Green Smoothie Magic - 132+ Delicious Green Smoothie Recipes That Trim And Slim (4 page)

Who Am I?

Hahaha. Isn’t that a question we all have to ask ourselves. Some people think it’s important to know who’s writing this tome. So here goes ...

After high school (I went to the Conservatorium of Music) I graduated as a dentist (naturally). It all seems so long ago. I practiced dentistry for many years and decided that despite loving what I did, it was time to branch out and explore life on different terms and in different ways.

Since high school (which I finished over 30 years ago – you do the math) I have been involved in the health industry. From dentist to being a manager in a pharmaceutical company to opening Australia’s very first healthy fast food store. We were nationally endorsed by the Heart Foundation and served healthy food (nothing deep fried, natural flavors, fresh innovative fast food) that also happened to be vegetarian. Yup, so delicious that even the local butcher chose to eat there.

Fast forward a little more and my fascination for holistic health and great food keeps evolving.

I have moved more and more into incorporating raw foods into my diet. I also got married and became a Bikram yoga teacher . I completed Bikram’s course in LA and have become a world renowned ‘hot-yoga-technical-and-all-things-yoga expert’, answering questions, solving people’s yoga problems the world over and spending a lot of time writing. I have written a successful book on the subject of yoga too! (If you’re curious to find out more, there’s a link in the front of the book.)

Sometime after becoming a yoga teacher I gave birth to our adorable daughter. At the time of writing this book she’s 9 and a half.

I have now come full circle with this book. I have combined my love of how the body works, nutrition and health (and writing about them!) into one. I have a very pragmatic approach to food, to the body, to hot yoga and yoga. I love cooking (regular style but admittedly my focus has evolved increasingly to include more raw food). I love un-cooking (raw food preparation) and can do both well.

I really enjoy putting food together into satisfying meals. I enjoy cooking fusion meals with raw and a smaller cooked component. For me, the healthier the meal, the more satisfying. Above all I want TASTE to reign supreme.

I must admit that I do occasionally indulge in things that others might consider (but I don’t like to call) ‘treats’ and even sometimes – dare I say – eat some that verge on the unhealthy.

I live a healthy and balanced life and encourage you to find ways to do the same with balance and never, ever feeling any food-guilt. I am personally a vegetarian but I am not a veg-evangelist. I want you to follow your intuition and find your own way nutritionally.

You will find that making the move towards a rich plant-based way of life (no matter what food styles you prefer, meat or no meat) and using green smoothies as a staple will create a great and even unsurpassed feeling of wellbeing.

Creating this book has been a joy because I have been able to combine flavors together in ways I have never done before.

It’s inevitable that some combinations are sooo good you’ll see them recreated in other places. The difference in
Green Smoothie Magic
is that I’ll show you how to adapt and evolve your OWN yummy versions or variations. Just wait until you start combining some of these more ‘unexpected’ combinations.

My wish is that you find tremendous satisfaction with each and every
Green Smoothie Magic
recipe in this book. It would be crazy for me to promise you that you will love every single smoothie. Maybe you are not partial to bananas or maybe you don’t like pineapple. Never fear, I will have a list of substitutions for you. Funnily enough, both Robert and I never liked bananas! But for some reason we can both enjoy green smoothies with them in. Go figure!

So, I have tested all these recipes and I really like them (to different degrees too!). I have sought feedback and scores from many other people too! I like them all but I cannot like them all equally. It just depends. I prefer different smoothies at different times. What I like today may be something I have no desire for, for the next 2 weeks.

Allow yourself to experience the changes of your own food and taste preferences. Some smoothies will be lighter and more refreshing. Others will be more like an indulgent dessert or pudding that you spoon out and enjoy one small mouthful at a time. Some are sweet, some have just a hint of sweetness, some savory, some spicy, some hot and spicy. Some are more sour. Some with lots of herbs.

How delighted you are with the feeling of health and wellbeing that YOU create in yourself and perhaps in your family, will determine the choices you make around how many smoothies you do have per day.

Perhaps like me you’ll start snacking on smoothies as a mini-meal. After all you know that eating a lesser amount more often is another key to vibrant health and longevity.

Are You Getting Enough?

So let me ask you: Are you missing out on the most incredible power-packed nutrition?

It can be so hard to eat enough of the very thing that nutritional science (and yes YOUR BODY) says you need in large amounts. That’s right, green leafy vegetables! You see, most people find it very hard to fit in an amount that will actually create vibrant health.

