Delicious Green Shakes to clean your slate for Summer!

Ladies and gents, SHAKE your way to health!


What do I mean? Green Shakes!  
Blend them. Drink them. Reap their rewards!

And what are their rewards?


  • FULLY LOADED: Green smoothies are packed with essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients.
  • INSTANT GRATIFICATION: Those great nutrients are absorbed and assimilated far more easily by your body and absorption is almost instantaneous. This means drinking a big green smoothie will not only boost your overall health, it will make you feel nourished almost immediately. 
  • DECEPTIVELY DELICIOUS: For green-o-phobes, consuming a large serving of greens in smoothie form is a tasty way to disguise what your body needs -- minus the gag-reflex.
  • CLEAN SWEEP: Unlike juice, a smoothie retains all the fabulous fiber of the fruits and vegetables it incorporates. This fiber works like a broom in your digestive tract and provides a gentle and effective flush of your system.

Today's recipes are for 2 variations of a healthy and delicious Green Chocolate Shake and for my unique Harmony Green Shake.

So I apologize - these shakes aren't the prettiest - but drink them often enough and you just might be!


Danielle's Green Chocolate Shake
Makes 1 huge smoothie or 2 normal size smoothies
  • 1.5 cups frozen spinach
  • 2.5 cups cold water
  • 2 small pears (ripe bartlett or d'anjou) or 1 very large pear
  • 2-3 large pitted medjool dates or 4-5 small Sayer dates
  • 1 tsp pear butter (unsweetened) optional, gives richness
  • Dash coarse sea salt
  • 4 tsp 100% cocoa powder
  • 1.5 tsp chia seeds
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon



Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender. Pulse then blend until very smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the processor/blender. Taste! Add extra cocoa for more chocolate flavour. Add more dates or a few ops of stevia for more sweetness. Pour into huge glass or 2 glasses and serve immediately.








Danielle's Green Mint-Chocolate Shake
Makes 2 small or 1 huge smoothie
  • 1.5 cups frozen spinach
  • 5-6 chilled small pitted dates (or 2-3 Medjool dates) (about 40g)
  • 1.5 red bartlett pears (ripe, core and stem removed)
  • 1 tsp pear butter (unsweetened) optional, gives richness
  • 2 cups cold water
  • 2 dashes coarse sea salt
  • 2.5 tsp cocoa powder
  • 1 large handful fresh mint rinsed in hot water
  • 2 tsp chia seeds


Blend all ingredients together in food processor or blender until very smooth, this could take a few minutes. Scrape down sides and blend again. Taste! Adjust mint and cocoa and add more dates if not sweet enough for your taste.








Harmony Green Shake
Makes 1 large fruity shake
  • 2 small (or 1 large) red bartlett pear, stem and core removed, ripe
  • 1/2 cups loosely packed baby green kale
  • 1 cup frozen spinach
  • 1/2 large ripe lime, juice of
  • 4 small pitted dates
  • handful fresh green and purple basil
  • 1 cup filtered water (cold)
  • 2 tbsp maca powder
  • 1/2 cup frozen red raspberries
  • dash coarse sea salt
Pulse then blend everything except the raspberries together in a food processor or blender until very smooth. Add the raspberries and pulse then blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tropical Sweet N' Savoury Wraps

Image
If you asked me what my favourite flavour combo was, I might have to say sweet and savoury . In particular, I love the way sweet fruit pairs so well with sour, salty and spicy flavours. These delicious wraps hit all of those notes, as well as offer a great mix of textures. They are sweet from mango, maple and apple; savoury from red onion, garlic, black pepper, avocado, cucumber, salt and coconut aminos; sour from lime juice; and spicy from chili powder. They are creamy thanks to avocado, but also crunchy thanks to crisp apple pieces, and crunchy red onion and savoy cabbage. They are an exciting, fresh, messy and thoroughly delightful mouthful of happiness. I have been really into tropical fruit this month. In fact I've more or less eaten mango all January. I love it so much in so many recipes. It may be my favourite fruit! In an effort to expand my fruit for the month I picked up this beautiful pitaya (dragon fruit). All I can say about this new-to-me fruit is I was a bit let down...
Read more

Tandoori Cauliflower Wraps

Image
Crunchy, spicy and creamy savoury wraps. So delicious and the perfect healthy meal or snack when you have some time in the kitchen and you aren't wearing white...more on that in a bit though. This recipe is one to remember -- easy to make and a little exotic.  It all begins with cauliflower, roasted to crisp perfection in a hot oven. It then takes a bath in a vibrant orange coloured,sweet, sour, fiery and creamy coconut-yogurt sauce that's brimming with exotic Indian spices like cumin, coriander, garlic, cardamom, chili, cinnamon, turmeric and paprika . Another trip to the oven with the broil setting makes the bites sticky, sweet and smoky. Irresistible. The awesome cauliflower bites are then loaded into cabbage cups along with a hot and tangy avocado mash, more vegan yogurt, and some red hot for extra kick.  WARNING: Wear a bib and have some napkins on hand -- this s#$& gets messy as f#$%. Who doesn't love a hot mess though?   These wraps are full of healthy vegetab...
Read more

healthy chocolate ice cream with white mint swirl

Image
Going dairy-free can be really hard -- especially for a milk, cheese and ice cream addict like myself. But sadly, dairy doesn't agree with my body anymore so I decided to stay off of it for as long as I can and allow my body to mend.  You probably need to know me to understand how huge it is that I no longer consume dairy. As a child I think I actually drank far more milk than water. As a teenager I became mostly vegetarian, relying most heavily on the dairy food group to get me through my meals. Cheese, cream, milk, ice cream were all staples for me at that time.   When I moved on to University my ice cream addiction continued and I ate goat's milk cheeses often. After moving to Edinburgh and then London in the United Kingdom I became fully obsessed with artisan cheese and made browsing cheese shops (and of course tasting cheeses) one of my all time favorite activities -- that and drinking high quality espresso beverages at small coffee shops around London. I went through ca...
Read more