Thursday, August 18, 2011

Smoothies Revisited

This is the sequel post to Shake It Up Baby, my previous (and first) post about smoothies.

Smoothies (in the wild) possess extremely good adaptation skills, and can adapt to any environment. They can survive in the harshest of conditions, on the bare minimum, or can lead a life of richness when presented with an abundance of nutritious foods.

Okay enough with the crazy talk. It's been a few months since I last spoke with you about smoothies, and my smoothies have evolved a little since then. I still have a few of the same favourites, mainly spirulina - it's gonna take a while yet to kill that buzz! But I just wanted to share with you some new smoothalicious ideas I've been messing around with lately.

I just want to re-iterate that when thinking of what to put into your blender, first think of what you want to achieve through this smoothie. Weight loss? Nutrition? Alkalyse? Protein? A meal? All of the above? Then you can tailor it to suit your needs.

When I became vegan I gave away the several different whey protein based powders that were lying around in the cupboard and bought myself my new favourite protein powder. Behold!! Pea protein isolate!
This baby is 100% pure pea protein isolate, made from golden peas. It's protein is 88% bioavailable (meaning that's how much your body can use) and it has a great amino acid profile. If you get the vanilla flavour (like me) it smells like delicious honeycomb and tastes great, with no artificial sweeteners!

On a fruity note, bananas have been too expensive for long enough for me to have to get creative when it comes to really packing some flavour punch for my smoothies. Here are some things I've been known to just chuck in with everything else:
- natural peanut butter
- sulphur free dried apricots
- dessicated coconut
- rolled oats
- canned pineapple
- coconut milk
- applesauce
Basically whatever is lying around.

If you want to take your smoothies to the ultimate health pinnacle (until the next best thing comes along), add a couple of tablespoons of pumpkin seeds that have been soaked overnight and blend them in with everything else. They are really high in protein and especially high in the amino acid tryptophan, which is a precursor to serotonin, and we all know that serotonin makes us happy!

I'm trying to think what else is new in Smoothietown. Obviously I don't make mine with dairy milk anymore, I use mainly my home made almond milk but sometimes soy or rice. I'm toying with the idea of buying maca powder soon for another addition, but I'll blog that when I get to it.

I hope you're thinking about what to put in your smoothie tomorrow!

Jacqui

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