Drink Your Greens

When I discovered a blog by Lacy that had so many incredible green smoothie recipes and information, I asked her to write a post for us to share the benefits!  

I hope you enjoy the information on drinking your greens and the great recipes Lacy has shared with us in this post!  

If you decide to incorporate green drinks into your diet, then I highly recommend checking out her site for more recipes!

Drink your greens!

Guest Post by Lacy Young

As a health coach I work with people all the time who want to loose weight, heal from disease or just change their relationship with food for the better. We ALWAYS begin with greens! Greens are the #1 missing food in the Standard American Diet. Sure we eat salad or the occasional steamed spinach or broccoli but most of Americans are missing out on the serious nutritional power of dark leafy green plants. 

Green veggies have more nutrition per calories than any other food. High in calcium, magnesium, zinc, vitamins A,C,E,K, folic acid, crammed with fiber, micronutrients and disease fighting phyto-chemicals. Eating greens means that your beautiful body gets the nourishment it needs without the burden of extra calories. 

Greens are brilliant this time of year for clearing mucus and congestion and lifting depression! I've seen amazing weight loss results, diseases go into remission and downright angry people become delightful to be around after adding green smoothies (or juices) into their life! A completely tasty and convenient way to get greens into your life is to drink them! Green smoothies and are so easy to make and aside from being green in color you'll never know there's greens in them!

*The following recipes can be used with ANY leafy greens:

spinach, kale, collards, romaine, dandelion greens, chard, and parsley are the most used in our house (in that order)

Recipe 1:

Pumpkin Spice Green Smoothie

Serves 2

Ingredients

approx 5 cups of greens (I used spinach)
12 oz almond milk
2 – 3 frozen bananas (I used three for the thickness we like)
1/3 cup pumpkin puree (heaping)
2 dates
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp all spice

Directions

Loosely add greens (you don't need to pack them in) and almond milk to blender, blend until all greens are liquid.

Add all other ingredients, blend again until smooth and enjoy!

Recipe 2:

Sweet Morning Green

Serves 1

Ingredients:

5 oz Coconut Water
6 oz Apple Juice
1 1/2 C Frozen Pear Chunks
Hand Full of Spinach and Kale
Squeeze of Lime
2 Tsp Green Powder or Hemp Protein Powder (optional)

Directions:

Blend and serve!

Side Bar:

ZICO is my fave brand coconut water.
For frozen pears I just buy organic pears, let them ripen, dice and freeze (skins on).
Make sure the apple juice is 100% juice + organic!

Recipe 3:

Blended Zen

Ingredients
• 1 Ripe Avocado
• 1 Cucumber
• GIANT handful of Spinach (or other green)
• 1 Banana, *Frozen
• 1 Pear, *Frozen
• 1 Cup Coconut Milk
• 1/2 Cup Coconut Water
• 1 Teaspoon Honey (if desired)

TIP
*In lieu of using ice that would water down the smoothie I use frozen fruit. Once every few weeks I clean and if necessary chop up fruit for freezing. Bananas are a staple in our freezer.

Directions
Add spinach and coconut milk to blender. Blend until smooth. Add rest of ingredients and blend until smooth once more. Use the coconut water as needed to thin out the smoothie. I used a lot of spinach so it was really thick and the coconut water brought it to the perfect consistency. Enjoy!

Get more recipes at lacyyoung.com

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