Green Smoothie Love

This morning I had tons of fresh fruit so I quickly cut it all up and put it in the freezer to "flash-freeze".  I left it in for about 1 1/2 hours, which is perfect timing for me to finish my coffee first.  I drink a cup or two of coffee every morning before I drink my smoothie. 

This is how I put the fruit in.  I used a cake pan only because I had just made a cake for my son's birthday party.  It worked out nice actually!

 

When I took it out of the freezer, I just dumped it right into my blender.  Here are the rest of the ingredients I used:

 I used about 2 cups of Almond Breeze (unsweetened/30 calories).  I threw in 2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach, a large drizzle of honey to sweeten and about a teaspoon each of Ground Flaxseed and Chia Protein Powder.  I put it all in together and blended until smooth.  I like to blend it for about 2 minutes to make sure it's all smooth.

 And here's the finished product.  Yummy!  It was icy, but not thick.  I had two cups.  This is all I had for breakfast and it kept me full all morning.

I like to start my day with a green smoothie.  It makes me feel like I've started the day off right and I've already had some greens!  Try it!  You can't taste them I swear!

 

Have a wonderful morning!

5 Things I Am Changing for Health

1.  I start every morning out with a green smoothie.  Well, actually I have a cup of coffee first.  Maybe someday that will change too, but for now it makes me very happy.  I used to drink at least 2 cups in the morning, now one does just fine.  I look forward to my smoothie every morning.  Most days it take the place of breakfast.  It makes me feel like I've started this day with the best food that I can have for my body.  It fills me up and keeps me going. 

This is what was in my smoothie today:
1 handful fresh organic Kale
1 handful organic mixed greens (from a bag)
Almond milk
Plain Kefir
1 Banana
2 handfuls of frozen peaches, strawberries, and bananas
1 handful of frozen pineapple
1 teaspoon of Chia Protein Powder
Drizzle of honey to sweeten
 
Throw it all in together and blend until smooth.  I keep coming back to this one.  It's my favorite!

2.  I am eating salad for lunch.  Most days I have a spinach salad with strawberries, pears, or apples (whatever is in my kitchen), cheese (again whatever I have-usually feta, blue cheese, or Colby Jack), almonds, and topped with balsamic vinaigrette.  Other days when I'm in the office and couldn't find time to make lunch, I buy a delicious tuna salad with lettuce, cucumbers, onions, carrots and topped with a homemade vinaigrette dressing.  So yummy!

I find that eating this way doesn't make me feel hungry.  I am satisfied and healthy!

3.  I am buying and cooking more vegetables for my family.  I'm trying to always have something on hand that is fresh.  I would like to change the portions that we are eating.  As Americans we tend to have meat as the biggest part of our meal, then starches and lastly (it seems) veggies.  So I am trying to make veggies cover more of our plates and less of everything else.  Luckily my kids love vegetables so this shouldn't be so hard.  Getting my husband to eat more veggies might be tougher.  He could just eat the meat for dinner and be happy with it.

4. I am reading blogs and books on health.  Learning can be scary these days, but it only fuels my desire to keep us healthy.  Every day I learn something new that can help us feel better.  Today I learned that we won't be eating hot dogs and lunch meat unless they are nitrate free.  Apparently this causes cancer and there have been bans dating back to the 70's.  Finally there are enough studies for change.  I am also learning how to help my husband with his heart burn.  This may be a tough one!

5.  All of our household products are organic and green.  I am done with chemicals.  We have enough chemicals walking in on our shoes every day.  Our new policy is, "shoes off at the door".  I'm hoping this helps minimize the chemicals in our home, improving our air quality and health.  It will hopefully help out with the sweeping and vacuuming too.  It is so hard to stay on the family when everyone is, "just coming in to get one thing".  We will get there!

What things are you all doing to stay healthy or change your ways?  Changing is so hard!  I struggle daily with sweets.  I have to remember to take things slowly so that everything becomes routine.  My goal isn't to give up sweets, but to eat them less frequently.  I want to live a happy life too.  Depriving isn't happy to me!  Live healthy!

What are they feeding us?

Good morning!  I picked up some new reading material yesterday and dove in to, "What's Eating Your Child?" by Kelly Dorfman, MS, LND last night.  I am loving it so far!  Eating "Real" is so easy and just makes so much sense.  Why would we eat all of that other crap (processed foods)?  I have been slowly getting rid of most processed foods, especially if they include dyes.  It is so amazing and disgusting that dyes are in most children's foods!  We no longer eat Kraft Macaroni and Cheese because it includes Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 in it.  Dyes have been linked to hyperactivity in children, allergies and even cancer!  Yet petroleum-derived artificial coloring is in most foods, from cereals, Popsicles, and even yogurt.  Why do we have to use dyes when there are foods that actually makes these colors.  They might not be as vibrant, but is it worth the risk?  Not in my opinion.  It's hard to take my daughter to the grocery store because she just wants cereal that looks fun and yogurt that is neon blue.  I just can't buy them for her.  I've been getting a lot of, "but my friends have those in their lunches".  That one is so hard to answer.  I just say, "this one is healthier for you".  I don't want her going to schools saying, "my mom says that's bad for you".  Haha, I don't want to go making enemies, but it's just how I feel about food now.  The more I learn, the less I want them to eat.  Food needs to change!

