Green Smoothie Revolution!!

I guess I'm on a health kick for the new year... I signed up for a 6 month unlimited yoga pass at my yoga studio 17 days ago and I've been going 4 to 5 times out of the 6 times I can go in a week. I've gotten a routine down where I do vinyasa 3 alternating days a week with a stretch class 2 days a week and a hatha class on Sunday. If I was going all 6 days a week, this is how my schedule would work out. So naturally as I get back into an exercise routine, I'm starting to really look at my diet again.

Ever since I came across the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog, I've been more open to whole food related blog and Facebook posts. For example, someone posted a green pineapple smoothie recipe on my friend's wall and it caught my eye and I found a cilantro green smoothie recipe on Meghan Telpner's blog through her Making Love in the Kitchen Facebook page. I still want to try the Winter Green Smoothie recipe from Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen but haven't gotten around to making it yet...


Recently I've been reading books by Victoria Boutenko that I picked up at TPL. I recently finished
Green Smoothie Revolution and now I'm reading Green for Life. Next I'll look at 12 Steps to Raw Foods just out of interest and Raw Family Signature Dishes, cuz I'm always on the look out for easy recipes. Her writing style is not particularly good, but she mixes in scientific research with her observations, experiences, and the experience of others to make a very convincing argument for getting more greens into your diet. I wasn't crazy about the recipes in Green Smoothie Revolution (some of them had way too many ingredients). I'm hoping the ones in other books will be more interesting.


I'm really interested in how feasible it would be to live on a raw food diet. I'm all for not having to cook my food. I bet once you're on it and try to eat cooked food again you feel like crap. I used to eat a lot of greens and raw veggies when I was younger but no one in my family was really into eating that way. Boutenko reiterates the importance of having family support in being able to stick to their raw food diet. I've been concerned about blending non-organic produce, which is what we usually buy because it's more affordable. We buy some organic foods, such as sugars, flowers, nuts and seeds and other products. My sister recently told me to buy some organic produce to try the smoothies. If they like it, it might be easier to make the transition to more organic foods. I'm really looking forward to the spring and being able to grow greens to make smoothies myself.

I really want to buy a Vitamix blender, which these authors I mention boast to be the best blender for making green smoothies. I have an older blender that I've never used so I should probably try that first. I also want a food dehydrator cuz I figure it's probably more affordable to dehydrate your own fruits.

Why does being healthy have to be so expensive!

A new year with Whole Life Nutrition

Raw Energy Balls, Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen

 Raw Energy Balls I made - yum!

I came across the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog in November or December last year, probably while looking up recipes for soups (I usually go to Allrecipes.com). What I liked best about the recipes on the blog are that they are based on whole foods; the same cannot be said for all of the recipes on Allrecipes.com. I also like the fact that most of the recipes are easy because I don't really like to cook :). I stick to the recipes that don't call for gluten-free flours or other weird things like xanthan gum, however if I had celiac disease and needed alternative flours and such, Whole Life Nutrition would be a valuable resource. I was lucky that TPL  had just ordered the book so I put a hold on it and got it relatively quickly.

Image from Whole Life Nutrition

This is a great book! It was laid out very well, with background chapters on such topics as the basics of eating a whole foods diet and your diet in relation to global warming. I really liked the introductory chapter on stocking your pantry - all the different types of gluten-free flours, sugars, and grains; nuts, seeds, beans - what a list! The only disappointment was the lack of pictures, which was what drew me from the blog to the book.

Grinding the almonds for the Raw Energy Balls in my food processor created quite a racket (I'm surprised the blade and bowl survived based on the amount of noise it made) and I was surprised to find that all the ingredients came together in a way that nothing was left back in the food processor except oils from the ingredients. Clean up was a breeze. I had to grind a whole cardamom pod because I didn't have ground cardamom (I had ground cinnamon though) and this accounted for an initially overwhelming cardamomy taste. Everyone got used to it though and my family loved them. I'll be making them again. I'm looking forward to making some of the soups, nettle tea, and the Winter Green Smoothie.