Green Smoothies & Juices

[ellaminnowpea]

Mk, I'm making this juice tomorrow, can you tell I"m excited?!!!

1/2 head red leaf romaine
1-2 leaves swiss chard
1/2 cucumber
bit of lemon
few carrots
1-2 fuji apples

maybe a bit of other fruit for taste, I'm finally found time for experimenting!

[Tigerlily]

My mother bought a juicer! It's a cheap $20 one but it's okay enough, I guess.

Is romaine lettuce and celery good in juicers? They are the only green things I have at the moment.

[ellaminnowpea]

yeah! use 'em! I use celery and romaine often. Do you have some apples or fruit to add?

[Tigerlily]

Yes, we have tons of fruits. Strawberries, kiwis, oranges, grapefruit, apples, and bananas. We also have carrots too and maybe some parsley.

[Roxy]

Do carrot, orange, apple and a piece of ginger root if you have it there

[Tigerlily]

I will!

[Animosity]

My mother bought a juicer! It's a cheap $20 one but it's okay enough, I guess.

I didn't know they made ones that affordable. That's great to know. Maybe i'll be able to find one, I've been wanting some fresh juice. The only ones i've seen are $80+ . Completely out of my price range.

Let me know how it works, K?

[Roxy]

Yeah - what brand is it Tigerlily? Where'd she get it?

[Tigerlily]

I don't know the brand but it's from Wal Mart. I think it was $20 because when she brought it home, I was really surprised because I knew they were really expensive generally.

[Roxy]

Ah ok well if you think of it tomorrow, check the brand and let us know if it works ok.

[Kitteh]

Today - b.spin, 2 narnas, kiwi, papaya, it was delish!

[littlemiss]

Sorry everybody, I fell off the planet for a bit there..

Emzy, I clean in schools so just got a job at barnfield, I start weds, 6am start but i'l have to bike it half the week so will be getting up at 5. I love it, getting work out of the way before everyone starts, listening to the news on my earphones and just cleaning, dont have to talk to people and no overtime or stress!

Kay and kitteh, its good to know other people leave theirs a while. My husband is going to see how he copes with cereal and soya yoghurt. He hates breakfast and if its too much effort he will go without. I like having the smoothies too as I'm taking coconut oil and i can hide it in them each day for myself.
I might try making them in the night then and see how they last. We live in a tiny place and my kitchen (which is a wall in my livingroom) backs onto the wall my husband is sleeping against. He is so grumpy when he is tired and hates mornings so despite his love for me would probably strangle me or beat me over the head with the blender if I did that at 5 am.
I'd love to get a vitamix as that would be so much easier for him too but they are just sooo expensive.
I've been putting soaked cashews in my smoothies to fill us up.

[emzy1985]

Ah cool! Sounds like an easy job littlemiss. You know I met another vegan whilst I was out on Friday night. Where do you guys keep popping up from ay? Hehehe

I had a banana and mango smoothie yesterday and it was just the cure for a shitty hangover!

[Kitteh]

I hope it works out, LittleMiss.

I should have made one yest'day to cure my not-too-bad hangover, Emzy... but I didn't. Today was my regular, narna, spin and kiwi, yum.

[cedarblue]

i've become lazy with posting here; i generally use the same 3 or 4 variations though and they don't seem worth continually posting.

[littlemiss]

Not another vegan in luton???!!! We keep joking about opening a veggie restaurant here, then I have to remind hubby that there are only 2 of us, its official. He reckons there are more that dont use the forum..........Why would they do that?!
My inlaws want us to take them out to an indian in luton, somewhere safe with no "gangs" hanging outside. I'm taking them to bury park or they can eat my vegan food! I'm pretty insulted and so is hubby, His dad just wants to eat meat, his a typical fussy englishman.
Sorry this has gone way off green smoothies.

[DiaShel]

I have a smoothie question for you guys. Does anyone make a smoothie in the morning and bring it to work for lunch? What I want to do if make it in the morning, go to the gym and drink it before work, so like 2 hours after. Is this a bad idea? I know it's best to drink it right away to get all the nutrients but will 2 hours make much of a difference if I keep it cool in the car?

[ellaminnowpea]

Hey Dee, are you putting some sort of milk in it? (obviously vegan milk) That may not last in the car... Otherwise, if you keep it cool, a veggie/ fruit juice should be fine for a bit. Personally, I don't worry all that much about nutrient content in that short of a time period.

