend the supplements, seeds, juice, dates, and spinach until smooth. Add the berries and water and blend again until smooth.

Here's the juice I used last time:

Best of all, it doesn't look green, due to the cherries. Housemate does not want green-looking smoothies. (foil over the glass and straw works too):

I often make 6-8 of these on weekends, cover with aluminum foil, freeze, and then take one out every night to thaw in the fridge for brekky. Here's the production line for the big batch:

spinach/berry smoothie

New, favorite, easy. Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen sweet cherries

1 bag frozen berries (blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, or mixed)

1 bag (5 oz) spinach

1 large orange or 2 small, or 4 mandarine, peel and remove seeds

2 Tbsp flax seeds

2 Tbsp sunflower/pumpkin/hemp seeds

vitamins and vitamin D

DHA supplement

1/2-1 cup water

Blend the supplements, seeds, oranges, water, and spinach until smooth. Add the berries and blend again until smooth.

smoothie time

I like making house-mate's smoothies on Saturday morning. I make 2 batches of 3 smoothies each, and freeze them. Here were today's ingredients:

vitamins & DHA, bananas, mandarin oranges, pears (local), blueberries, pineapple chunks, raspberries, strawberries, flaxseeds and sunflower seeds. I didn't have spinach, and decided to let house-mate have a Christmas treat this week so I put the lettuce (top right) back in the fridge and these were just sweet fruit smoothies. yummy!

New housemate's smoothie

Another version of housemate's smoothie. I think I like this best of all and it will become mine too when I have one. Though I would add more spinach and different kinds of greens, and a little vinegar.

Ingredients for 3 x 16 oz (large glass) servings:

1.5-3 oz nuts and/or seeds (today I did hazelnuts and almonds, blanched first to soften, yum!).

vitamins and vitamin D

DHA supplement

3 cups grapes, or 1 bag frozen cherries

1 cups fresh pomegranate and/or orange juice (prefer pom)

0-1 cup water, as needed

1 banana, fresh or frozen (peel before freezing, break up and put into individual bags)

2 bags frozen berries (usually 1 blueberry, and 1 strawberry, raspberry, or mixed berries)

5 oz fresh spinach

Put the nuts, seeds, vitamins, DHA, and some of the juice in the blender. Add the spinach on top. Start blending, letting the bottom stuff blend first. Then smash down the spinach with the plunger and let it all blend together. Then add everything else and blend until smooth. This makes 3 ~16-oz servings. Freeze the ones you don't drink. Take out one each night and put in fridge. It thaws overnight.

Calories per serving: 374; protein 7g (7%), carbs 63 g (61%), fat 13 g (31%).

Chocolate cherry smoothie

I can't eat much of this because the chocolate is too druglike for me, but I can make it for someone else and lick the container (using the spatula as a proxy).

Ingredients:

1 bag frozen sweet cherries

1-2 medjool dates (remove pits)

1 Tbsp cocoa powder (more if you prefer)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup raw cashews

1 cup (?) water

Combine 1/2 cup water and everything but the cherries, blend until smooth. Add the cherries, and water as needed to desired amount and consistency, blend until smooth. This is a very sweet treat, but tasty. Good for guests and other people who can handle sweets (not me).

smoothie time

Today I made a bunch of smoothies for next week. This is a lot of fun for me. Here are the ingredients for 12 servings! From left to right, we have 6 bags of spinach or baby romaine, several bags of berries, 12 oranges, 6 pomegranates, 6 bowls of grapes, 4 kinds of seeds (hemp, sunflower, pumpkin, and flax), our supplements (gentle care, osteo-sun, DHA), 12 dates, and the large grocery bill is laying in the front. This is definitely the most expensive part of my grocery bill! This will be an issue in my future but right now I'm going to enjoy it.

I make the smoothies in batches of 2. Here's the first batch for housemate. Dr. Fuhrman said, don't make all your smoothies with spinach because it has a lot of oxalic acid. That limits the absorption of calcium and maybe other things. Well, housemate doesn't like smoothies made with salad but I decided to try to anyway, using mild baby romaine. So this one has a banana and a couple of dates to sweeten it up. I thought it tasted great, so I think housemate will like it.

