Forum Thermomix
Thermomix Recipes for TM5 and TM31 => Drinks => Topic started by: scatman on July 11, 2009, 03:00:56 pm
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Does anyone else like green smoothies made with TM? It was one of the reasons I couldn't wait for my TM to arrive.
Most mornings I throw in 5-6 almonds,
a teaspoon of seeds (pumpkin, sunflower),
a tablespoon of oats,
a pinch of dulse flakes and a pinch of wakami flakes (for all the minerals)
Blend for 8-10secs on speed 9
chuck in banana (break it into pieces)
throw in a big handful of leafy greens - I love baby spinach, cos lettuce, silverbeet,
pour in a cup of filtered water or more depending on how thick you like your drink
Blend on speed 9 - 10 for 40+ seconds
sometimes I drizzle in a little honey or maple syrup if I want it sweet but most times I leave it out.
Pour into a huge glass and drink away.
My four Kids love this drink and it is one of my favourite morning starters. I used to just use banana, greens and water but now I have the Bimby and can blend the seeds and oats it tastes more like a meal than a drink.
Using fresh baby spinach gives an awesome light green colour. Try it and tell me what you think.
p.s this is my first recipe post so please forgive the layout. I'm sure I'll improve as I take note of how others have posted recipes.
Cheers!
Jus. ;D
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Sounds weird but if you like it, it has to be OK ;D ;D ;D Someone out there will try it, I'm sure.
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If you want to change the colour so the kids will try it - Follow the recipe only add 1 cup of frozen blueberries for Blue, Raspberries for a red touch, in with the leafy greens. I have even added a peeled mandarin for a variation.
A note of warning - I find it very difficult to drink without the banana. It takes away any grassy taste and helps to make it smooth.
Enjoy ;)
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Thanks Jus - saw something similar at a Raw class recently. It tasted good and this sounds so simple and healthy.
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Good work ;) ;D
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There are two reasons I am waiting for the TM demonstrator so we can buy one .
First is the cheap rice milk and second is the Green smoothies we make......every single morning!
We currently make them with a stick blender which is OK if you like watching paint dry but when we made one in a Friends TM we were gobsmacked!!!!
Our recipe is :
Large bunch of greens. We usually have a mixture of: Comfrey leaves, hibiscus spinach, green spinach , Guatemalan spinach, a little bit of lettuce ( too watery if used alone), 3 -4 beetroot leaves, Kang Kong, Or what ever greens we have left over from dinner preparations. WARNING: don't use bokchoy or similar unless you like a mustardy taste.
1/2 cup blue berries
Small hand full of fresh mint leaves
2-3 sugar bananas ( this is a MUST)
1 large table spoon of organic honey
1 teaspoon of Barley Grass
1/2 lemon ( juice and pulp only)
1/2 cup Macadamia nuts ( we buy in bulk over the internet and it is actually cheaper than buying Almonds)
1/8th cup of Goji Berries
and any other fruit like apples or what ever we have laying about
And COLD water to make it the consistency you like
Blend the back side out of it and ***voila*** you have an amazingly tasty and nutritious breakfast meal that keeps me really satisfied until about 11.00 when I then have a mid morning smoothie snack of:
Chocolate smoothie:
handfull of nuts ( your choice) we use Brazil, cashew or Macadamias
1 teaspoon of raw cacao powder ( raw chocolate powder)
Macca Powder
honey
cold water
and anything else you would like in a chocolate style smoothie.
Again Blend the bottom out of it and take to work in a thermos or what ever and drink when you get a little hungry .... stops the munchies on chocolate bars and the like and it is HEALTHY. No sugar, no fats, not crap.
Yum Yum Fairies Bum ..... as my 5 year old daughter says. :D
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Spanner you make me laugh!!!
What is Macca Powder?
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Spanner you make me laugh!!!
What is Macca Powder?
you want more kiddies .???........ eat Macca!!!
it is the root powder of all root powders. nudge nudge wink wink say no more. ;D ;) :-))
Look it up on Google . It is really good hormone balancer .... particulalarly for pre menopausal women , is really quite good for the libido .... much to my wifes (sometimes) dismay, and is really good for you in many many other ways.
Here is a cut and paste of a short(ish) article on macca ( or spelt Maca sometimes).
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Maca - A Herb to Watch
Rather than hormone replacement therapy (HRT), millions of women are putting their faith in a cruciferous root vegetable from Peru Called maca.
WHAT IS IT?
