Green Smoothie

I have been reading a lot about the raw diet and have been trying to figure out how to incorporate some recipes into our family routine. I have no desire to become "Raw" 100% of the time--but I do agree that we can all use more leafy greens in our diets.

Yesterday, Jeremy was on 24 hour shift and it was the perfect day to experiment with a green smoothie. We had 3 hearts of romaine lettuce that needed to be used and I blended two of them with a rib of celery, and about 1.5 cups of frozen mango. I added 1 packet of sweetner to the final product and it was amazingly good!

I do not have a Vitamix blender--this turbo charged juicer that retails for about 400.00, but I managed just fine with softer fruits and veggies.

The amazing part? Morgan loved it--consuming about 1/4c of it in delicious spoonfulls with his lunch. I had the rest throughout the afternoon. The recipe made 2 large glasses, which I kept in my laptop lunch food jar to keep it very cold. Somehow drinking warm lettuce juice wasn't appealing!

Some observations: I lasted all day without craving caffeine. I had plenty of energy to deal with Mr. Chronically Cranky and teething. My appetite at dinner was much smaller. In truth, I was more than surprised. I have always been a skeptic about the "raw energy rush" claims that I have read about--often I attributed these claims to the euphoria brought on by starvation.

And, for about 200 calories I got 100% of the vitamin A I needed and about 90% of the vitamin C required for a day. I also obtained 14 (count them!) grams of fiber. Protein was lacking--so perhaps next time I will add some flax seeds or protein powder. I looked into Spirulina--which is called for in many of the recipes...but it's a fish flake! Ugh! Not ready for a granola leap of that magnitude!

I'm thinking that I would like to make one each day to see how it affects my energy and health. I will let you know. I sent Jeremy to the store for more greens and fruit!