I tricked my dh! (now I need some simple green smoothie recipes...)

[Judy]

I tricked, o no, I'm sorry, I mean challenged :rolleyes: my delicious husband into a mini raw food challenge and proposed him to do the following for a week:

- a green smoothie every morning
- followed by a fruit salad
- adding vegetables (greens, non-sweet fruits and especially sprouts) to his sandwiches (and he eats a lót of sandwiches during the day, so this would be an easy enough way for him to incorporate more fresh veg into his diet)
- eat a small salad besides his normal evening meal
- replacing a couple of his cups of coffee with water or herbal tea

And he's in, starting next Monday. This might be the start of something really beautiful...!

So... I need some simple and delicious green smoothie recipes, simple meaning doable with a handblender (at the moment I've got nothing else nor the money to buy a high tech blender). Two, three, maybe four easy to find ingredients would do, please nothing complicated or fancy. I don't like complicated things myself (haven't made many green smoothies yet), plus it must be easy enough (not daunting!) for a non raw husband to make for himself in the near future (yes, I'm very hopeful... and very much about delegating ;)). I already know about mango-parsley and mango-spinach, anything else like that? I think I'm going to sneak some powdered spirulina in there too... Any simple tips, recipes? Thanks in advance!!!

[Ariadne]

How about: banana, spinach and orange juice?
Or passion fruit? Any fruit you can easily mush with a hand blender. Or even regular fruit juice (fresh squeezed orange or apple) with spirulina or bluegreen algae would be a good (and tasteless green!) start!
Good luck! My better half would never touch a green smoothie, he calls them my 'breakfast of the future', and to his friends 'green death'!:p

[tvillemom]

When you say hand blender....do you mean the stick kind??? If you could afford a $20 blender.....I would suggest my "recipe"

fill blender up with spinach, romain, etc.
add about a 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water
blend well
Then add about 1-2 frozen banana that have been cut into chunks and frozen the night before (the riper the better)
blend
then add 1 cup of another frozen fruit...blend again
taste...if it is not sweet enough, you can always add honey or agave nectar and blend some more.

This seems like a long process, but it's not.
blending while adding things helps my smoothies get smooth with an inexpensive blender....I sure hope this helps.

My children will drink my smoothies!!
Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Wendi

[Veganforlife]

Take a favorite fruit smoothie recipe and throw in a leaf or 2 or 5 or 20 of your favorite greens (spinach, leafy lettuce, field mix, etc.) - there you go, simple green smoothie.

[cherries]

I think that apples go well with greens and do a good job off masking the taste of greens like kale. Good luck with your dh, he is lucky to have someone like you encouraging him (and he is brave to try it).

[Raw Mom]

My latest love is spinach, water and lemon. I add raspberries or pineapple for my daughter.

[Judy]

Thnx you guys, that gives me plenty of ideas.

This weekend I tried orange-spirulina myself twice, and really liked it tastewise, however, my body can't seem to handle the fruit & veg combination very well, so I'm not going to do green smoothies anymore. In the past, I tried mango-parsley a couple of times, but with the same result... I wanted for it to work, but it just doesn't... :(

My dh started to eat healthier by himself the last week, even though our 'challenge' started today. He's adding veg on his sandwiches, eating lots of fruit, some nuts and drinking some herbal tea instead of coffee all the time. I also suggested to take spirulina, so now he started taking one tablet a day (slowly building things up).

Made a broccoli-apple-lemon concoction today for my dh, it was too much broccoli for him, so I added extra apple and lemon, and he liked that better. However, it was just too much smoothie in general (even though I made a rather small amount), and although he found the taste to be ok, it was hard work for him... I'm going to make the smoothies smaller and sweeter... I must say that he's very open minded and brave to try my brews... I haven't done much green smoothies in the past plus I don't taste them myself (because of my food combining sensitivities), so it's all one big experiment!

I'm very curious what will happen, I know what it does for me, but I'm curious what it will do for him! He's tired all the time, and coughs a lot (phlegm), espécially when he's tired... Energy is the main reason for him to give this all a try.