I am very inspired by accounts of foraging for food at Riana's blogs, but so far haven't had many opportunities to get my forage on, apart from occasionally sampling whatever weeds I pull up out of the backyard. For a desk jockey like me, the kitchenette at work is the closest I really get to foraging--that's where all the leftovers from catered meetings end up.
Sometimes this works out really well for me, as it did last week when I realized no one was claiming the half dozen grapefruits someone had set out in a basket. It was the Friday before a holiday weekend, and darned if I was going to let this fruit go to waste! So I popped them all in my bike bag, and I drank up every single one of them in smoothie form, green or otherwise.
Grapefruits can be kind of pithy and intimidating, but if you have a decent blender, you can eat all that delicious fiber and barely notice that that's what you're doing.
Basic Grapefruit Smoothie
1 cup water
1 peeled grapefruit with the seeds popped out (I peel over the blender, so none of the juice goes astray)
enough orange-peach-mango juice to sweeten the deal (about half a cup)
ice
Blend and serve. Makes 2.
Advanced Grapefruit Smoothie
1 cup water
1 peeled grapefruit (see above)
1 half a small ripe avocado
1 handful of spinach
1 glob of your favorite liquid sweetener (I used honey, but agave would be preferable)
Blend and serve over ice. Makes 2 smoothies that I would describe as Hard Core (hence the need for sweetener).
I love getting stuff in the mail, but delicious free stuff might be the best mail of all. Yesterday the nice people at POM Wonderful sent me a case of pomegranate juice to try. I was fresh off a very windy bike ride home from work (yesterday was one of those days when the wind is blowing directly at you no matter what direction you're facing) and in need of nutrition and hydration. So even though I'd already had a pile of veg in my morning green smoothie, I made another one.
If you're a green smoothie aficionado (or color theorist), you already know that mixing red fruits with your greens often yields an unappetizing color. This smoothie is no exception, but what's cool is that as the solids separate from the juice, you get layers of color that are quite lovely. And anyway, it tastes good, so if the muddled color offends you, you can close your eyes and enjoy all the same.
Cucumber Pomegranate Green Smoothie
1 cup water
1 cup pomegranate juice
2 handfuls of spinach (about 1 packed cup)
1 half a cucumber, cut into chunks
Ice (optional)
Combine in a blender and mix on high; pour and enjoy. Serves 2.
I have a strong immune system and I'm generally successfully at staving off illness or keeping it pretty mild when I do get sick. But for about the last month, I've periodically felt like I'm fighting something off, which is annoying. I know I'm not getting enough sleep, and that's job one. Locking the cat out of the bedroom at night, sad as it seems, is helping with that.
But I also don't think I've been eating as well as I could, and too often I find myself mindlessly gobbling down something that doesn't make me feel good (or that I don't even enjoy very much), and thinking that I need to make some changes. I can just tell that I'm undergoing some kind of dietary shift, which I posted about over on mavenhaven last week.
Enter the green smoothie.
There are eleventy billion raw food sites and green smoothie recipes out there, and advocates of particular high horsepower blenders--and while I have to admit that I sort of covet the Blendtec, the nice thing about green smoothies is that you don't really need any dietary philosophy, recipe, or special equipment to make them.
So I'm just adding a green smoothie every day, and I'm going to see how it goes. Here's what I am drinking today:
Green and Mean
Two handfuls of spinach (stems are fine)
A deveined leaf of dino kale
A deveined collard green
A handful of parsley
A kiwi, with some of the peel removed
A banana
1/4 cup applesauce (fresh apple chunks would be great too)
1/4 of an avocado
Water
(A blender of some description)
Blend leafage and water first, adding more water as needed to get everything well blended. Add fruits one at a time. Drink slowly, maybe not in a single sitting. The flavor is fresh, lightly sweet and fruity, with a grassy undertone. If that bugs you, add more fruit. This made about 24 ounces.
You'll notice I'm starting slow with the tougher greens. I'm not interested in instigating a bunch of toilet troubles, as my boyfriend likes to call them, so you're not going to catch me chugging these or drinking an all-kale smoothie any time soon.
This is day two of the experiment. I'll keep you posted.