[DiaShel]

I was thinking of blending some almonds and water first, for an almond milk, and then adding the fruit/veggie. I wanted to do that to get a little protein after my workout. That might be another problem, the almond bits might go to the bottom.

[ellaminnowpea]

Ah, should be fine! I'd do it if its not too hot outside. Or you could just separate the almonds and eat them instead of putting them in the juice/smoothie.

[DiaShel]

the thing is I'm trying to just do raw for breakfast and raw almonds are gross. If I was going to eat them by themselves they'd have to be roasted.

Well, I'm not starting my job for a couple weeks so I have time to figure it out. Thanks for the input Ella!

[ellaminnowpea]

Hmmm, just thinking about raw brekkies and I tnd to eat chopped fruit w/ sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds don't taste too bad by themselves. Of course, not sure ifyour juice/ smoothie would turn out okay (for your liking) without almonds.

What job are you starting? Aren't you working on a PhD?

[DiaShel]

Actually it's an internship towards my degree. We do them every semester part time and full time for 8 weeks in the summer and then for the 4th year we do full time for a whole year. I am getting a doctorate but not a Ph.D. Mine is called an Au.D. which is a clinical doctorate in Audiology.
What do you do? It's nice to see another North Easterner, seems like most people are out of county.

[ellaminnowpea]

Oh wow, that's awesome! So will you be going to medical school? Or can you work as an audiologist with an AuD? Or research? Science is so confusing!

I go to PSU. I'm a premed and nutrition double major. Next year I'll be a senior!

[DiaShel]

Awesome! If I could do it all over again I definitely would go into nutrition. When I started grad school I had no direction or passion for anything but could get a decent job with my BA so I did then one of the two things I do with my degree (either speech path. or audiology and I hated speech). Now I've really found myself and discovered all these things I'd much rather be studying but I'm so far in now there's no turning back.

Ok, now that I've had my little sulk to answer your question an Au.D. is the end of my track and I'll be an audiologist. If I was going into research I'd have to get a Ph.D. which is NOT going to happen. I just want to be done already! Been in school way too long.

So what's the next step for you?

[Kitteh]

I always make my smoothies @ 6-7am and I drink them @ 3pm, they spend the day in the fridge.

[DiaShel]

Oh wow, that's great! With my schedule this summer I may need to make all my meals portable so that helps a lot.

[veggiemaya]

ooh, i am glad that i read this. i have been thinking about doing a little juice fast for a couple of days and I would really like to just make a large amount of juice at home in the morning and then bring it in to drink throughout the day. I wasn't sure if it would defeat the purpose being it wouldn't exactly be "freshly made" by the time i drink it all.

has anyone ever done any type of juice fast? any pointers or helpful hints would be greatly appreciated!!

[DiaShel]

I've heard it's best to drink it right away because it starts losing nutrients as soon as you blend them. I don't know how significantly though.

After my first bad experience with green smoothies I finally gave it another go. I blended pineapple, orange, banana and just a bit of baby spinach. It made like a pint and a half and after I drank it I thought "this will never hold me till lunch" but it did! I even worked out before lunch. Taste wise, it was ok and I kind of missed not chewing anything for breakfast. Maybe this will take some getting used to.

[veggiemaya]

i do make a juice/smoothie every morning to bring to work for breakfast and it will usually hold me over until about 12:30 or so..but then i am looking for food. plus, i do some pretty strenuous workouts every day which will tend to get the appetite going. i guess i could try to tone it down on the days i will be doing the fast.
diashel, that sounds like a good smoothie. i have been doing carrot, orange, pineapple, celery, ginger and parsley lately. i really like to add the pineapple..makes it extra sweet!

[DiaShel]

Doesn't the celery make it stringy? Sounds too daring for me at this point. Maybe I'll slowly work up to it.

[veggiemaya]

Doesn't the celery make it stringy? Sounds too daring for me at this point. Maybe I'll slowly work up to it.

no, not if you blend it enough. but, i do use the Vitamix..that thing could liquify a coconut, i am firmly convinced!

[DiaShel]

Ohh... I use my roommates walmart blender. It's pulpy. I'm moving tomorrow and need to get my own but cannot pay that much! My parents offered me their blender which is older then I am. I asked for one for my birthday next week but knowing them it'll be a $15 walmart one as well.

