By now, most of you are on board with making delicious green power smoothies, but… this post is for those of you who still scrunch up your nose when we mention adding fresh leafy greens to your smoothies!!

This video is to show you how easy it is, and if you haven’t already tried it to hopefully inspire you to give it a go.

We promise that you will be surprised at how easy and delicious they are, and you too will be hooked!

So why do we add leafy greens to our smoothies?

Leafy greens are nutritional powerhouses and are the No 1 food you can eat regularly to improve your health.

Adding leafy greens to your daily smoothie is one of the easiest and fastest ways to increase your daily intake of leafy greens, which will alkalise your body and give you loads of extra vitamins, minerals and green goodness!

Low in calories, low in fat, high in protein per calorie, high in dietary fibre, and packed with nutrients, leafy greens are a great source of calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium, pantothenic acid, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, and zinc.

Leafy greens are also high in chlorophyl which is the living energy from the sun, and allows plants to absorb energy from light.

You can imagine how much more energised you will feel when you are getting this goodness straight into your body in an easily digestible liquid form like your Green Power Smoothie!

Click below to watch the video demo of how we make our green smoothies and a few tips on how to make your first Green Smoothie:

The ingredients we use in this vid:

1 x Banana

1-2 Tbs x Linseeds / Flaxseeds

1 x Tray Ice

1 x Handful Leafy Greens / eg Baby Spinach

1 x Serve Protein Powder

1/4 Tsp – 1 Tsp x Super Greens Powder

Water

Optional:

Raw Honey

Cacao/ Cocoa Powder … to taste!!

Pop everything in the blender and wa-la!

Once you have tried the basics, you can add in some of these extra super foods:

Super food Extras:

Macca Powder

Chia Seeds

Bee Pollen

Almonds

Sunflower Seeds

Walnuts

Spirulina Powder

Wheat Grass Powder

Barley Grass Powder

OsteoPro Care for extra Calcium and Magnesium

+ And any other goodies you want!

The leafy greens you can use are any that you like including:

Kale

Bok Choi

Baby Spinach

Pak Choi

Any asian leafy greens

Lettuce

Beetroot Greens

+ And any other edible leafy greens that you like!

Fruit that mixes well:

Bananas (the creamiest!)

Pear

Apple

Strawberries

Pinapple

Blue Berries

Melon

Mixed Berries

Kiwis

Mango

+ And any of your other favourite fruits!

The Protein Powder used in the vid is this one:

Raw Protein by Garden of Life

It is amazing because it is a raw, vegan protein made not only out of organic wholegrain sprouted brown rice, but also contains: Organic Amaranth Sprout, Organic Quinoa Sprout, Organice Millet Sprout, Organic Buckwheat Sprout, Organic Garbanzo Bean Sprout, Organic Lentil Sprout, Organic Adzuki Bean Sprout, Organic Flaxseed Sprout, Organic Sunflower Seed Sprout, Organic Pumpkin Seed Sprout, Organic Chia Seed Sprout, Organic Sesame Seed Sprout. AND it also contains a Raw Probriotic and Enzyme Blend, Bioactive Glycoproteins, Bioactive Lipoproteins, Bioactive Enzymes, Glucomannan, SOD, Glutathione, Bioactive Trace Minerals, Glutamine and CoQ10.

PHEW! Waaayyy too many ingredients to list in the video!!!]

You can also use any of your usual Protein Powder.

Other ones that we use are a good quality Whey Protein, like Glycowhey from Syntec.

Or a Whole Grain Sprouted Brown Rice Protein. We started with SunWarrior, then Ezy Protein, then Eden Health Foods- There are now tons of different brands out there, and they all are [and taste] pretty much identical.

After time, you will also notice that your tastebuds begin to slowly change as you get used to it. When we started out we used to add honey every day, but now a few years later we no longer need it.

If you are just starting out, only put a small amount of greens (a couple of baby spinach leaves is a good start).

Only put about 1/4 of a teaspoon of the Super Greens Powder, as too much can really put you off.

Over time, you can slowly add more and more leafy greens (from a small handful to 1-2 cups), and increase the Super Greens Powder from 1/4 teaspoon to to 1/2 teaspoon, then increasing to a full teaspoon.

Adding a good full tray of ice makes it a lot more refreshing and easy to drink too.

For those of you who think that you are too busy to make a power smoothie in the morning, it literally only takes a few minutes.

While you have the blender going, you can pack everything away and re-fill your ice tray, and when it’s done simply pour it into a shaker / glass jar ready to take with you, rinse your blender and you’re done!

Make sure you drink your green smoothie straight away, as if you let it sit for a while, it tends to separate.

So if you do take it with you to drink in the car on your way to work, don’t forget to drink it up fast!

Kids love green smoothies too, and they are a great way to sneak in some extra goodness to their diet. Get the whole family on board, and give it a try! Once you start experimenting you will be amazed at what you can add in and barely taste it.

Thank you to Danielle and Phil for this delicious recipe for a clean and lean Shepherds Pie! 🙂

Ingredients:

1kg turkey mince
1 onion finely diced
2-3cloves garlic crushed
4 – 5 swiss brown mushrooms finely diced
1 grated zucchini (squeeze to remove moisture)
2 tins chopped tomatoes
2 -3 tablespoons wostershire sauce (could replace with soy sauce)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon (seems weird to put this in, but it has many health benefits and you can’t taste it)
1-2 teaspoons tabasco sauce (depending how hot you like it)
Pink himalayan salt & cracked pepper

Ikg sweet potato
1 tablespoon skim milk
Pink himalayan salt & cracked pepper

Enough baby spinach to layer between mince & sweet potato

Method:
1) Cook onion and garlic until translucent. Add turkey mince and cook. Break the turkey mince up with a fork as you go.

2) Once mince is cooked add the mushrooms & grated zucchini and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened.

3) Add the tomatoes, sauces, spices and S&P then bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer uncovered for 30-40 mins until sauce has reduced (sauce should not be runny, reduce for longer if necessary).

4) Steam sweet potato, then mash.

5) Layer mince in baking dish, cover with baby spinach then sweet potato and bake for approx 1/2 hour until browned on top.

Serve with steamed broccoli.

Makes 8 serves.