Tutorial Tuesday: Staying Healthy, Drinking Green

This week's Tutorial Tuesday is yet another recipe. It seems I'm on an every-other-week kick with recipes and crafts. Hope you don't mind! I just love to bake/cook/experiment with food and...it is {embarassingly} much easier on my un-crafty brain to think up than some crafty notion every week.

Despite the ease of it, I also really like this tutorial recipe because it is an easy way to pack in your greens and stay healthy during the holiday season of rich and extravagant foods.

Being pregnant during the holidays is not good for me--when hungry, i tend to gravitate toward the easiest foods out there--and that just happens to be leftover stuffing, pie, and cookies--NOT GOOD!

That is why I've started incorporating this GREEN protein smoothie into my every day diet. The greens ensure that I get enough daily fiber and, well, greens and the protein helps me stay full and stave off the sugar cravings (at least for a little while!). Besides, even if I do indulge in the holiday foods around me, at least I know that I've put something wholesome and nutritious inside my body!

What you need:

Cold, filtered water (but you can use juice if you'd like--I just don't like adding too much extra sugar without the benefit of fiber)

Protein Powder (I chose Hemp Protein because I don't like the idea of adding too much soy to my diet or giving that much to the developing babe)

Flax Seed Oil (great source of Omega fats which helps give your babe's skin and brain a boost!)

Green powder (preferably one that is made of whole foods like barley, wheatgrass, spirulina, etc.)

Spinach (if you can buy organic, that is best!)

Frozen fruit (I almost always use strawberries and a third of a banana)

1. Start with your cold water--I add ~10 oz. then add the recommended amount of green powder and protein powder. I actually add twice the recommendation of green stuff because I figure it can't hurt!

2. Add your spinach--I typically add 3 oz. or 1/3 of the 9 oz bag of spinach


3. Puree it all together until you no longer have any spinach leaves but just have pure lovely green yumminess:


4. Add your fruit--I like enough to make it thick--runny liquidy smoothies are not my friends

5. Puree again until everything is smooth and creamy.

6. Drink and enjoy!

In all honesty, I like this smoothie a lot better with soy protein powder (vanilla=awesome) but I'm trying to avoid all that soy while pregnant and the hemp protein powder isn't bad (more like an acquired taste). I am sure adding honey or kefir or yogurt would be even better!

How do you stay healthy and full of good fruit and veg during the holiday season of gluttony? :-p

PS this tutorial was supposed to be posted at 8:25 AM not PM but my brain has been otherwise occupied this weekend--my twin had her baby! YAY! you can view pics of Sweet Pea on her blog here.

***I also hope to be back to my Google Reader so if my comments on your blogs have been MIA, please forgive the delay--I haven't caught up since Friday the 27th!***