Loving These Smoothies

Discussion in 'Food & Drinks' started by Babs Hunt, Dec 23, 2016.

  1. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    I find now that I would much often prefer to drink my meal instead of eat it. So I started making smoothies awhile back and I know I am getting alot more healthy nutrients into my body now. This morning while preparing my breakfast smoothie a lightbulb moment came and I went with it! I don't like taking vitamins, not because they aren't good for me...I just don't like having to take pills, etc. period. So this morning my thought was why don't I just take those vitamins and the probiotics capsules and through him the blender with my other smoothie ingredients. So that is what I did, being careful to pull apart the probiotics capsule and just pour the powder into the blender. So far, so good...the smoothie still tastes great and now I can "kill" two birds with one stone. ;)
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    That is a great idea as long as you don't throw in some of those vitamin capsules that have a strong taste (B+ comes to mind) and vitamins need to be taken along with food for them to digest properly anyway. If you just swallow down a vitamin pill, our body does not recognize it as food; so it doesn't make any attempt to break it down and digest it. When you take vitamins along with your food, then they get the digestive enzymes that break them down so the body can actually use the vitamins.
    Probiotics are also better when they are dissolved in a liquid because then they can multiply and you actually get a lot more benefits from them than you would if you are just swallowing the capsule.
    We use whey protein powder in our smoothies also, just to be sure we are getting all of the necessary proteins and amino acids. I make mine with kefir usually, because that is a wonderful probiotic source. Bobby doesn't like kefir, so he doesn't use it, he just takes probiotic capsules like you take.
    What all are you. Putting into your smoothies, @Babs Hunt ?
     
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  3. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    I'm just doing breakfast smoothies at this time and this is a combination of things I put in them. Plain sugar free yogurt, no sugar natural cranberry juice, banana, strawberries, blueberries, (this morning I tried fresh pineapple chunks), walnut bits. For fiber (which I need with my IBS) I add Great Grains Banana Nut Crunch or Raisns, Dates, and Pecan whole grain cereals. And now adding my vitamins and probiotics too. :)

    Next I want to try some veggie smoothies. Do you have any simple but great tasting recipes for these @Yvonne Smith
     
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  4. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    I don't like smoothies but love juice made with veggies in a masticator type juicer.
     
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  5. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    My mom always used to make us a carrot juice drink, @Babs Hunt . It was back when the word "smoothie" had not even been invented yet, and she made it with fresh carrots and pineapple juice blended together in the blender. It was delicious, and one of my favorite treats !
    She even had special glasses that we only used for the carrot drinks, and they were oldtime carnival glass soda glasses, which had that iridescent shine to them.
    I have tried adding some veggies into my smoothies, and when they are mixed with some kind of fruit to sweeten the drink, you hardly even know that you are having veggies in there.
    Carrots are great with pineapple, orange juice, or almost any light colored juice or fruit. Beets are perfect with strawberries, or any red/blue berries, and add a rich, kind of earthy flavor to the smoothie.
    Spinach is another veggie that is popular; but you have to get used to the idea of drinking something that is bright green.

    Because most of the fruit is too high-carb for me to have much of; I do not make a lot of smoothies any more, and just do the protein drink smoothie about once a day. I also usually add a little flax or chia seeds to give more fiber and thicken up the shake.
    Victoria Boutenko is one of the leading proponents of green smoothies, and has a whole lot of information about raw foods.
    Here is their website.
    http://www.rawfamily.com/
     
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  6. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    I want to use some baby carrots and baby spinach leaves in a veggie smoothie. I will check out that website...thanks Yvonne. :)
     
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  7. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I have been making fresh carrot and pineapple smoothies in the mornings, with added vitamin C and minerals. I used the veggie bullet to chop up the carrots and slice the pineapple really thin, and it blends easy that way.
    I usually add either oranges, apple, or maybe a banana, just to give it more variety of flavor.
    The veggie bullet is a pain if I am just chopping up a little bit of something, but when I want to chop up a whole bag of carrots and a whole pineapple, or several apples, it really makes everything go fast, plus it slices them really thin. I usually shred the carrots so that they blend better, and slice the other fruit.
    I like green smoothies, but when you add something orange like carrots and then something green like spinach, it comes out the ugliest brown, so that it looks awful, no matter how good it tastes.
     
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