Start of the New Year, Challenges (NOT Resolutions!)

My husband and I were sitting down yesterday and discussing how the world was to end in 2000. Here we are in 2014 and going strong!  Amazing how time flies!  With the entrance to 2014, (I actually was up at midnight this year, previous years saw me in bed by 10! Ha, life with kids) I have created a variety of challenges for myself. The general purpose would be for the betterment of my body, mind and spirit.
Challenge 1: For January I am challenging myself to a Vegan (ish) diet. I need to clean up my eating habits and would like try mostly vegan for a month and see how it goes. I, however, am allowing myself room for error, this is a BIG switch to accomplish in a month.

Challenge 2: Hit the gym. At least 3 times a week with other exercise at home everyday. Before Dec hit, I had accomplished a 60 day streak of exercise everyday (a FB group I am part of). I fell off that with the holidays and my husband working INSANE hours a work with the holiday rush. Ultimately, I would like to see some weight loss and body tone happen as well.

Challenge 3: Devotions everyday. Fill that connections that helps me in my spiritual life.

Challenge4: Get back into the habit of SOTD. Better fuel for my body in the morning. So today's smoothie was a bit of extra work. I juiced some things before I made my smoothie.

Juice
5 Carrots
1 orange
large handful of baby kale and spinach
1/2 Grapefruit
I ran these through my Champion Juicer THEN...
I made my smoothie
1/2 Banana
2 T goji berries
2 T hemp hearts
1 T flax seed
Blend in my Vitamix and drink it up.

Pretty good. Very green tasting!

New Ingredient!

I love when I find a new ingredient to add to my routine. It gives me a challenge and makes an old stand by smoothie a bit more interesting. Today's smoothie is an old favorite, Banana Split. Just classic. And good!

Banana Split Smoothie for One

1/2 Banana

4 whole strawberries

6 large chunks of pineapple

1 T cocoa powder

1 - 1.5 cups almond milk

1/2 T bee pollen

2 T Hemp hearts

1 T Spirulina

 

Except I added a new ingredient, Spirulina.  I linked more info, but the general run down is that it is a blue green algae. It is has multiple vitamins, including a natural source of iron (I run low on iron but I HATE taking a supplement, this is a good alternative)! It boosts the immune system and is high in protein, yep protein!
I found a powdered form at our local health food store. I am finding it makes a great add in to my smoothies! I can't detect a taste (although it does make the color of the smoothie a bit interesting)!

Persimmon Smoothie

I have been on a bit of a quest to create some new smoothies. I have a wide variety, I just wanted to get some creative juices (ha ha) into my routine.  SO the other day when I saw persimmons in the store I got a bit excited. This is not a fruit I am familiar with at all! I did a bit of research to find out about them. High in antioxidants and Vit A, C and K, also high in fiber. They can also be high in tannin acid, which can have some adverse effects if consumed in a high quantity. I had 1 persimmon in my smoothie today, we will see what the effects are!

Persimmon Smoothie
1/2 banana
1 persimmon, peeled and sectioned
1 cup almond milk
1 T flax seed

I kept it pretty simple today, I wanted to get the taste of the new fruit. It was ok, for my taste buds. Not WOW! but ok. I have 2 more persimmons to work with, maybe with some other fruit.

Thankfulness

Good gracious! It has been a LONG time since I have posted! I will blame it on a few things. 1) Summer makes me busy . Lots of time outdoors either for play or work in the garden so I don't sit at the computer as much. 2) Because of the garden, I was blessed with a lot of good food to save for winter. Freezing and canning took up a lot of time for me. However, I love the look of my freezer full of corn, beans, carrots, peas and broccoli all from my garden. My tomatoes this year, wowzer! I have many jars of salsa, pasta sauce, crushed tomatoes and this year I even made my own ketchup and pizza sauce. I love providing such good food for my family! Of course, I already have plans for next years garden and how I am going to expand! 3) This summer was REALLY bad for fruit flies in my house! Therefore, I didn't have a lot of smoothies because the flies really like bananas, and I couldn't leave bananas sit on the counter. Bananas don't do well in the fridge and I know you can freeze them, but I don't like frozen bananas in my smoothies. And excuse number 4) My husband got me a Champion Juicer for my birthday! I have been playing with juicing now as well! Fresh juice can also replace a meal, but I prefer a smoothie for breakfast! I will post some recipes about juice too!

Ok. To the good stuff! November, a month of thankfulness. So many people post a daily thankful item. Love to see it all. I like the quote "Thanks Giving is good, but Thanks Living is better" Matthew Henry. A month of thankfulness is a good reminder, but thankful living every day, something to strive for! Anyway, to honor thankfulness I have been working on my:

 

 Thanksgiving Smoothie!

 

1/2 cup pureed sweet potato

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup fresh cranberries

1 cup orange juice (or more if needed)

2 T hemp hearts

1 T flax seeds

3 T raw oatmeal

2 T maple syrup

Dash of cinnamon

Dash of pumpkin pie spice

Cranberries are full of antioxidants, fiber, vitamin C and only 45 calories for 1/2 cup serving! Enjoy and be blessed!

Not so green smoothie?

Does a smoothie have to be the color green to consider itself a green smoothie?  Today I have a yummy smoothie that isn't the color green. More brownish red. I think the raspberries have more pigment and over power the green of the greens I put in. And I must say, I put a LARGE handful of the greens. Beet greens today, which also have reddish stems so maybe that is why the color is not green. I CAN taste the beet greens in the smoothie so I know I put enough in there. Did I mention I LOVE going to my garden to get the beet greens! As in, pick, rinse, blend! Nothing fresher and uncertified organic! By the way, it is very yummy!

 

1/2 banana

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

LARGE handful beet greens

1T honey

1T ground flaxseed

1 cup almond milk

 

Blend and enjoy!

Cilantro Lime

So far so good! Green smoothie everyday!  Todays smoothie is a little off the wall, even for me!  I saw the idea on the 30dayGS blog, but I changed it a little due to missing ingredients and only wanting one portion. 

1 banana

large handful fresh spinach

1/2 cup (ish) fresh cilantro

1 peeled lime

3 inch section of cucumber

1/2 tsp ground ginger (the recipe called for fresh but I didn't have any and none in the freezer cubes)

1/2 cup water

5 ice cubes

blend and hmmm? If you don't like cilantro don't do this one! I think I would add a T of honey if I was to do this one again. Little girl didn't like it:) It is very green! Hint of bitter. Overall, not the best, but I will drink it. Definitely not one to offer the hubs:)

Red, White and Beet

In honor of Independence Day I was going to make a red, white and blue (and green!) smoothie! don't have blueberries (oops). I changed directions, raided my garden for greens and came up with this. Happy 4th of July, remember why we celebrate!

Red: 1 cup frozen strawberries

         1/4 cup frozen raspberries

 

White: 1/2 banana

            1/2 cup greek yogurt

 

Beet: large handful of beat greens from the garden!

Water to make it blend-able.

I can taste a slight beet flavor today, but since I don't mind that, yum!