Maca is a dehydrated, cruciferous root vegetable, and not a drug. It is a benign, medicinal food which has been in use for 10,000 years, possibly more, and has had ample time to be judged effective. Today, dried Maca roots are ground to powder and sold in drug stores in capsules as a medicine and food supplement to increase physical stamina and fertility.
WHAT’S IN IT?
Initial analysis of Maca indicates that it contains glucosinolates which have a positive effect on fertility. Proteins, as polypeptides, make up 11 per cent of the maca root; calcium makes up 10 percent and magnesium and potassium are present in significant amounts. other minerals include iron, silica and traces of iodine, manganese, zinc, copper and sodium. Vitamins in maca are thiamine, riboflavin and ascorbic acid. The amino acid proteins in maca include aspartic acid, glutamic acid, serine, histidine, glycine threolline, cystine, alanine, arginine, tyrosins, valine, methionine, isoleucine, lysine, proline, hoproline and sarcosine.
BENEFITS OF MACA
Menopausal symptoms: hot flashes, tender breasts, sleeplessness and emotional upsets, "brain fog", vaginal dryness.
Osteoporosis: significant bone rebuilding, improvement in bone density.
Energy booster: Balances the endocrine system - thyroid, pituitary and adrenal glands.
Male impotence
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Period problems: Pain, PMS, flooding and/or scant flow
American and Peruvian doctors have brought this extraordinary remedy to the attention of the Western world. Once in a decade a remedy used by native peoples for thousands of years comes to our attention and it seemed so important to health that we wonder how we ever got along without it. Maca is that kind of supplement. Now women have an alternative to hormone replacement therapy drugs. Maca works in an entirely different and more satisfactory way for most women than phytoestrogen herbs like black cohosh and liquorice root. And men, too, find that maca can counteract the difficulties they may experience in maintaining good sexual relationships as they age, due to a general slowing down in the output of the endocrine glands.
RESEARCH
Peruvian medical doctors say that maca root works in a fundamentally different way than HRT, promoting optimal functioning of the hypothalamus and the pituitary, thereby improving the functioning of all the endocrine glands.
They isolated four alkaloids from the maca root and carried out animal studies with male and female rats given either powdered maca root or the alkaloids. females receiving either root powder or alkaloids showed multiple egg follicle maturation, while in males, significantly higher sperm production and motility rates were noted than in control groups.
They established that it was the alkaloids in the maca root, not its plant hormones, that produced fertility effects on the ovaries and testes of the rats. "These effects are measurable within 72 hours of dosing the animals," they said. They deduced that the alkaloids were acting on the hypothalamus-pituitary axis, which explains why both male and female rats were affected in a gender-appropriate manner. This also explains why the effects in humans are not limited to ovaries and testes, but also act on the adrenals, giving a feeling of greater energy and vitality, and on the pancreas and thyroid as well.
Implications of the discovery of the pituitary-stimulating effects of maca are enormous. What it means is that hormone replacement therapy - even the natural varieties - will no longer be the gold standard for optimising health from a holistic point of view.
NATURAL VIAGRA
Doctors Malaspina, Muller and Chacon, as well as doctors from the USA and Canada, also have good news for men who are suffering age-related sexual dysfunction.
They can forget expensive, possibly dangerous Viagra. Maca works extremely well, and safely.
Dr Jorge Aguila Calderon, Dean of the Faculty of Human Medicine at the National University of Federico Villareal in Lima, prescribes maca for a wide variety of conditions, including osteoporosis and the healing of bone fractures in the very elderly. He says, "Maca has a lot of easily absorbable calcium in it, plus magnesium, and a fair amount of silica, which we are finding very useful in treating decalcification of bones in children and adults."
Dr Calderon has also helped patients overcome male impotence, male sterility and female sterility by employing maca therapy. Additional problems he treats with maca are rickets, various forms of anaemia, menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, climacteric and erectile difficulties in men, premature ageing, and general states of weakness, such as chronic fatigue.
Another health professional using maca is Dr Garry F. Gordon, President of the International College of Advanced Longevity Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He said: "Using maca myself, I experienced a significant improvement in erectile tissue response. I call it ‘nature’s answer to Viagra’.
"What I see in maca is a means of normalising our steroid hormones like testosterone, progesterone and oestrogen. Therefore, it has the capability to forestall the hormonal changes of ageing. It acts on men to restore them to a healthy functional status in which they experience a more active libido. Lots of men and women who previously believed their sexual problems were psychological, are now clearly going to look for something physiological to improve their quality of life in the area of sexuality.
