Nutrition through SMOOTHIES!

Hey everyone! This is Isaac, another one of the team members. I'm so excited to share my smoothie recipes and philosophy about smoothies with you today.

Smoothies are the perfect way of delivering nutritionally full meals quickly and deliciously. The diversity of recipes that fall under the category of “smoothies” are what make them so accessible, and successful. The ability to blend favorite flavors with new ones, with the goal of finding nutritional nirvana, makes the smoothie category even more special.
 

In a failed attempt to avoid gross generalizations, I would say that most people have heard of a smoothie. It's simple, right? Take some food, blend it, drink it. More newly, the green smoothie/green revolution has taken over, which is the idea of supplementing your food and lifestyle in a more conscious way overall. With the development of a more eco-friendly, health aware population, many people have also heard of green smoothies. Contrary to popular belief, the green smoothie is not the pinnacle of nutrition; the super smoothie trumps all. The idea of the super smoothie is the creation of modern raw vegan food gurus, a diet essentially surrounding capturing the most available nutrition in food by not cooking food over a certain temperature, and not eating animal products. There is more depth to the lifestyle that is raw veganism; the important part is the reintroduction of foods and herbs surrounding the culture. The following recipe for a chocolate-peanut butter-banana smoothie takes you through the 3 smoothie levels, so that anyone can enjoy this filling, yet balanced recipe.

Level 1:

1 Banana (If desired: freeze for thickness)

1 ½ Cups Milk

2 Cups Ice

¾ Cup Smooth Peanut Butter

¾ Cup Chocolate Chips

Level 2:

1 Banana (If desired: freeze for thickness)

1 ½ Cup Milk

1 1/2 Cups Ice

¾ Cup Smooth Peanut Butter

¾ Cup Chocolate Syrup or Chips

¼ Cup water blended with 1 small-medium bunch kale

½ Avocado

*Blend kale and water first
**Spinach can be swapped with kale based on preference/availability

Level 3:

1 ½ Banana

2 Cups Ice (Use coconut water for additional electrolytes)

1 Cup Milk

½ Cup Cashews

1/2 Cup Cacao Nibs

1+ Tbsp. Agave Nectar

½-1 Tbsp. Coconut oil

¾ Cup Smooth Peanut Butter

1 Small-Medium Avocado

¼ water blended with 1 small-medium bunch kale

*Blend cashews/cacao nibs first with water/kale

 

The recipes above are written based on personal experience and can/should be changed to personal preference. A few general rules: ice to thicken, “Milk” can be soy, almond, coconut, or yogurt, and all sweeteners are optional (keep in mind they are put in for a reason, in this case to counteract the rich yet slightly bitter/overpowering taste of chocolate from cacao nibs). Also, if you’re struggling to put some vegetables into your smoothie, start with an avocado, which has no affect on taste, and gives incredible creaminess and natural fats. Then, move to spinach, and finally to kale. The reason behind kale is that it is generally considered the king of nutrition for vegetables for numerous reasons: high in fiber, packed with vitamins, etc. Finally, the herbal side of super smoothies, while incredible nutritional, is complicated and expensive, and for the sake of the brevity of the blog post was excluded, but with a proper guide can be broken down and accessible, perhaps in a future book…. ;)

Thanks for reading my first blog post! I can't wait to share more smoothie recipes with you all in the future. Please follow Teens Can Cook, Too at all of our social media handles (and follow this blog as well, of course). Feel free to ask me any questions you have about the smoothies as well via email (teenscancooktooteam@gmail.com), comments on this post, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

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Stay healthy!

- Isaac