I made another similar batch for housemate with strawberries instead of blueberries, everything else the same:

Then I made a batch for me with spinach because the co-op had local spinach today and it will probably be the last time this season. This had mango and pineapple for the fruit. This was the best-tasting smoothie of all--really good! Housemate claims she doesn't like the green color so I get them for myself. Oh there was a lime too but I forgot to put it in the picture.

Next, several more batches for me and housemate with spinach and blueberries & raspberries or blueberries & strawberries.

The counter got messier and messier. The pom juice splattered on everything nearby, including the walls and floor. I thoroughly enjoyed snacking on the pom kernels. I need to stop snacking while preparing food in general, but not while making pom juice.

Time to cleanup:

I did a good job cleaning up and surprised housemate who usually has to deal with my messes.

Here they are in the freezer. Housemate's are the glasses on right with foil on top. Mine are the bottles at left. I sometimes eat out so the bottles are flexible that way.

Yes, that is haagen daaz ice cream at top right. That's for family visits. It doesn't tempt me, but I admit vegan ice cream would, so that's not permitted in the house.

Saturday morning smoothie

This is my weekend treat smoothie (no greens). Serves 2.

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana

1 bag frozen blueberries

1 bag frozen sweet cherries

1/4 - 1/2 cup raw cashews or other nut (pecans?) or seed

1 cup grapes (optional)

1/2 cup fresh pomegranate juice (optional)

water as needed (1/2-1 cup)

Pour the frozen berries in a big bowl, microwave for 30-60 seconds (optional). Blend cashews, grapes, and liquid in blender. Then add the other ingredients and blend until smooth. It's as good as any milkshake.

fun with smoothies

Today I made extra special smoothies. I made 6 servings (about 16 oz I think) to freeze. I used 12 oz of spinach divided into three batches of 2 smoothies. They had their usual supplements too. And for a treat I used raw cashews instead of my usual seeds (1/3-1/2 cup for batch). Here were the variations; that is, along with the spinach and raw cashews, here are the fruit additions to each one:

1. fresh pineapple, mango, pear, and orange juice. Extremely delicious and a pretty lime green.

2: fresh figs, fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice, fresh pear, and 2 bags of frozen blueberries. I added 1 Tbsp date sugar. I forgot to take a picture but as you can guess, it was blue.

3: fresh pomegranate juice and orange juice (totaling 1 cup), 2 bags of frozen sweet cherries. I added 1 Tbsp of date sugar and wished I hadn't. It was already plenty sweet!

Here it is when I'm all done. You can see my mangled vita-mix plunger from one time when I forgot to use the rubber top to stop the plunger from hitting the blades. I need to order a new one. You can also see the mess at the end of the job.

These are in the freezer covered with foil, to eat over the next few days.

my new favorite smoothie

I've been eating this smoothie for a few months now so it must be my favorite.

Ingredients for two 16-20 oz servings:

2-4 Tbsp seeds (hemp, flax, pumpkin, sunflower) or nuts (walnuts, cashews)

Add in your supplements if you want (1 ml DHA,4 gentle care vitamins, 6 Osteo-Sun (for 2 servings)

8 oz fresh squeezed orange juice and/or pomegranate juice

1/2-1 cup grapes (optional)

2 dates (optional)

4 oz fresh spinach or baby romaine salad greens, or chard (spinach is least bitter)

1 bag (8-10 oz) frozen berries/fruit (pomegranate kernels, strawberry, raspberry, cherries, mango...)

Another bag frozen berries/fruit or a banana

1 tsp blueberry vinegar (optional, if using salad greens which can be bitter)

Pour the frozen berries in a big bowl, microwave for 30-60 seconds (optional). Put the seeds, nuts, supplements, dates and some liquid (juice/water, say 8 oz) in the blender. Add the greens on top. Blend. After the seeds and supplements get blended, start smashing down the greens to blend that in too. Add in the fruit and liquids and blend. Add in liquid to reach desired consistency. You can also add 1 tsp blueberry vinegar, especially if using salad greens which are more bitter than spinach.

