Happy Birthday Blog Green Smoothie

The Healthy Girl's Kitchen blog officially turned one year old on January 23rd. Happy birthday to my blog! So why am I posting another recipe for a green smoothie? Because at this time of reflection for where I've been and where I'm going, this recipe seemed appropriate. I hope you can see by the ingredients that I'm upping the level of green intensity and LOVING it! Thanks to my friend and business partner Chris-Anna, who is new to the green smoothie revolution, but very adventurous, for inspiring this.

Super Green Smoothie

serves 1 hungry person

1 small cucumber, cut into chunks

1 fresh pear, cut off it's core OR large handful of seedless grapes

1 small frozen banana, broken into chunks

2 large stalks celery, cut into large chunks

1 large date, pit removed

1 handful fresh spinach

1 handful fresh or frozen kale

5 ice cubes

water--not too much

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smoothie reaches desired consistency.

Here's something very interesting:

Mark Bittman, right, with Chef Mario Batali, before becoming plant strong? I love Mario Batali, and I'm seriously worried about him.

Mark Bittman after becoming plant strong?

I received a blog birthday present from the universe. Debby from Happy Healthy Long Life clued me in about Mark Bittman's new ventures. If you don't know who he is, he is one of the most incredible New York Times food writers and cookbook authors. Seems like he's caught on to the healthy eating movement and he's making a big stink about it. Get the story here. He's leaving his old eating life behind and joining our ranks. Yeah Mark! Yeah universe! Can't wait to subscribe to his new blog.

Do you know who Mark Bittman is? Do you own any of his cookbooks?

What are your impressions of the public psyche when it comes to healthy eating? Do you believe we are on the cusp of major social change regarding eating habits? Or are all of the people around you seemingly unaffected?

Read more

Good Morning! Basic and Sophisticated Green Smoothie Recipes

Thank you for the responses to my last post on the obesity epidemic! It's good to know there are a lot of people out there who want to see change and are passionate about the fight.

Now onto something less political, well, slightly less political: Green Smoothies.

I try to start every day with a green smoothie. Here are my reasons why:

1. I love sweet food, and they are sweet

2. I like to have a breakfast that fills me up and has staying power

3. I want to start my day with a nutritional punch, even a powerhouse

4. Green smoothies are easy to make--they do not require a recipe or measuring once you learn the formula

5. They are easy to clean up after

6. All of the ingredients can become kitchen staple items if you know what they are

7. Green smoothies are easy to take on my way out the door to work

8. I lost 50 pounds drinking green smoothies so I know they are a "safe" food for me

And here is a basic formula for a green smoothie:

frozen banana + greens + other fruit(s) + liquid + ice

optional, but highly recommended for regularity and nutritional goodness: ground flax seed or chia seed

Here are options for each component: use one or more from each category:

GREENS: fresh or frozen spinach, kale, collard, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, carrot (okay, it's not green). I recommend starting out with spinach because you cannot taste it in the smoothie and then adding one other green in addition, a little so as not to be overly aggressive at first.

FRUIT: I always start with a ripe FROZEN banana because it adds the creamy texture to the smoothie. If you don't like bananas, just leave it out. Then add more fruit, any or all, fresh or FROZEN (that makes this very easy!) in combinations that you like: fresh pitted date(s), strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, mango, apple, pear, orange, clementine, grapes, canned pumpkin puree, young coconut flesh, sweet potato

LIQUID: water (believe it or not, it's all that you NEED), unsweetened nut milk-almond is my favorite (365 Brand from Whole Foods is great), soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk. I like to find the lowest calorie versions of any of these products.

Once you master the basic green smoothies, you are ready for some sophisticated combinations if you like that kind of thing. This morning I woke up to a great blog post from Gena at http://www.choosingraw.com/ about making your own Chai Spice Blend. I immediately cleaned up my kitchen and went to town (I mean work) on it.

