Banana & Brazil Superfood Smoothie

I haven't posted a drink recipe in a while so, here is a recipe for a superfood smoothie that we've been enjoying lately. It's a recent variation of our more regular hemp milk green smoothies incorporating some of my favourite superfoods ~ Maca, Reishi and Mesquite. 

You can use whatever type of nut milk you like but I find the flavour of the brazils give this smoothie a fuller flavour.  

Brazil Nuts are the richest natural source of selenium and a good source of vitamin E.  They also contain Palmitoleic acid and oleic acid which can help to lower 'bad cholesterol' levels and increase 'good cholesterol' levels.  

INGREDIENTS

3c Brazil milk

2 Bananas

2t Maca

2t Mesquite

1/2t Reishi Powder

THE HOW TO...

Make your brazil milk ~ 1c brazil nuts : 4c water

 Put all ingredients in blender with (strained) brazil milk and blend

If you have a sweet tooth, you may need to add a little extra sweetner of your choice.  The bananas add enough sweetness for me but are probably not enough for most people.

Strawberry & Cilantro Smoothie

Calling this a smoothie might be a little generous as it's somewhere in-between a juice and smoothie.  We enjoyed this atthe Raw Food Pot Luck at the Raw Faerie house this past weekend and there were a few requests for the recipe.

It a gorgeous drink to have with ice in the summer.  I like it made with cornish strawberries because  they are the sweetest and they are local too of course.  I really love the sweetness of the strawberries with the cilantro. 

This recipe will make just over a litre but you could easily halve the quantities.  It's best to make it just before you are going to drink it as if you allow it to sit too long before drinking, the cilantro can seperate out from the juice.  If it does seperate it is easy to stir the cilantro back through.

It's this easy;

Juice some organic apples to make one litre of juice (approximately 10 medium sized apples)
Pour the juice into the blender and add 12 medium size strawberries, 1/4c tighly packed cilantro.
Briefly blend or pulse.

I like this drink to have a little texture from the strawberries and cilantro but if you prefer a smoother drink you can blend the cilantro with the strawberries first and then add the aples juice and lime.

Blending fresh juice will cause it to oxidise faster so it's best to avoid blending the apple juice longer than is needed.

If your strawberries aren't very sweet then you may need to add something extra to sweeten, maybe a little agave, coconut palm sugar....

A quick and easy sweet greeeeen smoothie

Today I am drinking green smoothies!  Specifically, a green smoothie made with bananas, raspberries, apple and baby spinach.  All organic of course :)

I thought that given the glorious warmer weather we are being blessed with at the moment, that some of you might like to try this cold smoothie too.




Often when people first hear of green smoothies they think wow that sounds really strange, who would put greens in their smoothies?  I always tell them that....   Greens are the BEST ever!

I ♥  greens because they make me healthy.  

Green smoothies are actually totally amazing for your health.  A green smoothie everyday can make a huge difference to how you feel.  There is so much goodness in fresh raw organic greens and this is a really pleasant way to consume them.  Not everyone likes to eat salad everyday!

So here is the recipe for the geen smoothie I am drinking right now....

4 ripe bananas

1/2 punnet raspberries 

1 apple

three generous handfuls of baby spinach leaves

1-2 cups of water

Throw it all in the blender and once smooth, check the consistency. If it's a little too think for you just add a little more water.  It might be green but because spinach has such a neutral flavour you really can't taste it.

Sometimes I freeze some fresh raspberries for use in smoothies, as having the smoothies with that coldness adds something 'extra'.  Especially in summer.  You could try adding a few ice cubes before blending though.

Enjoy!





Wishing you all an amzing time in this beautiful weather we're having over the Easter break :)  xx

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Pear, Carrot & Ginger Smoothies

Here is a quick recipe for a smoothie I made today.  The ingredient quantities are approximate, especially the carrot juice :)

The ingredients you will need are: 

5 pears

2 apples

2 cups fresh carrot juice or a little less

chunk of fresh chopped ginger

2 handfuls baby spinach

squeeze of lemon juice

It's very easy, all you need to do is:


1. Juice your carrots.  I always reserve the pulp to use in recipes later

2. Put it all into the blender and blend till smooth.  I haven't given quantities for the ginger as it's better to add to taste. If you like a thicker smoothie you might want to be conservative and add your carrot juice just a little at a time  

xxx

Green Hemp Smoothies

Quite a few years ago, not long after we had first moved down to Cornwall, we drove up to Glastonbury for a weekend.  Having not visited before our plan was to explore a little and see what was there.

