Over about the last year or two many of my friends have started juicing. I have yet to jump on that wagon, mainly due to the fact that I would need to invest in yet another semi-pricey kitchen gadget. I do however put my hand-me-down VitaMix to work making some pretty yummy raw smoothies. Now, I call them raw vs. green mainly because mine are almost never green and "smoothie" sometimes infers the use of yogurt or milk but the only liquid I put into mine is water or pomegranate juice. I suppose raw drink would be a better term. Ehhh, you get my drift.
My aunt is the one that gave me my VitaMix and got me started making these raw smoothies. I used her suggestions on what to put into them, and they were and are good. However, I was putting so many different things into them it was becoming a bit of a procedure. Basically, any fruit or green I had in my fridge went into my VitaMix, including nuts!
Over the last year or so I have really tried to reduce the amount of fruit I use in my smoothies, mainly because I eat a good amount of fruit daily anyhow and I drink these for the purpose of getting my greens in more so than anything. I now try to keep my ingredients to 4 or 5 and about a month ago I came up with a pretty good one. Give this one a try.
8oz water (more or less depending on the thickness you like)
1 small or 1/2 large granny smith ( or any apple)
1/2 cucumber with skin
1 or more good handfuls of spinach
1/2 cup or handful of frozen blueberries.
Zap this all up and you've got yourself a tasty and healthy treat.
Now, as always, adjust as you feel fit. Because I never measure anything, my smoothies are always different, even if I am using the same ingredients. If you are new to making raw drinks you may want to use more blueberries or apple until you get accustomed to drinking them. I almost always taste a little bit of mine and if I think it is on the sweet side, I will add more spinach. I use a lot of spinach in my smoothies. I have also used kale and collard greens. Experiment. Use of combination of the three. Whatever gets you drinking. As you can see, in the picture I have grapes in there as well. On that day I just happened to have a few grapes that were going bad and I didn't want to toss them in the trash.
I will have to try this! We've been doing a lot of smoothies. . . errr raw drinks . . . lately. We use more fruit, however, but we always jam a lot of spinach in there as well as adding spirulina. Never thought about the cucumber, though. Thanks for the recipe!
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