Happiness is a well stocked refrigerator!
Here's how to make your own delicious green smoothie with spinach and peaches and 50 oz of almond milk with just 1.5 cups of almonds.... plus, you can make both with just a regular blender.
Easy Green Smoothie Recipe:
In a blender; blend until smooth, which can take up to 1-2 minutes
· 2.5 cups of filtered water
· 2 frozen bananas*
· 3-4 fresh peaches, pitted and quartered (frozen is OK if peaches are not in season)
· 3 oz of washed spinach (Speed Tip: Get 6oz bags of organic baby spinach and use ½ the bag so you don’t have to weigh)
Recipe Nutrition facts
Servings: 2
Serving Size: 22.5 oz
Calories: 131
Fat: 0.48
Cholesterol: 0
Sodium: 34mg
Total Carbs: 32.44
Dietary Fiber: 4.88g
Sugars: 20.27g
Protein: 3.20g
The greatest benefit of drinking green smoothies is the increased absorption of important nutrients. All plants cells are surrounded by a cell wall that must be broken open to release the nutrients inside. As a result, most of the valuable nutrients contained within these cells never enter our bloodstream. Blending raw, leafy greens guarantees a higher percentage of nutrients absorbed into your bloodstream. By just chewing your food you absorb about 15 - 25% of the nutrients, but blending makes your body able to absorb up to 95%!
Homemade Almond Milk Recipe:
Place into a regular 8-cup blender the following:
• 2 cups soaked **raw almonds
• 4.5 cups filtered water
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-3 pitted *soft dates (optional if you want a sweeter milk)
- Blend on high for one minute.
- Your blender will be full of white, frothy almond milk with some almond pulp.
- You can use this thicker/pulpy milk as is (its great in a fruit smoothie) or you can remove the pulp by pouring the milk through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth. Nut milk bags are also great for getting the silkiest milks. Nut milk bags are fine mesh sacks that you pour the milk though and squeeze. They are sold in most health food stores.
This recipe yields about 50 oz of almond milk. Homemade nut milks will last 4 days in your refrigerator.
** raw almonds can be purchased at your local farmer's market. The ones you buy in supermarkets are pasturized and no longer 'raw'.
* Medool dates are soft enough to blend. But if you use a harder textured date, like a honey date, you will need to soak the date for an hour to soften it up. Otherwise it will stick to the blender’s blades.
A little prep the night before:Start by soaking 1.5 cups of raw almonds overnight (8-12 hours) in filtered water by placing the dry almonds in a container with enough room to pour 2x the volume of water on top. Place this container of water-covered almonds in the refrigerator. The nuts will absorb most of the water and plump up to 1.5 times their dry size while you sleep.
Why soak the almonds first?Raw almonds contain enzyme inhibitors, which help to protect the seed and keep it from germinating too early and dying off. These enzyme inhibitors also stop our bodies from assimilating the bounty of nutrients inside the nut. The soaking process ‘wakes up’ with the almond so that it becomes a living seed again. Once the nut begins to sprout, it becomes even more nutritious. In the morning the soak-water will be brown and somewhat cloudy. Rinse all of that ‘soak water’ off the almonds. Your 1.5 cups of dry almonds will expand to 2 cups of beautiful, plump soaked almonds.
