Help me get my greens!

[dhammala]

Hey everyone! I am having a hard time getting my greens in and I thought maybe you could offer suggestions?

Today I had this interesting headache, and I just knew that eating a salad would help it out. I resisted like you wouldn't believe, but after about two hours of lounging on the couch in hunger, I made a salad. Five minutes after chomping it down, my headache went away and I felt energized. Crazy!

However, what led to that headache is the fact that I just can't 'stomach' the thought of eating a salad everyday. I love salads, I do.. but at the same time, I don't. I have been veggie for about 10 years now, and salads to me seem to be the lowest of the list of things a veggie can eat. I always despised the fact that my friends, wait staff or whoever would always be like 'Oh you can just have a salad.' Errr.. veggies eat so much more than that!

I have tried green smoothies but I find that I am forcing them down. Maybe my ratio is off but I have tried different things with different greens.

What can I do? Do you have any thoughts? What are some of your favorite salads? Any other ways of hiding some greens? Are sprouts just as good for getting all those minerals and vitamins? Should I take a suppliment instead? What are your ratios for green smoothies? Can't you just eat them for me? :p

[Rawkinlocs]

Have you tried collard leaf or lettuce leaf wraps where you just put veggies, maybe even marinated veggies and/or pate' inside and eat like that?

With the green smoothies, maybe you should start off adding just a bit of greens and work your way up. When I used to make them before Victoria Boutenko did the "Ode to Green Smoothies" and I didn't have a guide for ratios, I would add like one or two at the most kale leaves to my fruit smoothies and barely knew it was there in taste or in color!

Now, I use a lot more. Kale, baby spinach and parsley are my favorite greens to use so far.

You could also try celery to start...I really like the taste of celery in my smoothies...banana, pineapple and celery used to be my favorite combination.

Also, try marinated greens (if you have Alissa's book, the recipe is in there and if not, I think I can dig something up for you)

Take some spinach, cabbage, and other veggies, toss in a little olive oil, sea salt, seasonings of choice and allow to sit for an hour or longer or put in dehydrator to slightly warm and soften...GOOD eatin' and comforting!

Hope some of these suggestions help!

[Sheryl]

If you like dehydrating you could make crackers with lots of herbs! That works for Piers and I. How about pesto sauce over angel hair zucchini pasta... that doesn't feel like 'greens' however packs a powerful green punch! Or nori rolls made from raw nori stuffed with cauliflower and pine nuts with avocado with chili sauce... or a raw soup with avocado and carrot juice poured over chopped celery, cucumber, herbs and some cubes of avocado. YUMMY! It's making me hungry!

I'm on a fast right now, and just can't keep off this board... can't wait to try the jalopeno poppers!

Cheers,
Sheryl

[sport]

I so agree with you on this problem. I love cucumber and avacoda but I dont think that they count very much when it comes to measuring my daily greens. I need to eat leaves and like you I have been vege for many years but not in the habit of eating leaves. I have spoken to my vege man to try to find someway that I acn find something that I like and I intend to experiment. I have just received "green for life" and am reading it and I am hoping that it will effect me so much that I will not turn back. If you have not read it then maybe you should.

[mbf]

Hi ,

I'ts so cool how the body lets us know what we need ! do you juice ? I do an entire bunch of Kale,1-2 heads of romaine, a beet or 2 depending on size, and 1-2 apples and then alternate other greens like chard,spinach etc. I do that 2xs a day and I love it !

I dislike salad, never ate it until I went raw, even being a vegan ! but I have 2 salad dressings that have changed my feelings about salad, oh and I only eat bay greens,mesculan greens. Still stay far away from iceberg ! so maybe try some new dressings ?

As far as green smoothie, I keep it very simple with kale and banana. I chop my kale up then put it inthe blender with banana & water.

Hope this helps !


MBF

[fiddler]

Start making smoothies as you normally do but insert just 1 or 2 romaine leaves or a small bit of spinach so that you barely taste the greens. Then find out out the maximum amount you can add before the taste becomes unacceptable.

If you take say 5 or 6 bananas and add a couple leaves of romaine, spinach or even kale with a bit of water, you shouldn't even notice the greens -- at least I didn't. Also, I have been using fuji apples lately and they really taste good in these green smoothies.

hth, fiddler

[kmik]

As sport said... read "Green For Life" by Victoria Boutenko! Everyone else's idea's are wonderful... but you still can't beat a green smoothie in my opinion :) So here's what I suggest:

Just make a normal fruit smoothie and put one leaf of greens (kale, chard, lettuce, or if you use spinach, us a few cuz they're so small). Stick it mild tasting greens. You'll realize you certainly don't taste it... but then the next day put a little more in. I believe in no time you'll get used to the greens, and not even think about them being in your smoothie.

If you're eating limited greens especially, at least in a smoothie you'll get the most benefit from it, since it'll be highly assimilatable.

[kmik]

LOL Fiddler! Great minds think alike... but I didn't know it would be at the same time!

[dhammala]

What are your two magical salad dressings?

[dhammala]

Great idea Fiddler and kmik! I will make that a game, to see how much greens I can slowly incorporate into my daily smoothies..

[dhammala]

I do love lettuce wraps, Rawkinlocs.. I have them at least once a week but I never feel like they are a 'good serving' of greens. I will for sure try out the marinated greens too! That sounds yummy!

[mbf]

Hi,

My 2 favorite dressings are:

This is a my homemade recipe
Almond Butter * I never measure but start off with 1/2 cup ??
Lemon juice from one whole large lemon
2 cloves of organic garlic
Raw raspberry honey, I know that is hard to find but Dates or Agave work well * again guessing is use approx. 2 tablespoons honey,2- 3 dates
Ginger, about a teaspoon size chunk
dash of salt
Water, add as needed to make it dressing consistency

** I have also used raw tahini and it is pretty close in taste

Second is from a book, it calls for a lot of lemon juice which I found to be way to much so i cut in half and add water as needed. I am posting original recipe right out of the book so if you don't like to much lemon cut it in half at first try.

Makes 4 cups that keep well in fridge for several days

2 cups of lemon juice * I cut in half & use water
3 whole cloves garlic
3 tablespoons minced ginger
3 tablespoons Nama Shoyu
3 tablespoons raw honey
11/2 cups of cold pressed olive oil
Mix in blender or food processor

enjoy !

MBF