Of course, as someone interested in longevity, I’m aware that mortality comes on much sooner for those individuals whose sexual activity is diminished or nonexistent. I believe that people who engage in sex twice a week, or more, live longer. I’ve found sexual activity to a reliable marker for overall ageing."
The Importance of Maca in the History of Peru
Maca’s cultivation goes back perhaps five millennia. It was an integral part of the diet and commerce of the high Andes regions. When they controlled that particular South American area, the Incas found maca so potent that they restricted its use to their Royalty’s court. Upon overrunning the Inca people, conquering Spaniards became aware of this plant’s value and collected tribute in maca roots for export to Spain. Maca was used as an energy enhance and for nutrition by the Spanish Royalty as well. But eventually knowledge for maca’s special qualities died out, being preserved only in a few remote Peruvian communities. In the 1960’s and later in the 1980’s, German and North American scientists researching botanicals in Peru, rekindled interest in maca through nutritional analyses of what was designated as ‘the lost crop of the Andes’. The publication of a book by that name introduced maca to the world. At an international conference in 1991, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United nations recommended that Peruvians should return to eating traditional, native Andean foods. Maca was included in the FAO list as a means of combating nutritional problems being caused by people switching to processed foods and high-sugar drinks. The reintroduction of maca has established healthy eating once again in the Peruvian diet.
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Interesting article Spanner.... pretty sure I don't need it right now but thanks anyhoo!
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Sounds interesting.
Thanks Spanner.
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Go Spanner! thanks for the reply. I have used barley green powder as well. Thanks for sharing about macca powder, sounds great. If one starts with a base of banana or sugar banana, with water and then build it up with all the fresh green leaves and wholesole goodies that you might think will taste good. Have a go everyone, they taste great and are so healing and energizing for the body.
Jus :D
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Spanner you make me laugh!!!
What is Macca Powder?
you want more kiddies .???........ eat Macca!!!
it is the root powder of all root powders. nudge nudge wink wink say no more. ;D ;) :-))
Look it up on Google . It is really good hormone balancer .... particulalarly for pre menopausal women , is really quite good for the libido .... much to my wifes (sometimes) dismay, and is really good for you in many many other ways.
ROFL ;D ;D ;D if ever there was a way to convince the DH's to buy a TMX this would be it!!! Oh honey, I need you to buy me a TMX so I can make smoothies with Macca powder...you know what that would mean ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) lol,,,might just have to keep this one up my sleeve
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I tried this Green Smoothie recently and was amazed at how tasty it was - who would have thought something so good for you would taste so good!
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We love our green smoothies (my version is similar to this) but we were recently warned that consuming raw spinach wasn't very good for our health.
I did some google research and found that raw spinach contains large amounts of oxalic acid which can apparently inhibit the absorbtion of iron and calcium in the body. Oxalic acid can also combine with calcium in the kidneys and form kidney stones. Cooking spinach breaks down the oxalates which enables the body to absorb the high levels of calcium and iron present in the spinach and also prevents these unabsorbable "stones" from forming.
We have been having silverbeet in our smoothies lately so I am now off to check if silverbeet contains oxalix acid also! It probably wouldn't be a worry to most people, but I just thought I would post a warning incase people are making these regularly. :)
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Does anyone else like green smoothies made with TM?
Jus. ;D
Meeeeee ;) I make almost evey 2 quarts of green smoothie. 1 quart for my familly and 1 quart for me. Your smoothie is going to be my lunch today...maybe with some maca....
@ Chelsea: here (http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1221.15) was a discussion about oxalic acid in rhubarb
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Thanks for the wonderful green smoothie recipes!!
I'm excited as I get my TM this w/e and these will be the first recipes we'll make.
I started Raw Energy 15 years ago with Leslie Kenton and I'm sure she is bound to have a TM :)
Does anyone have have any alternatives to using bananas (expensive right now) - they sound pretty essential?
Yours in green health
x m
:-*
(this is my first post to this Forum)
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Avocado's will make it creamy like a banana and just as filling as well ;)
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I love my green smoothies. I have some macca in the pantry, keep forgetting to use it! Just a suggestion, a blob of yoghurt and a heap of ice make it creamier and fluffier.
I am off to make one right this minute!!
