Green Smoothies

[vexed87]

DW and I have been having a lot less green smoothies as of late, although I'll chalk that down to not going to the supermarket for fresh produce much lately. We have been trying to eat out of the freezer with a move on the horizon. However, 100% fruit smoothies, mostly berries and bananas are a regular feature here after the evening meal when we might otherwise be tempted by something sweet with refined sugars.

[cmonkey]

It looks like that Aldi blender might be an annual event (a couple weeks ago). I'll check next time we get there. Otherwise, I'll wait until it comes around again. It's looks pretty good!

We grow a whole ton of greens during the summer and invariable never eat it all. Green smoothies would fix that.

[ThisDinosaur]

Do you need an expensive vitamix to make these?
What type of blender would you recommend thats super easy to clean, can handle raw fruits and veggies, and is inexpensive?

[enigmaT120]

I use my teeth to make them.

[jbc]

@ThisDino, Inexpensive? depends on your definition... however, I bought a ninja for <$100 at Sams recently similar to this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Nutri-Ninja-Auto ... er+auto+iq

I mainly bought this model due to the type and number of attachments it came with. I've been very pleased with it.

My general recipe.

1/3 frozen mixed fruit
1/3 yogurt or kefir
1/3 greens
1 banana
2 raw eggs

impossible to screw up, cheap, easy, healthy, delicious...

[jennypenny]

@ThisDinosaur -- I really wanted a vitamix or blendtec, but couldn't bring myself to spend that much money. I ended up with a cheap Hamilton Beach. I'm happy enough with it, although it's LOUD and the top can be hard to get off.

I clean it by putting dish soap and hot water in it and blending it right after I make the smoothie. You just have to make sure you unscrew where the gasket is when you rinse it to get rid of any gunk that's in there. Once a week I give it a good cleaning.

[ThisDinosaur]

Thanks for the good suggestions. My brother in law said he uses a hand blender. I just cant imagine that not getting flecks and residue all over the kitchen. I haven't owned a blender since college because scrubbing protein powder concrete off the blades required more effort than i was willing to keep giving it .

[Allagash]

I do one every morning:
-large handful of some green leafy (Kale, Collard Greens, Spinach, Chard)
-1 banana
-frozen berries (usually strawberry or blueberry)
-2 large spoon fulls of hemp hearts
-2 large spoon fulls of chia seeds
-half of an apple

Key for me over everything else is to get the green leafy everyday.

[Ego]

Our ancient stainless steel Vitamix broke at the point where the blades attach to the motor at the bottom of the pitcher. Mrs. Ego was grinding flax seeds when it happened. Yesterday I was strolling around the swap meet and one of my friends had a nearly new Vitamix 5200 for $100.



The motors for the old stainless steel models last forever so I thought I would see if I could get a set of replacement blades. I found someone on ebay selling a conversion kit that allows you to use a new Vitamix container on the old base. Not a cheap solution but certainly cheaper than a new vitamix. Ingenious!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VITAMIX-4000-3 ... 3142465927?

[jacob]

Man, the price of that kit would be the perfect excuse for me to spend $1,000 on a metal lathe There seems to be some business opportunity in parts like this (CNC) for things that can't be 3D-printed. I wonder if there's any interference from the companies that one is making replacement parts for.

[mferson]

I use my Nutribullet in making smoothies. This blender makes shakes the right consistency.

[Ego]

Last weekend at the swap meet I found a second Vitamix container for $5. It was so inexpensive because the bearing for the blade assembly siezed. I ordered a new aftermarket wet blade assembly on eBay for $9.48 including shipping. The Vitamix assembly sells for $64 on Amazon and a new container goes for $139.95 from VM.

So I now have a wet and a dry container.

[Campitor]

My smoothie mix:

• Water (sometimes soy or almond milk unsweetened if very hungry)
• Kale
• Spinach
• Blueberries
• Carrots
• Banana

I own a Vitamix - best mixer I've ever owned. When it dies I'll get another one.

[Ego]

For the past three weeks I've been making broccoli sprouts again.



These are gallon-sized mason jars. I add about three rounded tablespoons of broccoli seeds to the jars and sprout them for two day before adding about twenty diakon radish seeds and continue the sprouting for another two or three days. The diakon sprouts have high levels of myrosinase. Broccoli sprouts have high levels of glucoraphenin. When blended they hydrolyse to create sulforaphane.

Here is the always excellent Rhonda Patrick with Jed Fahey explaining the benefits of sulforaphane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0lBVCpq8jc

Long story short, sulforaphane is the most potent dietary activator of the nrf2 pathway and an activated nrft2 pathway plays a big role in lowering inflammation and reducing oxidative stress.

At first, the taste was horrible. It is strange how quickly I got used to it and now look forward to my afternoon sulforaphane big gulp.

[sky]

I started up my microgreen machine again, looking forward to broccoli and sunflower green smoothies in 10 days

[Ego]

Gradually my smoothie addiction is becoming more expensive. Maybe 20% in 6 months. Prices of bok choy have skyrocketed. Ginger was $3.49 a pound yesterday. Watercress was $2 a bunch. The bunch of dandelion greens has shrunk by half but costs the same as well as both Italian and regular parsley. I didn't even bother buying the four leaf bunches of collard greens.

[7Wannabe5]

“Foraging California “ by Judith Lowry.

[SimpleTimes]

For the past three weeks I've been making broccoli sprouts again.

Looking good! Can't say I'm not a little jealous...

[Ego]

@SimpleTimes, you have good timing. I just finished listening to the latest broccoli sprouts Q&A with Rhonda Patrick & Jed Fahey this morning while running. One thing I learned is that it is possible to eat the ground raw broccoli seeds as long as I don't eat too many. They have the essential fatty acid arachidonic acid which seems to be okay as long as you don't ingest too much. I only use them when my normal rotation of sprouts has been disrupted. Here is the interview...

https://youtu.be/-PNGxNzogOY

And.... Rhonda Patrick on how to make sprouts

https://youtu.be/U9iL8Kvugks

[Ego]

I have begun adding a little mustard seed powder to my tea after it cools as well as to my green smoothies.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20889681/