Reunited with Mz. Bertha & Green Juice Love

I haven't pulled out my juicer in months! I love fresh juice but cleaning Mz. Bertha (AKA my juicer) is another story. I know I can't be the only one turned off by juicing because of the cleaning process. Mz. Bertha has multiple parts, and even though most are dishwasher safe, I usually hand wash since the parts are kind-of bulky.

Anyway, we're back in biz and I made Kimberly Snyder's green juice from her book, The Beauty Detox Solution.

I love this juice...if you want it a little sweeter, add more apples (like I did).

Ingredients:

1 bunch of kale

3-4 stalks of celery

1 apple

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Starting with the kale, run all the ingredients through your juicer.  Enjoy!

In the market for a new juicer? Check out my post with more information about what you should consider when buying a juicer.

Let me know what you think once you try the recipe. :-)

Fresh Green Juice Recipe

I'm more of a smoothie drinker (clean-up is faster) but every couple of weeks, I enjoy a nice glass of fresh green juice.

This isn't the most kid-friendly juice, but it's awesome for adults looking to replace bottled juice or sodas.  

The parsley isn't overwhelming because the pineapple is so sweet.

When you try this recipe, let me know what you think.  

Fresh Green Juice

by Brown Vegan

Ingredients

• 2 bunches of parsley
• 1 whole pineapple, skin removed & cubed
• 1 knob of ginger root, skin peeled (about 1 tablespoon)

Instructions

Juice parsley & ginger, then juice the pineapple.

Enjoy!

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Chocolate Smoothie Recipe

I know what you're thinking.... 

Spinach in a smoothie? Hear me out! Spinach is perfect in a smoothie because you don't taste it. Seriously.  

You get all the benefits of spinach in this smoothie but also enjoy the sweetness of the dates, banana, and cocoa powder. 

All three of my boys love this recipe and request it often. If you've never had greens in your smoothie, you may want to start with half of the measurement in the recipe (listed at the end of this post) and gradually move up to more greens. Swiss chard is another leafy green that isn't as hard to detect in a smoothie.

If you try this recipe, please update me. :-)

Chocolate Smoothie

by Brown Vegan

Prep Time: 30

Keywords: vegan

Ingredients (makes about 40 oz)

• 2 Medjool dates, pitted & soaked for 30 mins
• 1 1/2 cup almond milk
• Up to 1 cup of spinach-use 1/2 cup (or less) if your kids aren't used to greens in their smoothies
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 bananas, frozen
• 12 ice cubes (optional)

Instructions

Blend the spinach and almond milk for about 30 seconds.

Then blend in the cocoa powder and dates.

Finally, blend the bananas and ice cubes.

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Kale & Mango Smoothie Recipe

Drinking raw kale in a smoothie is an acquired taste.  I clearly remember throwing out my first batch of kale smoothie several years ago. It's different.  Bitter. Often chewy.

These days, I love getting my kale fix.

Some quick tips for adding kale to a smoothie.... 

*Use frozen fruit and ice

*If you're a kale smoothie novice, use juice instead of non-dairy milk as the liquid. Sometimes you need a sweet smoothie base to get passed the bitter kale flavor.

*Use a little bit of kale and gradually build up. If that means you have to use 2 kale leaves the first few times, that's ok.

Now to the recipe...

Since I don't have a high-powered blender (AKA Vitamix or Blendtec), I always blend my liquid and kale first for about 30 seconds to make my kale as smooth as possible.  I don't want to chew my smoothie. lol

Then I blend in the soft fruit and finally the frozen fruit and/or ice cubes. 

Perfection.

Kale & Mango Smoothie

by Brown Vegan

Prep Time: 5

Ingredients (Makes about 24 oz)

• 1/2 cup raw kale, stems removed
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 mango, ripe
• 1 frozen banana
• Several cubes of ice

Instructions

Blend all ingredients until smooth.

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