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This looks soooo different i can wait to try it! everyone thought i was crazy when i was having avo choc banana shake ahaha and now this! ill let you know how i go =D thanks for the recipe ;D
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I tried this for the first time today. I'm not a fan of green stuff :P but it wasnt too bad. I think it's worth trying to get used to it for the health benefits.
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For all those who regularly have green smoothies do you know if there is a settling in period? I bought all my ingredients yesterday so had one for dinner last night and one in place of my normal smoothie this morning - I've now spent most of the morning on the toilet ;D. I'm also feeling quite wiped out this morning but that could be a combined result of a hard gym session with a personal trainer, just returning from a trip overseas and my DD's 16th birthday party, myabe I'm trying to do too much. I would love to hear how others have felt when starting out with green smoothies.
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Wonder I cannot find your green smoothie recipe post. I recall seeing it sometime ago. Pls may I have it ... Now that I have finally found Tuscan cabbage at the veg market. Thank you! :( :)
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Hi Courton, I have the following be techie and just change the fruit and greens depending on what I have available. I generally about1/2 fill the TMX with greens, I normally alternate between kale and spinach but will also add some parsley, I then put in a few dessert spoons f a combination of linseeds, almonds, chia and sunflower seeds, 1 small apple (cored and quartered), 1small orange (peeled and quartered), 1 mango cheek and approx 3/4 cup of fresh pineapple. I then add about 7 ice cubes and 500mls of water and mix on speed 8-9 for 3 mins. I've been having theses for a few months now and just add whatever fruit I thunk will go together and will sometimes add some berries and 1/2 banana. I don't really like the taste of bananas so try to avoid them but sometimes I have no choice. Regardless of the fruit I normally try to keep the ratio of greens to fruit at about 60:40, so ths makes clse to 1 litre. I make it as soon as get up and drink while I'm getting ready for work and some days will take any eft overs to drink at work. It's all a bit of trial and error until you find the combinations tat work for you. I tried the shriek juice from this site last week and found that with no sweeter fruits I was craving something sweet all day which is very unusual for me so won't be trying that combination again.
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Thank you so much! Will try it tomorrow morning. Appreciate the prompt reply. :) :) :)
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No worries Courton I just happened to come on at the right time. I've just made my morning smoothie and today has half a bowl of baby spinach, nuts and seeds, a small apple, a small orange, one mango cheek, ice and water.
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At the last minute I decided to try it tomorrow since I am going to be out and about most do the morning. I just remembered your experience in one of your posts about a settling in period!
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hahahahaha, after talking with a dietician she was saying you should introduce the raw greens a little more slowly than I did, so start of with a greater percentage for fruit and gradually increase the greens. You also need to remember to rotate the greens you use, I normally use kale for one week and then spinach the next.
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Thanks for your very useful advice. Shall follow it.
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wonder, thanks for all your advice. Mixed 5 tuscan cabbage leaves with a banana, 1/2 granny smith, 5 ice cubes, water and agave syrup. Once I got over the feeling what I am doing drinking this green thing, it was actually fine! I have to persist with it for a wk so that I get used to my new breakfast routine rather than going back to porridge.
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Have been having green smoothies for the last few days...have tried kale ( but have not been able to find it again), baby spinach and baby buck Choy. I am trying to rotate the greens and was standing in the veg market totally bamboozled as to what greens to buy...what works and what tastes awful?
Also, how long do you drink it before you see a difference? and what did your body report back to you!!!????
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Hi Courton, I believe Kale ( a super food) is a winter crop, so it will be available more readily then, I am attempting to grow some now but have been told it will bolt to seed, but I hope to get a few feeds off it, I have never tried it, hope it isn't too bitter.
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Hi Courton, i found the changes to be very subtle and really took a couple of weeks for me to really notice. I haven't changed my diet in any other way and drink far to much alcohol but did increase my exercise and have slowly been loosing weight which i think is helped by the green smoothie. What I've been most pleased about is just a general feeling of lightness and I'm not having stomach cramps or bloating that I've struggled with for years. After talking to our dietician at work she said many of the benefits my not be that noticeable because they are more internal and are associated with how the body is able to digest food and the benefits it is able to draw from other foods and the toxins the green smoothies helps eliminate. I've also had quite a jump in my good cholesterol levels which she said was most likely helped by the smoothie. I've seen the introduction of the green smoothie as a part of my daily routine and while I may not be able to see all the benefits I'm sure long term they are doing a lot of good as for the first time in my life I'm confident that I'm getting all the nutrient my body should be getting. Unfortunately if you are looking for a quick fix or result I'm not sure that you will see it.