[veggiemaya]

haha! well, what about The Magic Bullet? that is probably about 30 bucks or so and it really does do a decent job. thats what i was using before i got the vita. i dont know if you ever go on ebay but people are selling them on there all the time. just a thought..

[DiaShel]

I'll check it out. Thanks for the suggestion.

[veggiemaya]

you're welcome, diashel!


todays smoothie..

pineapple
orange
peach
banana
medjool date
bit of parsley
goji berries
flax meal
water and ice

came out pretty good!

[Tigerlily]

Ohh... I use my roommates walmart blender. It's pulpy. I'm moving tomorrow and need to get my own but cannot pay that much! My parents offered me their blender which is older then I am. I asked for one for my birthday next week but knowing them it'll be a $15 walmart one as well.

Old blenders rock! I find their blades and engines much more high powered than modern blenders, actually. We had a food processor/blender that was older than me (parents' wedding gift) and it just recently broke. We got a new one from Wal Mart but the older one was the best.

[ellaminnowpea]

So what's the next step for you?

I think I'll go into the peace corps for a few years until I figure out what grad school I want to go to for either MPH (masters in public health) or Dietetics. I might go to become a dietician after that. Then finally I'll try to get into osteopathic school. Kinda depressing to think about how few people become dieticians or even fewer that get into osteopathic school.

Too bad you're so far in. But do you think you'll enjoy your job? You can always take a few classes here and there while your working, right?

[cedarblue]

smoothies will keep ok but juices need to be drunk as soon as possible after making.

[mariana]

I made my first green smoothie today!
kale
little bit of soymilk (to blend the kale)
strawberries
banana
orange juice
flaxseed oil
ice

I only put in one leaf of kale since it was my first time trying a green smoothie but it turned it a beautiful shade of bright green and I really liked it! I was actually a little surprised how delicious I found it despite the little chunks of kale...I actually felt like the kale made it "creamier" or something. But maybe I was just imagining things.

[cedarblue]

yay mariana!!

i had a plain fruit smoothie today, ran out of greens.

2 bananas
half mango
orange
strawberries

[DiaShel]

I just read 12 steps to raw foods and apparently green smoothies are great to help cravings. Do you find this to be true? I've decided to have one every morning this week and see how I feel. Not today though, I didn't have any greens.

[mariana]

Hmm...well, I crave green smoothies!! It's weird, after the first time trying a green smoothie I started craving them all the time! I bought some different fruits this week to try out some new kinds, too. I love green smoothies!

[emzy1985]

Hmm...well, I crave green smoothies!! It's weird, after the first time trying a green smoothie I started craving them all the time! I bought some different fruits this week to try out some new kinds, too. I love green smoothies!

That's probably the best craving I've ever heard of!!!

[DiaShel]

Well I won't mind that craving! Do you crave bad stuff less?

[mariana]

That's probably the best craving I've ever heard of!!!

lol, thanks!

Well I won't mind that craving! Do you crave bad stuff less?

Actually, yes... I haven't really been craving sweets lately. I went to see a movie today and brought some rice milk chocolate with me but I found that after just a couple of squares I was full (much better than usual--normally I'd want to eat the whole bar!). I don't think I'll ever stop craving chocolate completely, but at least I'm craving it less!

[ellaminnowpea]

Dia, whats that book like? It sounds interesting!

[DiaShel]

This women wrote it who, many years ago, tried the raw thing because her, her husband and two kids all had various serious health problems. So they went 100% raw right away and became super healthy. Then she went to do classes about raw living so she got to see others responses to it (mostly that they couldn't do it because cooked food is an addiction) so she wrote this "12 step" book. It's ok but she's really hardcore. She talks about sleeping outside everynight and swimming in ice water and all these other major changes in her life as well. It's the only one I've read but I have a feeling there are better ones out there.

[ellaminnowpea]

Ah ok. I'm still looking for that one book thatll make sense to me. I understand the concepts but I think I need some more motivation and most of the books I've read are really hardcore like you said.

[DiaShel]

Well if it helps we could chat about it, I definitely think it'd help me to find someone else going raw or with interest in it. I don't want to tell my friends or family because they think I'm extreme enough being vegan.