Smoothies!

When I speak of a smoothie, what comes to mind for most people is frozen fruit and/or yogurt, but that is not the kind of smoothie i enjoy! over the last year or two tara and i have been buying naked juice smoothies. there website is here. these are ready to drink packaged 100% fruit and vegetable smoothies that contain a pound of fruit in each bottle. little did I know that Wild Oats, now renamed to Whole Foods since the buy-out has a juice bar! I have walked by it inside the store so many times without realizing it. so one or two months ago Tara and I have been building our own smoothies totally customized! the smoothies I have been building and drinking are so much better I cannot get them out of my mind. I fantasize about them all day long. I have been drinking them several times a week now. here is a break down of the smoothie I build and drink:

• 2 oz of juiced parsley (two bundles)
• 2 oz of juiced carrot (one carrot)
• a splash of juiced gingers (inch long piece, quoting trent reznor “.. to spice it up”)
• 1 scoop of frozen blueberries
• 2 frozen bananas
• 3 frozen strawberries or pineapple
• sometimes a splash of apple juice
• [this equals over a pound of juice]

Yesterday the juice man — an employee who has been making our smoothies — juiced up two heads of broccoli for us. we both are aware of high nutritional value of raw broccoli while sharing the same excuse for not eating it — we do not like the taste of broccoli. and so he juiced it up, tops first, then stalks. both the heads and stalks produced the same amount of liquid. in total one head of broccoli comes out to one ounce of yellow green juice. next came tasting it. whoa! there is a lot of information in that dense liquid! it smells and tastes so rich and so alive it blew me away. it smelled like fresh green peas, like a spring garden and had the texture of milk and pea juice. do not underestimate this juice — it is very intense compared to purred fruits, like bananas and blueberries. i am very curious as to why broccoli juice is creamy. maybe it is because of protein? any case, good luck drinking that by itself. i highly suggest blending it with something else like carrots

i am ready for another smoothie tonight! i might juice up some cabbage or spinach for my next smoothie. :)