Popeye’s Berry Bomb Recipe

I am still on a mission to diversify my green smoothie taste experience.
So, I have come up with another recipe that has its own distinct taste, yet still contains a good amount of dark green vegetable. It is meant to be a drink, not a smoothie. The consistency is very liquidy, so it will not fill you up as a typical green smoothie does. This way you can enjoy it whenever you would have a glass of water and get an extra little kick of vegetables and fruit. 
It is mainly based on blueberries and spinach.
Blueberries are a potent source of antioxidants and I added some Acai powder on top of that to make this drink a real berry health blast.

I call it “Popeye’s Berry Bomb”.

The liquid ingredients should be added to the blender first.
When using the Vitamix® machine, proceed with the usual “turn machine on and quickly increase speed to Variable 10, then to High” after everything is added and the lid is safely in place.
The recipe makes approximately 1 1/2 liters of “Popeye’s Berry Bomb” but you can easily half the ingredients and make less.

– 750 ml of water
– 1 medium apple
– the juice of 1 lemon
– 1 tablespoon of Acai powder (optional)
– 1 bag of frozen blueberries (10 oz. or 280 g)
– 1 1/2 cups of fresh spinach
– sweetener to taste (I use 1 package of XyloSweet® and 2 packages of SweetLeaf® Stevia Sweetener)

Serve chilled or over ice.

I hope you like it and I would love to hear any suggestions or ideas for this or any other green smoothie recipe.

Photo reference: Blueberry by Petr Kratochvil

Green Appleade Recipe

Recently, I have become a Green Smoothie fan.
I ended up buying an amazing Vitamix blender (and just calling it a blender is basically an insult) and now I make myself Green Smoothies every day. They are thick and are basically a meal replacement.

I have been searching for a recipe that is more like a drink and less like a whole meal. After some experimenting, I found what I was looking for and the recipe is now ready to share. I call it “Green Appleade”.

Add the liquid ingredients and the ice to your blender first. This recipe makes approximately two large mugs.

• approximately 500 ml apple juice
• approximately 6 ice cubes
• 1 apple
• juice from 1 lemon
• 2 packets XyloSweet (8g of Xylitol) or other sweetener to taste
• 4 large leaves of kale

It’s a refreshing drink and you get an extra dose of the good green stuff =)

In the end, it’s green and yummy!

I have never been a health nut. Ask my mom, she’s been trying to talk me into a healthier lifestyle for years and it never really sounded like such a good idea. Or rather, it sounded like a good idea, just not very convenient and/or appetizing.
I still don’t consider myself very health conscious but I guess it’s beginning to sink in.
What started the whole thing is that I am in dire need of a diet. After I quit smoking, I somehow gained some weight. I really don’t recall how exactly it happened but suddenly it was there.
So I am officially on a diet but I am also trying to form a habit of eating better in general and being more aware of what I put into my body.

All my life I have always avoided breakfast. I had trouble eating anything less than 4-5 hours after I got up. A few cups of coffee were enough for me and I was usually good until lunch time.
Now that my work has changed to a very regulated schedule, and a very early one at that, I find myself pretending it is lunch time at around 10:30 AM. I needed something more than coffee but preferably liquid that I could drink in the car on my way to work. Something that would hold me over until the real lunch time at around 12-1 PM.

So here is the solution: Green Smoothie!

I’m sure many of you know what green smoothies are but for the ones that do not, the above picture basically tells you what it is and what it looks like before you blenderize it all together and before it becomes a smoothie.
I make mine late the night before because the blender is so loud that the entire neighborhood would be awake at the early morning hours.

My recipe is as follows: 1 apple, 1 nectarine, 1 plum, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 lemon, 1 banana, 1 kiwi, 3 large leaves of kale and about the equivalent of that in spinach, a few sweet pea shoots, some pomegranate juice, 1 teaspoon of Goji/Pomegranate/Acai powder and 1 package of Xylitol.
In place of the Xylitol you can use other sweeteners like Stevia, sugar, honey, agave syrup and the like. I believe you can reduce the added sweetener if you reduce the amount of lemon you add. I literally put in half a lemon minus the peel so there is definitely room for some reduction.
Unblenderized it fills up the blender but in the end makes about 2 to 2.5 cups of smoothie which fits perfectly into my drink container. It’s a very large smoothie and it takes most of my drive to work to drink it all.
But it surely is one hell of a boost in the morning and I am usually still not really hungry when lunch time rolls around.
Now I just have to stick with it and make it a routine and I’ll be good!
Cross your fingers for me!