Thursday, June 02, 2011

Book #7 and a funny result...

Book #7: "Green Smoothie Revolution"
by Victoria Boutenko


I had seen this book on my friend Steph's blog while we were still in India.  It wasn't practical for me to read the book there (since we didn't SEE greens until March!), but the book has always been in the back of my mind.  When Chris bought me a kindle for my birthday, I was looking for cheap books to download and came across this one.  And I LOVED it!

I've always had a hard time with nutrition.  It's so conceptual that I haven't really understood it...and hearing that you SHOULD eat 6 servings of fruits/vegetables a day is really different than internalizing WHY you should, and what benefits it can have in your daily life.  This book really seemed to hit home, especially as my family has been dealing with some health issues.  Chris and I both have had digestive issues since coming back from India, Chris is having some acid reflux stuff, my mom has been dizzy/having high blood pressure, and my dad is chronically sick with pneumonia or the flu or SOMETHING.  So, when I read this book I got excited!

I'm obviously still learning a lot, and have only started exploring the benefits of raw food, but for now, this is what we're "eating" every morning. :)


I've been making these off and on for about 3 weeks now, but since school is out (WAHOO!), I'm trying to really focus on learning and preparing and getting this figured out while I have time this summer.  SO - I decided to try some new greens when I went to the grocery store yesterday!  I've primary been using spinach, kale and romaine, since those feel fairly familiar.  BUT, yesterday I got red swiss chard, turnip greens, and mustard greens.  Hmmm...

Most of you out there probably know that mustard greens are spicy.  Yeah, I sure didn't!!!  So this morning I made a banana, blueberry, spinach and mustard green smoothie.  I tried it and thought, "hmm, it kind of burns my throat!"  Then Chris tried it a couple of times and commented that it tasted like spicy mustard.  OH...maybe that's because I used mustard greens!

I even went so far as to wonder if they were somehow harmful to us, so I looked it up...and discovered that mustard greens are one of the healthiest out there with HUGE health benefits.  So, I'm going to wrap up this post and go see if I can get past the burn. :)

Just a note: This is only the second smoothie that hasn't worked, and we've LOVED most of them!  I would just have if this story detered you from trying them...we're loving it!!

3 comments:

Liz said...

I just bought a Vitamix so I can start making smoothies in the morning. I will have to check this book out:)Derek thinks I am crazy to put greens in them, little does he know!

Matt and Amy Farley said...

I love that you are becoming so nutritional. hehehehe!!! maybe i'll check this book out this summer. Or you can just make me smoothies when I visit.

Unknown said...

Love green smoothies! I have found that my favorite is 1 C spinach leaves, 3 carrots, 1/2 cucumber and 1 fruit of choice (apple or pear are best). The cucumber really helps "fruit" it up without having to add too many fruits and ruining the whole "veggie-ness".