I started a 30 Day Green Smoothie Challenge from Unconventional Kitchen, one of the blogs I follow. Here is the face book page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unconventional-Kitchen/292893540764213?fref=ts .  Since I've already been drinking green smoothies daily, I am following the recipes as close as I can but I've already come to know what I like in my smoothies.   I'm excited to try some new ones though!

Since I have started drinking green smoothies in the morning, (which replaces breakfast) I have lost about 4 lbs. and my stomach is looking much better!  It's only been a few weeks too.

Here is the smoothie I made this morning (pictured above):

I had to change the one in the challenge a bit.  It called for apple juice, but since I didn't have any I used what I had.

2 handfuls of kale (no stalks)
3 ice cubes
1 1/2 frozen bananas
earth's pride organics, orange, peach, mango juice (from BJ's)
1 spoonful of Ground Fax Seed
1 spoonful of Chia Seed Protein Powder
A little honey for sweetness

I threw it all in together and it was very yummy and smooth.  My kids liked it (even though it wasn't pink like they had wanted).  It tasted mostly like juice, but obviously so much better for you than juice.  I allow my kids one cup of juice a day.  The baby doesn't drink any (unless it's in a smoothie!).

This is my life

My name is Katey.  I am 34 years old and have a wonderful husband of almost 8 years and 3 adorable children.  Emily is 6. Boden is 4 3/4, and Drew is 18 months old.  I am a photographer and have worked with and for my father for 7 years.  He owns a successful photography business called Hansen Photography (www.capephotographer.com).  I love what I do.  I have always loved taking pictures, even as a child.  I love looking at pictures I've taken.  It gives me great satisfaction.  I love capturing the beauty of what this life is all about.  That being said, the picture taken above was a poorly planned picture taken on Easter this year right as we were about to leave for our 3 hour trip home to Cape Cod.  The baby hadn't had a nap to speak of all day. Oops.  He had a lovely nap right after this.  This is my life! 

When I am not working, which right now is only part time, I am spending time with my youngest son and I read a lot of blogs and books about living healthy and green.  It consumes me, which is why I am going to write about it.  Right now my obsession is smoothies.  I am looking up recipes to try because I have discovered that they are the best thing EVER!  I have been drinking one every morning for about 2 weeks now and I haven't felt this good in years.

My smoothie today was this: 2 handfuls of Organic Baby Spinach
                                               A bunch of frozen strawberries and bananas
                                               Skinless apple slices (left over from making lunch this morning)
                                               1 1/2 bananas (no reason for the 1/2 other than not to waste)
                                               Almond Milk Vanilla
                                               Coconut Water
                                               2 tsp. Ground Flaxseed
                                               Drizzle of honey
                                               3 ice cubes

It was delicious and nutritious.  It was my breakfast.  I do have one cup of coffee before my smoothie.  Coffee is an addiction for me and a hard one to kick.  I used to have at least 2 cups in the morning before starting this smoothie addiction.  Now I crave my smoothie instead of a second cup :)  Yay!  I just listed my ingredients, but I don't even measure anything really.  I just throw in a little of this and a little of that.  Whatever I have I my house basically.  I don't measure the almond milk or coconut water.  So it's so easy and so good for you!  Try it please!  Yum.  My kids even love them and I have to make larger amounts so that I can have my own portion.  Otherwise there isn't much left for me.  I am trying to get my husband to get into them.  He is a non-breakfast eater, which I am reading is not a good thing.  So I may have to start my smoothies earlier so he can take one to work with him.  I should have take a picture for you to see, but my "good" camera is at the studio and I hate taking pictures with my "little" camera.  Embarrassing!   It looked green and smooth.

I feel great and would rather work out than take a nap.  This is HUGE!  After 3 kids, I thought I had been conditioned to, "nap when your baby naps", even though my baby is 18 months old now.  I got nothing done!  Now (and this is very recent) instead of napping as I did, I am cleaning the house and writing blogs (hehe).  But the point is, I feel good!  Food was my problem and I know that now.  The more good things I eat, the better my body and mind feels.  This is my revelation and I'm sticking to it.  I am excited to start living again.  I have been in a slump since having kids and now I'm going to dig myself out and share it with the world.

And this is all the introduction I can muster today because my napper is not napping any longer.  I hope to inspire others to eat healthfully so that they can feel good all around.  Are you with me?