xSparkage Confessions of a Makeup Junkie
I feel that beauty is not only something you can have on the outside, but inside as well! I’m going to start posting here about my health journey, as I’m planning to make some diet and exercise changes that I think some of you will be interested in. I know that If I start posting this here, I’ll be less likely to give up, because I know there will be people reading and I don’t want to let them down :)
Recently, I decided to go ahead with a purchase I have been contemplating for a few weeks now, and that is a Vitamix Blender. I’m really trying to jump on the health bandwagon, but it’s hard! I wouldn’t say I eat necessarily bad, but I am not huge on green vegetables, which are kind of a staple in a healthy lifestyle. For awhile I tried juicing, but in all honesty I didn’t keep up with it because its a lot of waste and an ordeal or clean up, not only cleaning all the pieces of the juicer but also having to take out the trash every time I made juice (and my complex only has one trash compactor thats driving distance away, so thats fun!) I wanted to start dabbling with green smoothies, which are smoothies with some form of veggie in it, that is usually masked by fruit. I had a KitchenAid blender, which worked well enough blending things like baby spinach, but more than taste I wanted the texture of these smoothies to actually be smooth, and with tougher greens like romaine lettuce and kale, the KitchenAid just won’t cut it.
I decided to get the Vitamix only if I planned to actually stick with making green smoothies, and although I have only had it two weeks, I’ve kept up with it every day! My go-to recipe lately is the Glowing Green Smoothie, which you may have heard of (its super popular with celebrities apparently) and it includes a TON of romaine lettuce, some water, spinach, apple, pear, banana, and lemon. I know what you’re thinking if you’re a little scared of greens like I am, because it’s exactly what I thought when I first made it!
The recipe is super simple to make, but you need a good blender. I tried to make this recipe with my KitchenAid once, and the romaine wouldn’t liquify, and so the smoothie had lots of little pieces of lettuce in it, along with chunks of apple and pear, bleh! Also, in order to even get it smooth at all, I had to blend it for a loooong time. This can cause the fruits and veggies to oxidize, and essentially kill the nutrients because of getting too warm from the blender.
The first time I used my Vitamix, I was seriously BLOWN away (I swear, this isn’t an advertisement for Vitamix, haha!) I knew it was going to be a strong blender, but when I put about 4 cups of romaine lettuce in with a cup of water and within SECONDS it turned it into complete liquid, I was standing next to my blender with a O_O face, lol. Chopped apples and pears were no problem, either! I even had someone on Twitter ask me how well it crushes ice, so I put in about 6 ice cubes to try..
Crazy crazy crazy!
This recipe yields just over 40 ounces of this smoothie, which yes, is a lot! The cool thing about smoothies over juicing, though, is that you can keep the smoothie (covered) in your fridge for up to two days, and it will be fine. Fresh juice needs to be drank immediately after making it, or it will oxidize and loose all the nutrients. I like to drink about half of this (20 oz) right when I wake up, and then keep the rest for the next day. If I’m drinking smoothie that wasnt just freshly made, I generally will put it back in the blender for a few seconds just to make sure it’s all blended back together!
Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize how long this was getting! I’m going to try and do weekly Healthy Beauty posts, which will probably include an overview of my week, and possibly a recipe or something :)
The main contenders for this drink- A good amount of romaine lettuce, two big handfuls of baby spinach, an apple, a pear, and a banana.
You also need some water, but I really like using coconut water. It gives the smoothie a nicer texture, and it has a ton of electrolytes and nutrients!
Chop up the romaine, and add it to the blender with 1 1/2cups water or coconut water, and blend until smooth.
Once smooth, add spinach, and blend again, until smooth.
Chop up apple and pear, and add to blender, and blendddd!
Last step- add banana, and Lemon juice (I didn’t have any on hand when taking these photos, but it helps cut the grass taste from the veggies!) and blend! I blend a little more this step than the rest (about 20 seconds on high) to make sure everything is really smooth, as I like this smoothie to be as thin as possible, its really hard to drink if its thicker.
Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking, but really the taste isn’t bad! Granted yes, I let my boyfriend try it and he wasn’t a fan, but I think because I had been juicing before, the “green” taste isn’t too much for me. If you wanted to try a green smoothie and have never juiced and are scared of the color, or if your blender isn’t crazy, try making a normal smoothie and adding a handful of baby spinach. I promise you, the fruit covers it up, and your body will thank you!