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Thanks for your detailed reply Wonder. Everybody talks of the heatth benefits without saying in what way...Do you use spinach as the main base...i was a bit concerned after reading about some issues of using uncooked spinach. One of the reasons I want to vary the greens.
Living in humid Sydney, Kale is basically not available at this time of year.
Aussie Brenda, are you growing Kale from seed or seedlings? I might try to grow some... if the possums don't go for it.
Has anyone used any other greens? if so, which ones?
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Fortunately i've been able to get Kale here fairly regularly from either Woolworths or the local organic grocer so I generally alternate between kale and baby spinach with the addition of some parsley which we have growing. I haven't read anything regarding issues with uncooked spinach so I'll look that up. I've also had success growing Kale and purchased new seedlings on the weekend of two different types of Kale, when growing kale they seems to be a magnet for white moths so you have to be vigilent with picking off the bugs each day. The local nursery said this is the beginning of the time to purchase Kale and Swiss Chard seedlings and they would be getting more stock of both shortly. I've also used Romaine (cos) lettuce which is meant to also be very high in nutrient value.
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We love our green smoothies (my version is similar to this) but we were recently warned that consuming raw spinach wasn't very good for our health.
I did some google research and found that raw spinach contains large amounts of oxalic acid which can apparently inhibit the absorbtion of iron and calcium in the body. Oxalic acid can also combine with calcium in the kidneys and form kidney stones. Cooking spinach breaks down the oxalates which enables the body to absorb the high levels of calcium and iron present in the spinach and also prevents these unabsorbable "stones" from forming.
We have been having silverbeet in our smoothies lately so I am now off to check if silverbeet contains oxalix acid also! It probably wouldn't be a worry to most people, but I just thought I would post a warning incase people are making these regularly. :)
See above quote wonder as well as lots of other blogs which mention it. I am now totally confused as to which way to go... since I do not want long term kidney issues.
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Hello again Courton, I am growing the Kale from seed, I have a elderly uncle in care not far from my house and I give him seeds to raise for me then transplant them, I did ask him to maybe stat me 6 Kale for a start, but when I picked them up I think he emptied the whole packet into his little hot house, but no worries I will share them with my neighbour. I'm looking forward to trying it at the moment I'm basing my juice on sliverbeet and fresh sprouts.
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AussieBrenda, I've heard the Kale freezes well so if you have excess you could maybe try freezing.
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I will try to grow Kale - thank you for your hints Aussiebrenda.
I went on the blog 'happy healthy long life' and also sent her an email seeking her opinion. Here is her advice...
I don't worry about oxalates from spinach---I eat a variety of greens, and get plenty of iron from eating beans daily. I rarely use spinach for smoothies. I make them mostly with kale, sometimes Swiss chard.
Here are two links that discuss oxalates--one re kale, and one, in general.
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?dbid=38&tname=foodspice
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?dbid=48&tname=george
I like her blog since it is based on evidence based research. Have a read of it if you are interested in reading more about the health aspects. :)
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:D DELICIOUS ;)
Thanks for sharing, my boys love it - I called this one Shrek Juice for the colour.
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I found this site (http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/recipes/watermelon-smoothie-recipes-and-nutrition/) the other day - fruit smoothies with the addition of spinach leaves. Have a good browse of the site, you will find so many recipes to try. I made the Watermelon-orange smoothie - looks horrible but tasted good.
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Despite the horror at the thought of drinking silverbeet and spinach I decided to try this this morning after seeing a similar recipe in the Go Vita magazine - I am starting to go with things on instinct if I see/hear about them from multiple unrelated sources.
So I tried 100g or so of silverbeet leaves (should I have used the stalks too?), spinach leaves, iceberg lettuce, and a small amount of parsley added to the nuts/seeds combination mentioned in the first post, plus a banana and a pear with skin on, plus water.
WOW! I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. I am not sure that I will have success getting anyone else to drink it, but it is a nice change from just a fruit smoothie, which I follow exactly the same as this but replace the greens with other fruit (mango, apple, orange, berries). The nuts and seeds certainly make it more filling.
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I love veggie smoothies. Anything and everything goes into it. Waste nothing. Of course mine ALWAYS has to have chilli. Great way to start the day. Black Quinoa is my latest additive. Buy it at Woolworths. Macro brand. great for Tenina's recipes as well.
Gert