We booked accomodation for a couple of nights at ShekinAshram, a short walk from the centre of Glastonbury. I can't comment on what they curently offer as it has been some time since I've visited but, there was vegan food only allowed on the premises and Monday was a day for fasting.  The people who were running the Ashram were healthy, vibrant and appeared to have lots and lots of energy.  They all seemed to be happy and peaceful people.  

It was at Shekinashram that I was introduced to hemp milk.  They provided jugs of fresh hemp milk made from whole hemp seeds to have with muesli and fruits and they would also serve green hemp smoothies. Those who lived at the Ashram always started their days with hemp milk and they raved about the benefits.  Over the couple of days we were walking around Glastonbury we were quite literally being handed hemp milk fliers by shop owners, all giving information about what I wonderful source of nutrition it was.  Now I am not a nutritionist so I'm not going to write about the nutritional benefits of RAW hemp, but if you google it and are selective about which links you chose you will certainly find a nutritional profile somewhere.

At that time I was still working in a stressful and unfulfilling job and I was vegan (but not raw), but I saw hemp milk as something else I could start incorporating into our diet to benefit our health.  My approach has always been to add things in along the way and eventually when I felt that I needed to, I made the change to raw foods.  I think my transition to raw wasn't too difficult because I made so many changes in the years leading up to going raw.   

So for many years now, thanks to that stay at the Ashram in Glastonbury, we have been benefiting from hemp milk.  Over time I have come to  incorporate it into our diet in a variety of ways, from flavoured milks, to smoothies and in desserts too.  I find that hemp works particularly well with raw cacao or carob but I find that it works equally well in a green smoothies.  My husband absolutely loves hemp milk, in fact when I go through phases of not making hemp smoothies he eventually starts asking me to make them.  He misses them in his diet because he feels so great after drinking them.

These photos are of the green hemp smoothie that we shared for breakfast this morning.  I made just over a litre, which gave us one and a half large glasses each (these glasses really could be likened to bowls). 

Strawberry Nutshakes

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This morning we had a raw-style milkshake for breakfast, there was just no 'milk' in it.  I thought I'd take some photos along the way and post them up along with telling you how to make this for yourself. 

The first reactions a lot of people have when they hear about raw food diets is that it must be very complicated or boring (do you live on salad?), socially isolating (where do you go to eat out?) and they feel that there would be a lot of sacrifices to be made.  There are several blog posts wating to be written based on that last sentence alone but that is not what I am here to write about now.  What I want to say now is that increasing raw foods in your diet can be as easy as adding a raw-style milkshake, it doesn't need to be complicated. Raw foods don't have to be all or nothing.  There is a lot of benefit in adding just a little extra raw food here and there where you can fit it in.  It all helps.

♥  A freshly blended Strawberry Nutshake ♥

This is one of my favourite drink recipes because I love strawberries.  It's really easy too.  Growing up I always loved milkshakes (especially strawberry) but never really liked the after taste of the milk so much.  The milk made me feel sluggish and looking back I now suspect I had a problem with lactose.  When I became vegan I would have a lot of soy milk, but it's now known that too much processed soy isn't good for you and soy milk is a highly processed food.  In the year leading up to my transition to a raw food lifestyle I discovered raw nut milks.  I was in heaven making raw shakes and smoothies with fresh, raw homemade almond milk.

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How to make Almond Milk
To make the almond milk you need to soak 1 cup of almonds overnight.  Just put it all into a container or a covered bowl in the refrigerator.  You need to allow lots of extra space in the container/bowl because as the almonds soak they will expand.

Soaking the almonds not only makes them easier to break down and blend but it also activates the enzymes in the nuts.

Yum!

In the morning strain the almonds, discarding all of the soak water and then rinse the almonds thoroughly under fresh running water.

Put the almonds into the blender along with three cups of water and blend till the almonds have broken down.  Now, using a nut-milk bag (or a piece of muslin cloth), strain the milk into a bowl, squeezing all of the fluid out of the nut pulp.   I reserve the nut pulp for making other recipes.  It can be frozen or dehydrated for use later.

The shelf life of almond milk is 1-2 days in the refrigerator so take care to only make what you need. Almond milk is also excellent on cereal if you're wanting to find a healthy milk substitute. 

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The Nut-Shake
To make the strawberry nutshake photographed here, return the nut milk to your blender (I suggest you rinse your blender first) and add 2-300g of fresh strawberries, 2 bananas and 1 Tablespoon of raw honey (optional) and blend till smooth.

A nut-shake has no syrups, dairy products or additives. No preservatives or E-numbers.  Just whole raw foods bursting with nutrients and vitamins.


As well as being a great breakfast drink, it's also really great to have it in the refrigerator for when the kids come home from school or to have as a mid-morning or afternoon snack.   

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