Choosing Raw's Chai Spice Blend

Chai Spice Mix (yields about 1/3 cup spice mix)

2 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground cloves
2 1/2 tbsp. ground cardamom
2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. white pepper (I used black pepper because that's what I had)

Place all ingredients in a jar or baggie. Seal. Shake it like a Polaroid picture!

Proceed to yummy smoothie.

Healthy Girl's Chai Green Smoothie

serves 1

1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond (or other nut) milk

1 heaping tsp chai spice blend

2 large dates-pitted

1 large frozen banana, broken into chunks

7 medium ice cubes

1 Tbsp ground flax seed

1 giant handful fresh spinach

Place all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.

For my taste buds, this chai smoothie ranked right up there with the best green smoothies of all time.

Do you drink green smoothies? Why or why not?

Is there something else that is your go-to breakfast?

What is your favorite green smoothie recipe?

"I wanna know, what you're thinking . . ." (another song lyric reference)

Read more

Two Holiday Gift Ideas that Keep on Giving

Have you noticed how much I am loving my copy of Clean Food by Terry Walters? I got it a few short weeks ago and suddenly all of my other cookbooks are badly neglected. Clean Food magically has recipes for all of the food that I want to eat RIGHT NOW. What exactly does that mean? I want to eat high nutrient, low calorie, fresh, primarily vegetable dishes. And this cookbook covers an incredible variety of just that. With simple tweaking to lessen the already fairly low quantity of oil in her recipes, if not eliminate the oil all together, it's like Ms.Watlers wrote a personal cookbook just for me.


So imagine my excitement when my friend QB walked into my house the other day holding her copy of Ms. Walter's brand new book, Clean Start. It took me 24 hours to acquire my very own copy and another 24 to make my first recipe from it, Sauteed Greens with Leeks and Garlic. Let's just say, I might die right now and go to heaven!

Both incredible cookbooks to give yourself or a loved one who is on a health quest, it would be truly magnificent to present your gift with a container of something that you prepared using one of Ms. Walter's recipes. Hence, my second holiday gift idea . . .
When I cook, I tend to make a lot. I do this because my time in the kitchen is really limited and I want to eat great, healthy, whole, real food all of the time. Oftentimes, because I double most recipes that I make, I have so much that even I can't keep it all. That's where my friends and neighbors come in handy! They are always happy to share in the bounty. So it got me thinking, if a large batch of soup is the gift you give yourself that keeps on giving, it could also be the gift that you give for the holidays that is creative, unique and certainly more useful than, well, most of what we give for the holidays! Just make a big pot full, freeze it in plastic containers, and it's always ready to pop in a gift bag whenever you head over to someone's home for holiday festivities.

Healthy Girl's Take on Goodness Soup

adapted from a recipe in Clean Food by Terry Walters

2 thumb-size pieces kombu
3 tbsp vegetable broth
1 large onion, chopped
1 pound mushrooms (any type), chopped
5 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 cup hulled barley, rinsed
1 cup lentils, rinsed
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 Tbsp dried basil
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup mirin
2 Tbsp tamari
12 cups water2 15 ounce cans beans of your choice (kidney beans, canellini beans, really any beans will be fine), drained and rinsed

1 large bunch kale, rinsed, removed from stems and chopped
sea salt and pepper

Place kombu in a bowl with enough water to cover, soak for 10 minutes or until soft. Drain, mince and set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, saute onion in vegetable broth for 4 minutes. Add chopped mushrooms and stir. Cook for 3 more minutes. Add carrots, celery, barley, lentils, parsley, basil, bay leaf, mirin and tamari. Stir to combine, add water and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low, add kombu and continue cooking covered for 2 1/2 hours (it's okay if it cooks longer, it will not hurt the soup). Add beans and chopped kale and continue to simmer for 30 minutes. Taste soup and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or store in refrigerator (for up to 1 week) or in freezer (in airtight containers) for gift giving!

Read more

Wendy's Vegan Chili Mac Recipe

Hi friends! It has been WAY too long since I posted a new recipe.  Lately I have been preparing a lot of things that I have already written about and, the new things that I have tried making have been, well, less than blogworthy. So I'm really excited to tell you about something delicious called Chili Mac, for those of you that have never heard of it.