Some of my favorite combinations are blueberries and another berry; pineapple and mango (my all-time favorite); and banana & blueberries or banana & strawberries or banana and cherry (really sweet, like dessert).

another collard green smoothie

Sometimes I like these and other times I don't.  When I like them, I'm liking the flavor and nutrition.  When I'm not liking them, I am thinking the delicious flavor of the fruit are gone because they are trying to offset the bitter flavor of the collards.  At those times, I'd rather get my collards another way and enjoy the fruit by itself.  

This serves 2.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp flaxseeds

1 Tbsp sunflower seeds

2 Tbsp hemp seeds (use any combo of the seeds you prefer)

2/3 cup edamame, thawed in microwave in a little water (if frozen)

10 oz fresh squeeze orange juice

8 oz collard greens

1 bag frozen blueberries

1 bag frozen pomegranate kernels (yum!)

1 Tbsp blueberry vinegar (makes the greens less bitter tasting)

Blend the seeds, edamame, and OJ in the blender. Add the collard greens and blend some more. Add the berries and vinegar and blend until smooth. This makes about 36-40 oz. I split it into 2 servings and freeze one or both for later. After it's frozen, it takes about 12 hours to thaw in the fridge. The microwave can help it along.

Nutritional info per serving: total calories: 460. carbs 75 g (60%), protein 16 g (12%), fat 14 g (28%).

visitor smoothie

a smoothie that a visitor would like.  Serves 3

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp hemp seeds or 1/4 cup raw cashews

5 walnuts (about 1/2 oz)

2 bananas

1 bag frozen blueberries

1 bag frozen raspberries or strawberries

12 oz water

2-3 Tbsp date sugar

Combine the date sugar, seeds or nuts, and 4-6 oz water.  Blend until nice and creamy.  Add the banana and berries.  Blend until smooth.

large collard green smoothie

I've been tweaking this recipe. I don't know why I like this but I do. It's not that sweet compared to others. I have lots of collard greens in my garden so this is a great way to use them. .

Ingredients:

2-4 oz collard greens and/or spinach or chard (note to self: I don't like kale or parsley in smoothies).

1 bag frozen berries (e.g., blueberries, strawberries)

1/2 bag frozen pomegranate kernels (just became available in my co-op, yum!)

2 small oranges, peeled, cut in quarters to remove seeds

2 Tbsp seeds (hemp, flax, sunflower, pumpkin) = 1 oz

1 cup water

1 Tbsp blueberry vinegar (makes the greens less bitter tasting)

put the seeds in the bottom of the blender. add 1/2 cup water, the orange, vinegar, and the greens. Blend until smooth, then add the berries and rest of the water. Makes about 24 oz. You can freeze some for later.

Nutritional info: total calories: 531. carbs 107 g (71%), protein 14 g (9%), fat 12 g (20%).

new spinach-mango smoothie

This is a more nutrient-dense version of my original spinach-mango smoothie.

Ingredients for 1 large serving (about 20 oz):

1 medium or large orange or 2 small

1 10-oz bag frozen mangos

1 4-oz bag baby spinach

3 Tbsp total sunflower, pumpkin, hemp seeds (whatever combo you wish)

supplements if you wish (vitamins, DHA)

Throw the seeds and supplements into the blender. Peel the oranges, cut in half, then quarters to remove the seeds, throw in blender, add spinach. Blend until smooth. then add the mangos, and blend until smooth. yum!

Nutritional info. total calories: 533 (that's a lot!); protein 15 g (9%), carbs 91 g (61%), fat 17g (29%).

July 7

Brekky: some cherries, blackberries, and leftover cabbage salad. some raw spinach. some sips of house mate's smoothies while preparing.

