Viewing entries tagged with 'smoothie'
GREEN SMOOTHIE
I'm not sure why I have resisted green smoothies for so long. One reason perhaps is because I don't have a proper blender, let alone one of those high powered jobs that people who make green smoothies always recommend. I've always found my stick blender sufficient for making my favourite yoghurt smoothie. Another thing I resist is buying greens. I want them freshly picked from the garden and still buzzing with vitality. Last week, I gave the green smoothie a go with my old faithful stick blender and it worked well enough. Every winter I am recommended by my wonderful osteopath to consume fresh, young raw greens. My gut goes into stagnation around this time of year and needs chlorophyll-rich living food. Well I came home from an osteopathic session last week and wandered around the garden picking a bit of this and a bit of that, stick blended it up with a little water and added some fresh fruit and a little honey. I am hooked now, and my gut has responded beautifully. Gone is the uncomfortable bloating and thankfully the gas. Kale is recommended as a major player in green smoothies, but I wanted to use only what was growing in the garden. This was to incorporate some of the edible weeds that I wax lyrical about on my blog. For my first smoothie, I picked a few leaves each of cos lettuce, silverbeet, kale, NZ spinach, parsley, dandelion, nasturtium, clover, puha and sorrel. The list is endless, you could add chickweed, coriander (cilantro), rocket, land cress, mizuna, any of the rocket mixes etc etc, pretty much whatever you have on hand. As always make sure you have a thorough knowledge of any weeds you use to ensure they are safe for consumption. For the here's how read the full post.
ALOE VERA
Aloe vera is a bit like the homeopathic remedy arnica. Everyone has heard of it, or has used it at some point and like arnica it never fails to deliver. This sadly is where most of us stop, using aloe only for sunburn. Well surprise surprise, this easy to grow plant is so full of active ingredients and healing abilities not to mention vitamins and minerals, I don't know where to start! I didn't realise until researching beyond the obvious skin healing and gastric soothing applications how amazing aloe vera actually is. When you think of the places and climates that it hails from, the sort of solar extremes that it survives and thrives in it is no wonder it can be used for treating radiation burns. Not just as an external treatment but used internally as well. It has been shown to have anti-tumour activities, its an immuno-enhancer and is being used for people with HIV aids. Get the picture! It is quite literally a super medicine plant. I have a few strong and healthy plants that live in my bay window. Today I went out and rescued all of my scraggly neglected plants from outside and brought them in and cleaned them up. They are going to be cared for now and I am going to start including some fresh aloe gel in my daily smoothie. You simply snip a leaf off the plant, slice it down the length of the leaf and cut out the inner gel. I'll start with a small piece and slowly increase my intake. For more details read the full post.
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