My Morning Greens

I have several family members who have "gone raw" or mostly. I am not ready to do that nor is it even my ultimate goal. I do however see the benefits and want to start adding more raw foods to my family's diet. We eat pretty well at my house. I cook mostly from scratch, I don't buy much processed or refined foods, we eat out very rarely, and sweets and desserts are for special occasions. Even at that, I looked down at my lunch one day and realized there was not one raw food in it. I again noticed this with my supper later that day. So my goal is to add one raw food to each meal. Not too hard.

I remember when Kellen and I were dating. I was at his house when I watched his mom make a "green drink." She put carrot juice, spinach, parsley and some other ingredients in a blender and . . . DRANK IT! I thought that was so disgusting and knew I would never do it. Well, the picture below is MY typical breakfast! What a great way to start out the day. I love it and I know my body loves it. My kids love it too. They will drink a full sippy each of "shake-a shake-a" every morning and usually ask for more. I drink two glasses worth and Kellen makes his own version, leaving out the milk and vanilla and adding protein. I think that accomplishes my goal of adding raw foods pretty well. Not only is it raw, it's greens and a lot of 'em! It's more than I would eat, and definitely more than I could get my kids to eat, in a day.

Here's the combination my family has found we like. If you know of anything great I could add let me know. It's an easy way to sneak in healthy foods that are hard to eat on their own.

Purles Shake-a Shake-a
(These are all estimated quantities. I just dump, then taste and adjust.)

• 1 cup milk/water
• 1/2 cup orange juice or 1 whole orange
  
• 3 Tbsp omega oil blend
• 2 Tbsp wheat germ
• 1 pkg dry oatmeal
• couple spoonfuls plain yogurt
• 3 packed handFULS spinach (then I taste it and add more if it tastes like I can hide it)
• a couple kale leaves
  
• 1-3 carrots
• wedge of purple cabbage
• wedge each of lemon and lime, rind on
  
• frozen fruit - banana, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, berries, peaches, mango
  
• splash of vanilla (I think this is the key to masking the taste of the other stuff. I can add twice as much spinach since I started adding vanilla.)
• honey or agave, to taste, if needed. (This usually depends on the sweetness of the fruit.)

Blend until smooth. Add ice if needed. I use frozen fruit so I don't usually add ice. Plus it gets through a sippy easier if giving it to kids that way. Chow down! Literally! You know, it's good to chew your smoothies too. This starts the digestive process by stimulating production and mixing in the saliva!

* Tips and Tricks - I make my own fruit blend of whatever is on sale or in season. I stock up when grapes and strawberries are .79/lb. or when pineapple is .99/ea., or when people are begging for help eating all the fresh peaches off their trees. I bring it home, wash and chop it so it's ready to throw in a shake. Then I lay it out on a cookies sheet and put it in the freezer. Once frozen, I put it in a bag and it's ready to go. Inexpensive and custom made fruit smoothie blend!