Lunch: big salad made from stuff in the fridge and garden. There was lettuce from the garden, romaine lettuce from the store (local), grape tomatoes cut in half, sugar snap peas (so good!). Then for dressing I ground up some sunflower and hemp seeds (in the coffee grinder), and mixed that with some d'angou pear vinegar and chives and basil from the garden and the tomatoes. While eating I decided it needed more liquid so I added some spicy pecan vinegar (ran out of the d'angou pear, didn't really care what flavor it was). It was very good.

Dessert was fruit salad: strawberries, raspberries, banana

Dinner: I had big plans for building muscles with a "power smoothie" after a hard workout at the gym, following Dr. Fuhrman's advice: after exercising, eat a meal with greens, beans, and nuts and seeds. So I prepared a smoothie with 4 oz kohlrabi leaves (needed to harvest another kohlrabi from the garden), 1 Tbsp each of sunflower, pumpkin, flax and hemp seeds, 1/2 cup edamame, and a bag of frozen berries, oh and a peeled orange, and 1 Tbsp blueberry vinegar. It was a bit of a disappointment. It didn't taste bad, tasted decent even. But I love eating an orange by itself, and I love the taste of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds and berries. It was all just mixed together into one okay taste and there was no satisfaction of chewing. So I don't think that's going to be how I get my high-protein meal on a regular basis. This time of year, the produce is so good, I think I am not in the mood for blending it all up into one taste. I also ate my smallish but good-tasting kohlrabi, some carrots, and some cherries. I was plenty full after all that.

single serving green smoothie

Warning: this is not a very sweet one. But this is what your taste buds start desiring after you get hooked on eating raw greens. I'm just starting to harvest all these greens from my garden! yea!!!!

Ingredients:

2-4 oz leafy greens: I usually use collard greens (because I have a garden full!), chard or spinach. Collards and kale are cruciferous vegetables and are great cancer fighters! However, I personally don't like kale in smoothies, as I find it too bitter.

1 Tbsp flaxseed

1 Tbsp hempseed (or sunflower seeds or raw nuts or nothing)

1 bag frozen berries (e.g., mixed, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry)

1/2 bag frozen pomegranate berries (new!) or 1/2 cup pomegranate juice

1/2 cup water, if needed

daily supplements (optional): 0.5 ml DHA,2 gentle care vitamins, 3 Osteo-Sun

1-3 tsp blueberry vinegar (if using lots of the bitter greens---kale, collards, arugula)

Put the seeds, nuts, juice or water, and supplements in the bottom of your powerful blender. Add the greens on top. start blending. The greens should fall down and start blending with the liquid, adding more bulk. Let that blend up nicely to grind up the seeds and supplements. then you can just add the berries slowly and let them blend in. it makes a thick shake. You can microwave the berries for 30 sec first which will make it blend easier and less thick; or add a bit of water. The vinegar removes some of the bitter taste of the greens. Makes a large glass, about 16 oz.

Nutritional info: 393 calories, 12 g protein (10%), 73 g carbs (65%), 12 g fat (26%).

another morning smoothie

This is almost the same as my original morning smoothie but adds a bag of spinach (substitutes for some of the juice).

Ingredients for 2 servings:

1 banana

1 package frozen mixed berries or cherries (10 oz bag)

8 oz pomegranate juice

8 oz soy milk or pomegranate juice or water

2 Tbsp flaxseeds

2 Tbsp sunflower seeds

1  5-oz bag of spinach

1.5 ml DHA

4 gentle care vitamins

6 Osteo-Sun (vitamin D and some calcium)

Blend half the liquid, seeds, vitamins, and spinach. Add the rest of the liquid, berries and banana, and blend some more.  Makes two 18-oz servings.  I freeze one of them for the next day (plastic glass with foil on top or water bottle).   I got tired of trying to remember to take all those darn vitamins so I am now putting them in the smoothie.  It seems like a lot of vitamins but they are actually a lower dose than most, except for the vitamin D which is typical. 

If you want a treat, it's really sweet with cherries and all juice (my soymilk is unsweetened)  

Total calories per serving: 335. Protein: 10 g. Carbs: 55 g. fat: 12 g (31%)