Monday, August 31, 2015

Whole30 Smoothie

Technically smoothies aren't allowed on Whole30 (see below), but I can only eat eggs so many days before I start to cluck.
Smoothies: We’d rather you didn’t
This is a very popular question, with a very unpopular answer. Smoothies (generally made using lots of fruit) are technically compliant on your Whole30, but we strongly recommend against it. Food that you drink sends different satiety signals to your brain than food that you chew. So when you drink your meal, your brain isn’t getting the feedback it needs to tell your body that it’s had enough of what it needs. Plus, smoothies are generally really fruit-heavy, and starting your day off with a liquid sugar-bomb sets you up for cravings, hunger, and volatile energy levels throughout the day. In summary, we’d rather you just eat the food, and skip the smoothie.
So for a Whole30 smoothie, try using some of these ingredients:

Liquid

Coconut milk or water
Almond milk (careful to find one without sugar or carrageenan)
Ice cubes
Water

Thickener

Avocado
Canned coconut milk cream
Almond butter

Fruit

Frozen mixed berries 
Frozen strawberries
Frozen cherries
Frozen mango
Pineapple
Frozen blueberries (will make the smoothie turn from green to blueish, my kids like it better)
Oranges

Greens

Spinach (I buy bags prewashed and throw them straight in the freezer, after they're frozen I crunch up the bag, cut the corner and pour frozen spinach pieces into my blender.  I like it cause I always have spinach on hand instead of half rotten spinach bags in the fridge)
Kale
Other mild-flavor greens

Sweetener

Bananas (I prefer them brownish, when I have a bunch of brown bananas I'll chop them up and throw them in a zip lock bag in the freezer to use for smoothies)
Fruit juice (look for 100% juice, pear juice is great - and sometimes I'll buy frozen white grape juice concentrate and use just a little spoonful in the smoothie)
Dates (remember to take out the pit)

Other items

Flax seed
Hemp seeds
Chia seeds
Cinnamon
Ginger
Mint
Vanilla extract
Almond extract
etc...

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