I first was introduced to the concept by a co-worker who was participating in the 28-day Engine 2 Challenge at Whole Foods with me. She found a recipe on FatFreeVegan and recommended it, suggesting it might be good for my 10-year-old daughter who was also participating in the challenge with us. She was so right, my daughter loved it. Me, I thought it was okay, but not worth making a second time. Check out that recipe here at  FatFreeVegan Chili Mac

So when my friend Jill was asking for dinner ideas for her family I brought it up. And I thought, it's such a great concept for a healthy meal, I need to give it another go. So I printed out a few vegan chili mac recipes from the Internet and came up with my own, using the ingredients that I know I like. I suggest you do the same. Just like my vegan enchilada recipe, chili mac is super easy to customize!

I decided to go with a meat replacement product called "Gimme Lean." I've used it before and I couldn't recall whether or not I liked it. Eating these types of vegan meat substitutes is something I try to really limit. Too many ingredients, a little too high in salt. But I wanted to see if I could make a Vegan Chili Mac recipe that the whole family would love, and this really helped. Next time I make this, and there will be a next time, I am going to use a meat substitute like Morningstar Farms  Veggie Crumbles. I just like the consistency of that product better.

Wendy's Vegan Chili Mac

serves 8

8 ounces whole wheat elbow macaroni (I used Barilla Plus)

1 large onion, chopped

3 Tbsp vegetable broth or water

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 package frozen Morningstar Farms Veggie Crumbles or 1 chub Gimme Lean Ground Sausage

10 ounces frozen corn

1 25.5 ounce (or more) jar of your favorite tomato sauce

1 bunch kale, rinsed, hard stems removed and sliced thin

1 cup (or more) water

1 can kidney beans, washed and drained (I used a 20 ounce can, but a 15 ounce can is fine too)

1 Tbsp chili powder (mild, med or hot--your preference)

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

optional: Cayenne pepper or red chili flakes, to taste-be careful, you can always add more

Cook macaroni according to package directions and set aside.

Place a large dutch oven over medium high heat. Add vegetable broth. When bubbling, add chopped onion. Stirring frequently and watching the heat (we are looking for browning, not burning), cook until onions are translucent and soft, about 5 minutes. Add minced garlic and stir. Add a few Tbsp water or broth if pan is too dry as you are sauteing the onions and garlic.

Add veggie crumbles or veggie sausage. The veggie sausage will take more work to break it up and brown. The veggie crumbles just require stirring to cook and brown. Once browned, add corn and stir.

Turn heat to low. Add tomato sauce and at least 1 cup of water. Add kale and stir. Add beans and stir. Add cooked elbow macaroni and stir. Season with 1 Tbsp. chili powder, 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp salt and if desired, a pinch of Cayenne pepper or red chili flakes. 

Read more

Do these Veggies Make My Boobs Look Big?

Okay, not the most flattering photograph of me, but the good news is that I "cooked" up a storm yesterday!

Well, if you could even call it cooking. I prepared another batch of Jane Esselstyn's delicioso Kale Butter (http://healthygirlskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-8-and-janes-kale-butter.html) which I served on top of some plain quinoa--simply amazing! Then I dressed some romaine lettuce and spring lettuce mix with my favorite Galeo's low calorie miso dressing.  Lastly, I whipped up a batch of Sesame Noodle Sauce from the Choosing Raw blog (actually using Tahini, which tastes remarkably like peanut butter when you try it plain, http://www.choosingraw.com/sesame-noodles-raw-and-cooked/) and poured it over a mixture of spiralized zucchini and carrot noodles.

I had my husband take these photos with his cell phone.  So the even better news is that my new digital SLR camera arrived today! Yipee! Now I just have to learn how to use it. The thought of gorgeous food photography is totally exciting to me.  And my husband will be a very happy camper eating all of the healthy food that I will be inspired to make. Have I told you about how much his basketball game has improved now that we have gone Plant Strong? I'll save that for another day . . .

Read more