Saturday, August 23, 2008

Getting More Greens

I eat a fairly healthy diet but it is easy to slack of the veggies. I'm trying to find a good breakfast smoothie involving spinach to increase my green vegetable in-take. I eat plenty of cooked tomatoes and I buy plenty of vegetables, but don't always cook them. If I make something like green beans for dinner, Ian and I will eat the leftovers at lunch. They lose some nutritional value in the microwave, but for lunch, it is reasonable.

I just made Dr. Oz's Green Drink that I saw on Oprah. The blender couldn't handle it. Luckily, my mother-in-law gave us this crazy Vita Mix. It is probably as old as I am (or older) but it kicked the blender's butt and whipped all the ingredients together. They were a little hot from the motor, but I served it over ice and it was fine. It was still a little thick to drink, but pretty good. The recipe calls for "1 head of celery". I think they mean 1 spear. i used two spears and you can really taste the celery. To me, when I hear "1 head", I think of either "1 bunch" or the celery leaves off of one bunch. I didn't see that part where he put the ingredients in, so I am not sure what he meant, but one bunch would be way too much celery.

I like it, but it is a lot of work with a lot of ingredients. I am looking for something a little simpler. We buy organic frozen fruit from the commissary. I am thinking of experimenting with the frozen fruit, spinach and maybe yogurt. Does anyone have a good recipe? My plan is to drink something like this in the morning along with eating an egg or whole grain cereal for protein.

Tonight I am making stuffed peppers. I think I will make green beans to go with it and have a salad (with ranch dressing) as well. I am hoping to wean myself from the ranch after this batch is gone. It is delicious, but not very healthy. I need to experiment with vinaigrettes in the Vita Mix. My friend, Iliano, always whips up great vinaigrettes from whatever he has laying around the house. I've also been snacking on raw carrots and ranch.

2 comments:

Connie said...

I used to be a fanatic with my juicer - when I had a compost heap for the scraps and a farmers market to get fresh veg. I feel guilty for throwing all the scraps in the garbage.

I broke my blender :-( Still waiting for the new one. I have a couple a smoothie drink books, but never use them - it's too limiting. A recipe will sound good, but I won't have everything, or I have fresh mangoes, but no good recipe. I just throw things in and see what happens. I keep fresh fruit and veggies, frozen berries and peaches, plain yogurt, and honey on hand. If they are there, then I HAVE to use them so they do not go to waste. I juice the veggies and smoothie the fruits and yogurt. Sometimes I will even throw in peanut butter or nutella with blends that have bananas and apples in them. I'm thinking of experimenting with flax and other supplements, but haven't researched yet.

For eating more veggies, I find that just having them cut up and ready to snack on works wonders. I hate having to do the work when I am hungry. Sometimes I micro-steam the veg, but usually not.

I cut out ranch dressing ages ago and do not even like the taste anymore. I like good olive oil and balsamic vinegar as dressing, and (very rarely) blue cheese. If I MUST have something creamy, I'll use plain old mayo or Miracle Whip. Since I do not use much creamy dressing, the few times I do, I really get a lot out of the taste sensation.

Mama Seoul said...

I am not usually a ranch dressing eater, but lately I've been wanting it. I agree that having things washed and cut up and ready to eat increases your fruit and veggie in-take. I buy baby carrots and salad in a bag for that reason. Even though it is cheaper to buy heads of lettuce, I usually end up throwing them out because I don't get around to washing and cutting. I still give salad-in-a-bag a rinse, even though it is already triple washed, but since it is all cut up, it seems so much more manageable.