Most people eat what they eat (and that is either going to be centered around animal flesh and or cooked grains and legumes) with a small green salad on the side. When what you should be doing is having raw salad (or the prepared ingredients of that raw salad) as the main part of how you sustain and nourish yourself.

So THAT’S what green smoothies are ALL about. You know, even though my family has been vegetarian for 18 years there have been times – I can assure you – where the salads and the raw life-giving stuff have, well ... um, taken a back seat and sometimes have been missing.

My daughter, who at the time of writing is less than 10, loves being vegetarian but trying to cram the right amount of green leafies into her is frankly a daunting task. That is UNTIL GREEN SMOOTHIES. I have been making these for a couple of years. Mind you, I had to start with smoothies that didn’t have that green color. That’s easy, make them berry based!

The great news is, that now she wants to make her own. She willingly throws in handfuls of greens and then enjoys her creations. So, sometimes in the recipes you’ll see what score my 9 year old has given a particular smoothie. Perhaps you’ll find this will be a wonderfully useful barometer for your own family’s and friends’ experiences.

The Lowest Common Denominator

Green smoothies are your key to health no matter what your diet choices are. You can use this incredible way to supplement no matter what way you eat. You need vegetables, you need fruit and you DEFINITELY need greens. It’s really a no-brainer that green leafy vegetables are the most basic source of health on this planet.

Put it this way, if you want to search for something healthy in the supermarket you’re often going to find the color green generously applied to the packaging (whether the product is healthy or not). Let’s move on to how to actually incorporate these little wonders into your life.

How To Start Simply

So you’ve made the decision. Here’s how to start the ball rolling.
Have one green smoothie per day
. There are different ways to do this.

Start Your Day The Way You Want To Continue

The best way to start your day is with your best foot forward, if you know what I mean. ;) So, if you’re a breakfast person, substitute your cereal, toast, coffee, oatmeal or whatever with a nutritious power-packed green smoothie. If your main goal is to lose weight then green smoothies in the morning will give you the energy for the first part of the day and will get you started on the right foot.

From there you’ll find it much easier to make better food choice decisions as you move forward. It could be that when you start the day with a green smoothie that you feel just so darn good that you (in most cases) just NATURALLY gravitate towards more good food. It’s so much easier to continue eating well when you’ve started your day well.

When you eat well, it is suggested that your body is finally getting enough nutrients of the RIGHT kind. This means that you don’t need to overeat, or unconsciously search for the things your body needs by taking in the wrong types of food (and by over-eating).

My friend Kay used to need to get her ‘energy up’ with a strong coffee as the very first thing she would have. Imagine when I asked her to switch over to a green smoothie. Well, she now swears that this is THE power kick that she needs and practically never drinks coffee anymore, ever.

Meal Or Meal Replacement?

Use it as a meal or as your first course (before) a meal. Green smoothies can be quite filling and you’ll feel empowered while feeling satisfied yet somehow very light. Work your way up from there. Maybe you’ll start taking green smoothies as snacks too (which would in all intents and purposes make your meals smaller). It’s onward and upward.

Green Smoothie Weight Loss And Cleansing

It’s not my intention to tell you to replace all your meals with green smoothies. You CAN of course for a set and pre-determined time. There are times where, if you’re on a regime of cleansing foods, perhaps for weight loss, where you could consider some or all your meals for a limited period of time to be replaced by smoothies.

In any case, you will notice, that you’ll be more interested in fresher, cleaner foods. So don’t be surprised that, if instead of your ‘same-old same-old’ Monday night dinner (or habitual food choices you make anytime), you decide you want a huge salad with a little something else on the side. Yes, the scales will be tipped in your good health’s favor – naturally.

~ · ~

The Magic Of The Green Stuff

I recommend you strive for balance. For as long as I can remember I have been aiming to put lots of different colors on the plate of my meals and that of my family. It helps to ensure that we all receive as full a spectrum of ingredients and micro-nutrients as is possible.

The wonderful thing about modern science is that it can break everything down into little component parts, which is great when it comes to your quest for understanding ... but there is a hidden catch that has influenced our thinking when it comes to nutrition.

Marketing Works - Unfortunately

Unfortunately where modern science lets us down in MANY cases, especially when it comes to new marketing trends, is to ignore the synergy of ingredients that occur in wholefoods. Food manufacturers are oh so busy showing us the fat, carbohydrate, protein and antioxidant components of their new fandangled package of highly processed food.

Meanwhile the miracles of wholefood alchemy are sitting on the shelves and in the fields, in the markets and in our gardens.

And guess what? NONE of those little beauties have a label on them.